Grade 9 IT: Application Software Guide
Grade 9 IT: Application Software Guide
UNIT
3 APPLICATION SOFTWARE
UNIT OUTCOMES
At the end of this unit, learners will be able to:
Indent a paragraph.
Align text by using icons on the menu bar and selecting paragraph from
formatting menu.
Apply bullets and numbers in text.
Insert and delete page break and page number in a document.
Add and delete headers and footers in a document
Manipulate data in spread sheet.
Create a presentation in PowerPoint
UNIT OVERVIEW
From your earlier grades (grade 7 and 8) lessons of computer system unit, you know
that computer is a system that comprises hardware and software components.
You also discussed input devices, output devices, computer memory and central
processing units under hardware components of a computer. In addition to this,
you also covered how to use application and system software such as operating
system, utility software and driver software.
In this unit, you will enhance your skills of using application software such
as word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. You will also practice
different Microsoft Office Suite applications or any other free application soft-
ware such as LibreOffice.
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Brainstorming
1. What makes application software different from system software?
2. Which application software had you used in your grade 8 ICT subject?
3. Do you get word editors, spreadsheet and presentation application on
smartphones or tablets?
The software used by general public users in their daily tasks most often is
application software. Some examples of application software are:
Word processing software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Application software may consist of a single program, such as Microsoft Notepad,
for writing and editing simple text. It may also consist of a collection of programs
called a software package, which work together to accomplish a task. Application
software may also include a larger collection of programs (a software suite),
related but independent programs, which have a common user interface such as
Microsoft Office Suite.
Brainstorming
1. What word processing application software had you used in your grade 8
IT subject?
2. What different mobile apps have you used recently?
Word Processing refers to the act of using a computer to create, edit, save and
print documents including, but not limited to, textual reports, letters, memos,
newsletters and brochures. In order to perform word processing, specialized
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Tip
Text editors such as Notepad, which only work on plain text with no formatting,
should not be confused with word processing software. Text editors are used to
work with files in plain text format such as source code of computer programs
and configuration files of an operating system.
Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar A pop-up menu appears
Click the tile that represents Microsoft Word 2016 or later version Click on a
Blank document and blank document will appear (See Figure 3.2).
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Method 2
Click the start button on the window taskbar Type Word (See Figure 3.3
Click to Word icon to open new blank document.
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Brainstorming
When we write a letter or a passage in our English or local language, how do
we organize our ideas? Discuss the relationships between words, phrases,
sentences, paragraphs and passages.
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Keyboard
Letter Button Functions shortcut
key
A Bullets To start text/Line/
Paragraph with a bulleted
list, you can choose
different bullet styles by
clicking the drop-down
arrow of the Bulleted List.
B Numbering To start text/line/Paragraph
with a Numbered list,
you can choose diffeent
Number styles by clicking
the drop down-arrow of
the Numbered List.
C Multilevel List To start text/line/Paragraph
with amultilevel list, you
can choose multi- level list
styles by clicking the drop-
down arrow.
D Left Align- Aligns text to the Left of Ctrl + L
ment the page to format a para-
graph.
E Center Align- Aligns text to the center of Ctrl + E
ment the page(for paragraph for-
matting).
F Right Align- Aligns text to the right of Ctrl + R
ment the page.
G Justification Aligns text to both the Ctrl + J
right and the left margins
of the page by adding the
extra space between words
for the clean look in a word
document.
H Decrease Decrease indent means
Indent decreasing the gap between
the left margin and left
of the paragraph in the
document (for paragraph
formatting).
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a. Setting Indents
Indentation means how far you want to move the paragraph away from the left
or the right margin. Look through your grade textbooks to see different types of
indentation used. In Microsoft Word, there are four methods to do paragraph
indentation:
The Tab Key method
The Ruler method
The Indent Command method
The Paragraph Dialog Box method
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4. Select All Paragraph you want to indent. In our example, select both
paragraphs.
Tip:
To select all paragraphs in a word document, you can use Ctrl + A key board
short cut keys.
