Jimma University

Faculty of Business and Economics

Department of Information Technology

Introduction to Information technology (ITED131)

Module I

Prepared by: Department of Information Technology

October 2006
Jimma
 Preface

This handout is prepared to be used for the course Introduction to Computers and Computer
application in Business (ITED131). It is organized in four chapters that cover theoretical part of
the course. The first chapter covers basic concepts in Information Technology and Computer
Science. Topics covered include, comparison of Information Technology and Computer Science,
History and Types of Computers. Chapter two deals with Information Systems giving more
emphasis to its major component, namely computer systems. Both hardware and software
components of computer systems is discussed in detail. Data Representation and Boolean Algebra
is dealt with in Chapter three. Different number systems and their conversion from one to the
other; different computer data representation schemes; and Boolean algebra are discussed in this
chapter. Finally, chapter four discusses the basics of data communication and computer networks.

Part II of this handout contains short manuals for the software programs that will be studied in this
course, namely MSDOS and Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

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 Table of Contents
PART I INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY4
SECTION 1.1 COMPUTER SCIENCE VS. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY....................................................................5
SECTION 1.2 DATA AND INFORMATION.................................................................................................................7
Business context..................................................................................................................................................................8
Data value........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
SECTION 1.3 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTERS.................................................................................9
SECTION 1.4 TYPES OF COMPUTERS....................................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 2 - INFORMATION SYSTEMS...................................................................................................14
SECTION 2.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................14
SECTION 2.2 COMPUTER SYSTEM.........................................................................................................................15
2.2.1 Computer Hardware................................................................................................................................15
2.2.1.1 Types of Computer Hardware....................................................................................................................15
2.2.1.2 Central Processing Unit..............................................................................................................................19
2.2.1.3 Output Devices............................................................................................................................................20
2.2.1.4 Storage Devices............................................................................................................................................22
2.2.2 Computer Software...................................................................................................................................29
2.2.2.1 System Software..........................................................................................................................................29
2.2.2.2 Application Software...................................................................................................................................31
2.2.2.3 Viruses, Trojan Horses and Worms...........................................................................................................33
CHAPTER 3 - DATA REPRESENTATION AND BOOLEAN ALGEBRA................................................34
SECTION 3.1 NUMBER SYSTEM............................................................................................................................34
SECTION 3.2 NUMBER SYSTEM CONVERSIONS....................................................................................................36
SECTION 3.3 BINARY ARITHMETIC......................................................................................................................41
3.3.1 Binary Addition........................................................................................................................................41
3.3.2 Binary Subtraction...................................................................................................................................42
3.3.3 Coding Methods.......................................................................................................................................44
3.3.4 Representation of Numbers......................................................................................................................45
3.3.5 Boolean algebra.......................................................................................................................................50
3.3.6 Logic Gates and Circuit...........................................................................................................................54
CHAPTER 4 - DATA COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER NETWORKS.........................................62
SECTION 4.1 DATA COMMUNICATION..................................................................................................................62
4.1.1 Modes of Data Transmission...................................................................................................................63
4.1.2 Types of Transmission Media...................................................................................................................64
SECTION 4.2 COMPUTER NETWORKS...................................................................................................................66
4.2.1 Components of Computer Networks.........................................................................................................67
4.2.2 Types of Networks....................................................................................................................................68
4.2.2.1 Local Area Network (LAN)..........................................................................................................................69
4.2.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)..............................................................................................................69
4.2.2.3 Wide Area Network (WAN)..........................................................................................................................69
4.2.3 Network Topology....................................................................................................................................69
4.2.3.1 The Star Topology.......................................................................................................................................69
4.2.3.2 The Ring Topology......................................................................................................................................70
4.2.3.3 Bus Topology...............................................................................................................................................71
4.2.3.4 The Star-Wired Ring...................................................................................................................................71
4.2.3.5 The Extended star.......................................................................................................................................72
4.2.3.6 The Mesh topology......................................................................................................................................72
SECTION 4.3 THE INTERNET.................................................................................................................................72
4.3.1 Advantages of the Internet.......................................................................................................................73
4.3.2 Internet Connectivity................................................................................................................................73
4.3.3 Applications and Services on the Internet................................................................................................74

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 4.3.4 Internet Protocols.....................................................................................................................................75
4.3.5 Internet addressing...................................................................................................................................75

PART II Lab

CHAPTER 5 - MS-DOS………………………………………………………………………….82
CHAPTER 6 -Windows XP………………………..……………………..……………………..109
CHAPTER 7 -Microsoft Word…………………….…………………………………...……….132
CHAPTER 8- Microsoft Excel………………………………………………………………..….183

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Part I Introduction to Computer

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 CHAPTER 1 - Introduction to Computer Science
and Information Technology

Chapter Objectives:
At the end of this chapter the learner will be able to:
 Recognize the relationship and difference between Information Technology, computer
science.
 Conceptualize the terms data, information and data processing.
 identify components of Information Technology
 Describe the history of computers.
 Identify different types of computers

Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to familiarize the learner with the disciplines of computer science,
Information Technology. Data, information and the relation ship between the two will also be
covered in the chapter. In this chapter we will also see history and generations of computer.

1.1 Computer Science Vs. Information Technology

Section Objectives:
After completing this section, students should be able to:
o describe the differences and similarities between computer science and Information
Technology
o identify components of Information Technology
o discuss characteristics of computers

What is Computer Science?

Computer Science is a science concerned with information, that is, representation, storage,
manipulation or processing and presentation of information. Like any other science, which uses
different devices and lab equipment, Computer Science uses a special device called COMPUTER.

Computer science has different fields of specialization or sub-disciplines. Some of the sub
disciplines include:

Software engineering: Concerned with how to use and apply scientific and basic
engineering principles to solve problems faced by programmers and to select the best way
so that to produce high quality software or program.

Computer engineering (Architecture): deals with studying, analyzing and designing of

computer hardware (organization and interconnection of computer system components) and
its working principle.

Artificial Intelligence: important and recent sub-discipline concerned with how to design
and program machine to solve problems or carried out tasks that appear to require human
imagination or intelligence.

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What is Information Technology?

Information Technology is the use of modern technology to aid the capture, processing, storage
and retrieval, and communication of information, whether in the form of numerical data, text,
sound, or image. It can also be defined as the study of information handling and its use in society
by means of modern technology. This includes the acquisition, processing, storage and
communication of information in any form by appropriate means. It is more about the use of
computers to solve human/business problems. You study some programming, databases,
applications, etc.

Components of Information Technology

Information technology has three primary components. These are
A. Computers,
B. Communications networks, and
C. Know-how.

Activity 1:
Do you think that there is similarity /difference between computer science and Information
technology? Explain your reason.

A. Computers
Any calculating device or machine, which is electronic, mechanical or electromechanical can be
called a Computer.. But that doesn’t mean that computers perform only calculation. The name
computer comes from a Latin word computre, meaning “to reckon” or “to compute” and can be
applied to abacus or any adding machine as to the modern computer. However, the term
“Computer” has come to mean a special electronic device having certain definite characteristics.

Characteristics of Computers
The characteristics of a computer show the capabilities and the potentials of the computer for
processing data. Computers have five basic characteristics:

Speed - The most important characteristic of a computer is its speed. Computers perform their
operations step by step. Their speed is measured by the amount of time it took to perform or carry
out a basic operation. Computer speed measured in terms of microsecond (10 -6 one millionths),
nanosecond (10-9 one billionths), and Pico second (10-12 one trillionths).

Storage - You can imagine how much space data of a census on papers need. Not only the space,
also the time it took to get or retrieve specific information from such vast amount of data is not
negligible. But a computer can store such amount of information in a few numbers of disks. And
the time it took to retrieve or process single information is not more than a micro or nanoseconds.
In general a computer has a capacity to store a very large amount of information in organized
manner so that accessing information is very fast.

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Accuracy - Nowadays computers are being used for surgical purposes, which need almost a
hundred percent accuracy. From this we can understand that computers are accurate and consistent.
Unless there is an error in the input data or unreliable program the computer processes with a very
high accuracy.

Automatic - Once necessary information and program is fed, the computer performs processing
without human intervention.

Versatility - Computers have the potential to perform or solve varieties of tasks and problems, as
long as the problem or the task can be put or reduced in the form of logical steps.

B. Communications Network
An integral part of Information Technology is the ability to communicate: to send and receive data
and information over a communication network. A communications network is the connection of
stations at different locations through a medium that enables people to send and receive data and
information. Telephone wires and cables are common communication media.

C. Know-how
Although computers and data communication are very important parts of Information Technology,
an equally critical part of Information Technology is the ability to draw on the power of
Information Technology to solve problems and to take advantages of the opportunities it creates.
Therefore, Information Technology requires or implies know-how, knowing how to do something
well.

Know- how includes

 Familiarity with the tools of Information Technology
 The skills needed to use these tools
 Understanding when to use Information Technology to solve a problem

Activity:
Can you show the usefulness of Information Technology for business organizations using
examples?

1.2 Data and Information

What is data?
There is a difference between the terms data and information. Data is an individual fact /multiple
facts, or a value/a set of values, but is not significant to a business in itself. For example, the
following are values with structure but they aren't useful to anyone until given context:
February 15, 1993
D13193
Data values without business context

Giving data context, or meaning, turns it into information. Without this context the data is useless
to the business.

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For example, the above numbers are more useful with the added context:

Business context Data value

What is the date of the meeting about the fee increases? February 15, 1993
What was the license plate number of the car that hit you? D13193

Formal definition:
a) Data are raw facts or figures.
b) Data is the product of symbols or representations of an event (e.g. buying book) or
facts about the world (e.g. number of continents), like number, letter, pictures, lines,
graphs, etc
c) Data is representation of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as
basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions.

In and of itself, data has no meaning. If I count the number of cars that stop at a stop sign per hour
for a week, that's data. It may be useful or not, depending on the context. It has no meaning until it
is placed in a context. It is like an event out of context, without a meaningful relation to other
things. It doesn't have a meaning of itself and simply it exists and has no significance beyond its
existence.
If we are given a certain data, we can associate it to different things and give it different meanings.
Example: If we take number "5", it can be associated with:
 Cardinal number and has one meaning, and
 A number greater than 4 and less than 6 with another meaning
Therefore: Data without a context has no meaning. But this doesn't mean that data are useless.
They are the elements that are inputted, stored and manipulated by the computer. The validity of a
data (how far they reflect the reality or represent the real world) is very important. They are valid
as far as they accurately represent the real world.

Information

Definition:
a) Information is data with context. Therefore, information is context dependent.
b) Information is data that has been given a meaning by way of relational connection. This
relational connection converts data in to information. In computer system, for instance, a
relational database makes information from the data stored within it.

When does data become information?

When a whole lot of data, which is related to one subject, put together, it yields information. E.g.
Take a telephone book, it is developed by bringing different data together (Name, Address and
Telephone number). In other words:
Sets of data + relational connection among data sets = information
Let's say I want to buy a car. I can collect a lot of data about makes of cars, performance ratings,
prices and so on. Once I do that, I have a lot of information about cars and the car market. Unless
we think of this collection of data and put it in context (car/car market), it has no meaning.What
we perceive or understand is the relationship between pieces of data, or between pieces of data
and other information.

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Therefore,
Data + understanding of relationship = information
Examples:
 The temperature dropped to 15 degrees and then it started raining. The data are:
o 15 degrees, and
o It is raining
 If we put data on people's smoking habits together with data on lung cancer, we can
produce information about the risk of smoking.

It is the cause and effect relationship between the two that provides information.

Activity:

Give some examples of data and show how the data is converted (processed) to become
information.

1.3 History and Development of Computers

Objective:

At the end of this section the learner will be able to:

 state and explain each of the generations of computer.

 identify the different technological advancements of computers

Introduction:

The history of digital computers start in the 1940s where the first electronic general purpose digital
computer was manufactured at the University of Pennsylvania by two American scientists. The
name of this computer was ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Even though,
this machine has several drawbacks its invention was a great break through to the computer
industry. Ever since then the industry has shown a very big advancement in different aspects.

The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations
of computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological
development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly
smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, and more efficient and reliable devices. Each generation and
the developments that led to the current devices that we use today are discussed below.

1.4.1 Generations of computers

I First Generation - 1940-1956: Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were
often huge, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a

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great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First
generation computers relied on machine language to perform operations, and they could only solve
one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed
on printouts.

The Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) and ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer). are examples of first-generation computing devices. ENIAC had a mean breakdown
interval of 12 minutes. Moreover, it weighs 30 tones and covers 20,000 square feet of area. The
UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census
Bureau in 1951.

II Second Generation - 1956-1963: Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The
transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 50s. The
transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster,
cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though
the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a
vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched
cards for input and printouts for output.

Second-generation computers moved from machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages,

which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages
were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These
were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a
magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

III Third Generation - 1964-1971: Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the characteristic of the third generation of
computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors,
which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through
keyboards and monitors. It is in this generation that users started to interact to the computer
through operating systems. This allowed the computer to run many different applications at one
time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became
accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

IV Fourth Generation – 1971 - Present: Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now
fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of

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the computer - from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls - on a single
chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the
Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many
areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.

As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks,
which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the
development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

V Fifth Generation - Present and Beyond: Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development,
though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use
of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality.
Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of
computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that
respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

Activity 4

Can you identify the main differences between the different generations of computers?

1.4 Types of Computers

Section Objectives:
After completing this section the learner should be able to:
 Identify the criteria used to categorize computers
 Explain the different types of computers and their differences

As discussed in the previous section any computing device can be called a computer. Considering
this definition, computers can be classified into different categories based on different
characteristics.

1. Based on type of data they process

Based on the type of data they process computers can be classified as:

Analog
Analog computers operate by measuring physical properties. They deal with continuous
variables; they don’t compute directly with numbers, rather, they operate by measuring
physical magnitude such as pressure, temperature, voltage, current etc.
Examples: Thermometer, Voltmeter, Speedometer

Digital

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 Digital computers deal with discrete variables; they operate by counting rather than
measuring. They operate directly up on numbers (or digits) that represent numbers, letters,
or other special symbols.
Examples: Abacus, Desk & pocket calculators, general purpose computers

Hybrid
Hybrid computers inherit the best features of both analog and digital computers. Usually
the Input is continuous data (analog). Since Digital Processing is more accurate, processing
takes place digitally. The processed information – the output – could be either digital or
analog, depending on the user preference or the type of application.
Examples: digital camera, health monitoring machines in some hospitals,

2. Based on Size and Capacity

Size and capacity are also the other characteristics of computers that can be used to categorize
computers. Based on this characteristics computers can be classified as:

Super computer
The term supercomputer has been coined to describe a category of extremely powerful
computer designed for high-speed processing. A supercomputer is generally characterized
as being the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive computer.
Generally, Supercomputers are:
• The largest and the most efficient computers
• Very expensive
• very fast and
• Supports hundreds of users at different locations

Mainframe computer
Mainframe computers are large, powerful computers that are physically larger than micros
and minis and usually have processors with faster instruction processing speeds. For
example, they may be able to process from 10 to 200 million instructions per second
(MIPS). Mainframe computers also support multiple users and are expensive.

Minicomputer
Minicomputers are midrange computers that are larger and more powerful than most
microcomputers but are smaller and less powerful than mainframe computer systems.
Minicomputers are being used for a large number of business and scientific applications.
They are popularly used in scientific laboratories, research centers, universities and
colleges, engineering firms, industrial process monitoring and control, etc.

Microcomputers
The smallest computers ever produced in the history of computers are microcomputers.
Since they are designed to be used by a single user, they have the least capacity as
compared to the other types of computers. They are also the least expensive of all types.
There two different types of microcomputers are desktop computers and portable
computers (laptops, notebook computers and palmtops)

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Activity:

Compare and contrast each type of computer based on their size speed, and cost.

Exercise

1) What are the differences and similarities between computer science and Information
Technology?
2) Compare and contrast data and information
3) What are the main breakthroughs in different generations of computers
4) List out the various computer generations along with their basic characteristics?
5) What is the difference between digital, analog and hybrid computers?
6) What are the four types of computers based on their size and capacity?

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 CHAPTER 2 - Information Systems

Chapter Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

 Define information system

 Define data processing
 Define computer systems and its components
 Identify and give examples of categories of computer hardware
 Identify types of software and differentiate between software and hardware

2.1 Introduction
System is a group of components, consisting of subsystems or procedures that work in a
coordinated fashion to achieve a common objective.

Information system is an organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications

networks and a data resource that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an
organization. People rely on information systems to communicate with each other using a variety
of physical devices (hardware), information processing instructions (software), and communication
channels (network). In general, an information system has five major parts: people, procedures,
software, hardware, and data.

People: trained information systems personnel are required to run most information systems.

Procedure: procedures are rules or guidelines for people to follow when using software, hardware,
and data. These procedures are documented in manuals written by computer specialists. Software
and hardware manufacturers provide manuals with their products.

Software: software consists of step by step instructions that tell the computer how to do its work.
The purpose of software is to convert data (unprocessed fact) into information (processed facts).

Hardware: is physical part of the computer that processes data to create information based on
instructions of software. It is controlled by the software.

Data: data consists of raw, unprocessed facts, including text, numbers, images, sounds, etc. When
it is processed using computers, it becomes information.

Data processing
Data processing is any computer process that converts data into information. The processing is
usually assumed to be automated and running on a computer. Because data are most useful when
well-presented and actually informative, data-processing systems are often referred to as
information systems to emphasize their practicality. Nevertheless, both terms are roughly
synonymous, performing similar conversions; data-processing systems typically manipulate raw
data into information, and likewise information systems typically take raw data as input to produce
information as output.

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 2.2 Computer System

Section Objectives
After successful completion of this section students shall be able to:
o describe components of computer systems
o identify computer hardware based on their function
o identify computer software and their category

A computer system is the combination of hardware and software. A typical computer system
utilizes a computer that uses programmable devices to store, retrieve, and process data. The
personal computer or PC is an example of a computer system. An Automatic Teller Machine
(ATM1) is another example of a computer system. Even the simplest computer classifies as a
computer system, because at least two components (hardware and software) have to work together.
But the real meaning of "computer system" comes with interconnection. Many computer systems
can interconnect, that is, join to become a bigger system.

Computer – is an electronic device that accepts, stores and processes data to

provide useful information as an output.

Generally, a computer system is composed of two main components:

 Computer hardware and
 Computer software

Activity 1:
Can you describe the basic components of Information Systems?

2.2.1 Computer Hardware

Computer hardware is the physical part of the computer system that can be seen and felt. The
hardware part of a computer system is composed of a number of interacted physical parts. E.g.
keyboard, mouse, CPU

2.2.1.1 Types of Computer Hardware

The hardware part of a computer system is composed of a number of interacting physical parts based on
the need of the information flow. Information flows in the computer hardware. There are several
criteria by which computer hardware can be categorized. Based on information processing, we can
divide computer hardware into four:

1) Input Devices
2) Storage Devices
3) Output Devices
4) Central Processing Unit (CPU)

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Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) are machines that allow bank account holders to make financial
transactions automatically without going to banks by making use of a card that contains details of the
account.

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2.2.1.1.1 Input Devices
Input devices are used to enter information into computer. They convert the data we give them into
the form that can be manipulated in the computer (electronic format).

Keyboard
Keyboard is an input device consisting of a set of typewriter-like keys that enable one to enter data
into a computer. The keys on the keyboard are often classified as follows
 Alphanumeric keys - Letters and numbers
 Punctuation keys - comma, period, semicolon, etc.
 Special keys- function keys, control keys, arrow keys, caps lock, etc.

In detail the following are descriptions of the keys of keyboard.

Escape key - Generally used to abort system actions.

Function keys – their function varies from program to program. For example F1 is used to get help
most of the times
Enter key - used to enter commands or to return to the beginning of new lines in a document.
Backspace key - used to move the cursor backwards, deleting a character backward.
Delete keys - used to delete characters to the right.
Tab key - used to move the insertion point forward.
Caps lock key – used to write small or capital letters.
Shift key - used to produce upper case or lower case letters and to insert the upper character if the
key has two characters.
Control (Ctrl) key & Alt key - commonly used in combination with other keys to enter commands
example ctrl + P in Microsoft Word opens the print dialog box.
Insert key - used to toggle between insert and overwrite modes of typing.
Arrow keys - used to move the cursor2 around the display screen.
Num lock keys - used to activate/deactivate the numeric keypad3.
Print screen keys - used to print the contents of the screen.

The arrangement of the keys on the keyboard may differ. The most common in English- speaking
countries is the QWERTY keyboard. It is called QWERTY keyboard because the first five keys on
the top row of letters spell Q, W, E, R, T, and Y. The arrangement of keys in this case is based on

2
Cursor is a blinking symbol on the screen that indicates the place where the next character typed appears
3
numeric keypad is the set of numeric keys found at the right hand side of the keyboard

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typewriter (alphabets and punctuation) and calculator (numeric pad). This is to make data entry
easy.

The other type of keyboard layout is the DVORAK Keyboard. In this layout, the most commonly
used letters are placed in the most accessible places. The home keys are the five English vowel
letters A, O, E, U, I (for the left hand) & the five most often used consonants (D, H, T, N, S) are
the home keys for the right hand. The next most frequently used letters are on the keys one row up,
the next easier position to reach.

Mouse
Mouse is a hand-operated device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display
screen. It is a small object that can be rolled along a rough flat surface.

Mouse can have as many as three buttons whose function depends on what program is running:
– Left-button: for left click. Example, selecting text
– Right-button: for right click. Example, see property of file
– Middle button: for scrolling purpose. This button is sometimes missing.

Most mice are connected to the system unit by a cable or cord. There are also mouse that are not
connected to system unit by a cable/cord. They are called cordless mouse (wireless mouse). They
communicate with system unit using infrared light, similar technology used in remote controls, or
radio waves. Mouse has roller ball at the bottom. The roller ball converts mouse movements into
electronic signals.

Optical Recognition Systems

Optical recognition system uses light to read characters, codes, and marks, and convert them into
computer understandable format. There many types of optical recognition systems:
 OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
 OMR (Optical Mark recognition)
 Barcode Reader
 Image scanner

I) Optical Character Recognizers (OCR)

OCR are scanners that read typewritten, computer printed, and in some cases hand printed characters
from ordinary documents. They scan the shape of character and compare it with predefined font shapes
found in memory. Based on the comparison, they can convert the characters into computer code.

Use:
Enter documents found on paper into computer without the need to type it using keyboard. This makes
the job easy.

II) OMR
OMR senses the presence or absence of a mark, such as pencil marks. It doesn’t utilize letters of the
alphabet. Instead, with the use of electronic scanners, marks and symbols are converted into
appropriate electronic signals. It is used to process questionnaires or exams using computer. The read

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mark is interpreted and matched against previously entered answer key. Example, the ESLCE is
corrected using this device.

III) Bar Code Reader

Bar code reader is a peripheral that reads bar codes printed on products. Bar code uses a pattern or
symbols to represent data. It consists of vertical lines and spaces of different width. There are
different kinds of bar codes; the most commonly used is called UPC (Universal Product Code). It
is used to identify product manufacturer, product number, price, etc.

Barcode and Barcode reader

Use:
 Used in supermarkets, groceries etc to identify products and their price.

IV) Image Scanner

We sometimes want to use our previously taken images into computer. In such cases, we need a
device that converts the image on paper into computer format. This device is called image scanner.

Speech Recognition Systems

Speech recognition is the ability of computers to recognize human speech. We use microphone to
enter the speech into computer. The computer then processes the speech and performs the action
ordered by speech. This is the latest technology and is still under research.

Light Pen
Light pen is a light sensitive pen like device that is used in conjunction with computer monitor. It
is used by touching the screen with this device to create or modify graphics. A light cell in the tip
of the pen senses light from the screen to determine the pen’s location on the screen.

Touch Screen
Touch screen allow you to use fingers instead of mouse or related input device. It lets you to enter
data or command (e.g. button click) by touching areas of the screen. It enables you perform
activities you perform with mouse using your finger. It is not used to enter large amounts of data.

Activity 2:

Can you identify other Input devices that can be used with computers? What common
characteristics do they have

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2.2.1.2 Central Processing Unit
It is also called microprocessors or processors. A microprocessor is a semiconductor device consisting
mostly software controlled LSI (Large Scale Integrated) chip which performs the functions of automatic
data processing. Processors are not optimized to perform complex numerical calculations and other
special tasks (graphics manipulations). For this purpose specialized coprocessors which are also
called math-coprocessors have been developed to increase the processing capability of a computer
and speed up complex mathematical floating-point calculations. The coprocessors operate in parallel
with CPUs.

CPU executes instructions and performs the computer's processing activities. It is also known as
processor or microprocessor. It functions the same purpose as the human brain for human being. It
is called the brain of the computer.

One of the basic features of a computer that affects its entire performance is the CPU speed. CPU
speed is measured in Hertz (Hz). Hertz is the number of cycles per second. 1Hz=1cycle per
second. Larger units are KHz (Kilo Hertz), MHz (Mega Hertz), GHz(Giga Hertz), etc.
1 KHz = 1000 Hz
1 MHz = 1000 KHz
1 GHz = 1000MHZ

Current CPUs are as fast as 2-3GHz (2-3 billion cycles per second)

CPU has three sub-components:

 Control Unit (CU)
 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
 Memory

Fig Components of Central Processing Unit

The three sub components are connected by a cable like device called bus. It facilitates
communication between the parts. It is used to transfer data between these sub components.

