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Business letters are the most widely used form Notices can be both internal and external
of external written communications. They can e.g. posters in corridors, newsletters or rest
be sent to customers, suppliers and individuals rooms or advertising posters in journals,
associated with the business. They provide a magazines or on billboards.
permanent hard copy record of the message for
both the sender and receiver, which allow
simple retrieval when required. The way in
which business letters are set out is also
A number of meetings will take place
Memorandum
within a company and each person
To: attending these will be given a written
From: agenda in advance, which informs them of
what is to be discussed.
Reference:
Date:
A record of what has been decided at the
Subject:
meeting, in the form of minutes, will also
be produced and circulated.
Jenny Jones
Managing Director
In the course of carrying out its business, a
firm will issue trading documents e.g.
Business cards are used by visitors as a
orders, delivery notes, invoices, statements
form of introduction and a signal of their
and receipts. Most firms use standard
intention to do business. The card is small
forms for these messages to their
(10cm x 4cm) and gives the company
customers and suppliers, and create them
name, address and telephone number plus
using computerised accounting systems.
the name and title of the person presenting
the card.
Agenda
Employee meeting on
the 12th February starting
at 5pm in Committee
Room
Under this Act responsibility for employee This made it a law that all workplaces had a
health, safety and welfare is placed firmly fire safety certificate, issued by the local fire
with employers as far a reasonably practical. brigade officer after a full safety inspection.
Employers are required to provide premises, Particularly employees must have adequate
equipment and training that contribute to a time and escape routes to leave a building in
safe working environment. Workplaces must the event of a fire.
be clean and hygienic, without risks to health.
Safe equipment must be provided and
maintained, whilst hazardous substance must
be handled and stored safely.
More often than not open plan offices are used Purposes built premises are ideal if you can
for sales departments and centralised services. get them as everything is in the right places;
Staff with specialist skills can be grouped all the facilities needed are there and
together to increase efficiency and improve individual needs will have been
the service they offer other departments. accommodated e.g. the needs of the disabled
Bulky and noisy equipment can be located in to comply with the Disabilities Act. On the
one area and soundproofed to avoid disturbing other hand relocating may cost you your best
everyone. Shared equipment e.g. photocopier employees if there are no transport links to the
is cheaper than buying one for each office but new site, or the journey time is significantly
personal services can be lost, time wasted longer. Also your customers etc will need to
walking back and forth and an increase in be told of your new address, which costs and
bureaucracy e.g. photocopy permission slips the rent on the new premises may be higher
than on the old place.
Some staff do not even have there own desk
but share with colleagues on a rota basis. This
is known as hot-desking.
INPUT DEVICES Web cams
Can be left permanently attached to the computer
An input device is a piece of hardware that enables data collecting images, which, together with voice data, will
to be passed into a computer system. Some of these enable video conferencing to take place.
devices are controlled manually.
Microphone
Keyboards Used where the input is any sort of sound, particularly a
This is still one of the most common ways to enter data voice. Voice recognition software can collect the data
into a computer system, e.g. in word processing. input and convert it to written words entered into a
Similar to a typewriter, but with extra keys that perform word processing package. At the present time this
functions dependent on the software in use. A variation software is still in its infancy. It has to be trained to the
is an overlay keyboard that is flat and waterproof and user's voice and input has to take place under quiet
can be fitted to a till, e.g. in a bar. In such an conditions to avoid background noise.
environment it would be easy to clean and remain
undamaged by spilled drinks. Some of the keys can be Some input systems can be automated. This reduces
programmed to represent special codes, e.g. staff code the amount of time it takes to enter the data and also
the number of people required to enter it.
Touch Screen
A device used in many fast food shops it displays a Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
number of items on a screen and the user simply Probably the most widely recognized use for this
'touches' an item to make a choice. The point of contact method of data entry is the National Lottery. Here
is detected and the choice registered by the computer. numbers are selected on a pre-printed form. Each
Touch screens are ideal if there are a limited number of possible number has a space on the form and is
options available. Again this device, like the overlay selected by crossing it out with dark coloured ink.
keyboard, can be easily cleaned and potential damage The form itself is printed using a pale coloured ink
from spilled food or drink is avoided. It can also be (called fade-out ink). The form is then passed
re-programmed if choices are changed. through a machine to 'read' the selected numbers,
and everything else is ignored. Other applications of
Scanner this method include multiple-choice examinations
Most commonly, scanners scan a picture from paper where there are only a limited number of answers
and display it on screen. In other words it creates a and the student selects the number of the answer
digital image of a picture. This digital image can then that he/she thinks is right. The system then goes on
be edited or re-sized in any way we want. A digital to calculate a total score.
