Computer Applications for Business 4

1
Computer Applications for Business (4)

• Last Week
• Organizing your files
• More Word Processing
• Styles Creating Templates
• Inserting fields and tables
• Excel Practical graphs, Linking data between
  sheets
• This week
• Checkpoints Graphs Styles Inserting fields
  and symbols
• Cross-references
• Newsletters and brochures
• Keeping track of changes
• Assignment Workshop

Lets check that it all worked out
2
Checkpoint 1 Graphs

• Did it all work on the Supermarket spreadsheet?
• When would you use stacked bars/towers?
• Did you have problems getting axis scales to
  display?
• And a few theoretical points
• What does a pie-chart show?
• How do you choose between a line-graph and a
  tower or bar chart?
• How do you emphasise small differences in large
  numbers
• and how do you minimize them?

3
Checkpoint 2 Can you do Word Styles?

• Start by getting Normal style right
• Do this with Format / Styles and Formatting
• Choose font, size, Tab positions and Paragraph
  formats
• Then fix up the Headings to your taste
• Build new styles as required
• For example ordered and unordered lists,
  table-cells
• Easy way to create a new style
• get a paragraph to be what you want, select it,
  then give it a name in the Style box of the
  formatting toolbar
• To bring an existing style into line with your
  selection
• click down-arrow on the style you want to change
• and select Update to Match Selection

4
Tables

• Create full-width tables with Insert Table (or
  use a button on the Table and Borders toolbar)
• Adjust column width by dragging with the
  mouse,or use the Table menu to adjust things
• You may need some new styles to
• Avoid justifying text in cells of table
• Centre the data in some cells
• Provide Column- and Row-Headings
• Try splitting and merging cells to get complex
  layouts How do you display a new toolbar or
  edit contents?

5
Properties and Fields

• File Properties let you define document
  attributes such as Author, Title, Subject
• Some show up when you hover over name in
  Explorer
• And act as Fields you can insert into the text
• Properties also shows statistics such as
  word-count, and how long you spent editing the
  document
• Other Fields are automatically defined, for
  example
• Page number, document name (freddo.doc), date,
  time
• Particularly useful for insertion in text of
  footer
• Many of these will be useful if you build a new
  document from the current one
• Just change the Title and Subject properties
• Other stuff will have changed automatically

6
Inserting Fields

• Example building a footer
• View the footer (View Header and Footer, or
  double-click if youre in Page View)
• Insert author name on left of footer
• Tab to the middle and add the page number
• Tab to right and type Printed on followed by
  date
• To get the author name in, youll need to Insert
  Field
• Author is a piece of Document Information
• Can also do page and date that way, but its
  easier to use the buttons in the Footer dialogue
  box
• Beware Field updates are not shown immediately
• Put cursor on one and press F9 to update it

7
Other Insert Menu Goodies

• You can also insert Symbols
• Thats how I get things like ? into presentations
• Useful for mathematical symbols, Greek letters
  etc.and things like dashes (which are NOT
  hyphens)
• And References such as automatic Table of
  contents
• Based on headings (another reason to use styles)
• A must for major documents like your dissertation
• Try doing one for a document you made earlier

8
Inserting Cross-references

• Used when you want to refer to another part of
  the document such as see Chapter 2 Making a
  Fortune
• Insert / Reference / Cross-Reference
• You can choose headings, numbered items etc as
  targets
• And select what is to appear in the text
• Bookmarks
• If the target isnt one of these items, you can
  bookmark it
• Rather like HTML name, you attach a name to some
  text
• Can use it as a way of creating symbolic
  names,for example, every reference to
  ProductName produces whatever text was given that
  bookmark name

9
Cross-reference Exercise

• Download Group Guidelines from Business web-site
  http//www.winchester.ac.uk/document/BizGuidelines
  .doc
• Insert a new cross-reference into your copy
• Find Also see information at Leeds Metro and
  Sheffield Universities (it should be on p.11)
• Change it to read Also see xxx and information
  at Leeds Metro and Sheffield Universities where
  xxx is the reference
• Your reference is to the heading
  Acknowledgements so should appear asAlso see
  Acknowledgements on p.16 and information
• Note that you need to put the text and
  page-number part of the reference in separately
• Challenge See if you can add a hyperlink on p.7
  to the Common Academic Regulations on the Portal

