Notes

Introduction to Computer
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
GOVT POST GRADUATE COLLEGE MARDAN
Introduction to Computer Notes

Information Technology
The study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications) for storing, retrieving, and
sending information is called Information Technology. In simple words Computer + Communication =
Information Technology
The basic components of computer based information system are:

1. Hardware: These are the devices like the monitor, processor, printer and keyboard, all of which
work together to accept, process, show data and information.
2. Software: These are the programs that allow the hardware to process the data.
3. Databases: Databases are the gathering of associated files or tables containing related data.
4. Networks: Networks are a connecting system that allows diverse computers to distribute resources.
5. Procedures: Procedures are the commands for combining the components above to process
information and produce the preferred output.
6. PEOPLE: - People are required for the operation of all Information Technology system. These
people include programmer and all other persons who know the use of information technology.

DATA & INFORMATION

DATA
Data are facts and figure which can be represented by values, numbers, strings and/or symbols and which
carry meaning in a particular sense. The name of the person, the pay drawn by the employees, marks
obtained by the students, Student Admission Forms, and CV are a few examples of Data.

Data is plural word referring to more than one fact. A single fact is referred to as the item of the data or
Data-Item. Data is actually the plural form the word “DATUM”. Datum comes from the Latin word and
originally meant “Some Thing Given”.

Data may be Qualitative or Quantitative. The data usually non-numeric is called Qualitative data. This
data states the characteristics of objects or things e.g. the words like good, average, excellent, heavy, red,
green, hot, cold long, intelligent, dull etc. are the examples of Qualitative data.

The data which can be represented by numbers is called Quantitative data e.g. the marks obtained by the
students in the examinations, total numbers of the students in a class are all the examples of Quantitative
data.

TYPES OF DATA
There are different types of data.
1. Alphabetic Data Type: - It consists of letter from A - Z capital form or a - z small letter. e.g.
Ishaq, Mardan, Pakistan, Khan etc.
2. Numeric Data Type: - It consists of digit form 0 - 9 e.g. 123, 567, 256 etc.

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3. Alphanumeric Data Type: - It consists of Alphabetic letters as well as numeric digits. e.g.
Street No. A/10, F16, B52 etc.
4. Graphic Data Type: - It consists of tables, charts, graphics and statements.
5. Audio Data Type: - In consists of only sounds. For example radio news.
6. Video Data Type: -_ It consists of photos, image and moving picture. Such as TV News.
7. Mixed Data Type: - Mixed data type combine more than one type of data. Such as the
combination of audio and video.

INFORAMTION

Processed form of the data is called Information

OR

Manipulation of data into useful form is called Information

OR

Information can be defined as:

“Facts and Figures which are new, timely and accurate considered to be in structured and
associated form”.

Example:

The temperature, the atmospheric pressure, the wind speed etc, at a place represent data. These data items
when combined together and analyze become more meaningful and predict the weather as Rainy Day,
Strong Condition, or Dry Condition, which is an information. Student Merit List is also an example of
information.

DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN DATA AND INFORMATION

DATA:-
1. Data is a set of raw facts.
2. Data is used as input in the computer.
3. Data is not meaningful.
4. Data is asset of organization and is not available to people for sale.
5. Data is an independent entity.
6. Data is not used in decision making.
7. Data is use rarely.

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INFORMATION:-

1. Information is processed form of data.

2. Information is the output of computer.
3. Information is meaningful.
4. Information is normally available for sale.
5. Information is depend on data.
6. Information is very important for decision - making.
7. Information is used frequently.

COMPUTER
Computer is a device which process the data. It is an electronic device that receives stores, retrieves and
processes the data. It is capable of performing computations and making logical decision at the speed of
thousands or even millions of times faster than human beings.

ADVANTAGES / CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTERS

SPEED
A computer is a very fast device. While talking about the speed of computers, we donot talk in
term of seconds or even Milliseconds (10-3). Our unit of speed are Microsecond (10-6), the Nanoseconds
(10-9) and even in Femto Second (10-15). A powerful computer is capable of performing about 3 to 4
millions simple arithmetic operations per seconds.

ACCURACY
Computer gives the 100% accurate result and makes no mistake. Errors can occur in a
computer, but these are mainly due to human i.e. due to imprecise thinking by programmer or due to
inaccurate data.

RELIABILITY
A human becomes bored and quickly fatigued performing repetitive, monotonous tasks, whereas
a computer is tireless machine. It does not take coffee breaks, or become depressed after a fight with its
friend, wife or husband. It does not go on strike or become angry. If ten million calculations have to be
performed, a computer will perform the ten millionth calculations with exactly the same accuracy and
speed as the first one.

POWER OF REMEMBERING

A Computer can store a huge amount of data because of its secondary storage. Every piece of
information can be retrieved as long as desired by the user and can be retrieved as and when required.

Versatility

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Versatility is one of the most wonderful things about the computer. One moment it is preparing the
results of particular examination the next moment it is busy preparing electricity bills and in between, it
may helping an office secretary to trace an important letter in seconds.
Diligence

Being a machine, a computer does not suffer from the human traits of tiredness and lack of
concentration. If 3 million calculations have to be performed, it will perform the 3 millionth with
exactly the same accuracy and speed as the first.
NO IQ : Computer does not work without instruction.
NO FEELINGs : Computer does not have emotions, knowledge, experience, feeling.
COMMUNICATION TOOL
Computer is the fastest medium of communication. Through computer your message or document or
photograph can reach any part of the world using internet facilities. You can download any amount of
material through computer. Through video conferencing you can not only see each other but also talk
with any body living in any part of the world.
DISADVANTAGES OF COMPUTERS

 Computers can make the mind lazy. Instead of reading a book, or researching something at the
library... you use Just a few key-strokes on computer , you have your answer.
 It destroys your social life and interactions with humans if you do not maintain the balance.
 It Spends too much time by playing online games or chatting or using facebook over the computer
instead of reading books, taking walks, and doing homework.
 By using computer too much, it can also lead to anti-social behavior and depression.

Functions of Computer
There are four basic operations of a computer system:

1. Input
2. Processing.
3. Output
4. Storages

Input Operation:

In the Input operation, data is captured, entered and converted to a form that can be processed by the
machine easily.

Processing Operation

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In the Processing operation, the data is manipulated to process or transform it into information. For
example, numbers may be added or subtracted.

Output Operation

In the output operation, the information obtained from the data is produced in a form usable by people.
Examples of output are printed text, sound, charts, and graphs etc.

Storage Operation
In the storage operation, data, information, and programs are permanently stored on storage devices,
Disks, USB, CD are the examples of materials used for storage.

Classification of Computer
1. TYPES OF COMPUTERS WITH RESPECT TO WORKING
There are three types of Computers.

 Analog Computers
 Digital Computers.
 Hybrid Computers.

ANALOG COMPUTERS

Analog Computers process information which is of a continuous nature which is not discrete or
separate. An Analog computer calculates by measuring the continuous change in some physical quantity.
Analog data includes temperature, pressure, flow rate, current, voltage and depth. These quantities are
continuous and having infinite variety of values.

Analog computers can be used to control processes (such as chemical processes where
temperature or other readings are important)

DIGITAL COMPUTERS

Digital computer process information which is based on the presence or the absence of the
electrical charge or as we prefer to say a binary one or a binary zero.

Digital computers represent data as numbers or separate units. Counting on your fingers is the
simplest form of digital computer. Adding machines and pocket calculators are common examples of
devices constructed on the principals of the digital computer.

HYBRID COMPUTERS

A Hybrid computer is a combination of digital and analog computers i.e. it combines the features
of both, Analog & Digital computers. They have the speed of Analog and the accuracy of digital

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computers. These are used mainly in specialized applications where both kinds of data need to be
processed. Hybrid computers, for example, are used to control national defense and flight radar system.

2. TYPES OF COMPUTERS WITH RESPECT TO SIZE AND SPEED

Computers are often classified into five sizes. These are :

 Microcontrollers (Tiny Computers)

 Microcomputers (Small Computers)
 Minicomputers (Medium Computers)
 Mainframes Computers (Large Computers)
 Super Computers (Super large Computers)

Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers also called embedded computers are the tiny, specialized microprocessors
installed in cars, cameras, video games, toys etc. For example, these microcontrollers enable microwave
ovens to store data about how long to cook your potatoes and at what temperature.

MicroComputers

Microcomputer is the most popular form of the digital computers. These computers are being
used in all fields of life. It is the microcomputers that has brought computing into schools, small
businesses, and homes. Microcomputers are also called as personal computers (PCs) or home computers.

Microcomputers are desktop, tower or portable computers. These computers come in several sizes like
Laptops, Notebook, Subnotebook etc.

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Mini Computers

Minicomputers are midsized computers in size, cost &power.

It lies between microcomputers and mainframes. It is used by several persons at a time through separate
terminals. In general, a minicomputer is a multiprocessing system capable of supporting from 4 to about
200 users simultaneously. Now many minicomputers are being replaced by groups of PCs & workstations
in networks.

One of the first manufacturers of Minicomputers was Digital Engineering Corporation (DEC).
Other manufacturers of Mini computers include Honeywill, Wang Laboratories, IBM, VAX, NCR etc.

