Personal Computers) Or Macs

Understanding your Computer – Part I

Kinds of Computers Computers are generally classified as either PCs (personal computers) or Macs. In this class we are using PC’s. PC’s generally refer to computers running Intel processors that run a Microsoft Windows operating system. PCs could also be manufactured with AMD processors and/or other operating systems such as Linux and still be considered PCs. Macs, on the other hand, are made by Apple and run one of Apple’s operating systems such as OS 9, OS X. Both PCs and Macs come in desktop and laptop models.

Brand name examples for PCs: Dell, Gateway, HP, Toshiba Brand name examples for MACs: Apple

Computers that process large-scale operations for multiple users are referred to as servers. CSU has several servers that perform a variety of functions including routing and storing email as well as hosting applications such as HRS, FRS, and ISIS data. Servers typically use Unix, Linux, or Windows as an operating

Hardware Hardware makes up the physical components of a computer system and consists of objects you can actually see and touch. Items such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, system case, and processor fall under the hardware category. It may be also include other peripheral devices such as a printer, scanner, or digital camera.

Monitors Monitors display the output of what is happening in your computer. They can run at various resolutions and refresh rates. Most users prefer higher resolutions such as 800x600 or 1024x768 all the way up to 1600x1200 (and higher for graphics professionals). The higher resolutions make objects smaller, but clearer. Larger monitors are better for running at the higher resolutions. If you run a high resolution on a small monitor, the text may be hard to read because of its small size. The refresh rate is how fast the monitor can refresh (redraw) the images on the screen. The faster it can do this, the smoother your picture will be and the less "flicker" you will see.

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Keyboard The keyboard is used to type instructions. There may be function keys (ex: F1, F2, F3, etc.) at the top, or on the left hand side of the keyboard. It may also include a numeric keypad on the right hand side. Other keys such as ALT, CTRL, DEL and Enter or Return are used for various purposes. How they function is determined by the software you are using.

Mouse The mouse can replace some keyboard instructions. For example, you can use a mouse to open programs and select various items. A mouse is used extensively in Windows applications. A mouse has a left and a right button. For most routine tasks, such as opening a program or menu, the left mouse button is used. You either click or double-click the mouse button to perform certain tasks as described below.

Single-Left Click – push the left mouse button once. This selects the item the pointer is on.

Double-Left Click – push the left mouse button twice in a quick succession. This “opens” or runs an application. The double click is also used to open or close window icons.

Single-Right Click – push the right mouse button once. For many applications, “right-clicking” will display a menu with options to perform tasks.

System Case The system case houses the internal hardware components of the system. Those components consist of the items such as the Central Processing Unit (CPU or Processor), Random Access Memory (RAM) and various storage devices (hard drive, CD, and/or floppy drives, network card).

Central Processing Unit (CPU or Processor) is the brain of the machine where information and instructions are interpreted and processed.

Random Access Memory (RAM) is a temporary storage place for information and is active only when the computer is turned on. When you turn off the computer, information is deleted from its temporary memory. For example, as you type a document it is stored in RAM and is not permanently stored until you save the document to disk. That is why when your power goes off you will lose any data that you haven’t saved to a disk drive. Memory is usually measured in Megabytes of information (1 byte is the amount needed to store on character). PCs today typically have 64 MB to 512 MB of RAM. The more RAM you have, the faster the computer will run.

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Disks are storage devices. To avoid losing your work you must save it on a disk before turning of your computer. A PC may have two or more types of disk drives.

1. A hard disk is permanently affixed inside the machine and provides large amount of storage space, which is easily accessible and faster to use than a floppy disk drive.

2. A floppy disk drive must have a diskette inserted into it before a file can be saved to that drive. Floppies may be useful to transport a copy of a small document but should NEVER be used as the only means to store critical information. Floppies can store up to 1.4 MB of information.

3. CD-Rom drives can read (and sometimes write) to/from a compact disc. They offer storage up to 750 MB worth of data. In order to write data to a CD, you must have a CD-RW (Read/Write) device, also known as a CD burner.

4. Zip Disk - Zip disks are similar to floppy disks but they offer much more storage space (up to 250 MB) compared to floppies (1.4 MB). Also, a computer will be able to save and retrieve information much quicker from a zip disk than it does from a regular 3.5” diskette.

Disk Care Care should be used when handling diskettes. Magnetized sources, dust, fingerprints, etc., may all cause a disk to become corrupt thereby preventing your computer from retrieving the information stored on it.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) USB is an industry standard interconnection specification for adding peripheral devices (printers, scanners, digital cameras, Palm Pilots, Pocket PCs) to computers. Most PCs and Macs on the market today support USB connections.

Software In addition to hardware, you will need different kinds of software (programs) to perform different jobs such as word processing, etc. The software is a set of instructions contained in files which make the computer do certain tasks. In order to use the software, you usually must first copy it onto your computer’s hard drive.