image of text can also be taken. This can then be
converted into a text file and edited in the normal way. Bar Code Readers
Bar codes can be used in many situations. They have
Mouse been used not only for product information in shops but
This is basically a pointing/selection device. By moving also on railways to keep track of where the vehicles
the mouse a small ball is rotated on the underside. This were. In shops the bar code is scanned and the reflected
is interpreted by the computer as directional data for the light is detected. The computer converts this to a string
pointer on the monitor. By using the buttons on top of of numbers. The last number is a check digit calculated
the mouse a user can start an action, e.g. begin a word from all the others and the computer repeats
processing package, or make choices, e.g. from a drop the calculation to make sure the code has been read
down menu. In a drawing package movement can be properly. If it has then the reader makes a beep sound.
interpreted to create images.
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)
Graphics Tablet This method uses a special set of characters and is
This device consists of a flat surface and a special pen. used by banks to help process cheques quickly and
Using the pen to 'draw' on the tablet an artist can watch accurately. Data is printed on the bottom edge of the
his picture actually being created on the screen. cheque before it is sent to the customer and when the
Handling the pen is more natural for some people than cheque has been filled in, the amount is also added.
trying to draw with a mouse. These characters can be magnetized and the pattern
recognised. This gives accuracy and speed when
Digital Camera sorting the cheques but also security as the characters
Store pictures on a memory card, not on film. The cannot be altered using normal ink.
images can then be transferred directly to a computer
where they can be edited using graphics software.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) OUTPUT DEVICES
This works by using a reader/scanner to detect the
pattern of light reflected from a document written on Monitors
paper. The computer identifies the pattern of each Can be flat square tubes, trinitron or liquid crystal
individual character in the text and converts the 'picture' (LCD) and this can make all the difference to the user.
of the page into a document that can be edited in the The curved planes of the FST encourage screen
normal way. reflection, whereas the mesh of wire make up of the
trinitron screen allows light through without reflection.
Magetic Strips LCD screens have allowed screens to become thinner
These devices can be used to store, by means of and refresh quicker. Software now allows for the
magnetic patterns, a limited amount of information onto monitors to manage the colour display, so that the
a plastic card. This might simply be an account number colours viewed will match the colours scanned or
and an expiry date. When the card is 'swiped' the printed. Screen dimensions are normally 34cm to 53cm
patterns are read and the account holders information across the diagonal, but extra large screens up to 107cm
can be accessed. As with bar codes check digits can be are available for displays or presentations. Monitor
used to ensure that data is read correctly. Exposure to a resolutions are usually 1600x1200.
strong magnet can corrupt the data held on the strip and
the card then becomes unusable, data has to be typed in Speakers
by hand Either built into the computer or external, plugged
into the Input/Output port.
Smart Cards
A smart card looks like a magnetic strip card but is Modems
different in that it contains a small memory circuit. This Internal or external communication devices used to
means that data can be written to the card, as well as send and receive data, and really input, processing and
read from it, when it is swiped. Some companies for output devices. The name means
their reward schemes are using cards like this, to store modulator/demodulator, which refers to the way signals
data about the number of points a customer are received via a telephone line or satellite. Broadband
accumulates. When these points are exchanged for modems make more room for signals and this speeds up
products the data on the card is changed to show the data transfer and allows both telephone and computer
new total. use on one line
Printer
STORAGE DEVICES
The most common are ink jet and laser. Some dot
matrix printers are used for long print runs. Ink jet
Expansion cards equipped with a range of printers are cheap to buy and are capable of printing
electronic components including chips and used to high-resolution images, but are slow and never give as
add extra functions to a computer eg sound cards sharp an image as laser printers, because the ink is still
liquid when it hits the paper; indeed specialist paper is
CD/DVD Combo drive - allows the computer required.
to take information from a CD or DVD, or write
information to them Laser printers are cheap for standard mono prints, but
are expensive for colour work. If a single user is using
Random access memory, the volatile the printer, a print rate of 4 pages per minute is
temporary storage medium for data. Data on RAM adequate, but if a whole office is using one printer,
can be read, changed and added to and is used something faster will be required. Print speed is
when the programs are running on the computer. measured in pages per minute (ppm)
Data stored on the RAM is normally lost when the
system is switches off. Read only memory, the Most standard printers now fall into a resolution range
chips built into a machine that store data of 300-1200 dpi. If the colour work is large in size, a
permanently. Data can be read from ROM chips bubble jet printer is the most practical solution, whilst
but cannot be changed or added to. Programs built many CAD systems require a pen plotter.
into a machine on ROM chips are called firmware
as opposed to disk-based software.