Computing for the Older and Wiser: Get Up and Running On Your Home PC

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Computing for the Older and Wiser Get Up and Running on Your Home PC! Adrian Arnold

A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Publication

Computing for the Older and Wiser

Computing for the Older and Wiser Get Up and Running on Your Home PC! Adrian Arnold

A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Publication

Copyright © 2008

John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England Telephone (+44) 1243 779777

Email (for orders and customer service enquiries): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wiley.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (+44) 1243 770571. Microsoft product screen shots reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Other Wiley Editorial Offices John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741, USA Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Boschstr. 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2 Clementi Loop #02-01, Jin Xing Distripark, Singapore 129809 John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 6045 Freemont Blvd, Mississauga, ONT, L5R 4J3, Canada Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Arnold, Adrian. Computing for the older and wiser : get up and running on your home PC / Adrian Arnold. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-470-77099-3 (pbk.) 1. Computers and older people. 2. Internet and older people. 3. Microcomputers. I. Title. QA76.9.O43A76 2008 004.084’6--dc22 2008037079 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-470-770993 Typeset in 11/13 Zapf Humanist 601 BT by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Italy by Printer Trento, Trento This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.

To Jen for all her loving encouragement

Contents

Acknowledgements

xvii

About the Author

xvii

Chapter 1: Introduction Banishing Old Beliefs Knowing age is no barrier Sorting out gender differences Stretching the mind Using a Home Computer Getting on to the Internet Communication Information Shopping Hobbies Sport Holidays Financial security issues Getting Everything You Need to Start Using this Book Icons used in this book Overcoming Your Fears Fear of breaking it Fear of looking stupid Fear of losing all your hard work www.pcwisdom.co.uk

1 1 2 3 3 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 10 12 12 12 13 13

Contents

Revision Answers

14 15

PART I: Basic Computing

17

Chapter 2: Learning the basics – desktop, keyboard and mouse

19

Windows Vista or Windows XP Switching On the Computer Looking at the opening screen Understanding the Desktop The taskbar Icon identification Focusing on the Keyboard Computer keys Operating the Mouse Trackballs and trackpads Switching Off the Computer Revision Answers

19 20 20 21 23 25 25 26 32 33 38 41 44

Chapter 3: Understanding Windows

45

Using Windows Vista Computer window Title bar Side panel Scroll bars Closing the window Using Windows XP Computer window Title bar Menu bar Toolbar Side panel Scroll bars Closing the window

46 46 46 50 50 51 51 51 52 53 54 54 54 54

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Revision Answers

55 57

Chapter 4: Working with disks, drives, folders and files

59

Using Windows Vista Moving icons in a window Moving a window on the screen Creating a new folder Using Windows XP Moving icons in a window Restoring order to a window Moving a window on the screen Creating a new folder Navigating the System Revision Answers

60 61 62 63 64 65 65 66 66 66 69 71

Chapter 5: Opening your first program

73

Locating and Opening WordPad in Vista Locating and Opening WordPad in XP Getting Familiar with WordPad in Vista and XP Basic WordPad window Main screen Typing Text into WordPad Correcting the text with Backspace and Delete keys Creating Shortcuts Revision Answers

73 74 76 76 79 80 80 82 83 85

Chapter 6: Grasping basic word processing

87

Creating Your First Letter Saving a File Understanding Computer Memory

87 89 90

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Contents

Closing a File Reopening a File Manipulating the Text in Your File Methods of selection Altering the Appearance of Selected Text Using Other Techniques Select using dragging and Shift Moving text Printing a Document Previewing a printout Revision Answers

92 92 92 94 95 97 97 98 99 100 100 103

Chapter 7: Customising your desktop

105

Adding a Shortcut Icon to Your Desktop Changing the Look of Your Desktop Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Customising the Taskbar Revision Answers

105 106 107 108 108 108 108 110 112 114

Chapter 8: Knowing how to get help

115

Taking Emergency Action Pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete Using Program Help Facilities WordPad Help Windows Help Revision Answers

115 115 117 117 120 123 125

PART II: Email and the Internet

127

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Chapter 9: Getting connected to email and the Internet

129

Grasping the Concept of Internet and Email Communicating via the network Choosing an ISP Selecting Your Internet Service Establishing cost versus quality of service Getting Connected: Dial-up and Broadband Dial-up Broadband Setting up an Internet Connection Selecting Usernames and Passwords Usernames Passwords Revision Answers

130 130 132 133 133 134 134 136 137 140 141 141 142 145

Chapter 10: Using email

147

Getting Ready for the Big Send Off Using Outlook Express for Windows XP Composing a Message Step 1: Address Book – adding and using contacts Step 2: Subject box – indicating what your message is about Step 3: Message pane – typing your message Step 4: Send button – sending your message on its way Receiving a Message Dealing with Attachments Sending an attachment Opening an attachment Replying to an Email Using Windows Mail for Vista Revision Answers

147 149 151 151 154 155 155 160 160 161 162 162 164 166 168

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Contents

Chapter 11: Discovering the Internet & the World Wide Web

169

Understanding the Differences between the Web and the Internet Using Microsoft’s Internet Browser Opening the basic Explorer window Getting familiar with the toolbar Looking at Web Pages Using links to access information Working with Web Addresses Elements that make up a web address Viewing PDF Files Revision Answers

169 170 170 172 175 176 177 178 181 182 184

Chapter 12: Making the most of search engines and directories

185

Utilising Directories Yahoo Open Directory Using Search Engines Google Useful Searching Tips Using phrases Choosing upper or lower case Excluding words Revision Answers

186 186 188 189 189 192 192 192 192 193 196

Chapter 13: Shopping ‘online’

197

Paying Safe with Credit and Debit Cards Advantages to Shopping Online Disadvantages to Shopping Online The Net is not necessarily cheaper Considering Security Issues Steps to improve your financial security on the Internet

198 198 199 200 200 201

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The Mechanics of Web Shopping Visiting Price Comparison Sites Revision Answers

202 207 208 211

Chapter 14: Travelling via the Web

213

Knowing What Makes a Good Deal Resorting to Traditional Booking Making a Booking Shopping for Bargain Flights Made Easier Travelling Without Tickets Revision Answers

214 215 215 218 220 221 222

Chapter 15: Buying and selling on internet auctions

223

Discovering the Wonders of eBay Registering on eBay Buying on eBay Paying via PayPal Selling on eBay Revision Answers

224 225 227 231 234 237 239

Chapter 16: Loading software programs

241

Loading Programs on to Your Computer Inserting the disk and installing the program A Strong Word of Warning Revision Answers

242 242 245 246 247

Chapter 17: Downloading programs from the Web

249

Knowing Why Freeware Exists Understanding the Difference between Freeware and Shareware

249 250

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Buying Software to Download Downloading a Freeware Program Introducing Picasa Revision Answers

250 251 251 253 254

PART III: Advanced Tutorials

255

Chapter 18: Mastering basic photo manipulation

257

Preparing for Transfer – What You Need Transferring Images from Camera Card to Computer Method for Windows Vista Method for Windows XP Using Picasa Opening the program Cataloguing Images Editing Images Basic Fixes Tuning Effects Re-naming and Cataloguing Images Revision Answers

257 259 259 262 263 263 264 267 268 268 268 269 270 272

Chapter 19: Tackling advanced word processing

273

Progressing from WordPad to Word Changing the Appearance of the Type Correcting Spelling and Grammar AutoCorrect AutoText Inserting Symbols Inserting Pictures Formatting Pictures Formatting Text Justifying

273 274 275 278 279 280 281 283 283 284

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Numbering Bullets Creating Tables Mail Merge Revision Answers

284 285 285 286 288 291

Chapter 20: Progressing to advanced email

293

Coping with Junk Mail Knowing how to combat spam Installing an anti-spam filter Making life difficult for spammers Fighting Viruses and Other Nasties Trojans Viruses Worms How do I get a virus infection? How do I prevent a virus attack? Phishing Organising Your Messages and Other Time-saving Features Creating a subfolder Creating rules Adding signatures Saving drafts Focusing on Email and Web Links Considering Web-based Email Accounts Signing Up to Hotmail Setting Up Outlook Express to Work with Hotmail Communicating with Instant Messaging Installing and using MSN Messenger Revision Answers

293 294 295 295 295 296 296 296 297 297 297 298 299 300 301 302 302 303 304 306 307 307 312 314

Chapter 21: Getting more out of the Internet

315

Choosing Alternative Web Browsers Selecting Browser Toolbars

316 316

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Contents

Using the Links Bar Adding to the Favorites Menu Making the Most of Google Google toolbar Google tools Introducing Tabbed Browsing Listening to Radio on Your Computer Revision Answers

317 317 318 318 320 320 321 321 324

PART IV: Appendices

325

Appendix A: Useful websites

327

Appendix B: Glossary

337

Index

353

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Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude to Juliet Booker, the best copy editor and proofreader in the country, and the John Wiley team of Birgit Gruber, Colleen Goldring and Brett Wells who have made this publication such a pleasure to complete. I would also like to give thanks to Steve Long for being so creative with his cartoons.

About the Author Adrian Arnold is a retired veterinary surgeon who lives with his wife, Jen, in the Stour valley of East Anglia. He has co-written a detailed history of his home village of Boxted, many newspaper articles on veterinary medicine and computing, and three unpublished novels. He now spends most of his time teaching members of the Third Age how to use their computers and writing stories for his four grandchildren.

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PRACTICE MAKES

PERFECT

Visit www.pcwisdom.co.uk for: l More training tutorials l Links to resources l Computer advice through

frequently asked questions l Email tips and tricks l Videos and podcasts

from the author l Author blogs

Introduction

1

This book is designed for people who want straightforward instructions in the use of their home computer. There are no unexplained acronyms, such as SCSI, RAM or URL, no unintelligible ‘computerspeak’ of megahertz, advanced resource management systems or graphics card drivers, and certainly no meaningless jargon. The content of the book is directed solely at PC users working with either Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating systems. Mac users are not catered for – sorry. You are taken gently from the act of switching the computer on and off, right through to quite sophisticated use of the Internet, email and digital photography. Each chapter is designed to expand and reinforce previous chapters and comes with a question and answer summary. Meanwhile, here are some initial considerations that may have crossed your mind.

Banishing Old Beliefs Let us get a few preconceived thoughts out of the way before we go any further. Perhaps you are thinking that you are too old to start tinkering around with technology and that it should be left to students and computer geeks. Well, push that thought to one side for a moment and see if you feel the same way having read this chapter.

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Knowing age is no barrier One Texan doctor began his computing career at the age of 86 and now has his own web page ten years later. My oldest client is 91 and happily sending emails to her grandchildren scattered across the globe. Your mind may be a little slower and your memory a little more elusive but if you can drive a car or use a cash machine you should be able to use a computer. Note that I did not say ‘understand’ – few of us understand the finer points of the internal combustion engine but that does not prevent us from using a car. Decreasing vision and slower reflexes may result in a road accident but you will never run anyone over with a computer. As long as your mind is active and enquiring, using a computer can expand your horizons far beyond the comfort of your own home. You will invariably feel apprehensive at the thought of new technology. My father had a brilliant mathematician’s mind but he insisted on checking the early calculators’ answers by doing it manually. It took him about three years to admit that they could be faster and occasionally more accurate. (Cash machines are simply basic computers, just like the controls of a microwave.) Personally, whenever I try to program the video recorder I risk physical damage because it appears to bear a specific grudge against me and insists on recording any television programme other than the one I had intended. My wife has no desire to use a computer and yet the video recorder obeys her every command. This is not to say that she does not recognise the benefits of computers at home – she asks me to organise things on the Internet several times a week – it’s just that she has no desire to learn computing skills, and that’s just fine. Some familiarity with the QWERTY typewriter keyboard is an advantage but touch-typing skills are not called for. I have been computing for 25 years and I still only use about four fingers and even then I get it wrong from time to time. It can be frustrating ‘hunting and pecking’ for letters and symbols but just like riding a bicycle, it comes together after a short while. After all, one thing we older members of society should have, is time. Modern computers cater for those with restricted vision and arthritic hands. Help is always to hand in the form of this book and via a simple keystroke on the keyboard. Computer screens can be magnified, print can be enlarged, and alternatives to the navigating ‘mouse’ are available that are easier on stiff fingers and 2

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Introduction

wrists (see Chapter 2). There are even sound effects to warn you of impending disaster or incoming mail. All too often, you may be subjected to a vision of the younger generations’ fingers that seemingly fly across the keyboard while the screen flashes from one image to another, which quite frankly can be a little overwhelming and may be responsible for deterring their elders from ever starting to use a computer. But let us consider this, if the only cyclist you had ever seen was one riding a unicycle in a circus, you would be very hesitant to learn to ride a bike. Remember that every concert pianist initially had to master the basic scales in just the same way that every amateur playing the piano in back of the pub has to practise. It may take a little longer, but every skill demands some practise. If you fall off a bike you may land up in hospital, but if your computer crashes, you simply switch it off and make yourself a cup of tea.

Sorting out gender differences The male brain is no better than the female brain – in fact, it can be a lot worse. In my experience, it can be much more difficult to teach men about computing as they often want to run before they can walk. Women, on the other hand, tend to take matters one step at a time and like to reinforce their knowledge by repetition. Men may prefer to research military history or check their investments, while women may be more interested in communication with distant families or increase their knowledge of gardening. No matter what benefits you may want from your computer you still have to master its basic use. The man in his open-top, vintage sports car and the woman in her three-door hatchback both need to have similar driving skills.

Stretching the mind The main requisites for successful computing are enthusiasm and a desire to learn. If you are retired and lead a full life of social encounters, gardening, travel and engrossing hobbies then you may not have the time or the inclination to use a computer. If this is the case, put this book back on the shelf and continue enjoying yourself. A computer is not essential to a happy life. If you have the time to expand your mind and the desire to do so then a computer can be your ticket to a vast, new world of knowledge, communication and www.pcwisdom.co.uk

3


entertainment. For many older people the greatest reward is the satisfaction of acquiring a new skill. A skill that bridges the age gap between grandparents and grandchildren is one that enables the generations to explore together. Today’s busy parents often have little time or energy left at the end of a working day to help children with their homework, whereas computer-literate grandparents can provide wisdom as well as the facts. For instance, what is the population of Columbia and what are the facts concerning cocaine? Small children as young as five and under are proud to teach Grandpa their computing skills, while he enjoys their company and imparts some of his knowledge. Teenagers are another matter altogether – unless Grandma has a mind to carry a Kalashnikov against the forces of Evil. Nevertheless, a certain amount of their bizarre vocabulary will be gained from reading this book, allowing basic communication on a shared enthusiasm. In short, if you have the mind, the time and the enthusiasm to learn a new skill then this is the book for you – if not, continue to enjoy your life.

Using a Home Computer The computer does not have to be connected to the outside world for it to become a valuable tool for making your life easier and more interesting. For example, home accounting programs have become very user-friendly over the past few years; secretaries of local organisations can keep accurate records of activities and membership and mail letters with just a few key strokes; instant photography in the form of digital cameras costing less than £100 has exploded; and so much more genealogy can be investigated at home. Diaries do not have to be replaced every year and telephone directories do not contain four different numbers in various writing materials leaving you wondering which one is current. Photos, CDs and other music, stamp collections and other treasured memories can be catalogued in hundreds of different ways allowing instant retrieval. Computers can play your music or you can tune in to thousands of radio stations across the world or enjoy listening to the latest Test Match while the rest of the family are watching EastEnders. As we get older our memory begins to fail – just a little – and computers can remind us of birthdays, anniversaries and appointments well in time for us to go out to buy 4

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Introduction

a card or take the cat to the vet. Making photocopies no longer require a car trip to the town library. Christmas card lists can be kept up to date and flyers announcing the Church Jumble Sale can be printed all with the help of a computer. The home computer is your servant – not your master.

Getting on to the Internet In addition, for getting the most of your home computer, you have the option of using the Internet with all its multitude of functions. Even long-term web-surfers barely scratch the surface of this resource goldmine, and that is exactly what it is – a resource. Knowledge, information and tuition are just part of this resource while communication, banking and shopping offer further arms of assistance. You can improve your computer’s performance by downloading various files and programs from the Internet as well as get unbiased reviews from paying customers on the latest books and films. The Internet and the Web, or cyberspace, is explained in Chapter 11.

Communication Research shows that the most popular use for the home computer lies in the field of communication. Messages can be sent across the world in a matter of seconds; family members separated by thousands of miles can exchange photographs; tickets for concerts, flights and sporting events are only a few finger movements away; and advice on every subject under the sun is available instantly in your own home. Email is covered in Chapter 10.

Information The fact that you are browsing through this book suggests that you have an enquiring mind. Possibly, you have the sort of mind that is stimulated several times a week, always wanting to know more. A home computer linked to the Internet will satisfy your quest for knowledge even if it is of a bizarre nature: O How old was Napoleon when he died? O Where is the Quoit Tower? O What are the words of the song ‘Windmills of Your Mind’? www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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O When did the Sumerian dynasty reign? O Who was the first Pope to hold his court at Avignon? O Why do we need wind farms? O How do I learn origami? The answers to all these questions and millions more are available on the Internet. Details of how to search for such answers are found in Chapter 12.

Shopping Internet shopping is the second most common use of the home computer. Books, CDs and DVDs are among the most popular purchases but there are many bargains to be found, from garden plants and equipment to bed linen, kitchen appliances and children’s toys. Supermarket shopping on the Web can be especially helpful, removing the logistical headache of coping with cumbersome loads, such as the big weekly shop and heavy items like huge boxes of washing powder or bargain packs of beer. Of course, working parents may have difficulty with the delivery times of such items but the older generation can organise their lives more freely. In addition to the normal Mail Order form of shopping there are the very popular auction sites. These are like huge car-boot sales selling everything from precious stones to early editions of The Beano. Shopping and auctions are covered in Chapters 13 and 15, respectively.

Hobbies Hobbies ranging from antiques to woodworking are scattered across the Web in the form of newsgroups, discussion seminars and tutorial pages – everything from harmonica lessons to instructions on the best methods for restoring a church organ. No matter what your interest you will find stimulation and information to fill 36 hours in a day. The information stored on the Internet is almost always free – for the time being anyway. Such information can be as simple as finding the best route from Chipping Camden to Elmstead Market or discovering the correct definition of 6

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Introduction

‘puddingstone’, or it can be as detailed as uncovering the agricultural practices of the Mayan civilisation. It is like having a library of reference books immediately to hand. A few sites offering cutting-edge information, such as real-time Stock Market prices or detailed analysis of market research, do charge for their services but these form a very small minority.

Sport Almost every sport devised by man is covered by the Internet – from American football to Zen archery. At least one cricketing site will provide enthusiasts with analysis of thousands of matches while football sites range from the massive Manchester United to the minnows of Boxted Lodgers.

Holidays Fancy a break? What about a small bed and breakfast overlooking Loch Lomond or a lecture tour to the Egyptian pyramids? Not only can you book it all from the comfort of your own home but you can read unbiased opinions on your proposed destination. Chapter 14 gives information on travelling and holidays.

Financial security issues Buying products and holidays on the Internet is all very well but what about the security of your credit-card details? Let us say that you are driving to Scotland and decide to stop for lunch at an unknown restaurant. At the end of your meal you hand over your card to be swiped, enter your pin number, collect the receipt and return to your car. During this seemingly safe, acceptable method of payment you have left significant details of your card transaction with people you have never met and whose honesty you have never questioned. Yet, they only have to turn the card over to see your security code and they can use the information to charge items to your account. However, you may not be aware that it requires a far greater amount of technical knowledge to intercept your financial details over a secure internet connection than it does for these normal, everyday card transactions. (See Chapter 13 for greater coverage of payment security issues.) Of course there are risks involved and people do have their identities stolen but you are more likely to be severely injured in a car accident than be a victim of this type of fraud. But knowing the risk does not put you off driving the car. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Getting Everything You Need to Start Well, you have made the decision to join the computing society but what do you actually need to get started? A computer, obviously, but that answer is of no help at all. What kind of computer? Should you buy new or second-hand? Laptop or desktop? How much RAM do you need, that’s if you even know what RAM means? What about modems, routers and disk space? If you have any idea what I am talking about then you should not be reading this book. You could visit one of the high-street computer chain stores to make your purchase. Unfortunately, many of the sales people at these places seem to communicate in a language that is only distantly related to spoken English and, however helpful they are trying to be, you will soon feel the overwhelming urge to run out of the shop, silently screaming. The answer, as usual, is to get advice from a friend – a guardian angel – someone who understands your needs and anxieties and can translate them into technical language. People over the age of 25 to 30 tend to be better ‘translators’ whereas children tend to get overexcited by the prospect of the latest power and speed of a new computer. However, before you approach your guardian angel there are a few matters to take into consideration: O Where do you expect to use the computer? A permanent position is better than the kitchen table.

8

O

How much space can you allocate to computing? If you are limited by size then a laptop machine about the size of an attaché case may be more suitable than a desktop computer. You will still need to find space for a printer.

O

Are there sufficient power sockets within easy reach? You will need a minimum of four sockets but these could be provided by extension sockets.

O

Where is the nearest telephone point? Trailing extension leads through the house can lead to nasty accidents.

O

Finally, do you have adequate lighting? Staring at a screen in dark corners is very tiring, while bright light in a conservatory can also make the screen difficult to read.

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O Have you got a firm idea about what you are going to use the computer for? O

Use of the Internet and email requires an accessible telephone point.

O

Digital photography needs a suitable high-quality printer with additional computer ‘memory’.

O

Accounts, records and word processing only requires a basic machine. A 17-inch screen will put less strain on your eyes and a ‘flat’ screen takes up far less room; they are easier to view but they are more expensive.

O

Laptops jump up in price when you move above a 15.4-inch screen.

O How confident are you that your enthusiasm will last? O

Perfectly suitable second-hand or reconditioned machines can be bought at a fraction of the price of new equipment.

O

Mention the fact that you are thinking of getting a computer to your friends, relatives and neighbours. It may turn out that someone is considering upgrading their machine, which would suit your purposes perfectly.

O How much money are you prepared to spend? O

A new desktop computer with a 17-inch flat-screen monitor should cost you less that £500.

O

A new laptop with a 17-inch screen will cost between £600 and £800, while a 19-inch screen model will cost over £900.

O

A new colour printer should cost less than £70.

O

A second-hand desktop with a 17-inch flat screen should cost around £300.

O

A second-hand laptop with a 17-inch screen should cost less than £500.

Laptops have an obvious space-saving advantage but without a permanent power connection their battery life will only last about 2–3 hours before requiring recharging. Connection to the Internet necessitates a telephone connection and the printer will need another couple of cables so the idea of reclining on the sofa in front of the fire while sending emails may be a little optimistic unless you are set up with wireless connections. Desktops are larger in physical size and offer bigger screens at lower prices. A study, workroom or spare bedroom is ideal but not always available for use as

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a computer room so you may have to set up in an unused corner of the living room. Having established where you are going to place your computer, I would suggest the following minimum specification for the machine: O 17-inch screen (also called a monitor) – preferably flat. O A CPU speed of at least 1.7 GHz. O 512K of RAM (1024K if you are considering digital photography). O 80MB of hard disk space. O Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system. Most second-hand machines will be equipped with Windows XP while brand new machines are designed for Windows Vista. I do not advise getting a secondhand machine that has been adapted to Windows Vista (for a variety of technical reasons that we do not need to address here). O A DVD read/write drive. O An internal modem or router. O A basic keyboard and mouse (and mouse mat). These can be wireless if you wish to reduce the number of cables tangled up at the back of the computer. Please do not try to understand these specifications. They are listed simply to guide your guardian angel on the kind of computer that should be perfectly adequate for every lesson in this book – and beyond.

Using this Book Before we proceed any further, I have made the assumption that your computer has been properly connected – keyboard, mouse and screen (monitor), together with any printer cables, have all been inserted into their correct sockets. At this stage, I must state that it is not your responsibility to set up the computer in this way – so, I hear you ask, how exactly is this achieved? Quite simply. You need to ensure that, as a condition of the sale, whoever you buy the computer from does the installation, and confirms that your equipment is in perfect working order. If a commercial company does not offer this service, walk away. However, it is more likely that a friend or relative will be advising you at this point so part 10

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Introduction

of your agreement with them should be that they set up the system in your own home. Teenage children are an invaluable resource at this stage but please resist any well-meaning offers of them helping to teach you. The whole set-up should take no longer than an hour and that includes establishing an Internet connection and your email service. With your system properly set up you can proceed at your own pace through the various parts of the book. The chapters in Part I take you through the basics of turning the computer on, recognising the elements of the screen, keyboard and mouse, through to the concepts of computer memory, files and folders before introducing you to programs like word processing – typing a letter or email – and sending a message and surfing the Net. Spending sufficient time on these chapters may prove difficult as you will experience a natural desire to run before you can walk. However, your future enjoyment of computer use will depend upon grasping the basics presented here. Part II coaches you how to navigate your way through whatever interests you may have in mind from your computer. Some chapters can be left until later or even ignored if they don’t appeal. For instance, you may be quite happy with the layout of your computer screen and decide that you can skip the chapter on customising your desktop. That’s fine – it’s your computer. However, you will need a sound knowledge of the basics to avoid frustration in later chapters. Before you launch into each chapter, a list of the equipment and skills required is given to ensure that you will benefit from the advice that follows – if at any time you are not confident about proceeding, simply go back a step or two. Part III takes you further into the use of your PC with chapters on simple photo manipulation and more advanced use of word processing, emails and the Internet. Part IV provides some useful information in the way of a list of websites (Appendix A) – covering a multitude of different products, interests and information, just to set you off in the right direction when surfing the Net – and finally, a glossary of commonly used computer jargon (Appendix B). When you first sit down at your new computer you may be tempted to rush into those computer functions that have attracted you to using a computer in the first place. Please try to put that temptation to one side – you may not succeed – but please try. In the knowledge that many of you will fall from grace, I have included www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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a chapter on getting help (Chapter 8) giving hints and tips that can winch you back to safety from even the most uncharted territory.

Icons used in this book Occasionally, you will notice symbolic images in the margin. These have been introduced to help focus your attention on certain information and are summarised as follows:

Tip – Tips and suggestions to help make life easier for you Take note of these little extras to avoid confusion

Read carefully, a few things could go wrong at this point

Try It – Go on, enjoy yourself you won’t break it Overcoming Your Fears One of the most compelling reasons I had to write this book was to eliminate, or at least reduce, the fear that many people suffer when faced by a computer for the first time. This fear can be divided into three parts: the fear of ‘breaking it’, the fear of ‘looking stupid’, and the fear of ‘losing all your hard work’ when something goes wrong.

Fear of breaking it Computers are really very robust these days. Laptops are dropped every day and continue to work and you will find it difficult to lift a desktop machine never mind drop it. Flooding to a depth of 12 inches – 30 cms if you are decimal literate – will ruin a computer but then your furniture will not appreciate it either. Televisions are just as vulnerable to a spilt cup of coffee and certainly cause more fires than 12

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Introduction

computers. Yes, keyboards are occasionally susceptible to damage but they can be replaced for less than £20 – the cost of an off-peak train journey to London from the Home Counties. Of course, this does not mean that computers don’t go wrong. They do – in the same way that cars suddenly decide not to start – and they can be equally frustrating. In both cases, it is unlikely that it is your fault. There is an exercise in Chapter 2 that will help you overcome the understandable fear of destroying your keyboard.

Fear of looking stupid It is part of the human condition to worry about the opinions of one’s peer group. You are in very good company when the fear of looking foolish strikes. This book can help you overcome this fear in that you can lock yourself away with the computer in front of you with this book to one side. Beware of any well-meaning friends who insist on ‘showing’ you how to use your computer. If they do not have the ability to ‘tell’ you where you are going wrong they do not have the aptitude to teach and should stick to their daytime job. You do not learn to play the piano by watching someone else play. I never sit at the keyboard when I am teaching. I sit beside the pupil who has strict instructions to smack my hand away if it begins to creep towards the keyboard. When things do go wrong – and they will – have a gentle laugh with yourself.

Fear of losing all your hard work The fear of losing your files or messages is a much more reasonable worry. You may have spent the best part of an hour typing, with two fingers, a detailed email message to your daughter in Australia when the power supply fails and the screen goes blank taking all your hard work with it. The mechanics of computer memory is discussed in the chapter on word processing (Chapter 6) but, at this stage, just remember to save your work to the computer on a regular basis then all that you are likely to lose is the last 5 or 10 minutes of your labours. Allied to this fear is that of wiping everything from your computer. Apart from your memory disk suffering a catastrophic failure – about as likely as your modern car engine seizing up on the motorway – you need a degree in computing science to destroy everything on your computer. Now let us see how well you are assimilating these early computing facts . . . www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Revision There may be more than one correct answer to each question.

1. Why is a laptop better than a desktop computer? (a) It is cheaper (b) It takes up less space (c) It does not need a printer (d) It is less likely to break down

2. Why is a desktop computer better than a laptop? (a) It is cheaper (b) It is more reliable (c) Screens can be larger

3. What is RAM? (a) Really Active Memory (b) A male sheep (c) I don’t need to know

4. What use is a computer? (a) It keeps the mind active (b) It is a superb reference tool (c) It can save you money in many ways (d) It can mow the grass

5. What use is a printer? (a) Printing out email messages, photographs and recipes (b) Computers will not work without one (c) To connect to the Internet (d) Printed documents are often easier to read than on a screen 14

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Introduction

6. What is a computer mouse? (a) A large computer virus (b) Something I will learn about later in this book (c) The natural prey of a computer CAT (d) A device for moving a pointer around the screen

7. What is email? (a) A message sent within Europe (b) An electronic message to or from computers (c) An urgent message (d) An ecologically friendly envelope

Answers Q1 – b

Q5 – a and d

Q2 – a and c

Q6 – b and d

Q3 – c

Q7 – b

Q4 – a, b and c

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15

PART I Basic Computing

© Steve Long Cartoons

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Learning the basics – desktop, keyboard and mouse

2

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system

Skills needed – Enthusiasm and an open mind

Okay, so you are sitting in front of this strange machine wondering what on earth to do with it. This chapter will take you through the very basics of turning it on, turning it off, what you should expect to see and what some of it means, together with familiarising you with the keyboard and mouse.

Windows Vista or Windows XP Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium and Microsoft Windows XP programs are both what are known as operating systems; from time to time I refer to these systems in short as Vista and XP. They are the things that make the computer work – like the controls of a car. Computing manufacturers are continually trying to improve their products and Windows Vista is an updated version of the older but still reliable Windows XP. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Windows Vista is a great leap forward but it is still in its first incarnation and there are a number of glitches that will be resolved as time goes by. Most new computers come with Vista already installed while the older, but perfectly suitable, machines available are still operating XP. The difference can best be described as learning to drive a car compared to riding a motor cycle. They both have accelerators, clutches, gears and brakes but they are operated in different ways. This book aims to cover both systems helping you through the differences. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Switching On the Computer Before you start the computer up, switch on all the extras like the monitor, printer, scanner and loudspeakers. These extras are called the peripherals. Most of them will have buttons which, when pressed, cause a small light to appear somewhere on the equipment. All set? Then press the main power button on the front of the computer itself. Again, a light will appear and you will hear various whirring sounds start up – this is perfectly normal. If you do not see any lights come on then chances are you have forgotten to turn the computer on at the wall socket. Some computers have a main switch on the back, which is thoroughly inconvenient but should be switched on and left switched on. Why do you turn on the peripherals before the computer? Because when the computer starts up it needs to identify the peripherals before it can work with them. Now – leave it alone! Your computer has got a lot of work to do to get everything up and running and if you try to press keys or wiggle the mouse around you may confuse or interrupt it. Be patient!

Looking at the opening screen What can you expect to see on the screen while the computer is getting itself sorted? This will vary slightly between different computers but they all follow a general sequence. You may see an advertising logo or picture at first that may or may not be followed by a black and white screen listing a range of computer values. Completely ignore these as well as any other sudden, inexplicable blips on the screen. After a couple of minutes – the time depends upon the type and speed of your computer – the black and white screen will be replaced by a colour image. The screen may change to black from time to time but eventually the screen will look very much like either of the images on page 22. This screen is called the desktop because, as we shall discover, it contains almost everything that you may find on top of a real office desk – a typewriter, a telephone, fax machine and copier, pens, pencils, crayons, notepads, files, paper clips, letters – everything except a cup of coffee. 20

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Throughout the warming up time you may notice a small white arrow and an hourglass, or rotating circle on the screen (just as shown here in the margin!). The arrow is the mouse pointer (for both Vista and XP) that changes to a rotating circle (Vista) or an hourglass shape (XP) when the computer is actively performing a task. When the hourglass/circle is no longer showing it means that the computer has established the desktop on the screen so now’s the time to try moving your mouse about on the mouse mat beside you. If everything has worked properly the arrow should move about following the direction of your mouse movements. You use the mouse to point the arrow at various areas on the screen. You will find more detailed instructions on how to use of the mouse later in this chapter.

Understanding the Desktop If you are feeling totally lost up an uncharted creek at this stage – don’t worry, it is perfectly normal to do so; I have a number of paddles to get you into clearer waters. Let us take a closer look at this screen of confusion – check out the example windows on page 22 – the top image is a typical Vista desktop and the bottom one a typical XP desktop window. The labelled symbols, usually displayed on the left-hand side of the screen, are known as icons. Your initial screen may not display the number of icons shown in these examples because these screenshots are taken from my own computer to which I have added a large number of programs. You will probably only see half a dozen at the most. The two icons in the top left-hand column are probably entitled ‘My Documents’ and My Computer’ or something similar. We will deal with these later. The grey or coloured bar running along the bottom of the screen (now called the desktop!) is called the taskbar, at the left-hand end of which you can see the Start button The Windows Vista desktop has further features on the right-hand side known as gadgets – such as a clock, a calendar and a miniature picture slide show. Finally, you should be able to see the pointed arrow – if not move your mouse around and it will follow your movements. By moving this pointer around with the mouse you can navigate your way around the desktop. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Vista desktop

XP desktop

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The taskbar Looking at the taskbar (as indicated on the Vista desktop image), reading from left to right, we have the Start button; a group of four small icons; a further group of small icons; and the time of day at the right-hand end of the bar. The XP taskbar is very similar in that we have the Start button; a group of five small icons; a further group of small icons and the time of day at the right-hand end. The Start button is your first point of communication with the computer at this stage. Using the mouse, with either Vista or XP, place the pointer so that it lies directly over this area and press the left button on the mouse once (flick forward to the section that describes the mouse if you are not sure about what to press). The Start menu now pops up, which again may vary in appearance depending on your operating system (see the Vista Start menu below and the XP Start menu on page 24). The two Start menus look dissimilar but their functions remain the same. We will return to the Start menus later in this chapter so let us continue to identify the other elements of the taskbar.

Vista Start menu

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XP Start menu

You can leave the Start menu function by moving the mouse pointer anywhere on the screen away from the menu and pressing the left-mouse button.

The Quick Launch bar The next group of icons shown on the taskbar (refer to the desktop images) are collectively known as the Quick Launch bar (positioned immediately to the right of the Start button in both systems). These are shortcuts to frequently used programs such as word processing, email, the Internet and accounting files. If you can not see the quick launch icon then more than likely this bar is currently hidden from your screen due to the current screen set-up. Not to worry, we can sort this out later in Chapter 7.

Minimised icons Icons of programs that have been opened (but not closed) are known as minimised icons – literally, minimised down from the full screen to tabs on the taskbar but with the programs still running in the background waiting for you to return to them. The taskbar shown next shows that I have three programs open – my calendar, a BBC web page and a word-processor file: 24

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I can click on any one of the programs to restore them fully to the screen. Since we have not opened any programs yet this area of your taskbar will be blank.

Startup bar The startup bar is shown at the far right-hand end of the taskbar:

These are the icons of programs initiated by the computer when it started up such as the clock, the speakers, anti-virus programs and video controls, among others. The number and position of the icons depends upon your own initial set-up.

Icon identification Your first reaction upon viewing a computer screen is understandably one of complete confusion – this is perfectly normal. These obscure icons may be staring at you with supercilious smiles on their faces but you can establish their identity. Using the mouse, place the pointer over one of the icons and click the left-mouse button once. The colouring of the icon will change. Then move the pointer until its tip is over another icon. Leave it there. Within seconds a small box appears identifying the icon as you can see here:

Focusing on the Keyboard The keyboard gives computer commands. These commands may be as simple as typing the character ‘a’ or inserting a paragraph in a letter, or as complicated as rendering a photograph as an oil painting. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Computer keys First impressions of the keyboard may cause a little confusion but breaking it down into component makes it relatively simple to understand. The basic unit is the QWERTY keyboard, from the original typewriter, to which various keys have since been added. The letter and number characters in the central section of the keyboard act in the same way as the typewriter except that the old Caps key is now called Shift. To capitalise a letter you must hold the Shift key down while hitting the letter key, and instead of manually pulling across the lever to start a new line you use the Enter key (sometimes called the Return key).

Enter key The Enter key is the most important key on the keyboard in that, besides creating a new line of type, it activates many keyboard commands; it can vary in shape depending on your keyboard (check out the two examples in the margin). The 26

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simplest use of this key is to create a new blank line while creating a word-processing document. Hitting the key twice creates a new paragraph. However, it is far more frequently used in every program to confirm a selected or default command. ‘What on earth is he talking about now?’ I hear you ask. This is explained in the word-processing section (Chapter 6), where you start using a computer program, but in the meantime let me give you two examples.

The first example shows a default command – look carefully at the image above, you can see that the box surrounding the ‘Yes’ option is highlighted whereas the ‘No’ and ‘Cancel’ alternatives are in shadow. Thus, the ‘Yes’ option is known as the default option and by hitting the Enter key the computer will carry out the command of saving the changes. However, in practise, it is easier to left-click on the chosen option.

The example above demonstrates a selected command from a drop-down menu. The ‘Save As’ option is highlighted, or selected, and hitting the Enter key completes the command process. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Tab key As on a typewriter, the Tab key tabulates columns by moving the entry point of typing to a set distance to the right, as shown in the example that follows: Jan

Feb

Mar

April

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

£10

£25

£15

£27

£12

£7

£45

£32

£16

£29

£56

But the computer finds further uses for this key, as we shall see later.

Spacebar The Spacebar inserts a blanks space to the typing when you need to separate individual words in a document.

Delete key The purpose of the Delete key might appear obvious – it removes things from the screen. But, only those characters to the right of the entry point or selected text when word processing, or when other features have been chosen for deletion. This key, together with the Backspace key (see the next section), which deletes characters to the left of the word-processing cursor, is often placed in different areas of the keyboard but is usually found somewhere in the upper-right area of the board.

Backspace key The Backspace key is another relic of the typewriting era but on the computer it fulfils a slightly different function. While it still takes the typing point back one space it also deletes the character to the left. This key can vary in position on the keyboard but is usually found in the upper-right quadrant. (Sometimes, it only has a left-pointing arrow, sometimes it is accompanied by the word ‘Backspace’.) 28

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You can find further discussion on the use of the Delete and Backspace keys in the chapter on word processing (Chapter 6).

Function keys Function keys run across the top of the keyboard from F1 to F12. You do not need to understand the varying uses of these keys at this stage except perhaps to mention that most computer programs use the F1 key as a ‘Help’ key when you are stuck for an answer. More on the Help function can be found in Chapter 8.

Modifying keys Modifying keys do nothing on their own but when used in conjunction with others keys, they modify the action of those keys.

Shift key When using the old typewriter you used to hold down the Caps key while hitting another letter to capitalise it. The computer keyboard does the same thing – except that the Caps key has been renamed the Shift key. To type a capital ‘A’ you simply hold down the Shift key and hit the ‘a’ key or, to type the ampersand character (&) hold down Shift and hit the ‘7’ key. Capital letters and symbols above the numbers are known as upper case characters. You will find two Shift keys on the keyboard, one on each side of the main letter keys. They have identical actions. The Shift key is also used in many programs to issue a particular command but we will look at those later.

Caps Lock key Why the manufacturers maintain the title of the Caps Lock key instead of Shift Lock is quite beyond me! Pressing this key locks the keyboard into upper case so that all letters typed become capitalised. An indicator light on the keyboard normally comes on when this key is activated. Beware of this key – it lies just above the Shift key and can be hit accidentally when using the Shift key, converting all your typing into upper case letters. Caps Lock does not convert the number keys to their upper case symbols – you still have to use the Shift key to achieve this. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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The following sentence – I was told that Mr Stephens had 4 children – would look like – i WAS TOLD THAT mR sTEPHENS HAD 4 CHILDREN – if you had accidentally pressed the Caps Lock key instead of the Shift key.

Ctrl key No, this is not a misspelling. Ctrl is keyboard-speak for Control, which is another modifying key used in many programs to issue commands. For instance, in most word-processing programs holding down the Ctrl key while hitting the ‘A’ key – normally written as ‘CTRL+A’ – will select all the text in a document. CTRL+Z usually reverses the last command given. Don’t worry about remembering these combinations – it is simply the principle of this action that we are trying to establish at this stage. There are two Ctrl keys, one to the left and one to the right of the keyboard. Once again, they have identical actions.

Alt key The Alt key is very similar to the Ctrl key in that it is used to issue keyboard commands. You should remember, if you were paying attention, that I mentioned earlier that modifying keys can do things when used simultaneously. All three keys discussed here can also be used in combination with each other – such as Ctrl+Shift > Tab – giving you well over 300 different command combinations so, as I said, do not try to memorise any of the examples at this stage – you are probably having enough difficulty identifying the apostrophe key! (You will find it under the ‘@’ key to the right of the ‘:’ key if you are still searching.)

