lab 3

Unit 3: Lesson 5 Lab 5.5

Purpose

In this lab, you will install both LibreOffice, an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office Access, and antivirus/anti-malware security software. The objective is for you to understand the differences between two types of software with common purposes (creating documents) and to raise awareness of key security concepts.

Lab Instructions

You’ve been given two tasks: to install LibreOffice and a security program. The lab requires you to provide input regarding your review/experience with a few exploratory questions. Please feel free to include additional comments after you address the required questions.

On uCertify, in section 5.5 for the Lab, review and provide your written experiences and recommendations for each of the lab questions focused on LibreOffice. For the security portion, there are not direct questions but requested actions. Please comment on your experience executing the tasks.

Non-Windows Instructions for LibreOffice:

MAC

On Chromebook

Additional Instructions

  Lesson 5 introduced a lot of software concepts that are good to know and some that are absolutely critical to the safety of your computer. For this lab, you are going to do two separate activities.

Submission requirements (parts 1 and 2): o Answer each of these topics/steps with a written paragraph of 3-4 sentences o Add an image (snip-it or screenshot) showing what you found

Part 1, you should familiarize yourself with software that you have not used before. Most people are familiar with Microsoft Office, but not everyone has seen a competing office suite. So, for the first part of the lab, download LibreOffice.

1. Install it and open it. In particular, play with Writer and Calc, or whichever Microsoft Office equivalent you are most familiar with. Describe working with comparable application options to those in Microsoft Office.

2. Can you find what you need in the menus?

3. Also, if you have a .docx or an .xlsx file, see whether you can open it in LibreOffice. Does it work like it’s supposed to? Describe the experience using files from the open-source application to the MS Office proprietary option

Unit 3: Lesson 5 Lab 5.5

Part 2 of your lab, you need to make sure your computer is secure and up to date on its important patches. Here are some steps you can take:

1. If you don’t have antivirus or anti-malware software, install some! Options are suggested in the lesson, and you can also Google search for recommended options from reputable sources.

2. If you do have antivirus software, open it up and see when the last time it updated its definitions. It should be within the last week. If not, update them.

3. Make sure that your OS is scheduled to receive automatic updates. Perhaps you have a good reason why you might not want them installed automatically, but for the most part, installing automatically is the best bet.

References