MAINFRAME COMPUTERS

Mainframe Computers are very large and expensive computers capable of supporting hundreds
or even thousands of users simultaneously. Mainframe computers, traditionally, have been the largest
computers that are about the size of a jeep and that range in price from $50,000 to $10million. Such
machines are typically operated by professional programmers and technicians in a centrally managed
department within a large company.

Mainframe computers have very high prices, that is why they can usually be afforded by the
Government, large business corporations, public utilities like water, gas, and electricity.

Examples of Mainframes computers are IBM 4381, ICL 2900, NEC 610 etc.

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SUPER COMPUTER

Super computers are the largest, fastest, and most expensive type of computer. They are the best
in solving scientific problems and calculating numbers and hence called “number crunchers”.

Super computers are typically capable of handling hundred of Millions of Floating point
operations Per Second (MFLOPS). They can calculate at a rate of 400 million numbers every second
and are accurate upto 14 decimal places (other machines calculate at 10 million numbers and are accurate
upto 6 decimal places).

Super computers are used to handle specialized information analysis, such as predicting
the weather, modeling nuclear reactions and oil exploration.

Examples of supercomputers are Cray-1 and CYBER 205.

3. TYPES OF COMPUTERS WITH RESPECT TO PURPOSE

There are two types of computers according to their purpose

i. General-Purpose Computers
Most computers in use today are General-Purpose computers — those built for a great variety
of processing jobs. Simply by using a general purpose computer and different software, various
tasks can be accomplished, including writing and editing (word processing), manipulating facts

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in a data base, tracking manufacturing inventory, making scientific calculations, or even

controlling organization’s security system, electricity consumption, and building temperature.
General purpose computers are designed to perform a wide variety of functions and operations.
You will probably use this type of computer reading this article and I am using a general purpose
computer typing this article in some software (MS Word). A general purpose computer is able to
perform a wide variety of operations because it can store and execute different programs in its
internal storage. Unfortunately, having this ability is often achieved at the expense of speed and
efficiency. In most situations, however, you will find that having this flexibility makes this
compromise a most acceptable one.

ii. Special Purpose Computer

As the name states, a Special-Purpose Computer are designed to be task specific and most of the
times their job is to solve one particular problem. They are also known as dedicated computers,
because they are dedicated to perform a single task over and over again. Such a computer system
would be useful in playing graphic intensive Video Games, traffic lights control system, navigational
system in an aircraft, weather forecasting, satellite launch / tracking, oil exploration, and in
automotive industries, keeping time in a digital watch, or Robot helicopter. While a special purpose
computer may have many of the same features found in a general purpose computer, its applicability
to a particular problem is a function of its design rather than to a stored program. The instructions
that control it are built directly into the computer, which makes for a more efficient and effective
operation. They perform only one function and therefore cut down on the amount of memory needed
and also the amount of information which can be input into them. As these computers have to perform
only one task, therefore, they are fast in processing. A drawback of this specialization, however, is
the computer’s lack of versatility. It cannot be used to perform other operations.

HISTORY OF COMPUTER

ABACUS
“ABACUS” also known as “SOROBAN” which was the first recognized calculating device,
developed in “Babylonia” about 5000 years ago. So good was the abacus that can still be seen throughout
the world as both, a toy and a teaching aid. This abacus marked the first step on the road to the computer.

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NAPIER’S BONE

In early 1600s, John Napier, a Scottish mathematician and Politician, invented Logarithm and a
device called Napier’s bones, constructed from strips of bone and wood. This device allowed quick and
accurate multiplication and division of large numbers.

PASCALINE
One of the first mechanical calculators was developed about 1642 by 19 years old “Blaise
Pascal”. Without the use of books, this Frenchman developed a workable calculating machine called
“Pascaline”. The construction of the device was straightforward; a series of gears were used. Each gear
having 10 teeth. The device had the ability to “carry “digits to the next gear.

LEIBNITZ’S MACHINE
In 1694, Wilhelm Leibnitz completed his machine. Pascal’s machine could only add and subtract, but
Leibnitz’s machine could also multiply, divide and find square roots.

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JACQUARD’S LOOM (1801)

Joseph Jacquard, a French textile manufacturer developed a system which used punched card
for controlling a weaving loom.

DIFFERENCE ENGINE & ANALYTICAL ENGINE

The man who conceived of the computer was a British inventor “Charles Babbage” a nineteeth
century professor at Cambridge University, is considered to be the father of modern digital computers;
Like Pascal and Leibnitz, Babbage also was a mathematician and he too, wanted to build a machine that
could perform different calculation quickly.

Babbage developed a steam-power calculator “Difference Engine”. In 1823, Babbage started to

improve the Difference Engine. Actually he wanted to develop a complete calculating machine
“Analytical Engine”, but he failed, because the standard of Engineering technology was not so high at
that time and therefore machine was never completed. But in fact Babbage succeeded in establishing the
basic principles on which the modern computers are constructed.

Difference Engine
MARK-I
In 1937, Howard A. Aiken, at Howard University began a project with the support of IBM
cooperation and completed in 1944. The machine was called the “Mark-I”. the Mark-I was about 8 feet
high and 55 feet long and sounded like a room full of old ladies knitting away with the steel needles.

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COMPUETR GENERATIONS

“Generation” in computer is a step in Technology. It provides a framework for the growth of the
computer industry. There are totally five computer generations known in till today, which are given in
the following.

1ST GENERATION (1942-1955)

Vacuum Tube Computers are known as “The 1st generation” Machines. In 1943,J.P.Eckert and
Jhon W.Mauchly of the Moore School of Engineering of University of Pennsylvania, started the
“ENIAC” stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator Calculator. Vacuum Tubes were used instead of
relays and switches and therefore faster.

Later Eckert and Mauchly built the “EDVAC” stand for “Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer”. It was designed on stored program concept. Von Neumann has also got a share of the credit
for introducing the idea of storing data.

Almost simultaneously with “EDVAC” of U.S.A, the Britishers developed the “EDSAC”
.(Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer). Actually EDSAC started later, but completed before
EDVAC. It was the first operational stored program computer.

In 1951, the “UNIVAC-1” (Universal Automatic Computer-I) was designed by Eckert and
Mauchly. The “UNIVAC 1” was the first used for business applications. It was installed in the census
bureau in 1951 and was used continuously for 10 years.

2nd GENERATION (1955-1964)

The 2nd generation of computers used transistors instead of tubes. Transistors were smaller more
reliable and produced for less heat during operation.

3rd GENERATION (1964-1975)

The 3rd generation of computers started with the introduction of the IBM 360 in about 1965.
Transistors gave away to integrated circuits (ICs). This was very significant development and
improvements. It was possible to integrate large number of circuit’s elements into very small surface of
silicon known as the “Chip”. This new technology was called “integrated Circuits (ICs)”. These
improvements include:

 Increase Processing Speeds

 Increase accuracy
 Integration of Hardware and Software
 The ability to perform several operations simultaneously
 Low price computers

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4th GENERATION (1975 ONWARDS)

Initially the integrated circuits contained only about ten to twenty components. This technology was
named Small Scale Integration (SSI). Later, with the advancement in technology for the manufacturing
ICs, it became possible to integrate up to hundred components on a single chip. This technology was
called Medium Scale Integration (MSI). Then Large Scale Integration (LSI) technology was introduced,
when it was possible to integrate over 30,000 components onto a single chip. Later Very Large Scale
Integration (VLSI) technology was introduced, when it was possible to integrate more than one million
components onto a single chip. This was the age of Microprocessor and Micro computers.

5th GENERATION

Scientists are now at work on the fifth generation computers, a promise, but not yet a reality.
They aim to bring us machines with genuine I.Q. Thus unlike the last four generations which naturally
followed it predecessor, the fifth generation will be totally different, totally new and totally novel.

Number System

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A set of values used to represent different quantities is known as Number System. For example, a
number system can be used to represent the number of students in a class or number of viewers
watching a certain TV program etc. The digital computer represents all kinds of data and information in
binary numbers. It includes audio, graphics, video, text and numbers. The total number of digits used in
a number system is called its base or radix.
Some important number systems are as follows.
 Decimal number system
 Binary number system
 Octal number system
 Hexadecimal number system
The decimal number system is used in general. However, the computers use binary number system. The
octal and hexadecimal number systems are used in the computer.
Decimal number System
The Decimal Number System consists of ten digits from 0 to 9. These digits can be used to represent
any numeric value. The base of decimal number system is 10. It is the most widely used number
system. Examples are: 9839, (8849)10, (78.934)10 etc.
Binary Number System
Digital computer represents all kinds of data and information in the binary system. Binary Number
System consists of two digits 0 and 1. Its base is 2. Each digit or bit in binary number system can be 0
or 1. A combination of binary numbers may be used to represent different quantities like 1001.
Examples are: (10011)2, (11100100)2, (100.11101)2 etc.
Octal Number System
Octal Number System consists of eight digits from 0 to 7. The base of octal system is 8. Each digit
position in this system represents a power of 8. Any digit in this system is always less than 8. Octal
number system is used as a shorthand representation of long binary numbers. The number 6418 is not
valid in this number system as 8 is not a valid digit. Examples are: (725)8, (777)8, (562.57)8 etc.
Hexadecimal number system
The Hexadecimal Number System consists of 16 digits from 0 to 9 and A to F. The alphabets A to F
represent decimal numbers from 10 to 15. The base of this number system is 16.
Examples are: (4983)16, (ABC.DEF) 16, (9A7F) 16 etc.
Conversions
There are 12 types of conversions
1. Decimal Number System --------------------------------------------------> Binary Number System