Esc key The Esc (short for Escape) key is found at the left-hand end of the function keys. You could look on it as a ‘get out of jail free’ key – sometimes. If you have initiated a computer process that is running away with itself, pressing Esc will often bring the process to an abrupt halt, with sighs of relief all round. It will not stop the computer, only the runaway process. It is not wise to rely too heavily on this key functioning in the way that you would expect. Smaller keyboards sometimes have a third symbol displayed on the Esc key. One common one is the Euro (€) symbol. These characters are inserted by holding hold both Ctrl and Alt keys while, at the same time, pressing respective key. 30

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Numeric keypad The numeric keypad is found at the right-hand end of the desktop keyboard – you will not find one on a laptop.

Many people find it easier to enter numbers using this keypad rather than using those along the top of the keyboard, especially when doing calculations. The normal (default) setting for this keypad is numeric, although it can be used to navigate around the screen by pressing the Num Lock key, after which the Num Lock indicator light should go out.

Navigation keys The navigation keys comprise the arrow keys (below, shown on the left), and the Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys (on the right):

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They are used to move (or navigate) the cursors or objects around the screen and are of little interest to us at the moment. That is quite enough for you to assimilate about the keyboard for now so I suggest you go and make yourself a strong cup of tea before moving on to how to use the mouse.

Try It Here is a little exercise showing you how difficult it is to break your computer. Place the palm of one hand on the keys of the keyboard and press down. Did anything happen? Do it again – and again. Now use both hands. Go on try to break it! You may be lucky – or unlucky depending on how you look at it – and something appears on the screen. If it does it is probably something called a menu so find the Esc key at the top-right corner of the keyboard and press it once. The genie is back in the bottle.

Operating the Mouse This little rodent, the mouse (see example), allows you to move the pointer across the screen and select various actions – actions such as saving a file, printing a letter, sending an email or simply confirming a request. Mice come in a variety of species but they all operate in the same way. It is just that some mice have more features than others. The basic mouse has a ball underneath

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which, when the mouse is moved on a mouse mat allows you to guide the mouse pointer around the screen. Note that you need to rest the very tip of the arrow (mouse pointer) on the point of action. The mouse has at least two buttons on it at the front – top-left and topright. These buttons act in different ways depending upon the program in use. If you are left-handed do not fret as you can modify the mouse to reverse the mouse clicks – just remember to do the opposite of everything I tell you in this book when referring to left-click and right-click.

Trackballs and trackpads Many people with stiff hands and fingers find it awkward to use a mouse while operating the buttons at the same time. A large number of charities helping those with arthritis have recommended the use of a trackball rather than a conventional mouse (check out the image below). A trackball is basically a static mouse, where the palm of the hand is used to rotate the ball to move the pointer with the buttons lying under the fingers for ease of access. Beginners often find that the double-clicking action is much easier with a trackball as they do not have to hold onto the mouse with a vice-like grip while depressing the left-mouse button. Laptops do not come equipped with separate mice although they can be connected to the machine if you feel the need to use one. Most laptop owners use a trackpad – a square panel on the keyboard below the spacebar. The pointer is moved across the screen by dragging a finger across this panel. When doing this action use only one finger as two fingers can confuse a trackpad.

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The left-click The left button on the mouse, or trackball, is the most important button at this stage. Pressing the left button (or left-clicking), while the pointer is positioned over an item, will perform an action. This could be simply highlighting or selecting an item or it may initiate a command. As an example, try moving the pointer over the ‘My Computer’ icon on your screen and then left-click (press the left-mouse button). You will see that the icon changes colour, becomes highlighted and has therefore been selected. Not particularly dramatic but it works. Make sure that the tip of the pointer lies over the icon as shown here:

Pointer missing target (Vista)

Pointer on target (Vista)

Pointer missing target (XP)

Pointer on target (XP)

The right-click It surprises me how many people ignore the use of the right-mouse button because it can be very useful. Having said that, you will be able to get along just fine without it – rather like cruise control or satellite navigation in a car. Doing a right-click on right-hand mouse button invariably brings up an alternative menu. By right-clicking on the ‘My Documents’ icon a menu is displayed. Within that menu is the option to Rename the file. Move the mouse pointer down the menu list until Rename is highlighted but, this time, left-click with the mouse. The words ‘My Documents’ are now highlighted. Let us rename this icon and individualise the desktop. With the original words highlighted, type in ‘Amy’s (or Adam’s) Documents’ (omitting the quotes). Press the Enter key and hey presto you have renamed the icon. Don’t like it? Made a mistake? Then right-click on the icon again, highlight Rename and correct the entry.

The double-click So far, so good, but we have yet to come to the first major stumbling block for beginners. The dreaded double-click. Double-click is only ever used with the 34

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left-mouse button and, as the term implies, consists of a double-click on the mouse button. The biggest problem for beginners is that they tend to tense up when approaching this hurdle, which results in them moving the mouse imperceptibly between the two clicks, which then is interpreted by the computer as two single clicks and so nothing happens. Therefore, do please practise double-clicking – you will need to use this skill throughout your computing life.

Drag and drop Now let’s do something a bit more interesting. Place the pointer on the My Documents icon but this time hold down the left button and, while still holding down the button, drag the mouse to the right. This drags the icon across the screen. Release the mouse button and the icon remains at the dragged position. In computer terminology this is called drag and drop. Try dragging it back to its original position. This action is not as easy as it sounds so don’t get disheartened at this stage. Some computers are set up so that the icons cannot be spread across the screen so any dragged icon will immediately spring back to its original position. Windows Vista may have locked the icons into their positions. Don’t worry as we have several more drag-and-drop exercises to play with later.

The scroll wheel Most mice today come equipped with a vertical wheel situated between the two mouse buttons. As its name suggests, it is used to scroll up and down a long document that cannot fit on a single screen. Don’t worry if your mouse does not possess a wheel as there are other methods of scrolling that are discussed in Chapter 3.

Try It Here is your chance to get to grips with mouse control! Left-click on the Start button. You are going to find a game called Solitaire that involves clicking and dragging. The location of this program depends upon which edition of Windows you are using. If you are using Windows Vista then choose (left-click) Games and find Solitaire: www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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In Windows XP, left-click on Programs then Accessories then Games and look for Solitaire:

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Navigating these menus can be tricky to begin with especially when moving the pointer horizontally across the screen. If you are not accurate the pointer will open the menu above or below resulting in wailing and gnashing of dentures. Take your time – it will come.

Once you have the Solitaire window on the screen you can relax because the mouse work is a lot easier in the game than in the Start menus. The rules are similar to the old-fashioned game we played in our youth. In the example game, the two aces should be dragged to the empty squares at the top-right of the screen. You want to drag the black six onto the red seven by holding down the left-mouse button so when the pointer is over the black six, hold down the mouse button and ‘drag’ it over and on to the red seven. Now left-click on the face down cards that have been revealed by the removal of the black six and the ace of hearts and continue to build up the various columns and piles until the options run out. To deal the next card, left-click on the face-down pack at the top-left of the screen. Spaces can only be filled with Kings. Once the pack has been fully dealt, click on the circle to start the next deal. The targets in Solitaire are nice and large, which will help build up your confidence with using the mouse. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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To finish with the game, left-click on the word Game at the top left-hand corner of the screen and click on Exit. If you want to try another game once this one has finished, press the F2 function key.

Summary People very often find using the mouse buttons confusing so here is a quick reminder:

O Click and dragging is almost always done using the left button

O A single left-click in most cases ‘selects’ something but occasionally activates a program

O Being told to ‘click’ on an object always means a single left-click

O A double left-click always activates a command O A single right-click brings up an alternative menu

O There is no double-right click

O To double-click always means double-click the left button O Right-click means exactly what it says (unless you are using a lefthanded mouse!)

Switching Off the Computer Is your brain beginning to swim yet? Is more information coming out than going in? When teaching a pupil for the first time, I notice that the point of overload usually arrives between an hour and an hour-and-a-half into the lesson. I notice a glazed look forming over the eyes so that’s when I know it is time to stop. It is time to take a break and turn off the computer. No! You don’t switch it off at the wall, press the computer button or pull the power cable out – all methods that have been tried by beginners in the past. Such activities constitute computer abuse. Do it properly and you will avoid a lot of heartache later. So, place the mouse pointer over the Start button and left-click. It seems illogical to use the Start button to stop the computer but then life can be like that. When using Vista you will find yourself looking at a screen like this: 38

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Vista has no secondary shutdown menu (unlike XP) just a drop-down menu. Once you have clicked on Shut Down you can not go back and you will have to wait for the computer to complete the shutdown before opening it again. If using Windows XP you will find yourself looking at a screen something like this:

Left-click here

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At the bottom of this list (or menu) is the option to Turn Off Computer. Move the arrow over the Turn Off Computer icon so that it changes dark blue, at which point you left-click again, which brings up the ‘Turn off computer’ menu offering several options – as you can see here:

Click on the Turn Off icon and the computer will turn itself off. After everything has died down, switch off the peripherals – the screen, printer, etc. – and you have successfully negotiated the early basics of computer use. Congratulations! But what if it went wrong? What if there had been a power cut while you were using the computer or you pressed the wrong computer button for whatever reason? We are now going to create such a scenario to show you what might happen and how to retrieve the situation. First, turn the computer on, having first switched on all the peripherals as before, but this time, when the screen has come to rest, switch the computer off at the wall. This procedure is not normally recommended but it will be safe in this particular situation. The screen is blank, the computer has completely died and all is apparently lost. In fact, what you have done leaves the computer like the little boy who didn’t put his toys away at bedtime. When he wakes up in the morning he can’t find his favourite car. The computer’s toys or ‘programming’ are all over the place and they have to be sorted out before it will work properly again. Fortunately, computers are really quite forgiving in many respects and they can sort this mess out by themselves. The reason that switching the computer off in this way is safe in this instance is because we have not started to use any programs yet. However, if you tried this 40

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while composing a letter the chances are that you would have lost all or part of your work. Switch the computer on again at the wall, check that the printers, etc., are turned on and restart the computer by pressing the power button. Windows XP and Vista normally take this kind of abuse in their stride. You may be asked whether you wanted to start the computer in normal mode, in which case the answer is ‘Yes’, so just press the Enter key. The only difference being that it may take a little longer to start. Earlier versions of Windows were less forgiving of this kind of action but still managed to sort out any problems, eventually. Now you are ready to embark on Chapter 5 where you can try out your keyboard skills – at last, your patience will be rewarded by using a program and composing a letter, but before we get there I suggest that you persevere with the next two chapters to broaden the foundation of your computing knowledge.

Summary Write down this simple step-by-step guide: 1. Put the tip of the pointer over the Start button and click the leftmouse button once. 2. When using Windows Vista, put the pointer over the small arrow to the right of the padlock symbol at the bottom-right of the

Start menu, move the pointer across and left-click on Shut Down. 3. Alternatively, put the pointer over the Turn Off button and press the left button if using Windows XP. 4. Wait until everything shuts down then turn off the screen using the power button on the front.

Revision Bear in mind that there may be more than one correct answer to these questions.

1. What do you find at the right-hand end of the taskbar? (a) The Start button (b) The Microsoft logo (c) The Clock www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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2. If the Caps Lock light is on and you press the ‘7’ key along the top of the keyboard which character will appear on the screen? (a) & (b) 7 (c) Nothing

3. How do you enter an apostrophe? (a) Hold down the Alt key and press the comma key (b) Press the key that is positioned one in from the right-hand end of the middle row of keys (@) (c) Hold down the Shift key and press the far left-hand key of the number key line

4. What does the presence of the hourglass or rotating circle pointer imply? (a) The computer is working on a task (b) The computer has stalled (c) You need to press the Enter key

5. What happens if you double-click on a desktop icon? (a) Not a lot (b) You will select/highlight the icon (c) You will open the program

6. What happens if you right-click on a blank area of the desktop? (a) Nothing (b) An alternative menu appears (c) The Start menu appears

7. Why does your attempt to double-click sometimes fail? (a) There is too long a gap between the clicks (b) You move the mouse imperceptibly between the clicks 42

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(c) The tip of the arrow pointer is not on an icon (d) You are using the right-hand mouse button

8. How do you move an icon on the desktop? (a) Left-click on the icon then left-click at the required position (b) Right-click on the icon and use the resulting menu (c) Drag and drop with the left-mouse button

9. What actions can you perform with the right-mouse button? (a) Single-click (b) Double-click (c) Drag and drop

10. To switch on the computer you press the power button but what do you do to switch it off? (a) Press the power button again (b) Use the Start button (c) Turn off the screen (d) Turn the power off at the wall socket

11. The Delete key removes which characters? (a) Those to the right of the cursor (b) Those to the left of the cursor (c) The highlighted characters

12. What does the Tab key do? (a) Creates a table (b) Moves the cursor to the next tab point (c) Moves the cursor previous tab point www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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13. What key have you pressed wrongly that results in the following typed entry – ‘wHY HAVE I GOT 3 COPIES OF THE eVENING pOST?’? (a) The Control Key (b) The Alt key (c) The Caps Lock key

14. What actions might a single left-mouse click perform? (a) Place the typing cursor (b) Highlight an icon (c) Start a program (d) Open the Start menu

15. What is the most common use of the F1 key? (a) Close a program (b) There isn’t one (c) Raise a Help menu

Answers Q1 – c

Q9

– a and c

Q2 – b

Q10 – b

Q3 – b

Q11 – a and c

Q4 – a

Q12 – b

Q5 – c

Q13 – c

Q6 – b

Q14 – All four answers are correct

Q7 – All four are correct

Q15 – c

Q8 – c

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Understanding Windows

3

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system Skills needed – Keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2)

Windows are what Microsoft programs are all about. Up to now, we have been talking about images, screens and desktops – these are not windows. A selection of windows will appear on the screen when you start to work with the computer, and as they all share a basic anatomy it is very important that you recognise their structure. You might think this sounds technical to the point of unnecessary boredom but when I say that this knowledge is essential, believe me, it is. Returning to the analogy of the car, all cars, from the humblest Ford to the most exotic Ferrari, use basic controls – accelerator, brakes, steering wheel, speedometer, fuel gauge, windscreen wipers and lights. Others may have a clutch, cruise control, tachometer or navigation system but no matter how keen you may be to take it down the road for the first time, you need to understand the fundamentals to have any chance of completing your journey with a degree of safety. So, by taking some time to learn the underlying features of a computer window you will be able to recognise the structure of even the most advanced program displays. In this chapter we explore the basic window in some detail. Unfortunately, for such an early lesson, Windows XP and Windows Vista vary considerably and so I am dividing the information into two halves – the first for Vista and the second for www.pcwisdom.co.uk


XP. However, saying that, some of the techniques described in the Vista section do also apply to XP so XP users would benefit from reading the Vista section first. The motoring analogy would be the difference between riding a motor bike and driving a car – both need to obey the Highway Code and traffic directions but they require slightly different skills. Do not try to understand the differences between Vista and XP, just concentrate on the window shown on your own computer.

Using Windows Vista To start, double-click on the Computer icon shown on your desktop. (It is usually found at the top left-hand corner of the desktop.) This brings up a rectangular image overlying the desktop screen. You have now just opened the Computer window in Vista (see the image on page 47).

Computer window The basic Computer window shows the contents of the computer, which in this case consist of the Hard Disk Drives (C: and D:), Floppy Disk Drive (A:) and the DVD Drive (E:). The example on page 47 is labelled with the various areas of the window, which will be explained briefly in the following sections. You may only have one hard disk and one CD player, in which case the identifying letters may be different. We will explore the meanings of disks, drives and players in a moment but for the time being we are interested in the structure of the window itself.

Title bar The blue bar at the top of the window is known as the title bar and at the righthand end of this bar you will see the sizing buttons. Immediately below the title bar you find the breadcrumb bar with its drop-down arrows and Search box. At the far right of the title bar are the sizing buttons. The title bar has a further use in that by placing the mouse pointer on this bar, you can ‘drag’ it to different parts of the screen. 46

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Sizing buttons The main feature of the title bar in Vista is the sizing buttons (as indicated on the example window above). The left-hand button, which looks like a minus sign, minimizes the window to the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop. This clears the screen for work on another program while keeping the window available for future use. The centre button, depicting a square, maximises the window to fill the whole screen, while the button on the right, showing a white cross on a red background, closes the program. When the window is maximised the central button changes to a double square which, when clicked, restores the window back to its original size. You have another way to resize the window. Place the mouse pointer at one corner of the window so that it changes into a double-headed arrow, as shown at the bottom right-hand corner of the image here: www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Hold down the left-mouse button and drag it diagonally up or down the screen. The window size changes with the dragging action. Let go of the mouse button when you reach the size you want, meaning that you have now set the Restore Down position.

Tip Use the full screen (maximised) to avoid any strain on your eyes and on your back as it reduces the need to lean forward and squint at the screen.

Breadcrumb bar The breadcrumb bar is a curious name for a useful feature. As you progress further down the structure of the hard drives this bar monitors your progress and records a ‘breadcrumb’ trail so that you can find your way back again.

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The example just given shows that I have moved from the Computer, through Local Disk (C:), to Users. Each entry is accompanied by a drop-down arrow and I can easily return to Computer by clicking on it.

Drop-down menus Drop-down menus act as a further aid for navigation throughout the file system. Their use is covered in full later on in the book (also read the ‘Menu bar’ section for XP on page 53) but here is an example of a drop-down menu in Vista listing all the areas on the computer (displayed in the right-hand panel):

Occasionally, you will notice that some of the commands are ‘greyed-out’ (as shown above in the top-left drop-down menu) meaning that these particular options are unavailable to you at that time. Click the mouse on any blank area of the window to remove the drop-down menu or press the Esc key. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Side panel The side panel is found on the left-hand side of the window with ‘Favourite Links’ at the top. This function adds further navigating possibilities to other parts of the computer’s contents, such as direct links to Documents, Pictures, Music and other folders. Files and folders are covered later in this chapter.

Scroll bars The scroll bar is an invaluable tool for navigation and the principle is the same for both Vista and XP systems (see the Vista image below for more detail). The two small arrows at the top and bottom of the bar move the contents of the window up or down one line at a time when clicked. The mouse pointer can be positioned over the scroll handle and then dragged up and down to move the window contents at will. Finally, the text can be moved up or down – a page at a time – by left-clicking in the spaces between the scroll handle and the up and down arrows.

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Occasionally, the content of a window is too large to fit so it runs off the screen to the side, top or bottom. The example shown on page 50 is of a window that is unable to contain the full contents of a folder – some are hidden below the window. In this case, a scroll bar appears on the right-hand side of the window. The bottom scroll handle operates in a similar manner by moving the contents from side to side. Microsoft Windows’ systems invariably give you several options to perform a command. At this early stage I will only give you two alternatives for most commands to avoid confusion.

Closing the window To close the Computer window left-click on the ‘X’ button in the top-right corner of the window – or click on the word ‘Organise’ on the Options bar to dropdown a menu and left-click on Exit.

Using Windows XP The window in XP varies from Vista in several ways but the underlying principles are the same. It’s just that the colours and layout have been altered and a number of the Vista facilities are missing. These alterations do not affect your use of the computer so let us have a look at the XP window. If you are working with XP open the window labelled My Computer by doubleclicking on the icon shown on your desktop. (It is usually found at the top lefthand corner of the desktop.) This action brings up a rectangular image overlying the desktop screen (similar to the one on page 52).

Computer window We will briefly review the items found within this window – check out the areas identified on the image that follows as they are referred to throughout this section:

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Title bar The blue bar found at the very top of the Windows XP window is known as the title bar, which identifies the window – in this case, My Computer. Because you only have this window open, the title bar will be very bright blue. You should be able to see part of the desktop screen showing around the edges behind it – left-click on any part of the surrounding desktop and notice how the title bar changes to a duller blue colour. Then left-click anywhere on the window and the colour of the title bar is restored. The bright blue title bar denotes that the window is active and being worked on while the duller blue indicates an inactive window that can only be activated for use by clicking on it. At the right-hand end of the title bar you will find three buttons that allow you to control the size of the window.

Sizing buttons Let us examine the actions of the sizing buttons from right to left (refer to the image above). The right-hand button, X, closes the window completely. Left-click on this 52

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button and the window vanishes. The window is restored by double-clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop. When a window is part of a program, such as email or a word-processor file, clicking on this button has the effect of shutting down the whole program together with the window. The central button maximises the window, filling the whole screen. Click on the central button now. When the window is maximised the central button changes to a double square, which when clicked restores the window to the original size. The left-hand button minimises the window by clearing the screen and placing an identifying icon in the taskbar at the very bottom of the desktop (refer to Chapter 2). Click on this button to minimise the window to an icon in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Left-click on the box to restore the window. The advantage of minimising a window is that you can have several programs running in the background readily available for use at the click of a mouse. For example, you may be writing a letter when realise that you want to include a comment from an email message. If both programs are open it is easy to copy the email message from one program and insert it into the letter in the other. There is another way to resize a window. Place the mouse pointer tip on the bottom-right corner of the window (diagonal dots or lines mark the corner) so that the pointer changes its shape to that of a double-headed arrow. Once this pointer appears, hold down the left-mouse button and drag the window diagonally up or down the screen to alter its size. Let go of the mouse button when you obtain the size you want and this will be set as the Restore Down position. Using this tag to drag the window to fill the screen is not a good idea as this will eliminate any difference between the Full Screen and Restore Down positions, meaning that the window will always open as a full screen.

Menu bar Below the title bar lies the menu bar (again, this area is identified on the XP window on page 52). By clicking on the words (File, Edit, View, etc.) you create a drop-down menu with various commands. These drop-down menus can also be activated by holding down the Alt key at the same time as the pressing the www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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underlined letter in the word you require – such as Alt+E for the Edit menu or Alt+A for the Favorites menu.

Toolbar The toolbar comes into its own when using more advanced windows especially in the use of your internet browser that is covered in Chapter 11. We also take a closer look at its function when we start navigating through folders in Chapter 4. If you can not see this toolbar click on View then toolbars then Standard Buttons.

Side panel Positioned at the left-hand side of the window is the side panel – it contains items such as System Tasks and Other Places. This panel allows you to navigate your way to other areas of the computer.

Scroll bars The scroll bar features in XP work in exactly the same way as those in Vista. (Look back to the usage information and example image given earlier for Vista scroll bars.)

Tip There are two keyboard shortcuts that you may find useful. CTRL+End – which you do by holding the Control key while hitting the End key – will take you immediately to the end of the document. CTRL+Home will take you to the beginning of the document. Hitting the End key (without Ctrl) takes the cursor to the end of the current line while the Home key returns the cursor to the beginning of the line.

Closing the window With XP you close the My Computer window by left-clicking on the ‘X’ button in the top-right corner of the window – or click on File in the File Menu and click on Close. 54

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Revision Bear in mind that there may be more than one correct answer to each question.

1. Where are the sizing buttons on a window? (a) Top-left corner (b) Top-right corner (c) On the menu bar (d) Left-hand end of the toolbar

2. Where is the sizing tag on a window? (a) Top-left corner (b) Bottom-right corner (c) In the right-mouse click menu (d) In the drop-down file menu

3. Why are there no scroll bars visible in your window? (a) They have been turned off (b) The window has been moved off the screen to the right (c) The window is large enough to contain all its contents

4. How would you get from the bottom of a very long report to the top? (a) Click the arrow at the top of the scroll bar (b) Click in the space between the scroll bar ‘bar’ and the bottom of the scroll bar (c) Drag the scroll bar ‘bar’ up to the top (d) Click CTRL+Home

5. How do you move a window on the screen? (a) Drag the title bar (b) Drag the left-hand edge www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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(c) Drag the middle sizing button (d) Use the sizing tag

6. You have the My Documents folder window open on the screen. How would you create a new folder within My Documents? (a) Right-click within the window and choose New Folder (b) Choose File > New > Folder (c) Press Alt and ‘F’ together

7. Where is the menu bar? (a) At the bottom of the screen (b) Below the toolbar (c) On the Start menu (d) Below the title bar

8. Where would you find the scroll bars? (a) On the left of the screen (b) On the right of the screen (c) At the bottom of the screen (c) You have to press the right-mouse button

9. What has happened if the central sizing button shows two overlapping squares? (a) You have maximised the screen (b) You have split the screen in two (c) The computer has found an error (d) The window is too big for the screen

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Answers Q1 – b

Q6 – All three answers are correct

Q2 – b

Q7 – d

Q3 – b and c

Q8 – b and, possibly, c

Q4 – All four answers can be correct Q9 – a Q5 – a

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Working with disks, drives, folders and files

4

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system Skills needed – Keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3)

Computers will only remember files if you ask for the files to be saved before closing them. Files are the basic units of Windows and they placed in Folders (just like in an office) to keep them organised. Files can be all kinds of documents, such as a letter or membership list or photographs of your family, and they can even be programs. A program is a piece of software that instructs the computer to act in a specific way. A word processor, an image viewer, an accounting system, a game of football or a connection to the Internet – these are all programs. Programs create files – word processors create letter files, imaging programs create photo files and accounting programs create ‘Profit and Loss’ files. You can imagine that some folders get very large indeed. The Windows folder on a new computer will contain more than 15 000 files in some 800 folders. Fortunately, you do not need to know anything about these particular files because they are used by the computer to operate itself. Once again, Windows Vista and Windows XP display folders and files rather differently so I will treat the two systems separately throughout this chapter. Also, bear in mind that the names of your folders may differ from those illustrated (for both Vista and XP) but it is the basic principle that is important here. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Tip You may find that thinking of the computer as a filing cabinet will make this information a little easier to digest. So, the floppy disk, local (hard) disks and the CD drives are the drawers of the cabinet. The ‘Documents’ area is a folder in the local disk (C:) drawer and within this folder you find other folders labelled Music, Pictures, Videos and Webs; within these folders are more folders and files. This chapter is about navigating your way through this system of folders and files stored on the hard disks (or Drives, they are the same thing) on your computer.

Using Windows Vista To start, open the Documents file by double-clicking on the icon in the desktop so that you have a window to work with. Folders are depicted as open folders in various colours while files are shown as simple flat icons as you can see here:

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Moving icons in a window To move a folder or file icon within a window simply place the mouse pointer on the icon in question, hold down the left-mouse button, drag it to the position you require and release the mouse button – take a look at this example:

Try moving the folders into different positions by placing the mouse pointer over a folder then holding down the left button while dragging the mouse to a new position. Vista does not allow you to place these icons in the empty space beyond the last icon.

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Tip There is a quicker method of organising your files and folders – isn’t there always? Right-click anywhere on the window, but away from an icon, and a drop-down menu appears. This allows you to sort the icons in many different ways – by Name, Date or Size. Select the Sort By label and then make your choice by left-clicking on the preferred option and, bingo, everything is immediately ordered as requested.

Moving a window on the screen There may be occasions when you want to refer to two windows on the screen at the same time, which necessitates moving the windows within the screen. First make sure that the window is in the Restored Down condition (the centre sizing button should be showing as a single square, as shown in the margin), then place the pointer on the wide, blue title bar at the top and drag it to one side of the screen. A second window can now be opened, resized and dragged to the opposite side. 62

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Creating a new folder As usual, with computer programs there is more than one way to achieve an objective. Here I give you three methods for creating a new folder so it is up to you to choose which one suits you best. Method 1 (Vista) – Left-click on the Organize tab on the Options bar and, from the drop-down menu, click on the New Folder option and a new folder – labelled and highlighted as New Folder – will appear within the window (see example below). Type in a suitable name for this folder – such as My Letters – and it is ready to store subfolders or files for you.

Method 2 (Vista and XP) – The second option uses the benefits of the right-click to raise an additional menu. Right-click anywhere within the window, but away from an icon, and a drop-down menu appears with the word ‘New’ at the bottom. Left-click on the Folder option to create a new folder. Method 3 (XP) – The last option is to click on File in the menu bar and choose New then Folder and name it as before (see image on page 64). If you make a mistake in naming the file you can always re-name it using a rightclick on the folder in question and choosing Rename from the drop-down menu. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Now you have a folder in which to can store your correspondence. If you doubleclick on this new folder you will see that it opens an empty box. This is because we have not placed anything in this folder yet. Think back to the filing cabinet analogy. We have the drawers that contain folders, which in turn contain more folders and, eventually files.

Using Windows XP To start, open the My Documents folder by double-clicking on its icon in the Desktop. Opening this window allows us to change a few things instead of simply looking and identifying the various parts. You will see (as shown on the image on page 65) that instead of icons depicting the various parts of the computer there are a number of yellow Folder icons:

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Moving icons in a window The folders in this window should be neatly arranged in a line but let us see what we can do with them. Click on the My Music folder and, while continuously pressing on the left-mouse button, drag the mouse diagonally across and down to the right and then release the button. You should have moved the folder down and to the right of the window. Try moving some of the other folders until they are scattered across the window. Okay, so it looks a real mess but you are starting to learn how to drag and drop. This action will become more and more important as you progress.

Restoring order to a window Now we are going to restore the window to its original ordered state. Click on the word View on the Menu Bar and then click on Sort By, move the mouse pointer

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to the right until it is over the words By Type and click again. Hey presto, the folders are rearranged in order again.

Moving a window on the screen For a variety of reasons you may wish to move the window to a different part of the screen. No problem! First make sure that the window is smaller than the screen – the middle sizing button (which you will find at the right-hand end of the title bar), should show a single square, if not click the double square. Place the mouse pointer anywhere on the blue title bar, hold down the left-mouse button, drag the mouse down to the left and release the button. Another dragand-drop manoeuvre completed. This is all very basic stuff but you have to learn about the controls of a car before you can drive to have lunch with friends. These folders are pre-installed on your computer so now we need to start customising your personal computer by adding folders of your own choosing.

Creating a new folder Click on File in the menu bar and choose New by clicking on it and then click on Folder. A new folder has been created with the words ‘New Folder’ highlighted in blue (see the margin). Leave the mouse alone and simply type in the words ‘My Letters’ (omitting the quotes). Now you have a folder in which you can store your correspondence. Double-click on this new folder and it opens to show an empty folder. This is because we have not placed anything in this folder yet. Think back to the filing cabinet analogy. We have the drawers that contain folders, which in turn contain more folders and, eventually files.

Navigating the System Are you ready this? The section that follows here gets complex, convoluted and complicated – you have been warned – but perseverance will bear fruit, and I am not thinking of a raspberry! This information applies to both Vista and XP systems. As we have seen, your hard disk contains folders that contain more folders that contain more folders and files. For example, the WordPad program file lies in 66

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a folder called Accessories that lies in the Programs folder in the Start Program folder that, in turn, is found in the All Users folder within the Documents and Settings folders in the Hard Disk C:. If you think that is a mouthful, read the fact that the scroll bar image shown earlier is in the WordPad folder of the Images folder of the Grannies folder in the My Books folder in the My Documents folder in the Adrian Arnold folder in the Documents and Settings folder of the C: Hard Disk! Calm down – you don’t have to remember all this. Firstly, the computer does it for you and secondly, these are my personal files that will have no bearing on your own files. Nevertheless, the principle is important to grasp so let us view it pictorially. In the example given here, computer hardware is depicted in white, folders in brown and files in blue:

The computer

Hard disk (C:)

My Documents

Floppy disk (A:)

CD/DVD drive

My Pictures

Programs

Letters

Fred Bloggs

John Smith

Bill Brown

As you can see the ‘Bill Brown’ letter lies deep within the system and we have to learn how to navigate our way down through these tunnels and passageways. This is where the navigating buttons come in handy (see the example on the next page). www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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These buttons are found in most windows towards the left-hand end of the toolbar. When you first open the My Documents folder window both the Back and Forward buttons will be greyed out because you have not started to navigate.

When you open a folder within My Documents, the Back button becomes coloured, inviting you to go ‘back’ to the My Documents window. The Forward button only becomes active when you have been ‘back’ to a previous folder. I presume your head is beginning to spin at this point and you may feel a desperate need for caffeine or something even stronger. Please bear with me because this exercise will prove invaluable for the rest of your computing life. Let us look at this notion depicted in a simplified illustration:

My Computer

A

B

C

Open

E

Up Back Forward

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D


Taking this example, imagine that the blocks are folders and that block A is My Documents. The red arrow implies that you open folder B from which you can follow the next red arrow to folder E. Once in folder E, both Up and Back will take you to folder B and then to Folder A again. You can only use the Forward button if you have gone ‘back’, which means that by following the route A > B > E > B the Forward button will take you to folder E again. The Up button always works vertically while the Back key works up, down and horizontally depending on your previous navigation route. Take the following navigation route: A>B>E>B>A>C>A>D You are now in folder D. Three strokes of the Back button will take you to D > A > C >A leaving you in folder A where the Forward button would take you to folder C. However, say you had used the Up button three times instead of using the Back button three times from folder D you would have arrived back at My Computer, which contains the folder A (My Documents). I have attempted to explain the principles of navigating through the computer file system from a number of angles to help you grasp the concept, and if you have really ‘got it’ then you have done very well indeed. Go to the top of the class and hand out the rulers.


1. How do you move a window within the computer screen? (a) Drag the bottom-left corner (b) Drag the status bar (c) Drag the title bar (d) Use the arrow keys

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2. Why might the navigating buttons be ‘greyed out’? (a) You have not turned them on (b) You have not started to navigate yet (c) You have not clicked ‘Show buttons’ on the View menu (d) You have only just opened the window

3. Which of the following statements is correct? (a) Folders can contain files (b) Files can contain folders (c) Folders can contain folders and files (d) Files are always in a folder

4. How do you create a new folder? (a) Click on Organise (b) Use CTRL+F (c) Use the right-mouse click menu (d) Choose Folder from the File menu

5. If you have multiple windows open on your screen how do you know which one is active? (a) The active window lies on top (b) The title bar is a bright colour (c) The title bar says ‘active’ (d) The other windows do not show a title bar

6. How do you restore order to the files and folders within a window? (a) Press Alt and ‘F’ together (b) Right-click within the window and choose Sort By (c) Click on Organise then Sort icons (d) Click on View then choose icon size 70

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Answers Q1 – c

Q4 – a, c, and d

Q2 – b and d

Q5 – a and b

Q3 – a, c, and d

Q6 – b, c and d

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Opening your first program

5

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system Skills needed – Mouse and keyboard (Chapter 2), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3)

At last you have the chance to do something productive with this frustrating machine – opening a basic word-processing program called WordPad. Not only that but, once opened, Windows Vista and Windows XP treat this program in exactly the same way. However, opening the program differs between the two operating systems so the processes are treated separately in this chapter.

Locating and Opening WordPad in Vista 1. Move the mouse pointer to the Start button and left-click on the tab. You should now see a menu similar to the one on page 74 (located above the Start button and Quick Launch bar). 2. Using the scroll bar, find the Accessories folder then left-click on Accessories, which drops down the contents of the folder. Left-click on WordPad to bring up a window revealing an empty WordPad document (like the one on page 77).

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Locating and Opening WordPad in XP 1. Left-click on the Start button and move the arrow gently up the Start menu until ‘All Programs’ is highlighted in blue then left-click again. This brings up the Programs submenu near the top of which you should find Accessories. 2. Move the mouse pointer across to the submenu and position it over the Accessories label, again highlighting it in blue. Left-click to raise a further submenu. Look down this submenu for a program called WordPad (usually found at the bottom – see example on page 75). 3. Highlight ‘WordPad’ with the mouse pointer, left-click again to activate the program, which opens an empty WordPad document on the screen (similar to the one on page 77).

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Tip If you manage to achieve this exercise on your first attempt, you are doing remarkably well. A frequently encountered problem for beginners is mouse control. Just like the sensation when learning to ride a bike, the mouse seems to wobble about with a life of its own. Don’t worry, this will settle down quite quickly with practise but your first few attempts may result in the arrow pointer straying outside the boundaries of the menu list, offering you a menu

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you don’t want. Be patient. Move the pointer gently but firmly up, down and across until you navigate your way to WordPad. Clicking on the mouse outside of the menu list will make the Start menu disappear. If you make this mistake, just click on the Start button to begin again.

Getting Familiar with WordPad in Vista and XP WordPad is a very basic word-processing (typing) program found on all Windows systems. Despite its rudimentary properties, it is still a very useful tool and can be used to compose letters, coloured advertisements and various other typed documents. The differences between XP and Vista when using this program are so minimal that I will deal with both operating systems in the same way.

Basic WordPad window Let us take a look at the basic WordPad window and identify the various areas of the screen (see the image on page 77). The blue bar at the top is called the title bar and shows the name of the open window file. You should recognise the sizing buttons at the top-right from previous exercises. Below the title bar is the menu bar with the labels File, Edit, View, etc., running across the screen. As the description implies, this is a menu of various alternative actions all of which can be available at any one time. The next line under the menu bar is the toolbar, which consists of various small icons lying. These icons form an alternative set of tools to activate commands – alternative to the menu bar. Some of these icons appear ‘greyed out’ or fuzzy, which means that at this particular time they are unavailable for use. For example, the scissors icon is greyed out because no text has been ‘selected’ to ‘cut’. The format bar lies below the toolbar and allows us to set the type (or font), the size and the positioning of the text. Notice the two small arrowheads at the right-hand side of the boxes on the left of the format bar. Clicking on these arrowheads drops down a menu that allows further choice. Try clicking on the arrowhead on the right side of the first box that is showing ‘Arial’. Immediately, 76

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a list of other typefaces or fonts drops down. Scroll down the list until you find ‘Times New Roman’, click on it to accept that this is the font you want to use. We will now look at these areas, together with some others, in a little more detail.

Menu bar The menu bar is common to many Windows programs showing the options of File, Edit, View, Insert, etc. You should notice that certain letters of these options such as the ‘F’ in File, the ‘V’ in View and the ‘o’ in Format are underlined – if they do not appear underlined press the Alt key to the left of the spacebar on the keyboard. These letters denote that alternative keyboard action is available where by various menus drop-down (as shown above) through combining the letter with the Alt key. Thus, ALT+F will drop-down the File menu. (Hold down the Alt key while pressing the F key.) www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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This drop-down (as shown above) menu offers a wide range of options available for use, such as Open to retrieve and work on a previous file, Save As to save a file under a new name, and Print Preview, which as its name suggests, shows you what the printed version will look like on paper. Now try to drop-down the Edit menu by moving the mouse pointer over the word Edit and left-clicking if necessary or by typing ALT+E. This time you will see that a number of the options are ‘greyed out’ denoting that they are unavailable at this time. For example, since we have not started to type anything there is nothing to ‘Copy’ or ‘Cut’ from the document.

Toolbar On the toolbar, which lies immediately below the menu bar, you will find a number of icons representing shortcuts to many frequently used commands. This bar may not be visible on your screen in which case click on View on the menu bar and make sure that the word toolbar has a tick beside it – if not left-click on it to make it visible. Can you remember how to identify these icons? We dealt with this information in Chapter 2 but if, as I expect, the answer is ‘no’ then to save you searching back 78

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through the book I will remind you that placing the tip of the mouse pointer over these icons will identify them. Benevolence personified! We will return to the toolbar later.

Format bar The format bar is really an extension of the toolbar providing even more commands to the word processor. Try identifying the various icons again but do not try to remember them at this stage.

Main screen Referring back to the WordPad screen on page 77, now let us consider the actual workings of WordPad screen.

Cursor The largest part of the main WordPad screen consists of a blank window with a flashing cursor located near the top-left corner. See it? It is a small upright line flashing on and off. This indicates the point at which typing will be inserted.

I-pointer Previously, the position of the mouse pointer has been in the shape of an arrow but when using a word-processing program you will notice that it has changed to the shape of a capital ‘I’ (as you can see from the example in the margin). Hence the name, I-pointer; pronounced eye pointer. You move it around the window using the mouse, in just the same way as arrow pointer, to place the cursor in a different position for typing as we shall see in a moment. You cannot place the cursor below the last point of type entry. In order to do this you have to add blank lines by hitting the Enter key before placing the cursor within these lines. Hitting the Enter key counts as a typed entry. Beginners often muddle the functions of the cursor and the pointer. The cursor moves with the act of typing and the pointer moves with the mouse. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Typing Text into WordPad Okay, now we have reached the part you have all been waiting patiently for – typing something into the WordPad window! You should see the cursor flashing like a small vertical line at the top left-hand corner of the main part of the screen (again, refer back to the basic WordPad screen shown in page 77). This is the point at which your typing will be inserted. Try it now by typing in your address. To create a new line use the Enter key and the cursor will move down a line waiting for your next entry. To enter capital letters hold down the Shift key while typing the letter key. If you continue to type across the screen the computer will automatically dropdown the typing point to the next line when you reach the right-hand edge taking any words that will not fit onto the next line. To create a new paragraph hit the Enter key twice. This will enter a blank line under your previous text. After a few lines everything will look, well, adequate. You have probably made a few typing errors and everything is positioned to the left of the screen. Let us correct those errors first – the next section will show you how.

Correcting the text with Backspace and Delete keys Use the mouse to place the pointer, which is no longer an arrow but I-pointer. If you can’t find it on the screen move the mouse around a bit and the movement will reveal its position. Place the pointer just after the typing error, left-click with the mouse and hit the Backspace key – the one with a straight arrow pointing to the left (top right of the QWERTY keyboard; flip back to Chapter 2 if necessary) – just once. In the example given opposite, the lower case ‘o’ of ‘old’ needs to be capitalised so I have placed the I-pointer just after the ‘o’ and left-clicked once to lock the cursor there before hitting Backspace:

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Tip If you have difficulty placing the cursor accurately – and this can be a problem for beginners – place the cursor close to the insertion point and then use the arrow keys on the navigation pad to get it into the correct position. These keys move the cursor one space or line at a time.