10
More Templates in Word

• Templates are files in which you store
• Style definitions (last week)
• Repeated text
• So its useful to have a template for your
  letters
• Easy to make
• File Page Setup for margins
• Type in the fixed text
• Define the styles you need
• As shown, plus lists etc
• Provide page-number footing (but not on page 1)
• Save As document template, for example letter.dot

Your address heading goes here
Email G.Bloke_at_winchester.ac.uk Phone
[phone]
2007
Space forAddressee nameand address
Dear
Dear ,
Space for subject
Yours sincerely, Gary Bloke
11
Newsletters

• Generally has a Masthead across the front page
• Then multiple columns, newspaper-style
• Word lets you divide a document into Sections,
  and format each differently in this example
• Section 1 is single-column for the masthead
• Section 2 is two-column
• You dont need to make a separate section for the
  footer
• Use of pictures breaks up text that might
  otherwise be boring

Bear-fanciers News
March 2007 Volume 3
Issue 3
Sooty Rupert There have been many sightings of
Rupert at various altitudes since the Professor
developed his new ultra-rising yeast, but few as
strange as that shown in this photograph, tak
en above the chimney of Wilsons factory.
Wilsons have consistently denied
that their smoke-stack causes pollution, and
the Brown family has long sought evidence that it
does. Managing director Magnus Fumare will appear
in Nutwood Magistrates court next Tuesday, under
charges laid by the Environment Agency. Rupert is
undergoing treatment at Nutwood Royal Laundry
Published each month by Arctophile Enterprises
Page 1
12
Brochures

• Example is tri-fold flyer
• Set page layout to Landscape
• Divide page into three columns (fine-tune them so
  you can fold the brochure)
• pour text into each page of the brochure,
  ending with a column break (Insert menu)
• Sometimes its easier to lay out the design using
  a table
• Define both width and height of each logical page
• Have full formatting power within these cells

Revealed when you open
Back cover
Front cover
Page 2
Page 4
Page 3
13
Layouts the Easy Way

• Word lets you print 2-up and 4-up
• Useful for saving trees
• Dont have to worry about scaling, margins etc.
• But you may need to worry about sequence of pages
• What order do you need for a 4-page booklet
  folded from one sheet of A4?
• Your printer may do this for you through
  Finishing on the Printers Properties menu
• What options are supported on your printer?
• Some duplex printers support Booklet printing

14
Keeping Track of Changes

• Valuable facility when working with others on a
  report
• In Word, Tools/Track Changes lets you
• Highlight changes to the text as you make them
• Preserve deleted text (with or without showing
  it)
• Relate changes to the user making them
• Once youve tracked the changes, you can
• Accept or reject them to create a revised base
  document
• Print with or without showing the changed text
• Either way, you can print the revision bars
• Notice that the Reviewing Toolbar appears in Word
  XP
• Find out how to alter the appearance of changes

15
Comparing and Merging Documents

• Whats the difference between Doc1 and Doc2?
• Open Doc1
• Select Tools / Compare and Merge to open Doc2
• Display is as if Doc2 were the result of updating
  Doc1
• You can accept or reject those changes with the
  Toolbar
• Very useful when several people working on
  document
• For example, in Group projects later in your
  course
• Word will often spot that documents have a
  common ancestor, and offer to merge them for you
• In Word 2003, you can also display files side-by
  side
• Its an option on the Window menu

16
Electronic Mail

• Simple principle, modelled on a (paper) post
  office
• Sender uses program to edit an e-mail note file,
  consisting of an Address header (user_at_domain)and
  some contents (subject and message text)
• Signs on to a Mail server, and transmits the file
  to server
• Server examines address header forwards file
  across the Internet to mail server in domain
  given in header
• Receiving mail server waits for named user to
  request incoming mail, then sends the file
  containing e-mail
• Different servers have different behaviours
• Most ISPs delete the file when you read it in
• College system leaves the mail on the server