Examples of different kinds of software: Word Processing – MS Word, WordPerfect, WordPad Spreadsheets – Excel, Quattro Pro Graphics – Photoshop, Fireworks, Paintbrush Database – Access

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Operating Systems A computer must have an operating system in order to work. An operating system is software that has three primary purposes: 1. Starts the computer 2. Manages the computer system 3. Provides the user with a graphical user interface (GUI) which allows them to perform tasks on the computer - such as opening a document.

Some of the different, commonly used kinds of operating systems are: Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Most PC’s that you buy today come with Windows XP as the operating system. Windows XP is the current version of Microsoft’s line of operating systems.

Windows Terminology

Desktop When you start Windows, the large area you see is called the Desktop. The Desktop is the opening screen. Every application you open, which opens in its own windows, sits on the Desktop. Sometimes application windows are maximized and you can’t see the Desktop in the background, but just know it is always there. You can customize the Desktop by adding shortcuts to your favorite programs, documents, Web pages, and printers.

Start button and Taskbar At the bottom of your screen is the Taskbar. It contains the Start button, which you can use to quickly start a program or to find a file. When you open a program, document, or window, a button appears on the taskbar. Click on the taskbar button to quickly switch between the windows you have open. (Or you can still use ALT + TAB to switch between open windows.) The Start button and Taskbar are always visible when Windows is running.

Icons on the Desktop Desktops are customizable so the icons you see on the Desktop in the training room may be slightly different than what you have set up on your computer in your personal workspace.

My Computer Using My Computer is one of the quickest ways to access and manage folders (directories), files and other objects on your computer. You can perform many maintenance tasks from here such as copying/moving files, creating folders, creating shortcuts, etc.

My Network Places The My Network Places icon will appear on your Desktop if you’re connected to a network. This used to be called Network Neighborhood in Windows 98. My Network Places will let you connect to other networks and printers for which you have granted access.

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Recycle Bin Windows has a folder called the Recycle Bin where deleted files from the C: drive are temporarily stored. The Recycle Bin empties on a rolling basis with the oldest files in the Recycle Bin actually being removed for more recently deleted files. You can restore files from the Recycle Bin if you change your mind or accidentally delete a file. You’ll see more about how to use the Recycle Bin later.

Miscellaneous Icons Any other icons displayed on your Desktop were probably added by your Network Administrator as a shortcut to files, web pages, and programs that you access frequently.

Learning How to Use the Mouse The Mouse is a common pointing device. By moving the mouse on a surface such as a desk top, the user typically controls the on-screen cursor. To select items or choose commands on the screen, the user presses one of the mouse's buttons. The left-click of the mouse is known as the “primary” button and is normally used to select buttons, menu options and other items. The right-click of the mouse is known as the “secondary” button and is normally used to access shortcut menus or context sensitive menus.

Left-handed Users: The mouse settings can be changed so that the right-mouse button is the primary button. Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel and select the Mouse icon. Change the mouse setting from right-handed to left-handed. Choose OK when finished.

Clicking Clicking is pressing and quickly releasing your mouse button once. Rest your hand on the mouse and click once to select an item. Double-click on an item such as a file name or Desktop Icon to open it. Use single clicks on menus, commands, buttons and hyperlinks.

Right-clicking Use the right (secondary) mouse button to bring up property sheets for a particular object. Property sheets are available for shortcuts, documents, the Taskbar, folders, printers, etc. and control the appearance and behavior of that object.

Double-clicking Double-click the mouse on an icon to open it, e.g. folders, files, and programs. Move mouse to middle of icon to be opened. Hold mouse completely still and rapidly click twice.

Dragging the Mouse The click and drag method with the mouse can be used several different ways such as moving a window, resizing a window, selecting text and/or moving text. Left-click and hold the left- mouse down while dragging. Release the mouse when finished

Note: the speed at which your mouse responds either to double-clicking or to dragging it across the screen can be modified through the Windows Control Panel.

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Move Window § Point mouse to window's Title bar § Hold mouse button down § Drag to desired location § Release mouse button § If the Window is Maximized then it cannot be moved

Understanding the Window Title Bar The Title Bar is the blue-horizontal bar at the top of the window that contains the program name and file name.

The Title Bar Window Controls There are two ways to access Window Controls; use the Window Controls located on the right end of the titlebar or click with the mouse on the picture icon located on the left end of the titlebar.

Minimize Window § Minimizing a window will keep it open and available on the Taskbar. § Click on the Minimize button (see picture above); § To restore a minimized window, click on that window's button in the Taskbar.

Maximize Window § Maximize makes the Window as large as the Desktop. § Click on Maximize button (see picture above); § Use the Resize button to take it back to its original size.

