UsingHelp

Help is useful tool for people learning any computer software. You can find answers for many of your "how to" questions from the Help menu. To get help in Windows 95/98, click on the Start button. Click on Help from the pop-up menu as shown below.

Using the task bar to access help

Once help is open, you can use the Find tab to locate help on the topic you need.

The Help function is a rich source of information and useful tips. Once you open the Help dialogue box, you can either type the information you are looking for in the Find tab (as shown in Figure 9) or locate it by scrolling through the Contents or Index tabs. To locate a specific topic using the Find tab for example, select Help on the Taskbar’s Start Menu. Select the Find tab. Type in one word for the topic that interests you. Type ‘help’ for example. If you type help 140 topics appear. You can select the ones that match your interest.

Using the find tab to list 140 help items

Multitasking

Multitasking is the process of performing two or more computer tasks at the same time. For example you might be printing a document in Microsoft Word while you are checking your email in Pegasus Mail at the same time.

To perform the multitasking action mentioned above, you would first of all send a document to the printer. Secondly you would switch to the Pegasus Mail application, either by launching it or by using the switch to feature. You can switch to another open programme by holding down the alt key and pressing tab or by selecting the programme from the task bar.

The multitasking feature allows you to be more productive; however you must exercise caution. Each application and each file uses computer resources. You may experience computer slow downs and even failure when you have too many programmes open. Therefore, we strongly urge you to limit the number of programmes  you have open.

One of the most useful features of Windows is the ability to place a portion of one document into another. Although there are many ways to do this, the copy and paste feature is one of the easiest ways to place text from one document into another.

Copy and paste is particularly helpful when you are composing e-mail messages and want to copy something from a word processor document into the e-mail message. Using this method, you can, for example, compose your message in your word processing software using the writing tools to check your spelling and your grammar. Next copy and paste the text into an e-mail message. You can also use this feature to copy text from one e-mail message into another.

If you wish to copy only a portion of a document, you can do this by following these steps: First, highlight the text you wish to copy by placing the cursor at the beginning of the text, clicking on the left mouse button, and dragging your mouse until the end of the text you want copied. The selected text should now be highlighted (normally this appears as white text on a black background). Next, press Ctrl + C. This will copy the text to the Windows clipboard. Next, place the cursor in the new document where you would like to place the text. Press Ctrl + V, and this will paste the text into the new document. You can also copy graphics from one location to another in the same manner.

If you wish to copy the entire document, you can easily do so by pressing Ctrl + A (A for All). This will highlight the entire document. To copy it to the Windows "clipboard", press Ctrl + C (C for Copy). Move your cursor where you want the document to be pasted and Press Ctrl + V (V for Very Clever).

Managing Files

Files contain computer data, whether it be the messages of your email, the columns of numbers of your spread sheet, or the computer programs that run your software. Over time, you may accumulate a large number of files and locating files may become difficult.

Files can be grouped together in folders. Organising your files by type, project, or some other convention helps you manage your data.

The key to managing files is Windows Explorer. The basic tasks you perform in managing your files are: viewing files, setting up folders, copying, naming and sorting. We take a closer look at these below.

Discovering Windows Explorer

Where did my file go? How can I be certain that I am accessing the latest version of a file? Where can I store valuable information? Windows Explorer helps answer these questions and others.

1. What is Windows Explorer - Windows Explorer maps your computer, showing what is in all drives and other information about the file
2. Why use Windows Explorer - You can use Windows Explorer to see all the folders and files on your computer. That way you can manage all your information.
3. How do I access Windows Explorer - A fast way to access Window Explorer is on the Start menu. Right click on the start button and then select Windows Explore.

Viewing files

Windows Explorer gives you a convenient way to view your folders and files. After you have launched Windows Explorer, the easiest way to see a list of your files is to choose a folder in the left panel and left single-click on it. This will produce a list of folders and files — in the right panel. These are the files or folders contained in the folder you clicked on. Folders are yellow and the files are indicated by various icons, depending on the type of file. In the image below, the files are Word files.

TIP

If the files and folders appear in the right panel, it is because you double-clicked on the folder you chose in the left panel. You need just click once on the folders on the left panel to see the files inside that folder in the right panel.

Setting up folders

Windows 95 stores files in folders. In Windows 3.x and DOS we called these directories. You can decide which folder a file gets stored in. Setting up folders, logically named, and easy to find allows you to quickly find and retrieve your work. A good, but not the only way to set up folders is to use Windows Explorer. To do this, select File, New, Folder. When New Folder appears in your Explorer Window, type in the name you decide to call the folder.

Creating a new folder in Explorer

Copying files

Using Windows Explorer, you can copy files from one folder to another. This is useful if you want to store a file on a diskette for safekeeping, or move it from one folder to another.

Right click on the file you want to copy. (Its colour will change to show it is selected.) A pop-up menu will appear. Select Copy from the pop-up menu. Still using Windows Explorer select a new drive and or folder for the file by clicking once. In the right-hand panel, right click on an open space (not a file name line) and select Paste from the pop-up menu. You can check if the file has been successfully copied by opening the folder in which you tried to place it and checking if the file is there.

Folders on a computer as viewed in Windows Explorer

Naming and renaming files and folders

If you are working with use Windows 95/98 only, you can use longer, more explicit file names than you can use in DOS or Windows 3.1. You can easily rename files in Windows Explorer by right clicking on a file or folder you wish to rename and selecting Rename from the pop-up menu.

Windows 95/98 allows you to save a file using up to 255 characters. However, it is recommended that you limit your file name to 8 characters to make it easy to share files with those who do not work with Windows 95/98. Each file can have an extension. The extension is the three last characters in the file name which follow the period. When you are saving a file, many programmes will automatically add the correct extension for you. For example, if you are saving an HTML file from the Internet, your Web browser will add the ‘htm’ extension to the end of the file name. Or, if you are saving a file in Word, the software will automatically add the ‘doc’ extension to the end of the file name.

Files ending in ‘exe’ are programme files that ‘execute’ programmes.