Business Computing Tips
By Karen Fainges

Part 3 of 5 - General terms

Backspace key Pressing this key once deletes whatever is
highlighted, or removes whatever is one space to the left of the
cursor. Holding it down will make the cursor move faster. Be
careful, the longer you hold it down, the faster it goes and you
can overshoot very easily.

Closing applications - Going to FILE, then CLOSE in the menu, or
clicking on the top x at the top right-hand side of your work
page closes a program or application.

Closing documents - Going to FILE, then CLOSE in the menu, or
clicking on the bottom x at the top right-hand side of your work
page closes a document.

Copy - This command places the highlighted material onto the
clipboard so that it can be copied elsewhere. You can move a
single word, a paragraph, or with the command EDIT then SELECT
ALL, the whole document.
You can copy by going EDIT then COPY in the menu, holding down
the Control key (the one marked Ctrl on the bottom left of your
keyboard) and pressing the letter c or by hitting the icon on
your toolbar that looks like two pages sitting next to the
scissors.

Ctrl, Alt, Delete - Holding these keys down at the same time
reboots or restarts your computer again if it's frozen. On more
recent computers, hitting it once lets you close just one program
at a time, hitting it twice reboots. This is otherwise known as
doing a soft boot. Hitting the reset button on those computers
that have them also reboots. You will loose any unsaved
information though.

Cut - This command places the highlighted material onto the
clipboard so that it can be copied elsewhere and removes it from
where it is. This is what makes it different from copy. You can
move a single word, a paragraph, or with the command EDIT then
SELECT ALL, the whole document.
You can cut by going EDIT then CUT in the menu, holding down the
Control key (the one marked Ctrl on the bottom left of your
keyboard) and pressing the letter x or by hitting the icon on
your toolbar that looks like a pair of scissors.

Delete key - Pressing this key once deletes whatever is
highlighted, or removes whatever is one space to the right of the
cursor. Holding it down will make the cursor move faster. Be
careful, the longer you hold it down, the faster it goes and you
can overshoot very easily

Enter key - On old type writers, when you hit the end of a line,
you had to hit that silver bar to send it back to the left and
take it down to the next line. The enter key does the same thing
for you on your computer. Normally shaped like a backwards L, it
is on the right hand side of the main part of your keyboard. You
don't need to do it at the end of every line as the computer will
automatically wrap words around as you type, but it is necessary
to end a paragraph or to put a blank line in your work.
The enter key also is asked for to input information as in hit
enter to continue.

Escape Key - At the tope left of your keyboard is the Escape key.
Labelled Esc, it lets you get out of most mistakes. If a menu
bars appears for example, hit Esc to get rid of it again.

Formatting - All formatting is done the same way: first highlight
the area you want to change, then chose the appropriate action.
Then click away. Different applications have different options,
but for just about all of them you can:
* Bold - shown as the letter B on your toolbar, this makes text
darker & heavier
* Italics - shown as the letter I on your toolbar, this makes
the writing slant to look like running writing.
* Underline - shown as the letter U on your toolbar, this
underlines the highlighted text.
* Change the alignment by putting text or pictures on the left,
middle or right of the page. This button looks like 6 stripes,
first left, then middle, (known as centre) and then right. Some
also have full or justified alignment which lines up both sides
of the page to look straight.
* Change the font size by clicking on the number to the left of
the B on your toolbar, and its type by clicking on the words next
to that.
Most applications have a FORMAT option on the menu that allows
you to change several things at once.

Frozen - Sometimes your computer will just stop working, then we
say it has crashed, fallen over or frozen. It does this because,
in order for the computer to run a few things at once (which it
is doing even if you only have one program open) it has to cut
some corners. Sometimes it meets one of the other programs coming
the other way. Then it gets confused and just sits there. You can
tell if this has happened by wiggling the mouse. If the mouse on
the screen doesn't move, you know its dead and you have to hit
Ctrl Alt Delete.

Help - Most programs have a help file that gives the most
commonly ask questions and their answers. That is accessed by
going to HELP on the menu, hitting the little question mark ? on
the tool bar or hitting the F1 key on the top left of your
keyboard.

Highlighting - This allows you to tell the computer what you want
to work with. If the item is one thing, like a picture, then one
click will highlight or select it. Otherwise clicking to the side
of the text or item you want to work with, holding the mouse
button down and running it over the text will do it.
When highlighted, the item will change colour to let you know if
you got everything you wanted. You can then let go of the mouse
button and the highlighting will stay there until you click
again.
Sometimes it is hard to get exactly the spot you want with the
mouse. Then you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move
the cursor more accurately. Holding down the shift key while you
hit the arrow keys, is just like holding down your mouse button.
Sometimes you will highlight things by accident. If this happens,
just click somewhere else on the page to get rid of it.

