UNIT 8

Applications Programs
STARTER Identify these applications programs.

Fig 1
Screen displays
 Conduct a survey to find out who in your class:
1 can name a spreadsheet program
2 has used a spreadsheet
3 can name a database program
4 has used a database
5 knows how to insert graphics into a document
6 can name a wordprocessing program
7 can centre a line of text
8 can disable the autocorrect

Study this diagram of a medical centre. Which applications

programs will be used by the following?
1 Reception
2 Practice Manager
3 Doctors

Waiting Room

Consulting
Patients' records, room
drug information, Doctor B
appointments. Consulting
Reception room
Laser Server Doctor A
printer

Dot-matrix
printer

Consulting Email connections to

Practice hospitals, other practices,
room manager and the local health board.
Doctor C

PC
PC
(Finance) Medical Centre
Local Area Network

Fig 2
Medical centre LAN
54 UNIT 8 Applications Programs

READING Work in groups. Read paragraph A and additional paragraphs

selected by your teacher. Complete this note-taking frame for each
text you read.

B D
Users
Use
Program types
Data input
Output

suitability for different categories of patients. This

A The system consists of 5 networked PCs,
one in each of the consulting rooms, one
in the Practice Manager s office and the other in
is updated every month. Another database is a
conditions dictionary which provides information
Reception alongside the file server. (Each PC has on a wide range of problems.
its own laser printer.) There is also a dot-matrix
printer in Reception for prescriptions as these are
printed on special paper. All users have access to C Reception staff use specially tailored
software developed from a database to enter
all appointment dates and times for each doctor.
Microsoft Office.
The program generates daily lists of appointments

B Doctors use the system to access a number

of databases. The most important holds the
records of all the patients in the practice. These
and can be accessed by the doctors. Reception use
the patient database to identify children and old
people who are due to have vaccinations. They
files contain personal details and the medical then use mailmerging to create letters asking for
history of the patient. The doctor can call up the appointments to be made.
appointments book prior to the consultation. By
clicking on the patient's name, they have
immediate access to that patient's records. At the D The Practice Manager uses a payroll
package based on a spreadsheet to calculate
salaries for each employee of the health centre.
end of each consultation, the doctor enters brief
case notes including the diagnosis and treatment. She enters all income and expenditure to produce
This database can also be used to produce statistics practice accounts. She uses a database to produce a
for research and reports. monthly rota of which doctors are on call in
Doctors can also access a drugs database on evenings and at weekends. This rota is available
CD-ROM which provides prescribing over the network to all users.
information on thousands of drugs including their

Exchange information with others in your group to complete

notes for all the texts. Ask and answer questions like these:
1 How do Reception use the system?
2 What type of program do they use?
3 What kind of data do they enter?
4 What is the output from the program?
 UNIT 8 Applications Programs 55

LANGUAGE WORK Instructions/complex instructions

Study this extract from an instruction manual

for software for doctors in a health centre.

PATIENT BROWSER Maximise, minimise,

Patient Browser allows you to find specific patients and open their and close buttons
records. It also allows you to identify different categories of patients.

Click here to display or Title Bar Menu Bar Tool Bar

remove search criteria

1 To find patients, first click on

the appropriate tab (Personal,
Address or Registration).
2 Enter the search criteria. A
combination of tabs may be
used (e.g. enter a surname
under the Personal tab and
select a doctor in the
Registration tab).
3 Select the Defaults button if
you wish to clear the criteria
boxes of any existing entries,
or to search for all patients,
but the list may be a long one.
4 Start the search by clicking on
the Find button. Fig 3
GPASS

We make simple instructions using the We can put the instructions in order using
infinitive: sequence words:
Click on the appropriate tab. First click on the appropriate tab.
Enter the search criteria. Then enter the selection criteria.
Finally click on the Find button.
We can add an explanation using the
to-infinitive or by + -ing: We can link two instructions and emphasise
To find patients, click on the appropriate tab. their order like this:
Click on the Find button to start the search. Having entered the selection criteria, click on
Start the search by clicking on the Find button. the Find button.
Once the selection criteria have been entered,
click on the Find button.

Write simple instructions for identifying all male patients

called Smith in the 16 to 50 age group registered with Doctors
Warner and Roberts.
56 UNIT 8 Applications Programs

Complete the gaps in these instructions for finding the records

of all members of the Green family living in postcode WX14 3PH and
registered with any doctor in the practice.
First enter the search criteria by
To , enter Green in the Surname box.
Ensure both male and female members of the family are found by

select the Address tab.

Having , enter the postcode.
choose the Registration tab.
Once select All doctors.
, click on Find to

PROBLEM-SOLVING Study these versions of OfficeSuite and decide which version

provides the best value for the following users. The versions are
listed from cheapest to most expensive.

OfficeSuite OfficeSuite OfficeSuite

Standard Small Business Edition Professional
wordprocessor word processor wordprocessor
spreadsheet spreadsheet spreadsheet
presentation program DTP database
email email DTP
PIM PIM presentation program
small business tools email
small business tools

OfficeSuite OfficeSuite
Premium Developer
wordprocessor wordprocessor
spreadsheet spreadsheet
database database
DTP DTP
presentation program presentation program
email email
PIM PIM
small business tools small business tools
website editor website editor
image editor image editor
developer tools
 UNIT 8 Applications Programs 57

A salesperson who wants to make presentations at conferences.