Control Unit
As human brain controls the body, control unit controls the computer hardware. Control Unit does
not execute instruction by itself, i.e. does not carry out instruction processing, but it directs other
processing elements to execute instructions.

19
It retrieves instruction from memory and this process is called fetch instruction. After fetching
instruction, it translates that instruction into computer understandable format and sends signals to
other computer hardware units to carry out the instruction. This process (the process of translating
instruction) is called decoding.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

The purpose of ALU is to execute instruction. It performs two operations:
 Arithmetic operation
 Logic Operation
Arithmetic operation: this includes mathematical operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, etc. If you give your computer the instruction 2+3, this will be included in
arithmetic operation and it is executed by Arithmetic Unit.
Logical Operation: this is concerned with the comparison of data and it is called logical operation.
It includes operators like less than, greater than, equal to, less or equal to, greater or equal to,
different from, etc. e.g. if mark>80, grade is 'A'.

Registers
When instruction is loaded from main memory into the CPU, it is placed first in registers to wait
instruction from control unit. Registers are temporary storage location for data prior to execution in
ALU. There are different types of registers. E.g. data register, program counter, address register,
etc.

Activity 3:
Can you define the function of Central processing Unit and its components?

2.2.1.3 Output Devices

Output devices are used to get data out of a computer so that it can be examined, analyzed or
distributed to others. It converts information from machine-understandable form to a human
understandable form. The outputs are of two types: Softcopy: displayed on monitor, projector, or
similar devices and Hardcopy: printed on paper

Examples
 The Visual Display Unit (VDU) or monitor or screen
 Printers (dot matrix, daisy wheel, laser printers)
 Plotters
 Voice (audio) response unit
 Disk drives

Monitors
Monitor is the most frequent type of output device. It consists of a display surface called screen
which displays output to the user. Image is displayed on monitors using pattern of lighted dots.
Each of these lighted dots is called pixel a short form of picture element.

There are three types of monitor:

1) CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)

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 2) LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
3) Plasma display

CRT Monitor
CRT is similar in size and technology to televisions. It uses electron guns that emit electrons.
These electrons are directed towards phosphorous coated screen. The phosphorous coat glows
(emits light) when hit by electron from electron guns, thus creating visible things that we see. The
monitors of most desktop computers are CRT monitors. The main disadvantages of CRT monitors
are their large size and high power consumption

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors

Crystal display is most commonly used in digital watches, clocks, calculators, etc. In computers,
they are commonly used for portable computers E.g., laptops. Liquid crystal uses liquid crystal for
display purpose, not electron guns. The liquid crystal is deposited between sheets of polarizing
material which allows or blocks light to display information. Advantage over CRT: they are
smaller in size which makes it easy to transport and consumes less power which makes it suitable
for laptop.

Gas Plasma
Gas plasma substitutes neon gas for liquid crystal. The neon gas glows and produces pixels that
form picture. It is used for portable computers. Advantage: better display quality than LCD but
more expensive than LCD

Printers

Printer is a device that enables us to produce a hardcopy of data/information. They have varying
speeds, capabilities, and printing methods. Based on the way they print, printers are divided into
two:
 Impact printers
 Non-impact printer

Impact printers
Impact printers transfer printable material onto paper by striking paper, ribbon, and character
together. Most of such printers take continuous form of paper. The most commonly used impact
printers are dot-matrix printers. The combination of small dots printed closely forms a character.
Example: Epson printers

Non-Impact Printers
They print without having a mechanism that strikes a paper. They print by spraying ink or by using
heat and pressure to fuse black powder onto paper. The various types of non-impact printer
include:

Inkjet Printers - An inkjet printer sprays tiny drops of ink onto paper. The print head of such
printers contains a nozzle which has many holes. Ink is propelled by heat or pressure through the
nozzle holes and form character or image on the paper.
 Produce high quality print

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  Quiet because the paper is not struck
 Heavy weight paper is recommended

Laser Printer - They work similarly to photocopying machine. They convert data from computer
into a laser beam (kind of light), why they are called laser printer. They use mirrors to direct light
onto a drum which in turn produce characters on paper. The drum is light sensitive material that
becomes charged when it is hit by light. The charged area of the drum attracts ink from toner and
the ink is transferred onto paper. A heating material heats the ink and attaches it onto the paper. It
produces high quality print.

Thermal printers - Thermal printers use heat to transfer inks from ink sheets onto printing surface.
They produce high-quality print. Because of this, they are used to produce high quality color
artwork and text. They can use plain paper but produce best result on chemically treated papers.

Plotters
Plotters are used to produce high-quality drawings such as bar charts, maps, architectural
drawings, and three-dimensional drawings.
 Can produce high quality multi-color documents
 Can print on large size papers, which most printers can’t handle.

Activity:
Can you identify any other output devices? What similarities do they have?

2.2.1.4 Storage Devices

One of the unique features of computers is storage. Data can be stored on different storage media
temporarily or permanently. Storage devices can be categorized into to as:
 Primary storage device
 Secondary storage device

1. Primary Memory / Main Memory

Primary memory, also called Main memory, refers to integrated circuit that stores program
instructions and data. The CPU closely works with the main memory to perform its activities.
Memory stores three things:
 Operation system software instructions
 Application software instruction
 Data that is being processed

Depending on the type of information they store and the technology used, the primary memory can
be categorized into three:
RAM (Random Access Memory)
ROM (Read Only Memory)
CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)
RAM
RAM is temporary storage i.e. the data is lost when the computer is off unlike secondary storage.
Because of this it is called volatile memory. Why is it volatile? It uses electric power to store data.
When you write anything on your computer, first it is stored on RAM. When you save the file, it is

22
transferred into secondary storage. RAM has differing capacity, the common ones being 128, 256,
and 512.

It is directly accessible by CPU. It is called RAM because each memory location can be accessed
randomly using memory address. Each unit in RAM has memory address by which it can be easily
accessed/referenced.

ROM
ROM stores data and programs that are permanently required by the computer. They have
programs built into them at the factory and that program could not be changed or erased by the
user, but read. It is non-volatile, read-only (not changeable) memory. Read-only means data can't
be altered or erased but read.

ROM contains special instruction called BIOS that the computer uses when it is turned on. E.g,
instruction that starts the computer, instruction that displays information on screen, etc. The
technological advancement in ROM design has resulted in three other types of ROM:
 PROM (Programmable ROM)
 EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM)
 EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM)

PROM: this kind of ROM can be written by user once. But, you can't erase or write to it more than
once; you can only read from.

EPROM: this kinds of ROM can be written to or erased as many times as the user wants. It is like
CD-RW.

EEPROM: similar to EPROM, it can be re-written to or erased. But we use electrical power to
erase the contents here.

CMOS
CMOS contains essential information that is required when the computer is turned on. E.g. RAM
size, type of mouse, etc. It is non-volatile, but modifiable to incorporate changes. It is powered by
battery when computer is off.

2. Secondary Storage
Secondary storage (also called auxiliary storage) supplements the primary memory. It takes many
forms. It includes punched cards, punched paper tape, magnetic tape, magnetic disk and optical disk.
Based on information access, secondary storage devices are divided into two:

 Sequential Access: information is accessed sequentially. To access information on such media,

we start from the beginning and read through to the end. Jumping to some part is not possible.
E.g. tape recorder cassette
 Random Access: information can be accessed in any order. You can access the first or the last
part of information by jumping others. E.g. floppy disk

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Sequential Access Media

1) Punched Cards
Punched cards are one of the oldest and most familiar data storage devices. There are two types of
punched cards, 80 columns and 96 columns, and the first one is a standard punched card. Data is
stored on punched cards by cutting parts of the paper out and leaving other parts intact. The cut part
(hole) may represent binary 1 and the intact part represents binary 0.

2) Magnetic Tapes

During 1950s and 1960s, magnetic tape was the primary method of storing large amount of data.
Today they are used primarily for back up purposes. It consists of thin ribbon plastic called tape.
One side of the tape is coated with iron-oxide, a material that can be magnetized. By magnetizing
and demagnetizing the tape, computer stores data on it.
Disadvantage:
 Sequential access
Advantage:
 Store more data on a small area
Magnetic tapes are not used with desktop computers. However, because of their advantage,
magnetic tapes are used to take backup of data. Backup is data that is stored in a different place
than the original computer where data is used. This is to avoid the danger of data loss due to
disasters. If the original data is lost, the copy will be used.

Random Access Storage Media

A. Magnetic Disks
Magnetic disk is the most widely used storage medium on all computers. It consists of a round piece of
plastic or metal the surface of which is covered with magnetic material. Magnetic disks offer:
 High storage capacity
 Reliability
 Fast date access during reading or writing to disk.

Magnetic disks are metals or plastic platters coated with ferrous oxide, an easily magnetically
material. They allow for random access of information and overcome the slow access time commonly
found in tape files.
Examples: floppy disk, hard disk

1) Floppy Disks. They are also called diskette. It is made up of thin Mylar plastic which is coated
with metal oxide. Data is stored as electromagnetic charges on the plastic coat. It stores data by
means of magnetizing and demagnetizing the metal oxide.

Floppy is an easily removable storage used to transport data from one computer to another. It is
used to store programs and data for a longer period outside the computer system. Often used with mini
and micro computers. Data is stored in concentric circles called tracks.

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 Sector and Track of a floppy disk

Each track is further divided into sectors. A sector stores the amount of information that can be read
or written in single operation. The most widely used type of floppy disks is the 5.25 inch and the 3.5
inch wide floppy disks. Each has two different storage capacity.
31/2 inch: -can store 1.44MB of data on double side high density
-can store 720kb of data on single side low density
51/4 inch: -can store 1.2MB of data on double side high density
-can store 360kb of data on single side low density

Density refers to the number of bits that can be recorded on one-inch of track.
High density: increased storage capacity
Low density: low storage capacity

Rules for handling Floppy Disks

Floppy disks are magnetic devices which stores data on them. Improper handing of floppy disks may
result in loosing the data stored on the disk. It is therefore necessary to know the following rules to
protect your disks and/or your data on it from damage.

 Never place the disk near magnetic devices, keep the disk away from your telephone since
telephone boxes contain magnetic units.
 Always place disks back into their envelope when you are not using them.
 Never touch your floppy disk media.
 Never smoke near floppy disks.
 Store your floppies in a safe location.
Keep at room temperature in the range of 10 to 50oc
Always make a backup copy of your floppy disk.

2) Hard Disk. A high capacity magnetic disk made up of metal which can be fixed in the system
unit of the computer. It serves as a secondary storage and it enables very fast accessibility of data.
Accessing data from hard disk is faster than from floppy disks.

The disks, which are usually grouped together into a disk pack are separated by small air spaces to
allow access for read-write head. Each disk is subdivided into tracks and sectors on which
information is stored. The disk pack is mounted on a magnetic disk drive which rotates the disk at
speed up to 1,000 revolutions per second.

25
Hard disk

Platters are grouped together to form hard disk. The amount of time it takes to retrieve (or store)
data from (or to) disk is called the disk access time. It rotates at high speed and this is measured in
terms of revolutions per second.

Data is stored on hard disks by magnetizing and demagnetizing the surface each cylinder. They
store data on both sides of the cylinder i.e two sided. It is read-write head that reads or writes data
from hard disk.

B. Optical Disk
Optical disks use laser light to read or write data from optical disk. Laser - Light Amplified
Stimulated Emission of Rays. Optical disks use high powered laser light to burn microscopic holes
on the surface of the disk to store data. Burned out part is called pit, and the non-burnt part is
called land. Land may represent binary 0 and pit binary 1.

CD pit and land

Optical disks use low powered laser to read data. There are two most common types of optical
disks:
 CD (Compact Disc)
 DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)

CD (Compact Disc)
CD can store 700BM of information. Data is stored only on one side of the disc. There are three
basic types of CDs:
1. CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory) - This kind of is read only i.e. you can’t
write data to such CDs or you can’t erase from them. Data is only accessed/read from these
CDs.
2. CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) - It is also called WORM (Write Once and Read Many).

26
 These CDs can be written on once. But then after, you can’t rewrite on it or erase data from
it. After you first wrote data on such discs, then only thing you can do to read data from
them.
3. CD-RW (Compact Disc Read-Write) - They are also called erasable optical discs. You can
write data as many times as you want on such CDs. You can also erase the content of such
CDs.
DVD
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. But some people mistakenly call it Digital Video Disc. It is
a relatively new technology that is introduced recently. It is similar to CD except that it can store
large amounts of data and it has narrow tracks than CD. It can store 4 -17GB of information.

Another possible categorization is based on the significance of the devices – System Unit and
Peripheral Devices.

Disk drive: is part of a computer system which reads from and writes data on a disk.

Activity:
What are the four activities that computers do? What are the hardware components responsible for
these activities?

Components of computers – Based on their location

1. The system Unit

A system unit, also known as a base unit, is the main body of a desktop computer. It typically
consists of a metal or (rarely) plastic enclosure containing the motherboard, power supply, cooling
fans, internal disk drives, and memory and expansion cards that are plugged into the motherboard,
such as video and network cards.

Components of System Unit

System unit contains: case, motherboard, power supply and disk drives.

Case: A computer case (also known as the computer chassis, cabinet, tower, box or housing) is the
enclosure that contains the main components of a computer. Cases are usually constructed from
steel, aluminum, or plastic.

Power Supply: The PC power supply converts 120/240 volts Alternating Current (AC) into 5 and
12 volts Direct Current (DC) used by the PC. The PC power supplies have built-in power on/off
switches and power connectors for the motherboard and the disk drives.

Motherboard: A motherboard, also known as a system board, is the central or primary circuit
board making up a complex electronic system.

A typical computer is built with the microprocessor(CPU), main memory(RAM), and other basic
components on the motherboard. Other components of the computer such as external storage,
control circuits for video display and sound, and peripheral devices are typically attached to the

27
motherboard via ribbon cables, other cables, and power connectors. Motherboard contains ports,
expansion slots, CPU slots, RAM slots, etc

Ports and Connectors

A port is a socket used to connect the peripheral devices to system unit. It serves as an interface
between the computer and other computers or peripherals in the form of an electrically wired outlet
into which a plug or cable connects. They have different physical shapes such as male, female,
round, rectangular, square, oblong, etc. There is some standardization to physical properties and
function.

Hardware ports can be divided into two groups:

Serial ports: serial port transmits or receives data one bit at a time. They are very good to send
information over long distance. Devices like keyboard, mouse, modem, etc all use serial ports to
connect to system unit of computer.
A newer type of Serial port is the USB(Universal Serial Bus). It is faster and it allows one USB
port to be used to connect several devices to the system unit.

USB connector and its icon

Parallel ports: Parallel ports transfer and receive multiple bits of information at a time. They send
eight bits of data simultaneously across eight parallel wires. Parallel ports are mostly used to
connect devices that send or receive large amounts of data such as printers, disk drives, tape drives,
etc. They are used for short distance communication.

28
 Parallel port (Printer port)

Expansion Slots and Cards

An expansion slot is a socket designed to hold circuit boards called cards. Expansion cards add
capability to your computer like playing sound (sound card), watching TV (TV card), connecting
computers together (network card) or to the internet (modem), etc. These cards are plugged into
the expansion slot of the motherboard.

Drives: drives are devices that read data from or write data onto storage devices. Examples of
drives include hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD drive, DVD drive, etc. Drives have some sort
of motors that rotate the storage devices from which data is read or onto which data is stored. (For
more information read about storage devices).

2. The peripherals
A peripheral is any device connected to the system unit. These are keyboards, monitors, mice,
printers, scanners, microphones, speakers, cameras, to list just the most familiar ones.

Activity:
Classify the components in the system unit as input, output, storage, processing and other devices.

2.2.2 Computer Software

Computer hardware is directed by a set of instructions. Without these instructions, computers can
do nothing. These set of instructions are called software (also called programs). We use
programming languages to write these instructions. Examples of programming languages include
C, C++, Visual Basic, Java, etc.

Software are categorized into two:

 System Software
 Application Software

2.2.2.1 System Software

System software consists of programs that are related to controlling the actual operations of the
computer equipment/resource. There are three types of system software:
 Operating System
 Utility Software
 Language translators

Operating system manage resources, provides a user interface, and run application software. It
organizes resources such as keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor, etc. It also presents GUI (Graphical
User Interface) to the user for easy use of computer. It makes complex hardware more user
friendly i.e. it acts between the user and hardware.

A) Operating system

29
Operating system coordinates the activity between the user and the computer. An operating system
has four major functions.

I. Process management
In operating system terms, a process is a program or part of a program that can be executed
separately. The operating system does the task of managing these processes that are being executed
and waiting to be executed.

II. Input/output Management

The I/O manager coordinates the computers communication with outside world, flow of data to the
display screen and other output devices (printers/ plotters) and from the key board or other input
devices. It also handles the flow of data to and from the disk drives (file management) and the
process of preparing a disk for use, the copying, renaming, erasing task of a file.

III. Memory Management

During processing, some areas of memory are used to store the operating system instructions,
application program instructions, and data to be processed. It is the task of operating system to
allocate or assign each of these items to a memory area.

IV. System Administration

Operating system as a system administrator manages the performance of the system (e.g response
time), system security (username and password), and storage device management (deleting files,
renaming files, formatting disks, creating directories, etc).

30
Types of Operating System
o Based on the number of programs they can run a time, operating systems are divided into two:

Single tasking operating systems: on such system, only one program can be run on the
computer at a time. To run another program, you have to close the first program and load
another program. For example, if you are working on Microsoft Word and in addition if you
want to open Microsoft Excel, first you have to close Word first because you can’t open two
programs at the same time. Then you can open Excel. Single tasking operating system can’t
handle more than one program at a time. Examples of such operating systems are MS-DOS,
and PC-DOS which were used in 1980s.

Multi-tasking operating systems: on such systems you can run as many programs as you like.
You can work on Word and Excel at the same time. Such systems can handle more than one
program at a time. Examples include Windows 2000, Windows XP, Macintosh, etc.

o Based on the number of users they can serve at a time, we divide operating systems into two:

Single User: they can serve only one user at a time. E.g. Windows 95, Windows 98/XP, etc

Multi User: lets more than one user to access the computer at one time. E.g., UNIX. This is
done via network that connects terminals to the multi user computer.

B) Utility Programs
Utilities are programs that make computing easier. They perform specific tasks related to
managing computer resources or files. There are different utility programs:
i) Troubleshooting programs: enable us to recognize and correct computer problems before
they become serious.
ii) Anti-virus programs: they protect your computer against viruses or other malicious
programs that damage computer. E.g MacAfee, Sophos, Norton, etc.
iii) File compression programs: are used to reduce the size of files or data so that it takes
less storage space or network band. E.g WinZip, WinRAR, etc.
iv) Uninstall programs: these software enable us to safely and completely remove
unneeded programs/software from your computer.
v) Back up software: with the help of this software, we can make copies of files to be used
in case of the original data is lost/damaged. This copy is called back up.
vi) Screen savers: helps to prevent your work from being seen by others if you leave your
computer idle for some time.

C) Language translators
Language translators are used to convert the programming instruction written by users into binary
code that the computer can understand. They are written for specific programming languages and
computer system.

2.2.2.2 Application Software

Application software performs useful work for the user. These useful works could be:
 Word processing-document creation

31
  Spreadsheet-electronic calculation
 Email/communicating-email sending and reading
Users use these software to perform different activities like calculation, video editing, word
processing, presentation, etc. Some of the uses of application software:

i) Word Processing
This is the most widely used computer application. Word processing is the use of computer to
produce documents that consist primarily of text. Such documents can also contain pictures,
drawing, photograph, etc.
Used for:
 Writing letter
 Writing memos
 Producing reports
Some of the software used for word processing include:
 Microsoft word
 Corel WordPerfect
 Lotus WordPro
 WordStar
ii) Spreadsheet Software
Spreadsheet software is used to organize, manipulate, and graph numeric information. It
enables us to do financial analysis, and other complicated mathematical calculation
electronically. E.g., interest rate, payroll, etc.
Some of the software used for this purpose include:
 Lotus 1-2-3
 Microsoft Excel
 Quatropro

iii) Database Management system (DBMS)

Database is a collection of related data that is stored in computer. DBMS organizes the
collection of data so that information can be retrieved easily. Database software allow you to
create a database and to retrieve, manipulate, and update the data. Database may contain one or
more tables. The following table and other related tables together form database.
Name ID DOB Department Salary
1
2
3

Example of an Employee table

Software that are used for DBMS:

32
  Microsoft Access
 Oracle
 MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server
 FoxPro
 Dbase IV

iv) Presentation Graphics

Presentation graphics helps you to create professional and exciting presentations that could be
used in meeting, group discussion, etc. Such software enable you to incorporate charts,
graphics, sound, etc in your presentation. Software used for this purpose include:
 Microsoft PowerPoint
 Lotus Freelance Graphics
 Corel Presentations

v) Accounting software
Accounting software enables companies to record and report their financial transactions. Tasks
done by these software include:
 Invoicing
 Accounts Receivable
 Accounts Payable
 Payroll
 Inventory
 General Ledger
 Purchase orders, etc
Software used for this purpose:
 Peachtree accounting
 Intuit QuickBooks

vi) Computer Aided Design

It is used to create design for products, new buildings, etc. They are used by engineers.
Example of software used for this purpose include: AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, Parametric

Vii) Communication
They are used to transfer data from one computer to another. They enable computers to send
and receive data of any kind such as text, graphics, fax documents, etc.
Some of the software used for this purpose are:
 Netscape Navigator-to work on internet
 Internet Explorer-to work on internet

Activity:
Can you name some application software? To which category do they belong?

2.2.2.3 Viruses, Trojan Horses and Worms

Virus

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 Virus is a malicious (destructive) program/software that damages computer. It copies itself on
to other programs and spreads through multiple computer system. They may damage the files
on that computer or attack the system in general. Some of actions performed by virus include:
 Duplicating themselves on your computer to consume storage space your computer
runs out of memory.
 Delete or modify your files(documents)
 Damage your software
 Damage your hardware, etc.
Worm
Worm is a malicious program like virus. But it does not need help to move from one computer to
another which viruses can’t do. Virus need help to move from one computer to another. For
example, when a user copies a file from an infected floppy disk to a computer, the virus may get a
chance to copy itself on to the computer. However, worms just spread themselves through
computer networks. It destroys the computer system like virus.

Trojan horse
Trojan horses are software that seems to perform useful activity but which has malicious programs
in it. It may damage files, and perform other harmful actions on your computer. It does not
replicate itself. For example, you may think that the program is a computer game and you start
playing it. While you are playing, the game starts to affect your computer inside.
Exercise
1. Define Information System. What are its components?
2. What are computer Systems? What are its components
3. Categorize compute hardware based on their function
4. What are the two types of printers?
5. Define operating system software. Give examples of operating systems
6. What are viruses, Trojan horses, Viruses?

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 Chapter 3
Data Representation and Boolean Algebra

Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to familiarize you with the basic fundamentals of number system, some
of the commonly used number system by computer professionals and the relationship between
them in converting one number system to the other. In this chapter we will also see how binary
numbers are coded to represent characters in computers memory.

Objective
At the end of this chapter the learner will be expected to:
 Understand the basics of number system
 Recognize binary arithmetic
 Conceptualize the different ways of representing data
 Understand Boolean algebra
 Visualize logic gates and circuits

2.3 Number System

Objective
At the end of this topic the learner will be able to:
 Define number system
 Determine different number system

A number system is a set of symbols used for counting. The number systems which are of a particular
interest in information technology are Decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal number system.
Number systems are basically of two types: non positional and positional
Definition:
Non-positional number system is a number system in which case each symbol
represents the same value regardless of its position in the number and the symbols are
added to find out the value of particular number.
Example: Counting of fingers, stones, sticks etc.

Positional number system is a number system in which a value of a number depends on

the position of the digits. The number 123 has a different value than the number 321,
although the same digits are used in both numbers.

The value of each digit in such a number is determined by three considerations:

1 The digit itself

35
2 The position of the number

3 The base of the number system

For the purpose of understanding how data are represented, stored and processed in computer, we
will discuss Number Systems that are commonly used by computer designers.

Although 123 and 321 have the same digit, their values are deffirent. Can you explain the reason?

Decimal Number System

The number system that we use in our day-to-day life is called decimal number system. In this
system the base is equal to 10 because there are altogether ten symbols or digits
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) used in the system. The successive positions to the left of the decimal point
represent units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.

Binary Number System

The binary numeral system (base 2 numerals) represents numeric values using two symbols,
typically 0 and 1. More specifically, binary is a positional notation with a radix of two. Owing to
its relatively straightforward implementation in electronic circuitry, the binary system is used
internally by virtually all modern computers.

Each position in a binary number represents a power of the base (2). As such in this system the
right most position is the units (20) the second position to the right is the 2`s (21) position
proceeding in this way we have 4`s (22), 8`s (23) etc.

Example

The decimal equivalent of the binary number 10101 (written as 10101 2) is

1*24+ 0*23 +1*22+0*21+1*20

=16+0+4+0+1=2

Octal Number System

In octal number system the base is 8. so, in this system there are only eight symbols or
digits(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7).

The 8 symbols of the octal number system are:

01234567

The next number after 7 is 10 (there is no symbol for 8).

36
Hexadecimal Number System

The hexadecimal system uses base 16. Thus, it has 16 possible digit symbols. It uses the
digits 0 through 9 plus the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F as the 16 digit symbols. Numbers in
base 16 need 16 symbols. The letters A-F are used to give 16 symbols.

