Windows 7 Guide Table of Contents Table of Contents... 1 Getting Information with the Mouse... 3 Taskbar... 3 Start Menu... 3 The Layout... 3 Start Menu Search Bar... 4 Logging Off... 4 Pinning/Unpinning an Application to the Taskbar... 4 How to tell the difference between a pinned and active program on the Taskbar... 4 Jump Lists... 5 Taskbar Notifications... 5 Additional Taskbar Customizations... 5 Reorganizing active windows... 6 Other Taskbar options... 6 Task Manager... 6 Arranging Applications... 7 Show Desktop Button... 7 Snapping... 7 Shaking... 8 Shortcuts... 8 Scenario #1 Placing a shortcut to Microsoft Windows on your desktop... 8 Scenario #2 Create a shortcut to a website or folder on your computer... 9 Introduction to Windows Explorer... 9 The Command Bar... 10 File Lists... 11 File Preview... 11 File Properties... 12 Favorites... 12
Sorting Files... 13 Searching... 14 Filtering your Search... 15 Saving your search... 15 Libraries... 15 Files & Folders... 16 Creating & Managing Folders... 16 Creating & Managing Files... 16 Restoring a File to a previous version... 16 Selecting Files and Folders... 17 Selecting... 17 Recycle Bin... 18 Introduction to Internet Explorer 8... 18 Web address bar... 18 Search Bar... 19 Favorites... 19 Menu Items... 20 Tabs... 20 Making the most of Right-Clicking in Internet Explorer... 20 Other Commands & Actions... 21 Shifting between Applications... 22 Other Useful Windows 7 Tools... 22 Snipping Tool... 22 Useful Keyboard Shortcuts... 22 More Training Resources... 23
Getting Information with the Mouse When working with files, folders, and a variety of applications always keep in mind that Right-Clicking on an object may offer you shortcuts or special actions related to that item. Example #1 Right-click a photo Example #2 Right-click the desktop Example #3 Right-click a link in Internet Explorer Taskbar Start Menu The Layout Left Pane Frequently Used Programs & Pinned Programs a) The list of frequently used programs will change from day to day as you use your computer more. b) The list of pinned programs are static programs that always stay in the Start menu. You can add/remove (pin/unpin) these applications as you chose. To permanently pin an program to the Start Menu - Right Click a program and choose Pin to Start Menu To unpin a program - Right-click the program in the menu list and choose Remove from Start Menu Right Pane Commonly Used Files & Folders
Start Menu Search Bar The FASTEST way to find files on your computer! Just type in a word or phrase and you will immediately get results that match a folder name, file name, or the content in the file. Logging Off Click on the Start Menu and choose one of the following: Logoff, Shutdown, Restart, Lock Pinning/Unpinning an Application to the Taskbar Similar to pinning a commonly used program to your Start Menu, you can also pin an application to your taskbar. Since your taskbar is always visible it is great to have access to the programs you use VERY frequently. Example:. If you access web pages a lot, having Internet Explorer always available on your taskbar is a huge time saver. (IE is pinned there by default.)) I. Ways to pin a program to your taskbar: a. Drag an Icon on your desktop/start Menu to the Taskbar b. Right-click an item on your desktop/start Menu and choose Pin to Taskbar Remove a pinned program a. Right-click the program on your taskbar and choose Unpin this program from Taskbar How to tell the difference between a pinned and active program on the Taskbar An Active Program, one currently in use, is designated by a square box and a glassy looking effect.
