Computer Info – October 1, 2003

 

This Week’s Meeting

            Remember, today’s meeting is BASICS.  We will discuss the desktop, the task bar, cut-copy-paste, opening programs and closing them.  Talk about folders and how to locate files.

            There are many different ways to accomplish the same thing – so learn it your way; but understand the various ways things that be done.

            The next meeting is October 15th.

           

Desktop

            This is the area that you first see when you turn your computer on.  It holds the ability to navigate around your computer and jump from one task to another.

            At the bottom of your desktop is the TASK BAR.  It is comprised of various parts.  On the far left is the START button – which allows you to locate and run the various programs that are on your computer,  do a FIND to locate a particular file on your computer, locate HELP on a command,  and to SHUT DOWN your computer.  On the far right is the SYSTRAY – which gives you your clock ( you can double-click on it to adjust the clock or look at the calendar ), your volume control ( you can double-click on it to increase or decrease the volume of various sounds ), and other icons that programs put on it.  The middle of the task bar is where the open program windows appear.  You may also have a QUICK LAUNCH area where there are small icons – these icons allow you to launch a program with a single click instead of double clicking. 

            The TASK BAR can be moved from the bottom of the screen to the side or top of the screen – and  can be made wider or narrower.  You move the TASK BAR by clicking on the middle area and holding your left mouse button down while dragging your mouse to the side or top of the screen.  You will not see your task bar move UNTIL you have released the button – but you may notice a dotted gray box area move to the position of where you would like to place it.

 

CUT – COPY – PASTE

            The operations of Cut - Copy - Paste can be used within the same document or project – or it can be used to copy or move information between documents or projects.  You will find this application helpful when you are writing an e-mail message and wish to include some information from a previous message that you had received – when you wish to copy only a portion of a web page that contained information that you were interested in – when you wish to place a few paragraphs from one letter into another letter you are writing.

            Before we can perform any of these operations, we have to SELECT the information that we wish to CUT - COPY or PASTE.  You select the information in various ways and according to the program that you are running.  For instance, in Microsoft Word or Notepad (or probably every word processor), you can

            Choose EDIT from the top menu

                        And then choose SELECT ALL

                                    This will select everything in your document and have it available for copying or

                                    cutting.

 

You can also select by placing your cursor at the beginning of what you want to select, then hold down the left mouse button and drag your mouse over the text that you wish selected.  You will notice that all of the text will be highlighted.

           

            You can also select by placing your cursor at the beginning of what you want to select, hold down the shift key and then use the arrow keys to highlight the desired text.

 

            In other types of programs (for instance, graphics programs, photo editing programs, spreadsheets), the process will be a little bit different.  You will have a select tool, or you click on the desired object, or you highlight the cell or cells to wish to copy or cut.

CUT

            Once you have your information selected (or highlighted), then you can CUT the information.  You can perform this operation in various ways.  (1) Choose EDIT from the top menu – and then choose CUT.  (2)  Press the right mouse button and then choose CUT.  (3) Press ALT-E and then press T if you like to use the keyboard.

This will make the desired selection disappear from your project.  Where did this information go – to the clipboard.  What is the clipboard – some small corner of your computer’s memory where the information  is stored until you decide to overwrite it with some new information.

COPY

            Once you have your information selected (or highlighted), then you can COPY the information.  You can perform this operation in various ways.  (1) Choose  EDIT from the top menu – and then choose COPY.  (2) Press the right mouse button and then choose COPY.  (3) Press ALT-E and then press C if you like to use the keyboard.

This will leave all of the selected information in your document or project, but will also place a copy of it on the clipboard where it will remain until you decide to overwrite it with some new information.

PASTE

            Once you have placed something on the clipboard then it is available to be pasted.  In your word processor document, place your cursor at the location that you wish to insert the information.  This procedure will vary in other types of programs – with graphics, the item usually just appears on your working area and then you position it where you want it to be.  The information can be inserted using various methods.  (1) Choose EDIT from the top menu – and then choose PASTE.  (2) Press the right mouse button and then choose PASTE.  (3).  If you like to use the keyboard, press ALT-E and then P.

DELETE

            What about delete?  What does it do?  In order to delete a portion of your document or other project you are working on, you must select (or highlight) the information the same as you did for cut and copy.  After the information has been selected, then there are various methods to remove the selected information.  (1) Choose EDIT from the top menu - and then choose DELETE or CLEAR.  (2)  If you like to use the keyboard, press the DELETE key.  Windows 95 does not seem to have a choice of delete or clear from the right mouse button.  Delete or Clear works a little differently than cut or copy.  When you delete (or clear) something, it does not go to the clipboard.  It is immediately removed.  DELETE or CLEAR within a program, does not remove anything from your hard drive – it only removes selected information from your project.