Author Archives: Student Staff

Creating and Using Google Forms

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Jonathan Joint. Learn more about Jonathan and our other student assistants here.

Google Forms is an essential tool for college students, teachers, and faculty members alike. And for the student leaders who are very much involved in extracurricular activities that may require things like conducting surveys, registration sheets, Google Forms is a great fit.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create your own forms from scratch as well as how to use some of the Google templates as your foundation. On top of showing you how to add questions to it, I will also share some tips that will really enhance your forms– including ways to add photos and videos from a number of options.

How To Get Started

Using Google Forms is free with an existing Google account. And if you don’t currently have a Google account, you can sign up for one for free. But if you have an existing Google Account, simply click here. Otherwise, once you’ve signed up, you can access the Forms by first going to the “Drive” icon as magnified to get yourself started.

Creating/Editing Forms

Now that you are all set with all the initial set-up, you can jump to the fun stuff and begin to create and design your personalized google form. From this page, you want to click on “New” to begin a new project– then hover over “More” and then you will see the icon for “Google Forms” as one of the options, if not your first option. Refer to the images below.

Your PC or laptop will automatically open up a new browser for you with a templated format titled “Untitled Forms.” First and foremost, begin with adding a title to your form so that people will know exactly what this document is for. Google even gives you the option to add a quick description right below the title space in case you want to add a brief description that is going to personalize your form even more.

Another great plus about Google Forms is that you do not have to continually save your progress, as changes are saved automatically.

On this page you will also notice a gray shaded rectangle rectangle to the right of “Digital Lab Studio” (This is the question box) which gives you the options of choosing the form of answers you will be accepting. So much control!–I know right. So then you would then edit yours with your question, and if you have a short answer like I do, you would then move on to the next question you would like to be answered.

To add subsequent questions, you would simply hit the plus sign to the right, which will then create a brand new question box. Keep in mind that you can choose many different question forms and thus bundling a good of them. In the event that you accidentally create a new question box, you can delete it by clicking on the trash can icon at the bottom of the screen. Another great feature is the option to mark a question as a “required” question. This means that the person responding to the survey for example will not be able to submit the survey unless they answer that question.

Attaching Images and Videos

Adding an image or video can be done from the exact same taskbar to the right of the forms as illustrated below. This feature plays a huge role in giving you more creative freedom in creating your Google Form. As you will see, your options for videos or images are infinite because you are able to access videos from Youtube and search for images using the Google Search engine.

Choosing a Theme and Design

Now that you have the important details of your Google Forms done, things are easier from this point on. Now as a default, Google Forms gives you a purple background which you may or may not like. But again, the good news is that you have a plethora of options. You could also decide whether you just want to change the summer or choose an entirely new theme with the sub-option of uploading your own theme. As you can see, there is plenty of room for creativity using Google Forms.

Choosing a Google Template

Lastly, I will capitalize on my promise of teaching you how to start your process by exercising your option of choosing from one of Google’s storage of templates. Now the quickest way for you to do this is by clicking here. You’re welcome. But if you’d like to know how to work your way through this, here’s how: Go to this “Drive” page (as illustrated below), and follow the initial steps as you would when you are creating a new form. But now you have one extra step– simply hover around the little arrow to the right, which gives you the option of starting with a new form or template.

Once there, you will initially only see four options to choose from, but don’t worry, there are plenty more. Simply click the arrow at the top right by “Template Gallery” and all of the different options will be opened up to you. Now all you have to do is choose on the most suitable one for you and click it. And you can start editing the template to make it your own.

Good luck! And thank you for choosing my blog post!

Beginner Guide to ABBYY FineReader Sprint

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Emma Grimm. Learn more about Emma and our other student assistants here.

ABBYY FineReader Sprint is a tool that turns any hard copy paper into an online type text which can be edited on the computer. With the program, you can correct images, reformat your document, or even edit typed text. In this tutorial, I will walk you through ABBYY FineReader and its tools to so that you can scan and edit your own document.

Part One: Getting Started

Placing Document on the Scanner

 

 

Open the scanner and place the document face down. Align the document into the bottom right corner of the scanner, which is indicated by the arrow. Lift up slightly to close the screen on the scanner.

Start a New Task

 

 

Once you open ABBYY FineReader in applications, a new task will appear on your screen. If you are scanning the document, choose the EPSON DS-1630 (or another scanner) as your source. If the document is already available on your computer, select that device as your source. Next, select the language of and the conversion format of your document. You can choose to convert your document to a PDF file, a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, or an HTML Document as shown below.

