4Productivity ApplicationsLearning ObjectivesAfter.docx

4
Productivity Applications
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to complete the
following:
• Summarize the development of word processing, the
importance of Microsoft® Word,
and its alternatives.
• Analyze the key features of PowerPoint® and presentation
software.
• Describe the importance of Microsoft® Excel® and
spreadsheets.
• Explain how databases work and alternatives to Microsoft®
Access®.
• Evaluate the different types of multimedia applications.
• Describe mobile applications and their importance.
Superstock/Superstock
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CHAPTER 4Pre-Test
Introduction
The office of the 1970s was a noisy place. The clickety-clack
sounds made by the fingers of frenetic typists emanated from
bulky electric typewriters and calculators with paper tape.
Telephones rang loudly and constantly. Metal filing cabinets
were
continuously opening and closing. The photocopy machine was
in constant operation.
A vast army of secretaries, skilled in the use of cumbersome
office equipment, served as
the communications heart of most organizations. Once upon a
time, many thousands of
students went to school to learn how to use these machines
because they planned for this
to be their primary vocation. Skilled typists could earn up to a
few dollars per hour in
the 1960s or 1970s. They would work for someone they called
their “boss,” who would
handwrite notes or dictate thoughts into a tape recorder. The
typist would simply type the
words, hand over the paper, and go on to the next typing job.
Today’s office is different. Although typing skills have
continued to be a vital skill in data
entry, the profession of the skilled secretarial typist is
essentially extinct. What killed it?
The computer and the word processor.
Pre-Test
1. Which of the following applications is a competitor to Word
today?

a. Google Docs™
b. PageMaker
c. Google Gears
d. MultiMate
2. Which term is NOT associated with PowerPoint®?
a. Multimedia
b. Microsoft®
c. Slide
d. Docs
3. Which of the following is NOT a dedicated spreadsheet
application?
a. Excel®
b. Calc
c. VisiCalc
d. Lotus 1-2-3
4. Which of the following is NOT one of the basic items in a
database?
a. primary key
b. record
c. field
d. slide
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Word Processing
5. CAD is an acronym for which of the following?
a. Computer Aided Display

b. Computer Aided Drawing
c. Computer Aided Design
d. Computer Aided Dimension
6. Evernote is a popular mobile app that includes several
applications. Which of the
following is NOT one of them?
a. Skitch
b. Penultimate
c. Web Clipper
d. Twitter
Answers
1. a. Google Docs™. The answer can be found in Section 4.1.
2. d. Docs. The answer can be found in Section 4.2.
3. d. Lotus 1-2-3. The answer can be found in Section 4.3.
4. d. slide. The answer can be found in Section 4.4.
5. c. Computer Aided Design. The answer can be found in
Section 4.5.
6. d. Twitter. The answer can be found in Section 4.6.
4.1 Word Processing
A word processor is a type of application software whose entire
function is to enable you to easily compose written ideas on a
computer. These documents might take the form of letters,
essays, books, poems, short stories, notes, outlines, brochures,
or flyers. The ease with which a computer user can write, edit,
copy, and paste has made
word processing one of the most common and powerful reasons
to use a computer. The
word processor has transformed the workplace and forever
altered how we communicate
our thoughts. In this section, you will learn why word
processing is so significant. We will

begin with a short overview of the word processor. Later, in a
tutorial, we will explore
some of the main features of Microsoft® Word, the most
popular word processing applica-
tion on the market today.
The first use of the term word processing took place in 1964
when IBM® announced a dra-
matic new advancement called the Magnetic Tape Selectric
Typewriter, which could store
keystrokes as they were entered. Although this was a brilliant
development, IBM® soon
found it was perhaps too brilliant because its operation was so
complex that the average
typist ignored it (Ceruzzi, 2003, p. 255). Throughout the 1970s,
the term “word process-
ing” was not associated with computers at all. Instead, it
referred to ways of making these
professional typists more efficient. By the end of the decade,
the word processor began to
be associated with a computerized machine, but it was
“dedicated.” In other words, a
word processor was a computer that could only enable you to do
one thing—type. While
these dedicated word processors remained popular through the
1980s due to the high cost
of personal computers, their dominance did not last. What was
responsible for this change?
The word processor application that a user could install on any
generic computer. As
mentioned in Chapter 2, Xerox® PARC was a place of
tremendous innovation in the 1970s,
and some consider the Bravo text editor to be Xerox®’s most
significant achievement. Cre-
ated by Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi (who would later
become one of the

bow80854_04_c04.indd 89 7/26/13 12:46 PM
developers of Microsoft® Word), it
used a combination of the Alto per-
sonal computer and a high-resolution
monitor to display words that users
had typed on a keyboard. Simonyi
has stated that Microsoft® Word is
actually based in part on Bravo
because he borrowed several key fea-
tures such as formatting commands
(Haigh, 2006, p. 21).
Apple®’s Electric Pencil
In the late 1970s, Apple® introduced
its first word processing program,
which was called Electric Pencil.
Apple® Writer soon followed, but
both programs had significant func-
tional limitations. For example, the
display screen was only 40 charac-
ters wide, so the user had to actually
scroll the screen to the right to read a complete line of text,
which might have been 80 char-
acters wide. Also, although lowercase letters could be printed,
they could not be displayed
on the monitor. Lowercase was indicated on the screen either by
inverting the text or by
using a different color.
It was not until the 1980s that word processing programs for

personal computers began
to achieve popularity. The IBM® PC and the Apple® II (and
later the Macintosh®) became
the primary computers for which programmers created new
word processing application
software. For the first time, a word processor was no longer a
human typist or a dedicated
machine. Instead, it became a software program for a personal
computer. At this time, the
computer spreadsheet was the most popular application (more
on this later), but slowly
throughout the decade, the word processor gained ground until
it became the central
reason many people purchased a personal computer. In the
meantime, typewriters began
collecting more and more dust and eventually disappeared, thus
changing the look and
the sound of a modern office forever.
Early IBM® Word Processors
By the 1980s, more successful versions of word processors for
the IBM® and Apple®
appeared, including EasyWriter, MultiMate, Framework, and
WordStar. It was during this
period that the market for these and other word processing
software programs exploded
(Haigh, 2006, p. 6). Since the release of Electric Pencil, more
than 400 word processors
were developed, but most of these disappeared as quickly as
they had appeared (Bergin,
2006a, p. 32). Emerging from the pack, WordStar (manufactured
by MicroPro) quickly
took the lead. Seymour Rubinstein wrote the original 137,000
lines of Assembler language
code in about 4 months (a tremendously large programming
effort for such a short period

of time).
In the 1970s, word processors were seen as little more
than efficient typewriters. Most secretaries who used
word processors were women. How do you think the rise
of computers changed career opportunities for women?
Monty Fresco/Tom Camp/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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One of the reasons WordStar was so successful was that it was
the first WYSIWYG (What
You See Is What You Get) commercial software package.
WYSIWYG literally means that
what you see on the computer screen is exactly what will appear
on the printed page.
Although WYSIWYG had been a Xerox® PARC innovation in
the 1970s, it now was avail-
able to anyone with a personal computer. WordStar also was
one of the first programs to
include a MailMerge function, which enabled the user to insert
a separate file of names
and addresses into a WordStar document. It was also the first to
show page breaks on the
screen, provide automatic word wrapping, and allow the user to
set the margins.
MicroPro’s plan was to make WordStar part of a software suite
that would also include
CalcStar (a spreadsheet) and DataStar (a database). All three
together were sold under the

name StarBurst. This became the very first office suite, but
after the company hit a high of
$72 million in sales in 1984, it started a quick decline. One of
the problems was that the
original assembly code was for the 8080 processors, and was
difficult to transfer to other
types of computers. Then, MicroPro released a new version
called WordStar 2000, which
was not even compatible with the original WordStar. Users had
to retype all of their docu-
ments if they wanted the new program to work with them.
The market was ready for a seismic shift, which occurred over
the next decade from 1985
to 1995 (Haigh, 2006, p. 38–43). In 1986, because of the
problems previously discussed,
WordStar essentially collapsed and was replaced by
WordPerfect. WordStar had encoun-
tered some trouble with retailers, but WordPerfect was much
more successful. By the mid-
1980s, Computer Land, then the largest retail chain store for
electronics in America, began
selling the product. By the early 1990s, WordPerfect had
managed to secure 70% of the
market because of its ability to work on many different
computers and operating systems,
as well as its rich list of features (Bergin, 2006b). But a
powerful company in Seattle was
soon to become the undisputed software king.
Word for Windows®
During the mid-1990s, all of this upheaval in the word
processing industry began to set-
tle on one main program—Word for Windows®. Charles
Simonyi, who had developed
Bravo for Xerox®, joined Microsoft® in 1981 as its director of

development. During this
period, Microsoft® founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen sought
to expand into a new area—
applications. Two years later, on November 15, 1983,
Microsoft® Word 1.0 (for DOS) hit
the shelves. It cost $475, required 128 KB of memory to run,
and boasted several inter-
esting features. For the first time, underlined and italics
characters could be shown on
the monitor, and Microsoft® Word was capable of producing
documents that approached
typeset quality. The program was further enhanced in 1985
when Word 2.0 came out and
supported the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer. Microsoft®
released Word 3.0 in April
1986, and it became the fifth highest selling of all software
programs that year, although it
was still behind WordPerfect. It continued to gain ground in
1987 when version 4.0 came
out (with 78,000 lines of code). Word 4.0 included some
significant new features such as
footnotes, endnotes, a table of contents, text boxes, and line
drawings. (In the next sec-
tions, we will discuss how to produce each of these features,
which are still fundamental
performance capabilities of Word.) In 1988, version 5.0 added a
Page Preview command,
which meant that it was now competing with some desktop
publishing software (appli-
cations for designing graphics and stylized text) such as
PageMaker. Importantly, while
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the primary focus of all these releases was the IBM® PC, most
of these Word versions were
also available for the Macintosh®.
Microsoft® released the next version of Word in 1989 for the
Windows® operating system.
The company developed earlier Word programs for the DOS
operating system, but when
it combined Word and Windows®, it became the world’s
number one word processor.
Microsoft® also realized continued success with its inclusion of
Word as part of its Micro-
soft® Office suite. With Windows® as the operating system,
and Office (which included
Word for word processing, Excel® for spreadsheets, and
Access® for databases) for produc-
tivity applications, the Microsoft® combination ruled the
desktop. In 1994, Office was the
number one software package in the world. It had $762 million
in revenue and controlled
90% of the market (Bergin, 2006b).
Word Alternatives
Microsoft® Word is not the only word processor available
today. One that is gaining
increasing usage is a product from Google known as Google
Docs™. This is a free pro-
gram, and while it works much the same way as Microsoft®
Word, it is based on a funda-
mentally different philosophy. We will talk more about this
later when we discuss “cloud
computing.” For now, you should know that the main difference
is that Microsoft® Word
is a program that resides on the actual computer you are using,

but when you save your
documents with Google Docs™, you are saving them to
Google’s servers rather than to
your own computer. This makes it easy to share a document
with other users or to access
it from different computers. As long as you have an Internet
connection, you can find
your Google document. If you do not have an Internet
connection, you can still work on a
Google Doc™ by using a program called Google Gears. In
addition, you no longer have to
worry about updating your software, because Google takes care
of it on their end. Finally,
you do not have to be concerned with backing up your data
because Google also makes
sure that it will not be lost (Holzner & Holzner, 2009). Table
4.1 lists the file types that can
be converted to a Google Doc™.
Table 4.1: Types of files that can be converted to a Google
Doc™
Used For File Type
Spreadsheets .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .tsv, .txt, .tab
Documents .doc, .docx, .html, plain text (.txt), .rtf
Presentations .ppt, .pps, .pptx
Drawings .wmf
OCR .jpg, .gif, .png, .pdf
bow80854_04_c04.indd 92 7/26/13 12:46 PM

You can also download a Google Doc™ to your computer in the
file formats listed in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2: Google Doc™ file formats
Used For File Type
Spreadsheets CSV, HTML, ODS, PDF, XLS, TXT (only for a
single sheet)
Documents HTML, RTF, Word, Open Office, PDF, Text file
Presentations PDF, PPTX, TXT
Drawings PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF
Source:
http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=4
9115
Another Microsoft® alternative is Open Office (see
openoffice.org). It is a free suite of
programs developed by Sun Microsystems, and now under the
control of the Apache
Foundation. The Open Office project itself is known as
LibreOffice and includes six main
applications for Windows®, Macintosh®, and GNU/Linux®.
These applications include:
word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentations
(Impress), graphics (Draw),
mathematical formulas (Math), and database programs (Base).
You can download this at

http://www.libreoffice.org/. Some Linux® distributions include
LibreOffice as the default
installed office suite.
Microsoft® Office products are excellent programs used by
many people for office produc-
tivity. Of course, as Google Docs™ and Open Office
demonstrate, other options are available.
Word on the Go
As people now often need to have advanced word processing
options associated with
their mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), new
applications attempt to fill
this need. Microsoft® has its Microsoft® Office Web Apps
(http://office.microsoft.com/
en-us/web-apps/) that use its SkyDrive® to create, edit, store,
and share files on the Web
A Look Further: Using Google Docs™
It is relatively easy to upload and convert to a Google Doc™.
The following site describes the process:
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/143206?ref_topic=210
08&rd=1
1. Click the “Upload” icon in the top left of your Documents
List.
2. Click “Files. . .”, and select the document you would like to
upload.
3. Click “Open.”
4. Check the box next to “Convert documents, presentations,
spreadsheets, and drawings to
the corresponding Google Docs format” if you would like to be
able to edit and collaborate
on the document online. Uploaded document files that are

converted to Google documents
format cannot be larger than 1 MB.
5. Click “Start upload.” The uploaded file will appear in your
Documents List.
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http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=4
9115
www.openoffice.org
http://www.libreoffice.org/
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/143206?ref_topic=210
08&rd=1
CHAPTER 4Section 4.2 Presentation Software
through mobile and desktop devices. Word Mobile allows you to
achieve much of the
same Word productivity on your mobile devices as you can on
your desktop.
But this is not the only option. Polaris Office is a dedicated
mobile office product designed to
use Microsoft® Office documents on the go
(http://www.polarisoffice.com/en/default.asp).
Other options include Quickoffice® Pro, which allows you to
create, edit, and access all of
your Microsoft® Office documents. For the Android™ version,
go to: http://www.quickoffice.
com/quickoffice_pro_android/.
Documents To Go® is another valuable tool. For the iPad®

version, go to: https://itunes
.apple.com/us/app/id317117961?mt=8.
Questions to Consider
1. For what purposes in your work, school, and personal life
would you use a word processor?
2. Why is a word processor important? Why not just use a
typewriter?
3. What were some of the limitations of the early word
processors?
4. What were the names and features offered by some of the
early word processors?
5. When was Word for Windows® first released? What were
some of its early features?
6. What are some alternatives to Word?
4.2 Presentation Software
If you were sitting in a large lecture room a decade or two ago,
you may have noticed something that always seemed to present
a problem for the teacher. Typically, the stan-dard blackboard
was not large enough for everyone to see, so an overhead
projector
was often brought in. The lecturer might have a stack of
preprinted transparencies (ide-
ally, in the right order) and would place each clear sheet on the
lighted surface so that the
mirror and magnifier projected the image onto the screen.
Another tool the lecturer might
have used was the slide projector. With this technology, a
presenter could have pictures or
text converted to small slides that could be arranged in order on
a circular carousel. With
the carousel loaded on top of the projector, the lecturer used a
remote control to advance
through the slides during the presentation.

The overhead projector and slide projector were used in
classrooms for decades, but in the
1990s, a new software application revolutionized presentations
in classrooms and busi-
nesses throughout the world. The most popular version today is
Microsoft® PowerPoint®,
and it gives teachers, students, and other professionals a way to
easily use text, graph-
ics, animation, sound, and video to deliver educational and
entertaining presentations.
According to some estimates, more than 30 million
PowerPoint® presentations are cre-
ated every day (Vander Veer, 2007, p. 2). In this section, you
will learn a few PowerPoint®
secrets. These tips and techniques will demonstrate how to
powerfully make your point to
audiences of any size.
First, let’s step back for a moment and welcome you to
PowerPoint® and discuss in broad
terms what PowerPoint® can do for you. This will include a
brief background on the
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http://www.polarisoffice.com/en/default.asp
http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_pro_android/
http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_pro_android/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id317117961?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id317117961?mt=8
software program’s evolution, some of the key concepts for

making good presentations,
and how to avoid the dreaded state of PowerPointlessness
(spending lots of time devel-
oping a PowerPoint® presentation, only to have it be an
ineffective way of conveying your
thoughts).
A Brief History of PowerPoint®
In comparison with word processing, presentation software has
had a much shorter his-
tory. The idea can be traced to Bob Gaskins, who worked for a
Silicon Valley software com-
pany named Forethought, Inc. in the early 1980s. In 1984,
computer programmers Gaskins
and Dennis Austin released their first presentation program,
called Presenter. However,
they soon found that the name was in violation of a copyright,
and so they changed it to
PowerPoint®. In 1987, they released version 1.0 for the Apple®
Macintosh®. This product
attracted the attention of Microsoft®, and later that year,
Microsoft® purchased Forethought
and PowerPoint® for $14 million. One year later, Microsoft®
released a DOS version of the
program for IBM®-compatible computers. In 1990,
PowerPoint® became an integral part of
the Microsoft® Office suite of business applications, and it has
continued to play a central
role in Microsoft®’s desktop application dominance (Bove,
2005, p. 105).
What Can You Do with PowerPoint®?
PowerPoint® is a tool (along with a laptop and a projector) that
you can use much like
a physical slide projector when giving presentations in front of
a group of people or for

sharing presentations on the Web. Just as the central component
of Word is the document,
for PowerPoint® it is a slide.
This software application lets you create electronic slides using
many of the techniques
you have already learned from your study of Word.
PowerPoint® has become so popular
for several reasons. The slides can help you convey your point
to the audience through
the use of multimedia (text, graphics, and sound). It is a very
inexpensive way to create
custom presentations. Once you purchase the software and the
computer (and the projec-
tor), the only other cost is your time. You can make as many
slides as you like, and you do
not have to print them (unless you want to present your
audience with handouts), or turn
them into transparencies or physical slides. Also, editing is
simple. When you are review-
ing your slides, if you want to put slide 5 in front of slide 3,
you simply drag it with the
mouse. If some of the data changed in one of your slides, you
do not have to create a new
presentation. Instead, just retype and save, and your
presentation is up to date for your
next appearance.
Another important feature is that PowerPoint® does not limit
you to the slides you create.
You can easily create links to websites, and if the conference
room or classroom where you
are giving your presentation has an Internet connection, you can
easily show YouTube™
videos or other Web-based information. Then, when you are
done, you can click back

into your presentation and see your next slide. Finally, you do
not have to be physically
present in the room to convey your ideas. If you cannot be
somewhere in person, you can
always record your voice on the PowerPoint® slides and then
post the presentation on a
website or email it to anyone who might be interested.
bow80854_04_c04.indd 95 7/26/13 12:46 PM
she suggests always using a bibliography. This is an excellent
point because the rules of
plagiarism also apply to creating Power Point® slides (Staley &
Lewis, 2010, p. 146). That
means put quotation marks around phrases and sentences that
are not your own and cite
the research in APA format.
How Many Slides?
The final general question you should consider before creating a
PowerPoint® presenta-
tion is how long it should be. There is no absolute rule for this,
because different situations
may have specific requirements. But in general, use the
10/20/30 rule. Venture capitalist
Guy Kawasaki said that an effective PowerPoint® presentation
should have no more than
10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font size
smaller than 30 point. He
said that 10 slides is a good number because it is hard for
people to take in more than 10
ideas at any one time, and that each slide should in theory

present one new and important
idea to the audience. He thought that 20 minutes was a great
length for the presentation
itself. Even if you have to give a 30-minute or an hour
presentation, consider the pos-
sibility that some of your time could be used for setup, and the
remainder could include
questions during and after your talk. Finally, the 30-point font
rule limits the amount of
text you can put on a slide, and therefore keeps the audience’s
attention on you (Duarte,
2008, p. 234). One other general PowerPoint® rule is “7 x 7.”
This means that a presentation
should have no more than 7 lines per slide and no more than 7
words per line.
PowerPoint® on the Go
As mentioned in the previous section, Microsoft® has Office
Mobile for apps of its main
desktop applications designed for smartphones and tablet
computers. PowerPoint®
Mobile is the name of its presentation app. Microsoft®
describes it as follows: “You can
open and view Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations, make
small changes, and add notes
if you want right on your phone. You can even watch a
presentation that’s broadcast
online. Just go to the Office Hub to get started” (Microsoft®
PowerPoint® Mobile, n.d.)
PowerPoint® Alternatives
Just as there are alternatives to Microsoft® Word, the same is
true for PowerPoint®. Google
has a Web-based program called Presentation that is its answer
to PowerPoint®. In Don’t
Spend a Dime: The Path to Low-Cost Computing, James Floyd

