TAMALE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS LECTURE NOTES FOR PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA I

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTONIC ENGINEERING

COMPILED BY

BARNABAS ANSU

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 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS
The information revolution that began with writing on clay tablets, then continued through the invention of the
printing press, radio and TV, and room-size and desktop computers, is now at a “tipping point,”. Now mobile
devices such as smartphones (cellphones with built-in applications, multimedia capability, and Internet access)
and tablet computers, wireless portable computers primarily operated by a touch screen are changing nearly
everything we do and affecting our life in multiple ways. The information revolution has been driven largely by
information technology (IT) which can be described as any technology that helps produce, manipulate, store,
communicate, and/or disseminate information. IT merges computers and communications. A computer can be
defined as a programmable, multiuse machine that accepts data (raw facts and figures) and processes, or
manipulates, the data into information we can use, such as summaries, totals, or reports. Its main purpose is to
speed up problem solving and increase productivity. Communications on the other hand consists of
electromagnetic devices and systems for communicating over any distance. The principal examples are telephone,
radio, satellite, broadcast television, and cable TV, and obviously the Internet. We will treat computer and its
application in the first 4 sections and communication in the last section.
1.1 Generation of computers
The first counting device was used by the primitive people. They used sticks, stones and bones as counting tools.
As human mind and technology improved with time, more and better computing devices were developed starting
with the abacus which is believed to be the first computer in the history of computers through to the first generation
of computers and to the present fifth generation of computers. A generation of computers refers to the specific
improvements in computer technology with time. The various generation of computers are as follows:
1. Abacus was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by the
abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations.
2. The first generation (1946-1959) computers were slow, huge and expensive. In these computers, vacuum
tubes were used as the basic components of CPU and memory. Examples include IBM-650, IBM-701, etc.
3. The second generation (1959-1965) was the era of the transistor computers which were faster. These
computers used transistors which were cheap, compact and consuming less power. Examples include
IBM1620, IBM-7094, etc.
4. The third-generation computers used integrated circuits (ICs) instead of transistors. A single IC can pack
huge number of transistors which increased the power of a computer and reduced the cost. The computers
also became more reliable, efficient and smaller in size. Examples include IBM-360 series, IBM-370, etc.
5. The fourth generation (1971-1980) computers used very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits; a chip
containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements. These chips made this generation computers
more compact, powerful, fast and affordable. Examples include DEC 10, STAR 1000, etc.
6. In fifth generation (1980-till date) computers, the VLSI technology was replaced with ULSI (Ultra
LargeScale Integration). It made possible the production of microprocessor chips with ten million electronic
components. This generation computers used parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence)
software. Examples include Desktop, Laptop, Notebook, Ultrabook, Chromebook, etc.

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1.2 Types of Computers
There are several types of computers based on the shapes or sizes or processing power:
1. Supercomputers are high- capacity machines with thousands of processors that can perform more than
several quadrillion calculations per second. These are the most expensive and fastest computers available.

2. Mainframe computers are water- or air-cooled computers that cost less than supercomputers and vary in size
from small, to medium, to large, depending on their use.

3. Midrange computers, also referred to as servers, are computers with processing capabilities less powerful
than a mainframe computer yet more powerful than a personal computer.

4. Workstations are expensive, powerful personal computers usually used for complex scientific, mathematical,
and engineering calculations and for computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing; they are
usually connected to a network.

5. Microcomputers are used by individuals as well as businesses, and they can be connected to networks of
larger computers. Microcomputers are of several types: desktop PCs, tower PCs, notebooks (laptops) and
netbooks, tablets, mobile devices, and personal digital assistants-handheld computers or palmtops. Also, some
microcomputers are powerful enough be used as workstations.

6. Microcontrollers, also called embedded computers, are the tiny, specialized microprocessors installed in
smart appliances and automobiles. These microcontrollers enable microwave ovens, for example, to store data
about how long to cook potatoes and at what power setting. Microcontrollers have been used to develop a new
universe of experimental electronic appliances. For example, they are behind single-function products such
as digital cameras and digital music players, which have been developed into hybrid forms such as gadgets
that store photos and videos as well as music. They also help run tiny machines embedded in clothing, jewelry,
and such household appliances as refrigerators. In addition, microcontrollers are used in bloodpressure
monitors, air bag sensors, gas and chemical sensors for water and air, and vibration sensors.

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 HARDWARE COMPONENTS
2.1 Introduction
It’s important to understand what makes up the physical hardware or components of a computer and how they are
integrated to communicate between each other and function to enable you properly install, configure, administer,
secure or troubleshoot a computer system. All the different types of computers feature at least a few of the same
basic components that actually make them a computer. To begin, hardware consists of all the machinery and
equipment in a computer system. The hardware includes, among other devices, the keyboard, the screen, the
printer, and the “box”—the computer or processing device itself as explained below:
2.1.1 System Unit
The system unit, also known as the system chassis, is a container that houses most of the electronic components
that make up a computer system. Some system units are located in a separate case, whereas others share a case
with other parts of the computer system.
2.1.2 Motherboards
The motherboard, or system board, is the main hardware board in the computer through which the central
processing unit (CPU), random-access memory (RAM) and other components are all connected. Depending on
the computer type (laptop, desktop, server) some devices, such as processors and RAM, are attached directly to
the motherboard, while other devices, such as add-on cards, are connected via a bus.
2.1.3 Processors
A central processing unit (CPU or processor), also called a microprocessor is the part of the computer that
processes, or manipulates, data into information. When modified for use in machines other than computers,
microprocessors are called microcontrollers, or embedded computers. It is directly connected (soldered) to the
motherboard, as motherboards are typically configured to work with specific types of processors.
If a hardware system has more than one processor, the system is referred to as a multiprocessor. If more than
one processor is combined into a single overall processor chip, then it is called multi-core. There are primarily
just two types of processors used on desktop and server computers: x86 and x86_64. On an x86 system, the system
processes data 32 bits at a time; on an x86_64 the system processes data 64 bits at a time. An x86_64 system is
also capable of processing data 32 bits at a time in a backward compatible mode.
2.1.4 Random Access Memory
The motherboard typically has slots where random-access memory (RAM) can be connected to the system. The
32-bit architecture systems can use up to 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM, while 64-bit architectures are capable of
addressing and using far more RAM. Three types of RAM exist—DRAM, SRAM, and MRAM.
2.1.5 Buses
Buses, or bus lines are high-speed connections/pathways that allows communication within the CPU and between
the CPU and other components of the motherboard. A bus resembles a multilane highway: The more lanes it has,
the faster the communication. The old-fashioned 8-bit bus of early microprocessors had only eight pathways. Data
is transmitted four times faster in a computer with a 32-bit bus, which has 32 pathways. In most computers, the
bus width is the same as the computer’s word size (the number of bits that the processor can process at any one
time). The more bits in a word, usually the faster the computer. A 32-bit-word computer will transfer data within

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each microprocessor chip in 32-bit chunks. A 64-bit-word computer is faster, transferring data in 64-bit chunks
at a time. (Most, but not all, 32-bit software will run on a 64-bit system, but 64-bit software will not run on a 32bit
system.)
2.1.6 Peripheral Devices
Peripheral devices are components connected to a computer that allow input, output or data storage. Keyboards,
mice, monitors, printers and hard disks are all considered peripherals and are accessed by the system in order to
perform functions outside of central processing.
2.1.7 Universal Serial Bus Devices
While the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus is used for many internal devices such as sound and
network cards, an ever-increasing number of external devices (or peripherals) are connected to the computer via
USB. Devices connected internally are usually cold-plug, meaning the system must be shut down in order to
connect or disconnect a device. USB devices are hot-plug, meaning they can be connected or disconnected while
the system is running. Though USB devices are hot-plug by design, it's important to ensure that any mounted
filesystems are correctly unmounted, or data loss and corruption of the filesystem may occur.
2.1.8 Hard Drives
Hard drives, also called hard disks, disk devices, or storage devices may be attached to the system in a number of
ways; the controller may be integrated into the motherboard, on a PCI card, or as a USB device. A hard drive
can generally be defined as any electromechanical or electronic storage device that holds data to be accessed by
the system. Hard drives are divided into one or more partitions. A partition is a logical division of a hard drive,
designed to take a large amount of available storage space and break it up into smaller areas. While it is common
on Microsoft Windows to have a single partition for each hard drive, on Linux distributions, multiple partitions
per hard drive is common.
2.1.9 Solid State Disks
While the phrase hard disk is typically considered to encompass traditional spinning disk devices, it can also refer
to the newer and very different solid-state drives or disks. Consider the difference between a traditional spinning
platter hard disk and a USB thumb drive. The former literally has spinning disk platters in it that are read by drive
heads, and the spinning disks are laid out to take advantage of the spinning nature of the device. Data is written
(and read) in long strings of sequential blocks that a drive head encounters as the platter spins around.
Solid state disks are essentially larger capacity USB thumb drives in construction and function. As there are no
moving parts, and no spinning disks, just memory locations to be read by the controller, a solid-state disk is
measurably and visibly faster in accessing the information stored in its memory chips. A solid-state disk is
controlled by an embedded or onboard processor that makes the decisions as to where and how data is written and
read back from the memory chips when requested. Advantages of a solid-state disk include lower power usage,
time savings in system booting, faster program loads, and less heat and vibration from no moving parts.
Disadvantages include higher costs in comparison to spinning hard disks, lower capacity due to the higher cost,
and if soldered directly on the motherboard/mainboard, no ability to upgrade by swapping out the drive.
2.1.10 Optical Drives
Optical drives, often referred to as CD-ROMs, DVDs, or Blu-Ray are removable storage media. While some
devices used with optical disks are read-only, others are capable of burning (writing to) disks, when using a