Importing Your Document

 

 

By selecting your conversion format, a scanning preview of your document will appear. On the right hand side (depicted below), you can adjust the importation of the document with multiple settings, such as Mode, Color Depth, Resolution, and Scan Area. You can also chose to scan multiple pages without pause or with a determined amount of seconds in between. Once all of your adjustments have been made, click Scan in the bottom right corner.

 

 

Finish Import and Save the Document

 

Upon finishing the scan, you should press Finish Import in the bottom right corner. After, the computer will prompt you to save the document to the computer.

 

 

Adding More Pages

 

If you want to add more pages to your document, click the drop down bar in the top left corner labeled, Add Pages. You can choose to either scan another document or import another document from your computer. Follow the directions listed in Step 2 and 3 to scan and import the additional document. You can switch the order of the documents, at any point, by clicking and dragging them on the left hand side.

Part Two: Editing the Document

 

Editing Images on the Document

 

In the top right corner you will find the Image Editor, which adapts the appearance of the document and the images on the page. The following tools are offered to assist in editing the image.

      • Deskew helps do remedy images of distortion when scanning a thick book or processing digital photos of text.
      • Photo correction straightens blurred text, removes motion blur, and reduce ISO noise.
      • Rotate and flip the image, text, or page
      • Split the page into multiple pages
      • Crop the image, page, or text
      • Adjust the Image Resolution
      • Invert Colors in the photos or text
      • Adjust the brightness and contrast in an image
      • Erase any mistakes on the document

 

 

Formatting the Document

 

 

On the left hand side, there is a toolbar that allows you to edit the layout and format of your document. You can use the tools to select paragraphs of text or individual images and move them to different areas of the document. In addition, you can erase whole areas of text or images that you wish to remove.

 

 

HDR Enhancement using Premiere Pro

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Alben Chingo. Learn more about Alben and our other student assistants here.

Prepping the Footage

While holding down the Alt-key, select the footage and drag it up to duplicate it onto the tab above that (V3).

Before

After

Select the duplicated footage. With the duplicated footage selected, go to the effects library (the effects library is located in the bottom left corner box).

The bottom left box should now show the effects library bin. In the search box, search for tint (which will then appear under the color correction folder which is within video effects).

Select the tint effect and drag it onto the duplicated clip. (footage will appear black and white, ignore for now).

Go into the Effects Control panel, in the top left box. Click on opacity. Uncheck the timer on the opacity row, and change the blending mode (under the Opacity row) to soft light.

Click on the right facing arrow in the opacity row to open a slider box beneath it. Move the slider to the 30%-40% mark. I prefer the opacity percentage to be closer to thirty (32%). This is subjective depending on the footage itself. This changes the prominence of the shadows, which you can manipulate to make it look more cinematic.

Time to REALLY Edit

Go back into your project bin, where you can see your clips (found in the bottom left box).

Go into “File”, click (or hover over) “New”, then click on “Adjustment Layer.”

An Adjustment Layer Box will appear, click “OK”. The Adjustment Layer will appear in the project bin as an all black box. Click and drag the Adjustment Layer onto the tab above your duplicated clip, and resize it to fit.

Next, go back into the Effects Library bin and search for “Unsharpen Mask”. It will appear under the “Blur and Sharpen” folder.

Click and Drag onto the Adjustment Layer like before. Now we can adjust the Amount, the Radius, and the Threshold in the Effects Control (found in the top left box).

Set the Amount to or around 250.

Home Stretch

Go back to the Project Bin (in the bottom left box). Go to File -> New -> Adjustment Layer (again). Click OK. Drag that second Adjustment Layer to the tab above the 1st adjustment layer and resize it to match.

 

Click on the duplicated Adjustment Layer. Once more, search for Unsharpen Mask in the effects library and drag it onto the duplicated Adjustment Layer. Set the amount of the Unsharpen Mask to your taste. I prefer to set it to around 75.

Open up the Opacity tab (Uncheck the timer if its checked) and change the Blending Mode to “Lighten”. Change the Opacity to your preference. I prefer around the mid 20s (25). Finally, choose a Color Grading you want, or color correct the footage to your taste on the very last clip.

Keep in mind, the amount in percentages of the effects is subjective. The point is to make it look as HD as possible, and the percentages will depend on the lighting and color of your footage as well as your personal preference. Adjust it to suit your own taste.

You can also remove excessive grain to increase the HD effect, which can be done in After Effects, but this also depends on the footage itself. Don’t forget to keep in mind that the footage will look slightly different after rendering it as well.

