The Conclusion Of This Chapter

     Today, I am completing the final assignment for IS101.  I'm  here to share my experience of this class and how I plan to move forward.  Besides my grade, one of the things that I will take away from this class is the knowledge I gained using Microsoft Office through LabSim.  It is practical knowledge that I can use for myself, or in the workplace if the need should arise.  I was unsure of what the class would entail but I was surprised the verity of assignments that we had to engage in.  One of the most rewarding assignments was the Fun With Functions assignments.  They were challenging for me but it was very satisfying seeing the word "Correct" appear next to a problem.

    This class was the last class that I needed to complete my degree so as I was logging off on Saturday for the last time in that classroom, I felt a huge sense of relief and accomplishment.  I did not plan on spending over six hours in the classroom that last day but I thought that it would be important to finish off strong.  

     This class was one of the more unique classes that I took for one major reason.  The professor did not emphasis the completion of assignments on time as much as making sure those assignments were 100% complete.  That was different from what I was used to and it allowed me to focus on the details and slow down.  It allowed me to understand the entire assignment because getting a 100% completion meant understanding the requirements.

Reducing Image Size

 Integrating pictures and videos into a slide show presentation can make it more visually appealing and make it easer to get your message across. The downside is that the more pictures you have, the bigger the file size becomes which may make it a challenge to email the presentation.  Fortunately, PowerPoint gives us the option to trim videos and reduce the image quality of pictures to reduce the overall size of the presentation. 

    In order to trim a video, we have to select the video that we would like to shorten up.  Once we have selected it, a new ribbon appears that is called "Video Playback".  Once this option is selected, another option comes up that is called "Trim".  Here we can select when the video starts and stops, this will reduce the size of the file and cut out any of the unnecessary parts in a video.

    We can do something similar when editing pictures.  Similar to trimming a video down, we need to select the picture that we would like to edit.  Once selected, a new option in the ribbon comes up named "Picture Format"  Under this selection, we can click on the "Compress Image" option.  This brings up a dialog box that allows us the convert individual pictures or all the pictures in the presentation to a lower resolution.  This will reduce the overall size of the Presentation and it will make it possible to send it over through email if file size restrictions are in place.    

    These editing options will allow you to use multiple media options and keep the overall size of the presentation down.

Choosing The Correct Chart

     Microsoft Excel allows us to plug in massive amounts of data into a worksheet that is easy to read and understand.  Excel also has many tool that allow us to organize and understand the data.  Charts built into Excel are one of those tools that can do it for us.  There are many charts to choose from, so many that it may be hard to determine which is the correct one to use.  Of course, we can edit these charts to best suite our needs by changing the colors and sets of data that are included in them.

    One of the many charts types we can use in Excel are Bar Charts.  These types of charts are helpful because they allows us to visualize and understand large sets of data easily.  These charts are best used when you have data that is independent of each other or when selecting data from certain categories.  Line charts are also a type of chart that we can insert into our Excel Worksheets.  These charts are best used when we want to measure change over time with data that is separated by even time intervals.  Another popular chart type is the Pie chart.  These are best used when we want to measure the proportions of each category to the whole.  These three chart types are some of the most common ones you will run into but there are plenty to choose from.  Just make sure you are using the correct one to represent your data accurately.

    You may be wondering how we access all of these amazing charts?  Its actually very simple once you know where to navigate to.  With Excel running, select the Insert Tab.  Right along the middle of ribbon, you will see the option called Charts.  From here we can go with the most popular ones or select the more charts option to see additional charts that are available to use.  Do not be afraid of trying something new, if you are unsure of what chart to select, hover over the name for a second and a window will pop up with a brief description of the chart.

Good luck and go out there and transform those long data sets into beautiful works of art. 🫡

The Dictionary Of Synonyms

     Ah yes, the Thesaurus, a relic of the past that was once paired and sold together with the Dictionary.  Also known as The Dictionary Of Synonyms, thesauruses can be sold as a physical book but in this case, I will focus on the built in feature in Microsoft Word.  It is a little different from spell check as this feature does not underline any words in red or blue that would normally signify a misspelling or grammatical issue, for this reason, the user has to be able to think when using this feature.

    Here is an example of using the thesaurus. We begin by using Microsoft Word to write a simple sentence like "Alonso was mad that he could not stay home and play video games".  since the word mad is common word, lets see if we use something else. If we highlight it and right click, we get a few options, one of which is "synonyms for "mad".  Once we click on that, a new window pops up to the right of the screen and on this new window is a list of alternate words we can use.  Look through the list and once you have the appropriate word, right click on it and select insert.  This will replace the highlighted word with the newer, fancier word.  Lets use this feature to replace the word mad and a few others to fabricate a new sentence below.

Alonso was in a towering rage that he could not stay in his quarters and disport in video games.

    The Thesaurus is simple, easy to use function built into Microsoft word that allows the user to replace common words with words that refine the message that is being conveyed.  The best way to use this feature is during the review process of creating a document, once the spelling and grammar issues are addressed.  We want to look over the document to make sure we are not repeating too many words, or if we can change the tone of the document by using alternative words.  Next time you have to write a document, see what words can be changed to revitalize your work and so you stand out.

