Basic Computer Skills
Basic Computer Skills
UNIT-I
BASIC COMPUTER
Introduction:
The word “computer” comes from the word “compute” , which means to calculate. Hence , a
computer is normally considered to be a calculate to be a calculating device, which can
perform arithmetic operations speed.
A computer is a device that accepts information and manipulates it for some result based on
a program or sequence of instruction on how data is to be processed.
BMR
input Processing Output
Business
Payroll calculations
Budgeting
Sales analysis
Financial forecasting
Managing employee database
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Banking
Online accounting facility, which includes checking current balance, making deposits
and overdrafts, checking interest charges, shares, and trustee records.
ATM machines which are completely automated are making it even easier for
customers to deal with banks.
Insurance
Insurance companies are keeping all records up-to-date with the help of computers.
Insurance companies, finance houses, and stock broking firms are widely using computers
for their concerns.
Insurance companies are maintaining a database of all clients with information showing −
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Interests due
Survival benefits
Bonus
Education
The computer provides a tool in the education system known as CBE (Computer
Based Education).
There are a number of methods in which educational institutions can use a computer
to educate the students.
Marketing
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Home Shopping − Home shopping has been made possible through the use of
computerized catalogues that provide access to product information and permit direct
entry of orders to be filled by the customers.
Healthcare
Computers have become an important part in hospitals, labs, and dispensaries. They are
being used in hospitals to keep the record of patients and medicines. It is also used in
scanning and diagnosing different diseases. ECG, EEG, ultrasounds and CT scans, etc. are
also done by computerized machines.
Following are some major fields of health care in which computers are used.
Diagnostic System − Computers are used to collect data and identify the cause of
illness.
Lab-diagnostic System − All tests can be done and the reports are prepared by
computer.
Patient Monitoring System − These are used to check the patient's signs for
abnormality such as in Cardiac Arrest, ECG, etc.
Pharma Information System − Computer is used to check drug labels, expiry dates,
harmful side effects, etc.
Engineering Design
Computers are widely used for Engineering purpose. One of the major areas is CAD
(Computer Aided Design) that provides creation and modification of images. Some of the
fields are −
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Structural Engineering − Requires stress and strain analysis for design of ships,
buildings, budgets, airplanes, etc.
Communication
E-mail
Chatting
Usenet
FTP
Telnet
Video-conferencing
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Government
Computers play an important role in government services. Some major fields in this
category are −
Budgets
Sales tax department
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Data
4. People
5. Storage
Hardware: All the physical components of the computer ,which we can touch and feel,
those peripherals are known as Hardware. These are like cpu, input, output devices.
Software: Any user is willing to give an instruction that enables the computer to be work.
These set of instructions become a program which uses a computer language these set
programs becomes a software. Software are two types are,
1. System software
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2. Application software
People: The people who are interact with hardware and software and some interact woth the
database systems. And some of them interact with the people who are at remote area through
the Internet. These interactions or communications can be possible only when those are
having something to share with each other.
The CPU performs the central control functions. It controls the operations of its functional
units by following the machine instructions from memory, manipulating or decoding their
instructions and reducing it to output or carrying it out. To do this , it must interface and
communicate with memory and I/O units with the help of system buses. This is further
classified into 3 types.
1. Memory Unit
2. Control Unit
3. Arithmetic Logical Unit
Memory Unit: It is the storage space used to store the input data, the user program and the
intermediate results. This storage unit consists of RAM and ROM. The information stored in
this will be available as long as the power supply is connected to the computer. If the power
supply is disconnected for any reason , then all the information will be erased from the
memory and the user will have to retype the data once again after the power supply is
resumed.
Control Unit: The control unit, as the name implies, is a unit, which controls all the internal
operations, such as input/output, data transfer procedures. It is this unit which will read and
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understand the user’s program and performs the tasks as per the instructions written in the
program.
Arithmetic Logical Unit : The Arithmetic Logical Unit is specially designed to perform all
the arithmetic calculations and the logical operations such as comparing and evaluating the
given data. After performing all operations the results will be sent back and stored again in
memory unit, if desired.
CPU
ARITHMETIC LOGICAL UNIT
MEMORY UNIT
Input Devices:
An input device is an electromechanical device, which accepts data from the outside world,
and translates then into a form, which the computer can interpret.
Keyboard: Keyboard devices are the most commonly used input device today. They allow
data entry into a computer system by pressing a set of keys, which are mounted on a
keyboard, which is connected to the computer system.
4. Control keys are ctrl,alt,tab,caps lock,shift, space, enter, esc, Cursor Keys, etc
Mouse: Mouse is the most popular point-and-draw device. It has become a must have input
device on personal computers and workstations, which have a GUI-based interface. The
graphics cursor, which is used to point and draw, is displayed on the screen as a variety of
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symbols, such as an arrow. A wrist with a pointing finger etc. Depending on the application,
the text and graphics cursor may be displayed on the screen at the same time.
Advantages
Easy to use
Trackball: A trackball is a pointing device, which is similar to a mouse. To move the graphics cursor
around the screen, the ball is rolled with the finger. Because the whole device is not moved for
moving the graphics cursor, a trackball requires less space than a mouse for operation.
Joystick: a joystick is a pointing device, which works on the same principle as a trackball. To make
the movement of the spherical ball easier, the spherical ball, which moves in a socket, has a stick
mounted on it. The stick can be moved forward or backward, left or right, to move and position the
graphics cursor at the desired position.
Electronic Pen: In a pen based system, you hold the pen in your hand, and directly point with it on
the screen to select menu items or icons or directly draw graphics on the screen with it
Voice recognition devices are input devices, which allow a person to input data to a computer
system by speaking to it. Hence, they make computer much easier to use. However, as a data
input device, currently voice recognition system have limited success, because correct
interpretation by a machine of the large number of words in the vocabulary of a language is
difficult. The major difficult has been that people speak with different accents and intonations
and the fact that the meaning of words can vary depending on the context in which they are
used.
Vision Input System: A computer with a vision input device consists of a digital camera,
and follows the following steps to recognize a given object.
1. The digital camera is focused on the input object to take a picture of the object.
2. The digital camera creates an image of the object in digital form, so that it can be
stored and interpreted by the computer.
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3. The digitized image of the object is matched against similarly formed pre stored
images in the computer image database.
4. Depending on whether a match is found or not, the system takes the appropriate
action.
Output Devices:
An output device is an electromechanical device, which accepts data from a computer and
translates them into a form, which is suitable for use by the out side world.
When a program is keyed in, the screen displays the characters. The user can read the
program line by line and make corrections before it is stored or printed. A screen size differs
from system to system. The standard size of screen is 24 lines/ 80 characters. Most screen
have provisions for scrolling.