5. Click and drag the desired indent marker. In the example below (See Figure
3.9), first-line indent marker or top ruler marker is moved to the right.
6. Release the mouse. The paragraphs will be indented.
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b. Text Alignment
Alignment determines the appearance and orientation of the edges of the
paragraph (i.e. left-alignment, right-alignment, centered or justified text).
The paragraph section offers four buttons for controlling the horizontal
alignment of a paragraph (See Figure 3.5 above). To alter the paragraph alignments,
simply put the cursor anywhere in the paragraph and click one of these buttons.
Left-aligned Text
Left-aligned paragraph’s text is aligned evenly along the left margin. Most of
the time, this alignment of paragraph will create “jagged” space on the right of
the paragraph (See Figure 3.14). The following steps show you how to create left
aligned text.
1. Select the text that you want to align. In our example, select the two
paragraphs (See Figure 3.14).
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Align Left or press Ctrl + L.
[
Figure 3.14 Left-aligned paragraph
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Right-aligned Text
Right alignment is exactly the mirror of the left alignment. Word will line up the
last character of the last word of each line against the right page margin.
Center-aligned Text
Centre alignment aims to make equal spaces between the left and right page
margins. Therefore, the line of text will be at the relative center of the page. The use
of center alignment is for titles and headings, not often used for large paragraphs.
Justified Alignment
Justified alignment creates justified text by adjusting the space between each
word until all lines within a paragraph are equal in length. Unlike left or right
alignment, justified alignment removes the jagged appearance.
1. Click anywhere on the paragraph you want to align and click the Center
button available on the Home tab or simply press the Ctrl + E keys. In our
example, we click the title of the document and press Center button from
paragraph command (See Figure 3.15).
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Justify.
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3. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command.
A menu of bullet styles will appear.
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To remove numbers or bullets from a list, select the list and click the
Bulleted or Numbered list command.
When you are editing a list, you can press Enter to start a new line,
and the new line will automatically have a bullet or number. When
you have reached the end of your list, press Enter twice to return to
normal formatting.
By dragging the indent markers on the Ruler, you can customize the
indention of your list and the distance between the text and the bullet
or number (See Figure 3.20).
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Figure 3.24 Indent a selected paragraph by one level pressing Tab key
3. Select Arithmetic Logic unit, control unit and register text and increase
indent by two levels pressing the Tab key two times. It will look like the
following (See Figure 3.25).
Figure 3.25 Indent a selected paragraph by two levels pressing Tab key twice
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4. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the Memory text line and increase
the indentation by one level pressing Tab key (See Figure 3.26).
5. Select Internal Memory and External Memory text and increase the
indentation by two levels pressing Tab key twice (See Figure 326).
6. Select Application Software and System Software text and increase the
indentation by one level pressing Tab key (See Figure 3.26).
7. Select System Development Software and System Management Software
text and increase the indentation by two levels pressing Tab key twice (See
Figure 3.26).
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Inventory
1. Office
a) Desk
i). Top drawer
(1). Pencils
(2). Stapler
(3). Ruler
ii). Middle drawer
(1). Paper
(2). Tax forms
b) Filing cabinet
2. Laboratory equipment
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Figure 3.34 Selecting the Page Break command on the Insert tab
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4. The page break will be inserted into the document, and the text will move to
the next page (See Figure 3.35).
5. By default, breaks are invisible. If you want to see the breaks in your
document, click the Show/Hide command on the Home tab.
1. If you want to delete a page break, you will first need to` show the break in
your document as in in step 4 above (See Figure 3.35).
2. Locate the page break you want to delete, and then place the insertion point
at the beginning of the break.
3. Press the Delete key. The break will be deleted from the document.
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KEY CONCEPTS
Brainstorming
1. Have you ever process tabular data? What do you use to process this kind of data?
2. What is the use of spreadsheet software? Can you mention some of
proprietary and free spreadsheet software?
