Netiquette for email

What is Netiquette?

Netiquette = Network Etiquette
= Using technology effectively to communicate with others
with knowledge, understanding and courtesy.

How should you use email so that you give the impression of being mature and professional?

See http://www.netmanners.com/email-etiquette/category/email-etiquette-101/

Macro in-class assignment #2 -- copying a macro created by someone else

We've learned how to create our own macros using Word's Macro Recorder. And when we learned how to print a macro by going to Tools / Macros / Macro / Edit, we were shown the programming code in BA (Visual Basic for Applications.

All this prepares use for the next stage of macros - using macros someone else has written. Some people are experts in VBA and have created some very useful macros. We can use them simply by copying and pasting their code into the VBA Editing window.

For some examples, look at word.tips.net, select a topic that interests you (Bullets and Numbering, Creating Documents, Customizing Word, etc.), and search for an interesting macro.

ASSIGNMENT -- Create a new document in Word. Create the macro by copying the code into the macro editor of your Word document. Test it to see that it works. Then clear the document, and copy the macro code into it. Add your name, teacher's name, Period, and a description of what the macros does. Print and hand in for marking.

Macro in-class assignment #1

In a new file named mymacro, create a macro named after yourself (e.g. BarackO).
Do not use a keyboard shortcut.

In the horizontal centre of the page, the macro, using the Courier New font at size 14 points, enters two lines of text:
- Your full name
- Period G
On a third line it uses the Insert menu to begin entering two more lines:
- today’s date in the format October 23, 2008
- the current time in the format 9:32:28 AM
It enters a blank line.
It finishes by switching back to Normal Style.

Run the macro to show its results on the page.
Below that on the same page, print the macro code from Sub to End sub (in Normal font).

Marks to date are online

You can see what your marks look like as of today by going to

http://tinyurl.com/5tf7lw.

There might be some small change before the final report card mark (one of your exercises may be collected). The final date for test, assignments, etc., is October 31.

You will receive your report card on Monday, Nov. 17.

Parent interviews are on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Macros

Macros are among the most useful tools you can use to increase your efficiency with Word (or Excel or Access or almost any major application).

What is a macro? -- A macro is a series of commands, key presses or mouse clicks that are recorded and performed automatically when a certain key is pressed or a certain command is entered.
For example, you will create a macro that with a single key combination indents a paragraph one inch from both margins and inserts a footnote. And you will create a macro that with another key combination automatically reformats an entire document to get rid of unwanted paragraph breaks.


NOTE: Be sure that your macro security setting (Tools / Macro / Security) is Medium. Your macros will not work if Macro Security is set to High.

 

Online Resources

• tinyurl.com/i0th -- our Jarvis page of demos has four macro tutorials
  
• What is a macro and why you should care -- Microsoft's own "Crabby Lady" introduces the idea of a macro
  
• homeandlearn.co.uk
  
• Brainbell: Create a simple macro in Word
  
• creating macros -- Valparaiso University
  
• Using Macros in Microsoft Word 2003 -- University of Reading (U.K.)
  
• Atomic Learning -- video tutorial
  
• Brown University Wiki -- advanced tutorial, although with no illustrations
  
• bettersolutions.com -- advanced tutorial
  

Forms - showing fields in order to check your work

While creating a Word form, you can check your work by toggling between seeing the data and seeing the fields.

First, make sure the form is unprotected.
Then press Alt-F9 to toggle between the two modes.

Oct. 7 - Forms: an enrichment activity

Students who finish the exercises on Forms before the rest of the class should visit the webpage below for an optional enrichment activity. The page explains how data is collected from forms and transferred into an Excel spreadsheet.

• See the article entitled Transfer data from Word forms to an Excel worksheet at TechRepublic.
  
• Open a document based on one of the templates containing forms that you have created.
  
• Fill in a form with data.
  
• Follow instructions on the above webpage to extract data from the form and import it into Excel.
  

Oct. 6 - Forms

This week we begin to look at Word forms.

We start by looking at simple fill-in fields to create a document reminiscent of a mail merge in that it consists of "boilerplate" text plus text inserted by a field - in this case a fill-in field rather than the kind of mail merge field you worked with earlier.

Then we look at other kinds of form fields that can be inserted using the form field toolbar.

Online Resources


• Two video tutorials at YouTube:   #1       #2
  
• Word Form Tutorial -- educationonlineforcomputers.com - Free Microsoft Office Training and Tutorials Blog
  
• Microsoft Word 2003 Forms -- Towson University (U.S.)
  
• Word 2003 Forms -- University of Reading (U.K.). Word format.
  

Styles

Styles are very useful - for example:
-to make changes throughout a long document
- to create a Table of Contents (TOC)

Online Resources

• tinyurl.com/i0th. Our online video tutorials for Word 2000 look somewhat different from Word 2003, but the basic ideas are the same.
  
• Use styles to format text
  
• An Extreme Tutorial on Styles
  
• VTC Online University -- video tutorial (click on Applying Styles / Modifying Styles / Creating New Styles
  
• Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word. Tutorial and links to all sorts of topics on Styles.
  
• Styles and Templates. A Word document.
  

Oct. 3 - Templates

Do take time to read carefully in order to become clear on the idea of a template.

After you learn how to create a template, it's crucial to understand the difference between editing or opening a template in order to make changes to it (File / Open / Files of type: Document Templates (*.dot))

and opening a document based on a template (double-click on the .dot file).

Online Resources

• tinyurl.com/i0th - Our tutorials for creating templates in Word 2000 are still good. There are no significant changes in Word 2003.
  
• Template Basics in Microsoft Word. Tutorial and links to all sorts of topics on Word templates.
  
• more advanced information on creating Word templates.
  
• VTC Online University -- Video tutorial (click on Creating Templates)
  
• bettersolutions.com -- advanced tutorial
  
• templates, forms and fields. Want even more info? This links to a 29-page tutorial, a Word document. It covers not only templates but also forms and fields, which we will study later.