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2. Binary Number System-----------------------------------------------------> Decimal Number System

3. Decimal Number System --------------------------------------------------> Octal Number System
4. Octal Number System -----------------------------------------------------> Decimal Number System
5. Decimal Number System --------------------------------------------------> Hexa Decimal Number
System
6. Hexa Decimal Number System -------------------------------------------> Decimal Number System
7. Binary Number System ----------------------------------------------------> Octal Number System
8. Octal Number System ------------------------------------------------------> Binary Number System
9. Binary Number System ----------------------------------------------------> Hexa Decimal Number
System
10. Hexa Decimal Number System -------------------------------------------> Binary Number System
11. Octal Number System ------------------------------------------------------> Hexa Decimal Number
System
12. Hexa Decimal Number System -------------------------------------------> Octal Number System

Decimal to Binary Conversion

 Division method is used to convert only integer part of a decimal number to its
equivalent in binary number system.
 In this method the integer part of the decimal number is continuously divided until we
reach a stage where the quotient becomes zero.
 The reminder that we obtain at each division iteration becomes the value of the weights
or the digits in the binary number system.
 The reminders that we obtain are taken from the last step to first step i.e. the last
reminder obtained during the division iteration is the most significant digit (MSD) and
the first reminder the we obtained is the least significant digit in the binary number
system.
You will understand the procedure better with the following illustrative example.
Ex1: Convert (32)10 decimal number to binary number (?)2 using division method

1st Division Iteration

Divide 32 by 2
32 ÷ 2 = 16(Quotient) Reminder:0

2nd Division Iteration

Divide 16 by 2
16 ÷ 2 = 8(Quotient) Reminder=0

3rd Division Iteration

Divide 8 by 2

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8 ÷ 2 = 4(Quotient) Reminder=0

4th Division Iteration

Divide 4 by 2
4 ÷ 2 = 2(Quotient) Reminder=0

5th Division Iteration

Divide 2 by 2
2 ÷ 2 = 1(Quotient) Reminder=0

6th Division Iteration

Divide 1 by 2
1 ÷ 2 = 0(Quotient) Reminder=1

Remainder from the last division iteration becomes MSD and reminder from 1st iteration
becomes LSD.

Hence, the binary equivalent of the decimal number 32 is (100000).

Ex-02: Convert 1792 decimal to binary:

Decimal Number Operation Quotient Remainder Binary Result

1792 ÷2= 896 0 0
896 ÷2= 448 0 00
448 ÷2= 224 0 000
224 ÷2= 112 0 0000
112 ÷2= 56 0 00000
56 ÷2= 28 0 000000
28 ÷2= 14 0 0000000
14 ÷2= 7 0 00000000
7 ÷2= 3 1 100000000
3 ÷2= 1 1 1100000000
1 ÷2= 0 1 11100000000

0 done.

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Ex-03 Convert (0.625)10 decimal number to binary number (?)2 using successive multiplication method

1st Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.625 by 2
0.625 x 2 = 1.25(Product) Fractional part=0.25 Carry=1 (MSB)

2nd Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.25 by 2
0.25 x 2 = 0.50(Product) Fractional part = 0.50 Carry = 0

3rd Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.50 by 2
0.50 x 2 = 1.00(Product) Fractional part = 1.00 Carry = 1 (LSB)

The fractional part in the 3rd iteration becomes zero and hence we stop the multiplication iteration.
Carry from the 1st multiplication iteration becomes MSB and carry from 3rd iteration becomes LSB.

Hence, the fractional binary number of the given fractional decimal number (0.625)10 is (0.101)2.
Binary to Decimal Conversion
In the binary system, each digit represents an increasing power of 2, with the rightmost digit
representing 20, the next representing 21, then 22, and so on. The equivalent decimal representation of
a binary number is sum of the powers of 2 which each digit represents. For example, the binary number
100101 is converted to decimal form as follows:
Example-01: Convert (100101)2 = (?)10
(100101)2 = [ ( 1 ) × 25 ] + [ ( 0 ) × 24 ] + [ ( 0 ) × 23 ] + [ ( 1 ) × 22 ] + [ ( 0 ) × 21 ] + [ ( 1 ) × 20 ]
(100101)2 = [ 1 × 32 ] + [ 0 × 16 ] + [ 0 × 8 ] + [ 1 × 4 ] + [ 0 × 2 ] + [ 1 × 1 ]
(100101)2 = 3710
Example -02: Convert (101.101)2= (?)10
= 1 x 22 + 0 x 21 + 1 x 20. 1 x 2-1 + 0 x 2-2 + 1 x 2-3
= 1 x 4 + 0 x 2 + 1 x 1. 1 x ( 1 / 2 ) + 0 x ( 1 / 4 ) + 1 x ( 1 / 8 )
= 4 + 0 + 1. (1 / 2) + 0 + (1 / 8)
= 5 + 0.5 + 0.125
= 5. 625

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Therefore (1 0 1. 1 0 1)2 = (5.625)10

Decimal to Octal Conversion

Convert 1792 decimal to octal:

Decimal Number Operation Quotient Remainder Octal Result

1792 ÷8= 224 0 0
224 ÷8= 28 0 00
28 ÷8= 3 4 400
3 ÷8= 0 3 3400

0 done.

Convert (105.589)10 to octal:

Combine the portions into a mixed number:

(151.4554)8

Octal to Decimal conversion

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Problem 1: Convert ( 2 1 . 2 1 )8= ( ? )10

= 2 x 81 + 1 x 80 . 2 x 8-1 + 1 x 8-2
= 2 x 8 + 1 x 1 . 2 x ( 1 / 8 ) + 1 x ( 1 / 64 )
= 16 + 1 . ( 0. 2 5 ) + ( 0 . 0 1 5 6 2 5 )
= 17 + 0. 265625
= 17 . 265625

Therefore ( 2 1 . 2 1 )8 = ( 1 7 . 2 6 5 6 2 5 )10

Problem 2: Convert ( 0.357 )8= ( ? )10

= 0 x 80 . 3 x 8-1 + 5 x 8-2 + 7 x 8-3

= 0 x 1 . 3 x ( 1 / 8 ) + 5 x ( 1 / 64 ) + 7 x ( 1 / 512 )
= 0 . (0. 375) + (0 . 0 7 8 1 2 5 ) + ( 0.013671875 )
= 0 . ( 0 . 466796875 )
= 0 . 466796875

Therefore ( 0 . 3 5 7)8 = ( 0 . 466796875 )10

Problem 3: Convert ( 100.01 )8= ( ? )10

= 1 x 82 + 0 x 81 + 0 x 80 . 0 x 8-1 + 1 x 8-2
= 1 x 64 + 0 x 8 + 0 x 1 . 0 x ( 1 / 8 ) + 1 x ( 1 / 64 )
= 64 + 0 + 0 . ( 0 ) + ( 0. 015625 )
= 64 . ( 0. 015625 )
= 64 . 015625

Therefore ( 1 0 0 . 0 1 )8 = ( 64 . 0 1 5 6 2 5 )10

Decimal to Hexa Decimal Conversion

Ex-01: Convert 1792 decimal to hexadecimal:

Decimal Number Operation Quotient Remainder Hexadecimal Result

1792 ÷ 16 = 112 0 0
112 ÷ 16 = 7 0 00
7 ÷ 16 = 0 7 700

0 done.

Ex-02: 48879 decimal converted to hex is:

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Decimal Number Operation Quotient Remainder Hexadecimal Result

48879 ÷ 16 = 3054 15 F
3054 ÷ 16 = 190 14 EF
190 ÷ 16 = 11 14 EEF
11 ÷ 16 = 0 11 BEEF

0 done.

Ex-03: Convert (0.0628)10 decimal fraction to hexadecimal fraction (?)16 using successive
multiplication method

1st Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.0628 by 16
0.0628 x 16 = 1.0048(Product) Fractional part=0.0048 Carry=1 (MSD)

2nd Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.0048 by 16
0.0048 x 16 = 0.0768(Product) Fractional part = 0.0768 Carry = 0

3rd Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.0768 by 16
0.0768 x 16 = 1.2288(Product) Fractional part = 0.2288 Carry = 1

4th Multiplication Iteration

Multiply 0.2288 by 16
0.2288 x 16 = 3.6608(Product) Fractional part = 0.6608 Carry = 3 (LSD)

Here the fractional part doesn't become zero but we obtain required number of significant digits after
the decimal point. Thus we stop the multiplication iteration and assign the weights to the digits
obtained in each multiplication step in the increasing order starting from the 1st multiplication step to
last multiplication step.

Carry from the 1st multiplication iteration becomes MSB and carry from 4th iteration
becomes LSB after the decimal point.
Hence, the fractional hexadecimal number of the given decimal fraction
(0.0628)10 is (0.1013)16.

