Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Designation:
Mr. J. DEVANATH
(Senior Research Fellow Maths)
E-mail ID:
devanathj@yahoo.co.in
Course Teacher:
(0+1)
Practical
Computer Hardware Software
Operating system DOS WINDOWS LINUX directory commands for
managing files - Copy Rename delete.
Windows Icons desktop My computer Recycle Bin My documents Task
bar Start menu options
LINUX KDE - GNOME
OFFICE MS.Office, K.Office, OPEN Office packages for word processing,
spreadsheet, and presentation software.
MS Word creating, editing and printing files Tool bar options.
MS Excel creation of charts.
MS Power point Creating presentations
Internet type of connectivity applications of Internet email and browsing
internet.
Practical Schedule
1.
Computer input device output device units of CPU and their functions - Input
/ output devices floppy hard disk - types of printers - Compact disc modem
scanner mouse - their functions - Computer types digital ,analog and hybrid Operating system - DOS commands for copying, renaming and deleting files
2.
3.
Shortcut task bar options in Start menu quick launch system tray - My
computer my documents and recycle bin.
4.
5.
6.
7.
File menu new. Open, save, save as, close, exit, page setup, print preview and print
- Edit cut, copy, paste, clear, select all, find, replace and goto Insert menu
Break, page numbers, date and time, auto text, symbol, picture
8.
Format menu font, paragraph, bullets and numbering, borders and shading,
columns, tabs, crop cap, change case and background - Tools menu - Spelling and
grammar language, word count, track changes, protect document auto correct
options letters and envelopes.- Printing the word document
9.
10.
MS Excel cell, work sheet and work book creating a Excel sheet preparation of
charts pie chart, bar diagram, multiple bar diagram, component bar diagram and
percentage bar diagram line diagram.
11.
12.
13.
14.
E-mail creating a email account inbox, compose, reply, reply all, forward and
attachments in email
15.
16.
17.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS
Introduction
The computer is a fascinating machine. It is a gateway to a wonderful world of
information and myriad applications for the good of humans. In business, academics,
defence strategy, budgeting, research, engineering, medicine or space exploration, computers
have established themselves an indispensable part.
Definition of a Computer
A computer is an electronic device, which accepts data (observation, facts and concepts)
in prescribed form, processes the data according to set of instructions that are fed into it and
output the results in a specified format as an information. It also stores the result in a
primary or secondary storage and retrieves the same for later use.
HARDWARE
The physical components of the computer are called Hardware. The Hardware
components can be classified into four types:
Input Unit
Central Processing Unit
Output Devices
Storage Devices
Input Unit:
Computers need to receive data and instructions in order to solve any problem.
Therefore we need to put the data and instructions into the computer. The input unit
consists of one or more input device. The keyboard and mouse of a computer are the most
commonly used input devices.
Central Processing Unit (CPU):
It is the main part of a computer system like the heart of a human being. It
interprets the instructions in the program and executes one by one. It consists of three major
units.
Control Unit: It controls and directs the transfer of program instructions and
data between various units.
Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU): Arithmetic operations like (+,-,*,^,/),
logical operations like (AND, OR, NOT) and relational operations like
(<,>,<=,>=) are being carried out in this Unit.
Registers: They are used to store instructions and data for further use.
Secondary stored devices refer to floppy disks, magnetic disks, magnetic disks, magnetic
tapes, hard disks, and compact disks etc., which are used to store huge information for
future use. The input unit, output unit and secondary storage devices are together know as
Peripheral devices.
Motherboard
A motherboard is the largest circuit board in the computer and it is referred to as the
backbone of the entire system. It is the main circuit board and the core component of the
computer. The circuitry or component of the motherboard defines the computer's
capabilities and limitations. It interprets information between the various components of the
computer. Nowadays, the memory capacity of RAM ranges from 1 GB to 45 GB and the
speed is 256 MHz.
There are two types of built-in memory:
Non-volatile memory (In it, the memory chip always retains the data they hold
even when the computer is turned off. Example: ROM).
Volatile memory (In it, the memory chip loses its contents when the computer's
power is shut off. Example: RAM).
Input devices
Input, as a term, refers to the process of transferring data or program instructions into
the memory from some peripheral unit. Input devices are designed for data entry purposes
and it provides a vehicle of communication between the computer and the people who are
concerned with its operation. Some input devices include Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, etc.
Keyboard
It is an input device directly connected to a computer. Most PC keyboards have the
following parts:
Functions keys at the top
Main keyboard at the centre
Numeric keys on the right
Additional keys between the main keys and the numeric keys
Status lights in the upper right corner
Function keys (F1 to F12)
They provide an easy way to give certain commands to the computer. The works done
by the function keys are according to the software used.
Main keyboard
This includes alphabets, numbers, special characters and certain special command keys.
Command keys have different uses that depend upon the software used. Some of the most
common uses of command keys are:
S.No
Command key
Use
Esc
Tab
To advance the text cursor to the next user defined tab stop.
If it is pressed, the status light under Caps Lock lights up. Then
Caps Lock
upper case letters are produced. The numbers and symbols are
unaltered.
To produce upper case letters & the upper symbols shown on the
Shift
Ctrl
Alt
Backspace
Enter
keys.
To move the cursor one position left and delete the character in
that position.
Traditionally this key is used to send keyed-in data or selected
command to RAM for processing
Numeric keys
The numeric keys serve one of the two purposes depending on the status of the Num
Lock key.
Num Lock is
on
Key
Function
Ins
End
Pg Dn
Home
Pg Up
Delete
When the Num Lock is on, we can also use mathematical symbols /, *, - and +.
Additional keys
Arrow keys perform the same function as that of the 2, 4, 6 and 8 numeric keys when
Num Lock is off. Above the arrow keys, there are six keys Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete,
End and Page Down which duplicate functions of the numeric keys 0, , 7, 1, 9 and 3. At the
top of the keyboard and to the left of the status lights, the following keys are there to
perform additional tasks:
Key
Pause
Scroll Lock
Print Screen
Function
It causes the screen to pause when information in the screen is appearing
too fast to read.
It causes the current lines of text, not the cursor, to move when the cursor
keys are used.
It causes the current screen display to be printed.
Toggle Keys
When a single key is used for the application and non-application of a particular
function, it is termed as a toggle key. Example: Insert, Caps Lock, Num Lock, etc.
Mouse
A mouse is a pointing device that lets you move a cursor or a pointer on the screen just
by moving the mouse around on a flat surface. It is also used to create graphic elements on
the screen, such as lines, curves, and freehand shapes. It makes using menus and message
boxes easier. There are three simple techniques clicking, double clicking and dragging.
Some mouse devices are connected to the computers bus through a special electronic card
and other tie into the bus through a serial port, a socket to which external devices are
connected.
Drawbacks of a mouse
It is not useful in word processing or in computer programming applications
It requires space on tabletop or other hard surface to roll.
It requires a serial port for connection with computer system.
Scanners
A scanner reads text, photographs and graphics from paper, which are then converted
into bit patterns for processing, storage or output. Scanner is a device that examines a spatial
pattern one part after another and generates analog or digital signals corresponding to the
pattern. In a scanner, as the image is scanned, it is converted into light and dark picture
elements or pixels. Colour scanners can assign a specific colour to a pixel. The pixels are
then stored as bit patterns. This technique makes the image usable by word processing,
desktop publishing and graphic packages.
Output devices
The function of the output device is to present processed data to the user. The most
common output devices are the monitor and the printer. There are two basic categories of
computer - produced output:
Output for immediate use by people.
Output that is stored in computer usable form for later use by the computer.
Hardcopy
Hard copy is a permanent copy of a display image generated on an output device such as
printer or plotter and which can be carried away.
