Part 1: Computer Basics

Part 1: Computer Basics

PART 1: COMPUTER BASICS.........................................................................................1

Hardware.........................................................................................................................................3
* External Hardware parts......................................................................................................3
** Internal components........................................................................................................3
* Connecting your computer..................................................................................................4

Software...........................................................................................................................................4
* What is software..................................................................................................................4
** Two types of software.....................................................................................................5

Mouse Basics...................................................................................................................................6
* Holding and Moving the Mouse..........................................................................................6
* Point and Click....................................................................................................................6
** Right-Click......................................................................................................................6
** Double-Click...................................................................................................................7
* Highlight or Select...............................................................................................................7
** Drag and Drop.................................................................................................................8

Keyboard Basics..............................................................................................................................9
* Typing letters and number...................................................................................................9
* Capital Letters Caps Lock...................................................................................................9
* Shift key...............................................................................................................................9
* Enter key............................................................................................................................10
* Esc(ape) key.......................................................................................................................10
* Backspace key...................................................................................................................10
** Delete key......................................................................................................................10
** Insert key.......................................................................................................................11
* Arrow keys.........................................................................................................................11
** Home, End Page Up and Page Down keys...................................................................11
* Number Keys.....................................................................................................................11

Computer Care.............................................................................................................................12

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* Dust....................................................................................................................................12
* Stable power......................................................................................................................12
* Viruses...............................................................................................................................12
* Keep a copy of important documents................................................................................12
* Maintenance and Servicing................................................................................................12
* Ignorant Users....................................................................................................................13

Hardware

* External Hardware Parts

Hardware is the name of the physical components that make up the computer. The
computer has a lot of components inside the box as well as external components visible
from the outside.
External components are:-
 The monitor or screen: an output device,
 The mouse: an input device,
 The keyboard: an input device,
 In addition, the system unit or computer: The heart and brain of the computer is
usually a big vertical or horizontal box. The following parts are visible on the system
unit:
 A CD-rom drive: a storage device,
 A floppy drive: a storage device,
o A printer: an output device,
A computer can work without a printer. Not every computer has a printer
connected.

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** Internal Components
Some important internal components and invisible parts are:-
 The hard disk, a storage device, where all information and documents are kept.
 The memory, where information that you are currently working on is kept. The
memory uses all its information when power goes off.
 The motherboard connects everything together.
 The Central Processing Unit or CPU, this is the actual brain of the computer. All
instructions you give to the computer are processed by the CPU to give you the
desired results.
Most hardware components can be divided in the following 3 groups: -
 Input devices: These are parts used to give input, instructions or commands to the
computer.
 Output devices: Through these devices the computer gives out the information that is
stored in the machine.
 Storage devices: Here information is kept for the computer to use.

* Connecting a Computer
The external devices of your computer are all connected to the system unit to allow
information (in the form of electrical signals) to flow between the system unit and the
devices. Every device has a signal cable that should connect to the back of the system
unit. Signal cables usually consist of a number of thin electrical wires inside with small
contacts. Different devices have different connectors and can usually only fit in one
place. One exception is the connectors for mouse and keyboard, which are identical. It is
usually indicated on the system unit where to plug the mouse and where to plug the
keyboard.
Look carefully at all connectors to plug them in correctly. They should all fit without
using force. Connectors are designed such that they fit only in one direction. Look
carefully in which direction it can fit. Some connectors, like the monitor cable have
screws to assure that it will not come loose. Tighten these screws lightly (by hand).
After all signal cables are connected, the electrical power cables can be plugged in.
Power cables have thick electrical wires inside and the contacts are big. The monitor and
system unit need a power cable. If you have a printer also the printer has it’s own power
cable.
Depending on the type of cables that came with your computer the monitor connects
directly to an ordinary socket or can be connected through the system unit. This will
depend on the connector type on your power cable.

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Software

* What is Software
With all the hardware connected, the computer is not yet able to function. The computer
needs information to know what it should do. This information is called software.
Software is not something physical that can be touched.
When comparing a computer with a human body, we can say that the hardware
components correspond with the body parts. The brain is the system unit, the mouth can
be compared to an output device, and the eyes as an input device …
For a human body to function, the body needs information, which is inside the brain. This
information can be compared to computer software. It is there but cannot be touched.