Notice that I said ‘hit’ the Backspace key rather than ‘press’. The reason for this is that if you hold the key down for too long it will repeat its action very quickly and you find that you have erased not only the error but a lot of the good type as well. This happens with most keys. To demonstrate, place the I-pointer at the very end of your typing, left-click to lock it there and then hold down one of the letter keys. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! See what I mean?

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Continue to correct any further typing errors or simply remove various words or characters to practise this method. The Backspace key removes typing to the left of the cursor. If you wish to remove typing to the right of the cursor use the Delete key on the navigation pad. Close the WordPad window by clicking on the ‘X’ sizing button at the top-right of the window. You will be asked if you want to save Document 1 before closing – click on ‘No’ because we will deal with saving files in the next chapter.

Creating Shortcuts Having to through the Start menu then all the Programs to initiate the program of your choice can be an irritating chore. Let us try to make life a little easier by creating a shortcut to a program on the desktop itself. Do you remember how we opened the WordPad program? We clicked on the Start button then Programs then Accessories and finally, scrolled down to the WordPad link, clicking on it to initiate the program. This time I want you to repeat the same sequence of mouse actions but stop before left-clicking on the WordPad program. This time you should place the mouse pointer over the WordPad box and hold down the right-mouse button. While holding it down, drag it across to an exposed area of the underlying desktop and let go. A menu will appear offering you alternatives to either ‘Copy Here’ or ‘Create Shortcut’; left-click on either of these options and you will find a shortcut icon labelled WordPad added to the list of your desktop icons.

Try It Now try adding a shortcut to Solitaire to practise this technique and forego the hassle of chasing the mouse through the maze of the Start menu.

You can always delete shortcuts by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Delete. This only deletes the shortcut – not the whole program. Okay, that is enough for now, and no doubt you will find there are plenty of things that you are not allowed to do at this stage, such as placing the I-pointer anywhere 82

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on the page except within or at the immediate end of the typed characters. Don’t worry, further explanation of word processing will be found in Chapter 6 – this chapter was primarily aimed at opening a program and reinforcing your knowledge of the appearance of a window. How have you done?


1. What does the flashing vertical cursor mean? (a) There is a mistake in your typing (b) It is the point where any typing or other insertion will be placed (c) It is the point of insertion of a picture (d) The computer has stopped working

2. What happens if you hold down a character key for several seconds? (a) The next word starting with that character will be selected (b) The character will be repeated five times (c) You will close the program (d) The character will be repeated for as long as you hold it down

3. How do you identify the action of an icon? (a) Place the mouse pointer over it for a few seconds (b) Use Ctrl and left-click on the icon (c) Right-click on the icon (d) Left-click on the icon

4. What is the use of the Quick Launch bar? (a) It starts programs that cannot be accessed by the Start menu (b) It is a toy button that launches a rocket across the screen www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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(c) It launches a program while others are in use (d) It is where minimised programs are located

5. What is the effect of the Delete key? (a) It deletes characters to the left of the cursor (b) It deletes characters to the right of the cursor (c) It deletes any highlighted or ‘selected’ items (d) It deletes the current paragraph

6. What type of program is WordPad? (a) A word processor (b) A database (c) A spreadsheet (d) A temporary note pad

7. How do you place the cursor in a different position? (a) Use the I-pointer and left-click (b) Use the navigation arrow keys (c) Use the scroll bar (d) Use the I-pointer and right-click

8. What effect does pressing ALT+O have? (a) Open a new program (b) Open the dictionary (c) Open the Format menu (d) Cancel the last typing action

9. How would you find a list of programs installed on your computer? (a) Click on the Start button (b) Use the Windows key 84

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(c) There is no full list of programs (d) Press CTRL+P

10. How do you close the WordPad program down completely? (a) Click on the ‘X’ button at the top-right of the window (b) Go to File and then click on Exit (c) Press ALT+F4 (d) Switch off the computer

Answers Q1 – b and c

Q6

– a

Q2 – d

Q7

– a and b

Q3 – a

Q8

– c

Q4 – c

Q9

– a and b

Q5 – b and c

Q10 – All four answers would work but I would not recommend option d

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Grasping basic word processing

6

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP operating system Skills needed – Keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), knowledge of windows (Chapter 3), opening a program (Chapter 5)

In this chapter, we shall be dealing with the basics of word processing such as placing the cursor, moving and formatting the text, the importance of naming and saving files as well as opening and closing files.

Creating Your First Letter As an initial exercise in word processing, we are going to create a simple letter to familiarise you with some of the basic typing commands. As always, in Windows there are many different ways of achieving the same end. This is because people work differently. Some like to use the icons while others prefer to work with the menu bar. (Refer to the areas labelled on the example WordPad window on page 88 to help you get started.) 1. First, we are going to use the format bar to position the cursor. Click on Format in the menu bar then click on Paragraph. Move the mouse pointer down to the box at the bottom that displays the word Left, click on the arrowhead at the right of the box and click on Right. The cursor has now moved to the right-hand edge of the box. Click once again on the centre icon (third box www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Title bar

from the right) and you will return the cursor to the centre which is where we want it. 2. Type in the first line of your address, for example Downside Cottage. (Hold down the Shift key while you type to create the capital letters and use the long spacebar to create spaces between the words. Refer to Chapter 2 if you need a reminder of where to find this and other keys on the keyboard.) Now hit the Enter key (the big one on the right of the QWERTY keyboard) and the cursor will drop-down to the next line maintaining its position in the centre of the screen. Type the next few lines of your address making use of the Enter key to create new lines as necessary. Fine! Your entry should look something like this: Downside Cottage, Church Road, Watlington-on-Sea East Kilbride 88

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Make sure that the flashing cursor is lying on the line below the last line of your address. If it is still flashing to the right of your last entry hit the Enter key once. If you have apparently lost your cursor, do not worry. Move the mouse pointer to the end of your last line; left-click once and then hit Enter. The mouse pointer can be used in this way to position the typing cursor anywhere in your document. You may find a slight problem here in that you will not be able to place the cursor below or beyond the point where you have finished typing. 3. Now click on the fourth box from the right in the format bar (see margin) and the cursor jumps to the left-hand side of the window. Hit the Enter key four or five times to bring the cursor down a line at a time and type ‘Dear Mr Zygbrowski,’. Yes, I know I could have suggested a name like Jones but this will help you find your way around the keyboard. Did you manage to find the comma at the end of Zygbrowski? Look towards the right-hand side of the bottom line of letter keys to the right of the ‘M’ key. 4. Hit the Enter key twice to create a new paragraph line and continue typing the letter. The words will arrange themselves as you reach the end of a line – just keep typing. To create a new paragraph hit the Enter key twice.

Saving a File Congratulations, you are well on your way towards creating your first word-processing letter but you have not arrived yet! Now you need to save your work, which is where you use the third icon from the left on the toolbar (which looks like an old-fashioned TV set – see the margin). This icon represents the Save function, which allows you to store this letter on your computer. Without saving the document prior to you turning off the computer it would be lost forever. However, before you issue the command to Save, take a look at the left-hand end of the title bar where it says ‘Document – WordPad’. Whenever you open a new document (or file) WordPad will automatically name it as ‘Document’, which is of little value when you come to try to find it again but this is easily rectified. 1. Continuing on from Step 4 in the previous section, when you are ready, stop typing and click on the Save icon. A menu will then appear over the letter you have created, similar to this one:

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The information displayed in this box is offering to save your file in the folder My Documents under the filename Document. I suggest you ignore the file type for the time being and accept the suggested format. The file name is highlighted in blue. WordPad always offers the original name of the file – in this case ‘Document’ – but you need to be able to identify the file later so now let us rename it. 2. Type in ‘Downside Cottage letterhead’ (omit the quotes) but notice how the blue highlighted word ‘Document’ is overwritten by the new file name as you type. 3. Click on Save – your hard work will now be stored on your hard disk for future retrieval. To complete the save, click on ‘OK’. Notice that the title menu now reads ‘Downside Cottage letterhead’. Congratulations! You have just created your first file in the folder ‘My Documents’.

Understanding Computer Memory I will now give a quick explanation of how your computer goes about storing files. All computers have two types of memory – temporary and permanent. While you are happily typing away the computer retains your work in the temporary memory – known as RAM, but you don’t have to remember this. Temporary memory works like an electromagnet in that while the power is still connected to 90

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the computer program it will hold your work firmly in place – BUT if you switch the power off or exit the program it will instantly drop everything, just like a steel bar from a magnet when the electricity is turned off expect that you will not hear the ‘clang’.

Tip To preserve your work for future use it must be placed into the permanent memory, which is normally the hard disk. This is where the Save command comes in. It is good practise to save your work every five to ten minutes so that if disaster strikes you will only lose the last few minutes of work. However, the computer will help you avoid some silly, but human, mistakes. For instance, if you decide to end a program without saving your work the computer will flash up a message asking if you want to save your work before closing the program down. Some programs offer the facility to auto save your project on a regular basis as you work but they should not be relied on. Get into the habit of saving your work regularly. Let me paint you a picture of family disaster – you have spent two hours carefully entering your family tree on the computer when the phone rings. You get up to answer the call from Cousin Charlie who has got some details of an obscure relative during which time the grandchildren let themselves in by the back door. Grandson Jason is in a strop because, although his mother bought him a PlayStation, he has had to endure the next two hours following her round dress shops. Jason needs an electric point to use his PlayStation so removes the computer plug from the socket sending all your hard work down the pan. The prolonged time spent at the computer has given you a headache and to see that the screen has gone blank is the last straw so you yell at Jason in frustration and clip him round the ear just as your politically correct daughter-in-law enters the room. She reports you to the police for smacking her child, and on their arrival at the front door, you knock over the heavy umbrella stand that falls on the constable’s foot. Now you have assaulted a police officer, which results in a night in the cells. Far fetched? Certainly! But it may remind you to save your work. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Closing a File Now that you understand the principle of computer memory, you have two methods to close a file – remember to save it first: (1) close the WordPad window by left-clicking on the sizing button (see icon in margin) located top-right of the title bar; (2) alternatively, you can close it by clicking on File in the File menu and then on Exit.

Reopening a File Continuing with our exercise of creating and saving a WordPad file, after closing the file (using one of the methods above) you should have the basic desktop on the screen. Now we shall look at how to reopen the same file. 1. To reopen WordPad go to the Start button – left-click – click on Programs then Accessories and finally, click on WordPad. 2. Now, instead of starting to type, click on the Open icon (second from the left on the toolbar that looks like a yellow folder – see margin). You could also open the file by clicking on File in the menu bar then on Open in the dropdown menu. (Both methods have the same result of opening a folder entitled My Documents, which contains the files in that folder.) 3. In the My Documents folder you should see a file called ‘Downside Cottage letterhead’. Click on this filename and then click on Open. Bingo! Your previous file has been retrieved for further use. The flashing cursor will be lying against the left-hand side of the top line of the address. Use the mouse to place the I-pointer on the left-hand side below the words ‘Dear Mr Zygbrowski’, left-click once and continue typing your mythical letter. 4. When you have finished you could save the file as before but it will still be called ‘Downside Cottage letterhead’. Your document has progressed beyond a letterhead and has become a letter so – click on File in the menu bar but this time click on Save As and type in the file name ‘Zygbrowski letter’, then click on Save. You now have two files – the letterhead and the letter.

Manipulating the Text in Your File How are you feeling? If your mind is totally discombobulated, your eyes are glazed and far more information is going out of your head than going in, then 92

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stop. This confusing, irritating, illogical, never-to-be-understood box of tricks will still be here in the morning. Do not lose heart, this reaction is common to 90% of my pupils after the first hour or two. Remember when you started learning to drive? You felt that you would never be able to operate the accelerator, clutch, gear stick and steering wheel at the same time – never mind remember the hand signals. Learning to use a computer has the same effect on most people. However, if you are game, let us extend the boundaries. In this section, we will take a look at the various techniques for selecting a word, line, section or whole document, and what you can then go on to do with your selected text – altering the appearance or position – and even what to do if you decide you do not like your changes. First, you need a file to work on – so open WordPad and type in about 10 lines of text in about three paragraphs – you could copy a magazine article or tell a story of your own – it does not matter. Look at the example given here:

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Here we have a page of type that we are going to play around with in different ways. But before we can alter the look of the documents we first have to learn about the methods of selection.

Methods of selection In order to alter the appearance or position of a word or block of text, it must first be selected – there are many different ways of achieving this. Word-processing programs vary slightly in the way they operate but the techniques I am going to describe here will work for all of them.

Select a word To select a single word the simplest method is to double-click the I-pointer on the word so that becomes highlighted as in the example that follows:

Select a sentence Place the I-pointer immediately in front of the sentence, hold down the Shift key and then click the I-pointer at the very end of the sentence. It is immediately highlighted and therefore ‘selected’. A second technique for selecting a sentence – but only for Microsoft Word, WordPad’s big brother – is to double-click somewhere in the middle of the sentence but this time hold down the Ctrl key while doing so.

Select a line You can use the same technique just described to select a line – place the I-pointer at the beginning of the line, hold down Shift and click at the end of the line. There is another way of selecting lines that you may find easier. Moving the I-pointer over to the left-hand margin will change the pointer into a right-pointing arrow, as you can see here:

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Take care not to go too far over to the left with the arrow otherwise you will be pointing to the side ruler. Now place the arrow tip opposite the line you wish to select and click once.

Select a paragraph To select a paragraph move the I-pointer into the left margin until it changes to the right-pointing arrow, then point at the paragraph and double-click to make your selection as follows:

You could also select a paragraph by the same method as sentence selection using the Shift key. The choice is yours.

Select a whole document To select a whole page it is easiest to use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+A (hold down the Ctrl key and hit ‘A’). This is one of the keyboard shortcuts that will become familiar to you since it has the same action, that of selecting the whole document, in a wide range of programs.

Altering the Appearance of Selected Text I’m sorry – we have not quite finished with selection yet. Now I want to explain why this apparently boring exercise is of value. I would like you to select one word in your own document by double-clicking on it – it should be highlighted. Now look along the toolbar to find the icon containing a capital ‘B’. Left-click on this icon once to see what happens to your selected word. This might not be immediately apparent while still highlighted, so left-click anywhere on the document away from the selected word and all will be revealed – your selected word is now ‘bold’ type. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Format bar

Okay, all this is not exactly mind-blowing so let us develop it a little more. Select the paragraph with the emboldened word in it – arrow in left margin and doubleclick – then on the format bar find the icon that resembles an artist’s palette (see the ‘Colour’ pointer above). Click on the palette, choose a colour from the dropdown panel and click on it. Now remove the selection by clicking away from the highlighted area so you can see the result. Notice that, while the colour of the paragraph has changed, the emboldened word remains bold but in the colour you have chosen. Interesting but rather conservative – let’s go a bit wild. Select a line – using the margin arrow left-click technique described on page 94; click on the arrowhead at the right of the box (labelled ‘drop-down menu’ on the image above) that shows Arial Western – this is the Font menu – scroll down to find ‘Old English Text’ and click on it; click on the colour palette and choose red. You should now have something that looks similar to this:

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If you look carefully at the example just presented, you will see that the new font Old English Text is more closely packed than the original Arial font; not all fonts take up the same character space depending their construction (some are naturally ‘condensed’ styles where the individual characters sit closer together, others are more ‘open-spaced’). Here, the selected area has been condensed allowing the unaffected type to flow up onto the line above. Selecting this particular font has meant that it is also difficult to read at this size. The more you use the different font and sizes, the more you will understand which ones are appropriate for your needs. Select another line and repeat the changes – Old English Text font and the colour red – but this time do not deselect, for example maintain the highlight. Now find the size box on the format bar, click on the arrowhead to the right of this box and click on 24 from the drop-down menu. Now our text sample really is a mess but I hope you have grasped the principles of selection. So what do you do about this messy document and how to you get back to the original format? Simple! You just close the file down by clicking on the ‘X’ sizing button when you will be asked if you wish to save the changes you have made to the file. The answer is ‘No’ so the changed file will be thrown away leaving the original, unblemished file sitting in the My Documents folder for use at a later date. Alternatively, if you want to retain your changes, you could go to the File drop-down menu, click on Save As to save it under a different filename.

Using Other Techniques Earlier, you learnt about the basic method of selecting text (refer to ‘Methods of selection’), and in the sections just discussed we looked at what kind of formatting you could apply to your selected text. However, we are now going to return to some additional methods of selection and how to move text.

Select using dragging and Shift An alternative way to select a few words in a sentence is to use the dragging technique. Place the I-pointer at the point at which you want the selection to start and then, holding the left-mouse button down, drag the pointer across the text in question until you have selected the desired words and then release the mouse button.

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The example just given shows the I-pointer positioned before the word ‘the’, which is then dragged across to include the word ‘boys’ as seen here:

If you got this action first time you are doing really well – I would expect most people to take at least four attempts before achieving success. The second technique for selecting a group of text, which you may find easier, is by using the Shift key. Place the I-pointer at the beginning of the text that you want to select and click once then move the pointer to the end of the selection – hold down the Shift key and, while holding it down, click again.

Moving text Another reason for selecting text is to allow the movement of blocks of typed information within the document and into other files. You will very often find that you need to move the text about in a document. You may find that a certain paragraph in a letter would be better positioned nearer the beginning rather than towards the end. Once again, you need to select the paragraph – double-click the arrow in the left margin opposite the paragraph in question – then place the mouse pointer over the highlighted area where it will change to a left-pointing arrow, hold down the left-mouse button and drag it to where you want the text to be inserted. As you drag you will see that the arrow has a dotted rectangle beside it indicating that it is carrying the text with it:

In the example just shown, the highlighted text is being dragged to the end of the sentence but the mouse button has not yet been released. As soon as you release the button the text jumps into place as follows:

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Here the words have only been moved within a line but selections can be moved throughout the document by holding the mouse pointer against the top/bottom of the window screen, which will cause the document to scroll up/down to the point of insertion. You must maintain pressure on the left-mouse button the whole time while moving the selected text. But what if this alteration does not work as well as the original sentence and you want to cancel the changes just made. You can reverse the process by selecting and dragging the text back again but there is an easier way using the shortcut command CTRL+Z. By holding down the Ctrl key and hitting ‘Z’ the previous action is ‘undone’. WordPad only allows the immediate past action to be undone whereas more comprehensive word-processing programs offer you the option of undoing multiple previous actions.

Printing a Document Composing a letter or writing a report is fine but you need to get it out of the computer and on to paper. We now need to learn about printing a file. If you have been working through this chapter you should have one or two files saved in the My Documents folder – refer to the earlier section ‘Saving a File’. Your printer should already have been switched on before you started up the computer – if not press the printer power button now – and make sure you have loaded some paper in the tray. With the WordPad program on the screen open one of your files (File > Open). Click on File again but this time choose Print – which brings up a submenu (similar to the one at the top of page 100). From this menu you can choose which printer to use – at this stage you will probably only have one – and whether you wish to print the whole document or only certain pages together with how many copies you require. If you make any changes to the default (standard) settings click on Apply before clicking on Print.

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Previewing a printout You may wish to see what the document will look like before you print it to avoid wasting paper, especially if you are not confident about how your document is going to look. Go to File then choose Print Preview and the layout will appear exactly as it would do on the printed page. For your initial introduction to word processing I think that is probably quite enough, and if you have managed to wade your way through this chapter, albeit in a number of sessions, you have my profound admiration. Now let us see how much you have managed to assimilate.


1. If you wanted to centrally align your text, you would first select it and then use which bar to make the change? (a) Menu bar (b) Toolbar 100

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(c) Format bar (d) Press CTRL+E

2. What action would select a single word? (a) Single-click on the word (b) Right-click on the word (c) CTRL+ click on the word (d) Double-click on the word

3. What action places your document into the computer’s permanent memory? (a) Saving the file (b) Printing the file (c) Closing the program (d) Minimising the window

4. What action will select part of the text? (a) Hold down Shift, click at the beginning and the end of the text (b) Hold down Ctrl, click at the beginning, release Ctrl then click at the end of the text (c) Click at the beginning, hold down Shift and click at the end (d) Hold down Shift, click at the beginning, release Shift and click at the end

5. What does the flashing cursor denote? (a) The position of the mouse pointer (b) Selection of a word (c) The point of insertion of type

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(c) Hit the Down arrow key (d) Use the down arrow on the numeric keypad

7. What action does CTRL+Z perform? (a) Selects the whole document (b) Undoes the last action (c) Enlarges the type by zooming (d) Deletes the previous letter

8. Why is it best to turn the printer on before starting the computer? (a) It allows the printer to warm up (b) The computer can check it out on startup (c) The print heads have to charge up with ink

9. How would you colourise a section of text? (a) By selecting the colour and then dragging the I-pointer across the text (b) By selecting the text and using Format (c) By selecting the text and then choosing the colour (d) By selecting the text and using CTRL+C

10. What does the ‘U’ symbol on the toolbar do? (a) Undoes the last action (b) Upsets the apple cart (c) Underlines the text (d) Converts the letters to Upper case

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Answers Q1 – All four answers could be correct

Q6

– a

Q2 – d

Q7

– b

Q3 – a

Q8

– b

Q4 – c

Q9

– b and c

Q5 – c

Q10 – c

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Customising your desktop

7


On a number of occasions I have mentioned that the desktop on your computer will not look the same as those illustrated in this book. Now we will look at ways in which you can customise your own desktop. The information given here applies to both Vista and XP operating systems.

Adding a Shortcut Icon to Your Desktop Having spent considerable time on the previous chapter no doubt you will be getting a little fed up with having to open the WordPad program through the Start > Programs > Accessories > WordPad route. Just think how much easier life would be to have a WordPad icon sitting on your desktop, one that would open the program with a simple double-click. Adding a shortcut to the desktop screen is the simple answer.

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Go to WordPad as though you were going to open it, but instead of left-clicking on WordPad, press and hold down the right-mouse button and drag it onto the desktop screen. Once you are clear of the Programs window release the right button, which will bring up the following menu:

Left-click on ‘Create Shortcuts Here’ or ‘Copy Here’ to add to your desktop. From now on, simply double-click on the WordPad icon to start the program.

Changing the Look of Your Desktop Okay, now you have the chance to change the appearance of your desktop. So to start, right-click on any blank area of the desktop so that a menu like this appears:

This menu gives you many options but for starters you just want to left-click on Properties at the bottom of the menu.

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You should now see a new window headed Display Properties (check out the window below) along the top of which you will see five tabs labelled Themes, Desktop, Screen Saver, Appearance and Settings. Clicking on these tabs opens further windows that allow you to alter the screen settings. Let us take a brief look at each of these tabs.

Themes The Themes tab (see above) presents you with options for changing the background, icons, sounds and other elements of the desktop with one click. The basic themes that come with the Windows systems are just that – basic. The other four tabs allow you to personalise individual aspects of the computer screen.

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Desktop The Desktop tab (see the window top-left page 109) sets the background picture or pattern of the screen. There is a wide variety to choose from so try them all out. Alternatively, if you have a favourite photograph loaded onto the computer you have the option of using this as a background image by clicking on Browse and then navigating your way to the picture file before selecting it.

Screen Saver The Screen Saver window (see top-right, page 109) allows you to set the appearance of the screen when it has been idle for a specified time. Click on the small arrow to the right of the box below the blue words ‘Screen saver’ to drop-down the menu and click on any of the alternatives. A preview will appear on the monitor window and by clicking on Settings you can modify the highlighted action to your heart’s content. Set the length of time you wish to elapse before the screen saver becomes active and if you like the end result click on Apply then OK. You can also choose to have no screen saver at all by clicking on the top menu alternative – [None]. Screen savers were originally designed to prevent ‘burning’ out the pixels on the early type of monitor screens. Modern screens do not suffer this problem. If you load photos onto your computer you can even choose to show a random slide show of your snaps as a screen saver.

Appearance The Appearance tab (check out the window bottom-left, page 109) lets you choose the style, colour and font settings of the screen. Font settings set the size of the type on the desktop – larger fonts often make the screen easier to read. Use the drop-down menus to customise these elements then click Apply then OK.

Settings The Settings tabs (as shown in the window bottom-right, page 109) allows you to set the screen resolution (the size and character of the display) and the quality of the colour of the screen.

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Customising the Taskbar To change the appearance of the taskbar you must first ensure that it is unlocked. To do this right-click on the taskbar and deselect the Lock the taskbar command if there is a tick beside it. So now that you have unlocked the command, to alter the appearance of the taskbar right-click anywhere along the bar and a secondary menu will appear, which looks like this:

Click on View if you wish to change the size of the desktop icons then click on Properties to bring up another menu window headed ‘Taskbar and Start Menu Properties’ (see example image on page 111). Let us explore the implications of these options: O Lock the taskbar – this prevents you from accidentally moving the taskbar out of position. This option must be selected before trying to customise the bar. O Auto-hide the taskbar – if this option is deselected the taskbar will slip off the screen allowing more space to be used. The bar will move back into view when the pointer is drawn down to the bottom of the screen. 110

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O Keep the taskbar on top of other windows – this option prevents full-screen windows from masking the taskbar. O Group similar taskbar buttons – if you have a large number of programs open they will cramp the available space on the taskbar. For instance, you may have three letter files, two account files, an image file and an email program running. These seven files will be squashed together making their selection awkward but with this option in place the three letter files will be grouped together under one icon and the two account files will be grouped under another. This reduces the number of icons down to four so they can fit comfortably within the bar. O Show Quick Launch – places the Quick Launch bar on the taskbar to the right of the Start button allowing immediate access to frequently used programs. For instance, you may be composing a letter in a word-processing program when you realise that you need some information from an email message. Instead of minimising the letter window you can simply click the email program on the Quick Launch bar to bring the email into view. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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O Show the clock – you may not want to see the time ticking away so turn this off if necessary. O Hide inactive icons – does exactly what they say on the tin! Remember, whenever you make an alteration click on OK and then click on ‘X’ to complete the change. The Start Menu tab, showing behind the taskbar tab (on page 111), allows you to choose the format of the Start menu that appears when you use the Start button.


1. Where can the taskbar can be placed on the desktop? (a) At the bottom (b) At the top (c) At the left-hand side (d) At the right-hand side

2. What is the function of the Quick Launch bar? (a) To keep the desktop tidy (b) To start a missile attack game (c) To provide access to other programs when another window is open (d) To launch programs with the right-mouse button

3. What is the purpose of a shortcut icon? (a) To minimise a program (b) To start a program without having to go through the Start menu

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(c) It provides detailed information about a program (d) To eliminate the need for double-clicking

4. What function do you carry out first in order to start changing the appearance of the desktop? (a) Right-click on an unoccupied part of the desktop (b) Use the Help menu (c) Left-click on the taskbar (d) You can’t – you should get an expert to do it

5. What vital purpose does a screen saver provide? (a) To show pretty pictures or patterns on your screen (b) There isn’t one (c) It saves electricity (d) It prolongs the life of the screen

6. Why is there no taskbar at the bottom of your screen? (a) The computer was not set up properly (b) You have not ticked the right box on the Appearance menu (c) You have double-clicked on the Start button (d) Auto-hide has been selected from the taskbar properties

7. How would you produce a slide show of your photographs on the desktop? (a) You have to use a commercial imaging program (b) Use the Screen Saver tab in Desktop Properties (c) You need a slide projector (d) Double right-click on the desktop

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Answers Q1 – a, c and d

Q5 – b

Q2 – c (I hope you didn’t choose b!)

Q6 – d

Q3 – b

Q7 – b

Q4 – a

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Knowing how to get help

8


There will be times when you find yourself up a creek in a leaking canoe without a paddle. This chapter is intended to help you find your way out of such uncharted backwaters through the use of program help facilities and some clever key combinations to save you time.

Taking Emergency Action There will be times when, for no apparent reason, a program simply stops working. No matter where you click, what key you press, however long you wait – nothing happens. The technical term for this situation is ‘hung’. However, there is a way out of this frustration.

Pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete One of the most valuable key command combinations you will ever have to use is CTRL+ALT+Delete. In otherwords, press and hold the Control key, Press and hold the Alt key and, while holding these two keys down, press the Delete key. In 9 out of 10 occasions this action will raise another window, the Task Manager, which looks something like this: www.pcwisdom.co.uk


The Task Manager The Windows Task Manager shows all the programs, or applications, currently running on your computer. If you are lucky, the program causing the problem will show up with the status of ‘Not Responding’. Click on the program name to highlight or select it and click on the End Task button. Even if the Task Manager says that the program is running I would suggest highlighting it and choosing to End Task. You may often find that once the Task Manager has looked at it again it will agree with you that the program is not responding and offer you the opportunity to end the program. A note of caution. Computers do work very fast but we sometimes expect them to work instantly. There will be times when you have to be patient and allow the machine to do its work. Depending on the speed of your machine I would suggest that a time period of between 2 and 5 minutes of no apparent activity implies that the program is ‘hung’. 116

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Using Program Help Facilities With almost every program there is a help facility and while many of them are invaluable you will find that a few are not worth the little effort that seems to have been put into developing them.

WordPad Help The Help menu in WordPad is always found at the right-hand end of the menu bar. Go to WordPad and click on the word Help at the end of the menu bar (you should have the same window as the one shown here). The help system for almost all programs act in the same way in that the use of the function key F1 will also bring up the Help menu for that program.

Click on Help Topics and a left-hand window will open giving you the option to choose Contents, Index or Search (as shown in the next image, page 118). The Contents tab takes you to a manual for WordPad, Index allows you to search for a particular topic while Search finds a specific word. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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In the example shown above, the Contents tab has been selected and the Use WordPad menu is showing numerous ‘book’ chapters on the right-hand panel that offer instructions. To display a subject left-click on any of them, then click on a subject.

Try It Now would be a good time for you to try out the help facility that comes with WordPad so let us take an example of the sort of problem you may come across. We have not discussed the how to go about inserting a picture into a WordPad document so let us use the WordPad Help option to find out following these steps: 1. Click on Help in the menu bar. 2. Choose Help Topics by clicking on it. 3. Click on the Index tab. 4. Type the word ‘picture’ in the box. 118

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5. Oops! All we get is ‘pasting text’ or ‘point size’ – neither of which is a great deal of help. Let’s think again. 6. Type the word ‘insert’ in the box as shown here:

And as you type, the first words reflecting your choice will appear in the box immediately below. We do not want ‘bullets’ or ‘date and time’ but inserting ‘objects’ might help. 7. Choose ‘inserting objects in text’ and click on Display. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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8. Guidance on this topic is shown in the box on the right of the window and although it is fairly brief it might be an idea to print it out so that you can refer to a printed page rather than switching back and forth to remind yourself of what to do next. Click on Options and choose Print. 9. Follow the instructions (Insert > Object) and chose Microsoft Clip Gallery. Choose a category and select an image by clicking on it. A further menu will appear – click on the top icon and the image will be inserted. You can also use the Search tab to find words that do not appear in the index.

Windows Help The help system for WordPad is very basic indeed whereas the help facility for Windows is enormous. To get help with the main Windows system, open the Start menu and click on Help or Help and Support. This offers a wide range of support options as well as a search facility. Once again, if you have only the desktop showing on screen, press the function key F1 so bring up the Help menu. This help facility operates as a web page in that moving the mouse pointer over the various underlined options changes the pointer into a hand that denotes the phrase or word is a link to the specific help page. (We will be discussing the Internet and links in Chapter 11). Click on the words that you think are best suited to your problem and explore the library. You will never know everything about the Windows systems so do not try – use it for specific queries. Personally, I rarely find what I am looking for on the initial Help page and I have to enter the keywords of my query into the Search box. For instance, referring to the Windows Help image given on page 121, if I wish to be reminded of how to use the defragmenter facility in Windows XP and Vista I would not know whether to click on the options labelled ‘Performance and maintenance’, ‘Customising your computer’, ‘Hardware’ or ‘Fixing a problem’. But, if I type in the

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word ‘defragment’ into the Search box, the answer to my query will be found very quickly. Having said that, the Windows help facility is a great way of expanding your knowledge so you can make the most of what is on your computer. Just click on any topic of interest to bring up a useful tutorial on the subject, which you can then print out and read at your leisure. Let us imagine that you want to brush up on your basic Windows skills: click the ‘Windows basics’ label, and look under See Also, where you will find an overview of the keyboard shortcuts – see the image at the top of page 122.

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Tip There are over one hundred shortcuts and while you do not really need to know that simultaneously pressing Left Alt +left Shift +Print Screen will switch High Contrast on and off, it is useful to remember that CTRL+Z undoes the previous action or that CTRL+F brings up Find and Replace. A selection of popular and useful keyboard shortcuts: O CTRL+C

Copy

O F1

Help

O CTRL+X

Cut

O ALT+F4

Close program

O CTRL+V

Paste

O Esc

Cancels current action

O CTRL+Z

Undo

O CTRL+E

Centre justify

O CTRL+P

Print

O CTRL+L

Left justify

O CTRL+A

Select all

O CTRL+R

Right justify

O CTRL+F

Find

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1. What effect does pressing CTRL+ALT+Del have? (a) It brings up the Task Manager (b) It deletes all text below the cursor (c) It closes the open program (d) It may help to end a ‘hung’ program

2. What key almost invariably brings up a help menu? (a) F11 (b) The Start key (c) F1 (d) The Help key

3. You are completely baffled. What action could you take to get help? (a) Search the Internet (b) Click on Help on the menu bar (c) Press F1 (d) Phone a friend

4. The title bar shows that the program is Not Responding. What does this mean? (a) You have dialed the wrong number (b) The program has stopped working or is ‘hung’ (c) Your computer is about to give up the ghost (d) The hard disk has failed

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5. Which of the following types of programs has no Help facility? (a) Photographic programs (b) Database programs (c) Accounting programs (d) Games programs

6. If everything seems to have stopped working what could you do? (a) Press CTRL+ALT+Del (b) Press the Esc key (c) Click on the Start button and close down (d) Switch the computer off at the wall and have a cup of tea

7. What does the key combination CTRL+Z do? (a) Zips or compresses a file (b) Deletes a paragraph (c) Changes the type from upper to lower case (d) Undoes your previous action

8. What does the key combination CTRL+V do? (a) Pastes previously copied material (b) Inverts the type (c) Doubles your Internet speed (d) Pastes the value of a calculation

9. How do you raise the Windows Help and Support facility? (a) Use the Start button and choose Help (b) Press F1 (c) Press CTRL+H (d) Find Help under the Accessories menu

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10. How would you identify the function of a toolbar icon? (a) Right-click on it (b) Left-click on it while holding down the Shift key (c) Place the mouse pointer over it (d) Left-click on it

Answers Q1 – a and d

Q6

– a, b and c (and d but only in an emergency)

Q2 – c

Q7

– d

Q3 – All four answers could help

Q8

– a

Q4 – b

Q9

– a or b if you only have the desktop open

Q5 – They all have a help facility

Q10 – c and d

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PART II Email and the Internet


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Getting connected to email and the Internet

9

Equipment needed – Computer, Internet Service Provider (ISP) disk, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, printer and Windows Vista Home Premium with the email program Windows Mail or Windows XP with the email program Outlook Express Skills needed – Keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5)

We are now moving into deeper waters and going beyond the boundaries of the basics we dealt with in the chapters in Part I. This chapter covers the concept of the Internet and email so the information presented here is more technical in nature – I have done my best to keep it simple in order for you to make the right decision for your needs.

Tip The instructions presented in this chapter are quite detailed so I hope you do not get lost; however, I will take this opportunity to offer one word of advice at this point. If you get into the situation where you have finished a particular instruction but the darned thing sits there grinning at you, it is often the case that you have forgotten to complete the exercise. To successfully complete whatever you are doing you will need to either click on OK, Finish, Submit, Apply or some other finalising action, which is usually displayed towards the bottom of the window. If in doubt, click on OK. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Grasping the Concept of Internet and Email Up to now everything we have covered in this book has been confined to your home computer. You have written letters, customised your desktop and played games, activities which have all been made available to you through the somewhat restricted collaboration of your basic computing package. This may be just fine for some but many others are eagerly awaiting the discovery of a whole new universe – called the Internet or World Wide Web. But where can you find it? It is lying there waiting for you at the end of a telephone line. Unfortunately, getting hooked up to the Internet is not just a simple matter of plugging the telephone connection into the back of the computer and then dashing messages off – although that is a start. What you need is another program to tell the computer what number to dial and how to do it in a secure manner, namely an ISP or Internet Service Provider, which basically is a company that provides you with access to the Internet. Returning to the analogy of the car, whether you have a high-performance Ferrari or a Ford runabout, a pantechnicon or a small van, remember that each one comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. What you need at this time is a basic vehicle to get you connected to the Internet – the following sections will show you how.

Communicating via the network The diagram on page 131, in a very simplistic manner, how messages are transmitted from one computer to another. Allan, the user of computer A, wishes to communicate with Barbara, the user of computer B; say he wants to send her an email. He composes the message and ‘sends’ it to his ISP’s computer, which in turn verifies Barbara’s address and forwards the message to the Internet ‘backbone’. This backbone is a vast network of telephone lines, cables, satellites and other esoteric means of communication spanning the globe. It is similar to the postal network but infinitely faster and more reliable. Within minutes, Allan’s message arrives at Barbara’s ISP’s computer where it remains until Barbara makes contact with her ISP, which then informs her that she has new mail waiting. To continue the analogy of the postal service, the message has been placed in a PO Box awaiting collection.

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ISP

A ISP

Internet

ISP

B ISP

Email is largely a one-way communication while the World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) is two-way communication. The difference in these forms of communications can be compared to those of letter post and a telephone conversation. The Web is a vast storehouse of information much of which is dross but you can discover wisdom and enlightenment if you know where to look. So you need an ISP. How do you get one? There are fishmongers, butchers and shoe shops but I have never seen an ISP shop or, for that matter, an apple shop. This does not prevent us from getting apples or an ISP. You will find Internet Service Providers listed in the Yellow Pages but, for beginners, I would not recommend this approach. Those listed tend to be small, local providers who offer a service alongside repair and sales facilities. You will be better served by one of the large national or international ISPs and here we find ourselves in a catch-22 situation in that to contact them you need an ISP connection, which is what you are looking for in the first place! There are literally hundreds of ISPs in the marketplace all vying for your custom. You may have already heard of some, such as AOL, BTInternet and Virgin. Flick through the pages of any basic computer magazine and you find a glut of advertisements offering ‘the best service you can buy’. This exercise not only leaves you spoilt for

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choice but, more importantly, totally confused. So how do you make a choice faced with this plethora of alternatives with little or no knowledge of how these things work and, more importantly, how much they are going to cost?

Choosing an ISP When choosing a car we often take advice from friends. We don’t have to follow that advice but it becomes part of the decision process. You can do the same when making your choice of ISP. If a neighbour uses their computer in a way that you would find useful then why not ask them about the ISP they use. By choosing the same ISP you will be able to discuss problems over a friendly cup of tea. Alternatively, you could go the library and browse through the latest copies of the Which? magazine. This publication offers independent, free advice on the performance of ISPs and is updated twice a year. I would recommend using one of the larger, well-established companies to begin with – you can always change your ISP later or even have more than one ISP. A list of such ISP companies might include: O O O O

O O O O

BTInternet Tiscali Tesco Demon

Pinnacle Virgin Media Pipex Claranet

Bearing in mind that you can always change your ISP I suggest you drop in to one of the following outlets to collect an ISP disk or buy a magazine: O Tesco for TescoNet O Virgin Stores for Virgin Net O Computer magazines These disks are often free but should not cost more than £1.

Tip On the other hand, your guardian angel or whoever is setting up your Internet connection should have the necessary disk. 132

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Selecting Your Internet Service Having chosen your ISP I’m afraid that the decision making does not end there because each ISP will offer different levels of service depending on the level of likely use. There are two main options, dial-up and broadband, but before we look at these in detail (see the section ‘Getting Connected: Dial-up and Broadband’) first let us consider how much it is going to cost as the cheapest may come at a greater cost than initially apparent – on your wallet and on your time.

Establishing cost versus quality of service In your situation as a beginner, to start off with I suggest that you opt for the cheapest option. This should mean that you pay no set-up fee, no monthly fee – in fact you do not have to provide any personal financial information such as credit card or bank account details. You simply pay a local telephone call charge for the length of time your computer is connected to the exchange. This type of service is usually called Local Call Rate, dial-up or something similar (see the section on ‘Dial-up’ for more). Just like when you make a telephone call, you are charged depending on the time of day (peak or off-peak), whether it’s a weekday or the weekend, and the length of time using the line. An ISP offering you ‘free’ connection is collecting a fraction of your call charge from British Telecom or whoever provides your phone service. These fractions multiplied millions of times generate a fair income for ISP companies. However, the more people there are trying to use a particular service at any one time means that the system slows down to frustratingly long waiting periods causing you to incur minutes rather than seconds before the page you want to view appears on your screen. Sadly, ISPs are more committed to maintaining and improving their paid services rather than their basic free service so this problem is unlikely to improve any time soon. Broadband is the other option available to you whereby you pay a monthly fee, say approximately £15, for which all your calls to the Internet are free of charge. Broadband services can have fewer people using the line at the same time, so your connection works faster. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Also, I had better make you aware that all the time you are accessing the Internet via a dial-up service means that your phone line is permanently engaged. You will not experience this problem with broadband. Once you have had some experience of using the Internet and email you will be in better position to decide what you want from a service and weigh up the costs involved. For the time being, check out the summary section on page 137 for a quick sum up of the pros and cons of both services.

Getting Connected: Dial-up and Broadband Oops! I have strayed into technical jargon. Having said that many people will have heard the term ‘broadband’ without really understanding what it means. Dial-up is a lesser known service that is being replaced by broadband. So what do these terms mean? I am not going to go into technical details here but say that they are both methods of connecting your computer to the telephone network.

