St Ignatius Girls JL - Form 3. Contents

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1 Contents Basic system information...2 Print Screen...2 View files and folders...2 File and folder properties...3 Attributes...3 File Types...3 Sorting Files...5 Searching files...6 Compressing a file...8 Printing...9 File & Folder Storage...10 Creating Folders/Sub-folders...11 Files...11 Renaming Files, Folders or Sub-folders...12 St Ignatius Girls JL - Form 3

2 Basic system information System properties refer to the most important parts that make up your computer system such as the CPU speed, its product name, the type of operating system and RAM size. To view the PC s system properties ; 1. Right click on My Computer icon 2. Select Properties 3. Click on General and System Properties dialog box is displayed. Information displayed includes the version of Windows installed, CPU type and the amount of RAM. Print Screen Press the Print Screen key on the keyboard to copy the entire screen onto the clipboard. Note that to copy the current active window, press Alt+Print Screen View files and folders You can choose to view your files and folders as: Thumbnails: This is only related to picture files. It displays picture files as small pictures. Tiles: Displays all files & folders as large icons. Icons: Displays all files & folders as small icons. List: Displays all files & folders in a list split into multiple columns. Details: Displays all files and associated file details such as name, size, type, and last accessed date in a single column. Mr K Aquilina Page 2 of 12

3 File and folder properties To get detailed information about a particular folder, right click on the folder or file and select Properties from the popup menu. In the opened dialogue box, the user can view the properties of the file (or folder): Type Location Size Amount of files and folders that it contains Date created Attributes (Read-only, Hidden and Archive) Attributes Right click over the selected file and select the Properties command. Within the Attributes section, you can check / uncheck any of the three attributes (Read-only, Hidden and Archive). Attibute Effect Read-only Sets the file as read-only, which means that it cannot be modified. Hidden Sets the file or folder as hidden, which means that you cannot see or use it unless you know its name. Archive Sets the file or folder should be archived. Some programs use this option to control which files and folders are backed up. File Types Each file is represented by a small icon that represents the program with which it is opened. The file s extension determines with which program that file will be opened. For examples files whose extension is.txt are text files and thus are opened with Notepad. Similarly, files that end in.doc are opened by word-processor files. If you change the file name extension Windows will become confused as to what the file format is. There are many file types of which the most popular are listed below; Mr K Aquilina Page 3 of 12

4 extension.rtf.txt Icon & Extension Usage Used for word processed documents. It is supported by different kinds of word processing application so it is useful for converting documents from one program to another such as from.doc (Microsoft Word) to.rtf Text only files, commonly created using Windows Notepad application.xls Excel workbook.ppt Powerpoint presentation.mdb Access database..pdf Used by the Adobe Acrobat reader program. PDF files contain documents that can be viewed or printed but cannot be changed.html.gif.jpg HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the format that basic web pages are stored in. The.GIF extension means that the file contains an image. GIF files are commonly found on the Web..JPG or.jpeg is another common type of image file..exe The.EXE extension indicates that the file contains an executable program..wav.mpg.avi.wmv.zip.rar Audio files can be stored in a variety of different file formats. Compressed files. File compression is used to make file smaller so that they take up less space on a hard disk and can be transferred fasters over a network. To be opened they need to be un-compressed first..tmp.temp Temporary Files are created by Windows and also by Windows applications. In some cases, such as after a system crash (i.e. when Windows freezes and stops working), these temporary files are not automatically deleted as they are supposed to be (hence the name temporary.) Mr K Aquilina Page 4 of 12

5 Sorting Files 1. Open Windows Explorer and select the folder containing the files that you wish to sort. 2. Click on View drop down menu, and select Details command. 3. Sort files by name, size, type, date modified by clicking on the appropriate header. Option Name Size To Do This To sort the files by name. To sort the files in order of increasing or decreasing size. Type To sort the files by type. Date Modified To sort the files by date/time last saved. IMPORTANT NOTE: To reverse the sort order, click again on the header. Mr K Aquilina Page 5 of 12

