Computing Fundamentals 04/06/2018 Computing Fundamentals Common Windows Features

04/06/2018 Common Features The Windows Operating Systems provide features which are common to many applications Applications call the operating system to perform these tasks on their behalf Provides a common framework for users Menus and keyboard shortcuts are similar in many applications that you may use

Opening & Saving Both dialogs are almost identical Navigation the same 04/06/2018 Opening & Saving Both dialogs are almost identical Navigation the same

04/06/2018 Opening & Saving

Navigation – Windows Explorer

Navigating around Windows 04/06/2018 Navigating around Windows Favorites A list of your commonly used files and folders Desktop All the documents and shortcuts on the desktop are stored in a folder on the local machine Downloads Programs, files Recent Places History, recently opened files Documents Windows has an area set aside for each user’s documents Usually located on the local hard drive Be careful using this on the university system as you will not always use the same machine! Computer The drives that you have access to Network A list of computers accessible over a network

Common Symbols (older versions) 04/06/2018 Common Symbols (older versions)

04/06/2018 Cut, Copy, Paste Possible to cut or copy elements from one document and paste them into another, which could be within the same application or different applications e.g. copy a picture from a Word document and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation

Cut, Copy, Paste II Elements could be things like: 04/06/2018 Cut, Copy, Paste II Elements could be things like: Text Pictures Graphs The difference between cutting and copying Copy – creates a copy of the original Cut – removes the original

04/06/2018 Paste Special I Paste Special will allow you to chose an appropriate method to paste the information e.g. Paste an excel table as unformatted text, a picture or as HTML

Paste Special II Paste vs. Paste Link Paste Paste Link 04/06/2018 Paste Special II Paste vs. Paste Link Paste Inserts the contents of the clipboard into the document, thus creating a copy of the source data Paste Link Inserts a shortcut to the source file into the document, so any changes of the original data will be reflected on the pasted data

Using Paste Link Links between documents update content automatically Source document: Copy Destination document: Paste special > Paste Link Save both documents Changes made in the linked field in the source document, will be reflected in the destination document

04/06/2018 Context Menus By right mouse clicking objects, a context or “pop-up” menu is typically displayed Gives common tasks for the particular element clicked Application window An object window (picture etc.)

Currently Open Document 04/06/2018 Application Window Application Name Currently Open Document

Displaying Toolbars Many toolbars are available 04/06/2018 Displaying Toolbars Many toolbars are available Toolbars are displayed and hidden Customise the menu by selecting File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon

Common Keyboard Shortcuts 04/06/2018 Common Keyboard Shortcuts

Finding & using keyboard shortcuts Press ALT The KeyTips are displayed over each feature that is available in the current view Press the letter shown in the KeyTip over the feature that you want to use

File Names Previously only 8 characters could be used for the filename 04/06/2018 File Names Previously only 8 characters could be used for the filename now you can use up to 260 characters Illegal characters (not allowed!) forward slash (/) backslash (\) colon (:) asterisk (*) question mark (?) quotation mark (") less than sign (<) greater than sign (>) pipe symbol (|)

04/06/2018 File Types Under Windows (and other operating systems) the type of file is defined by the extension Typically the extension is 3 or 4 characters long For example: MyFirstDocument.doc ‘doc’ is the extension and is associated with word documents Double clicking a file in windows explorer will open the file with the associated application for the extension

Other File Types I Text Files (.txt) Rich Text (.rtf) 04/06/2018 Other File Types I Text Files (.txt) Has no formatting, just plain text Can be read by any editor Rich Text (.rtf) Has formatting codes within the text Quite generic and can be read by different word processors

Other File Types II Excel (.xls or xlsx) PowerPoint (.pptx) 04/06/2018 Other File Types II Excel (.xls or xlsx) A spreadsheet file PowerPoint (.pptx) A presentation file Access (.mdb or accdb ) A database file HTML (.htm or .html) A web page

04/06/2018 Other File Types III There are many different formats for images, each have different extensions e.g. (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp) One also has to pay attention to the version of the application. Applications are mostly backward compatible.

04/06/2018 Properties Every file has a set of properties (file size, name, location, type, date a file was created, date a file was last modified or accessed, etc.) The properties can be accessed from the File menu or by right-clicking on a file

04/06/2018 Help There are many sources of information to turn to for help on problems with programs In-built Help features Vendor’s Website Internet Search Books Other Users

In-built Help Features 04/06/2018 In-built Help Features The F1 function key is the keyboard shortcut to help Select the field or control that you want help for and the help system will go to the help page associated with it

04/06/2018 Tool-tips In particular for tool bars, if you leave your cursor over a button or control for a brief period of time a tool tip appears A pop-up description will briefly describe the item Sometimes information is also displayed in the status bar, located at the bottom of the application window

Other sources of information 04/06/2018 Other sources of information Software vendor’s website Most vendors have sites that have further information on their products Microsoft has an extensive searchable database “How to” documents and videos demonstrating how to use certain features Technical reports with guidance and work arounds for known bugs http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/?CTT=97

Even more sources of information 04/06/2018 Even more sources of information Internet Search There is an enormous amount of information available on the Internet. You can find an answer to most of your problems Many books written on how to use software applications The library has copies of quite a few! Other users More often than not there is someone that you know that can help you out

Last but not least… Coursework Agreed topics is available from Moodle. http://staffweb.cms.gre.ac.uk/~A.Kirori/COMP1020/Coursework/1516Jan_Topics_name.html If you have not already done so, then please email me (A.Kirori@greenwich.ac.uk) the name of the person that you intend to write about.