Open Office writer Activity: Create a Newsletter
Tejas: Our teacher was yesterday talking about creating a newsletter.
Moz: Do you know what a newsletter is?
Tejas: A newsletter is a printed report or letter for a specific group of people. It contains news and events which are of interest to the group. For example news letters are given out at schools, to inform parents, teachers and students about the things happening in that school.
Jyoti: The teacher said the newsletter can include: articles written by the students and teachers, some news items on what is happening in the school, some announcements and some general information.
Moz: While preparing the newsletter you have to first decide the content which to be presented.
CONNECT PPT lesson STAGE 1: Plan: Decide an outline
Jyoti: We can create a mind map on the topics which can be included in this edition of the newsletter.
Jyoti: I can ask my friend who has gone for the inter school elocution competition to write an article about his experience at the competition. There are some announcements on the date of the exams, dates for summer and winter breaks and schedule for school sports day.
Tejas: Our class had participated in the tree planting event organized by our school. I can write an article on that. Our school also participated in the state level school festival. Many students from our school had won prizes and we also won the over-all trophy in this event.
CONNECT CM6 Multiple representation: mind maps
Jyoti: We also have to decide upon the format and design of the newsletter. The first impression is very important in a printed document.
Tejas: Then let us prepare the newsletter design.
Jyoti: We need to decide upon the title of our newsletter, fonts to be used with various formats and how the contents are to be placed.
Moz: You also should decide the number of pages your newsletter should contain.
Jyoti: I think we four page newsletter will be ideal so that we can include all the articles contributed by the students and teachers.
Tejas: In newspapers I have seen that the content is neatly arranged in columns. We can also adopt a similar format. We also has to give the names of the students who has contributed the article. The title of each topic needs to be prominent from the rest of the text.
Jyoti: To make the title text prominent, we can use options like bold, increasing the text size, using a different font colour etc.
Moz: Now try and create a sample of your newsletter with some dummy text. When the real content is ready you can replace the dummy text with it. Including pictures in the newsletter can capture the reader's attention.
Tejas and Jyoti open word processing application. They are busy creating the sample newsletter.
Jyoti (finishes formatting the newsletter) : We have completed formatting the sample newsletter. These are the various format options we used :
- Newsletter title text is centered and bold with font size 24.
- Class and month are also centered and bold with font size 20.
- Title of each article is left aligned, normal with font size 18.
- The article text is normal with font size 14 and aligned to the left.
- Each articles has about 300-400 words each.
- All the articles are formatted into two columns
- The author names are in bold, italics, aligned to the right with font size 11.
-Skill box-
To format the text or paragraphs in column format:
1. Select the menubar option 'Format'. Under this select the columns option.
2. Click on 'Columns' option to get the displayed window.
Select the number of columns needed and the spacing between these columns.
-End of Skill box -
Tejas: Look at our sample newsletter. Have we taken care of all the requirements?
Moz: I see that you have done a good job. You have inserted page number also. This helps when your document runs to pages.
-Skill box-
inserting page number
- First as per your requirement, select header or footer from the 'Insert' menubar option. Then select 'Default'
- Now select 'Insert' menubar option and follow the path Fields → Page Number.
- The page number is inserted in the footer.
End of skill box-
Tejas: We will share the mind map and sample newsletter with our classmates, so that they can start contributing for the newsletter.
Moz: Now have fun creating the newsletter. Show it to me once it is finished.
Word Activity: Worksheet
- Write 4 options to make the title prominent in a document?
______
______
______
______
- Rahul is writing a report in word processor application. He wants to find an alternate word for “ facility”. Which utility can he use?
Thesaurus
Spelling and grammar
Footnotes
- Identify the formatting options and match the following:
Word Processor / Italics
Word Processor / Highlighting
Word processor / Bold
Word Processor / Underline
Word Processor / Font Colour
- Mark the following statements True or False
a. To option to draw geometrical shapes in your documents, you have use the formatting toolbar.
b. You can check for spelling mistakes in documents typed in word processor application.
c. You cannot insert any text or fields in the header or footer of a document.
d. To highlight a text in a paragraph you can use a different font colour.
Activity:
- Draw the flowchart for finding the mean and median of a set of values given, namely 13, 12, 11, 9, 18, 15, 10.
Hint: To draw the geometrical boxes use the option “Autoshapes”.
- Write a one page write up on how you would like to spend time during your vacation. You can include details about the outings you would like to go or your favourite hobby you would like to pursue.
Format it using the following guidelines:
a. The title should be arial, bold and underlined with font size 28.
b. Under the title give the author name in arial, with font size 14, in italics.
c. The paragraph text should arial, font size 14, normal.
d. The paragraphs in 2 column format.
e. If you want some text in the pragraphs to be highlighted, use different font colour or highlighting option.
Multi finger typing
Moz: Each article in the Newsletter will be about 400-600 words each. To type the content of the newsletter you need a good typing speed. This can be achieved by multi finger typing.
Jyoti: Multi finger typing? What is that?
Moz: Observe the keyboard. All the alphabets, the number keys and other special keys are arranged in five rows on a keyboard. Where should you keep your hands so that you can reach any letter quickly?
Tejas: On the middle row.
Moz: Yes. It is called the home row.
Jyoti: Why is this row called the home row?
Moz: This position helps you in reaching out to other rows easily. Hence this is called the home row.
Jyoti: Oh! It is easy to type J with right index finger and F with left index finger.
Tejas: Yes and D with left middle finger and K with right middle finger?
yoti: S with left ring finger and L for right ring finger.
Tejas: This is good. Look G and H can be easily reached with the index fingers.
Moz: Correct.
Jyoti: I have seen people using thumb for the space bar. Now I know why.
Moz: Good observation Jyoti. Left or right thumb can be used for the space bar.
Moz: To reach the upper rows, stretch your fingers to type the characters. To reach the characters in the lower rows just bend the fingers or move the hand a little back and type the characters. Increase in speed of typing can be achieved with practice. One important point to remember is to, follow the correct posture and, take regular breaks and do exercise to avoid injury to hands, shoulders and back.
Info box:
Typing speed
- The speed at which one types is measured in words per minute or number of key strokes. Usually 5 key strokes are counted as one word.
The average speed is considered to be 40 wpm.
There are advanced professionals who can type upto 120 wpm.
There are many sites online where you can test out speed of typing and also practice typing.
Guidelines
Typing posture and RSI
- Sit up straight with feet flat on the floor. Keep elbows close to the body with wrists straight and forearms in level.
- Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) – is caused due to continuous usage of keyboard and mouse.
- Remember to take regular breaks.
- Applications that remind you to take breaks are available for free download. . Example: Workrave available for Linux and windows is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of RSI. The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit (See figure 1).
- Exercise: Recall the exercises and asanas that you learnt. While working make sure to do the wrist, hand and shoulder exercise during breaks.
Skanda ChakraManibandhana chakra
Hasta Uttanaasana
Moz: Typing on the keyboard with many fingers saves time and reduces the strain on your fingers and wrists.
Jyoti: We can tell our friends about multi finger typing so that they can complete typing documents fast and with minimum strain on the fingers and wrists.