Tracked Changes: Keeping Track Of The Good And The Bad

         Microsoft Office has thousands of features, too many to lean in one class.  Some of these features are easily displayed for us in the Ribbon, while others you have to navigate through a few windows before finding what you need but they all serve their own unique purpose.  Tracked changes is under the review tab and as discussed in 3.6.1, this feature offer users the option to keep track of changes made to a document when collaborating with other people.  This function is very important for many reasons.  It helps keep track of who made what changes to a document so the team can stay accountable.  You can also send the files over to friends or co workers so they can review and make suggestions.  This feature also makes it very easy to identify the changes made to a document and gives us the options to accept changes made or revert back to the original format..

    When working with many people, it becomes challenging to keep track of who did what and the changes have been made to a document.  Fortunately, the Tracked Changes option in Microsoft Office solves that problem for us.  Tracked changes monitors and displays who and what changes were made to a document in way that is easy to see.  This is important because it allows us to recognize the individuals that make positive contributions as well as the ones who are not on the same page.  Of course, these changes are not permanent and can be ignored.

    Again, this feature is very important to help keep track of changes made to a Word document when collaborating with people.  It gives us the change to praise the good and fix the bad or......just reject all the changes and send it. 🥳🤘

The Web That Connected The World

         The web that connected the world is a complex structure that involves the brightest minds from many disciplines coming together to change the way humans interact, create and exchange information. It changed the way we shop and how we get our entertainment as well as many other ways that we could only dream of 30 years ago.

    The Internet is a vast collection of networks that communicate with each other.  Computers who share one network can talk to each other as well as other computers that may be in a different networks since networks can also communicate with each other.  The connections between computers can be wired using cables and modems, or wireless using radio waves.  There is no control center for the Internet. Instead, it is a distributed networking system, meaning it is not dependent on any individual machine. Any computer or hardware that can send and receive data in the correct fashion can be part of the Internet.  All data sent over the Internet is translated into pulses of light or electricity, also called "bits," and then interpreted by the receiving computer.

    Internet Service providers do not manage the internet, they manage the access point to get into the interconnected network.  Since so many devices can be connected to one network, it is important to have firewalls in place as a way to protect computers outside of a private network to access data that is not intended for them.

    When we connect to the internet, the experience is usually great unless our connection strength inst the best.  It has become such a routine part of our lives that today's world would not function the same without it.  I'm thankful for the great minds that came together to create the internet and allow us to experience a life being more connected.

The Browser Is Yours

     Because of the revolution in technology and the internet, we have adopted new methods of shopping, communication, how we learn, share experiences and experience entertainment. The internet browser is your personal portal to the internet, and you have the ability to configure it to work best for you.  Here we can change the language, what folders our downloads are sent to and even the font appearance and size.  We can configure the browser to minimize the amount of information that would be compromised in the event of a cyber-attack by reviewing our privacy settings.  We can add extensions on our web browser to change the appearance of it and add tools for increased productivity.  I have used Mozilla Firefox as my preferred web browser for many years and after reading a little bit more about configuring web browsers in sections 1.4.6, I decided to look at my setting and see what changes I could make.

    An important part to consider reviewing would be the privacy and security tab. From here, you can make many changes from storing passwords and credit card information, deleting cookies once the browser is closed and automatically warning you when visiting websites that are not trusted.  I made changes in this section, some of them were to automatically delete cookies after closing the browser (I now have to log into every account each time I close Firefox.)  I also enabled HTTPS only mode. The HTTPS-Only Mode forces all connections to websites to use a secure encrypted connection called HTTPS. Most websites already support HTTPS, some support both HTTP and HTTPS. Enabling this mode guarantees that all of your connections to websites are upgraded to use HTTPS and hence secure.

    Another cool feature is adding plug ins and extensions to your browser.  You can include ad blockers which reduce the number of ads.  Some can check your grammar and provide feedback to make your writing look better.  I found two really cool ones plug ins.  The first one is called "YouTube ad-blocker". This plug-in blocks all the ads on YouTube videos so I can now watch whole hour-long videos with zero interruptions, even at the very beginning (A+ rating for this one).  The second one is called "Worldwide Radio".  This one lets me listen to radio stations from all over the world.  I tried it and it works really well.  I usually have it running in the background while doing work.

    Spending a few minutes to look through your web browsers settings will yield positive results.  You will find that it can give your browser a new look, make it more convenient to store personal information, increase your security and maybe even introduce you to new entertainment options.

The Dawn of a New Journey

    It is Saturday morning, 5:26am and I am still trying to figure out what IS101 is going to be about.  I know it has to do with computers, and the workload already seems to be higher than any of my other previous classes so it will be interesting to see what happens.  This is a new field for me, mostly I work with machines and tools, now I get to sit on a chair and type away.  Honestly, I do like the idea of trading in my tool bag for a fancy suit.

    I think the focus of this blog will be to catalog journey.  Here is where I will write down some of the challenges and treasures that I come across.  In the future, I look forwards to coming back to this to re-read these posts while also reflecting on where the road has taken me.