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writable type of disk. There are various standards for writable and rewritable disks, such as CD-R, CD+R,
DVD+RW, and DVD-RW.
2.1.11 Video Display Devices
In order to display output to the monitor, the computer system must have a video display device (video card) and
a monitor. Video display devices are often directly built into or attached to the motherboard, although they can
also be connected through the PCI bus slots on the motherboard. With the large array of video device vendors,
each video display device usually requires a proprietary driver provided by the vendor. All drivers, but most
especially video device drivers, must be written for the specific operating system, something that is commonly
done for Microsoft Windows, but not always for Linux. There are four types of video cables commonly used:
1 The older but still used analog 15-pin Video Graphics Array (VGA) cable
2 The more recent 29-pin Digital Visual Interface (DVI) interface
3 The very widely-used High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) which supports resolutions up to the 4K
or Ultra HD range, and has either 19 or 29 pins
4 The newest digital display interface, the 20-pin DisplayPort (DP). Also, its miniaturized counterpart, the Mini
DisplayPort, used mainly for Apple products.
For monitors to work correctly with video display devices, they must be able to support the same resolution as the
video display device. Normally, the software driving the video display device can automatically detect the
maximum resolution that the video display and monitor can both support and set the screen resolution to that
value.
2.1.12 Power Supplies
The electricity available from a standard wall outlet is alternating current (AC) (120v, 240v), but a microcomputer
runs on direct current (DC) (3.3v, 5v, 12v). The power supply is a device that converts AC to DC to run the
computer. The on/off switch in your computer turns on or shuts off the electricity to the power supply. Because
electricity can generate a lot of heat, a fan inside the computer keeps the power supply and other components from
becoming too hot. Although the power supply is not typically designed as surge suppressor, it often protects the
computer from fluctuations in voltage coming from the power source. Desktop, server tower, rack and standalone
systems are more vulnerable to power fluctuations than laptop systems are. If the power fluctuates, it can cause
much havoc on the non-battery-based systems, whereas a laptop simply keeps pulling power from its internal
battery until depleted.
2.1.13 Managing Devices
In addition to several different types of hard drives, there are many different graphics cards, monitors and printers.
With the popularity of USB devices, such as USB storage devices, cameras, and mobile phones, the number of
available devices you would want to connect to a computer system can number in the thousands.

The sheer number of different devices poses problems as these hardware devices typically need drivers. Drivers
are specialized software programs that allow input and output devices to communicate with the rest of the
computer system. Each device’s brand and model are supported by a different driver that works with only one
operating system. Many basic device drivers come with (are preinstalled in) the system software when you buy a
computer, and the system software will guide you through choosing and installing the necessary drivers. If,
however, you buy a new peripheral device, such as a mouse, a scanner, or a printer, the package will include a
device driver for the device (probably on a CD or DVD, or downloaded from the Internet). Most new operating
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systems recognize many new hardware devices on their own and automatically install them. If your OS does not
recognize your new hardware, it will display a message and ask you to install the driver from the CD that came
with your hardware.
INTRODUCTION TO OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE
3.1 Operating Systems
An operating system (OS) is software that runs on a computing device and manages the hardware and software
components that make up a functional computing system. Modern operating systems don’t just manage hardware
and software resources, they also:
1 Schedule programs to run in a multi-tasking manner (sharing the processor so that multiple tasks can occur
apparently simultaneously),
2 Provide standard services that allow users and programs to request something happen (for example a print
job) from the operating system, and provided it’s properly requested, the operating system will accept the
request and perform the function needed.
Desktop and server operating systems are by nature more complex than an operating system that runs on a
singlepurpose device such as a firewall, or a mobile phone. From a simple set-top box that provides a menu
interface for a cable provider, to supercomputers and massive, parallel computing clusters, the generic term
operating system is used to describe whatever software is booted and run on that device.
Computer users today have a choice mainly between three major operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Apple
macOS, and Unix/Linux. A user can easily interact with any of these systems by pointing and clicking their way
through everyday productivity tasks that all behave similarly regardless of the underlying operating system.
Except for Windows, which is mostly administered via the GUI (Graphic User Interface), most system
administration tasks are performed using typed commands in a terminal.
3.1.1 Microsoft Windows
Microsoft offers different operating systems according to the machine’s role: desktop or server? The desktop
version of Windows has undergone various naming schemes with the current version being simply Windows 11.
New versions of this OS come out twice a year, around March and September, and tend to be supported for many
years. Backward compatibility is a priority for Microsoft, even going so far as to bundle virtual machine
technology so that users can run older software.
Windows Server currently is at version 2019 to denote the release date. The server can run a GUI but recently
Microsoft, largely as a competitive response to Linux, has made incredible strides in its command line scripting
capabilities through PowerShell. There is also an optional Desktop Experience package which mimics a standard
productivity machine. Microsoft also actively encourages enterprise customers to incorporate its Azure cloud
service.
3.1.2 Apple Macintosh
Apple makes the Macintosh operating system (macOS), which is partially based on software from the FreeBSD
project and has undergone UNIX certification. MacOS is well known for being “easy to use”, and as such has
continued to be favored by users with limited access to IT resources like schools and small businesses. It is also
very popular with programmers due to its robust UNIX underpinnings. MacOS is also quite popular in the creative
industries such as graphics and video production. Apple hardware, being integrated so closely with the operating

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system, and their insistence on adherence to standards in application programming gives these creative
professionals a stable platform to perform many computing-intense functions with fewer concerns about
compatibility.
On the server side, macOS Server is primarily aimed at smaller organizations. This low-cost addition to macOS
desktop allows users to collaborate, and administrators to control access to shared resources. It also provides
integration with iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.
3.1.3 Linux
Linux users typically obtain an operating system by downloading a distribution. A Linux distribution is a bundle
of software, typically comprised of the Linux kernel, utilities, management tools, and even some application
software in a package which also includes the means to update core software and install additional applications.
The distribution takes care of setting up the storage, building the kernel and installing hardware drivers, as well
as installing applications and utilities to make a fully functional computer system. The organizations that create
distributions also include tools to manage the system, a package manager to add and remove software, as well as
update programs to provide security and functionality patches.
The number of Linux distributions available numbers in the hundreds, so the choice can seem daunting at first.
However, the decision points are mostly the same as those highlighted for choosing an operating system. Some
of the distributions are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Linux Distributions and their Released Dates

3.2 File Management

Every operating system or program uses a file management system to organize and keep track of files. A file is
(1) a named collection of data (data file) or (2) a program (program file) that exists in a computer’s secondary
storage, such as a hard disk or CD/DVD. Examples of data files are word processing documents, spreadsheets,
images, songs, and the like. Examples of program files are a word processing program or a spreadsheet program.
Files created by different programs are stored in different file formats, which is why some files will not open in
all programs.
3.2.1 Finding & Handling Files
Files containing programs and data are located in many places on your hard disk and other secondary-storage
devices. The operating system records the storage location of all files. If you move, rename, or delete a file, the
operating system manages such changes and helps you locate and gain access to it. For example, you can copy,
or duplicate files and programs from one disk to another. You can back up, or make a duplicate copy of the
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contents of a disk. You can erase, or remove, from a disk any files or programs that are no longer useful. You can
rename, or give new file names to the files on a disk.
3.2.2 Organizing Files: Directories/Folders, Subfolders, & Paths
The operating system’s file system arranges files in a hierarchical manner, first into folders (also called directories)
and then into subfolders (subdirectories) as shown in Figure 2. The topmost folder/directory is called the root
directory; a folder below another folder is called a subfolder (subdirectory); any folder above a subfolder is called
its parent folder (parent directory). To find a particular file in an operating system’s file system, you type in the
file’s pathname. The path is the route through the file system. A simple example of a pathname in Windows is C:
\mydocuments \termpaper \section1.doc where “C” refers to the hard disk (the root directory)”; my documents”
is the main (or primary) folder, the parent folder to “termpaper,” which is a subfolder; “section1” is the name of
the file (file name); and “doc” is a file extension that indicates what type of file it is (.doc 5 document). (In Unix-
based operating systems and the MacOS operating system, the pathnames use a forward slash [ / ] instead of a
backward slash [\].)

