Theoretical otes for

practical exam
 Notes for practical exam

11 . F I L E M A N A G E M E N T
1 1 .1 M an ag e F i l es Effec ti v el y

EXTENSION
FULL FORM USED FOR/IN:
NAME

.CSS Cascading Stylesheet Stylesheets in webpages

.CSV Comma Separated Value Store tabular data

.GIF Graphics Interchange Format Moving images

.HTM Hypertext Mark-up (Language) Webpages

Joint Photographic Experts

.JPG Standard for images
Group
Documents to be circulated over
.PDF Portable Document Format
the internet/email

.PNG Portable Network Graphic Compressed images

.RTF Rich Text Format Word processed documents

.TXT Text (File) Simple Text files

Sending many files over the

.ZIP Zone Improvement Plan
internet/email

• Generic file formats can be opened by any software to access the data held in them.

11 .2 Re d u ce F i l e Si z es fo r S to r a ge o r

Transmission

• Files that are smaller in size upload and download faster than larger ones and
thus are better for transferring data.

12. IMAGES
• An image should be edited when doing so will enhance its usefulness.

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1 3 . L AY O U T
• Headers and footers ensure each page has all the required information like the
page numbers, logos, titles, etc.

• A common mnemonic is “An orphan has no past; a widow has no future”

14. STYLES
• Several organisations use a ‘corporate house style or corporate branding, which
is used to print on websites, visiting cards, letters, etc. It refers to a specific
style of fonts and formats used in the making of ICT solutions by organisations.

• A corporate house style when used effectively identifies the users of the style.

• Consistent styles enable users to associate a particular organisation with a style

and also show consistency in the ICT solutions created by the organisation

15. PROOFING
1 5 .1 Sof tw ar e T o o l s

• When a person’s/organisation’s name is entered or sometimes newly coined

terms are used, spell checkers might pick these up as errors, because they are
not found in the dictionary. This makes spell checkers less efficient.

• Validation ensures that the data being entered into an ICT solution is reasonable
and makes sense. Entered data is checked against set criteria to be validated.

1 5 .2 Pr oof ing T ec h n i q u es

• Verification: checking of data when copied from one medium to another to

prevent errors.

• Verification is also important and is a way of preventing a difference in data

when it’s being transferred from one system to another. This tries to make sure
data entered is correct, relative to the source.

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 Notes for practical exam

16. DOCUMENT PRODUCTION

• Widow: A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page
or column, thus separated from the rest of the text.

• Orphan: A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page

or column, thus separated from the rest of the text.

• Page, section and column breaks are used to ensure that widows and orphans
are not present in a document (these show poor typography).

• A mail merge document is created in order to create a standard template and

then use it to send documents personalised (by the computer system) for the
respective recipient of the document

1 7 . D ATA M A N I P U L AT I O N
1 7 .1 Create a Databas e Str u ctu r e

• Flat file databases are tables that have data sorted in rows and columns,
whereas relational databases are several tables grouped together to from a link,
thus preventing unnecessary repetition of data.

• Primary key: The key field of a table which is unique and identifies each record

• Foreign key: The field linked to the primary field of the table linked to through a
relationship

Relational database Flat-file database

Complex queries can be carried out Poor at complex queries

Better security Poor at limiting access

Cater for future requirements Harder to update, so inherently inefficient

Data is only stored once Potential duplication

Require more planning Easy to design

Non-unique records

Harder to change data format.

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1 8 . D A T A A N A LY S I S
1 8 .1 Create a Data Mo d el

• Charts: A graphical representation of (usually tabulated) data

• Accurate data ensures the results obtained by the processing of data is relevant,
which is essential to the usability of the model

• Formulae are mathematical operators defined by the user to perform a function,

whereas functions are predefined logical and mathematical operations a user
can use in a spreadsheet

• Mathematical operations are performed in the order PEMDAS (Parenthesis

[Brackets] Exponents Multiplication Division Addition Subtraction). Brackets are
used to notate data used by a function, e.g. =SUM (A2:A10).