17
Hotmail

• Many web-sites offer free e-mail to get you to
  view their sites (usually containing advertising)
• Examples are Hotmail.com (Microsoft),
  Unforgettable.com, and various search-engine
  sites
• You compose on-line, creating mail-file directly
  on server
• Server routes your file to target domain
  mail-server
• Incoming mail stays on Hotmail server view it
  online
• Benefits and drawbacks
• Can be accessed from anyones browser anywhere
• Reasonably private (your mail isnt on ISPs
  server)
• Encourages long periods online (though you can
  write text first, then paste it in)
• Only moderately easy to organize mail into
  folders

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Assignment Workshop 1

• Remember the structure
• Executive Summary (what you want why its worth
  doing)
• Analysis of the Business Case
• What happens if we do nothing (BaU Business as
  Usual)
• What should happen if we go ahead
• What is the DIFFERENCE
• Requires working out
• BaU cashflow
• Expected cashflow if we go ahead (all costs, all
  incomes)
• And comparing them
• Also consider what could go wrong
• Work out the cashflow in this contingency
  situation

19
Estimating Revenue and Costs

• Best thing is to construct two spreadsheets with
  months going down the sheet
• First is Business as usual assume you dont
  build
• Second is what happens if you do build
• You can omit building costs because these are
  funded by the mortgage this means mortgage
  payments do have to be included
• For each month, include
• Average number of rooms occupied
• Income obtained from them
• Cost of mortgage (for the do it case)
• Business case depends on the Difference between
  sheets

20
Mortgages

• A mortgage is an instrument that allows you to
  pay interest and pay off a debt with constant
  payments
• At the start, most of the payment is interest
• By the end, most of it is repayment, as you owe
  less
• Your introduction to Excels Financial functions
• Ensure your sheet contains
• The principal (loan to be repaid so its
  negative)
• Number of periods (60 months)
• Interest per period (you can approximate to 1/12
  of annual)
• Name all these cells
• Now find a function to calculate the PayMenT and
  put it in one of the cells that work out monthly
  mortgage payments

21
Composite Documents

• Earlier, you copied data between spreadsheet
  pages
• Because of extra data stored on the
  clipboard,can also copy between different
  applications
• Most useful for building a report under Word,
  including
• Figures drawings and pictures
• Tables of figures maintained on a spreadsheet
• Charts and graphs from a spreadsheet
• Information selected from a database
• As before, you can Paste in a snapshot..
• .. Or link the current values from the data
  source
• Bread and butter of report-writing

22
Composite Document Practical

• Composite Document exercises starting on page 8
• 1. Creating a Spreadsheet ?
• 2. Making a Graph of the Data ?
• 3. Making a drawing
• 4. Adding a Picture to the document
• 5. Adding a Table to the document
• Static pasting versus Dynamic linking
• 6. Adding a Graph
• 7. Adding an Object

23
Making an Investment Decision

• Business consist largely of taking calculated
  risks with the expectation of their being
  profitable
• How do we calculate the risk?
• And the potential gains to be made?
• A good guess is that Tomorrow will be like
  today, unless somebody does something to make it
  different
• So project forward the Business as usual
  situation
• And compare with result of making the change
• Justify any assumptions
• Cost out the impact of the investment
• Set goal for the profit that will justify
  investment
• Usually have hurdle rate below which its not
  worth the trouble of further investigation

24
Evaluate this Business Case

• Your company issues its software on diskettes,
  and this is becoming a significant expense as the
  size of your product increases.
• You ship 1000 packages a month, and have been
  offered a CD-burner that can handle all your
  production requirements in 3 hours a day. It
  costs 25,000.
• Blank discs cost you 0.50 each, less than the
  six 20p diskettes you currently use for each
  package. CD labels cost you 10p each, against
  the 2p for diskette labels (so treat media costs
  as 60p or 22p).
• Assume that you need someone dedicated to the
  machine for one hour each day, to set up a
  production run this is the same labour cost
  currently incurred setting up to copy diskettes.
  
