Computer Basics

 Be sure to check with your school’s Network Administrator and/or Handbook before you make changes to your school computer

 Use a combination of letters and numbers or symbols  Do not use family names or pet’s names  Do use something hard to guess but that you can remember  Do not write it on paper and leave it near the computer

 From the Start button you can right click and choose Send To  Choose Desktop (Create Shortcut)

 Click the Start button  Click All Programs  Find the one you want  Right Click and Send To Desktop (Create Shortcut) Windows 7 click the round button

 My Computer and My Documents  Documents or Folders for work in progress or something you need easy access to  Items sent to the Recycle Bin are not gone until you empty the bin

 Refer to the handy laminated list  Start by using a few and then add more as you get used to them

 You can have several programs open at the same time  Click on the Taskbar (aka Quick Launch) by the Start button  Windows 2007  Windows  Single click to switch between documents

 You can open more than one Internet Browser at a time  You can open more than one program  You can open more than one document  This makes cutting and pasting faster and easier  You do not need to close something you are using to check something else

 Yes you can open more than one thing  Don’t open everything just because you can!  It will slow your computer down

 If you just click Save your work will be in My Documents  If you want to save it to a particular drive on your computer do Save As and navigate to that drive

 Many names for a great tool  Insert it into a USB port  Yes it has a right side up! Look for the seam  Click on My Computer and look for the Kingston Drive. The letter of the drive may be different from one computer to the next  Now you can move work from your home computer to school and back home

 You can use computer folders the same way you use manila folders  On the desk top or in a drive just right click  Choose New  Choose Folder  Type the name you want  You can right click and rename  You can make folders in folders

 Once you work is saved you can remove the Flash drive  Click on the green arrow  If you do not see the arrow click the grey circle to expand the selection  Click the Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device

 When you name your work it will automatically get a file extension depending on what program you used to made the file  Word documents made in Office have.doc  Documents made in 2007 will end in.docx  Excel files will be.xls or.xlsx  PowerPoint will be.PPT or.pptx

 We all forget where we saved things!  To find your file go to My Computer and click on the magnifying glass by the word Search

 Choose from the list on the pop up box Fill in as much as you can and click search

From the Start button choose Control Panel and then Mouse  You can change speed  Make it left handed  Change pointers

 Office 2007 can open work created in an earlier version  Documents saved in 2007 may not open correctly in an earlier version  To save 2007 in Compatibility Mode click the Office button and choose Save As

 Roll your mouse across to PowerPoint or Word or Excel  Save as usual

 You can choose the page you want the Internet to open to  This is a great time saver and can help little ones get working faster  Once you are on the Internet click Tools and then Internet Options

 Type in the URL of the page you want if you are not already there  Click Use Current  Click Apply

 When you find a great site you will want to use again add it to Favorites on your computer  Click on Favorites  Choose Add

 Social Bookmarking is a way to save your favorites on the Internet and access them from any computer and share them with friends  Many schools block these sites so you may not be able to use them at school  For STARCamp we are using delicious.com which is a free site

 Go to delicious.com and sign up for an account  When you find Internet sites you want to save just click the Tag icon and a window will open  You can add notes  You can sort your tags into categories

 Ccleaner cleans unused files from PC and helps Windows to run faster and save the valuable hard disk space. It also clears histories of the PCs online activities such as Cookies and Internet history. Furthermore, it has a fully featured registry cleaner. The best part is that it's faster. Copyright ©CCleaner.softwarereviewer.info  Go to for a free download There are many similar programs to choose from. This one has excellent reviews and is worth a look.

 Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Copyright © etworking.org/en/index.html  Go to networking.org/en/home/index.html for a free downloadhttp:// networking.org/en/home/index.html  There are many similar programs to choose from. This one has excellent reviews and is worth a look.

 Many computers have programs that protect your computer from automatic downloads  If you choose to download something and it does not appear to be doing anything, look for a yellow band that is asking you if you want to enable Active X controls  If you do not click here, you cannot install the program

 Remember you manners!  When sending do not type all in caps – it means you are shouting. (This may be appropriate for certain occasions.)  When forwarding do not copy other people’s address without their permission. Delete them or copy and paste the part of the message you want to forward  Use BBC – Blind Carbon Copy if sending to more than one person

 Use the subject line of the so that the person you are sending the to knows it is safe to open  Always look carefully before opening  If you are not sure who sent it, do not open it  It is best to send pictures as jpeg since they do not take up as much space or take as long to open

 Always check Print Preview before you print to be sure you are using as little paper as possible  Many things printed from the Internet have a second page with just one line of type  Choose to print a range of pages of just the page you are on

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