AS Level ICT

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AS Level ICT

• Selection and use of appropriate software Web
  browsers

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Web-related software

• With the exponential growth of Internet usage,
  the need for specialist software that allows
  users to interact with it has also grown
• The most common web-related software in use
  includes
• Web browsers
• Email software
• Website authoring software

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Web browsers

• A web browser is software that interprets the
  markup of files in HTML, formats them into Web
  pages, and displays them to the user
• Examples of browsers include Internet Explorer,
  Netscape Navigator, and Firefox

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Web browsers
Internet Explorer when opened, the web browser
will either display a blank page or will open a
pre-set webpage (in this example the Google
search engine web page)
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Web browsers

• It is possible to access any web page that has
  been submitted by its creator to the World Wide
  Web using a web browser unless
• The web browser is installed on a network that
  has been set up to exclude certain categories of
  web page (e.g. game sites, web pages that contain
  adware, pornography, community sites YouTube,
  MySpace, Facebook)
• The web browser is installed on a stand-alone
  computer that has parental control software
  installed on it (e.g. Weblocker, K9, Spector Pro)

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Web browsers

• It is possible for users to access email
  facilities via a web browser

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Web browsers
Clara.net is one of many ISPs (Internet service
providers) Their customers can access their
emails via a portal from the clara.net website
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Web browsers
The webmail portal allows access to an ISP
customers emails
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Web browsers
When the hotlink is clicked
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Web browsers
a login page appears onscreen Once their user
name and password have been entered, the customer
can access their emails
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Email

• Despite the fact that most users can access their
  emails via their web browser and their ISPs
  website, many prefer to use dedicated email
  software (e.g. Outlook Express)
• Most email systems use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
  Protocol a protocol for sending email messages)
  to send emails from one server to another

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Email

• The emails can then be retrieved with an email
  client using either POP (Post Office Protocol) or
  IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
• The correct POP or IMAP server and SMTP server
  have to be specified when email software is being
  configured

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Email

• Email software usually has a number of useful
  facilities, including
• Create this allows the user to compose an email
• Reply this allows the user to compose a reply
  to an email that has been received
• Search this allows the user to search their
  archive of sent and received emails by
  originator, addressee, subject, or date

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In this example, to create an email the user
clicks New
In this example, to create an email the user
clicks New and a new window where the email
can be composed is launched
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In this example, to reply to an email the user
clicks the Reply icon
In this example, to reply to an email the user
clicks the Reply icon and a new window where
the reply can be composed is launched
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The Search facility enables the user to search
the Inbox folder for received emails by
originator, subject, or date
The Search facility enables the user to search
the Inbox folder for received emails by
originator, subject, or date The same facility
can be used to search Drafts, Outbox, and
Sent Items folder
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Email

• Forward this allows the user to send a copy of
  a received email often with a covering message
  to a third party
• Address book this allows the user to save the
  email addresses of people to whom they wish to
  send emails or who have sent them emails (the
  latter can be done automatically)

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The Forward option allows the user to forward
(i.e. send) a copy of an email they have received
to a third party
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When the Address book option is clicked
When the Address book option is clicked, the
searchable address book appears on screen
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Email

• Groups this is a section within the address
  book where the user can group addressees
  together, so that an email sent to the group will
  go to everyone in the group this can speed up
  the time taken to send the same message to a
  large number of people
• Attachments this allows the user to attach
  files or folders to an email so that copies of
  documents, spreadsheets, photographs etc. can be
  sent via the Internet to other people

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Once an email has been composed, files and
folders can be attached to it by clicking the
Add Attachment icon
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A new dialogue box will then appear, and by using
the Browse facility, the file or folder to be
attached to the email can be found
A new dialogue box will then appear, and by using
the Browse facility, the file or folder to be
attached to the email can be found and attached
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Search engines

• The most used search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo,
  Ask) are natural language interfaces that allow
  the user to search the Internet
• They are crawler-based search engines (as opposed
  to human powered directories) that create their
  listings automatically
• They use special programs (crawler or spider
  programs) to go through the World Wide Web
  looking for and at websites that they can index
• Users can then search through what the crawlers
  or spiders have found and indexed

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Search engines

• To search the World Wide Web using a search
  engine, the user must create a query
• The query can be quite simple, a single word at
  minimum
• Creating a more complex query requires the use of
  Boolean operators that allow the user to refine
  and extend the terms of the search

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Search engines

• The Boolean operators most often seen are
• AND This ensures that all the words joined by
  "AND" must appear in the web pages (N.B. some
  search engines substitute "" for AND)
• OR This ensures that at least one of the word
  joined by "OR" must appear in the web pages
• NOT This ensures that the word or words
  following "NOT" must not appear in the web pages
  (N.B. some search engines substitute "-" for NOT)

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Search engines

• FOLLOWED BY This ensures that one of the word
  or words must be directly followed by the other
• NEAR This ensures that the word or words must
  be within a specified number of words of the
  other
• Quotation Marks The words between the quotation
  marks are treated as a phrase, and that phrase
  must be found in the web page