Monitor: A monitor is usually associated with a keyboard, and together they form a video
display terminal(VDT). A VDT is the most popular input/output devices used with today’s
computer. That is, it serves as both an input and an output device. The two basic types of
monitor used today are,
Printers: Printers are the most commonly used output device today for producing hard-copy
output. The various types of printers are,
1. Dot-matrix printer
2. Ink-jet printer
3. Laser printer
4. Drum printer
Plotters: Plotters are ideal output device for architects, engineers, city planners and others
who need to routinely generate high-precision, hard-copy, graphic output of widely sizes. The
two commonly used types of plotters are,
1. Drum plotters
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2. Flatbed plotters
Computer Memory
1. Primary memory
2. Secondary memory
Primary memory
In consists with the slow storage media was the computers memory, which though limited in
capacity and prohibitively expensive, was very fast allowed you to locate data instantly.
Primary memory is internal memory of the computer. It is also known as main memory and
Temporary memory .Primary Memory holds the data and instruction on which computer is currently
working. Primary Memory is nature volatile. It means when power is switched off it lost all data.
Primary memory is generally of two types.
1. RAM
2. ROM
1. RAM (Random Access Memory) – It stands for Random Access Memory.RAM is known as read
/writes memory. It generally refereed as main memory of the computer system. It is a temporary
memory. The information stored in this memory is lost as the power supply to the computer is
switched off. That’s why RAM is also called “Volatile Memory”. RAM is also of two types:
Dynamic RAM: Dynamic RAM also known as DRAM, its stored information in a very short time (a
few milliseconds) even though the power supply is ON. The Dynamic RAM are cheaper and
moderate speed and also they consume less power.
Static RAM- Static RAM also known as SRAM , retain stored information as long as the power
supply is ON. SRAM are of higher coast and consume more power .They have higher speed than
Dynamic RAM
2. ROM (Read Only Memory) – It stands for Read Only Memory.ROM is a Permanent Type
memory. Its content are not lost when power supply is switched off. Content of ROM is decided by
the computer manufacturer and permanently stored at the time of manufacturing. ROM cannot be
overwritten by the computer. It is also called “Non-Volatile Memory”. ROM memory is three types
names are following-PROM(Programmable Read Only Memory)-PROM chip is programmable
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ROM it is PROM chips to write data once and read many. once chip has been programmed ,the
recorded information cannot be changed. PROM is also nonvolatile memory.
EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory)- EPROM chip can be programmed time
and again by erasing the information stored earlier in it. Information stored in EPROM exposing the
chip for some time ultraviolet light .
Secondary memory
Secondary Memory is external memory or non-volatile memory of the computer. It is also known as
Auxiliary memory and permanent memory. It is used to store the different programs and the
information permanently. Secondary Memory is nature non volatile. It means data is stored
permanently even if power is switched off. The secondary storage devices are:
1. Magnetic Tapes
2. Floppy Disks
3. Magnetic (Hard) Disk
4. Optical Disk(CD,DVD)
5. Pen Drive/USB Flash drive
Magnetic Tapes:
Floppy Disks:
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The hard disk drive is the main, and usually largest, data storage device in a computer.
Hard disk speed is the speed at which content can be read and written on a hard disk.
A hard disk unit comes with a set rotation speed varying from 4500 to 7200 rpm.
Optical Disk(CD,DVD):
Optical disc is any storage media that holds content in digital format and is read using
a laser assembly is considered optical media.
A small, portable flash memory card that plugs into a computer’s USB port and
functions as a portable hard drive.
Flash drives are available in sizes such as 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 5GB, and 16GB and
are an easy way to transfer and store information
Hardware:
The physical components of a computer constitute its Hardware. These include keyboard,
mouse, monitor and processor. Hardware consists of input devices and output devices that
make a complete computer system.
1. Input devices
2. Output devices
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Software:
A set of programs that form an interface between the hardware and the user of a
computer system are referred to as Software
1. System software
2. Application software
1. System software:
A set of programs to control the internal operations such as reading data from input
devices, giving results to output devices and ensuring proper functioning of components is
called system software.
2. Application software:
Data:
Data represented with the help of characters such as alphabets(A-Z,a-z), digits(0-9) or special
characters (+,-,*,/,<,> etc).
Information:
Information is a organized or classified data, which has some meaningful values for the
receivers. Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based.
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For the decision to be meaningful, the processed data must quality for the following
characteristics ---
Step 1: Unpack the monitor and computer case from the box. Remove any plastic covering
or protective tape. Place the monitor and computer case on a desk or work area.
Be sure to place your computer case in an area that is well ventilated and has good air flow.
This will help to prevent the computer from overheating.
Step 2: Locate the monitor cable. There are several types of monitor cables, so the one for
your computer may not look like the one in the image below.
If you're having trouble finding your monitor cable, refer to the instruction manual for your
computer.
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Step 3: Connect one end of the cable to the monitor port on the back of the computer
case and the other end to the monitor. If you're using a VGA cable like the one in the picture
below, you'll want to tighten the screws on the monitor cable to secure it.
Many computer cables will only fit a specific way. If the cable doesn't fit, don't force it or
you might damage the connectors. Make sure the plug aligns with the port, then connect it.
Step 4: Unpack the keyboard and determine whether it uses a USB (rectangular) connector
or a PS/2 (round) connector. If it uses a USB connector, plug it into any of the USB ports on
the back of the computer. If it uses a PS/2 connector, plug it into the purple keyboard port on
the back of the computer.
Step 5: Unpack the mouse and determine whether it uses a USB or PS/2 connector. If it uses
a USB connector, plug it into any of the USB ports on the back of the computer. If it uses
PS/2 connector, plug it into the green mouse port on the back of the computer.
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If your keyboard has a USB port, you can connect your mouse to the keyboard instead of
connecting it directly to your computer. If you have a wireless mouse or keyboard, you may
need to connect a Bluetooth dongle (USB adapter) to your computer. However, many
computers have built-in Bluetooth, so an adapter may not be necessary.
Step 6: If you have external speakers or headphones, you can connect them to your
computer's audio port (either on the front or back of the computer case). Many computers
have color-coded ports. Speakers or headphones connect to the green port,
and microphones connect to the pink port. The blue port is the line in, which can be used
with other types of devices.
Some speakers, headphones, and microphones have USB connectors instead of the usual
audio plug. These can be connected to any USB port. In addition, many computers have
speakers or microphones built into the monitor.
Step 7: Locate the two power supply cables that came with your computer. Plug the first
power supply cable into the back of the computer case and then into a surge protector.
Then, using the other cable, connect the monitor to the surge protector.
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You can also use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS), which acts as a surge protector
and provides temporary power if there is a power outage.
Step 8: Finally, plug the surge protector into a wall outlet. You may also need to turn on
the surge protector if it has a power switch.
If you don't have a surge protector, you can plug the computer directly into the wall.
However, this is not recommended because electrical surges can damage your computer.
Step 9: If you have a printer, scanner, webcam, or other peripherals, you can connect them
at this point. Many peripherals are plug and play, which means they will be recognized by
your computer as soon as they are plugged in.
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Other peripherals may include software that needs to be installed before you can begin using
them. Use the instructions included with the device to install it if necessary.Generally,
peripherals are optional, and you can add new ones at any time; you don't have to add all
peripherals during the initial setup of your computer.
Operating System
Functions
The main functions performed by most operating system of today are as follows
3. File Management. The file management module of an operating system takes care Of
activities such as organization, storing, retrieval, naming, sharing, and protection of files.