Jump Lists Right-clicking an active program in the Taskbar brings up a jump list. This list will vary according each application. A jump list for Microsoft Word as seen below shows the most recent files you have used. A jump list for Internet Explorer shows tasks specific to this application and frequently visited sites. It also can have any tasks or favorites pinned in this jump list. Taskbar Notifications On the right side of the taskbar you will find the notifications area which shows you the status of different programs. You will see a volume status, your network status, and more. You can change which status items appear by clicking the arrow on the left side. Notification icons can be dragged and dropped to and from the taskbar. Additional Taskbar Customizations The following are some added tricks that may or may not interest each computer user, but they are there if you want to take advantage of them. By right-clicking on an empty section of the taskbar you find additional options:
Reorganizing active windows Right-click an empty section of the taskbar provides several choices regarding how all of your active windows will be displayed. a) To demonstrate this open at least 3 programs such as Word, Internet Explorer, and Excel. b) Then choose one of the actions Cascade windows, Show windows stacked, show windows side by side, show the desktop. Each will rearrange your active windows to quickly see them all at once or make them all disappear. Other Taskbar options Also in this menu you have the ability to add some functionality to the taskbar. Choose Toolbars and you will find several features which you can add. These include: I. Add a web address bar Add Favorite Links Button I Add a button that gives you quick access to your mydocuments Task Manager A critical tool found in the above menu is Start Task Manager. With the task manager open you can see wide variety of controls related to the health and status of your computer. Most importantly, on the Applications tab you can see all of the applications that you currently have running. In the event that a specific program becomes unresponsive you can come to the task manager and force an application to quit. I. Navigate to this window I IV. Select which program you want to shut down (problematic programs often have Not Responding as it s status.) Click End Task You will be prompted to confirm that you want to end the program. Click OK and then the program will close. Note: In many cases once you have closed a program in this manner you can immediately restart the program.
Arranging Applications When you have multiple applications open it can become a hassle to manage minimize and resize each one to suite all of your needs so here are several helpful new options: Show Desktop Button I. In the bottom right of your desktop you will find an unmarked vertical box Snapping called the Show Desktop button. By simply rolling over the button with your mouse all of your currently open windows will become transparent a. **Need screen capture** If you click the Show Desktop button all of your currently open windows will be minimized for immediate access to items on your desktop. Click the Show Desktop button a second time and your windows will reappear. Sometimes you would like to have 2 windows open and visible at the same time. Trying to minimize, maximize, and carefully resize each window to your needs can be a pain. The following Windows 7 feature allows you to quickly arrange 2 windows in a quick second. This feature is called snapping. Select an open window. Drag the window to the top-right corner until the right side of the screen turns a shaded blue. When you release the window it will be resized to fit that side of the screen. Select a second window. Drag the window to the top-left corner until the left side of the screen turns a shaded blue. When you release the window it will be resized to fit that side of the screen.
A third snap option allows you to drag a window to the top of the screen. The entire screen will turn a shaded blue and when release the application will be maximized to fit the entire screen. These features simply provide a dragand-drop alternative to minimizing and maximizing windows. Once a window is snapped in place you can un-snap it by dragging the window away from its current location. That window will return to its original size. Shaking In the event that you have a large number of windows open, but really only want to use one and minimize the rest you would typically have to manually minimize each separate window. An alternative to this is to press and hold the title barof the window you want to work. Once you are able to drag the window shake the window left and right until all your other windows disappear. All the other applications have been minimized except the one you want. Shortcuts A shortcut in Windows 7 is simply an icon or button created by you that opens up any resource such as a specific file, a folder, a web address, or a program. A shortcut is an icon or button that you can place anywhere on your Windows computer (example: an icon placed on your desktop that goes to a website). Shortcuts are intended to help you organize your resources in efficient ways. Scenario #1 Placing a shortcut to Microsoft Windows on your desktop I. Click on the Start Menu in the bottom left. I Click All Programs Click on the Microsoft Office folder IV. Find and Right-click Microsoft Office 2007 V. Choose Send To >> Desktop (create shortcut) VI. V A shortcut title Word is now on your desktop. You can rename it one of 2 ways a. Click the name of the shortcut ONCE and the ability to edit the name will appear. b. Right-click the shortcut and choose Rename and the ability to edit the shortcut name will appear. Note: This is only a shortcut to the program and not the program itself. So you can delete it, rename it, or move it without worrying about hurting the program.