Kelly suggested Google Pre-
sentation as an excellent free alternative to Microsoft® (Kelly,
2009). You access the pro-
gram from Google Docs™ by selecting the New menu and then
choosing Presentation.
A toolbar provides presentation functions similar to those of
PowerPoint®, and you can
place text, images, and videos into each slide in the center of
the screen. To get started,
visit http://docs.google.com and set up a Google account if you
don’t already have one.
Then you can begin creating your own presentations. Another
interesting feature is that if
you are showing your presentation online to people throughout
the world, you can chat
with the viewers in real time through the Google Chat™ feature.
This is something that
cannot be done with PowerPoint® alone (Scott, 2008).
A waiting blue screen may cause dread for those who
have sat through countless PowerPoint® presentations
full of bulleted lists and bar graphs. Have you ever
experienced “PowerPointlessness”? What could have
been done to make that presentation more effective?
Hemera/Thinkstock
Overcoming PowerPointlessness
While we are looking at the power behind PowerPoint®, it is
not enough to simply know
how to use PowerPoint®. Many people have sat through
PowerPoint® presentations that
were so boring and confusing they could be described as
“PowerPointless.” As Tony Bove
said, “The corrupting power of PowerPoint® is so strong that
otherwise normally articulate

speakers turn into zombies mumbling the bullet points that
appear on the slides behind
them” (Bove, 2005, p. 104). Here is one worst case example.
You may remember the tragic
crash of NASA’s Columbia space shuttle in 2003. Although the
crash was due to faulty
foam insulation, the NASA accident report also blamed
PowerPoint®. The authors of the
report argued that when NASA engineers gave a presentation
and talked about the life-
threatening aspects of the foam, they created PowerPoint®
slides that were so crammed
with information that the message was lost.
How can you overcome these problems? There are three central
strategies to make any
presentation effective. First, know your audience and work to
connect with them by mak-
ing your presentation relevant to their interests. This might
include using pictures of ideas
that are directly related to the topic. Second, consider using
techniques that will hold the
attention of your audience. This cannot be achieved by reading
paragraphs of text from a
slide. This is a recipe for boredom. Instead, use text to highlight
important ideas that are
directly related to your central message. Finally, be sure to
make your presentation memo-
rable. Try to help your audience remember what you have said
by making it entertaining
and providing good summarizations (both introduction and
conclusion) of your main
arguments (Kosslyn, 2007, p. 3).
Constance Staley, a professor of communications at the
University of Colorado, offers five

other important recommendations to make sure your
presentation is not PowerPointless.
First, she says to “use your whole
brain.” This means the design of the
PowerPoint® slide is not more impor-
tant than the content itself. In other
words, you should use both the cre-
ative and the logical parts of your
brain. Second, Staley says to “use
color to your advantage.” Background
colors other than white can create a
mood (soft colors are subtle, while
bold colors are energetic). But if every
slide were a different bright neon
color, this could be too much visual
stimulation. Third, when you are cre-
ating a slide, do not crowd it with text.
If your audience is reading, then they
are not listening to you. Fourth, the
slides should not be more entertain-
ing than you are. The audience is not
there expecting to watch a Spielberg
film, so avoid special effects that are
more flash than substance. Finally,
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she suggests always using a bibliography. This is an excellent
point because the rules of
plagiarism also apply to creating Power Point® slides (Staley &
Lewis, 2010, p. 146). That

means put quotation marks around phrases and sentences that
are not your own and cite
the research in APA format.
How Many Slides?
The final general question you should consider before creating a
PowerPoint® presenta-
tion is how long it should be. There is no absolute rule for this,
because different situations
may have specific requirements. But in general, use the
10/20/30 rule. Venture capitalist
Guy Kawasaki said that an effective PowerPoint® presentation
should have no more than
10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font size
smaller than 30 point. He
said that 10 slides is a good number because it is hard for
people to take in more than 10
ideas at any one time, and that each slide should in theory
present one new and important
idea to the audience. He thought that 20 minutes was a great
length for the presentation
itself. Even if you have to give a 30-minute or an hour
presentation, consider the pos-
sibility that some of your time could be used for setup, and the
remainder could include
questions during and after your talk. Finally, the 30-point font
rule limits the amount of
text you can put on a slide, and therefore keeps the audience’s
attention on you (Duarte,
2008, p. 234). One other general PowerPoint® rule is “7 x 7.”
This means that a presentation
should have no more than 7 lines per slide and no more than 7
words per line.
PowerPoint® on the Go
As mentioned in the previous section, Microsoft® has Office

Mobile for apps of its main
desktop applications designed for smartphones and tablet
computers. PowerPoint®
Mobile is the name of its presentation app. Microsoft®
describes it as follows: “You can
open and view Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations, make
small changes, and add notes
if you want right on your phone. You can even watch a
presentation that’s broadcast
online. Just go to the Office Hub to get started” (Microsoft®
PowerPoint® Mobile, n.d.)
PowerPoint® Alternatives
Just as there are alternatives to Microsoft® Word, the same is
true for PowerPoint®. Google
has a Web-based program called Presentation that is its answer
to PowerPoint®. In Don’t
Spend a Dime: The Path to Low-Cost Computing, James Floyd
Kelly suggested Google Pre-
sentation as an excellent free alternative to Microsoft® (Kelly,
2009). You access the pro-
gram from Google Docs™ by selecting the New menu and then
choosing Presentation.
A toolbar provides presentation functions similar to those of
PowerPoint®, and you can
place text, images, and videos into each slide in the center of
the screen. To get started,
visit http://docs.google.com and set up a Google account if you
don’t already have one.
Then you can begin creating your own presentations. Another
interesting feature is that if
you are showing your presentation online to people throughout
the world, you can chat
with the viewers in real time through the Google Chat™ feature.
This is something that
cannot be done with PowerPoint® alone (Scott, 2008).

A waiting blue screen may cause dread for those who
have sat through countless PowerPoint® presentations
full of bulleted lists and bar graphs. Have you ever
experienced “PowerPointlessness”? What could have
been done to make that presentation more effective?
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.3 Spreadsheets
Impress is another PowerPoint® alternative. This open-source
presentation package is
available for free from Open Office. Unlike Google’s Web-
based Presentation, Impress is
software that you download and use on your own computer. Its
features include 2-D and
3-D clip art, fonts, special effects, animation, and drawing
tools. It currently lacks pre-
designed presentation templates like the ones in PowerPoint®,
although options can be
found online for free (Kelly, 2009).
Finally, Prezi is another example worth considering for your
presentation needs. It enables
users to store their presentations on the Web, as well as import
PowerPoint® slides, You-
Tube videos, images, PDFs, and other documents. Since these
presentations are on the
Web, they can be shared and edited by multiple people (if
desired). A key feature is also

the ability to “pan and zoom” around the Prezi canvas. It was
initially developed by its
cofounder Adam Somlai-Fischer, an architect who wanted to be
able to explore a floor
plan of a building and also zoom into rooms and see the detail.
PowerPoint® did not have
an option that suited him, and thus Prezi was born. Launched in
2009 from Budapest, it
established offices in San Francisco later that year. To try it,
visit: http://prezi.com/.
1. Think of a good PowerPoint® presentation and a poor one
that you have sat through. What
were the differences between them?
2. When would PowerPoint® be a useful tool for you? Why not
just use physical slides?
3. Approximately how many new PowerPoint® presentations are
created every day?
4. Who invented PowerPoint®, and what was the program first
called? When did Microsoft®
release its version of PowerPoint®?
5. What are some things you can do on an electronic slide that
you cannot do on a physical slide?
6. What is PowerPointlessness?
7. What are three general strategies to make a PowerPoint®
presentation effective?
8. What are five main techniques to communicate ideas
effectively on each slide?
9. How many slides should a PowerPoint® presentation contain?
10. What are some alternatives to PowerPoint®?
4.3 Spreadsheets

One might think that a software company would seek to avoid a
killer application (or a killer app), unless it was up to some
deviant behavior. To the contrary, the killer app is a software
program that is so good it has no competition. Developing
a killer app is the dream of every Silicon Valley entrepreneur
because it is an application
that makes the computer itself an essential tool. It has the power
to reach out to people
who have never touched a personal computer before and to give
them a compelling rea-
son to purchase one. In other words, the killer application
“kills” all its competition and
becomes a primary incentive for families and businesses to
conclude that they cannot
exist without a computer in their home or office. Clearly, this is
a powerful software appli-
cation, but what else would you expect from a killer?
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The very first killer app was a spread-
sheet, and this software application
will be our focus in this section. Basi-
cally, a spreadsheet is a giant grid in
which you can enter numbers, math-
ematical formulas, and text to per-
form useful functions such as sorting,
graphing, and calculating. We will
begin with an overview of what a
spreadsheet can do for you by provid-

ing a simple example. Then, we will
explore the evolution of the spread-
sheet and provide a detailed tour of
the most popular spreadsheet in exis-
tence today—Microsoft® Excel®.
Cells
As mentioned before, as the docu-
ment is the central workspace of a
word processor and a slide is its coun-
terpart in presentation software, the cell plays this role in
spreadsheets. There are three
main parts of a spreadsheet that you should understand before
we proceed: cells, rows,
and columns. When you first open up a spreadsheet (it will be
helpful for you to have
Excel® open in another window as you read this section), the
first thing you will notice is
a screen with menu items and icons on the top, and empty white
rectangles dominating
the screen in the middle. Ignore the menu icons for now and
focus on the rectangles; each
rectangle is called a cell. You can scroll the screen to the right
and down almost as far as
you like, and you will see hundreds of thousands of cells. Cells
may appear simple and
unassuming, but they are powerful tools for entering text,
numbers, dates, times, math-
ematical formulas, or logical statements. We will examine all of
these later in this section.
Cell Names
The other important part of the screen is a list with numbers on
the left and letters at the
top. Let’s concentrate on the letters first. Not surprisingly, they

begin with A and continue
through Z. The sequence does not stop there, however, but
begins again at AA and contin-
ues for a long time. Beginning at the upper left and moving
down the left side of the screen,
you will see a list of numbers starting with 1 and extending to
well over 50,000. Each cell is
given a name based on a combination of these letters and
numbers. For example, the first
cell in the upper-left corner is A1. Click on it now with your
mouse. Just above it is the
Name Box, which displays the name (also known as the
coordinates) of the active cell. The
Name Box is important because it shows the cell you are
actively viewing. Press the down
arrow key once and you will highlight cell A2, and again the
coordinates of the active cell
show up in the Name Box. The cell to the right of A2 is called
B2. These names are very
important to your understanding of how a spreadsheet works.
Continue clicking on a few
cells in the spreadsheet grid to make sure you can identify their
coordinate names.
Spreadsheets allow users to perform calculations, analyze
various sets of data, and make informed predictions. How
could a spreadsheet be useful in your own personal or
professional life?
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Rows and Columns
The second important term to know at this point is row. This is
a series of cells (more than
one) that extends from the left to the right in a horizontal line.
For example, a row of three
cells might include C1, D1, and E1. Columns are a similar
concept. These are a series of
vertical cells that extend up and down (there is no diagonal
thinking in a spreadsheet). For
example, a column of three cells might be C5, C6, and C7. You
can easily remember the
difference between a row and a column by envisioning the
vertical supports on a building.
They extend up and down, just like columns on a spreadsheet.
(No need to know the dif-
ference between Doric and Ionic columns in Excel®; they are
all just columns!) In general
terms, when you are not referring to specific cells, a column is
an entire letter on a spread-
sheet, such as all of the D cells. A row is a complete number,
such as all the number 4 cells.
Changing Cell Size
Before we move on, you should take a moment to learn how to
resize cells. When you first
open Excel®, you will see that all the cells are the same size,
but you can make them any
size (height and width) you want. Look at the left side of the
screen with the numbers.
Place your pointer between any two numbers, and it will change
shape to two arrows
pointing up and down with a horizontal bar in the middle. Click
and hold your mouse
button, and move your mouse up and down. This is how you
change the height of a cell.

You can change the width of a cell by following the same
procedure with the letters on
top. If you want to change the size of an entire column or row,
click on a letter or number
(or highlight several at once), and those entire rows and
columns will change size when
you adjust them. You can also change the sizes of multiple rows
and columns at the same
time. Go ahead and practice changing cell sizes now.
How Does a Spreadsheet Work? A Simple Example
Before we get into some more advanced concepts, let’s put
together everything you have
learned so far. This simple exercise will demonstrate the power
of a spreadsheet. Here is
the scenario. We have some money in our pocket, and we want
to go to the store and buy
some DVDs. How many can we afford? Let’s analyze this
situation with a spreadsheet.
In cell A1, type the following word: DVDs. In cell B1, enter the
number 10, press the Enter
key, and then click cell B1 again with your mouse. Now, select
the $ in the Number section
of the Home Ribbon (yes, Excel® has ribbons, just like Word,
and we will tour all of them
later). This is called formatting the cell, and by selecting the
dollar sign, you are making it
a currency. We are letting this information about $10.00 DVDs
tell us that there is a special
at the local store and that DVDs are on sale for $10.00 each.
Click on cell B3 and enter the following: My funds. Click on B2
and enter the number 50.
Repeat the same process that you followed to format the cell to
currency. We are letting

this information tell us that we have $50.00 to spend at the
store. The question is, “How
many DVDs can we purchase if we want to spend all of our
money on them?” Certainly,
you can figure out the answer in your head, but the point is to
use a spreadsheet to deter-
mine the answer. This will teach you the basic use of a
spreadsheet, and then we can move
on to explore more advanced features.
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How do we figure out the answer to our question using only a
spreadsheet? The answer
is that you have to enter a formula into a cell. Click on cell A3
and enter 5B2/B1. Now
press Enter. This divides cell B2 (how much money you have)
by B1 (the price of a DVD).
The answer, which is shown in cell B3, is 5. But there is still a
problem. Excel® thinks that
the answer should be a currency, and that this is not correct. It
should instead be a general
number, so in the Number section of the Home Ribbon, look for
the drop box that says
Accounting. Click the arrow, and you will see different
formatting options for the cell.
Select General, and the cell will now display correctly the
number 5.
What If?
You may be thinking that you could have just as easily found
this answer on a calculator

or by dividing in your head. You are correct. But a spreadsheet
allows you to do some-
thing that an average calculator (or an average mind with more
complex numbers) cannot
do: perform a basic “What if” analysis. In other words, what if
you had more money?
What if the price of DVDs changed? How would this change our
answer?
Going back to the example above, let’s say the price of DVDs
has been reduced to
$5.00. Go ahead and click on cell B1 and enter the number 5.
You do not have to worry
about the $ sign because Excel® already knows that the format
is currency. When
you press Enter, the spreadsheet recalculates itself, and your
answer now shows you
that you can purchase 10 DVDs. What if you found another
$10.00 in your pocket as you
were putting on your coat to go to the store? How would that
change your situation?
Go back to your spreadsheet and change My funds to 60 in cell
B2. After you press
Enter, you see that you can now purchase 12 DVDs. There are
much more complex
“What if” questions you can ask of Excel®, but for now, you
should understand some of
the power of a spreadsheet and also the importance of its
automatic recalculation.
Who Uses a Spreadsheet? Everyone
There are uses for spreadsheets in nearly every profession. For
example, accountants
quickly realized that spreadsheets would be a tremendous way
to prepare financial state-
ments and plan budgets. Salespeople could ask “what if”