Decimal 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Hexadecimal 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

Decimal, binary and hexadecimal representations of the numbers 1 to 24 are shown below.

2 10 2 14 1110 E
3 11 3 15 1111 F
4 100 4 16 1 0000 10
5 101 5 17 1 0001 11
6 110 6 18 1 0010 12
7 111 7 19 1 0011 13
8 1000 8 20 1 0100 14
9 1001 9 21 1 0101 15
10 1010 A 22 1 0110 16
11 1011 B 23 1 0111 17
12 1100 C 24 1 1000 18

Activity

1. How many symbol digits do number systems in base 4, 6,10,9 can have?

2. What is a single maximum value in each of the bases?

Note:

 In all number systems the value of the base determines the total number of
different symbols of digits available in the number system.

 The first of these choices is always zero and the maximum value of a single digit
is always equal to one less than the value of the base

2.4 Number System Conversions

Objective
At the end of this topic the learner will be able to:
 Convert from base ten to another base
 Convert form other base to another base other than base ten.

37
I Binary-To-Decimal Conversion
Any binary number can be converted to its decimal equivalent simply by summing together
the weights of the various positions in the binary number, which contain a 1.

Example:

Convert 1 1 0 1 1 2 (binary) to its decimal equivalent

Solution:

24+23+0+21+20

= 16+8+0+2+1

= 2710 (decimal)

You should notice that the method finds the weights (i.e., powers of 2) for
each bit position that contains a 1, and then to add them up.

II Decimal-To-Binary Conversion

This method uses repeated division by 2.

Example:

Convert 2510 to binary

25/ 2 = 12+ remainder of 1 1 (Least Significant Bit)

12/ 2 = 6 + remainder of 0 0
6/2 = 3 + remainder of 0 0
3/2 = 1 + remainder of 1 1
1/2 = 0 + remainder of 1 1 (Most Significant Bit)
Result 2510 = 1 1 0 0 12

The Flow chart for repeated-division method is as follow:

38
 III Oct al To Decimal Conversion

Any octal number can be converted to its decimal equivalent simply by summing together
the weights of the various positions in the octal number

Example

24.68 = 2 x (81) + 4 x (80) + 6 x (8-1) = 20.7510

Activity:

1: How many bits (1 and 0) are needed to represent each octal digit?

2: How many bits (1 and 0) are needed to represent each hexadecimal digit

Note:

Any decimal number in the range 0 to 2n-1 can be represented in the binary
form as an n-bit number.

Octal Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Binary Equivalent 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111

Each Octal digit is represented by three bits of binary digit.

IV Binary-To-Octal (short cut method)

39
 Steps:

1: divide the binary digit into group of three (starting from the right)

2: convert each group of three binary digit to one octal digit.

Example

100 111 0102 = (100) (111) (010) 2 = 4 7 28

V Octal-To-Binary Conversion (short cut method)

Steps:

1: Convert the decimal equivalent of each octal digit to three-bit binary number.

2: combine all the resulting binary groups in to a single octal digit.

Note

Observe that since there are only 8 digits in the octal number system , so 3 bits(23=8) are
sufficient to represent any octal number in binary.

VI. Decimal-To-Octal Conversion (Repeat Division method)

This method uses repeated division by 8.

Example.

Convert 17710 to octal and binary:

177/8 = 22+ remainder of 1 1 (Least Significant Bit)

22/ 8 = 2 + remainder of 6 6
2/8 = 0 + remainder of 2 2 (Most Significant Bit)
Result 17710 = 2618
Convert to Binary = 0101100012

VI Hexadecimal to Decimal Conversion

Example

2AF16 = 2 x (162) + 10 x (161) + 15 x (160) = 68710

VII Decimal to hexadecimal

40
This method uses repeated division by 16.

Example

Convert 37810 to hexadecimal

378/16 = 23+ remainder of 10 A (Least Significant Bit)

23/ 16 = 1 + remainder of 7 7
1 / 16 = 0 + remainder of 1 1 (Most Significant Bit)
Result 37810 = 17A8

VIII. Binary-To-Hexadecimal (short cut method)

Steps:

1: divide the binary digit into group of four (starting from the right)

2: convert each group of four binary digit to one hexadecimal digit.

Example

1011 0010 11112 = (1011) (0010) (1111) 2 = B 2 F16

IX. Hexadecimal-To-Binary Conversion (short cut method)

Steps:

1: Convert the decimal equivalent of each hexadecimal digit to four binary digits.

2: combine all the resulting binary groups in to a single digit

Activity:

What is the binary equivalent of the hexadecimal digits 1, 2, 3, E?

Hexadecimal Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Binary Equivalent 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111
Hexadecimal Digit 8 9 A B C D E F
Binary Equivalent 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110 1111

Note:

Each Hexadecimal digit is represented by four bits of binary digit

41
X. Octal-To-Hexadecimal Conversion

Steps

1) Convert Octal to Binary first.

2) Regroup the binary number in 4 bits group starting from the LSB

XI. Hexadecimal-To-Octal Conversion

1) Convert Hexadecimal to Binary first.

2) Regroup the binary number in 3 bits group (a group starts from the Lowest Significant
Bit)

Example

Convert 5A816 to Octal.

5A816= 0101 1010 1000 (Binary)

= 2 6 5 0 (Octal)

Exercise

Choose the correct answers in the following questions.

1. Convert (63.25)10 to binary.

42
 a, 11111.11 d,111111.1
b,111001.01 e, NA
c,111111.01

2. Convert (43.8125)10 to binary.

a,101011.1101 d,110101.1011
b,110101.1101 e, NA
c,101011.1011

3. Convert (1001011.011)2 to decimal.

73.0375 75.573
75.375 NA
91.375

2.5 Binary Arithmetic

Objective:

At the end of this lesson the learner will be able to:

 Define binary arithmetic

 Add and subtract binary numbers
 Define complement and convert binary number to its complement
 Subtract binary numbers using complement method

2.5.1 Binary Addition

Binary Addition is very similar to the longhand addition of decimal numbers. As with decimal
numbers, you start by adding the bits (digits) one column, or place weight, at a time, from right
to left. Unlike decimal addition, there is little to memorize in the way of rules for the addition of
binary bits:

Rules of Binary Addition

 0+0=0
 0+1=1
 1+0=1
 1 + 1 = 0, and carry 1 to the next more significant bit

43
 Example

00011010 + 00001100

        1 1 carries

0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 = 26(base 10)

+ 0  0  0  0  1  1  0  0 = 12(base 10)

0  0  1  0  0  1  1  0 = 38(base 10)

2.5.2 Binary Subtraction

We can subtract one binary number from another by using the standard techniques adapted for
decimal numbers (subtraction of each bit pair, right to left, "borrowing" as needed from bits to
the left).

Rules of Binary Subtraction

 0-0=0
 0 - 1 = 1, and borrow 1 from the next more significant bit
 1-0=1
 1-1=0

Example,

00100101 - 00010001 = 00010100         0   borrows

           0  0  1 10  0  1  0  1    =    37(base 10)
- 0  0  0  1  0  0  0  1    =    17(base 10)

  0  0  0  1  0  1  0  0    =    20(base 10)

As we just learned, we can represent negative binary numbers by using the "two's complement"
method and a negative place-weight bit. Here, we'll use those negative binary numbers to
subtract through addition.

Additive Method of Subtraction

When subtraction is implemented by means of digital computers, the direct method of

subtraction is found to be less efficient than the Additive Method Of Subtraction. The method of
subtraction by an additive approach is known as complementary subtraction.

In order to understand complementary subtraction it is necessary to know what is meant by the

complement of a number.
Definition:

44
 For a number which has n digits a complement of the number is the difference
between the number and the base raised to the nth power minus one.
Example:
Find the complement of 3710
Solution
Since the number has 2 digits and the value of the base is 10, so (base) n-1 = 102-1=99
Now 99-37=62
Thus the complement of 3710=62
But in case of binary number, it is not necessary to go through the usual process of obtaining
complement. To obtain the complement of binary number transform all its 0`s to 1`s and all its
1`s to 0`s.
Example
The complement of 1011010 is 0100101.
Since we have seen how to obtain complement of a number, we will now see how subtraction is
performed using complement.
In subtracting binary number using complement method the following steps are useful.
Steps:
1 fined complement of the number (subtrahend)
2 add the complement to the number from which you are taking away (minuend)

3 if there is a carry of one add it to obtain the result; if there is no carry, re-complement the sum
and attach a negative sign to obtain the result.
Example:
Subtract 01110002 from 10111002
Solution
1011100
+
1000111(complement of 0111000)

1 0100011
1 add the carry of 1

0100100

Exercise
1 adds the binary numbers 1011 and 101 in both binary and decimal form.
2 Subtract 01101112 from 11011102.
3 Find the complement of the following number
a) 49510 b) 2910
c) 48 d) c16

4) Find the complement of the following binary number

a) 10 b) 101
c) 101101 d) 011011
5) Subtract 1101112 from 101110 using complementary method.

45
2.5.3 Coding Methods
Section Objectives:
After successful completion of this section students should be able to:
o identify different coding schemes
o discuss the coding systems used to represent characters

Data has to be converted into a form which is understandable by computers before processing.
Computers use different mechanisms to represent data. These mechanisms are called coding
systems. There are different coding systems, which convert one or more character sets into
computer codes. Some are:

 BCD (BINARY CODED DECIMAL)

 EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code)
 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

In all cases, binary coding schemes separate the characters, known as character set, in to zones. Zone
groups characters together. With in each zone, the individual characters are identified by digit code.

BCD (BINARY CODED DECIMAL)

BCD is one the early memory codes .it is based on the idea of converting each digit of decimal
number in to its binary equivalent. The BCD equivalent of each decimal digit is shown in the
following table:

Decimal BCD
0 0000
1 0001
2 0010
3 0011
4 0100
5 0101
6 0110
7 0111
8 1000
9 1001

Note:
Each decimal digit is represented in BCD by 4 bits.

Example:
Convert 4210 in to BCD
Solution:
410=0100 in BCD
210=0010 in BCD
4210=0100 0010

46
 4 2

= 01000010 in BCD

Note
Since 4 bits are used to represent a character, altogether only16 (24) configuration
is possible. Thus instead of using 4 bits with only 16 possible characters computer
designers commonly use 6 bits to represent characters in BCD. now it is possible
to represent 64(26) characters.
Note:
Since we use 4 bits in BCD , altogether 16(2 4) configuration is possible

Activity
State the possible combinations of bits that can be formed in BCD code?

EBCDIC (extended binary coded decimal interchange code)

The major problem of BCD code is that only 64 characters can be represented. This is not
sufficient to represent all characters on the keyboard.
Hence BCD code is extended from 6-bit code to 8-bit code called EBCDIC.
Because EBCDIC code is an 8-bit code, it can easily be divided in to two 4-bit groups. Each of
these 4-bit groups can be represented by 1 hexadecimal digit.

ASCII (AMERICAN STANDARD CODE INFORMATION INTERCHANGE)

ASCII code is one of memory code which is mostly used to represent data internally in
microcomputers. ASCII is of two types: ASCII-7 and ASCII-8

ASCII-7 is a 7-bit code that allows 128(2 7) different characters. The first three bits are used as
zone bit and the rest 4 bits indicate the digit.

ASCII-8 is an 8-bit code that allows 256(28) different characters. The additional 1 bit is added to
the zone bit.

2.5.4 Representation of Numbers

Objective:
At the end of this section the learner will be able to:

 Define a floating number, normalization, mantissa and exponent

 determine mantissa and exponent of a floating number

 describe how to represent negative number, fixed number and floating number

 represent a negative number both in signed magnitude and two’s compliment

47
Negative Numbers

All the numbers you've looked at so far have been positive whole numbers. There is no
equivalent in binary to the minus sign so other ways have been devised to represent negative
values. The two most widely used are:

1. Sign and magnitude (signed magnitude);

2. Two’s complement.

Sign and Magnitude (signed magnitude)

When a value is represented using sign and magnitude, the left hand bit, the most significant bit,
is used solely to determine the sign of the number.

Most significant bit = 1 Negative number

Most significant bit = 0 Positive number

For example:
1010 = -2
0010 = +2

Activity:

Represent -4 using sign and magnitude form.

Solution

The magnitude of a number 4 in binary is 100, since the number is negative add 1 to the left
most position of the number; hence 1100

Decimal number Sign bit Magnitude Sign Magnitude

representation

+4 0 100 0100
-4 1 100 1100

+5 0 101 0101

-5 1 101 1101

This means that a 4-bit number cannot represent any value greater than 7 because the 4th bit is
used to indicate the sign. However the 4 bits can still represent 15 different values when the
negative numbers are included. These values are:
-7, -6, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7

48
If there was no sign bit, 4 bits would represent the following 16 values:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Activity
Can you work out why there are only 15 values when you use sign and magnitude but 16 when
there is no sign bit?

Two's Complement

Decimal arithmetic uses different operations for addition and subtraction. Using two's
complement, subtraction is carried out using the machine operation for addition. This system
works for bit strings of any length. The examples given will use 8 or 4-bit strings for simplicity
but a working PC is likely to use 32 or 64-bit strings. The first bit is again used to indicate a
negative value but it also bears the position value.

The two's complement number 1000 1010 is evaluated as follows:

1000 1010
= -128 +0+0+0+8+0+2+0
= -118

Converting a number to its negative form is a two-stage process:

1. Complement (invert) all the bits (the result at this stage is known as one's complement).
2. Add 1.

If you're working with 8-bit strings all values must appear as 8 bits and the possible values will
be in the range -128 to 127.

Example
Using a 4-bit binary string
To convert 1101 (1310) to its negative:

Write the number in 8 bit format 0000 1101

Invert the bits 1111 0010
Add 1 0000 0001
1111 0011

It is easy to check the answer:

1111 0011
= -128 +64 +32 +16 +0 +0 +2 +1
= -128 + 115
= -13

Activity:

49
Represent the decimal numbers (1, 4, 7) in to its 2`s compliment form?

The table below shows the two's complement representation of the range -8 to + 7

Decimal Binary two's complement

representation
7 0111
6 0110
5 0101
4 0100
3 0011
2 0010
1 0001
0 0000
-1 1111
-2 1110
-3 1101
-4 1100
-5 1011
-6 1010
-7 1001
-8 1000

When 1 is added to the binary representation for -1 the result is a 5-bit number. Because the
machine has only allocated 4 bits, the 5th bit is ignored as overflow. This same process can be
used to convert negative numbers to positive.

This ability to treat positive and negative numbers in the same way is the reason that two's
complement is the most commonly used machine representation for negative numbers.

Floating Point Numbers

A floating point number is one in which the position of the point is determined within the
number itself. Working with floating point values, the position of the point in each number must
be determined at processing time.

Floating point representation is similar to scientific notation and details of how values are
represented vary from one machine to another. One of the standard floating-point representations
is the IEEE standard and it is useful to understand how this works.

The number uses a 32-bit string. This string has 3 distinct parts:

The sign bit 1 bit. With the value 1 for negative and 0 for positive.
The mantissa 23 bits
The exponent 8 bits

Using binary, the value of the number is:

50
Sign ( + / - ) 1.mantissa*2exponent

Note:

Sign bit for negative number is 0 and 1 for positive number

Example 1
Sign Exponent Mantissa
1 10000111 10110011010000000000000

Exponent The exponent is shown with excess 127. This means that the machine exponent is the
actual exponent with 127 added. This has the effect of giving a range of 0 to 255 for the machine
representation while the range of actual values is -128 to +127. If the excess was not used there
would have to be a mechanism for showing a negative exponent.

In the example the actual exponent is 1000 (decimal 8).

The machine representation is:

0000 1000 (8) + 0111 1111 (127) = 1000 0111 (decimal 135)

Mantissa The mantissa is the number being encoded. Before the number is encoded the point is
0moved (or floated) left or right until the value of the number is in the range:

1<n<2

This is known as normalization. Since the first digit is now always going to be 1 there is no need
to encode this digit. The mantissa only includes the digits after the point and the leading 1 is
assumed.

The number shown above is -1.1011 0011 01*28

In un-normalized form this is -110110011.01

Example 2
To encode the binary number 101.1110 01:
Step 1 The sign bit is 0 for positive.
Move the point 2 places to the left:
1.01111 001
Step2:
the digits after the point are the mantissa. All trailing bits are 0.
normalize
The point was moved 2 places to the left. The exponent is now used to multiply
Step 3 the mantissa by 22 This effectively returns the mantissa to its original size.
However, remember that excess 127 is used so the exponent will be 2 + 127 =
129.

51
Sign Exponent Mantissa
0 10000001 01111001000000000000000

Using this representation the 32-bit number has 23 bits giving the detail of the value and 8 bits in
the exponent which means that the number can be increased or decreased by 2127.

A 32-bit integer can show 32 bits of detail but has lower magnitude. This is the trade-off between
floating point and fixed point numbers.

2.5.5 Boolean algebra

Objective:
At the end of thus lesson the learner will be able:
o define Boolean algebra
o explain fundamental concepts of Boolean algebra
o define Boolean function
o simplify a given Boolean algebra
o explain Boolean postulates
o evaluate Boolean functions

Definition:
Boolean algebra is an algebra that deals with binary numbers.

Fundamental concepts of Boolean algebra

1. use of binary digit
Since Boolean algebra deals with binary number system the variables used in the Boolean
equation may assume only two possible values (1) and (0).

2. logical addition
The symbol “+” is used for logical addition. It is also known as “or” operator.
The resulting out put values four each of the four (since the variable in the equation say A and B
can have only two possible values (0 and 1) so only four (22 ) combination of input are possible)
input combinations are given in the following table

52
3:logical multiplication
The symbol “.” is used for logical multiplication. It is also known as “and” operator.
The resulting out put values four each of the four (since the variable in the equation say A and B
can have only two possible values (0 and 1) so only four (22 ) combination of input are possible)
input combinations are given in the following table

Complementation
The symbol for compliment operator is “-“. It is also known as an inverter.
The compliment of a variable is the reverse of its value.

The NOT operation is unlike the OR and AND operations in that it can be performed on a
single input variable. For example, if the variable A is subjected to the NOT operation,
the result x can be expressed as

X = A'

Where the prime (') represents the NOT operation. This expression is read as:
x equals NOT A
x equals the inverse of A
x equals the complement of A

Each of these is in common usage and all indicate that the logic value of x = A' is
opposite to the logic value of A.

The truth table of the NOT operation is as follows:

1' = 0 because NOT 1 is 0

0' = 1 because NOT 0 is 1

The NOT operation is also referred to as inversion or complementation, and these

terms are used interchangeably.

Operator precedence

In order to evaluate Boolean expression correctly the following Boolean operation

precedence is useful

53
 1. First, perform all inversions of single terms; that is, 0 = 1 or 1 = 0.
2. Then perform all operations within parentheses.
3. Perform an AND operation before an OR operation unless parentheses
indicate otherwise.
4. If an expression has a bar over it, perform the operations of the expression first
and then invert the result.

Postulates of Boolean theorems

Investigating the various Boolean theorems (rules) can help us to simplify logic
expressions and logic circuits

(9)x + y = y + x (commutative law)

(10)x * y = y * x (commutative law)
(11)x+ (y+z) = (x+y) +z = x+y+z (associative law)
(12)x (yz) = (xy) z = xyz (associative law)
(13a)x (y+z) = xy + xz
(13b)(w+x)(y+z) = wy + xy + wz + xz
(14)x + xy = x
(15)x + x'y = x + y

DeMorgan's Theorem

DeMorgan's theorems are extremely useful in simplifying expressions in which a product

or sum of variables is inverted. The two theorems are:

54
 (16) (x+y)' = x' * y'

(17) (x*y)' = x' + y'

Theorem (16) says that when the OR sum of two variables is inverted, this is the same as
inverting each variable individually and then ANDing these inverted variables.

Theorem (17) says that when the AND product of two variables is inverted, this is the
same as inverting each variable individually and then ORing them.

Example

X = [(A'+C) * (B+D')]'
= (A'+C)' + (B+D')' [by theorem (17)]
= (A''*C') + (B'+D'') [by theorem (16)]
= AC' + B'D

Boolean function
It is an expression formed with binary variables, the two binary operators and the unary
operator, parenthesis and equal sign.

Example

W=x+ y-.z

The above function is can also be represented using truth table

X Y Z y- y-.z W=x+ y-.z

0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 1 1 1 1

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 1 1 0 0 0

1 0 0 1 0 1

1 0 1 1 1 1

1 1 0 0 0 1

1 1 1 0 0 1

55
2.5.6 Logic Gates and Circuit
Objective:
At the end of this section the learner will be able to:
 Define logic gates, Boolean algebra, and logic circuit.
 Determine types of logic gates.
 Simplify a given Boolean function
 Design simple logic circuits.
 Evaluate a value of a given logic circuit.

This topic introduces Boolean logic and logic gates. This form of logic is the basis of current
electronic computers, and is also widely used by programmers when writing systems.

Boolean logic is a way of expressing a bit of information as one of two states, TRUE or FALSE.
There are no intermediate states. Typically, TRUE is represented as a small positive voltage, and
FALSE is a zero voltage. Many people think of these two states as being On and Off.

Definition:

A logic gate is a device that gives a predictable output when given specific inputs

In an electronic computer the gates are implemented using electronic logic, with modern systems
typically containing millions of these devices integrated into a few silicon chips appearing on the
circuit board.

Boolean 0 and 1 do not represent actual numbers but instead represent the state of a voltage
variable, or what is called its logic level.

Some common representation of 0 and 1 is shown in the following diagram.

Logic 0 Logic 1
False True
Off On
Low High
No Yes
Open Switch Close Switch

In Boolean algebra, there are three basic logic operations:

OR, AND and NOT. These logic gates are digital circuits constructed from diodes, transistors,
and resistors connected in such a way that the circuit output is the result of a basic logic
operation (OR, AND, NOT) performed on the inputs.

56
OR gate

The expression X = A + B reads as "X equals A OR B".

The + sign stands for the OR operation, not for ordinary addition.

The OR operation produces a result of 1 when any of the input variable is 1.

The OR operation produces a result of 0 only when all the input variables are 0.

AND Gate

The expression X = A * B reads as "X equals A AND B".

The multiplication sign stands for the AND operation, same for ordinary multiplication of
1s and 0s.

The AND operation produces a result of 1 occurs only for the single case when all of the
input variables are 1.

The output is 0 for any case where one or more inputs are 0

57
NOT Gate

The NOT operation is unlike the OR and AND operations in that it can be performed on a
single input variable. For example, if the variable A is subjected to the NOT operation,
the result x can be expressed as

X = A'

Where the prime (') represents the NOT operation. This expression is read as:
x equals NOT A
x equals the inverse of A
x equals the complement of A

Each of these is in common usage and all indicate that the logic value of x = A' is
opposite to the logic value of A.

The truth table of the NOT operation is as follows:

NOR Gate

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NOR is the same as the OR gate symbol except that it has a small circle on the output.
This small circle represents the inversion operation. Therefore the output expression of
the two input NOR gate is:

X = ( A + B )'

NAND Gate

NAND is the same as the AND gate symbol except that it has a small circle on the output.
This small circle represents the inversion operation. Therefore the output expression of
the two input NAND gate is:

X = ( AB )'

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 QUIZ Questions

Choose the correct answers in the following questions.

1. Boolean algebra is different from ordinary algebra in which way?

a) Boolean algebra can represent more than 1 discrete level between 0 and 1
b) Boolean algebra have only 2 discrete levels: 0 and 1
c) Boolean algebra can describe up to 3 levels of logic levels
d) They are actually the same
The following 2 questions are referred to the below image:

2. What is the output X if both inputs A and B are 0?

a) 0
b) 1
c) I don't know
d) No Answer
3. What is the output X if A=1 and B=0?
a) 0
b) 1
c) I don't know
d) No Answer
4. For a three inputs (A,B C) OR gate, what inputs are needed if output=0?
a) A=0, B=0, C=1
b) A=0, B=1, C=0
c) A=1, B=1, C=1
d) A=0, B=0,C=0
e) No Answer

Logic circuits
Describing Logic Circuits Algebraically

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Any logic circuit, no matter how complex, may be completely described using the
Boolean operations, because the OR gate, AND gate, and NOT circuit are the basic
building blocks of digital systems.

This is an example of the circuit using Boolean expression:

Note:

If an expression contains both AND and OR operations, the AND operations are
performed first (X=AB+C: AB is performed first), unless there are parentheses in the
expression, in which case the operation inside the parentheses is to be performed first
(X=(A+B)+C: A+B is performed first).

Evaluating Logic Circuit Outputs

Once the Boolean expression for a circuit output has been obtained, the output logic level
can be determined for any set of input levels.

Example:

Let A=0, B=1, C=1, D=1

X = A'BC (A+D)'
= 0'*1*1* (0+1)'
= 1 *1*1* (1)'
= 1 *1*1* 0
=0

Implementing Circuits from Boolean Expression

If the operation of a circuit is defined by a Boolean expression, a logic-circuit diagram
can he implemented directly from that expression.

Suppose that we wanted to construct a circuit whose output is y = AC+BC' + A'BC. This
Boolean expression contains three terms (AC, BC', A'BC), which are ORed together.

61
This tells us that a three-input OR gate is required with inputs that are equal to AC, BC',
and A'BC, respectively.

Each OR-gate input is an AND product term, which means that an AND gate with appropriate
inputs can be used to generate each of these terms. Note the use of Inverters to produce the A'
and C' terms required in the expression.