Softcopy
Information that is displayed on a screen, given by voice, or stored in the form that can't
be read directly by person as on magnetic tape, disk or micro film.
Hardcopy output devices
A printer is an output device that produces printed-paper output, known as hardcopy,
because it is tangible and permanent. Letters and numbers are formed by a printer either as
solid characters or dot matrix characters. It is classified into two distinct categories:
1. Impact Printers
2. Non Impact Printers
1. Impact Printers
A printer in which printing is the result of mechanically striking the printing medium.
The impact is produced by a print hammer character, like that of a typewriter key striking a
ribbon against the paper or by a print hammer hitting paper and ribbon against a character.
Some impact printers are:
1. Serial or character printers
2. Line printers
Serial or Character printers
It is the slowest printer. The two major types of character-at-a-time impact printer are:
1. Dot matrix printer
2. Daisy wheel printer
Dot Matrix Printer
In it the individual characters are formed by a matrix of wires. The images are formed by
a print head that is composed of a series of little print hammers that look like the heads of
pins. The bottom two pins are used to form descenders of lower case letters namely, p, q, g,
and y. Dot matrix printers can be either 80-column printer or 132-column printer depending
on the maximum number of characters that can be printed in a line. Some of dot matrix
printers include EPSON EX-1000, EPSON LQ 1050, etc.
Daisy wheel printers
It is a serial impact printer in which the printing element is a plastic hub that has a large
number of flexible radial spokes. Each spoke has one or more different raised printing
characters. The wheel is rotated as it is moved horizontally step by step under computer
control, and stops when a desired character is in a desired print position, so a hammer can
drive that character against an inked ribbon.
Line Printers
It prints an entire line in a single operation. Line printers are generally electro-mechanical
devices, which print upto 160 characters per line with speed 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
Some examples of line printers are:
i.
Chain printers
2. Non-Impact printers
Printers that do not strike characters against ribbon or paper when they print, are nonimpact printers. Non impact printers include
1. Ink-Jet printers
2. Laser printers
InkJet printers
It uses a technique of projecting droplets of ink at paper to form the required image.
Ink-jet printer creates an image directly on paper by spraying ink through as many as 64 tiny
nozzles. It provides a print resolution of around 360 dots per inch.
Laser printers
LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulate Emission of Radiation) printer creates, by
means of a laser beam directed on a photosensitive surface, a latent image, which is then
made visible by a toner and transferred and fixed on paper. A separate computer is built into
the printer to interpret the data that it receives from the computer and to control the laser.
PRINTERS
IMPACT PRINTERS
SERIAL OR
CHARACTER PRINTERS
NONIMPACT PRINTERS
LINE PRINTERS
INKJET PRINTERS
DAISY WHEEL
PRINTERS
CHAIN PRINTERS
DOT MATRIX
PRINTERS
DRUM PRINTERS
BAND PRINTERS
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LASER PRINTERS
The Monitor
It is a softcopy output device that displays images faster than printers. There are two
basic types of monitors:
1. The first is the typical monitor that you see on a desktop computer, which looks like a
TV screen and work in the same way. This type uses a large vacuum tube called a
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).
2. The second type, known as a flat panel monitor, is commonly used with notebook
computers. Most of these employ Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) to render images.
Either of these types can be
1. Monochrome: displaying one colour against a contrasting background colour.
2. Colour.
The common technique for forming a character on video screen is the dot matrix form.
A screen usually displays between 500 to 2000 characters.
Storage Devices
Secondary storage devices are used to store system programs, data files, software
packages and so on.
Floppy Disk
It is used to store data, which is encoded by electromagnetic means on to tracks on the
disk surface. A floppy disk is made up of a kind of plastic, which has magnetizable particles
upon its surface. Floppies come in two physical sizes (size refers to the diameter of disk):
5 inches
3 inches
Formatting a disk
Before storing data in a new disk, it must be magnetically mapped. The process of
mapping a disk is called formatting or initializing the disk. The first thing in formatting a disk
is to create a set of magnetic concentric circles called tracks, numbered from outer to inner
tracks. Each track on a disk is split into smaller parts. Each part cuts across all the tracks,
resulting in short segments called sectors. All the sectors on the tracks are numbered in one
long sequence, so that computer can access each small area on the disk with a unique
number.
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Uses
They have many applications in the scientific and industrial fields in simulating
various physical systems or automatically controlling industrial processes.
They are widely used for research into design problems.
They are used in manufacturing where temperatures, pressure or flow of liquids are
to be monitored continuously.
They are also used at service station where gasoline pump contains an analog
processor that connects fuel flow measurements into quantity and price values.
Drawbacks
They do not have the ability to store data in large quantities.
They do not have the logical facilities afforded by programming digital machines.
Although the arithmetic functions performed by the computing units are very
complex in analog computers, the cost of the hardware required to provide a high
degree of accuracy in an analog computer is prohibitive.
Digital Computers
A digital computer operates on data in the form of digits. Its input must be discrete and
it may consist of combinations of numbers, characters and special symbols, written in
appropriate programming language. Digital computers are usually based on the binary
notation, numbers and letters being coded into group of digits consisting only of 1 or 0, each
of these digits is represented in an electronic circuit or magnetic store by a component in an
on or off state. Example: Passing current or not passing current magnetized or not
magnetized.
The great power of any digital computer rests in the ability to store large volumes of data
and to perform these various functions at extremely high speed.
Arithmetic and logical circuits for processing data in binary form are constructed from
simple basic units designed to perform the operations of Boolean algebra AND, OR, NOT
etc. These simple units are used as building blocks in constructing the complex logic and
control circuits required.
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Definition
An operating system is the overseer of the computer and processes it performs. In
general, an operating system is a collection of the programs that manage system resources
and aid in the development and execution of application programs.
DOS (Disk Operating System)
DOS is a "System Software" used by IBM Compatible personal computers.
DOS tracks and controls the hardware, and communicates with each piece of
hardware.
DOS keeps the software in line.
DOS stores the information and retrieves the same.
The Command prompt
When computer is turned on, some information flashes by. When this information stops
scrolling past, the following appears on screen:
C:\>
This is called the command prompt or the C prompt.
Parameter
This specifies the field, the directory, or the drive with which to work.
Switch
It is an option used along with a command.
DOS COMMANDS
DIR: used to view a directory's contents.
Format:
C:\> DIR
Example:
C:\> DIR /P
Volume in drive C is MS-DOS_6
Volume Serial Number is 1E47-9258
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Directory of C:\
[PCPLUS] COMMAND.COM IMAGE.BK WIN386.SWP IMAGE.BAK
IMAGE.DAT CONFIG.SYS [UTILITIE] [QVT] [TEMP]
[NETSCAPE] [DOS] [WINDOWS] [BALLPT] [PCMPLUS3]
[WINUTILS] [NAV] [NU] [SYMANTEC] [MSOFFICE]
[CLSI] [PROWIN2] [VIR] [NWCLIENT] OLDAUTO.BAT
$UTOEXEC.BAT CONFIG.SYD [NCDTREE] [UNI3] WINA20.386
DEINSTAL.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT
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Example:
C:\>MOVE c:\stuff\stuff.txt a:\stuff\stuff.txt
COPY: copies a file from one directory to another, or to a different file name.
Format:
C:\>COPY <file path> <new path>
Example:
C:\>COPY comp\math.bas mat\math.bas
1 file(s) copied
REN or RENAME: renames a file name.
Format:
C:\>REN <file path> <new name>
Example:
C:\>REN mat\math.bas maths.bas
CLS: clears the screen
DEL: deletes the file.
FORMAT: formats a disc.
Exit: exits MS DOS.
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INTRODUCTION TO WINDOWS
Windows is an operating system that improves upon DOS in a number of ways. It
provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI), a type of human-computer interface through
which the user interacts with the computer by selecting options presented in the form of
icons or graphical images. Any of the program groups can be selected by clicking (clicking
the left mouse button) on the group. Double clicking on the application starts it up.