Music Notation with Finale

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Nick Sucre. Learn more about Nick and our other student assistants here.

Finale is a very effective and intuitive way to notate music digitally. This program is very user friendly yet has a huge array of tools and options that fulfill almost every demand necessary for music notation. In this tutorial I will demonstrate how to create a straightforward music notation sheet. (This tutorial is done on PC but the process on Mac is identical)

Creating a New Document

Once you open Finale, a menu will appear with a series of options, and to begin we will click on Set-Up Wizard (Alternatively, if the menu does not show up, you can open the menu by pushing Ctrl + N).

The next screen that pops up will ask you to select an ensemble. Keep Create New Ensemble highlighted and click Next.

Next you will select the instruments you want for your document. For this example we will select from Keyboards > Piano and click on Add.

Hit Next and fill out the document information prompted.

Next, you can select your Meter, Tempo, Key Signature, and Pickup measure. Select Finish and the document will generate.

Writing Music

Now that we have the document we can begin to write. Before writing, we must make sure that our computer is on the right key settings. Go to Simple > Simple Entry Options…. > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts. On the bottom half of the window that appears check that the Keyboard Shortcut Set is on Laptop Shortcut Table. Then hit return to go back to the main sheet.

Now we are ready to write. Hover your mouse over the interval you wish. You can change the length of the note by pushing the numbers above the keyboard, with 5 being the quarter note, 4 being an eighth note, 6 being a half note, etc. press enter to input the note. The pitches of the next notes can be changed with the down and up arrows.

You can add flats and sharps with the – and =, respectively.

Adding Expressions and Articulations

To add embellishments of any kind to the music, simply refer to the toolbar, specifically the Expressions Tool and Articulations Tool.

You can shift the symbols around to different numbers to access articulations of your choice quicker.

Using the Music Playback Tool

The Playback Tool on Finale allows you to hear your written music and plays the music back to you exactly as written on the sheet, using digital instruments.

The Playback Region option gives you some options as to where the music begins to play. It is really your preference where you want it to start (default is first measure). I personally use Leftmost Measure as it makes it easier to listen to specific parts of music rather than having to listen to the entire piece every time. Click OK and then click the Play button. Finale will load the instrument sounds and play the music.

Finale is very easy to get used to and is welcoming to newcomers of digital notation, but also has a vast array of options and preferences that allow you to make the most advance sheet music. I encourage you to try out the different tools and mess around with preferences that work best for you. The method highlighted in this Tutorial is just one of the million ways to use this program, so make yourself comfortable. Happy Notating!

The Basics of Garageband

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Jung Kim. Learn more about Jung and our other student assistants here.

Welcome to GarageBand tutorial!

GarageBand is a macOS and iOS application that allows users to create music. It is a versatile program that suits your creative needs. All you have to do is to learn how to use it!

Let’s open the GarageBand app first. Click on Songwriting and choose.

Choose the setting you want by adjusting the Tempo, Signature, and Key.

The GarageBand window will open. To record using your computer, click on Window and Keyboard or Musical Typing.

You can change the instruments you want to use by choosing one from the list on the right side of the window. For example, let’s change the Piano to Electric Piano.

You are now ready to record! Click on the instrument you want to use, and click on the Red Recording Button at the bottom of the window. Once you record a segment, your screen will look like this.

These are the basics of GarageBand. Play around with various instruments and have fun making your own songs!

Hosting a site using Github

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Victor Truong. Learn more about Victor and our other student assistants here.

In this tutorial, we will be learning how to host a website using GitHub Pages. GitHub Pages offers a free option of hosting your own personal website. This website can be used and customized to your liking. I can be used for a blog or even a professional portfolio. Here’s how to get started.

To begin, we must create a GitHub Account at https://github.com/.

Next, we will click on “new repository” and name the repository “username.github.io” where username is your username.

From here, on your computer, using your favorite text editor, we will need to create and index file.

If you do not have a favorite text editor, recommended editors are Atom or Sublime.

https://atom.io/

https://www.sublimetext.com/

The name of the file will be index.html.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<p>I’m hosted with GitHub Pages.</p>
</body>
</html>

Enter the above text into your index file for a very basic webpage.  Next, you will need to commit the index file to your repository.  You can do this one of two ways, you can either enter your repository on github.com to upload and commit the files or your can use GitHub desktop.  

https://desktop.github.com/

Once the file has been uploaded and committed, you can view your website at the name of your repository.

The default link to your website will be username.github.io where username is your username.

The uploading and committing process may take a couple minutes. Once complete your website should look similar to this:

Congratulations!!! You now have your own personal website.

