Getting Into the Good Routines

Getting into the good routines

Lab or computer classroom regulations:

• No food or drink is allowed. • Lower the noise when working on computer tasks. • Don't delete items or move items on the hard disk that don't belong to you. • Do not change the software settings without permission. • Work on a document from the hard disk and save the file to the hard disk. After the document is completed, copy it to the floppy disk. • Make frequent backup when working on a document. • When having problems, work them out individually first or consult with peers. Consult with the instructor as the last resorts. • Try to avoid saving directly onto a disk. Save files to the desktop first and copy files to the floppy disk when done. During your work, keep the floppy disk out of the drive. • Pay attention to the instruction or demonstration. Typing one's e-mail messages during the class demonstration is prohibited.

Give your computer a fresh start-up.

• If the machine is off, turn on the machine by tapping the reset key on the keyboard once. • If the machine is on, select Finder from the Application menu (Located at the top right-hand corner on the screen) and then select Restart from the Special menu.

The fresh start-up will avoid most memory conflict problems. When using computers in a classroom or lab setting for instruction, it is desirable to minimize the conflict problems by getting a fresh start-up.

Use virus protection program.

To ensure the safety of computer uses in the lab or classroom, the virus protection is installed to check all the inserted disks. Stop using the disk if it contains virus. After the disk is checked, hide the virus program from the scene and continue to use other applications.

Virus protection programs should be turned off when installing a safe new application program or system.

Return all the settings to normal after each class session.

Volume Date and time Monitor colors and resolutions Speech capability (Manager) AutoCalc in a spreadsheet program

1 Close down all the windows and quit all the application programs.

• To close a window, click inside the window, and click the close box on the top left corner. • To Close down all the open windows on the desktop at once, hold down the option and command keys and hit w (that is, option-1-w). • To quit all the application programs, select the program item from the Application menu and select Quit from File menu (or press 1-Q) one by one.

Back up individual documents

• When you are all done with the computer work. • Select the files and drag the file icons into the floppy disk icon.

Remove all the personal files from the hard disk.

• Trash all private or personal documents by dragging them into the trash can. • Select Empty trash from the Special menu. • Trash all the files at once without seeing the message box, hold down the option key while empty the trash. If a file is still in use, you cannot trash them. Go back to the original application from which the file is opened, and close the file.

2 Essential tasks

Identify the items on a screen.

A. I E F

C G H

D J

Question: Can you identify the components of the above computer screen? Put down the equivalent letter in each box below to match name. ______1. Apple menu ______6. Menu bar ______2. Application menu ______7. Close box ______3. Icons ______8. Scrolling bar ______4. Resize box ______9. Trash can ______5. Control strip ______10.Title bar

3 Format a disk

To format a disk, do the following:

• Switch to the Finder. • If the disk is unformatted, choose the desired disk format and click the Initialize button. • If the disk is preformatted and you are sure the data on the disk can be erased, select the disk icon and choose Erase disk from the Special menu.

Rename a file, folder, or disk.

To rename an item, do the following:

• Locate the icon of the file, folder, or disk to be renamed. • Click at the item's name once until the text is highlighted. • Overtype the item's name with the new name. (Don’t click. Simply type to overwrite the file name.)

Understand the essential components of microcomputers

All computers contain some important components as the following:

• Central processing unit (CPU) is the brain of a computer • Memory include RAM and ROM • Input device such as keyboard and mouse • Output device such as monitor and printer • Storage device such as the floppy disk, hard disk, zip disk, etc. • Other peripherals such as microphone, scanner, light pens, modem, joysticks, and MIDI device.

Find out information about your computer.

• What is the model of your computer?

• How much RAM (Random Access Memory) do you have on your computer? Select About this Macintosh from the Apple menu at the Finder program. The RAM information will be displayed in a window.

• How big is this hard disk? Select the hard disk icon by clicking at it once. Select Get info from the File menu.

4 Eject your disks

There are several ways of ejecting the disk. The following two ways are desirable.

• Drag the disk icon to the trash can and the disk will be ejected. • Select the disk by clicking at the icon and press 1-y. The following two ways are less used.

• When you insert the disk into the drive and the disk icon fails to appear, press shift-1-1 to eject it. • The least desirable way to eject the disk is to select Eject disk from the Special menu because once the disk is ejected, the icon is still on the screen and your computer will remember it and probably ask you to put it back later. When your computer is stuck with a disk inside, restart the computer and the disk will be ejected.