Dial-up Until recently dial-up was the normal method of connecting the computer to the telephone line and, in a few rural areas of the country, it is the only way you will be able to connect to the Internet. The example charges I have given (refer to the section ‘Establishing cost versus quality of service’) apply to dial-up connections. The dial-up method has been used for many years and has become remarkably reliable but new technology is threatening to supersede it. It works using something called a modem inside your computer. Modem is an acronym for modulator/ demodulator and its purpose is to convert computer language to and from telephone language, and that is all you need to know about it. With a dial-up connection you must make a deliberate connection with the telephone and an equally deliberate disconnection, and unless you have opted for a monthly flat fee, as in the case of broadband, you will be charged for the time spent connected to the phone line. Extensive use of the dial-up service can result in a hefty bill so say, for example, if you spent 10 hours a month connected to the Internet during the day, when local

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charges may be 3p per minute, you will be paying £18 a month (600 minutes × 3p). However, with off-peak evening call rates as low as 1p per minute this means that you can spend an hour on the Internet for 60p instead of watching The Simpsons. I am going to assume that you are unlikely to be spending vast amounts of time connected to the Internet during your first few months so you will still be better off choosing dial-up, which when kept in check, is the cheaper but of course slower option. Even with this type of connection to the Internet, the time spent sending three quick text emails and then disconnecting should take no longer than 1 minute in the hands of an experienced users but I would say at least 15 minutes for readers unfamiliar with the system and keyboard.

Tip While your computer is connected to the phone line you will be unable to receive any voice calls on that line so if you are going to spend a lot of time on the Internet it would pay to have a second line installed so that your friends do not get persistent engaged tones. Compared to broadband it is slow but more than adequate for standard email and some limited Internet browsing. As you use email and the Internet more you may increasingly begin to find that there is one further disadvantage of a dial-up connection – namely, with sending, downloading and the receipt of files. Most friends and relatives instantly assume that their recipients are using broadband so do not think twice about the consequences installed for those on dial-up at the other end of the email when sharing their holiday snaps. Nowadays, digital cameras are capable of producing higher quality images, which means larger and larger file sizes. The significant point here is that senders are less inclined to compress their image files to a size that is easily and, more importantly, quickly downloadable for the recipient on a dial-up connection. While an email may take up only 2K (kilobytes) in size, some image files are now more than 2MB (megabytes) in size – a thousand times larger – and these can take upwards of 20 minutes to download, which can be very frustrating and some ISP set-ups tend to terminate the connection before the whole image has been downloaded. Unless a file has been downloaded completely it will sit in your ISP’s message box waiting for you to make another vain attempt to download it. Any messages received by the ISP subsequent to the large file will become stuck in a queue waiting their turn to be downloaded.

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Downloading program files from the Internet can also be a problem due to their large size (some can be up to 30MB) so if you wanted to download a free image-cataloguing program from a site you might have to wait for an hour or more before the transmission is complete – time which you have to pay for!.

Broadband At the time of writing this book, the accessibility of broadband connection across the country is still a bit patchy, being mainly restricted to larger towns and cities – although this situation is improving by the day. Some rural areas are poorly served by broadband services. This service is more expensive than dialup with some charges rising to £60 a month for the very fastest connection. Once your computer is turned on it immediately connects to the telephone and stays connected, which means that your emails will arrive without the need to ‘collect’ them from your mailbox on the ISP’s computer. Broadband is also very fast – with data being transferred at 500 or 1000 kilobytes per second compared to dial-up where the fastest rate (normally unobtainable) is 56 kilobytes per second. You need not tax your mind by trying to imagine a kilobyte, it simply means that broadband is ten to twenty times faster than dial-up. This has great advantages when you need to download very large files such as programs, videos and large images. I often download programs from the Internet to assess them before introducing them to my students and some may be as large as 30 000K. This would take a poor little dial-up modem between two to three hours to download whereas, with broadband, the whole program will arrive on my computer within a few minutes. The other great advantage of broadband is that it does not interfere with normal telephone use on the same line. A further potential disadvantage of broadband is that, with a permanent connection to the outside world, you are vulnerable to the low life of the computing world – hackers and virus disseminators. If you choose to go down the broadband route please take advice and install secure protection on your computer like virus checkers and firewalls.

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Summary Dial-up

Broadband

Advantages – cheaper, safer and available nationwide.

Advantages – faster and releases the phone line for other calls.

Disadvantages – slower and disables the telephone line for other calls. Downloading large files takes time and can disrupt the connection.

Disadvantages – expensive, patchy availability in rural areas and open to security risks. You can be tied into a contract, which is not cost-effective unless you make regular use of the service.

Setting up an Internet Connection Having discussed the theory behind the different ISP services on offer, now we come to look at the practicalities of setting up your internet connection. So, you arrive home clutching a strange disk quite convinced that you are way out of your depth. Fear not, for this section will guide you through the process – and do not forget to approach your ‘guardian angel’ for help, too. At this stage I would strongly recommend that you ask your friend to setup your connection. However, if you feel confident enough to do it yourself then follow these steps: 1. Switch on the computer and monitor, and wait for the desktop to be established on the screen. 2. At the front of your computer you will find a full-width drawer (usually at the top) known as the CD tray, with one or two small buttons lying just below it on the right-hand side. Press the right-hand button and a CD tray will pop out from the slot, which looks like this:

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This is not a coffee cup holder! 3. Place the ISP disk on to the tray – blank, mirror-side down – and gently push the holder back into the computer body; this action is similar to loading a disk into a music system or DVD player. 4. Now wait for your computer to recognise that something has been inserted into the disk drive and begin to read the embedded instructions. The first instruction will display a window on the screen – this could contain a flashy logo-laden ‘welcome’ advertisement or it may simply prompt you to choose a service. Click on the relevant box, for example, Local Call, No Monthly Fee or Broadband, depending on the service you have decided to opt for (if you are not sure, go back to the previous sections and summary of services). I would avoid any ISP that asks for credit-card details at this stage unless you have opted for broadband. It is not necessary for the ‘free’ dial-up service. 5. After making your selection a simple form will appear inviting you to register with the ISP company. You will need to fill in your full name and address together with other details, placing your answers in the relevant boxes shown on the screen. To start off, place the mouse pointer in the first box and leftclick to position the typing cursor (the flashing vertical line) where you type in your name. Repeat the process, filling in the boxes using the mouse pointer to position the cursor before you type. 138

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Tip There is a quicker way to move from one box to the next – simply hit the Tab key. If you make a mistake and want to go back to a previous box hold down the Shift key while hitting the Tab key. You will notice an asterisk (*) against several of the boxes denoting that this information is essential for registration. If you miss an essential entry the program normally informs you, pointing out where you have made an error. How are you doing? If you have got this far you are doing very well. 6. After filling in all the relevant boxes you will come to a button at the bottom of the page labelled something like ‘Submit’ or ‘Continue’ – click on it and continue through the registration process until you reach the point when you are asked to choose a user name and password. The user name will probably be incorporated into your email address and your password must be easily memorised by you so choose carefully (flick forward to the next sections for tips on selecting usernames and passwords). 7. Having entered your chosen username and password click on the Submit or Continue button and wait. The ISP computer will check to see whether your choices are acceptable and, if not, invite you to suggest alternatives. Once accepted, full details of your account will be shown on the screen. Check to make sure they are correct and if so print out the page by clicking on the printer icon or choose File and then Print from the drop-down menu. Put this page somewhere safe. At some stage, you may be presented with yet another opportunity to print your details; and subsequent to your registration, the ISP will even send you your very first email containing this information. Print out this information again. A document that has been printed out onto paper is referred to as hard copy and is an invaluable record in the event that you can not access your computer. At some time during the registration process the ISP computer will automatically program your computer, enabling it to make a secure, reliable connection. This automatic configuration works nine times out of ten but if it goes wrong at this stage is it almost certainly not your fault. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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You may be asked if you wish to receive details of any future offers from the ISP or associates. The replies are usually in the form of a tick box that is initially activated. I would untick these offers by clicking on the boxes unless you want to run the risk of being sent vast quantities of junk mail in the future. You will start to get junk mail, or ‘spam’ as it normally called, soon enough without inviting it from the outset. 8. Continue to answer any further questions until you complete the registration process and are welcomed by your new ISP. However, do not get too excited as you are not ready to dash off your first email just yet. You may have to wait a few minutes or up to half an hour while the ISP computer readies itself to receive connections from your little box of tricks.

Selecting Usernames and Passwords Selecting a username and password is essential for registering and setting up your ISP service – you will not get very far without them. This section will start you off in the right direction when considering what to select for a username – which will become the first part of your email address – and the accompanying password, as you will need to use exactly the same details every time to access your email and internet account. This method is also used by many other companies and throughout your future use of the Internet you will be frequently asked to register with websites. This action is usually twofold in that you need to give them some of your personal details (usually your name and email address as a minimum) in order to gain full use of the information on their site or to receive emails with updates, newsletters or other notification of their services. Secondly, when making purchases on the Internet (see Chapter 13) you will need to register a username and password in order to gain access to your account – log on – with the company and to receive email confirmation of any orders or notification when items have been dispatched. Usually, whenever you are asked to log on or sign on/in to a site, you must also remember to log out or sign out otherwise your personal information is left unguarded and at risk of being accessed by someone else. I would recommend that you do not start registering your details with any old company willy-nilly unless you are genuinely interested in their products as you 140

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will be constantly bombarded with messages – you will soon get fed up of deleting them from your inbox. Any company worth its salt should offer you the choice of unregistering in order to stop the receipt of unwanted emails.

Usernames Your username should be just that – unique to you. So, you might be surprised to learn that your chosen username might be rejected as obvious variations of the most common names will have already been taken – especially if you happen to be called David Brown or even Marcia Williams. Usernames must not include spaces although full stops and underscores are usually accepted – however, even then ‘john.smith’ will have been taken. ‘john.smith274978’ may probably be accepted but are your friends are going to remember that lot! Remember, your username is the prefix to your email address. Think around the problem – what about your home address? You may live at 77, Victoria Drive in a house called ‘Albemarle’ so try ‘albemarle77’. You may be called William Thompson but you have a cat called ‘Puffball’ so you could try ‘puffthom’ or ‘thompuff’ and get away with it.

Tip I strongly suggest that you use only lower case letters for your username as including upper case letters (capitals) will just make it even harder to remember. The system recognising your username is case-sensitive, or in other words, when you come to enter your details if you do not type the characters in exactly the same form as you first issued them during registration your details will be rejected and you will have to start again.

Passwords Now let us consider how to choose your password. Passwords usually consist of a single word of six or more letters and/or numbers – preferably eight characters in total. The password system provides a degree of security for your Internet connections. Selecting your mother’s maiden name is a very popular choice as are the names of pets since they are easily remembered and unlikely to be guessed by trespassers unknown to you. You can use upper and lower case letters and symbols in your password so something like ‘78Yu_$6ufk’ would be very effective, if you could guarantee to memorise it! www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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If you feel that you will not be able to remember your username and password for your email and internet account, or for any other account or registration for that matter, be careful about how and where you write it down. Do not carry around any username or passwords details in your wallet, purse or handbag – in the event of these being stolen you could be at risk of someone attempting to access your account. The point about passwords is that you choose something that is so familiar and memorable to you, and only you, that you do not need to write it down. Do not fret, for when you go to open your internet account you should see that the system will ask you whether you would like your password to be remembered on your computer for the next time (many other registration sites will offer the same option). By this method, you simply check the box opposite where you are asked something like ‘Save my password’. By ticking this box your password will be encoded in the system – you will not see the letters on the screen as they just appear as dots or asterisks. Just remember that this means anyone using your computer will also be able to get into your account with one swift click of a button so you may want to ‘untick’ these options if your computer is ever taken away for servicing. If you should ever forget your password, and you have decided not to make use of the option just described for saving it on the computer – or, in the awful situation that someone does find out your details – most systems will offer you the opportunity of changing your password. Again you should see a prompt near to where you insert your username and password, such as ‘Forgotten your password?’ When you click on this link you will be asked for personal information to verify who you are before giving you the chance of inputting a new password. Some companies will even email you a code to insert before letting you rename it as a new password.


1. What is an ISP? (a) A company that provides telephone access to a computer (b) A disk you put in the computer to send emails

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(c) A piece of equipment inside the computer that connects to the Internet

2. What password would you choose from the following alternatives? (a) The word ‘password’ (b) $mi£h (c) Your surname (d) The name of your second dog called Barnaby – ‘barnaby2’

3. You try typing your address into one of the registration boxes but nothing happens. Why? (a) You are not connected to the Internet (b) You have not placed the typing cursor in the box (c) You have not completed a previous entry

4. Which is the faster internet connection? (a) Broadband (b) Telephone (c) Dial-up

5. Where would you be able to get an ISP disk? (a) Tescos (b) A friend (c) An Internet magazine (d) A computer magazine

6. Which of these options is a disadvantage of a dial-up connection? (a) It is unreliable (b) It blocks normal telephone calls (c) It is becoming obsolete

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7. Which of the following email messages will cost you more to send? (a) To a friend in the next town (b) To a relative in Australia (c) To a business colleague in Belarus

8. You want to move the typing cursor from one registration box to the one below it. Which of the following actions will achieve this? (a) Position the I-pointer with the mouse inside the box and click (b) Press the Down navigation arrow key (c) Press the Tab key (d) Hit the Enter key

9. What is the Internet backbone? (a) An undersea cable (b) A satellite system (c) A vast web of computer connections spanning the world

10. What does having an Internet connection via an ISP allow you to do? (a) Send and receive emails (b) Connect to the World Wide Web (c) Download pictures (d) Listen to the radio (e) Read foreign newspapers (f) Send a fax (g) Improve your knowledge of seventeenth-century French silver (h) Take your dog for a walk

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Answers Q1 – a

Q6

– b and c

Q2 – b and d

Q7

– They will cost the same – nothing

Q3 – b

Q8

– a and c

Q4 – a

Q9

– c

Q5 – All four sources

Q10 – Every answer except the last – so far!

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Using email

10

Equipment needed – Computer, monitor, Internet Service Provider (ISP) disk, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, printer and Windows Vista Home Premium with the email program Windows Mail or Windows XP with the email program Outlook Express. Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), understanding email and the Internet (Chapter 9)

The most popular reason for people owning a home computer is to use email. You simply type in your message, add the address, click a few icons on the screen and the computer, via the telephone connection, whisks the information off to Upper Slaughter or Uzbekistan in less than 10 seconds. You even get to keep a copy of your message for future reference with all the details of when and to whom you sent it. That’s it! Easy to say isn’t it? Just like when learning to ride a bicycle, within a few days of sending your first email you will soon forget how clumsy and inept you felt when you started off. This chapter introduces you to the basic skills of emailing, which may, as with any other new skill, take a little time to master.

Getting Ready for the Big Send Off Many surveys show that delivery of email is more reliable than letter post but it does rely upon a number of factors. First, you must get the address exactly right. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


When addressing a letter if you write a postcode incorrectly, say as XH4 6TY rather than XJ4 6TY, your letter may never arrive. However, unless you are very lucky and the letter is returned to you stating ‘Address Unknown’, you will never know of its non-arrival. With email if you send a message to an incorrect address, say for example [email protected] when the correct address is buggins@freemail. com, you will usually receive an almost instant reply informing you that the address has not been recognised. Second, if your addressee does not check their email regularly then your message may lie unread, languishing in their mailbox. So in a nutshell, the ‘mailing’ service goes something like this: you type your message and click to send, which activates your ISP’s computer to verify that the address is correct, and then by some kind of electronic wizardry that you do not need to know about, your note is dispatched over the telephone waves to the ISP of the recipient where it is safely delivered into their mailbox. Whenever the recipient connects to their ISP’s computer, they issue an instruction to collect any messages waiting in their mailbox and put them onto their own computer where they can be opened and read. (Refer to Chapter 9 for more on the concept of email and the Internet.) Emails can contain more than simple text messages. You may have a report filed on your computer that you want to share with someone else. When sending it by the standard postal service you would simply attach the printed report to your letter with a paper clip and pop it in the mail box. Well, you can do exactly the same using email – simply write your note and attach the report file to your message, then press Send. Attachments can be any kinds of documents: word-processed files, photographs, photocopies, web pages, diagrams or even audio music, video and the spoken word. Just a word of caution here – don’t get too carried away with attachment files; some of them can be very large and take a long time to transmit and receive. For instance, an A4 letter may be 20K in size and take half a second to transmit while a detailed picture may be anything up to 20MB in size and take more than an hour to download unless you have a broadband connection (flick back to Chapter 9 for more on broadband). Picture files and sound files are notoriously large. With these thoughts in mind let us get down to the nuts and bolts of sending and receiving an email message. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows XP come supplied very similar email programs, namely Windows Mail (Vista) and 148

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Outlook Express (XP). As there is very little difference between the two programs, I will concentrate on Outlook Express (XP) for the purposes of this explanation. However, I do explain any minor variations between this program and Windows Mail for Vista towards the end of the chapter – Vista users please do not skip the Outlook Express section as you will not get very far without it. Outlook Express and Windows Mail are the baby brothers of Microsoft Outlook that comes bundled with Microsoft Office. It offers various additional features such as a contacts list, calendar and task lists, which are limited or not present in these cut-down versions. The advice given in this chapter is easily adaptable for use with the full Microsoft Outlook program.

Using Outlook Express for Windows XP All versions of Windows XP come packaged with Outlook Express and, even though it has its faults, it is currently the most commonly used email program. You will see the Outlook Express icon on your desktop (just like the icon shown here in the margin). Double-click on it and wait. After a few seconds the following screen will appear:

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The opening window of Outlook Express has all the hallmarks of a Windows screen (refer to Chapter 3 for a reminder of the basic Windows arrangement). Notice the areas that should be familiar to you: the three sizing buttons in the top-right corner; the menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc.); and the toolbar (which in this instance includes Create Mail, Reply, Reply All, etc.). The main part of the screen is divided into two sections with various folders on the left and information on the right. Now left-click on the tab labelled ‘Inbox’ in the Folders section (highlighted in blue in the image on page 149). The window now looks something like this:

You can now see the different areas of the Inbox window; namely, the Folders area (on the left) with the list of messages and the message preview panes, which are empty in the example as there are currently no messages. Also take a look at the toolbar near the top containing a selection of icons. The ones of particular interest are pointed out: Create (new mail), Send/Receive, Addresses, and Find (addresses) – notice that some of them are greyed out due to them being unavailable at this time. For instance, you have no messages and therefore you cannot reply to anything so the Reply button is greyed out. 150

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Composing a Message Now that you have a feel of the Outlook Express window I shall go through the various steps involved in composing an email message by indicating which area to go to and what to do. (Refer to the section near the end of this chapter for a quick summary of the methods described here.)

Step 1: Address Book – adding and using contacts Before you begin to compose a message you need the address of the recipient. Hopefully, your guardian angel may have given you his or her email address or you may have noted down another friend’s address in which case use one of these but, if not, you can always email yourself a message using the email address that has been set up by your ISP. Your first task is to add these addresses into your email Address Book. On the toolbar, left-click on Address to bring up the Address Book window (see example Address Book).

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Left-click on the New button, then click on Contact. The window that appears next provides you with a selection of tabs where you can insert information about your contacts. You can put lots of information into the Address Book but for this exercise you simply want to add the name and email address of your contact. Place the cursor by left-clicking inside the ‘First’ box – type the first name – leftclick in the ‘Last’ box – type in the surname – and finally, left-click in the ‘E-Mail Addresses’ box and type the email address, as shown here:

Now this bit is where you can quite easily make a mistake. Do not click on the ‘Add’ button. By clicking on it the program will expect you to add a further address but in this instance you only want the one just entered so left-click on OK. Clicking on OK brings you back to the Inbox window (refer to the image on page 151). Left-click on Create to bring up the Message window as follows: 152

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Your name and/or email address is already showing in the ‘From’ box so now you have to enter the address of the recipient in the ‘To’ box. You may prefer to simply place the cursor in the box and type in the address but as you begin to collect addresses you will find them increasingly difficult to remember. Now is the time to open your Address Book. Point the arrow at the word ‘To’ beside the little open book icon (as you can see on the New Message image above) so that the area shows as a square block. Click on this block to bring up the Address Book. A window headed Select Recipients (check out the one given on page 154) will appear listing your contacts – you probably only have one address in the lefthand window. Select the contact you want and click on To, which adds the recipient to the message, then click OK. You can send the same message to several people by adding their names to the ‘To’ list. You also have two other buttons in the centre of the window, namely Cc and Bcc. Adding addresses to these boxes means that you can send the message to one person and copy it to various other www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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people. Contacts listed in the Cc box are all displayed on the message after sending so everyone listed will see who has received a copy. Bcc stands for blind copy in which case the names of other recipients are withheld from everyone.

Tip Use your own newly acquired address to do this and, as added practise, enter my email address, too – [email protected] – I would love to hear from you!

Step 2: Subject box – indicating what your message is about Now we return to the email window (refer to the image on page 153) with the ‘To’ box duly filled in. Next, you need to insert a heading into the Subject box. The information displayed here informs whoever you are emailing what the message is about. Say you were sending an account of a fund-raising day you have just 154

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completed so ‘Fund-raising day’ would be a suitable subject, or for example, ‘Vanessa’s first day’ would precede an account of your daughter’s first day at school. Why put in a subject at all? It is not necessary to do so – the email will be sent without it – and some people consistently leave it blank. However, the subject line can be very useful to both sender and receiver. Two immediate reasons spring to mind. Firstly, some people get more than 200 messages a day and they need to know which messages are important and which can be left until later – the Subject line gives them an indication of the contents without having to wade through the whole message. Secondly, you may find that you email certain people on a regular basis, which results in you receiving many responses from them listed in your Inbox. What if some time later you remember that one of those messages contains an important date that you have forgotten. If all the messages have blank subject lines you are going to spend a long time searching for that particular mail, whereas if the sender had entered a hint into the Subject box, such as ‘Wedding Anniversary’, it may remind you that it was in that message that the dates of their holiday was mentioned. So my recommendation is to please always write something in the Subject box.

Step 3: Message pane – typing your message At last we get to the nitty-gritty of writing the actual message so left-click on the blank area (message pane) below the recipient and subject information and start typing. For this exercise, I suggest you enter ‘Testing’ as the subject and type ‘This is to test my system’ in the message pane. Okay so far? Well done!

Step 4: Send button – sending your message on its way Now that your message has been addressed and composed you are ready to send it. When you are happy with your message, click on the Send button. Fine – but let us just check something here to avoid confusion. You have clicked on Send so the message has gone. Right? Yes, that is correct if you have a broadband connection but incorrect if you have a dial-up connection. With dial-up your message has been sent only as far as the Outbox folder where it is waiting for the telephone connection to send it on its onward journey. To understand this method check out the Outlook Express window (the image on page 150, highlighted in blue) where you will see the number ‘1’ in brackets beside the Outbox www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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folder. This information tells you that there is one unread message in your Outbox waiting to be sent. This concept can be confusing to new users of email. Take the analogy of a normal letter. You seal it up in an envelope, stick on a stamp and pop it into the mailbox down the road. You have ‘sent’ the letter but in fact it lies in the mailbox until the postman collects the mail and delivers it to the sorting office. Your Outbox is the equivalent of the mailbox. Okay, so your message is sitting in the Outbox folder (or mailbox going by the normal postal service analogy) but it is still up to you to get it on its way to the recipient. Next, click on the Send/Receive button (see margin) on the toolbar. The type of dialog box that pops up may vary but usually it will look something like this:

You are prompted as to whether you would like to go online. The answer to this question is ‘Yes’ – you need to make a telephone connection to send the message. So click on Yes, which brings up the next dialog box:

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If the ‘Save password’ box is unchecked, as in the example above, click on the box to activate it – which means that the system will remember it from now on so you will not have to keep inserting your password every time this dialog box opens. Now click on Connect so that the modem starts dialling out – which sounds rather like chalk being dragged across a blackboard but don’t worry, the computer does not need oiling it is perfectly normal to hear this sound. The dialog box will keep you informed of the progress of the call, such as ‘Dialling’, Connecting to server’, ‘Verifying user name and password’, until it disappears after the connection has been made.

The modem then begins to send your message. Having sent the message to the recipient, the modem then checks to see if you have any messages waiting for you in your mailbox in the ISP’s computer, and if so, downloads them into your Inbox folder. You will most likely get a message from your ISP welcoming you to their service and giving details of your account. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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At this point, I would like to bring your attention to a new icon situated at the far right-hand side of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. As in the image given here, you should see what looks like twin computers that flash from time to time. This icon indicates that information is being transferred from computer:

This icon is very important as it indicates that you are connected to the phone line and therefore is likely to be costing you money on a dial-up account. To disconnect the modem, click on this icon and choose Disconnect in the resulting dialog box, as shown here:

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the delivery of outgoing messages is fully automated. If you have a broadband you can log into your connection any time after turning on your computer so the advice about connecting and sending/receiving messages in this chapter will not apply. Once activated, the email program will check for incoming emails at certain intervals – usually about 30 minutes. It will also alert you to when a new message arrives.

Tip So you think you have sent your message successfully but, as with most beginners, you may still have a ghostly doubt at the back of your mind. Have I really sent it? With practise your doubt will completely disappear but at this stage you do have two options available to you to help settle your mind. First, click on the Outbox folder. If this folder is empty then there is a good chance that the message has been sent. Second, click on the Sent Items folder where you should see the message details at the top of the list of files. If your message is showing here then it has certainly gone off to the recipient– except in one situation. I know, there is always a proviso, isn’t there? The dialog box shown here appears when you are sending or receiving a message when using a dial-up connection. Note the tick in the box labelled ‘Hang up when finished’:

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anti-virus program, it needs to check your mail before allowing it on its way. If Outlook Express finishes its job before the anti-virus program has finished checking it will still go ahead and disconnect the phone before the anti-virus facility has finished. Although your message will appear in the Sent folder it is giving a false sense of security. Once Outlook Express has finished sending the message to the anti-virus program it inserts the message file in the Sent Items folder but the phone was cut off before the anti-virus program could complete its check and forward the message. If this is the situation, turn off the ‘Hang up’ option by clicking in the box to remove the tick. This means you will have to remember to disconnect the phone manually. The above tip does not apply to broadband users since the connection is continuous while your computer is switched on.

Receiving a Message In both dial-up and broadband connections you normally have to click on the Send/Receive icon to download your messages. Once the messages have been downloaded into your Inbox they are available for reading. To read your messages make sure that the Inbox folder is highlighted (by clicking on it if necessary) and then highlight the message file you want to open in the top right-hand pane (refer to the image on page 150). The text will appear in the bottom right-hand pane (labelled message preview in the example). If it is a long message you may need to scroll down to read it all but you do have another way to view the entire message. Double-click on the message file and it will open as a new full-size window to allow easier reading. When you have finished with the message, click on the sizing button (top-right of the window) to close it and you will be returned to the Inbox.

Dealing with Attachments No doubt from time to time you will receive an email that has an attachment, which is shown by the presence of a small paper clip icon beside the message file (as indicated on the example on page 161).

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So what is an attachment? Just as with a written letter you may ‘attach’ a photograph, leaflet, report or newspaper cutting to the letter using a paper clip – hence the icon. In exactly the same way, you can attach a file, map, document or photograph to your emails. As an example, let us assume that you have composed a fascinating article on ‘The Migratory Habits of the Lesser Spotted Godwit’ on your word processor and a friend has asked for a copy. You could copy the text of the whole article and paste it into the email but there is an easier way – you simply attach the word-processor file to the email.

Sending an attachment To include an attachment with your email click on the New icon (or ‘Create’ in Windows Mail) to compose the message. Look along the toolbar situated above

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the message pane to find the Attach icon (the paper clip). This icon may not be that easy to see unless you have the Outlook Express window maximised so click on the sizing button to enlarge it. Click on the Attach icon and another window will pop inviting you to choose the file in question. Navigate your way to the folder that contains the file (it will probably be in your Documents folder), highlight the file and click on Attach (Outlook Express) or Insert (Windows Mail) and you will see the file icon in a new box below the Subject box. Note that the paper clip icon now appears in both the message pane and the message preview pane. To check that you have selected the correct file from the folder, double-click on the paper clip icon in the preview pane and the attachment will open automatically. A word of warning here. Please bear in mind that, even though broadband connections are becoming more and more common, there are still a substantial amount of people living in rural areas or other places that cannot benefit from such high-speed connectivity. Therefore, they will not thank you for attaching enormous image files that take nearly an hour to download on a dial-up connection. Learn how to reduce the size of image files by using the Email facility in the Picasa program (discussed in full in Chapter 18).

Opening an attachment To open an attachment received in an email simply double-click on the attachment file in the header of the email message. Once you have opened the attachment it can be saved using the Save As facility from the File menu or from the right-click drop-down menu (refer to Chapter 4).

Replying to an Email When you receive an email in many instances you will want to reply to the sender. Instead of going through the process of creating a new message and adding the recipient’s address and the subject details there is a quicker method of replying to an email message. Simply highlight the message and click on the Reply icon on the toolbar. This action brings up a new message pane with these details filled in and the cursor already waiting for you to type your reply above the original message. Add your reply, click on Send (then Send/Receive if you are using dial-up) and the response is immediately on its way back to the sender. 162

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This chapter should provide you enough information to send and receive most email messages. The finer points of emailing are covered in Chapter 20 where I discuss the issue of email security and consider the concept of web-based email accounts such as Hotmail, AOL and Mail2 Web. For now, use the quick step-bystep that follows to get your emailing skills up to speed.

Summary Add an email address to your address book 1. Double-click on the Outlook Express icon on the desktop to open the program. 2. Click on the Inbox folder, if not already highlighted. 3. Click on the Address icon on the toolbar. 4. Click on the New icon and then click on Contact. 5. Type the first and last names and the email address in the respective boxes. 6. Click on the OK button.

Send an email 1. Double-click on the Outlook Express icon on the desktop to open the program. 2. Click on the Inbox folder, if not already highlighted. 3. Click on the Create icon on the left of the toolbar. 4. Click on the To (book) icon – not the To box. 5. Highlight the name of the person you wish to send your message to. 6. Click on the To button in the centre of the window. 7. Click on the OK button. 8. Click in the Subject box and type a brief description of your message. 9. Click in the message pane and type your message. 10. When finished, click on the Send button. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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11. Click on the Send/Receive icon and when the dial-up dialog box appears click on Connect. 12. Wait until the program has sent the message. 13. Double-click on the twin computer icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the desktop screen then click on Disconnect to disconnect the modem from the telephone line.

Check for new messages 1. Double-click on the Outlook Express icon on the desktop to open the program. 2. Click on the Inbox folder, if not highlighted. 3. Click on the Send/Receive icon on the toolbar. 4. Click on Connect in the dial-up dialog box. 5. Wait! 6. You will be notified if you have no messages or any received messages will be automatically downloaded into your Inbox folder. 7. Double-click on the twin computer icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the desktop the click on Disconnect to disconnect from the telephone line.

Using Windows Mail for Vista At the beginning of this chapter I mention that the Outlook Express (XP) email program is used for the purposes of instruction as there is very little difference between this and the Windows Mail for Vista program. However, as promised, for Vista users we will now take a brief look at the Window Mail program. You can see from the image given on page 165 that Windows Mail is very similar to Outlook Express but with a slightly different appearance and the addition of a calendar. Also, instead of an Address Book, the folder for information on

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Using email

recipients is called Contacts. The attachment logo is a different colour in Mail compared to Outlook Express but it works in the same way.

The areas for composing a new message are also similar to that of Outlook Express:

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1. After composing a message you click on the Send button. But where does the message go? (a) To Outlook Express (b) To your ISP (c) Your Inbox (d) Your Outbox

2. How do you know if an incoming message has an attachment? (a) A paper clip icon shows beside the message (b) The message is underlined (c) A message flashes on the screen (d) There is a red exclamation mark beside the message

3. You have not received a reply to one of your email messages – why do you think that might be? (a) You sent it to the wrong address (b) The recipient did not feel it warranted a reply (c) The recipient has not downloaded their messages (d) You did not attach a file to the message

4. Why should you fill in the Subject box when composing an email? (a) Your message cannot be sent without a subject (b) Your ISP will block the message (c) You and your recipient will find it useful for future reference (d) Your telephone will disconnect without it

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Using email

5. What must you do to receive your email messages? (a) Click on Send/Receive while connected to the Internet (b) Connect to the telephone (c) Click on Tools in the menu bar and choose Receive All (d) Click on Tools then Accounts then Options then Receive

6. How do you enter a recipient’s address in the To box in the New Message window? (a) Using the address book (b) Typing in the email address (c) Click on the Reply icon (d) Type in their surname

7. What symbol is always included in an email address? (a) $ (b) @ (c) * (d) www (e) .co.uk

8. What happens if you click on the Send/Receive icon when you are not connected to the telephone? (a) Nothing (b) You will be asked whether you want to connect (c) The computer will connect automatically (d) You will fuse the telephone

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9. Which of the following statements are true? (a) You must be connected to the telephone to compose an email (b) You can only read your messages when disconnected from the telephone (c) You must connect to the telephone to download your latest messages (d) You can only send pictures if you have a broadband connection

10. Why might one of your sent messages be returned? (a) Your recipient has changed their address (b) You have not paid your internet connection subscription (c) You sent it to the wrong address (d) Your recipient’s mailbox is full

Answers Q1 – d

Q6

– a, b and c

Q2 – a

Q7

– b

Q3 – a, b and c

Q8

– b

Q4 – c

Q9

– c

Q5 – a, b and c

Q10 – a, c and d

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Discovering the Internet & the World Wide Web

11

Equipment needed – ISP connection, modem or router, printer, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, and Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP – which both come with Internet Explorer Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), understanding the concept of email and the Internet (Chapter 9)

In this chapter, I reveal all you need to know to be let loose on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Happy exploring!

Understanding the Differences between the Web and the Internet Computing really becomes great fun and hugely productive when you start using the Internet but let us get a few technical details out of the way before we begin. Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web synonymously when in fact they are two different things. As discussed in the Chapter 9, the Internet is a vast ‘backbone’ of connections covering the globe by cable, satellite and radio links. The World Wide Web, or more commonly ‘the Web’, is the linked information that is stored on millions of computers at the end of these connections, which are known as servers. These www.pcwisdom.co.uk


server computers may be huge, as in the case of the CIA or British Government, or very simple computers, as found in small offices and homes. The difference between your home computer and a server computer is that the latter are fully automatic and permanently connected to the Internet for access by outsiders. The ISP and Tesco’s computers are largely servers while the home-user’s desktop is not a server. Not all server computers are linked to the Internet. A large company may use servers to link their various offices across the country without using the Internet. This type of network is called an Intranet. You will often hear references to ‘finding something on the Net’ or ‘going on to the Net’. The Net in this instance is simply another term for the World Wide Web. That is enough of the theory so let us look at the practical use of the Internet for which you need an Internet browser, which is discussed in the next section.

Using Microsoft’s Internet Browser The most commonly used browser program is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that comes with the Windows system installed on your machine (XP and Vista), which while not necessarily the best, is by far and away the most common. (I discuss some of the other browsers available in Chapter 21, which deals with the more advanced aspects of using the Internet.) Just to be perfectly clear about this, Internet Explorer allows you access to the Internet, and therefore the Web.

Opening the basic Explorer window Okay, let’s get going. First you need to look for the Internet Explorer icon (check out the icon in the margin) on your desktop. The colour of your icon may vary depending on your computer but they are all essentially the same – a big blue ‘E’. Double-click on the icon to start the program. (The arrow pointer will change to an hourglass if you have been successful with your double-click.) After a few seconds the Explorer window will appear on your screen showing the basic window structure; examples of both Windows Vista (top) and Windows XP (bottom) are given on page 171. 170

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Vista

XP

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This window may look a little different to those we have been dealing with but it still has basically the same areas: the title bar, sizing buttons, menu bar and taskbar. The toolbar is very different because we need different tools to use the browser and there are two extra bars – the Address bar and the Links bar – which we will deal with in a moment.

Getting familiar with the toolbar Reading from left to right, the toolbar contains the following icons (check out the example toolbar below): O O O O O O O

Back Forward Stop Refresh Home Search Favorites

O O O O O O

History Mail Print Edit Discuss Messenger

Tip Can you remember how to identify what the icons on toolbars and your desktop stand for? Simply rest the tip of the mouse pointer on the icon – do not click – to bring up a text box with the description, as seen in this example:

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Okay, now you can identify the icons on the Explorer toolbar but what exactly are they for? Let me take you through each icon and their application.

Back and Forward The Back and Forward icons work in a similar way to that discussed in Chapter 3 (which explains the concept of Windows). In this usage, when you open a web page and select or move on to another page, you can use the Back function to return you to the original or previous page. Having used the Back icon you can use the Forward icon to return to a previously opened page. On the example toolbar (refer to page 172) you may have noticed that the Back and Forward icons are ‘greyed-out’ – they appear this way because we have not opened a page yet.

Stop The Stop function helps get you out of a fix. For instance, if you open a very large page that has lots of images you may find that it takes forever and a day to load all the information contained on that page on your screen. You can use the Stop icon to halt the download and arrest the runaway process.

Refresh The Refresh function can be used if a page fails to load correctly or in cases where you want to get the very latest information from a news website that you last visited an hour ago.

Home When you connect to the Internet the browser is automatically set to load to an area known as your home page – clicking on Home also takes you to this page. This area is invariably the main page of your ISP. These pages are of variable value so I would recommend that you set your own home page to contain information of more interest to you. For instance, I have set my browser to open the BBC News page (http://news.bbc.co.uk) as my home page. You may be an avid model railway engineer in which case you can set your home page to be British Railway Modelling. The choice is yours. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Search Web pages can contain a lot of information, which can result in them being very long indeed – reading through a document line by line to find that elusive fact can be time-consuming. Let us imagine that you are researching a family tree page that goes on and on, screen after screen, but you are only interested in finding someone who lived in Doncaster. Use the Search facility by typing in the word ‘Doncaster’, click Search and, in the blink of an eye, the first occurrence of the word ‘Doncaster’ is highlighted. This Search icon only searches the page that is open on the screen. We will be discussing search engines that search the entire web in Chapter 12.

Favorites Favorites – yes, American spelling I’m afraid but we know what they mean. From time to time you will come across something on the Web that you would like to revisit in the future. Unfortunately, the only reference point to ever finding this information again comes in the form of a web address (which is discussed in the later section entitled ‘Working with Web Addresses’), which probably looks like gobbledegook or something like this – http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/basics/ cssbasics2.html. I, for one, do not have the capacity to remember such strings of ‘computerbabble’. Luckily, we do not need to, as this is where the Favorites facility comes to our aid. To retain a record of the information or page you have found, click on the Favorites icon then choose Add to Favorites. You can include a description of the page in plain English for your future reference. To revisit an item of interest, simply click on Favorites, double-click on the page you want and the computer will do the rest.

History The function of History acts rather like an automatic Favorites facility in that the computer remembers every page you have visited over a certain period – usually 4–6 weeks. This wizardry allows you to retrieve a page that you forgot to add to your Favorites folder when visited during that period of time.

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Print The Print icon, which helpfully looks just like a little printer, does exactly that. Click on this icon to print out the web page you are viewing. Using this particular print facility will mean that the whole web page is printed out, including any advertisements shown on the page, which can be frustrating (and a waste of precious paper). (Check out the Tip for printing web pages on page 181).

Edit, Discuss and Messenger The Edit, Discuss and Messenger functions are a bit specialised in nature so I suggest you ignore them for the time being (I rarely use these facilities).

Looking at Web Pages We have covered the basic areas and functions of the Explorer browser window so now let us look at a browser window containing a web page. First, you need to search for a web page. How do you do this? Place the flashing cursor inside the address bar by clicking the mouse pointer anywhere within the address box and then start typing. In this case I typed www.imagineus.co.uk and then pressed the Enter key:

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For my explanation on web page windows I have asked the browser to find the web page – Imagineus – that I am developing for my pupils (at the time of going to press the website was still under development). Like this one, most web pages are designed using many colours to make the information look well-presented and inviting. Some even have flashing icons to grab your attention to a certain part of the page. Notice that many of the headings are underlined or displayed in a contrasting colour, usually blue as shown on this page but these colours do change from site to site. Blue underlined text or text of a different colouring usually suggests that the text is a link to another page. This can be confirmed by moving the arrow pointer over the text in question when, if there is a link, the arrow changes to a hand pointer (see next section).

Using links to access information Now we come to an extremely useful function of web pages – links. When you place the arrow pointer over an area of underlined or different coloured (very often blue) text the pointer shape changes to that of a hand, as shown here:

Changing to a hand confirms that the text is a link (short for hyperlink) and that by clicking on this text you will be taken directly to the linked page. In the example given above, if you clicked on the ‘Shopping’ link you would be taken to a page with more information about shopping websites. Further confirmation of whether a link is present will be apparent by checking the left-hand end of the status bar at the bottom of the window as shown here:

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where the ‘address’ of the web page appears, but only whilst holding the pointer over the link point, prior to clicking to connect to that area (the status bar displaying the address of the link is also pointed out on the screenshot on page 178). Look at the Imagineus home page window (page 178) and you will see more than 30 links on this page alone – all the blue text items in the right-hand column are links. Exploring the Web to the full is achieved by clicking on these types of links – even pictures can be links to further web pages. To give you an idea about of the power of links, let me take you on an imaginary journey through the World Wide Web. We are going to travel from a vintage Jaguar motor car to the Shroud of Turin. On our first page that gives the history of Jaguar motor cars we learn that they had carburettors (blue and underlined and therefore a link) so we click on the carburettors link, which takes us to an explanation of carburettors, which use the Venturi principle. The Venturi link takes us to the discoverer of the Venturi principle, Daniel Bernoulli, a Dutch Swiss living in Basel in the eighteenth century. The Basel link tells us that their football team is going to play Juventus in the European Cup. Clicking on Juventus informs us that the team is based in Turin where we find the Shroud. Simple, really! It is a little like looking up a subject in the printed version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and being sidetracked by other articles that appeal. The object of this apparently pointless exercise is to demonstrate the importance of links on the Web and, in doing so, we have got a little ahead of ourselves. In the Jaguar to Turin exercise it is all very well following the links but how do we get to the History of Jaguar Motor Cars page in the first place? This is where web addresses come in.