Universality of NAND & NOR Gates

It is possible to implement any logic expression using only NAND gates and no other type of
gate. This is because NAND gates, in the proper combination, can be used to perform each of the
Boolean operations OR, AND, and INVERT.

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 In
a similar manner, it can be shown that NOR gate can be arranged to implement
any of the Boolean operations.

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 CHAPTER 3 - Data Communication and Computer Networks

Chapter Objectives
After completing this chapter the learner should be able to:
o describe data communication
o identify data transmission modes
o discuss different components of data communication
o identify data communication media
o define the Internet
o discuss the use of Internet
o identify services provided over the Internet
o define Internet protocols and addressing

3.1 Data Communication

Section objectives
After completing this section the learner should be able to:
o define data communication
o describe data transmission modes
o identify data communication media
o discuss different cable types and their importance

The term communication can be defined as the process of transferring messages between entities.
Based on what these two entities are, there are three basic types of communication:
 Human-to-Human
 Computer-to-computer
 Human-to-Computer

In all the three cases, three basic elements can be identified.

 The source (the sender)

 The medium (the channel)
 The destination

Transmission Decoding Destination

Sender Encoding

A message should first be encoded in such a way that it can be transmitted through a channel
(medium), it is then transmitted, and finally, it is decoded into a form that can be understood by
the destination at the other end. This holds true for voice communication, or data
communication.

Data communication involves transporting data from one point to another. This is an instance of
computer-to-computer communication, i.e., both the source and the destination are computer
devices, and the transmission media may be telephone lines, satellite links, microwave links, etc.

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Information is transmitted in the form of analog or digital. Most communication lines are designed
to carry analog signals. Digital transmission a rarely used for telecommunications. Therefore, a
technical must be used to represent a digital signal or an analog carrier
 Modulation: Converting digital signals into analog signals.
 Demodulation: Converting analog signals back into digital signals.
 Modem: Short for modulator/demodulator: A communications device that converts one
form of a signal to another that is suitable for transmission over communication circuits,
typically from digital to analog and then from analog to digital.

3.1.1 Modes of Data Transmission

When data are transmitted from one point to another, three modes of transmission can be
identified:
 Simplex
 Half Duplex
 Full Duplex

Simplex
In this mode, transmission can take place only in one direction. The device at either end is either
a send-only or receive-only device.

The flow of data is unidirectional.

Simplex
Sender Receiver

Half-Duplex
In this mode, data can be transmitted in both directions, but in only one direction at a time. This
is good for transmissions in which case the receiver has to acknowledge that it has received the
message back to the sender. Thus, a half-duplex line can alternately send and receive data. Two
wires are usually required. Voice communication (E.g. telephone) is normally an instance of
half-duplex mode of transmission.

Half Duplex
Sender Receiver
(receiver) (Sender)

Full-Duplex

Full-duplex transmission mode allows simultaneous transmission in both directions. When high-
speed transmission is required, full-duplex transmission is the ideal choice. This transmission
mode requires four wires.

Sender Full Duplex Receiver

(receiver) (Sender)

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 Activity:
Select any communication mechanism. Can you classify them as Simplex, half-duplex or
full-duplex

3.1.2 Types of Transmission Media

Transmission Medium is the physical path between transmitter and receiver in a data
communication system. The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined both
by the characteristics of the medium and characteristics of the signal.
Factors to be considered in selecting data transmission media:
I. Bandwidth – the amount of data that can be transmitted through the medium
II. Transmission impairments: - ability to withstand signal loss (attenuation) and noise
(unwanted signals). 
III. Interference: ability to avoid cross talks (cross talks are signal exchanges between signals at
close frequency ranges).
IV. Number of receivers: A guided media can be used to construct a point to point link or a
shared link with multiple attachments. In multiple attachment case, each attachment
introduces some attenuation and distortion and usually the bandwidth available will be shared
among the various attachments.

There are two broad categories of transmission media:

1. Guided Transmission media

Data transmission is through solid medium (wired system). Different types of cables are
used to connect devices
Commonly used cable types are:
 Twisted pair
 Coaxial cable
 Optical fiber

a. Twisted Pair:
 Insulated copper wires arranged in regular spiral pattern
 The oldest, least expensive, and most commonly used media
 Reduce susceptibility to interference than straight pair wires (two straight parallel wires
tend to act as an antenna and pick up extraneous signals when compared to twisted pairs)
 Highly susceptible to electrical noise, interference, and ‘tapping’ of the signal as
compared to the other guided media
 Arrangement of twisted pairs into group used for high-speed LAN

Types of Twisted pairs

Unshielded twisted pairs (UTP)

 The most commonly used cable types in LANs
 Made up of up to four twisted pairs enclosed in a plastic jacket

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  UTP is highly subjected to external electromagnetic interference.
 Different types of UTP cables are used for different purposes. Currently, the most
commonly used UTP cables are Category 5 Cables:

Shielded Twisted Pairs (STP)

 Are similar to UTP except the extra shield applied to the cables. The shield is used to
reduce external electrical interference and is suitable to be used in large industries
where there is a high level of electrical interference

b. Coaxial Cable
 Most versatile medium used in LANs, Cable TV, VCR-to-TV connections
 Noise immunity is better than twisted pair
 Less susceptible to interference and cross talk but there still is attenuation and thermal
noise problem
 Can go up to 185m or 500m without the need for an amplifier/repeater

c. Optical Fiber cables

 Flexible, thin, made of very pure glass / plastic fiber capable of conducting optical (light)
rays
   Extremely high bandwidth. They are used for high data transmission rate
 Very high noise immunity, resistant to electromagnetic interference
 Does not radiate energy/cause interference
 Very difficult to tap
 Better security but multipoint not easy
 Need optical-electrical interface (more expensive than electrical interface) Fiber 
 There are two types of fiber optic cables:

Multimode Fiber optic cable

 Fiber optic cable where the light signal travels dispersed through the core
 Core is usually 50-62m in diameter
 Maximum distance signal travels without a repeater is 500m

Single Mode fiber

 Fiber optic cable where the light signal travels in a single mode through the core
 Maximum distance signal travels without a repeater is 10km (with the appropriate
modulation up to 100km)

2. Unguided Transmission media (Wireless transmission)

Data transmission through air /space (i.e wireless system)

In unguided media transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna. There are
two types of configuration for wireless transmission namely, directional and omni directional.
Wireless transmission can of the following types
 Terrestrial  Microwave

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  Satellite  Microwave  
 Infrared 

a. Terrestrial Microwave
 Typically used where laying a cable is not practical
 Parabolic dish shaped antenna for directional and bar-like antenna for omni directional
transmission
 Transmits/receives electromagnetic waves in the 2-40 GHz range
 Travels in a straight line (line-of-sight propagation)
 High data rates: 100’s Mbps
 Repeaters spaced 10 - 100 km apart
 Applications : telephone and data transmission- wireless LANs
 
b. Satellite Microwave
 Uses satellite in geostationary (geosynchronous) 36,000 km)
 Source transmits signal to satellite which amplifies or repeats it, and retransmits down to
destinations
 Optimum transmission in 1 - 10 GHz range
 Bandwidth of 100’s MHz
 270msSignificant propagation delay about
 VSAT ( Very small Aperture Terminal) :- High speed data transmission using satellite  

c. Infrared Transmission
 For short-range communication
o Remote controls for TVs, VCRs, and stereos
o Indoor wireless LANs
 Do not pass through solid walls
o Better security and no interference (with a similar system in adjacent rooms)
 No government license is needed
 Cannot be used outdoors (due to the sunshine)

3.2 Computer Networks

Section Objectives
After completing this section the learner should be able to:
o define computer networks
o identify components of computer networks
o classify networks based on the area they cover
o define network topology
o identify the advantages and disadvantages of different topologies

When a computer system is processing data all by itself, without any interaction or
interconnection with any other computer system, it is called a stand-alone computer system. A
Network System is a system of two or more computers that are connected to each other for the
purpose of data communication and sharing of resources.

68
A network also consists of communication channels that are responsible for connecting devices
with each other and transmitting information.

Some of the most important advantages of a computer network system are:

Data sharing between different users of computers with certain amount of data
security and access control.
Sharing of software application systems – software applications installed on
remote computers can be used from any other computer on the network
Distribution of computing load – a task that has to be processed will be divided
among different computers to reduce the load of a single computer.
Sharing of high power computing resources situated at a central location on a
need basis.
Sharing of costly special devices by several computer users.

3.2.1 Components of Computer Networks

The components required to operate a network can be divided into two major categories -
Hardware and Software

Hardware
The hardware components of a network consist of the following five items
Server
Workstation
Cabling
Network Interface Cards (NIC)
Other Networking Devices

The Server
High capacity computers that function as the central repository of resources/services the
network provides.
Usually the server is also responsible for controlling which users on which computers in
the network are granted access to a service.

Workstations
A place where the services of the server are used (This is where the user is working)
Any computer where the user will be working at. It does not have to be a high capacity
computer

Cabling
Cables that interconnect the different devices on the network.
There are various types of cables, including coaxial cable, twisted-pair cable and fiber-
optic cables.
Wireless networks do not require physical cables

Network interface card (NIC)

The NIC is located in every workstation on the network as well as in the servers.

69
 It is a card that plugs into one of the expansion slots on the motherboard of a network
device, thereby providing a connector on the back to connect the device to the network
It acts as a “transmitter” and “receiver” and therefore can be referred to as transceiver

Other Networking Devices

In modern networks, special purpose devices are required to connect workstations and
servers on the network. These devices are called networking devices.
Some Commonly used workstations are:
1. Hubs: devices that connect devices (workstations, servers, printers, etc) to each
other. It is suitable for small networks ( <16 devices on the network)
2. Switches: have the same function as hubs. But they are faster and more expensive
than Hubs. They are used in large networks
3. Routers: These devices are used to interconnect different networks. If a company
has different networks at different sites, routers are used to interconnect
these networks.
4. Firewall: devices used to protect a network from unauthorized access from a
different site.

Software

The Network Operating System

The network operating system is the software that resides on the server. The network
operating system, or NOS, controls virtually all the activity on the network.
The NOS manages access to the resource on the server and handles security of the
resource on the server.
It provides true multi-user capabilities and is probably the most important part of the
network.

The workstation operating system

The operating system software for each workstation is loaded at the workstation.
This software is essential for the workstation to operate, even if that workstation is not
part of a network

The server software

Usually loaded on the server
provides an interface through the service is given to clients
Most popular ones are web server, mail server, print server, file server, database server,
etc.
The client software
Used to access the service given by the server software on the server
Capable of interfacing with server software
e.g. web browsers, e-mail clients etc

3.2.2 Types of Networks

Based on the geographic span of coverage, computer networks are broadly classified into three
major categories.

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  Local Area Network
 Metropolitan Network
 Wide Area Network
3.2.2.1 Local Area Network (LAN)
 LAN is a computer network that connects computers and other devices located within
close physical proximity (like in a building).
 Since all equipment is located within a single establishment, LAN’s are normally
installed and maintained by an organization. Hence, they are also referred to as
private data networks.
 Example: The computer network installed in Jimma University

3.2.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

 A larger version of a LAN
 May span several corporate offices or an entire city

3.2.2.3 Wide Area Network (WAN)

 WAN covers a large geographical area. The devices could exist in different sites and
even different continents. The connection could be through telephone lines,
microwaves, and satellites.
 May span a country, a continent or the entire globe.
 Example: The Internet

3.2.3 Network Topology

The way in which devices on the network are connected is called the topology of the network.
Network topology specifically refers to the physical layout of the network, especially the
locations of the devices and how the cable is run between them. It is important to select the right
topology for how the network will be used. Each topology has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Four of the most common topologies are bus, star, ring, and mesh.

3.2.3.1 The Star Topology

The Star type topology has a controller (hub) at its centre that is connected in a star shape to stations
via dedicated transmission lines. The controller or hub is the focal point of the star, and all network
traffic must pass through the hub as the centre controls all communications between stations.
Accordingly, as and when the central controller fails, the entire network communication will be
disabled.

Advantages:
1. Cable layouts are easy to modify
2. Workstations can be added to the network easily
3. Centralized control/problem diagnosis resulting from defective communication lines
is easily identified.
 Disadvantages:
1.      Large amounts of cable are required
2.      More cable means greater expense
3.      A centralized hub means a single point for potential for network failure

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 Workstation

Workstation

Central Server

Hub Workstation
Workstation

Workstation Workstation

Workstation

Star Topology Network

3.2.3.2 The Ring Topology

The ring type consists of a network configuration that connects nodes at certain intervals on a ring-
shaped, high-speed data transmission line. All nodes share the ring - the ring is connected
separately to the transmitting and receiving sections of each node. Data placed on the ring by a
station makes its round on the ring. Each node receives the data and checks to see if the data is
addressed to it. When the data is received by the node to which it is addressed, the node accepts and
responds accordingly. Otherwise, the node reproduces and repeats the data for transmission to the
next node.
Workstation

Laser printer

Token-ring

Workstation Server

ASCII Printer

Workstation

Ring Topology Network

Token ring access method can be described as follows:

• An idle token rotates around the ring
• A sending computer takes the token and attaches the message to be sent on it
• The token passes to the neighboring computer and so forth
• The receiving computer takes the token and copies the message and leaves the token to
rotate
• The sender again takes the token and removes the massage from the token to make the
token empty

The token ring technology creates opportunity for acknowledging receipt of messages by the
receivers.
Advantages:
1.      The overall cable length is short

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 2.      The shorter cable means lower cabling costs
3.      No wiring closet space is required
Disadvantages:
1.      A single node failure causes network failure
2.      It is more difficult to diagnose faults
3.      Network modifications/recognition is more difficult and disrupts network
operation.

3.2.3.3 Bus Topology

The bus type topology is a network configuration that has a single high-speed data transmission line
(called a bus) shared by nodes and stations. In this type of network, data transmitted by a station
through its node is "broadcast" bi-directionally. All nodes receive the signals. One of the nodes,
recognizing that the signal is addressed to it, accepts the data and forwards it to the station attached.
All signals set bi-directionally are properly terminated at both ends of the bus, and one failed node
will not affect the communication capability of other stations. Unlike the ring topology, the data
travels by the nodes and does not have to go through each node.
 

Workstation Workstation Workstation

Workstation Workstation

Bus Topology Network

Advantages:
1.      It uses the least amount of cable
2.      The wiring layout is simple
3.      It has a resilient architecture; its simplicity makes it very reliable
4.      It is very easy to extend
Disadvantages:
1. Fault diagnosis and isolation is difficult

By modifying and combining some of the characteristics of these “pure” network topologies,
“hybrid” topologies result that can often provide greater efficiency.

3.2.3.4 The Star-Wired Ring

 The star-wired ring combines the attributes of both the star and ring topologies. In
essence, the hub of this topology, referred to as a wiring center, constitutes a ring.

73
  This wiring center can be in one location or several locations throughout the network
and must make a complete physical connection.
 If the ring of the wiring center is broken, the network fails. Workstations are attached
to this ring, radiating outward from the ring’s wiring center.
  The radiating workstations constitute the star section of this star-wired topology.

 Advantages:
1.      Fault diagnosis and isolation are relatively easy
2.      The modular design results in a network that is easy to expand

Disadvantages:
1.      Network configuration can be technically complicated
2.      The cabling system is complicated

3.2.3.5 The Extended star

 Made of a number of star networks, whose centers are connected together by another
central device.
 Used to minimize network traffic among two different networks
 Typical of today’s networks

Advantages
1. It is easy to extend
2. It simplifies fault isolation
3. simplifies network management
Disadvantages
1. The structure is dependent on the root; if primary root fails then the whole network will
fail.

3.2.3.6 The Mesh topology

 Every node connected to every other node
 This is when we use the three networks together.
 No center of network

3.3 The Internet

Section objectives
After completing this section learners should be able to:
o define the Internet
o discuss the use of Internet
o identify services provided over the Internet
o define Internet protocols and addressing

 The Internet is a term used to describe a worldwide network of computer networks

connecting millions of computers around the world.
 The Internet is one of the largest, most widely used network (in fact, a network of networks) that
has evolved and grown overtime. It is a group of two or more networks that are

74
 o Interconnected physically
o Capable of communicating and sharing data with each other
o Able to act together as a single network.
 The Internet connects millions of computers globally and provides worldwide
communications to businesses, homes, schools, and governments.

3.3.1 Advantages of the Internet

The Internet helps in various ways:

To get information
You could get information about people, products, organizations, research data, electronic versions
of the printed media, etc. from the Internet. You can get easy access to a wealth of information and
entertainment. As such it is often described as the prototype for a world wide information
"superhighway".

To provide information
Most of what you want to provide could be considered global advertising. The best and most
inexpensive way to let people know who you are, what you are doing/have done, and how
Publishing: including full test articles, reports, abstracts, computer programs, and
demonstrations
Teaching: The possibilities here include both distance learning and assistance for students
Sharing/ exchanging information with the outside world.

Ability to communicate
The Internet gives people the ability to communicate with other connected computer
users through electronic mail and real time typed conversations (bulletin boards, databases,
and discussion groups). Users will be able to use electronic mails to transmit messages,
announcements and document/file attachments to other users within the Intranet or over the
Internet.

3.3.2 Internet Connectivity

You can connect to the Internet in one of two basic ways, dialing into an Internet service
provider’s (ISP) computer, or with a direct connection to an Internet service provider. The
difference is mainly in the speed and cost. In most cases, you connect to your ISP using a
telephone line modem. This type of connection is called the Dial-up connection. Sometimes
you go in for a direct connection.

Dial-up Connection: is type of Internet connection that is made by connecting a plain old
telephone line to the phone jack at the back of a computer which, in turn connects to the internal
modem of the computer, and allows the user to dial a phone number of a service provider and
connect to the Internet.

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Direct Connection: is a permanent connection between your computer system and the Internet.
This is sometimes referred to as a leased-line connection because the line is leased from the
telephone company.

You can also get a direct connection to your ISP, where you have a fixed cable or a dedicated
phone line to the ISP. Often the dedicated line is an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
line that is a higher speed version of the standard phone line.

3.3.3 Applications and Services on the Internet

The Internet is actually very boring since it is nothing more than hardware connections. It is the
Internet applications and services that make the Internet come alive.
Internet applications include
World Wide Web (WWW),
Electronic mail,
File Transfer
Discussion Groups
Usenet (News Group),
Internet Relay Chat,
Search Services

World Wide Web

In simpler terms, the Web is an Internet-based computer network that allows users on one
computer to access information stored on another through the worldwide network.
The WWW is an Internet service that provides a network of interactive documents and the
software to access them. It is based on documents called web pages that combine text, pictures,
forms, sound, animation and hypertext links called hyperlinks. To navigate the WWW, users
“Surf” from one page to another by pointing and clicking on the hyperlinks in text or graphics.

E-Mail
E-Mail is the ability to write a message to someone, using a mail program, and use the
Internet as a means of delivering that message. Email is not a free service. The cost of your
email is covered in your service charge to your provider.
E-mail is the most popular application of computer communication system. For the purpose of our
discussion, we shall adopt the simplest definition of E-mail as follows:
Email (Electronic mail) refers to a computer-based system allowing two or more people to
communicate through the transmission of character coded or graphic information by electronic
means. Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange
messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent
through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

Usenet
Usenet is Internet-based bulletin board that allows reading and posting of "news" in various
"newsgroups." There are thousands of newsgroups covering a myriad of topics.

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FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer
files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from
thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites
contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets, and
more.

3.3.4 Internet Protocols

Internet protocols are sets of rules that allow for inter-machine communication on the Internet.
One of the few requirements of a computer connected to the Internet is that it must speak a
common language (or protocol). This protocol, called Transmission Control Protocol / Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP), is what enables small desktop personal computers to converse with huge
super-computers across this entanglement of network connections.
All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use
client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services
to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take
advantage of the latest access technology.
Internet connectivity is impossible without the communications standard TCP/IP Transmission
Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. This universal standard allows different types of computers
to communicate with each other, regardless of their make, model, or operating system.
Some major protocols accessible on the Internet:
 E-mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP) - distributes electronic messages and
files to one or more electronic mailboxes
 Telnet (Telnet Protocol) - facilitates login to a computer host to execute
 FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - Transfers text or binary files between an FTP server and
client

3.3.5 Internet addressing

Very similar to the postal address system, Internet addressing is a systematic way to identify
people, computer and the Internet resources. On the Internet, the term “address” is used loosely.
Address can mean many different things from an electronic mail address to a URL.

When a new site is put online it has a specific network address that looks something like
207.70.128.240. In order to make the site easier to remember, a unique name is correlated with
the number.

IP Address An IP address is a unique number that identifies computers on the

Internet; every computer directly connected to the Internet has one. An IP
address consists of four numbers separated by periods. Each number must
be between 0 and 255.
Domain Name Most computers on the Internet have a domain name. A domain name is
the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on

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 the Internet. A domain name must be unique. Internet users access your
website using your domain name.

A domain name always contains two or more components separated by periods, called “dots”.
Some examples of domain names are: ibm.com, nasa.gov, ju.edu.et etc. Once a domain name
has been established, “sub-domains” can be created within the domain. For example, the domain
name for a large company could be “vni.com” and within this domain, sub-domains can be
created for each of the company’s regional offices.
The portion of a domain name after the dot describes the type of organization holding that name.
The major categories are:
 Com – commercial entities
 Edu – educational institutions
 Net – organizations directly involved in the Internet operations, such as network
providers and network information centers.
 Org – miscellaneous organizations that do not fit any other category, such as non-profit
groups
 Gov – united states federal government entities
 Mil – united states military
Country codes – a two-letter abbreviation for a particular country for example et for Ethiopia, uk
for united kingdom, or fr for france

Exercise
1. What are the three modes of data transmission? Give an example from each
2. What do we mean by guided media?
3. Compare and contrast guided and unguided media
4. Identify the type of signal used for communication (Voltage, light, other types of waves)
a. UTP cables
b. Coaxial cables
c. Optical Fiber cables
d. Radio communication
e. Infrared communication
5. compare and contrast the different network topologies.

78
Part II Lab Part

79
 CHAPTER 4 - Chapter MS-DOS

4.1.1 Objective

4.1.2 After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

 Explain the function of operating system software

 Explain the difference between MS-DOS and Windows

 Explain the components of MSDOS command

 Creating a directory structure in MS-DOS environment

An operating system is a layer of software, which takes care of technical aspects of a

computer's operation. It shields the user of the machine from the low-level details of the
machine's operation and provides frequently needed facilities. There is no universal definition
of what an operating system consists of. You can think of it as being the software, which is
already installed on a machine, before you add anything of your own. Normally the operating
system has a number of key elements:

(i) A technical layer of software for driving the hardware of the computer, like disk drives, the
keyboard and the screen;

(ii) A file system which provides a way of organizing files logically, and

(iii) A simple command language, which enables users to run their own programs and to
manipulate their files in a simple way. Some operating systems also provide text editors,
compilers, debuggers and a variety of other tools. Since the operating system (OS) is in charge of
a computer, all requests to use its resources and devices need to go through the OS. An OS
therefore provides Legal entry points into its code for performing basic operations like writing to
devices.

Operating systems may be classified by both how many tasks they can perform `simultaneously'
and by how many users can be using the system `simultaneously'. That is: single-task or multi-

80
tasking and single-user or multi-user. A multi-user system must clearly be multi-tasking. The
table below shows some examples.

OS Users Tasks
MS/PC DOS S S
Windows 3x S QM
Macintosh System 7.* S QM
Windows 9x S M*
UNIX M M
NT S/M M
Windows 2000 M M

Where S stands for single and M stands for multi

4.2 Difference between DOS and Windows Programs

Ultimately, the difference between these types of programs is who has control over the computer.
DOS programs generally expect themselves to be the only program running on your computer,
so they will directly manipulate the hardware, such as writing to the disk or displaying graphics
on the screen. They may also be dependent on timing, since the computer won't be doing
anything else to slow them down. Many games fall into this category.

Windows programs, on the other hand, realize that they must share your computer with other
Windows programs. Actually, did you know that Windows 3.x itself is a DOS program? What
this means is that Windows has control of the computer's hardware, and in turn it shares parts of
the computer's resources with Windows programs. The obvious advantage to this arrangement is
that you can do several things at once; for example, you could play Dave, start downloading a
file from a www.ju.edu.et site, then look at your checking account and use a Calculator to check
the balance all at the same time. Another advantage is that you can share data between programs;
for example, copying a spreadsheet summary into a work processor document.

The important thing here is that many DOS programs will run poorly or not at all in Windows.
For example, if you try to run Microsoft System Diagnostics (MSD) while you are in Windows,
you will get the message:

You are running Microsoft Windows.

MSD can only report information specified by it's associated Windows Program Information File
(.PIF). Therefore information presented may be less accurate or complete than if MSD is run
outside of Windows. For more accurate information please exit Windows and run MSD from the
MS-DOS prompt.

81
Some areas may be affected while MSD is run under Windows: Memory values and types will
reflect what Windows provides by itself, and through the associated .PIF file; IRQ values may be
reported differently; and the visual memory map in Memory, Memory Block Display, and
Memory Browser may show different results. Other areas that may be affected include Video,
OS Version, Mouse, Disk Drives, and COM Ports.

So how do you know whether a program is made for DOS or Windows? Nearly all Windows

programs bear the Microsoft Windows logo , while DOS programs do not. If you're still
not sure, try running the program from the DOS prompt first. For example, type calc at a DOS
prompt; you will get the message:

This program requires Microsoft Windows.

