Applications

NOTEPAD is among the simplest applications: is it used to create simple text (ASCII) files. You invoke it from the START menu by following the path: START > PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > Notepad. Notepad is a good and simple introduction to how you use programs on a PC and is useful in its own right. It has a simple set of menus:

• FILE: lets you create a new document, open an old document, save a document with a file name, and exit, with a few other options.
  Note that when you save a file it opens up a menu that starts in some sub-directory, typically "Windows". You often have to click on the small folder icon at the top to move up to the "C" drive and then down to the directory that you want to save the file in.

• EDIT: lets you copy, cut, or paste text that you have highlighted with the mouse, move it to a new location, or undo the last operation

• SEARCH: lets you locate text

• HELP: invokes the standard help menus

• Entering text: you enter text just by typing. You move to a location in the text by using the mouse and clicking. You delete text by dragging over it with the mouse and then pressing BACKSPACE or clicking on EDIT > CUT. You terminate a line by pressing ENTER, and so on.

MS WORD is a vastly more powerful text processing application. It has more options than any one person would ever use, including many fonts, font sizes, page formats, page backgrounds, watermarks, justification, incorporation and placement of pictures and graphs, links to the web, fancy text, different page sizes, and features and options galore. However, you can start out just as simply as Notepad and gradually become used to its features.

Class Topics

Bits and Bytes

PC Hardware

Using Help

Files, Folders, and Directories

Windows

File Manipulation

Customizing Your PC

Handling Errors and Aborts

Specific Applications: NotePad and WORD

Finding Information About Your PC

Connection to the Internet