Working with Web Addresses Before we look at what you might find on and within a web page, you first need to discover how to find one. Every single item or page on the Web has a unique identifier – a web address. The address bar is found below the toolbar (as labelled on the screenshot on page 178) and is where you type the web address of the page you want to view into box. If there is already an address showing in the box you simply highlight that text, by left-dragging the mouse pointer across the text, and press the Delete key (on the keyboard) to empty it ready for you to input your new address. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Elements that make up a web address No doubt you have noticed that most television, magazine and newspaper adverts now provide strings of strange words instead of proper contact addresses. So something like www.britishbillabongs.co.uk probably means absolutely nothing to you other than it has something to do with the Net! Let me explain what makes up a web address. A web address normally starts with the letters www followed by a full stop – pronounced ‘dot’. This preamble text tells the computer that you are looking for a web page – not an email or that you want to download a program. The abbreviations at the end of the address (for example .co.uk) are known as ‘domains’ (you do not have to remember this info). In this case, the .uk tells us that it is probably

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a British website – .de would be a German site and .au is Australian. Our American cousins who, let’s face it have done a lot to develop the Internet, do things slightly differently. They have not adopted .us as a country domain but instead use .com, which is very confusing because many non-American companies also use .com as a domain. A word of further explanation might not go amiss at this stage. I mention that www. is the first part of a web address but this statement is not completely accurate in that when you type in a www. address the computer automatically inserts the letters http:// in front of the address. Recently, there has been a move to remove www from some addresses but even without it the address is always preceded by http://. This abbreviation stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol – something else you do not need to know about – it simply tells the receiving computer what language to use when reading the address. More importantly, you may also see web addresses preceded by https://, which include an ‘s’ on the end meaning that the particular page in question is secure. The security of the page is confirmed by the appearance of a padlock symbol on the taskbar along the bottom of the window. These pages invite you to enter various personal details in the knowledge that the transmission of such information will be safe. (Jump to Chapter 13 for more on security issues when using the Net.) The demand for web addresses has grown exponentially over the past few years with the result that .co and .com began to restrict the permutations available to new websites. Wisely, the Internet establishment recognised this problem and introduced several other domains, such as .net, .gov, .edu, .org, .name, .biz and .pro, among others. Some of these domain suffixes are restricted in their use. The domain suffix .edu denotes an educational website and .gov is reserved for governmental sites. Thus, www.homeoffice.gov.uk is the web page of the British Home Office, while www.mit.edu is the site of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – notice the omission of .us after the American site. Right, so that information deals with either end of a web address, now we come to the middle bit. This information is what makes a web address totally unique – different to any other web address in the whole world. Once someone has registered a web address, it is theirs to keep for as long as they maintain paying the small registration fee.

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Try It Interesting as all this might be, we are still no further towards getting a specific web address so let me introduce a little practicality here. Anyone who has listened to the radio or watched television in the United Kingdom will have heard the phrase ‘double–you–double–you–double–you–dot–b–b–c–dot–co–dot–u– k’, which is written as www.bbc.co.uk. This string is the web address of the BBC home page – a home page in this instance means the entry point to the website. So to get to this page you type in www.bbc.co.uk in the address box at the top of the browser window and press the Enter key, or click on Go. If your computer is not already connected to the phone (as in the case of dial-up) it will ask you if you wish to connect, in the same way as you did to send an email. Click on Connect, and after a few moment of waiting and strange sounds, the screen will display the BBC page with all its bells, whistles and links. Continuing on from the previous exercise where you brought up the home page of my website, you will see that this page contains a spider’s web of links (the bits where the pointer changes to a hand) to pages within the site and that these related sites are identified by the forward slash (/) symbol following the domain suffixes (as part of the link’s web address displayed in the bottom of the screenshot on page 178). To further demonstrate links to relates sites, let us say that you have just finished watching a television programme on antiques on a BBC channel at the end of which the presenter invites you to visit their website. The website will be shown on the screen as www.bbc.co.uk/antiques. If you type this information into the web address box you will be taken past the home page directly to the antiques site. Within the antiques page there will be yet further links, say to a price guide where the web address looks something like www.bbc.co.uk/ antiques/priceguide. The address gets longer the deeper you go into a site. Look at the web address of the link in the status bar given here:

and you will begin to appreciate the vast quantity of information available on the Web. But how do you know where to find specific information or products amongst everything out there on the Web? Do not worry as some clever people have already thought of how to overcome this problem. Help is at hand in the form of search engines and directories and I discuss these in the next chapter (Chapter 12). 180

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Tip From time to time when using a dial-up system or broadband, you may suddenly lose your telephone connection due to a number of technical reasons. A practical tip in these situations is to switch off your router or modem for about two minutes then switch it back on again. This action often kicks the connection back into gear.

Viewing PDF Files Sometimes you will come across websites or pages that are presented in a different format to those used in the majority of documents and web pages. This format is called PDF, an acronym standing for Portable Document Format, when documents have been created in a program (perhaps a word-processing program) and then saved as a PDF file. This format is a very useful and powerful method of presenting information but you do need a separate software program to be installed on your computer before you can access such documents. This software program, which is free to download, is called Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download this software by going to www.adobe.com and clicking on Adobe Acrobat Reader and following the simple guidelines for installing the program.

Tip To avoid printing out extraneous clutter on a web page, such as adverts, follow these instructions: 1. Select the text on the web page by dragging the mouse pointer over the desired section. 2. Go to File on the menu bar and choose Print. 3. Click on the Selection button. 4. Click on OK. Only the selected text will then be printed. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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1. What happens to the mouse pointer when positioned over a link on a web page? (a) It changes from white to black (b) It doesn’t do a thing (c) It changes to a hand pointer (d) It changes to an hourglass pointer

2. What does clicking on the Home icon do? (a) Takes you to your home page (b) Displays your home address (c) Displays a blank page (d) Opens the email program and places your home email address in the From box

3. How can you tell where links are on a web page? (a) They are always coloured blue (b) They are always underlined in blue (c) They change colour when the pointer passes over them (d) The mouse pointer changes to a hand when hovering over a link

4. What happens when you click on the Favorites icon? (a) You get a list of your favourite websites (b) You get a list of the most popular websites this month (c) Nothing unless you press the Ctrl key at the same time (d) You get a list of the most recent websites you have visited

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5. You have moved away your home page to link ‘1’ then link ‘2’. How do you get back to link ‘1’? (a) By pressing the Home icon and starting again (b) By pressing the Back icon once (c) By selecting View on the menu bar and choosing Back (d) By pressing the left-pointing arrow key on the keyboard

6. What characters do web addresses normally start with when you type them in? (a) WWW. (b) www. (c) @ (d) http://

7. What does the domain .com signify? (a) That the website could be anywhere in the world (b) That it is an American website (c) That it is a commercial website (d) That it belongs to an American company

8. How do you print out a web page? (a) Go to menu bar, click on File then Print (b) Click on the Print icon (c) Select the text you want to print, then click on File and select Print from the menu (d) Press CTRL+P

9. What is a search engine? (a) Something that lets you find what you want on the Web (b) Something that looks like a steam locomotive that you attach to your outside telephone wire www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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(c) Something that searches your computer for a particular file (d) An expensive addition to a desktop computer that you will not need

10. Which of the following could be valid web addresses? (a) ww.happenstance.co.uk (b) www.happenstance.co (c) http://www.happenstance.com.au (d) www.happenstance.com

Answers Q1 – c

Q6

– b

Q2 – a

Q7

– a (the others are not necessarily correct)

Q3 – d

Q8

– All four options would work

Q4 – a

Q9

– a

Q5 – b

Q10 – c and d

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Making the most of search engines and directories

12

Equipment needed – ISP connection, modem or router, printer, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer and Windows Vista Home Premium program or Windows XP – which both come with Internet Explorer Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), concept of email and the Internet (Chapter 9), basic experience of the Internet (Chapter 11)

Search engines and directories are essential to sift through the chaff of the Web to find that grain of information you looking for. The difference between a search engine and a directory is that the former is computer-automated while the latter is basically down to us human beings. Naturally, you might assume that humanly classified information is likely to be more useful than that generated by a mindless computer but this is not necessarily the case. Human beings can only classify a certain amount of data during a working day while computers can crawl through the Web at enormous speeds, all day, every day. That aside, there are advantages to both systems.

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Utilising Directories There are literally thousands of directories available to you on the Web – so many that to list the top twenty would only confuse you – so I will concentrate on two of the biggest, Yahoo and The Open Directory.

Yahoo Yahoo offers several directories spanning the world. Thus www.yahoo.com is the American directory and www.yahoo.co.uk, the British.

Reproduced from GoogleTM

Each directory has a number of major subject areas such as Arts, Business, Science and Society that are further subdivided into categories, as shown here:

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As an exercise, I did some browsing into this directory. I started by clicking on the Recreation & Sport link and then one of the many subcategories, in this case Outdoors, which contained a staggering 26 941 sites. Outdoors was further subdivided into many other categories of which I chose Boating (3426 sites) then Sailing (793) and finally, Clubs and Teams (208), a tiny section of which is presented here:


This fragment from the 208 clubs and teams listed under this subcategory shows two American, two British and one Ugandan site. By clicking on the final link you are eventually taken to the website of the club of your choice.

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Following my search path up to this point on paper might seem a little confusing, but when you consider the power that this directory has to offer it is truly amazing to be able to pinpoint information so accurately, so quickly.

Open Directory The Open Directory, also called the Open Directory Project, is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The directory can be located at www.dmoz.org.

As you can see, the Open Directory has a similar structure to Yahoo but the categorisation is a little different. Taking the same journey from Recreation, I travelled to Outdoors (16 924), Boating (3414), Sailing (1440) and Clubs (544). The

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Open Directory lists fewer sites under Outdoors and yet has more sailing Clubs than Yahoo. Directories can help you find the site you want but they do have their drawbacks. Their main disadvantage is their individual classification. Let us say you wish to learn something about the greenhouse disease, Cucumber Wilt – yes, it does exist. Where do you look? Home? Recreation? Science? Reference? This process can become very frustrating, which is where search engines can help.

Using Search Engines Once again, you have hundreds of search engines to help you find what you are looking for but two stand tall among the others – Google and Yahoo. Yahoo provides both a directory and a search engine but Google, which also has a directory site, dominates the realm of search engines.

Google The Yahoo home page is fit to bust with images, links, news, advertising and logos whereas the Google home page is refreshingly simple. Its power is only revealed when requesting a search. Note that the example given in the Try It feature is really a reverse method of how to find something when you actually know what you are looking for but I want to demonstrate how much information is out there and how to fine-turn your search results. (See the next section on useful methods for searching to ensure you get the best out of your search.)

Try It Use Google to locate information about a village in Colchester, called Boxted, by adding information step-by-step as to where this place is found in the country. Here is how you go about it: 1. Type www.google.co.uk into the address bar of Internet Explorer to bring up the Google home page:

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2. Type the word ‘village’ into the search box, click on Google Search or hit Enter on the keyboard. Within a couple of seconds the first 20 websites containing the word ‘village’ are displayed on the screen – the search should result in around 30 billion sites, which is not a lot of help to you at this stage. 3. Add the word ‘England’ to your search string then hit Search or press the Enter key again to bring up the next result. This search will raise over 3 million sites so the results are beginning to reduce. 4. Add the word ‘Essex’ and do another search. Narrowing the options still further drops the number to approximately 185 000 results. 5. Now include ‘Colchester’ to the search string, as this the village we want is near Colchester. The search should reduce the number to 33 000. 6. Adding ‘Stour’ to the search (as the village is close to the River Stour) offers 899 sites. 7. Finally, include ‘Boxted’ to the search string, which is the the name of the village your after. The search leaves you with 237 possibilities as shown here:

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Let me explain the results page format as labelled on the Google search example given above. The first entry on each result, in blue, is a summary and the link to the website; the black text below it provides a further description of the site; while the green text under this gives the actual web address. The browser remembers which sites you have visited recently and colours them purple for future reference – the example here shows that I have recently visited the Fat Birder website. 8. Even a reduced number of sites sometimes cannot all be accommodated on a single page (as in this example) so, to look at more of the results, scroll to the bottom of the first page and click on Next, as shown here:


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There is another contender for the search engine crown which is gaining ground rapidly. This is Cuil – pronounced ‘cool’ – at www.cuil.com,which was launched by two ex-Google programmers in July 2008. The advantage of this search engine is that it gives more comprehensive summaries and thumbnail images of the selected websites.

Useful Searching Tips Believe it or not but searching for information can be a tricky business. The following sections provide some guidance when searching on words and phrases.

Using phrases Normally, you would not conduct a search in the manner described in the Try It section but instead type in all the relevant words in the first instance. However, using words by themselves can create unnecessary results, as you will see in the example of searching for the New York Times. Entering the words ‘new york times’ (without the quotes) will bring up links to New Mexico, new books, York Minster, York ham, The Straits Times and the four-times table! You can overcome this problem by searching for a phrase enclosing it in doublequote marks, or inverted commas – “New York Times” (including the quotes this time) – which tells Google to find the whole phrase rather than search on every individual word. This method drastically improves the focus of the search result, reducing it from billions to double or even single figures.

Choosing upper or lower case Something that will probably cross your mind when carrying out searches is whether to use upper or lower case letters when typing in your search string. Well, you will be pleased to hear that it doesn’t matter, either way is just fine, or even if you accidentally mix them up. Google will find websites on London whether you type in ‘london’, ‘London’ or ‘lOnDoN’.

Excluding words Let’s just imagine that you wish to learn something about Manchester but not about Manchester United football team. By typing in the request phrase 192

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Manchester – “manchester united” (inserting a minus sign immediately before the “manchester united” bit) you will successfully eliminate all references to the Red Devils. Similarly, typing in the request “York – minster ham” will concentrate Google’s attention on York ham while ignoring any reference to the Minster. (But don’t forget that even this search may find a website referring to a ham actor appearing at the York repertory theatre.)

Tip To find a particular word on a web page that you cannot view as it is too long to fit your screen, type the command CTRL+F (Control key and ‘F’ at the same time) to bring up a dialog box, just like this:

Type the word that you want to find in the box and click on Find. The first instance of the word will appear highlighted on the page. Click on Find again to search for the next occurrence of the word, and so on. Congratulations, you have just completed the overview of how to use search engines and directories so I wish you a lot of fun and inspiration with ‘surfing the Web’.


1. What is the main difference between an internet directory and a search engine? (a) A search engine only gathers information that is not in a directory (b) A search engine relies upon directories www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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(c) A directory is printed and published (d) A directory is classified by humans while the search engine results are generated by computer

2. Which of the following are correct search terms for Google? (a) QPR (b) Queens’ Park Rangers (c) queens park rangers (d) ‘‘queens park rangers’’

3. How would you locate a specific word in a lengthy web page? (a) Type ‘find’ followed by the word in the address bar (b) Use CTRL+F (c) Click on Find from the Edit menu (d) Use ALT+F

4. How does Google display a page that you have already visited? (a) It doesn’t display visited pages (b) The link is coloured green (c) The link is coloured purple (d) The link is marked by an asterisk

5. What can types of things can you use Google to search for? (a) Images (b) Web pages (c) News (d) Your car keys

6. Which is better for searching the Web, a directory or a search engine? (a) A directory (b) A search engine 194

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(c) Both have their advantages (d) Neither – a ‘blog’ is better than either of them

7. Which of the following entries would find a phrase? (a) ‘Englands expects every man’ (b) England expects everyman (c) ‘‘England expects every man to do his duty.’’ (d) ‘‘every man to’’

8. What is the advantage of searching for phrases? (a) It is quicker (b) It is more accurate (c) It reduces the number of unrelated page links (d) It can only be used in directories

9. What must you do to use a directory? (a) Pay a subscription (b) Enter a word (c) Subscribe to the directory even though it is free (d) Have the telephone book ready

10. Which of the following are directories? (a) Google (b) Yahoo.co.uk (c) The Open Directory (d) Ewebpages.org

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Answers Q1 – d

Q6

– c

Q2 – All four options are correct

Q7

– c and d

Q3 – b and c

Q8

– b and c

Q4 – c

Q9

– b

Q5 – a, b and c

Q10 – All four. Yes, Google has a directory as well as a search engine

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Shopping ‘online’

13

Equipment needed – ISP connection, email address, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, Windows Vista Home Premium program or Windows XP program, which both come with Internet Explorer, and a valid credit or debit card

Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), concept of email and the Internet (Chapter 9), the Internet (Chapter 11) and knowledge of search engines (Chapter 23)

You can find a huge amount of bargains on the Web – but watch out for the cowboys, and I don’t mean John Wayne. Having said that, you can save a lot of money but only if you take simple precautions and use your common sense. If something sounds too good to be true that is because it probably is, especially once all the hidden extras have been revealed! First you need to search for the item you wish to buy, which you can do by browsing through the shopping category of one of the large directories (refer to Chapter 12). If you want an electrical appliance, all the regular high-street retailers, such as Currys, Comet, Dixons, have their own websites, too. Remember, there are no cash tills on the Net so in most instances you will have to pay by credit or debit card, which is the reason why so many newcomers to the Internet baulk at the idea of sending their card details across the ether. This chapter guides you along the path to safe and satisfying shopping. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Paying Safe with Credit and Debit Cards You have probably heard scary stories regarding the use of credit cards over the Net, but you might be surprised to hear that most of these stories are simply myths. The picture of balaclava-hooded Balkan Mafiosi intercepting your purchase of a new book from Waterstone’s website is a figment of a tabloid journalist’s imagination. You are far more likely to have your credit-card details stolen from a high-street shop’s tally roll or the theatre agency from whom you bought tickets over the telephone. Forging details of your credit or debit card requires sophisticated knowledge and equipment as well as a criminal tendency. This is not to say that it does not happen, of course it does, but it is very unlikely. There are car thieves who have developed instruments to steal the coded signal sent from your ignition key when you press the bleeper to unlock your car. They follow you home, relay the signal and drive off with your vehicle while you sleep. These people are out there but most of them are generated by the Hollywood film industry. It is a sad reflection on our times that we are more likely to lose our cards in a purse or wallet as a result of being mugged in the street than have the details stolen on the Internet. What I am trying to say is that using your card on the Web is as safe as using it anywhere else – or as risky. (Check out the section on ‘Considering Security Issues’ later in this chapter.)

Advantages to Shopping Online Just imagine that you can buy anything, anywhere in the world without stepping outside your front door – actually, you do not need to use your imagination as this is now a reality due to the Web. If you cannot get out and about easily or if you simply hate trailing around the shops then shopping via the Web could be a very welcome and practical experience. Purchasing goods from the Web and having them delivered straight to your door is an obvious advantage but how else might you benefit by shopping on the ‘online’ rather than traditional store shopping. There are several reasons why you can save when buying goods on the Internet, and the majority of internet companies are only to happy to pass these on savings to online purchasers. Go into any home-furnishing store where you will see hundreds of items of furniture on display, all of which have had to be delivered to the 198

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store, demonstrated by the staff, duly soiled by customers ‘trying them out’, and which eventually get delivered to your door. Staff and premises incur tremendous costs for a company in the form of wages, rent, rates, insurance, maternity/paternity leave and insurance. You find these expensive stores scattered across the country, just sitting there incurring costs waiting to make a sale. In contrast, a commercial web enterprise could be located just about anywhere in the country, having just one huge warehouse and delivering goods nationally by dependable carriers. They use computers to analyse and sort the orders, which reduces staff numbers allowing the company to buy in bulk and store products centrally. The saving in costs can be passed on to web customers, who are generally delighted to get something £50 cheaper than on the high street. Many companies advertise the fact that you will get a discount when purchasing their products on the Web.

Disadvantages to Shopping Online One slight disadvantage is that you do not get to view the merchandise before you buy but this fact does not prevent you from checking the goods in a shop and then ordering it for less on the Net. However, there are other considerations to take into account before making your purchases. Please do not be led to believe that everything is cheaper on the Web. You may see an item in one of the many catalogues that drop through your letterbox – with annoying regularity – offering the article at a ‘sale’ price. So you think, great, I will order it from their website, but when you come to look you will often find that the item is offered at the original price, and that you can only buy it at the discounted price by ordering in the traditional mail-order way. Strange but true! Another factor to bear in mind is that, should anything go wrong, it is far easier to deal with a local shop than a warehouse 300 miles away. Paying out the return postage of a heavy item could soon wipe out any savings you may have made on the initial purchase – best to check out their Returns Policy prior to ordering. When you buy a fridge/freezer from a local store they will very often arrange for the disposal of your old one. Most certainly, the independent carrier delivering your newly acquired fridge will not, leaving you with the cost and inconvenience of its disposal. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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The Net is not necessarily cheaper Beware of falling into the trap that the Internet is always cheaper than the high street or mail order. Shops and mail order companies will often offer sale goods that are not advertised at the reduced prices on their websites. You may be able to buy a shop display item at a considerable discount while there is no opportunity for a good old-fashioned haggle on the Internet.

Tips 1. Bear in mind that goods bought from abroad may well incur import charges and duty that wipes out any saving made on the original purchase. Goods bought within the European Community do not attract duty or VAT charges. 2. Use credit cards for items over £100 in value to get the added protection from the card company. 3. You have the right to change your mind about a purchase during the 7 days following the transaction but you must notify the company of this decision, in writing, within 30 days. 4. Having decided against a purchase you may have to pay for the return costs of the goods (check the company’s Returns policy). 5. Check out the companies Terms and Conditions. They contain useful information. 6. Make sure you have a telephone contact number and a valid address – not just a Post Box number – for the company you are dealing with.

Considering Security Issues Common sense should tell you that making a transaction with a large national company is more likely to be secure than dealing with one called ‘Cheap Cigarettes’ that does not even display an address or telephone number on their website.

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When visiting an unknown site keep a careful eye on any small print and explore the site fully before forming an opinion of the company. NEVER give out your banking details unless you are absolutely confident about who you are dealing with. There have been many instances over the past few years of emails purporting to be from your high-street bank or building society asking you to confirm your account details. Banks do not send out such correspondence – so avoid these messages like a dose of MRSA.

Steps to improve your financial security on the Internet Everytime you make a transaction online always follow all the suggestions listed here: O Check that the website displays a full postal address and telephone number (you could also ring the telephone number to verify these details and check that the company exists). O Chose only well-known, trusted retailers or sites used and recommended by friends. O Use credit cards for high-value purchases as credit-card companies usually offer fraud protection. O When visiting a site, type in the web address in the Address bar rather than following a link provided in an email. O Check that the website’s address begin with https:// and display a padlock (see padlock symbol in margin) in the bottom right-hand corner of the web page where you input your banking details. O Check that the website display a security certificate from a trusted company such as Verisign. (Double-click on the certificate icon to check the certificate details.) O Register your credit cards with VerifybyVisa or Mastercard Securecode. Upon making a financial transaction you will be asked to verify your name and password to complete the purchase. O Use a trusted money transfer system such as PayPal (see Chapter 15)

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The Mechanics of Web Shopping Almost all shopping sites use the same structure in that you select the item you wish to buy, place it in your virtual shopping basket, proceed to the virtual checkout, submit your name, address and card details and finally confirm your order. For example, let us say that a friend has shown you some stainless-steel food storage bowls and you decide that you would like to buy a set for yourself. She tells you that she bought them from the Lakeland Company in Windermere, Cumbria but how do you go about making the purchase? The instructions that follow here are representative of the general method for buying goods from most shopping sites. 1. Using a search engine, such as Google, run a search for the words “Lakeland windermere storage”, which will find the website at www.lakelandlimited. com. 2. Click on this link, which will take you to the home page of Lakeland:

Reproduced by permission of Lakeland Limited.

3. On the home page you have a number of alternatives available to you for finding the product you want – you can click on the kitchenware link or enter the word ‘storage’ in the keyword search box or, if you know it, enter the product reference code. 202

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4. Eventually you will navigate your way to the product you want to purchase (kitchenware then food storage):


5. Click on the product to obtain the price and a detailed description of the item:


6. Click on the shopping basket icon (Add to shopping basket). 7. After clicking the Add to shopping basket icon, you will be shown what items are currently in your shopping basket (my basket), the quantity and price per item. Further options and information are also given so you need to carefully check the details as follows (see the boxes marked on My Basket image on page 204): Box 1 – The fee for postage & packing; this cost can vary from company to company so ensure you are happy to incur the fee displayed as it can add a www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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significant cost to a small purchase, or alternatively select a quicker shipping method if you require a faster delivery (but it will cost extra). Box 2 – Information about delivery and returns; you would be wise to check the details shown here in the event that you need to return the item. Box 3 – Details of the company’s registered office; always check that an address and contact telephone number are displayed should anything go wrong.


8. Click on Purchase. This is the part where your heart rate begins to rise. What have I committed myself to? Calm down, they don’t even know your name or address yet, never mind your credit-card details. Your life is not in their hands so go on, live dangerously and click on Purchase. In many instances, a Security Warning dialog box (see page 205) appears explaining that your security is important to the company. If you are in any doubt about the security of a page double-check that the web address starts with https:// and that a padlock icon is displayed in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. 9. Now you come to the point where you have to give details about yourself. Shopping sites vary in the format they use to receive this information. Some 204

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will ask you to Login, Register or Join where you will be asked for your name, address, telephone number, a user name and password. Others choose to ask you to fill in an order form similar to the usual mail-order format. Fill in these details and click on Submit. If you have omitted certain essential pieces of information you will be prompted of any errors when you try to submit the completed page.


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By logging in or joining, the company can retain your details so that future orders can be processed without the need to fill in the details all over again. Your details are protected by the user name and password you choose so make a note of them for future use. The principle of choosing these words is the same we used when choosing the username and password for the email account (refer to Chapter 9). The user-name can be very simple like your initials and name (without spaces) but the password must be something that is memorable to you but unlikely to be guessed by outsiders – the name of your favourite dog spelt backwards for instance – but not so obscure that you are going to forget it in a few weeks time.


Password characteristics vary from company to company; in the example above, pointing at the question mark beside the password box brings up the information that the password must be at least 5 characters long. Most Login forms ask you to verify the password in case you have made a typing error and many will offer a reminder facility. If you forget your password you can contact the company and ask to be reminded of your password. They will not release the password for security reasons but they will give you the reminder prompt that you chose originally, in order to jog your memory. 10. Click on Submit and the company’s computer will check that all is in order. If you have forgotten to complete one or more of the ‘required information’ boxes you will be returned to the Login page with the reason why it has not been accepted. Correct any errors and Submit the form again. With me so far? Well done!

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11. Now you come to the credit card bit. If you have decided to go ahead with your purchase, fill in your card details very carefully. Remember – none of this information will leave your computer until you give the command but it is wise to consider, at this stage, whether you really want to buy. The reason for this is that while most sites will display the full details of your purchase before asking you to confirm the order, others may transmit it without further confirmation. Some sites will offer you the option of printing out a summary of the transaction. 12. That’s it! You have completed your first purchase on the Net. Within a very short time you should get an email confirming your order with a reference number for any queries you may have. However, in the event that you get panicky, but you need to act very quickly at this point, you could cancel the order by phone quoting the order number. I say quickly because some commercial sites are astonishingly fast – the company I order my printer inks from might receive my order at 4.00 p.m. and the goods will be delivered to my home by 10.00 a.m. the next day. This example gives the basic structure of a shopping site that can be applied to most web outlets. I suggest that you visit a number of these sites and practise searching for various goods, checking their description and putting them in your shopping basket – without the final stage of entering your financial details (yes, you can simply delete the items from your shopping basket or use the Back icon) – to build up your confidence in navigating through the process thus far before taking the final step and actually ordering that certain something you really cannot live without.

Visiting Price Comparison Sites While on the subject of shopping, a few words on the many price comparison sites that appear on our television screens would not go amiss. These comparison sites can save a great deal of hard work on your behalf but I would urge you to compare prices across a number of sites as their offerings can differ significantly. Many sites offer useful comparison between financial services such as insurance, savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages and loans while others extend their range to include everything from holidays to household furniture.

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Some of the sites that I have found to be most useful compare your own utility prices with better offers from other companies. I have recently reduced my annual outgoings on heating and lighting our home by over £200 a year using one of these comparison sites. In the case of utilities, the changeover to a cheaper supplier is simplicity itself. Having entered your current expenditure on gas and electricity, the site compares all the current offers against your present supplier’s costs and then invites you to click on the Change icon – and that’s it. The rest of the work is done automatically by the new company who will arrange the changeover– even to notifying your current supplier. Comparing prices on these sites is a useful exercise in budgeting your household accounts – even if you decide against taking up any of the offers. You will get a lot of useful information before you actually commit to a change and provides ammunition for haggling with your current suppliers. Even the most comprehensive comparison sites cannot cover every company and some companies have opted out of their inclusion on such sites so be prepared to do your own homework. Some offers may have lapsed by the time you decide to take them up so check with the individual retailer that the facts given on the website are accurate. The comparison sites will not include some short-term sale items only available on the high street – the Internet does not guarantee the lowest prices. You can find a useful list of these price comparison sites in Appendix A.


1. Why are prices often cheaper on the Internet? (a) The products are generally of a lower quality (b) The company incurs lower overheads (c) Most internet goods are shop soiled (d) Goods are sold in greater quantities over the Internet

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2. When is it safe to give out your bank account details on the Net? (a) Almost anytime because bank details are secure and encrypted (b) Only when you see a padlock icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen (c) Never (d) When you know the company you are dealing with

3. How might you lose your credit-card details? (a) By being mugged (b) Having your car and its contents stolen (c) Dropping it out of your purse or wallet (d) Buying something over the telephone

4. What happens if you put an item into your ‘shopping basket’ on a shopping website? (a) Not a lot (b) You have committed yourself to buying the goods (c) They must be delivered within 7 working days (d) The company gains access to your credit card details

5. What are the disadvantages of shopping on the Web? (a) You cannot touch and see the item that you are buying (b) There are some cowboys out there (c) Any savings you might make are wiped out by the postage and packing costs (d) The company will need to know details of your bank account

6. When might high-street shops offer better value than on their website? (a) It can be easier to return unwanted goods (b) Heavy goods might be delivered free of charge

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(c) Shops may offer to remove your old goods that are being replaced (d) During the sales

7. What are you likely to find on the Amazon website – www.amazon. co.uk (a) Geographical details of a South American river (b) Photographs of aggressive women (c) A catalogue of amazing images of Britain (d) A book store

8. What products can you buy on the Internet? (a) Razors (b) Grass seed (c) Petrol (d) Guaranteed health

9. What suggests that a company website can be trusted? (a) A full postal address (b) A valid telephone number (c) A VAT number (d) A website that shows https in its web page address when you are entering personal details

10. How do you get a company to remind you of your forgotten password? (a) By telephone (b) By post (c) By fax (d) By email

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Answers Q1 – b

Q6

– All four answers are correct

Q2 – c

Q7

– d


Q8

– a and b

Q4 – a

Q9

– a, b and c

Q5 – a and b

Q10 – d

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Travelling via the Web

14

Equipment needed – ISP connection, printer, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, Internet Explorer program (which comes with Windows XP Home and Windows Vista Home Premium) and a valid credit or debit card Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), email and internet concepts (Chapter 9), using the Internet (Chapter 11) and knowledge of search engines (Chapter 12)

Travel, especially by air, has become so much cheaper in recent years largely thanks to the Internet. EasyJet, Ryanair and their competitors have been able to reduce airfares to ridiculously low levels by insisting on web ticketing, forcing the big players like British Airways to follow suit. Central computerisation has reduced the need for local travel agents to issue paper tickets and therefore their commission. This ongoing battle for seat occupancy offers very economic travel, affording great opportunities for us, the travelling public. I will leave the debate about carbon footprints to others. This chapter focuses on searching out and booking flights but the same principles and considerations apply when arranging full-blown holiday packages (home or away), hotels and B&Bs, cruises or ferry journeys, rail or coach travel. (If you have an appetite for travel, head to Appendix A for some useful websites to set you on your way.) www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Knowing What Makes a Good Deal ‘Fly to Carcassonne for £6.50’ sounds too good to be true and, in some respects, it is. The prices quoted are almost invariably for one-way fares, but even then £13 is still ridiculously cheap so what is the catch? In fact, there are three. First, the price rarely covers airport taxes and fees that are often somewhat more than the cost of the ticket. I checked out a flight from Stansted airport to Prague for which the advertised fare was £1.99. The return was a paltry £9.99. This gives a return fare of £11.98, to which £25.09 of taxes and charges is added, giving a total fare of £37.07 – still very good value but a definite increase on the advertised price. Second, the airlines only sell a certain number of seats at these low prices and if you leave your booking until the last moment you will find that all the low-priced tickets have been snapped up so you are left paying a much higher price. The ticketing example given in the previous paragraph was booked for a flight in two months’ time. If I needed to travel tomorrow, say on a Monday, and return the following Friday, then the figures are very different. The outward fare is quoted at £109.99 and the return £69.99, so adding the same taxes and charges of £25.09 that comes to a total of £205.07. Third, the low advertised costs are often quoted for inconvenient times. The figures quoted previously are for the most popular flight times – leaving at lunchtime on the Monday and returning at a reasonable hour on the Friday morning. But I could reduce the cost by electing to fly at unsocial hours. I could leave for Prague at 6.30 a.m. on the Monday morning and return on Friday at five minutes to midnight in which case the total cost would come down to £100.07. Also be aware that some travel companies automatically add in ‘optional’ travel insurance fees so you may want to opt out of these if you prefer to shop around for a better deal of travel insurance or are already covered. In the event that you need to change your flight times or dates then the penalties will add considerable cost to your trip. Forward planning and an acceptance of flying at inconvenient times will ensure a real bargain.

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Resorting to Traditional Booking As with most things in life, you never have just one way of doing something. The Web can certainly bring details of flights and holidays into your own home but there is still a place for the traditional high-street travel agent. Local travel agents often offer last minute travel deals that are cheaper than those on the Net. The flight agencies that advertise in the travel sections of the weekend papers can often find a better deal over the telephone rather than relying on their websites. By their very nature, websites tend to be inflexible compared to a sympathetic agent speaking directly to you, especially if you need to make special arrangements due to disability.

Making a Booking The steps shown here are a good representation for booking any travel or holiday arrangements in that you have to select your place of departure, your destination, the time and date of arrival and departure confirming your length of stay. For hotel accommodation you would also need to select the level of accommodation (room type) and meal package (B&B, full-board, half-board). But do not worry as most travel websites are well-organised and will guide you through all the necessary stages of your booking – just take your time when completing each requirement. You may decide to take a week’s holiday in Venice after seeing a Ryanair advertisement for cheap flights. A step-by-step example of the booking process follows: 1. Go to the Ryanair site (www.ryanair.co.uk). 2. From the home page look for the Flights tab. Yes, I know that you could easily be distracted by all the information and activity on this page but you can see the Flights tab on the screenshot on page 216. 3. Select your departure and destination airports together with the dates of travel from the drop-down menus (from the boxes marked with down arrows, where your choice should be highlighted in blue as per the example on page 216). Remember, to select whether Return or One Way and the number of passengers.

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Reproduced by permission of Ryanair Ltd.

4. Then click on Book Cheap Flights to view the available fares. The next screen will offer you a list of Going Out and Coming Back flight options (see screenshot on page 217). 5. Click on the button against the flights you want and proceed to the next stage. 6. You are then presented with a summary of the flights and total cost of airfare (see screenshot on page 218). (Notice the blue links that provide you with details of the Taxes, Fees, Charges and handling fees). 216

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7. It is important to read the terms and conditions information (click on the light blue link in the yellow box to display them as shown on page 218). Confirm your acceptance by clicking on the box (see image, top of page 219). 8. Completion of the booking is getting near. Fill in the passenger names and your credit-card details as shown in the screenshots on pages 219 (bottom) and 220 (similar to the manner described in Chapter 13) and, after making sure that everything is in order, click on Buy Tickets. Make sure you only click once on the buy button otherwise you may buy double to number of tickets you need. You should also be given the option to print out the details for your records and be sent confirmation of your transaction via email. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Shopping for Bargain Flights Made Easier Many websites have sprung up on the Web who specialise in advertising bargain airfares available from every UK airport. These sites trawl through the current offerings of hundreds of other travel agent sites, consolidating the information onto their own site for ease of use by customers. They do not sell tickets but work on behalf of travel agents. You may be happy to short-cut your own search for flights via use of these sites as bargain hunting can be an exhausting experience. However, be aware that very often the only means of contact displayed for these agencies is their telephone number, which rather defeats the object of web booking. If you do make use of this service, make sure that they offer a link to the travel agent’s website so that you check the accuracy of the prices, timetables and seat availability provided by the advertising site. 218

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Travelling Without Tickets Many airlines are now using ticketless systems for internet booking – you do not get issued with the traditional paper ticket. Instead, you are issued with a reference code to quote at the check-in desk, which brings up your details on the computer. The first time I used this system it did feel very strange not to be clutching a familiar ticket to go with my passport and other documents. I definitely experienced a frisson of anxiety up and down my spine as I approached the desk but, happily all went smoothly on that, and all subsequent, occasions. It takes a little getting used to – just do not forget to make a note of your reference number.

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1. Why might some travel tickets be cheaper on the Web? (a) The travel company has lower overheads (b) Internet tickets have lower security costs (c) They only deal in economy fares (d) Ticketing is done automatically by computer

2. Under what circumstances might you get cheaper fares? (a) By telephoning a bucket shop (b) By travelling at unsocial times (c) By booking some time ahead (d) By travelling to smaller airports

3. What methods can you use to insure your travel arrangements? (a) By having an annual travel policy (b) There is no insurance for travel by web tickets (c) Paying by credit card (d) By buying insurance while you are booking your tickets

4. If your ticket does not arrive in the post what should you do? (a) Ring the airline (b) You rarely get a ticket posted to you in the mail (c) Check your email (d) Panic and rush to the nearest travel agent

5. What do you need with you to check-in at the airport? (a) Your passport (b) Some means of identification

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(c) Your booking reference number (d) Only one item of luggage

Answers Q1 – a and d

Q4 – b and c

Q2 – All four might bring the price down

Q5 – b and c (plus a, when travelling abroad)

Q3 – a, c and d

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Buying and selling on internet auctions

15

Equipment needed – ISP connection, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, Internet Explorer program (which comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows XP) and a valid credit or debit card

Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), email and Internet concepts (Chapter 9), using the Internet (Chapter 11), knowledge of search engines (Chapter 12) and a fair share of common sense

The British public appear to have an insatiable appetite for television auction programmes. This apparently unfulfilled appetite is now spreading through another media – the Internet – as confirmed by a Google search that found over 5 million references to internet auction sites. Internet auction sites are available for every conceivable item: cars, antiques, art, books, office furniture, houses, computers and ballet memorabilia, literally anything goes. There are auctions for gays and lesbians, and sites offering you £25 free credit, and even one calling itself Trotters Independent Tradings! You can also buy online from numerous Government auction sales: police auctions, car auctions, liquidation sales, property auctioneers, bankrupt stock sales, antique auctions, Customs and Excise sales, computer auctions, and goods seized by the Bailiffs, Courts and the Inland Revenue! You can check them all out on Google. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


Caveat emptor – buyer beware! Take heed of a few pragmatic considerations before launching into this chapter. Just like the contestants on television auction shows, you are unlikely to make a profit at an auction house by selling on goods bought cheaply at an antiques fair. And personally, if I wanted to buy a Regency card table I would most certainly want to examine it thoroughly with my own eyes and hands – something you cannot do on the Net. Finally, you may find bargains galore at car auctions but, unless you are a competent mechanic and can listen intelligently to the engine, your newly acquired bargain may very well turn out to be a rust bucket. Now that I have scared you rigid, let me just offset the downsides by saying that if you prefer to stick to safer ground and visit traditional auction sales then do use the Internet for gaining advance warning of auction sales in your local area. But you may be more interested to hear that I use Internet auction sites on a regular basis, and one in particular – eBay.

Discovering the Wonders of eBay eBay is one of the true internet phenomena – an ongoing success story. Some traders spend their whole lives making a good income from buying and selling on eBay, while others simply use it to sell items that they no longer need or to buy goods that look like good value. Let me share a couple of my own eBay experiences with you. A year ago I unearthed an old Bolex Super-8 cine camera that I had not used for 35 years having converted to camcorders. What was the point in holding on to it? I offered it for sale to various local photographic dealers in the area who expressed a uniform lack of interest. Figuring I had nothing to lose by doing so, I took five photographs of the camera and its accessories and placed them on the eBay site together with an honest description of the camera. I put up a reserve of £25, then waited with some interest. Over the next seven days the bids began to dribble in from the north of England, Wales and outer London before a final bid of £125 from Scotland secured the sale. The buyer also paid for the carriage and three weeks later I received an unexpected email from him telling me that the camera was everything he had wished for and he now had some wonderful cine memories of his recent holiday to the Western Isles. Two very happy people. My wife and I have a number of young grandchildren who are into every form of computer entertainment available. In spite of this technology, they also enjoy 224

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beating their grandad at board games. Unfortunately, our old Snakes and Ladders game is long gone so I decided to check out eBay and found a pristine boxed game for £2.20 plus postage.