MSDOS:

It is most widely used operating system and it stands for Microsoft Disk operating system. The
operating system’s components reside on disk and are brought into computer memory as needed.
DOS is a single-user, single tasking operating system.becouse of this limitation we use DOS on a
stand-alone computers.

Basic MS-DOS components

It has a number of programs to perform different tasks of which the following are the basic
components:

 Control program

This component is responsible to facilitate the control and coordination activities of the
computer. The program that performs the listed activity is known by the file name MSDOS.SYS

 Input output management

It facilitates the utilization of the different input and output devices. Here the file that is
responsible for the stated task is called IO.SYS

 Command interpreter

It interprets the commands typed by the user at the system prompt into computer function. The
interpretation by done by the file called COMMAND.COM

The listed file along with other program files constitutes ms-dos. They will enable you:

82
  Manage your files
 Deal with peripheral devices such as keyboard, mouse, printers and others

 Control and optimize your system

Activity:

Identify programs that can be shared among multiple users

The Command Prompt

When you first turn on your computer, you will see some cryptic information flash by MS-DOS.
The displayed information lets you know how it is configuring your computer. You can ignore it
for now. When the information stops scrolling past, you'll see the following:

C:\>

This is called the command prompt or DOS prompt. The flashing underscore next to the
command prompt is called the cursor. The cursor shows where the command you type will
appear.

If your command prompt looks like the sample command prompt above, skip to the following
section, "Typing a Command."

If your command prompt does not look like the example, type the following at the command
prompt, and then press ENTER:

cd \

Note that the slash leans backward, not forward. You will learn more about the cd command later
in this lesson. If your command prompt still doesn't look like the example, type the following at
the command prompt, and then press ENTER:

prompt $p$g

Your command prompt should now look like C:\>.

Typing a Command

This section explains how to type a command at the command prompt and demonstrates the
"Bad command or file name" message.

 To type a command at the command prompt

1. Type the following at the command prompt (you can type the command in either
uppercase or lowercase letters):

83
 nul

If you make a typing mistake, press the BACKSPACE key to erase the mistake,
and then try again.

2. Press ENTER.

You must press ENTER after every command you type.

The following message appears:

Bad command or file name

The "Bad command or file name" message appears when you type something that
MS-DOS does not recognize. Because nul is not a valid MS-DOS command, MS-
DOS displays the "Bad command or file name" message.

3. Now, type the following command at the command prompt:

ver

The following message appears on your screen:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version x]

The ver command displays the version number of MS-DOS, which we are
currently using, if you are using a different version you may get a different result
(output) than the stated above.

Continue to the next section, where you will use the dir command to view the
contents of a directory.

Viewing the Contents of a Directory

In this section, you will view the contents of a directory by using the dir command. The
dir command stands for "directory."

 To view the contents of a directory

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir

A list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS_6.22

84
 Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2
Directory of C:\

WINDOWS <DIR> 09-08-2006 10:27p

TEMP <DIR> 05-15-2006 12:09p
CONFIG SYS 278 09-23-2006 10:50a
COMMAND COM 53014 09-18-2006 6:00a
WINA20 386 9349 11-11-2006 5:00a
DOS <DIR> 09-02-2006 4:23p
AUTOEXEC BAT 290 09-23-2006 10:54a

7 file(s) 62931 bytes

8732672 bytes free

This is called a directory list. A directory list is a list of all the files and subdirectories
that a directory contains. In this case, you see all the files and directories in the main or
root directory of your drive. All the files and directories on your drive are stored in the
root directory.

Changing Directories

Look at the list on your screen. All the names that have <DIR> beside them are
directories. You can see a list of the files in another directory by changing to that
directory, and then using the dir command again. In this case, you will change to the
DOS directory.

Before you begin this section, make sure you have a directory named DOS by carrying
out the following procedure.

 To make sure you have a directory named DOS

1. Look through the directory list on your screen for a line that looks similar to the
following:

DOS <DIR> 09-02-2006 4:23p

2. If you see a line like this, you have a directory named DOS. Skip to the next
procedure, "To change from the root directory to the DOS directory."

If you do not see a line in the directory list indicating that you have a directory named
DOS, type the following at the command prompt:

dir /s memmaker.exe

You will see a message that includes a line such as the following:

85
 Directory of C:\DIRNAME

If the name that appears in place of DIRNAME is DOS, you have a DOS directory.
Skip to the next procedure.

If the name that appears in place of DIRNAME is not DOS, substitute the name that
appears for DOS throughout this chapter. For example, if the name that appears in
place of DIRNAME is MSDOS, type msdos whenever you are instructed to type dos.

 To change from the root directory to the DOS directory

To change directories, you will use the cd command. The cd command stands for
"change directory."

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

cd dos

The command prompt changes. It should now look like the following:

C:\DOS>

The command prompt shows which directory you are in. In this case, you know you
successfully changed to the DOS directory because the command prompt displays the
directory's name. Now the current directory is DOS.

Next, you will use the dir command to view a list of the files in the DOS directory.

 To view a list of the files in the DOS directory

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir

A list of the files in the DOS directory appears, but scrolls by too quickly to read. You
can modify the dir command so that it displays only one screen of information at a
time.

 To view the contents of a directory one screen at a time

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir /p

One screen of information appears. At the bottom of the screen, you will see the
following message:

86
 Press any key to continue . . .

2. To view the next screen of information, press any key on your keyboard. Repeat
this step until the command prompt appears at the bottom of your screen.

When you typed the dir command this time, you included the /p switch after the
command. A switch modifies the way MS-DOS carries out a command. Generally, a
switch consists of a forward slash (/) that is followed by one or more letters or numbers.
When you used the /p switch with the dir command, you specified that MS-DOS
should pause after it displays each screen of directory list information. The p actually
stands for "page"

Another helpful switch you can use with the dir command is the /w switch. The /w
switch indicates that MS-DOS should show a wide version of the directory list.

 To view the contents of a directory in wide format

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir /w

The directory list appears, with the filenames listed in wide format. Note that only
filenames are listed. No information about the files' size or date and time of creation
appears.

2. If the directory contains more files than will fit on one screen, you can combine
the /p and /w switches as follows:

dir /w /p

Activity:

Can you write the command that list all files in the directory C:\Windows

Changing Back to the Root Directory

Next, you will change from the DOS directory to the root directory. The root directory
is the directory you were in before you changed to the DOS directory. Before you begin
this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the following:

C:\DOS>

 To change to the root directory

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

87
 cd \

Note that the slash you type in this command is a backslash (\), not a forward slash (/).

No matter which directory you are in, this command always returns you to the root
directory of a drive. The root directory does not have a name. It is simply referred to by
a backslash (\).

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\>

When your command prompt appears similar to this---that is, when it does not contain
the name of a directory---you are in the root directory.

Creating a Directory

In this section, you will learn how to create directories. Creating a directory is helpful if
you want to organize related files into groups to make them easy to find. Before you
begin this section, make sure the command prompt looks like the following:

C:\>

To create a directory, you will use the md command. The md command stands for
"make directory."

 To create and change to a directory named moon

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

md moon

You have now created a directory named moon. You won't see the new moon directory
until you carry out the dir command in the next step.

2. To confirm that you successfully created the moon directory, type the following
at the command prompt:

dir

Or

Dir /p

Look through the directory list. A new entry somewhere in the list should look similar
to the following:

88
 moon <DIR> 09-25-2006 12:09p

3. To change to the new moon directory, type the following at the command prompt:

cd moon

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\moon>

You will now create a directory within the moon directory, named stars.

 To create and work with a directory named stars

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

md stars

You will not see the new stars directory until you carry out the dir command in the next
step.

2. To confirm that you successfully created the stars directory, type the following at
the command prompt:

dir

A list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS-6

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2
Directory of C:\moon

. <DIR> 09-25-2006 12:08p

.. <DIR> 09-25-2006 12:08p
Stars <DIR> 09-25-2006 12:10p
3 file(s) 0 bytes
11534336 bytes free

Note that there are three entries in the moon directory. One is the stars directory that
you just created. There are two other entries---one looks like a single period (.) and the
other looks like a double period (..). These directory entries are important to MS-DOS,
but you can ignore them. They appear in every directory and contain information
related to the directory structure.

89
 The stars directory is a subdirectory of the moon directory. A subdirectory is a
directory within another directory. Subdirectories are useful if you want to further
subdivide information.

3. To change to the stars directory, type the following at the command prompt:

cd stars

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\moon\stars>

4. To switch back to the moon directory, type the following:

cd ..

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\moon>

When the cd command is followed by two periods (..), MS-DOS moves up one level in
the directory structure. In this case, you moved up one level from the stars directory to
the moon directory.

Activity:

Create a directory named Sun on the root directory of Drive C:

Deleting a Directory

If you no longer use a particular directory, you may want to delete it to simplify your
directory structure. Deleting a directory is also useful if you type the wrong name when
you are creating a directory and you want to delete the incorrect directory before
creating a new one.

In this section, you will delete the stars directory. Before you begin this section, make
sure the command prompt looks like the following:

C:\moon>

To delete a directory, use the rd command. The rd command stands for remove
directory."

 To delete the stars directory

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

90
 rd stars

2. To confirm that you successfully deleted the stars directory, type the following at
the command prompt:

dir

The stars directory should no longer appear in the directory list.

Note: -You cannot delete a directory if you are in it. Before you can delete a directory,
you must make the directory that is one level higher the current directory. To do this,
type cd.. at the command prompt.

Changing Drives

This section describes how to change drives. Changing drives is useful if you want to
work with files that are on a different drive.

So far, you have been working with drive C. You have other drives you can use to store
information. For example, drive A is your first floppy disk drive. The files and
directories on drive A are located on the floppy disk in the drive. (You might also have
a drive B, which contains the files and directories stored on the floppy disk in that
drive.)

Before you begin this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the
following:

C:\moon>

 To change to and view files on a different drive

Insert a 3.5" floppy disk in drive A label- side up. Make sure the disk clicks into the
drive.

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

a:

Note that the command prompt changed to the following:

A:\>

This message may appear:

Not ready reading drive A

91
 Abort, Retry, Fail?

If you see this message, the disk may not be inserted properly. Place the disk label-side
up in the disk drive, and make sure the disk clicks into the disk drive. Then, type r for
Retry. If this message appears again, press F for Fail, and then type b: at the command
prompt. If you no longer see this message, type b: instead of a: throughout the rest of
the chapter.

There must be a floppy disk in the drive that you want to change to.

1. To view a list of the files on the floppy disk in drive A, type the following at the
command prompt:

dir

A list of the files on the disk appears.

2. Change back to drive C by typing the following at the command prompt:

c:

Your command prompt should return to the following:

C:\moon>

When you type a drive letter followed by a colon, you change to that drive. The drive
letter that appears in the command prompt shows which drive is the current drive.
Unless you specify otherwise, any commands you type are carried out on the current
drive and in the current directory.

So far, all the commands you typed were carried out on the current drive and in the
current directory. You can also carry out a command on a drive that isn't currently in
use. For example, you can view the files on a disk in drive A without switching to drive
A by following this procedure.

 To view files on drive A when drive C is current

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir a:

A list of the files on the floppy disk in drive A appears, even though your command
prompt indicates that drive C is current.

By specifying a: after the dir command, you are giving MS-DOS additional
information. You are indicating that you want the dir command to show the list of files

92
 and directories on drive A instead of drive C. The a: you typed after the dir command
is called a parameter. A parameter specifies what a command should act on. In the
previous example, the parameter you used indicated which directory list you want to
view.

The following procedure presents another example of using a parameter.

 To view the contents of the DOS directory on drive C

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

dir c:\dos

A list of the files in the DOS directory on drive C should scroll past on your screen.

The c:\dos parameter specifies that you want MS-DOS to display the contents of the
DOS directory on drive C, even though your command prompt indicates that the moon
directory is current.

Activity:

1. Create a directory named Google on the floppy disk (A:)

2. Change the current directory to A:\Google

Copying Files

This section describes how to copy a single file and a group of files. Copying files
creates a duplicate of the original file and does not remove the original file. This is
useful for many reasons. For example, if you want to work on a document at home, you
can copy it from your computer at work to a floppy disk and then take the floppy disk
home.

To copy a file, you will use the copy command. When you use the copy command, you
must include two parameters. The first is the location and name of the file you want to
copy, or the source. The second is the location to which you want to copy the file, or
the destination. You separate the source and destination with a space. The copy
command follows this pattern:

Syntax: -

copy source destination

93
 Copying a Single File

In this section, you will copy the EDIT.HLP and EDIT.COM files from the DOS
directory to the moon directory. You will specify the source and destination of these files
in two different ways. The difference between the two methods is explained at the end of
this section.

Before you begin this section, make sure the command prompt looks like the following:

C:\moon>

To copy the EDIT.HLP and EDIT.COM files from the DOS directory to the moon
directory

1. Return to the root directory by typing the following at the command prompt:

cd\

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\>

Change to the DOS directory by typing the following at the command prompt:

cd dos

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\DOS>

1. Make sure the file you are going to copy, EDIT.COM, is located in the DOS
directory by using the dir command followed by a filename. To see if the
EDIT.COM file is in the DOS directory, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir edit.com

A list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS-6

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2

Directory of C:\DOS

EDIT Com 413 03-25-2006 5:00a

94
 1 file(s) 413 bytes 11999232 bytes free

This shows that the EDIT.COM file is located in the DOS directory. You just specified
another parameter with the dir command, one that directs MS-DOS to list only the files
that match the filename you specified in the command. Since only one file in the DOS
directory can be named EDIT.COM, the directory list includes only that file.

1. To copy the EDIT.COM file from the DOS directory to the moon directory, type
the following at the command prompt:

copy c:\dos\edit.com c:\moon

The following message appears:

1 file(s) copied

The command you just typed copied the file from its source to its destination. By
specifying C:\DOS\EDIT.COM as the source, you indicated that MS-DOS would find the
source file EDIT.COM on drive C in the DOS directory. By specifying C:\moon as the
destination, you indicated that MS-DOS should place the copy of EDIT.COM on drive C
in the moon directory.

1. Next, you will copy the EDIT.HLP file to the moon directory. To confirm that the
EDIT.HLP file is in the DOS directory, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir edit.hlp

2. To copy the EDIT.HLP file from the DOS directory to the moon directory, type
the following at the command prompt:

copy edit.hlp \moon

The following message appears:

1 file(s) copied

If you forgot to leave a space before typing moon, the following message will appear:

Access denied

If this message appears, type the command again and leave a space before moon.

1. To confirm that you copied the files successfully, view the contents of the moon
directory by typing the following at the command prompt:

95
 dir \moon

You should see the two files listed in the moon directory.

Note that you specified the source and destination in the two copy commands differently. In the
command you typed in step 4, you specified the source file as C:\DOS\EDIT.COM and the
destination directory as C:\moon. Both C:\DOS\EDIT.COM and C:\moon are called full paths
because you specified the drive and directory where these files are located. Specifying the full
path is the safest way to copy files, because you provide all the information about which file you
want to copy and which directory you want to copy it to.

In the copy command you typed in step 6, you specified EDIT.HLP for the source file and moon
for the destination directory. These are relative paths. A relative path specifies only the
difference between the current drive and directory and the destination of the files you are
copying. The following illustration shows how the DOS directory and the moon directory are
related:

When you typed the second copy command, you specified the source filename as EDIT.HLP
instead of C:\DOS\EDIT.HLP. This is because drive C is the current drive, so you did not have
to repeat C: in the path. The DOS directory is the current directory, so you did not have to repeat
DOS in the path. You had to specify only the filename.

 For the destination directory, you specified the relative path as moon instead of C:\moon. Again,
you did not need to specify drive C, because drive C is current. However, the moon directory is
not current. To access the moon directory from the current directory, DOS, MS-DOS must first
return to the root directory (), and then switch to the MOON directory, before copying the file to
its new location. Therefore, you typed the path MS-DOS must take to switch between the current
directory and the MOON directory, or \MOON.

Copying a Group of Files

96
In this section, you will use wildcards to copy a group of files from the DOS directory to the
MOON directory. In a card game, a wildcard matches any card in the deck. In MS-DOS, the
asterisk (*) wildcard matches any character in that position and all the other positions that follow
it. If you want to copy a group of files with similar names, using wildcards is easier than copying
each file individually.

In this section, you will first view a group of files by using wildcards, and then copy the files
using wildcards. Before you begin this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the
following:

C:\DOS>

To list all files ending with the extension TXT, a note pad files, and copy them from the DOS
directory to the MOON directory by using wildcards

1. View all the files in the DOS directory that end with the extension TXT by typing the
following at the command prompt:

dir *.txt

Note: - that there is a space before the asterisk (*), but not after it.

This command directs MS-DOS to list all files and subdirectories in the current directory that
end with the extension TXT. The asterisk matches the first character of the filename and all other
characters that follow it, up to the period () that separates the name from the TXT extension. A
list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS_6

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2 Directory of C:\DOS

NETWORKS TXT 8369 11-11-2006 5:00a

OS2 TXT 4587 11-11-2006 5:00a

README TXT 10858 11-11-2006 5:00a

3 file(s) 23814 bytes

MS-DOS lists all the files that end with a TXT extension. The wildcard in your command
specified that MS-DOS should ignore the very different beginnings of the files and focus only on
the extensions.

Next, you will copy all the files with a TXT extension to the MOON directory by using
wildcards.

97
 2. To copy the files with a TXT extension to the MOON directory, type the following at the
command prompt:

copy *.txt \moon

This command copies all the files that have the TXT extension from the current directory (DOS)
to the MOON directory.

3. To confirm that you copied the files successfully, change to the MOON directory by
typing the following at the command prompt:

cd \moon

4. To view a list of all the files in the MOON directory, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir

A list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS_6

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2 Directory of C:\MOON

. <DIR> 09-27-2006 11:11p

.. <DIR> 09-27-2006 11:11p

EDIT COM 413 11-11-2006 5:00a

EDIT HLP 17898 11-11-2006 5:00a

NETWORKS TXT 8369 11-11-2006 5:00a

OS2 TXT 4587 11-11-2006 5:00a

README TXT 10858 11-11-2006 5:00a

7 file(s) 42125 bytes

40652800 bytes free

The EDIT.COM and EDIT.HLP files are the files you copied by following the procedure in the
previous section. The files with TXT extensions are the ones you just copied by using wildcards.

Activity:

98
1. create a directory named Google on the floppy A:

2. Copy the file EDIT.HLP to the directory A:\Yahoo

Renaming Files

This section explains how to rename files. You may want to rename a file if the information in it
changes or if you decide you prefer another name.

To rename a file, you will use the ren command. The ren command stands for "rename." When
you use the ren command, you must include two parameters.

The first is the file you want to rename, and the second is the new name for the file. You separate
the two names with a space. The ren command follows this pattern:

ren oldname newname

 Renaming a File

In this section, you will rename the README.TXT file.

Before you begin this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the following:

C:\MOON>

1. To rename the README.TXT file to PEACH.TXT, type the following at the command
prompt:

ren readme.txt peach.txt

2. To confirm that you renamed the file successfully, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir

The name PEACH.TXT should appear instead of the name README.TXT. It is the same file,
but now has a different name.

Renaming a Group of Files

You also can use wildcards to rename a group of files. If you want to rename a group of files that
have similar names, using wildcards is easier than renaming the files individually. In this section,
you will rename a group of files by using wildcards.

Before beginning this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the following:

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 C:\MOON>

 To rename the files whose names begin with EDIT by using wildcards

1. List the files in the MOON directory that begin with EDIT by typing the following at the
command prompt:

dir edit.*

A list of the files in the MOON directory that begin with EDIT appears.

2. To rename the files that begin with EDIT to the new name PEAR, type the following
command:

ren edit.* pear.*

This command specifies that all the files that begin with EDIT should be renamed PEAR, but
should keep their original extensions.

3. To confirm that you renamed the files successfully, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir pear.*

When the files were renamed, their extensions remained the same. For example, EDIT.COM
became PEAR.COM, and EDIT.HLP became PEAR.HLP.

You can also rename extensions this way. For example, suppose you want to indicate that a
group of files ending with a TXT extension are old. You can use wildcards to rename the files so
they have the extension OLD.

 To rename all the files in the current directory whose names end with the
extension. TXT

1. View a list of all the files in the current directory with the extension TXT by typing the
following command:

dir *.txt

2. To rename all files in the current directory that end with the extension TXT to end with
the extension OLD, type the following command:

ren *.txt *.old

3. To confirm that you renamed the files successfully, type the following at the command
prompt:

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 dir

The files that had the extension TXT now have the extension OLD.

Activity:

Change the name of the file A:\Yahoo\Edit.hlp (created in the previous activity) to Myfile.hlp

Deleting Files

This section explains how to delete, or remove, a file that you no longer want on your disk. If
you don’t have very much disk space, deleting files you no longer use is essential.

To delete a file, you will use the del command. The del command stands for "delete."

 Deleting a File

In this section, you will delete two files using the del command.

Before you begin, make sure your command prompt looks like the following:

C:\MOON>

To delete the PEARCOM and PEAR.HLP files

1. Delete the PEAR.COM file by typing the following at the command prompt:

del pear.com

2. Delete the PEAR.HLP file by typing the following at the command prompt:

del pear.hlp

3. To confirm that you deleted the files successfully, type the following at the command
prompt:

dir

The PEAR.COM and PEAR.HLP files should no longer appear in the list.

 Deleting a Group of Files

In this section, you will use wildcards to delete a group of files.

Before you begin this section, make sure your command prompt looks like the following:

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 C:\MOON>

To delete files in the current directory that end with the extension OLD by using wildcards

1. View all files that end with the extension OLD by typing the following at the command
prompt:

dir *.old

A list of all the files that end with the extension OLD appears. Make sure that these are the files
you want to delete. When you are deleting files by using wildcards, this step is very important. It
will prevent you from deleting files accidentally.

2. Delete all files ending with OLD by typing the following at the command prompt:

del *.old

3. To confirm that all the files with the extension OLD have been deleted, type the
following at the command prompt:

dir

The MOON directory should contain no files.

Now that the MOON directory is empty, you can delete it by using the rd (remove directory)
command that you learned to use in "Deleting a Directory" earlier in this chapter.

 To delete the MOON directory

1. Return to the root directory by typing the following at the command prompt:

cd \

2. You can see the MOON directory in the directory list by typing the following at the
command prompt:

dir or dir /p

3. Remove the MOON directory by typing the following at the command prompt:

rd moon

4. To verify that the MOON directory has been removed, type the following at the
command prompt:

dir or dir /p

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The MOON directory should not appear in the directory list.

Activity:

Delete all files in the root directory of drive A.

Formatting a Floppy Disk

When you purchase new floppy disks, you may be required to format them before you can use
them. Practice formatting a floppy disk now.

Caution The data on the disk you format will be erased, so make sure you select a disk that does
not contain information you may need later.

 To format a floppy disk

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

format a:

This command specifies that you want to format the disk in drive A. When you press
ENTER, the following message appears:

Insert new diskette for drive A:

and press ENTER when ready ...

2. Insert the disk you want to format in drive A label-side up. Then close the drive door or
make sure the disk clicks into the drive. When you are ready, press ENTER. The
following message appears:

Checking existing disk format

Saving UNFORMAT information

As it formats the disk, MS-DOS displays the percentage of the disk that has been
formatted. When the format is complete, the following message appears:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

3. A volume label is a name for your disk. You can give your disk any name you like, as
long as it has 11 or fewer characters. For this exercise, type practice and then press
ENTER. Information similar to the following appears:

1213952 bytes total disk space

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 1213952 bytes available on disk

512 bytes in each allocation unit.

2371 allocation units available on disk.

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2 Format another (Y/N)?

3. If you have another disk to format, press Y. If not, press N.

Exercise

Part I: - Practical Exercise

Do the following activities
1. Create the following directory structure?

2. Display the above tree structure in dos command prompt as can been seen?
3. Delete the directory called application software?
4. Copy a file called windows2000.txt from the root directory to the directory called
system software using relative path?
5. Rename the directory called system software as operating system?
6. Delete the file windows2000.txt from the root directory?
7. Display the above tree structure in dos command prompt?
8. Display the sub directories and files under the root directory page wise?

Part II: - Theoretical exercise

1. What is MSDOS?
2. What is the command that you will write in order to remove a file?
3. Can you remove a directory that contains a subdirectory? If yes how?
4. Is it possible to use a non-current drive? If so how?
5. What is the command that you will you to display all files that have a file
extension doc?

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6. What is the command that you type to get to the root directory if
C:\software\utilities> is the current path?
7. What is the basic difference between a windows operating system and MSDOS?
8. What are the basic operations of operating system software?
9. What is the command that you will use to get help?

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 CHAPTER 5 - Microsoft Windows XP

5.1.1 Objectives
After completing this section the learner should be able to:
 explain the basic features of Microsoft windows
 identify components of a window
 manage files and folders using windows

5.1.2 What is Microsoft Windows?

Windows is just a pretty face to DOS. What Windows does is provide the user with a few more
clues about the working environment and an intuitive way of working with the files. Icons,
which feign a two dimensional physical space, along with a mouse [a tool used to move around
the Windowing space] make files something tangible This, of course, is not to say that the user
can't become disoriented or that the Windows interface is entirely intuitive, it’s just easier to use.

5.1.3 Starting Microsoft Windows

5.2 Windows Desktop

The Windows XP operating environment is referred to as the "Desktop". The Desktop always
appears on the screen when you start Windows. The Desktop serves as the main graphical
interface to your computer. The desktop can be personalized so the screens may differ from the
examples shown here.

