Earlier Topics Revisited

Now that you are more familiar with some of the terminology and functions related to computers, let's go back and elaborate on some earlier topics:

• Bits and bytes: these are the building blocks of software, such as programs, applications, and operating systems.
• Interface, input, and output: things like keyboards, mouses, and computer screens are interfaces.  So are operating systems (connect hardware to software) and (new term) GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces), which translate text commands into pictures.  GUIs are responsible for clickable buttons, file icons, and menus.
• Keyboard: by now, you know how to type capital and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and accents using keyboard modifier keys.
• Program and application: you know about programs such as web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) and word processors (Microsoft Word).  You also know that programs are contained in windows, and you know how to close, minimize, and maximize windows.
• The Internet: connects computers so they can exchange files.  The most common way to access the Internet is through a web browser, where you can see files (web sites) residing on other computers.
• Menus: the File menu has options for opening new files and saving or closing current ones, while the Edit menu has options for editing the text or some other aspect inside of the current file.
• Media: different kinds of files that are usually meant for entertainment (consider the term "the media industry"), commonly video, picture, and music files.
• Files and Extensions: different kinds of files are represented by different endings to their names: .doc, .txt, .jpg, .mp3, etc.

Hopefully this list connects some of the terms discussed earlier and provides a broader picture of the way computers work.

Next Up: Upload and Download

The Edit Menu

The Edit menu contains commands that let you, well, edit whatever is on the window you are using.  By now, you are already familiar with the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands that are present on the Edit menu.  Other commands that sometimes appear on the Edit menu are:

• Undo: tells the computer to disregard your most recent action in the application you are using.  It is most useful when you are editing text, and you accidentally delete something you didn't intend to.  You can simply click "Undo," and the text will reappear.  Important: most programs will not let you undo the "Save" action or any action that happened before you saved.  So if you delete text unintentionally, then save the file, you will most likely not be able to undo your deletion.
• Redo: tells the computer to undo your most recent "Undo," so you revert to what you started with before you clicked "Undo."  Important: the "Redo" option is only available immediately after you click "Undo."  As soon as you continue typing or make any other change to the file you are working on, the "Redo" option will fade and you will be unable to revert to before your "Undo."
• Delete: pretty self-explanatory, this option eliminates whatever is selected from the file.
• Select All: also self-explanatory, this option will select everything in the current file.  This is useful if you want to change the font style of a word processing document, for example.  Depending on the program, and on where the mouse cursor is or what is already selected, this may only select everything in the current text field, or select only images, or only text.  Experiment to figure out what it does in the programs you use most often.
• Find: opens a small window called a "dialog box" that has a text field where you can type in a word, part of a word, number, etc., and the computer will find all instances of whatever you typed in wherever it appears in the current window.

There are other commands that appear only on certain applications' Edit menus.  Experiment to see what they do!

Example

The Edit menu on my web browser.  It is right next the File menu, where it resides on almost every other application as well.

Tomorrow: Some technical jargon explained

Cut, Copy, and Paste

One of the reasons that computers are better than typewriters is that computers can copy bits and bytes extremely quickly.


Cut, copy, and paste are three commands you can get to from the "Edit" menu (post forthcoming), located next to the File menu.  These three commands make use of the computer's "clipboard," a place that can temporarily save text (words, numbers, and symbols), images (pictures and icons), and in some cases other sorts of information.  Copying information puts it into the clipboard (for future use).  Cutting information puts it into the clipboard and deletes it from its original location.  Pasting information takes whatever is on the clipboard and inserts it where your cursor is.  (You can move the cursor's location by clicking the mouse pointer where you want to paste the information).


When you copy or cut, any information that was on the clipboard is erased from the clipboard, so it is not possible to copy (or cut) two or more different things at the same time.


The cut command is identical to copying then deleting—it's just faster.


Examples
If I am reading a web page and notice a great quotation that I could use in a report I'm writing, I can copy the quotation from the webpage and paste it into a word processing application (like Microsoft Word or Apple's Pages).


If I am trying to arrange the paragraphs on my report, I can cut a paragraph from its original location (thereby deleting it), and paste it where it belongs.


