Introduction to Computers Seminar I

Parts of the Computer Personal Computer a PC (any non-Mac computer) has four major pieces of hardware-- keyboard, mouse, monitor, central processing unit (CPU). Macs have the same four components, but use different software for the operating system.

Parts of the Computer Mouse The mouse allows you to point & click, highlight text, etc. Use the right click function to access a menu of functions relevant to the text, image or graph you're working on. You can also use Shft-F10 on the keyboard, if using a mouse is not an option for you.

Parts of the Computer CPU The central processing unit is the guts of a computer. This schematic gives you some sense of all the stuff inside-- hard drive, sound cards, memory cards, etc. Many of us never open the computer to see the inside, but if you want to add memory or upgrade a sound card, you will need to open the computer. It's not hard to add cards and most come with good instructions.

Parts of the Computer Drives There are several drives that you'll use to save your work. The C: drive is where My Documents is located. It also stores all the programs that make the software run. They do crash, so be sure to backup your work to a second storage device, like a CD or flash drive!

Parts of the Computer Storage Devices Floppy disks don't hold a lot of information. CD's do. But the most portable storage is a memory card--a flash drive, jump drive, USB key.

Parts of the Computer Printer Ink jet and laser printers are most common. Save paper! Use Print Preview before printing.

Parts of the Computer Scanner Scanners allow you to scan a photo, a document, or any flat object. Anything you want to add to a document can be scanned and saved in an image format, like.jpg for a photo or.pdf for an image of text.

Parts of the Computer Speakers Speakers make audio possible from the Web or a CD. Your PC needs a sound card for speakers to work. Most new PC's come with sound cards installed.

Operating System (OS) Many PC’s use the Windows XP Operating System. It is easy to navigate through the system with the Start Menu, Quick Launch Bar, Taskbar, and Desktop Icons.

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is a software package of many programs that are useful for everyday office – or school – tasks. Office 2003 includes Access (databases), Excel (spreadsheets), InfoPath (forms), Outlook ( ), PowerPoint (presentations), Publisher (publications), and Word (word processing).

Word This is what you see when you first open Word.

Word - icons You can drag your mouse over the icons to see their functions.

Word - typing Type text into the blank white area. Press Enter to move to the next line. Use Spell Check to check your spelling.

Word – editing text Hold down the left mouse button while moving the mouse cursor over a word. This highlights the word. Now, watch the word’s font style change as you press bold, italics and underline.

Word – opening documents In order to see a document that was already created, you need to open it.

Word – opening documents Look on the Desktop and double click on the “English seminars” folder. Choose the file WordPractice and open it.

Word – editing an existing document Once you have opened a document, you can begin typing and editing.

Word – saving documents It is important to save your document often.

Word – saving documents As when opening a file, choosing “Save As” brings up a window like this.

Word – saving documents You can change the name of your document to NameWordPractice (example: AlisonWordPractice) Save it to the “English seminars” folder on the Desktop.

Word – formatting practice Now, practice editing the appearance of the text in the document you have opened. Click on these icons to change the appearance.

Word – formatting practice Highlight the title of the text. Click the bold icon.

Word – formatting practice Now, change the font to Times New Roman. Change the font size to 16.

Word – formatting practice If you make a mistake or do not like the format, you can undo it! Choose Edit – Undo to undo the last action or Edit – Clear – Formats to undo all formats.

Word – formatting practice The default alignment is left. Change the alignment of the title to center by highlighting the title and clicking the Center icon.

Word - practice Now, read the text on the document. Next, read all four of the questions and choose which question is not appropriate for the text. Highlight that question and its answers. Press the Delete key on the keyboard. Type in a new question. Remember to include the correct number! After typing the question, press Enter. Then press Tab, type a. and then the first possible answer. Continue for answers b. and c.

Word - practice You have edited a test you could use with your pupils or use to practice your own English! Be sure to save your document. Simply click the Save icon.

Word - printing Before you print, preview the document to be sure the format is correct and paper is not wasted.

Word - printing To print your document choose File – Print or simply click the Print icon.

Summing up Today we:  Learned about the basic hardware and software of the computer  Learned about the basic features of Microsoft Word 2003  Edited a document using Word Information and images in this presentation were taken from Plattsburgh’s tutorials found at

Summing up Any questions? At the next seminar we will:  Practice creating documents with pictures and tables in Word.  Learn about PowerPoint and create a mini- presentation.