3. What is the difference between word processing and spreadsheet software?
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When you enter a formula in a cell, the formula is stored internally and the results
are displayed in the cell. You can view the underlying formula in the formula bar
when the cell is active, when you double-click the cell to edit it or when you use
the Formulas tab.
To allow Excel to distinguish formulas from data, all formulas should begin
with an equal sign (=). To display formula in Excel, follow the following steps.
1. Launch Microsoft Excel and then open a new blank workbook.
2. Click cell A1.
3. Type =5+3*3/2-4 and press Enter. You just entered a formula.
Take note that formulas should be typed without spaces, but if you type spaces,
Excel eliminates them when you press Enter.
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While you are displaying formulas in the worksheet, you will not see
the results of those formulas.
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You can use either uppercase or lowercase when you type a cell refer-
ence in a formula. For example, it does not matter whether you type
B4 or b4 in the formula you enter. Excel changes the reference to up-
percase when you press Enter.
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4. Instead of typing = 10.5 + 15 + 23.5 to calculate total marks for student 1, type
the cell address of the cell you want to reference first in the formula, cell B2
in our example which contains the value 10.5. A blue border will appear
around the referenced cell.
Tip
An alternate way to use a cell reference is to click the cell being referenced while
creating or modifying a formula. For example, instead of typing B and 2 from the
keyboard, you can click on B2 cell, and then B2 cell reference is added into the
formula. This method is usually quicker and eliminates the possibility of typing
an incorrect cell identifier, especially if you need to create a formula with many
cell references.
5. Type the mathematical operator you want to use. In our example, we will
type the addition sign (+) (See Figure 3.47).
6. Type or select the cell address of the cell you want to reference second in
the formula, cell C2 in our example. A red border will appear around the
referenced cell. (See Figure 3.48).
7. Type the mathematical operator you want to use. In our example, we will
type the addition sign (+) (See Figure 3.47).
8. Type or select the cell address of the cell you want to reference third in the
formula, cell D2 in our example.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8, but for E2 cell reference (See Figure 3.47).
10. Press Enter on your keyboard. The formula calculates and the value will be
displayed in the cell. If you select the cell again, notice that the cell displays
the result while the formula bar displays the formula.
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Figure 3.47 Press enter to complete the formula and display the result
2. After you release the mouse, the formula will be copied to the selected cells
(See Figure 3.48).
3. Save the workbook in your Excel folder as G9 IT Students’ Mark Sheet.
Tip
Instead of dragging the fill handle over the cells you want to fill, you can double
click the fill handle and the formula copied over the cell you want to fill.
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To edit the formula, double-click the cell to view and edit the formula directly
within the cell. Notice that, by default, new formulas in Excel use relative
references, i.e. in cell F3 it will be =B3 + C3 + D3 + E3 and in F4, the formula
becomes =B4 + C4 + D4 + E4. It continues like this until F6. You can see the formula
in formula bar (See Figure 3.49 below).
To use absolute cell references in formula, use the above created work book saved
as G9 IT Students’ Mark Sheet and follow the steps below.
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1. Open G9 IT Students’ Mark Sheet that you created as Figure 3.50 above.
2. Assume we need to add a common bonus mark for all students. In our
example, we add B9 to the total mark. The formula is updated to =B2 + C2 +
D2 + E2 + B9 (See Figure 3.51).
3. We need to make B9 absolute reference, since it is the same for all students
and should not be changed as we copy the formula to the other student. To
make it absolute, you can press F4 after selecting it or type dollar sign ($)
before B and 9 (See Figure 3.51).
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KEY CONCEPTS
1. Spreadsheet software is application software that is capable of managing
tabular data.
2. Excel is one of spreadsheet software.
3. Excel sheet is arranged in rows and columns.
4. In Excel, all formulas start with equal (=) sign.
5. Cell reference identifies cell’s location and values.
6. Cell references can be absolute and relative.
7. An absolute cell reference remains constant even if the reference is copied
or moved to another cell or sheet.
