HOW COMPUTERS WORK ?

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of

the information contained therein.

WHAT IS A DESKTOP ???

Desktop refers to the main screen area of the Windows operating system

WHAT IS A FOLDER?

• A folder is like a

drawer of your desk in

which you are used to

store documents.

HOW CAN I CREATE A NEW FOLDER?To create a new folder on your Desktop – With your mouse right click

anywhere on an open area of the desktop. Select “New” and then, click folder. A new folder with the default name “New Folder” will be created on the desktop. Either accept the default name “New Folder” (bad idea)

by hitting the enter key or type a new name for the folder (good idea) and then hit enter on the keyboard.

WHICH FOLDER I ALREADY HAVE WHEN I BUY

A COMPUTER ?

• It depends on which kind of computer you buy

and on the operational system installed. It could

be Apple or Microsoft.

Special Folder Represents

• File system directories.

Desktop Directory Files stored on the user's desktop.

•Favorites User's Favorites.

•Internet Cache User-specific Temporary Internet Files.

•My Documents User's documents

•My Music User's music

•My Pictures User's pictures

•My Videos User's video files

•Programs User-specific "(All) Programs" groups and icons.

•Start Menu User-specific "Start Menu" .

• Virtual Folder Represents

•Recycle Bin - The aggregated contentsof the Recycle Bin on all drives for the current user.

•Desktop - The Windows Desktop

•Drives - My Computer, contains virtualfolders representing everything on the local machine, as well as mappednetwork drives

•Internet - Resources located on the Internet; Web DAV connections, etc.

•My Documents - Virtual folder of the user's My Documents folder; used as a child of the Desktop virtual folder

•Search Results - Listing of the resultsof the last search of the computer (appears only after a search)

•Printers - Container folder for installedprinters

WHAT IS A FILE?

A file is a document, a package of information with a name attached to it.

• files can record data, such as text or numbers. For

example, a document that you have done on

Microsoft Excel which contains all information about

your monthly expenses.

• It exist program files, for example: Windows Media

Player, that let you listenning to music.

WHAT IS A FILE?

HOW TO SAVE A FILE?

• If you want to save a file, a document wich is already open:

• you have to select “File”in your “menu bar”.

• Then, a dialog box will open, if you want to save this file for the first time, you have to select the option “Save as”.

• 1. Choose the part of your computer where you want to save your document in the “save in” box.

• 2. In the “file name” box, enter the name of your document.

• 3. Now, click on “save”, in order to confirm your selections.

HOW TO COPY A FILE ?

• Open the location that contains the file you want

to copy.

• (look at the picture) Right-

click the file, and then

click Copy.

• Open the location where you want to store the copy.

• (Look at the picture 2) Right-click an empty space within the location, or use the edit button in menu bar and then click Paste. The copy of the original file is now stored in the new location.

HOW TO COPY A FILE ?

HOW TO COPY AND PASTE PICTURES AND

TEXT IN A DOCUMENT ?

• If you want to insert a photo or some text from

another file document in a report :

• Look at the picture 1, you have to make a right-click anywhere within the photograph. The context menu appears.

• Then click on Copy to make a digital copy of the photograph. The copy will be stored in a special area of your computer and will remain there as long as you have power turned on.

• If you want to copy and paste some text from your document. Simply highlight the text you want to copy, then select Copy from the context menu. (Alternatively, you can use the Keyboard shortcut:Edit > Copy or hit Ctrl + V).

• Look at the picture 2, you have to go to the document where you want to paste the photograph.

• Click in the spot where it should appears.

• Then pull down the edit menu and select Paste.

• Your photograph will automatically be inserted into the area you have selected. You can also paste directly from the keyboard by holding down the Ctrl and V keys simultaneously.

• In both cases you can also go to Edit > Paste to paste either text of a photograph into your document.

• In a computer, operations are performed by following the instructions of computer programs. A programm is typically composed of a set of procedures and functions. A procedure is a sequence of instructions to carry out an operation, for example: sorting a list.

WHAT IS A PROGRAM ?

WHAT ARE EXTERNAL DEVICES?

• An external device is a component that can be connected to your computer. These external components of the computer are called : peripheral input or output. It exists two types of peripheral, input devices and output devices.

• The input devices is used to provide information (or data) to the computer system: Keyboard (typing text), mouse (pointing), scanning (scaning of paper documents), microphone, etc..

• The output devices are used to bring out information from the computer system: monitor, printer, speaker, etc..

• A hard disk is a memory

used mainly in

computers.

• A hard disk can store

anywhere from 10 to more than 100 gigabytes

(gigabyte is a unit of computer storage).

WHAT IS AN HARD DISK ?

• It is an artificial memory (like a small box) with components, which can store all kinds of data or programs either temporarily (like a transistor) or on a permanent basis (like a

computer).

• All your information in a digital computer (text, numbers, pictures, audio, and nearly any other form of information) are store in a memory.

WHAT IS A MEMORY ?

WHAT IS A MENU BAR?

This bar has several menu options: File, Edit, View,

Tools…

WHAT ARE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS?

• The shortcuts allows you to access in an

instantaneous way to the

specific functions of windows using the

keyboard instead of using the menu bar.

Shortcut Keys description

• Alt + F File menu options in current program.

•Alt + E Edit options in current program

•F1 Universal Help in almost every Windows program.

•Ctrl + A Select all text.

•Ctrl + X Cut selected item.

•Shift + Del Cut selected item.

•Ctrl + C Copy selected item.

• Ctrl + Ins Copy selected item

Ctrl + V Paste

•Shift + Ins Paste

•Ctrl + Home Goes to beginning of document.

•End Goes to end of current line.

•Ctrl + End Goes to end of document.

•Shift + Home Highlights from current position to beginning of line.

•Shift + End Highlights from current position to end of line.