5.3 Windows Screen Parts

The main elements that comprise the desktop are:

 Window is the area that displays an open program or the contents of a folder.
 Icons are the graphic objects representing shortcuts to programs and documents that are
stored on computer.

 The Taskbar, located at the bottom of the desktop screen indicates what programs are
currently running on the computer and what windows are open. Available programs on
the computer.
 Settings option will display a listing of all of the available settings that can be changed on
the computer.  For example the monitors display size and the desktop background image.
 Search option will search for files or programs that are stored on the computer.
 Run will execute (start) a program on the computer

 Shut Down will shut the computer down

Click the Start button to open the Start menu. A complete listing of all the programs and
operating system options are listed under the Start menu.

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Icons

Window
Start
Menu

Desktop

Taskbar

There are three main parts to your screen: Desktop, Windows and Icons.

5.3.1 Desktop
This is similar to the top of your desk at home/work. It is the overall area for you to work in. You
can retrieve or put away items (like placing a file or calculator on your desk), and move items
around. If you imagine the items on your desk as physical items, it may be easier to think of what
the Windows Desktop is.

5.3.2 Icons

The items within the window are called icons, because they are picture representations of
something else. The icons in this window look like miniature windows with a blue title bar
across the top of them. They represent programs and documents that are not currently open.
Icons will vary depending on what they are intended to represent.

5.3.3 Windows
When you wish to perform a task, you select it with your keyboard or mouse and a window
opens. This is like opening/closing a file folder. When Windows starts the Program Manager
Window is displayed. (Notice that the title of the window is in the title bar). The Program

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Manager is the base window for the Windows program. All other windows that are used will
perform and look like the Program Manager window (although the contents will vary depending
on the title of the window).

There are two basic types of windows, Application and Document. The Application windows
contain a program you are running (e.g. Excel, Word, or WordPerfect). Most of the time you will
be working with an Application window. The Document windows are windows within your
Application window and hold the contents of the document you are working with. You can have
more than one Document window open per Application window. This may seem confusing now,
but later you will get a chance to see this feature in the next chapters of the exercises.

5.3.4 Anatomy of a Window

Now that you have a basic understanding of the window environment, here are the specifics of
the labeled items from diagram 1. Included are the mouse strokes to activate the buttons, but
don't worry about that yet. The next section explains the use of the mouse and will give you
practice on activating the parts of the window. For now you just need to understand the function
of the window parts.

5.3.5 Title Bar

The name of the window, application or document appears here. It also indicates the active
window. You can have many windows on your desktop at one time, but only one can be worked
with at any given time (hence the active window). By clicking the mouse on a window, it
becomes the active window.

5.3.6 Minimize and Maximize Buttons

 Minimize: the window becomes an Icon at the bottom of the screen
 Maximize: the window covers the entire desktop. Once maximized the maximize
button becomes a restore box.
 Normal: this changes a maximized window back to the size it was prior to
maximization or restores a iconize window.

5.3.7 Scroll Items

These are located along the bottom and right hand edge of your window. They allow you
to navigate through a window whose contents are to large to fit on the screen. You can
move up, down, left and right. The scroll items are:

 Scroll buttons--- the boxes with the arrows

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  Scroll box--- the box between the arrows.

5.3.8 Menu Bar

One of the nicest things about working with windows is the menu bar. Applications that are
written for the Windows program all have menu bars and they all have almost the same labels
and the menus that appear under the labels have similar functions. When you click on a menu
item on the menu bar a menu opens up, with a series of options. For example, the File menu bar
item has a menu associated with it that allows you to save, open, and print items along with
quitting the application. Windows allows you a varying number of options on how to perform the
same task.

Activity:
Open your computer and Identify each of the components of a Window
5.4 Using the Mouse

The Mouse.... what is this rodent for anyway??

The standard PC mouse has two buttons. While in Windows, you need only use the left mouse
button to accomplish any tasks. To begin familiarizing yourself with the mouse, place your hand
on the mouse, and leaving the mouse on the desktop, move it around in a circle. You should

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notice that the arrow on the screen moves in the same direction that you move the mouse. This
arrow is called a cursor, or mouse pointer.

Right click

Lift Click

There are three ways to use the mouse button to perform a task: single clicking, double clicking,
and dragging. Each has a specific use, and all are independent of one another.

Once you understand how to single click, double click, and drag, you will be able to
perform nearly every function in Windows.

5.4.1 Clicking
Single Clicking

Single clicking is used to select an item, or to tell the computer the item you want to work
with. Items that you would normally single click on are the menu bar, any type of button,
and icons. Here is an example of a single clicking task:
1. Move the cursor so that the arrow point is resting on the word "Help" on the menu
bar.
2. Click the left mouse button once
3. Move the mouse to the word "help support center" in the menu that you just
activated.
4. Click the left mouse button once on the word (You should notice that a window
has appeared with the Title "Help support center")

What you have just done is use single clicking to perform the task of opening a window.

Maximize a Window

1. Make the window active by clicking anywhere on it.

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 2. Position the pointer on the Maximize button and click the left mouse button. The
window now fills your entire desktop.

Minimize a Window

1. Make the window active by clicking anywhere on it

2. Position the pointer on the Minimize button and click the left mouse button. (The
Minimize button is the one in the upper right-hand side of the active window with
the minus sign in the left side) The window has now turned into button at the
bottom of your desktop, taskbar.

Restore an Iconize Window

Click on the restore button and a window will appear above it. Note you can also restore
the window with double clicking the title bar of the window, which is covered in the next
section.

Now you have mastered single clicking, let's move on to double clicking.

Double Clicking

Double clicking is s technique used to perform many tasks. While single clicking only
tells the computer that the item clicked on is the one we want to use, double clicking tells
the computer that this is the item we want to use, and tells it to perform a task.

Double clicking is simply clicking the left mouse button twice in a row, without moving
the mouse. You can think of this like a heartbeat, where two beats occur in succession:

1. Move the cursor to the icon that reads "my computer" from the desktop
2. Double Click on the icon

When we double clicked on the computer icon, we told the computer that we wanted to open this
icon. This double clicking technique will be used when opening any icon in any window.

5.4.2 Dragging
Dragging is a technique used to move windows and icons to different locations, and also
to reshape windows. This is useful to reorganize icons and windows.

In order to perform a drag, you need simply to place to cursor on the item you want to
move or resize, then hold down the left mouse button, and while keeping the mouse
button depressed, move the cursor (and the item will automatically follow) to the
desired location. Let's use this dragging technique to move the entire control panel
window around the screen:

1. Go to start|settings|control panel

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 2. Move the cursor so that the arrow is pointing on the Title Bar of the control panel
window.
3. Hold down the left mouse button.
4. While holding the mouse button, move the mouse down, and release the button
when the window is in the desired location.

NOTE: By using the dragging function of the mouse, we have moved the control panel
window to a different location on the screen. This task can be done with any window or
icon.

The other use for dragging is to reshape windows. The control panel window is currently
in the shape of a rectangle. In order to change the shape of the window, we can use the
window frame. We must be aware that when resizing windows, in the process we may
make the window too small to see all of its contents. This is where the scroll bars will
come into play. This example will make a window smaller and then we can use the scroll
bars to view the parts that are to large to fit in the viewing frame.

1. Move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the control panel window until it is
directly above the window frame. You will know the cursor is in the correct
position because it will turn into a double-headed arrow.
2. Hold down the left mouse button.
3. While holding down the button, move the mouse to the left until the outline of the
control panel forms a square instead of a rectangle.
4. Release the mouse button.

You should notice that the shape of the control panel window has changed. Since we
have changed the size, we cannot see all of the contents as we could before. Also, a scroll
bar has appeared at the bottom of the control panel window. It is with this scroll bar that
we can see the rest of the window.

1. Move the cursor to the right pointed arrow in the horizontal scroll bar at the
bottom of the control panel window.
2. Begin clicking the mouse button (you will notice that the icons in the control
panel window are moving to the left, and we are beginning to see the icons that
we could not see a minute ago).
3. Continue to click the mouse button until the screen will not scroll any more.

We have just learned the technique of scrolling. This technique is used often, especially
if you use a Windows word processor. Let's now resize the control panel window to its
original size. Move the mouse to the left pointed arrow on the horizontal scroll bar.

1. Click the mouse until the window has scrolled completely to the
2. Move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the control panel window so that it
is on top of the window frame (the icon will change as before).
3. Hold the left mouse button down, and resize the window to its original size.

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 We have now learned the three techniques for using the mouse to navigate through
Windows.

Activity:

1. Examine you mouse to identify its different components

5.4.3 Windows Programs and Settings

Programs are the application software stored on the computer. An example of a program is
Microsoft Word. Sometimes there are short-cuts to the programs on the desktop in the form of an
icon.  If there is no short-cut the program can be accessed using the Start button. Click on
Programs from the Start button to display the following options. Some programs are grouped
under general headings like "Accessories". The small arrow to the right of these words indicates
that there are more options under them. Other programs are represented by themselves such as
"Microsoft Word". These do not have the small arrows to the right of them. Clicking on any of
these options will either launch the program or reveal more options.

The Settings option under the Start menu provides access to the Control Panel, network
connections and the Printers and faxes. Many of the peripheral attachments such as the keyboard
and the mouse are found under the Control Panel. The Control Panel provides access to the
monitor and all the settings associated with it such as the display size, the desktop background
image, user account and the screen saver. The Printers option will provide access to the printer

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settings and the printer spool. Clicking on any of the options under the Settings menu will
display a dialog box, which can be used to edit and change the computer settings.

5.5 Windows - Control Panel

The Control Panel under the settings option provides access to various devices attached to the
system. Click on Control Panel under Settings to display the dialog box (left)

In this dialog box you can change the settings of several computer devices like the mouse and the
display.

Clicking on any of these icons will display another dialog box for that particular device, from
which you can make changes.

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 5.6 Windows - My Computer

The My Computer icon on the desktop provides quick access to the major components of the
computer. This icon appears as a default on the desktop.

Click on the My Computer icon to open the window containing the disk drives, the Control
Panel, printers, networking and task folders.

The My Computer folders include:

 Control Panel Settings to personalize the computer

 Printers Add and set-up printers
 Dial-up Networking Connect to a network
 Schedules Tasks Routine tasks such as Disk Defragmenter

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 5.7 File Management

5.7.1 Background
Understanding how to manage your files on your disk is not the same as being able to use them,
though it's a start. If you've ever taken a look inside a folder of a freshly installed commercial
package (such as WordPerfect), you'll have seen a large number of files with many different
kinds of extensions. It can be rather daunting.

5.7.2 Files
In DOS (and most operating systems), there are only two kinds of files, binary files and text files
(ASCII). Text files are basic files that can be read or viewed very easily. Binary files, on the
other hand, are not easily viewed. As a matter of fact, most binary files are not to be viewed but
to be executed (like a full program such as WordPerfect or simple commands such as "copy").
When you try to view these binary files (such as with a text editor), your screen is filled with
garbage and you may even hear beeps.

While there are only two kinds of files, it is often difficult to know what type a particular file is.
Fortunately, there is a small set of extensions that have standard meanings:

Text Binary
.txt .exe
.bat .com
.dat .zip

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Text files can be viewed with an editor or word processor, but Binary files are normally
programs that you will run.

5.7.3 File Names

There are rules for how many characters can be in a file name. These rules will be dependant on
the underlying operating system. Windows must follow the rules of DOS. A file name can have
eight characters followed by an optional period and a three-character extension. But file name
has increased in the new windows operating systems
VALID NAME NOT VALID NAME
myfile myfileiscalled
myfile.txt *.com
a1234567.111 myfile.data
In windows XP file management is established using Windows Explorer, it a more advanced
way of conducting file management on the computer. In Explorer you can view both the
hierarchy of the folders on the computer and all the files and folders in each selected folder.

The left side frame, tree pane, contains a list of the drives and folders (or directories). The right
side, content pane, displays the contents of the selected folder.

A quick way of to open Windows Explorer to view the folders and files is to right-click on My
Computer and select Explore.

Expanding and Collapsing Folders. In the right pane of Explorer, notice that some of the drives
and folders have a + or - sign next to them. The + sign indicates that there are more items in that
particular folder and the - sign indicates that there are no more items in that folder aside from the
ones that are displayed in the right window. Clicking on a + sign next to an object will expand
the view of that object to display sub-folders and files located within it and changes the + sign to
-. Clicking on the - sign next to an object will collapse the view so that any sub-folders are
hidden and change the – sign to +.

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118
 Activity:
Put a check mark in the appropriate column to indicate whether a file name is valid or
not

File name Valid Invalid

My Document
New*Folder
047-1128128
ADDIS\ABABA.DOC
test.test

5.7.4 Creating Folders

Folders are ways of organizing or grouping documents. Inside folders there can be documents or
there can be more folders. Some folders are automatically created, for example, in the case of
program files. Other folders are manually created by the users of the computer.   

To create a new folder:

1. Right click on start button.

2. Select explorer
3. Select the drive or folder where you want to put the new folder. The drive of folder
window will open.
4. Select File > New > Folder. The new folder appears in the window.
5. Type in a name for the folder, and then press Enter.

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 5.8 Copying and Moving Files

There are several ways to copy and move files in Windows Explorer.

5.8.1 Copying
1.  Use the Explorer Toolbar
Select (highlight) the file to copy then select the Copy button on the toolbar. Then select the
folder where you want to copy the file to and select the Paste button on the toolbar.

5.8.2

2.  Use the Right-Click feature

Select the file or folder to copy. Right-click on that file to display a shortcut menu. Select Copy
then select the destination where you want to place the file and right-click on it. Select the Paste
command and the file will appear in the new destination folder.

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Moving
1.  Use the Explorer Toolbar
Select (highlight) the file to move then select the Move button on the toolbar. Then select the
folder where you want to move the file to and select the Paste button on the toolbar.
2.  Use the Right-Click feature

Select the file or folder to move. Right-click on that file to display a shortcut menu. Select Move
then select the destination where you want to place the file and right-click on it. Select the Paste
command and the file will appear in the new destination folder.

Note :-The Undo Command can be used if you make a mistake such as moving a file to the
wrong directory or selecting Cut instead of Copy. The Undo is located on the Explorer toolbar
(see above) or in the Edit > Undo menu.

5.9 Deleting Files

To delete a file from a location on the computer, select it from the window and then press the
Delete button. Before the document is deleted, a confirmation box will open. Click "Yes" if you
are sure or click "No" if you made an error or if you have changed your mind.

 Whenever a file is deleted, it is temporarily moved to the Recycle Bin on the desktop. A file can
always be restored from the Recycle Bin. Click on the Recycle Bin icon to display the deleted
files area. To remove the files permanently, select Empty Recycle Bin from the File menu.
Caution: Once the file has been deleted from the Recycle Bin it cannot be restored

CHAPTER 6 -
CHAPTER 7 -
CHAPTER 8 -

8.1 Searching for Files

To find a program or file on the computer, click on the Start button and then go to Search. Select:
For Files or Folders to search for a file or program. Type the name of the file or program into the
Search for files or folders named: box. Specify where to search in the Look in: box from the

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drop-down list, for example, drive (A:)or (C:) drive, or My Computer. Selecting My Computer
will search the entire computer system.
It is possible to enter the * in the Named: box as a truncation.  Use a truncation mark if only part
of the file name or only the extension of the file is known. For example, if you were looking for
an Excel file but could not remember the name, then type *.xls into the Named: window. All
Excel documents stored on the computer would be displayed.

Once the operating system begins searching for the file, a small dog keep looking.  When it finds
items that match the string of characters that were entered into the Named: box it will display
them in the bottom window.

8.2 Windows Desktop Shortcuts and Keyboard Shortcuts

Desktop Shortcuts are used to make it easier to move around the computer environment. These
shortcuts are usually icons on the desktop that are used as a fast way to open a program.
1. Open either My Computer or Explorer.
2. Locate the item you want to create a shortcut to. The item can be a file, a program a
folder or a printer. If you want to create a shortcut to launch a program, find the
program's executable (.exe) file.
3. Select the item and drag it onto the desktop. The computer will create a new file for the
shortcut icon.
4. Right-click on the shortcut icon and select Rename and change the name.

To delete a shortcut drag the icon in to the Recycle Bin. The original item will remain on the disk
where it is stored.

The following table shows a few common keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Windows.

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To... Press...

Copy information Ctrl + C

Cut information Ctrl + X

Paste information Ctrl + V

Select multiple items Shift + Arrow key

Permanently delete a file or folder Shift + Delete

Rename the file or folder that is selected F2

Close the current window or program Alt + F4

Switch to a different window Alt + Tab

8.3 Working with Applications
There are several ways to start an application.
 Click on the Start|Run
 Type the application exe file name (cal)
 Press enter

8.3.1 Starting an Application

Let's now use the mouse to run a program in Windows. Windows has many built in
programs, including a word processor, a painting program, a calculator, notepad, and
many others. All programs in Windows are represented by icons. As mentioned before,
icons are picture representations of a program or a file. In order to run a program, we
must double click on it. For instance, let's run the built in word processor.
1. Click Start|Programs| Accessories
2. Double click on the note pad icon to open the note pad window.

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8.3.2 Using the notepad Application

Look under the File option of the Menu bar. The options you see are the basics of most word
processors. Just type in a few lines of test in the Document Window. You have created your first
document with a Windows application!

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8.3.3 Printing
Now that you have made a document, one of the normal tasks you will perform is printing it.
o Select Print from the File menu option.

8.3.4 Saving a Document

You will want to save your documents to a floppy disk when you are work at the lab 2 of the
department of information technology department.
1. Select Save from the File menu option
2. A dialog box will appear asking you the name for the file and where to save it.
3. Type the file name labnotepad1
4. Save it to drive a:

Save Dialog Box

In this application, Write, and every Windows application that allows you to save a document,
you will see a dialog box that looks similar to the one below.

If you have been following along with the exercises in this document you should be familiar with
the information in this dialog box. This box allows you to choose the name of your new file and
in which Drive and directory to store it. You can also change the file type. You would want to do
this only if you planned to use a different application to work on the document at a later time.

8.3.5 Exiting an Application

We should now be in the Windows word processor called Write. We used double clicking to run
a windows program. Let's now see how we can exit this program.

1. Click once on the "File" menu in the Write program window.

2. Once the menu has appeared, click once on "Exit".

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 3. When the program asks you if you want to save changes, click once on "No".

NOTE: The above example can be used to exit ANY program run in Windows.

8.3.6 Exiting Windows

4. Click once on the "File" menu in the Write program window.
5. Once the menu has appeared, click once on "Exit".

NOTE: All programs in Windows are consistent in how they operate. Any program can
be run by double clicking on it, and any program can be exited by selecting "Exit" from
the "File" menu.

Exercises

Part I – Practical Exercise

Repeat the practical exercise (Part 1) given in the MS DOS section using Microsoft
Windows

Part II: - Theoretical exercise

1. What is Microsoft Windows?
2. What is a window? What are its components
3. What is a folder? What was the synonym term used in MSDOS?
4. How do you remove a file permanently from a hard disk? what about from a floppy
disk?
5. Is it possible to remove folders which contain subfolders?
6. What is a file?
7. What does Icons represent?
8. What is the basic difference between a windows operating system and MSDOS?

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 CHAPTER 9 - Microsoft Word XP

9.1 Objective

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

 Under stand word processor software
 Create and edit documents
 Select, cut and paste text

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  Check spelling and use the thesaurus
 Create tables
 Format text, paragraphs, and pages
 Set tabs and bullets
 Create headers and footers
 Print files
 Exercise

9.2 Getting Started

What is Microsoft Word?
You use Word to create textual documents: letters, reports, books, and so on. The files that Word
creates are called documents; an example is a letter to a friend.

Open Microsoft Word in one of the following ways:

a. Start Programs Microsoft Word

b. StartRun… Then type WinWord

c. Click on Ms-Word on Office Shortcut Bar at the top of the screen

d. Right click on DesktopNewMicrosoft WordGive a name then open the icon.

The word window appears as is shown below.

Screen Layout

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Menus
When you begin to explore Word 2000, you will notice a significant change in the menu
structure if you are familiar with previous versions of Word. The menus in Word 2000 display
only the commands you have recently used.  To view all options in each menu, you must click
the double arrows at the bottom of the menu.

Follow the steps below to display menus similar to previous versions of Word with all the
choices listed initially:

1. Select View|Toolbars|Customize from the menu bar.

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 2. Click on the Options tab.
3. Uncheck the Menus show recently used commands first check box.

Shortcut Menus

These features allow you to access various Word commands faster than using the options on the
menu bar. View shortcut menus by right-clicking with the mouse. The options on this menu will
vary depending on the element that was right-clicked.
The shortcut menus are helpful because they only display the options that can be applied to the
item that was right-clicked and, therefore, prevent searching through the many menu options.

Activity: Type the word "Porgram" then right click on it to correct to "Program" from the
shortcut menu.

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Toolbars
Many toolbars displaying shortcut buttons are also available to make editing and formatting
quicker and easier. Select View|Toolbars from the menu bar to select the toolbars. The toolbars
that are already displayed on the screen are checked. Add a toolbar simply by clicking on the
name.

Customizing Toolbars

There may be certain actions on a toolbar that you do not use and there may also be commands
that you execute often but that are not located on any toolbar. Word toolbars can be customized
so these commands can be added and deleted.

1. Select View|Toolbars|Customize and click the Commands tab.

2. By highlighting the command categories in the Categories box, the choices will change
in the Commands box to the right.
3. Select the command you would like to add to the toolbar by selecting it in the
Commands box.
4. Drag the command with the mouse to the desired location on the toolbar and release the
mouse button.
5. Remove a button from the toolbar by clicking and dragging the button off the toolbar.

Getting Help In Microsoft Word

Open Help Menu Microsoft Word Help Or Open Help  Show the office Assistant then
type a word and press Enter or Press F1 to Display the Help Topics If you want to find help

for a button Press Shift+ F1 ( . The mouse pointer will change to the what’s this
pointer form. Then click on a button or command that you want.)

Working with Files

There are several ways to create new documents, open existing documents, and save documents
in Word:

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Create a New Document

1. Click the New Document button on the menu bar.

2. Choose File|New from the menu bar.
3. Press CTRL+N (depress the CTRL key while pressing "N") on the keyboard.

Open an Existing Document

1. Click the Open File button on the menu bar.

2. Choose File|Open from the menu bar.
3. Press CTRL+O on the keyboard.
Each method will show the Open dialog box. Choose the file and click the Open
button.

Save a Document

1. Click the Save button on the menu bar.

2. Select File|Save from the menu bar.
3. Press CTRL+S on the keyboard.

Activity:

Create a new document write your life history on the document and save the document in the C:\
drive under the folder JU by the file name of your name?

Renaming Documents

To rename a Word document while using the program, select File|Open and find the file you
want to rename. Right-click on the document name with the mouse and select Rename from the

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shortcut menu. Type the new name for the file and press the ENTER key.
Important!! You cannot rename an opened file.

Activity 3:

Rename the file that you have created in the previous Activity by your father’s name?

Working on Multiple Documents

Several documents can be opened simultaneously if you are typing or editing multiple
documents at once.  All open documents are listed under the Window menu as shown below.
The current document has a checkmark beside the file name. Select another name to view
another open document or click the button on the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

Activity 4:create a new document following that open the document that you have rename in
Activity 3 go to the Window Menu and open the new document that you create now?

Close a Document

Close the current document by selecting File|Close or click the Close icon if it's visible on the

Standard Toolbar.

Formatting Paragraphs

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Paragraph Attributes

Format a paragraph by placing the cursor within the paragraph and selecting Format|Paragraph
from the menu bar.

Activity 5:-open the file named by your father name from C:\ju set the alignment justified and
line space double?

Moving (Cutting) Text

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Highlight the text that will be moved and select Edit|Cut from the menu bar, click the Cut
button on the standard tool bar, or press CTRL+X at once. This will move the text to a
clipboard.To move a small amount of text a short distance, the drag-and-drop method may be
quicker. Highlight the text you want to move, click the selection with the mouse, drag the
selection to the new location, and release the mouse button.

Copying Text To copy text, choose Edit|Copy, click the Copy button on the standard
toolbar, or press CTRL+C to copy the text to the clipboard.

Paste Text

To paste cut or copied text, move the cursor to the location you want to move the text to and
select Edit|Paste from the menu bar, click the Paste button on the standard toolbar, or press
CTRL+V.

The Clipboard

The last 12 elements that were cut or copied are placed onto Word's clipboard. You can view the
elements on the clipboard by selecting View|Toolbars|Clipboard from the menu bar.

Place the mouse arrow over each element in the clipboard to view the contents of each item and
click on an element to add its contents to the document. Click Paste All to add all of the items to
the document at once. Click the Clear Clipboard button (the icon with an "X" over the
clipboard image) to clear the contents of the clipboard.

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Columns
To quickly place text in a column format click the Columns button on the standard toolbar and
select the number of columns by dragging the mouse over the diagram.

For more column options, select Format|Columns from the menu bar. The Columns dialog box
allows you to choose the properties of the columns. Select the number and width of the columns
from the dialog box.

Drop Caps

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A drop cap is a large letter that begins a paragraph and drops through several lines of text as
shown below.

Add a drop cap to a paragraph by following these steps:

1. Place the cursor within the paragraph whose first letter will be dropped.
2. Select Format|Drop Cap from the menu bar.
3. The Drop Cap dialog box allows you to select the position of the drop cap, the font, the
number of lines to drop, and the distance from the body text.
4. Click OK when all selections have been made.
5. To modify a drop cap, select Format|Drop Cap again to change the attributes, or click
on the letter and use the handles to move and resize the letter.