Hexa Decimal to Decimal Conversion

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Problem-01: Convert A2DE hexadecimal to Decimal

= ((A) * 163) + (2 * 162) + ((D) * 161) + ((E) * 160)
= (10 * 163) + (2 * 162) + (13 * 161) + (14 * 160)
= (10 * 4096) + (2 * 256) + (13 * 16) + (14 * 1)
= 40960 + 512 + 208 + 14
= 41694 decimal

Problem-02: Convert ( E F . B 1 )16= ( ? )10

= E x 161 + F x 160 . B x 16-1 + 1 x 16-2

= 14 x 16 + 15 x 1 . 11 x ( 1 / 16 ) + 1 x ( 1 / 256 )

= 224 + 15 . ( 0. 6 8 7 5 ) + ( 0 . 0 0 3 9 0 6 2 5 )

= 239 + 0. 6914

= 239 . 691406

Therefore ( E F . B 1 )16 = ( 2 3 9 . 6 9 1 4 0 6 )10

Problem-03: Convert ( 0.9D9 )16= ( ? )10

= 0 x 160 . 9 x 16-1 + D x 16-2 + 9 x 16-3

= 0 x 1 . 9 x ( 1 / 16 ) + 13 x ( 1 / 256 ) + 9 x ( 1 / 4096 )
= 0 . (0. 5625) + (0 . 050781 ) + ( 0. 0021972 )
= 0 . ( 0 . 6154782 )
= 0 . 6154782

Therefore ( 0 . 9 D 9 )16 = ( 0 . 6 1 5 4 7 8 2 )10

Problem-04: Convert ( BBC.1 0 )16= ( ? )10

= B x 162 + C x 161 + C x 160 . 1 x 16-1 + 0 x 16-2

= 11 x 256+ 12 x 16+ 12 x 1 . 1 x ( 1 / 16 ) + 1 x ( 1 / 256 )
= 2816 + 192 + 12 . ( 0 . 0625 ) + ( 0 )
= 3020 . ( 0. 0625 )
= 3020 . 0625

Therefore ( B C C . 1 0 )16 = ( 3 0 2 0 . 0 6 2 5 )10

Binary to Octal and Octal to Binary Conversion

Binary Numbers Octal Numbers

0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1

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0 1 0 2
0 1 1 3
1 0 0 4
1 0 1 5
1 1 0 6
1 1 1 7

Ex-01: Convert (101001111011)2 to (?)8

Make pairs of three, three bits from right hand side and write the relevant number against each pair
from the table. Add zero to left side if the pair is not equal to three.
011= 3, 111=7, 001=1, 101=5
Therefore (101001111011)2 = (5173)8
Ex-02: Convert (1011.1111)2 to (?)8
In case of fractional number make three bits pair from the left hand side after decimal point and add
zero at the end if pair is not equal to three bits.
(001011.111100)2= (13.74)8
Binary to Hexa Decimal & Hexa Decimal to Binary Conversion

Binary Hexa Decimal

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

Ex-01: (100100101010101)2 = (?)16

Make the pair of four, four bits starting from right hand side and check the appropriate number from the
table against each four bits pair.
0100100101010101 = (4955)16
00010011.00111000 = (13.38)16
Octal to Hexa Decimal & Hexa Decimal to Octal Conversion

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Octal to Hexadecimal conversion is performed in two steps:

Step-1: Convert a number from Octal to Binary
Step-2: Convert Binary number to Hexadecimal number

Binary Arithmetic

Binary Addition
It is a key for binary subtraction, multiplication, division. There four rules of the binary addition.

In fourth case, a binary addition is creating a sum of (1+1=10) i.e. 0 is write in the given column and a
carry of 1 over to the next column.

EXAMPLE - ADDITION

Binary Subtraction
Subtraction and Borrow, these two words will be used very frequently for the binary subtraction. There
four rules of the binary subtraction. There four rules of the binary Subtraction.

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EXAMPLE - SUBTRACTION

Binary Multiplication
Binary multiplication is similar to decimal multiplication. It is simpler than decimal multiplication
because only 0s and 1s are involved. There four rules of the binary multiplication.

EXAMPLE - MULTIPLICATION

Binary Division
Binary division is similar to decimal division. It is called as the long division procedure.

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EXAMPLE - DIVISION

Basic Elements / Components of a Computer

There are five basic elements of a computer.

INPUT UNIT
Input Unit receives data from outside world. It is the “receiving section” of the computer.
Some typical input devices are keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Joystick and light pen.

INPUT DEVICES

KEYBOARD:
The keyboard is the primary input device for entering text and number. It is a relatively simple
device, consisting of about 108 keys or above. It is the fastest way to enter text and other data into
computer. The keys on the keyboard are arranged in four groups, given below.
 Alphanumeric keypad:
 Numeric keypad:
 Numeric keypad:
 Curser moment keys/arrow keypad:

THE MOUSE
I A mouse is an input device that controls the pointer. A mouse lets you position the cursor
anywhere on the screen quickly and easily A mouse also allows you to create graphics position elements
on the screen, such as line, curves and freehand shapes etc.

THE TRACKBALL

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Like a mouse, a trackball is also a pointing device. They are usually used with laptop computers. A
trackball requires less space than a mouse, so when space is limited, a trackball can be a best choice.

THE TRACKPOINTER
Several companies now offer another pointing device, consisting of a small joystick, positioned
near the middle of the keyboard, typically between the G and H keys. Because it occupies so little
space, the device is built into several laptop models.

LIGHT PENS
An input device that utilizes a light-sensitive detector to selectobjects on a display screen. A light pen is
similar to a mouse, except that with a light pen you can move the pointer and select objects on the display
screen by directly pointing to the objects with the pen.it is important to note that the screen is the input
device, in this case.

TOUCH-SCREENS

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A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within
the display area. Touch-screens are well suited for simple applications such as Automated Teller Machine
(ATM) or public information kiosks, departmental stores, drugstores and supermarket etc.

BAR CODES READERS

A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes. Its commonly
found in the supermarkets, and departmental stores. These devices convert the bar code, which is a pattern
of printed bar on products, into the numeric digits.

SCANNER
Scanner or an image scanner is an input device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or
an object, and converts it to anelectronic format that can be stored in a computer’s memory.

MICROPHONES
A microphone (also called a mic or mike) is an input device that converts sound into an electrical signal.
Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, , hearing aids, and in computers for
recording voice, voice chatting etc.

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OMR

Short for Optical Mark Reading or Optical Mark

Recognition, OMR is the process of gathering information from human beings by recognizing marks
on a document.

MICR
Short for Magnetic-Ink Character Recognition, MICR is a font capable of recognition using
magnetically charged ink. Computers equipped with the right hardware and software can print or read
the character printed in such ink.
MICR font is commonly used to print checks, deposit slips

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OCR
Short for Optical Character Recognition or Optical Character Reader, OCR is the process of
taking images or photographs of letters or typewritten text and converting them into data that a
computer can interpret. A good example is companies and libraries taking physical copies of books,
magazines, or other old printed material and using OCR to put them onto computers. While far from
perfect, OCR is currently the best method of digitizing typed pages of text.

Main Memory (Storage)

Main memory retains all the data which has been entered through the input device. It is very fast
in operation. The main memory is also known as Internal storage, or primary storage or main storage.
Main memory consists of two types, RAM & ROM.

RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. This is the memory whose memory can be
erased or changes.

RAM is a volatile memory, because anything stored in RAM is lost when computer is
switched off, therefore RAM is said to be the temporary memory.

ROM

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ROM stands for Read Only Memory. Like RAM, it is not possible to change or write information
into it. It is Non-Volatile memory. It cannot be lost if the power supply is switched off. So ROM is a
Permanent memory.
STORAGE DEVICES
Unites of Measurement For Storage
Bit = Binary digit (0, 1)
1 Byte = Collection of 8 bits
1 Kilobyte = 1024 Bytes
1 Megabyte = 1024 Kbyte
1 Gigabyte = 1024 Mbyte
1 Terabyte = 1024 Gbyte

STORAGE DEVICES

There are two types of Storage Devices.

 Primary Storage
 Secondary Storage

Primary Storage
RAM
 It can receive and use much larger programs
 It can hold copies of more than one program in main memory to support the sharing of the
computer by more than one user at a time.
 It can operate faster and more efficiently.
 It can work with and manipulate more data at one time.

ROM

Programmer Read-Only Memory (PROM)

Several types of Read-Only Memory can be programmed according to the user’s specifications.
Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM) allows a chip to be programmed by the user once; then it
can not be altered further.

Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM)

An EPROM chip has the features of PROM , but by removing the chip from the circuit and exposing the
ultraviolet light, the contents are erased, and the chip can be reprogrammed for further application.

Electrically Erasable Programmer Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)

This memory chip can be erased and reprogrammed electrically so there is no need to remove it from
the circuit as with an EPROM.They are costly than other ROM chips.

Buffer

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A Buffer is another temporary holding space for data. Unlike a register, a Buffer can hold more than one
piece of data at a time. The Buffer acts as an intermediately between the CPU and any input or output
device. Input and output devices operate at much slower rates than the CPU, so it is necessary to have a
temporary holding place for larger amount of data. For example; a Printer can not print data as fast as the
CPU can send them. Buffer allows the data to be stored temporarily, thereby freeing the CPU to do other
tasks.

CACHE MEMORY

The speed of CPU is quite high as compared to the Access time of main memory. In many situations, the
performance of the Processors are limited due to the slow speed of main memory. To compensate the
mismatch of operating speed, a small memory between CPU and main memory is used whose access
time is close to the processing speeds of the CPU. This type of memory is called high-speed Buffer or
Cache memory. Cache memory makes main memory appear to be faster and larger than it really is.