Mouse - Double clicking - To double click, click your left mouse
button twice in rapid succession. If you are not sure if you need
to double click or single click, just do one, if it doesn't work,
hit it twice.

Mouse - Finding - Sometimes it is hard to find where your mouse
is on the screen. To find it, move the mouse across the mouse
padd and roll it up and down. The movement will normally catch
your eye. Doing this is also a good way to see if your computer
is frozen. If it has not done anything for a while, move the
mouse and see if anything moves, if it doesn't, it is probably
frozen.

Mouse - Left click - When you are asked to click, it means to hit
the left button on your mouse. Click and hold, means to click the
button and rather than letting your finger come up off the
button, keep it down. Click and drag means to click, hold the
button down and then move the mouse with the button down. When in
doubt, always left click, as this is the button that tells the
computer to do something.
If nothing happens try clicking again or double clicking. If you
find the area just turns blue and nothing happens, click away,
then try again on the picture.

Mouse - Right Click - Sometimes you are asked to right click.
This means to hold the right button down on your mouse. (If you
are left handed, you can swap these buttons over, put it’s a
pain, so its best to just get used to doing it the right handed
way. We have to do it for everything else anyway.)
As a rule, a right click let's you see the options available to
you, and a left click lets you do them. In most places on the
screen, a right click will bring up any menus that are applicable
to that piece of work.

Mouse - Wheel - The mouse wheel is the little wheel between the
left & right buttons. By clicking on a page, you can then scroll
up and down that page without having to use the scroll bars.

Mouse-overs - By moving the mouse slowly over the toolbars, you
can get little tags to pop up that tells you what they do.
Sometimes it takes a little bit of wiggling to work.

Paste - This takes any information on the clipboard and puts it
where the cursor is. It can be done by hitting EDIT then PASTE,
typing Ctrl V on your keyboard or clicking on the picture that is
supposed to be a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. It sits
next to the copy icon.

Printing - Printing can either be done as one step by hitting
Ctrl p on your keyboard or hitting the print icon (supposed to
look like a printer it’s a silver box with a white piece coming
out the top). This just uses the default settings. If you want to
print two copies, or only one page of a document, then you need
to go to FILE then PRINT on your menu.

Save - Saving can either be done as one step by hitting Ctrl s on
your keyboard or hitting the save icon (supposed to look like a
floppy disc, it's a square with a lighter square in the top).
This just uses the default settings. If you want to save t he
document to a different place, or in a different format, then you
need to go to FILE then SAVE on your menu.
For instance to save to a floppy disc, you need to go FILE then
SAVE AS and change the box labelled Save in to a: drive by
clicking in the box and clicking on the letter a.
The first time you save, the computer will ask you where you want
to save it & what you want to call it. From then on, whenever you
hit save, it will save it there unless you SAVE AS.
REMEMBER - save regularly.

Scrolling - Scrolling lets you move around the screen when the
page you are on is bigger than the monitor. On the right and
bottom of the page, there will be long bars with darker
rectangles (scroll bars) in them and arrows at the ends. To move
where you are in the page, use your mouse to click and hold the
scroll bar. Then you can move it up and down or across. For those
with a mouse wheel this is often easier. You can also use the
arrow keys on your keyboard. One touch moves the cursor one spot,
holding it down will make the cursor move faster. Be careful, the
longer you hold it down, the faster it goes and you can overshoot
very easily.

Shutting down - To shut down a computer, go to the Start button,
(yes I know that sounds dumb) click on it and chose shutdown. It
will offer you a few options chose shut down. If you are only
going away for a short while, chose Stand by and you only have to
wriggle your mouse to get everything back.

Toolbars - Disappearing - Go to VIEW then TOOLBARS and click on
the items until the one you want appears back on the page. You
may have to move it where you want it by clicking in the dark
coloured area at the top, holding the mouse button down and
dragging the toolbar where you want it before letting go of the
mouse button.
Toolbars you don't want anymore can be removed by going to VIEW
then TOOLBARS and click on the items until the one you don't
want. Or hitting the cross on the top right hand corner if it is
visible.

Toolbars - Moving - Move your mouse over the moved item until at
one corner or edge, the mouse symbol on the screen changes to
either a four headed arrow, or two vertical lines with arrows
pointing out from the sides. Then click your left mouse button,
hold it down and move your mouse to back where you want the
toolbar. It may take a couple of tries, as it can be fiddly. Just
be persistent.

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"It has to be practical, it has to be cheap, and it has to work."
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