** Two Types of Software

The System software or Operating system
Every computer needs system software to operate. The system software used on most
computers is called Microsoft (MS) Windows. Over the years different versions were
developed, these are Windows 95, 98, 2000, Me, XP etc…
Just like a human needs basic skills, like walking, talking, counting, eating, to operate as
a human being, a computer needs basic skills as well to behave like a computer. The
system software or operating system provides these skills like how to read from the
floppy, how to send something to a printer, how to display on the screen. However, the
system software does not perform specific tasks that are required from a computer. For
this, the computer needs additional application software.
The Application software
The specific tasks that application programs do can be compared to the different skills
humans can learn. We can learn to type, to become an engineer, to do an accounting task,
…
The different application software also does those specific tasks.
 MS Word: Application for typing and printing text.
 MS Excel: Application for calculations and accounting.
 MS Paint: Application for drawing.
 MS Outlook: Application for communication. (Using e-mail).
Just like not every person learned to do accounting, not every computer needs to have the
application for accounting to be installed. Applications for various tasks can be added at
any time by installing them on the computer.
Mouse Basics

* Holding and Moving the Mouse

The picture indicates how to hold the mouse. The mouse can best be placed on a Mouse pad. Put
your right hand on the mouse with your index finger on the left mouse button and your middle
finger on the right mouse button. Sliding the mouse over the flat surface will move the mouse
pointer on the screen.

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Move the mouse over a flat surface and the pointer on the screen will move accordingly.

* Point and Click

By sliding the mouse, the mouse pointer can be moved to point to things on the computer
screen. To select something on the screen, you should point to it and then press the left
mouse button. This is referred to as clicking with the mouse.

Click here to select OK

Example: By pointing to the OK Button on the screen and clicking, we select OK.

** Right-Click
The right mouse button is not used to select an object or item on the screen. When right
clicking on something, usually a list of things that can be done with that object is
displayed.

Right click
somewhere in the
text and a menu
will appear
Example: Right clicking on the text brings a list of things to do with that part of the text.

** Double-Click

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Double click here

Double click on the icon Microsoft Word (left) and Microsoft Word (right) will be started

Double-click is pressing the left mouse button twice fast. Normal clicking is used to
select something on the screen. Double clicking is used to execute something.
Example: Clicking on the icon for Microsoft Word will select that icon (It appears in
blue) to execute (start) Microsoft Word you can double click on the icon.
It takes some practice to double click. When you do it too fast or too slow, it does not
work.

* Highlight or Select
Highlighting is a method to select a piece of text. First, point to where to start the
highlighting. Press the left mouse button (without releasing it) move to where to end the
highlighting and release the mouse button.
This technique is used to select a certain part (for example a few words in a long text.

1) Press here

This text has one sentence selected. This sentence is

highlighted. It appears as white letters on a black
background
Press, move, release 2) Move the mouse
3) Release herebackground

** Drag and Drop 3) Release here

Press, move, release

2) Move the mouse

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The technique of drag and drop is similar to highlighting. Drag and drop can be used to
move an icon (or something else) from one position to another.
Keyboard Basics

Escape Backspace Numeric Pad

Spacebar
Shift Caps Lock Enter Arrow keys

* Typing Letters and Number

Typing text on the computer is simple. When you are using a program (e.g. Microsoft
Word) where you can type. Just pressing the letter or number on the keyboard will
display that letter on the screen. Pressing a letter or number for a long time will display
that letter several times, so do not press too long.

* Capital Letters and the Caps Lock Key

The Caps Lock key is located on the left side of the keyboard. It can be on or off.
On the upper right corner of the keyboard is a small green light (usually indicated with
caps lock) or a capital A. Pressing the caps lock key toggles the light On or Off. When
the light is on all letters you are typing will be capitals. When the light is off you will be
typing small letters.

* Shift
The keyboard has two shift keys often indicated with . They are usually big keys, one on the
left side and one on the right side. The shift key works in combination with other keys.

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Press and hold one of the shift keys and then press a Letter key.
If the Caps Lock is not on, pressing they A-key will type small a, Holding Shift and
pressing the A-key will type capital A. If the Caps Lock is on, pressing A will type
capital A, Holding Shift and press A will now type small a. !
Some keys have two symbols one written on top and one below e.g. 1

Pressing this key will type the character below (in this example 1) Holding Shift while
pressing the key will type the character on top (here !).