Scenario #2 Create a shortcut to a website or folder on your computer If you wanted to regularly refer to information on the Contact Us page of the CIU20 website you could easily create a shortcut on your desktop to this constantly reference webpage. Otherwise you would have to open Internet Explorer, go to the CIU20 website, and find the Contact Us page. Here are the steps to make a shortcut: I. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop I IV. Choose New >> Shortcut You are then prompted to supply a path to the resource. a. If you wanted a shortcut to a specific folder you could click the browsebutton and navigate to a folder on your computer. Once selected Click ok and the path to that resource will be filled in. b. If you wanted a shortcut to a website you could simply paste the full web address of the website to this location. Click Next V. You are then prompted to give your shortcut a name. VI. V Click OK Your new shortcut now appears on your desktop. Introduction to Windows Explorer Windows Explorer is the means by which you can navigate to the files and folders on your computer and furthermore organizing them to suite your needs. In Windows 7 there are many new features which help you organize, preview, search, and filter files. To use Windows Explorer go to Start Menu and then choose one of the options: [your name], Documents, Pictures, Music, or Computer. The graphic to the right shows Windows Explorer when Computer is selected.
The Command Bar For this demonstration we will start with Documents. You will now be walked through the various components of Windows Explorer. The Command Bar is where you will find the majority of the actions you will want to take on a file or folder. The actions available change based on the context of the file you are viewing or have selected. In the above command bar we are simply looking at the contents of my Documents folder. Now once I select a folder the command bar changes to the following: When I choose a file the command bar changes to the following: Note: To make the traditional file menu appear (ie. File, Edit, View, Tools, Help) you make it temporarily appear by pressing F10 or Alt. To make it permanently visible press F10 >> Go to Tools >> Folder Options >> Select the View tab>> Check Always show menus >> Click OK. Anytime you need to manipulate a file or folder the actions you require will be available in this bar.
File Lists The list of files and folders can be changed to suite your specific needs. Different File List Views have different benefits. In the default Tile mode Windows Explorer provides a preview of the contents of a folder. File Preview Windows Explorer takes this preview functionality one step farther, allowing you to preview most files within Windows Explorer. You don t even have to open any programs to gain a preview. Next to the File List View button is the File Preview On/Off button. By default the preview pane is visible. When visible you are provided a preview of any graphic, word, excel, PowerPoint, PDF, music file, video file, and more. You can confirm you are opening the right PDF or Excel file without needing to open any program.
File Properties In addition to a general preview of the file you are also provide all the details related to the creation and purpose of the file. In addition to the basic size and last date modified detail some of these attributes are available for editing as marked in red below. To change an attribute simply click once on an attribute and a text box will appear. Then click SAVE to finalize your change. Changing these attributes may be useful for tracking extra details regarding your documents. As we will discuss later, editing a files tagor category will help us search for our files in a snap! Favorites Most are familiar with having favorites when related to Internet Explorer and collecting websites. In Windows 7, Windows Explorer offers similar functionality for keeping all of your favorite folders in one place. By default your favorites include: I. Desktop this offers quick access to the files and folders on your I IV. desktop. Downloads- In most cases when a file is downloaded from the Internet while using Internet Explorer, those files are by default saved to Downloads folder. Recent Place In a similar way to Internet Explorer remembering what websites you recently visited Windows 7 will track what folders you most recently visited. This assists you in getting back to a file or folder your just worked on but have forgotten its location. Add your own Similar to pinning an application to a menu or creating a shortcut on your desktop you can add a favorites link to the folders you access the most.
To Add your own favorite: Navigate to the folder you want to add. Perhaps you want to add a Student Data folder found in your mydocuments. Once you have navigated to that folder Right-click on Favorites and choose Add current location to favorites. And now your folder is a favorite for easy access. Sorting Files This might seem like a boring feature worth skipping over, but Windows 7 offers some great new tricks for finding files. In the top right of your Windows Explorer underneath the folder view options you will find the Arrange By attribute. By default files are arranged by folder. I. First navigate to your Documents folder I IV. Click on the Arrange by option and to start choose Author You now see a list of icons, each representing an author who wrote at least one of your documents. Double click on any author name and now, as if it was a folder you find every document that specific person authored. Its as if all your files were pulled out of their respective folders and were reorganized into a new folder structure (though your folders haven t really changed) Now sort by Date modified and again ALL of the files in your documents folder are organized by the date modified. Without searching through each folder you get a straight report of when you worked on specific files.