4. Security. The security module of an operating system protects the resources and computer
system against destruction and unauthorized access.
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Unix:
"Unix is a multi user, time sharing operating system. Although it can be used on a wide
variety of computers, ranging from notebook computer'. to super computers, it is especially
prevalent on RISC workstations, such as those Sun Mirco systems.. Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
and Silicon Graphics.
Unix was developed in the early 1970s at Bell Laboratories by Ken Thompson and Dennis
Ritchie for a small PDP-II computer. It was the first operating system to be written in a high-
level language C. The normal practice until then was to assembly language for writing
operating due to which operating systems were system dependent. That is, they were usable
only on the system for which they were developed. However, since Unix was written in C
language, moving it to a new machine, known as porting it, was much easier. This was an
important reason for its large popularity and availability on a wide variety of systems.
Linux:
Linux is an open source operating system enhanced and backed by thousands of programmers
world wide. It is a multi-tasking operating system, which was originally designed to be used
on personal computers. The name Linux is derived from its inventor Linus Torvalds. Linus
was a student at the University of Helsinki, Finland in early 1990s when he wrote the first
version of an Unix-like kernel as a toy project. He later posted the code on the Internet and
asked programmers across the world to help him it into a working system. The result was
Linux. Torvalds holds the copyright, but permits free distribution of the source code. That is ,
he oversees development of the kernel and owns its trademark. When someone submits a
change or a feature, Torvalds and his core team of kernel developers review the merit of
adding it to the source code.
Microsoft Windows:
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Its native interface is a GUI. Hence, it is easier for a new user to learn and use the
system.
Microsoft windows was designed to be not just an operating system, but also
complete operating environment. That is all its programs conform to a standard
way of working.
It is a single user, multitasking operating system. That is a user may run more than
one program at a time.
Status Bar:
A status bar is located at the bottom of any application or Internet browser windows and
many application windows and displays the current state of the web page or application being
displayed. For example, in early versions of internet Explorer, it showed whether the page
was secure, its certificate, what was currently being loaded on the page and the web address.
Example: Below is an example of what the status bar looked like Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Menu Bar: Alternatively referred to as the file menu, a menu is a list of commands or
choices offered to the user through the menu bar. Menus are used in GUI operating system to
allow the user access to program features. File menus are commonly accessed using the
computer mouse, however, may also sometimes be accessed using shortcuts or the keyboard.
Below is a visual example of what a menu may look like in a GUI environment.
Menu name
Menu bar
Selected menu item
Menu shortcut
separator
Menu item
Mnemonic
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How to access the file menu: Using your mouse, move the mouse pointer to one of the file
menu option, and left click the option. For example , if you wanted to use the save feature
through the file menu, you’d first click on File , and then once the drop-down for File
appears, click the save option.
The Microsoft windows task manager is a general, quick, and easy method of seeing what is
running on the computer. As you can see in the picture below, in Windows 8 and Windows
10, the Windows Task Manager opens with the processes tab selected. In Windows 7 and
earlier, the task Manager opens with the Applications tab selected. In both cases, the
applications currently open and running on the computer are displayed. From here, you can
end any application that is not responding by selecting it in the list and clicking the End Task
button.
The processes tab displays applications that are running, as well as Windows system
processes. You can identify what processes are consuming your resources by clicking on the
CPU or Memory column headers. Doing so will sort the process list by how much of that
resources they are using. Click the header multiple times to toggle between highest-to-lowest
and lowest-to-highest sort order.
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Simple Settings:
Date & Time: This page contains steps on how to change the computer’s Date and Time
every operating system, as well as through the CMOS setup. To proceed, select your
operating system from the list below and follow the instructions,
In the lower-right corner of the screen, click or tab the windows Notification area
where you see the date and time.
Select Change date and time settings in the bottom of the window that appears.
In the Date and Time window, under the Date and Time tab, click the Change date
and time button.
Make your adjustment and click OK.
Click OK on the main Date and Time window to save the changes.
In the Date and Time window from above, under the Date and Time tab, click the
Change time zone button.
Select the new time zone in the Time zone drop-down field and click OK.
Click OK on the main Date and Time window to save the time zone change.
Display properties: The display properties window is accessible from the windows
control Panel or by simply right clicking your desktop. The display properties window allows
access top several settings, such as the Windows colors scheme and background themes,
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resolution and monitor system drivers. After you have accessed the window, you can set each
tab configuration to settings that make it more comfortable to work on your window machine.
Step 1: Right click your windows desktop and select properties. If you are running windows
7 or vista, the icon is labeled personalize. This opens your display properties window.
Step 2: Click the settings tab .This displays the resolution settings your monitor . Slide the
bar up to increase the monitor resolution.
Step 3: Click the Themes tab. This tab provides a list of color schemes and background
images for your display. The scheme you select is tied to your Windows profile, so each user
who logs into the machine can seta different scheme.
Step 4: Click the Desktop tab. This sets your windows desktop settings, such as a personal
background image, wallpaper and icon settings.
Step 5: Click the Screensaver tab. This sets your monitor screen saver, and it sets the sleep
mode for the monitor when the machine is not active. This saves electricity, and it locks the
machine with the screen saver after you walk away for a set amount of time.
Windows has many components which you can add and remove it enhance how Windows
works.
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1. Click the start button, point to settings, and select Control Panel from the menu that
appears.
2. Double click the Add/Remove programs icon
3. Click the windows Setup tab.
4. Click a component.
5. To remove the entire component from your computer, uncheck the box.
6. To remove certain parts of the component, click the Details button, and uncheck the
parts you want to remove.
7. To Add components, just check their boxes.
8. Once you are finished selecting components, click Apply Windows will now make
the changes to your system.
9. Click OK.
Mouse pointer
The mouse pointer is the graphic image of the cursor displayed on-screen when the mouse is active. As
the pointer moves over objects, the image changes to reflect the associated function. For example, the
standard pointing image of an arrow is Normal Select. However, when the computer is processing
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Mouse clicks
The following list describes the types of mouse clicks:
Click - single press on the left mouse button; selects data and performs commands.
Double-click - two rapid presses on the left mouse button; opens files or folders, opens shortcuts.
Right-click - one press on the right mouse button (also known as alternate clicking); displays
shortcut menus and drop-down menus. In some applications, right-clicking a menu item can access
contextual information or specific help for that item.
Center-click - some mice support clicking the scroll wheel or a center mouse button to produce a
click used by some applications. For example, clicking the scroll wheel once in Internet Explorer
opens a scroll graphic allowing you to scroll up or down depending on the placement of the mouse
pointer.
Drag-and-drop or select - press and hold on the left mouse button. When using the select feature
within text, the text is selected or highlighted. When using the drag-and-drop on the file and folder
level, you can move files or folders:
To the desktop
Mouse wheel
The mouse wheel provides vertical scrolling and panning functions in applications with active scroll
bars. Roll the mouse wheel up or down to scroll, or press the mouse wheel to activate panning.
Some mouse wheels have tilt-wheel functionality that allows a horizontal action. Tilt the wheel to the
left or right to move horizontally within text.
