Document layout and presentation.

Unit A Portfolio: Data handling

Contents

Document layout and presentation

Your choice of layout features always depends on your document purpose and its readers. The following features are important:

Page attributes – Are a page’s orientation (which way up it is) can be either portrait or landscape. The following are standard paper sizes:

∙ A4 (210x297mm)

∙ B4 (257x364mm)

∙ Letter Size (8.4x11in)

∙ Legal (8.5x14in)

White space – Areas of your documents where there is no text or graphics are called white space. This makes information easier to reader.

Tabulation – Are known as tabs stops or tabs. These are standardised distance across the page. Usually set by default at every half inch. By using tabs you insure that text insert at different points across the page are all lined up correctly. A special type of tabs is a leader tab. This is a solid, dotted or dashed that fills up the space, usually left blank when you press the tab key. Z
Page breaks – When your key is in text and you get to the bottom of the page, your application start a new page for you. Page breaks application inserts automatically for you are called soft page breaks. Page breaks you can insert yourself are called hard page breaks.
Special symbols – You sometimes needs to insert a special a symbol or a special character into a document. E.g. ©
Page numbering – Is a simple matter of inserting a number. However there are many options – Header or Footer, left, centred or right aligned and change font.
Headers and Footers – Headers are at the top o the page before the first line of text. Footers are at the bottom of the page after the last line. It is usually used to show information such as page number, author, date etc.
Borders and shading – Borders are the edges or lines around a table, paragraph, or a piece of text. Add border you to any or all size of an object or a document. You could choice different border setting, line styles, width and colour also shading.
Indents – There are three types of paragraph indents, all of which can be increased and decreased on width. Indents and margins are not the same. Indent is distance between the text and the margins. Margins are the distance between the text and the edge of the paper.
Line spacing – Is the amount of space left between each line of text. Standard line spacing options are single, one and a half and double.
Bullets and numbering – With this you can add or remove bullet points and numbering.
Fonts, styles and sizes – The most common styles are:

Italic
Bold
Underlined

The most common effects are:

Strikethrough
Small Caps
Superscripted
Subscripted
ALL CAPS

Justification – Fully justifying text means making both the left and right margins even. Today most business documents are produced using a justified left margin and an unjustified right margin.

Left aligned means the text lines up to the left,

Right aligned means the text line up on the right and

Centre means centred in the page

Contents and indexes – Textbooks have a contents list at the beginning. Web sites usually have contents buttons on there first pages. Many sites are also designed so that the contents list is on the screen somewhere at all times. Contents list shows you organisation of documents and help readers find their way around. They also serve as a sort of summary, showing you the main topics of the documents.

Indexes are alphabetical list of names subjects etc. with page numbers and are usually position at the end of the book. Most Help junctions allow you to find what you need though contents and index. Use content when you have an only have a general idea of what you are looking for. Use the index when you know exactly what you are looking for.

Column layout – There are three basic types of column layout: newspaper column, positioned column and column in tables. Most programmes enable you to arrange all or part of your document in newspaper column. Text flow from the bottom of one column to the top of the next. When you need to adjust the amount of space between your columns drag the column marker to its new position. A positioned column is when a graphic or a heading text takes up the first, narrower column and the main text takes up the other wider column. Positioned column are useful for inserting company logos and side-headings.
Margins – Margins are the distance between the text and the edges of the page. In most programmes you adjust the margin by dragging the margin boundaries on the ruler. When you are binding several pages together uses gutter and mirror margins.

Gutter margins run down the centre of the open booklet. When you print documents on both sides of the paper, mirror margins insure the margins mirror each other – they have the same width.

Document 1: Agenda

An agenda is a list of subjects to be discussed at a meeting. The elements of a typical agenda are as follow:

Apologies for absence (from people who will not be able to attend the meeting).
Minutes of last meeting (a summary of the points discussed at the last meeting).
Matters arising from minute (an opportunity to discuss those issues raised at the last meeting and to check that any action that should have been taken as a result of that discussion has been carried out).
List of items (to be discussed at this meeting).
AOB (any other business – a point in the meeting where people can bring up issues not listed in the agenda and have these discussed if there is the time).

Date and time of next meeting.

This is an example of an agenda:

Document 2: Invoice

An invoice is a statement of how much money is owed for goods or services. They are sent out by companies to customers to say how much is owed for goods or services already received. When you go to the shops to buy something, you usually get a receipt. A receipt is similar to an invoice in that it shows you how much you spent on what and when you spent it.

This is example an Invoice:

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