Excel Skills

I am working on creating identifying Excel skills at the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels.  Please comment/edit the following:
Basic Spreadsheet Skills
·         Design a simple table
·         Name a worksheet tab
·         Apply a template
·         Insert a new worksheet
·         Create a simple formula (Add, subtract, multiply, divide)
·         Use basic functions (SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX, COUNT)
·         Resize columns and rows to display data
·         Sort cell data
·         Use search and replace
·         Freeze rows and columns
·         Use automatic data entry
·         Use spell-check
·         Use a chart
·         Save a workbook
·         Print a worksheet

Intermediate Spreadsheet Skills
·         Customize the spreadsheet menu
·         Design spreadsheets using data validation features
·         Customize a spreadsheet using conditional formatting features
·         Create/modify a chart
·         Import/export data in text format
·         Link spreadsheet data from other sources
·         Apply principles of effective spreadsheet design
·         Create complex formulas
·         Create/modify a pivot table
·         Create a form
·         Create a report
·         Link and embed tables into word processing documents
·         Use data protection
·         Password protect a workbook
·         Demonstrate competency using two spreadsheet applications
·         Share/collaborate with others on a spreadsheet design

Advanced Spreadsheet Skills
·         Create formulas that use logical and statistical operations
·         Use advanced data analysis tools
·         Create a dashboard
·         Create a new template
·         Create macros
·         Create new functions using Visual Basic expressions
·         Demonstrate competency using more than two spreadsheet applications

Institute for Safe Medicine's Guidelines for Standard Order Sets

Linda added another resource to the textbook website at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Informatics.html

April 12, 2010 Institute for Safe Medicine's Guidelines for Standard Order Sets (Chapter 20)
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/hBLnlpxAIyhSgAa0kNPARfUnnf-/mh22

Formula Corrections for Chapter 9

I remembered Linda telling me that there were some errors in the formulas noted in Chapter 9 on spreadsheets.  I was confused because I knew that I had verified that the formulas worked and had used copy/paste to copy them into the chapter manuscript.  I obviously missed the errors when reviewing the chapter proofs (won't happen again!)  What happened is that the parentheses for creating formulas were changed to brackets in nested formulas.  That rule works for typed text, but not formulas!!

So.... if you are attempting to replicate the formulas on pages 158, be sure to use only parentheses, and not brackets.  For example for Application & Competencies #2, the spreadsheet output (after you drag the formula to rows 3 though 5, should look like this (I shortened the field names):

Prenatal Dt	Due Date	Gest Age at Visit
1/1/2009	9/1/09	5.29
9/2/2009	2/20/10	15.57
4/1/2010	9/1/10	18.14
1/20/2011	2/20/11	35.57

 Be sure to change the brackets in exercise 3 to parentheses, too!

Textbook Chapter Resources Update

Linda has been busy updating the textbook web site at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Informatics.html

The following resources were recently added:
Basic Computer Comptencies from the TIGER group. This group was charged with defining the minimum set of informatics competencies that all nurses need to succeed in practice or education in today's digital era. (Added April 8, 2010)
http://tigersummit.com/uploads/3.Tiger.Report_Competencies_final.pdf
 
The TIGER report is a "must read" for every nurse, not just the nurse educator. 

Jing Update

I learned some new features with Jing today.  You can use the free version of Jing to create buttons that will automatically upload Jing files to Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.  I created the buttons (use the history menu), but have not attempted the uploads.  Not sure how it might work with Twitter. 

Word Processing Skills - Need Your Input

It appears that the blogger site had significant problems most of today.  If you had an RSS feed to this blog, you probably received an odd error.  I have been unable to post or edit all day.
Today I worked on identifying basic, intermediate, and advanced word processing skills.  Will note them below.  I am very interested in comments and suggestions to improve the list.

Basic Word Processing Skills

• Create a new document
• Use the menu and quick access toolbar
• Customize the quick access toolbar
• Use the ruler
• Obtain the word count information for a document
• Add basic text Format - font size, color, style
• Alignment – center, left, right, justify
• Format lines, words, and spaces - Spacing – choosing and Change line spacing, bullets
• Use themes & styles
• Move text - cut/paste, copy/paste, drag/drop
• Create bookmarks
• Insert hyperlinks (URL, email addresses & other places in the document)
• Insert clip art
• Make changes – undo/redo
• Use search & replace
• Use tab key to indent
• Identify/correct spelling and grammatical errors
• Create headers & footers
• Insert page numbers
• Use Help
• Check spelling and grammar
• Name documents
• Save a document to Word and other file formats (.doc, .rtf, txt, PDF)
• Print documents using print preview,
• Change printer settings

Intermediate Word Processing Skills

• Create an outline
• Create new documents from a template
• Design your own custom template
• Modify text font style, color, size, and case
• Modify text alignment
• Make changes – Add, delete, & move text
• Create and format text (styles, shadow effects, shape, and arrangement of)
• Modify themes & styles
• Change paragraph settings – hanging indent, first line indent
• Create/modify the table using a table auto-header
• Change margins & bullets
• Use search & replace
• Use mail merge
• Create letters, envelopes, & labels with a wizard
• Insert line breaks
• Modify the menus and toolbars
• Autocorrect & Styles
• Check readability statistics
• Collaborative skills
• Use the review tool
• Use Skydrive for file collaboration
• Modify graphics – clip art, use drawing to modify graphics, position graphics
• Use the bibliographic manager to create citations, insert citations into a paper, and to create an associated reference list
• Create a paper in APA citation style, abstract, & a reference page

Advanced Word Processing Skills

• Use desktop publishing tools to create newspapers & brochures
• Create forms
• Link and embed file – presentations and spreadsheets
• Create custom themes
• Create long documents – connect several documents into one
• Create lists of figures, captions, table of contents, index, cross-index
• Add a digital signature
• Use formulas
• Create macros
• Add line numbers
• Add a watermark

Acrobat.com - Cloud computing office suite, wiki, and webinar all in one

Acrobat.com is a combination of a cloud computing office suite, a wiki, and webinar software all in one.   Acrobat.com is an Adobe shared workspace like a wiki; however, it has a few unique features.  By default, the shared workplace is free, private, and does not have advertisements. You can access the feature if you have an Adobe login and password.  Acrobat.com uses Flash, a platform for animation and interactivity.  It includes a self-contained cloud computing office suite with a word processor (Buzzword), presentation software (Presentation), and spreadsheet software (Project Mgmt).  The other unique feature is that it includes webinar software.  The free version allows up to three connections.  The webinar includes all of the standard webinar features, such as ability to invite others, video conferencing, audio, screen-sharing, remote control, and chat.  The initial file size limitation is 100 MB. According to a CNET article, the file size is expected to be increased later.

 I am pleasantly surprised to note that the file manager will accept file types other than Adobe. The resource is certainly worth exploring.