1 Creating a Folder on Your Desktop Saving A Picture to Your Folder Creating Desktop Wallpaper from Pictures on the Internet Changing Your Home Page Creating a Shortcut to a Web Page on Your Desktop One of the first things we did in our first class was learn how to create a folder on our desktop. I will now lead you though that process step by step: Right click on a blank spot on your desktop be sure and don t click on any icons. If you do click on an icon, you will have something appear that you do not want at this time. We want a simple right click on a blank space. When you right click on your desktop, a box will appear with multiple choices. You want to choose New. When you choose New another fly out box will appear, and you will select the word Folder. You now have a new folder on your desktop with the words New Folder highlighted. Do not click again until you have decided whether or not you want to name your folder a specific name. Of course, you will want to do this because New Folder is not going to mean a whole lot to you unless it s the only one you create ever! While the text New Folder is highlighted, type the name you want the file to bear by typing over the highlighted words. Any time text is highlighted, you can type right over it. You can, of course, hit the delete key and get rid of the highlighted text, however, it s an extra step. Let s try to keep it as simple as possible. Once your folder is named, you are now ready to begin saving appropriate files in that folder. If you named your file correspondence, you would, of course, want to save letters and memos to that folder. If you named your folder Photos, you will, of course, want to save Photos to that folder. Let s begin by naming the first folder you create Pictures. Now, we are ready to go on the Internet and search for images. If you have a very updated computer, you will note that Yahoo provides an image search. I just updated from Windows 98 not long ago, and I noticed that there was no Image Search available on Yahoo with that version of my browser. I have updated to Windows 2000, and now I have an Image Search function on Yahoo. If you do not have an updated version of Windows, you can find an image search on Google. You can go there simply by typing in google.com in your Address bar and hitting the Enter key. Let s assume everyone has the Image Search function on their Yahoo site. Click on the tab that says Images. Note how the words change from Search the Web to Search Images. Now you will want to type in one or more key words keep it simple to search for something of interest to you. Type in the key words then hit
2 the Enter key. You will see a selection of pictures. Choose one picture, click on the picture to bring it up to its maximum size. Next you will place your arrow (cursor) over your chosen picture and right click with your mouse. You will get a box with multiple selections. Note that one of the selections is Set as Background. Some of your computers might say Set as Wallpaper. It s the same thing. Click on that choice. Now, minimize your active window and see if your picture is now your wallpaper on your desktop. Maximize your screen by going down on your status bar at the bottom of your monitor and clicking on the box that starts with http:// - you know that s a minimized web page because it starts with those letters. When you click on it, it becomes maximized again. Place your cursor on your picture, then right click on it. You will now choose Save Picture As. When you choose Save Picture As a box is going to open that will let you find the file folder where you want to save your picture. I have used the key word roses, and have selected a picture. I have clicked on it, and now my screen looks like the picture on the next page: Note that the computer automatically chooses a Folder it has already named My Pictures. Do not mistake that for your folder on your desktop named Pictures. To find your Folder that you created, you will need to click on the little arrow next to the words My Pictures. When you do that you will get a look into your computer. Select Desktop as that is where you saved your Folder, then Click on your Folder that you named Pictures. If it is open, the name of your folder will
3 appear in the Save in line along with an icon depicting an open Folder. It will look like the picture on the next page: Note that the file folder bears the name that you gave your Folder. Also note that the picture has no title. You will see next to File name that the file is untitled. You will want to name your picture. In this case, I would place my cursor directly behind the word untitled, then I would left click, hold down the left click button, then drag to the left across the word untitled to highlight it. Once you have highlighted the word untitled you can start typing in the name of your file. In my case I would probably name my picture roses, and then click on the Save button. Minimize your open window and click on the Pictures folder you created on your desktop. You should see an icon and the name you gave to your picture. If you click on that icon, your picture will open, and you can view it. You might even want to click on File, then click on Print to print a copy of your picture.
4 Changing your Home Page If you are connected to the Internet, you have an ISP an Internet Service Provider. You are not obligated in any way to use your ISP s home page as your home page. My internet service provider is Comcast, yet I use Yahoo as my home page because it is so very versatile, and it allows me to personalize it. Once you play with Yahoo a bit and realize how much you can do, I think you will like it, too. In the event that you wish to change your home page (the page your internet opens up to when you enter the WWW), you can easily do so by simply doing the following: Open up your Internet browser probably Internet Explorer. The other major browser is Netscape. Once you have access to the Internet go to the top to the tool bar and click on Tools, then click on Internet Options. You will see right away that the first thing it tells you is that you can change your home page. Your home page you are using will be highlighted, and you can type your new home page address right in over that one. The box that opens when you click on Internet Options should look like the picture on the next page. Note that the page you are currently using as a home page is highlighted and waiting to be typed over and changed.
5 PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST TYPE THIS ADDRESS CORRECTLY BECAUSE A BROWSER WILL NOT RECOGNIZE AN EMAIL ADDRESS THAT IS TYPED IN AN IMPROPER FORM OR IS NOT SPELLED CORRECTLY. WHILE YOU CAN TYPE JUST A NAME PLUS THE.COM IN THE ADDRESS LINE ON THE INTERNET, YOU MUST TYPE THE WHOLE THING IN THIS SPACE INCLUDING http://www. THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH JUST PART OF THE ADDRESS IS IN THE ADDRESS LINE OF YOUR BROWSER. 3. After you have typed in the full name of the web page that you want to be your home page, click on Apply, then click on OK. You are now ready to click on the icon or word on the toolbar that represents Home. If you have typed everything correctly, your Home icon should take you to your new Home page. Creating a Shortcut to a Web Page on Your Desktop To create a shortcut to your home page on your desktop is redundant you will get that page the instant the internet opens. However, if you have other pages or sites that are favorites that are not your home page, you can create a shortcut from your desktop that will let you click on that shortcut and go directly to that favorite site without typing in the address. To create a shortcut on your desktop, place your cursor arrow on a blank spot on the web page, right click, the click on Create Shortcut. If you minimize your Active Window, you will see that there is now an icon on your desktop with the name of your favored site underneath it. You don t want to use this excessively as it fills up your desktop, but it is handy if you have a couple of sights that you favor equally with your home page. You can save other favorite websites and web pages by doing the following: While you are on the site that you want to save as a Favorite, go to the top of your screen and click on Favorites, then Click on Add To Favorites. In this way you create a list of favorite web sites that you can pull up at any time simply by clicking on Favorites and choosing from your list that you have created.