* Enter Key

Pressing enter will bring the cursor to the beginning of the following line
The Enter or Return key often has the symbol . Pressing this key will go to the
beginning of the next line. In case there already is some text on the next line an empty
line will be inserted.

* Esc(ape) Key
The Escape key can be used to go interrupt or escape from an instruction that you started.
For example: If you clicked with the mouse by accident on a wrong button and an
unwanted message appears, you can press ESC to cancel and go back.

* Backspace Key
If you made a typing error, the backspace key will remove the character to the left side of
the current typing position (the cursor). This is demonstrated in the example

Myy name press backspace  My name

Old cursor position New cursor position

We typed accidentally a double ‘yy’. When the cursor is on the right of

The letter to be removed, pressing backspace will remove it.
Backspace removes the character left of your typing position. When the cursor is at the
beginning of a line, it will jump to the end of the previous line.

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** Delete Key

The Del or Delete key will remove the character to the right of your typing position
(=cursor). When the end of a line is reached, it brings some characters of the next line
one line up and you can continue removing characters.

** Insert Key

On the left side the text ‘new’ was typed in overwrite mode, on the right side the same was typed in
insert mode.
When typing in the middle of an existing text, the text at the right of your cursor can be
either overwritten with the new text you are typing, or the text can shift right and the new
text will be inserted.
With the INS (Insert) key, you can switch between insert and overwrite typing mode (try
it!). In Ms Word at the bottom of the screen is indicated.

* Arrow Keys
Use the arrows to move the cursor left (), right (), up () or down () in the text. The arrow keys will
move the cursor around in the document without changing text.

** Home, End Page Up and Page Down Keys

Apart from the arrow keys there are also four more keys that can be used to quickly move and navigate
through the text.
The Home key will bring the cursor to the beginning of the line.
the End key will bring it to the end of the line
With the PgUp (Page Up) and PgDn (Page Down) keys, you can move up or down an entire page at once.

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* Number Keys
We find the number keys above the letter keys on the keyboard and on the numeric pad on the right hand
side of the keyboard. To use the numeric pad for numbers, the Num Lock has to be on. It can be locked off
or on by pressing the Num Lock key. A light on the right up of the keyboard will indicate it is on or off.

Computer Care

* Dust
It is advisable to cover your computer with a cloth or plastic material when not in use. This prevents
excessive dust to build up inside the computer and create short circuits, bad contacts or blocking fans.

* Stable Power
The computer needs to be connected to a reliable power source. Avoid the use of cheap power adaptors that
have bad contacts and can cause the computer to switch off accidentally. The use of a surge protected
power adapter can help to stop excessive power for example caused by lightning to damage the computer.
Always unplug the computer from the power source (and telephone line if you have a modem) when the
computer is not in use. Never use the computer during heavy thunderstorms not even when you are
protected with a surge protector (or UPS battery).

* Viruses
Computer viruses can spread over floppy disks, memory sticks or over the Internet (in case you have an
internet connection). Be careful with floppy disks or memory sticks that are used on different machines.
An updated antivirus program is necessary when your computer is on Internet. Antivirus programs are
difficult to keep updated without Internet connections but computers that are not on Internet are less
vulnerable to viruses.

* Keep a Copy of Important Documents

A computer is a machine and therefore can always fail. In case your computer fails and cannot be repaired
the information stored on the computer is lost. Therefore, it is recommended to keep a copy (a backup) of
all-important documents that are on the computer. Backups can be made on a second computer, on a floppy
disk, on a memory stick or on a CD. The floppy disk option is probably the easiest solution but keep in
mind that floppy disks themselves fail frequently.

* Maintenance and Servicing

A computer does not need a regular servicing of its parts. The only thing that can be done is blowing the
dust out with a dust blower. However, if your computer is not excessively exposed to dust even this is not
absolutely necessary.
Viruses, applications and the documents that are put on your computer over the years can slow down the
computer and sometimes cause problems. If this is the case viruses scan, disk clean up or reinstalling of
windows will solve the problem. None of these requires you to buy any spare parts.

* Ignorant Users
It is not a good idea to let untrained persons work on the computer without supervision. It is unlikely that
they can cause any physical damage to the computer but they might disturb some of the settings, delete
documents

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or lose other important information.

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