Basic Computing Skills - Orientation

the desktop is what you will see first each time you log into windows there are two parts to the desktop firstly there is the large space that occupies most of the screen this usually contains icons that open some programs this is also where your programs will appear once you have opened them secondly the taskbar is located at the bottom of the page this strip contains several parts so we'll look at it in more detail the taskbar is the thin strip at the bottom of the desktop it contains a number of parts at the left is a circle with the windows logo in it this is the start menu which we'll look at in a moment next are program icons such as internet explorer windows explorer and windows media player clicking once on any of these will open up each of these default programs if you have any other programs open for example microsoft word you can see the icons for these along the rest of the taskbar at the right hand side of the taskbar are administrative icons for your computer this icon here shows if you are connected to the internet if you see a red cross here that usually means you're not connected next the speaker icon allows you to adjust the volume by clicking on it and simply dragging the volume button higher or lower if you click on the time and date this will show a calendar and a clock and you can reset these if you need to by clicking on the change date and time settings button and then following the prompts the last icon is a small blank rectangle that says show desktop clicking on this will take you back to your desktop no matter how many programs you have open to open up the start menu you simply click on the start button on the left hand corner of the taskbar this is the start menu this is where you'll see all the icons of different programs that are running on your computer clicking on any of these icons will open up that program for you to use if the program doesn't show up here you can simply click on all programs this will open up a list of all the programs on the computer if you need to go back simply click back there's also a search bar within the start menu this is where you can search for programs or for individual files on your computer for example if you need the program paint you can simply click in the search bar type in paint and it will bring up that program all you need to do is click on the icon and it will open the program up for you you can go back to an empty search bar by using the backspace key on your keyboard to get rid of this word if instead you need to search for a particular file and you know it has the word dog in it for example you can simply type this keyword into the search bar type in dog and that will bring up any files with the word dog in the name as well as any documents with the word dog included in them again you can use backspace to get back to an empty search bar at the right hand side of the start menu are a number of important icons some of these include computer which is where you can access your hard drive as well as any cds dvds and usbs control panel which is where you can view and modify your computer's settings devices and printers which is where you can view and manage your printers scanners and other items of hardware and the help and support tab which will give you help in troubleshooting any problems on your computer in the bottom right hand corner of the start menu is the shutdown button pressing on this will close all your programs and shut windows down turning your computer off if you don't wish to do this you can click on the arrow next to the shutdown button and this gives you some other options the ones you will use most frequently as a student include log off which will close your programs and log you out of windows without shutting your computer down and lock which is where you can keep all your programs open simply locking the screen so that nobody can access your information while you're away from your desk while we're in the start menu we can click on computer to open up a program called windows explorer windows explorer allows you to browse all the information and files that are stored on your computer the hard disk drives contain all the information that is saved on your computer itself while the devices with removable storage contain information that can then be removed and transported to a different computer devices with removable storage include cds dvds and usb sticks we can close this window by clicking on the x at the top right hand corner we can also access windows explorer using the icon on the taskbar we simply click once using the left button on the mouse and this will open up windows explorer this is where we can access all our drives through the link for computer as well as our libraries where we can find the documents we've saved as well as music and pictures next let's look at how to log on to the internet you can access the world wide web by using programs known as web browsers there are several different types of browsers these include internet explorer mozilla firefox google chrome and safari most web browsers work in a similar way let's try using internet explorer you can open internet explorer if it's on your desktop by simply double-clicking the icon with the left button of your mouse internet explorer is also found on the taskbar you can simply click it once with the left button of your mouse and internet explorer will launch once internet explorer launches you'll be taken through to what's called a home page this is a page that you will choose to be the first page you see each time you open the web browser at ecu the home page is always set to www.ecu.edu dot a u which is the web address for ecu's website on your home computer you can change your home page to whatever you'd like perhaps a news website your email account or any other page that you go to frequently you can do this simply by clicking on the arrow next to the home icon here and following the prompts at the top of the browser you'll see a bar known as the address bar this is where you can type the web address of any website and then be taken directly to that site for example if we want to go to google's home page we can type in the address here if we know it press enter and we'll be taken through to that website let's try that now we can click once here and delete the current address using the backspace key on our keyboard