Figure 2: File Organization

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 APPLICATION PACKAGES
Application software is software package that has been developed to solve a particular problem for users (to
perform useful work on specific tasks or to provide entertainment). People interact mainly with the application
software, which interacts with the system software, which interacts with the computer.
4.1 Microsoft Office
Office, sometimes called the Microsoft Office Suite, is a collection of computer applications. Why is it called
Office? I think because the people who invented it wanted to make software for completing tasks that need doing
in a typical office. When you hear someone talk about “Office” or “Office software,” they’re talking about several
different applications. Table 1 describes the Office applications. Microsoft offers many different versions of
Office, some aimed at home users and some at business users. Not all versions of Office have Outlook, Access,
and Publisher.
Table 1: Office Applications

Word A word processor for writing letters, reports, and so on. A Word file is called a
document

Excel A number cruncher for performing numerical analyses. An Excel file is called a
workbook

PowerPoint A means of creating slide presentations to give in front of audiences. A

PowerPoint file is called a presentation, or sometimes a slide show.

Outlook A personal information manager, scheduler, and emailer.

Access A database management application.

Publisher A means of creating desktop-publishing files — pamphlets, notices, newsletters,

and the like.

If you’re new to Office, don’t be daunted by the prospect of having to study so many different applications. The
applications have much in common, with the same commands showing up throughout. For example, the method
of choosing fonts is the same in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, and Publisher. Master one Office
program and you’re well on your way to mastering the next.
4.1.1 Word Processing Package: Microsoft Word and its features.
Word processing software allows you to use computers to create, edit, format, print, and store text material, among
other things. Word processing is the most common software application. Word processing software allows users
to work through a document and delete, insert, and replace text, the principal edit/correction activities. It also
offers such additional features as creating, formatting, importing illustrations, printing, and saving. Creating a
document means entering text using the keyboard or the dictation function associated with speech-recognition
software. Figure 3 shows the Word interface. Interface, also called the user interface, is a computer term that
describes how a software program presents itself to the people who use it. You will be glad to know that the
interface of all the Office programs is pretty much the same.

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 Figure 3: Main work screen

Let’s take a quick tour of the Office interface and explain what the various parts of the interface are.
4.1.1.1 The Ribbon and its tabs
Across the top of the screen is the Ribbon, an assortment of different tabs; click a tab to view a different set of
commands and undertake a task. For example, click the Home tab to format text; click the Insert tab to insert a
table or chart. Each tab offers a different set of buttons, menus, and galleries. All the tools used in Microsoft word
are organized into ribbons loosely based on their function, circled in Figure 3. Let’s take a closer look at the
essential features of word pictorially.
The Home Ribbon: You will find the text formatting tools here for making text bold, changing style, font,
paragraph alignment etc.

The Insert Ribbon: This is where you will find clip-art, tables, pictures, page breaks, and pretty much anything
you would want to insert into a document.

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The Design Ribbon: Anything to do with pre-set themes and formatting, such as headings, colors and fonts that
you can apply to your document and word will automatically format your document according to the themes.

The Page Layout Ribbon: On this ribbon, you will find the page sizes, margins, page orientation (landscape or
portrait) and anything to do with how the page is laid out.

The References Ribbon: This is where you can add automatically generated tables of contents, indexes, footnotes
to your documents.

The Mailings Ribbon: From the mailings ribbon you can print mailing labels, print on envelopes and create mail-
merge documents from a list of names & addresses.

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The Format Ribbon: The format ribbon only appears when you have selected an image in your document. From
here you can remove an image background; this only works if the image has a solid black or white background.
You can correct the colors; brightness and contrast. You can add picture styles such as borders, shadows and
outlines. You can also wrap your text around your image using the text wrap feature, as well as rotate and crop.

File Backstage: If you click ‘File’ on the top left of your screen, this will open up what Microsoft call the
backstage. Backstage is where you open or save documents, print documents, export or share documents, as well
as options, Microsoft account and preference settings. You can also change your Microsoft Account settings, log
in and activate your Microsoft Office, change Word’s preferences and so on.

4.1.2 Spreadsheet Package: Microsoft Excel and its features.

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to store, organize, analyze and manipulate numerical
data. It allows you to store and present it in tabular form or as a chart. You can use spreadsheets to create wage
slips, company accounts to analyze finance, budgets and present information. You can create simple personal
budgets to keep track of your money, and create score sheets for sports events. You can display all your data as
statistical graphs and charts as well as creating tables.

A spreadsheet is made up of cells each identified by a reference. The reference is made up by using the column,
e.g., G, and the row, e.g., 14 [Column] [Row] as highlighted in cell G14 in Figure 4. You can also select multiple
cells at the same time. A group of cells is called as a cell range. You can refer to a cell range, using the cell
reference of the first cell and the last cell in the range, separated by a colon. [First cell in range]: [Last cell in
range]. For example, this cell range would be A1:D12

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 Figure 4: Reference Cell

Cell references are used when you start applying functions to the numbers in your cells. In the example below, to
add two numbers together, you can enter a formula into cell C1. Instead of typing in =5+5 you would enter
=A1+B1 as shown below.

The theory is, if you enter the cell reference instead of the actual number, you can perform calculations
automatically and Excel will recalculate all the numbers for you should you change anything. For example, if I
wanted to change it to 5+6, I would just change the number in cell B1 without rewriting the formula in C1. Now
you can type any number in either cell A1 or B1 and it will add them up automatically. This is a very basic
example but forms the building blocks of a spreadsheet. You can use these concepts to build spreadsheets to
analyze and manipulate data, as well as allow changes to the individual data and other parts of the spreadsheet
without constantly changing formulas and functions. Let’s take a closer look at the essential features of
spreadsheet.
4.1.2.1 Formulas, Functions, Recalculation, & What-If Analysis
1. Formulas are instructions for calculations; they define how one cell relates to other cells. For example, a
formula might be SUM(A5:A15) or @SUM(A5:A15), meaning “Sum (that is, add) all the numbers in the
cells with cell addresses A5 through A15.”
2. Functions are built-in formulas that perform common calculations. For instance, a function might average a
range of numbers or round off a number to two decimal places.
3. Recalculation: After the values have been entered into the worksheet, the formulas and functions can be used
to calculate outcomes. Recalculation is the process of recomputing values, either as an ongoing process as
data is entered or afterward, with the press of a key.
4. What-if analysis: The recalculation feature has opened up whole new possibilities for decision making. In
particular, what-if analysis allows the user to see how changing one or more numbers changes the outcome of

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 the calculation. That is, you can create a worksheet, putting in formulas and numbers, and then ask, “What
would happen if we change that detail?”—and immediately see the effect on the bottom line.
4.1.2.2 Worksheet Templates
Once you have selected a template, you will see the main screen. Along the top we have the ribbon menus and in
the center of your screen you’ll see your main worksheet view. Your columns are labelled across the top of your
worksheet with letters and your rows are labelled down the left-hand side with numbers. Across the bottom of the
screen on the left-hand side, you’ll see some tabs. This shows you all the worksheets you have created in your
workbook - you can click these to switch to that worksheet. You can create a new worksheet here, if you click the
small plus icon next to the tabs. On the bottom right, you can change how Excel displays your worksheet. Grid
view is your normal view as shown in Figure 5, print view shows you how your spreadsheet will look when
printed. Further to the right you have your zoom controls. This allows you to zoom in and out of your spreadsheet.
All the tools used in Microsoft Excel are organized into ribbons, loosely based on their function. The ribbon
menus are arranged along the top of the screen, as circled in Figure 5. Let’s take a closer look at these menus.

Figure 5: Main Screen

The Home Ribbon: This is where you will find the most used tools for basic text formatting, cell borders, cell
formatting for text and numbers or currency, etc.

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The Insert Ribbon: This is where you will find all the objects that you can insert into your spreadsheet, such as
shapes, tables and charts.