Versions of windows:
Windows 1.0
Nov 1985
Windows 2.0
Fall of 1987
overlapping windows
Windows/386
Late 1987
Windows 3.0
May 1990
Windows 3.1
Apr 1992
Oct 1992
Windows 3.11
Nov 1993
Nov 1993
Windows NT 3.1
Aug 1993
Windows NT 3.5
Sep 1994
NT upgrade
Windows 95
Aug 1995
Windows NT 4.0
Aug 1995
Windows CE
Sep 1996
months
Microsoft Windows 95
Windows 95 is a 32-bit operating system that takes advantage of newer technology while
still providing a wide range of support for older software programs and hardware. Hardware
is fairly easy to manage with the built in Plug and Play support.
Microsoft Windows CE
Microsoft Windows CE is an operating system platform for a broad range of
communications, entertainment and mobile-computing devices. Windows CE is compact in
size and does not require large amounts of memory.
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Microsoft NT 4.0
There are currently two different versions of Microsoft NT 4.0, NT Server and NT
workstation. The basic difference between Workstation and Server is that Workstation is
tuned for use as a desktop system and Server has additional components for Network
services and user management. The development of the NT operating system was lead by
David Cutler.
Windows 98
The heir apparent to Windows 95 was released in mid 1998, Windows 98 offers
support for a number of new technologies.
Windows 2000
Microsoft is continually enhancing its Windows OS product line. Windows 2000 is the
state of art OS that uses the latest hardware.
Windows Millennium
Windows ME brings its own set of improvements and targets a different kind of market
that needs performance, ease of use and more stability.
Windows XP
Windows XP is the most important operating system release since Windows 95.
Windows XP has been updated, tweaked, improved, and massaged from top to bottom, in
order to create an OS that is equally useful for new users, typical home users, power users,
and business desktops.
Desktop
The area of the computer seen in the monitor is called the desktop. From the upper left
to the lower left side of the screen, there are small pictures or images called icons. Each one
represents a program used to make the computer do something. Some of the most regular
icons are:
My Computer
It is a program utility used to explore the content of your computer and to do other
routine things.
Network Neighbourhood
It is used to communicate with other computers if the computer is part of a network.
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Recycle Bin
The deleted items (files or folders) of the computer go to an area called the Recycle Bin,
which gives a chance of recalling them.
Task Bar
At the bottom of the desktop, there is a long strip called the task bar. It contains "Start"
menu at the left end, system tray at the right end, Quick Launch toolbar and Task Manager.
Start Menu
Although Windows makes icons available on the desktop, the equivalent of program
groups can be found in the start menu. Some commands are:
COMMAND
ACTION
Programs
Documents
Displays the list of last 15 documents that have been opened recently.
Settings
Find
Help
Run
Starts Help and enables to use the help contents, index to find out how to
do the jobs in windows.
To open a program from a hard disk or floppy disk
Log Off
To remain the computer on and restricting other users to access the files.
Shut Down
System Tray
It is situated near the system clock. Various programs use System Tray to display their
current state and provide easy access to some of their functions. The key to the System
Tray's popularity is the ease of use and permanent availability (unlike the desktop shortcuts it
is very seldom obscured by any application windows).
Quick Launch Tool Bar
This toolbar contains buttons to open frequently used programs such as Internet
Explorer, Outlook Express, etc. and to minimize all open windows or view channels.
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Task Manager
When a program is started or a window is opened, a button representing the window
appears on the part of taskbar, called Task Manager. This provides an easy way to switch
between windows, just clicking the button to make it active.
Common Windows menus
Another GUI element is the ability to issue commands to the operating system or
application software by using the mouse to make selections from menus. Clicking on the
menu's title pulls it down; clicking on an item in the menu carries out that command. Some
of the items on the menu may be greyed out, or printed in a lighter shade. This means that
now is not an appropriate time to make that selection.
The File menu
Almost every Windows program has a menu called File, which is the main control menu
for the program. The File menu may contain many options, but almost always has the
following:
Open is used to pull up a file created by the current application, such as pulling up a
paper created by a word processor.
Save is used to write a file to disk with a filename. Successive calls to Save will
simply update the file on disk. To save the file under a different filename or in a
different location, Save As command is used.
Print is used to send a file to the currently selected printer under Windows.
Exit or Quit is used to quit the current program.
The Edit menu
Sometimes it is necessary to transfer data from one location to another. Windows
provides a mechanism called the clipboard, which transfers data without re-entering it, even
between applications. Most Windows applications moves data to and from the clipboard
with the Edit menu, and almost every Edit menu contains at least the following:
Cut removes a block of data from its current location and places it on the clipboard.
Any data stored on the clipboard beforehand is replaced; the clipboard can only
store one data block at a time.
Copy also puts a block of data on the clipboard, but does not delete it from its
current location.
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Paste copies the clipboard's contents to a new location. The data remains on the
clipboard until it is replaced by another Cut or Copy, or until the user exits
Windows.
The GUI interface also features drag-and-drop. Moving an icon to another location is
called as dragging the icon. To drag an icon, click the icon, hold the mouse button and
move to its new location. When the icon is positioned inside its new group, leave the left
mouse button to drop it.
Files
Files are the little things floating around the computer. They hold information. The
filename consists of two parts. First part is the name and the second two parts. First part is
the name and the second part is the extension. Name and extension are separated by a
period (.). The extension tells the file type. Example: MATH.BAS, COMP.BAS.
Folders
Files are stored in computer file cabinets called Folders. Folders organize files in the
computer.
My Computer
The programs, documents and data files are all accessible from one place called "My
Computer". It is a tool used to browse all disks, printers, etc. that are physically attached to
the computer. Double click the "My Computer" icon to view its contents. A window appears
displaying several icons. To use the items, double click the icons.
My Documents
All the programming files, software, documents, etc. are stored in the hard disc, which is
attached to My Computer. Files and folders created by the users are stored in My
Documents folder in the hard disk. To open the files and folders, double click the icons.
Recycle Bin
The deleted files or folders are not deleted from the hard disk until they are deleted from
the recycle bin. Double click the icon to view the contents. They can be viewed as large
icons or small icons or just the list of folders and files or details regarding the original
location, date of deletion, type and size of the folders or files. The files or folders can be
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brought back to its original location when they are deleted accidentally. To bring them back,
select the files and click the restore option in the file menu. To empty the recycle bin,
Click File Empty Recycle bin
(or)
Press Ctrl + A and delete.
To free up disk space, empty the recycle bin periodically.
Shortcut
Shortcuts are duplicate copies of files, folders and programs that enables to promptly
access the files, folders or programs often used. They are identical in appearance to the icons
they represent except for a small arrow at the bottom. To create a shortcut on the desktop to
a program or file, do the following,
Right-click an open area on the desktop, point to New, and then click Shortcut.
Click Browse.
Locate the program or file to which you want to create a shortcut, click the program
or file, click Open, and then click Next.
Type a name for the shortcut. If a Finish button appears at the bottom of the dialog
box, click it. If a Next button appears at the bottom of the dialog box, click it, click
the icon you want to use for the shortcut, and then click Finish.
Windows Explorer
Windows explorer is the comprehensive organization and management tool for
Windows files or folders. All the files and folders can be viewed using this tool. Creating a
folder, copying, renaming, moving and deleting files or folders are made easy with the help
of windows explorer.
Creating a Folder
In windows Explorer, select my documents in c: Then,
Click File New Folder.
Then a new folder is created with a temporary name. Type the name and press enter.
Now the folder is ready for use.
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(or)
Click Edit Paste in the menu bar using mouse.
