Year 11 · ICT · Spring 2 · Paper 1 theory revision

The practical topics as theory (11 to 21)

Exam practicePresent ▶

What this lesson covers

14.1 What styles are and what they control

Cambridge IGCSE ICT 0417 · Topic 14: Styles

19a Set up the presentation and the master slide

Cambridge IGCSE ICT 0417 · Topic 19: Presentations · Paper 2

15.1 Software tools: spell check, grammar check and validation

Cambridge IGCSE ICT 0417 · Topic 15: Proofing

You will learn to

Explain what a style is and why it saves time.
Explain why a master slide is used in a presentation.
Describe what validation does, and what it cannot catch.
Answer theory questions about the practical skills in topics 11 to 21.

Success criteria

I can explain why changing one style updates every heading at once.
I can say what goes on a master slide and why.
I can explain why validation cannot stop data that is sensible but wrong.

The syllabus points for these sections

Explain what a style is and why it saves time.
Tell serif and sans-serif fonts apart.
List the settings a style can hold.
Read a style specification from an exam task.
Create a presentation from a text or outline source file.
Use the master slide for background, images, text, slide numbers, headers and footers.
Choose slide layouts and use placeholders.
Insert, delete and move slides.
Use spell check and grammar check, and judge each suggestion.
Explain why automated suggestions are not always correct.
Describe validation checks and what they can and cannot catch.
Give examples of range, length, type, format, presence and check digit checks.

Key words

Say each word, then read what it means. Every one is in the glossary too.

Style: A named, saved set of formatting settings applied in one click.
Style guide: A document that sets out an organisation's house style rules.
Font face: The design of the letters, such as a serif or sans-serif font.
Serif font: A font with small strokes at the ends of the letters.
Sans-serif font: A font with no small strokes at the ends of the letters.
Point size: A measure of text height; 72 points is about one inch.
Enhancement: Emphasis added to text: bold, italic or underline.
Alignment: Where text lines up: left, right, centre or fully justified.
Spacing before/after: Extra space above or below a paragraph, measured in points.
Line spacing: The gap between lines inside a paragraph, such as single or double.
Bullet: A symbol placed before each item in a list.
Template: A starting file that already holds the styles and layout of a house style.
Consistency: The same kind of text always having the same formatting.
Master slide: A template slide whose layout, styles and objects appear on every slide.
Placeholder: A box on a layout that sets where a title, text or image goes and how it looks.
Slide layout: A pattern of placeholders, such as title and content or two content.
Slide sorter: A view showing small copies of every slide, used to reorder, hide or check slides.
Spell check: A tool that compares words with a stored dictionary and flags unknown ones.
Grammar check: A tool that flags possible mistakes in sentence structure.
Validation: An automatic check by the computer that data is sensible and follows set rules.
Visual verification: A person compares entered data with the source document by eye.
Source document: The original document the data is taken from, such as a paper form.
Range check: Validation that a value lies between a lowest and highest value.
Presence check: Validation that a field has not been left empty.
Format check: Validation that data matches a set pattern, such as DD/MM/YYYY.
Check digit: An extra digit calculated from the other digits, used to detect input errors.

The explanation

Read it here, or open the study page below to go one step at a time with things to try.

14.1 What styles are and what they control

A style is a saved recipe for formatting

A style is a named set of formatting settings. For example, the style Heading might mean: sans-serif font, 18 point, bold, centred, 12 points of space after.

You apply the style to text in one click. All the settings are applied together.

If you later change the style, every piece of text using it changes too.

e.g.Example

A school newsletter has 12 headings. Without styles, you format each one by hand: 12 × 5 settings = 60 changes. With a style, you define it once and click 12 times. To change the colour later, you edit the style once.

?Why?

Styles save time and stop small differences creeping in. Every heading matches because they all come from the same recipe.

Serif and sans-serif fonts

A font (font face) is the design of the letters.

A serif font has small strokes, called serifs, at the ends of the letters. Times New Roman is an example.

A sans-serif font has no serifs. "Sans" is French for "without". Arial is an example.