Something about the disk you should know:

• How much should I pay for the disk? The price of disk is more affordable than ever. You actually do not have to be concerned about the differences between brand names and generic disks. Buy disk in bulk and save a bundle. Many manufacturers provide a lifetime warranty for the disks. Format all the disks at once to ensure the usability.

• Is it a DS/DD or DS/HD disk?

5 The 3.5" disks are the most popular format for today's computers. There are actually two types. DS/DD is the double-sided double-density disk that contains 800 KB in size. DS/HD is the double-sided, high-density disk that contains 1.4 MB in size. The DS/DD had only one hold on the disk while the DS/HD has two holes. Sometimes the DS/HD disks will label as 2 MB disks, however, they can only be formatted up to 1.3 MB in size.

• How can I write-protect my disk? To write-protect a disk is to protect the data on the disk from being overwritten. In order to write-protect the disk, lift the tab.

• Is it formatted as a PC or a Mac disk? The current Macintosh computers can read both PC and Mac disks. When a disk is formatted as a PC disk on a Mac is will show the PC logo. The Macintosh computer can format a disk into either the PC, Mac or ProDOS format. It is important to know that working directly from a PC disk on a Macintosh computer is not reliable and could often cause the computer to crash. It is highly advised to work directly on the hard disk and drag the file to the floppy disk when

• How often should I format my disk? You do not have to format your disk too often. Once the disk is formatted, you can continue to use until it is full. If the disk is

• What could happen if my disk becomes unreadable? When an unformatted disk is inserted into the drive, an error message will come up to say the disk is unreadable. However, if you know the disk was previously formatted and contained data, you should proceed with caution. Eject the disk and bring it to another computer to test. If the disk works fine on other computer, the first disk drive might be defective. If all the computers reject this disk, maybe the disk is defective. Load some disk utilities program such as Norton Utilities to check the integrity of the disk and recover the data.

• What should I do with a bent sliding door on the disk?

If the disk is bent, avoid using it. Throw it away.

• What can I do if the disk in stuck inside the drive? If the disk is stuck inside the drive, find a long thick paper clip, insert it in the front hole below the disk drive, and physically push the clip to eject the disk.

• What is the relationship between RAM, ROM, and Hard disk?

Questions: • Can you find information about the size of the computer hard disk and memory? • Can you tell if a window is active or not?

6 Convert a document from a Mac disk to a PC disk or vise versa.

To transfer a file from a Mac disk to a PC disk, do the following:

• Copy the file from the Mac disk by holding down the option key and drag a copy of the file to the desktop. • Eject the Mac disk and insert the PC disk to be copied. • Drag the file icon from the desktop into the PC disk icon. Notes: The document created from a PC can be used on a Mac when it's transferred and vice versa. The programs created for a PC will not work automatically on a Mac unless there is another version available on the Mac, such as MS Office, ClarisWorks, or HyperStudio.

Selecting files: • Select a file icon: Click the icon with the mouse to select it. • Select multiple file icons: Hold down the Shift key and click the icons one by one. Or draw the mouse to form a rectangular area to enclose all the file icons.

Create a student folder on the hard disk. • Select New Folder from the File menu when you are at the desktop. • Enter the file name for the folder. • Click at the file name in the icon to change the file name.

Questions: What takes place when your computer starts up? What does the following shortcut keys do? option-1-w 1-Q option-1-esc Control-1-reset 1-y Do you know how to perform the following tasks? Take a snapshot of a person. Personalize your folder. Search for information on the Internet. Run PictShow with speech capability Use shortcut keys to do the following: Eject Restart Capture the screen Use Simpletext to generate speech

7 Use Unix for on-line Chat Send an e-mail to your instructor

Turn down/off the computer noise volume at the end of the class. Change the program setting to normal At the Internet server, try the following commands: ls: to list the contents in a directory finger: find people telnet: use remote computers ftp: transfer files

Trouble-shoot the computer problems:

• When the system is stuck, restart the computer. • Hold down the Shift key when starting up the computer. • Force quit a program. • Increase the memory of an application. • Quit a few application programs that are not needed. • Reinstall the system or application programs. • Check to see if the Appletalk is turned on. • Check to see if the program is still open even when the document or browser window is closed. • Use the File/ Find command at the Finder to locate program or document files. • Use Norton utilities to fix some problems on the computer.