COMPUTER NOTES: COMPUTING
"DUH! I don’t even know how to turn on the computer! What do I do?"
1. START To start up or boot the computer, just press the on switch on the front of the CPU. That is all this switch is there for, to turn it on. NEVER to turn it off!
2. STOP: To stop the computer, you click on START in the bottom left corner. A menu pops up. The bottom entry is marked "SHUT DOWN" Click on it. Then when a next window pops up, click on "SHUT DOWN" Wait til everything stops, turn off the monitor, and maybe the printer. That is it.
3. DESKTOP: When the computer boots up, you will see a screen with several icons on it. My Computer, Recycle and Network will show up. The company you bought the computer from will add a bunch more. All of these icons are clickable and then that program will open. You can store files on the desktop where they will not be lost. Some people have the desktop completely full of icons. Some have just a few icons. There are at least three ways to accomplish most things on the computer. Storing files is one: on the desktop, in folders that show up when you click the START button, or in the system tray at the bottom of the screen. When you do open a program, it usually opens into a window.
4. WINDOWS: Windows are powerful! They are openable, closable, savable, very flexible. We will discuss the items on a window.
· The very top left of most windows will be a menu bar: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Window, and Help are just a few of the many menus that you might see. If you click on one item, a menu or a list of functions drops down. You have many options to click on.
· Under that might be a tool bar. The icons on it depend on what kind of program you opened. For a word processor, you will see: New document, Save disc, Files, Printer, Word check, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Font, Justify, etc. In fact, there might be several tool bars to utilize. They become very handy when you get to know the program and its capabilities.
· In the top right corner is a small group of 3 tiny boxes.
· The dash is to minimize the program. When you click on that, it looks like your program shut down, but it was only put on hold. If you look at the bottom of the screen, you will see the name of your program. It is still running, just sleeping. To get it back, just click on the title. Modern computers are multitasking. They can run several programs at once. Usually, you don’t have them all on the desktop running in open windows.
· The middle box has a single box or 2 overlapping boxes inside it. It is called the maximize button. If 2 little overlapping boxes show and you click it, the window will reduce in size. You will be able to adjust the size of the window. In the bottom right of the window is a small box with diagonal stripes. Grab that and pull or push and the window will change size. Also, if you hover your pointer over an edge of the window, the pointer switches to a double arrow. With that you can pull that edge larger or smaller. You can grab the topmost title bar and move the whole window. If a single box shows, and you click it, the window goes to full size and you don’t have any adjusting power over it.
· Lastly, an X. That is a short cut for EXIT. Click on it and the program will close completely. Of course, there is another way to close a program, click on FILE, go down usually to the bottom of the menu and click on EXIT. Closed!
· Scroll Bars: along the right and bottom sides are scroll bars, usually. Grabbing the bar and sliding it causes the stuff on the page to move up or down-or sideways, depending. There are also small arrows at each end of the scroll bars. Click on one and the screen moves one notch-fine tuning
· Bottom bar: sometimes there is a bar along the bottom, it helps explain some of the top buttons or icon.
5. PROGRAMS: What are they? Where are they? Each program does one big thing. Like a word processor. A game. Financial accounting. Viewing graphics. Web page. Remember, a programmer writes the code to do all these things, the computer is dumb. The program code is very complicated and sometimes huge, takes up lots of space on your drive where the program files are stored. The only part you see before you start one up is a little icon or a title. Like the tip of an iceberg! Click on the icon or title and the program starts and opens and lets you use it. To see a listing of most of the programs and files on your computer, click on START, go up to PROGRAMS, and then go over and up/down to WINDOWS EXPLORER. When this opens you will see a window, of course with two parts or panes. On the left side is a list of file folders connected with vertical lines. This shows the interconnection of everything. If you click on a file folder, the contents of the folder will show up in the right pane of the window. That shows you all the parts or files of that particular program. As you can see, programs are stored in folders. Programs are made up of many parts or files. All of these can be manipulated from this Explorer, but usually you never have to touch them. Click on the top right X to exit the Explorer.
6. OPERATIONS: Most programs allow you to cut and paste or copy and paste. They allow you to save the program if you change it, like a letter. You can delete things, an individual letter, or a whole file or a whole program. Highlighting is a process of dragging the pointer over something and it will change so it has a back color, or highlight. Then you can cut, paste, delete, or copy it. Most times if you mess up, you can click on a curved arrow icon and ‘undo’ the mistake. The power of each program is unreal. You have to be inquisitive and just try things. Also, check out the HELP menu.