1. Click Start . In the Search box, type mouse. Under Control Panel in the search results,
click Mouse.
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3. In the Customize box, click the pointer function (such as Normal Select), and click Browse to
choose a new pointer image. To change the entire scheme of pointers, for example, to change the size
of all the pointers, click the down arrow in the Scheme field and select a new pointer scheme from
the list.
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1. Click Start . In the Search box, type mouse. Under Control Panel in the search results,
click Mouse.
3. In the Motion field, click and hold the slide bar while moving the mouse to the right or left, to adjust
the mouse speed.
Use the following steps to adjust the mouse for right-hand or left-hand use:
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1. Click Start . In the Search box, type mouse. Under Control Panel in the search results,
click Mouse.
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Use these steps to adjust the mouse double-click speed. If you prefer to open desktop folders with a
single-click rather than a double-click,
1. Click Start . In the Search box, type mouse. Under Control Panel in the search results,
click Mouse.
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3. In the Double-click speed area, click and hold the slide bar while moving the mouse to the right or
left, to adjust the double-click speed.
4. Test the adjusted speed by double-clicking the folder to the right of the slide bar.
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Use the following steps to change how mouse clicks are used to open your folders and files:
1. Click Start . In the Search box, type folder options, and then click Folder Options in the
search results.
3. In the Click items as follows area, click one of the following options:
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If you are using a desktop printer you need to add the printer manually. If you are using a
Smart Printer the printer will already be installed.
1. Find out the name of the printer you want to add. The name will be clearly labelled on the
printer
2. Click Start
3. Type Devices and Printers into the search box
4. Click Add a Printer
5. Choose Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer
6. Select the printer from the list of printers shown and press Next.
7. Choose No when asked if you would like to make this printer your default printer.
8. Press Next, then Finish.
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Remove a printer
You may wish to remove a printer if you move buildings or find that you have a long list of
printers that you do not use.
1. Choose Start
2. Type Devices and Printers into the search box
3. Right Click the print queue you want to remove
4. Choose Remove Device from the menu.
5. You can also select the print queue and press Remove Device from the toolbar.
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View A File:
If the file is associated with a program, but you want to open it with a different program, hold
down the Shift key and right-click the file. Select Open With from the drop-down menu that
appears, and then select the program you want to use to open the file.
Alternative method
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Creating a new folder can help you organize and keep track of files and other folders. In order
to create a folder, you select the location where you want the new folder, create the folder,
and then lastly, name the folder. You should name each folder meaningfully so that just by
reading the folder’s name you know its contents. After you name a folder or file, you can
rename it at any time.
Create a Folder
Click the Organize button on the toolbar, and then click New folder.
Right-click a blank area of the window, and then click New folder.
Press Enter.
Click the Organize button on the toolbar, and then click Rename.
With the name selected, type a new name, or click to position the insertion point,
and then edit the name.
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Press Enter.
1. Open the window that you would like to close using your mouse.
2. Press and hold down the Alt key, then press the Spacebar to reveal the right-click context
menu at the top of the program window you're trying to close.
3. Release both keys and press the letter C. This will cause the window to close.
Another option is to select the window you want to close and then press Fn+Alt+F4. You'll
probably need two hands for this one.Although the shortcut is officially listed as Alt+F4, you
must hold down the Function (Fn) key for it to work.
The Ctrl+W shortcut only closes the current file you're working on, but it leaves the program
open. This feature can be handy if you want to leave the desktop program open but get rid of
all the files you're working on in quick succession. Ctrl+W works in most browsers too, so
you can close the current tab you're looking at without taking your hands off the keyboard. If
you use Ctrl+W when only one browser tab is open, then the program window will close.
It's possible to select an open window without using the mouse. Press Alt+Tab to cycle
through your open windows. Use this shortcut in conjunction with the other shortcuts to close
all open windows without taking your hands off the keyboard.
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Sometimes you don't actually want to close all those windows; what you really want to do is
just look at your desktop. To quickly access your desktop, press the Windows Key+D. Use
the same shortcut to bring back all your windows.
Common utilities:
Below is a list of many different utility program categories. For a list of all of the different
types of computer software, see our software page.
Antivirus
Backup software
Clipboard
Compression utility
Cryptography software
Debuggers
DirectX
Dr. Watson
Encryption tools
File manager
Hex editor
Memory tester
Network monitors
Package manager
Registry cleaners
Screen saver
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MS-WORD
Introduction:
Word Processing is perhaps the most common and comparatively
easier application to work on any computer. A word processor lets you to change words or phrases, to
move whole sections of text from one place to another, store blocks of text, and align margins all in
few seconds. Use of word processors has changed the look of official correspondence, reports, and
proposals etc. to a great extent. MS-Word is an advanced word processing product by Microsoft
Company. The powerful features of Word will allow you to create even graphic based multicolumn
publications such as Fliers, News letters and Internet web pages.
Quality: It produces error free documents. The spell and Grammar check in word processing makes
the document to be neat and error free. We can get multiple copies of excellent formatting nature in
word Processing.
Storage of Text: We can take any number of copies with word processor. Not only that, if we need
the same document with some slight changes, we need not type the same letter again, Just by making
some slight changes, we can obtain a modified copy easily.
Time saving: We can get copies of document in future without retyping. We can get the copy of
document on any printer also.
Security: We can protect the document in the word processing by giving passwords. So there is a less
chance of viewing the document by unauthorized persons.
Dynamic Exchange of Data: We can have Dynamic exchange if objects and pictures from other
documents into word processing documents. The documents can be linked each other.
Introduction to word:
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Menu
Bar
Formatting
Tool Bar
Standard
Tool bar Scroll
arrow up
Scroll Box
Cursor
Screen to
type the
Matter
Scroll
arrow
down
Status
Bar
Current page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Word allows all toolbars to be customized, so you may not find all options listed here. There are
several buttons that may or may not appear immediately in your version of Word. Use the following
graphic as a guide to the Standard Toolbar.
1. New Blank Document: To begin a new document, click on the New Blank Document icon,
shaped like a blank sheet of paper.
2. Open: Clicking on this icon opens up a previously saved document on your computer.
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3. Save: Clicking on the Save icon saves the document you are currently working on. If you are
saving a document for the first time, you can click on this button. However, if you want to save a new
file from a preexisting document, then you must go to the menu bar and select “File menu in Save As”
and give the file a new name. When working on any document, you should be sure to save frequently,
so that you don't lose any work.
5. Print: Clicking on the Print icon automatically prints the document currently active in Word. If
you wish to explore more print options, then go to the menu bar and select “File menu in Print.”
6. Print Preview: To get an idea of the appearance of your document in print before you actually
print it out, you can click on this icon to view your document from a zoom-out distance.
7. Spelling and Grammar: Clicking begins a review of your document in search of spelling and
grammatical errors that may need to be corrected.
8. Copy: Copy the current selection to the clipboard, which can then be pasted elsewhere in the
document, or into a completely separate program/document.
9. Paste: Clicking on the Paste button inserts the text that has been most recently added to the
Clipboard. With Paste, you can either insert the copied text into a document or replace selected text.
10. Undo Typing: The Undo Typing button goes back and removes the last addition or change made
to your document.