Exam tasks often say "a sans-serif font" or "a serif font" instead of naming one. Any font of that type earns the mark.

Type	Look	Often used for
Serif	Small feet and tails on letters	Printed books, formal letters
Sans-serif	Plain, clean strokes	Screens, headings, signs, many dyslexia-friendly materials

!Watch out

Do not pick a decorative or handwriting font when the task says serif or sans-serif. Choose a plain, common font of the right type so there is no doubt.

What a style can control

Cambridge lists these settings: font face, font size, colour, alignment, bold, underline, italic, spacing before and after paragraphs, line spacing, and bullets.

Point size measures text height. 72 points is about one inch (2.54 cm). Body text is usually 10 to 12 points.

Spacing before and after adds space above or below a paragraph. It is measured in points. Line spacing sets the gap between lines inside a paragraph, such as single or 1.5.

Setting	Example value
Font face	Sans-serif
Size	11 points
Colour	Black
Alignment	Fully justified
Emphasis	None (not bold, not italic)
Spacing	0 pt before, 6 pt after
Line spacing	Single

?Why?

Spacing set inside a style is always the same size. Pressing Enter twice to make a gap gives uneven gaps when text moves.

Reading the style table in a task

Cambridge often gives a table of styles to create, with columns such as Style name, Font, Size, Alignment, Enhancement and Spacing.

Work across one row at a time. Tick each setting on the question paper as you set it.

Enhancement means emphasis: bold, italic or underline. "None" means switch them all off.

e.g.Example

!Watch out

Style names must match exactly, including capitals and hyphens. A style called j26 head does not earn the naming mark, and the examiner may not find it in your screenshot.

19a Set up the presentation and the master slide

What the task looks like

A Paper 2 presentation task gives you a brief and source files, such as an outline in .rtf or .txt and some images.

Our example: a presentation for a Madrid sports centre, shown on a screen in the entrance hall.

Read the whole task before you start. Many marks depend on details, such as an exact font size or a slide order.

?Why?

Every instruction is a mark point. Reading first stops you setting up the master slide one way and then having to redo it.

!Watch out

Use only the text and images supplied. Extra slides, extra text or clip art you added yourself can lose marks.

Create slides from a source file

Most presentation software can open or import an outline file. Each top-level heading becomes a new slide title.

Lines indented under a heading become bullet points on that slide.

After importing, check every slide against the source file: no missing lines, no extra blank slides.

e.g.Example

Source outline (.rtf) Welcome to Centro Deportivo Retiro Open 7:00 to 23:00 every day Pool, padel, tennis and gym Our activities Padel courts: €12.00 per hour Swimming: €4.50 per session Result: slide 1 titled "Welcome to Centro Deportivo Retiro" with two bullets, slide 2 titled "Our activities" with two bullets.

!Watch out

Imported text often keeps the source font. Reset the slides to the master so they follow the master's styles.

The master slide

The master slide is a template that controls every slide. A change on the master changes all slides at once.

Put things that must appear on every slide on the master: background colour, a logo, slide numbers, headers and footers, and the text styles.

Placeholders are boxes on the master that set where the title and body text go, and how they look.

e.g.Example

Brief: "On the master slide: a pale blue background; the logo in the top right; your name, centre number and candidate number in the footer on the left; slide numbers on the right. Titles 40 point, sans-serif, centred." All of this is set once, on the master, not slide by slide.

?Why?

One master means every slide matches exactly. Placing a logo by hand on eight slides almost guarantees it moves a little on one of them.

!Watch out

The examiner checks the same item is in exactly the same place on every slide. If you put the logo on each slide by hand, any slide where it moves loses the consistency mark.

Layouts and placeholders

A slide layout is a pattern of placeholders: title only, title and content, two content, blank, and so on.

Pick the layout that matches the task. For text with an image beside it, use a two-content layout.

Type into placeholders rather than adding new text boxes. Placeholders keep the master's font, size and position.

!Watch out

Text in a text box you drew yourself does not follow the master. If the master font changes, that text stays the same and looks out of place.

Insert, delete and move slides

Insert a slide with the layout you need, in the position the task says, such as "a new slide 3".