SECONDARY STORAGE
Types of Secondary Storage Devices

There are two main technologies are used to store the data.
 Magnetic Storage devices
 Optical storage devices.

The primary types of magnetic storage are :

 Magnetic Tape.
 Diskette
 Hard Disk
 Removable Hard Disk

Magnetic Tap

Magnetic Tape is widely used when large amount of data are stored, accessed and processed sequentially.
Magnetic tape used with computers is similar to the tape used on a tape recorder except that it is of highly
quality and more durable. It varies from 0.5 inch to 1 inch in width. It is made of plastic that is coated on
one side with a metallic oxide.

Some tape devices can store upto 6,250 characters per inch (CPI) of tape are sequential access
storage devices (SASD). At high density recording, a 10 inch reel of the tape can hold as much
information as 500,000 punched cards.

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DISKETTE

A popular direct access secondary storage medium for computer is the flexible or floppy disk. Floppy
disks are also referred to as diskettes or floppies. Disks were introduced by IBM in 1972.
A floppy disk is made of flexible plastic which is coated with magnetic oxide. The plastic disk is
housed in a square hard protected jacket. Floppy disk are typically 3.5, 5.25 or 8 inches in diameter. They
come in either single or double density versions and record on both surfaces of a diskette.

HARD DISK
A Hard disk is a stack of one or more metal platters that spin on one spindle. Unlike diskettes, where the
disk and drive are separate, the hard disk and drive is single unit. It includes the hard disk , the motor that
spins the platters and a set of read/write heads.

The term Hard disk and Hard drive are used interchangeably. Hard disks are typically more than
ten times faster than diskettes. A Hard disk spins between 3600 rpm (revolutions per minutes) and 7200
rpm, instead of a diskette’s 300 rpm.

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Different Hard drives are available in the market, having storage capabilities of from 40GB to more than
2TB.

REMOVABLE HARD DISK

Removable hard disks have the speed and capacity of a hard disk with the portability of a diskettes. The
most common removable hard disks are SyQuest, has the same diameter as an old 5.25 inches floppy. A
new design uses a smaller 3.5 inch disk that can store 105 MB or 270 MB.

Later ZIP drive was introduced. It gained popularity due to low prices and can store upto 500 MB to 1
GB.

Another removable harddisk namely “JAZ” drives was introduced, which was as fast as internal hard
disks and can store upto 2 GB of data?

OPTICAL DISKS
An optical disk is a removable disk on which data is written and read through the use of laser beams. In
optical disk technology, a high power laser beam is used to represent data by burning tinny pits into the
surface of a hard plastic disk. To read the data, a low-power laser light scans the disk surface; pitted areas
are not reflected and are interpreted as 0 bits; smooth areas are reflected and are interpreted as 1 bits.

The optical technology consists of four types.

 CD-ROIM Disks.
 CD-R Disks.
 Erasable Disks (CD-R).
 DVD/DVD-ROM Disks.

CD-ROM Disks
CD-ROM stands for Compact-Disk Read Only Disk. It is an optical disk that can hold prerecorded text,
graphics and sound. CD-ROM is a read-only disk. It means that the disk content is recorded at the time
of manufacture and cannot be written on or erased by the user.

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CD-ROMs are a standard 120 millimeters in diameter. A CD-ROM can hold upto about 700
Megabytes of data. This works out to about 269,000 pages of text, or more than 7500 photos or graphics
or 20 hours of speech or 77 minutes of video.

Today, books, magazines, Education training, music, films, games and application & system
software are easily available on CDs.

CD-R Disks
CD-R stands for Compact Disk-Recordable, is a CD format that allows users to use a peripheral CD
Recorder to write data (only once) onto a specially manufactured disk and can then be read by any
compatible CD-ROM drive.

CD-RW Disks
CD-RW stands for Compact Disk Re-Writeable. It is an Erasable optical disk. It allows users to record
and erase data, so that it can be used over and over again.

DVD (Digital Versatile/Video Disk)

DVD stands for either “Digital Video Disk” or “Digital Versatile Disk”. It represents a new generation
of high-density disk with smashing sound and video.

DVD can store much more data than standard CDs. The single sided, single-layer DVD has the
capacity of 4.7 GB per side, whereas double-sided and dual-layer DVDs holds 17 gigabytes.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It consists of two major units, known as Control Unit (CU) and
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU). It supervises, activates and Controls the operations of the other units of
the computer system. It is also called the brain of the computer.

Control Unit (CU)

It controls and coordinates the other parts of the computer system. It maintains all the activities of the
various components of the computer.

Arithmetic Logic Unit(ALU)

ALU stands for Arithmetic Logic Unit. It performs all the arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplications and division and also logical comparisons.

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Output Unit
The device through which the processed information comes to the outside world is called output devices.
Most commonly used output devices are Monitor ( or VDU(Visual Display Unit) or CRT (Cathode Ray
Tube) ), Printer, Plotter etc.

CPU
Block diagram of a computer

OUTPUT DEVICES
Although there are many kinds of input devices, there are currently just four common types of output
devices: Monitors, Printers, Plotters, and Sound systems.
MONITORS
Monitors are the most common type of output device with which user interact most often. Two
basic types of monitor are the used with PC’s. The first is the typical monitor that you see on a desktop
computer – it looks a lot like a television screen and works the same way. This type uses a large vacuum
tub, called a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).

The second type, known as a Flat-Panel display. There are several types of flat-panel monitors, but the
most common is the liquid crystal (LCD). Calculators also use liquid crystal.

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PRINTER
A printer is a device that converts data (stored in the computer) into human understandable data,
placed on paper (Hard Copy).

Printer that prints a character at a time called as serial printer, a line at a time called as line printer,
and a page at a time, called as page printer. Usually printer speed measured in lines minutes (1pm) or
page per minute (ppm).

Printer can vary in the type of printing mechanism used. An impact printer strikes the paper. A
non-impact printer does not use a striker, hammer or other impact mechanism. The advantages of impact
printer are that they are inexpensive; they print graphics as well as text. The disadvantages are that they
are noisy and graphics quality is poor. Examples of impact printers are Dot-matrix, Daisy-wheel and
Drum printer.
IMPACT PRINTERS
Daisy Wheel Printer
Daisy Wheel printers are impact printers. Their output resembles a typed output. In daisy
wheel printer, each petal of the daisy wheel has a character embossed on it. A motor spins the wheel at a
rapid rate. When the desired character spins to the correct position, a print hammer strikes it to produce
the output.

Dot Matrix Printers

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These printers print each character as a pattern of dots. The printer head hammers out characters
in the form of patterns of tiny dots. The print quality of a dot matrix printer is inferior(poor) to that of a
daisy wheel printer. They are also less expensive than a daisy wheel printer.They can print any shape or
character that a programmer can describe. This allows to print graphics such as charts and graphics.

Drum printers
A Drum printer consists of a solid, cylindrical drum that has raised characters in bands on its
surface. Each band contains all the possible characters. The drum rotates at a rapid speed. These hammers
strike the paper, along with the inked ribbon. Typically speeds of drum printers are in the range of 1000
to 2000 lines per minute.

NON IMPACT PRINTER

Non-impact printers are faster and quieter then impact printers because they have fewer
moving parts. Two types of non-impact printers often used with microcomputers are laser printers and
ink-jet printers. A third kind, the thermal printer, is seen less frequently.

Ink-Jet printer
Ink-Jet printers create an image directly on paper by spraying ink through tiny nozzles.
Ink-jet printer offer the most cost-effective way to print in color. Color Ink-jet printers have four nozzles:
Blue, red, yellow and Black. These four color are used in almost all color printing, because it is possible
to combine gum to create any color. For this reason, color printing is sometimes four color printing.

Bubble-Jet Printer
A variation on Ink-Jet technology is the Bubble-Jet Printer, which uses miniature heating elements
to force specially formulated inks through print heads with 128 tiny nozzles. The multiple nozzles print
fine image at high speed.
Laser Printer
Laser Printers are the most common type of non-impact Printer. They are more expensive
then Ink-jet printers, their print quality is higher and most are faster. They produce sharp, crisp images
of both text and graphics, providing resolutions from 300 dpi to 1200 dpi. They are quiet and fast, able
to print 4-32 pages per minute. They can print in different fonts. The more expensive models can print in
different colors.

Thermal Printer

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For highest quality color printing available with a desktop printer is the Thermal Printer.
Thermal Printers use colored waxes and heat to produce images by burning dots onto special paper. The
colored wax sheet are not required for black and white output. Thermal Printers are expensive and they
require expensive paper. Thus they are not generally used for jobs requiring a high volume of output.

PLOTTERS
A plotter is a special kind of output device. It is like a printer in that it produces images
on paper, but it does so in a different way. Plotters are designed to produce large drawings or images,
such as construction plans for buildings or blueprints for mechanical objects.

SOUND SYSTEMS
Just as microphones are now important input devices, speakers and their associated
technology are key-output system. Today, when you buy a multimedia PC, you are getting a machine
that includes a DC-ROM drive, speakers and a sound card.
The speakers attached to these systems are similar to ones you connect to a stereo. The only
difference is that they are usually smaller and they contain their own small amplifiers.

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE

Hardware, in the computer world, refers to the Physical components of the computer that make up a
computer system. In other words, we can say that the electrical, electronical or mechanical components
of a computer system are referred to as computer’s Hardware. For example: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor,
Printer, Plotter USB, CD etc. etc.