It make the website more complete and to your exact preferences you will need to take another step to learn the coding languages html, css and javascript.

These three languages will allow you to create the exact webpage you want.

Helpful sources are:

https://www.codecademy.com/

https://www.w3schools.com/

http://www.learn-js.org/

Enhancing an Image in Photoshop

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Kimberly Glover. Learn more about Kim and our other student assistants here.

First select an image of your choice.

After downloading your image, open the Photoshop software, click File and select Open to insert your image.

Photo of Asante Paramount Chief – Ghana

To brighten the image, click the Image => Adjustments => Vibrance. Make sure the preview icon is selected, it enables you to view changes to your work. In order to add more vibrance to the image, select Image => Adjustments => Photo =>Filter. Choose the filter of your choice.

Next, select Filter => Sharpen edges to give the image an HD effect. For more dimension, select the entire image, then click Select Modify => Feather.

These simple techniques can be used to edit everyday photos or accent professional headshots. Enjoy!

 

Getting Started with Adobe Premiere Pro

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Remi Joseph. Learn more about Remi and our other student assistants here.

Have you ever wondered how your favorite Youtubers produce the creative and stylish content you watch online? More often than not, the answer is Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro is an incredibly popular and powerful editing software compatible across multiple platforms and filled with tons of features. This non-linear and file-based program fuels flawless content production for creators across the world, both amateur and pro.

While it may look intimidating, it is quite simple to use. In this tutorial, I will be showing you some basics you need to get started with Premiere Pro: creating a project, importing a clip, and creating a title graphic. Let’s begin!

Creating a New Project & Importing a Clip

Editing on Premiere Pro requires you to have some sort of video file. First, let’s go ahead and open Premiere Pro by double-clicking the program. On the Start Screen you want to click “New Project” to create a new project file. Pick a name for your new project and then click OK.

To import media file, you want to go down to the bottom left corner and click on Media Browser panel. From here, you can search your computer disk and files for clips you can import. To select a video you want to import, select the clips you want to work with and choose Import. Once the media is imported, you can begin editing. For the sake of this tutorial, I have used a stock video found on Youtube.

Once I selected the file I wanted, it should appear on this panel right here. This is an example.

 

All you need to do now is Drag and Drop the video file you have imported into the bottom right panel. This will basically be a time-line of the video. You now have full liberty to shorten the video, cut the video, and edit it in many different ways!

 

Adding a Title Graphic

Now that we have the video imported, we can start to edit it. Let’s add a title graphic to introduce the video. Start by selecting WINDOW > WORKSPACES > GRAPHICS at the very top of the screen.

This will show the tools seen in this picture on the very left. These are the essentials you will need to create a title. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you start creating the title where you want it displayed in the video. So be sure to use the time-line panel to drag the playhead to where in the video you want the text to appear like so.

The next step is to click the “T” for Type. It is the very last tool on the vertical panel. This will open up a red box into which you can type your text.

The cursor tool allows you to move your typed text to anywhere on the screen. Once you have positioned it where you desire, you can edit the color, fill, size, and font of the text.

And that is it! Congratulations! You have created a title graphic for your video. Stay tuned for special effects in Premiere Pro next.

Intro to Stata

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Michael Scarpetti. Learn more about Michael and our other student assistants here.

In this tutorial, the goal is to gain a basic understanding of Stata, a statistical analysis program that is used across many disciplines. While the interface of Stata may seem daunting, once you know how to use the functions available to you, using it becomes a breeze. Today, we will go over the basics of Stata, such as loading and importing different types of files, basic data analysis tools, and basic regression functions. While this program is used by many disciplines, the main goal of today is to show how it can be used to perform statistical analysis.

Loading Data into Stata

The first step is to load the data into the program. You will need a dataset, which can be in the form of a .dta, .xls, .csv, and other text files. Seen below is the menu needed to access the file loading. If it is a .dta file, you can click open and find it in your computer. If it is any other file, you will have to go down to import and do the same.

Basic Data Inquiries

Listed Below are 4 essential statistical inquiries you can make and what they do. In order to do these functions, simply type the wording into the command section at the bottom.

  • DESCRIBE: tells you about the dataset. Includes the number of observations, variables, and the size of the file. It also lists the various variables.

 

  • LIST (VAR 1 VAR 2): this command allows you to list out each observation of any variables you desire. In this case, you need to type the specific variable after the word LIST to get the desired outcome.
  • SUMMARIZE: this command gives you the basic statistical numbers that you usually need to see when doing statistical analysis. It tells you the number of observations per variable, each variable’s mean, each standard deviation, and each variable’s maximum and minimum. The command can be shortened to SUM, and you can also summarize specific variables instead of the whole dataset if you wish.