questions about the relationship
between sales and advertising dollars. Financial planners could
use spreadsheets to track
investments and produce graphs that showed the rise and fall of
stock prices over time.
Another important feature is that Excel® has powerful graphing
functions, so these num-
bers can be represented in bar, line, or pie charts.
But while spreadsheets are a great business tool, this is not the
only place they are used.
Fantasy sports fans can use spreadsheets to track their players
and their statistics over
time. You could use a spreadsheet to balance your personal
checkbook. The list of uses for
spreadsheets is endless, and so, it seemed, were the early
customers. Let’s now turn to the
evolution of the spreadsheet industry, and then we will take a
much more detailed tour
of Excel® itself. It would be hard to appreciate the significance
of this evolution without
first having a basic understanding of what a spreadsheet can do.
Now that you have some
spreadsheet experience, let’s see how programmers developed
this unique and revolu-
tionary application.
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By the 1970s, everyone realized what a powerful tool the
computer was for calculating
numbers. Its speed and accuracy could find solutions to the

most difficult calculations in
the blink of an eye. The problem was that in order to take
advantage of this power, you
basically needed to have a degree in computer science. The
average person simply could
not sit down at a computer and instantly use it for advanced
calculations. But many peo-
ple began asking, “What if you could develop an application
that took advantage of the
computer’s calculating ability but did not require advanced
skills in computer program-
ming?” This was the revolutionary idea that led to spreadsheet
software.
VisiCalc and Lotus
In June 1979, Bob Frankston stood up in front of a small group
of people at a National
Computer Conference in New York to talk about a program that
he had just co-written
called VisiCalc. No one had ever heard of it before, but he
confidently promised that
“VisiCalc made everyone a programmer.” This was the world’s
first personal-computer
spreadsheet, and it was the beginning of the revolution
(Campbell-Kelly, 2007, p. 6). Visi-
Calc was advertised as a “Visible Calculator for the Apple II.”
Almost immediately, people
recognized its significance. The first version of VisiCalc for the
Apple® required 32 KB
of memory and a disk drive, and it cost $249 retail. It was much
more limited than the
spreadsheets of today. While today’s spreadsheets have more
than a million rows, Visi-
Calc had just 254 rows and 63 columns. Despite the early
amazement at what this pro-
gram could do, VisiCalc soon faced an unbeatable competitor

named Lotus (Grad, 2007).
Mitch Kapor founded the Lotus Development Corporation with
an idea to create add-
on software for VisiCalc (Kapor, 2007). These were statistical
programs called VisiPlot
and VisiTrend that worked within the spreadsheet, and by 1982,
he had received a siz-
able sum of money in royalties, enough to actually create a
program that would compete
with VisiCalc itself. In fact, at this time, he saw that there was
no unifying office suite for
the software industry. If people wanted a word processor, they
purchased WordStar. If
they wanted a spreadsheet, it was VisiCalc. A program called
dBase II filled the database
niche. Harvard Graphics was the graphical program of choice.
These were all separate
programs, from different manufacturers, and they did not talk to
each other. What if a
single program encompassed all these applications? If such a
master program were cre-
ated, it would make working on a computer as easy as 1, 2, 3.
And thus Lotus 1-2-3 was
born (Campbell-Kelly, 2007).
The 1, 2, 3 had another meaning—Lotus included three specific
types of applications.
Number 1 was word processing, 2 was a spreadsheet, and 3 was
a database. One of the
greatest advances of this program was its incorporation of a
macro feature. This important
function is built into Word and PowerPoint® today, but Lotus
was the first to integrate it
into its software. It was revolutionary because a “macro”
enabled a user to “record” com-

mon keystrokes and then “replay” them with the press of a
button. These vastly improved
productivity by automating repetitive tasks. Lotus 1-2-3’s initial
release was in January
1983, at a retail price of $495. The software enjoyed
phenomenal success throughout the
1980s, but a soon-to-be giant also had its eyes on the multiple-
application industry. Bill
Gates and Microsoft® were waiting in the wings.
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Excel®
The first attempt by Microsoft® in this area was a program
known as Multiplan in 1982. Its
early versions always lost out in speed competitions with Lotus,
and so it remained in the
background. One area in which it surpassed Lotus, however,
was its compatibility with
Apple® products, such as the new Macintosh®. This was a
market that Lotus had simply
ignored. In 1985, Microsoft® changed the name from Multiplan
to Excel® and released a
version for the Macintosh® only. While pleased with this
success, Microsoft® sought the
larger IBM® market and its clones. One of the ways it did this
was through an emphasis
on the GUI, the graphical user interface. This was also an area
that Lotus had neglected.
As Lotus was releasing larger and more complex software
packages, Excel®, with its GUI
simplicity, began to earn converts on IBM® machines. In 1989,

Lotus tried to regain the
market it was losing with the release of 3.0, but the program
was so large it was almost
unusable on a computer of this time period. By the early 1990s,
Excel® had gained 70%
of spreadsheet users, and the days of Lotus were soon
numbered. The Windows® revolu-
tion sealed Lotus’s fate, because Windows® was an operating
system for which Lotus as
a company was completely unprepared (Campbell-Kelly, 2007,
p. 18). Ironically, despite
the emphasis on the GUI, many users still used the same
keyboard shortcuts to perform
common functions. Even the newer software releases are
backward compatible to these
old standards.
In April 1997, InfoWorld magazine wrote a comparative review
of the new Lotus 1-2-3
97 and Microsoft® Excel® 97. The reviewer found that Lotus
was “too little too late” and
simply not that exciting (Conaster, 1997, p. 102). While Excel®
still had some problems of
its own, by this time it was poised to own the desktop. Today,
spreadsheet users primarily
use Excel®.
Excel® on the Go
As mobile applications are evolving quickly, Microsoft® has
created an app to use Excel®.
Called Microsoft® Excel® Mobile, it enables the use of many
of the desktop features on a
smartphone or a tablet computer. Microsoft® has had to
sacrifice some features in order to
condense the application to work in a mobile environment. If
there is specific content that

is not supported by Excel® Mobile, the user can still open the
workbook. Despite some of
the limitations, being able to use Excel® in a mobile
environment is critical for productivity
on the go (Use Microsoft® Excel® Mobile, n.d.).
Excel® Alternatives
As you might expect, both Google and Open Office have their
own versions of Excel®.
Like the other examples we have seen, Google’s Spreadsheets is
Web-based, and Open
Office’s Calc is a free open-source program that you download.
The same general ben-
efits regarding these approaches mentioned in the previous
sections also apply here. Calc
is able to easily open and save files in the Excel® format (.xlsx
files are the most current
version of Excel® extensions). Most, but not all, of the Excel®
functions will work if you
open them with Calc. The most common tasks for which people
use Calc are to manage
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.4 Databases
household finances and budgets, handle small business
accounting and data tasks, and
create table data for Web pages (Channelle, 2009).
Google’s Spreadsheets does not have nearly the number of
advanced features of Excel®.
But it does have some interesting features. It includes a chat
function, which allows people

who are working on the same spreadsheet to talk to each other.
Although you can work
on the same Excel® spreadsheet as a shared file with others at
the same time, this is much
easier to accomplish with Google’s Spreadsheets. In addition,
Google provides a way to
easily explore a revision history so that you or a person with
whom you are sharing the
document can explore what it looked like a few minutes, days,
or weeks ago (Lenssen,
2008, p. 54).
1. Why use a spreadsheet instead of a calculator?
2. Why were spreadsheets initially considered so important?
3. What was the name of the first spreadsheet program
developed for personal computers?
4. Who founded Lotus Development Corporation?
5. What did 1-2-3 stand for in the name Lotus 1-2-3?
6. What are some ways that you could use a spreadsheet at
work, home, and school?
7. What were some of the reasons that Excel® gained market
dominance over Lotus?
8. What are some alternatives to Excel®?
4.4 Databases
We all confront data every day of our lives. It may be at work
with payroll informa-
tion, inventories, customers, vendors,
or market trends and forecasts. Or the
data may be at home, as we compile
our holiday card list, update our list of
family phone numbers, or keep track
of personal assets. The types of data
we handle are limitless, and some-

times we might feel overwhelmed by
it. However, there is an application
program that comes to the rescue and
enables you to make sense of it all. It is
appropriately called a database, which
is a software program that manages a
collection of data that have some rela-
tionship to each other. The database
management system (DBMS) is the
software, and the database is the col-
lection of raw data itself.
Databases allow sorting, organization, and retrieval of
large amounts of information that could easily become
overwhelming without computers. How could you benefit
from databases, either at work or at home?
Jetta Productions/Blend Images/SuperStock
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The Database Table
It is important that each piece of raw data has some relationship
to all the other data in
the database. For example, if you owned a dance studio it would
make little sense to list
the names and contact information for the dancers with an
inventory of the costumes in
the wardrobe closet. This would be counterproductive because
there is no relationship
between these two sets of data. However, a wardrobe inventory
database makes perfect

sense, as does a separate one that manages just the names and
contact information for the
dancers. The same DBMS can be used to manage both
collections of data. This is known
as a relational database, because the data are organized into
tables of information. The
database would have different tables with one focusing on the
dancers, and the other the
wardrobe closet.
A database table looks much like a spreadsheet, with rows that
are numbered from 1
to however many items are in the database, and columns that
indicate the different cat-
egories of information. For the dancers, this would be name,
cell phone, home address,
emergency contact, and what classes they were taking. For the
wardrobe closet this might
include clothing item name, size, color, location, and quantity.
Basic Items in a Database
All of the information in a single row is called a record. Each
individual column is called
a field. Each record also has one primary key, which is typically
a unique number that
is shared by no other record in the database. In the dance studio
example, the cell phone
number for the dancers would be a good primary key because all
of them would be
unique. To enter information, the user enters the data and also
edits it in a section of a
database called a form. Each form lists all of the fields for just
one record at a time. When
all the information has been entered, the user can look at the
next record or the previous
one. These database items can be sorted much like those on a

spreadsheet, but there are
more advanced ways to explore and analyze data.
How Does a Database Work?
The power of a DBMS lies in the fact that the user can construct
queries to ask questions
about the data. A query is a specific type of question regarding
some aspect of the data
that the user wants to know more about. Perhaps the dance
studio owner wants to know
about one of her dancers named Jane Smith, but she cannot
remember her first name. She
could enter a query for the last name, Smith, and then the
database would return the infor-
mation for all listed Smiths. Using the information from each
record, she can then identify
the Smith she is looking for. Next, she could query the
wardrobe database to look for the
right costume for the upcoming show. The studio owner knows
she wants a piece of red
clothing in a medium size, so she could create a query with just
these two search criteria
and receive a list of all matching clothing. The owner would
receive this information in a
report. A report is a predesigned template that presents only the
requested information in
an easy-to-read format. The database designer creates these
forms in collaboration with
those who will use the data. This has been a short, simplified,
real-world example of how
a database works.
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Interviews from the Field: Senior SQL Server Database
Administrator
What are your primary responsibilities?
My primary responsibilities include participating in all aspects
of database management including
backups, installation, configuration, performance tuning and
optimization, database maintenance,
troubleshooting, business continuity and disaster recovery, as
well as assisting development
teams with architecting, designing, and building scalable,
effective database solutions. The Data-
base Administrator’s main focus is the safety, security, and
recoverability of all enterprise data.
This includes 24/7 support of critical applications.
What are the most important skills needed for your job?
In-depth knowledge of at least one relational database
management system (RDBMS) platform
including performance tuning, security features, and industry
best practices.
Strong conceptual, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Extensive knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL).
A working knowledge of server technologies (in my case,
Microsoft® Windows® Server).
A good diplomatic approach, as this role almost always bridges
a gap between software develop-
ers and systems engineers. The database tier is rather flexible,
and sometimes developers may

choose an approach that would work fine in a development
language and which the RDBMS can
handle, but may not be the most efficient approach within the
RDBMS.
What do you like best about your job?
I love building and planning database solutions, which have
expectations of multi-year availability,
and in doing so, being able to prevent designs from getting “lost
in translation” from what works
for development into the final database solution. I love
troubleshooting and finding the answers
to the uncommon and rare odd errors and scenarios.
What got you interested in entering this field?
I started in the teleservices department of a company, and after
learning a lot about the business,
I migrated into a support role in IT. Once in IT, I was able to
move around into different roles to find
the one I was best at. I tried out Business Analysis, Project
Management, Software Developer, and
when I finally landed in the role of a DBA, I realized I’d found
my niche.
What is your educational background and how did it prepare
you for your job?
I actually had no educational background in IT, simply what I
knew from playing around on my
Tandy computer using MS-DOS (starting with version 2.11 and
up). While I’m a fast learner, I was
very lucky to be able to work with an exceptional team of IT
professionals who were able to pro-
vide me with enough on-the-job training as well as other

resources I could use to teach myself.
Learning the business first also helped me in this growth since I
was able to contribute materially
while in my trial roles even if I wasn’t good at the role
specifically.
Can you give an example of a project you are working on now?
One project we are working on is upgrading our SQL Servers
from SQL 2008 R2 to SQL 2012,
and part of that includes replacing database mirroring with SQL
2012’s Availability Groups. We’ve
recently created a new Data Warehouse on a SQL 2012 virtual
cluster. We’re also beginning pro-
totyping a series of SQL 2012 clusters for High
Availability/Disaster Recovery using Windows®
Failover Clustering combined with SQL 2012 Availability
Groups for primary and secondary serv-
ers in a local data center, a tertiary server for reporting, and a
quaternary server in a remote data
center for data center-level disaster recovery.
bow80854_04_c04.indd 106 7/26/13 12:46 PM
Microsoft® Access®
One popular type of database, called Access®, is part of the
Microsoft® Office Suite. It is a
relational database management system (RDBMS), which means
the user can construct a
variety of specialized data tables that can be related to other
tables. For example, a busi-
ness manager might put together one database table that consists

of employee names
and contact information. Another database table might include
payroll data (check num-
ber, pay date, and amount). The manager using Microsoft®
Access® (or another RDBMS)
has the ability to construct queries that combine these two
tables because the data are
related by a common employee name (Groh, 2007). Access® has
the common features of
all databases described above, but it also includes some
important features that make
it even more powerful. Access® has a user interface tool called
Office Fluent that helps
people begin developing databases even if they have little
previous experience. It includes
a number of predesigned forms and records for purposes such as
asset tracking and proj-
ect tracking. Access® enables users to have field types such as
attachments, which allow
designers to include links to other key documents within the
database. For example, an
employee database might include a résumé field that does not
contain data but instead
provides links to employee résumés.
Alternatives to Access®
As we have seen in the other productivity application sections,
alternatives to Microsoft®
products are available. One such alternative is a free program
called Base, from Open
Office. Like Access®, it has all the basic elements of database
design, and it integrates
with the other Open Office products so you can import data
from its Calc spreadsheet.
Open Office acknowledges that its Base program is somewhat of
a “black sheep” because

it does not have the same look as the other programs in its
Office Suite. It originally came
from a project called HSQLDB (Hyper-threaded Structured
Query Language Database).
This is quite a mouthful, and you can see why Open Office
selected a more user-friendly
name for it like Base when it incorporated database software
into its suite (Channelle,
2009). It is a powerful database that shares the Open Office
features of being free and
open-source.
Whatever database you select, it is important to understand that
this productivity applica-
tion can be an important tool to organize massive amounts of
data. As some people have
suggested, the skillful database user can turn data into
information and knowledge.
1. What are some uses for a database at work, home, and
school?
2. Why are databases important?
3. What is the difference between a DBMS and a database?
4. What is a database table?
5. Why is a primary key important?
6. What is the difference between a field and a record?
7. What is a query?
8. What is the difference between a form and a report?
9. What is the name of the Microsoft® DBMS?
bow80854_04_c04.indd 107 7/26/13 12:46 PM
CHAPTER 4Section 4.5 Multimedia Applications

4.5 Multimedia Applications
Multimedia is a term you will frequently hear in association
with computing applications. At its simplest level, multimedia
is a combination of two or more different types of media,
including basic text, complex art, sound, video, or ani-
mation (Vaughan, 2008, p. 1). Multimedia is what brings the
computer to life, making
the experience of using it much more powerful and immersive.
It enables the computer
to be interactive and user-friendly, and it has almost limitless
uses. Multimedia can be
found in video games, office presentations, websites, and
graphics software. The power
of multimedia is that there are numerous applications that
everyone can use to develop
customized multimedia projects on their own. Multimedia is not
just for professionals
anymore. In this section, we will be exploring some of the most
popular multimedia pro-
grams on the market today. Although Microsoft® Office
applications such as PowerPoint®
(discussed previously in this chapter) are capable of generating
multimedia presentations,
in the following section, we will explore Adobe® and CAD
applications.
Adobe®
Much as Microsoft® Office includes a suite of office
productivity programs, there are
other suites that focus primarily on multimedia. A company
called Adobe®, founded by
Charles Geschke and John Warnock in 1982, produces one of
the most popular suites
(http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Ad

obe/en/company/
pdfs/fast-facts.pdf).
The selection of a company name had nothing to do with
computing. The Adobe Creek
flowed behind Warnock’s house in Los Altos, California, and
the pair thought Adobe
would be a good name for their business venture. One of
Adobe®’s greatest successes was
its creation of the Portable Document Format, or PDF, in 1993.
PDF enables users of differ-
ent software programs to convert their documents to this format,
thus enabling anyone to
view the same document. Also, PDF files have the same format
while printing to paper, no
matter what printer is used. Viewing is simple with the free
download of Adobe® Reader.
Adobe® Acrobat® is the software package used to create and
edit PDF documents. The PDF
format is so widespread that it is now a government standard
(ISO 32000) and approved for
the use of governmental, corporate, and private exchange of
data in a secure file. Although
Adobe® Acrobat® is not primarily a multimedia program, it is a
core business of Adobe®.
There are other choices in multimedia besides Adobe®. An
easy-to-use drawing program
can be found bundled with every Microsoft® operating system.
Called Paint, it is found
under Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint. It can
perform basic image edit-
ing, drawing, and painting tasks to create files that can then be
imported easily to other
Microsoft® programs. For operating systems prior to
Windows® 7, there was another tool

called Microsoft® Photo Editor that performed similar
functions. Although these and other
options exist, the following sections will focus on Adobe®
software products.
Photoshop®
Adobe®’s first major launch of a multimedia program took
place in 1990 when it intro-
duced Photoshop®, which quickly became an industry standard
for creating and editing
bow80854_04_c04.indd 108 7/26/13 12:46 PM
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Ado
be/en/company/pdfs/fast-facts.pdf
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Ado
be/en/company/pdfs/fast-facts.pdf
digital images. Over the past 20
years, the program has evolved to
become more than an image editing
tool. It also enables the user to add
other creative elements such as digi-
tal painting, scrapbooking, 3-D
images, and design. The images can
be used anywhere a computer is
found today, including the desktop,
the laptop, on the Web, or a mobile
phone. Photoshop® is used in many
different industries, including video
game design, the arts, education, and
even in Hollywood movies (Perkins,
2009). In 1993, Adobe® launched