Activity 6:

Open the file named by your father’s name from C:\ju set the column number two and drop cap
for the first letter of you document?

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Styles

The use of styles in Word will allow you to quickly format a document with a consistent and
professional look. Paragraph and character styles can be saved for use in many documents.

Applying a Style

1. Place the cursor in the paragraph where the style will be applied.
2. Click the Style drop-down menu on the Formatting toolbar and select a style by clicking
on it.
3. To apply the same style to multiple paragraphs, double click the Format Painter button

on the standard toolbar and click in all the paragraphs that the style should be applied
to. Press the ESC key to disable the Format Painter.

Apply a Style from the Style Dialog Box

Choose from a larger selection of styles from the Style dialog box.

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 1. Click in the paragraph you want to add a style to.
2. Select Format|Style... from the menu bar.
3. From the List drop-down menu, choose All styles to view all the styles available.
4. The styles are displayed in the Styles list. Preview each style by clicking once on the
name. Paragraph styles are preceded by the paragraph symbol ( ) and character styles are
preceded by an "a" icon ( ). A pointer arrow is located next to the current style. Highlight
the style you want to apply to the paragraph and click Apply.

Create a New Style from a Model

To create a style from text that is already formatted in a document, follow these steps:

1. Place the cursor in the paragraph you would like to set as a new style.

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 2. Click the Style box on the formatting toolbar so the style name is highlighted.

3. Delete the text in the field and type the name of the new style.
4. Press the ENTER key to save the new style.

Create a Simple Style from the Style Dialog Box

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 1. Select Format|Style... from the menu bar and click the New button on the Style dialog
box to access the New Style dialog box.

2. Type the name for the new style in the Name field.
3. Select "Paragraph" or "Character" from the Style type drop-down menu.
4. Click the Format button at the bottom of the window and choose the paragraph element
that will be formatted for the style. Continue to make changes from the options from the
Format button menu, making changes to the dialog boxes for each element you choose.
5. Click OK to set the style and close the New Style dialog box.
6. Click Apply on the Style dialog box to apply the new style to the current paragraph.

Modify or Rename a Style

An existing style can be changed from the Style dialog box.

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1. Select Format|Style... from the menu bar.
2. Highlight the style from the Styles list that you want to modify and click the Modify
button.

3. Use the same methods to modify the style from the Modify Style dialog box that were
used for the New Style box.
4. To only rename the style, type a new name in the Name field.
5. Click OK when you are finished making modifications.
6. Click Apply to update the style in the document.

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Delete a Style
Preset styles created by Word cannot be deleted, but to delete a style you have made, follow
these steps:

1. Select Format|Style... from the menu bar

2. Highlight the style from the Styles list that you want to delete.
3. Click the Delete button.
4. You will be asked if you really want to delete the style. Click Yes.
5. Click Close on the dialog box.

Crating Lists

To create a bulleted or numbered list, use the list features provided by Word.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

1. Click the Bulleted List button or Numbered List button on the formatting toolbar.
2. Type the first entry and press ENTER.  This will create a new bullet or number on the
next line. If you want to start a new line without adding another bullet or number, hold
down the SHIFT key while pressing ENTER.
3. Continue to typing entries and press ENTER twice when you are finished typing to end
the list.

Use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the formatting toolbar to create
lists of multiple levels.

NOTE: You can also type the text first, highlight the section, and press the Bulleted List or
Numbered List buttons to add the bullets or numbers.

Nested Lists
To create a nested list, such as a numbered list inside of a bulleted list, follow these steps:

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 1. Type the list and increase the indentation of the items that will make up the nested list by
clicking the Increase Indent button for each item.

2. Highlight the items and click the Numbered List button on the formatting toolbar.

Formatting Lists
The bullet image and numbering format can be changed by using the Bullets and Numbering
dialog box.

1. Highlight the entire list to change all the bullets or numbers, or

Place the cursor on one line within the list to change a single bullet.
2. Access the dialog box by selecting Format|Bullets and Numbering from the menu bar
or by right-clicking within the list and selecting Bullets and Numbering from the
shortcut menu.
3. Select the list style from one of the seven choices given, or click the Picture... button to
choose a different icon. Click the Numbered tab to choose a numbered list style.
4. Click OK when finished.

Creating Tables

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Tables are used to display data and there are several ways to build them in Word. Begin by
placing the cursor where you want the table to appear in the document and choose one of the
following methods.

Insert a Table
There are two ways to add a table to the document using the Insert feature:

1. Click the Insert Table button on the standard toolbar. Drag the mouse along the grid,
highlighting the number of rows and columns for the table.

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 2. Or, select Table|Insert|Table from the menu bar. Select the number of rows and columns
for the table and click OK.

Draw the Table

A table can also be drawn onto the document:

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 1. Draw the table by selecting Table|Draw Table from the menu bar. The cursor is now the
image of a pencil and the Tables and Borders toolbar has appeared.

2. Draw the cells of the table with the mouse. If you make a mistake, click the Eraser
button and drag the mouse over the area to be deleted.
3. To draw more cells, click on the Draw Table button .

Inserting Rows and Columns

Once the table is drawn, insert additional rows by placing the cursor in the row you want to be
adjacent to. Select Table|Insert|Rows Above or Rows Below. Or, select an entire row and right-
click with the mouse. Choose Insert Rows from the shortcut menu.

Much like inserting a row, add a new column by placing the cursor in a cell adjacent to where the
new column will be added. Select Table|Insert|Columns to the Left or Columns to the Right.
Or, select the column, right-click with the mouse, and select Insert Columns.

Moving and Resizing a Table

A four-sided moving arrow and open box resizing handle will appear on the corners of the table
if the mouse is placed over the table. Click and drag the four-ended arrow to move the table and
release the mouse button when the table is positioned where you want it. Click and drag the open
box handle to resize the table. Change the column widths and row heights by clicking the cell
dividers and dragging them with the mouse.

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Tables and Borders Toolbar
The Tables and Borders toolbar allows you to add border styles, shading, text effects, alignment,
and more options to your table. Access the toolbar by clicking Table|Draw Table or View|
Toolbars|Tables and Borders.

You will need to highlight the cells of the table you want to format. Click and drag the mouse
over the cells, or use the following shortcuts:

Table1

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Selection Menu Method Mouse Method
Click the bottom, left corner of the cell when a black
One cell Table|Select|Cell
arrow appears
One row Table|Select|Row Click outside the table to the left of the row
Click outside the table above the column when a black
One column Table|Select|Column
arrow appears
Click outside the table to the left of the row and drag the
Several rows (none)
mouse down
Several
(none) Click outside the table above the column
columns
Entire table Table|Select|Table Triple-click to the left of the table

Table Properties
Use the Table Properties dialog box to modify the alignment of the table with the body text and
the text within the table. Access the box by selecting Tables|Table Properties.

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 Size - Check the Preferred width box and enter a value if the table should be an exact
width.
 Alignment - Highlight the illustration that represents the alignment of the table in
relation to the text of the document.
 Text wrapping - Highlight "None" if the table should appear on a separate line from the
text or choose "Around" if the text should wrap around the table.

150
 Borders and Shading - Select from a number of border styles, colors, and widths. Click
the Shading tab to change the background color and pattern.

 Options - Click the Options button on the Table Properties window. To change the
spacing between the document text and the table borders under Default cell margins.
Check the Allow spacing between cells box and enter a value to add space between the

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 table cells.

Activity 7:

draw table 1 in you document?

Adding Graphics

Adding Clip Art

To add a clip art image from the Microsoft library to a document, follow these steps:

1. Select Insert|Picture|Clip Art from the menu bar.

2. To find an image, click in the white box following Search for clips. Delete the words
"Type one or more words. . ." and enter keywords describing the image you want to use.
- OR -
Click one of the category icons.

152
3. Click once on the image you want to add to the document and the following popup menu
will appear:

o Insert Clip to add the image to the document.

o Preview Clip to view the image full-size before adding it to the document. Drag
the bottom, right corner of the preview window to resize the image and click the
"x" close button to end the preview.

o Add Clip to Favorites will add the selected image to your favorites directory that
can be chosen from the Insert ClipArt dialog box.
o Find Similar Clips will retrieve images similar to the one you have chosen.
4. Continue selecting images to add to the document and click the Close button in the top,
right corner of the Insert ClipArt window to stop adding clip art to the document.

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Add an Image from a File
Follow these steps to add a photo or graphic from an existing file:

1. Select Insert|Picture|From File on the menu bar.

2. Click the down arrow button on the right of the Look in: window to find the image on
your computer.
3. Highlight the file name from the list and click the Insert button.

Editing A Graphic
Activate the image you wish to edit by clicking on it once with the mouse. Nine handles will
appear around the graphic. Click and drag these handles to resize the image. The handles on the
corners will resize proportionally while the handles on the straight lines will stretch the image.
More picture effects can be changed using the Picture toolbar. The Picture toolbar should
appear when you click on the image. Otherwise, select View|Toolbars|Picture from the menu
bar to activate it.

 Insert Picture will display the image selection window and allows you to change the
image.

 Image Control allows to to make the image grayscale, black and white, or a watermark.
 More/Less Contrast modifies the contrast between the colors of the image.
 More/Less Brightness will darken or brighten the image.
 Click Crop and drag the handles on the activated image to delete outer portions of the
image.
 Line Style will add a variety of borders to the graphic.

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  Text Wrapping will modify the way the document text wraps around the graphic.
 Format Picture displays all the image properties in a separate window.
 Reset Picture will delete all the modifications made to the image.

Activity 8:-insert a picture of a dog in to your document?

Using The Drawing Toolbar

The Drawing Toolbar provides many commands for creating and editing graphics. The toolbar is
located at the bottom of the Power Point screen or it can be activated by selecting View|
Toolbars|Drawing from the menu bar.

 Menu -
o Grouping - Images can be grouped together so they become one image and can
be moved together or the same formatting changes can be applied to both at once.
Select all the images that will be grouped by holding down the SHIFT key and
clicking once on each image. Then select Group from the Draw menu. The
images can be ungrouped by selecting Ungroup from the same menu. The
rectangles in the image to the left are separate images with their own sets of

155
 handles and they are grouped together in the image to the right:

o Order - The order of overlapping images can be changed using this feature. In the
example of two rectangles below, the green rectangle is selected and the Send
Backward command was used to move the image below the blue rectangle. Send
Backward and Bring Forward will move elements by one layer. Send to Back and
Bring to Front move the elements to the back or top of a series of several
overlapping graphics.

o Nudge - Use the nudge actions to move an object slightly in one direction.
o Align or Distribute - Select a group of objects and choose one of the the
commands from the Align or Distribute menu to change the position of the
objects in relation to one another.
o Rotate or Flip - Rotate an object 90 degrees or flip the object over its x- or y-
axis.
 Select objects - Deactivate all drawing functions.

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 Free rotate - This button will place green handles on certain objects so they can be
arbitrarily rotated. Click and drag the handles to rotate the objects.

 AutoShapes menu - Click the small down arrow to the right of the "AutoShapes" text to
select a shape.]
 Line and Arrow - Click and drag the mouse on the slide to add lines. Hold down the
SHIFT key to draw a straight line. Use the end points of the completed line to stretch and
reposition the line.
 Rectangle and Oval - Click and drag the mouse on the slide to add rectangles and ovals.
Hold down the SHIFT key to add squares and circles.
 Text box - Click to draw a text box on the slide.
 Word art - Click to add WordArt.]
 Picture - Click to add a clip art image to the slide.
 Fill color - Choose a fill color for rectangles, ovals, and clip art.
 Line color - Select a border color for shapes and pictures.
 Font color - Highlight text on the slide and click the small down arrow next to the Font
color icon to select a color.
 Line style - Highlight a line or arrow that has been drawn and click this button to select a
thickness or style for the line.
 Dash style - Highlight a line or arrow and select a dash style.
 Arrow style - Change the arrow head style for an existing arrow or change a line to an
arrow.
 Shadow - Select a text box to add shadow to text or choose any other object on the slide
to add a drop shadow.
 3D - Add a three-dimensional effect to text and other objects.

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Auto Shapes
The AutoShapes toolbar will allow you to draw many different geometrical shapes, arrows, flow
chart symbols, stars, and banners on the document. Activate the AutoShapes toolbar by selecting
Insert|Picture|AutoShapes or View|Toolbars|AutoShapes from the menu bar, or clicking the
AutoShapes button on the Drawing toolbar. Click each button on the toolbar to view the options
for drawing the shape.

 Lines - After clicking the Lines button on the AutoShapes toolbar, draw a straight line,
arrow, or double-ended arrow from the first row of options by clicking the respective
button. Click in the document where you would like the line to begin and click again
where it should end. To draw a curved line or freeform shape, select curved lines from
the menu (first and second buttons of second row), click in the document where the line
should appear, and click the mouse every time a curve should begin. End creating the
graphic by clicking on the starting end or pressing the ESC key. To scribble, click the
last button in the second row, click the mouse in the document and hold down the left
button while you draw the design. Let go of the mouse button to stop drawing.

 Basic Shapes - Click the Basic Shapes button on the AutoShapes toolbar to select from
many two- and three-dimensional shapes, icons, braces, and brackets. Use the drag-and-
drop method to draw the shape in the document. When the shape has been made, it can be
resized using the open box handles and other adjustments specific to each shape can be

158
 modified using the yellow diamond handles.

 Block Arrows - Select Block Arrows to choose from many types of two- and three-
dimensional arrows. Drag-and-drop the arrow in the document and use the open box and
yellow diamond handles to adjust the arrowheads. Each AutoShape can also be rotated by

first clicking the Free Rotate button on the drawing toolbar . Click and drag the green
handles around the image to rotate it. The tree image below was created from an arrow
rotated 90 degrees.

 Flow Chart - Choose from the flow chart menu to add flow chart elements to the
document and use the line menu to draw connections between the elements.
 Stars and Banners - Click the button to select stars, bursts, banners, and scrolls.
 Call Outs - Select from the speech and thought bubbles, and line call outs. Enter the
call out text in the text box that is made.
 More AutoShapes - Click this button to choose from a list of clip art categories.

Each of the submenus on the AutoShapes toolbar can become a separate toolbar. Just click and
drag the gray bar across the top of the submenus off of the toolbar and it will become a separate
floating toolbar.

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WordArt
Add headlines in striking colors and shapes to your presentation using Word Art.

 Select Insert|Picture|WordArt from the menu bar or click the Word Art button on the
Drawing toolbar.

160
 Choose a Word Art style from the listing and click OK.

161
  Enter the text in the Edit WordArt Text box and choose the font, size, and style for the
text. Click OK.

 Use the white box handles around the word art to resize it on the slide.
 Drag the yellow diamond handle to change the shape of the text. To revert back to no
shape, double-click the diamond.
 Then use the WordArt Toolbar to edit the text art, Format, and change shape.

Activity 9:-add a word art like the one that you see below in you document?

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 Spelling and Grammar

AutoCorrect
Word automatically corrects many commonly misspelled words and punctuation marks with the
AutoCorrect feature. To view the list of words that are automatically corrected, select Tools|
AutoCorrect. This may be a hidden feature so click the double arrows at the bottom of the Tools
menu listing if the AutoCorrect choice is not listed.

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Many options including the accidental capitalization of the first two letters of a word and
capitalization of the first word of the sentence can be automatically corrected from this page. If
there are words you often misspell, enter the wrong and correct spellings in the Replace and
with fields.
Important!! Select the Replace text as you type check box to practice the following (with out
quotations) :
"==>" gives  ":)" gives 
":(" gives  "(tm)" gives ™

Spelling and Grammar Check

Word will automatically check for spelling and grammar errors as you type unless you turn this
feature off. Spelling errors are noted in the document with a red underline. Grammar errors are
indicated by a green underline. To disable this feature, select Tools|Options from the menu bar

164
and click the Spelling and Grammar tab on the dialog box. Uncheck "Check spelling as you
type" and "Check grammar as you type", and click OK.

To use the spelling and grammar checker, follow these steps:

1. Select Tools|Spelling and Grammar from the menu bar.

2. The Spelling and Grammar dialog box will notify you of the first mistake in the
document and misspelled words will be highlighted in red.

3. If the word is spelled correctly, click the Ignore button or click the Ignore All button if
the word appears more than once in the document.
4. If the word is spelled incorrectly, choose one of the suggested spellings in the
Suggestions box and click the Change button or Change All button to correct all
occurrences of the word in the document. If the correct spelling is not suggested, enter
the correct spelling in the Not In Dictionary box and click the Change button.

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 5. If the word is spelled correctly and will appear in many documents you type (such as
your name), click the Add button to add the word to the dictionary so it will no longer
appear as a misspelled word.

As long as the Check Grammar box is checked in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box,
Word will check the grammar of the document in addition to the spelling. If you do not want the
grammar checked, remove the checkmark from this box. Otherwise, follow these steps for
correcting grammar:

1. If Word finds a grammar mistake, it will be shown in the box as the spelling errors. The
mistake is highlighted in green text.

2. Several suggestions may be given in the Suggestions box. Select the correction that best
applies and click Change.
3. If no correction is needed (Word is often wrong more than it is right), click the Ignore
button.

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Synonyms
Word 2000 has a new feature for finding synonyms. Simply right-click on the word and select
Synonyms from the shortcut menu. From the list of suggested words, highlight the word you
would like to use or click Thesaurus... for more options.

Thesaurus
To use the thesaurus, select Tools|Language|Thesaurus from the menu bar or select it from the
Synonyms shortcut menu as detailed above.

A list of meanings and synonyms are given on the windows. Double-click on the words in the
Meanings box or click the Look Up button to view similar words. Double-click words in the
Replace with Synonym box to view synonyms of those words. Highlight the word you would
like to add and click the Replace button.

Page Formatting

Page Margins
The page margins of the document can be changed using the rulers on the page and the Page
Setup window. The ruler method is discussed first:

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 1. Move the mouse over the area where the white ruler changes to gray.

2. When the cursor becomes a double-ended arrow, click with the mouse and drag the
margin indicator to the desired location.
3. Release the mouse when the margin is set.

The margins can also be changed using the Page Setup dialog box:

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 1. Select File|Page Setup and choose the Margins tab in the dialog box.

2. Enter margin values in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right boxes. The Preview window
will reflect the changes.
3. If the document has Headers and/or Footers, the distance this text appears from the edge
of the page can be changed.
4. Click OK when finished.

Page Size and Orientation

Change the orientation page within the Page Setup dialog box.

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 1. Select File|Page Setup and choose the Paper Size tab.

2. Select the proper paper size from the drop-down menu.

3. Change the orientation from Portrait or Landscape by checking the corresponding radio
button.

Headers and Footers

A header is text that is added to the top margin of every page such as a document title or page
number and footer is text added to the bottom margin.  Follow these steps to add or edit headers
and footers in the document:

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 1. Select View|Header and Footer from the menu bar. The Header and Footer toolbar will
appear and the top of the page will be highlighted as shown below.

2. Type the heading in the Header box. You may use many of the standard text formatting
options such as font face, size, bold, italics, etc.
3. Click the Insert AutoText button to view a list of quick options available.
4. Use the other options on the toolbar to add page numbers, the current date and time.
5. To edit the footer, click the Switch between Header and Footer button on the toolbar.
6. When you are finished adding headers and footers, click the Close button on the toolbar.

Page Numbers
Follow these instructions for another way to add page numbers to a document.

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 1. Select Insert|Page Numbers from the menu bar and the following dialog box will
appear.

2. Select the position of the page numbers by choosing "Top of page" or "Bottom of page"
from the Position drop-down menu.
3. Select the alignment of the page numbers in the Alignment drop-down menu.
4. If you do not want the page number to show on the first page (if it is a title page, for
example), uncheck the Show number of first page box.
5. Click OK when finished.

Print Preview and Printing

Preview your document by clicking the Print Preview button on the standard toolbar or by
selecting File|Print Preview. When the document is ready to print, click the Print button from
the Print Preview screen or select File|Print.

Macros

Macros are advanced features that can speed up editing or formatting you may perform often in a
Word document. They record sequences of menu selections that you choose so that a series of
actions can be completed in one step.

Recording A Macro
To record a macro, follow these steps:

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1. Click Tools|Macro|Record New Macro on the menu bar.

2. Name the macro in the Macro name field. This name cannot contain spaces and or begin
with a number.
3. From the Store macro in drop-down box, select the document you would like the macro
to be associated with or choose "All Documents" be able to use the macro in any
document.
4. Enter a description of the macro in the Description field. This is for your reference only
so you remember what the macro does.
5. Click OK to begin recording.
6. Select options from the drop-down menus and Word will record the options you choose
from the dialog boxes, such as changing the margins on the Page Setup window. Select
only options that modify the document. Word will not record toggle actions such as
View|Toolbars that have no effect on the document itself.
7. The recording toolbar will allow you to stop, pause, and resume recording.

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 8. Click the Stop button the recording toolbar. The macro is now saved.

Running A Macro
To run an existing macro, follow these steps.

1. Select Tools|Macro|Macros from the menu bar.

2. From the Macros window, highlight the Macro name in the list and click Run.

3. If the macro is long and you want to stop it while it is running, press BREAK (hold
CTRL and press PAUSE).

Table of Contents

Word will automatically create a Table of Contents page if a document is designed using
Heading and Paragraph styles (see the Styles section). Follow the steps on this page to create a
Table of Contents.

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Mark Table of Contents Entries

1. Highlight a heading that you would like to appear in the Table of Contents (TOC).
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+O and the Mark Table of Contents Entry box will appear.

3. Entry - Rename the entry if you would like a different heading to appear in the TOC.
4. Table identifier - Select "C".
5. Level - Choose "1" for first-level heading, "2" for second-level heading, etc.
6. Click the Mark button.
7. The document will be toggled to "reveal codes" view and notice the TOC field code. To
hide all codes click the Show/Hide codes button on the standard toolbar.
8. Select another heading to add to the TOC, or click the Close button on the Mark Table
of Contents Entry dialog box.

Generate a Table of Contents

After you have marked all the headings for your TOC, follow these steps to generate the Table of
Contents.

1. Place the cursor where you would like the TOC to appear in the document.

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2. Select Insert|Index and Tables (InsertReferenceIndex and Tables) from the
menu bar.

3. Customize the appearance of the TOC from the Table of Contents tab. You may choose
a preset design from the Formats drop-down menu. A preview of each design will be
shown in the Print Preview window.
4. Check the Show page numbers box if you would like page numbers to show on the
TOC. Check the Right align page numbers box if the page numbers should appear on
the right side, then select the Tab leader between the heading and the page number.
Uncheck the box if the page numbers should appear right next to the heading.
5. Click OK.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can save time and the effort of switching from the keyboard to the mouse to
execute simple commands. Print this list of Word keyboard shortcuts and keep it by your
computer for a quick reference. Note: A plus sign indicates that the keys need to be pressed at
the same time.

Action Keystroke Action Keystroke

Document actions Text Style
Open a file CTRL+O Font face CTRL+SHIFT+F
New file CTRL+N Font size CTRL+SHIFT+P
Close a file CTRL+W Bold CTRL+B
Save As F12 Italics CTRL+I
CTRL+S or Underline CTRL+U
Save Double underline CTRL+SHIFT+D
SHIFT+F12
Print Preview CTRL+F2 Word underline CTRL+SHIFT+W
Print CTRL+P All caps CTRL+SHIFT+A
Show/Hide paragraph Change case SHIFT+F3
CTRL+* Subscript CTRL+=
symbols Superscript CTRL+SHIFT+=
Spelling and grammar F7 Make web hyperlink CTRL+K
Help F1  
Find CTRL+F Tables
Replace CTRL+H Go to next cell Tab
Go To CTRL+G Go to previous cell SHIFT+Tab
  Go to beginning of
Cursor movement ALT+PageUp
Select all - entire column
CTRL+A Highlight to
document ALT+SHIFT+PageUp
Select from cursor to beginning of column
SHIFT+Home Go to end of column ALT+PageDown
beginning of line Highlight to end of
Select from cursor to ALT+SHIFT+PageDown
SHIFT+END column
end of line Go to beginning of
Go to beginning of line HOME ALT+Home
Go to end of line END row
Go to beginning of Highlight to
CTRL+Home ALT+SHIFT+Home
document beginning of row
Go to end of document CTRL+End Go to end of row ALT+End
  Highlight to end of ALT+SHIFT+End

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Formatting row
Cut CTRL+X Column break CTRL+SHIFT+Enter
Copy CTRL+C  
Paste CTRL+V
Undo CTRL+Z Copyright © ALT+CTRL+C
Redo CTRL+Y Date field ALT+SHIFT+D
Format painter CTRL+SHIFT+C Go to footnotes ALT+CTRL+F
Left alignment CTRL+L Show/Hide ¶ CTRL+SHIFT+8
Center alignment CTRL+E Thesaurus SHIFT+F7
Right alignment CTRL+R
Justified CTRL+J
Delete previous word CTRL+Backspace
Apply bulleted list CTRL+SHIFT+L
Indent CTRL+M
Page break CTRL+Enter

All Shortcuts
This list shows only the most common keyboard shortcuts. To print a list of all the shortcuts in
Word, follow these steps:

1. Select Tools|Macro|Macros from the menu bar.

2. From the Macros In drop-down menu, select Word Commands.
3. Select ListCommands from the macro listing.
4. Click the Run button.
5. Choose Current Menu and Keyboard Settings from the popup window and click OK.
6. Word will automatically open a new document containing a table of keystrokes. Print the
document.