Tomorrow: Select and Highlight

Windows and Tabs

A window is part of an application that takes up space on the computer screen.  Windows can be moved around the screen, revealing other parts of the computer screen that were previously hidden by the window.  Windows can be thought of as pieces of paper lying on a table.  Each page has some information on it, and if you have a lot of pages on the table, you can stack them up so you only see the topmost page, or spread them out so you can see different parts of different pages at the same time.

Unlike physical pieces of paper, windows can be resized to take up more or less space.  They can also be "minimized," where they are temporarily hidden from view, "maximized," where they take up the entire screen, and "closed," where the page and its contents are removed from view.  (Recall that "Close" is a command in the File menu).  Also, computers are designed only to focus on one window at a time.  Unfocused (or unselected) windows will usually have faded colors, whereas the one in focus will have normal colors.  This is to ensure that, for example, when you choose "Close" from the File menu, you close the window that you intend to, namely the one in focus.

On computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, the three buttons for minimizing, maximizing, and closing windows are in the upper-right corner of each window.  On computers running Mac OS X, the buttons are in the upper-left corner of each window.  Be aware that on Macs, the green "maximize" button does not actually expand the window to occupy the entire screen.  Rather, it resizes the window to "fit" whatever the window contains, so there is no blank space surrounding a photograph being viewed, for example.

Some windows, on both operating systems, are missing some of the "size control" buttons.  Usually, the "maximize" button will be the one missing because it would not make sense to maximize those windows.

A tab is a relatively new feature introduced to web browsers (Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) to help organize the application when people want to have many web pages open at the same time.  Instead of having one window for each different webpage, people can put multiple webpages in the same window by having each webpage be a different tab on that window.  At first glance, this feature may seem useless, but its usefulness shows when, for example, you have five different webpages that you want to minimize or close.  If they are in different windows, you would have to close each one individually, but if they are five tabs all in the same window, you only have to close one window instead of five.

Examples
The three "size control" buttons on a computer running Mac OS X:

And on a Windows computer:

Different tabs as they appear in the web browser Google Chrome:

Notice how only one tab can be "selected" or "focused" at once (in this case the "New York Times" tab).

Tomorrow: Cut, Copy, and Paste

The File Menu

The File Menu is a list of actions that can be performed on whatever file you are working on. It is located at the top of the screen, almost in the top-left corner of the screen. You access this menu simply by clicking on the word "File."  When the menu appears, you can then click on whichever command you want.  Although the exact commands listed on the File menu vary, here are some common commands:

• New: Lets you start a new task.  Sometimes appears as "New Window," "New Document," "New Page," etc.
• Save: Lets you save your work on your computer.
• Open: Lets you open a file that you had previously saved.
• Page setup: Lets you control the layout of the page, such as Portrait/Landscape (vertical or horizontal), and if you want to zoom in our out, when you print your work.
• Print: Lets you print what you are working on.
• Close: Exits from whatever file you are working on.
• Quit (or Exit): Exits the application you are using.  This is different from "Close" because it is possible to close a file but still have the application open (especially if you are working on more than one file at a time).  On Apple computers, the "Quit" command is not in the File menu, but rather in the menu to the left of the "File" menu, which is labeled with the name of the application you are using (so in iTunes, it's the "iTunes" menu, in Word, it's the "Word" menu, etc.)

Some commands have an ellipsis (…) after them, such as Print….  This means that before the command can be performed, you have to choose certain options.  When you click on Print…, you are asked to choose how many copies you want to print, whether you only want to print certain pages, and which printer you want to use.

Also, some commands may be on the menu, but faded.  This means that the command can not be used in whatever situation you are in.

Example
Here is a picture of a File menu from iTunes:

Notice the different "New" commands, the "Close Window" command, and the "Page Setup…" and "Print…" commands.  Also, note how the "Get Info" and "Show in Finder" commands are faded.  This is because in order to use these commands, I have to have a particular song selected (so I can get its info or show it in the Finder).  Since I don't have a song selected, I can't use the commands.

Also, notice that the word "File" is highlighted—this indicates which menu you are looking at.  If you were looking at a different menu, say the "Edit" menu, then the word "Edit" would be highlighted.

Tomorrow: Windows and Tabs