Computer hardware will do nothing until we tell it what to do. It is the Software (computer
Programs)that brings the hardware to life. Software tells the computer what to do and how to do.Without
Software, hardware is useless.

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TYPES OF SOFTWARE
Software or programs consists of the instructions that tell the computer how to perform a task. There
are two types of software.

 System Software
 Application Software

SYSTEM SOFTWARE
System software enables the application software to interact with the computer and helps the
computer manage its internal and external resources. System software is required to run applications
software. There are two basic type of system software:

 Operating systems
 Language translators.

An operating system is the principal component of system software in any computing system. The
operating system acts as the master control program that runs the computer. It handles such activities as
running and storing programs and storing and processing data. Examples of operating systems are:
 Ms-DOS,
 Window 98, window NT, Window XP,
 UNIX
 Macintosh Operating system (MacOS).

A language translator is software that translates a program written by a programmer in a language, other
than machine language, into machine language, which the computer can understand. Assembly language
needs an assembler as a language translator. The translator for high-level language is, depending on the
language, either a compiler or an interpreter.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE:
Application software is software that has been developed to solve a particular problem, to perform
useful work on specific task, or to provide entertainment. Some of major categories of Application
software are:

 Word Processor Software: are used to create, edit, and print documents. Examples: Word
Perfect, Word Star, Ms-Word, etc.
 Spreadsheet Software: It lets you create and manipulate worksheet electronically. Examples:
Lotus 123, SpreadPro, Ms-Excel etc.
 Database Software: It allows users to store and retrieve vast amount of data. Examples: MS
Access, MySQL, Oracle etc.
 Presentation Software: It allows users to create visual presentation, normally in the form of
a slide show. Examples: Ms-Powerpoint, Custom Show, Prezi etc
 Graphics Software: It enable a person to manipulate visual images on a computer. Examples:
Adobe Photoshop, Coral Draw, Ms-Paint, etc.

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 Communications Software : With communication software, you are in touch with others.
Novell Netware and Microsoft’s Widow NT are a few examples of communication software.
 Utilities are useful program that assist in the operation of your computer like back up data,
remove or updated file, or recover data that has been accidentally erased. For Example, Window
98 comes with a lot of oils for taking care of your disk, including a backup utility and an anti –
virus utility.

Applications of Computer in education

The computer has provided a lot of facilities in the education system.

 The computer provides a tool in the education system known as CBE (Computer Based
Education).

 CBE involves control, delivery, and evaluation of learning.

 The computer education is rapidly increasing the graph of number of computer students.

 There are number of methods in which educational institutions can use computer to educate the
students.

 It is used to prepare a database about performance of a student and analysis is carried out on this
basis.

COMPUTER LANGUAGES

A computer language is a means of communication between the user and computer. There are three types
of computer languages.

 Machine language.
 Assembly language
 High-level language.

Machine Language

Machine language is the earliest, and most elementary level of a programming language. It is the
fundamental language of a computer. It is the binary language i.e. the language of 0 and 1. It is the only
language that computer understands directly without any translation.

Assembly Language.

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The language consisting of English like abbreviations is called Assembly language. In this language,
English like abbreviations are used to represent the elementary operations of the computer. Assembly
language is also known as Low-level language.

High-level Language.

In high-level language, it is easier to write programs using commonly used English words. These
languages are easier to learn and maintain. Some commonly used high level languages are given below.

FORTRAN
FORTRAN stands for Formula Translation. It was developed by IBM in 1957, It was basically
developed for scientific and engineering applications.

BASIC

BASIC stands for Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It was developed in mid-60s. It is
all-purpose languag. This language was very useful for beginners to learn.

COBOL

COBOL stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language. It was developed in 1959. It is used for
business oriented problems.

PASCAL
Pascal language named after Blaise Pascal. Like BASIC, it is also all-purpose language.

C was developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1970s. I is a flexible, high-level structure programming language.
It is a versatile language.

TRANSLATOR SOFTWARE

Translator software are used to translate programs written in a language other than machine language to
machine code. There are three types of translators.

Assemblers

Assembler is a translator software that translates assembly language program into machine language
code.

Complier
A compiler translates high-level program to a machine language program. The process of translation is
called Compilation. In this process, the whole program is translated completely before executing the
machine program.

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Interpreters
Interpreter translates and execute high level language program into machine language program line by
line. Interpreters are much slower in speed as compares to the compilers.

COMPUTER VIRUS

A computer virus is a small program that inserts itself in the computer without your knowledge and runs
against your wishes. Some viruses can replicate themselves and take over the control of the computer
system. All computer viruses are man-made.

Depending on the nature of a virus, it may cause damage of your data or interfere the normal operations
of your computer. It may format your hard disk or may reduce computer memory or disk space. It may
corrupt your software or may display some false messages on the screen.
Boot Sector virus, File Infection virus, Network virus, Email virus, Macro virus are the different
categories of computer viruses.
WORMS

Computer Worm is a small piece of software that uses computer network to replicate itself. It spread from
computer to computer without any human action. Worms normally infect other computers through
computer network.

There is a difference between computer virus and worm. A computer virus needs a host program to run,
while computer worm can run itself i.e. it does not need to attach itself to existing program.

MS-Blaster and Sasser worms are the two most prominent examples of computer worms. Email worms,
Internet worms, Instant Massaging Worms are the other examples of computer worms.

SIGN OF ATTACKS
In some cases it is very easy to know that your computer system has been infected. The sign of attack
may be:
 Computer system seems sluggish.
 Programs take longer than normal to load.
 Programs access multiple drives.
 Available disk space decreases rapidly.
 Available RAM decreases.
 Program function abnormally or crash without reason.
 Programs generates undocumented messages.
 Black holes, bouncing balls, smiling faces appear on screen.

HOW A VIRUS CAN SPREAD THROUGH:

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There are many different ways in which a virus can spread from computer to computer. Let’s take a look
at the most frequent ways in which computer virus is spread.
* Infected Flash Drives or Floppy Disks
The sharing of data and programs on Flash Drive (USB) is very common today. (In past, Floppy disks
were used for this purpose). It is a common way to spread virus from computer to computer. When we
copy the data from this USB (or floppy disk) to another computer, the virus copies itself automatically
to the new computer. So to avoid this exercise, we must scan USB (or floppy disk) through an updated
antivirus program before copying the data from them.
* Email Attachments
By using Internet, email user can easily received the virus by infected email attachment. When this
infected email attachment is opened by the user, the virus executes itself and will begin to infect the files
stored in your computer. So avoid opening it, if you don’t know the sender or what the attachment is. Or
if you receive an attachment with an .exe or .dll extension, never ever open it.
* Surfing Insecure Websites
By surfing insecure websites on the Internet, your computer can easily be infected by the virus
automatically and which may damage the stored data in your computer. So always avoid opening the
websites which are not related to you.
*Installing Pirated Software
Today, many pirated software are available in market or on the Internet at no cost. Whenever you install
or download these software, they can make your computers virus infected, so always avoid using pirated
and unofficial software to protect your computer.
Anti-virus
Anti-virus is a computer program (software) that is used to prevent, detect and remove viruses. These
software protect your computer against virus attack.
To prevent the most current viruses, you must update your anti-virus software regularly. Many websites
are available that scan your computer for viruses for free. It scans files or computer memory that may
indicate an infection. Once you have an anti-virus software, you should scan your entire computer from
time to time.
There are many good free anti-virus programs available, such as Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira,
Avast, AVG etc.
Internet
The network of networks is called internet. Technically, the 'internet' and the 'World Wide Web' mean
different things, but we can use either term when we're talking about the 'web'.
The internet is made up of millions of computers from all around the world, linked to each other by a
network of telephone lines, cables and satellite connections. The Internet is a global network
connecting millions of computers. More than 190 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and
opinions. The web or the World Wide Web is the information and the services we can use.

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The Advantages & Disadvantages of the Internet:

The Internet or the World Wide Web is indeed a wonderful and amazing addition in our lives. The
Internet can be known as a kind of global meeting place where people from all parts of the world can
come together. It is a service available on the computer, through which everything under the sun is now
at the fingertips of anyone who has access to the Internet.
To get ‘online’, meaning to connect to the Internet, you need to have:
A Computer: Computer equipment is a sizeable investment and thus you should select a computer
carefully. Before buying a computer, understand your needs and then choose one accordingly. See that
it comes with a warranty and that after sales service is available in case you need it.
Internet Service Provider: This is the software that you will require to get online. You can now
choose from a dial-up service or 24-hour broadband services. This is the service that will help you to
connect to the Internet and start your surfing experiences.
Advantages of the Internet
The Internet provides opportunities galore, and can be used for a variety of things. Some of the things
that you can do via the Internet are:
E-mail: E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive instant
electronic messages, which works like writing letters. Your messages are delivered instantly to people
anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time.
Access Information: The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on
any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’ on the Internet can help you to
find data on any subject that you need.
Shopping: Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There are many
online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as buy them using your credit card.
You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home.
Online Chat: There are many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be accessed to meet new people, make
new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
Downloading Software: This is one of the most happening and fun things to do via the Internet. You
can download innumerable, games, music, videos, movies, and a host of other entertainment software
from the Internet, most of which are free.
Social Networking: One cannot imagine an online life without Facebook or Twitter. Social networking
has become so popular amongst youth that it might one day replace physical networking. It has evolved
as a great medium to connect with millions of people with similar interests. Apart from finding long-
lost friends, you can also look for a job, business opportunities.
Online Services: The Internet has made life very convenient. With numerous online services you can
now perform all your transactions online. You can book tickets for a movie, transfer funds, pay utility
bills, taxes etc., and right from your home.

