02 Applied Productivity Tools and Visual Design

• Productivity Tools are resources on the Internet that allow individuals and organizations to increase productivity based on specific outputs that can be written, visual, or audio.
• Primary productivity tools applied in businesses, education, and different professions:

  • Word Processor
  • Spreadsheet
  • Presentation Program
  • Graphic Design Tools
• Word Processor – an application or a device that lets users write, edit and print documents. Some familiar examples include Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and OpenOffice Writer.
• A word processor offers helpful features that users can use to improve their documents, such as:

  • Text Copy
  • Text Cut
  • Paste
  • Multimedia
  • Text Formatting
  • Spelling, Grammar, and Autocorrect
• Word processors - also have different types of file extensions, such as text files (.txt), HTML files (.htm and .html), and Word files (.doc and .docx)
• Text Copy – allows copying the same text multiple times in the document.
• Text Cut - differs from copying as it removes the text from its original position.
• Paste – an action done when a copied or cut text is ready to be posted or shown again.
• Multimedia – lets the use and insertion of multimedia such as images, video, clip art, and charts in the document.
• Text Formatting – allows personalized and formal changes in the document through font change, font styles such as bold and italic, font size, and font color.
• Spelling, Grammar, and Autocorrect – allows the correct use of defined language used in the document.\
• Spreadsheet – or worksheet, a file consisting of rows and columns that help sort, organize, arrange, and calculate numerical data.
• A spreadsheet is used for various purposes, such as the following:

  • Forms
  • Finance
  • School and Grades
  • Lists
• Forms – for handling inventories, timesheets, surveys, and personal information.
• Finance – for checking account information such as billing, invoices, receipts, transactions, and budget.
• School and Grades – for tracking the student performance, calculating grades, and quick data consolidation.
• Lists – for simple uses such as to-do, grocery, and telephone lists.
• Presentation Program – a software tool to create a slideshow for professional or educational purposes. A slideshow is presented and explained one slide at a time to discuss a specific topic, report, or data.
• Graphic Design Tools – programs and applications that let users design, edit, animate, and illustrate their work online.
• Types of graphic design include the following:

  • Web Design
  • Advertising and Marketing Design
  • Motion Design and Animation
  • Illustration
  • Publication Design
• Web Design –planning, conceptualizing, and organizing how online content is displayed, such as on a website.
• Advertising and Marketing Design –promoting products and services through ads, logos, brochures, and packaging to attract customers.
• Motion Design and Animation – the process of making inanimate objects appear to move in a specific manner.
• Illustration –creating visual outputs such as photographs, drawings, and graphs.
• Publication Design –designing printed materials such as books, magazines, posters, newspapers, and their online equivalent.
• The fundamentals of graphics design center on appreciating the smallest details that make up the overall composition. It applies to any project that aims to create or enhance a design.
• Principles of Graphics Design:

  • Unity
  • Variety
  • Hierarchy
  • Proportion
  • Balance
• Unity – the prime principle and objective of all design as other principles aim to serve this result.
• Variety – provides visual interest in what is ordinary and bland. This balance includes excitement and results in a creative design.
• Hierarchy – a primary task to manage and arrange the order of the design elements, including the organization, positioning, and identifying the most important part of the design, the second, and so forth.
• Proportion – refers to the size relationship between elements such as the height and width of a rectangle may have a 2 to 4 relationship, for example.
• Balance – the visual weight distribution of elements within a design.
• Size and Scale – the size of the elements within a composition used as a comparison or measured in units.
• Movement – the prescribed visual path that viewers must follow through a layout with hierarchy.
• Proximity – the placement of elements together and apart and the relative size and distance between them.
• Repetition – the placement of elements in a regular pattern that may vary in size and shape to provide variety and unity.
• Creating Layout - The process of placing images, text, and graphics together provides the visuals to be printed or published.
• Grid subdivides a page vertically and horizontally into margins, columns, lines of type, and space between blocks of type and images.
• Golden Ratio, or the golden section, is a proportion that has been used in historical designs such as the Great Pyramids, Medieval church designs, and even the Mona Lisa painting.
• The Fibonacci sequence of numbers closely replicates the golden section or golden ratio.