Delete slides the task says to remove, and any blank slide left over from the import.

Move slides by dragging them in the slide sorter or thumbnail panel. Check the final order against the brief.

e.g.Example

Brief: "Move the slide titled Prices so it becomes slide 2. Delete the slide titled Old timetable." After this, check slide numbers on the master update by themselves: 1, 2, 3 …

!Watch out

Typing slide numbers by hand is wrong. They stay fixed when slides move. Insert automatic slide numbers on the master.

15.1 Software tools: spell check, grammar check and validation

Spell check and grammar check

A spell check compares each word with a dictionary stored in the software. Words not in the dictionary are underlined, often with a red line.

A grammar check looks for problems with sentence structure, such as "they was" or a missing capital letter.

Both offer suggestions. You decide whether to accept each one.

?Why?

These tools catch most typing slips quickly. They are a good first pass, not the last one.

!Watch out

Set the dictionary language to English (UK). With English (US) the checker flags "colour" and "organise" as wrong, and may tempt you to change correct UK spellings.

Why suggestions are not always right

A spell check only knows whether a word exists. It does not know whether it is the right word.

"Their are two bikes" passes a spell check because "their" is a real word. "Form" typed instead of "from" also passes.

Names, place names and technical words, such as Malasaña or Tawara, are flagged as errors even when correct.

e.g.Example

Source text: Meet at Plaza Mayor from 10:00. Typed: Meet at Plaza Mayor form 10:00. Spell check: no error found. Visual check against the source: "form" should be "from".

!Watch out

In the exam, a company or product name from the source file is often flagged. Do not accept the suggestion. The examiner wants the name exactly as given.

Validation: the computer checks the data is sensible

Validation is an automatic check by the computer that data is reasonable and follows rules. It happens when data is entered.

It checks that data is sensible, not that it is correct. An age of 41 typed instead of 14 passes a range check of 0 to 120.

If data fails, the computer rejects it and shows an error message.

Check	What it tests	Example
Range	Value is between a lowest and highest value	Exam mark from 0 to 70
Length	Number of characters is allowed	Spanish mobile number has 9 digits
Type (character)	Data is the right type, such as numbers only	Quantity must be a whole number
Format	Data matches a pattern	Date as DD/MM/YYYY; Spanish car plate 1234 ABC
Presence	Field is not left empty	Email address must be filled in
Check digit	Last digit, calculated from the others, matches	Supermarket barcode (EAN-13), ISBN

?Why?

Validation stops impossible or badly formed data entering a system, such as a negative price or a date of 31/02/2026.

Where validation appears in the practical papers

In a database task, you may set a validation rule on a field, such as `>=0 And <=70`, with a validation text message such as "Mark must be from 0 to 70".

In a spreadsheet task, data validation can allow only a list of values, such as Road, Mountain, Electric.

You then test it: try a value that should be accepted and one that should be rejected. Take screenshots of both as evidence.

e.g.Example

Field: Hours (number of hours a bike is hired) Rule: >=1 And <=8 Test 1: enter 4 → accepted. Test 2: enter 9 → rejected with message "Hours must be from 1 to 8".

!Watch out

Showing only the accepted value proves nothing. The rejected test and its error message are the evidence that the rule works.

Study it

Open the study page and go one step at a time.

ICT topic 1

Check yourself

One question at a time. The reason shows after each answer.

Saved on this device.

The practical topics as theory (11 to 21)

What this lesson covers

You will learn to

Success criteria

Key words

The explanation

A style is a saved recipe for formatting

Serif and sans-serif fonts

What a style can control

Reading the style table in a task

What the task looks like

Create slides from a source file

The master slide

Layouts and placeholders

Insert, delete and move slides

Spell check and grammar check

Why suggestions are not always right

Validation: the computer checks the data is sensible

Where validation appears in the practical papers

Study it

Types and components of computer systems

Input and output devices

Storage devices and media

Networks and the effects of using them

The effects of using IT

ICT applications

The systems life cycle

Safety and security

Audience

Communication

The web

Data, spreadsheets and AI

Check yourself