• Assume also that your current diskette-copier is
  fully-depreciated, but may start needing
  maintenance in the next year.
• Work out the cost of producing the media
  component of each package. Do the savings
  obtained justify the proposed investment? What
  changes are likely to improve or degrade this
  business-case?

25
A Possible Approach
26
What Happens If?

• Need to be able to handle changes in you
  assumptions
• For example, blank CDs drop to 30p each
• Or CD-writer needs expensive maintenance
• These are called contingencies, and must be
  considered
• Negative contingencies are most important
• They could make the project uneconomic
• Can never be ignored
• Positive contingencies dont always need
  quantifying
• They are the jam on the cake
• Any assumed value needs to have a cell to itself
• Work out if it needs one cell, or ability to
  change with time

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Module Assignment

• Due 330pm Wednesday 15 Nov 2007(Week 8)

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Module Assignment

• You should now be competent with
• Microsoft Word and Excel
• Laying out logical letters and reports
• Goal of assignment is to get apply your skills to
  a business problem
• Use Excel to explore a business case
• Build a report to sell your conclusions to
  management
• The report will be a composite document including
  a spread-sheet to show projected cash-flow
• Dont worry if there are parts of this you cant
  yet do
• We will address any problems over the next few
  weeks

29
Assignment Subject

• Your company is considering expanding a 100-room
  hotel in a French ski resort
• Hotel is busiest in winter months but also does
  reasonable business at other times of year It
  is closed from August to November
• At peak holiday periods, you turn away almost as
  many potential guests as you can accommodate
• Market research indicates that hotel could fill
  50 more rooms in Dec-Mar
• After paying housekeeping costs, average income
  per occupied room is 1095 per month, including
  profits in the health club, restaurants and bar
  (which have spare capacity)

• Have agreed plan to build 40 rooms
• Cost 10,000 per room to build
• Start May rooms can be occupied by December
  reopening
• Bank will offer you a 400,000 mortgage on May 1,
  at an annual interest rate of 12
• During the construction period, you will not be
  able to use 50 rooms overlooking construction
  site,
• This will reduce average May-July occupancy to 30
  rooms
• Should you go ahead with the project, or stay as
  100-room hotel?
• may need to consider risk here

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Suggested Approach

• First make up your own mind by doing the
  following
• Analyse the proposal
• Cost it out month-by-month down a spread-sheet,
  modelling Do nothing, and Build with Mortgage
  cases
• Compare cash-flow for do proposal do
  nothing cases
• Estimate the risk how sensitive is cash-flow to
  minor errors in your assumptions?
• Then write a report that convinces the reader
• Management summary
• Body of Report
• No need to produce an appendix in this case
  (its where market research and how to do it
  information would be)

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Report Structure

• Management summary (20)
• Your recommendation and what it does for the
  business
• Print this at start, but write it last
• Body of Report
• Current situation
• Proposed changes
• Effect of changes on the business (backed up
  with your spreadsheet)
• Assumptions you've made why
• Impact of changed assumptions (Contingencies)
• Risk to business from delay or cost overrun
• Possible beneficial changes and their value

• Potential Added Goodies
• Graphical representations
• Instead of just showing list of figures ..
• give line graph showing change in cumulative
  cash-flow
• maybe also produce bar-chart of monthly
  revenue/expense ..
• Any other ideas?
• See Edward Tuftes brilliant book The Visual
  Display of Quantitative Information in the Library

What if spreadsheets can help here
32
Marking Scheme

• Equal weight for each of
• Executive Summary
• Up to a page covering your key messages
• Analysis
• Show that you understand the business
• Spreadsheet correctness and elegance
• Do your sheets express the facts well?
• Structure and integration of report
• Use of styles, clarity of expression, tables and
  graphs integrated into flow of your narrative
• Credibility of report
• Would your management believe you?