INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS

AND WORD

Course Introduction

The course is designed to ensure that a student who successfully completes the course will have a
better understanding of Computers and can therefore use Computers for his everyday life
activities.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The course shall emphasis on training to ensure that you have grasp the necessary knowledge
that is expected of you. The course will cover the following major areas:

 History of Computers

 Hardware Components of a Computer

 Windows as an Operating System

 Managing Accounts and Files on your Computer

 Word Processor using Microsoft Word

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COURSE OUTLINE

 Unit 1: Computers

 Unit 2: Input/ Output and Storage Devices

 Unit 3: Computer Software and programs

 Unit 4: Operating System And File Management

 Unit 5: Word Processing Using Ms-Word

 Unit 6: Tables, SmartArt Graphics And References

Table Of Contents

Course Introduction......................................................................................................................................i
Table Of Contents........................................................................................................................................ii
List Of Tables..............................................................................................................................................iii
List Of Figures............................................................................................................................................iv
List Of Appendices.....................................................................................................................................xii
Unit 1........................................................................................................................................................1
COMPUTERS.........................................................................................................................................1
SESSION 1-1: GENERATION AND CLASSIFOCATION OF COMPUTERS...............2
1-1.1 Generation of Computers...........................................................................................................2
1-1.2 Classification of Computer..........................................................................................................4
1-1.3 Parts of a Desktop Computer....................................................................................................10
1-1.4 Ports, Expansion Board and Slots And Busses...........................................................................13
SESSION 2-1: PROCESSING DEVICES AND MEMORY CHIPS.................................20
2-1.1 Data and Program Representation............................................................................................20
2-1.2 Inside the Microprocessor........................................................................................................23
2-1.3 Computer Memories................................................................................................................28
2-1.4 Other forms of Memories.........................................................................................................30
Unit 2......................................................................................................................................................33
INPUT/ OUTPUT AND STORAGE DEVICES.........................................................................33
SESSION 1-2: INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES................................................................34

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 1-2.1 Input Devices............................................................................................................................34
1-2.2 Output Devices.........................................................................................................................39
1-2.3 Pointing Devices.......................................................................................................................43
1-2.4 Scanning devices.......................................................................................................................45
SESSION 2-2: STORAGE DEVICES.......................................................................................46
2-2.1 Data Representation and Storage Capacity...............................................................................47
2-2.2 Types of Files............................................................................................................................48
2-2.3 Storage Devices........................................................................................................................49
2-2.4 The Read/Write Operations of a Hard Disk...............................................................................56
Unit 3......................................................................................................................................................60
COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND PROGRAMS...........................................................................60
SESSION 1-3: System Software, Drivers and Utility Programs.............................61
1-3.1 System Software.......................................................................................................................62
1-3.2 Common Operating Systems: Platforms...................................................................................64
1-3.3 Device Drivers...........................................................................................................................64
1-3.4 Utility Programs........................................................................................................................65
1-3.5 Language Translators................................................................................................................67
SESSION 2-1: APPLICATION SOFTWARE.........................................................................69
2-3.1 Common Features of Application Software..............................................................................69
2-3.2 Different Types of Application Software...................................................................................72
Unit 4......................................................................................................................................................79
OPERATING SYSTEM AND FILE MANAGEMENT...............................................................79
SESSION 1-4: Windows as an Operating System.........................................................80
1-4.1 The windows XP Desktop..........................................................................................................80
1-4.2 Running Application Programs..................................................................................................81
1-4.3 Windows XP Bars and Buttons..................................................................................................85
1-4.4 The Control Panel.....................................................................................................................86
SESSION 2-4: FILE MANAGEMENT......................................................................................98
2-4.1 Files and Folders.......................................................................................................................98
2-4.2 Exploring My computer............................................................................................................98
2-4.3 Understanding User Accounts................................................................................................102
2-4.4 Systems Tools..........................................................................................................................110
Unit 5....................................................................................................................................................121
WORD PROCESSING USING MS-WORD...............................................................................121
SESSION 1-5: Microsoft Word 2007 Basics...................................................................122
1-5.1 Setting Up Word Environment................................................................................................122
1-5.2 Initial Important Tasks............................................................................................................123
1-5.3 Word Text Basics.....................................................................................................................124
1-5.4 Saving Word Documents.........................................................................................................124
SESSION 2-5: Working With Word Document...............................................................132

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 2-5.1 Grammar and Spell Check.......................................................................................................132
2-5.2 Working With Hyperlinks........................................................................................................132
2-5.3 Creating and Printing of Documents.......................................................................................134
2-5.4 Handling Images and Pictures.................................................................................................135
2-5.5 Using Templates and working With Lists.................................................................................144
Unit 6....................................................................................................................................................160
TABLES, SMARTART GRAPHICS AND REFERNCES......................................................160
SESSION 1-6: Page Layout, Tables and SmartArt.....................................................161
1-6.1 Modifying Page Layout...........................................................................................................161
1-6.2 Tables......................................................................................................................................168
1-6.3 Using SmartArt Graphics.........................................................................................................168
1-6.4 Using Indents, Tabs, Find and Replace....................................................................................171
SESSION 2-6: REFERENCES AND MAIL MERGE..........................................................180
2-6.1 Adding New Citation and Source to a Document....................................................................180
2-6.2 Generating a Bibliography......................................................................................................180
2-6.3 Creating and Generating Table of Contents and Indexes........................................................181
2-6.4 Mail Merging..........................................................................................................................182

