USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
CREATING SHORTCUTS
You can create shortcuts to programs,
files or network drives you use
regularly. Click on the icon you want
to create a shortcut to Click File
Create Shortcut.
Alternatively you could Right click
and select Create Shortcut from the
Menu.
You cannot save a shortcut in My Computer, it will tell you to save it on the desktop.
Activity – Create a folder called with your name on your flash stick or the
E//:drive to keep your work together. Create appropriate folders inside this
for your work eg Word in one folder, images in another. Move the files you
have been working on into the appropriate folders.
As you complete your work put it in appropriate folders.
Create a shortcut to your folder and move it to My Documents. Use this shortcut to go quickly
to your folder from My Documents.
Windows
The Title bar contains the
Application Name.
In addition to this it also contains
three small
buttons.
Minimise,
Maximise/Restore
Close buttons
Using Windows XP Professional Page 2 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
CREATING FOLDERS
You can create folders easily by clicking on Make a New
Folder in My Documents or in a drive or folder.
You can even create a folder when you are saving a file.
WORKING WITH FILES
Selecting Files
All Files
Use Edit Select All to select all the files in a folder.
You could also use Ctrl A.
Series of Files
To select a series of files, click on the first file, then hold the shift key and select the last file
you want to select. In the example below, I selected the first file, held the shift key and
selected the last file.
Another way of doing this is by using the mouse to drag across the files you wish to select.
Individual Files
To select individual files, hold Ctrl key down, then select all the files you wish to use.
Activity – Practice selecting files using the different methods.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 3 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
Using Help
In the operating system there is help available on using the system. In Windows XP, help is
available by using Start Help and Support.
Alternatively, you can select Help and Support
Center from the Help menu in “My Computer” or
“My Documents”.
This opens into a window with various help topics
and options.
Activity – Open Help and click on the link “Windows Basics”. Click on
“Searching for Information”. Click on “search for a file or folder” and
print topic.
Search for the file Soap Bubbles.bmp on the C:\\ drive.
Searching for Files
Use this feature to search for files on the computer. There are various options for searching
for files. Type in the file name you want to find, select the drive it is on, and press search.
Activity – Use the instructions you printed to search for:
Search for the file Soap Bubbles.bmp on the C:\\ drive.
Copy it and save to your Images folder.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 4 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
Formatting Removable Disc
Formatting a disc will remove everything on that disc and rebuild all the tracks.
Step 1 - Right Click on the disc you want formatted.
Step 2 - In the window that pops up, select Format.
Step 3 - In the Format window that appears select Full,
then click on the Start button in that window.
Step 7 - The Format Results window appears
when the disk has been formatted. Click on the
Close button in that window, and click on the
Close button in the Format window.
Note: If you have bad sectors on the disk,
discard the disk.
Warnings:
You'll lose all the data on that disk, so don't
forget to back up anything you want to keep.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 5 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
Create a Flyer
Design a flyer on your favourite band. Your band is going to be playing soon and you
need to advertise. You can get pictures from the internet. You need to display the
day, time and place clearly. It should include:
Bullet points or numbers
Different styles of text. (not too many)
Use a page border and make the margins smaller.
pictures
Word Art
Text box
Shape (such as a star)
Save this in your Word folder.
File Properties
In DOS systems, every file has a file attribute that indicate several properties of the file. For
example, they indicate whether the file is read-only, whether it needs to be backed up, and
whether it is visible or hidden. The status changes when the check box is ticked.
You can also see when a file was created and the
last time it was modified.
Click Advanced to open more options. When “File
is ready for archiving” is checked, it means file is
ready for the server to backup. If it is unticked, it
means it has been backed up previously.
Activity – Change the file attributes on the Word file Flyer you downloaded
from “Read” to “Read only” access.
Check your files on the C drive, E Drive and Flash drive to see if they have been backed up
by the server.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 6 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
PRINTING
Add a printer
Click on Start Printers and Faxes.
Under Printer Tasks click on Add a printer.
Work through Wizard answering questions as
you go.
Change default printer
Set a printer to default when you have more than one printer and you
want to print to a certain printer. It will always print to that printer
unless you specify another printer.
1st way
Select File Set as Default Printer.
2nd way
Right Click to bring up menu
Left click on Set as Default
Printer.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 7 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
View and delete progress of printing.
You can view which pages are still printing and change the order of the printing.
Click on the printer once so it is selected. Click on See what’s printing.
(Alternatively Double click on printer icon)
This dialog box will be displayed.
All the documents waiting to be sent to the printer will be displayed. Notice there is one
document here ready to print (this file).
The Printer menu deals with everything to do with the printer such as:
Printing preferences
Cancelling all documents
Sharing
Properties
Setting default printer
The Document menu deals with things relating to an individual document such as:
Pause
Resume
Restart
Cancel
Activity – Change the default printer to Document Image writer and change
it back again.
Click on Add a printer and see how many Lexmark Model printers there are on the network.
Using Windows XP Professional Page 8 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke
USING YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
Recycle Bin
Files that are deleted from the hard drive are stored in the Recycle Bin until
they are deleted.
Once there are files in the recycle bin it changes to display a paper inside.
Double Click on the Recycle Bin to open it.
You can either Restore all items in the Bin or Empty the
Recycle Bin.
You can also restore a single file (once you click on it) or delete a single file by selecting File
Delete or press the Delete key.
Clicking on Details will show you the details of the File.
Make sure when you have deleted files in class you empty or delete the files from the
recycle bin so no-one can use your files.
Activity – Copy your brochure to My Documents and delete it. Go into
recycle bin and try restoring.
Congratulations
You have completed Operate a Personal Computer!!!!
Using Windows XP Professional Page 9 of 9 Trainer: Julie Rourke