Resize Window § Resize makes the Window a little smaller. § Click on the Resize button (see picture above); or § Manually size the window by navigating the mouse cursor to the border of the Window, pressing the mouse button down, and dragging to the desired size when the mouse pointer displays two connected arrows. Release the mouse button when finished.

Close Window To close a window, click on the far right button of the window controls (see picture above).

Single-click (you can left-click or right-click) with the mouse on the picture icon to display the Window Control Menu.

Double-click with the mouse on the picture icon to close the Window as an alternative to clicking on the Close Window button.

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The Start Button When you click on the Start button you see a menu that contains everything you need to begin using Windows. The menus you see when you click on the Start button may be customized to include your most used applications or documents.

To open a program: § Click on Start button (see picture above). § Highlight "Programs". § Highlight name of folder that contains the program you wish to start. (If you pause for a split second on a menu item that has a right pointing triangle, a submenu will appear.) § Click once on the program name.

Tip: You can also open the Start menu by pressing Ctrl-Esc on the keyboard.

Personalized Menus Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office 2000 offer personalized menus, which only show your most recently used items. Click with the mouse on the double arrows at the bottom of the menu to display all menu options. Personalized Menus is a customized option; to change the Personalized Menus for Windows choose Start, Settings and select the Taskbar and Start Menu option. From the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box either select or deselect Use Personalized Menus check box. Deselect the check box to turn off the Personalized Menus or select the check box to turn on the Personalized Menus.

Taskbar

The Taskbar displays all open programs and documents. To switch between programs, click on the appropriate button on the Taskbar. You can also switch between open windows by using the Alt-Tab keystrokes as in earlier versions of Windows. Additionally clicking on an open window will make that window become active. You may size the Taskbar to show more than 1 row of buttons and you can reposition the Taskbar to different locations on the screen.

Tip: If you can’t see the full name of a document on the Taskbar, pause over the button and the full document name will appear in a box. Hovering over the time will display the current day and date.

Reviewing the Start Menu Items

Run Use the Run command to open programs not listed in the Programs Menu. Click on the Browse button to select the item.

Tip: Note: you can also use the Run command to telnet to your lamar, holly or cwis accounts.

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Help Use the Help command to access the online help for Windows.

Content tab: topics are divided by categories Index tab: items are displayed alphabetically by keywords Search tab: Type a keyword for a list of all topics that contain information about the keyword. Tip: You can quickly access the online help for any application by pressing the F1 key.

Find Use the Find tool to locate those missing or misplaced files or folders.

Settings Use the Setting Menu to access the Control Panel, Printer Menu and Taskbar/Menu options.

Documents The Documents Menu contains a list of up to 15 of the last documents you’ve worked on.

Programs The Programs folder contains shortcuts to applications on your computer.

Opening Programs and Files How to open a Program: · Click with the mouse on Start button · Highlight the Programs menu option · Select the name of the Application shortcut from the Programs menu

How to open the file in an Application Window: · Choose File | Open from within the application · Navigate to the drive, folder and/or subfolder and double-click with the mouse on the file icon to be opened.

Accessories Windows includes many useful programs and utilities such as NotePad, WordPad, Paint, Calculator, System Tools, and Multimedia Tools. To utilize any of these, click on Start button, highlight Programs, highlight Accessories (move mouse directly to right and not diagonally, otherwise the submenus will not appear). Click on the application you wish to open.

Calculator - has two modes Scientific or Standard. Select the desired mode through the View menu. You may also copy results from the calculator and paste into other documents. (See section on Copy and Paste below.)

Notepad -- You can use Notepad to create or edit text files that do not require formatting and are smaller than 64K. Notepad opens and saves text in ASCII (text-only) format only. To create or edit files that require formatting or are larger than 64K, use WordPad or some other word processor.

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WordPad -- WordPad is a text editor for short documents. You can format documents in WordPad with various font and paragraph styles. WordPad is like a much simplified version of MS Word and can save files in Word format.

Cut, Copy, Paste Text in a File Use Cut with Paste to move selected text or graphics. Use Copy with Paste to copy selected text or graphics and paste the copy in another place. When you cut or copy information, it is stored in the Clipboard. You can paste it anywhere in the current document, in another document, or in another application. However, it is only available until you cut or copy something else or until you exit Windows.

To copy text, which will make an exact duplicate of the text, leaving the original intact, highlight the text to be selected and click on the Copy button or choose Edit | Copy, or use the shortcut key Ctrl-C.

To cut text, which will remove it from the original location, highlight the text to be selected and click on the Cut button or choose Edit | Cut, or use the shortcut key Ctrl-X.

To paste text, open the application or document where the text is to be inserted, position the cursor in the desired location and click on the Paste button or choose Edit | Paste or Ctrl-V.

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