6 Searching files To search for a file, by name: 1. Click on Search 2. Go to the All files or folders option. This will display a dialog box as illustrated. 3. In the All or part of the file name option, enter the name of the file that you wish to locate. Ensure that the correct folder to be searched is selected; 4. To start the search, click on the Search Now button. To search for a file using wildcards instead of the full name: In the previous example, we knew the full name of the file or folder that we were searching for. In some cases we may only know part of the name, in which case we can use wild cards. FOR EXAMPLE: To search for all files whose names start with z To search for all files whose names start with za To search for all files whose names start with za and contains 5 characters To search for all Microsoft Excel files whose names start with za and contains 5 characters we type z* we type za* we type za??? we type za???.xls Mr K Aquilina Page 6 of 12

7 To find a file containing a specific word or phrase contained within the document: 1. Open the Search dialog box. 2. Select Files or Folders 3. In the A word or phrase in the file option, enter the text that the missing document contains, To find a file created on a certain date: 1. Open the Search dialog box (by clicking on the Start button and then clicking on the Search command 2. To find a file created or modified on a certain date, select the When was it modified? section and select the appropriate dates. To find files of a particular type: 1. Open the Search dialog box. 2. Click on the Type section of the dialog box, as illustrated. 3. Click on the down arrow to select a type of file. In the example illustrated we have selected Mr K Aquilina Page 7 of 12

8 Compressing a file You compress a file so that it becomes smaller in size. This allows you to save on storage space and if you want to digitally send the file (e.g. ) to a friend, it may be transferred much faster because the file is smaller in size. This is particularly useful when you have a slow internet connection. To compress files WinZip is an example of compression utility software that can be freely downloaded. To download a free trial copy of WinZip, go to To compress files within a folder: 1. Display the Windows Explorer program. 2. Right click on the folder, and from the popup menu displayed, select WinZip as illustrated. You have a number of choices you can make about your file compression. Normally you would use the second option down, whereby the selected folder is compressed into a ZIP file, using the name of the selected folder. NOTE: There are other compression programs, available such as Winrar and PKZIP. Extract compressed files from a given location on a drive: Open the Windows Explorer and select the Zipped file that you wish to extract. Double click on the ZIP file and a dialog window will be displayed (assuming that you have installed WinZip, or a similar program). Click on the Actions drop down menu and select the Extract command. Another dialog box will be displayed. Within the Extract section of the dialog box, enter the location that you wish to extract the file to, and then click on the Extract button. Mr K Aquilina Page 8 of 12

9 Printing To change the default printer: 1. Click on the Start, and select Settings. 2. Select Printers. A dialog box will be displayed, similar to that illustrated. In this case we have the choice of printing to a number of different printers. However when we click on the Print icon with an application such as Microsoft Word, then Word will print to a single printer, the one that has been set up as the default (or active printer). If you have a number of printers installed, as in the example shown, a tick illustrates the active printer. 3. Select the required printer, by clicking on it. Then right-click to display a popup menu. 4. Select Set as Default Printer command The new printer will now be the default printer for all your applications. Install a new printer on the computer: It is Windows itself, rather than each individual program within Windows that controls the printing process. The correct printer driver must be installed for each type of printer that you will be printing to. A printer driver is simply a piece of software that tells Windows how to print to a particular printer. To install a new printer driver; 1. Click on the Start button. 2. Click on Printers and Faxes from the menu displayed. 3. Within the dialog box displayed, double click on the Add Printer option. This will display the Add Printer Wizard. 4. Click on the Next button to continue. Follow through the stages of the Printer Wizard, clicking on the Next button to continue until you reach the final dialog box. Choose Finish to complete the installation of the new printer driver. Mr K Aquilina Page 9 of 12

