Information Technology Intermediate 1 D01D 10

Lesson 2

This week we will continue to look at the different parts of the computer, how they work and how you can use the computer to organise and manage your work.

To start, switch your computer on and log in. Ask your tutor if you are not sure how to do this.

Hardware and software

Your computer system is made up of ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. Take a few minutes to discuss the difference between the two and write your answer below:

Now try to come up with some examples of hardware and software. An example of each is given below to help you get started.

Hardware	Software
e.g. mouse	e.g. Microsoft Word

When you have finished, compare lists in small groups and add any items that you missed.

More about hardware

Your computer’s hardware can be divided into output, input and storage devices.

An output device displays information or provides a hard copy of information (known as ‘data’).

The data is entered into the computer using an input device.

Data is saved for future reference using a storage device.

Using the information above, and your list of hardware devices from the previous page, complete the table below. Again, a few examples are given to get you started.

Input	Output	Storage
e.g. mouse	e.g. printer	e.g. floppy disk

More about software

You can see the software installed on your computer by clicking on the green ‘Start’ button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. When you click on the button, it shows you the programs that you use most often – your favourites. Click on ‘all programs’ to get a full list.

Try this now. You can close the Start menu again by clicking somewhere else on the screen.

When you click on the ‘all programs’, you see a long list. The programs are organised by the name of the software company that makes them – for example, you will find ‘Microsoft Word’ in the folder called ‘Microsoft Office’, as it is part of that package of programs.

Open Microsoft Word now. You can do this by clicking on start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Word.

You can have several programs open at the same time, although it may make your computer run slowly.

Without closing Word, open the Paint program. You will find this in the ‘Accessories’ folder. Click on the square button in the top right corner of the Paint program to maximise the window (i.e. make it fit the full screen).

You can see which programs you have open by looking at the blue toolbar which runs along the bottom of the screen. You should see ‘Document1 – Microsoft..’ and ‘untitled – Paint’.

Switch between programs by clicking on them in this toolbar. You can also switch without using the mouse by holding down the alt key and pressing the tab key. Try both of these now.

Creating and saving files

Close the paint program by clicking on the red X in the top right corner.

In Word, write a few lines about your first impressions of Stow College. When you have finished, go to the file menu (top left of the screen). This is a drop down menu – when you click on it, the menu appears. To see the whole menu, click on the down arrows at the bottom of the menu (if you can’t see these, you already have the full menu).

Choose ‘save as’. A dialog box appears as below:

The two arrows on the left hand side show you the shortcuts to get to ‘Desktop’ and ‘My Computer’. Click on ‘Desktop’ first of all. This shows you the files which are on the desktop of the computer when you first open it up. You can save files on here if you only want them for a short time, but remember that they won’t be there the next time you log in.

Now try clicking on ‘My Computer’. This shows you all the storage places available. You can either click on ‘31/2 floppy (A:)’ to save your work on a floppy disk, if you have one, or you can click on your student drive (it will start with your student number, e.g. 10012345).

If you have an important piece of work – like an assessment – then it is a good idea to ‘back up’ your work by saving it in two places, e.g. a disk and your student drive. That way, if your disk breaks or gets lost, you should still have a copy of your work.

The other arrow shows you your ‘file name’ – remember to name your file, so that you can find it again later.

Call this file IT1. As you are saving the file as a Word document, the computer will automatically change this to ‘IT1. doc’, so that you know it is a Word document. Now click on save to save the file.

Managing and organising your work

So far, you only have one file saved, but by the end of this unit, and by the end of your course, you will have lots of work that you need to organise.

To see all of your files together, go to the start menu and choose ‘My Computer’. This is on the right hand side of the start menu (you don’t need to go into ‘All Progams’).

My Computer shows you all the storage places on the computer system. Choose the place where you saved ‘IT1.doc’ – either your floppy disk or your student space.

Once you have found your file, you will see that as well as the name of the file, it tells you the program that it was created in (Microsoft Word), and the size of the file (in KB). Click on your file once with the left mouse button. Now click once with the right mouse button (be careful to hold the cursor over the file while you do this).

Choose ‘rename’ and change your file name to first impressions, then click elsewhere on the screen to save the changes. This will automatically become ‘first impressions.doc’.

We will come back to organising files next week, when you have more work to organise!

Print Manager

You have seen how to organise and manage your files – now we will look at printing documents and organising the rest of your PC.

If you have closed your earlier Word document, go back into Word, and go to file > open to open it.

Go to file > print. You will see a dialog box like the one below.

Our document only has one page and we only want one copy, so these settings are fine. Click on ‘OK’.

Now go to the start menu and choose ‘printers and faxes’ (on the right hand side, below ‘my computer’). This shows you the printers in the Flex. If you double click on the printer, it will show you any jobs which are in the ‘queue’, waiting to be printed. If it is blank, it means that the printer has finished printing.

This is useful if you want to cancel your print job (e.g. if you realise that the document you wanted to print is actually 100 pages long!). To do this, you go to document > cancel.

Control Panel – changing the ‘look’ of your computer

The control panel is an important part of your computer – it’s where you change the settings and appearance of your PC.

As these are college computers, we can’t change very much! If you have a computer at home, you can try changing different things using the Control Panel.

Open the control panel by going to start > control panel (underneath printers and faxes).

You will see a variety of different options – do not touch! Most of them will not work with a student log in anyway…

Click on ‘appearance and themes’ and then ‘change the desktop background’. This gives you a range of different pictures for your desktop. Find one that you like and then click ‘OK’.

Hold down the control button (bottom left of your keyboard) and click ‘m’ to minimise all the programs you have open. You should now see your new desktop.

Click on the programs in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to bring them back. You may want to spend a few minutes exploring the rest of the toolbar, or practising some of the skills you have learned today.