we can then type in the address for google's home page www dot google dot com and then press enter on our keyboard this takes us through to the home page for google which is a well-known search engine once we're already on a website we can add it to what's called a favorites menu this means that instead of having to remember and type in a web address every single time we want to go to a page we can simply find the icon for that page click on it on the favorites menu and be taken directly there it's a great way to save time let's try adding google to our favorites menu we click once on the favorites button and this opens up our favorites menu we can then click on add to favorites this will open up a window where we can confirm that we do want to add google to our favorites we click add to make this happen once this is done we can click on favorites scroll down to the bottom of the menu and we can see the new website that we've added clicking on this icon will take us directly to the page we've saved if we're on another website and we'd like to return to our home page we can simply click on the home icon located along the top of the web browser clicking once on this icon will return us back to our home page if we then decide that we'd like to go back to a website we've saved as a favorite we can return back up to our favorites menu click on the link for favorites choose the website that we'd like to go to and click on it to return to that page if you need to look at another website but you'd like to keep your current page open you can use a new tab simply click here and a new browser tab will open up you can then type in the address of another website that you'd like to go to for example ecu's home page if you'd like to return to the page you were on before you can simply click on that tab and you'll be returned to the other page you can alternate between tabs as many times as you like and you can have several tabs open at once if you need to use the internet to find information you can start off using the search bar at the top right hand corner of the browser this search bar uses a search engine to scour the internet for results that will match the keyword that you type in this browser uses the bing search engine which is one of many search engines such as yahoo search and the world's most popular search engine google let's try searching for something for example if we need information on the enlightenment we can simply click once in the search bar type in our keywords the enlightenment press enter on our keyboard and this will bring up the best results that the bing search engine can find google is the world's most frequently used search engine if we type in www.google.com in our address bar and press enter this will bring us to the home page for the google search engine you can search information through google in the same way that you use the search bar if we use our keywords from the previous example we can type in the enlightenment press enter and it will give us these results with google you can search not only web pages but also images maps videos through youtube current news and information and much more if your initial google search doesn't give you the results you're looking for you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link for advanced search advanced search gives you the ability to narrow your search criteria giving you more focused results you can change what you're searching for and you can also narrow your results by choosing which language you'd like results in or which region you'd like results from you can also search information by the time it was last updated this way you can make sure you're getting the most current information another useful resource that google offers is google scholar you can access this by clicking on the more tab at the top of the page on the drop down menu select even more once on this page scroll down to the bottom in the specialized search section you will see google scholar clicking on this will take you through to the google scholar search bar this is a specialized search that allows you to search peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic papers and books this can be a useful resource for your assignments you can also search academic articles papers and books by using the ecu library one search which you can learn about in other workshops next let's look at how to locate and use microsoft office programs these are the programs you will use to complete many of your assignments you can find these programs by clicking on the start menu once the start menu is open click on all programs once the all programs list has loaded scroll down to the folder called microsoft office clicking once on this folder will show you all the programs that are contained within it the programs you will probably use most frequently at uni include microsoft excel which you can use to analyze data with spreadsheets tables and graphs microsoft powerpoint which you can use to create slideshows for presentations and microsoft word where you can write up your assignments and your essays let's open microsoft word clicking on the icon for microsoft word will open up a new document you can maximize this window simply by clicking the maximize button in the top right hand corner what you see is the blank page of a new document microsoft word is a word processing program anytime you need to type up information and words such as for an essay report or any other assignment microsoft word is probably what you'll use when you start typing in microsoft word simply click once to make this blinking cursor appear the words you type will appear from this point you can type using the keys on your keyboard for example to type the word the you hit the keys t h e and you've typed the word to create a space simply press the space bar once the space bar is the long skinny blank key on your keyboard if you're new to typing don't worry the more you practice the faster you'll get let's try writing a whole sentence for example the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog let's try doing that now if you need to start a new line in microsoft word simply hit the enter key located towards the middle of the keyboard this will return your cursor to the left hand side of the page and you can start a new line you can press enter twice to start a new paragraph if you need to create a