1. Design tools: representing the functionality and appearance of solutions

2. Design Tools Layout Diagram –A visual depiction of the final solution –Design includes features like differences in font size, color and positioning of objects –Diagram clearly indicates: Type of data to be entered into the cells in s.sheet Content of each cell Labels Functions to be used Validation rules Cell protection Storyboard Site Map

3. Design Tools Layout Diagram, contd. –Diagram clearly indicates: Formats & conventions Chart titles, axis labels and legend Sorting to be applied to data

4. Layout Diagram – S.sheet, solution

5. Layout Diagram, graphic representation

6. Design Tools Validating Data –Manual validation, proofreading and manually checking for illegal data types, for reasonableness, correct spelling, etc. –Electronic Validation: Range checking, eg. postcodes, and if statement Existence checking, whether or not a value is present Data-type checking, eg. numbers of phones are integers and not decimal numbers Restricted data entry, use of drop-down list

7. Formats and Conventions –Formats & conventions for spreadsheets: –Text One space after all punctuation Consistency with margins widths, page numbering etc. Minimal use of different font sizes Dates consistently set out, day/month/year Use a serif font for paragraph text Sans-serif font for headings, tables and diagrams

8. Formats and Conventions –Formats & conventions for spreadsheets: –Numerical information: Money values, usually 2 decimal places or none Numbers are right-aligned in columns Align decimal points Position labels next to single numbers, eg. $5 Position labels for columns of numbers at the top of the column Percentages in columns appear at the top of the columns, eg. %

9. Formats and Conventions –Formats & conventions for spreadsheets: –Graphics: Graphs and charts have titles Use titles to identify the purpose of the graphic representation The X axis and Y axis must be shown in all graphs Use a key/legend if more than one set of data is provided on the graph or chart Label each segment of a pie chart Arrange pie chart segments from largest to smallest