The complete beginner on a PC Part 2
Beginning to practise:
*Type the first typing sample (Learning the Computer) (below)
* Use Caps Lock for the title, then press Enter to start.
* Check that your work looks exactly like the sample - spacing, punctuation etc, but don’t worry about the box at this stage!
LEARNING THE COMPUTER
Using the computer for the first time is really quite simple, because many of the functions are automatic. For example, you can add or delete words or letters without having to make other major changes to your page.
Typists are often surprised and pleased that they don’t have to press Enter at the end of each line. Word automatically makes and new line for you, so you can just keep typing. Of course, if you want a new line, or make spaces between paragraphs, you just have to press the Enter key!
* Use the Backspace and Delete keys to fix your mistakes
* Use either the direction arrow keys or the mouse to move around in your document
Understanding the Screen
* You don’t need to know all this at first, but understanding the screen will help you to begin working better
* Try to learn the special computer words gradually, and you can begin to talk the same language as other computer users!
At the top, you see several rows of bars across the screen.
Starting from the top, you see:
the Title bar says Microsoft Word and the name of your document, say document4
the Menu bar File, Edit, View etc - these are the major categories of operations you can perform in Word and let you do all kinds of things to your document. These words control the ‘drop-down menus’. Click on any of these words to see what choices are available
the Standard toolbar this contains icons (pictures) which are shortcuts or alternatives to using the drop-down menus. This toolbar controls all the basic operations like opening, closing, printing, spellcheck, undo etc
the Formatting toolbar contains icons that let you change how your writing looks - font & font size, bold, underline, centring
scroll bars vertical (on the right) and horizontal (at the bottom) are mouse-controlled bars which enable you to move through your document
status bar at the bottom - useful for seeing which page you’re on!
Tip: to see what the icons mean, run your mouse arrow along the bottom edge of any icon, wait 2 seconds, and you’ll see a helpful little yellow box appear which tells you what it’s used for.
SAVING (KEEPING) YOUR WORK
You’ve finished typing your document or file (exercise/letter/resume/story etc) and made some corrections. Now you want to make sure you don’t lose it - for your records, or to add something later … so, you have to save it for next time!
Here’s what to do …
2. Click with your mouse on to File (the first word on the Menu Bar)
3. Choose Save As … this lets you give a name to your document so that you can find it next time
4. A box appears, asking you to type in the name - the name can be anything, preferably something that will remind you what’s in it; long file-names are OK
5. In the little window under File Name, you type in my story or typing practice or whatever
6. Then you have to choose which ‘drive’ to save your document onto - c: = the hard drive inside the computer, and a: (31/2 Floppy A:) = your diskette or f: if you have a cd burner. Always choose a: by clicking on the arrow next to the Save in: window
[These days computers rarely have provision for floppy disks anymore. You would save to a cd disk or a USB drive]
7. Finally choose Save (or OK) and wait while the information goes on to your disk. When the mouse-pointer goes back to an arrow, the computer has finished its job!
8. You can then close your document safely, and be confident that you can find it next time, via File, Open …
Remember -
* ’save’ means ‘keep for later’
* if you don’t save your work before closing, it’s gone forever!
* if you save to C: (the hard disk) you’ll have trouble finding it again.
* you’ll need to practise this many times, because it’s tricky but very important
* practise now by saving your typing sample to your diskette (the a: drive) or these day, the cd drive or USB drive. Call it ‘first’.
HIGHLIGHTING (SELECTING)
* To do many operations on the computer, you need to learn how to highlight text accurately.
* Highlighting is the key to many of the more advanced techniques, such as formatting, moving, copying etc.
Use one of your typing samples to practise this:
1. Place your cursor at the beginning of a line
2. Press and hold the left mouse-button
3. Drag slowly across 2 or 3 words of your writing. It should turn black, and it’s now highlighted.
Now, you can make many changes to the look of the writing, such as:
*changing its size
*changing the text style
*moving it
*deleting it … and so on.
Highlighting and Formatting Practice
Formatting = making your plain typing look attractive
From LEARNING THE COMPUTER, we can, by highlighting, change it to LEARNING
THE COMPUTER
After highlighting this title, make these changes on the Formatting toolbar
1. Change the font to Arial 2.
Increase the point size from 12 to 18 3.
Make it Italic
4. Put the title in the centre of the page
Another short practice
Type WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA (normally, using Caps Lock)
Then, highlight these words and
* centre them
* change the point size from 12 to 24
* choose Comic Sans MS font ” underline the words ” put a box around them
If you already have some computer experience, try this little exercise:
1. First, type this simple notice
NOTICE
All visitors to this site must carry valid security passes
The Manager
2. Highlight NOTICE and increase the font to size 28 3. While it’s still highlighted, put it in the centre, and underline it
4. Highlight ‘All Visitors … security passes’, and centre it
5. Highlight ‘The Manager’, make it Italic, and put it on the RHS (right align)
6. Highlight the whole notice, and put a box around it
7. Sit back and admire your work - it should look like this example, except
that HTML doesn’t put a box around it.
NOTICE
All visitors to this site must carry valid security passes
The Manager