After Effects® with enhanced video
production capabilities.
Flash® and its Mobile Demise
While Photoshop® was becoming an
image editing standard in the 1990s,
the World Wide Web was growing at an exponential rate. With
this growth came an increas-
ing need to create attractive, graphically sophisticated websites.
To develop dynamic con-
tent within these websites, Adobe® created Adobe® Flash® in
1996. It was considered the
“gold standard in multimedia creation” because it can produce
animations, multimedia
for websites, banner ads, Web-based tutorials, product
presentations, games, and cus-
tomer service kiosks (self-standing computers that help
customers perform a specific task
in a mall, bank, or business). The Flash® Player is a free
download that can be used with
any Web browser, on a PC or a Mac®. Some have estimated that
98% of all computers can
view Flash® animations (Vander Veer & Grover, 2007).
Exemplifying how quickly standards can change, the once
dominant Flash® is now poised
for a demise. In November 2011, Adobe® announced to the
news media that it no longer
would support Flash® for mobile browsers. Apple®’s mobile
products like the iPhone® and
iPad® never ran Flash® content because the company believed
that HTML5 was superior
due to it working across multiple platforms. As one Adobe®
manager reported, “Adobe
saying that Flash on mobile isn’t the best path forward (is not

equal to) Adobe conceding
that Flash on mobile (or elsewhere) is bad technology, . . .
Adobe will have to find differ-
ent ways to meet customers’ needs” (Smith, 2011).
Dreamweaver®
With all of these terrific multimedia tools in place, Adobe®
next wanted to create a soft-
ware package that would put all the pieces together for Internet
viewing. In 1997, Adobe®
launched Dreamweaver®, which went on to become a leading
Web development tool. It
integrates with the other Adobe® software programs so you can
create an image in Pho-
toshop®, an animation in Flash®, or a PDF with Acrobat® and
easily incorporate it on the
Design software like Adobe® Photoshop® enables
designers in various industries to edit digital images.
Here, a designer removes the bend in a banana using the
masking and bending tools.
AP Photo/Peter Zschunke
bow80854_04_c04.indd 109 7/26/13 12:46 PM
Web with Dreamweaver®. It can also be used to develop
complex databases. Organiza-
tions can use this aspect of the program for many purposes,
such as putting a dynamic
and changing list of products online. Dreamweaver® provides
tools to incorporate all of

the features you are used to seeing on Web pages, such as
mouse rollovers, pop-up menus,
and drop-down boxes. Most importantly, you can do all of these
things without having
to learn HTML coding, although the underlying code can be
seen along with the visual
editor (McFarland, 2009).
Computer Aided Design
Numerous other types of multimedia software are available from
sources besides Adobe®.
AutoCAD® by Autodesk® is one of the most popular. The term
CAD is an acronym for
Computer Aided Design, which has replaced the drafting tables,
T-squares, compasses,
and broken pencil leads that had been the tools of the trade for
drafters for centuries.
AutoCAD® is used in fields such as interior design,
architecture, engineering, mapping,
manufacturing, mechanical, and facilities management
(Grabowski, 2010). Autodesk®
also has another product called Maya®, which focuses on 3-D
animation and modeling.
As with other applications, there is an open-source program
called Blender, which enables
3-D modeling, shading, animation, and rendering
(http://www.blender.org/).
Speech-to-Text
Ultimately, productivity is about effective means of
communicating with the computer.
While typing and using touch screens or a mouse are good ways
to do this, simply talking
is most natural for humans. Improvements in voice recognition
software are making this a
viable option for productivity software. On the desktop, one

example is Nuance’s Dragon
software, which enables users to not just input text with their
voice, but also launch appli-
cations, send email, open and edit documents, and perform any
other task that was nor-
mally manipulated by a mouse (http://www.nuance.com/).
This is equally, if not more, important in the mobile world
today. Apple® has even per-
sonalized this by naming theirs Siri® for the iPhone® and
iPad®. Android™ users also have
speech recognition built into their phones and tablets that
controls the device, and also
enables users to type and text.
1. What is multimedia?
2. What year was Adobe® founded?
3. What does PDF mean?
4. Which program would you download to view a PDF file?
5. What program would you use to create a PDF file?
6. What are some of the functions that Photoshop® can
perform?
7. What are some of the many uses of Flash®?
8. What is Dreamweaver®?
9. What are some of the uses of CAD software?
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http://www.blender.org/
http://www.nuance.com/
CHAPTER 4Section 4.6 Mobile Applications
4.6 Mobile Applications

So far in this chapter, we have discussed a variety of mobile
applications or “apps” that attempt to duplicate programs
originally written for the desktop for smart-phones and tablets
(this can be found in the Word On the Go, Excel® On the Go,
and
PowerPoint® On the Go sections). However, there are hundreds
of thousands of apps that
programmers design specifically for mobile devices. Of course,
it would be impossible to
discuss all of them here, but suffice it to say mobile apps are
ubiquitous. A recent article
(“Gartner identifies 10 consumer mobile applications to watch
in 2012,” 2011) defined
some essential trends for 2012 for mobile apps. Some of these
included:
1. Location-Based Services:
These are apps that provide
the user information based
on their location.
2. Social Networking: The
apps for sharing informa-
tion with friends (like Face-
book, Twitter, Instagram,
and Pinterest) are among
the fastest growing.
3. Mobile Search: These are
apps that help people
search for information
based on their location,
such as asking a smart-
phone to tell the user where
the nearest pizza shop is.

4. Mobile Commerce: Apps in
this genre let users “check
in” to a store they are
physically at to gain special
information about products.
The bottom line is that mobile apps are everywhere. Just a few
examples include:
• Dropbox: It is a free service started by two MIT students in
2007 to store vid-
eos, images, and documents online to share with others. To
learn more, visit:
https://www.dropbox.com/about
• Evernote: It is a collection of applications to improve
notetaking, communication,
and basic personal productivity. Some of these include: Skitch,
which is an app
for sharing ideas with sketches; Penultimate, which is a
handwriting app for the
iPad®; and Evernote Web Clipper, which lets users save
anything they see online
into an Evernote account. For more information, go to:
http://evernote.com/corp/
To gain a sense of the breadth of these applications, and the
best of the various categories,
each year the GSMA Global Mobile Awards honors what its
judges believe are the best
apps in existence. This is a worldwide award program that
includes 219 countries, 200
companies, and 800 mobile operators.
Many social networking apps are image-based and

phone-based, such as Instagram, through which users
share photos. Instagram images are easily recognized by
their signature borders and color filters. What are some
pros and cons of sharing photos online?
Rui Vieira/PA Wire/Press Association via AP Images
bow80854_04_c04.indd 111 7/26/13 12:46 PM
https://www.dropbox.com/about
http://evernote.com/corp/
Though we sometimes think of apps as a recent development,
the GSMA has been grant-
ing its awards since 1995. While awards are based on subjective
decisions by judges (just
like the Academy Awards for films each year), they can be
indicators of overall quality.
GSMA is valuable in demonstrating trends in mobile
applications. In 2012, the winner for
the “Best Mobile App for Consumers” was a popular game
called Angry Birds™. Explore
the website, and check back each year, to see the latest and
greatest in the world of mobile
applications: http://www.globalmobileawards.com/.
Technology Today: Ethics and Photojournalism
The field of photography is one area in which it’s easy to see
the impact computers have had on our
everyday lives. Thanks to digital cameras, anyone can shoot,
develop, and publish photographs. No
special skills or equipment are required.

This is good news for people who merely want to share personal
photos with friends and relatives on
Facebook or some other social media platform. For people who
use photos for business purposes,
however, the advent of digital photography can present ethical
dilemmas.
In general, these dilemmas revolve around two specific areas:
adherence to copyright laws and ethical
concerns regarding alteration of photographic images.
Copyright laws give people who create content—such as books,
movies, music, or photographs—own-
ership rights to that content. Anyone wishing to distribute,
copy, or adapt content covered by a copy-
right must first obtain the owner’s permission. In most cases,
the content owner will expect to receive
a fee, known as a royalty, in exchange for allowing someone to
use their content.
The desire to protect copyrights and safeguard the
corresponding royalties explains why many record-
ing artists supported the actions taken by several large
recording companies in suing the creators of
websites that allowed users to download original recordings for
free.
When it comes to publishing photos on the Internet, there are
sites such as Flickr® Creative Commons
where photographers post photos with the understanding that
anyone who publishes one of these
photos agrees to identify the creator of the photo. This
eliminates concerns over copyright violations.
Complex Issues

Issues surrounding the altering of photos remain complex,
however. The rise of digital photography
has been accompanied by the emergence of photo-editing
software programs. Adobe® Photoshop®
is the best known of these programs, which make it easy not
only to crop and size photos but also to
completely change them by removing or adding elements with a
mere mouse click.
The use of photo-editing software has become an especially
nettlesome issue in the world of jour-
nalism, where everything published is expected to be true. Over
the past several years, a number of
photojournalists have lost their jobs after submitting doctored
photos for publication.
In one particularly egregious case, Allan Detrich, a one-time
Pulitzer Prize finalist, resigned his position as
staff photographer with the Toledo Blade when his bosses
discovered he had submitted nearly 80 doc-
tored images for publication over a 14-week period. An
investigation into Detrich’s work was launched
after questions were raised about a photo that had been
published on the newspaper’s front page.
Detrich admitted to doctoring the photo and was suspended
pending the outcome of the investigation
into the rest of his work. He subsequently resigned, but the
investigation continued and the discovery
of 79 additional doctored photos was revealed (Winslow, 2007).
(continued)
bow80854_04_c04.indd 112 7/26/13 12:46 PM
http://www.globalmobileawards.com/

The investigation also revealed that in most cases the photos
had been altered for aesthetic purposes,
removing objects to make the photo more appealing to the eye.
The problem with that approach is
that it didn’t give the readers of that newspaper a true picture of
what happened at those events,
which is what newspapers are expected to provide.
This issue of trust in regard to news photography is so
important that the National Press Photogra-
phers Association created its Code of Ethics for Photography in
the Digital Age in the early 1990s, when
programs like Photoshop® were just emerging (National Press
Photographers Association, 1991).
Jerry Lodriguss is a veteran professional photographer, having
served on the staffs of the New Orleans
Times–Picayune and the Philadelphia Inquirer in addition to
freelancing for a number of major publica-
tions. He sums up the ethical dilemmas surrounding the digital
altering of photographs quite nicely on
his website (Lodriguss, 2006):
If your purpose (in altering a photo) is to portray a scene as
truthful, then it’s not OK.
If your purpose is to create fiction, or “art,” then it is OK. You
just have to be up front
and tell the viewer what you are doing in either case.
This position is, however, an opinion, and a completely
subjective value judgment on my part. Like all
ethical judgments, it can be unique and different for each

individual.
Links for More Information
All Things Photography
http://www.all-things-photography.com/photography-
ethics.html
National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)
https://nppa.org/
Technology Today: Ethics and Photojournalism (continued)
1. What are some of the main trends for mobile apps?
2. Why are location-based apps important?
3. What are examples of specific social networking apps?
bow80854_04_c04.indd 113 7/26/13 12:46 PM
http://www.all-things-photography.com/photography-
ethics.html
https://nppa.org/
CHAPTER 4Post-Test
Summary
In this chapter, our goal was to focus on productivity
applications for desktop comput-ers and mobile devices. The
number of applications available to assist you with your
computing needs is almost limitless. In this chapter, we
explored the most common,
and influential, applications that you should learn how to use.
These include software for

word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, databases, and
multimedia applications.
Think of these as your advanced and powerful computer toolkit.
Once you learn to master
these programs, you will find that many of the tasks you
perform in your professional and
personal life can be accomplished more efficiently and
effectively with the use of these
tools. Our other focus in this chapter was on the Microsoft®
suite of products in these
categories, including Word, PowerPoint®, Excel®, and
Access®. Although Microsoft® is a
powerful software company, it is not the only one whose
products you can use. Therefore,
other important alternatives were suggested, such as Open
Office. In the next chapter, we
will venture from your personal computer to explore the World
Wide Web.
Post-Test
1. Which of the following applications is a competitor of Word
today?
a. Google Docs™
b. PageMaker
c. Google Gears
d. MultiMate
2. Which term is NOT associated with PowerPoint®?
a. Multimedia
b. Microsoft®
c. Slide
d. Docs

3. Which of the following is NOT a dedicated spreadsheet
application?
a. Excel®
b. Calc
c. VisiCalc
d. Lotus 1-2-3
4. Which of the following is NOT one of the basic items in a
database?
a. primary key
b. record
c. field
d. slide
5. CAD is an acronym for which of the following?
a. Computer Aided Display
b. Computer Aided Drawing
c. Computer Aided Design
d. Computer Aided Dimension
bow80854_04_c04.indd 114 7/26/13 12:46 PM
CHAPTER 4Post-Test
6. Evernote is a popular mobile app that includes several
applications. Which of the
following is NOT one of them?
a. Skitch
b. Penultimate
c. Web Clipper
d. Twitter

7. In the early 1990s, which of the following was the best-
selling word processing
program?
a Word
b. WordPerfect
c. WordStar
d. EasyWriter
8. A software alternative to PowerPoint® is
a. Docs.
b. Presenter.
c. Presentation.
d. Open Office.
9. Which of the following is NOT one of the three main parts of
a spreadsheet?
a. cells
b. rows
c. columns
d. fonts
10. What is the name of Microsoft®’s database program?
a. Excel®
b. Access®
c. Word
d. PowerPoint®
11. Which of the following software applications is primarily
used to create PDF
files?
a. Acrobat®

b. Photoshop®
c. Paint
d. Photo Editor
12. Which of the following is NOT a social networking app?
a. Facebook
b. Dropbox
c. Pinterest
d. Instagram
Answers
1. a. Google Docs™. The answer can be found in Section 4.1.
2. d. Docs. The answer can be found in Section 4.2.
3. d. Lotus 1-2-3. The answer can be found in Section 4.3.
4. d. slide. The answer can be found in Section 4.4.
bow80854_04_c04.indd 115 7/26/13 12:46 PM
CHAPTER 4Critical Thinking Questions
5. c. Computer Aided Design. The answer can be found in
Section 4.5.
6. d. Twitter. The answer can be found in Section 4.6.
7. b. WordPerfect. The answer can be found in Section 4.1.
8. c. Presentation. The answer can be found in Section 4.2.
9. d. fonts. The answer can be found in Section 4.3.
10. b. Access®. The answer can be found in Section 4.4.
11. a. Acrobat®. The answer can be found in Section 4.5.
12. b. Dropbox. The answer can be found in Section 4.6.
Key Ideas
• While Microsoft® Word is the most popular word processing

software today,
there are open-source alternatives.
• Presentation software has redefined how everyone from
students to professors,
office workers to CEOs deliver lectures and share information
with groups of
people.
• Spreadsheets were the first “killer app,” meaning that people
deemed the pro-
gram so valuable that they purchased computers just to use it.
• Computer databases are an important way to organize,
manage, manipulate,
access, and share information.
• Multimedia applications combine two or more different types
of media, includ-
ing basic text, complex art, sound, video, or animation.
• Mobile applications are essential for accessing and using the
power of desktop
programs on devices like smartphones and tablets.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Have you ever used a typewriter? Imagine trying to replicate
some of the work
you do on word processing programs today on an old-fashioned
typewriter.
What would be easy and difficult to replicate? How might this
affect your pro-
ductivity?
2. Think about some of the PowerPoint® presentations you have

seen. What were
elements of the best ones? What made the poor ones so
ineffective?
3. A calculator can perform all of the same arithmetical
functions as a spreadsheet.
What makes a spreadsheet a more powerful tool?
4. How would you define the difference between a spreadsheet
and a database?
Can you think of scenarios in which a spreadsheet would be
preferred over a
database? What about a situation that would make a database a
better tool than a
spreadsheet?
5. What are some places in your day-to-day life where you
encounter multimedia?
6. If you were sitting at a coffee shop with a free hour and the
latest smartphone or
tablet, which of the mobile applications that we discussed
would you most likely
want to use? Of the four trends in mobile applications listed,
which categories
would your applications fall under: location-based services,
social networking,
mobile search, or mobile commerce?
bow80854_04_c04.indd 116 7/26/13 12:46 PM
CHAPTER 4Key Terms
Key Terms

cell A spreadsheet box in which you can
enter text, a number, a date, a time, a math-
ematical formula, or a logical statement.
column A series of spreadsheet cells that
extend up and down.
database A collection of raw data.
database management system (DBMS)
Software used to create a database.
database table Resembles a spreadsheet,
with rows that are numbered and columns
that indicate the different categories of
information.
desktop publishing Applications for
designing graphics and stylized text.
field An individual database column.
form The place where users enter infor-
mation in a database.
killer app A software program that is so
good it has no competition.
MailMerge A word processing function
that enables a separate file of names and
addresses to be inserted into a document.
multimedia A combination of two or
more different types of media including
basic text, complex art, sound, video, or

animation.
name box A spreadsheet box that displays
the name (also known as the coordinates)
of the active cell.
PowerPointlessness Spending lots of time
developing a PowerPoint® presentation
only to have it be an ineffective way of
conveying your thoughts.
primary key A unique number that is
shared by no other record in the database.
query A specific type of question asked by
a database user.
record All of the information in one data-
base row.
report A predesigned database template
that presents only the requested informa-
tion in an easy-to-read format.
row A series of spreadsheet cells (more
than one) that extends from the left to the
right in a horizontal line.
slide The basic unit of PowerPoint® or
other presentation software. Each presen-
tation can contain multiple slides which,
taken together, are called a slideshow.
spreadsheet A giant computer grid into
which you can enter numbers, mathemati-
cal formulas, and text in order to perform

useful functions such as sorting, graphing,
and calculating.
word processor A type of application
software that enables the user to easily
compose written ideas on a computer.
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You
Get—in other words, what you see on
the computer screen is exactly what will
appear on the printed page.
bow80854_04_c04.indd 117 7/26/13 12:46 PM
CHAPTER 4Web Resources
Web Resources
To learn more about Microsoft®’s Digital Literacy curriculum,
visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/About/CorporateCitizenship/Citizens
hip/giving/programs/
UP/digitalliteracy/eng/default.mspx
For more information on mobile app trends, see:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/mobile/
For tips on using PowerPoint® presentations:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/powerpoint-
2010-tips-and-tricks
-RZ102673175.aspx
bow80854_04_c04.indd 118 7/26/13 12:46 PM

hip/giving/programs/UP/digitalliteracy/eng/default.mspx
hip/giving/programs/UP/digitalliteracy/eng/default.mspx
http://www.gartner.com/technology/mobile/
2010-tips-and-tricks-RZ102673175.aspx
2010-tips-and-tricks-RZ102673175.aspx
5
The Web of Knowledge
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to complete the
following:
• Explain the key Internet basics.
• Describe the various aspects of a network and the key
networking terms.
• Summarize the browser wars and the most common browsers.
• Describe how to build a Web page in six easy steps.
• List the Web accessibility standards.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
bow80854_05_c05.indd 119 7/26/13 12:54 PM