Registering on eBay While you are free to browse the eBay offerings you must register in order to buy and sell items on the site. Registration is free and comparatively simple – if you have been successful in booking a flight on the Web (refer to Chapter 14) you will have no difficulty navigating your way through eBay.

These materials have been reproduced with permission of eBay Inc. © 2008 EBAY INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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1. Using Internet Explorer, load the eBay page by visiting www.ebay.co.uk and click on Register (refer to the eBay home page on page 225):


2. Enter your name, address, telephone number and also a User ID and Password. Your User ID will be your nickname to identify yourself on eBay and must be more than two characters long, which can be letters, numbers and certain symbols. It should start with a letter or number and must not contain spaces or the or @ symbols. Examples of suitable User IDs are allig8tor, ChUnKy54 or Mi5ter_$mith – just be sure to remember it – write it down and save it in a safe place. Similar rules apply to passwords and they should use a combination of six to eight numbers, letters or special characters. Passwords help to keep your details secure so choose wisely. Do not use your part of your user ID as your password, your birthday, your pet’s name or other details that can be easily guessed by others. 3. Finally, ensure that you read and understand the user agreement and privacy policy. eBay does insist on customers adhering to the rules as occasionally people do abuse the policy of trust that is required for the system to function. eBay have recently improved their procedures to reduce the abuse and they will act as conciliators between two disputing parties. Click to agree, then on Register. 226

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You will be notified during the registration process if your chosen ID or password has already been allocated or if you have submitted a non-permitted format. If your email address is one of the webmail formats, such as Hotmail, Bigfoot or Yahoo, you will be asked for your credit-card details for identification purposes only – you will not be charged a fee. And that’s it – you are ready to bid or sell on eBay.

Buying on eBay Once you have registered you can start hunting down those bargains. Let us run through the general process of placing a bid for an old Roman coin, for want of a better example. 1. Again using Internet Explorer, go to www.ebay.co.uk to open the eBay home page.

Sell tab


2. You can search through the various categories (shown on the left in the example above) but sometimes it can be difficult to guess which heading will contain your desired item. In this instance, we choose to simply click on the Buy link and type ‘coin’ into the Search box as shown here: www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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3. After clicking on Search, a result of nearly 6000 lots with the word ‘coin’ in the description is apparent so the search needs to be refined, which can be done by clicking on the most likely category where we might find a Roman coin, which in this case would be ‘Ancient’:


4. Gradual refinement of the search will lead you to Roman coins where you will find items of various denarii (or ancient Roman silver coins!). 228

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The item at the top of the image here shows a small picture of a Roman denarius and tells us that there have been 14 bids so far, thus raising the price to £47. The postage of £4.85 will be added to the successful bid and the auction is due to end in 1 day, 6 hours, and 12 minutes time (far right of the image). 5. Having decided that we would like to take a closer look at one of these offers, click on the short heading (indicated by the hand pointer) and description to bring up further details of the item in question as shown here: www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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This page provides information on the coin but also about the seller. In this case, we can see that the seller’s nickname is ‘biffabacon10’ and that he has completed 2131 transactions with a 99.9% positive feedback on eBay to date. Every time you complete a transaction to buy you will be asked to post feedback to eBay on how well (or badly) the deal went through so that future buyers can judge the credibility of each buyer and vendor. For instance, you may notice that the current highest bidder – supercat09 – has only made three transactions to date and by clicking on his link you can find out his feedback rating. The vendor also has an eBay shop called Rubicon Coins and Artefacts and if you click on this link it will take you to the other items that he is selling at this time. There is also a 230

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link to ask the seller any question about the article for sale should you have any doubts about the merchandise. 6. Bidding is normally slow at first but very often builds to a frenzy of bids being placed in the last 10 minutes of the auction time. Say that you decided you were happy to pay just over £100 for this coin, in which case I would suggest that you placed a bid of something like £101.75 if you wanted it. Your bid will be posted as the lowest amount – up to £101.75 – that exceeds the current highest bid, which may be as little as £50. If another bidder comes along and offers a bid of £75 your bid will be automatically raised to overbid him by a set amount, usually one or five pounds. So without any further action from you your bid will be raised to £80. You will be notified by email when your bid has been overtaken. This activity may happen during the last ten minutes of the auction so if you really want to acquire the coin you may have to sit by your computer during that time so that you are ready to increase your bid as quickly as possible. 7. Should you be successful in buying the lot you will receive a congratulatory email informing you of your successful bid as well as one from the seller informing you of the total amount due to be paid. Now we come to the business of paying, which can be done in several different ways – by cheque, credit card or PayPal – depending upon the seller’s instructions. Most sellers will require any cheque to be cleared before sending the goods and this process can add to the time it takes for the item to arrive. So what exactly is PayPal? Let us take a look in the next section.

Paying via PayPal Basically, PayPal is a highly respected organisation that transfers money securely across the globe for which it charges about 5% of the amount concerned but only to the receiver (buyer). The sender (seller) is charged nothing. The majority of regular eBay sellers utilise PayPal services largely because the business was originated by eBay but has since been sold off as a separate concern. How does it work? Registering with PayPal costs nothing and the process is very simple. 1. Go to www.paypal.com and click on Sign up (located at the bottom of the example on page 232). www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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2. Choose a Personal Account for Online Shoppers:

3. Proceed to fill in the online application form to create a PayPal account (see the example form on page 233). (You can feel safe in the knowledge that, with https:// preceding the page address and the padlock symbol showing at the bottom right-hand corner, your financial details are secure.) You are asked to complete the security questions and answers in case you forget your password and need to be issued with a new one. 232

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4. Once again it is prudent to check the User Agreement details and if you are happy to comply with PayPal’s terms and condition, complete the registration by clicking on ‘I Agree’:

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5. Having submitted the application form for a PayPal account, the company will debit your credit-card account with a small sum carrying a transaction number. PayPal will then email you with a web link to complete the registration. Once you receive your credit-card statement containing the transaction number, click on the PayPal link in the email quoting the transaction number, which they then verify, and that’s it! This slightly convoluted system is simply a means to verify that you are the person with the quoted credit-card account. It is all a matter of security. The small amount debited will be credited back to your credit-card account once the PayPal account is set up. All future transactions through PayPal will then be credited or debited through your credit card account in the normal way. The PayPal system avoids having to give out your credit-card details to all and sundry with the added advantage of getting your money refunded if you are dissatisfied with the goods in any way. It is not just eBay that uses PayPal, many other companies are now accepting payment by credit card and you can even send funds to individuals across the world if they have a PayPal account. You retain all the security inherent in your creditcard account. Don’t forget that any recipient of funds will have 5% of those funds deducted by PayPal from the original amount. As a final point about using PayPal on eBay, let us just return to the example of paying for your successful bid (flip back to page 229). Look at the image listing the Roman coins for sale. Alongside many of the items listed you will see a ‘P’ logo. This ‘P’ means that the seller is prepared to accept payment by PayPal. The seller will send you an invoice by email that facilitates payment by PayPal and you just have to follow the instructions where you will be taken to the PayPal website to complete the payment. This payment is immediate and the goods should be on their way to you by the next working day. You still have the opportunity to discuss any difficulties with the seller after the auction has finished.

Selling on eBay If you are interested and confident about using the eBay site, I would suggest that you start off by browsing what is for sale and perhaps buying one or two low-cost items that are of interest to you. After a couple of weeks you could then think about offering an item for sale on the site. This approach will helps you find your way around the eBay site without committing yourself to any major expense. Once you are familiar with the site you can start selling. 234

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The selling process involves following about ten steps together with taking a few digital photos of the item. (Photographs are not essential to selling but they greatly increase your chances of attracting attention, and of course a sale.) Here is how you go about it. 1. To start, I am taking great liberties in assuming that you have already produced the necessary photos of your items and transferred them to a folder on your computer (skip to Chapter 18 if you need to know how). 2. Using Internet Explorer, go to www.ebay.co.uk to open the eBay home page. 3. Look back to the image on page 227 that indicates where to locate the Sell tab (next to the Buy tab). Click on this tab to bring up the next page then login with your eBay nickname and password. (Remember, you cannot buy or sell anything on eBay without registering – refer to the earlier section on how to register.) 4. After logging into your account you will be presented with a page like this:


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You are requested to select a descriptive title and the category of the item you wish to offer for sale. In this example, I am going to assume that you want to sell a wireless router that you no longer need. Type in a couple of descriptive words to identify the type of lot you are hoping to sell and then click on Find a Category. eBay will list a number of possible categories so click on the one most applicable to your item. 5. Moving down the submission page, you are requested to add a photograph. Click on the first ‘Add a photo’ and navigate your way through to the folder where you saved your images, click on the file and choose Upload and wait for the process to be completed. The first photo is free of charge and will appear alongside the description of your goods. This image is known as the Gallery image. Add any further photos that you think might attract the attention of potential buyers. Each additional photo will cost you 14 pence. 6. Next you need to include a detailed but concise description of your goods, so make sure your information is accurate and to the point. 7. Now you are required to set a starting price below which the item will not sell. If you really want to sell the item at any cost it is a good idea to set it at a low price to encourage bidding. You must also stipulate the length of time for the auction to run – I would normally recommend seven days. 8. Select the type of postage or courier you propose to use for sending the item to the buyer or simply put in a standard price. You can choose to offer to send your item worldwide, restrict it to the UK or anywhere in between. eBay even offers you a postage calculator. 9. Now you have to state your preference regarding payment. If you have already registered with PayPal leave the box ticked. Otherwise, click on ‘Other methods of payment’ and choose another option. 10. Click on Save and Preview. eBay then calculates any fees incurred, which will deducted from your eBay account (again normally paid through your credit card) as well as a preview of how your page will look upon submission. If you are not happy with the look, description or photos you can always edit them to your heart’s content before finally submitting the listing. 11. Okay, when you are happy hit Submit.

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Tips O Arrange your auction so that it ends on a weekend, or if during the week so that it ends by 10 p.m. in the evening, or preferably both. This arrangement allows for serious bidders who have frequent access to their computers to raise their bids at the last minute. If you choose to submit your listing at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday to run for a week, the bidding will end at 11 a.m. the following Tuesday, which if you think about it is when most people will probably be out at work or shopping. O Make use of Auctiva – www.auctiva.com – which is an independent program that integrates fully with eBay, allowing you to set the time and date of submission whenever you want. O Try entering a listing on eBay up to the Preview stage only, purely as an exercise to build your confidence of how the system works. Choose an item for sale, upload some photos, include a title and category, write a good description, calculate the postage fees then click on Save and Preview to peruse your efforts. Up to this point, you have not placed your lot on the site for auction, and will not do so until you actually click on Submit – which is the very last step to the process. O Try your hand at buying and selling a few small items, such as Christmas stocking fillers, to broaden your experience of using eBay (which has the added bonus of raising your feedback numbers) – before you think about selling off the family car.


1. What happens if you are outbid with an hour to go before the auction ends? (a) You cannot enter a second bid (b) Wait until there is only five minutes to go then enter a higher bid (c) Curse your luck (d) Look for a similar item and place a higher bid

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2. The current highest bid is £10 but you put in a bid of £20. What happens? (a) The current price is raised to £20 (b) The current price is raised to outbid any other bidders up to £20 (c) The vendor will email you and offer the item at £20 (d) You will get a message telling you of the current highest bid

3. What do you have to do to buy an item on eBay? (a) Register with eBay (b) Pay a joining fee (c) Pay a £100 deposit (d) Nothing

4. How do you ask a question about an auction lot? (a) Email eBay (b) Email the seller (c) Go to the seller’s website (d) Double-click on the item

5. When is a good time to end your auction? (a) 8.30 a.m. (b) 4.00 p.m. (c) At the weekend (d) 9.30 p.m.

6. How do you find out what kind of a person your seller is? (a) Email eBay (b) Get a credit rating (c) Check their feedback rating (d) Check their email address 238

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7. What would you do if the goods do not arrive after you have paid? (a) Email the seller (b) Notify eBay (c) Hire a lawyer (d) Put it down to experience

8. What is PayPal? (a) A method of transferring money to your friends (b) An American company that does not operate over here (c) A computer virus (d) A system of transferring money across the globe

9. Why should you show photographs of your item? (a) They make the page look better (b) They attract more bidders (c) You cannot sell an item unless there is a photo (d) They reduce the cost of selling

10. Who pays for the delivery of the goods? (a) The seller (b) eBay (c) The postage and packing is included in the bid price (d) The buyer

Answers Q1

– b

Q6

– c

Q2

– b and d

Q7

– a then b

Q3

– a

Q8

– d (answer a only if they have a PayPal account)

Q4

– b

Q9

– b

Q5

– c and d

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Loading software programs

16

Equipment needed – A program disk (can be for any software program, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements), a computer with a CD/DVD reader and plenty of space on your hard disk Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), knowledge of disks and drives (Chapter 4), opening a program (Chapter 5)

This chapter contains information on how to add further programs to your computer system. If you are happy with the basic programs on your computer you can choose to skip this chapter for now – simply come back to it when you need to know how to load new programs. By steadily progressing through the information in this book we have established that your new computer already contains a number of basic programs. In other words, programs such as WordPad, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and a few games have been pre-installed either by the manufacturer or the person or company you bought the computer from. We have used these programs to cover the fundamentals of operating a computer but in time you will discover that there is a huge difference between being able to operate a computer and using it to its full potential. So what do I mean by a using a computer to its full potential? Basically, it is down to the sophistication of the programs on it – here are a couple of good examples. Both Windows Vista and Windows XP come with very basic image viewing facilities but that is all they let you do – view pictures. They are not designed to allow www.pcwisdom.co.uk


you to alter and improve your photographs. WordPad is a basic word processing program but, to produce quality documents, you need its big brother, Microsoft Word. There are millions, literally, of programs available for loading onto your machine: accounting programs, web-page design programs, genealogical programs and architectural programs, to name but a few. If you are eager to try out new software programs then first you need to know how to get them onto your computer. For the purpose of discussion in this chapter, I refer to a program called Adobe Photoshop Elements but any program disk will do to understand the principle of incorporating new software onto your computer. Where do we get these programs from? There are two main sources. You can either buy a program disk or download the software from the Internet. In this chapter, I am going to take you through the steps of loading a program from a disk into the memory of your computer. (See Chapter 17 for an explanation of how to download a program from the Internet.)

Loading Programs on to Your Computer I recommend that you close any programs that may already be open on your computer before you start installing a new program. This action is not always necessary but it may prevent glitches occurring in the set-up process. (A quick way of doing this is to right-click on any minimised program then left-click on Close.)

Inserting the disk and installing the program Follow these steps to install the program, which in all should take less than ten minutes. (In addition you could check back to Chapter 9, which also gives information on how to insert a disk into the tray.) 1. First you need to locate the CD slot on your computer. On a desktop machine you will normally find it at the top of the front panel running the width of the computer and about 1-inch deep with an oblong button underneath. 2. Press the button to pop out the tray (if nothing happens you have probably forgotten to turn the computer on).

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If you are using a laptop, the CD tray (which is a bit thinner than the desktop version) is more commonly found on one side of the case and you need to press the small button to activate the opening mechanism. Just to complicate the issue, there are one or two minor variations in the manner in which desktop and laptop trays operate but I will point these out along the way. 3. Now to the disk itself – disks usually come in a plastic container known as a jewel case and, since some software programs can cost upwards of £600, they are aptly named. It is held in place by a central plastic sprogget or clasp. Press down on this clasp and ease up the edge of the disk to release it (make sure that your fingers are clean during this operation because grease is a disk’s number one enemy). 4. Place the disk – shiny side down – into the open CD tray; wiggle it about to make sure it sits comfortably. Don’t worry if the CD does not appear to fit tightly within the tray on a desktop. A laptop tray uses a central clasp similar to that in the jewel case so make sure it is firmly seated. 5. Gently press the tray back into the computer housing. Now wait. You will see a small light flickering on the face of the desktop tray or somewhere on the keyboard of the laptop. 6. After a minute or two you will be greeted by a welcome window with an invitation to choose a language such as US English. Not all programs follow the same route through the setup process but most of the steps we will follow will occur at some time during setup. 7. Click on the language required, which will bring up a long legal agreement. Basically, this statement requests that you treat the program with respect; you will not copy it, lend it to other people to load onto their computers or generally abuse the copyright of the program. 8. Click on Accept, which accesses the next screen. Choose the Install Photoshop Elements options by clicking on it (see example on page 244). Some programs will have the Accept button greyed out until you have scrolled through to the bottom of the agreement.

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Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated.

9. The computer now starts to read the disk and works out whether your machine is up to the task of using the program. It displays the first screen of the installation wizard – the wizard in this instance bares no resemblance to one trained at Hogwarts Academy – that provides a series of steps designed to lead you through the installation process. 10. Click on the Next button. The wizard offers you the options to perform a Standard or Custom installation – click on Standard. (The Custom option is only there if the program goes wrong and you have to call in someone who only speaks in acronyms.) 11. Accept any default suggestions as to the names of the program and necessary folders by clicking Next or Accept. 12. Once all the parameters have been set the computer will install the program displaying various progression bars as it works its way through the set-up process. 13. Once the installation process is complete you just need to click on the Finish icon and you have successfully installed your first program. This status can be 244

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confirmed by locating the new program icon on your desktop or by scrolling through the Programs list on the Start menu. After being loaded on to your computer, some programs instruct you to shut down your computer down before they can function properly. The reasons for this are quite technical and therefore not worth explaining at this stage – just accept it. Proceed to close any programs or your email and turn the computer off. After a few moments, switch it back on again and you will be able to try out your new software. 14. Carefully place the disk back in its jewel case to prevent the surface becoming scratched. Computer programs are continually being updated in the light of commercial use and many software companies offer an update service to keep abreast of these developments. Most of these updates are free and so it is always a good idea to check for these improvements. Sometimes you will receive automatic notification of an update otherwise you will need to manually check for the existence of such updates by going to the Help drop-own menu on the menu bar and selecting the ‘Check for updates’ option. You will be downloading these updates from the Web and therefore an Internet connection is imperative. Downloading programs from the Internet is covered in the next chapter (Chapter 17).

A Strong Word of Warning In case you were not aware, it is a crime to install a program from a disk that you have not paid for or one that is specifically labelled as free software. Free software? Is that the same as a free lunch? Definitely not, I discuss the concept of free software in the next chapter (better check out Chapter 17). Let me give you an example of what I am talking about regarding the crime of software piracy. Let us say a friend at work or one of your children heard that you are looking for a simple home-accounting program and that they have a program disk at their house for just the kind of software you are after. ‘No problem,’ they say. ‘I’ll pop round and load it on to your computer on Saturday morning.’ How kind, how considerate – how criminal, because you are both committing the crime of software theft or piracy. Do you remember the contract you accepted without a second thought when installing Photoshop Elements? You agreed, by accepting that contract, not to ‘copy, share, loan sell’ and several other legal terms www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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meaning the same thing not to do precisely what you are planning to carry out on that Saturday morning. Lots of people do it – like travelling at 50 mph in a 30 mph zone – and they get away with it. That does not mean it is right. I rest my case and leave you to your own moral judgement.


1. When inserting a disk into your computer which side should face down? (a) The shiny side (b) The printed side (c) The side that says ‘This way down’ (d) It doesn’t matter

2. How do you open the CD/DVD player? (a) Go to My Computer and click on the CD icon (b) Press the button on the front of the unit (c) Close the computer down (d) Click on the Open CD icon on the desktop

3. What will damage a CD? (a) Cold water (b) Hot coffee (c) Scratches and grease (d) A strong magnet

4. What is a jewel case? (a) Something that contains the proceeds of your second mortgage (b) A hologram on a DVD 246

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(c) A plastic case that holds a CD or DVD (d) The word is a corruption of the word ‘dual’ meaning there are two disks

5. When can you load the contents of a CD onto another computer? (a) When they are your own personal files (b) When the contents are ‘freeware’ (c) Never (d) When you are the sole owner of the second computer

Answers Q1 – a

Q4 – c

Q2 – b

Q5 – a, b and d

Q3 – c

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Downloading programs from the Web

17

Equipment needed – ISP connection, printer, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer, the Internet Explorer program (which comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows XP) and a valid credit or debit card Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), email and Internet concepts (Chapter 9), experience of the Internet (Chapter 11), knowledge of search engines (Chapter 12) and a fair share of common sense

Towards the end of Chapter 16, I briefly mention free software – and you probably thought I was kidding but, in this case, yes there really is such a thing as a ‘free lunch’. Free software, or freeware as it is more commonly known, thrives on the Web for several different reasons. Taking a step on from loading software programs from disks onto your system, in this chapter we look at the whys and wherefores of downloading programs – free or otherwise – straight from the Web and onto your home computer.

Knowing Why Freeware Exists First, in spite of this age of cynical materialism, there are many altruistic people out there who simply enjoy creating good programs for the fun of it and the sense of community with other like-minded souls. Freeware also places the programmer’s www.pcwisdom.co.uk


work in the shop window of the commercial operators. These companies often employ software developers on a freelance basis to resolve particular problems they may be having with their own products. Freeware can also be viewed as an apprentice’s work, like that of an aspiring silversmith. Last but not least, there are many individuals and organisations who object to the monopolies held by multinational software developers and wish to offer alternatives to expensive commercial programs. Perhaps I should add a word of caution here. In spite of everything I have said about these freeware offerings you do occasionally come across a number of bandits who appear to offer you useful free software only to infect your machine with nasty viruses (seemingly the only purpose to which is gratifying their warped sense of humour). These problems can be largely avoided by sticking to reliable freeware websites such as: O www.tucows.com O www.freewarehome.com O www.bestfreewaredownload.com. As you gain experience in the use of the Internet you will develop a sense of what is reliable and what should be avoided. If it sounds too good to be true then it is probably best avoided.

Understanding the Difference between Freeware and Shareware Freeware is not the same as shareware. Shareware is a kind of halfway house between the full retail product and the freeware alternative. These programs may be free to download and install but a limit is put on the length of time you can use them after installation or you are prevented from using of certain aspects of the program unless a small fee has been paid to the programmer. These fees are rarely more than £30 and can be very good value for money.

Buying Software to Download Freeware and shareware are not the only programs that you can download onto your computer. There are thousands of commercial software products that can 250

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be downloaded for a fee that is normally payable by credit card. Having paid for the software you will be sent an email with a registration number that unlocks the program when you install it. Many of these programs will be utility programs that keep your system running to its optimum capability. These programs usually offer a free trial period after which you will have to pay for the registration codes. My best advice is to try before you buy. You must note this registration number down in a safe place and retain the original setup program so that you can copy it to any new computer you may buy in the future.

Downloading a Freeware Program The program I am going to use to demonstrate how to download a program from the Internet is a freeware program developed by one of the huge multinationals – Google. It is called Picasa and is a very good example of the quality freeware that is available on the Web.

Introducing Picasa Picasa is a powerful image-cataloguing and simple photo-manipulation program. Note that I use this program to demonstrate the basics of digital photography in a later chapter (refer to Chapter 18). Here I take you through the various steps of downloading and installing the program. 1. Close any programs that may running on your computer – you can see what is open by checking the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. 2. Connect to the Internet, launch Internet Explorer and call up the Google home page at www.google.co.uk. 3. At the right-hand end of the menu options click on the link to ‘more’ and then ‘even more’ at the bottom of the drop-down list, which brings you to a page looking like this: www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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4. You thought that Google was just a search engine, didn’t you? This page shows how much more Google can do and the offering that we are interested in is Picasa in the right-hand column under ‘Communicate, show and share’. Click on the Picasa link. 5. You could take time out here to find out a bit more about Picasa by following a few of the links on the Picasa home page but, eventually, you need to click on ‘Download Picasa’. 6. The program starts to download to your computer within a few seconds. The process takes a varying length of time depending upon the speed of your internet connection – dial-up will take over half an hour while a fast broadband connection will complete the job in less than 10 seconds. In normal circumstances, you should expect to allow about 5 minutes. 7. Now you need to find where the program set-up files have been stored on your computer – remember, the automatic download has done exactly that and placed the program files somewhere on your computer. In most instances, you will find a Picasa icon on your desktop. Some computer systems may be set up to place downloaded software automatically into the Downloads 252

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folder. Other alternatives may even ask you to Open or Run the installation program, and you might be prompted as to where to put the files. Having found the icon, double-click on it and let the computer do its work. The program will still expect you to answer some questions (similar to those we dealt with in the previous chapter, Chapter 16). You just might spot one little difference. When loading the program from a CD (refer to Chapter 16), you either clicked on Yes, Next or Accept. When Picasa installs – and you will find this difference with other programs as well – you will notice that the word ‘Next’ is greyed out on the agreement screen and unavailable for use. In such cases, there is no point in furiously clicking on the grey Next button until you have implied your consent to the agreement – so click on the button beside the acceptance option. The Next option now becomes available for use, setting you on your way again. 8. The set-up program completes the configuration by either installing another Picasa icon on your desktop or by replacing the Picasa set-up icon. 9. Click on Finish and if you have opted to start the program as soon as the installation is complete then it will run automatically. I would suggest that you do not opt to start the program immediately as this exercise has been about downloading and installing programs from the Web and, as in the case of Photoshop Elements in the previous chapter, you may become confused as Picasa starts searching through your computer flashing up little images as it sets about its task. You may think it has become a runaway process and your computer is going to bite the dust within the next 3 minutes. This action is perfectly normal and will stop eventually and you can close it in any of the normal ways but I would suggest clicking on the sizing button at the top-right corner of your screen. The use of Picasa is fully described in the next chapter (Chapter 18).


1. For what kind of software would you be asked to pay a small fee? (a) Kitchenware (b) Freeware (c) Shareware www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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2. What kind of Internet connection do you need to download programs? (a) Dial-up (b) Broadband (c) Cable (d) Wireless

3. Where are you most likely to find the Picasa set-up icon? (a) In the Picasa folder (b) On the desktop (c) In the Downloads folder (d) Picasa does not need to be set-up

4. How do you prevent freeware infecting your computer with viruses? (a) You can’t (b) By downloading from reputable companies (c) By installing an anti-virus program and keeping it up to date

5. Why might the ‘Next’ option be greyed out and ineffective? (a) You have not signified your agreement to certain conditions (b) The downloaded program is faulty (c) You have not closed down other open programs (d) You have not replied to an email from the supplier of the program

Answers Q1 – c

Q4 – b and c

Q2 – any of them

Q5 – a

Q3 – b and c

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PART III Advanced Tutorials


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Mastering basic photo manipulation

18

Equipment needed – Digital camera with its storage card, computer and monitor, the Picasa program (refer to Chapter 17), cable connecting the camera to the computer or a digital-card reader, photographic paper Skills needed – Knowledge of files and folders (Chapter 4)

Digital camera use has grown out of all recognition in the past few years and, while they offer major advantages over the old film format, they are not without their drawbacks. We have a tendency to take many more photos with these cameras in the knowledge that we are not committing ourselves to the cost of film and developing prints, plus the added satisfaction of reviewing the images immediately. Nevertheless, viewing snapshots on a camera’s tiny display is no substitute for printed images, which can be so easily shared with friends and relatives. These disadvantages arise because, while the majority of us can take instant photos, we are less confident about transferring the digital images to our computer and displaying them in an attractive way. This chapter reveals the mysteries of manipulating digital photographs allowing you to transfer the images to your computer and organise them effectively for future use. Methods for both Windows Vista and Windows XP are presented.

Preparing for Transfer – What You Need The chapter at the end of Part II (Chapter 17) describes how to download programs from the Web. From the example given, you discover how to download www.pcwisdom.co.uk


one program in particular – Picasa. This piece of software is about to come into its own. (If you haven’t already done so, and wish to follow the method that follows, flick back to Chapter 17 to find out how to obtain the Picasa program from the Web.) For this exercise, I am assuming that you have used your camera to take a number of pictures and that you would like to transfer them to your computer. Perhaps you have taken the camera storage card to one of the high-street photographic outlets, such as Boots, Tescos or Jessops, and had them transferred to a CD. Whatever your situation, we shall now proceed with getting these image files onto your computer for manipulation, cataloguing and storage. If your pictures are on a CD then you can easily insert the disk into the drive and load them up (just as we did in Chapter 16). If not, then you have a little more work to do. Every digital camera comes with a storage card of some description, such as Compact Flash, Smart Media, XD Card or Memory Stick, depending on the manufacturer. (You do not need to bother yourself with the technical differences between these card formats, just accept the fact that they all do the same job of storing your images.) Some of the latest computers, both desktop and laptop, come with card readers built-in, which makes life even easier. Again, most cameras come supplied with a cable to link the camera to the computer but you may find them fiddly to use, especially if the cable is short and the socket is at the back of the computer. One problem with using the cable link is that the cable takes its power from the camera and not the computer. This can run your camera batteries down quickly. To use the cable first make sure that you have loaded the software that comes with the camera on to your computer. Connect the cable link between the camera and the computer by inserting the small plug into the camera and the large one into a USB socket on your computer and then turn the camera on. The camera software will detect the cable and lead you through the uploading process. An easier solution is to use a card reader (like the one shown here), which can ‘read’ all the different storage card formats:

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Today’s card readers all work with Vista and XP although people may have trouble if they are still using Windows 98.

Transferring Images from Camera Card to Computer The explanation that follows uses the card reader to transfer your photos to the computer. The method is relevant for both Vista and XP as there are only minor differences between the two systems. Therefore, Windows XP users should read through this process and refer to the minor exceptions explained afterwards. This process, if you feel confident enough, is certainly something you can try on your own without the watchful eye of your guardian angel – you cannot break anything and the only failure would be the unsuccessful transfer of your images.

Method for Windows Vista Let us get going as I am sure you are keen to start working with your photos. Every card storage system or memory stick is different so the folder and file names shown in this example are purely representative of the type of names you should expect to see on your own system. 1. First, ensure that your computer and monitor are switched on. 2. Push the card reader’s plug into the correct socket at the back or side of your computer, as shown here:

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These plugs are invariably what are known as USB (Universal Serial Bus – if you really want to know!) plugs with a characteristic shape that can only go into a particular USB socket. You should have at least three of these sockets somewhere on your machine but, if in doubt, call upon the services of your guardian angel to guide you and the plug in the right direction. The computer usually recognises the addition of this extra item of hardware and accepts its presence, or the card reader may come with its own program disk that you will need to install (refer to Chapter 16). 3. Remove the storage card from the camera and insert it into one of the card reader slots – it will only go in one way. You should see a small light showing on the card reader when the correct connection is made. Now leave things alone and let the computer do its work. If you have already installed Photoshop Elements on your computer, this program will open and take over the loading process, which is something that you do not want to happen at this stage as you are going to use the Picasa program for this exercise. Please close any Elements windows. You should now see a screen similar to the one at the top of page 261. 4. Under the ‘General options’ section, click on ‘Open folder to view files’. (If you experience a problem here go to My Computer and double-click on the card reader icon.) The first window to appear will display a single folder (in the example image at the bottom of page 261 it is called DCIM) so doubleclick on this folder to bring up a further folder, which is usually labelled with some unfathomable description (in this case, 100ND705 but it could be just about anything). 260

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5. Double-clicking on this second folder will show the files or perhaps a set of thumbnail images will be displayed. If nothing appears, go back and doubleclick another folder. (If all you see is a long list of files then click on the View option on the menu bar and choose thumbnails or icons.) 6. At this stage you would normally select only those images that you want to keep on your computer but, for this exercise, you want to select all the pictures and transfer them from the card to the computer’s hard disk. Press CTRL+A to achieve this action.

Tip You have two ways available for selecting a number of files (multiple files): 1. When the files are consecutively listed in a folder, left-click on the first file then hold down Shift while left-clicking on the last file and all the intervening files will become selected. 2. To select random files, hold down Ctrl while left-clicking on the files individually.

7. Having selected all the image files, press CTRL+C to copy them into the computer’s temporary memory. Now you have to create a place to store these pictures so click on Start. 8. Choose the Pictures folder; click on Organise and then choose New Folder. Give the folder a descriptive name such as ‘Freddie’s 5th birthday’ (without the quotes) and double-click on the folder to open it (the folder should be empty at this stage). 9. Now press CTRL+V to ‘paste’ the files from the temporary memory into the hard disk. You have now successfully completed your mission. Flippin’ marvellous!

Method for Windows XP Windows XP makes file transfer somewhat easier than Vista in that, having selecting the images as in Step 6, the right-hand panel offers various useful alternatives, such as Moving and Copying files without having to use the CTRL+C and 262

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CTRL+V method. You simply tell the computer to copy the files then navigate to My Pictures, create a new folder and then choose Paste Files from the right-hand column of options. So what have you achieved up to this point? To summarise, you have copied the image files from the camera’s memory card onto your computer’s hard disk. The images remain on your camera card until you choose to delete them in the knowledge that you have copies safely stored on your computer. You are now ready to start making alterations to them using Picasa, which is a very good, free, cataloguing and simple manipulation tool.

Using Picasa In the sections that follow, I describe how to manipulate your photos making the most of Picasa’s main features. I have not presented the information as a stepby-step method so have a general play around with these tools as you progress through the features.

Opening the program Start by opening up the program from the desktop – double-click on its icon then wait. The program commences loading and also starts to whiz through your hard disk to find any image files that might be lurking there. Do not be surprised if the programs finds images that you knew nothing about, these may be sample pictures or other images loaded by other programs. It does this automatically so give it a bit of time. Eventually, a list of folders will appear down the left-hand side of the screen along with thumbnail images of your pictures in the main part of the window as shown in the example on page 264. Study this window quite carefully as I refer to it quite frequently in subsequent sections. Identify the following elements of the window: O Menu bar

O Scroll bar

O Toolbar

O Selected image

O Search bar

O Star icon

O List of folders

O Rotation tools

O Thumbnails

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Star icon


You may have taken some of your snapshots in portrait mode and so these images will be lying on their side. Select one of them by clicking on it and then use one of the Rotation tool buttons to rotate the image. Once you have corrected any rotated pictures select them all by pressing CTRL+A then click on Slide Show on the upper toolbar. The program now shows all the selected pictures in full-screen view as, would you believe, a slide show.

Cataloguing Images Picasa’s great strength is in its cataloguing ability. As we have seen, it can retrieve images scattered across your hard disk and then lists their folders on the left-hand side of your screen. By clicking on a folder you open a larger pane that displays the images within that folder. Many people simply place all their 264

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pictures into the main Pictures folder which, inevitably, grows to an unmanageable size. Better file management would be to create various subfolders within Pictures and allocate images to descriptive locations, such as Cornwall trip 2007, Jane’s wedding or grandchildren. Picasa allows you to manage your images in this way – by creating albums. At the top of the left-hand folder column you will notice four icons beside the word ‘Library’. The first of these icons allows you to create your own albums. Simply click on the icon, name the album folder and start dragging images from the main window and onto the new album at the top of the folder column. (You are not moving the images from one folder to an album but simply telling the album where to find the chosen pictures.) Once you have dragged the thumbnails to the album you can then click on the album name to display the contents in the same way as you did when clicking on a folder. Proper cataloguing can be rather time-consuming because, while Picasa can store images in folders and albums, each file ought to be given a descriptive name. Picasa allows you to do this action by clicking on a file to select it then go to File on the menu bar and choose Rename to replace the original filename automatically allocated by the camera – something useless like DSC2849003 – with a descriptive name. Once you have renamed most of your photos the Search bar really comes into its own. For instance, you may have a number of photos of your pet cat spread across various folders, which makes life difficult if you just wanted to see the cat pictures. Let us say that you have renamed these various files with the cat’s name – Moggy. Simply type the word ‘Moggy’ into the Search bar and every photo you have ever named with Moggy in the file name will be displayed in a flash.

Tips You can rename your image files using two other methods: 1. Press the F2 Function key or 2. Right-click on the file and chose Rename Using the alternatives listed above, the original file name will be highlighted and replaced by your choice of name as soon as you start typing.

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Want to rename multiple files of a similar content quickly? In this example screenshot, various images have been selected at random:

To rename them all in a single operation, use F2 or right-click on one of the selected images, then type in the new name such as ‘Swimming’ and press the Enter key. This action renames the five selected files as ‘Swimming’, ‘Swimming (1)’ through to ‘Swimming (4)’ and make any future searches so much easier.

I have mentioned that you do not need to worry about moving thumbnails from folders to the albums as they still stay within their original folders. However, be careful of deleting images from folders because you will delete them from your hard disk. Sometimes, this is not such a bad idea because we tend to keep even the most disastrous images for some vague reason that they ‘might come in useful’. Bad images never come in useful.

Tip Picasa allows you to mark your best pictures with a star so that you can display these pictures at the touch of a button. You will find the star icon just to the left of the Rotation icons. Select the image and click on the star. 266

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You can have as many albums as you like and you can enter the same image into several different albums without the worry of messing up your filing system completely.

Editing Images Now for the exciting bit – want to view an individual image in greater detail? Double-click on an image and Picasa enters its Edit mode:


The Edit mode offers three tabs for Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects. With the aid of these simple tools you can improve a photo out of all recognition or create a weird and wonderful picture that bears little relationship to the original picture. Picasa uses a unique method of saving any editing changes you make to a picture in that it does not alter the original file. It simply remembers any changes you have made so that you can reverse those changes at a later date, should you choose to do so. If want to make the changes permanent, choose Save As from the File menu and give the new image a different name such as ‘Moggy improved’. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Basic Fixes The Crop tool allows you to trim a picture to a standard or random size of your choosing by dragging the cursor across the image to produce a rectangular selection. The Straighten tool repairs those pictures that you failed to line up correctly at the time of snapping the scene. Flash lights, especially those mounted close to the lens, often produce the dreaded demonic red-eye effect by reflecting the flash from the blood vessels at the back of the eye. The Redeye tool removes this unnatural effect thus rescuing what would otherwise be a wasted image. Simply drag a small square around the eye in question and the red-eye blemish is removed. The I’m Feeling Lucky function is a lucky-dip of a tool where the program tries to improve the picture using its own ‘computerised’ judgement. You win some and lose some with this tool. Both Auto Contrast and Auto Colour are much more controllable that the ‘Lucky’ tool and will often enhance your photos to competition levels while the Fill Light tool alters the brightness of the image.

Tuning The Tuning options offer further lighting controls that are more subtle than the Fill Light facility mentioned in the previous paragraph. You can alter the emphasis on the highlights and shadows of an image by using the sliders or automatically by using one or both of the automated buttons. Be gentle with your tuning or you may land up with something looking like it failed to get into the Tate Modern gallery.

Effects The same degree of understatement indicated when using the Tuning function should also be employed with the Effects tab. However, the Sharpen tool often works a treat to lift a picture off the screen. All changes made to an image are reversible in the opposite order in which they were created. By this stage you should be having a lot of fun and you can always go ‘Back to Library’ to try your hand on other pictures or cancel the effects when you have made a right mess of the selected photo. 268

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Re-naming and Cataloguing Images Files should be named in such a way that they can be retrieved easily. The original file name is normally used when it is saved for the first time. A letter to your electricity supplier, created by a word-processing program, could be named simply ‘Letter 47’ but it would take a long frustrating search to retrieve it three months later. On the other hand it would only take an instant to find the file if it had been named ‘Ripoff Electric Sept 2007’. Unfortunately, digital cameras do not yet possess the ability to give descriptive names to images and they are allocated names such as P276893 or DSC0003491. Such file names make it very difficult to find that lovely photograph of Freddie on his 5th birthday hence the need to rename these images with descriptive wording. I would suggest that you create a new folder within your ‘My Pictures’ folder called something like ‘To be Allocated’ and then download the photos from your camera to that folder. With the downloading complete, open up the ‘To be Allocated’ folder and choose Thumbnails from the View drop-down menu, as shown here:

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This will menu show small copies of the images that can now be descriptively named. Select a file by left-clicking on its thumbnail image when it can be renamed in a number of different ways but I would suggest either: 1. Choose Rename from the File drop-down menu 2. Press the F2 Function key or 3. Right-click on the file and chose Rename Using any of the alternatives listed above, the original file name will be highlighted and replaced by your choice of name as soon as you start typing. Obviously, this is going to be a tedious process if you have to rename each file individually so refer to the Tip feature on page 266, which shows how to speed things up dramatically by renaming multiple files.


