Basic Skills

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Several skills are needed to complete the projects for this course. The following tutorials can be used to help you with these basic, but sometimes new, skills.

Ask Questions in the forum as needed to complete your understanding.

Save Microsoft Office files in a universal format

Not everyone can open Microsoft Office files. Perhaps they use WordPerfect, Appleworks, OpenOffice, or some other suite of productivity applications. So, to allow everyone to see your work, you can save files in a universal format: Web page files (.htm/.html) or Acrobat Reader files (.pdf).

Save .doc, .ppt, or .xls files as .htm

1. Open a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.
   • File->Save As.
     • For Word, choose Web Page Filtered from the Type list.
     • For PowerPoint, choose Web Page from the Type list.
     • For Excel, choose Web Page from the Type list.
   • Click OK/Save.
2. Navigate to your hard drive where the files were saved.
   • You should see at least one web file (.htm) and a folder with styles, images, and include files.
     • Leave these files exactly as they are.
   • Select and copy the file(s) and folder.
3. Login to your ONID public web server: ftp://onid.orst.edu/public_html.
   • Make a folder just for this project on this server.
     • Paste the new file(s) and folder.
       • This process is called FTP, or File Transfer Protocol. You just made a web site!
4. View the new files from your public web server:
   • http://oregonstate.edu/~yourONIDusername/newfoldername/newfilename.

Save or Print a file as .PDF file

• In general, you can "print" a file to a .pdf document in Windows and MacOS X.
• If Microsoft Office applications do not have the pdf maker installed, then try installing PDF995 (free).
• Otherwise, use Adobe's free .pdf service or purchase Adobe Acrobat and install it on your computer.

Create and save a screenshot file

Wikipedia's entry for Screenshot

Definition, variations, How To, screen shot videos, etc.

About.com's Tips and Tricks for Screenshots

Helpful file format and size descriptions and image comparisons.

Saving Screenshots using Office Picture Manager

Capturing a screenshot in Windows XP/Office - quick and easy.

Add alternative text and a copyright citation to an online image

Alternative text in a web page is read to the visually impaired when they use a screen reader to "browse" a web page. Web pages ought to have descriptions of images so that the visually impaired do not miss the critical information they provide. Each time you add an image to a web page do the following:

1. When editing Posts or Pages in Wordpress:
   • If you've used the Upload feature of Wordpress, then...
     • Send to Editor.
     • Select the image in the message box.
       • Click the Image icon on the toolbar.
         • Type a title and description for the image using the the fields provided.
           • It is the description you type that fills the alt attribute in the web page's code. This helps the visually impaired.
           • It is the title field where you can cite the title, author, publisher, and copyright date.
   • If you've uploaded an image somewhere else, such as on the ONID server, then...
     • Click the Image icon on the toolbar.
       • Paste in the address of the image, type a title and description for the image using the the fields provided.
         • It is the description you type that fills the alt attribute in the web page's code. This helps the visually impaired.
         • It is the title field where you can cite the title, author, publisher, and copyright date.
2. When writing web pages in NotePad, TextEdit, or other web development tool:
   • The following html code line can be added to a .htm, .html, or WordPress post or page (in the html view):
     • <img src="filename.gif" alt="Detailed description of the image." title="Copyright owner's name 2006" />
     • Replace the filename between quote marks with your file's name. Replace the text between quote marks with your file's description and copyright information.

Embed a link in a label in a web page

1. When editing in Wordpress Posts or Pages:
   • First copy the address of the link you want to add.
   • Then navigate back to your Wordpress editing screen.
     • Select the name of an article, book, book, or web site.
       • Click the Link icon on the toolbar (may not work in Safari).
         • Paste in the URL/address for the link.
         • Add a title that describes the article; such as author, date, and publisher.
         • Click submit.
     • The end result is a link that looks like this: Gender & Technology when starting with an address like this: http://gendertechnology.wordpress.com.
2. When editing in Notepad, TextEdit, or other web development tool:
   • Add this html code to your web page, blog post, or Bb forum post:
     • <a href="http://webpageaddress.com" >Name of the link</a>
   • For example, link to the course blog by typing this line:
     • <a href="http://gendertechnology.wordpress.com" >Gender & Technology</a>
     • The end result is a link that looks like this: Gender & Technology.
       • rather than this: http://gendertechnology.wordpress.com.
       • or this: http://gendertechnology.wordpress.com.