CHAPTER 5Pre-Test
Introduction
You are the Internet. While you might think the Internet—
officially defined as a vast worldwide connection of computer
networks that also link smaller networks—is more about
computers than people, this is not necessarily true. Without
people, all
of these computer connections would be sitting silently, with
little meaning or purpose
to their existence. The essential ingredient that makes the
Internet revolutionary is that
people enter into it each day, and they leave a footprint of
knowledge and of themselves
as they travel through the Web. Each time you purchase a new
computer (a desktop com-
puter, a laptop, a cell phone, and so on) and get connected, you
create a new link to this
worldwide Internet community and become the newest member
of the global population.
This becomes a window for you to see and communicate with
every other online com-
puter user on the planet, and it allows you to make your own
contribution to the vast web
of knowledge that is now growing at an exponential pace (Okin,
2005, p. 21). This chapter
will introduce you to the Internet, discuss the programs you can
use to navigate through
it on your desktop and mobile devices, and describe how to
create your own content. Wel-
come to the Web of knowledge.
Pre-Test

1. The origins of the Internet date to which war?
a Cold War
b. World War II
c. Gulf War
d. Afghanistan War
2. Which of the following is NOT a term specific to
networking?
a. hub
b. switch
c. router
d. motherboard
3. What is the primary software people use on the desktop to
access, search, and
use the Internet?
a. app
b. browser
c. cable modem
d. ISP
4. What is the final step required in order to put your website
online?
a. Securing a domain name.
b. Selecting a URL.
c. Choosing a Web host.
d. Using an FTP tool.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 120 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Section 5.1 Internet Basics

5. In the world of computing, usability MOST often refers to
improving computing
______.
a. efficiency
b. power
c. access
d. speed
Answers
1. a. Cold War. The answer can be found in Section 5.1.
2. d. motherboard. The answer can be found in Section 5.2.
3. b. browser. The answer can be found in Section 5.3.
4. d. Using an FTP tool. The answer can be found in Section
5.4.
5. a. efficiency. The answer can be found in Section 5.5.
5.1 Internet Basics
Computers during the 1960s had a curious problem. Although
the mainframes were growing ever larger and more powerful,
and computer languages were enabling programmers to perform
more complex computations, there was a significant limi-
tation. It was completely impossible for one computer to talk to
another. A message could
not be sent between two computers in the same room, let alone
two computers in differ-
ent countries. A computer was an isolated machine, alone and
separated from the rest of
the world, as were the users. This situation would soon change
so dramatically that in the
coming decades, nearly every computer in the entire world
would become connected to
every other computer. This section will discuss how this
network became a reality.

ARPAnet
The Internet had its beginnings as the ARPAnet during the
1960s, when the Cold War
threat was at its peak. ARPA, the United States Defense
Department’s Advanced Research
Projects Agency, was focused on the nation’s computer security.
The ARPA network was
designed as a way to link computers at laboratories across the
country for the purpose of
sharing computing resources (Hafner & Lyon, 1996). Once
exclusively the domain of sci-
entists at elite universities such as UCLA, MIT, and Stanford,
this computer network has
now gone mainstream.
While there is some debate about the reasons for developing the
ARPAnet, it was first
and foremost an excellent idea whose time had come.
Computers simply needed to talk
to each other, and the technology had advanced to the point
where this became possible.
But the ARPAnet also had a defense component. The 1960s was
the heart of the Cold War
period, an era when the Soviet Union and the United States were
building massive arse-
nals of nuclear weapons and pointing them at each other. In a
world where nuclear war
could easily eliminate an entire city in the blink of an eye, how
could a nation ensure com-
munications were maintained in such a doomsday scenario? A
communications network
that was centralized in one place was vulnerable to attack. But
if you could decentralize
that network, spreading communications and content among the
computers throughout
the United States, then command and control could be preserved

in a nuclear war (Rabi-
novitz, 2004, p. 10). We will see how this could happen later in
this chapter when we dis-
cuss packet switching. Thus, ARPAnet solved a fundamental
communications problem
bow80854_05_c05.indd 121 7/26/13 12:54 PM
for computers, and helped guarantee a secure communications
network for the United
States during the Cold War. But it also paved the way for an
even more revolutionary
development.
A Web of Computers
Today, the ARPAnet has disappeared, officially becoming
extinct in 1989 when the Inter-
net—which has become a massive public and private web,
connecting millions of people
together and supplying them with an apparently limitless
amount of information—
replaced it. The best way to think about the Internet is to use
the metaphor of a web. Just
as a spider’s web is both a random and a defined pattern (with
its threads connecting and
strengthening itself), the Internet is a connection of computer
networks that link to each
other all over the world. What are these connections? Instead of
the spider’s thread, stan-
dard copper telephone lines and coaxial cable (the type of wire
typically used to receive a
television signal) connect the Internet. Newer, faster, and more

efficient ways of connect-
ing computers have also been developed in recent years. This
includes fiber optic cable
and satellite connections. Connections to the Internet now also
include the wireless kind,
which we will discuss later in this chapter.
Packets
What is being sent through all of these connections? Packets of
information. A packet is a
small quantity of information represented in binary form as a
series of zeros and ones. The
way it finds its path from the sender’s computer to its
destination is through a technique
called packet switching. Each message is essentially subdivided
into smaller “packets”
of data and then “routed” to the next relay point in a
communication path, as shown in
Figure 5.1. The idea of packet switching and routing actually
dates back to the use of tele-
graphs during the 19th century. If you were on the East Coast
and wanted to telegraph a
message to the West Coast, there was no direct connection.
Telephones did not yet exist.
So, the telegraph operator on the East Coast sent the letter
through Morse code (a series of
dots and dashes, which is eerily similar to binary coding today)
to an intermediary, which
was the nearest direct connection. This intermediary might be
located in Pennsylvania.
The information at this switching center forwarded the message
on to another center, and
eventually the telegraph message found its way to the intended
destination on the West
Coast. The other interesting aspect of this communication
system was that a copy of the

message was kept at each of these centers, so if a problem
occurred along the way, the
operators could backtrack, find the message, and resend. This is
technically called Store
and Forward Packet Switching (Campbell-Kelly & Aspray,
1996, pp. 290–292).
bow80854_05_c05.indd 122 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Figure 5.1: Packet switching
Node:
any device connected to
the Internet where packets
can travel through to get
to their destination
Once the packets reach
their destination, they can
be put pack together
If there is a long message, it
can be broken up and pieces
sent through different paths
to get to their destination.
Data moves through the Internet with packet switching
technology. This allows a message to be sent
through the Internet by being broken up into different

“packets,” which are sent to the same destination
via different routes (or nodes).
Nodes
The basis of the telegraph system is exactly the same principle
that is used for the Internet.
Each computer in the world is not directly connected to every
other one. Not only would
this be physically impractical, but it also would be impossible
to easily add new comput-
ers to the system. That’s why the ARPAnet designers decided to
borrow the old telegraph
packet switching principle. There was a backbone of nodes (a
node is any device that is
connected to the Internet) that acted as automatic packet
switching centers. If one of these
nodes became busy (or, for example, was eliminated during a
disaster such as a nuclear
war), then the packets could be easily rerouted along a different
path. Sometimes, a long
message was broken into several packets that actually traveled
through different nodes to
eventually reach the destination.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 123 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Protocols
This routing system is controlled through established protocols,
which refers to the way
computers talk to each other (Okin, 2005, p. 20). There are
many different Internet pro-
tocols, such as those that define how an instant message or

email is sent, or how a file is
uploaded or downloaded to your computer. One example of this
is HTTP (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol), which defines how Web content is
transmitted. You can see the let-
ters HTTP in front of every Internet browser address line. It is
the destination computer’s
responsibility to receive all of these packets and put them
together in the correct order.
Users never realize this is happening, and the speed is
incredible.
Modems
How do you send and receive these packets of information? By
means of a computer
modem. The U.S. military made the first modems in the 1950s
to communicate data
related to air defense. The word itself was a new one that
combined the terms modulator
and demodulator. Essentially, what a modem does is convert the
data you create on your
computer (in its digital form of ones and zeros) into sound
(electrical impulses). These
were originally carried or transmitted through standard
telephone lines. The modem also
works in the opposite way. It can receive these electrical
impulses from the outside world
and convert them into digital data that appears as images, text,
or numbers on your com-
puter. More recently, modems are being replaced by faster
technology that is all digital.
There are several types of Internet connections.
Cable Modem
A cable modem is typically the fastest connection, meaning it
can transfer more data per

second than almost any other type of home Internet connection.
An Ethernet wire is con-
nected to the cable modem box, which is then connected via a
coaxial cable to the round
jack in your wall. Once you set up and pay for an Internet plan
through your cable pro-
vider, you are ready to access the Internet. This links you to the
larger Internet grid that
often transmits data through fiber optic cable. If you do not
want the cable company
involved, you could opt for a DSL or Digital Subscriber Line
that connects you to the
Internet through standard telephone lines. In a later section,
we’ll discuss the speed com-
parison between these options.
Wi-Fi
Once you select a cable or DSL connection in your home, you
might want to also create
a Wi-Fi connection. The name Wi-Fi means wireless fidelity
and is intentionally simi-
lar to the term Hi-Fi or high fidelity that once described high-
end home stereo systems.
With a Wi-Fi connection in your home, you can connect
multiple Internet devices (laptop,
smartphone, tablet, or even a game system such as an Xbox® or
a Wii™) wirelessly to your
main Internet connection. Smartphones will typically connect to
a Wi-Fi zone, as this will
reduce their cell tower data usage, which is typically limited
each month. More on the
topic of wireless Internet connections will be covered later.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 124 7/26/13 12:54 PM

CHAPTER 5Section 5.2 Networks
5.2 Networks
While in the past, connecting a personal computer to a network
might have been a nice feature, today it is essential. Without a
network connection, you would not be able to attend online
school, chat with your friends, or successfully com-
pete in the workplace. Networks are the lifeblood of computing
in the 21st century. Most
businesses find them essential for sharing files and information
among employees, devel-
oping collaborative projects, and sharing the use of
applications. The network enables
computers to share hardware. For example, instead of having a
printer connected to each
computer, in a network all the computers can share the same
printer. And after the work-
day is over, you can retreat to a friend’s house with your laptop
to engage in some multi-
player networked computer games.
In this section, we will look more closely at terms and
configurations involving networks.
While the Internet is most commonly thought of when people
hear the word network,
other types of networks also exist. In all forms, however, a
network at its most basic level
occurs anytime there are two or more computers that are linked
together through either a
wire (Ethernet) or a wireless connection (Odom, 2004).
Basic Network Terminology
If you have several computers at work or home that are
connected together, this is called

a local area network (LAN). Computers that are connected
together through telephone
lines, satellites, and so on, and that are not at the same location
are called a wide area
network (WAN). The Internet is an example of a WAN, and a
group of friends bringing
their computers over to your house to connect together and play
a game is an example
of a LAN. Between these two common types of networks is a
metropolitan area network
(MAN). These networks include a city, or at least part of it, and
are often operated by the
government. An intranet provides many of the same functions as
the Internet (email,
databases, documents, and so on), but is only available to a
private group of people with
passwords. A large business might have an intranet that is
accessible to employees only.
An extranet is a network with limited restrictions, such as
requiring a user ID and pass-
word, but it is used for selected outsiders of a company. That
same company might have
1. Why is the Internet important?
2. Where is the Internet?
3. What is a definition of the Internet?
4. What does ARPA stand for, and what is its relationship to the
modern Internet?
5. What are some of the ways that computers are connected to
the Internet?
6. What is a packet?
7. What is the difference between a node and a protocol?
8. What does HTTP stand for?
9. What is the name of the computer device that is both a
modulator and demodulator, and

what is its function?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 125 7/26/13 12:54 PM
a Web page that is accessible to everyone. A bus is another
important network term. It is
found in a LAN network in which every workstation is
connected to a main cable. This
cable is the bus that shuttles data back and forth. In comparison,
a star network is one in
which each workstation connects only to the main server.
Network Architecture
The way that computers interact within these networks is called
the architecture. There are
two main types of computer architecture. The first is called
peer-to-peer. This means that
each computer in the network has the same capabilities and
privileges as any other com-
puter. They are all equal in terms of what they can and cannot
do. However, the second
type is called client/server. You will often find this network
architecture in businesses
where there is one main computer—a very powerful one—called
the server. The individ-
ual, less powerful, workstations are
the clients. A dedicated server is a
computer that does nothing but con-
trol the other networked computers,
the clients. You might also have a
printer server (for controlling how

the network users share the printer),
a Web server (for hosting your own
Web page), or a file server (which
specializes in managing all the users’
data files). In other words, no one is
using any of these servers on their
own to run an application like Word
or Excel®. The clients are the individ-
ual computers at the employees’
workstations. These are also some-
times called the users. They will all
have limited access to the server and
have far less network privileges than
the server (Institute for Career
Research, 2008, p. 1).
Networking Terms
There are other important networking terms with which you
should become familiar. The
first is a hub, which is simply a device that shares data with all
the other devices con-
nected to it. Some hubs support only a couple of computers,
while others might connect
50 or more. Workgroups are subsets of computers within a
network that all share the same
resources. These are often used today in the home environment.
Second, a related device
is a switch. This is more intelligent than a hub because it can
discern what type of device
is attached to it and only send relevant data. For example, in
your home you might have a
switch for your digital phone and television. The switch would
know to send voice data to
the telephone only, while the latest digital movie would route to
the television. Switches

In a client/server network, a powerful computer server
controls the individual networked workstations, or clients.
Network administrator positions involve working on both
servers and clients. Does such a job appeal to you?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 126 7/26/13 12:54 PM
are important because they can send only certain data to a
particular node or workstation.
This can improve network security because it prevents everyone
from sharing the same
information (Parsons & Oja, 2010, p. 261). Third, a router can
send data from one network
to another. You might also see a router and a switch combined
together in one device.
Additional terms are associated with Internet networks. These
include protocols like
HTTP, discussed earlier in this chapter, which is the protocol
for Web traffic. In general,
the protocols define how one computer talks to another,
including computers as differ-
ent as Macs® and PCs. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) governs
how files are shared on the
Internet. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) controls the
flow of email traffic. Trans-
mission Control Protocol (TCP) controls how data packets are
split and then reconnected
(recall our packet switching discussion from the previous
section). Also, in order for any

of the individual terminal computers or personal computers to
connect to the Internet,
they will need a network interface card. This card plugs into an
open socket on the moth-
erboard (the main circuit board on every computer that contains
the memory and central
processing unit, and controls the input and output devices), and
is then connected to a
hub or router (Habraken, 2004).
Finally, you should also be aware of network addressees. An IP
address is the actual num-
ber that identifies a device (the node) connected to the Internet.
This is the way that com-
puters can locate and talk to each other (much like a telephone
number). The IP address
is assigned by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that you
select (more on this later). A
static IP address is one that is unchanging, and every time you
log on you have the same
IP address. ISPs also issue dynamic IP addresses, which are
temporary. This number is
assigned to you when you log on, but when you disconnect,
another computer is given
the address. There are benefits and limitations with both. A
static IP address is better for
a company’s main computer server because it enables faster file
transfer. Another benefit
of having your own IP address is that you do not risk having it
shut down if someone
who shared it with you barraged the Internet with spam email.
The dynamic IP also has
advantages in the security realm because the user has a different
IP address every time
they connect to the ISP.