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Disadvantages of the Internet

There are certain cons and dangers relating to the use of Internet that can be summarized as:
Personal Information: If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address,
etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online, then your credit card
information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving someone a blank check.
Pornography: This is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young
children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a
detriment to letting children use the Internet.
Spamming: This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and
unnecessarily clog up the entire system.
Virus Threat: Internet users are often plagued by virus attacks on their systems. Virus programs are
inconspicuous and may get activated if you click a seemingly harmless link. Computers connected to
the Internet are very prone to targeted virus attacks and may end up crashing.
Social Disconnect: Thanks to the Internet, people now only meet on social networks. More and more
people are getting are drifting apart from their friends and family. Even children prefer to play online
games rather than going out and mingling with other kids.
What is Netiquette?
The word netiquette is a combination of ’net’ (from internet) and ’etiquette’. It means respecting other
users’ views and displaying common courtesy when posting your views to online discussion groups.
As you become involved with online discussion groups, you will find that each group has its own
accepted rules of behavior. Many of these have come about because of technical limitations.
The basic rules

1. Refrain from personal abuse. You may express robust disagreement with what someone says,
but don't call them names or threaten them with personal violence.
2. Don't spam. That is, don't repeatedly post the same advertisement for products or services. Most
sites have strict and specific rules about who is allowed to post ads and what kind of ads they
are.
3. Write clearly and succinctly. On a site that has many non-native English speakers, avoid using
slang they may not understand.
4. Remember that your posts are public. They can be read by your partner, your children, your
parents, or your employer.
5. Stay on-topic, especially when you're new. Don't post about football in a hair-care forum or
about hair care in a gardening forum!
6. Don't expect other people to do your homework for you. If you're looking for technical help, for
example, don't ask questions you could easily answer yourself by reading the manual or online
help provided with the product. When you do ask for help, include details of what attempts

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you've made to solve the problem. It will save time and also show people that you are making
an effort to help yourself.
7. Do not post copyrighted material to which you do not own the rights. Sites vary in how strict
they are about this, but as well as facing the possibility of legal action by the rights holder, you
may also get the site sued.
8. The site's owner, perhaps assisted by one or more moderators, has the final say in enforcing the
rules

E-mail

Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is a message that may contain text, files, images, or
other attachments sent through a network to a specified individual or group of individuals. The first e-
mail was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. By1996, more electronic mail was being sent than postal
mail. The following is a breakdown of an Internet e-mail address example.
[email protected]

The first portion all e-mail addresses, the part before the @ symbol, contains the alias, user, group, or
department of a company. In our above example support is the Technical Support department at
Computer Hope.
Next, the @ (at sign) is used as a divider in the e-mail address; required for all SMTP e-mail addresses
since the first message was sent by Ray Tomlinson.
Finally, computerhope.com is the domain name to which the user belongs.

How to send and receive e-mail

E-mail Program
To send and receive e-mail messages you can use an e-mail program, also known as an e-mail client,
such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. When using an e-mail client, you must have a
server that stores and delivers your messages; provided by your ISP or in some cases, another company.
An e-mail client needs to connect to the server to download new e-mail, whereas email stored online
(see next section) updates automatically when you visit the site.
E-mail Online

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An alternative way of sending and receiving e-mail (and the more popular solution for most people) is
an online e-mail service or webmail. Examples include Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Many of the
online e-mail services, including the aforementioned ones, are free or have a free account option.

Writing an e-mail
When writing a new e-mail message, it should look something like the example window below. As can
be seen, several fields are required when sending an e-mail. The To field is where you type the e-mail
address of the person who you are sending the message to, From should contain your e-mail address, If
you are replying to a message, the To and From fields are automatically filled out; if it's a New
Message, you'll need to enter them manually. Next, the CC or Carbon Copy field allows you to send a
copy of the message to another e-mail address, but is not mandatory. The Subject Line, although not
required, should consist of a few words describing what the e-mail is about. Finally, the Message
Body is the location you type your main message. It often contains your signature at the bottom; similar
to a hand-written letter.

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What makes a valid e-mail address?

There are several rules that an e-mail address must follow in order to be valid.
As mentioned earlier, an e-mail must have a username followed by an @ (at sign) which is followed by
the domain name with a domain suffix.
 The username cannot be longer than 64 characters long and the domain name should have no
more than 254 characters.
 There should be only one @ sign in an e-mail address.
 The space and special characters: ( ) , : ; < > \ [ ] are allowed. Occasionally, a space, backslash,
and quotation mark work but must be preceded with a forward slash. Although valid some e-
mail providers do not allow these characters.
 The username and e-mail addresses as a whole cannot begin or end with a period.
 The e-mail must not have two or more consecutive periods.

Search Engine
Search engines are programs that search documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the
documents where the keywords were found. A search engine is really a general class of programs,
however, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Bing and Yahoo! Search
that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web.
Conducting Research
 Narrow your topic and its description;
identify and pull out key words, phrases and categories
 Use a search engine: does it contain a directory of topics?
Find the best combination of key words to locate information you need;
Enter these in the search engine
 Get assistance from your local research librarian
 Refer to known, recommended, expert, or reviewed web sites
 Refer to professional portals
that may have directories or collections by topic
 Review the number of options returned.
If there are too many web sites, add more keywords.
If there are too few options, narrow/delete some keywords,
or substitute other key words
 Review the first pages returned:
If these are not helpful, review your key words for a better description
 Use advanced search options in search engines:
Search options include

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 Key word combinations, including Boolean strings

 Locations where key words are found
For example: in the title, 1st paragraphs, coded metadata
 Languages to search in
 Sites containing media files
(images, videos, MP3/music, ActiveX, JAVA, etc.)
 Dates web sites were created or updated
 Research using several search engines
Each search engine has a different database of web sites it searches
Some "Meta-Search" engines actually search other search engines!
If one search engine returns few web sites, another may return many!
 Evaluate the content of the web sites you've found:
Refer to the Study Guide "Evaluating web site content"
 Track your search:
List resources you checked; the date your checked them
Identify the resource, especially its location and the date you found it
 When printing, set your options to print the
Title of the page | the Web address | the date printed

WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE

Word processing and desktop publishing are technologies that deal with the manipulation of word.
Word processing enables a computer system to serve as a powerful writing tool. It organizes computer
resources to help you quickly create, edit and print documents and manage them in ways that no
ordinary typewriter can match. Desk top publishing carries word processing a step further, were
prepared by a professional print shop.
When you use your computer to do the kinds of work that people have performed on typewriters, you're
doing word Processing. Word processing applies computer technology to create, manipulate, and print
text material such as letters, legal contracts manuscripts and other documents. Word processing saves
so much time and work and offers so many more capabilities then the ordinary typewriter. Today's best
selling word processing programs are Microsoft's Word, Coral's Word Perfect, and Lotus's Word
Pro.
Word processing saves a great deal of time and money. The letters produces by word processors
generally look neater and are better presented then the same work on the typewriter. Lasso's skilled
people can use word processors because mistakes can easily be corrected.

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Compared to manual methods or a typewriter, word processing has a number of advantages

which include.
1. The ability to read document into computer's memory and insert, modify words, sentences or
paragraphs.
2. The ability to move sections of text to another part of the document.
3. The ability to change the layout of the document.
4. The ability to store a document on secondary storage devices such as floppy or a hard disk.
5. The ability to view the document on screen before printing.
6. The ability to print as many copies of the document as are required.

Main Feature Of Word Processor

 Word processor describe the use of hardware and software to create, view, edit, manipulate,
transmit, store, retrieve and print text material.
 Moving and Copying operations allow you to relocate or replicate text within a document.
Moving and copying can often be done through pull-down menu selections by copy and past
buttons on the word processor's toolbar or by bragging and dropping with the mouse.
 Finding and Replacing are extremely useful features of word processing software. The find
operation lets you search automatically for all occurrences of a particular word or phrase. The
replace operation gives you the option of changing the word or phrase to something else.
 Spell-checking facility allows you to chick for misspelling either after you finish typing text for
a document or while you type.
 Thesaurus Feature allows you to identify possible synonyms for selected words.
 Displaying Text In older products of word processors, Boldface, Italic and Underline
characters generally do not display on screen, but now the most word processors use a
WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) display, in which text shows on screen the way
it will appear in print.
 Adjusting Line Spacing is an important word processing operation that enables you to adjust
the line spacing of the existing text. Many word processing programs also permit you to place
fractional blank lines between text lines, add space before and after paragraphs, and choose
several other line-spacing options.
 Justifying option lets you formatted your document either as left justifying, full Justifying, right
Justifying as well as center justifying.
 Establishing a Page Format: This option let you choose overall formatting for the pages in
your document by selecting how many lines to print per page; the maximum number of
character to fit on each line; and the setting of the right, top, and bottom margins. You can also
choose whether to number pages in a document, almost wherever you specify.
 Fonts. Typefaces-selection features enable you to output characters in a variety of typefaces and
typefaces sizes (called point sizes). A typeface in a particular point size is referred to as a font.
 Previewing Documents. To save the time and cost of printing documents over and over again
until they look right, virtually all word processors have preview features that enables you to

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inspect an onscreen version of what the document will actually look like when printed.
 Mail Merge combines a form letter with the contents of a database (usually a name and address
file), creating a separate copy of the letter for each entry in the database.
 Graphics & Sound Facility. Most word processing software allows you to add graphics and
sounds to your documents.

