G040 – Lecture 03 Essential Document Features Mr C Johnston ICT Teacher

Session Objectives Know the essential features that affect presentation style, Understand how to modify these to attain a presentation style to suit your purpose and audience.

Document Style Overview It is important to present information clearly – it may annoy or confuse readers if you present information poorly. Common mistakes are using inconsistent headings or layout and using widely different fonts and point sizes. You need to think about what you want to achieve with your communication and what will appeal to your audience.

Essential Document Features There are several essential features that affect presentation style, which you need to format to suit the required document purpose and audience. Page layout; Graphic images; Textual styles; Special features; Paragraph formats; Position of common items.

Page Layout You can create an effective page layout by using suitable: Margins; Headers and footers; Page orientation; Paper size; Pagination; Gutters.

Textual Styles You can create suitable textual styles by careful selection and use of: Fonts; Heading and title styles; Bold, italic and underline; Superscript and subscript; Text orientation; Text animation (on screen).

Paragraph Formats You can create a variety of presentation styles by using different paragraph formats including: Tabs and indents; Paragraph numbering; Widows and orphans; Justification; Spacing before/after; Use of tables; Bullet points; Line spacing; Hyphenation.

Special Formats You can make use of special features to develop special presentation styles, including: Borders; Shading; Background colour; Text colour; A contents page; An index; A bibliography; An appendix; Text/picture boxes.

Different Types of Media You can use a variety of different types of media to improve presentation style, including: Graphs or charts; Lines or borders; Video clips; Pictures; Drawings; Digital photographs; Clip art; Scanned images; Sound.

Positioning Common Items You need to understand how to position important items on a communication, including: References; Signatures; Dates; Logos; Addressee names; Headings.

Session Task Download and complete this topics exercise: “Essential Document Features”