Application Software

Apps come in two main ways: installed on your device, or used from the cloud .

Apps also come in different forms, depending on how you use them. These are the three forms:

One product can come in more than one form. Microsoft Word is a desktop app, a mobile app, and a web app (Word on the web). Google Docs is a web app and a mobile app.

How is cloud software sold? Often as SaaS (software as a service). With SaaS, you do not buy a copy to install. The provider runs the software on its servers, updates it, and keeps your files backed up, and you pay for the service, usually as a monthly or yearly subscription (many also have a free plan). Examples: Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Gmail), Microsoft 365, Canva, and Zoom. SaaS is about how the software is sold, so one SaaS product can come as a web app, a mobile app, and a desktop app.

When you "buy" Microsoft Office, you do not own the program. The company keeps it. You get a software license: permission to use it under the owner's rules.

Software can be grouped in many ways. You already grouped it by its job (system or application) and by where it runs (installed or cloud). Another way is by ownership rights: what the owner lets you do with it. The picture lines up the five kinds, from most locked to most open:

The table gives the details of each kind. Copy and share means making copies of the program and giving them to others, such as sending the installer to a classmate.

Learn these once, and they work in almost every app, from Word to Canva. First, the parts of an app window:

These parts are not only in word processors. Below are two very different apps, a spreadsheet and a design app, with the same parts marked by the same numbers:

1. Title bar or name: the file or design you are working on
2. Menus and tabs: groups of commands (File, Home, Insert, Resize)
3. Ribbon or toolbar: the buttons you use most (font, size, Bold), plus side panels in some apps
4. Your work: the document, sheet, or design

Once you know where these parts are in one app, you can find your way around a new one.

The table explains the ideas that most apps share:

Three of these ideas are easier to see than to read:

These keyboard shortcuts work in almost every Windows app. On a Mac, use the Command key (⌘) instead of Ctrl (for Redo, many Mac apps use ⌘ + Shift + Z):

From here on, each kind of app has its own color. Word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation use the colors of Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint:

Word processors from different companies look different, but they have the same parts and do the same jobs. The numbers mark the same three parts in each app:

1. Menus, tabs, or a toolbar: where the commands are.
2. Formatting buttons: font, size, Bold, Italic, Underline, and alignment. Pages keeps them in the Format sidebar on the right.
3. The page: what you see on the screen is what you get when you print. That is why word processors are called WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get").

Learn one, and you can use the others.

Their main features are listed below:

• Word wrap: text moves to the next line by itself when a line is full. Press Enter only to start a new paragraph.
• Formatting at three levels: character (font, size, bold, color), paragraph (alignment, line spacing, indents, bullets), and page (margins, paper size, orientation, page numbers).
• Spelling and grammar check, and find and replace.
• Tables, pictures, headers and footers.
• Comments and track changes, so a group can review one report.

The page below shows the three levels of formatting, and word wrap. Each number matches a note:

A spreadsheet window has its own parts. The numbers match the notes:

Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc look almost the same: a grid of cells, a name box, a formula bar, and sheet tabs. Apple Numbers works the same way, but its tables sit on a blank page, and one sheet can hold several tables.

Spreadsheets have their own words. Learn these before you try the lab below:

The picture shows a cell address and a range on a real grid. The numbers in column D are Aling Nena's sales in the lab below.

Aling Nena's sari-sari store: sales today

Tap any cell to see what is inside it. Then change a number in the Sold column and watch the formulas update.

D2fx=B2*C2

Tap a cell.

	A	B	C	D
1	Item	Price (₱)	Sold	Sales (₱)
2	Pandesal	4		200
3	Pancit canton	18		216
4	3-in-1 coffee	10		250
5	Egg	9		270
6	Total

Show formulas Start over

Try this: make Aling Nena sell 100 pandesal instead of 50. Which cells changed by themselves? That is the power of formulas: change one value, and every answer that depends on it updates. This is also how what-if analysis works ("What if I sell more eggs?").

A database and a DBMS are not the same thing. The picture shows how they work together:

A database stores its data in tables. The picture labels the parts of one table:

Here is what a query, a form, and a report look like:

Why not just use a spreadsheet? For small lists, a spreadsheet is fine. A database is better when the data is big and shared, because it:

• stores each fact once (less repeated data, fewer mistakes);
• lets many users work at the same time (the registrar, the cashier, and the dean);
• finds records fast, even among thousands;
• keeps data accurate and secure, with rules (no duplicate IDs) and passwords.

You will learn databases in detail in the Finals (Week 16).

In the app itself, the window has these parts. The numbers match the notes:

Google Slides, Canva, and Apple Keynote have the same parts: small thumbnails of every slide (on the side or at the bottom), the slide you are editing, and speaker notes.

The words you will see in these apps:

• Slide: one page of the show. Slide show: playing the slides full screen.
• Layout and theme: where things go on a slide, and the colors and fonts for the whole deck.
• Transition: the effect between slides. Animation: the effect on one object inside a slide.
• Speaker notes and presenter view: notes only you can see while you present.

Slide shows are used for class reports (like your input and output reporting), thesis defenses, meetings, seminars, and sales pitches.

Here are six common kinds at a glance. The top row is graphics apps; the bottom row is multimedia apps:

The two tables list what each kind is used for, with examples. First, the graphics apps, for pictures:

Then the multimedia apps, for sound and video:

Why are there two kinds of picture apps? Zoom in on a photo and on a logo, and you see the difference:

Why it matters: pick the right app for the job. Edit photos in an image editor. Make logos in a drawing app: a logo made of pixels looks blocky when printed on a big tarpaulin, but a vector logo stays sharp at any size.

Here is what two of these apps look like inside. The numbers match the notes.

An image editor (like Photoshop or GIMP)

A video editor (like CapCut or Premiere Pro)

Many apps do not fit the groups above, but they are still application software: each one does a job for you. Here are seven more kinds you probably use already:

Remember: a utility such as File Explorer or antivirus is not in these groups. Utilities are system software , not applications.

Not graded. Tap an answer to see if you got it, and read why.

Next: Back to the IT 110 lessons. Networks and the Internet come next.