capital letter you can hold the shift key located just underneath the enter key and while holding the shift key press the letter key that you'd like to capitalize for example if we want to write the quick brown fox was called fred we can hold down the shift key press t and that capitalizes the t we can then write the rest of the sentence and when we get to capitalizing fred's name we hold down shift and press the f key followed by the rest of fred's nap and a full stop next let's look at how to format text using microsoft word to select the text that you'd like to format click once using the left button on your mouse this brings the cursor back once you've done this click the left button again but hold it down and then drag it over the text you'd like to format you can then use the formatting tools located at the top of the page we'll go through some of the basic formatting tools so that you can get some practice can click on the arrow here to change the font of the text that's the style or theme of the text this opens a drop down menu with dozens of choices each font is slightly different at university you'll usually use a conservative font such as times new roman try highlighting your text and then changing the font to times new roman to make the change you simply click on the font that you'd like to change it to once you've changed the font you can also change the size of the text using this arrow here clicking here opens up another drop down menu with several different choices you can make the text tiny or you can make it extremely large university level it's a good idea to work with size 12. if you want to make a section of your text bold you can click next to it and highlight it and then move up to the formatting tools clicking on this b will turn your text bulb let's try that now you can also format your text in italics by clicking on the i and you can underline the text by clicking on the you if you need to put some text into the center of the page for example for the title you can use the alignment options found here clicking on the left will align the text to the left which is the default option clicking on center will move the text to the center of the page and clicking on right will align the text with the right hand margin if you want to you can also change the color of the text clicking here on this arrow and choosing a color to change the highlighted text to there are many other ways to format text in microsoft word and you'll find these out with more practice there are a few more basic skills that will help you when you start using microsoft word these include finding text copying text and pasting text let's start with finding text the find function is located near the top right corner where these binoculars are you can click on this to open up the navigation panel click once and then type in a word that you're searching for for example fox this tool will highlight any mentions of the word fox in your document this is helpful if you need to change a word you can find all the times that word's been used and change all of them if we press the x here that will close the navigation panel you can also use the find function by using what's called a keyboard shortcut this opens up the function without using your mouse you can open up the find function by locating the control key on your keyboard this is just below the shift key hold down the control key and while that key is held down press the f key as you can see this opens up the find function another useful function is the copy and paste function this is where you can highlight and copy text and then paste it somewhere else let's try by copying our first sentence click once then click again holding the left button down and drag it across your text move your mouse over the highlighted text and then click the right button on your mouse this opens up a menu select the second option which is copy that's copied the text to microsoft word's clipboard click once outside the selected area to remove the selection now press enter once for a new line [Applause] move your mouse to the start of this new line and click the right button of your mouse again you'll see there's no option for copy but you can paste there's several options select the one with the letter a to paste text and click on it this has duplicated your entire sentence and you can repeat this as many times as you like there's also a keyboard shortcut for copying and pasting to copy text you can highlight it then hold down the ctrl key and press the letter c to paste the text simply click elsewhere hold down control again and press v again you can do this as many times as you need there are many more useful functions within microsoft word as well as many more keyboard shortcuts you can find some of these on the handout that you've been given today you can also search for them on the internet another way to find them is by hovering over an icon which will give you the keyboard shortcut if there is one for example let's try hovering over the b button we know that by clicking on this we can make text bold but this tells us that we can also hold down control and press b to make text bold without using the mouse italics and underline also have keyboard shortcuts when you've finished using a document or even if you're partway through it's a good idea to save it to save a document you use the save button up in the top left corner the keyboard shortcut for save is holding down control and pressing s if you need to print the document you can click on file move down to the print option here and click on it and then click this print button to print the document to return back to your document you can click on home once you're finished in microsoft word you can close the document by clicking on the x in the top right hand corner today we won't save the document so click don't save when you've finished using your computer remember to log off you can do this by clicking on the start menu moving to the arrow next to the shutdown button and clicking log off this will close all programs and log you out of windows until next time

Channel: Edith Cowan University

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Keywords: Camtasia, basic computer skills, computing tutorial, ECU computing, basic ECU computing skills

Id: DwsKeoXOa9I

Length: 41min 36sec (2496 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 19 2013