 

  • CORRELATE (VAR1, VAR2, etc.): the correlate command gives you a correlation table of all variables or specific variables if desired. The command can also be shortened to CORR, as seen below.

 

Running Regression on Stata

One key feature of Stata is its ability to run regressions on a number of different variables. Regression helps us understand how multiple variables relate to each other. This is a vital command when doing statistical work. The command for running a regression is: REGRESS (VAR1, VAR2, VAR3)

 

As seen above, the regression analysis gives all of the important statistical numbers to help you understand a set of numbers. The command gives the coefficient, the standard error, the 95% confidence interval, and the R-Squared number. Doing all of this by hand would be tiresome and tedious work, so Stata saves a lot of time when finding doing statistical analysis.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial helps you in your pursuit of learning Stata. The Program is a great tool to use when analyzing datasets and large amounts of observations. If there is something you are unsure of and want more clarity on something, check out the Stata handbook, which is written by the creators of Stata. The link is listed below. I hope you learned something and good luck with your statistical endeavors!

Link to Handbook: https://www.stata.com/manuals13/u.pdf

Intro to Excel Functions

This tutorial was written by Digital Studio Student Assistant, Nicholas Park. Learn more about Nicholas and our other student assistants here.

Excel is extremely useful for a variety of different functions and purposes: organizing or analyzing data, creating tables and graphs, and much more. With Excel, you can access, review, and edit spreadsheets for personal as well as professional use. There are wide variety of different functions, tools, and gimmicks that come with the application. Some of the most basic of these functions, that this tutorial will explore, can help make time-consuming tasks simpler and easier.

There are a variety of different formulas you can input to complete specific tasks. Some of the few, easy ones this tutorial will give explore are: =SUM, =AVERAGE, and writing your own functions or equations.

The SUM and AVERAGE functions are used by typing in “=SUM” or “=AVERAGE” then highlighting the specific cells of interest that you would like to SUM up or take the AVERAGE of. The SUM function, note, will add the numbers in the cells; therefore if you wish to subtract, mark the number you desire to subtract as a negative number with the “-” symbol (I.e. -50). The function will do the rest. The AVERAGE function will take the average of the highlighted cells in a similar fashion to the SUM function.

Some things to familiarize yourself with are the “:” symbol, which serves as the range operator. It describes the range between the two cells you are selecting. For example B5:B15, would describe the cells between 5 and 15, inclusive, in the B column. If you were to pair this range with say, =SUM(), then the result would be the sum of all numbers in B5:B15 [=SUM(B5:B15)].

Commas allow you to combine multiple references into a single reference. For example, =SUM(B5:B15,D5:D15), would take the sum of B5:B15, in addition to, D5:D15. Simple enough right?

Before we continue, there are several things to remember. Excel follows general mathematical rules for calculations, which is Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction, or the acronym PEMDAS. Using parentheses allows you to change that calculation order. When writing your respective formulas, remember “plus” is “+”, “minus” is “-”, “divide” is “/”, amd “multiply” is “*”. By using parentheses, you can alter the order in which these calculations are done. Some other things to keep in mind are that exponents are introduced with the “^” symbol (For example, 3^3 = 27) and “%” represents “percents”. When writing your formulas, keep in mind you can use numbers and/or cell references in order to complete your calculations. For example, B1-54.312=, would result in the value that exists in B1 subtracted by 54.312. ((B1*3)/16) =, would take the order of PEMDAS and multiply the value of B1 by 3, and then divide it by 16, giving you the desired calculation.

Formulas can be dragged across different cells if you click the bottom right corner of the cell with the equation, and drag to highlight the desired cells with the respective calculations. If you’re using a specific range of cells, the calculations will shift accordingly as well. To better explain this, examine the image below:

 

As you can see, the cells involved (B3 and C3), are calculated in D3. However, when the equation is dragged down the respective cells, you can use the formula for B4, B5, and B6, multiplied by their respective “C” column counterpart for the total cost. These formulas are not limited to just multiplication, so be creative!

In the event in which you want to edit an existing formula, click the cell you wish to edit. Then proceed to double-click the cell to view the formula bar and edit the formula from directly within the cell. Color coordinated highlights will help you keep track of your targeted and edited cells. If you make a mistake, you can press the Esc button to avoid making any undesired changes.

Keep practicing, and test other functions as well. Good luck!