(or)
Click the paste icon in the standard toolbar.
Note
Simple way of moving the files is to select the files, drag them to the destination folder
and release.
Renaming a File or a Folder
Select the file or folder in windows explorer and then do the following:
(i) Right click in the filename. A short cut menu pops out. Click the rename command in
that menu.
(or)
(ii) Click File Rename
Type a new name and press enter.
Note
An easy way of renaming the selected file is to click (left click) the selected file, type the
new name and press enter.
Deleting a File
Select the files or folders to be deleted. Then do the following,
Right click in one of the selected files to display the shortcut menu and click the delete
command in the menu.
(or)
Press delete key in the keyboard.
(or)
Click File Delete command in the menu bar.
The above procedures send these files to the recycle bin. If we hold the shift key and
press the delete key in the keyboard, then the selected files are deleted permanently without
entering into the recycle bin.
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GNOME panel is a long bar at the bottom of the screen that contains a collection of
useful panel applets and menus. Panel applets are tiny programs designed to be placed in a
panel. For example, the clock applet on the right shows the current time. The arrows on
each side of the panel hide (or unhide) the panel. The button in the panel containing a
stylized foot is the Main menu button. Click the Main menu button to display a menu of
preloaded applications and actions, including a logout command. The rest of the screen is
called the desktop. Place the items on the desktop, which are often used.
Double clicking an item
If the item is a program, the program will start.
If the item is data, the appropriate program will start with that data loaded.
If the item is a directory, the file manager application will start and show the
contents of that directory. The desktop will probably have a folder icon labelled
"Home Directory". Double-clicking it, will start the File Manager at the home
directory.
The File Manager application helps to manipulate the files. The left side of its window
shows directories, and the right side shows the contents of the selected directory.
To move the file or directory, just drag-and-drop it.
To copy a file, hold the Ctrl key while dragging.
To run a program or edit a data file, double-click it.
To perform other operations on a file (such as rename or delete), select it using the
right mouse button. To select more than one item at a time, click the items after the
first one while holding the Shift key or Ctrl key.
The default desktop will include a folder of the Home directory. By default, the
GNOME File Manager window will also appear to access other areas of the system.
Desktop areas are virtual extensions of one desktop. They allow to keep a well organized
system when there are many tasks to be performed at one time. GNOME is aware of
desktop areas even though they are controlled by another software program called window
manager. The number of desktop areas is set within the configuration of the window
manager. Most window managers provide the option of having multiple desktops. (Note that
multiple desktops are separate desktops.)
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K Desktop
The K Desktop Environment (KDE) is a collection of tools that will make the UNIX
life easier and more enjoyable. KDE provides:
A good-looking, easy-to-use windows environment
A powerful, easy to use file manager
A simple, centralized configuration
An online help that will support in every situation.
The three main parts of KDE desktop are the desktop, the panel and the task list.
Panel
It is situated at the bottom of the screen.
K button:
Clicking this button removes the panel from the screen and replaces it with a mini
panel. The K button stays on the screen so that the main panel can be brought back. This
feature applies to current desktop.
Application Starter:
This button is next to the K button. This button is used to start KDE applications.
Task List:
This button is located at the right of the application menu. It is a menu containing all
the windows active on the desktops, sorted by desktop name. When the panel is minimized,
the application menu and the task list are available at the top of the taskbar with the same
functionality.
Logout button:
Located to the right of the list of active windows, there are two buttons. The top
button, which looks like a big X, is used to quit the current KDE session.
Lock screen button:
One click on this button will lock the screen, preventing others from reading the
private mail or playing around the work done by the user.
Desktop buttons:
There are four buttons labeled "One", "Two", "Three" and "Four" to represent 4
desktops. Using multiple desktops is one of the most powerful features of KDE.
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Icon bar:
This contains additional buttons next to the desktop buttons. For example, shortcut
to Home directory, etc.
Time and Date:
At the far end of the KDE panel, the time and date are present.
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SDK provides libraries, tools and documentation for the Java programming language, C++,
Basic, OLE and XML. The SDK is a separate download.
OpenOffice.org Writer is a full-featured word processor. The powerful Navigator
and Stylist tools make changing the formatting throughout a document a simple task.
OpenOffice.org Calc provides full spreadsheet functionality incl. a huge number of
statistical and scientific functions, pivot tables and charts.
OpenOffice.org Impress is a full-featured presentation tool that allows to create
and modify diagrams and pictures right within the application.
OpenOffice.org Draw is a drawing tool that supports both vector and bitmap
images. The powerful Connectors allow to easily complex diagrams and org charts.
With the database tools in OpenOffice.org users can easily access and analyze data,
create complex reports or do a mail merge based on a customer database. Many open source
and commercial database systems are supported.
K Office
It is a rapidly developing native Linux package. It has many advanced DTP features. It is
the de-facto Office suite for the K Desktop Environment (KDE) the most popular of the
Linux desktops. It also runs on PowerPC based computers including the Apple Mac.
KWord is a FrameMaker-like word-processing and desktop publishing application. It
is capable of creating demanding and professional looking documents. KWord will
prove a valuable and easy to use tool for all your word processing and layout needs.
This can be used to place components in precise locations, as with many professional
DTP applications. KWord can also handle huge amounts of texts and allows you to
do professional markup with ease.
KSpread is a scriptable spreadsheet program which provides both table-oriented
sheets and support for complex mathematical formulas and statistics.
KPresenter is a presentation application.
Kivio i s a flowcharting and diagramming application for the KOffice application
suite, and has an user-interface. It is fully integrated into KOffice and can for
example be embedded into KWord.
Karbon14 is the vector drawing application in KDE.
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Krita is a painting and image editing application for KOffice. Because of the current
unfinished state, Krita is not yet part of the regular KOffice releases, but the source
is available from the KDE CVS repository.
Kugar is a KDE tool for generating business quality reports which can be viewed
and printed. It includes a standalone report viewer and a KPart report viewer. The
latter means that any KDE application can embed the report viewing functionality
and that reports can be viewed using the Konqueror browser.
KPlato is a project management application, allowing for the planning and
scheduling of projects. It is in the very early stages of development.
Kexi is an integrated environment for managing data. It helps in creating database
schema, inserting, querying and processing data. The idea of this development effort
came because of noticeable lack of application like MS Access, FoxPro, Oracle
Forms or File Maker that is powerful enough, inexpensive, open standards driven
and highly portable between many OSes and hardware platforms.
KChart is the KOffice chart drawing application. Use it to embed charts into the
KOffice documents, e.g. a report written with KWord.
KFormula is an easy to use formula editor. It provides the basic input facilities and
the support functionality you come to expect of a KOffice application.
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print various types of documents, including letters, reports, brochures, forms, memos, fax
sheets and more. To start Microsoft Word, click Start Programs Microsoft Word.
Screen Layout
Microsoft Word has a display that features four 'bars' and a document window.
Title bar at the top of the window, which contains the name of the application, and
name of the file in use at the left corner, minimize button, maximize (or) restore
button and close button at the right corner. The colour of the title bar indicates
whether the window is active or not.
Menu bar beneath the tile bar, which contains at least 9 menus such as File, Edit,
View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window and Help. Clicking the words in the
menu bar, displays the corresponding dropdown menu to select the commands to be
carried out. The keyboard shortcut is Alt + (the underlined letter in the word).
Vertical scroll bar at the right of the document window and horizontal scroll bar
at the bottom of the document window to move the document accordingly. To the
left and right of the horizontal scroll bar there are two buttons to move the
document left and right respectively. Similarly, above and below the vertical scroll
bar, there are two buttons to move the document up and down one line. Below this
button there are three buttons, browse object button in the middle and previous
browse object button and next browse object button at the top and bottom of
the browse object button. Browse object button is used to select the objects such as
page, section, table, graphics, etc. from the icons so that the previous object button
and next object button could move the cursor accordingly.