8. Relative cell reference is the default behavior of a formula in which the
reference changes according to the position of the cell when it is copied to
other cell,
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Brainstorming
1. Have you ever presented your ideas in front of your classmates? What do
you think a good presentation should have?
2. What is the use of presentation software? Can you mention some of propri-
etary and free presentation software?
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To create a blank presentation, Select New, choose Blank presentation and click
on the Create icon.
To add a new slide, make sure that you are on the Home tab. The New Slide
button of the Home tab will add slides to your presentation.
Clicking on the bottom will give you a choice of layouts. You can choose
which layout you want for your next slide. Select a slide layout by
clicking on its image in the Office Theme gallery.
Tip
To insert new slide page, you can use Ctrl + M short cut keys.
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the Layout button in the Slides group of the home tab. Click on a new layout
and it will change the layout of the slide.
a)
b)
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b)
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3. On the right side of the Theme thumbnails, there is a scroll bar and an Arrow
Down button, which will offer more designs, as seen in Figure 3.57(b) above.
If you are online, you can get more themes from Microsoft Office Online.
a)
b)
Using the Format Background feature, you can choose fill colors, gradients,
transparencies, textures or pictures for your background. When you have desired
background fill effect, select Close to apply it to the selected slide or choose Apply
to All to add the background to all of the slides in the presentation.
Designs can be added to all of the slides or to selected slides. To select multiple
slides, click on a slide in the Thumbnail pane of the navigation bar and then hold
down the control key and click on any other slides you want to apply the design to.
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Mini Project
Prepare a Presentation on Tourism Resources of Ethiopia following the instructions
given below.
1. Launch New Microsoft Power Point.
2. Prepare a presentation on Tourism Resources of Ethiopia and save it in a file
(See Figure 3.70 below).
The presentation should have the following.
Slide Layout: two Contents - one content text description and the other
picture
Theme: Integral
Background Style: Style-2
Bulleted List
Smart Art Graphics: use covert bulleted list as Vertical Bulleted List
3. Click Slide Show tab.
4. Click the left mouse button or press the spacebar/Enter key to view the next
slide.
All the slides in the presentation are shown in Figure 3.70.
5. Press Esc to exit the slide show.
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KEY CONCEPTS
✍ Presentation software is application software that enables you to organize
and present information.
✍ Microsoft PowerPoint is one of presentation software.
✍ In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can manage the layout of slide, apply theme,
change slide background, and add tables, charts, SmartArts, pictures, online
picturesand video contents.
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database management software. The main points covered under this unit are
summarized as follows.
Word processing application software is used to process, create, edit,
format, copy, save and print document including, but not limited to,
reports, letters, memos, newsletters and brochures.
A file created using Microsoft Office Word is known as a document.
Formatting a paragraph means changing the appearance of the
paragraph, which includes indenting, setting alignment, making a
paragraph bulleted, numbered and multilevel lists, and inserting space
between lines and paragraphs.
To format a paragraph, you can use a command found in paragraph
section of Home tab.
Page break is a location in a document where one page ends and a new
page begins and there are two types of page break, namely manual and
automatic.
Automatic page break is done automatically by the software program
when it reaches to the end of the page.
A manual page break is done when the part of a paragraph extends
more than a page and, the document editor wants it to be in the same
page.
Page numbering is used to identify each page in a document, and a
document can have more than one page numbering styles, especially if
it has more than one section such as cover page, contents and body of
the document.
Headers and Footers contain additional information about the document
and they will appear by default in each of the documents at the top and
the bottom part of a document respectively.
To manipulate tabular data and calculation, the best application software
to be used is Microsoft Office Excel.
MS Excel file created for managing data in tabular form is called
worksheet.
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Excel differentiates data and formula by equal sign, i.e. if a data has
equal sign, then the data is a formula.
Excel formula can contain relative or absolute cell reference which
identifies a cell’s location absolutely without change and relative change
according to the locations of the formula respectively.
Presentation software is a tool used to create visual presentation.
A presentation package helps both the speaker and the participant with
access to his/her ideas and visual information respectively.