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Search engines Comparison of search results
The results of a search using the words search
and engine
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Search engines Comparison of search results
The results of a search using the phrase search
engine
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Search engines Comparison of search results
The results of a search using the phrase search
AND engine
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Search engines Comparison of search results

• The results of these searches produced similar
  but not identical results
• This is because of the way in which the Boolean
  operators honed down the search, the last being
  more precise than the first (211,000,000 results
  as opposed to 66,500,000 results)
• It is also a reflection of the way in which web
  designers have used particular design features to
  ensure that their websites are prioritised by a
  search engine

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Search engines Comparison of search results
How many hits would a Google search produce for
the following search criteria? crown woods
school crown AND woods AND school crown woods
school
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Website design features

• Websites usually have one or more of the
  following design features
• Logo this helps to identify the website,
  particularly ones belonging to commercial or
  government organisations
• Navigation unless the website only has a single
  web page, users will need to navigate their way
  around the website a navigation bar (navbar) is
  a common method used to achieve this

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Website design features

• Search facility this enables the user to find
  something particular on the website sometimes
  search facilities will also enable the user to
  undertake a full Internet search from within the
  website
• Hotlinks these are words or phrases that, when
  clicked, lead the user to another part of the
  website or the Internet
• Hotspots these are images that, when clicked,
  lead the user to another part of the website or
  the Internet

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Website design features
Logo
Navigation
Search
Hotlinks
Hotspots
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Website design features
Logo
Navigation
Hotlinks
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Website design features
Logo
Navigation
Hotlinks
Hotspots
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Website design features
Logo
Navigation
Search
Hotspots
Hotlinks
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Website design features

• Web designers also use frames or tables to layout
  each webpage
• Frames enable a designer to set up a page that
  actually shows several web pages at once this is
  usually done so that the Header and/or Footer
  and/or Sidebar that are seen remain the same
  whatever the main content of the web page is
  showing

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Website design features
This example shows fames being used so that the
main content of the webpage covers most of the
screen whilst the website navigation is in the
sidebar frame
This example shows fames being used so that three
different pages can be nested together
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Website design features

• Frames have tended to fall out of favour with web
  designers over recent years because some web
  browsers do not cope well with them
• Tables have tended to be used in place of frames
  recently because they allow the web designer to
  layout each webpage exactly how they want
  visitors to see them, regardless of the web
  browser that is being used or the screen
  resolution the web page is being viewed at

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Website design features
A web page viewed at a screen resolution of 800 x
600
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Website design features
A web page viewed at a screen resolution of 1024
x 768
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Website design features
A web page viewed at a screen resolution of 1280
x 960
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Website design features

• In this example, the web page has been optimised
  for the 1024 x 768 resolution when viewed at 800
  x 600 the whole of the web page cannot be seen,
  and when viewed at 1280 x 960 the web page has
  stretched to fill the screen
• A web designer should take this into
  consideration when designing a website, and the
  use of tables which can be pre-set to a
  particular width is a very useful tool for
  ensuring that their design is WYSIWYG (What You
  See Is What You Get)

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Web authoring software

• The language used to create web pages is HTML
  (HyperText Markup Language)
• This is a relatively easy to learn programming
  language that uses a mixture of natural language
  and abbreviated commands and keyboard symbols

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Web authoring software
Keyboard symbol
Abbreviated command
Natural language command
This example of HTML shows the use of natural
language and abbreviated commands and keyboard
symbols
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Web authoring software

• Typing in HTML commands takes time, and it is far
  quicker for a web designer to use web authoring
  (or web design) software to create a web site
• The facility to create web pages exists in
  several applications (e.g. Microsoft Word,
  Microsoft Publisher) but specialist web authoring
  software has more functions available for the web
  designer to use

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Web authoring software

• The following programs are commonly used by web
  designers to create web pages
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Serif WebPlus

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Web authoring software
Microsoft FrontPage
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Web authoring software
Macromedia Dreamweaver
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Web authoring software
Serif WebPlus
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Web authoring software

• All the examples shown have similar functions
  that make them effective web authoring software
• The ability to add and format text (including
  changing font size, font colour, line spacing,
  and paragraph justification)
• The ability to create frames
• The ability to add and use tables so that the
  layout can be WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
  Get), regardless of the screen resolution of the
  viewers computer monitor

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Web authoring software

• The ability to import data from other
  applications (e.g. text that has been
  word-processed, images that have been
  manipulated)
• The ability to add hyperlinks to other web pages
• The ability to anchor together different sections
  on a web page
• The ability to add mailto links (i.e. a link that
  automatically launches the viewers email
  application so that they can create a
  pre-addressed)

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Web authoring software

• The ability to preview web pages before they are
  uploaded
• The ability to test view the web page in
  different web browsers
• The ability to allow the web designer to view
  and change where necessary the HTML created by
  the web authoring software

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Web authoring software

• The ability to use cascading style sheets (CSS)
  this is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g.
  fonts, colours, spacing) to web pages
• The ability to create forms that can be used to
  collect data these can be used in conjunction
  with databases

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AS Level ICT

• Selection and use of appropriate software Web
  browsers