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Title
Bar
Menu
Bar
Drawing
toolbar
Standard
Toolbar
Formatting
Toolbar
Minimize
Button
Maximize
Button
Close
Button
Vertical
Scroll
Bar
Ruler
Previous
Browse Object
Button
Document
Window
Status
Bar
Browse
Object Button
Horizontal
Scroll Bar
Next Browse
object Button
Status bar at the bottom, which gives information about the document. It displays
page number, section number, total number of pages, distance of the cursor from
the top of the page (in inches or cms), line number, column number. It also provides
the status record macro, track changes, extend selection, overtype, spelling and
grammar status, background save grayed out when they are off.
Tool Bars
The toolbars consist of icons for the various commands that occur in the drop-down
menus. There are at least 16 tool bars in MS Word, namely, standard, formatting, auto text,
clipboard, control tool box, database, drawing, forms, frames, picture, reviewing, tables and
borders, visual basic, web, web tools and word art.
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The standard tool bar consists of icons for the following commands:
New
Cut
Columns
Open
Copy
Drawing
Save
Paste
Document Map
Format painter
Paragraph
Print Preview
Undo
Office Assistance
Spelling and
Redo
Find
Grammar
Insert Table
Centre Justification
Borders
Font
Right Justification
Highlight
Font Size
Justification
Font Color
Bold
Numbering
Language
Italics
Bullets
Subscript
Underline
Decrease Indent
Superscript
Left Justification
Increase Indent
Ruler
A ruler is at the top of the document window. It is used to set tabs as well as indents,
and left and right margins in the page layout view. The ruler contains four indent markers,
first line indent, hanging indent, left indent and right indent.
First line indent works the same way as the pressing tab key on the keyboard.
Hanging indent (sometimes called as the outdent) hangs the remaining lines in a
paragraph in the position of this marker.
Left indent sets a paragraph off from the rest of the text by moving all the lines from left
margin.
Right indent moves text from the right margin and is typically combined with a left
indent to make a dual indent. Dual indents are used most commonly to set off block
quotations.
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File Menu
The file menu consists of the following commands:
New... (Ctrl + N) command opens a dialog box. To create a new document, select
Blank Document in the General tab and click OK.
Open... (Ctrl + O) command opens an already existing file. Select the folder, which
contains the file from the Look in box at the top and click the file name and click Open.
Save (Ctrl + S) and Save As
When a new document is to be saved, there is no difference between these two
commands. They allow to enter a file name to save the file. From next time onwards, the
former updates the document and the latter saves the file in a different name or location.
Close (Ctrl + F4 or Ctrl + W) command closes the current document.
Exit (Alt + F4) command closes Microsoft Word.
Page Setup...
This command opens a dialog box containing 4 tabs, Margins, Paper Size, Paper Source
and Layout. In Margins tab, Top, Bottom, Left and Right spin box controls are available to
set the amount of white space at the corresponding sides. Mirror margins check box is
selected to adjust left and right margin so that while printing on both sides of the paper, the
inside margins are the same width and the outside margins are the same width. Gutter is
used to enter the amount of extra space to add to the margin for binding. Word adds the
extra space to the left of the margin, if Mirror margins check box is cleared, or to the inside
margin, if Mirror margins is selected. The Header and footer spin box controls are used to
adjust the size of the header and footer from the top or bottom edge of the page. In Paper
Size tab, the height and the width of the paper can be adjusted. Portrait and Landscape
options are available to change the text direction according to which it is to be printed in the
paper. In Layout tab, there are options available to align the text vertically (top or bottom or
centre), view the line number, etc.
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adjust margins and shrink the document by one page to prevent a carryover from appearing
on a page by itself. Print command prints the document.
Edit Menu
Cut (Ctrl + X) removes a block of data from its current location and places it on the
clipboard. Any data stored on the clipboard beforehand is replaced; the clipboard can
only store one data block at a time.
Copy (Ctrl + C) also puts a block of data on the clipboard, but does not delete it from
its current location.
Paste (Ctrl +V) copies the clipboard's contents to a new location. The data remains on
the clipboard until it is replaced by another Cut or Copy, or until the user exits Windows.
Clear (Delete) deletes the character in the current cursor position or selected text.
Select All (Ctrl + A) selects the entire document.
Find (Ctrl + F) locates the entered text in the document.
Replace (Ctrl + H) locates the given text and replaces it with the text entered.
Go to (Ctrl + G) takes the cursor to the desired page, section, etc.
Insert Menu
Break gives a page break or column break at the current cursor position or section break
at the next page, next odd page, next even page or at the current cursor position.
Page Numbers enters the page number at the top (Header) or at the bottom (Footer).
It also provides to align the page number at the left, right or centre of the header or
footer, or inside or outside when the document is to be printed on both sides of the
paper.
Date and Time has many date and time formats to choose from.
Auto Text provides an option to enter the text automatically while typing. For example,
if the word "Mathematics" is available in the Auto Text list, while typing the word, the
application shows the word "Mathematics" above the cursor so that pressing the enter
key will enter the text automatically.
Symbol has many symbols other than the symbols available in the keyboard to select
from.
Picture may be Clip Art, AutoShapes, Word Art or Chart or copied from other files.
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Format Menu
Font... (Ctrl + D) opens a dialog box which contains three tabs, Font, Character
Spacing and Animation. In Font tab, the following options are available:
Font (Ctrl + Shift + F) provides so many font types to choose from.
Font Style may be regular, italics, Bold, Bold italics
Size (Ctrl + Shift + P) specifies the size of the font.
Under line styles like single line, underlining Words only, Double line, Dotted line,
Thick line, Dash line, Dot dash line Dot dot dash line and Wave line are available
in MS Word.
Color gives attraction to the text. We can choose the desired colour to our
text.
Effects include Strikethrough, Double Strikethrough,
subscript
superscript
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Widow/Orphan control prevents Word from printing the last line of a paragraph by
itself at the top of the page (Widow) or the first line of a paragraph by itself at the
bottom of a page.
Keep with the next prevents a page break between the selected paragraph and the
following paragraph.
Keep lines together prevents a page break within a paragraph.
Page break before inserts a manual page break before the selected paragraph.
Suppress line numbers prevents line numbers from appearing next to selected
paragraphs. This has no effect in the documents or sections with no line numbers.
Don't hyphenate excludes a paragraph from automatic hyphenation.
Bullets and Numbering applies numbers or symbols to the beginning of each
paragraph. This includes Bulleted to include symbols, numbered to include numbers
and outline numbered to include numbers inside a numbered paragraph.
Borders and Shading adds borders and shading to the selected text, paragraphs, pages,
table cells or pictures. Border format may be box, shadow, or 3-D. Various colours,
styles, width for the border lines are also available. Shading includes filling background
colors along with a pattern to the selected text or paragraph.
Columns splits the text into desired number of columns with a specified width. The
Word gives a section break, by default, when the number of columns is different.
Tabs specifies the measurement for tab stop and the alignment.
Drop Cap formats the first letter of the paragraph as a dropped capital letter to the
specified number of lines. It is aligned with the left margin and the text wraps around
the letter or it is placed at the left margin.
Change Case changes the case of the text to Sentence case, lower case, UPPER
CASE, Title Case and tOGGLE cASE. The keyboard shortcut to change the case the
selected text is Shift + F3.
Background contains so many colours, patterns and pictures to choose from.
Tools Menu:
Spelling and Grammar (F7) checks and list the spelling and grammar mistakes in the
document and also provides options to correct the same. It also displays the spelling
mistakes with a red underline and grammar mistakes with a green underline.
