September Tech Terms

newbie - A beginner who is unfamiliar with computers and the internet.

hard boot - Using the power button to turn your computer off and on without going through the proper steps such as Special shut-down. (Do not do this. If your computer is frozen, raise your hand and ask Mrs. Smith for help)

tool bar - The row of buttons across the top of your browser window that includes the Back Button, Home Button, Stop Button...; other programs can offer tool bars also. Toolbars display buttons you can click to easily access helpful tools.

address book - an area for storing addresses; allows you to quickly send without having to remember long addresses; usually has a place to store additional info such as phone numbers, birthdays, nicknames, etc.

optical mouse - A mouse that uses a laser to track movement instead of a ball and wheels inside the mouse.

numeric keypad - The group of number keys found on the side of a keyboard. Pressing the Num Lock key turns the numeric feature off/on. An indicator light above the keypad shows whether it is on or off.

highlight - To surround something with color by clicking and dragging over it; highlighting indicates you are going to work with whatever you selected or highlighted. If something is highlighted with a flashing insertion point (line) at the end of it you can begin typing and the old will be replaced with the new information you type, no need to backspace. Use highlight to cut, copy, and paste things

case sensitive - It matters if it is capital or lower case; as in typing an address, letters must be typed correctly.

title bar - The blue strip across the top of a program’s window; it tells you what you are working in.

A Drive- The part of your computer that a floppy disk goes into. to save something to a disk you must save it to drive “A”.

C Drive or hard drive - The hard drive, it is the computer’s main storage area. It is found inside the computer case. When something is saved to the c drive it remains on that computer, you must be at the computer to retrieve that saved document. To save something to that particular computer, save it to a folder on your C: Drive

CD/RW drive - A drive that will not only let you play CDs, but save to CDs - called burning to a CD. It looks like an ordinary CD drive. Some can save, burn, more quickly than others. Compare the speed such as 24X or 54X. Higher numbers indicate faster reading or burning. CD-R (compact disk recordable) allows you to burn information to a blank CD once. CD-RW (compact disk rewritable) allows you to repeatedly burn information to the disks.