11. Insert Hyperlink: You may find that you want to make links to a particular web site, web page,
or some other kind of online file in your Word document. Using the Insert Hyperlink button, you can
turn selected text into hyperlinks. When the icon is clicked, a window will appear that will allow you
to insert the URL of the web page you want to link to. You can type in the URL yourself or insert a
preexisting bookmark. Once the link is inserted, the link in your Word document can be clicked and
the web page will open up in a web browser.
12. Insert Table: When this icon is clicked, a small window will appear in the form of a grid of
squares. Use this window as a guide to indicate how many rows and columns you would like your
table to contain. Once selected, a table will automatically appear in Word. Clicking the Tables and
Borders button will allow you to modify the table. To modify an aspect of the table, select, or place
the cursor in, the area and apply changes such as borders and colors.
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These options will allow you to Cut or Copy a piece of text from one location and to paste at a new
location. To do these functions,
1. Place the cursor at the beginning of the text to be selected. Drag the mouse pointer over the
text. The text will now appear in reverse video as shown below:
PDC Degree College
2. Click Edit menu and then click on Cut option (or) click icon on the Standard Toolbar.
Move the cursor to the place where you want the text to be pasted.
3. Click Edit menu and then click Paste option (or) click icon on the Standard Toolbar.
4. For copying the text from one location to other location the same procedure is to be followed.
5. The difference between Cut and Copies that while using the Cut option the text will be
removed from its original location and pasted at a new Location, where as when using Copy
option a copy of the selected text is pasted at new location without disturbing the
original text.
Searching text
2 Click Edit menu and then click Find option. You will get a screen as shown below.
3 In Find What text box type the word you want to find and then click Find Next button.
4 Continue clicking Find Next button until you get the screen shown below.
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2 Click Edit menu and then click Replace option. You will get the dialog box as shown
below and type the word with which you want to replace.
3 Click Replace All button once. You get the below dialog box.
Formatting documents
2 Block the text by first clicking at the start of the text and holding the left mouse button and drag to
the desired position and then release the left mouse button. The selected area will be highlighted.
3 Move the mouse pointer to the button on the Standard Toolbar and click once.
4 Move the mouse pointer outside your text and click to release the highlighting. Your text will now
appear in BOLD FACE.
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5 Like this you can underline or italicize the desired text by using the following buttons
Left aligning, centering , right aligning and justifying text Left Centre Right Justify
2 Block the text by first clicking at the start of the text and holding the left mouse button and drag to
the desired position and then release the left mouse button. The selected area will be highlighted.
3 Move the mouse pointer to Align Left button on the toolbar and click once. Your selected text will
be left aligned.
4 Move the mouse pointer to Align right button on the toolbar and click once. Your selected text will
be right aligned.
5 Move the mouse pointer to Center button on the toolbar and click once. Your selected text will be
centered.
6 Move the mouse pointer to Justify button on the toolbar and click once. Your selected text will be
justified.
1 If a list of items are to be numbered automatically it can be done using Numbered List option
MS-Word
MS-Excel
MS-PowerPoint
MS-Access
MS-Outlook
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1. MS-Word
2. MS-Excel
3. MS-PowerPoint
4. MS-Access
5. MS-Outlook
• MS-Word
• MS-Excel
• MS-PowerPoint
• MS-Access
• MS-Outlook
Indenting Paragraphs
3 Leave the highlighting on and click once more on the Right Indent button.
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4 Click once on the Left Indent button. Your text should now be indented by one Tab stop.
Each time you click, the paragraph is moved one tab stop.
Font Controlling
Select a
Select a font Font Style
Style
Select font
of Size
Select color
of Font by
clicking on
this
Preview of Font
Click on OK Button
4 You can set Font type, Font Style and Font size and Color of the selected text.
5 Click OK button.
File management
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While typing the document you should keep some points in mind:
1 In order maintain gap between one word and another, we have to press Space button
3 If you want to start typing from the middle of line, press Tab key as many times as required.
Saving a Document
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Type the
name to be
given to
document
here
Click on
save
button
On the above screen, type the name of document against the box given besides file name. And
Click on Save button above document.
You have successfully created a document, entered information and saved it. Now you have to Close
the document.In order to close the document, we have again three methods.
What ever method you adopt to open the document, you will get the following screen.
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Select
existing
File
Click on
open button
4 Select the document that you want to open. In this case select “Letter” document.
5 Click on Open on the above screen. Then the documents will be shown in front of you.
Open any word document. Then we can check the spelling and grammar mistake .We have using
three methods.
1 Click Tools menu and then click Spelling and Grammar option.
2 Press F7 on the keyboard.
3 Click on button from Standard Tool bar
You will get the below dialog box.
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Note all words that appear red color in First box are spelling mistakes. If you want to accept
the suggested word, in the second box click on Change. If not, click Ignore button. You can
also add a word to the dictionary by clicking on the Add button.
Continue this process until you get the dialog box, shown below:
Click OK button.
Save your work when the spell-check is complete, so that the corrections are saved.
Thesaurus
Click on Tools menu in Language in Thesaurus or Press Shift+F7 from keyboard. selection
gives you possible meanings and synonyms for selected words in your documents. This helps you be
more precise in your writing. To use the Thesaurus, position the cursor in front of a word or highlight
it. And Right Click and Then you will find a dropdown menu and select synonyms option select
Thesaurus menu as shown below.
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Lists of possible meanings and synonyms are displayed. Pickax desired word so that it is in the
Replace with Synonym box and clicks the Replace button to use it. Use the Look Up button to find
alternate meanings of a selected word in the Meanings box. Click Cancel to exit the Thesaurus dialog
box without accepting any of the suggested changes.
Tables
Introduction: Creating documents using Microsoft Word allows for the manipulation and display of
text and other information. Tables, which are made up of rows and columns that form cells, can be
utilized to organize information in your document. Formatting text, structuring your document, and
adding a little bit of aesthetic appeal to your document are just a few ways in which you can use tables
in Word. By using tables, you can turn an otherwise dull and unorganized document into a more well-
designed
Creating a Table:There are different methods you can use to insert a table into your Word document.
If you are less experienced with tables, then you might want to consider using the "Insert Table"
option. Otherwise, you can use "Draw Table," which lets you make a table by scratch by drawing it
freehand using the Draw Table tool.
Insert Table: In your document, place your cursor where you wish to insert a table. Then, go to the
menu bar and select Table Menu in Insert option the select Table option. After you make this
selection, the "Insert Table" window will pop up.
Input the necessary information needed to create your table. Decide on a number of rows and
columns. "AutoFit" refers to the space that the table takes up in your document. For your initial table,
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you might want to set the "Fixed column width" to "Auto." This sets the width to all of the columns in
your table to an equal amount, and the table itself will take up the entire width of the document. When
you have decided on all of your table options, click on the "OK" button. The table will then be
automatically inserted into your document.
Draw Table: If you'd like to draw your own table for scratch, go to the menu bar and select “Table
Menu in Draw Table option.” Once this option is selected, the "Tables and Borders" toolbar will pop
up.
