multifarious mushrooms

Putting Pictures in your document

Note - you should put pictures into a document that has some text (writing) in it - then you can arrange the text and pictures in an attractive way.

This is easy in Word, and lots of fun!

1. Go to Insert, Picture, then Clip Art

2. Scroll down through the pictures to look at them, or

3. Choose a category (Animals, Buildings, Food, Sport etc) then look at the pictures in that category

4. When you see one that you like, click on it, and choose Insert ” When you insert, the Picture toolbar appears automatically in your document. ” This lets you make changes to your picture, and also decide how to position it in your document (’text wrap’). I’ll show you how this works. ” You can highlight a picture by clicking on it once - then you’ll see little squares appear around it. Use the squares at the corners to make your picture bigger or smaller. Make sure that you can ” use the categories (Animals, Food, People etc) to find the type of picture you want ” use Find … to find the exact picture you want ” move your picture around ” make your picture bigger or smaller ” place it within your text ” copy it multiple times!

The Desktop & File Management

* This is a big topic and is sometimes called GUI (Graphic User Interface).
* The Desktop is the green screen that you see when you first sit down at the computer.
* The Desktop shows in graphic terms the main types of programs installed on your computer.
* ‘My Computer’ and the ‘Windows Explorer’ are the 2 main devices for
1. looking at the programs installed
2. looking at your files
3. moving, renaming, and deleting your files
Do this:
1. Minimise Word, so that you can see the Desktop
2. Double-click on ‘My Computer’
3. Double-click on ‘3 ½ Floppy A:’ or any disk, and you’ll see the files contained on your diskette
4. Go to View and choose how you want the information presented
5. Go to File and look at what you can do with your files
6. Click with your Right Mouse Button anywhere inside the window, and click on Properties to see how much space is left on your disk!

Templates - General

* Templates are ready-made documents of various kinds - letters, CVs, fax coversheets, memos etc
* Word has already pre-formatted and set up these document types, so that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time
* The normal blank document that you choose when you want a new document is in fact a template, with its margins, font and point size already set up
* You can accept Word’s design for these various documents, alter it slightly to suit yourself, or create your own template for commonly-used documents, eg a business letterhead, fax cover etc

Looking at Word’s ready-made templates

1. Go to File, New …
2. In the dialogue box, you’ll see tabs with various types (and styles) of common documents
3. Spend a few moments looking through the templates provided
4. Just for fun, add some of your personal details in the places indicated, but don’t save any changes that you’ve made

Creating your own template
This could be a
* business letterhead of your own design, with your company logo
* fax cover sheet
* inter-office memo
* or any other document that you often use.

1.Click on File New, then choose General, then blank Document

Type what you wish

2. Go to File, Save As…
3. In the Save as Type box, choose Document Template(*.dot) - this brings up the Templates folder
4. Double-click on the Memos folder
5. Call your document companymemo
6. Click on Save, and then close.

Now your new template will be listed along with all the other memo templates. You could construct a company letterhead in the same way, saving it alongside the other letter templates.

Believe it or not, there are still people who are afraid of technology and the older we are the less likely we will be technologically savvy. So here is the first section of a PDF ebook I once wrote. I have tutorials on making ebooks with HTML and PDF.

History of computers.
In brief:

* Previously, the DOS system was the main operating system for IBM-type computers (ie non-Apple computers)

*DOS was developed mainly for engineers and programmers, and required the user to type complex commands onto the screen. If you made a typing mistake, or failed to specify some link in the chain of command, DOS refused to co-operate.

* Windows was revolutionary in developing a flexible ‘user-friendly’ system for ordinary people that allowed users to point and click at icons (little pictures) of programs or other items to activate them and make other choices

* Most programs nowadays- for word-processing / accounting / design / record-keeping
etc - are written for Windows, and all are presented in a similar way, so that experience in one program can help you understand most others

* Windows 95/98/NT/XP is one version of this operating system, and is the one that we’ll be using. Windows 2000 operates slightly differently.

MS Office 97 (Most of these instructions still apply to MS Office 2000)

This is a suite or family of programs developed by Microsoft, and consists mainly of

Word for word-processing - letters, books, faxes, posters etc

Excel for spreadsheets and calculations/book-keeping

PowerPoint for slide shows and presentations

Access for keeping records (database)

Word-processing is the most popular function of computers for most people, and we will learn the basic operations for this powerful and interesting program first.

The Desktop

This is the screen you see when you first switch on your computer. It will look more or less the same, depending on what programs are installed.

Opening a program - 3 ways

1. Using the Start button

Click on the word Start in the bottom LHS of the screen, then click on Programs, then choose Microsoft Word

2. Clicking on the program icon (small picture), if it has been installed

Find the Microsoft Word icon on the desktop, and double-click on it

The Start Button

The Start button shows you everything installed on your computer, arranged into categories.

* You can quickly get help

* You can ask the computer to find documents for you

* You can change or modify the look of your screen, date, time, colors etc (Control Panel)

* You can see at a glance all (and open) the programs installed on your computer

* You can open some of the most recent documents that you’ve been working on

Explore this button, but remember that the menu of contents will look a little different to some other computers - it depends what is actually installed on it.

Starting to use Word

The sequence of skills to learn:

* Using the mouse using the left mouse button to ‘point & click’

* Understanding the screen menu bar, toolbars etc

* Basic typing becoming familiar with the keyboard

* Correcting your work using Backspace, Delete and Enter keys

* Highlighting the key to more advanced operations

* Saving keeping you work for next time

* Formatting making your work look attractive

BEGINNING TO TYPE

For simple typing, we need to use the keyboard as well as the mouse (’point & click’). You need to become familiar with the keyboard, where the keys are, and how to use some of the special keys. I’ve listed them below, and if you practise typing some of the samples here, you will use some of these special keys.

Important parts of the keyboard

Shift shift key + letter makes a capital

Spacebar for spaces between words

Caps Lock makes EVERYTHING CAPITAL

Enter makes a new line

Backspace removes a character to the left

Delete removes a character to the right

Arrow keys move around the document

Or … Use the mouse!

THE MOUSE

We use the mouse to ‘point & click’ (or double-click) to make choices.
It should become an automatic extension of your hand rather than a foreign object.
Rest your hand lightly on it, with your index finger lightly on the LH button.
The RH button is used in more advanced work, for shortcuts, so avoid it for now.

Note: the mouse arrow / I-beam is called the cursor

When you click in any place, you get a vertical blinking line; this is then called the insertion point, and shows where text will next appear.

Posture

* adjust the chair so the back is straight and close to vertical

* adjust the keyboard height to a fairly low position

* try a piano-style hand-position, using as many fingers as possible

* stretch, rest your eyes and move around if you get tired at the computer

Typing rules

* one space after a comma, colon or semi-colon

* two spaces after a full stop, question-mark or exclamation mark

* no spaces between last letter and any punctuation

* Press Enter only when a new line is required, eg for a new paragraph

* Never use the spacebar (ie multiple times) to position text on the page!