Taken together, TCP and IP are known as the Internet protocol
suite and identified as
TCP/IP. A computer represents all IP addresses in four bytes, or
four numbers from 0 to
255 each, separated by dots (this equals 32 bits of information).
A Look Further: Find Your IP Address
A fun way to try this out is to see what your own IP address is
if you are connected to the Internet.
Open your Web browser and type whatismyipaddress.com and
you will see a number that looks like
xx.xx.xx.xx (this is sometimes called a dotted quad). This Web
page will also tell you the name of your
ISP and your city and country. Try it out and see what your IP
address is, and find out if the Internet
really does know the city and state from which you are
connecting.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 127 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Technology Today: Network Neutrality
The Internet is quickly evolving into the world’s central
communications platform. Many people
already log onto the Internet not only to receive email but also
to listen to music, watch their favorite
television programs, download movies, and play video games.
Even as it takes on a central role in our personal lives, the
Internet will remain the primary engine-
driving business communication as well. Recognition of the
increasingly important role the Internet is
playing in society has spurred concern about who should control

access to this vital communications
pipeline.
Currently, most people gain access to the Internet by opening an
account with an Internet Service
Provider (ISP), which in most cases is a large cable television
or telephone company. For the most part,
the ISPs have been allowed to set their own rates for granting
customers Internet access.
There were few complaints about this system when the primary
means of accessing the Internet was
via dial-up modems that connected strictly through telephone
lines and could only transmit limited
amounts and types of information. As we moved into the
broadband era, and new methods of trans-
mitting data—such as cable modems and DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) technology—allowed for easy
transmission of more data, including photos and video, a whole
new set of issues emerged.
These issues include the following:
Will ISPs begin to set prices that might prevent some people
from being able to afford access
to broadband Internet?
Will ISPs—particularly cable television companies—block
access to content created by compa-
nies they view as competitors?
The U.S. Congress was so concerned about these issues that in
2009, it directed the Federal Commu-
nications Commission (FCC) to develop a National Broadband
Plan to promote a concept known as
Network Neutrality—or the idea that every American would

have equal access to broadband Internet
capabilities. The FCC was a logical choice for developing this
plan because the agency oversees the
telecommunications sector as well as the radio and television
industries.
Content Discrimination or Prudent Network Management?
As the FCC set out to tackle this objective, however, it ran into
some unexpected hurdles. The biggest
of these hurdles surfaced when the FCC ordered Comcast, a
major cable television company and ISP,
to stop blocking its customers’ access to files from BitTorrent,
a popular file sharing site.
BitTorrent allows users to download exceptionally large data
files, such as feature-length movies, and
then share those files with other Internet users. Comcast argued
that it was blocking BitTorrent down-
loads because they hogged bandwidth on its network, causing
the network to work slower for other
customers. It is also important to note that BitTorrent often
violates copyright laws.
In ordering Comcast to stop blocking BitTorrent downloads, the
FCC said the ISP’s actions amounted
to discrimination against a certain type of content. Comcast
argued that it was practicing “prudent
network management” rather than content discrimination. The
company took the matter to court
and ultimately prevailed when the U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington, DC, ruled that the FCC does
not have the authority to tell Comcast how to manage traffic on
its network. In essence, the court
was saying the FCC does not have the same authority over ISPs
that it has over telephone companies

(Kang, 2010).
(continued)
bow80854_05_c05.indd 128 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Wireless Networks
The dramatic expansion of wireless networks has significantly
changed when and how
we go online. When you walk into a bookstore or coffee shop,
you will often notice that
the establishment has a Wi-Fi network. This is a wireless
Internet connection you can log
onto with your laptop, smartphone, or tablet. You can also
create a Wi-Fi network at home
by using a wireless router. Then you
can take your laptop to your back-
yard and surf the Internet, or log into
your classroom. Make sure you set
up passwords so neighbors or strang-
ers passing by will not be able to see
your private information or log onto
your network for free.
To log into a network, each user will
need a password. There are levels of
password security that are known as
strong and weak passwords. A weak
password is something a hacker
might easily guess, like the first name
of your child. A strong password is

something that has no relation to you,
and that combines different character
sets such as numbers, uppercase and
lowercase letters, and also special
characters such as #$%&. “David”
Wireless networks have increased access to the Internet
in cafés, shops, and public spaces around the globe.
Where is the most remote place you’ve ever logged on?
Mike Theiss/National Geographic Stock
While it was a clear victory for Comcast, this ruling did nothing
to resolve the other issues related to
Network Neutrality. For instance, public interests groups have
joined companies like Google and Ama-
zon.com in arguing that this ruling handcuffs the FCC from
stepping in if Comcast decides to prevent
its customers from receiving content that doesn’t slow network
traffic. There is nothing in the ruling
about setting prices for broadband access, either.
Meanwhile, the FCC has released its National Broadband Plan,
a 376-page document that outlines its
vision of an Internet on which all citizens will have easy access
to all legal content. It’s unlikely that the
vision outlined in that document will become reality, however,
unless Congress passes new laws that
spell out exactly who has the authority to regulate ISPs.
Links for More Information
Net Neutrality Sparks Lots of Talk, Very Little Action
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/70181.html
Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan

http://download.broadband.gov/plan/national-broadband-
plan.pdf
Technology Today: Network Neutrality (continued)
bow80854_05_c05.indd 129 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/70181.html
http://download.broadband.gov/plan/national-broadband-
plan.pdf
is an example of a weak password. “DaVid39x” is an example
of a strong password. A
strong password is impossible to guess, making it extremely
difficult for an automated
hacking program to gain access to your network (Dale & Lewis,
2006, p. 490).
Bandwidth
How fast is your Internet connection speed, and how much data
can you send and receive
at one time? A high bandwidth means you can share larger
amounts of information more
quickly. The larger the bandwidth (sometimes called the
pipeline), the better. Different
types of network connections have different bandwidth
capabilities. There are three main
types: voiceband, medium band, and broadband (the largest).
Just as we saw in regard to
measuring the speed of a CPU, there are also measurements for
the speed of the dataflow.
Bits per second (bps) is the most basic number (Shinder, 2001).
Remember, a single let-

ter requires 8 bits to represent it. So, a modem that could
transmit 80 bits per second has
the capability to send or receive 10 letters each second.
Thankfully, modem speeds have
increased dramatically since the 1950s.
With increasing speed came new metric terms such as kilobits
per second (Kbps, or thou-
sands of bits per second), megabits per second (Mbps, or
millions of bits per second), and
gigabits per second (Gbps, or billions of bits per second). In the
early 1990s, you would
have been happy with a modem that enabled you to connect to
the Internet at 2400 bps.
This meant that it would have taken several minutes to
download a single picture. You
can check the speed of your current Internet connection at
http://www.speedtest.net/.
This site will test upload speed (how fast you can send data to
the Internet) and download
speed (how fast you can take data from the Internet to view or
save on your computer).
It is not easy to assign a specific speed rate to these individual
types of connections. Nev-
ertheless, a cable modem is typically faster than DSL. Though
average performances for
cable modems are roughly 30 Mbps, this is not always reached.
DSL typically cannot go
faster than 10 Mbps.
A variety of factors play a role in achieving faster or
experiencing slower upload and down-
load speeds. For example, if lots of people that live near you are
all accessing the Internet
with the same cable modem provider, then speeds for all will

decrease. This is called a
“shared pipe conduit” for cable modems, and in contrast DSL is
not. Your home network
might not have the most efficient technology, so speed can
bottleneck here. (For more on
this, see:
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/speedc
ompare.htm.)
The choice between cable and DSL is not always up to the
consumer. Not all places in
the United States, and certainly not the world, have equal
coverage with both. Therefore,
some people have to select one or the other, or in some cases
neither.
A Look Further: Modems
To learn more about modems by reading about their history,
visit:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/getting-connected-a-
history-of-modems-657479
bow80854_05_c05.indd 130 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.speedtest.net/
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/speedc
ompare.htm.
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/getting-connected-a-
history-of-modems-657479
Encryption
Now, you have a sense of the way information is shared online,

but sending and receiv-
ing data is not the only problem. Few people would want to do
this without a way of
securing the data and enabling only those intended to access it.
You should feel secure in
knowing the data you send and receive online is encrypted to
help prevent people from
eavesdropping or hacking into your information. Encryption is
something that people
could do to send secret messages. They might establish a code
in which 1=a, 2=b, 3=c, etc.
So, an encrypted message reading “8, 9” and “13, 1, 18, 11” is
decrypted as “Hi Mark.”
Computers do the same thing with information, though the
encryption key is much more
sophisticated.
Firewalls
One important concern with networks is access. Unless you are
creating a Web page that
you want everyone to see, most networks contain data that need
to be shielded from the
outside world. The main network server also must be protected
from outside threats such
as viruses, malware, and spam. One of the most important ways
to do this is with a fire-
wall. In everyday life, a firewall is a nonflammable wall
material that prevents the spread
of fires in a building. This is a perfect metaphor for the
protection a network needs against
the threats it faces from the real world. A computer firewall is a
coordinated collection of
hardware and software that prevents outsiders from gaining
access to your private data
and also shields your computer from threats.

A network firewall cannot provide absolute security, but it is
one essential tool in helping
to prevent the spread of viruses inside a network. The computer
firewall achieves this
in several ways. First, a firewall is a combination of hardware
and software (although
in personal computers it might be just software) that examines
and filters all of the traf-
fic coming into a server. Based on a series of ever-changing
virus definitions and identi-
fied threats, the firewall might decide to block some messages
completely. This is also
achieved through antivirus appliances and software. Second, the
firewall can be set up to
prevent users inside the network from accessing certain types of
websites (such as games
at work). Third, a firewall is where access control policies for a
network are defined.
There are both one-way and two-way firewalls. The first is a
firewall that only allows out-
bound information. A two-way firewall can send and receive
information. One example of
a two-way firewall is when you are working on your computer
and one of your programs
alerts you that it needs an update. Instead of doing this without
your knowledge (which
is what a computer virus might do) the two-way firewall will
ask your permission. This
helps ensure that the update is intended and not malicious.
How to Set up a Home Wireless Network
Several decades ago, it was rare for even one home device to be
connected to the Inter-
net. Now, many homes have multiple devices that require
access. Since it is inconve-

nient to run cables all over the house, an easier way is to set up
a Wi-Fi network. Then,
every device with Wi-Fi connectivity (and the password) can
easily get online, including
bow80854_05_c05.indd 131 7/26/13 12:54 PM
computers, smartphones, tablets, gaming sys-
tems, televisions, and Blu-ray players. Today, it is
truly amazing how many different home devices
impact our lives and are wirelessly driven.
Setting up a Wi-Fi network at home is relatively
easy to accomplish and PC Magazine has outlined
these 5 key steps (Lynn, 2012):
1. Connect the wireless router to the
Internet.
2. Access the router’s interface. This is done
via the computer and a Web browser.
3. Configure security and IP address. This
is done in the router’s interface. It is
important to have protection when you
create a Wi-Fi network. The firewall
here is called Wi-Fi Protected Access
(WPA). For large businesses, this will
include an authentication server, but
for the home it might simply be a Pre-
shared Key (PSK). This is a code, or a
password, that authorizes and enables

each device to work with the network.
Without a security setting, then your
neighbors can steal your Wi-Fi signal.
4. Establish sharing and control.
5. Set up accounts. This is simply giving
people user names and passwords.
You do not need a degree in computer networking to achieve
this, but these careers are
open for those who enjoy the advanced aspects of networking.
Careers in Networking
Exciting careers are available in many aspects of computing.
Networking is one example.
If you are interested in this field, you could become a network
administrator. This is some-
one who manages a network for an organization, including all of
the client computers
and the main server. Someone who manages 200 or less
computers is a small-to-medium
administrator, while large administrators control bigger
networks. Network administra-
tors must be able to understand the various database
applications that run on the server,
such as Oracle and SQL, and email servers, such as Microsoft®
Exchange. Their duties
include restricting or granting access to data on the server, as
well as protecting the entire
network from outside threats.
An Internet administrator is another career option in
networking. These jobs include
building Web pages, or managing application protocols for
working online. Finally, you

might also consider going into end user support, where you
would specialize in working
on the client side of the computers and determining how they
interact with the network
As the number of devices that use Wi-Fi
to access the Internet increases, it often
makes sense to set up a home wireless
network. How many wireless-enabled
devices do you have in your home?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 132 7/26/13 12:54 PM
(Hallberg, 2005, p. xxii). Often, you will see that those with
networking credentials have
certifications. Examples are Microsoft® Certified Professional,
or Cisco Certified Network
Associate. The CISSP, which is the Certified Information
Systems Security Professional, and
the GIAC, which is the Global Information Assurance
Certification, are also in demand.
CompTIA provides vendor-neutral certifications. It offers many
certification exams (for
more information see:
http://certification.comptia.org/AboutCompTIA.aspx). Some of
these certifications include:
• CompTIA A+ Certification
• CompTIA Network +

• CompTIA Server +
• CompTIA Security +
• CompTIA Linux® +
One of the purposes of this section is to give you a better idea
about what goes on behind
the scenes at your place of business or when you are connected
to the Internet. Unless you
are one of these professionals, you as a user will rarely notice
these activities.
But these are not the only careers available in computing. The
Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) is a professional organization that promotes
computing. It has a website
that lists various careers in fields such as computer engineering,
computer science, infor-
mation systems, information technology, software engineering,
and gaming. To learn about
what you can do with a background in computing, visit
http://computingcareers.acm.org/.
Interviews from the Field: Software Architect
What are your primary responsibilities?
To design, develop, and implement software applications.
What are the most important skills needed for your job?
An analytical mind, an aptitude for solving problems, and the
ability to think abstractly and to
break down complex problems into simple units of code.
Though somewhat understated, a key
component is having the patience and ability to learn from other
people’s code , as well as an
open mind toward suggestions provided by fellow developers.

What do you like best about your job?
It never becomes stale. It is a fast-moving industry and you are
solving new problems every day.
To be a good software developer, you constantly need to learn
new technologies and find ways to
solve hard problems for your customers.
What got you interested in entering this field?
I started programming when I was a kid. I was thrilled to learn
that I could create new games when
I was tired of the ones I had.
What is your educational background, and how did it prepare
you for your job?
I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree
in business administration and
computer science.
(continued)
bow80854_05_c05.indd 133 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://certification.comptia.org/AboutCompTIA.aspx
http://computingcareers.acm.org/
CHAPTER 5Section 5.3 The Browser Wars
5.3 The Browser Wars
Now that you have a much better understanding of what a
network is, in this sec-tion we will look at the largest and most

well-known and used network—the Internet. The main way that
the Internet is accessed is through an application
called the browser. Typically a free program, the browser is the
gateway to everything
you might want to do online, and as more things are available
online to do, the browser
is fast becoming the application that is most likely to be on top
of your computer. As a
result, this is an area that is highly fought over, with some of
the largest companies in the
world (such as Microsoft® and Google) striving to create the
winning browser. These are
the browser wars, and they have been fought for the past two
decades.
Before Browsers
In the beginning, graphical browsers for the Internet did not
exist. The connection speeds
were simply too slow, and as a result, everything was simple
text. During this period,
before the 1990s, people used the Internet in a variety of ways.
First, they sent email,
but these were all text based, along with emoticons for
expressing emotion. Emoticon
Programming is one area where you’d find a lot of well-
respected experts who do not have a for-
mal college degree. You will also see music majors and
literature majors doing extremely well in
this industry. Partly, it is because there is no other subject that
has been so widely discussed and
written about on the Web. Having said that, a math or computer
science degree definitely helps.
Can you give an example of a project you are working on now?

I am currently working on a project focused on making online
textbook publishing easy as well as
making reading and learning easy for students.
Interviews from the Field: Software Architect (continued)
1. Why would you want to connect your computer to other
people’s computers?
2. Why is a network important?
3. What are three types of networks, and where would you find
them?
4. What are the differences between peer-to-peer and
client/server network architecture?
5. What is the difference between a printer server and a file
server?
6. Why would a workgroup be used in a network?
7. What is the function of a router?
8. What are some network protocols and the types of data they
control?
9. What is an IP address?
10. Which speed is faster: Kbps or Mbps? Why is a large
bandwidth important?
11. What is a firewall? What are some of the important
functions it performs?
12. What is the difference between a strong and a weak
password?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 134 7/26/13 12:54 PM
examples were :) for happy, :( for sad, and :o for surprised.

Combining text characters like
this was about as graphically sophisticated as the Internet
became. Ironically, these emoti-
cons have returned today as a shorthand way to communicate
emotions while texting.
However, there were other ways to use the Internet. People used
Telnet to log into other
computers and access files and data. Another tool called FTP
(File Transfer Protocol),
which we saw in an earlier section, allowed people to send files
and programs from one
computer to another. Usenet was a place where people gathered
to exchange information
on shared interests, such as dogs, computers, sports, and so on.
Listservs were similar,
but these were groups people subscribed to, and the information
and discussions were
emailed to all members.
The final main use of the Internet before the browser was a tool
called Gopher. This was
an early search-and-retrieval aid that navigated computer files
to try to find what a user
was looking for. But with the invention of the World Wide Web
in 1990, the Web browser
was on the horizon, and the Gopher would die a relatively quick
death.
The First Browsers
As modem speeds began to increase in the early 1990s, many
people began to realize
there could be a graphical browser that brought images and
colors to the Web. The first
was Mosaic, developed at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

in 1993. Several of the people who developed Mosaic formed
their own company, called
Mosaic Netscape. Because of a trademark violation, the name
Mosaic was dropped, and
the browser became Netscape Navigator®.
Then came Netscape’s biggest competitor—a browser called
Internet Explorer™. This
competitor was significant because Microsoft® developed it.
Since Microsoft® had virtual
control of the desktop with its Windows® operating system, its
browser had a leg up on
all its competitors. Its strategy was to simply include Internet
Explorer™ with every copy
of its operating system, thus placing it on the desktop of every
new computer. The “big
blue e,” which was the icon that launched Internet Explorer™,
began appearing on all new
computers. This was Microsoft®’s frontal assault in the browser
wars. Some companies
fought back. Compaq, for example, in August 1995, removed
the Internet Explorer™ icon
and replaced it with Netscape Navigator®. In response,
Microsoft® reduced the price of its
software to Compaq with the assurance that Internet Explorer™
would be restored.
Firefox®
Microsoft®’s dominance has not dissuaded other companies
from attempting to win a loyal
following. Scott Granneman (2005), in a book cleverly titled
Don’t Click on the Blue e!, dis-
cussed many of these efforts. One of the companies with the
greatest success has been
Mozilla® (it created its name by combining Mosaic-killer and
Godzilla). Mozilla® created an

open-source browser, meaning that its source code was opened
to developers and users for
free, in the hope that they would write new updates for it and
improve it. It was released in
June 2002. At the time, it included an email program, an
address book, and a Web page edi-
tor. But what began to get the most notice was its Web browser.
In November 2004, Mozilla®
bow80854_05_c05.indd 135 7/26/13 12:54 PM
released Firefox®, the browser that
many thought would be able to com-
pete with Internet Explorer™. In one
month’s time, 10 million people down-
loaded Firefox® for free. This repre-
sented 5% of the Microsoft® Internet
Explorer™ market (Granneman, 2005).
Safari®
In 2003, Apple® joined the browser
wars with the release of its appli-
cation called Safari®. This is the
default browser that ships with every
Macintosh® computer. Versions for it
can also be found on Apple® hand-
held computing devices such as
the iPhone® (which is a phone, Web
browser, and music player). Safari®,
like Firefox®, is an open-source pro-
gram, and it also can run on PCs.

