Section P.2 exercises

You have created a folder called Word processing in your home directory earlier on in this course, but if you have not done the earlier exercises, download the compressed “Word processing exercise zip.” De-compress the file to your Word-processing folder.

EXERCISE 1 – Good writing routines

  1. Why is it a good idea to store several versions in different files of a long or frequently modified document?
  2. The document you are modifying increases in size to several megabytes. You have the idea of splitting it into several different documents. How should you proceed?

EXERCISE 2 – Page settings

  1. Open the document Ergonomics from your exercise folder.
  2. Change the margins in the document so that they are 1 cm at the top and 2 cm on the left.
  3. Change the page to portrait orientation.
  4. You will see that the first page is a cover page, where there is usually no header. Set the first page so that it different than the rest of the pages.
  5. Save the changes to the document.

EXERCISE 3 – Selecting, formatting and special characters

  1. Open a new document in your word processor.
  2. write the following list (find the special characters in your word processor):
    Kværner
    © Your name
    the sign Ω
    a 45o angle
  3. Save the document in your exercise folder under the name Special characters

EXERCISE 4 – Styles

  1. Open the document called Writing instructions.
  2. Format the headings of the document with heading styles. If a heading is written with CAPITALS, use the style Heading 1, and if it written in small letters, use the style Heading 2.
  3. Save the changes.

EXERCISE 5 – Headers and footers

  1. Open Writing instructions, the document you modified in the previous exercise.
  2. Create the headers and footers shown in the model below for the document.
  3. Add the page number to the header so that it shows the running page number and then the total number of pages in parenthesis. Please do not write the page numbers yourself, insert them with the header feature.
  4. Insert the date automatically.
    Header:

    Footer:
  5. Go to the beginning of the document and add a new page (Ctrl + Enter). Make this page the cover. Write the text “Writing instructions” on it and align it in the centre of the page.
  6. There are headers and footers on the first page. Change the page settings so that the first page is different from the rest of them, so that the headers and footers are not displayed on the cover.
  7. Save the changes you made to the document.

EXERCISE 6 – Page numbers and table of contents 

  1. Open the document you modified in the previous exercise, unless it is already open.
  2. Go to the beginning of the document.
  3. Make another empty page for the document.
  4. Write the text Contents on the new page and create the document’s table of contents underneath it.
  5. Make a forced page break before the heading Special text effects in the document, so that the page numbers in the table of contents are not correct any more.
  6. Update the table of contents.
  7. Save the document under the same name.
  8. Open the document Tips for word processing.
  9. Add page numbers to the right bottom of the pages in the document.
  10. Save the document in the same folder under the name Tips.

EXERCISE 7 – Foot- and endnotes

  1. What are footnotes?
  2. What are endnotes?

EXERCISE 8 – Tables

  1. Open a new document with your word processor.
  2. Create a table according to the model below.
  3. Create the following table as well. You can choose the colours yourself, but make the same structure as in the image. You will find the tools for merging cells on the toolbar.
  4. Save the document in your exercise folder under the name Tables.

EXERCISE 9 – Using images

  1. Open the document Writing instructions.
  2. Insert the image Keyboard from your exercise folder to the end of the second paragraph in the document. Insert the image Writer after the chapter Page headings.
  3. Insert suitable images from your program’s ClipArt library to the document. Insert an image into a paragraph and specify it so that the text wraps tightly around the image.
  4. Insert one more image from the image library and specify it so the image is on top of the text, then move the image to the left margin under the heading Text wrapping.
  5. Save the changes you made to the document.

EXERCISE 10 – Language settings, hyphenation and spell checking

  1. Open the document Writing instructions again.
  2. Hyphenate the document.
  3. Spell check the document with the spell-checker program.

EXERCISE 11 – Saving, printing and publishing

  1. Save the document Writing instructions as DOC and RTF files. Check the file size of both.
  2. Consider how many versions you would make of a Master’s thesis that you modify every day for six months?
  3. Plan the versions of a future Pro seminar assignment or Master’s thesis:
    a) which storage media will you use for the back-up copies?
    b) how often will you save a new version of your work?

ANSWERS

EXERCISE 1 – Good writing routines

  1. if you save your important work as only one file, and it is attacked by a virus or other malware, the whole contents of the file may be destroyed at once. In such a case a back-up made only 1-2 days earlier may save you from a disaster.
  2. Do not split a document into several files, but consider why it is so large! The cause may be that images you have inserted were too large or you have proceeded incorrectly with e.g. tables (do not scan tables, but import them from a spreadsheet program, for example). If the document file becomes too large anyway, you can compress it before sending it. And if the file is still large after compressing it, you can offer it to interested parties via tour own university web page.

EXERCISE 7 – Foot- and endnotes

  1. Footnotes are located at the foot of the document page.
  2. Endnotes are located at the end of a document.

EXERCISE 11 – Saving, printing and publishing

  1. Since there is a considerable amount of storage capacity in modern computers, you can save a new version every day, if you wish!
  2. a) Take back-up copies on e.g. in your home directory or as an e-mail attachment sent to yourself every now and then. Keep in mind that a USB stick is not a good medium for back-up copies, because it is very easy to misplace.
    b) The back-up frequency naturally depends on your working speed! Consider how many days’ work you are prepared to lose.