The Page Layout Ribbon: This is where you will find page formatting functions, such as size of paper, colors &
themes, paper orientation when printed, paper margins, etc.

The Formulas Ribbon: This is where you will find the formulas, functions and data manipulation tools. Sum
functions, average, counting tools, etc.

The Data Ribbon: The data ribbon is where you can find tools to connect to external data sources and databases,
as well as sort data.

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The Review Ribbon: The review ribbon has tools that allow you to add comments as well as check spelling and
protect parts of the spreadsheet from making changes.

The View Ribbon: This is where you will find the view layouts, where you can zoom into your spreadsheet etc.

File Backstage: If you click ‘File’ on the top left of your screen, this will open up the backstage. Backstage is
where you open or save spreadsheets and workbooks, print, export or share workbooks, as well as options,
Microsoft account and preference setting. You can also change your Microsoft Account settings, log in and
activate your Microsoft Office, change Excel’s preferences and so on, just you can do for word.
4.1.2.3 Entering Data
In this example we are doing a basic scoring sheet.

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Simple Text Formatting: Sometimes it improves the readability of spreadsheet to format the data in the cells. For
example, make the heading rows bold. You can do this by selecting the heading row as shown below and click the
bold icon.

Text Orientation: Now because the headings are quite long and take up a lot of space, you can change the
orientation of the headings to read vertically instead of horizontally. This helps save space and looks better when
printed on a page. To do this, select the cells you want to change the orientation of. Then right click your mouse
on the selection. From the menu that appears, select ‘format cells.

In the dialog box, click the alignment tab. From there, go to the orientation section on the right of the dialog box.
Click the horizontal point circled in Figure below and drag it up to the top (the vertical point). Or you can enter
90 in the degrees box. You will see the headings are now oriented vertically.

Resizing Rows and Columns: You can resize a column or row by clicking and dragging the column or row
divider lines as circled below. You can also double click on these lines to automatically size the row or column
to the data that is in the cell.

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Inserting Rows & Columns: To insert a row between Flo and Rose, right click on the row Rose is in. In this
case row 5. From the menu, click insert. This will insert a blank row above Rose.
A blank row is inserted between the players Flo and Rose as shown.

Remember, the new row is always added above the one selected, and a new column is always added before the
one selected. To insert a column, it is exactly the same procedure, except you select a column instead.
Cut, Copy & Paste: You can copy and paste a cell or cell range and paste it into another worksheet/workbook or
in a different location on the same worksheet. For this example, open Score Sheet Final.xlsx. To perform a basic
copy, select the cells you want to copy, and from your home ribbon, click copy. Click the cell where you want
the cells to be copied to. I’m going to paste the cells at the end of the table. From the home ribbon, click paste.

By default, Excel pastes everything copied from the selected cells. Sometimes you only want to paste certain
things, such as formatting, or just the text or just the formulas. You can do this with the ‘paste special’ feature.
To find ‘paste special’, click the small down arrow under the ‘paste’ icon, on your home ribbon. You’ll see a
drop-down menu with a few options, shown in the illustrations in the second graph in the Figure above.
To paste only the formulas, click the second icon across (fx). If you just wanted the values, look further down
the drop-down menu to the values section, and click ‘123’. Finally, if you just wanted the formatting, such as
the cell borders and number formatting (currency, number, text etc.), then further down the drop-down menu,
you’ll find the ‘other paste options’ section. To only paste the formatting, click the first option (%). Paste as link
can be useful if you are copying and pasting values from a different worksheet to a summarized table. The pasted
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cells are linked to the copied cells. So, if you change the values in the copied cells, they will change in the pasted
cells.

Using ‘cut’ is exactly the same, except select ‘cut’ from the home ribbon, instead of copy. The cut command
moves the selected cells rather than copying them.
Sorting Data: To quick sort your data, click on a cell in the column you want to sort the data by. In this
example, I want to sort the data by total score so I can see who won this year’s player of the year. Click in the
‘total’ column. Make sure you click one of the numbers as we want to sort the data, not the title.

From your home ribbon, click ‘sort & filter’. From the drop-down menu, click ‘sort largest to smallest’ as we
want the highest score listed first. Looks like Dot won this one. The procedure is the same for ‘smallest to largest’,
except click ‘sort smallest to largest’ from the drop-down menu.
Using Formulas: If I wanted to add up all the scores in my score sheet, I could add another column called total
and enter a formula to add up the scores for the two weeks the player has played. To do this, I need to find the
cell references for Barbara’s scores. Her scores are in row 2 and columns B and C circled below. So, the cell

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references are B2 for her score of 21, and C2 for her score of 19. So, we enter into the cell under the heading
‘total’ = B2+C2. Remember all formulas must start with an equal’s sign (=).

To save you entering the formula for each row, you can replicate it
instead. If you click on the cell D2, where you entered the formula
above, you will notice on the bottom right of the box, a small square
handle. I’ve enlarged the image so you can see it clearly on your right.
Drag this handle down the rest of the column. You can also double click this handle to fill the rest of the column
automatically. Excel will automatically copy the formula and calculate the rest of the total for you, without you
having to enter the formulas for each row.

BIDMAS Rule: BIDMAS (sometimes BODMAS) is an acronym commonly used to remember mathematical
operator priority. Brackets ( ), Indices (square roots: √, exponents: squared2 or cubed3) Divide / Multiply * Add
+ Subtract -. For example, if you wanted to add 20% sales tax to a price of GHC12.95, you could do something
like this. Do the bit circled in red first [multiply & divide], then the addition.

Using Functions: A function is a pre-defined formula. Excel has hundreds of different functions all designed to
make analyzing data easier. You can find most of these functions on the formulas ribbon.
Count: Say I wanted to count the number of games played automatically. I could do this with a function. Insert a
new column after “29 Apr” into the spreadsheet and call it “Played”. To do this, right click on the D column (the
‘Total’ column) and from the menu click insert. Make sure you have selected the cell you want the formula to
appear in, then click ‘insert function’ (fx).

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 In the insert function dialog box, select the count function from the list then click OK. Type it into the ‘search
for a function’ field if it isn’t listed. Now we need to tell the count function what we want it to count. We want
to count the number of games played.

Barbara’s scores are in cells B2:S2, so highlight these by dragging your mouse over them, as shown below. Click
OK. You can see she has played 18 games. Now we can replicate the formula as we did before. Click and drag
the small square handle on the bottom right-hand side of the cell. Drag it down to fill the rest of the column.

Auto Sum: Auto sum, as its name suggests, adds up all the values in a row or column. To add up a row, click on
the cell you want the total to appear in. In this example, I have created a column for totals, and I want the total for
the first player to appear in cell T2, circled below in the illustration.

Next, add the auto sum function. You’ll find this on your home ribbon. Click on the ‘auto sum’ icon.

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You’ll notice, the auto sum function has highlighted the row I want to add up. Press the enter key on your
keyboard to execute the function. Now replicate the function to fill the rest of the column by dragging the handle
down, as shown below.

Average: Average finds the middle number in a row or column. To find the average, click on the cell you want
the result to appear in. In this example, I have inserted a column for average score, and I want the average for the
first player to appear in cell U2, circled below left in the illustration.

Next, add the average function. You’ll find this on your home ribbon. Click on the small down arrow next to the
auto sum icon. From the drop-down menu, select ‘average’. Now, you’ll notice that the average function includes
the totals column. This is not what we want to average, so you’ll need to select the range B2:S2. Click on the
cell B2 and drag the box across to S2. Hit return to enter the function. Now replicate the function down the rest
of the column.

Max & Min: Max returns the largest number in a selected range of values, and min returns the smallest number.
The same steps can be followed to find max, min, sum, product, etc.
4.1.2.4 Adding Charts

There are many different types of charts to choose from, here are a few examples of some common ones.

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 Column and bar charts compare values with each other, line charts show trends over time, donut and pie
charts represent proportions of a whole or a percentage. You will need to use the correct chart for the data
you want to represent. The easiest way to add a chart is to select from your spreadsheet, a column you want
for the X-Axis and a column you want for the Y-Axis. I am going to make a chart on the total scores. First
select all the names in the first column. This will be the X-Axis on the chart. Now hold down the control
key (ctrl) on your keyboard. This allows you to multi-select. While holding down control, select the data in
the total column with your mouse. This will be the Y-Axis on the chart. Note the data in the name’s column
is still highlighted.

Release the control key and go to the insert ribbon. In the centre of the ribbon, you will find some different types
of charts – line charts, column charts, pie charts, etc.