Mac® users often install Firefox® even if they like Safari®,
because some websites do not
work with the Apple® browser, and therefore a backup browser
is needed. Safari® is the
default browser for the iPad® and the iPhone®, though it also
runs on Windows®.
Opera
One other Web browser that dates back to the mid-1990s is
Opera. It is a Norwegian com-
pany that continues to excel in creating powerful Web browsers
for nearly any type of device.
This includes PC, Macintosh® and it is also considered the
world’s most popular browser
for mobile phones. To learn more about this company, visit
http://www.opera.com/.
Dolphin
With the rise of mobile computing, companies are focusing their
browser efforts on these
platforms. One example is MoboTap, established in 2010. Its
first product was the Dol-
phin Browser, which uses Gesture and voice control (what
MoboTap calls Sonar) to enable
people to interact with the Web, and even “train” their Dolphin
to deliver content in a way
that adapts to the user. To learn more about the Dolphin
Browser, go to http://dolphin
-browser.com/about/.
Chrome™
The latest combatant in the browser wars comes from another
well-known company—
Google. We will be talking about Google in Chapter 6, but for
now, all you need to know is
that this company built a strong and profitable reputation with a

website that made search-
ing the Internet very effective. Since that time, Google has been
expanding its operations
When it was released in 2004, Mozilla®’s open-source
browser Firefox® was expected to be the first browser
that could compete with Internet Explorer™. Which Web
browser do you prefer today, and why?
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
bow80854_05_c05.indd 136 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.opera.com/
http://dolphin-browser.com/about/
http://dolphin-browser.com/about/
into other Internet-based products, and its Web browser called
Chrome™ is one example.
Many people have wondered why Google decided to create its
own browser (released in
2008), when Firefox®, Internet Explorer™, and Safari® had
such devoted followings. Look-
ing to the future, some suggest that what was really behind
Google’s release of Chrome™
was the company’s desire to create a Web-based operating
system. If they could achieve
this goal, then there would essentially be no need for
Microsoft®. The concept that appli-
cations of the future will not reside on your computer but will
be located on the Internet
is called cloud computing. We will discuss this topic in more
detail in the final chapter of

this book. Clearly, there may be more to Chrome™ in the
coming years than just another
browser. When you look at how Google’s programmers put
Chrome™ together, it is clear
that its powerful features may best be realized with its ability to
work seamlessly with
Web-based operating systems and applications (Ledford &
Davis, 2009).
Common Features of all Browsers
No matter what browser you select, it will have certain features
in common with other
browsers. The first thing you should notice is the address bar,
which begins with the let-
ters http://. This is where you will enter the name of the website
you want to visit. Most
browsers have what is known as a tabbed browsing feature. This
means you can open up
several browsing windows at the same time without having to
relaunch the program.
These tabs are usually found toward the top of the page, just
under the address bar. You
will likely find a small tab with a + sign on it. This will open a
new tab for you, and will
let you have, for example, one tab where you link to CNN.com
for news, a second for
your email, and a third tab to connect to your school. The other
common feature of all
Web browsers is Bookmarks (called Favorites in Internet
Explorer™). If you visit a website
you like and want to come back to in the future, you should
bookmark it so you do not
have to remember its address. You can set your home page to
your favorite website so it
appears first when you open your browser (select Tools,
Options, and Home Page to do

this). When you visit other Web pages and enter personal
information such as passwords,
this information will be stored in your computer’s memory.
This information is stored in the memory of the Web page that
you visit and your com-
puter, and is called a cookie. A cookie stores information about
the client and a website
on the person’s computer. Having this information helps the
server provide user-specific
information on the site or bring up information from one
website visit to the next.
The browser history will remember the addresses of all the Web
pages you visit to help
you track down sites you want to return to in the future. You
might want to delete this
browsing history, and also wipe clean your cookies. All
browsers have the ability to do
this, too, typically through the tools and settings options.
Another common feature to browsers is the plug-in (sometimes
called the add-on or
extensions). The plug-in can install a smaller software program
into a larger application.
Some browser-based programs need this extra software to
properly run. Programs by
Adobe® are one example. Therefore, you will sometimes need
to install, and then periodi-
cally update your plug-ins.
A final feature common to Web pages is something called a
Web widget. This is program-
ming code that can be embedded into a Web page that you have
access to. One example

bow80854_05_c05.indd 137 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Section 5.4 How to Build a Web Page
might be the local weather report from the Weather Channel.
Instead of actually going to
its website, you could embed the Weather Channel widget on
your smartphone or tablet
home page, or you could even put the widget on your Facebook
profile.
A Look Further: Widgets
To get the raw HTML widget code, do the following:
• Go to this website:
http://www.weather.com/services/oap/weather-widgets.html/.
• Enter your zip code for weather information.
• Select standard or metric temperature.
• Choose horizontal or vertical orientation.
• Pick a theme.
• Get the code, which is in HTML.
1. Why does the Internet need Web browsers? Can you surf the
Web without one?
2. What were some of the tools used to explore the Internet
before the browser was invented?
3. When was the first Web browser invented, and what was it
called?
4. What are some of the competing companies in the browser
wars?
5. What is Firefox®?
6. What is the name of the default Apple® browser?
7. What may be Google’s future plans with its browser?

8. What are some common features of all Web browsers?
5.4 How to Build a Web Page
One of the most powerful features of the Internet is that anyone
can build a Web page and put it online. You do not have to
possess the skills of a computer pro-grammer or a network
administrator. If you have a computer, some software,
and an Internet connection, you can design a Web page that is
accessible to every other
Web-connected computer in the world. If you possess these
skills, your ideas can be just
clicks away for anyone to access from the United States to
Zimbabwe and all countries in
between. Building a Web page can be simpler than you might
think, and in this section we
will go through the steps required to create one.
You should now have a better understanding of the wars that are
going on among Web
browser applications. In the next section, we will look at how to
create the content that
all of these browsers are fighting to display. To put all of this
development in perspective,
you can watch the following short video from StatCounter,
which shows the “Evolution
of the Worldwide Browser Landscape” from 2008 to 2012:
http://youtu.be/jtBlvutR9cU.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 138 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.weather.com/services/oap/weather-widgets.html/
http://youtu.be/jtBlvutR9cU

Step One: Internet Service Provider
We will assume that you already have a computer and modem if
you are reading this sec-
tion, but it goes without saying that if you want a Web page,
you will need both of these.
The first step is to find an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An
ISP is a company that you
choose to provide your connection to the Web. It could be a
national provider such Time
Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, DirectTV, or you might prefer a
local Internet service pro-
vider. Various providers offer vastly different connection
speeds (a topic we discussed ear-
lier). Other differences between the hosting companies include
storage restrictions, access
restrictions, support options, and database and email address
restrictions. It is important
to explore the options and select the ISP that best fits your
needs.
Step Two: Web Hosting
Now that you have an ISP, you will need to find a company to
host your Web page. You
will most likely have to pay the company a hosting fee, and
again, there are many compa-
nies that offer this service. Your ISP may also provide this
service. One popular and low-
cost host is called godaddy.com, and others include Yahoo!®,
justhost.com, ipage.com, and
hostmonster.com. After you set up an account with a hosting
company, this is where you
will upload your Web pages. No one who accesses your Web
page will know who is actu-
ally hosting it, because this information is invisible to the user.

Step Three: Domain Name
What do you want to call your website? You can pick any name
you want, but you will
need to be creative because you cannot duplicate a name that
anyone else has chosen. Web-
site names are like snowflakes; no two are the same. The first
thing you will want to do is
decide on a Web extension. This is what appears at the very end
of the name, after a period.
Some common extensions include .com, .edu, .net, .org, .gov,
.biz, .info, .name, and .us.
You may recognize .com as the best known of these top-level
domains. These extensions
have loosely defined meanings: .com and .biz are for
businesses, .edu is for educational
institutions, .org is often for nonprofit organizations (though
this does not always mean
that the .org sites are to be trusted), and .us is for the United
States. There are hundreds of
additional extensions, but these are the most common. In total,
the Domain Name System
(DNS) represents the system for naming all of the devices that
are connected to the Internet.
Now, you will need to secure your Web page name, which is
called your domain. To obtain
a name, you have to register one. If you were doing this through
http://www.godaddy.com/
(other options are http://doteasy.com, http://www.register.com,
http://www.bluehost.com,
and http://www.hostgator.com), you would select Domains and
then Register Domains on
its website. Enter the name you would like into the search box,
select the preferred exten-
sion, and see if it is available. If no one has registered it, you
can make it your own by reserv-

ing it for a given length of time. Remember, when this time is
up, you will have to renew it,
or someone else can claim the name. For example, if you
selected “digitalliteracyatschool.
com,” this would become your unique domain name. When you
start uploading docu-
ments and other HTML pages, such as
computerliteracyatschool.com/week1/test.doc, this
becomes a URL (uniform resource locator). To find that specific
page, users would type this
name into the address box of the browsers (you can find it
because it starts with http://).
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http://www.godaddy.com/
http://doteasy.com
http://www.register.com
http://www.bluehost.com
http://www.hostgator.com
Step Four: Basic HTML
Now the hard work begins. You need
to figure out what you want to put
online. In this example, we will insert
some simple text, but as your skills
become more advanced, you can use
images, video, data entry screens,
and other objects to communicate
your vision (or commercial product)
to the world. The Web programming
language is known at HTML, or
Hypertext Markup language. This is

the code that tells each computer that
is browsing the Web how to display
the information on a Web page.
There are two main ways to create an
HTML page. You can code it yourself
or you can use an HTML editor. Let’s
discuss the first approach. To code an
HTML page yourself, you have to learn a new way to
communicate with the computer.
Let’s look at the Hello World! example from our discussion of
programming languages.
The HTML for this would be:
,html.
,head.
,/head.
,body.
Hello World!
,/body.
,/html.
This code tells the computer that you want to display Hello
World! in the body of the Web
page. If you replaced ,body.Hello World!,/body. in the example
above with ,h1.
Hello World!,/h1. (which is nested between the body tags), then
the message would
be displayed in a heading style in a different and larger font.
There are numerous HTML
codes you could use. To put the text in bold, you would use
,b.Hello World!,/b..
For italics, the HTML tag would be ,i.Hello World!,/i.. You will
notice that each tag
appears twice. In the bolding example, the first tag in angled
brackets (called a tag), ,b.,

turns on bold, and the second tag, which is typed with a slash,
,/b., turns off the bold.
If you wanted to put a link on your Web page to your school’s
website, you would enter
this in HTML: ,a href=”http://”.Click here to visit my school’s
site,a/.. Insert the
website after the http://. This would show “Click here to visit
my school’s site” on your
Web page, and when someone clicked it with their mouse, they
would be taken to the
designated Web page. This should give you an example of what
the raw Web page codes
look like. Of course, using an HTML editor can make this
process much easier.
HTML is the coded programming language that indicates
to computers how to display a Web page’s information.
Have you ever used HTML before?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 140 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Step Five: HTML Editors
The easiest way for beginners to create Web pages is to use an
HTML editor. Many of
these are WYSIWYG (recall that this is an acronym for What
You See Is What You Get),
which means they have an interface that is much like a word
processor. You start with a
blank screen and type text wherever you want it, add images, or

insert video. Then the
computer translates the page into HTML code for you.
Microsoft® Word has a basic HTML
editor, but it sometimes creates pages that are only compatible
with the Internet Explorer™
browser. To overcome this limitation, it is usually better to
download your own HTML
editor. An excellent—and free—HTML editor is called
KompoZer, which is available at
http://kompozer.net/.
Once you download and install your HTML editor, you will
notice three tabs at the bot-
tom of the screen along with a dropdown box. The dropdown
box on the right enables
several views such as Normal, HTML Tags, and preview. The
Design tab shows whatever
option is selected in the dropdown box. The Source tab shows
the HTML source code. The
Split tab literally splits the screen with the top replicating the
design view and the bottom
the source code. You enter and edit text just as you would do in
Word, using many of the
same icons and menu options. Use these when you want to
change fonts or make your
text bold, italic, underlined, or justified.
Now, let’s look at how to insert an image and add a Web link.
(Remember, if you want
text, just type it in, and what you see is what you get!) First,
click on the Image link on
the top menu bar. If the image is on your computer, then select
the open folder icon to the
right of the Image Properties dialog box. Double-click the
image when you find it. Select
OK, and then you are done. To enter a Web link, the process is

similar. Select the Link
option on the top menu bar. In the Link Text section, enter the
words you want to display
on your Web page, such as “Click here to visit my school’s
site.” Then in the Link Loca-
tion, enter the actual URL. When you are viewing the Web page
online, clicking on the text
will take you to your school’s site.
After you have finished editing your Web page, save your
changes. If you want this to
be the home page of the website you are creating, be sure to
name the file index.html (or
A Look Further: HTML Coding
If you want to see the HTML for any of the Web pages you
visit, your Web browser has a “view page
source” option, which shows the HTML code. For more on this,
see the following.
HTML Tutorial for Beginners:
http://www.htmltutorialforbeginners.com/
Learn to create websites by visiting:
http://w3schools.com/
The governing body of the Internet:
http://www.w3.org/
The “ultimate” HTML resource:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
bow80854_05_c05.indd 141 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://kompozer.net/
http://www.htmltutorialforbeginners.com/
http://w3schools.com/
http://www.w3.org/
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/

index.htm). This is the first page that will show when someone
logs onto your site. It is the
landing site, the home page, and the entry point into a website.
It is also worth mentioning that if you are creating basic Web
pages, you do not need a
dedicated HTML editor. You can also create this code with
common text editors like note-
pad, textpad, and also Word.
The Final Step: FTP Your Website
For the final step, you will use an FTP tool to move the files
you created from your com-
puter to the server of the Web host that you selected in step
two. It seems that every Web
host has a different process for doing this, but all require the
same basic steps. First, log
onto your account at your Web host. If your host is
godaddy.com, you will then select the
Hosting Option and click on Manage Account. The Hosting
Control Center then opens
up, and you should select Your Files. This opens up the File
Manager. Select Content and
then FTP Client. This FTP Client is for moving files from your
computer to the GoDaddy
computers. On the left side of the screen, you will see a file
listing called Local System.
These are the files in your computer right now. On the right
side, you will see another file
listing called Remote System. These are all the files currently
on your Web page. To move
the file you just created in KompoZer from your computer to

your website, find it in the
Local System and single-click on the file name. At the bottom
of the screen, you will see
an arrow pointing to the right. If you hover your mouse pointer
over it, the arrow says
Upload. Select it to move the file to your Web page. Now your
index.htm file is on the host
server. It is important to remember that if you included any
images on your Web page,
you will also have to upload these files to your Web host. To
make sure everything has
been loaded, open your Web browser and visit your domain
name. You, and the rest of the
world, should now be able to see what you uploaded.
So, now that you have built your website, will people come?
Sometimes they need a little
help, and if you are selling a product, you might want to pay for
advertising. At the very
least, you should add your site to the Google database. Likely,
Google would find you
eventually, but to facilitate this process go to
http://www.google.com/addurl. Enter your
website address and some brief comments, and then you will be
part of the Google world.
To see how the site is doing as far as Web traffic, you will need
something called analytics,
which are website statistics on the amount of traffic or visitors
you are getting. Google has
its own product to assist, called Google Analytics™, available
at http://www.google.com/
analytics. Other options exist such as Analytics SEO
(http://www.analyticsseo.com/),
which is a toolkit of options for monitoring website
performance. Another option is Alexa
(http://www.alexa.com), which provides information about

websites, including who owns
them and how popular they are.
Since you have completed the tutorial for the Internet and the
World Wide Web, you
should have a much better understanding of where the Internet
came from, how to con-
nect to it, and the significance of a network. You should also be
familiar with the vari-
ous application programs for browsing the Web, along with the
basic steps required to
develop your own Web page.
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http://www.google.com/addurl
http://www.google.com/analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics
http://www.analyticsseo.com/
http://www.alexa.com
CHAPTER 5Section 5.5 Accessibility and Usability
WordPress and Blogger
If building a website from scratch is beyond what you want to
do, you can also create
a Web presence much more easily with Web applications like
WordPress. An excellent
step-by-step guide can be found here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_
Where_to_Start. As of August 2012, it was the home of 421,000
bloggers, and one of the best
features is that it is a free service. WordPress is supported by
ads in the free versions, but it
is a simple way to build Web pages and publish content for the

world to see.
Another option is blogger.com. This is a Web-based tool that
lets users publish blogs
quickly and efficiently. Users get control of the location of a
blog, and full editorial fea-
tures, without having to learn how to program in HTML or other
scripting code. See
http://www.blogger.com/home.
1. What are the basic steps involved in building a Web page?
2. What is an ISP?
3. What services does a Web host provide?
4. What are some examples of Web extensions?
5. What is a Web domain?
6. What does URL stand for, and what purpose does a URL
serve?
7. What basic HTML codes would you use to make the words
Hello World! appear on a
Web page?
8. What is the value of an HTML editor?
9. How do you send your Web page files from your computer to
the Web host?
5.5 Accessibility and Usability
We often take our own health and well-being for granted. And,
we are sometimes unaware of the struggles and difficulties
others face in performing simple daily tasks that we accomplish
without even thinking. If you are fortunate to have
a strong body, with all your senses working in peak condition,
then you can essentially
go anywhere, do what you want, and learn anything you like.
But not everyone has this

luxury, and as a society, we are now helping those with
disabilities to overcome their limi-
tations. Certainly, you have noticed examples of this as you go
about your life. There are
handicapped parking spaces located close to buildings.
Crosswalks have both audio and
video signals to tell pedestrians when they can walk. Television
programs have Closed
Caption options for those who are hearing impaired. Office
buildings often post their
signs with a Braille translation underneath (patterns of raised
bumps that correspond to
letters of the alphabet) for those who are visually impaired.
Ramps now let those in wheel-
chairs easily enter and exit buildings and public spaces.
But how accessible are the Internet and computers? Have they
been designed with inclu-
sivity in mind, or are those who have physical handicaps
prevented from accessing infor-
mation and using computers for other tasks? Fortunately, over
the past decade, important
strides have been made to open up the World Wide Web to
larger numbers of people and
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http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-
_Where_to_Start
http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-
_Where_to_Start
http://www.blogger.com/home

to make computers easier for everyone to use. In this section,
we will explore some of
these developments that are designed to improve accessibility,
which means increasing
the number of disabled and able-bodied people who can use
computers and the Internet,
and also usability, which means improving the efficiency and
value of what these people
find when they use computers and go online.
The Web and the Visually Impaired
In the mid-1990s, when the visual Internet began evolving from
its all-text-based past with
new graphical browsers, most people were thrilled with the new
opportunities. However,
for the visually impaired it was a different story. They had been
using email for years with
a text reader that converted the words to sounds with a voice
synthesizer. But when the
Web began including pictures instead of text, many of their
sources for information went
blank. One visually impaired person described how cumbersome
it was. To begin with,
this person would hear the computer say, “Welcome to . . . ,”
followed by the name of the
website. This was fine, but as soon as a picture appeared on the
screen, the synthesizer
would say something cryptic like, “image . . . link . . . link . . .
link” (Sreenivasan, 1996).
With more websites becoming image-based by the late 1990s, it
became clear that some-
thing had to be done.
Web Accessibility Standards
Advocacy groups such as the Web Standard Project’s
Accessibility Task Force and the

World Wide Web Consortium have been instrumental in the
development of solutions for
these problems. They have strongly argued that the HTML code
itself should have embed-
ded in it the information that makes the Internet available to all.
This does not detract
from the Web experience for those without visual impairments,
because the markup, or
descriptive text, is hidden from them. Websites that are in
compliance with these accessi-
bility standards do not sacrifice any of the flash and visual
excitement of other sites. They
simply are enhanced with information that is available for those
who need it. Since the
Internet is inherently a democratic storehouse of information,
ensuring that it is accessible
for all is essential to attaining its full potential. The Web
Accessibility Initiative devel-
oped the first set of fourteen standards in 1999 that include the
following guidelines from
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/:
1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual
content.
2. Don’t rely on color alone. If color is the only way to define a
piece of informa-
tion, those who are blind will be at a disadvantage.
3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
4. Clarify natural language usage.
5. Create simplified tables that can be easily described with
text.
6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform
gracefully.
7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

9. Design for device-independence.
10. Use interim accessibility solutions so that technologies that
assist a disadvan-
taged reader and older browsers will operate correctly. One
example is that
some of the older screen readers interpret a list of consecutive
links as one link.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 144 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
12. Provide context and orientation information.
13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.
The eleven authors of a book published in 2007 called Web
Accessibility, Web Standards and
Regulatory Compliance simplified what these 14 points meant
for the Web designer and the
disabled user (Thatcher et al., 2007). Ultimately, the goal was
for all pictures to have text
equivalents so that visually impaired people could access them;
all audio on a website to
be subtitled, with a transcription available for those who have
difficulty hearing; all links
to be organized so as to make them navigable by those with
motor disabilities; and all
sites to be organized so that they could be understood by those
with learning disabilities
(Thatcher et al., 2007, p. xxxvi).