Microsoft word Exercise

1. In order to save an existing document with a different name you need to

A. Retype the document and give it a different name

B. Use the Save as command

C. Copy and paste the original document to a new document and then save

D. Use Windows Explorer to copy the document to a different location and then rename it

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2. Which keyboard shortcut bolds selected text?

A. Ctrl+B
B. Alt+B

C. File/Format/Bold

D. None of the above

3. How can you highlight text without using the mouse?

A. It is impossible
B. Use the F5 key

C. Use the arrow keys while holding down a Ctrl key

D. Use the arrow keys while holding down a Shift key

4. What would you see while grammar and spell checking the phrase "My father was
write"?

A. The word "write" is misspelled

B. No errors

C. The verb of the phrase will be highlighted

D. A blue squiggly underline under the word "write"

5. Suddenly Word does not display your favorite toolbar. What has happened?

A. Your program has been infected by a macro virus

B. This version of Word does not support toolbars

C. Your toolbar option has been deleted from the menus

D. Your toolbar has been unchecked under the View/Toolbars menu

6.  In page preview mode:

A. You can see all pages of your document

B. You can only see the page you are currently working

C. You can only see  pages that do not contain graphics

D. You can only see  the title page of your document

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7. Which elements of a Word document can be displayed in color?

A. Only graphics
B. Only text

C. All elements

D. All elements, but only if you have a color printer

8. In order to create columnar data in Word you need to:

A. Tab consecutively until you cursor reaches the desired place

B. Set tabs or use the Table menu

C. You need to use Excel

D. Press the space bar until your cursor reaches the desired place

9. The background of any Word document:

A. Is always white color

B. Is the color you preset under the Options menu

C. Is always the same for the entire document

D. Can have any color you choose

10. Why the document you created at lab1 displays with a different font at lab2?

A. Because you have a different printer at lab1 than at lab2

B. Because you have a different monitor at lab1 than at lab2

C. Because the font you used at lab2 is not installed on your lab1 computer

D. Because the version of Windows is different

11. Which keyboard shortcut selected whole text of a document?

A. Ctrl+C
B. Ctrl+A

C. There is no keyboard shortcut for this operation

D. Ctrl+E

12. What is the default file extension for all Word documents?

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 A. TXT
B. WRD

C. FIL

D. DOC

13. Which key moves your cursor from one cell to the next in a table?

A. Tab
B. Shift

C. Enter

D. Ctrl+Enter

14. How many different documents can you have open at one time?

A. No more that three

B. Only one

C. As many as your computer memory will hold

D. No more than your Taskbar can display

15. Which keystroke will take you at the beginning or the end of a long document?

A. Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown

B. Shift+Home and Shift+End

C. Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End

D. The only way is by using the right scroll bar

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 CHAPTER 10 - Chapter 6 Microsoft Excel

10.1 Objective:
At the end of this chapter the student is expected to be able to
 Understand spreadsheet software
 Start Excel
 Create and save a workbook
 Format worksheets and cells
 Able to apply formulas in a worksheet
 Print a worksheet
 Able to use short cut keys

10.2 Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is an electrical worksheet displayed on the VDU (VEDIO DIGITAL UNIT).
Electronic spreadsheet software allows the user to add, subtract, and perform user defined
calculations on rows and columns of numbers. These numbers can be changed and the
spreadsheet quickly recalculates the new results.
Electronic spreadsheet software eliminates the tedious recalculations required with manual
methods. Spreadsheet information frequently is converted into a graphical form, such as charts.
Graphical capabilities are being include in most spreadsheet packages

Excel

Excel allows you to create spreadsheets much like paper ledgers that can perform automatic
calculations. Each Excel file is a workbook that can hold many worksheets. The worksheet is a
grid of columns (designated by letters) and rows (designated by numbers). The letters and
numbers of the columns and rows (called labels) are displayed in gray buttons across the top and
left side of the worksheet. The intersection of a column and a row is called a cell. Each cell on
the spreadsheet has a cell address that is the column letter and the row number. Cells can contain
text, numbers, or mathematical formulas.

Microsoft Excel 2000 Screen Elements

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Adding and Renaming Worksheets
The worksheets in a workbook are accessible by clicking the worksheet tabs just above the status
bar. By default, three worksheets are included in each workbook. To add a sheet, select Insert|
Worksheet from the menu bar. To rename the worksheet tab, right-click on the tab with the
mouse and select Rename from the shortcut menu. Type the new name and press the ENTER
key.

The Standard Toolbar

This toolbar is located just below the menu bar at the top of the screen and allows you to quickly
access basic Excel commands.

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New - Select File|New from the menu bar, press CTRL+N, or click the New button to create a
new workbook.

Open - Click File|Open from the menu bar, press CTRL+O, or click the Open folder button to
open an existing workbook.

Save - The first time you save a workbook, select File|Save As and name the file. After the file
is named click File|Save, CTRL+S, or the Save button on the standard toolbar.

Print - Click the Print button to print the worksheet.

Print Preview - This feature will allow you to preview the worksheet before it prints.

Spell Check - Use the spell checker to correct spelling errors on the worksheet.

Cut, Copy, Paste, and Format Painter - These actions are explained in the Modifying A
Worksheet section.

Undo and Redo - Click the backward Undo arrow to cancel the last action you performed,
whether it be entering data into a cell, formatting a cell, entering a function, etc. Click the
forward Redo arrow to cancel the undo action.

Insert Hyperlink - To insert a hyperlink to a web site on the Internet, type the text into a cell
you want to be the link that can be clicked with the mouse. Then, click the Insert Hyperlink
button and enter the web address you want the text to link to and click OK.

Autosum, Function Wizard, and Sorting - These features are discussed in detail in the
Functions tutorial.

Zoom - To change the size that the worksheet appears on the screen, choose a different
percentage from the Zoom menu.

10.3 Customizing Excel

Menus
Unlike previous versions of Excel, the menus in Excel 2000 initially list only the commands you
have recently used.  To view all options in each menu, click the double arrows at the bottom of

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the menu.  If you would like to revert to the way older versions of Excel displayed menu options,
follow these steps:

1. Select View|Toolbars|Customize from the menu bar.

2. Click on the Options tab.
3. Uncheck the Menus show recently used commands first check box.

Toolbars
Many toolbars displaying shortcut buttons are available. Select View|Toolbars from the menu
bar to select more toolbars.

Customize Toolbars
Customizing toolbars allows you to delete certain shortcut buttons from a toolbar if you do not
use them and add the shortcut buttons for commands you use often.

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 1. Select View|Toolbars|Customize and select the Commands tab.

2. By clicking on the command categories in the Categories box, the commands will
change in the Commands box to the right.
3. Select the command you would like to add to the toolbar by selecting it from the
Commands box.
4. Drag the command with the mouse to the desired location on the toolbar and release the
mouse button. The shortcut button should now appear on the toolbar.
5. Remove buttons from the toolbars by reversing these steps. Highlight the button on the
toolbar, drag it off the toolbar with the mouse, and release the mouse button.
10.4 Modifying A Worksheet

Moving Through Cells

Use the mouse to select a cell you want to begin adding data to and use the keyboard strokes
listed in the table below to move through the cells of a worksheet.

Movement Key stroke

One cell up up arrow key
One cell down down arrow key or ENTER
One cell left left arrow key
One cell right right arrow key or TAB
Top of the worksheet (cell A1) CTRL+HOME
End of the worksheet (last cell containing data) CTRL+END
End of the row CTRL+right arrow key
End of the column CTRL+down arrow key
Any cell File|Go To menu bar command

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  Worksheets - Add a worksheet to a workbook by selecting Insert|Worksheet from the
menu bar.
 Row - To add a row to a worksheet, select Insert|Rows from the menu bar, or highlight
the row by clicking on the row label, right-click with the mouse, and choose Insert.
 Column - Add a column by selecting Insert|Columns from the menu bar, or highlight
the column by click on the column label, right-click with the mouse, and choose Insert.

Resizing Rows and Columns

There are two ways to resize rows and columns.

1. Resize a row by dragging the line below the label of the row you would like to resize.
Resize a column in a similar manner by dragging the line to the right of the label
corresponding to the column you want to resize.
- OR -
2. Click the row or column label and select Format|Row|Height or Format|Column|
Width from the menu bar to enter a numerical value for the height of the row or width of
the column.

Selecting Cells
Before a cell can be modified or formatted, it must first be selected (highlighted). Refer to the
table below for selecting groups of cells.

Cells to select Mouse action

One cell click once in the cell
Entire row click the row label
Entire column click the column label
Entire
click the whole sheet button
worksheet
drag mouse over the cells or hold down the SHIFT key while using the arrow
Cluster of cells
keys

To activate the contents of a cell, double-click on the cell or click once and press F2.

Moving and Copying Cells

Moving Cells
To cut cell contents that will be moved to another cell select Edit|Cut from the menu bar or click
the Cut button on the standard toolbar.

Copying Cells
To copy the cell contents select Edit|Copy from the menu bar or click the Copy button on the
standard toolbar.

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Pasting Cut and Copied Cells
Highlight the cell you want to paste the cut or copied content into and select Edit|Paste from the
menu bar or click the Paste button on the standard toolbar.

Drag and Drop

If you are moving the cell contents only a short distance, the drag-and-drop method may be
easier. Simply drag the highlighted border of the selected cell to the destination cell with the
mouse.

Freeze Panes
If you have a large worksheet with column and row headings, those headings will disappear as
the worksheet is scrolled. By using the Freeze Panes feature, the headings can be visible at all
times.

1. Click the label of the row below the row that should remain frozen at the top of the
worksheet.
2. Select Window|Freeze Panes from the menu bar.
3. To remove the frozen panes, select Window|Unfreeze Panes.

Freeze panes has been added to row 1 in the image above. Notice that the row numbers
skip from 1 to 6. As the worksheet is scrolled, row 1 will remain stationary while the
remaining rows will move.
10.5 Formatting Cells

Formatting Toolbar
The contents of a highlighted cell can be formatted in many ways. Font and cell attributes can be
added from shortcut buttons on the formatting bar. If this toolbar is not already visible on the
screen, select View|Toolbars|Formatting from the menu bar.

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Format Cells Dialog Box
For a complete list of formatting options, right-click on the highlighted cells and choose Format
Cells from the shortcut menu or select Format|Cells from the menu bar.

 Number tab - The data type can be selected from the options on this tab. Select General
if the cell contains text and number, or another numerical category if the cell is a number
that will be included in functions or formulas.
 Alignment tab - These options allow you to change the position and alignment of the
data with the cell.
 Font tab - All of the font attributes are displayed in this tab including font face, size,
style, and effects.
 Border and Pattern tabs - These tabs allow you to add borders, shading, and
background colors to a cell.

Dates and Times

If you enter the date "January 1, 2001" into a cell on the worksheet, Excel will automatically
recognize the text as a date and change the format to "1-Jan-01". To change the date format,
select the Number tab from the Format Cells window. Select "Date" from the Category box
and choose the format for the date from the Type box. If the field is a time, select "Time" from

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the Category box and select the type in the right box. Date and time combinations are also listed.
Press OK when finished.

Styles
The use of styles in Excel allow you to quickly format your worksheet, provide consistency, and
create a professional look. Select the Styles drop-down box from the formatting toolbar (it can be
added by customizing the toolbar). Excel provides several preset styles:

 Comma - Adds commas to the number and two digits beyond a decimal point.
 Comma [0] - Comma style that rounds to a whole number.
 Currency - Formats the number as currency with a dollar sign, commas, and two digits
beyond the decimal point.
 Currency [0] - Currency style that rounds to a whole number.
 Normal - Reverts any changes to general number format.
 Percent - Changes the number to a percent and adds a percent sign.

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Style Dialog Box
Create your own styles from the Style Dialog Box.

1. Highlight the cell(s) you want to add a style to.

2. Select Format|Style... from the menu bar.

3. Modify the attributes by clicking the Modify button.

4. Check all the items under Style includes that the style should format.
5. Click Add to preview the formatting changes on the worksheet.
6. Highlight the style you want to apply to the paragraph and click Apply.

Create a New Style

1. Select the cell on the worksheet containing the formatting you would like to set as a new
style.
2. Click the Style box on the Formatting toolbar so the style name is highlighted.

3. Delete the text in the Style box and type the name of the new style.
4. Press ENTER when finished.

Format Painter
A handy feature on the standard toolbar for formatting text is the Format Painter. If you have
formatted a cell with a certain font style, date format, border, and other formatting options, and
you want to format another cell or group of cells the same way, place the cursor within the cell

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containing the formatting you want to copy. Click the Format Painter button in the standard
toolbar (notice that your pointer now has a paintbrush beside it). Highlight the cells you want to
add the same formatting to.

To copy the formatting to many groups of cells, double-click the Format Painter button. The
format painter remains active until you press the ESC key to turn it off.

AutoFormat
Excel has many preset table formatting options. Add these styles by following these steps:

1. Highlight the cells that will be formatted.

2. Select Format|AutoFormat from the menu bar.

3. On the AutoFormat dialog box, select the format you want to apply to the table by
clicking on it with the mouse. Use the scroll bar to view all of the formats available.

4. Click the Options... button to select the elements that the formatting will apply to.
5. Click OK when finished.

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 10.6 Formulas and Functions

The distinguishing feature of a spreadsheet program such as Excel is that it allows you to create
mathematical formulas and execute functions. Otherwise, it is not much more than a large table
for displaying text. This page will show you how to create these calculations.

Formulas
Formulas are entered in the worksheet cell and must begin with an equal sign "=". The formula
then includes the addresses of the cells whose values will be manipulated with appropriate
operands placed in between. After the formula is typed into the cell, the calculation executes
immediately and the formula itself is visible in the formula bar. See the example below to view
the formula for calculating the sub total for a number of textbooks. The formula multiplies the
quantity and price of each textbook and adds the subtotal for each book.

Linking Worksheets
You may want to use the value from a cell in another worksheet within the same workbook in a
formula. For example, the value of cell A1 in the current worksheet and cell A2 in the second
worksheet can be added using the format "sheetname!celladdress". The formula for this example
would be "=A1+Sheet2!A2" where the value of cell A1 in the current worksheet is added to the
value of cell A2 in the worksheet named "Sheet2".

Relative, Absolute, and Mixed Referencing

Calling cells by just their column and row labels (such as "A1") is called relative referencing.
When a formula contains relative referencing and it is copied from one cell to another, Excel
does not create an exact copy of the formula. It will change cell addresses relative to the row and
column they are moved to. For example, if a simple addition formula in cell C1 "=(A1+B1)" is
copied to cell C2, the formula would change to "=(A2+B2)" to reflect the new row. To prevent

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this change, cells must be called by absolute referencing and this is accomplished by placing
dollar signs "$" within the cell addresses in the formula. Continuing the previous example, the
formula in cell C1 would read "=($A$1+$B$1)" if the value of cell C2 should be the sum of cells
A1 and B1. Both the column and row of both cells are absolute and will not change when copied.
Mixed referencing can also be used where only the row OR column fixed. For example, in the
formula "=(A$1+$B2)", the row of cell A1 is fixed and the column of cell B2 is fixed.

Basic Functions
Functions can be a more efficient way of performing mathematical operations than formulas. For
example, if you wanted to add the values of cells D1 through D10, you would type the formula
"=D1+D2+D3+D4+D5+D6+D7+D8+D9+D10". A shorter way would be to use the SUM
function and simply type "=SUM(D1:D10)". Several other functions and examples are given in
the table below:

Function Example Description

SUM =SUM(A1:100) finds the sum of cells A1 through A100
AVERAGE =AVERAGE(B1:B10) finds the average of cells B1 through B10
MAX =MAX(C1:C100) returns the highest number from cells C1 through C100
MIN =MIN(D1:D100) returns the lowest number from cells D1 through D100
SQRT =SQRT(D10) finds the square root of the value in cell D10
TODAY =TODAY() returns the current date (leave the parentheses empty)

Function Wizard
View all functions available in Excel by using the Function Wizard.

1. Activate the cell where the function will be placed and click the Function Wizard button
on the standard toolbar.
2. From the Paste Function dialog box, browse through the functions by clicking in the
Function category menu on the left and select the function from the Function name
choices on the right. As each function name is highlighted a description and example of

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 use is provided below the two boxes.

3. Click OK to select a function.

4. The next window allows you to choose the cells that will be included in the function. In
the example below, cells B4 and C4 were automatically selected for the sum function by
Excel. The cell values {2, 3} are located to the right of the Number 1 field where the cell
addresses are listed. If another set of cells, such as B5 and C5, needed to be added to the
function, those cells would be added in the format "B5:C5" to the Number 2 field.

5. Click OK when all the cells for the function have been selected.

Autosum
Use the Autosum function to add the contents of a cluster of adjacent cells.

1. Select the cell that the sum will appear in that is outside the cluster of cells whose values
will be added. Cell C2 was used in this example.
2. Click the Autosum button (Greek letter sigma) on the standard toolbar.
3. Highlight the group of cells that will be summed (cells A2 through B2 in this example).

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 4. Press the ENTER key on the keyboard or click the green check mark button on the
formula bar .

10.7 Sorting and Filling

Basic Sorts
To execute a basic descending or ascending sort based on one column, highlight the cells that
will be sorted and click the Sort Ascending (A-Z) button or Sort Descending (Z-A) button on
the standard toolbar.

Complex Sorts
To sort by multiple columns, follow these steps:

1. Highlight the cells, rows, or columns that will be sorted.

2. Select Data|Sort from the menu bar.
3. From the Sort dialog box, select the first column for sorting from the Sort By drop-down
menu and choose either ascending or descending.
4. Select the second column and, if necessary, the third sort column from the Then By drop-
down menus.

5. If the cells you highlighted included the text headings in the first row, mark My list
has...Header row and the first row will remain at the top of the worksheet.

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 6. Click the Options button for special non-alphabetic or numeric sorts such as months of
the year and days of the week.

7. Click OK to execute the sort.

Autofill
The Autofill feature allows you to quickly fill cells with repetitive or sequential data such as
chronological dates or numbers, and repeated text.

1. Type the beginning number or date of an incrementing series or the text that will be
repeated into a cell.
2. Select the handle at the bottom, right corner of the cell with the left mouse button and
drag it down as many cells as you want to fill.
3. Release the mouse button.

If you want to autofill a column with cells displaying the same number or date you must enter
identical data to two adjacent cells in a column. Highlight the two cells and drag the handle of
the selection with the mouse.

Alternating Text and Numbers with Autofill

The Autofill feature can also be used for alternating text or numbers. For example, to make a
repeating list of the days of the week, type the seven days into seven adjacent cells in a column.
Highlight the seven cells and drag down with the mouse.

Autofilling Functions
Autofill can also be used to copy functions.  In the example below, column A and column B each
contain lists of numbers and column C contains the sums of columns A and B for each row. The
function in cell C2 would be "=SUM(A2:B2)". This function can then be copied to the remaining
cells of column C by activating cell C2 and dragging the handle down to fill in the remaining
cells. The autofill feature will automatically update the row numbers as shown below if the cells
are reference relatively.

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 10.8 Graphics
Graphics manipulation in Microsoft Excel is identical to that of Microsoft Word (Refer
to the previous chapter of this module)
10.9 Charts

Charts allow you to present data entered into the worksheet in a visual format using a variety of
graph types. Before you can make a chart you must first enter data into a worksheet. This page
explains how you can create simple charts from the data.

Chart Wizard
The Chart Wizard brings you through the process of creating a chart by displaying a series of
dialog boxes.

1. Enter the data into the worksheet and highlight all the cells that will be included in the
chart including headers.

2. Click the Chart Wizard button on the standard toolbar to view the first Chart Wizard
dialog box.

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3. Chart Type - Choose the Chart type and the Chart subtype if necessary. Click Next.

4. Chart Source Data - Select the data range (if different from the area highlighted in step
1) and click Next.

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5. Chart Options - Enter the name of the chart and titles for the X- and Y-axes. Other
options for the axes, grid lines, legend, data labels, and data table can be changed by
clicking on the tabs. Press Next to move to the next set of options.

6. Chart Location - Click As new sheet if the chart should be placed on a new, blank
worksheet or select As object in if the chart should be embedded in an existing sheet and
select the worksheet from the drop-down menu.

7. Click Finish to create the chart.

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Resizing the Chart
To resize the chart, click on its border and drag any of the nine black handles to change the size.
Handles on the corners will resize the chart proportionally while handles along the lines will
stretch the chart.

Moving the Chart

Select the border of the chart, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the chart to a new
location. Elements within the chart such as the title and labels may also be moved within the
chart. Click on the element to activate it, and use the mouse to drag the element to move it.

Chart Formatting Toolbar

Chart Objects List - To select an object on the chart to format, click the object on the chart or
select the object from the Chart Objects List and click the Format button. A window
containing the properties of that object will then appear to make formatting changes.

Chart Type - Click the arrowhead on the chart type button to select a different type of chart.

Legend Toggle - Show or hide the chart legend by clicking this toggle button.

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Data Table view - Display the data table instead of the chart by clicking the Data Table toggle
button.

Display Data by Column or Row - Charts the data by columns or rows according to the data
sheet.

Angle Text - Select the category or value axis and click the Angle Downward or Angle
Upward button to angle the the selected by +/- 45 degrees.

Copying the Chart to Microsoft Word

A finished chart can be copied into a Microsoft Word document. Select the chart and click Copy.
Open the destination document in Word and click Paste.

10.10 Page Properties and Printing

Page Breaks
To set page breaks within the worksheet, select the row you want to appear just below the page
break by clicking the row's label. Then choose Insert|Page Break from the menu bar. You may
need to click the double down arrow at the bottom of the menu list to view this option.

Page Setup
Select File|Page Setup from the menu bar to format the page, set margins, and add headers and
footers.

 Page
Select the Orientation under the Page tab in the Page Setup window to make the page
Landscape or Portrait. The size of the worksheet on the page can also be formatting under
Scaling. To force a worksheet to print only one page wide so all the columns appear on

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 the same page, select Fit to 1 page(s) wide.

 Margins
Change the top, bottom, left, and right margins under the Margins tab. Enter values in
the header and footer fields to indicate how far from the edge of the page this text should
appear. Check the boxes for centering horizontally or vertically on the page.

 Header/Footer
Add preset headers and footers to the page by clicking the drop-down menus under the

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 Header/Footer tab.

To modify a preset header or footer, or to make your own, click the Custom Header and
Custom Footer buttons. A new window will open allowing you to enter text in the left,
center, or right on the page.

Format Text - Click this button after highlighting the text to change the font, size, and
style.
Page Number - Insert the page number of each page.
Total Number of Pages - Use this feature along with the page number to create strings
such as "page 1 of 15".
Date - Add the current date.
Time - Add the current time.
File Name - Add the name of the workbook file.
Tab Name - Add the name of the worksheet's tab.

 Sheet
Check Gridlines if you want the gridlines dividing the cells to be printed on the page. If
the worksheet is several pages long and only the first page includes titles for the columns,
select Rows to repeat at top to choose a title row that will be printed at the top of each

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 page.

Print Preview
Select File|Print Preview from the menu bar to view how the worksheet will print. Click the
Next and Previous buttons at the top of the window to display the pages and click the Zoom
button to view the pages closer. Make page layout modifications needed by clicking the Page
Setup button. Click Close to return to the worksheet or Print to continue printing.

Print
To print the worksheet, select File|Print from the menu bar.

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  Print Range - Select either all pages or a range of pages to print.
 Print What - Select selection of cells highlighted on the worksheet, the active worksheet,
or all the worksheets in the entire workbook.
 Copies - Choose the number of copies that should be printed. Check the Collate box if
the pages should remain in order.

Click OK to print.

10.11 Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can save time and the effort of switching from the keyboard to the mouse to
execute simple commands. Print this list of Excel keyboard shortcuts and keep it by your

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computer for a quick reference. Note: A plus sign indicates that the keys need to be pressed at
the same time.

Action Keystroke Action Keystroke

Document actions Selecting Cells
Open a file CTRL+O All cells left of current
SHIFT+left arrow
New file CTRL+N cell
Save As F12 All cells right of current SHIFT+right
Save CTRL+S cell arrow
Print CTRL+P Entire column CTRL+Spacebar
Find CTRL+F Entire row SHIFT+Spacebar
Replace CTRL+H Entire worksheet CTRL+A
Go to F5  
  Text Style
Cursor Movement Bold CTRL+B
One cell up up arrow Italics CTRL+I
One cell down down arrow Underline CTRL+U
One cell right Tab Strikethrough CTRL+5
One cell left SHIFT+Tab  
Top of worksheet (cell Formatting
CTRL+Home Edit active cell F2
A1)
End of worksheet Format as currency with
CTRL+End SHIFT+CTRL+$
(last cell with data) 2 decimal places
End of row Home Format as percent with
SHIFT+CTRL+%
End of column CTRL+left arrow no decimal places
Move to next worksheet CTRL+PageDown Cut CTRL+X
  Copy CTRL+C
Formulas Paste CTRL+V
Apply AutoSum ALT+= Undo CTRL+Z
Current date CTRL+; Redo CTRL+Y
Current time CTRL+: Format cells dialog box CTRL+1
Spelling F7
Help F1
Macros ALT+F8

Exercise

1. What is spreadsheet software? Give examples of spreadsheet software.

2. What are the main features of Microsoft Excel?

3. What is a formula? What is the main characteristics of Microsoft Excel formula?

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4. List out some similarities between Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.

5. List some of the most common types of Graphs.

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