Sean Doel learned about various hardware and software technologies from constructing a music magazine. The hardware included an Apple Mac computer, keyboard, mouse, Nikon D3100 camera, and SD memory card/reader. Sean found the Mac interface difficult to adjust to initially but became more proficient over time. Photoshop and InDesign were the main software used for photo editing and page layout. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were also utilized for planning, writing articles, and reviewing the project.
What I've learnt about technologies from constructing a music magazine
1. Question 6 – What have you learnt
about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
Sean Doel
2. Hardware
Hardware is the physical equipment that I have used to make my
music magazine. These are things such as:
• The Apple Mac
• The Keyboard
• The mouse
• Camera
• SD card and reader
3. The Apple Mac
This is the Apple Mac that I used to make my Media magazine.
• Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo (2 GHz)
• RAM (Random Access Memory) – 1GB (667 MHz)
I had never used a Mac before I started this project. At first I found it very difficult and
it took a while to adjust to using one. After a while I found it much easier to get used
to and became better at using it. I found it especially useful for the tasks which
involved using/editing pictures
4. The Mouse + Keyboard
• I found the mouse different to what I would use on a Windows Pc. The
main reason for this is that on a Mac there is not a separate left and right
click button.
• The main reason for the mouse is to click, drag and edit the things on the
screen.
• The keyboard is very similar to any other keyboard on the market. The are
some subtle differences such as keyboard shortcuts. An example of this is
to screenshot you would use Cmd + Shift + 3 or Cmd + Shift 4.
5. The Camera
For my music magazine is was necessary to use many photos that I had to
take myself.
For this I used a Nikon D3100 which is a SLR camera.
• It has 14.8 million pixels
Because of the high amount of megapixels and also the quality of the shutter
I was able to take very detailed and high quality photos.
I also had access to to a white screen and strobe lighting. This further
enhanced the photos as it adds lighting to make the pictures stand out.
6. SD Card and Reader
• When I took the photos for the music magazine they were
stored on an SD Card on the camera.
• To get them off of the camera I had to use a USB card reader
to put them onto the Mac.
• From there I would save them onto the Mac so I could use
them and edit it.
7. Software
• Software are the programs that are used to do
things on the hardware. These are things such
as:
• Photoshop
• InDesign
• PowerPoint
• Word
8. Photoshop
• Photoshop is the program that I used to make most of the
pages of my music magazine. It is very useful for many
features to do with graphics and photo editing. These are
some examples as to what I used it for and the different tools
that the program incorporates:
9. This is the tool that is
used to move the
different components
around on the page.
This is the magnetic lasso tool
and this is used for when a
picture needs to be cut out. It
automatically follows the
lines that need to be cut.
This is the fill bucket. It is used for
when something needs to be
coloured such as any boxes on the
page.
This is the text tool. It is used
to write words on the page. I
used it for the front cover
and also the contents page.
10. InDesign
• InDesign was the program that I used for the article page of
my music magazine. This is because InDesign is very good for
pages that involve lots of text as it makes it very easy to adjust
and edit it. InDesign partnered well with Photoshop for the
article page as the graphics were done on Photoshop and the
text editing was done on InDesign.
11. When using InDesign the
page had to be set as
landscape as it was a
double page spread.
I also had to set the page up
in A3 so that each side of the
paper would be an A4 size
page.
12. This is the tool that is
used to move things
around on the page.
With this box I could change the
layout of the text and the spaces
between the paragraphs.
With this box I could
change things such as
the colours and effects
used on the text.
13. Microsoft Word + PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were very useful in the
planning, analysing and reviewing parts of the music
magazine.
• I used Word to write the script for my main article page. This
was useful because it made it easy to paste it into InDesign.
• PowerPoint was useful for the analysis and the reviews of the
questions. Most of the review questions were made using
PowerPoint as it was effective at getting the information
across.