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Language has three options, namely, Set Language, Thesaurus (Shift + F7) and
hyphenation. Set Language changes the language used to check. If a language other
than the default language is chosen, then a spelling dictionary and other language tools
are to be purchased and installed. Thesaurus lists the words/group of words, which
are synonyms to the selected word or related concepts and provides an option to
replace the selected word with a word in the list. Hyphenation is used when there are
spaces at the end of a line because long words wrap to the beginning of the next line.
Word Count displays the number of pages, number of words, number of characters
(without including spaces), number of characters (including spaces), number of
paragraphs and number of lines. This may include the text in footnotes and endnotes
according to the choice of the user.
Track Changes tracks every change made to the document. Highlight Changes turns
on the track changes. Accept or Reject Changes is used to accept or reject the changes
made to the document by finding each change and deciding whether to accept or
reject the change. Options is used to highlight the changes like new text, old text
(deleted text), formatted text and changed lines in a desired format.
Protect Document protects the document for Track Changes, Comments or Forms.
If the document is protected for Track Changes, then every change made to the
document is highlighted, Track Changes cannot be turned off and no change can be
accepted or rejected. If the document is protected for comments, then the comments
can be inserted to the document, but the contents of the document cannot be
changed.
Auto Correct corrects the mistakes made by the user while typing. It corrects the use
of two initial capitals and accidental use of Caps Lock key, capitalises first letter of the
sentences and names of the days. It also replaces the typed words with that of the
specified word. Example: teh is replaced as the, adn is replaced as and, etc. There
are exceptions to make these changes by the Word.
Letters and Envelopes: In the envelopes and labels dialog box, enter the delivery
address in the Delivery address box. Choose to enter or omit the return address. Click
options to enter into Envelope options dialog box. There size of the envelope, the
font and location of the delivery address and return address can be specified. The
label option allows to print one label or a full page of the same label. It also allows to
specify the row and column to print the label (if single label is selected).
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MICROSOFT EXCEL
Introduction
Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet application used to process business and
financial calculations of various kinds. It is a Multiple Document Interface (MDI), which
means more than one file can be opened inside this application.
Workbook, Worksheet and Cells
Each excel file is a workbook that can hold many worksheets. The workbook can
contain worksheets, chart sheets, or macro modules. Every Excel worksheet contains 65,536
rows, numbered from 1 through 65,536 and 256 columns, lettered A through Z, AA through
AZ, BA through BZ and continuing to IA through IV. The intersection of a row and a
column in a rectangular area is called a cell. Each cell is identified by its address, which is
represented by the column name and the row number.
Creating a new workbook
To create a new workbook, click File New from the menu bar (or) press Ctrl + N
(or) click New icon in the standard toolbar. To add a new worksheet to the workbook, click
Insert Worksheet from the menu bar. To enter data into the cells, click the cell and type
the data. The data may be text, number, date or formula.
Defining Formulae in Excel
Formulae are entered in the worksheet cell and must begin with an "equal to" sign.
When a formula is entered into a cell, the formula itself is displayed in the formula bar and
the value is calculated immediately and displayed in the cell. Numbers, operators and cell
addresses are used to define the formula.
Edit Formula Key
Excel allows to define formula desired by the user. Activate the cell and click Edit
Formula key to enter the desired formula into the cell. The Excel provides an equal to sign
in the formula bar and allows to type the formula in it. After typing the formula, press enter.
Then Excel calculates the value and the answer will appear in the cell.
Paste Function Key
To enter a formula into it, first activate the cell. Click the Function Wizard key (Paste
Function key) to open the Paste Function dialog box. Browse through the functions by
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clicking in the function category and select the function from the function name choices.
Then click OK to apply the function. Next, choose the cells to be included in the function.
Then click OK to get the result. The answer will be displayed in the activated cell.
Auto Sum
This function is used to add the contents of a cluster of adjacent cells.
Charts
Charts are graphical representation of numeric data. It facilitates the comparison of two
or more frequency distribution. Following are some of the important types of graphs:
Pie Chart shows the proportional size of items that make up a data series to the sum
of the items. It always shows only one data series. To make small slices easier to see,
it can be grouped into one item in a pie chart and then that item is broken down in a
smaller pie chart next to the main chart.
Column Chart shows data changes over a period of time or illustrates comparisons
among the items. The subtypes of the column chart include
Bar Diagram or Multiple Bar Diagram: This is the first subtype, which depends
upon the number of data series chosen. If one data series is given, Excel will create a
simple bar diagram. If two or more data series are selected, then Excel creates
multiple bar diagram.
Component Bar Diagram (Subdivided Bar Diagram): This is the second
subtype, where a single bar is subdivided into various parts to compare the
contribution of each data to its total.
Percentage Bar Diagram: This is the third subtype, in which the bars are at equal
height and each one is subdivided into various parts to compare the percentage of
contribution of each data to its total.
Line Chart shows trends in data at equal intervals. It emphasizes time flow and the
rate of change.
Creating a Chart
Clicking the Chart Wizard button opens the Chart Wizard dialog box. It displays a
variety of chart types and chart subtypes to choose from. After selecting the desired chart
click Next to move to chart source data dialog box.
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In Source Data dialog box, Data Range tab is used to select the data for which the
chart is to be created. It also has the option to put the chart for the data row-wise or
column-wise. Series tab provides options for adding or removing the data series, selecting or
typing names and values to each series and giving labels in the X-axis. Click Next to open
the Chart Options dialog box.
There are six tabs in Chart Options dialog box, namely, Titles, Axes, Gridlines, Legend,
Data Labels and Data Table.
Titles - allows to give titles to the chart, X-axis and Y-axis.
Axes - allows to display the X-axis values and Y-axis values in the chart.
Gridlines - allows to put horizontal and vertical lines in the graph to see the accuracy
of the chart.
Legend - allows to show legends at a desired place (bottom, upper right corner, top,
right or left of the graph) or hide them.
Data Labels - allows to display the data values or data labels along with the legend key
(optional) in the chart.
Data Tables - allows to show the data table in the chart along with the legend key
(optional).
Then click Next to enter into Chart Location dialog box. This provides an option to
place the chart in a separate sheet or an object in the worksheet. At last, click Finish to
create the chart.
Resizing the Chart
To resize the chart, click in the border and drag any of the eight black handles to change
the size. Handles on the corners will resize the chart proportionally while handles along the
lines will stretch the chart.
Moving the Chart
Select the border of the chart, hold down the left button and drag the chart to the new
location. Elements such as the title and labels may also be moved within the chart. Click on
the element to activate it and use the mouse to drag the element to move it.
(iii) Monthly Expenses of a family earning Rs. 15,000/- in India
Item
Food
Clothing
Expense
3000
2500
Education
3500
Shelter
3000
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Miscellaneous
Savings
3000 2000
45
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There are different views within Microsoft PowerPoint that allow to look at the
presentation from different perspectives.
Normal View:
Switching to normal view, allows to work on one slide at a time or organize the structure
of all the slides in the presentation.
Outline View:
Switching to outline view allows to work with the structure of the file in outline form.
Working in outline view helps to organize the structure of the file.
Slide View:
Switching to slide view allows to work on one slide at a time
Slide Sorter View:
Displays miniature versions of all slides in a presentation, complete with text and
graphics. In slide sorter view, you can reorder slides, add transitions, and animation effects.
You can also set the timings for electronic slide shows.
Slide Show:
Runs your slide show in a full screen, beginning with the current slide if you are in slide
view or the selected slide if you are in slide sorter view. If you simply want to view your
show from the first slide:
1. Click Slide Show at the top of the screen
2. Select View Show.
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from the File menu. There are two options to save the movie as a "file" or "source". Choose
"source".
This is a list of a few sites:
Near Earth Objects. This is a NASA site with jpeg images and QuickTime movies of
"near earth objects" like asteroids and comets.
