In a previous article I covered things that every computer user should know, specifically, learn how to use your cursor, learn how to type and learn how to right-click. Picking up where that article left off, let’s look at a few more essential computer skills.
Learn how to use Windows Explorer. Not to be confused with Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer is your computer’s file manager. It’s probably the most useful tool found on a Microsoft Windows computer. Contrary to what you might think, you don’t have to save everything into the “My Documents” or “My Pictures” folders. With Windows Explorer you can make new file folders, name, rename and move files and folders, and generally make your computing life easier by organizing your computer’s files into something that actually makes sense. You may want to visit my website and read “Windows Explorer is your friend.” A good tutorial on the subject, called “Windows XP Explorer Series” can be found on the University of Wisconsin website at www.uwec.edu/help/WinXP.htm.
Learn how to copy, cut and paste. When I learned years ago how to copy, cut and paste text in a letter that I was writing, I realized, “Eureka! This is why computers are better than typewriters!” The terms cut, copy and paste refer to the act of moving blocks of text from one place in a document to another place, either in the same document or into a different document. Cutting and pasting is the computer equivalent of using scissors to clip something and glue to paste the clipping somewhere else, as in the “old days” of publishing. If you have words, phrases or paragraphs that you’d like to repeat, there’s no reason to re-type those items. Simply cut or copy and paste, and save yourself a lot of hassle.
When you “cut” a sentence from a document and “paste” it elsewhere, you are actually removing the sentence from its original location and relocating it somewhere else. When you “copy” a sentence, it remains where it was, and a copy of the sentence is pasted to another location.
The basic principles of cut, copy and paste are simple. In a text document, place your cursor in front a sentence, hold down the shift key and press the right arrow key (or, hold down the left mouse button and drag your mouse pointer across the sentence). Release the arrow key (or mouse button) at the end of the sentence. You have now “highlighted” some text. There are a number of different ways to issue the cut, copy and paste commands, but try this for starters: right-click on the highlighted text, and select “cut” (or, “copy”) from the menu that appears. Place your typing cursor where you want the text to reappear, right-click in front of the cursor and select “paste.” Alternately, you can press the [ctrl] plus [c] keys to copy, [ctrl] + [x] to cut, and [ctrl] + [v] to paste.
You can also copy and paste text from websites into your own text documents, but you’ll have to use the mouse instead of the keyboard to highlight the text. Take the time to experiment with the easy techniques I’ve described, and you may discover an entire new world of computer usefulness.
Next time: even more things that every computer user should know.