Mobile Websites
In terms of accessibility, mobile websites are also gaining
significant popularity. Since
smartphones typically have very small screens, often Web pages
designed for large com-
puter monitors are difficult to interact with. As a result, Web
designers redesign these
pages and optimize them for smaller screens. There are
thousands of these and if you are
looking for them, a good place to start is eboogie.com, which
lists movie-friendly websites.
The eboogie.com site breaks mobile websites into the following
categories: news, weather,
sports, search, entertainment, social media, travel, financial,
technology, reference, pest
control, and food and drink.
The Technology of Accessibility
In addition to accessibility standards, technological
development has expanded the learn-
ing frontiers for those who are disabled. One example is the
Kurzweil readers and edu-
cational systems. Raymond Kurzweil is a brilliant engineer who
invented the first OCR
(optical character recognition) software and the first print-to-
speech software for the visu-
ally impaired. Kurzweil’s technology goes well beyond assisting
only visually impaired
people, to helping anyone who is considered a “struggling
reader” for any number of
reasons, including not having English as a first language. Since
the Internet is mostly in
English, this can be a significant barrier to usability. Other
issues involve those who have

ADD, dyslexia, arthritis, or other physical or learning disorders.
The Kurzweil system
overcomes these difficulties by reading the Web content to the
user and even creating
audio files that can be sent to an iPod® or other music player.
This technology has made rapid gains. Kurzweil himself noted
that in the 1980s, the musi-
cian Stevie Wonder paid more than $100,000 for an early
version of a Kurzweil reading
system that was about the size of a small spaceship. Today,
these devices have shrunk
in size to versions that can be held in your hand, with prices
between $1,000 and $2,000
(Reiff, 2007, p. 134). The latest version is the Kurzweil
National Federation of the Blind
Reader. This handheld device is placed over any type of print,
ranging from a business
card to a restaurant menu to a document from a computer.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 145 7/26/13 12:54 PM
Other recent software packages have a voice feature. For
example, Adobe® has what it
calls the Read Out Loud PDF. Microsoft® includes Narrator
with its Windows® operating
system to access this. Table 5.1 lists some common keyboard
shortcuts that will read aloud
information.
Table 5.1: Common keyboard shortcut functions

Keyboard shortcut Function
Ctrl+Shift+Enter Get information about the current item.
Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar Read the entire selected window.
Ctrl+Alt+Spacebar Read the items that are selected in the
current window.
Insert+Ctrl+G Read a description of the items that appear next
to the currently selected
element.
Ctrl Stop Narrator from reading text.
Insert+Q Move the cursor backward to the beginning of any
preceding text that has
different formatting. For example, the cursor moves from a bold
word to the
beginning of a non-bold word that precedes it.
Insert+W Move the cursor to the beginning of any text that
follows it that has different
formatting. For example, the cursor moves from a bold word to
the beginning
of a non-bold word that follows it.
Insert+E Move the cursor back to the beginning of any text that
has the same
formatting. For example, the cursor moves from the middle of a
bold word to
the beginning of that word.
Insert+R Move the cursor to the end of any text that has the
same formatting. For
example, the cursor moves from the middle of a bold word to

the end of that
word.
Insert+F2 Select all of the text that has the same formatting as
the character at the
cursor.
Insert+F3 Read the current character.
Insert+F4 Read the current word.
Insert+F5 Read the current line.
Insert+F6 Read the current paragraph.
Insert+F7 Read the current page.
Insert+F8 Read the current document.
Source: http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/Windows7/Hear-
text-read-aloud-with-Narrator
The iPad® and the iPhone® also have special VoiceOver
features for the visually impaired.
Apple® describes it as the “world’s first gesture-based screen
reader, enabling you to enjoy
the fun and simplicity of iPhone® even if you can’t see the
screen.” It works like this. By
touching any part of the screen the VoiceOver (available in
many languages) will tell you
bow80854_05_c05.indd 146 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/Windows7/Hear-text-read-
aloud-with-Narrator

what is there. As you drag your finger, you will hear exactly
what is nearby to gain an
audible and physical sense of the information. Once it is
activated, you would tap a button
to hear a description of it, and double-tap to carry out the
command (http://www.apple
.com/asia/accessibility/iphone/vision.html).
Many Web browsers include options to read text out loud. For
example, Google’s Chrome™
has a feature called ChromeVox, which is a screen reader that
lets visually impaired peo-
ple use the Chrome™ browser
(https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/chromevox).
Privacy
There is an implicit trust that users have when browsing the
Internet and engaging in inter-
actions that their communications are private (unless made with
your real name in a social
network). For example, if you purchase a book with your credit
card from Amazon.com
you trust that no one else will eavesdrop on the transaction and
use your credit card num-
bers for their gain.
The most basic element of privacy is to not leave a trace of
where you go on the computer
you use every day. Of course in many instances you will want
the computer to know
where you have been so it can remember your user name and
password. But, for example,
what if you were shopping for a gift for a loved one on a shared

PC? Then you would
want to hide your activity.
One way to do this is InPrivate Browsing, which blocks the
browser from remember-
ing browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data,
cookies, and user names and
passwords. InPrivate Browsing is initiated by pressing
Ctrl+Shift+P. To end the session,
simply close the browser. The Chrome™ Web browser calls this
function Incognito, which
can be started by clicking the wrench icon in the corner and
selecting “New incognito
window.” A new window with an icon of a man in glasses,
trench coat, and hat (a stereo-
typical spy) appears while the incognito mode is on. Mobile
phones also have this option
and in 2011, Firefox® was the first mobile Web browser to
offer a Do Not Track feature. It
is important to remember that even if you turn on one of these
modes, the websites you
visit know you were there. Finally, a key point about security is
in the website URL name
itself. While sometimes you will see HTTP, often you will see
HTTPS. The “S” stands for
“Secure” and this prevents a third party from hacking into
transactions on the Web. This
was initially popular for Web payments, but has since expanded
into other areas.
1. Can everyone use the Internet? Why is it important that
everyone, regardless of his or her
physical ability or disability, be able to use the Internet?
2. What is the difference between accessibility and usability?

3. What were some of the early problems visually impaired
people faced when using a graphi-
cal Web browser?
4. What are some advocacy groups that have pushed for Web
accessibility standards?
5. Why is Web page markup information important?
6. What are some suggestions made by the Web Accessibility
Initiative?
7. Who is Raymond Kurzweil?
bow80854_05_c05.indd 147 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.apple.com/asia/accessibility/iphone/vision.html
http://www.apple.com/asia/accessibility/iphone/vision.html
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/chromevox
CHAPTER 5Post-Test
Summary
In this chapter, our goal was to focus on the World Wide Web
and the millions of com-puters that are connected together to
form the Internet. You learned some important Internet basics,
such as how all of these computers are networked together and
the
way data is shared between them. These connections take place
behind the scenes, so to
speak, as users access the Internet through their browsers. We
looked at the main types
of browser software that can be used to access the wealth of
online knowledge. Access is
an important theme, and equality of access, made possible
through the Web Accessibility
Standards, attempts to ensure that everyone has an equal

opportunity to get online and
use what is there. Finally, we provided step-by-step guidance on
how to build your own
Web page, should you want to make your presence felt online.
Post-Test
1. The origins of the Internet date to which war?
a. Cold War
b. World War II
c. Gulf War
d. Afghanistan War
2. Which of the following is NOT a term specific to
networking?
a. hub
b. switch
c. router
d. motherboard
3. What is the primary software people use on the desktop to
access, search, and
use the Internet?
a. app
b. browser
c. cable modem
d. ISP
4. What is the final step required in order to put your website
online?
a. Securing a domain name.
b. Selecting a URL.
c. Choosing a Web host.
d. Using an FTP tool.

5. In the world of computing, usability MOST often refers to
improving computing
______.
a. efficiency
b. power
c. access
d. speed
bow80854_05_c05.indd 148 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Key Ideas
6. The metaphor often used to represent the Internet is a
a. face.
b. thread.
c. spider.
d. web.
7. The way that computers interact within their networks is
called the_______.
a. architecture
b. backbone
c. channels
d. data ports
8. What is the Google browser called?
a. Internet Explorer™
b. Firefox®
c. Chrome™
d. Netscape Navigator®

9. Which of the following is NOT a standard domain extension?
a. .edu
b. .gov
c. .ft
d. .us
10. What is the name of a popular text-to-voice computer
reading system?
a. Gates
b. iPod®
c. Kurzweil
d. Wonder
Answers
1. a. Cold War. The answer can be found in Section 5.1.
2. d. motherboard. The answer can be found in Section 5.2.
3. b. browser. The answer can be found in Section 5.3.
4. d. Using an FTP tool. The answer can be found in Section
5.4.
5. a. efficiency. The answer can be found in Section 5.5.
6. d. web. The answer can be found in Section 5.1.
7. a. architecture. The answer can be found in Section 5.2.
8. c. Chrome™. The answer can be found in Section 5.3.
9. c. .ft. The answer can be found in Section 5.4.
10. c. Kurzweil. The answer can be found in Section 5.5.
Key Ideas
• In a remarkably short period of time—from the 1960s to the
early 21st century—
computers went from isolated machines to nearly all of them
being connected to
each other.

• Networks are the lifeblood of computing in the 21st century
because they enable
computer users to share data and applications, interact with
friends and col-
leagues, and collaborate with employers, teachers, and other
students.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 149 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Key Terms
• The main way users access the Internet is through a program
called a browser.
• Web pages contain the content on the Internet, and one of
their most powerful
features is that anyone can build one.
• It is essential that the Internet is accessible to everyone,
including those with
sight, hearing, and mobility disabilities.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Think about the different places where you access the
Internet (school, work,
home, library, coffee shop, etc.). What types of technology do
you use to connect
in each of these places? How is speed different? Do you change
the way you use
the Internet depending on the location, such as more social
applications in a cof-
fee shop?

2. What are the various network architectures you encounter in
a typical day? How
often are you “wired” versus “wirelessly” connecting to data?
3. If you were given a free network certification class, which
one would you sign up
for and why?
4. What browser do you use? As an experiment, after reading
the chapter, try
downloading one of the browsers mentioned with which you
have the least
experience. Use it exclusively for a couple of days. What
features do you like
most and least about it compared to your current browser?
5. If you were given the time, equipment, and the knowledge for
how to build a
Web page, what would you choose to design? Who would use
it?
6. Have you ever considered how difficult it might be to explore
the Internet if you
were blind? Think for a moment how you might perform your
favorite online
task if you were blind, deaf, or physically disabled. Would it
change the fre-
quency or ways that you interact?
Key Terms
accessibility Ensuring the capacity of
disabled and able-bodied people to use
computers and the Internet.
analytics Statistics on the amount of traf-

fic and visitors to a website.
bandwidth The amount of information
that can be transferred on a network at any
given time (also called the pipeline).
bits per second (bps) Basic term for trans-
mission speed.
browser Program that serves as the gate-
way to everything you might want to do
online.
bus A cable that shuttles data back and
forth in a LAN network where every work-
station is connected to a central computer.
cable modem A modem that uses a cable
Ethernet wire to transfer data.
client/server Network architecture in
which a powerful computer is the server,
and the individual, less powerful worksta-
tions are the clients.
bow80854_05_c05.indd 150 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Key Terms
cookie A piece of information or text
that is stored on a computer by the Web
browser.
dedicated server A computer that does

nothing but control the other computers,
or clients, in the network.
domain The name of a website.
dotted quad The four numbers, separated
by periods, that are found in every IP
address.
download speed Speed with which you
can take data from the Internet and view
or save it on your computer.
dynamic IP address Temporary IP address.
emoticons Text characters that are used to
express emotion, such as :) for happy.
extranet A public network with limited
restrictions.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Protocol that
governs the ways files are shared on the
Internet.
firewall A coordinated collection of both
hardware and software that prevents
access to private data and also shields
computers from threats.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
Code that tells a computer how to display
the information from a website.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Pro-
tocol that defines how information is

displayed on a Web page.
hub A device that connects at least two
nodes (or workstations) to a network.
Internet A vast worldwide collection of
computer networks.
intranet Internal network that provides
many of the same functions as the Internet
(email, databases, documents, and so on)
but is available only to a private group of
people with passwords.
IP address The actual number that iden-
tifies a device (node) connected to the
Internet.
local area network (LAN) Several com-
puters at work or at home that are con-
nected together.
markup Hidden descriptive Web text.
metropolitan area network (MAN)
Network that includes a city, or at least
part of it, and is often operated by the
government.
modem Device that converts the data
you create on your computer (in its digital
form of ones and zeros) into sound (electri-
cal impulses).
motherboard The main circuit board on
every computer that contains the memory

and central processing unit, and also con-
trols the input and output devices.
network Anytime there are two or more
computers that are linked together through
either a wire (such as an Ethernet) or a
wireless connection.
network interface card Circuit board that
enables individual terminal computers
or personal computers to connect to the
Internet.
node Any device that is connected to the
Internet.
packet A small quantity of information
represented by binary information (zeros
and ones).
bow80854_05_c05.indd 151 7/26/13 12:54 PM
CHAPTER 5Web Resources
packet switching The way that data finds
its path from the sender’s computer to its
destination (also known as store and for-
ward packet switching).
peer-to-peer Network in which each com-
puter has the same capabilities and privi-
leges as any other computer.
plug-in Software that can be added to a

larger system to increase its capabilities.
protocols The way that computers talk to
each other.
router Sends data from one network to
another.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
Protocol that controls the flow of email traffic.
star network A network configuration in
which each workstation connects only to
the main server.
static IP address Unchanging IP address.
strong password A password unlikely to
be discovered by a hacker.
switches Controls that allow only cer-
tain data to be sent to a particular node
or workstation; this can improve network
security by preventing everyone from
sharing the same information.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
Protocol that controls how data packets are
split and then reconnected.
upload speed Speed with which you can
send data to the Internet.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Address
of a website.

usability Efficiency and value of what
people find when they use computers and
go online.
weak password A password that might be
easily guessed by a hacker.
Web extension Letters that appear at the
very end of a Web address after the period;
examples of extensions are .com, .edu, .net,
.org, .gov, .biz, .info, .name, and .us.
wide area network (WAN) Computers
that are connected through telephone lines,
satellite, and so on, and are not at the same
location.
Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) Technology for
connecting computers to the Internet with-
out wires.
workgroups Subsets of computers
within a network that all share the same
resources.
Web Resources
Learn more about The Wi-Fi Alliance® by visiting:
http://www.wi-fi.org/
For additional information about firewalls, link to:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm
For more information about wireless security, go to:
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisec
urity.htm

To learn more about the difference between circuit and packet
switching, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq1zpiDN9k4
bow80854_05_c05.indd 152 7/26/13 12:54 PM
http://www.wi-fi.org/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisec
urity.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DDq1zpiDN9k4
You are the VP of Operations for your company and own all of
your company’s operations/supply chain (R&D, Planning,
Procurement, Manufacturing, Inventory Control, Warehousing/
Distribution/ Transportation, and Customer Service). Your
company makes only one product, 10 oz cans of tomato soup.
Your boss, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), and his peers
have just developed and deployed to you (and your peers) the
corporate level Strategic Plan for the next 5-10 years as seen
below. They have given you one month to develop the
Operations/Supply Chain Strategic Plan. There are no
formatting requirements. Your assignment is to explain in 3
pages (or less):
1. The process (concepts) you would utilize to develop this plan
2. What this completed plan might look like (you do not have to
actually develop the plan, but at least tell me some of the
strategies and measures you would consider)
3. Who you would include in the development of this plan?
You will be graded on the completeness, accuracy, quality of
your response and how well you convince me that you
understand the subject matter. There are numerous concepts to
take into consideration here and I would not expect anyone to
be able to identify all of them, let alone combine them into a 3
page response. So you will be graded on how many of these

concepts you are able to identify and utilize correctly within
your response. My only expectation on the “use of concepts” are
those contained Chapters 1 - 4, but those who include others
will be given extra credit. I will warn you, there are a “trick” or
two included in the plan below. It’s not necessarily important
that you identify these tricks, but you could lose a point or two
if you fall into their trap.
Corporate Strategies Goalsjective
Corporate Goals Goalsjective
Corporate Objective
Corporate Measures Goalsjective
New Product Development Cycle Time
# of M&A’s
Inventory Value
Cost of Goods Sold
Sales Revenues
Sales Revenues in China
New Products as a % of Total Revenues
New Product Development Success Rate
Direct Material Spend
# of Employees
Mfg Production Rates
Investment in Software
Mfg Utilization
# of Mfg Facilities

Grow Gross Margins
by 5%
Grow Top-line Revenues
10%
Reduce Costs
10%
Mergers & Acquisitions
(2 over next 3 yrs)
Expand into New Markets / Geographies (China)
Accelerate Innovation (20% Revenues from New Products)
Consolidate Manufacturing
Facilities
Implement Enabling Technologies

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