V. Now sort by Type and you now see all your files seemingly reorganized into a different folder for PDFs, VI. Word, Excel, etc. We will finally sort by Tag. Most likely this sorting option will not yield many results. But it has great potential. Tagging Remember back to when you would select one of your files and at the bottom of Windows Explorer you would see a bunch of attributes related to that file such as date modified, author, title, etc. One of those attributes is a tag attribute which you can input yourself. Click once on the tag field to edit this attribute. You can add more than one tag to this file by separating each tag word with a comma. In the above case I would probably want to use: P50, article, FBA, BSC, training, Resolve Now you can see I tagged this as a P50 & article regardless of the actual title of document. So now if I keep up this trend of tagging the documents I create and receive I can easily sort all my news articles and P50 Program documents on the fly. It s an added step but is more organizer friendly than folders alone could ever be. Searching While sorting is a great way to shuffle files around based on different contexts sometimes you don t know the best way to sort things and just want to search everything. Windows 7 provides a fast search feature that will retrieve files that not only match your search terms based on the title of the document but also based on the document s content. As an example, while in mydocuments I searched for the term Resolve The search returned instant results where my search term matched a file name, folder, tag, or the content in the document. Searching for a document is now easier than sifting through your folders one by one.
Filtering your Search Let s say you do a search and you get back 100 results. You can now filter those search results. I. Click in the search box where have already typed in the search phrase resolve. When you click in the I Saving your search search box a drop down appears with recent searches and filter options. Click Authors and now you see a list of document authors you can search by. Choose one of those authors. You now have your search results only showing those created by a specific author. But you don t have to stop there. You add more search filters. Just click the search box again, chose a filter parameter, and your search gets even better. Once you have a completed search perhaps you find yourself reusing the same searchon a regular basis. Once you have done a search in Windows Explorer you will see in the Command Bar an option to save your search. You can save the search anywhere but by default it saves to your Windows Explorer favorites. Now as if accessing a folder you can access this search of your computer with a single click. Libraries Windows 7 is now equipped with a new means of organizing files and folders. In traditional Windows XP you would have your My Documents or Desktop folder and each would have folders within folders within folders. The structures of those folders were only as organized as you were. To get to a document you needed to know the exact structure of your folder system and start digging. Instead of digging through folders Windows helps you jump straight to specific folders through the use of Libraries. A Library gives you direct access to folders regardless of where they are located on your computer or a network. You might have 3 folders containing photos, and each folder is hidden in a different location. With Windows Libraries you can put a reference to each of those folders in your Pictures Library.
Files & Folders Creating & Managing Folders I. Create a Folder on your Desktop a. Right-click in an empty area b. In the pop-up menu rollover New c. Select Folder Changing the name of a folder a. Click once on the name of the folder and a textbox appears allowing you edit the name b. OR right-click on the folder and select Rename Creating & Managing Files Typically to create a document, like a Microsoft Word document, you would open up Word, start a new document and then save it to a folder. Here is a way to create a blank document without opening any programs: I. Navigate to the location where you want to store the document. I Right-click an empty area within that folder Roll-over New IV. Choose Microsoft Office Word Document. V. You can then rename the file by clicking once on the name, or right-clicking and selecting rename You can create a new blank Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or Basic Text File on the fly. This can be handy when you want to create a folder & file structure without opening a bunch of programs. Restoring a File to a previous version While working on files here at the Central Office most of your computer files are stored on our network. This creates an ideal backup scenario if your computer breaks down while your files are still safe. As your files are continually saved to our network we have a feature that not only saves your latest version of a document but also retains older versions as well. Perhaps a file gets corrupted so you can t open it. Or perhaps you edited and saved a document only to find you accidentally deleted some key information. There is a good chance a prior version of your document is still available. The following directions will show you how to restore a file to a previous version. I. Find the file you would like to restore but don t open it. I IV. Right-click the document and choose properties Click on the Previous versions tab. For most documents you should see a list of copies of this document saved at different dates. V. Depending on your specific need you will select a version and choose one of the following options: a. Open if you simply want to view the version to see how it compares to what you currently have. b. Copy If you don t want to lose your current version of the document but want to get access to the old version you can copy an old version to any location. c. Restore If you want to overwrite your current version of the document with an older version choose this option. This option is most ideal when your document is corrupt or you know you won t lose anything of value by overwriting the current with the old. **More details and screen shots**
Selecting Files and Folders Here we will demonstrate a variety of efficient ways to select, copy, move files and folders. Each technique is beneficial for a different scenario so know each will help make things easier on you. Selecting I. Using mouse only a. You can always Click and Drag a box around whatever files you want to select. Sometimes this is effective if you drag the box just right to make the proper selection. Keyboard Only a. If you are using your cursor keys (up,down,left,right) on your keyboard, move your cursor to the first item you want to select. b. Press and hold down the Shift key c. While holding down the Shift key use your cursor keys and cursor [down, up, left, right] until everything you need is selected. This method helps you to be a little more precise than simply dragging a box over files. I Keyboard and mouse a. When your selection needs to be precise and files are not necessarily in sequence the Ctrl+Click method is ideal. b. Press and hold down the Ctrl key c. While holding down the Ctrl key click on each individual file you want to select. i. If you let go of the Ctrl key you can always press and hold it again to add to your select. ii. If you want to deselect a file continue to hold the Ctrl key and click the file you want to deselect.