Let’s use 3D column chart. Click the column chart icon, circled below in the first graph, to add the chart. You are
automatically taken to the design ribbon where you can select a style to autoformat the chart for you in the second
graph. Select a style from the options that looks good.
I’m going for a nice shaded effect that matches the shading on the table.

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4.1.2.4.1 Formatting Charts

Chart Titles: Excel will automatically give your chart a title, but more often than not, the title isn’t very
explanatory. Click on the automatically generated title on your chart, delete the text then type in your own title,
‘Final Scores’.

Chart Elements: Charts are made up of elements. These could be axes, titles, gridlines, data and so on. To edit
the chart elements, click on your chart to select it. You’ll see three icons appear down the right-hand edge of the
chart. Click on the top one to reveal the slide out menu. From here, you can add axis titles, chart titles, labels,
gridlines and a legend, by clicking the tick boxes next to the elements in the list.

Axis Titles: On some charts, Excel might not have added any axis titles. If this is the case, click the chart then
click the chart elements icon, circled below.

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In the slide out menu, click the small right arrow next to ‘axis titles. From the slide out, click both ‘primary
horizontal’ and ‘primary vertical’, for both X and Y axis on your chart. To change the text in the axis titles, click
on the title, delete the text and type in your titles. In this example, the horizontal axis is ‘player name’ and the
vertical axis is ‘final score’.

4.1.2.5 Data Analysis with Goal Seek

Goal seek allows you start with the desired result, the goal in other words, and calculates the value required to
give you that result. For this example, use the goal seek worksheet in the Data Analysis Starter.xlsx workbook.
Say we want to take out a loan of £10,000. This particular bank has an interest rate of 3.3%. We’re paying the
loan off over 60 months with a payment of £181.02. We can afford to pay off £200 per month. We can use goal
seek to find out how many months we’ll be paying the loan off. First click the monthly payment (cell C4),
because this is what we want to change. From the data ribbon, click ‘what- if analysis’. From the drop-down
menu, click ‘goal seek’. On the dialog box that appears, click in ‘to value’ and enter 200. This is our target
amount or goal. Now we want to achieve this goal by changing the payback duration, so click in ‘by changing
cell’ on the dialog box, then click the cell with the number of months (C4 in this case). Click OK. We have an
answer... It would take 54 months at £200 a month.

4.1.2.6 Data Analysis with Scenario Manager

When creating spreadsheets, you will probably want to explore “what-if” scenarios and see how different values
effect results. Say we were running a small bookstore. We bought in some books and we want to see what our
sales revenue and profit will be for different prices to help us price our books. For this example, use the scenario
manager worksheet in the Data Analysis Starter.xlsx workbook.

Creating Scenarios: To add a scenario, go to your data ribbon and click ‘what-if analysis’. From the drop-down
menu, select ‘scenario manager’. From the dialog box that appears, click add. Then from the ‘add scenario’
dialog box, type in a meaningful name in the field ‘scenario name’. Click in the ‘changing cells’ field underneath,
then click the cell or cells you want to change. In this case we want to change the price per book in cell B2. So,
26
click B2. Click OK. Repeat the process and create scenarios for ‘Sale Price’ at £10.95, and ‘Give Away’ price
at £8.9 9

Now in the scenario manager dialog box below (left graph), you’ll have three scenarios you can click on, and
instantly see the results. Click on one of the scenarios then click show. If you need to edit any of the scenarios,
just click on the name in the scenario list and click edit. You’ll be able to go through the add scenario process
again and amend the values.

4.1.2.7 Summary Reports

You can also generate quick reports of your scenarios. To do this, go to your scenario manager. Data Ribbon >
What-If Analysis -> Scenario Manager. From the scenario manager dialog box, click ‘summary’.

On the scenario summary dialog box, click ‘scenario summary’, to produce a report. For the ‘result cells’, this
is the cell or cells we’re looking at when we’re changing the values in the scenarios. We want to show how
changing the price per book affects profit margin. So here, select B14 because this is where the value for profit
margin is. If we wanted to show how changing the price per book affects total revenue, we’d select the total
revenue value in B4. Click O K. Here you can see Excel has created a new worksheet with our report on.

27
If you look at the report, some labels aren’t really that clear; ‘changing cells’ or ‘result cells’ don’t really tell us
much. Good practice is to change these to more meaningful names. Just delete the text in the cells you want to
rename then type in your own, as shown below.

This now makes a bit more sense.

Concept of Database Management System

A database is a collection of records stored in a computer system; a storage and retrieval system that allows users
to enter, access, and analyze data quickly and easily. Databases can store information on almost anything.
Examples included databases that store driver and car registrations, details on individuals; patient records,
criminal records, student records, employment records, financial records, etc. Typical database management
system is shown in Figure 6

Figure 6: A Typical Database Management System

4.1.3 Database Management Package: Microsoft Access and its Features.

Microsoft Access is a database creation and management program and allows you to manage and store information
for the purpose of reporting and analysis. In Access, every database is stored in a single file that contains the

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database objects - tables, queries, forms, reports, macros and modules. Let’s take a detail look at each of these
objects.
Tables store information using individual fields. A field is just a piece of information such as name or date of
birth. This is where you start to build your database, using tables to store your information.

Queries let you retrieve information, or query the database. Depending on what your database stores, you can
create queries to return a list of students in a particular year, or best-selling items, etc.

Forms provide the user interface of the database and allow you to create, arrange, and colorize the fields from
your tables into an easy way for users to interact with the database. Forms provide an easy way to view or change
the information in a table in a more user-friendly fashion.

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Reports allow you to print information from a table or query. You can format the information into easily readable
reports direct from your tables or more commonly from a query. E.g. a list of the students in a particular class or
year.

Macros are mini-programs that automate custom tasks. Macros are a simple way to get custom results.

Modules are files that contain Visual Basic code. You can use this code to do just about anything.

4.1.3.1 The Ribbons

All your tools for creating databases are sorted into ribbons across the top of the screen according to their function.
Home: Clipboard, Sort & Filter, Records, Find, and Text Formatting.

Create: Templates, New Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, and Macros & Code

External Data: Import & Link to other databases, data sources or database servers
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Database Tools: Macro, Entity Relationships, Analyze, Move Data, and Add- Ins

Creating Tables: A table is a collection of records. A record contains information about a single item or entity.
In a student table, each record would represent an individual student with name, address, date of birth etc. Each
record is subdivided into fields. Each field stores a bit of the data. For example, you’d have a field for student
name, one for address, one for date of birth etc. Each field can be assigned a data type. For example, a student’s
name is text, their date of birth is a date, their ID could be a number, their tuition fee is currency, and so on. Newly
created tables get an ID field automatically. The ID field stores a unique number for each record. This is known
as a primary key. In the example, the key or ID could be student number. Microsoft Access automatically creates
the first table for you.

To add your fields, click where it says ‘click to add’, from the drop-down box select the data type. So, the first
field is going to be the student’s Forename so the data type will be short text. Once selected enter ‘forename’.

Do the same for adding surname. For Date of Birth, select the date & time data type. For Address select long text
as it will be more than one line of text. Once you have created all your fields you can go into design view for the
31
table to tweak or change any of the fields and data types you have created. To go into design view, right click on
the table name on the left-hand side of the screen.

Relationships Between Tables: Each table in the database is related to the other tables. In our student database,
the students table holds data on students. The courses table holds data on courses but nothing on students. The
transcript table holds the results obtained by the students. All this data needs to be related somehow. This is where
entity relationships come in. The relationships are linked using the ID called the primary key (indicated by the
little key symbol next to the field).

Creating Relationships: Relationships can be one-to-one or one-to-many. For example, a student takes more
than one (or many) courses. So, the relationship is one-to-many. First select your
‘database tools’ ribbon, and click ‘relationships’. Drag, courses, transcript and students tables onto the relationship
tab. Drag the ‘ID’ field from the course table to ‘CourseID’ on the transcript table. Click ‘enforce referential
integrity’. Notice the relationship is one to many.
Primary keys are unique so this leaves one StudentID per student. CourseID’s can have multiple values since
students take more than one course. Do the same for the student’s table. Drag the ‘ID’ field to the ‘StudentID’
field in the transcript table.
4.1.3.2 Entering Data
You can enter data directly into the tables as shown in this section, it’s just a matter of adding the data to the fields
to create the records. You can also create a form to create a more userfriendly interface to enter your data. We
will take a look at that in the next section. Let’s take a quick look at adding simple records to a table.
Adding Records: To enter data, start typing it into the fields as shown below. Access will automatically add a
new record each time you add a name.