An administrative assistant who needs to write office
correspondence and send and receive emails.
A programmer who wants to develop applications tailored to a
company's needs.
A company wanting to produce its own in-house newsletter.
A company wishing to develop its own website.
A company which wants to analyse all its sales records.
A promotions person who wants to be able to edit complex
graphics and incorporate them in brochures.
A company which wants to share documents on a local area
network.

SPEAKING Work in pairs, A and B. Each of you has a review of a computer

game. Find out from each other this information:

The name of the game.

The company who produce it.
The platform on which it's played.
The bad points.
The good points.
The star rating.
Student A your game details are on page 185.
Student B your game details are on page 191.

WRITING Work in groups. Decide which applications programs would be

used and for what purpose, by the following:

a museum
publishers of a subscription-only magazine
police headquarters

Write your recommendations for one of the users in Task 10.

Give reasons for each applications program you recommend.
58 UNIT 8 Applications Programs

Find the answers to these questions in the

text below.

How do you pay for the applications

provided by an ASP?
a no charge
b charged according to use
c single payment If your hard disk is packed to bursting point, the
What two main services does an ASP IT department is far too busy to fix your email
provide? problems, and your business can't afford to buy
How does an ASP ensure that they have the tools that you'd like to develop the company
enough storage space for the changing website, then it's time to think about using an
needs of customers? application service provider (ASP). Rather than
What types of applications are available installing software on each machine or server
from ASPs? within your organisation, you rent applications
Why is it useful for a small business to be from the ASP, which provides remote access to
able to rent specialist tools from an ASP? the software and manages the hardware
What is one of the best established areas of required to run the applications.
ASP use?
There are a lot of advantages to this approach.
The havoc caused by viruses makes the idea of
outsourcing your email and office suite services
an attractive option. It also gives you more
flexibility - you pay for applications as and
when you need them, rather than investing in a
lot of costly software which you're then tied to
for years. Not having to worry about upgrading
to the latest version of your office suite or about
battling with the complexities of managing an
email system, leaves businesses with more time.
Time to focus on what they do best.

However, there are some potential pitfalls. To

use applications remotely requires a lot of
bandwidth, which is only really available from
a broadband connection or a leased line to the
ASP itself. It is also important to ensure that the
ASP will be able to provide a secure, reliable
service which will be available whenever you
need it.
Providing applications and storage space for
vast numbers of users requires some powerful
technology on the part of the ASP. This includes
security controls and data storage as well as
providing the physical links to customers. For
 UNIT 8 Applications Programs 59

the most part, ASPs don't own the data centres B Re-read the text to find the answers to
these questions.
that store the information. Instead, they lease 1 Note the advantages and disadvantages of
space from data storage specialists. In this way, using an ASP.
they can be confident of meeting customers'
increasing storage requirements by buying more 2 Match the items in Table A with the
space as it's needed. statements in Table B.
There's a wide variety of applications available
Table A
for use via ASPs. Office suite applications and
email services are two of the most generic a Website
applications available through ASPs. Large, b ASP
complex business applications such as
c Virus
enterprise resource planning tools like SAP are
another popular candidate for delivery through d Office suite
an ASP. Other business services, such as payroll e Bandwidth
and accounting systems are also available. This f Broadband
is particularly beneficial to small businesses
g Data centre
which are likely to grow quickly and don't want
h SAP
to deal with the problems caused by
outgrowing their existing system and having to
Table B
move to a high-end package. ASPs also offer a
means of using specialist tools that would i Set of standard programs used in an
otherwise prove prohibitively expensive. Small office
businesses have the opportunity to use such
ii Facility for storing large amounts of
tools for short periods of time as and when they
information
need them, rather than having to buy the
iii Capacity of a network connection
software as a permanent investment.
iv High capacity Internet connection
One of the major barriers for small businesses
v Self-replicating program
which want to make a start in e-commerce is
ensuring that they have sufficient resources to vi Common enterprise resource planning
cope with sudden large increases in customers. tool
This means not only having adequate storage vii Application service provider
for all your customers' details, but ensuring that viii Collection of related webpages
you have the technology in place to handle
stock levels, efficient delivery and large volumes
of traffic. It's very rare for an e-commerce 3 Using information from the text, mark the
business to handle all of these elements by following as True or False:
itself, making this one of the best-established a Software from an ASP must be installed
areas of ASP use. Being able to respond locally on a user's computer.
rapidly to changes in the size of your customer b You need a high bandwidth connection to
base and the type of product that they want to use an ASP service.
order from your business, demands more c ASPs usually use their own storage space for
flexibility than traditional software can provide. customers.
d Using an ASP gives you more flexibility.
e An e-commerce business usually provides all
of the required technology itself.

[Adapted from 'ASP and you shall receive' by Maggie Williams,

PC Direct Magazine, November 2000]