|
Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, April 15, 2007
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Windows Explorer
This Week's Topic: Fix a Frozen Computer
Question: Print Part of a Page
Websites of Interest: Motorcycle Memories; All About Puppies; Old Car Manual Project; Travel Photography
**************************************************************
Special Feature: Windows Explorer
Question: What is Windows Explorer? I have heard it mentioned many times but I don’t know what it is.
Answer:
Windows Explorer is a file manager. It comes with every version of Windows and can be used to give you information about the computers drives, folders and files.
You can use Windows Explorer to see how your files are organized. You can also find, copy, move, delete and rename files and folders.
There are several ways to open Windows Explorer. If you are using Windows ME, 2000 and XP, click Start on the menu, point to Programs (All Programs), point to Accessories and then click on Windows Explorer. If you use Windows 95 or 98, click Start on the menu, point to Programs and then click on Windows Explorer.
Here are a couple of shortcuts:
Right click on the Start button and then left click on Explore.
Hold down the Windows key (look for the key on your keyboard with the Windows logo on it) and then press and release the e key.
To learn more about using Windows Explorer, visit our newsletter archives for the following articles:
Ways to Delete Files or Folders
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/111603.html
Rename Multiple Files
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/070206.html
Creating Folders and Moving Files
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/111404.html
**************************************************************
Today's Topic: Fix a Frozen Computer
Question: Occasionally, my computer stops working. It just goes dead on me and I cannot do anything other than turn it off and back on again. What am I doing that is causing this?
Answer:
Even if you do everything right, computers will occasionally misbehave. The most common problem is that the computer will not respond to the keyboard or mouse. Here are some steps to try to resolve the trouble:
Give the computer a couple of minutes to respond. It is possible that it may be busy doing something else in the background. If it doesn’t come back in about two or three minutes, then check for problems.
If the screen is dark, check the power. Is the electric on in your house? If yes, check that the computer is still plugged into the outlet. Also check all the other cables.
Many newer computers have suspend or stand by – this is a feature that blanks out the screen and puts the computer in a sleep mode to save electricity when it is not used for a period of time. To wake the computer up, press a key or move the mouse. On some computers, you may have to press the on button once.
If the monitor is not dark, check the cables that connect the keyboard and the mouse to the computer. Make sure that nothing is loose. If all cables are ok, and the computer still isn’t responding, read on!
Press the Escape (Esc) key a few times. In many situations that will take you back one step at a time, and you may get out of trouble that way.
If all else fails, try Alt Ctrl Del. With your left hand, press and hold down the Alt and Ctrl keys, with the right hand press and release the Del key once. If you are using Windows 98 or any later version, you will see the Close Program dialog box, which lists all the programs that are currently running. Some of these may look unfamiliar, because this list includes the ones that are running in the background.
The problem program will usually be listed on the top of the list; to the right of it, you will see a note telling you that the program is not responding. Click on it, and then click on the End Task button. The program will be closed. Unfortunately, you will usually lose any unsaved work, but there aren’t any other options.
It’s a good idea to close all other open programs and restart the computer at this point.
Sometime, although infrequently, even the Close Program dialog box will freeze. In that case the only option is to restart the computer. This is not a great thing to do and should only be done in an emergency.
If you have a restart button on your computer, use it. If you don't have a restart button, use the on button. On some computers, it may be necessary to hold down the on button for five seconds or more.
After turning the computer off, wait several minutes, and then turn the power button back on. You will probably see a message telling you about the improper shutdown, and the ScanDisk program will startup. It is a good idea to allow ScanDisk to run, so that your hard drive will be checked for possible errors.
Reminder: Save your work frequently! If you experience any of the problems above, more than likely you will lose any unsaved work in progress.
**************************************************************
Question: Print Part of a Page
Question: I enjoy your email a great deal and learn so much from it. I would like to print certain articles without printing the entire email. Could you tell me how to do this? Thank you.
Answer:
Most Windows programs allow you to print part of a document instead of the whole thing. To print part of a page, highlight the part you want to print by moving the mouse pointer to the beginning of the section, holding down the left mouse button, and moving the mouse to the end of the selection. Make sure it is highlighted - the text will be white on a dark background.
Click on File to open the menu, click on Print, and then choose Selection in the Page Range area of the dialog box. Click the OK or Print button.
In some programs, the Selection choice may not be in the first Print dialog box. In that case, look for a button that says Options. Click on it; you should find the Page Range area in the resulting dialog box. Click the OK or Print button.
Only the part of the document that you highlighted will print.
An alternative to using the Selection feature is to Copy and Paste the text in your word processing program, and then print from there.
To do this, highlight the text that you want to print. Click Edit on the menu, and then click Copy. Switch to your word processing program. Click Edit on the menu, and then click Paste. The highlighted text will appear in the word processing document.
Advantages to copying text into a word processing document: if you want to print two or more nonconsecutive areas of a document, you can copy each block of text into your word processing program, then only have to print the word processing document one time.
**************************************************************
Websites of Interest:
Motorcycle Memories
Motorcycle lovers will enjoy this site, which features a collection of photographs and postcards of vintage cycles from all around the world.
http://www.motorcycle-memories.com/
All About Puppies
This is a great online resource to learn how to meet all of your puppy’s needs
http://www.all-about-puppies.com/
Old Car Manual Project
This website had a huge library of car manuals dating back as far as the 1920s.
http://www.tocmp.com/
Travel Photography
This beautiful site is filled with photography from all over the world.
http://www.thevisualrecord.com/pages/travelphotography.htm |
|
