Start here: Register

  1. Go to your course website: https://www.pescirrus.com
  2. Enter your code into the Activation Code field.
  3. Complete the registration and follow the on-screen instructions to access your course.
  4. How to register in PES Cirrus

Launch the Application

  1. Log into www.pescirrus.com
  2. If you load into the dashboard, click on your Keyboarding course.
  3. Click the "Launch" button.
    1. Note: Launching the keyboarding application can take 30–45 seconds. If it stalls beyond 1 minute, refresh and relaunch from PES Cirrus.
  4. Select the assignment you wish to open.
  5. Click "Preview"

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

Chromebook Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigating in the Online Lab

Once you are logged into the Keyboarding application, click the House icon in the upper left corner of the screen to open the Online Lab Dashboard page and Navigation pane. Click the "Courses" option from the navigation menu. You will see a Course Menu page listing the activities in your course as well as a Navigation pane and additional resources. Figure 1.2 shows the Activity List within the Course Menu. Click an activity link to go to that activity’s View page and then click the Launch button to bring up that activity.

Figure 1.2 Activity List in the Online Lab

When you click the Session button, you will see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3 Online Lab Exercise Activity Screen

To move around the Online Lab, you can click the Next button to go to the next activity, click the Previous button to go to the previous activity, or click the Restart button to return to the beginning of the present activity. To see the list of all activities, grouped by session (as shown in Figure 1.2), click the Course Menu button.

Directions for the activity display at the top of the activity window. If there is text for you to read as you key, it appears below the instructions. (For many activities, the text to key is in the textbook.) The insertion point (blinking vertical line) is positioned in the text SCREEN in which you will key text. Some activities are divided into more than one part. You can check how many parts of an activity you have completed by noting the progress counter on the right side of the screen.

Continuing with the Next Session

You can continue to the next session in the Online Lab by clicking the home button and navigating to the next session.

Exiting the Online Lab

To exit the Online Lab, simply click the Account settings button in the upper right corner of your screen and click Logout.

Grading

  1. Log into www.pescirrus.com
  2. If you load into the dashboard, click on your Keyboarding course.
  3. Click the "Launch" button.
    1. Note: Launching the keyboarding application can take 30–45 seconds. If it stalls beyond 1 minute, refresh and relaunch from PES Cirrus.
  4. Click the "Grades" button.

Grades.png

Creating, Saving, Previewing, and Printing a Document

In today’s world, people very rarely create documents by hand. Instead, documents are prepared using document formatting programs. This session will introduce you to the document formatting interface for creating and editing documents.

When you open a document in the document formatter, a blank document displays (Figure 34.1). Figure 34.1 also shows some of the commonly used features in the document formatter interface. The document formatter interface features a ribbon that contains several menus and buttons. Each menu on the Menu bar provides a different set of formatting commands and buttons. The ribbon is indicated in Figure 34.1.

Figure 34.1 Document Formatter Blank Document Screen

Each menu button on the Menu bar contains additional options for formatting a document. For example, the Edit menu contains options that will change the way text appears in the document. Use the options at the menu to increase or decrease the size of the text, make it bold or italic, and change the color of the text.

There are several ways to save a document. In the document formatter used in this textbook, you will use the keyboard command Ctrl + S to save the document. Note: For Mac users, you will use the Cmd  key in place of Ctrl for any keyboard shortcut.

The image of the document on the screen is called a soft copy. To display a preview of the document to see how it will be printed, click the File menu and then click Preview at the drop-down list or click the Preview button on the ribbon. This displays a Preview window, as shown in Figure 34.2. To print a copy of a document, referred to as a hard copy, click the File menu and then click the Print option to display the Print window, shown in Figure 34.3. You can also display the Print window by pressing Ctrl + P or by clicking the Print button on the ribbon.

Figure 34.2 Preview Window

Figure 34.3 Print Window

The Print window will display a preview of how the document will print, and the print settings buttons at the right of the image are used to make changes to how the document will print. Before clicking the Print button to print the document, use the drop-down list in the Destination section to select a printer. Use the Pages option to determine which pages to print and use the Layout option to change the orientation of the document before printing. Click the More settings option arrow to display options for changing paper size; determining how many pages of the document to print per sheet; changing the margins and scale of the document displayed on the page; and determining whether to include headers, footers, and background graphics when printing the document.

successTip-finalSuccess Tip

If you choose not to print a document from the Print window area, click the Cancel button to return to the editing screen.

Using the Online Lab to Complete Document Activities

Beginning with this session, you will be using a document formatter to create and edit a variety of documents. You will complete document activities through the Online Lab, which will launch the document formatter on your computer. For each activity, you will start with either a blank document or a document that already contains some text, formatting, or both.

Video 34.1

Watch Video 34.1 in the Online Lab. The video shows how to complete document activities.

Keying a Word Document

Document 34.1

Read all instructions below before starting this document activity.

  1. Navigate to the Document 34.1 launch page in the Online Lab and then click the Launch Activity button to open the document formatter and Doc034.01 in the activity window. Hint: Do not worry about your typing speed as you key this document. Your goal for this activity is to get familiar with the process for completing document activities in the Online Lab.

  1. Key the two paragraphs of text shown in Figure 34.4. Remember to press Tab at the start of each paragraph and press Enter once at the end of the first paragraph. Your text will wrap differently because you are using a different font. As you key the text, press the Backspace key immediately to correct errors that you “feel” but do not take time to check your screen as you key. Hint: Remember to press the spacebar once (not twice) at the end of a sentence.
  2. Read your document on the screen to look for any errors you may have missed. If you see an error, correct it.
  3. Click the Submit button to upload Doc034.01 for checking. After you submit your document, your WPM rate and will display at the lower-right corner of the Online Lab screen.

  1. Click the Show Both button on the right side to view both the submitted and model documents within the same window. If any errors are reported, the number of errors will appear in the center of the two documents, and the model document will highlight those errors.

  1. If your instructor allows you more than one chance to get a grade for your document, click the New Graded Attempt button. This will give you a new base document that you can use to try the activity again and correct your errors from the previous attempt.

When you are finished with the activity, click the Next button.

Viewing the Document Performance Report for Completed Document Activities

The Online Lab provides a report showing the results of all of the document activities completed in the Online Lab. To view your Document Performance report showing the document activity work you completed for Session 34, complete the following steps:

  1. Click the House icon in the upper left corner of the screen to open the Online Lab Dashboard page and Navigation pane.

  1. Click Reports in the Navigation pane.

  1. Click Document Performance Report to open the report. The report displays in a table that shows the submitted documents and the corresponding results documents for each attempt on each document activity.

Ending the Session

The Online Lab automatically saved the work you completed for this session. You may continue with the next session or exit the Online Lab and continue later.