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SOFTWEAR

PowerPoint package is used for Presentation to an audience. This package is including as part of
Microsoft office. What this program, you can create and combine slides (similar to document pages)
into a visual presentation to effectively communicate your message. With PowerPoint, you can also
create overheads, audience hand-outs, and speaker notes that help convey your thoughts and ideas in a
visual way.
The following gives you a quick overview of what you can do in PowerPoint:

 When you create a presentation using PowerPoint, the presentation is made up of a series
of slides. The slides that you create using PowerPoint can also be presented as overhead
transparencies or 35mm slides.

 In addition to slides, you can print audience handouts, outlines, and speaker's notes.

 You can format all the slides in a presentation using the powerful Slide Master

 You can keep your entire presentation in a single file- all your slides, speaker's notes, and
audience handouts.

 You can import what you have created in other Microsoft products, such as Word and Excel
into any of your slides.

The following PowerPoint dialog box should appear, asking you how you want to create your new
presentation.

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Here is a brief description of the options under the Create a New Presentation Using title.

 AutoContent Wizard- takes you through the creation of a simple presentation step by step.

 Pick a Look Wizard- this wizard helps you make choices on how your presentation will look.

 Template- PowerPoint provides 160 templates that you can choose from. The templates are
created by professional artists and offer design choices in black and white as well as in color.

 Blank Presentation- this option allows you to select slides and format them individually.

Select Blank Presentation and click on the OK button.

In the New Slide dialog box select the Title Slide option.
Your screen should look as follows:

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This is your title slide you can enter the title and sub-title here. Note that if your toolbars are not visible,
choose Toolbars from the View menu and make your selections.
PowerPoint gives you four views in which you create and organize your presentation. As you create a
presentation, you can switch among the four views as you work.

The four PowerPoint views are:

Slide View-
To be in Slide view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any
slide: ( ).
The Slide view shows a single slide. In Slide view, you work on one slide at at time. Here, you can type
your slide title and body, add other text to the slide, draw shapes, add clip art, choose a color scheme,
make a graph, etc. In Slide view, you have access to all the tools on the Tool Palette as well as buttons
on the Toolbar.

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Outline View-
To be in Outline view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any
slide: ( ).

The Outline view shows all the titles and body text in your presentation. In Outline view, you can move
slides around within your presentation and also edit your text.

Click on the Outline view button ( ), to view your title slide in this view.

Slide Sorter View-

To be in Slide Sorter view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of
any slide: ( ).

The Slide Sorter view shows you a minature of each slide in your presentation. You can drag slides
around on the screen to reposition them in this view. You can also select and copy multiple slides
should you want to use them in other presentations.

Click on the Slide Sorter view button ( ), to view your title slide in this view.

Notes View-
To be in Notes view you click on the following button located in the bottom-left hand corner of any
slide: ( ).

The Notes view lets you create speaker's notes. Each page corresponds to a slide in your presentation
and includes a reduce image of the slide. You can draw and type in Notes view the way you can in
Slide View.

Click on the Notes view button ( ), to view your title slide in this view.

You now know all of PowerPoint's views. There is one more button located in the bottom- left hand
corner of any slide:( ). This is the Slide Show button. The Slide Show button runs a slide show
starting from the currently selected slide.

Understanding PowerPoint Slide Masters and Templates

Slide Masters

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A PowerPoint Slide Master contains objects that you want to appear on each slide in your presentation.
With a Slide Master, you only have to create an item once and PowerPoint will automatically include
them on every slide. Some things are set up by PowerPoint (for example; place for slide title and text)
so you don't have to create them each time. If you want to add additional items to a master, you can at
any time. The Slide Master has boxes already set up for the slide title and text. They're called
the Master Title and the Master Body object. The format of these objects determines the way your text
will look on each slide. You can always make slides look different from the Slide Master, but a Slide
Master gives you a consistent starting point.

The Slide Master is flexible. You can move objects around, add art, add headings or labels, change
colors and fonts.

As you create a slide, you have the option of using or not using the elements from the Slide Master. To
change the entire presentation, you simply change the format of the Slide Master. PowerPoint will then
change all your slides accordingly.
PowerPoint Templates
PowerPoint also offers templates. A template is a presentation containing PowerPoint masters and a
color scheme. PowerPoint offers 160 pre-designed templates to help you get started quickly. Applying
a template to a presentation you are creating means the design work is already done for you.

You can apply a template when you are just starting a presentation, or you can create a presentation and
apply the template later.
Creating a Master Slide

With PowerPoint running, choose Master from the View menu, then select Slide
Master from the Master submenu.

This is your slide master. Let's start with formatting the Master title style.

Click on the Title Area for AutoLayouts.

Choose Font from the Format menu, and change the font style, color, and size of the text.

This formatting will be the same on each new slides Title Area .

To observe this,

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Click on the New Slide button ( ) located in the bottom right corner of the
screen.

Choose a slide that contains a title area.

Click in the title area of your new slide and type some text.

The text format should duplicate that of the Master Slide.

Let's format the bullets that will appear on each slide, by formatting them on the Master Slide.

Choose Slide Master from the View menu.

Highlight the first line of text in the Object Area for Autolayouts.

Choose Bullet from the format menu and pick a different style bullet.

In addition to formatting text and bullets you can also format the following:

 Slide Background

 Slide ColorScheme

Transitions and Build Slides

When you display your presentation electronically as a slide show, the slides take up the full screen. All
the tools, menus, and other screen elements are hidden so as not to detract from your show. Your
computer becomes the equivalent of a slide projector.

PowerPoint offers a number of features you can use when you run your slide show:

 You can use special effects, such as transitions and builds, to add variety.

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 You can practice giving your presentation and set automated timings for your slides to match
your rehearsal times.

Build Slide

A build slide is a slide that starts with the first major bullet point and shows more major bullet points as
the presentation proceeds. You decide whether you want to dim previous points on the slide as new
points appear and what effect you want to use when the bullet points appear (for instance, bullet points
can fly in from the right, left, top, or bottom).

Transitions
Transitions moves one slide off the screen and brings the next one on. Fading from black and
dissolving from one slide to another are two examples of transitions. You have a choice of transitions
for each slide, plus you can vary the speed of each transition.

Adding Transitions to Your Slide Show

A transition refers to the way one slide moves off the screen and the next slide appears. When you set
your transitions, you can also set how long you want each slide to appear on the screen.

To set transitions and timing:

Choose Transition from the Tools menu.

Choose the transition from the drop-down list.

Click how fast you want the transition to take place- Slow, Medium, or Fast.

Decide how you want to advance to the next slide and, if need be, set the timing.
If you want the slide to advance automatically, you need to decide how long the slide should appear on-
screen before advancing to the next slide:

Only on Mouse Click- The slide advances manually with a mouse click.

Automatically After [N] Seconds- Type the number of seconds you want the slide on the screen.
During the presentation, the slide advances automatically when the time is up.

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Click the OK button.

Creating a Build Slide

A build slide is one that seems to build on itself, showing progressively more information as the
presentation proceeds.

To create a build slide:

To start you must have a slide which contains bullets.

Choose Build from the Tools menu.

Choose the options you want to use in building the slide.

Click on the OK button.

Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS,
and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called
Visual Basic for Applications.
Excel is a massive application with 1000s of features and 100s of ribbon (menu) commands. It is very
easy to get lost once you open Excel. So one of the basic survival skills is to understand how to
navigate Excel and access the features you are looking for.

When you open Excel, this is how it looks.

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There are 5 important areas in the screen.

1. Quick Access Toolbar: This is a place where all the important tools can be placed. When you start
Excel for the very first time, it has only 3 icons (Save, Undo, Redo). But you can add any feature of
Excel to to Quick Access Toolbar so that you can easily access it from anywhere (hence the name).

2. Ribbon: Ribbon is like an expanded menu. It depicts all the features of Excel in easy to understand
form. Since Excel has 1000s of features, they are grouped in to several ribbons. The most important
ribbons are – Home, Insert, Formulas, Page Layout & Data.

3. Formula Bar: This is where any calculations or formulas you write will appear. You will understand
the relevance of it once you start building formulas.

4. Spreadsheet Grid: This is where all your numbers, data, charts & drawings will go. Each Excel file
can contain several sheets. But the spreadsheet grid shows few rows & columns of active spreadsheet.
To see more rows or columns you can use the scroll bars to the left or at bottom. If you want to access
other sheets, just click on the sheet name (or use the shortcut CTRL+Page Up or CTRL+Page Down).

5. Status bar: This tells us what is going on with Excel at any time. You can tell if Excel is busy
calculating a formula, creating a pivot report or recording a macro by just looking at the status bar. The

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status bar also shows quick summaries of selected cells (count, sum, average, minimum or maximum
values). You can change this by right clicking on it and choosing which summaries to show.

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