• Relative cell referencing is made when the cell reference is supposed to change
when the cell it is referred to in is changing. It aids more efficient designing of
models.

• Absolute cell referencing is made when the cell referenced stays constant when
the cell it is referred to in is changing. This aids the preparation of a model
when a set of data is constantly being referred to throughout the model.

• Cell reference or relative cell reference describes how far away a cell or group of
cells is from some other cell in the same spreadsheet. Basically, the cell’s
address

• A model prepared needs to be tested before being used to ensure that all results
computed are accurate.

Defi n ition s:

• Cells: A space for data to be entered a table; a box formed by the intersection of
columns and rows

• Rows: Horizontal boxes that divide the table in segments

• Columns: Vertical boxes that divide the table in segments

• Sheets: A table of data

• Tabs: A module of a database program that holds the tables on the computer,

• Pages: Full pieces of papers that contain information held on one sheet of paper.

• Ranges: A group of cells in a table

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 Notes for practical exam

• Named cell: A cell in a table that is given a name (like ‘profit margin’) and can
be referred to using that name.

• Named range A group of cells in a table that are given a name (like ‘Pricing’) and
can be referred to using that name.

• Nested formulae/function: A formula/function used inside a formula/function as

an argument

1 8 .2 Te s t the Data Mo d el

• A model prepared needs to be tested before being used to ensure that all results
computed are accurate. The test plan must be justified to be apt for the model.
E.g.

• all the mathematical operations must be tested in a model that relies on

calculations.

Defi n ition s:

• Testing: Checking if the designed model delivers the expected outcome when
tested with data.

• Test data: The input data used for testing model.

• Expected outcome: The output a model is supposed to give with the test data.

• Actual outcome: The output a model actually gives the user when the test data
is input.

19. WEBSITE AUTHORING

1 9 .1 Web D e v el o p m en t Lay er s

• Content/Structure layer: Holds the content of the webpage structure.

• Presentation layer: The layer responsible for the formatting of a webpage(s) or

elements (using a stylesheet).

• Behaviour layer: scripting language of a web page or an individual element

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1 9 .2 Create a Webp ag e

• Tables make the basic structure of a webpage and organise page layout.

• Anchor: An element in a webpage that creates a hyperlink between a source

anchor and a destination anchor. These can be used to link 2 resources together.

• Relative file paths are used for attached stylesheets as the stylesheet is going to
be stored on a server in the same directory as the webpage, and not where it an
absolute file path says.

Defi n ition s:

• Relative file path: A path referring to a file in the same directory relative to the
page the reference is made in.

• Absolute file path: The full path of a file, which is not relative to anything,
whereas relative links only point to a file or a file path, the browser then
redirects the user to that location on the current site.

• Absolute paths always include the domain name of the website

• These should not be used to refer to locally saved webpages as the computer
the webpage is stored on (the server) is not the same as where the webpage
was developed and thus an absolute file path would point to the wrong address.

1 9 .3 Us e sty l es h eets

• CSS (cascading stylesheet) is a text-based language which is attached to

webpages to set their format. CSS files have a “.css” extension

• These should be attached using relative file paths as they are stored along with
the webpage and thus can be linked relative to them.

• Internal CSS have more preference over Inline CSS

• If several external stylesheets are attached to one web page, the stylesheet
attached last (at the bottom of that part of the code) is given preference over
the other attached ones).

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 Notes for practical exam

1 9 .4 Te s t and P u bl i s h a W ebsi t e

• To upload and publish content on a website using FTP, a user must have:

◊ FTP client software

◊ All files in one folder

◊ Host Name/URL/IP address for ftp

◊ Host port to be used for upload

◊ Username and password

• The test plan used to test a webpage must be justified based on the elements
being tested. E.g. If hyperlinks are being teste, it makes to check if all the
hyperlinks are redirecting the user to the correct webpage/ section of webpage.