Click on the first icon on this toolbar, the "Draw Table" tool , to begin drawing a table. Then,
navigate to the location in your document where you want to draw your table. Using the "Draw Table"
tool, click and drag to form the outside border of the table, determining its width. When you are
finished, let go of the mouse button so that the outside border of the table can be rendered.
You can draw rows and columns by using the "Draw Table" tool to draw vertical lines to create
columns, and horizontal lines to form rows. Continue to draw your table as you see fit. Now that you
have the initial table inserted into your Word document, you can begin to modify your table as
needed.
Insert Rows:
2 Choose Table and click Insert Rows option to insert rows in the table
Delete Rows:
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Printing document
Here you can set margins(top, bottom, right and left), paper size, paper source and layout.
Click OK button.
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UNIT-II
M.S. EXCELL
What is Excel?
This course introduces Microsoft Excel, usually simply referred to as Excel. This is a very
popular and powerful spreadsheet application. Spreadsheets facilitate the production of lists, tables
and charts which means they are much used by those who wish to prepare balance sheets of income
and expenditure. They may also be used to process examination results and to tabulate anything from
a record of the daily supply of food to the armies of Edward III to a mathematical function.
What is Spreadsheet?
Excel is a spreadsheet program that is offered by Microsoft as a part of their M.S. Office. A
spreadsheet is a tool that help you organize, analyze and evaluate data. Here are some examples of
Excel being used in our day to day work.
Create Budget Report, survey results and all financial transactions that most of you use it for.
A cell address in a spreadsheet, such as Excel, identifies the location of the cell in the
spreadsheet. A cell address is a combination of column letter and row number of a cell such as C4 or
G6.
In Excel, a cell reference identifies the location of a cell or group of cell in the worksheet.
Sometimes referred to as a cell address. A cell reference consists of the column letter and row number
that intersect at the cell’s location.
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Using cell
reference in
a formula
A cell range is a group or block of cells in a worksheet that have been selected or highlighted.
When cells have been selected they are surrounded by an outline or border. Normally there is only
one cell in the worksheet with a black outline. This is the active cell, whatever command is executed
by Excel affects the active cell. Using the mouse, keyboard or Name box, more than one cell can be
selected to create a range, and command executed by Excel will affect the entire range.
The Range
for SUM
Function is
A1 to E1
In addition to creating and saving of worksheet, we have some more options that should known.
Editing the contents of the cell: Place the cursor in the cell where you want to change the
information. Start typing the information so that new information will take in the place of old
information.
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Adding a new Row or Column: First you highlight the place where you want to add a
new row or column. Then click on Row or Columns from insert menu. Then new row or column will
be inserted.
Delete the information in the Cell: Place the cursor in the cell and select the area and
press delete button. The data in that cell is deleted.
Opening the Worksheet: Click on file menu in open option. Then select the name of
worksheet that you required and Click on open. The worksheet will be opened.
FORMULAE IN EXCEL:
In order to use any formulae like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division, first we
have to type = in the cell where you want answer. For example if to add the marks of Ravi, we have
to add the marks in concerned cell, i.e.,C3,D3,E3,F3,G3 and H2. Note that everything in Excel is
calculated on the basis of cells. Then we have place the cursor in cell I3 where we want answer like
=C3+D3+E3+F3+H3.
In the same way we can multiply, Subtraction and Division, we have to use special symbols
like *, -, / .
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1. Sum =(C3+D3+E3+F3+H3)
2. Multiply =(C3*D3*E3*F3*H3)
3. Subtraction = (C3-D3)
4. Division =(C3/D3)
And another technique, we can find out the total marks of all students with a single click. For
this purpose, first highlight all the marks of all students including the cell where you want total marks.
In this case, highlight cells C3 to H3 where all the marks of students covered and also from C4 to H4
to get the total marks of all students.
It should be noted that formula itself contains the equal ( = ) symbol. Then click on icon in
the Standard Tool Bar.
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You can now see that the Total marks of 10 students have been calculated with the sum(i.e.,
)option in the above sheet.
FUNCTIONS IN EXCEL:
The functions in Excel are one of such simple techniques for calculating the values. Functions
are nothing but in-built formulae. They are simplified formulas already inserted in the computer. In
other words, the simplified form is function. A Function is written as under.
Here the work “ sum ” is a function which means the total, where as (c3:h3) is cells a range.
Instead of typing all cells like C3+D3+E3+F3+G3+H3 , we have to type only the first and last cells.
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7. MINUTE( ) : It calculate the minutes of a given time. For example, if the time is 03:26:35,
this function return 26.
8. SECOND( ) : It calculate the seconds of a given time. For example, if the time is 03:26:35,
this function return 35.
STATISTICAL FUNCTIONS:
1. SUM( ) : It calculates the SUM of values of a given range. If we have C3,D3,E3,F3,G3 and
H3 in a column of cells, it gives 357as sum value.
2. AVERAGE( ) : It calculates the AVERAGE of values of a given range. If we have
C3,D3,E3,F3,G3 and H3 in a column of cells, it gives 59.5 as average value.
3. MAX( ) : It gives the maximum value of s given series. Suppose we give C3,D3,E3,F3,G3
and H3 , it gives 85 as Maximum value.
4. MIN( ) : It gives the minimum value of s given series. Suppose we give C3,D3,E3,F3,G3 and
H3 , it gives 45 as Minimum value.
5. COUNT( ) : It calculate the number of cells in a given range. Suppose we give
C3,D3,E3,F3,G3 and H3 , as range, this function gives 6.
6. MODE ( ) : It gives the most frequent value of a given series. If we take C3,D3,E3,F3,G3
and H3 , it gives 45as modal value.
7. MEDIAN ( ) : It gives the middle value of a given series. In the above example of values, it
gives 57 as the middle value.
MATHEMATICAL FUNCTION:
1. ABS ( ) : It calculate the absolute value of a given number. Suppose you give
ABS(-10), it gives 10 as absolute value.
2. EXP ( ) : It calculates the exponential value of a given number.
3. INT ( ) : It rounds off the number in its nearest integer. Suppose you give INT(80.7), it gives
80.
4. MOD ( ) : It gives the remainder of given values. Suppose you divide 7/2, it gives 1 as
remainder.
5. LOG ( ) : It calculate the common logarithm of a given number.
6. ROUND ( ) : It rounds off a number to a specified decimal places. The Round(18.7892), it
gives 18.79.
7. SQRT ( ) : It calculates the square root of a given number. The Sqrt(16), it gives 4.
FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS:
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2. FV ( ) : It returns the value of an investment at a contact payment and interest rate based on
time.
Syntax: Fv(rate, nper, pmt, pv, type)
3. PV (The Present value Function) :It calculate the present value of an investment given the
payment per period and interest rate over the period of payments specified.
Syntax: Pv(rate, nper, pvnt, fv,type)
4. NPER ( ) : It calculates the number of periods for an investment based on periodic, constant
payment and a constant interest rate.
Syntax: Nper(rate, pmt, pv, fv, type)
TEXT FUNCTIONS:
1. CHAR( ): It returns the character specified by the code number from the character set.
2. LOWER ( ) : It converts all capital letters in a text string to lower case. Suppose if we take
“SANTHOSH” , we can convert it into “santhosh” by using this function.