National Weather Service. Need a clip of a tornado or flood? Try the National Weather
Service archive of mpeg, avi, and QuickTime movies.
Video and Animation Utilities. Sometimes a movie to be used in a project may be a
wrong type of movie for the program used in the project. This link contains a list of utilities
that can be used to convert one movie format to another.
Multimedia Presentations in PowerPoint
PowerPoint comes with music, sounds, and videos you can play during your slide shows.
Some sounds such as a typewriter or applause are available on the Animation Effects
toolbar. Other sounds, as well as music and videos, are available in the Clip Gallery.
The Microsoft Clip Gallery is a collection of clip art images and other objects, like
sounds, pictures, and videos. Click the [Insert Clip Art] button to access images in the Clip
Gallery. You can also add images from other sources by choosing INSERT Picture
From File from the menu bar. Microsoft's large Clips Online collection can be accessed
through the Clip Gallery.
Buttons on the picture toolbar provide options for changing clip art properties, like
brightness, contrast, cropping, and colors. Buttons on the drawing toolbar can be used to
add text boxes and a variety of shapes to the active slide. Slide masters control the placement
of text areas and graphics on slide templates. Changes can be made to individual slide
templates, or to an entire presentation using the slide master. Custom backgrounds and color
schemes can be applied to all or selected slides.
Microsoft Graph is an accessory application that you use within PowerPoint 2000 to
create data charts. There are 14 main data chart styles and many more sub-types for each.
Slide layouts hold placeholders for data charts, organization charts, and objects like
equations. Organization charts can be used to show the formal or informal structures within
organizations. They are created using the accessory application Microsoft Organization
Chart. Special characters and symbols can be added to any text area using the INSERT
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Symbol menu item. Even more symbols are available when you create equations using the
Microsoft Equation Editor. This application lets you create graphic versions of complicated
formulas and include them on your PowerPoint slides.
To use the Clip Gallery, point to Movies and Sounds on the Insert menu, and then click
either Movie from Gallery or Sound from Gallery. Sounds, music and videos are inserted as
PowerPoint objects. To play a sound or video as a Media Player object instead, click Object
on the Insert menu, and then click Media Clip. This method uses the Media Player
installed with Windows 95 to run the sound or video. The Media Player plays multimedia
files and controls such playback devices as compact disc and videodisc players.
Special equipment is needed on the computer to play music, sounds, and videos. To find
out what's installed and what settings are in use, check both the Multimedia and Sounds
categories in the Windows Control Panel.
Insert a music, sound, or video clip on a slide where it is to be played during a slide
show. By default, the sound or video starts when its icon is clicked during a slide show. To
change how the clip starts or to add a hyperlink to the clip, click Action Settings on the Slide
Show menu.
Additional locations of clip art, pictures, music, sound, video clips, and animations
If you can't find a picture, music, sound, video clip, or animation in PowerPoint, here are
some other places you can look for more clips (to use Clip Gallery Live and PowerPoint
Central, access to the Internet and a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer):
Windows Media folder
Windows 95 has additional sounds and music you can use in a presentation. Just point to
Movies and Sounds on the Insert menu, and then click Sound from File. Locate and open
the Media folder (in the Windows folder), and then select the sound you want.
Clip Gallery Live
If Clip Gallery is installed, connect to Clip Gallery Live, a Web site used to preview and
download picture, sound, and movie clips. Click Insert Clip Art to open Clip Gallery, and
then click the Connect to Web for additional clips button.
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PowerPoint Central
From the PowerPoint Central presentation, you can jump to Internet sites or to the
Office 97 on the CD-ROM for such resources as clip art, videos, sound clips, graphic
effects, templates, and presentation tips. Just click PowerPoint Central on the Tools menu.
Some Special Features
PowerPoint 2000 offers a variety of tools to use while presenting a slide show. Access
the Slide Show tools by right-clicking on the current slide. Outlines prepared in other
applications can be used to build PowerPoint presentations. Special FILE Send to
options enhance the capability for printing PowerPoint presentations using Word. The
Windows Clipboard is a useful tool for copying and pasting data, graphs, or text among
Windows applications. Writing tools are available for checking spelling, visual clarity, and
ending punctuation. The AutoCorrect option helps keep presentation styles consistent and
for correcting common spelling mistakes. The content and visual design of your presentation
are the most important aspects of creating great presentations.
Animating text and objects
Animate text, graphics, sounds, movies, and other objects on your slides so as to focus
on important points, control the flow of information, and add interest to your presentation.
Each main bullet point may appear independently of others, or objects may appear
progressively, one after another. Set up the way each bullet point or object to appear on the
slide and if other bullets or objects to dim or change color when a new element is added.
Order and timing of the animations can be changed and set to occur automatically
without having to click the mouse. To set up and preview the animation of your text and
objects, click Custom Animation on the Slide Show menu.
Slide transitions are effects that change the way one slide is replaced with another during
a slide show. Slide show animations can be used to animate titles, text areas like bulleted lists,
and charts with movement and sound. Both transitions and animations add impact and
variety to your presentations, but should be used with discretion to avoid becoming
distracting. Hide slides that are not needed to display during a slide show. Hypertext links
can be added to link to other slides, presentations, files, or Web pages.
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Network
A network is a group of two or more devices, such as computers, printers and scanners
that can communicate and share files with each other. Networks are interconnection of
computers. These computers can be linked together with wide variety of different cable
types, and for a wide variety of different purposes.
Local Area Network
A Local Area Network or LAN is a group of computers in a localized area. Another
definition states that a LAN is a computer network that is confined to a building or a cluster
of buildings. A LAN is a network that is typically personal to an organisation and is installed
for the exclusive use of a particular office or factory of a given organisation.
Internet
Over 30 years ago an experimental network was designed to support military research.
This network was called ARPA Net (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The
idea was to find a way to connect some networks around the country. ARPANET is
frequently called as "Mother of Internet".
Internet is a communication tool through which the information can be transferred from
one part of the world to another. In this a lot of web sites and services are available to meet
our varied requirements. Internet is an inter-connection between several computers of
different types belonging to various networks all over the world. It is a network of networks.
It has a rich content of information in the form of text, pictures, sounds and video clips.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) is made up of two
components TCP and IP. TCP breaks up the data sent into little packets. It guarantees that
any data, sent to destination computer, reaches it intact. IP is a set of conventions used to
pass packets from one host to another. It is responsible for routing packets to a destination
IP address. Packets are passed using three kinds of mechanisms: bridge, routers and
gateways.
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Then the file path is specified. Here net101 is a folder inside the web site and basic.htm
is the file name used.
Intranet
An Intranet is defined as "An infrastructure based on Internet standards and
technologies that supports sharing of content within a limited and well-defined group." The
"infrastructure" referred to the organizational and management infrastructure that created,
managed, and shared the content. The only technical constraint was that the physical
network be based on the Internetworking Protocol (IP).
There's one major distinction between an Intranet and the Internet: The Internet is an
open, public space, while an Intranet is designed to be a private space. An Intranet may be
accessible from the Internet, but as a rule it's protected by a password and accessible only to
employees or other authorized users.
From within a company, an Intranet server may respond much more quickly than a
typical Web site. This is because the public Internet is at the mercy of traffic spikes, server
breakdowns and other problems that may slow the network. Within a company, however,
users have much more bandwidth and network hardware may be more reliable. This makes
it easier to serve high-bandwidth content, such as audio and video, over an Intranet.
E-MAIL
The Internet enables group of people to have discussions in which the participants may
be anywhere in the world. This group communication can take the form of text on the
screen, voice or video and messages and responses can be exchanged "live" or they may be
read and responded to later. All these types of online communication are referred to as
online chat or online conferencing.