1. What does the Crop tool do? (a) Removes the selected area (b) Removes the area outside the selected area (c) Speeds up the editing process (d) Mows the grass

2. How would you rename a file? (a) Choose Rename from the Edit menu (b) Choose Rename from the File menu (c) Press F2 (d) Press CTRL+R

3. How would you view an image in greater detail? (a) Double-click on the thumbnail (b) CTRL+Click on the thumbnail 270

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(c) Click on the Edit menu (d) Click on View and Edit from the Picture menu

4. How do you load images from your computer into Picasa? (a) Click on Download images from the File menu (b) Copy the images and Paste into the Picasa window (c) Double-click on the My Pictures folder (d) Picasa does it automatically when you open up the program

5. Why should you rename your photo files? (a) Files with numbers cannot be edited (b) Camera file names are not recognised by Picasa (c) Photos are more easily found (d) It prevents the file becoming corrupted

6. How can you ‘scroll’ down the image thumbnails? (a) Drag the scroll bar down (b) Click on the spaces above or below the scroll bar (c) Use the mouse wheel (d) Drag the mouse pointer down the screen

7. How do you select multiple consecutive files? (a) Click on the first image then Shift > Click on the last image (b) Click on the first image then CTRL+Click on the last image (c) Drag the mouse pointer across the images (d) Hold down the Shift key while dragging across the images

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(c) Press ALT+Click on the image (d) Press CTRL+Click on the image

9. How do you delete an image from Picasa? (a) Right-click on the image and choose Delete (b) Left-click on the image and press the Delete key (c) Select the image then select Cut from the Edit menu (d) Left-click on the image then press Ctrl+Alt+Delete

10. How would you permanently save the editing alterations to a Picasa image? (a) Click on Save from the File menu (b) Click on Save As from the File menu and give it a different name (c) Right-click and choose Save as Edited Image (d) Use CTRL+Save

Answers Q1 – b

Q6

– a, b and c

Q2 – a and c

Q7

– a

Q3 – a and d

Q8

– d

Q4 – d

Q9

– a and b

Q5 – c

Q10 – b

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Tackling advanced word processing

19

Equipment needed – Computer and monitor, Microsoft Word 2003 program or Word from the Microsoft Works suite (Word 2007 is the latest Vista incarnation of this program but looks rather different, whereas Word 2003 works well with both Vista and XP) Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), knowledge of Windows (Chapter 3), opening a program (Chapter 5) and basic word processing (Chapter 6).

In Chapter 6, I take you through the basics of word processing using WordPad but if you have been regularly using that program to compile your documents you have probably already realised that it is rather limited in its abilities. The fact that you are reading this chapter suggests that no doubt you are raring to try something a little more sophisticated. The Microsoft Word program, which is very often preloaded on new computers, is an awesome beast – but under the skin it is just a friendly pussycat.

Progressing from WordPad to Word Take a quick look at the set of tools that come with Microsoft Word compared with those of WordPad and you can instantly gather that it has many, many extra features – and believe me, this is just for starters. You can appreciate just from glancing at the Word toolbar that there are too many icons to point out. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


WordPad toolbar:

Microsoft Word toolbar:

Everything you picked up from the WordPad exercises in Chapter 6 applies to its big brother, Microsoft Word. The program comes packaged in two forms – Microsoft Office, which can cost upwards of £250, and its smaller sibling, Microsoft Works, which can be bought for less than £40. As I have already indicated there are too many functions to mention, so in this chapter I present just a few the extremely useful features of this power word-processing program.

Tip There is so much more to Microsoft Word than I could ever hope to include in a book of this nature but for those who wish to develop their skills further I recommend buying a copy of Word 2007 For Dummies by Dan Gookin published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Changing the Appearance of the Type By clicking on the drop-down menu arrows to the right of the Format, Font type and Font size boxes you can easily alter the appearance or style of any selected text in a document – see the drop-down menu on page 175. The Format menu contains a large number of pre-formatted type styles to which you can add your own personal preferences such as underlining or emboldening. 274

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The Font type menu offers a huge selection of differing font appearances to suit the majority of everyday needs. The Size menu allows you to vary the actual size of the type, such as the text size used in this book, right up to an enormous size where a single character can fill a whole page.

Correcting Spelling and Grammar Yes that’s right, Word comes with a built-in dictionary and grammar checker. Just take a look at the example at the top of page 276 – notice that the some of the words are underlined in red and green. The red underlines denotes potential misspelling while the green underlines suggest grammatical errors. In the first line of the address I have left off the final ‘e’ of ‘Sunshine’ and in the first line of the letter I have included an extra ‘e’ into the word ‘meeting’. These are pretty obvious mistakes but they serve to illustrate the technique of their correction. If I right-click on the underlined ‘Sunshin’ a menu appears as shown at the bottom of page 276. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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This drop-down menu offers various alternatives to the misspelt word although I am rather baffled by the option of ‘Sun shin’. ‘Sunshine’ is the obvious correction option so left-click on the word and the correction is automatically incorporated into the text. Obviously, this option does not prevent the simple remedy of manually correcting the error by placing the cursor at the end of the word and adding the necessary ‘e’. The red underline of the word Ambleside poses a different problem. The Word dictionary does not recognise this word and so can only offer the alternative of splitting the word into two, as shown in the drop-down menu here:

Unidentifiable words, such as place names and surnames, will very often get similar results when run through the dictionary – their spelling is perfectly correct it is just that they are not recognised as such. No problem – just tell the program that you are happy with this spelling by clicking on the Add to Dictionary option and the computer will never question that spelling again. The text underlined in green in the final example (top of page 278) suggests a grammatical error, such as the omission of a question mark after the word ‘dates’:

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Right-clicking on this simple example brings up the suggested correction immediately. This function comes into its own when you begin to compose long, convoluted sentences with multiple subclauses when the whole text will be underlined in green. Right-clicking on these entries offers alternative solutions. After using this facility for a while you should become confident enough to know when to ignore words underlined in green and red and when not to – try not to get too distracted. Unattended underlining can be left within the document as it is not displayed on the paper when the document is printed out, so you do not need to resolve every occurrence of red and green underlies.

AutoCorrect While on the subject of spelling and grammar, it is worthwhile looking at the AutoCorrect facility in Word. How often does the word ‘thier’ get mistakenly typed for the word ‘their’? Or we may type ‘accomodate’ when we meant ‘accommodate’? Try typing in the word ‘affraid’ and you will notice that it is immediately changed to the correct spelling. Any typing of ‘recieve’ will be automatically be corrected to ‘receive’. These are all examples of how the AutoCorrect function works. Click on Tools in the menu bar and select AutoCorrect Options:

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Using the information provided in this window you can select a number of potential typing errors and even add your own personal ‘typos’ for correction.

AutoText AutoText is another handy tool if you regularly find yourself inserting standard blocks of text, such as a letterhead or terms and conditions. You find the AutoText tab displayed as part of the AutoCorrect facility when you select Tools and AutoCorrect Options from the drop-down menu.

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To add an entry to the AutoText list, type out the required text, select it then open the AutoText window, as shown in this example:

As you can see from the example figure, the highlighted text is inserted in the Preview box. The first line of the text is offered as the entry but, since I did not want the bother of typing the whole line in, I shortened the entry to ‘143w’. The next time I wish to insert this letterhead I simply pull up the Autotext window, type in ‘143w’ and click on OK. Job done!

Inserting Symbols The keyboard offers a range of symbols by use of upper case entries on the number keys (refer to Chapter 2) but at times you will want to insert other symbols or characters such as fractions or the copyright symbol. But where do you find such symbols and how do you enter them? If you wanted to write that something was ‘one and three-quarter miles away’ you could type it out in full in words, or try to type it as a fraction as ‘1 3/4miles away’ – however, these examples are not ideal and look rather clumsy. A better way would be to enter the text as ‘1¾ miles’. How do we do it? Place the cursor where you wish to place the symbol, drop-down the Insert menu and left-click 280

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on Symbol then use the scroll bar to view the symbols on offer, click on the entry of choice and then click on Insert. I told you it was easy. A number of these symbols have alternate keyboard options, for instance, hold down the Alt key then type ‘0189’ and release the Alt key. What do you get? ½. Alt+0188 enters ¼ and there are many more. If you regularly use certain fractions then this method is a great short-cut but you probably will not remember them all.

Inserting Pictures When creating a document or letter perhaps you would like to insert a cartoon, photo or diagram into the text – once again, no problem. Let us use the example of producing a flyer for a flower show. You could head up the announcement with some large, fancy lettering but you also need something extra to draw people’s attention to flyer, such as a colourful drawing – maybe something like the one suggested on page 282. This poster example was created using different fonts, sizes, colours and positioning plus the insertion of a Clip Art design in the middle. To insert a Clip Art image at the chosen point in your document, drop-down the Insert menu, choose Picture and then Clip Art. As the Clip Art collection contains a vast number of images, you are prompted to search for the relevant type of image by typing in a brief description (so for our flyer we could run a search on ‘flower’). The resulting search offers up a large selection of images for you to scroll through (in this case, anything containing a flower or flowers). To insert the chosen image, check that the cursor is where you want the image to be positioned, then the click on the thumbnail. To adjust the size and positioning of the image, click on it to display the margins and drag handles (as you can see the flower image in the example poster). By placing the pointer over one of the drag handles you can re-size the picture to your heart’s content. It is best to use the corner handles since, by dragging these, you will retain the proportions of the picture. The same technique can be used to insert any picture or photo into a document that you have already stored on your computer, but in this case, choose Insert > Picture > From File and navigate your way to your Pictures folder and insert the image of your choice. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Village Flower Show

Rayleigh Gardens, Wenslow at 2.30pm on Saturday, 14th September 2008 Entry fee - £2 (£1 for concessions) Tea and cakes 282

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Formatting Pictures Continuing with the discussion on pictures, let us take a look at the various ways of formatting images and in particular how to display the surrounding text. After inserting a picture, click on it and go to Format, and choose Picture from the drop-down menu, then click on the Layout tab: Click on Tight then choose where you want your picture to lie in relation to the text. For instance, here the Format Picture box is formatted to the left allowing this text to run down the right-hand side of the image.

Notice the other tabs offering further ways to modify the format of your image – have a play around with these features so that you understand how they can be used to alter the image in different ways.

Formatting Text From the earlier lesson on word processing (Chapter 6) you may recognise some of the symbols on the Word toolbar, such as Bold, Italic and Underline. As we are going to discover some additional ways of formatting text using Word, let us identify some of the format icons on the toolbar – see the labelled example on page 284. Don’t forget that to be able to format text you must first select it before applying the formatting; unless you wish to format text as you enter it, in which case you set the parameters before continuing with the typing. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Justifying The option to justify your text (also referred to as justified alignment) might be new to you – check out the icon on the Word toolbar above. This format means that the program spreads the text evenly between the left and right margins (whatever you have set this measurement to) so you do not get the usually ‘ragged-right’ line endings. This tool is useful for presenting text in a uniform way (but occasionally the text spreads itself out so much that it looks rather weird so you may need to revert to left alignment for such lines). The text in this book has been set to a justified format!

Numbering Creating numbered lists or numbering the parts of your text is simple. Place the cursor on a new line, click on the Numbering icon and the first numbered paragraph will be indented ready for your entry, for example: 1. New sentence . . . Each time you press the Enter key the next paragraph will be prefixed with a number and slightly indented. To turn off the numbering of paragraphs simply hit the Enter key twice. You can add subparagraphs by pressing the Tab key: 2. Second paragraph a. Sub-paragraph To stop the numbering sequence simply hit the Enter key twice. 284

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Bullets Inserting bullets before paragraphs or creating bulleted list is done in exactly the same way as the Numbering option by using the Bullet tool. If you cannot remember the individual tool icons you can find both Numbering and Bullets in the Format menu. Numbering and bulleting of paragraphs can also be achieved after the event so to speak by highlighting (selecting) the desired text and then clicking on the appropriate icon.

Creating Tables You can insert customised tables anywhere within the document. To do this select Table from the menu bar then Insert and finally, Table. A window like this one will appear:

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the left, right or centre of the page. Once created, tables can be further modified by right-clicking on the table and selecting from the drop-down menu:

Mail Merge The Word program offers you the facility to compose a standard letter or label and then merge them with a database of personal information to create individualised documents – this feature is called Mail Merge. For example, I use mail merge to print out labels from our Christmas card list of friends and relatives. The Mail Merge process can be a little complicated for beginners so I will take it slowly. Fortunately, Word provides a step-by-step ‘wizard’ that will help you through the process. Click on Tools > Letters & Mailing > Mail Merge and the wizard column will appear on the right-hand side of the document. 1. Select the type of document you wish to produce, such as a letter or labels (in this case Labels). 2. Click on ‘Label options’ and select your label size. Label dimensions are shown on the label packaging. 286

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3. Click Next at the bottom of the wizard column and choose ‘Type a new list’ and then click on Create, which brings up this window:

4. Fill in the form for each recipient – you can leave various fields empty because they will not be printed – using Add, which is found at the bottom of the Address information, to increase the list. 5. Having finished, you can preview and edit your labels before printing them.

Tips O When working on a long document make use of the Document Map facility to help navigate your way around the file. It is located in the View drop-down menu on the menu bar, which brings up a panel on the lefthand side of the window that you can scroll through without losing your current place in the document. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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O Another tip for working in a long document is to bookmark various points in the text. Use Insert > Bookmark > Add and call it something like ‘active’ to mark a point in the text where you might need to return to at a later time. To locate that exact point again use CTRL+G and choose Bookmark, which will take you immediately to that point, weeks later if necessary. O If your document fills the whole screen and just does not ‘look right’, perhaps you are viewing it in HTML or Normal mode, neither of which show you the formatted document. Simply change it to Print Layout format in the View menu. O If you want to see what your document will look like when printed, simply go to Print Preview in the File menu. O If you want to display text in columns it is often a lot easier to use the Table facility rather than Columns when the first column must be filled before taking the type up to the top of the second column. O Tables can be made to look more presentable by using the AutoFit utility in the Table menu. O You can remove the gridlines in a table by using the Hide Gridlines facility in the Table menu. O You can set your own preferences for spelling and grammar under Tools > Spelling & Grammar > Options.


1. What does a word with a jagged red underline signify? (a) Incorrect grammar (b) The word should be capitalised (c) Bad language (d) The word is not recognised by the computer’s dictionary

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2. What does a word with a jagged green underline signify? (a) You have corrected the spelling (b) Bad grammar (c) The computer does not recognise the spelling (d) The word is a proper noun

3. How do you enter the è character? (a) You can’t without a French keyboard (b) Use Alt+0232 (c) Choose Symbol from the Insert menu (d) Press the E and ‘ keys simultaneously

4. How can you display an image to the left of the text? (a) Click on the left-justify icon (b) Select the picture, select Picture from the Format menu, click on Layout then choose Tight and Left (c) Select the picture and use CTRL+L (d) Right-click on the picture and choose Format picture

5. How can you type certain words in a red colour? (a) Select red from the Format, Font Color drop-down menu before you type (b) Select the words, choose Styles and Formatting from the Format menu then choose the colour from the menu on the right of the screen (c) Select the words then select red from the Format, Font Color drop-down menu (d) Select the words and use the Highlight Color icon

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6. How can you shorten the typing of the name Paderowskaya? (a) Use AutoCorrect (b) Create a macro (c) Use AutoText (d) Use AutoFormat

7. What is Clip Art? (a) A method of sending images by email (b) A copyright-free image (c) Simple images available for inclusion in Microsoft Word documents (d) An image reduced in size

8. What happens when you Justify a paragraph? (a) You create a footnote (b) You must obtain copyright permission to use the wording (c) The text is spread evenly across the page to the same text measure (d) The text is centred on the page

9. What happens when you click on a white arrow in the left margin pointing to the right? (a) You reverse upper and lower cases (b) You enclose the line opposite the arrow in quote marks (c) You delete the line of text (d) You select the line of text opposite the arrow

10. How do you hide the grid lines in a table? (a) Select the table and use the Delete key (b) Right-click on the table and choose Hide Grid (c) Click on the Insert menu and choose Remove Lines (d) Click on Hide Grid Lines from the Table menu 290

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Answers Q1 – d

Q6

– a and c

Q2 – b

Q7

– b and c

Q3 – b and c

Q8

– c

Q4 – b and d

Q9

– d

Q5 – a, b and c

Q10 – d

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Progressing to advanced email

20

Equipment needed – ISP disk, modem or router, printer, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer and Windows XP Home with the email program Outlook Express or Windows Vista Home Premium with the email program Windows Mail Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), concept of email and the Internet (Chapter 9) and using email (Chapter 10)

Having introduced you to the principles of email in Chapter 10, we are now going to have a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of emailing. The ugly are the numbers of junk messages or ‘spam’ we receive and how to deal with them. The bad are the viruses and other unwelcome infections of the computer, while the good are the web-based email programs that are used by so many people today and a few more tips about organising your messages.

Coping with Junk Mail We all receive unwanted junk mail in the post in spite of our best efforts to avoid it and spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail. Hoaxers, fraudsters and other get-rich-quick merchants trawl the Internet for email addresses then use simple computer programs to send out millions of emails in the hope that one or two innocent recipients will respond to their offers. These messages offer drugs to improve your sexual performance, cheap Rolex watches, unbelievable (literally!) www.pcwisdom.co.uk


offers of untold riches from Nigerian bankers and opportunities to buy dubious shares in obscure companies with promises of immediate profit. If it sounds unbelievable then it almost certainly is – so delete it immediately. The top-two originating countries for spam are the United States followed by China which, between them, account for more than 50% of spam messages. Fortunately, defences against such unwanted messaging in the form of anti-spam filters are becoming more and more sophisticated and will, if activated, block a large percentage of your spam messages. Unfortunately, spammers are continually developing new ways of bypassing these filters so your anti-spam programs must be regularly updated.

Knowing how to combat spam First of all, you are unlikely to get any spam until you have been using the Web and email for some time. The spammers’ search programs can take a little while before they pick up your email address, usually from messages that you may have sent to subscribe to a newsletter or buy a DVD but, sooner or later, you will turn up on their radar. You could avoid this problem by refusing to give your email address to anyone except close relatives but this rather defeats the exercise of using the Web – which is communication.

Tip When you begin to receive a few suspicious messages you need to know what to look for when identifying spam. Check the following points: O Who seems to have sent the message? Do you recognise them? O Does the Subject box include extraneous characters such as *, !, $ or %? O Are there any obvious spelling mistakes? Many anti-spam filters will look for words such as ‘Viagra’ or ‘sexual’ so the spammer tries to get round this by using spellings such as ‘Vi@gra’ or ‘$exual’. O Do you really want six Heavy Metal CDs for £1.50 or a DVD of the latest blockbuster film that only premiered last week for £5? O Beware of opening email attachments unless you are sure that they are genuine. 294

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Most of all, NEVER open a suspicious email – use the Preview pane – and NEVER, EVER reply to one. Many email addresses lapse through lack of use and if you reply to a spam message you will advertise the fact that your address is active, which is just what the spammers are looking for.

Installing an anti-spam filter Both Outlook and Hotmail email programs – but not Outlook Express – include anti-spam filters but they are not the most efficient versions and are prone to dispatching valid messages to the Spam bin. You can buy some very good commercial anti-spam filter programs such as Cloudmark (www.cloudmark.com) and MailWasher (www.mailwasher.net) among many others. They will cost you about £20 a year but it is money well spent since they are continually being updated and refined to combat the latest threats. Both programs offer a limited-time free edition or a cut-down version of the full version so it is worth trying before you buy. (Turn back to Chapter 17 for how to go about downloading these programs.) In addition to anti-virus software you should make sure that you have a firewall in place to prevent access to your computer from outside sources. Windows Vista has a firewall built in to the system while XP requires additional software such as that offered by AVG – see the section on preventing a virus attack.

Making life difficult for spammers There is no reason why you should not have three or four email addresses. Every ISP will allow at least five email addresses for a single account at no extra cost. Use your main address for email communication between friends and relatives but use any of the others for shopping, uploading photographs, requesting information or replies to your web page. These messages can be allocated to different folders using the email Rules facility that we will explore later in this chapter (see the ‘Creating rules’ section).

Fighting Viruses and Other Nasties While we are on the subject of ‘nasties’ let us look at the problem of computer viruses. Whenever you are connected to the Internet you are potentially vulnerable www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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to a variety of unpleasant intrusions that come under the common description of viruses. In medical terms, a virus is an infection and that is exactly what computer viruses do to your computer – they infect it. So what do computer viruses do? Some are relatively harmless and simply display an irritating message while others can wipe the contents of your hard disk – not something I would like to contemplate (fortunately a very rare occurrence).

Trojans A trojan refers to a program that appears innocuous, but hidden inside is usually something harmful, probably a worm or a virus. The lure of trojans is that you may download a game or a picture, thinking it’s harmless, but once you run the program, the worm or virus gets to work. Sometimes they will only do things to annoy you, but usually the worm or virus will cause damage to your system.

Viruses Viruses are computer programs with the sole purpose of destroying data on our computers. The virus may only destroy unimportant files, or it may decide to erase all of your document files. A virus can cause an infected computer to do funny things on certain dates, as well as issue serious commands such as removing parts of the operating system, thus disabling the operation and starting up of the computer. Viruses are spread through files we get from friends, download off the Net, or install through a floppy disk, CD or DVD of dubious provenance. A virus will often come disguised under the cloak of a trojan, which is the carrier for the virus.

Worms Worms operate differently. They multiply within the computer system. They generally come through email messages, but computers can also become infected if they accept a trojan file which has a worm embedded in it. If you receive a worm program through your email, and then run it, this program sends the worm file out to everyone listed in your email address book. If you work in a major corporation, this could means hundreds of people, and so the multiplying continues.

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How do I get a virus infection? Let us look at a possible scenario. Your son in America has received a very funny photo as an email attachment from a friend of his in Australia and decides that it would tickle your sense of humour. He sends it on to you and you open the attachment and have a good laugh. Unfortunately, the Australian has become infected with a trojan that carries a virus. This trojan is invisibly embedded into the funny picture carrying the virus to your machine via your son whose machine has also become infected. Recently, we experienced world-wide problems of the ‘Love Bug’. That is a perfect example of all of the above. It is a trojan because it came disguised as a ‘love letter’ when really it was carrying a harmful program. It is a virus because once executed, it infects files on your computer, turning them into new trojans. It is a worm because it propagates itself by sending itself out to everyone listed in your email address book.

How do I prevent a virus attack? Having scared you rigid with all this information let me try and set your mind at ease. As with anti-spam filters there are hundreds of anti-virus programs on the market that will not only scan all incoming messages and notify you of any virus threat but also keep your computer up to date with the latest virus developments. There are more than 200 new viruses being detected every month so you must keep your anti-virus program updated. Two market leaders in this field are Norton (www.symantec.com) and MacAfee (www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk), which charge between £20 and £40 for an annual subscription. There is also a free antivirus program – AVG Anti-Virus by AVG Technologies (http://free.avg.com) – which provides excellent protection and is the one I use.

Phishing Phishing, yes it really is spelt like that, but pronounced as if you were trying to catch a trout. This fraudulent activity is a particularly dangerous form of spam that looks perfectly genuine and yet is an attempt to gain access to your financial information.

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Cast your eye over the following email:

Looks fine, doesn’t it? It isn’t. First of all, I am not a Barclays customer so they do not even know my name – but the wording, logo and email address look genuine and if I happened to bank with Barclays I would start to worry. I am lucky, I have seen this sort of thing before so I check it out on the Web by searching for ‘Barclays phishing report’ (without the quotes) and, sure enough, I soon find a copy of this message listed as a scam and I report it to the bank. Be very wary of any message that purports to come from a financial institution. If your bank has a genuine query about your account it will write to you in the usual manner and not request details of your account over the Internet. So that’s the bad bits dealt with, now we come to the good bit, which is organising your email messages.

Organising Your Messages and Other Time-saving Features You may be pleasantly surprised to discover that your email program comes with lots of extras to help save you time and which even do things on your behalf 298

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without you even realising it. This section summarises some of these very clever and useful features.

Creating a subfolder Once you have got into the swing of sending and receiving emails you will find that your Inbox folder begins to bulge. You can keep it slim by deleting messages after you have read them but this can lead to some frustrating situations. Let us say that your granddaughter’s school has emailed you with details of a pupils’ concert in two months’ time. You might write down the details or even print the message out and file the information in a ‘safe place’. We have all had experiences of these safe places – they become so safe that even you can’t remember where they were and, if you had deleted the email, you would have to contact the school for the concert details. On the other hand, if you had left it in your Inbox, it is a simple matter of scrolling down the messages for the information. That is all very well but your Inbox will still develop into a random collection of potentially useful information such as ‘When did Auntie Lil say she was going to Lanzarote?’ or ‘What was the name of your son’s latest girlfriend in Tasmania?’ So why not file certain emails in subfolders of the Inbox. You can have different folders for messages from Auntie Lil, your daughter’s school and your globe-trotting son. Here is how you do it. Open your mail program – Mail or Outlook Express – and right-click on the Inbox folder:

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Choose New Folder from the drop-own menu, enter a suitable name of the subfolder, click on Inbox then click OK. You have just created a new subfolder within the Inbox folder entitled ‘Auntie Lil’ and you can drag any messages from Auntie into that subfolder. It is as easy as that but it can be made even easier using the Rules facility (see the next section) .

Creating rules Why not let the email program automatically do the sorting for you? You can create various ‘rules’ that instruct the computer to send your messages to different folders – even sending certain emails directly to the Junk folder. To set up your own set of rules, click on Tools then Message Rules and, finally, Mail to raise the window shown here:

As you can see there are a wealth of Conditions and Actions that allow you to specify a large range of actions to be taken when certain messages arrive. So by 300

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applying a few simple rules the majority of your emails can be filed away for future reference.

Adding signatures A signature is exactly ‘what it says on the tin’ – something you use to sign off your messages. They can be images of yourself (you are surely not that vain), your handwritten signature or your pet guinea pig. They can give information such as your address and phone number to save typing out the details every time or they can be life-enhancing quotations that particularly appeal to you. Go to Tools on the File menu then choose Options and click on the Signatures tab:

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You can either enter your signature as text or create a file that could include images in which case use Browse to find the file in question. Tick all the boxes relevant to the way you want your signature to behave and click on Apply.

Saving drafts You may have noticed a folder named Drafts in the list of folders on the left side of your email window. A draft can be described as work in progress and the Draft folder is a convenient place to store your incomplete messages. You may find yourself trying to finish a detailed reply to an email when fatigue sets in and your mind has had enough. You shut down the computer for the night forgetting that you have not finished your message never mind sent it. The computer can be very compassionate in these situations. If it finds an incomplete email during the process of shutting down, it simply files the message in the Draft folder all ready for your bushy-tailed reappearance the next morning.

Focusing on Email and Web Links Here is an example that arises when you are typing out somebody’s email address within the body of your message – you may be informing a friend of a mutual acquaintance’s new email address. You type in [email protected] and, as you can see, it immediately becomes underlined and highlighted in blue. Why? It is not just to make your typing look pretty. There is a practical reason behind this action. The same alteration occurs automatically when you type in a web address as in www.dropinfortea.org.uk. The computer recognises an email address from the presence of the @ symbol and a web address by the inclusion of www.. These are links. When the receiver of your message sees these highlighted links and clicks on one of them, their computer recognises the need to open up their email program or internet browser assuming that they want to send an email to one or browse the particular web page from the other. This neat feature obviates the need for you to write down the address, open the necessary program and type in the address – all the hard work is done for you. These actions take place only when you click on a link.

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Considering Web-based Email Accounts You will often come across email addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected]. People with these sorts of addresses have signed up to a variety of email accounts that are accessed via the Web (such as Hotmail) rather than using their computer’s email programs (such as Outlook Express, Opera’s M2 or Mozilla Thunderbird). These web-based email accounts can be integrated into Outlook Express and other such programs and I explain how you go about this later in the chapter. Web-based email accounts carry the great advantage that they can be accessed from any computer in the world. An early problem with free accounts was that you were limited to attaching only very small files but this issue has now been resolved, unless you want to send very large image files. The security of these accounts lies in the unique usernames and passwords you create when setting up the account. This method is another powerful argument for keeping your account details – especially your passwords – to yourself. These web accounts are free and very useful when you need another address to weed out unwanted messages (refer back to the earlier section on spam). Once you start using the Internet to any great extent, you will find yourself invited to join forums, news groups or simply to sign up to a shopping account. These webbased addresses provide a degree of useful anonymity in these instances. Don’t forget that you still need an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to access the Web and that your ISP will have given you a standard email address in the first place. (Refer to Chapter 10 on using basic email.) Personally, I use four different email addresses. I give my main address to friends and relatives, while the other three I use for forum registrations, inclusion on my websites, and lastly, in instances where I am not completely sure about a company’s website. I don’t think I could manage to remember the different usernames and passwords for more than this number and, even then, I have to have a hidden referral file on my computer to remind me of these details. The advantage of web-based email can best be explained by means of an example. Let us say that you have decided to visit your grandchildren in Red Canyon, Wyoming but as you are the Fixtures Secretary of your local tennis club you are aware that members may still need information from you. How can you stay in

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touch? No problem. You use your son’s computer in the States, and simply logon to your email account, check your mail, reply to any urgent requests and settle back to enjoy the company of your family.

Signing Up to Hotmail Hotmail is a free web-based email facility that has proved enormously popular – not least for the fact that you can pick up your messages from any computer with an Internet connection. Go to www.hotmail.co.uk to sign up to the free version. Here is what you do. 1. Click on the ‘Sign up’ icon:

2. Choose Windows Live services (as shown in the screenshot at the top of page 305). 3. Deselect the options to change your browser home page to MSN and collection of data (see the screenshot at the bottom of page 305). 4. Once the program is installed you will be invited to sign in and choose an email address and password. 304

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Your Hotmail address will expire if you do not use the account during a period of 120 days but it offers ample storage for all but the busiest of users. You have the www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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option of paying £14.99 per month for which you get a permanent membership – subject to the maintenance of the monthly payments – and a larger storage resource. The choice of username is up to you, subject to its availability, but do please give special thought to your password. If someone is really determined to break into your account they will try many of the common types of password such as mother’s maiden name, pet’s name, date of birth, etc., so choose something unique and memorable to yourself. I often advise the use of the first car number plate that you can remember or a familiar telephone number – obviously, not your own.

Setting Up Outlook Express to Work with Hotmail In spite of being web-based, Hotmail addresses can be configured to work with your Outlook Express program so that you can maintain copies of your messages. So let us look at how this is achieved. 1. Open your Outlook Express window, click on Tools on the menu bar then click on Accounts. 2. Check that the Mail tab is displayed then click on Mail then Add. This action will initiate the New Connection wizard that will guide you through the remaining steps. 3. Enter your Display name, which will be the name entered in the From field in your messages, then click on Next. 4. Type in your new Hotmail account address and click on Next. 5. Set your incoming server type as HTTP and your service provider as Hotmail and click on Next. 6. Your Account name should have been entered automatically in the top box. If not, then enter it yourself (for example [email protected]) and then enter your chosen password, which consists of at least six characters. Check the Remember password box and click on Next. 7. And that it is it – just click on Finish to set up the account. Outlook Express will probably ask if you want to load the Hotmail folders of Open, Sent items, Deleted items, etc., in which case click on Yes and you will have all your Hotmail details inserted in the left-hand column of Outlook Express.

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Communicating with Instant Messaging You can communicate using an alternative to email. The method is called Instant Messaging in that when two people, subscribing to the same messaging network, are connected to the Internet at the same time allowing them to have a typed ‘instant’ conversation between themselves. One of the most popular instant messaging networks is MSN Messenger.

Installing and using MSN Messenger MSN is run by Microsoft as part of their Windows Live system. First of all you have to subscribe to the network as follows. 1. Go to the MSN home page at http://webmessenger.msn.com. Click on the ‘Download and install MSN Messenger’ link, which will download the program and install it on your computer:

2. Once you have installed MSN Messenger go back to http://webmessenger. msn.com and click on Start MSN Messenger (see the image in Step 1). You will then be taken to the Sign Up page:

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Make sure that you click on Sign Up rather than Sign in. 3. The next window will invite you to either use your current email address or apply for a new, free hotmail address – I recommend that you choose the latter to keep your computer mail and web-mail accounts separate:

Click on No and then click on Continue. 4. Now you need to create your new email address. Begin by entering your chosen name in the box in front of the words @hotmail.co.uk then click on 308

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Check Availability. You may have to make a number of suggestions before you get an address that is not currently in use. Move on down the form choosing a suitable password and creating your password reset options.

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password but issue you with another instead. You are also required to select a question from a list and input a secret answer, known only to you, as a doublesecurity measure. 5. Towards the end of the form you will be asked to type in a sequence of characters copying the jumbled numbers and letters displayed in a box. This strange request is to prevent the automatic computer generation of addresses and passwords – you have to be human to read them. Here the jumbled characters are 2AT5UM6U and quite difficult to decipher:

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6. Finally click on ‘I Accept’ to complete the registration. 7. Now you can return to the MSN Web Messenger home page at http://webmessenger.msn.com to Sign in (rather than Sign up!) – refer to Step 2. After signing in you can start to add your own contacts from the menu at the bottom of the panel, as indicated here:

xxxxxxx@btinternet [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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After adding any friends who are also subscribed to MSN you will be informed whenever they go online by a dialogue box that opens at the base of the MSN window. When they are online you can begin typing your greeting and message – assuming you want to start up a conversation with them. You will also be informed when the other person is typing a reply to your message. If you do not want people to know that you are online simply turn off the messenger (they can do the same, too). Instant messaging is relative to the speed of your typing, which is probably quite slow at this point. But with practise, your fingers (hopefully more than just two) will be skipping across the keyboard in no time.


1. What is the difference between spam and junk email? (a) Spam comes from the Internet and junk email comes from your email program (b) Nothing (c) One is processed meat and the other is a message from China (d) Spam is computer-generated while junk email comes from people in your address book

2. When is it safe to reply to spam? (a) Never (b) When the email is encrypted (c) When there is a red exclamation mark beside the message (d) When you have an anti-spam program running

3. Why should you always use a signature at the end of your emails? (a) There is no reason (b) A signature creates an encryption code for security

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(c) It confirms that your message is not junk email (d) An email cannot be sent without a signature

4. What do computer worms do? (a) Feed the birds (b) Send unwanted messages to those people in your address book (c) Wipe out your hard disk (d) Remind you of your friends’ birthdays

5. What are the advantages of having two email addresses? (a) To impress your friends (b) Use one for private messages and another for public use (c) As a backup address if one becomes corrupted (d) To make life more difficult for spammers

6. Where do incomplete email messages get filed? (a) The Outbox folder (b) The Sent Mail folder (c) They are not filed – they will be irretrievably lost (d) The Drafts folder

7. What are the advantages of a web-based email address? (a) Your messages will be sent faster (b) You can read your mail from any internet-connected computer (c) It saves your disk space as the messages are stored on the Web (d) They are more secure

8. How do you create a new folder in your Inbox? (a) Use Ctrl+Shift+E (b) Choose Folder from New in the File menu www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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(c) Right-click on the Inbox and choose New Folder (d) Choose Page Setup from the File menu

9. How do you get the computer to file messages in specific folders? (a) Create a macro (b) Right-click on the message and choose Move to Folder (c) Create a rule (d) Drag the message to the required folder

10. How is a web link in an email identified? (a) It is printed in bold (b) It is printed in red (c) It is underlined and displayed in blue (d) The link is italicised

Answers Q1 – b

Q6

– d

Q2 – a

Q7

– b

Q3 – a

Q8

– a, b and c

Q4 – b

Q9

– b, c and d

Q5 – b, c and d

Q10 – c

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Getting more out of the Internet

21

Equipment needed – ISP connection, modem or router, telephone point, telephone cable to the computer and Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP program – both of which carry the Internet Explorer program Skills needed – Desktop, keyboard and mouse (Chapter 2), opening a program (Chapter 5), understanding email and the Internet (Chapter 9)

So far we have scratched the surface of using a browser – specifically Internet Explorer – to search the Web (refer to Chapter 11) but now I would like to introduce you to some of the more interesting and exotic features of internet browsers. Internet Explorer is certainly not the only web browser available to users of PC computers but it does come pre-installed with all Windows operating systems and is therefore instantly available to all. There are a great many advantages to using a universal standard. More than 75% of all PC owners use Internet Explorer as their web browser and they can discuss the use of the program with millions of others, gaining knowledge as they go. Unfortunately, there is one major drawback to this near monopoly. The sinful, unclean and usually criminal members of the computing community know that if they direct their nefarious activities towards Internet Explorer the effects will be felt worldwide. The topics of viruses , trojans and the like are discussed in Chapter 20 and the vast majority of these disruptive activities are directed at Microsoft programs, such as Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, simply because they are so extensively utilised by the majority of the computing world who use PC computers. I will not go into the individual merits www.pcwisdom.co.uk


and disadvantages of PC and Mac machines except to say that one great advantage of the disparate size in their respective markets is that the villains invariably target the PC user rather than the Mac disciple.

Choosing Alternative Web Browsers Of the many other browser programs available, Mozilla’s Firefox (www.mozilla. com) and the Opera browser (www.opera.com) are very strong competitors and often develop useful features that are later included in the regular Explorer updates. Both programs are free to download from the Web.

Selecting Browser Toolbars Different toolbars can be added to the header of a browser window, some of which are probably already available on your system but just not set up yet. Go to View and click on Toolbars to select one or more of these additional toolbars:

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As an example, here is what Mozilla’s Firefox toolbar looks like:


Bear in mind that your options may be slightly different to those shown in this example.

Using the Links Bar You will find the links bar just below the toolbar. The entries in this bar provide very useful short cuts to pages that you use on a regular basis (check out the top of the Firefox toolbar just given, which includes links to eBay, Amazon, the BBC, etc.). To access the page simply left-click on the link. To add a page to the links bar simply drag the icon at the beginning of the address bar of the page and onto the links bar. To remove a link from the bar right-click on the link and choose Delete.

Adding to the Favorites Menu From time to time you will come across web pages that are of particular interest to you but the web address of the page is so long and complicated that you have no chance of remembering it accurately. For such occasions, the Favorites menu comes in very handy. Having found an interesting page that you want to revisit, simply click on Favorites and choose Add to Favorites. The facility then offers up a suitably memorable description of the page or you can type in an alternative description and click on Add. After time, you will accumulate a long list of these pages so it is helpful to organise them into subfolders within the Favorites folder. From the Favorites drop-down menu pick Organise Favorites, create a selection of suitable folders (shopping, holidays, street maps, etc.) and drag the entries into their respective folders. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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The same effect can be achieved by using the two icons to the left of the Tabs bar – the yellow star to access your Favorites and the double-plus sign to organise them. The yellow star also gives you access to your browsing history over the previous few weeks, as shown here:


Making the Most of Google By installing a Google toolbar you will have a greater degree of control over your searches together with the ability to store your searches. So let us see how you install the toolbar on your own browser window.

Google toolbar To download the Google toolbar go to www.google.co.uk. On the menu bar click on More then click on Even More to show a huge list of Google applications, as you can see here: 318

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The Google toolbar is found under Search options so click here and then on Toolbar and simply follow the instructions:


Tip Why use the Google toolbar? Here are a few very good reasons why: O It blocks those irritating pop-up adverts O It makes suggestions to help your web searching O It rates web pages depending upon their quality www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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O It has its own Favorites facility called Bookmarks that you can access from any computer O You can share web pages with friends O It can translate foreign-language pages into English O It corrects your spelling in your web-mail messages

Google tools While on the subject of Google you may interested in some of the other offerings from this innovative giant: O Google Earth – provides scalable aerial images of most parts of the world. Type in your postcode or a foreign address and enjoy instant travel. O Google Desktop – it is easy to lose track of vital documents within the expanding filing system of your own computer. This tool searches your computer in the same way that its big brother searches the Web. O Google Images – a picture can be worth a thousand words. O Google News – searches 4500 news sources to bring you the latest news from the United Kingdom and around the world. O Google Docs – upload your documents, spreadsheets and presentations to the Web and download them anywhere in the world. O Google Maps – drive from Paris to Pisa with full instructions – it’s 1077 km and should take you about 10 hrs 26 mins if you are really interested. The maps integrate with Google Earth to give an aerial view of your route. O All the Google tools are free of any charges.

Introducing Tabbed Browsing One of the features developed by Mozilla Firefox and recently taken up by Internet Explorer is tabbed browsing. It can be rather frustrating moving back and forth between two web pages when you need information from both sources. Mozilla’s Firefox made this action so much easier by the introduction of the tab bar. To 320

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open a page under a new tab you can either click on a link by pressing the mouse wheel or left-click on the link while holding down the Ctrl key.

Listening to Radio on Your Computer So many web users confine themselves to such a narrow use of the Web that listening to the radio while typing out those boring committee minutes never occurs to them. Tune in to any of the BBC radio programmes, get a pair of headphones and plug them into your computer and listen to Women’s Hour or the Test Match Special. www.bbc.co.uk/radio should be your first port of call and from there you can tune in to national, regional and local radio stations including the renowned BBC World Service. You may have missed a particular programme transmission but you have a very good chance of listening to the recording again at a time to suit you. Sound, and especially video, needs a broadband connection if you are not to be frustrated by ‘fractured’ reception. You are not limited to listening to radio stations in this country, either. Homesick Aussies braving our summer weather can get a taste of home from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or from beyond the black stump. Fancy brushing up your French or German? Then why not tune in to one of those radio broadcasts before setting off on your motoring holiday. Try www.live-radio.net/worldwide.shtml as a starting point. You can even get Radio Fortuna from Skopje in Macedonia if you click a few links on this site.