3. UPPER ( ) : It converts all lower letters in a text string to upper case. Suppose if we take
“santhosh” , we can convert it into “SANTHOSH” by using this function.
4. FIND ( ) :It finds the required text that we want to find in a text.
5. LEFT ( ) : It gives the specified number of characters from start of a text string.
6. RIGHT ( ) : It gives the specified number of characters from end of a text string.
7. REPLACE ( ) : It replace part of a text string with a different text string.
LOGICAL FUNCTIONS:
1. AND ( ) : It checks whether all arguments are true or not and if they are true, it gives true.
2. FALSE ( ) : It returns the logical value FALSE.
3. IF ( ) :It checks whether the given condition is correct or not.
4. NOT ( ) :It changes False to True or True to False.
5. OR ( ) : It checks whether the arrangements are True or not. It returns True, if it is true other
wise it is false.
6. TRUE ( ) :It returns the logical value true.
DATABASE FUNCTIONS:
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These functions mainly deal with database like DAVERAGE, Dcount, Dcounta, DST, DEV,
DMAX, etc., They calculate values from a given database.
POWER POINT
What is PowerPoint ?
PowerPoint is a tool you can use to communicate your ideas effectively through visual aids
that look professionally designed yet are easy to make. With PowerPoint, you can create slides for
your presentation in the output you require: blank and white overheads, color overheads, 35mm slides
or on-screen electronic slide shows. In addition, you can prepare speaker’s notes, print an outline and
print audience hand-outs. All these components in one file make up a PowerPoint Presentation.
1. The slides can be run prepared for different types of audiences i.e., literates. Illiterates.
Children old people etc.
2. They can be run automatically .there is no manual interference for running power point show.
3. There is no problem of getting slides of order.
4. We can even take printouts of presentations and can be distributed for the audience.
5. The audience will easily be attracted by the colour fill slides and animation techniques.
6. The built –in design templates allow the people to create colour full slides very easily.
7. If we want to change a part of presentation .we need not change all the slides .we can change
all slides by making changes master slide.
Starting PowerPoint
Start --- All programs -------- M.S. Office ------- M.S. Power point
To begin working with PowerPoint, you will need either to open an existing presentation
or create a new presentation using one of available options. They are
• Blank Presentation
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Whether your presentation will be in the form of an electronic slide show, 35mm slides,
overhead or just paper print-outs, the process of creating a PowerPoint Presentation is basically the
same. You can start with a template, a design template or a blank presentation. To get to these three
basics form, there are three options.
Blank Presentation
The blank Presentation template is a design template that uses the default formatting and
design. It is useful if you want to decide on another design template after working on the presentation
content or if you want to create your own custom formatting and design form scratch.
To create a new presentation based on the presentation template, select Blank Presentation
from the PowerPoint startup dialog box and click OK. With PowerPoint already running, you can
(1) select New from the File menu, click the General tab on the New Presentation dialog box,
click the Blank Presentation icon and click OK or (2) click the New button on the standard toolbar.
The New Slide dialog box appears.
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Creating Slides
When you create a new presentation using a template, you start with first and then continue
to build the presentation by inserting new slides.
On the New Slide dialog box PowerPoint gives you a set of available slide layouts, called Auto
layouts, to choose from. An Auto Layout contains placeholders for titles, Text and objects such as clip
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art , graphs or tables that you may want to put on a slide. You are not limited only by this option. As
you will see later in the handout, anything can be added to any slide. To create slide, click an Auto
layout icon that matches the layout of the slide you want to make; the name of the selected Auto
layout appears in the lower right side on the dialog box. Then click OK and the new slide appears on
the screen.
Slide View
In Slide View, you can add graphics to your slides as well as type, edit and format text,
PowerPoint displays the Formatting and Drawing toolbars in addition to the standard toolbar. The
presentation appears on the screen one slide at a time. The left side of the status bar displays the page
number of the current slide. To move to other slides, drag the elevator on the vertical scroll bar or
click the Previous slide or nest slide button below the scrollbar.
Outline View
Working in Outline View is a good way to organize and develop the content of you
presentation. To insert text, click where you want to add text and type. Bullet and their editing is very
easy in this view. Creating sub-level along with promotion and demotion text can be done here as
well. You can also print a copy of you outline. In this
view, you see only the title and body text of each slide. The drawing toolbar closes and the Outlining
toolbar opens. This works much like the Microsoft World Outlining toolbar.
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In Slide Sorter View, you can efficiently perform tasks such as reordering slides and adding
builds, transitions, and slide timings for electronic presentations. You cannot work on text and visual
elements of individual slides in this view. PowerPoint displays miniature versions of each slide. In
addition to the standard toolbar, PowerPoint displays the Slide Sorter toolbar.
In Notes Pages Views, you can create pages that you can print and use as a guide during your
presentation. Each page contains an image of the corresponding slide and placeholder for your notes.
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Computer Networks:
A computer network is a group of computers connected with each other through a
transmission medium such as cable, wire etc. In this guide, we will discuss the types of
computer networks in detail.
There are mainly three types of computer networks based on their size:
1. Local Area Network (LAN)
2. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
3. Wide area network (WAN)
1. Local area network is a group of computers connected with each other in a small places
such as school, hospital, apartment etc.
2. LAN is secure because there is no outside connection with the local area network thus the
data which is shared is safe on the local area network and can’t be accessed outside.
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3. LAN due to their small size are considerably faster, their speed can range anywhere from
100 to 100Mbps.
4. LANs are not limited to wire connection, there is a new evolution to the LANs that allows
local area network to work on a wireless connection.
MAN network covers larger area by connections LANs to a larger network of computers. In
Metropolitan area network various Local area networks are connected with each other
through telephone lines. The size of the Metropolitan area network is larger than LANs and
smaller than WANs(wide area networks), a MANs covers the larger area of a city or town.
Wide area network provides long distance transmission of data. The size of the WAN is
larger than LAN and MAN. A WAN can cover country, continent or even a whole world.
Internet connection is an example of WAN. Other examples of WAN are mobile broadband
connections such as 3G, 4G etc.
Advantages of WAN:
Centralized infrastructure: One of the main advantage of WAN is the that we do not need
to maintain the backup and store data on local system as everything is stored online on a data
centre, from where we can access the data through WAN.
Privacy: We can setup the WAN in such a way that it encrypts the data that we share online
that way the data is secure and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access.
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Increased Bandwidth: With the WAN we get to choose the bandwidth based on the need, a
large organization can have larger bandwidth that can carry large amount of data faster and
efficiently.
Area: A WAN can cover a large area or even a whole world though internet connection thus
we can connect with the person in another country through WAN which is not possible is
other type of computer networks.
Disadvantages of WAN:
Antivirus: Since our systems are connected with the large amount of systems, there is
possibility that we may unknowingly download the virus that can affect our system and
become threat to our privacy and may lead to data loss.
Expensive: Cost of installation is very high. Issue resolution: Issue resolution takes time as
the WAN covers large area, it is really difficult to pin point the exact location where the
issues raised and causing the problem.
