Chapter 3

Today I was so sleepy because of not enough sleep for yesterday~get sick and the weather is too hot ~!!>~<!!so that I didnt put a lot concentrate on what miss wan teaching in front.But after class,at night i ask my classmate to explain back to me. I was learned about, Define Application Software, Understanding How System Software Interacts With Application Software, Explain How To Start A Software Application,Identify Various Products Available As Web Applications, Describe The Learning Aids Available With Many Software Applications

Define Application Software
 Define Application Software.Application software consists of programs designed to perform specific tasks for users.Application software can be used as a productivity/business tool; to assist with graphics and multimedia projects; to support home, personal, and educational activities; and to facilitate communications. Specific application software products, called software packages, are available from software vendors. Although application software also is available as shareware, freeware, and public-domain software, these usually have fewer capabilities than retail software packages.

Understanding How System Software Interacts With Application Software.
System software consists of programs that control the operations of a computer and its devices. System software serves as the interface between a user, the application software, and the computer’s hardware. One type of system software is the operating system. Before application software can be run, the operating system, which contains instructions that coordinate the activities among computer hardware devices, must be loaded from the hard disk into the computer’s memory.

Explain How To Start A Software Application
 For example, The desktop is an on-screen work area with common graphical elements such as icons, buttons, menus, links, windows, and dialog boxes. A software application can be started by clicking its program name on a menu, or list of commands. Clicking the program name instructs the operating system to transfer the program’s instructions from a storage medium into memory. Once started, the application displays in a window on the desktop. A window is a rectangular area of the screen that is used to show the program, data, and/or information. At the top of the window is a title bar that contains the window’s name.

Identify The Widely Used Products And Explain The Key Features Of 

• productivity/business software applications
• graphic design/multimedia software applications
• home/personal/educational software applications
• communications software applications

people use productivity software to become more effective and efficient while performing daily activities. Word processing software allows users to create and manipulate documents that contain text and graphics. With word processing software, you can insert clip art into a document; change margins; find and replace text; use a spelling checker to check spelling; place a header and footer at the top and the bottom of a page; and vary font (character design), font size (character scale), and font style (character appearance).

Multimedia  software is used to create electronic interactive presentations that can include text, images, video, audio, and animation. Web page authoring software is designed to create Web pages and to organize, manage, and maintain Web sites.

 Identify Various Products Available As Web Applications
A Web application is a software application that exists on a Web site. To access the Web application, you visit the Web site that offers the program. Some Web applications are free; for others, you pay for use, service, support, or when a certain action occurs. Web-based training (WBT) is a type of CBT (computer-based training) that uses Internet technology. Many Web sites offer WBT to the general public. An application service provider (ASP) is a third-party organization that manages and distributes software and services on the Web.

Describe The Learning Aids Available With Many Software Applications
Many software applications and Web sites provide learning aids. Online Help is the electronic equivalent of a user manual. Usually integrated into an application software package, online Help often iscontext-sensitive, meaning that the Help information is related to the current task being attempted. Most online Help also provide links to Web sites that have a FAQs page. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) supply answers to common queries. Many books are available to help you learn to use the features of a personal computer application package. A wizard is an automated assistant that helps complete a task by asking questions and then performing actions based on the answers.