1. What kind of program do you use to surf the Net? (a) A search engine (b) A directory (c) A browser (d) A word processor www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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2. Where do you save pages that you may want to return to? (a) History (b) Favorites (c) My Documents (d) My Web Pages

3. What could be the reason why you cannot hear an Internet radio station? (a) You haven’t got a radio aerial (b) You need a radio card fitted to the computer (c) You need an external speaker system (d) Your speaker is either turned to ‘mute’ or the volume turned down

4. How do you open a new web page in a new Tab? (a) Click on the link while holding down Ctrl (b) Click on the link using the mouse wheel (c) Choose New Tab from the File menu (d) Use CTRL+T

5. Where is the links bar? (a) At the right-hand end of the taskbar (b) On the lowest toolbar (c) In the View menu (d) Under the Chain icon

6. What are the advantages of alternative browsers to Internet Explorer? (a) They are less prone to computer ‘infections’ (b) They are more innovative

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(c) They are more accurate (d) They are faster

7. What do you need to watch TV re-runs on your computer? (a) A broadband connection (b) A TV adapter (c) A wireless connection (d) A free program called ‘CompuTV’

8. What are the advantages of a Google toolbar? (a) Fewer adverts (b) Prompted search suggestions (c) Web-based Bookmarks (d) It will translate foreign websites

9. How far does Google Maps say it is from Dunfermline to Exeter? (a) 430 miles (b) 450 miles (c) 390 miles (d) 470 miles

10. You visited a page a week ago that you want to view again. How would you do this? (a) Use Favorites (b) Use Bookmarks (c) Use History (d) Use Internet Options from the Tools menu

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Answers Q1 – a, b and c will all help

Q6

– a and b

Q2 – b

Q7

– a

Q3 – d

Q8

– All four answers are correct


Q9

– d

Q5 – b

Q10 – c

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PART IV Appendices


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Appendix: Useful websites

A

Skills needed – An insatiable desire to explore

The web addresses listed here were correct at the time of press but please be aware that this information can change or in some instances you may be redirected to another site. If in doubt you can always try searching for the site on Google.

Travel and Accommodation Flights www.ba.com

Fly the world with British Airways

www.easyjet.com

Low-cost European flights

www.flybe.com

More bargain flights to Europe

www.kayak.co.uk

Cheap flights from 100s of travel agents

www.ryanair.co.uk

Budget flights to Europe and North Africa

Holidays www.bedandbreakfasts.co.uk

Cheap B&Bs throughout the United Kingdom

www.cunard.co.uk

The most famous ocean liners in the world www.pcwisdom.co.uk


www.ebookers.com

Create your own holiday package with ebookers

www.pocruises.com

Britain’s favourite cruise line

www.saga.co.uk/travel

Holidays for the over 50s made easy

www.thomascook.com

The UK’s favourite travel agent

www.trailfinders.com

Tailor-made travel worldwide

Train tickets www.eurostar.com

Let the European train take the strain

www.thetrainline.com

Train times and tickets for all UK train routes

Coach tickets www.nationalexpress.com Comfortable coach travel across the UK

Cross-channel ferries www.eurotunnel.com

Eurotunnel – the fastest channel crossing

www.norfolkline.com

Great fares Dover to Dunkerque

www.poferries.com

Crossings to Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Ireland

www.seafrance.com

Do Dover to Calais the French way

Travel miscellaneous www.baa.com

Check your flight from any British airport

www.caravanclub.co.uk

Tow your home across the UK

www.flashearth.com

See your home in fine-detail from a satellite

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Useful websites

www.multimap.co.uk

Create your own driving route

www.rac.co.uk/web/trafficnews

Live traffic update by region

www.streetmap.co.uk

Detailed street maps of Britain

www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Tickets for every event under the sun

www.tripadvisor.co.uk

Read people’s opinions of hotels and resorts

www.tubejp.com

London Tube journey planner

Shopping Books, music, videos, software www.abebooks.com

Huge source of second-hand books

www.alibris.com

Great deals on used and hard-to-find books

www.play.com

For everything and anything to entertain you

www.streetsonline.net

Music downloads made easy

www.virgin.com

Virgin music and much more

www.waterstones.co.uk

Books galore from Waterstone’s online

Electrical goods www.comet.co.uk

Comet for all the latest technology

www.currys.co.uk

Currys for applicances, computers, and more

www.dixons.co.uk

Dixons low-priced electricals

Theatre tickets www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Don’t miss a performance with Ticketmaster www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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Presents and parties www.bagsoffun-julie.co.uk

Create your own bag of fun for kids

www.hawkin.com

Stocking fillers and old-fashioned toys

Printer consumables www.bigink.co.uk

Low-cost ink cartridges and printer ink

www.choicestationery.co.uk

Camera and computer consumables

www.on-linepaper.co.uk

Paper for everyday and specialist printing

Kitchenware www.kitchenware.co.uk

One stop kitchen shop

www.lakeland.co.uk

Everything you need for the kitchen

www.thecookingshop.com

Catering for all your cooking needs

Shopping miscellaneous www.amazon.co.uk

Sells more than just books and music

www.ebay.co.uk

Fascinating auction site – beware it’s addictive

www.debbysgardenlinks.co.uk

Links to hundreds of gardening sites

www.heals.co.uk

Everything you need to furnish your home

www.johnlewis.com

Shop online at this huge department store

www.tesco.com

Tesco grocery deliveries to your home

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Useful websites

General Reference www.bbc.co.uk

Full details of the Beeb’s offerings

www.bbc.co.uk/weather

The latest weather across the globe

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Loads of information on English Heritage

www.itv.com

ITV entertainment and news

www.merriam-webster.com

The Merriam Webster Dictionary

www.nationaltrust.org.uk

National Trust site

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

The Science Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org

A very good encyclopaedia

Financial www.fool.co.uk

The Motley Fool financial community

www.ft.com

The Financial Times website

www.iii.co.uk

The Interactive Investor site

www.moneyextra.com

Check your own share portfolio

Hobbies and Crafts www.craft-fair.co.uk

All crafts catered for on one website

www.handyhippo.co.uk

Everything for the home card maker

www.make-stuff.com

Make almost everything from anything

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The Arts www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

The British Museum site

www.hermitagemuseum.org

The Russian Hermitage Museum

www.louvre.fr

The Louvre Museum

www.nationalgallery.org.uk

The National Gallery

www.npg.org.uk

Home of the National Portrait Gallery

www.rijksmuseum.nl

The Rijks Museum

www.tate.org.uk

Details of all the Tate galleries

www.vam.ac.uk

The Victoria and Albert Museum

History www.bbc.co.uk/history

British history through the ages

www.hyperhistory.com

World history over 3000 years

www.iwm.org.uk

The Imperial War Museum

www.firstworldwar.com

History of the First World War

www.worldwar2history.info

History of the Second World War

www.tudorhistory.org

Henry VII to Elizabeth I

Cookery www.allrecipes.com

Thousands of recipes

www.bbc.co.uk/food

BBC cookery programme recipes

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Useful websites

www.epicurious.com

Recipes from all over the world

www.itv.com/lifestyle/cooks

ITV cookery recipes

Genealogy www.ancestry.co.uk

Start your ancestry search here

www.cyndislist.com

Huge personal ancestry list

www.familysearch.org

Search for your American family

www.genesreunited.co.uk

Great place to start your family history

www.genuki.org.uk

Large resource site

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Repository of genealogical information

Digital Photography www.alamy.com

Possibly the biggest source of images

www.dpreview.com

Reviews on the camera you might buy

www.freeimages.com

Collection of free stock images

www.whatdigitalcamera.co.uk

More digital camera reviews

Leisure and Hobbies www.alwayshobbies.com

All your modelling supplies catered for

www.adventuresinwatercolour.com

Painting courses in Norfolk, Italy, Spain

www.britisharts.co.uk

Everything for the budding artist

www.sculpture-painting.co.uk

Painting, drawing and sculpture courses

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www.videojug.com

How to do almost anything

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening

All you need to know about gardening

www.crocus.co.uk

Fulfils all your gardening needs

www.instructables.com

How to make the strangest things

www.hometips.com/diy.html

DIY around the home

www.diynetwork.com

Crafts and DIY information

www.ramblers.org.uk

The Ramblers Association site

www.walkingbritain.co.uk

Great site for walkers and hikers

www.pagat.com/alpha.html

An alphabetical list of card games

www.chess.com

Play and improve your chess

www.prairienet.org/bridge/

Huge library of contract bridge information

www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Sport news from the UK

www.golflinks.co.uk/golf-course/

Golf courses around the UK

www.bluemoment.com

Everything for the sailor

www.writing-world.com/fiction

Go on! Write that novel

Tutorials www.watchandlearnphotoshop.com Photoshop tutorials in video format www.askphotoshop.com

More Photoshop tutorials

www.tutorials.beginners.co.uk

Learn how to use your computer

www.forwebdesigners.com

Everything a web designer needs

www.myjanee.com

Huge library of imaging tutorials

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Useful websites

A Motley Collection www.bored.com

Mind trivia

www.darwinawards.com

Black humour but still funny

www.easybartricks.com

Video instructions for simple magic illusions

www.live-radio.net/info.shtml

Listen to radio broadcast around the world

www.rense.com/general67/street.htm

Pavement art you will not believe

www.stumbleupon.com

Get the toolbar and explore the Web

Price Comparison Sites www.moneysupermarket.com

Shop for mortgages to holidays

www.energyhelpline.com

Compares utility companies

www.uswitch.com

Well-presented utility search site

www.kelkoo.co.uk

Compares prices of everything, anything

www.pricerunner.co.uk

Another vast comparison site

www.confused.com

Covers insurance, finance and utilities

www.shopzilla.co.uk

Prices from over 11 000 Internet stores

www.mysupermarket.co.uk

Compares prices at major supermarkets

www.ciao.co.uk

Thousands of customer reviews

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Appendix: Glossary

B

ADSL. Abbreviation for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Broadband internet connection (several thousand times faster than basic dial-up connection). You need to be close to a digital telephone exchange, on cable or have a satellite dish. You can remain connected permanently. anti-virus. Software or program that detects and deletes a virus embedded within an email or attachment or one already present on your computer. Ensure that any anti-virus software is frequently updated to deal with newly developed strains of virus. application. A software program such as Word or Internet Explorer. Applications files almost always end in ‘.exe’. ASP. Abbreviation for application service provider. Computer companies that provide you with programs and data storage over the Net for a rental fee, rather than buying them outright. backup. Saving copies of your work to the computer’s hard disk, CD, DVD or other media for safekeeping. bandwidth. A measure of the maximum amount of data that can be transferred over the Internet or phone system at any one time. beta. A program that is being tested, which is given out to users to find any problems. bitmap. A graphic image that is made up of many tiny dots. www.pcwisdom.co.uk


blog, blogger. A weblog or person who writes a website diary about the boring things they do each day. Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). The screen that comes up in Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 when your computer can’t cope with something. It suggests you press a key to continue. Called the Blue Screen of Death because pressing a key doesn’t help at all! And the technical details shown are of no benefit. See reboot. bluetooth technology. Using radio transmission from your PC for controlling everything from printers to lights to the washing machine anywhere within a building. See also wi-fi. boot. Start a PC from cold. See also reboot. broadband. High bandwidth internet connections such as cable or ADSL for faster connections. browser. Program for browsing the Internet, such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. byte. A number of digits that make up a character, number or space on a hard, floppy disk or CD. CAB file. A compressed file. In Windows they contains all the files necessary to create the Windows operating system. cable modem. A method of connection via cable companies such as Virgin and Sky that can pipe fast internet connections to you providing you have a special modem fitted to your PC. CD/CD-ROM/CD-R. Various abbreviations for Compact Disk Read Only Memory. They are the familiar disk on which programs arrive. They are read only because the tracks are burnt in and cannot be changed. See also CD-RW. CD-RW. Abbreviation for Compact Disk Re-Writable. The format of a compact disk that can be re-used many times. chat. Text messaging to others online using messaging software such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL and others. 338

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Glossary

chat room. An area on the Internet where people chat (usually written) to each other in real time. chip. Short for silicon chip. The silicon base used to mount the millions of components that go to make up a computer processor. Clip Art. Collection of ready-made pictures commonly provided with word-processing software. control panel. An important set of small programs that allow you to configure the basic functions of your computer. control key. Marked Ctrl on the keyboard. This is a modifying key that works in a similar way to the Caps key. Like Alt and function keys its use can vary from program to program. cookie. A small text file that is downloaded to your computer without you being aware of it. Primarily used to trace your activities for marketing purposes. Can be deleted by using Windows Explorer or prevented by Internet Explorer security. The latter may prevent you from accessing certain sites. cursor. A flashing vertical line indicating where the point of insertion is when using a word processor. cut or copy and paste. Most Microsoft Windows programs allow you to cut or copy a selected item (text or picture) and paste it into another place or even another program. So you can copy a picture from one program and paste it into another. Use Ctrl with X (cut), C (copy) and V (paste) shortcuts. cybercafe or internet cafe. Cafes where you can get access to the Internet. They are found all over the world and are a major method of communication for travellers. database. A list of items of information kept on a computer disk that can be amended, searched or printed. desktop. The main, first screen in Windows. DHTML. Abbreviation for Dynamic HTML. An advanced form of HTML that makes web pages more animated. See HTML; XML. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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dial-up. A basic connection between the computer and the telephone line that is charged at local-call rates. It is much slower than broadband and prevents the use of the phone line while the computer remains connected. digital. The method of storing or transmitting material as a series of numbers. Surprisingly, these numbers never get past 1. So they are made up of Noughts (zeros) and Ones. The speed and accuracy with which these can be stored has enabled most information to be stored in this way; for example television, photography, all computing and, of course, the Internet. directory. An organised search facility on the Web. DirectX. A free, downloadable Windows program that ensures graphics programs work with all the different types of graphics hardware. DivX. A new video format that compress to one hundredth the size of the current versions, thus enabling you to put films onto CD. DOS. Abbreviation for disk operating system. The original operating system used on PCs without which the machine would be a just a collection of useless electronic parts. Gradually being superseded by Windows. download. The process of transferring files from the Web to your computer’s hard drive. You can download pictures, text and programs. DPI. Abbreviation for dots per inch. Used in connection with printers, scanners and monitors. drag and drop. The facility in most programs to select text or a file and drag it to another position. DTP. Abbreviation for desktop publishing. Creating print-ready documents on a computer. DVD-ROM. Abbreviation for Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory. A disk capable of containing much more information than available on a CD. Used for music, films and very large programs. The information cannot be copied over. See also DVD-RW. DVD-RW. Abbreviation for Digital Versatile Disk ReWritable. A high-capacity disk that can be used many times. 340

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Glossary

DVD player. Special disk player for DVD disks. Also capable of playing music. eBay. Internet auction site for buying and selling all types of new and secondhand goods. e-book. Electronic books published for distribution on the Web or for hand-held readers. The searching facilities are especially useful. e-commerce. Business conducted over the Internet. email. Messages sent to people over the Internet. Email addresses always contain the @ symbol and never contain spaces. email client. Program used to send and receive emails; for example Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Communicator. exabyte. A thousand million gigabytes. That’s a lot of bites. See also gigabytes. FAT, FAT32. Abbreviation for file allocation table. A file system used on a disk that is a form of index ,which is constantly updated to keep track of everything on the disk. FAT is limited to 4MB per partition. FAT32 is almost unlimited but cannot cope with file sizes more than 4GB. See also NTFS. Favorites. Also known as Bookmarks. All web browsers enable you to add favourite websites to a list for easy retrieval. firefox. Another web browser similar to Internet Explorer but a more stable program and less prone to pop-up adverts. firewall. A program that ensures that your PC has no open ‘ports’ that allow hackers to access it. firewire. A socket on some PCs that enables much faster transfer of data than via Serial, Parallel and 30 times faster than a USB port. Needed if you are transferring large amounts of data, for example from a digital video camera for editing purposes. An add-on card costs about £50 but these are coming down in price. fixed pitch. Sometimes it is better to use a typewriter style of character that has the same width (non-proportional) for every letter. Courier is an example of such a font. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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floppy disk. Hardly floppy these days. 3.5-inch disks that you can use to save data so you can copy it to and from your hard disk. Floppy disks are rapidly being replaced by CDs and DVDs. See also hard disk. font. A collection of characters of a predefined style such as Times New Roman or Arial. freeware. Computer programs that are distributed free of charge often missing some elements of the full product or having a limited usage time. function keys. Programmable keys F1 to F12, which may vary in their use. geek. Someone obsessed with computers. I didn’t hear that! gigabyte (GB). A thousand million bytes. gigahertz (GHz). A thousand megahertz. GPS. Abbreviation for Global Positioning System. Use of satellites to tell you where you are. Used by boats, ramblers and available in cars. graphics. The general term used for pictures and drawings. graphics card. The part of the PC that sends signals to the monitor or display. GSM. Abbreviation for Global System for Mobile communication. A standard whereby you can use your telephone abroad. hacker. A person who delights in breaking into other people’s computers. hard copy. Printed material, rather than viewed on the computer screen. hard disk. A set of spinning disks coated with recording material. Can retain details of programs and data indefinitely until they break of course; hence the need for backup. hardware. Any piece of equipment such as a computer or printer. home page. The first page of a website, usually Index.htm. 342

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Glossary

Hotmail. An alternative email program where you can get an email address before you get a computer allowing you to pick up mail at a cybercafe or a library. It usually takes the form of [email protected]. hotspot. An area (cafe, airport, hotel, etc.) enabled for connection to the Internet by wi-fi-enabled laptops, Smartphones or PDAs. HTML or HTM. Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language. The agreed language that websites are built from. Your browser interprets the language to show you intelligible pages. See also XML. hyperlink. A link on a web page that takes you to another web page. Often blue and underlined. See also surfing the Web. hypertext links. These are addresses of sites or pages embedded in a document or email, which might be on the same site or another on the other side of the world. Usually coloured blue and underlined, when the mouse pointer is placed over one it changes shape to a hand identifying it as a link. Also used to link or search information on encyclopaedia CDs. When clicked your computer may go online to access the site. See also online. icon. A graphic representation of something, such as a shortcut to a program or file. IDE. Abbreviation for Integrated Drive Electronics. The standard interface (connection) used to attach hard disks and CD players. IM. Abbreviation for Instant Messaging. Text-based messages to people online, using Microsoft or AOL Instant Messenger. I-pointer. The shape of the mouse pointer when using a word processor. inkjet or bubblejet printer. The commonest form of printer that squirts ink onto the paper. Normally colour + black. Internet (the). A massive network of linked computers that can be accessed by people who are connected to the Web. Internet Explorer. Popular web browser, issued free by Microsoft. Other browsers include Mozilla’s Firefox, Netscape Navigator and Opera. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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ISDN. Abbreviation for Integrated Services Digital Network. A faster (than standard) internet connection, requiring a special cable. ISP. Abbreviation for Internet Service Provider. A company that provides you with access to the Internet. Java and JavaScript. A programming language used on some web pages. JPG or JPEG. The most commonly used compressed image format. EG always stands for Expert Group, a body which sets common standards. kilobyte (K). A thousand bytes. LAN. Abbreviation for local-area network. Computers connected locally, for example within a company or home, so that they can communicate and share programs and data. See also WAN. laser printer. A printer that uses a laser to create an image on a light-sensitive drum, which then loads toner powder onto paper. Often just black printing. Faster and more economical than inkjets. LED. Abbreviation for light-emitting diode. Some laser printers use this method instead of a laser. Linux. An operating system, like Windows but free and stable. It requires software written especially for it. macro. A small program within another program that at the touch of a couple of keys performs a series of actions. megabyte (MB). A million bytes. See also byte; exabyte; gigabyte; kilobyte. megahertz (MHz). A measure of how fast your PC processor works. Basically, a million vibrations a second. One instruction takes place each vibration. modem. An acronym for modulator/demodulator, its purpose is to convert computer language to and from telephone language. monitor. The computer screen; also known as a VDU (visual display unit). 344

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Glossary

motherboard. The main circuit board of a computer, to which other components are attached. Mozilla Firefox. See Firefox. MP3. Abbreviation for Music Program Expert Group Audio Layer 3 (or MPEG3). A highly compressed form of music, which can be downloaded from the Net and played on a computer or a portable MP3 player. MSN. Abbreviation for Microsoft Network. Net (the). A term used loosely to mean the Web. Netscape Communicator. Netscape’s email client program; an alternative to Outlook Express. Netscape Navigator. Netscape’s browser; an alternative to Internet Explorer. network. General term for connected computers. See also LAN; WAN. NFTS. Abbreviation for National File Tracking System. An alternate form of indexing computer files. OCR. Abbreviation for optical character recognition. Some software can convert scanned text into word-processable (editable) documents. offline. Not connected to the Internet. Some things, like writing emails, can be done before going online. online. Connected to the Internet. Outlook Express. The free Microsoft program for handling emails; Netscape’s is called Messenger. parallel port. Almost always a 25-pin female socket on the back of a computer, which is used for printing but also to attach things like scanners and other external equipment. See also USB port. path. The location of a file or program on a disk; for example Word is located at C:\program files\microsoftOffice\office\winword.exe. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

345


PCI slot. Abbreviation for peripheral component interface slot. A type of connector (usually white) that enables you to add components to your PC. PCMCIA. Originally stood for Peripheral Component MicroChannel Interconnect Architecture. This awkward acronym was jokingly expanded as ‘People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms’ or ‘Personal Computer Manufacturers Can’t Invent Acronyms’. It was then renamed after the standards organisation, the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. Difficulty with the acronym led to the simpler term ‘PC Card’ for the version 2 specification. It was originally for memory expansion, but the existence of a usable general standard for notebook peripherals led to all manner of devices being made available in this form. Typical devices include network cards, modems and hard disks. PDA. Abbreviation for Personal Digital Assistant. A small hand-held computer used for emails, calendar dates and note taking. PDF. Abbreviation for Portable Document Format. This format is a popular and powerful method of presenting documents; files can be identified by the suffix ‘.pdf’. Documents created by the Adobe Acrobat program can only be read using the Adobe Acrobat Reader program, which is available as a free download. phishing. This term refers to a scam where you get an email supposedly from your bank, requesting that you confirm your password. If you give out a password like this you can expect your account to be robbed shortly afterwards! PIM. Abbreviation for personal information manager. Software that acts as a diary – even an alarm clock. See PDA. pixel. A term for picture element. A small element on a screen or in photograph. Cameras are sometimes referred to in megapixels. A megapixel is a million pixels. The more pixels the better the quality of the picture and the more memory is used up. plug and play. Modern machines and hardware (printers, sound cards, CD players, etc.) are able to recognise when they are connected, so enabling easy installation or use. point size. The height of a printed character. Correspondence is usually presented in approximately 12 pt. 346

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Glossary

port. Either a socket on your computer, such USB, parallel (printer) or Serial (communications); or part of the system that allows communication with your computer (the latter are numbered, for example Port 110). PS/2. The smaller type of socket used for modern keyboard and mouse connections. proportional font. Fonts that present their characters in varying widths so some characters use much less space; for example, less for a lowercase ‘l’ than for a capital ‘W’. QuickTime. A program developed by Apple that enables you to view moving pictures. RAM. Abbreviation for random access memory. Chips in your PC that work on programs temporarily. reboot. A curious word meaning re-starting the computer. register. A most important file used in Windows 95 onwards. Contains details of everything within Windows. router. A box that connects your computer to the telephone line by means of a wireless technology. safe mode. This is when you start Windows in its most basic form with no background programs in operation. As a result the screen changes to its very basic (large) layout. Safe mode is used to cure various problems including virus and ‘defrag’ difficulties. To get into safe mode (on most PCs) press F8 as Windows begins to load. scanner. A piece of equipment capable of digitally recording a picture or some text for saving on the computer. S-Video. A higher quality video connection. It carries brightness and colour information separately. SCSI. Abbreviation for small computer system interface. A fast interface (connection) for attaching peripherals to your computer. See also IDE. search engine. A program, usually accessed through the Net, which enables you to search for what you want by entering a few words. www.pcwisdom.co.uk

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serial port. A 9 or 25 pin (male) socket on the back of a computer, which can be used to attach a mouse, a modem or a printer. Referred to as a COM (communication) port, most PCs have two built in. shareware. Computer programs or software that are free to use but you are invited to make a contribution towards its costs – usually about $15. site or website. An area on the Internet that has its own unique web address. It has a home page followed by other pages linked to the home page. See also URL. software. Programs of all types that make the computer act in a particular way. spam. Unsolicited advertising that usually arrives as emails. spyware. Software that is installed on your computer without your knowledge to monitor and report back what you are doing. Scary. spreadsheet. A mathematical program that contains formulae to automatically work on the figures that are entered. streaming. Receiving sound or pictures continuously over the Internet (rather than downloading first). style sheet. A previously arranged document with specific type styles, weights and sizes. See also template. surfing the Web. Term that means using hypertext links to jump from one site or page to another. SVGA. Abbreviation for Super Video Graphics Array, usually just Super VGA. The later type of screen (and video card) capable of displaying more colours and higher definition. Tab key. The key on the left of the keyboard that allows you to jump certain fixed distances across the page when using a word processor (or even a steam age typewriter). temporary files. The internet, some installation programs and even your own programs may use a part of your hard disk to enable them to work. They often end with the suffix ‘.tmp’. They can be deleted later. 348

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Glossary

template. A standard letter or spreadsheet that can be amended to suit your needs. TFT. Abbreviation for thin film transistor. The technology used to create those popular flat screens. toolbar. A list of icons often found at the top of a program such as a word processor. trojan. A virus program that is disguised as something else. It invades your PC and can be accessed by a hacker. TWAIN. A standard interface for acquiring images from image scanners. The word TWAIN is not officially an acronym; however, it is widely known as a backronym for Technology Without An Interesting Name. URL. Abbreviation for Universal Resource Locator more commonly called a web address. It always starts with http:// and is usually followed by www, then continues with other parts of the address. USB port. Abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus. A more recent versatile communication port, which can transfer data faster and also enables equipment to be hot swapped, whilst the machine is on. The sockets are about half an inch wide. It also contains a power supply so equipment such as webcams do not need a transformer. An add-on card is available for older machines but early Windows 95 did not support this connection. USB2. At 480 MB/s is even faster than USB. Looks the same as USB and the slower devices can also be attached to it. VDU. Abbreviation for visual display unit. The computer screen or monitor. VGA. Abbreviation for Video Graphics Array. The older type of colour screen. videoconferencing. Using the PC as a video phone – popular with multinational companies for virtual meetings. video-phone. Using a microphone, speakers and a webcam to see and hear others over the Internet.

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virus. A malicious program that can harm your computer. It is spread through programs – either from disks or from the Internet. It is the graffiti of the Internet. See also trojans; worms. WAN. Abbreviation for wide-area network. A computer network that covers a broad area (for example, any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). WAP. Abbreviation for Wireless Application Protocol. A system of sending (restricted) internet pages to the screen of a mobile phone. web browser. A program to help you navigate the Internet, for example Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. webcam. A small camera that is attached to the computer. Two or more webcam users can have real-time conversations. wi-fi. A wireless interface, using radio to link computers and other devices. A snappier name than the 802.11b standard. See also bluetooth. Windows 95. The 1995 version of the Microsoft Windows system, which replaced version 3.11. It did not support the USB sockets. Windows 98. The 1998 version of the Microsoft Windows system, which replaced Windows 95. Only the Second Edition (SE) had USB support. Windows ME. Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition. A half-way house between Windows 98 and Windows XP. Windows XP. Microsoft’s last operating system before Vista, intended to replace all previous Windows formats. You have a choice of Home or Professional versions. wizard. A program that helps you through a process such as installing new software or hardware. word processing. Creating documents on a computer that can easily be amended and formatted (processed).

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worm. A virus program that spreads by sending itself to people in your email address book. See also virus. www. Abbreviation for the world wide web. The Internet. XML. An earlier version of the programming language for web pages ZIP file. Compressed file that ends in the suffix ‘.zip’ or ‘.cab’. To open their contents they must be viewed using a special program such as Winzip or Enzip.

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Index

@ symbol, 302

A Accessories, 67, 73, 74 Add button, 152 Add to Dictionary, 277 Add to Favorites, 174, 317 adding a shortcut icon, 105 address bar, 172, 177 Address Book, 152, 153, 164 albums, 265 Alt > F, 77 Alt key, 30, 53, 77, 115, 281 altering the appearance of selected text, 95–97 alternative menu, 34 alternative web browsers, 316 anti-spam filter, 294, 295, 297 anti-virus program, 25, 160, 297 apostrophe key, 30 Appearance tab, 108, 109 arrow keys, 31, 81 Attach icon, 162 attachments, 148, 160 auctions, 223 Auto Colour, 268 Auto Contrast, 268

auto save, 91 AutoCorrect, 278, 279 AutoCorrect Options, 278 AutoFit, 288 Auto-hide, 110 AutoText, 279, 280 AVG Technologies Antivirus, 295, 297

B Back and Forward icons, 68, 173 Back icon, 68, 69 background image, 107 Backspace, 80–82 Backspace and Delete keys, 80 Backspace key, 28 banking details, 201 bargain flights, 218 Basic Fixes, 267, 268 basic window, 46 Bcc, 153 bidding, 231 blank lines, 79 blind copy, 154 Bold icon, 283 bold type, 95 booking example, 215 Bookmark, 288

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Index

Bookmarks, 320 broadband, 134–137, 162 broadband connection, 321 browser, 191 browser toolbars, 316 Bullet tool, 285 bulleted paragraphs, 285 buying on eBay, 227

C capital letters, 80 Caps key, 26 Caps Lock key, 29 card details, 202, 207 card reader, 258, 259 card-reader slots, 260 Cataloguing images, 264 Cc, 153 CD drives, 60 CD slot, 242 CD tray, 137, 243 Centre icon, 87 changing the appearance of the desktop, 106 choose a text colour, 96 choosing an ISP, 132 clicking and dragging, 35, 38 Clip Art, 281 clock, 25 closing a file, 92 closing a window (Vista), 51 closing a window (XP), 54 columns, 288 communication, 5 composing an email message, 151–160 computer commands, 25 computer keys, 26 computer memory, 90 computer screen, 20 computer window, 46 concept of the Internet and email, 130 354

Connect, 157 Contact (XP), 152 Contacts (Vista), 165 contacts list, 153, 154 Control key, 115 corner handles, 281 Create button, 152 Create Shortcuts Here, 106 creating a letter, 87 creating a new folder, 63, 66 creating a subfolder, 299 creating rules, 300 creating shortcuts, 84 credit and debit cards, 197, 198 credit card, 207, 236 Crop tool, 268 Ctrl+Alt+Delete, 115 Ctrl and Alt keys, 30 Ctrl key, 262 Ctrl key, 30, 94, 321 Ctrl > A, 95, 262, 264 Ctrl > C, 262 Ctrl > End, 54 Ctrl > F, 122 Ctrl > G, 288 Ctrl > Home, 54 Ctrl > V, 262 Ctrl > Z, 99, 122 customising the taskbar, 110

D default, 27, 99, 244 default command, 27 defragmenter, 120 Delete key, 28, 82, 115 delete shortcuts, 82 deleting images, 266 desktop, 8, 20, 21, 108 desktop computer, 9 desktop icons, 82 dial-up, 133–137

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Index

dial-up connection, 134, 162 dial-up modem, 136 digital cameras, 257 digital photography, 9 directories, 186, 189, 197 Disconnect, 158 disconnect the modem, 158 Document Map, 287 domain suffixes, 180 domains, 178, 179 double-click, 34, 38, 95 double left-click, 38 double-clicking, 33, 53 double-headed arrow, 53 downloading a program from the Web, 249–253 Downloads folder, 253 Drafts, 302 drag and drop, 35, 65 dragging, 97 drives, 60 drop-down menu, 27, 53, 62, 63 DVD, 10 DVD Drive, 46

E eBay, 224, 225, 226, 230, 231, 236 Edit menu, 78 Edit Mode, 267 Effects, 267 email, 130, 131, 147, 148 email address, 151–152, 294, 302 email address book, 297 E-Mail addresses box, 152 email and web links, 302 email attachments, 294 emergency action, 115 End key, 31 End Task, 116 Enter key, 26, 27, 34, 41, 89, 284 Esc key, 30–32

Euro (€) symbol, 30 excluding words, 192 Exit, 38, 94 Explorer icon, 170 Explorer window, 170 exploring the Web, 177

F F1, 120 F1 key, 29 F2, 266 F2 function key, 38, 265, 270 Favorites icon, 174 Favorites menu, 317 fear, 12 feedback, 230 fields, 287 File menu, 94 files, 59 Fill Light tool, 268 financial information, 297 financial security issues, 7 Find, 193 Find a category (on eBay), 236 firewalls, 136 flashing cursor, 92 floppy disk, 60 Floppy Disk Drive, 46 Folder icons, 64 Folder option, 63 folders, 59, 60, 66 fonts, 281 Fonts menu, 96 Format, 87 Format bar, 76, 79 Format menu, 283, 285 formatting, 283 formatting pictures, 283 Forward button, 68, 69 free software, 245, 249 freeware, 249, 250

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Index

From box, 153 full-screen view, 264 Full Screen, 53 function key F1, 117 function keys, 29, 30

Home button, 173 Home key, 31 home page, 173, 202 Hotmail, 227, 295, 304, 306 hourglass, 21, 170 hyperlink, 176

G

I

Google, 189, 202, 223, 251, 252 Google Desktop, 320 Google Earth, 320 Google home page, 189, 190 Google Images, 320 Google Maps, 320 Google News, 320 Google toolbar, 318 Google Tools, 320 grammar, 278 grammatical errors, 275 green underlining, 275 greyed-out, 49, 173 gridlines, 288

H hackers, 136 hand pointer, 176 hard disk, 66, 91 Hard Disk Drives, 46 hard disks, 60 Help key, 29 Help Topics, 117 Help menu, 117 highlighted, 27, 94 highlighted text, 280 highlights, 268 History icon, 174 hobbies, 6 holidays, 7

356

icon identification, 25 icons, 21, 23, 25 I-pointer, 79, 92 identifying spam, 294 Inbox, 160, 299 Inbox folder, 150, 299 Insert, 120 insert a picture, 118, 281 Insert menu, 280 inserting symbols, 280 install Photoshop Elements, 243 Instant Messaging, 307 internet auction sites, 223 internet backbone, 130 internet booking, 220 internet browser, 170, 315 Internet Explorer, 170, 251, 315 Internet Service Provider, 130, 173 internet shopping, 198 ISP, 130, 131, 133, 135, 140, 148, 157, 170, 173, 295 ISP disk, 138 Italic, 283

J jewel case, 243 Join, 205 junk mail, 293 justify, 284, 285

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Index

K keyboard, 10, 25, 26 Keyboard Shortcuts, 122

L Label options, 286 laptop, 8, 9, 33, 243 Layout tab, 283 left-click, 34, 37 left-mouse button, 24, 25, 33–35, 48 left-clicking, 34 Letters & Mailing, 286 Library, 265 links, 120, 176, 177, 216, 302 links bar, 172, 317 loading a program (from disk), 242 local (hard) disks, 60 Local-Call Rate, 133 Lock the task bar, 110 logging in, 206 Login, 205 Login forms, 206

M Mail, 165, 299 Mail icon, 174 Mail Merge, 286 maximises, 47, 53 memory, 90 memory card, 263 Menu bar, 53, 76, 77, 87, 92, 150, 263, 278, 285 message pane, 155 Message Rules, 300 Message window, 152

Microsoft Clip Gallery, 120 Microsoft Office, 149, 274 Microsoft Outlook, 149 Microsoft Word, 242, 273 Microsoft Works, 274 minimised icons, 24 minimises, 47, 53 misspelling, 275 misspelt word, 277 modem, 10, 157 modifying keys, 29 monitor, 9, 10 mouse, 10, 21, 32 mouse pointer, 21, 23 moving a window on the screen, 62, 66 moving and copying files, 262 moving icons in a window, 61, 65 moving text, 98 Mozilla Firefox, 316, 320 MSN Messenger, 307–312 My Computer, 21 My Documents, 21, 35, 64 My Pictures, 263

N navigating buttons, 67 navigating the system, 66 navigation pad, 81, 82 New icon, 152 New Connection, 306 New Folder, 63 new line, 80 new paragraph, 27, 89 nickname, 230 normal mode, 41 Not Responding, 116 Num Lock key, 31 Numbering, 284 numeric keypad, 31

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Index

O Open, 78, 92 Open button, 92 Open Directory, 186, 188 Open icon, 92 Opera browser, 316 Options, 120 Options bar, 51, 63 Organise, 51, 63, 262 Outbox folder, 155, 159 Outlook, 295 Outlook Express, 149, 160, 164, 295, 299, 303, 315

P

Q

padlock symbol, 41, 179 Page Down, 31 Page Up, 31 paperclip icon, 160 paragraph (new), 80 Paragraph, 87 passwords, 139, 141, 206, 226, 303, 306 paste, 262 paste files, 263 PayPal, 231, 234, 236 PDF files, 181 peripherals, 20, 40 permanent memory, 91 phishing, 297 Photoshop Elements, 242, 253, 260 phrases, 192 Picasa, 251, 252, 253, 257, 263, 264 Pictures folder, 265, 281 piracy, 245 pointer, 25, 32, 35, 37 portrait mode, 264 postage, 236 358

postage calculator, 236 power button, 20, 41 power sockets, 8 Preview box, 280 previewing a printout, 100 Print Layout, 288 Print Preview, 78, 100 Print, 99 printer, 9 Printer icon, 175 printing a document, 99 program disks, 243 programs, 59 Programs folder, 67 Properties, 106

Quick Launch bar, 24, 73, 111

R radio on the computer, 321 radio programs, 321 RAM, 90 receiving an email message, 160 reconditioned machines, 9 red underlining, 275, 277 redeye tool, 268 Refresh button, 173 Register, 205 registering on eBay, 225 Registration, 225 reminder facility, 206 remove the selection, 96 Rename, 34, 265, 270 re-naming and cataloguing images, 269 reopening a file, 92 Reply button, 150 Reply icon, 162

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Index

replying to an email, 162 resize, 281 Restore Down, 48, 53 restoring order to a window, 65 Return key, 26 right-click, 34, 38, 62, 63 right-mouse button, 34 right-pointing arrow, 94 rotating circle, 21 Rotation icons, 266 Rotation tools, 263, 264 router, 10 rows and columns, 286 Rules facility, 295, 300

S Save, 92 Save As, 27, 78, 92, 97, 267 Save command, 91 Save icon, 89 Save password, 157 saving a file, 89 screen, 10 Screen Saver tab, 108, 109 screen settings, 107 scroll bar, 50, 54, 263 scroll wheel, 35 scroll handle, 50 Search, 228 Search bar, 263, 265 Search box, 120 search engines, 189 Search icon, 174 Search tab, 120 searching tips, 192–193 security issues, 200 select a file, 270 select a line, 94 select a paragraph, 95

select a section, 97 select a sentence, 94 select a whole document, 95 select a word, 94 select all, 262 selected, 27 selected image, 263 selecting a file, 265 selecting usernames and passwords, 140–142 selection, 94 selling on eBay, 234 Send button, 155 Send/Receive button, 156 Sent Items folder, 159 sentence selection, 95 setting up an internet connection, 137 Settings, 108, 109 set-up program, 253 shadows, 268 shareware, 250 Sharpen tool, 268 Shift, 26, 94 Shift key, 29, 80, 94, 97, 98, 139, 262 shopping online, 197 shopping, 6 Shopping Basket, 203 shopping sites, 202 Shut Down, 39 side panel, 54 Signatures, 301 single left-click, 38 single right-click, 38 size box, 97 sizing buttons, 47, 76 Slide Show, 264 software theft, 245 Solitaire, 35, 37 sorting your messages, 298 spam, 140, 293, 294 speakers, 25

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Index

spelling, 278 spelling and grammar correction, 275 sport, 7 Standard Buttons, 54 star icon, 263 Start button, 21, 23, 24, 35, 38, 41, 73, 112 Start menu, 23, 24, 41, 112, 245 Start Program folder, 67 Status bar, 53, 176 Startup bar, 25 Stop button, 173 storage card, 258, 260 Straighten tool, 268 subfolders, 265, 299, 300 Subject box, 154, 155, 162 submenu, 99 switching off the computer, 38 switching on the computer, 20 Symbol, 281 symbols, 280 System Tasks, 54

T tab bar, 320 Tab key, 28, 139, 284 tabbed browsing, 320 Table facility, 288 taskbar, 21, 23, 25, 53, 158 Task Manager, 116 telephone points, 8 temporary memory, 90 the Internet, 5, 130, 169 the Net, 170, 178, 200 the Web, 131, 169, 170, 185 Themes tab, 107 third symbol, 30 thumbnail images, 262, 263 Thumbnails, 263 title bar, 46, 76, 89 To box, 153 360

toolbar, 54, 76, 78, 92, 172, 263 Tools, 278 trackballs, 33 trackpads, 33 transferring images, 259 travel, 213 travel agent, 215 trojans, 296, 297, 315 Tuning, 267 Turn Off, 41 turning the computer off, 38 turning the computer on, 20

U Underline, 283 underlined, 275 underscores, 141 Up button, 69 Upload, 236 uploading photos, 237 upper or lower case, 192 USB plug, 260 USB socket, 260 use of selections, 95 User ID, 226 username, 139, 206, 303, 306 usernames, 140

V View, 54, 110 View menu, 288 viewing PDF files, 181 virtual check-out, 202 virtual shopping basket, 202 virus, 296, 297 virus checkers, 136 viruses, 295, 296, 315 Vista, 61, 120

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Index

W web accounts, 303 web address, 174, 178, 302 web address box, 180 web addresses, 177, 179 web page, 177 web shopping, 202 web-based email accounts, 303 Windows, 45 Windows folder, 59 Windows Help, 120 Windows Mail (Vista), 149, 164 Windows Vista, 19, 35, 45, 46, 60, 73, 76, 148, 165, 241, 259 Windows Vista Home Premium, 10

Windows XP, 10, 19, 36, 39, 41, 45, 73, 76, 120, 148, 149, 241, 259, 262 wizard, 244, 286, 306 WordPad, 73, 74, 90, 92, 93, 99, 242, 273 WordPad Help, 117 word-processing, 76 World Wide Web, 131, 169, 177 worm, 296, 297 wrapping text, 283 www, 178, 302 WWW, 131

Y Yahoo, 186, 189

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Computing for the Older and Wiser: Get Up and Running On Your Home PC

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Dart: Up and Running

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ClojureScript: Up and Running

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