Introduction to Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard
Internet protocol suite (often called TCP/IP, although not all applications use TCP) to serve
billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private,
public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked
by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet
carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked
hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support
email.
WWW is the acronym for the World Wide Web. It is also commonly known as ‘The
Web’. The WWW is a system that we use to access the Internet. The WWW is hypertext
based information retrieval tool, it uses the hypertext to access the various forms of
information available on the world’s different networks.
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One can easily surf the Web by jumping from one document to another using the links
in those documents. These documents can be in many formats, such as text, graphics,
animation, sound and latest is video. They may also be a combination of all these.
All the information on Internet are presented to the user as a document or more
popularly known as Web Page. All these Web Pages are link to each other or even to section
within a Web Page. And these links are known as Hyper Links.
Basics of E-mail
Electronic mail is an application that supports interchange of information between two or
more persons. Usually text messages are transmitted through email. Audio and video
transfer through email depends on the browser in use. This provides a faster way of
communication in an affordable cost.
Advantages of E-mail
Functionalities like attachment of documents, data files, program files, etc., can be enabled.
This is a faster way of communication at an affordable cost.
Disadvantages of E-mail
If the connection to the ISP is lost, then you can’t access email. Once you send an mail to a
recipient, you have to wait until she/he reads and replies to your mail.
Email Addressing
Email address is a unique address given to the user that helps to identify the user while
sending and receiving messages or mails.
Username − Name that identifies any user’s mailbox
Domain name − Represents the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
@ Symbol − Helps to concatenate username and domain name.
For example − user_name@domain_name
Username − user, Domain name − gmail.com
Configuring email client is setting up a client which includes the following steps −
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Step 1 − Open Outlook Express using "Start Menu" or using search option under the start
menu. Once the outlook window is open, press "Next" button at the bottom of the outlook
express window.
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Step 2 − Then "Add an email account" window pops up showing "Do you want to set up
outlook to connect to an email account?"
Check mark the 'Yes' radio button and hit NEXT.
Step 3 − Then "Auto account set up" window opens showing the details of the mail
account to be configured. After providing corresponding details, press "Next" button.
Step 4 − The server will verify your email and then an email client will get configured once
you press the finish button.
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Using email
The main purpose of using email is to exchange information between persons. The process
starts with opening of client email and ends with sending and verifying mail to recipients.
Opening Email Client: In order to interchange messages between people, the first step is to
open or create an email account. Follow steps below to create an email account.
Step 1 − Go to Gmail homepage and select "More options → Create account" option.
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Step 2 − In the window displayed, fill mandatory details and press "Next".
Step 3 − Then mobile verification code will be sent to the mobile number you have entered,
upon verification, your email account will be created.
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Outbox − Outbox is an area where the outgoing messages or messages which are in process
of sending or which are failed to send are stored.
Sent mail − Sent mail is an area to view all the sent or successfully delivered mails.
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Step 2 − Compose or create your message by selecting "compose" option shown in the
window.
Step 3 − In the window displayed, enter recipient’s address in "To" textbox and add
"Subject" of message, then add a "Body" of the message and press "Send" button.
Remember, the subject of the mail should be explicit and short.
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Step 2 − In the window displayed, enter "Body" of the mail and click "Send" button. The
mail will be sent automatically to the corresponding person without having to re-type the
"To" address.
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Step 2 − In the window displayed, enter the recipient address in "To" textbox and press
"Send" button. The mail will be forwarded to the corresponding person.
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Sorting Emails
Sorting helps you to arrange mails or messages in an orderly fashion. It includes the
following steps.
Step 1 − Click arrow adjacent to "Sort by date", a default sort option visible at the top of
the window.
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Searching Emails
Searching email is a process of finding the desired email without going through all the
emails.
Step 1 − Type the name, email id or key-term in the search box displayed on top of the
window.
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Step 2 − From the list of displayed mails, select desired mail or message.
Email provides many advanced features which includes sending attachments like
documents, videos, images, audio, etc. Apart from this, you can proofread your mail via
feature of spell check, address book, etc.
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Step 2 − In the window opened, browse document you wish to send and click "Open"
button.
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Step 3 − Document gets uploaded and will be an attachment to that mail. Finally click
"Send" button to send mail to the recipient.
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Step 2 − The second step is to "Right click" on mouse and select "Spell check" and from
the list displayed, select "Check the spelling of text fields", then the spell check feature
gets activated.
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Step 2 − Click "Writing email" tab and mark the check box that shows "Automatically
add new recipients to contacts", now new addresses get added to the contacts or address
book.
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Step 2 − In the window opened, select document or file you need to send and click "Open"
button.
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Step 3 − Once the document or file gets attached to mail, click "Send" button to send mail to
the recipient.
Handling SPAM
Spam is a folder where unwanted or suspected mails get stored.
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Step 2 − From the displayed menu, click any one of the following options.
Report Spam − Unwelcomed/uninvited/unsought emails.
Report a Hacked Account − Emails from the contacts that are not usual or normal.
Report a Phishing Account − Emails from authorized concern, but are actually
meant to scam personal information.
Not my mail − Email addressed to some other person.
Step 3 − Now, when you check the spam folder, you can see the mail that you marked as
spam is added to the spam folder.
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Step 3 − Now go to "Inbox", you can see the email that you removed from the spam folder
is shifted to the "Inbox" folder.
Instant messaging is real time mutual communication between persons via internet. This is a
private chat. Once the recipient is online, you can start sending messages to him/her. Unlike
emails, where you have wait for the reply from the recipient, collaboration uses instant
messaging technique. This also supports the usage of add-on features like smiley or
emoticons with the text message. Examples of instant messaging applications include Face
book, We Chat, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Using Smiley
Smiley’s are otherwise called as emoticons. Emoticons are graphical representation of
emotions. There are 300+ emoticons in instant messaging. Emoticons are pictorial
representation of facial expressions that showcase emotions like happiness, sorrow, crying,
exclamation, etc.
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Step 2 − At the bottom of chat window, you can see emoticon symbol, on clicking that, a list
or group of emoticons is displayed. You can choose the desired emoticon by selecting it.
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Short messages
Messages you send through internet should be short and to the point.
Spell check
Activate spell check feature in your document to avoid spelling mistakes while
typing.
Mixed-case
Instead of using a single case (either lower/upper) throughout the entire message, try
to use mixed-case. This increases readability.
For example, start with uppercase letters at the beginning of a line and paragraph,
write the headings in uppercase letters and body with mixed-case letters.
Subject
Always have a hint related to your content as a subject. The subject ought to be a
phrase rather than a complete sentence, providing the crux of email.
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Carbon copy
The mail addresses of the important people who are intended to read the content of
email should only be added in CC (carbon copy).
Attachments to be small
Keep the attachments small with respect to memory size, as it clogs (block) the
recipient's mailbox.
Try to avoid sending files larger than 2 megabytes.
Abbreviations
Use abbreviations wisely.
Send button
As you cannot change anything mail once it is sent, think twice before you hit the
send button.
Check whether you have conveyed everything in a formal language before hitting the
send button.
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