After launching the PowerPoint application, we can create a PowerPoint
using new option of file tab, open option of file tab or using recent that
displays a list of recently created presentations.
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Absolute cell references in Excel remain constant even when the formula is copied or moved to another cell, whereas relative cell references adjust automatically based on the formula's new location . Absolute references are used when a specific cell value is needed consistently across multiple calculations, as seen when adding a fixed bonus mark for all students . Relative references are useful when similar calculations are needed across a range of cells, such as summing multiple grades where the row changes but the operation remains the same .
Using cell references in Excel formulas rather than hardcoding numbers allows for dynamic data management, where changes in one cell automatically update all dependent formulas . This ensures data integrity, as it prevents errors that could arise from manually updating multiple formulas, particularly in large worksheets with complex interconnections. For instance, adjusting a single grade in a student's row automatically recalculates the overall score if cell references are used .
The 'Show Formulas' feature in Excel displays all formulas in the worksheet cells instead of calculated results, which helps in reviewing and debugging the formulas used across a worksheet. To activate 'Show Formulas', click the 'Formulas' tab and then 'Show Formulas' in the Formula Auditing group . This feature is significant for workbook management and troubleshooting as it allows users to verify the correctness of formulas and ensure that all calculations are based on the intended data, particularly useful in complex or collaboratively-developed spreadsheets .
Modifying a bulleted list in PowerPoint improves clarity and audience engagement by customizing bullet size, color, and style to match the presentation theme or emphasize specific points . To format a bulleted list, click inside the text box, access the 'Format' tab, then adjust settings in the 'Bullets and Numbering' menu, such as changing bullet shapes or colors . Tailoring bulleted lists helps highlight key information and can make a presentation more visually appealing .
The arrangement and organization of slide content significantly impact the effectiveness of a PowerPoint presentation by influencing readability and audience engagement. Well-organized slides guide viewer's attention and enhance comprehension by following a logical sequence and structured hierarchy, such as titles, bullet points, and images . Features like slide layouts, indentation options, and smart art can be used to ensure content is displayed optimally. Using consistent formats and considering elements such as font size and contrast ensures that key points are highlighted and information is communicated effectively .
The Fill Handle in Excel, a small square at the bottom-right corner of a selected cell, is used to quickly copy a cell's content or formula to adjacent cells. For example, when a calculation needs to be applied across multiple rows, such as summing scores for several students, dragging the Fill Handle applies the already established formula across the desired cells automatically . This tool streamlines repetitive data entry tasks, ensuring consistency and accuracy .
Themes and background styles in PowerPoint provide a cohesive and professional look by applying consistent colors, fonts, and effects across slides, enhancing the aesthetic appeal and readability of a presentation . They can be customized by changing colors, adding background images, or using gradients through the Format Background dialog, allowing a designer to align presentation visuals with specific branding or thematic requirements . This customization supports effective communication of ideas and can better hold audience attention .
To format line and paragraph spacing in Word, select the paragraphs, then click on 'Line and Paragraph Spacing' in the Home tab to choose the desired spacing option. You can also add space before or remove space after paragraphs . Proper spacing improves document readability by distinguishing between separate ideas or sections, preventing text from appearing cramped and making long documents easier to navigate .
Presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint offers significant advantages in organizing and presenting information, particularly in educational contexts, by allowing the integration of multimedia elements such as text, images, graphs, and videos, which can cater to various learning styles . It enables a structured presentation flow with easy navigation through slides and supports the use of visual aids to reinforce understanding. Additionally, the capability to incorporate interactive features like quizzes or hyperlinks enhances student engagement and allows educators to present complex concepts in a clear, concise manner .
To insert a page break in Word, place the cursor where the new page should begin, then select 'Breaks' from the Page Layout tab, and choose 'Page' . To remove a page break, place the cursor immediately before the break and press 'Delete'. Page breaks are necessary for controlling the flow of text, especially when dealing with sections that should not be split across pages, such as headings followed by tables or images .