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Deleting Records: Right click on the record by clicking the grey border on the left side of the record. From the
popup menu that appears select delete record.

To Resize a Column: Sometimes the data is too long to be able to read it, e.g., the address column is quite long,
so it helps to widen the it a bit. To do this, place your mouse cursor over the right grid-line in the field title. Your
mouse will become a double arrow. Now click and drag the line to the right. You can also double click on the
dividing column lines to execute column auto fit. This will automatically resize the column according to the
longest entry in the column.

Creating Forms: Forms allow you to create a user interface and form the basis of the data entry for your database
records. This helps to simplify things and make them more user friendly as you may have seen from the previous
section adding data directly to a table can be tricky. Forms provide a familiar looking interface where the user can
enter data into the tables. A form containing data from the tables created earlier might look like this. As you can
see if you compare the form to the table on the opposite page the fields are the same but presented in a more user-
friendly way with one record at a time. This allows data to be entered and retrieved quickly.

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Forms Wizard: The quickest way to create a form is to use the forms wizard. You can find this on the create
ribbon. In this example I am going to create a form for entering course information into our database.

Select the courses table on the left-hand side. Then from the create ribbon, select form wizard.
Next follow the instructions on the screen. Select the fields you want by clicking the available fields on the left-
hand box and click the arrow pointing to the right to add the field.

Next select the layout of the form you want. Columnar arranges the fields under one another (use this in example).
Tabular arranges the fields next to one another Datasheet arranges the fields into a table. Give the form a
meaningful name (Course Form). Click finish

Creating Queries: Queries are a set of commands for retrieving data from one or more tables in the database.
When you build a query in Access, you are defining specific search conditions to find exactly the data you want.
For this example, I want to create a query that will show me the results of all the students. First select design
query from the create ribbon. Then select the tables you require fields from.

34
For this query to work I need fields from students’ table; students name, I need fields from the courses table;
course name, and fields from the transcript table; the results. So, highlight all the tables in the dialog box. So, by
double clicking on the fields I need, I can build my query. For this query I need, surname, forename, course title,
credits and grade. When you are done, click run, top left of your screen. You will see the results of your new
query.

Notice however, that the query returns every student. This is fine, but what if we just wanted to check the progress
of a particular student? We can do this using query parameters.

Query Parameters: In this example, I want to prompt the user for the student’s surname and forename. To add
a prompt, look at the criteria row under the surname and forename columns, circled below. To prompt the user
for data, we enter the text we want to appear in the prompt in square brackets [ ].

35
When you run the query, you’ll get a popup box asking for the criteria for the fields. Any matching records will
be returned in the query results

Creating Reports: Reports allow you to quickly display your data in printable form. This could be for income
and expenses reports, names and addresses, student results, etc. depending on what data your database stores.
These can all be printed off or even emailed. To create a report, click your data source from the Access Objects
listed down the left-hand side of your screen then click the Create ribbon.

Report will automatically create report with all of the data from your table or query. This is the simplest report,
Access will not structure or group any of the data. Blank Report & Blank
Design will create an empty canvas where you can manually add the fields you want and lay them out according
to your own design.

36
Click ‘Add Existing Fields’ and from the list drag the fields to your report as shown above. Report Wizard guides
you through the report creation process, allowing to select the fields from your chosen source. To create a report
using the wizard, first select your data source from the ‘Access Objects’ listed down the left hand side. Reports
are usually created from queries so in the student example, select the ‘results’ query. From the create ribbon,
select report wizard. From the dialog box that appears, select the fields. For this particular report I want to show
a list of students and the results they got for their classes. To do this I need the fields surname, forename, course
title and grade.

Show how you want to show your data. The results are presented per student so in this case I will show them by
student. So, in this case, the student’s name is printed followed by a list of their results. Click next, then finish
when you get to the end of the wizard.

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4.1.4 Presentation Package: Microsoft PowerPoint and its features.
Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to create multimedia presentations that include animation, narration, images,
and videos all from a library of pre designed templates or from a blank canvas. PowerPoint can be used to create
presentations for your upcoming sales pitch, perhaps you are giving a lecture on a specific subject, teaching, or
feeding back information in a meeting. All these can be enhanced using PowerPoint presentations as a visual
aid. To get your message across, you break it down into slides. Think of each slide as a canvas for the pictures,
words, and shapes that will help you build your presentation. You can create slideshows of family photos and
holidays/vacations and send to friends. You can also print out your presentation slides to give to your audience.
Let’s take a look at PowerPoint’s main screen. Here we can see, illustrated below, the screen is divided into
sections. Down the left-hand side, you’ll see a thumbnail list of all your slides in the presentation, in the centre
of the screen you’ll see the currently selected slide you’re working on, and along the top are your ribbon menus.
This is where you’ll find all your tools for creating your slides. Let’s take a look at the ribbon menu.
The Ribbon Menus
In PowerPoint, the tools are grouped into tabs called ribbons along the top of the screen. Tools are grouped
according to their function.

Home Ribbon: All tools to do with text formatting, for example, making text bold, changing fonts, and the most
common tools for text alignment, and formatting.

38
 Insert Ribbon: All tools to do with inserting photos, graphics, tables, charts, sounds, movies, etc. You can also
insert equations, videos, audio, word art and smart art using this ribbon.

Design Ribbon: All tools to do with the look of the slide, e.g., the slide background are found here.

Transitions Ribbon: All tools to add effects to show as slides change from one to the next are here.

Animations Ribbon: All tools to add slide transitions and adding effects to text boxes, images and headings.

Slide Show Ribbon: All tools to do with setting up the slide show and running your presentation are here.

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File Backstage: If you click ‘File’ on the top left of your screen, this will open up what Microsoft call the
backstage. Backstage is where you open or save presentations, print, export or share presentations, as well as
options, Microsoft account and preference settings just as you saw in the previous applications.
4.1.4.1 Creating a New Presentation
PowerPoint has a wealth of templates and themes for all sorts of different types of presentations. When you start
PowerPoint, you’ll see a whole list of templates you can choose from. You can search for templates for the
presentation you are creating. To do this, use the search field at the top of the screen.

Designing a Slide: You can add title and subtitle by clicking where it says ‘click to add title’.

Adding a New Slide: To continue building your presentation you need additional slides to show your
information. To add a new slide, go to your home ribbon and click on icon ‘New Slide’. Make sure you click on
the text to reveal the drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, select ‘title and content’ because we want a
title on the slide but also, we want to add some information in bullet points. To add your text and titles, just click
in the text boxes and start typing your information.

40
Slide Masters: Slide masters allow you to create layouts and templates that are common to all your slides, so you
don’t have to make those changes to each slide. Say you are creating a presentation and want a company logo on
the bottom, you can add it to your slide master and the logo will appear on every slide you create. To edit your
slide masters, go to your view ribbon and click ‘slide master’. The larger slide listed down the left-hand side is
your master for all slides. The ones below are masters for individual slide templates such as ‘title slides’ or ‘title
and content’ slides; these appear in the ‘new slide’ drop down menu. You can split them up so you can create
templates for specific slides. This way, you can have consistent layouts for all your title slides and all your content
slides, without having to change the size of the title or position of text or the font every time you insert a new
slide.

In this simple example, I am going to add the company logo to the bottom right of every slide.
To do this, click on the larger master slide in the list on the left-hand side. Open your file explorer and navigate
to your pictures folder, or the folder where the picture you want is saved. Click and drag your image onto the
master slide. You may need to resize your picture and position it in the correct place.

41
Notice, when you add the logo to the larger slide, it appears on the smaller slides too. This is because the smaller
slides inherit their formatting from the larger slide; the larger slide being the parent master slide. When you’re
finished click ‘close master view’. Detailed steps on how to create, design and customizes slides can be found in
the course book.