10 To view print jobs: Once you have started printing if you double click on the small printer icon (in the Windows Status Bar at the bottom-right of your screen), you will open the Printer dialog box and will be able to see the progress of any print jobs that you have sent to the printer. Pause, re-start, delete a print job using a Desktop print manager: Within the Print Manager, select the print job. Click on the Document option menu and select the Pause, Resume, Restart or Cancel command. File & Folder Storage Basic units of computer storage; 1. Bit (b) short for Binary Digit, is the smallest unit of information on the computer. A single bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. More meaningful information is obtained by combining consecutive bits into larger units. 2. Byte (B) - A group of eight bits (e.g ) make up one byte. It is the amount of storage needed to store one character (e.g. a, c, +, =, %, 8). 3. Kilobyte (KB) is equivalent to 1024 bytes. 4. Megabyte (MB) is equivalent to bytes (or 1,048,576B). 5. Gigabytes (GB) is equivalent to bytes (or 1,073,741,824B). Hard-disks (discussed later) have storage capacities measured in terms of GB ( GB). 6. Terabyte (TB) is equivalent to bytes (or 1,099,511,627,776B). Files are units that store collections of data. Almost all information stored in your computer must be in a file. Different types of files store different types of information. For example, program files store programs, text files store text; graphic files store images or pictures etc. Each file has a name referred to as a filename. Typically file sizes range from KB to MB. Folders Are containers in which are stored collections of files. Typically you organise your wordprocessing, spreadsheet and picture files (from your digital camera) in folders. Computer programs (e.g. MS Windows, MS Word, MS Excel etc) are stored in separate folders. Folders may also contain other folders (sub-folders) in them. Folder sizes may range from KB to GB. MS Windows uses several devices to store files and folders: Hard disk is typically found inside the computer. It contains all program folders and files. It also stores data files i.e. document, spreadsheet, presentation files etc. Hard disks can hold very large amounts of data ( GB). Network drive is typically a shared disk that is accessed by several computers connected to a network. Typically a network stores data files that are shared amongst several users. Mr K Aquilina Page 10 of 12

11 USB flash drive is a portable device that is used to store data files. USB flash drives can store large amounts of data (up to 256GB). USB flash drives connect to the computer through USB ports. CD-RW (Compact Disc-Re-Writeable) is a portable device used to store data files. CD-RW disks can be erased and written to over and over again. CD-RW disks have storage capacities up to 650MB. DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk or Digital Video Disk Re-Writeable) disks are similar to CD-RWs but they can store much more data than CDs. DVDs have storage capacities which range from 4.7GB to 17GB. Typically these disks are used for full-length movies, advanced multimedia games and interactive encyclopaedias. It is important to copy data files present on the hard-disk onto a secondary storage medium (e.g. USB flash drive, CD-RW or DVD-RW) in case the hard-disk fails. This process is known as data backup. You should backup your files regularly. It is also recommended that you make two/three backups of all data files. One copy should be kept away from the computer room off-site storage. In recent years, some users are using online storage facilities available through Internet to store data files. These can be easily accessed from any computer connected to Internet. Such storage is particularly useful to share data files with friends or colleagues. Creating Folders/Sub-folders To create a folder: 1. In My Computer window, double-click on the drive (A: or C:) where the folders will be created. The drive will be highlighted. 2. Click File menu. 3. Highlight New. 4. Click Folder. A new folder will be added. 5. Type a name for your folder in the text box displayed. 6. Press Enter key. A yellow folder will be created. To create a sub-folder: 1. In My Computer window, double-click on the folder/sub-folder where the sub-folder/s will be created. The folder/sub-folder will be highlighted. 2. Repeat steps 2-6 as for above. Note that: It is good practice to use meaningful names for folders and sub-folders to help with recall and organization. Files Information is saved in files and the first time you save any piece of information you need to give a name to the file. Filenames are used to call out the information on the computer screen for use. Filenames can have up to 255 characters long including any spaces. However these filenames cannot have the following characters: \? : * < >. It is good practice to use meaningful names for files to help with renaming and organization. Filenames usually end with a 3 character extension. A period (.) separates the filename from the file extension. Some of the common file extensions are listed here: Mr K Aquilina Page 11 of 12

12 Renaming Files, Folders or Sub-folders 1. In My Computer window, click the item s icon you want to rename (this will become highlighted). 2. Right click and select Rename. 3. Replace the existing name with the new name. 4. Press Enter key. Note that: You can only rename a file provided that this file is not marked as read-only and is not currently being used by a program. You should not change the extension when renaming a file. The extension of a file determines the program to be used to open that file. For example, document files ending by.doc are typically opened by a word processing program. If you rename the extension, MS Windows will not be able to determine which program to use to display the file contents. The following message is displayed when you attempt to change the extension of a file. You should never rename (or delete) files ending with the following extensions:.exe.com.bat.dll.ini.sys Mr K Aquilina Page 12 of 12