Real-time chat
In some types of chating, messaging and conferencing, messages are sent immediately
after they are complete. Each participant sees each message within seconds of when it is
sent, so a dialog can happen quickly. However all the participants need to be online at the
same time. Example: chatting.
Asynchronous chat
Messages are stored so that the participants can read them when they have a chance,
which allows participants to consider their responses, gather information, and formulate a
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response carefully. It allows people with different time zones or with different schedules to
participate. Example: e-mail.
e-mail
E-mail (electronic mail) is the most frequently used application on the internet. Many
people use Internet for no other reason than to send or receive email. Email is the ability to
write a message to someone, using a mail program and use internet as a means of delivering
the message. Documents or images can be attached to the email to send to the recipient. The
advantages of e-mail are faster, cheaper and confidential.
E-mail address
The email address is made up of certain components that help to route it to the proper
recipient.
Example: i101@famvid.com
First part is the user name or identification number. Here, the user name is i101.
The @ symbol serves as the divider between email sections.
Next part is the domain name, which is the name of the user's Internet system or
location. In this case, the domain name is famvid
Last part is the type of the institution. In this example, com specifies that it is the
commercial type.
To create an email account, do the following:
First connect to the Internet.
Enter into any one of the Internet services such as yahoo.co.in, rediff.com, hotmail.com,
sify.com, etc.
Click "Sign Up Now" option provided for the new user.
Fill up the form which appears on the screen that includes email address, password and
some personal information. The personal details are necessary to help the user if the
password is forgotten. The website will ask for the personal details and provide an
option for changing the password if they match with the original information.
Finally click "Submit" to create an address.
Then a new account is created for you.
Sending Mail
To send an email, click Compose button in the Mail page.
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In the "To" column give the e-mail address to which the message has to be sent.
Subject will contain a title to which the message pertains. This is very important, as the
message is accessed by the receiver through the subject.
CC, which is known as carbon copy can be used if the same mail has to be sent to
different addresses. All the other addresses can be given here and each address is to be
separated by comma or space.
BCC known as blind carbon copy can be used if the user does not want others to know
to which addresses this mail is sent.
ATTACH FILES: To attach files as enclosures along with some message. Click this
button and it provides the option to send at most 10 files at a time. Write the full path of the
files to be sent in the boxes provided or click Browse button beneath each box to locate the
files to be sent. Click Done to return to message.
Below this we have the message area, which can be used to enter the message. Type the
message. To save time, type the message in word and copy them to the clipboard and click
the paste command above the message box.
Click the save a copy to sent items folder check box to save the message in that folder.
Finally we click the button SEND to send the e-mail. The information "message sent" will
appear on the screen. Now the e-mail will be sent to the addresses given in To, CC and
BCC.
Receiving Mail
Click Inbox button in the mail page. This provides a table consisting of sender's email
address, subject of the message, date and time of the receipt of the message and the size of
the message, if there are messages sent to the address. To read the mail, click the subject of
the message, which is the hyperlink to message.
The options available in e-mail are:
REPLY: To reply to a message along with the original message received.
REPLY ALL: To send the reply to all the addresses available in CC in addition to TO
address.
FORWARD: To forward a message received by a user to another address.
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Spam
Spam is a term that Internet users apply to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or unsolicited
bulk email (UBE). Spam is received because the sender has obtained an email address, either
from a mailing list or newsgroup or directly from the person on a web site. If a large mail
provider like Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo or EarthLink is used, then spam is received from the
dictionary attacks in which spammers try to guess users email addresses spammers dont
care if they send out messages to 99 nonexistent addresses if one message gets a valid
address. The following are a few ways to prevent spammers from getting the email address:
Set up separate email accounts and use them selectively.
Consider an email account with an ISP that uses a mail filtering service such as
Brightmail or Postini. These services filter out spam before it gets into the inbox.
Dont answer messages that look as though they were sent by mistake they may be a
way to find a valid email addresses for spamming. Once it is replied, the spammers found
that they have found a valid email address.
INTERNET BROWSING
There are number of free online resources that help with the hunt of targeting
information. These resource sites are often referred to as Search Engines. There are literally
dozens of such free resources that help in locating a particular piece of information. Among
the popular ones are Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, WebCrawler, HotBot, Infoseek, etc.
Search Engines
Search engines are web sites that allow the users to search on keywords or combination
of keywords. The amount of information on the Web is vast. Since there is no possible way
to know every address of every Web site to be visited, search engines are included to find the
Web sites that contains the chosen keyword. A search engine employs a program called
search agent (or spider) that goes out and looks for information on web pages. This
information is indexed and stored in a huge database. When a search is conducted, the
search engine looks through its database to find entries that match the entered information.
Then the search engine displays a list of the web pages it determines are most relevant to the
search criteria.
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To search information KEY WORDS are to be used in the box provided and click the
button search or go. If the keyword is more than one then we can use which implies that
all the words given in the quotes should appear together. Another operator that can be used
is + which implies the first and second word. For example Tissue + culture will search
for the key words tissue and culture. If the same keywords are given Tissue culture then it
will search for both the words and they should appear in the same sequence. Once the
search is over and the relevant information has been located it can be copied or downloaded
in the secondary storage device.
Web Directory
A web directory is a web site that categorizes web pages so that we can browse links to
web pages by topic. The advantage of web directory over a search engine is that human
beings have categorized the web pages, so all links in the directory belong there. Web
directories are great for searching when the name, which is to be looked for, is not known
exactly. On the other hand, a search engine is quicker than web directories if the information
is about a specific unusual term.
Saving a Web Page
Some ISPs do not provide unlimited time accounts, so people may be stressed when
surfing because they know the clock is ticking. Often, the best web sites are so large that
sitting and reading all of the materials is not possible in a single session. To overcome this
difficulty, files can be downloaded and saved in the hard disc to view them offline.
The steps to be followed while saving the file in the hard disc:
Click on File Menu
Select the option Save As
Select the location for the file and save.
This will save the file as html document in the hard disc. Unless we specifically
reconstruct the directory structure and saving all of the associated graphics, the images are
not visible offline.
Saving a graphic
If the web page contains a graphic such as picture, graph, photograph, etc., it can be
saved as an object.
1. Position the cursor over the image and click on the object with the right mouse button.
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Text Chat: Click the chat button to display the widow in which messages can be typed
to the other people in the chat.
Voice Chat: If both the persons have microphones and speakers, voice chatting can be
done. Unless the communication is fast, the sound may be interrupted. Keep the
microphone away from the speakers, or use headphones to avoid feedback.
Video Conferencing: If other people in the call have video cameras, the video can be
viewed from one of their cameras (one at a time) in the NetMeeting window. The video
appears in the Remote Video window, a small box on the right side of the window,
when the Current Call icon is selected. NetMeeting can be set to enable the video
camera automatically the call is made. Also set the size of the video image, choose
between faster, low-quality video and slower, high-quality video, be sure to light the face
or object (whoever or whatever the camera points at) from the front.
Sharing a Whiteboard: Whiteboard feature is used when the other participants also
wanted to draw diagrams or pictures that are visible to everyone in the call. Whiteboard
button is visible near the bottom of the NetMeeting window. Click the button to view a
window similar to Microsoft Paint. When anyone in the call makes a change to the
Whiteboard window, everyone in the call sees the change.
Sending and receiving files: Click the File Transfer button at the bottom of the
window to open the File Transfer window. Click Add Files button and specify the file to
be sent. Alternatively drag the name of the file from Windows Explorer to the File
Transfer window. Click Send All button to send the files. To send a file to one caller
rather than to everyone in the call, select the person from the drop-down list at the top
right of the File Transfer window. If someone sends a file, NetMeeting automatically
saves it in the received files folder. A window appears and tells about the arrival of the
file. To open the file in the default application for the type of the file received, click the
Open button.
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