UTILITY PROGRAMS: SPECIALIZED PROGRAMS TO MAKE COMPUTING EASIER

Utilities or utility programs, also known as service programs are small programs that play supporting roles. They
perform tasks related to the control, allocation, and maintenance of computer resources. Many utility programs
are incorporated into the operating system; others, such as some antivirus programs, are sold as stand-alone
versions. Among the tasks performed by utilities are backing up data, compressing files, recovering lost data, and
identifying hardware problems, etc. Some of the important utility programs are as follows:
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5.1 Backup Utility
Backup utility or software is any application that enables the backup of files, folders, documents, software data,
most data types and the computer/server as a whole. The backup can be made to an external hard drive, an offsite
networked (online, or “cloud”) site, or other choices. Examples of freestanding backup utilities are Norton Ghost,
DT Utilities PC Backup, etc.
5.2 Data Recovery Utility
A data-recovery utility is used to restore data that has been physically damaged, deleted, or corrupted. Data can
be damaged by viruses, bad software, hardware failure, and power fluctuations that occur while data is being
written/recorded.
5.3 Virus Protection Utility
A virus can be defined as a rogue program that migrates through the Internet or via operating systems and attaches
itself to different programs that spread from one computer to another, leaving infections. There are millions of
viruses in circulation, but at one time they were mainly threats only to conventional computers. Now, however,
viruses have targeted programs and websites popular with smartphone and tablet users, such as Facebook, Twitter,
and YouTube, as well as website ads. Viruses are spread when people exchange CDs and flash drives, download
information from the Internet and other computer networks, or open files attached to email.
You should, therefore, install antivirus software or utility. Antivirus software is a utility program that scans your
computer and notifies you of possible viral behavior or destroys the virus on the spot. Because new viruses are
constantly being created, you need the type of antivirus software that can constantly update itself (preferably at
no additional cost to you) against newly discovered viruses. Examples of antivirus software are Symantec’s
Norton Antivirus, Webroot Antivirus, and McAfee Antivirus, etc.
5.4 Data Compression Utility
With the increasing use of large graphic, sound, and video files, data compression is necessary both to reduce the
storage space required on your hard-disk drive and to reduce the time required to transmit such large files over a
network. Data compression utilities remove redundant elements, gaps, and unnecessary data from computer files
so that less storage space is needed. Examples of such utilities are PK Zip, Zipit, WinZip, WinRAR, and Stuffit.
(Inspired by the name “Zip,” people now refer to compressing a file as “zipping” and decompressing a file as
“unzipping.” Zip programs are often included with your computer system’s OS.) Increasingly, compression
WinZip icon and decompression are being taken over by built-in hardware boards, and compression
/decompression software utilities are therefore becoming obsolete.
5.5 File Defragmentation
If you notice your computer slowing down, it might be a good idea to “defrag” the hard-disk drive. When a hard
disk is new, the operating system puts files on the disk contiguously (next to one another). However, as you update
a file over time, new data for that file is distributed to unused spaces; the files become fragmented. Because these
spaces may not be contiguous to the older data in that file, takes the operating system longer to read these
fragmented files, slowing down the system. A defragmenter utility program, or “defragger,” will find all the
scattered files on your hard disk and reorganize them as contiguous files, which will speed up the drive’s
operation. Computer users who use their machines for hours every day might want to defrag every few days.
Examples include Microsoft's Defrag, Diskeeper, etc.

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5.6 Disk Cleanup
Operating systems such as Windows include a disk cleanup utility, which is used to remove unnecessary files.
This utility removes unnecessary files, such as temporary Internet files (“temp files”; .tmp files), deleted files,
and unused program files.

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 COMPUTER NETWORKING AND DATA COMMUNICATION
6.1 Computer Network
Computer users often want to surf the internet, send and receive email and transfer files with other users. A
computer network makes this possible. A computer network refers to the interconnection of two or more
computers for data communication. It can also be defined as a group of interconnected computers for the purpose
of sharing resources like computer hardware or software. The internet is the world's largest computer network
where millions of computers are connected across the world for sharing resources like data, hardware or software.
6.2 Benefits of Computer Networks
People and organizations use networks for the following reasons:
1. Sharing hardware: Peripheral devices such as laser printers, disk drives, and scanners can be expensive.
Consequently, to justify their purchase, management wants to maximize their use. Usually, the best way to do
this is to connect the peripheral to a network serving several computer users.
2. Sharing software: In most organizations, people use the same software and need access to the same
information. It is less expensive for a company to buy one word processing program licensed to serve many
employees than to buy a separate word processing program for each employee. Also, instead of using a disk
or USB flash drive to carry files from one computer or office to another, you can share files directly using a
network.
3. Sharing data & information: If all employees have access to the same data on a shared storage device, the
organization can save money and avoid serious problems. Updating information on a shared server is much
easier than updating every user’s individual system. Network-linked employees can more easily work together
online on shared projects or contribute to a document concurrently. Confidential data can be protected and
shared with the users who have permission to access that data. Document tracking software can be used to
prevent users from overwriting files, or changing files that others are accessing at the same time, and users
can access their files from any workstation.
4. Better communications: With email, everyone on a network can easily keep others posted about important
information. And when connected to the Internet, network users can communicate with people around the
world via their network. Networks provide several different collaboration tools in addition to email: forums
and chats, voice and video, and instant messaging.
5. Accessing databases: Networks enable users to tap into numerous databases, whether private company
databases or public databases available online through the Internet.
6. Centralized communications: Centralized administration reduces the number of people needed to manage
the devices and data on the network, reducing time and cost to the company. Individual network users do not
need to manage their own data and devices. One administrator can control the data, devices, and permissions
of users on the network. Backing up data is easier because the data is stored in a central location.
7. Security of information: Before networks became commonplace, an individual employee might have been
the only one with a particular piece of information, which was stored in his or her desktop computer. If the
employee was dismissed—or if a fire or flood demolished the office—the company could have lost that
information. Today such data would be backed up or duplicated on a networked storage device shared by
others and backed up in the cloud. Specific directories can be password-protected to limit access to authorized

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 users. Also, files and programs on a network can be designated as “copy inhibit,” so the organization doesn’t
have to worry about the illegal copying of programs.
6.3 Types of Computer Networks
There are various types of computer networks. The major types include:
1. Local Area Network (LAN): This is a type of network that convers a small area such as a room or building
or campus. The computers are usually connected through cable or wireless media. If the LAN is created with
wireless transmission media, then it is called wireless LAN or WLAN.
2. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): This is a type of network that covers a city or is spread between cities.
It helps a network between branches of organization, bank offices, schools, etc. It uses wireless media.
3. Wide Area Network (WAN): This is a type of network that covers the whole world. It is a network between
countries. It uses telephone lines, microwaves, radio waves, or satellite links. In WAN, many LANS and
MANs are connected so it is also called a network of networks. The internet is a wide area network.
6.4 Network Topologies
The physical or logical arrangement with which computer systems or network devices are connected to each other
is termed as network topology. Both physical and logical topologies may be same or different in the same network.
There are different types of network topologies:
1. Point-to-point: Point-to-point networks contain exactly two hosts connected back to back using a single
piece of cable. Often, the receiving end of one host is connected to the sending end of the other and vice versa.
If the hosts are connected point to point logically, then they may have multiple intermediate devices, but the
end hosts are unaware of the underlying network and see each other as if they are connected directly.
2. Bus topology: In bus topology, all devices share a single communication line or cable, but a failure of one
device does not affect the other devices. However, a failure of the shared communication link can make all
other devices stop functioning. This type of topology may have problems when multiple hosts are sending
data at the same time. therefore, it uses CSMA/CD technology or recognizes one host as bus master to solve
the issue.
3. Star topology: All hosts in star topology are connected to a central device known as hub device using point
to point connection. That is there exists a point-to-point connection between hosts and hub. As in bus topology,
hub acts as a single point of failure. If hub fails, connectivity of all hosts to all other hosts fails.
4. Ring topology: In ring topology, each host connects to exactly two other hosts, creating a circular network
structure. When one host tries to communicate or send message to a host which is not adjacent to it, the data
travels through all intermediate hosts. Failure of any host results in failure of the whole ring. Thus, every
connection in the ring is a point of failure.
5. Mesh topology: In this type of topology, a host is connected to one or multiple hosts. This topology has hosts
in point-to-point connection with every other host or may also have hosts which are in point-to-point
connection to few hosts only. Hosts in mesh topology also work as relay for other hosts which do not have
direct point to point links. Mesh topology can be grouped int full mesh or partial mesh
6. Tree topology/hierarchical topology: This topology imitates extended star topology and inherits properties
of bus topology. It divides the network into multiple levels/layers of network. Mainly in LANs, a network is

