Electronic delivery of homework Hi - Here's a brief note on the electronic delivery of homework assignments for your language class. Some assignments will require that you create a document from scratch. I operate a PC with Microsoft Word as my word processing program. Therefore, things work better for me if you do your work in Word, or at least save your work as a Word document. I prefer that you submit that document to me as an e-mail attachment. I can still handle your work OK if you copy and paste into your e-mail program, but it takes me longer. If you type your work directly into your e-mail message box, you will not be able to use accented letters or other symbols used in French and German. Whatever method you use, I will edit your work in Word and return it to you as a Word document. On most of my assignment pages, however, you can use a time saving procedure. When I give you an English-to-French translation page or a fill-in-the blank exercise as your homework assignment, you can simply insert the material from that page into your program and edit. I'm hoping that this process (with different keystroke combinations, etc.) also works for those of you working with Macs. Give it a try and let me know. Here is the procedure to follow. Open the assignment page online. From the Edit menu, choose Select All (or just type ctrl + a to select all of the text). From the Edit menu, choose Copy (or type ctrl + c). Open your Word (or other) program and prepare to create a new document. From the Edit menu, choose Paste (or type ctrl + v) and then Edit the document as per the assignment instructions. The spacing may not be the same as in the original, but you can insert text and move things around just as if you were creating a new document. Name this document appropriately and save it as a Word document (not HTML) to your hard drive or a floppy. Send it to me as an e-mail attachment. The location and details of the Attachments option will vary from one e-mail program to another. Click where indicated to add an attachment and then browse through your hard drive or floppy to find your document. Then just follow the instructions and add attach the document to your message. Depending on the speed of your connection, this process can be a bit slow. Let me know if my explanation of the process doesn't work for you. As I have worked at developing tutorials, etc., I have gained a great respect for those who write (successfully) all those manuals that explain computer processes. Assignment !!! For practice, try working with the appropriate practice document that I have put online. In French and German, you will make extensive use of accented letters, and German also uses the letter ß. I have included spaces where you can try to insert the accented letters or symbols that you will need to use in your language study. There are a couple of ways to create these. Probably the easiest way is to click on the Insert menu at the top of your document work page and select Symbol. A chart opens up from which you can simply select the symbol you want. If you desire, you can use the shortcut keystroke combinations that I have included on your practice document. These are the keystrokes that work in Word. If you use another word processing program, you will need to find the appropriate keystrokes for that program. When you have inserted the material into the blanks, then send me the document as an e-mail attachment. Let me know if you have problems. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't all work for you at first. For some of you with limited computer skills, these computer details might be as difficult as learning your French or German. We'll keep at it until it falls into place. Dave
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