Recycle Bin When a file or folder gets deleted it is not immediately deleted, but instead stored in the recycle bin. This is a location for files waiting to be deleted. To permanently delete the files still in the recycle bin: a) Right-click the recycle bin and select Empty Recycle Bin. b) OR you can open the recycle bin and press Empty Recycle Bin in the Command Bar To retrieve a file still in the recycle bin: a) Open the recycle bin b) Select which file you want back c) Right-click the item and chose Restore d) OR once the item is select click Restore this item in the Command Bar Note: The recycle bin is not intended to be used as a folder for storing documents. Documents should only be in this container if you have the intention to permanently delete. Introduction to Internet Explorer 8 For most Internet Explorer is nothing more than a place to type in a web address, Google a topic, and navigate to different websites. But as your web pages become your routine sources of information you want to be able to navigate and manage websites better and faster. Web address bar This is where you go to type in a specific web address that you want to visit. If you want to share a site with someone you want to copy ALL of the text in the box or it might not direct someone to the proper webpage. Tricks a) You do not ALWAYS have to manually type in http://. In most cases Internet Explorer will fill this in for you. a. If someone tells you to go to cnn.com then ONLY typing www.cnn.com or cnn.com in the address bar will likely get you to the site.
b. If you have already visited cnn.com at least once then you might not only need to partially spell the address before suggestions of previously visited sites begin to appear. As shown below I only need to type C and I can already see the full address of the site. Without typing any more I can cursor down to that address and press Enter. Note: Using a FULL web address is typically only needed when you want to share the website with someone. In that case make sure you copy the entire address including HTTP:// Search Bar Regardless of what webpage you are on you can always type in a Google search term here. You will then be redirected to the search results you need. Your search provider will default to Bing or Google. If you would like to use a different search provider a) click the arrow at the end of the search bar b) choose Find More Providers c) You will be directed to a web page with other search providers. Find the one you want to use and click the associated but to Add to Internet Explorer. d) You will then be asked to confirm adding this provider. Make sure you check Make this my default search provider e) Click Add. The benefit of having multiple search provider choices is if you want to search a specific resource without actually going to the site. For example you might want to search the New York Times or Wikipedia without navigating to their site. Favorites Sometimes you will want to save a reference to a website or specific webpage for later reference. This is easily done by navigating to the web page, clicking the Favorites button, and clicking Add to Favorites. You will then be asked to give this favorite a title and decide if it should be placed in a specific folder.