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 bifurcated into three types of network devices. The lowermost is access layer where computers are attached.
The middle layer is known as distribution layer which works as mediator between upper layer and lower layer.
The highest lay is known as core layer and is central point of the network, i.e., the root of the tree from which
all nodes fork. Similar to the bus topology, if the root goes down, the entire network suffers even though it is
not the single point of failure. Every connection serves as a point of failure, failing of which divides the
network into unreachable segment.
7. Hybrid topology: A network structure whose design contains more than one topology is said to be hybrid
topology. Hybrid topology inherits both the merits and demerit of all the incorporating topologies. Internet is
the best example of largest hybrid topology.
6.5 Network Architectures
Network architecture is the name given to how a network is structured and how it shares and coordinates resources.
Two principal network architectures are client-server and peer to peer.
1. Client-server networks: A client-server network consists of clients, which are microcomputers that request
data, and servers, which are central computers used to supply data. In the client-server scheme, central servers
handle all security and file transactions; they are powerful microcomputers that also manage shared devices.
Different servers may be used to manage different tasks. A file server is a computer that acts like a disk drive,
storing the programs and data files shared by users on a LAN. A database server is a computer in a LAN that
stores data but doesn’t store programs (except for the database program). A print server controls one or more
printers and stores the print-image output from all the microcomputers on the system. Web servers contain
web pages that can be viewed using a browser. Mail servers manage email
2. Peer-to-peer networks: The word peer denotes one who is equal in standing with another (as in the phrases
“peer pressure” and “jury of one’s peers”). In a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, all microcomputers on the network
communicate directly with one another without relying on a server. In these kinds of networks, there’s no
main server; each client functions both as a client and as a server simultaneously. Each computer can share
files and peripherals with all other computers on the network, given that all are granted access privileges, and
each machine handles its own security. Peer-to-peer networks are easy to set up, less expensive than
clientserver networks, and work effectively for up to 25 computers, which makes them appropriate for small
networks. Beyond that, they slow down under heavy use.
6.6 Protocols
How do computers understand the data being transmitted? The key lies in the protocol, or set of rules, that
computers must follow to transmit data electronically. The protocol that enables all computers to use data
transmitted on the Internet is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP. TCP/IP is used
for all Internet transactions, from sending email to downloading pictures. Among other things, TCP/IP determines
how the sending device indicates that it has finished sending a message and how the receiving device indicates
that it has received the message.

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6.7 Basic Network Terminology
Some key network devices are briefly defined.

A host is a computer. Many people automatically think of a desktop computer or

laptop when they hear the term computer. In reality, many other devices, such as Host cell
phones, digital music players and many modern televisions, are also computers. In networking
terms, a host is any device that communicates via a network with another device.

Network A network is a collection of two or more hosts (computers) that are able to
communicate with each other. This communication can be via a wired connection
or wireless.

Internet The Internet is an example of a network. It consists of a publicly accessible network

that connects millions of hosts throughout the world. Many people use the Internet
to surf web pages and exchange emails, but the Internet has many additional
capabilities besides these activities.

Wi-Fi The term Wi-Fi refers to wireless networks.

Server A host that provides a service to another host or client is called a server. For
example, a web server stores, processes and delivers web pages. An email server
receives incoming mail and delivers outgoing mail.

Client A client is a host that is accessing a server. When you are working on a computer
surfing the Internet, you are considered to be on a client host.

Router Also called a gateway, a router is a machine that connects hosts from one network
to another network. For example, if you work in an office environment, the
computers within the company can all communicate via the local network created
by the administrators. To access the Internet, the computers would have to
communicate with a router that would be used to forward network communications
to the Internet. Typically, when you communicate on a large network (like the
Internet), several routers are used before your communication reaches its final
destination.

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 Hub Hub is a networking device that is used to connect multiple computers or other
networking devices in a series of connecting ports. It transfers data to all computers
on the network

Switch Switch is similar to a hub that has a series of ports for connecting computers and
networking devices. But switch sends the data to the destination computers only, so
it is an intelligent device.

Repeater Repeater is device that regenerates or amplifies signal. It makes the weak signal
strong so that they can travel a long distance

Bridge is a networking device that joins a segment of a similar network or dissimilar

Bridge network that uses the same protocol. It helps to reduce traffic and improve network performance

Modem is a device that converts digital signal into analog signal and vice versa.
Modem The process of converting digital signal to analog signal is modulation and analog to
digital signal is known as demodulation

6.8 Networking Features Terminology

In addition to the network devices in the last table, there are some additional terms with which you should be
familiar. These terms focus more on the different types of
networking services that are commonly used, as well as some of the techniques that are used to communicate
between machines.

Packet A network packet is used to send network communication between hosts. By

breaking down communication into smaller chunks (packets), the data delivery
method is much more efficient.

Service A feature provided by a host is a service. An example of a service would be when

a host provides web pages to another host.

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique number assigned to a host on a

IP network. Hosts use these numbers to address network communication. There are

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Address
two different types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6.

Mask Also called a netmask, subnet mask or mask, a network mask is a number system
that can be used to define which IP addresses are considered to be within a single
network. Because of how routers perform their functions, networks have to be
clearly defined.

Hostname Each host on a network could have its own hostname because names are more
natural for humans to remember than numbers, making it easier for us to address
network packets to another host. Hostnames are translated into IP addresses before
the network packet is sent on the network.

URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), also commonly called a web address, is used to locate
a resource, like a web page, on the internet. It’s what you type into your
web browser to access a web page. For example, http://www.tatu.edu.gh. It includes
the protocol http:// and the hostname www.tatu.edu.gh.

DHCP Hosts can be assigned hostnames, IP addresses and other network-related

information by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. In the
world of computers, a protocol is a well-defined set of rules. DHCP defines how
network information is assigned to client hosts, and the DHCP server is the machine
that provides this information.

DNS As mentioned previously, hostnames are translated into IP addresses, prior to the
network packet being sent on the network. So your host needs to know the IP
address of all of the other hosts with which you are communicating. When working
on a large network (like the Internet), this can pose a challenge as there are so many
hosts. A Domain Name System (DNS) provides the service of translating domain
names into IP addresses.

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 Ethernet In a wired network environment, Ethernet is the most common way to physically
connect the hosts into a network. Ethernet cables are connected to network cards
that support Ethernet connections. Ethernet cables and devices (such as routers) are
specifically designed to support different communication speeds, the lowest being
10 Mbps (10 Megabits per second) and the highest being 100 Gbps (100 gigabits
per second). The most common speeds are 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps.

The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is a fancy name for

a collection of protocols (remember, protocol = set of rules) that are used to define

TCP/IP how network communication should take place between hosts. While it isn't the only
collection of protocols used to define network communication, it is the most often
utilized one. As an example, TCP/IP includes the definition of how IP addresses
and network masks work.

6.9 The Internet & the Web

The Internet was launched in 1969 when the United States funded a project that developed a national computer
network called Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET). The Internet is an immense network
that connects together smaller networks all over the globe. The web, also known as the World Wide Web or
WWW, was introduced in 1991. Prior to the web, the Internet was all text—no graphics, animations, sound, or
video. The web made it possible to include these elements. It provided a multimedia interface to resources
available on the Internet. Today the web is a collection of machines and people sharing amazing content, but not
long ago it was a far simpler experience. The web has matured through three generations, commonly called Web
1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

6.9.1 Internet Access

Your computer needs to be connected to the Internet to truly unleash its power. Once on the Internet, your
computer becomes an extension of what seems like a giant computer—a computer that branches all over the
world. When provided with a connection to the Internet, you can use a browser program to search the web. There
are basically two things that you need to access the Internet:
1. Providers: The most common way to access the Internet is through an Internet service provider (ISP). The
providers are already connected to the Internet and provide a path or connection for individuals to access the
Internet. The most widely used commercial Internet service providers use telephone lines, cable, and/or
wireless connections. Some of the best-known providers in the Ghana are MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo, Glo,
Surfline, and BusyInternet. Users connect to ISPs using one of a variety of connection technologies including
DSL, cable, and wireless modems.
2. Browsers: After connecting to the Internet through an ISP. Your computer needs to use programs called
browsers to provide access to web resources. These programs connect you to remote computers; open and
transfer files; display text, images, and multimedia; and provide in one tool an uncomplicated interface to the
Internet and web documents. Four well-known browsers are Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge,
and Mozilla Firefox. For browsers to connect to resources (files, videos, images, etc.), the location or address
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of the resources must be specified. These addresses are called uniform resource locators (URLs). All URLs
have at least two basic parts (https://www.tatu.gh.edu). The first part (https) presents the protocol used to
connect to the resource. The protocol https is used for web traffic and is one of the most widely used Internet
protocols. The second part (www.tatu.gh.edu) presents the domain name. It indicates the specific address
where the resource is located. The last part of the domain name following the dot (.) typically identifies the
type of organization. For example, .edu indicates an educational site. Once the browser has connected to the
website, a document file is sent back to your computer. This document typically contains Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML), a markup language for displaying web pages. The browser interprets the HTML
formatting instructions and displays the document as a web page. For example, when your browser first
connects to the Internet, it opens up to a web page specified in the browser settings. Web pages present
information about the site along with references and hyperlinks or links that connect to other documents
containing related information—text files, graphic images, audio, and video clips.

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