Menu Items You might be wondering what happened to the menu bar you are used to which contain menu options like: File, Edit, View, Options, Help. By default these options are hidden as Internet Explorer encourages you to do these tasks in other ways. But if you do want them back: a) Right Click on the top menu bar b) The Popup will display several options and if you click on Menu Bar to Check it then the Menu Bar will display as usual. Tabs Instead of having a new Internet Explorer window open for every website you are currently visiting Internet Explorer uses a tab system to let you have multiple websites open at once. Each tab represents a different website. - You can close any tab by selecting it and clicking the X on the tab. - You can open a new tab by clicking the blank tab at the right end of the tabs. - If you already have several active tabs you can view them all at once by clicking the Quick Tabs (Ctrl + Q) - This will show you a preview of all your currently active websites. This helps when you have multiple tabs accessing different pages on the same resource. It might be tough to distinguish between them without clicking on each and every one. Making the most of Right-Clicking in Internet Explorer Right-Clicking different parts of a website can yield more information or additional actions that can be taken on different sections of a website. It never hurts to right-click on something just out of curiousity to discover what you can do with it. But here are some examples: a) Right-Click on a photo or graphic You may be able to copy the photo or save it directly to your computer. b) Right-Click on a Text Link or Graphic Link a. Doing this will allow you to command Internet Explorer to open this link in a new tab or a new window. This is helpful if you don t want to navigate away from the web page you are currently on.
b. You can also select Copy Shortcut which copies the Other Commands & Actions web address this link will direct you to without actually taking you there. i. In the example to the right I want to copy the web address for the Service for My Child Link. I right-click the link and select Copy Shortcut. Then when I paste into an email I get: http://www.ciu20.org/students-parents/services-for-my-child.aspx c. If a link points to a file like a Word Document, PDF, or other file for download I can right-click that link and choose Save Target As. I am then given a prompt to Save the Document to my computer. This is helpful if clicking on a link to document causes the document to be opened directly in Internet Explorer which is not always desirable. If you don t use the Traditional Menu Bar (ie. File, Edit, Tools, etc.) then the bulk of those missing tasks can be found in this new menu area. The Home button should return you to your homepage which by default should be the CIU20 Intranet at: http://th20.ciu20.org The RSS feed button is grey when inactive and orange when it identifies an available RSS feed provider on your current webpage. Clicking this button will give you the ability to save the feed in your favorites. The Mail button is a quick link to your default email software which by default may be MS Outlook. All standard printing Options are available here. Any actions you would typically fine under the FILE or EDIT menu can be found here (ie. Copy, paste, save, email to, etc.) Most features here are more applicable for home/family use as opposed to a work setting.. These features include web filters, privacy settings, etc. This menu allows you to manage the pop-up blocker. It also offers other tools/ features which are not necessary to cover in this training..
Shifting between Applications While you can always stick to changing applications by clicking what is available in your Taskbar there are a few faster shortcuts to do so. I. Flip (Alt + Tab) Hold down Alt and then press Tab. A window appears showing you every open application. While holding ALT continue to press Tab and you can select a different application. Once ALT is released the selected application will appear as the application with your focus. Flip 3D (Win + Tab) In the same manner you can hold down the Windows key and press Tab to cycle trough the available applications. The manner does the same task but with a fancier 3D effect.note: This feature may be unavailable on those using Virtual Desktop Machines. Other Useful Windows 7 Tools Snipping Tool Here is a great tool for capturing screen shots and quickly editing them to share. I. Click the Start Menu >> ALL Programs >> Accessories >>Snipping Tool I IV. Once Open click New. The Snipping Tool will hide and the rest of the screen fades a bit. Using your mouse click-drag a box around an area of the screen that you want to capture. Release the mouse when the box captures what you want. V. The snipping tool now copied that screen shot into it s program. You can then easily Click VI. Edit>>Copy and paste the graphic into a document or email. Before copying the image you can also draw on the graphic using the pen, mark something yellow with the highlighter, or erase one of your edits. Once complete easily copy the graphic into a document or email. Useful Keyboard Shortcuts To Press To Press Copy Ctrl+C Close Active Alt+F4 Program Paste Ctrl+V Switch Between Alt+Tab open windows Cut Ctrl+X Cycle Through Open Windows+Tab Windows(Flip 3D) Save Ctrl+S Peek at the Desktop Windows+Spacebar Print Ctrl+P Cycle through Items Windows + T on the taskbar Move Forward Tab Show the Desktop Windows + D through options in a dialog box Open Windows Windows + E Search Windows + F Explorer Lock Computer Windows + L
More Training Resources Other tutorials, tools, and references can be found on the Microsoft website. These resources can be found by going to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/getting-started and a link for software training is available right off the homepage under Staff we will also have additional resources on the W: shared drive.