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 Unit 1
COMPUTERS

Introduction

In this Unit we shall learn how the first electronic computer ENIAC has metamorphosed to a
modern day computer and the different types of Computers. Various hardware components will
be discussed. The processor which is the main brain of the computer will be discussed in detail.
Whenever we use the computer, we use characters (digits and alphabets) to form instructions or
commands and to provide data. However, the computer does not understand the instructions or
the data unless it is expressed in terms of only zeros and ones. We shall learn how this is done.

Unit content

Session 1-1: Generation and Classification of Computers

1-1.1Generation of Computers
1-1.2 Classification of Computers
1-1.3Parts of a Desktop Computer
1-1.4 Ports, Expansion Board, Slots and Buses
Session 2-1: Processing Devices and Memory Chips
2-1.1Data and Program Representation
2-1.2 Inside the Microprocessor
2-1.3Computer Memories
2-1.4Other forms of Memories

SESSION 1-1: GENERATION AND CLASSIFOCATION

OF COMPUTERS

1-1.1 Generation of Computers

Since the invention of the first electronic computer in the early 1940s, there has been significant
improvement especially in the physical size, cost and the processing speed of these computers. There are

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different generations of Computers but for the purpose of this course we shall concentrate on the first
four generations.

First Generation Computers (1946-1954)

The main material used in the first generation of Computers was the vacuum tubes (electronic valves).

Figure 1.1 First Generation computers (1946-1954) Figure 1.2 Vacuum Tubes

Each computer was made of hundreds of such tubes. As a result of the vacuum tubes, this generation of
computers was huge in physical size. For example, ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer - which was developed in 1946 measured 18 feet by 80 feet and weighed 30 tons. The
Computers during this generation were very slow in terms of processing speed. The use of vacuum tubes
made them to generate a lot of heat and had to be used in air-conditioned rooms. The heat generated
actually affected the life span of the computers and also created air conditioning problems. The
computers at this time were very expensive and therefore by the end of 1958 only about 2,500 first
generation computers were installed world-wide.

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Second Generation of Computers (1954-1962)
As a result of the problems associated with the first generation of computers, mid 1950s saw the
advent of second generation computers. In the second generation of Computers, the
manufacturers replaced the vacuum tubes used in the first generation computers with transistors.
These transistors
were much smaller in
size and more reliable
as compared to the
vacuum tubes. As a
result of the use of
transistors, the
second generation of
computers was much
smaller in physical
size as compared to
the first generation
computers. They
were much faster in
terms of processing
speed, less expensive
Figure 1.3 Second Generation of Computers (1954-1962) and also generated
less heat. Second
generation computers started showing the characteristics of modern day computers as they came
with utilities such as printers, disk storage and operating systems. Also, the instructions
(program) could be stored inside the computer's memory. High-level languages such as COBOL
(Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator) were used.

Third generation of Computers (1963 – 1972)

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 For the third generation of
computers, the transistors were
replaced with Integrated Circuits
(ICs, semiconductor devices with
several transistors built into one
physical component). This brought
a huge gain in computational
power. The first ICs were based on
small-scale integration (SSI)
circuits, which had around 10
Figure 1.4Third Generation Computers (1963-1972) devices per circuit. This generation
of Computers were cheaper, smaller
in size, faster in data processing and generated less heat.

Fourth generation of Computers (1972 – 1984)

Technically speaking these are the modern day computers. The fourth generation of Computers
were made of Very Large Integrated Circuits (VLICs). The VLICs (100,000 devices per chip)
ensured that millions of components could be fit into a small chip. As such, these computers
were cheaper, smaller in size, faster in data processing and generated less heat. What appears to
be the next generation of computers which people are referring to as the fifth generation
computers are those equipped with hundreds of processors that could all be working on different
parts of a single program. The scale of integration in semiconductors continued at an incredible
pace around 1990. Modern technology makes it possible to build chips with a million
components. Semiconductor memories have now became standard on all computers. Other new
developments were the widespread use of computer networks and the increasing use of single-
user. In fact, fifth generation of computers is supposed to be intelligent but these types of
computers are still in the developmental stage. The goal of the fifth generation is to develop
computers that can respond to natural language of man and with the ability to learn and self
organized.

1-1.2 Classification of Computer

Basically, there are three ways of classifying Computers and these are classification by data
representation, classification by purpose and classification by processing speed and storage
capacity.

Classification by Data Representation

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Computers represent data in different forms. Some represent data in continuous form while
others represent data in discrete form. Under classification by data representation, there are three
types of Computers and these are Digital, Analogue and Hybrid. A digital computer represents
data in discrete form (using 0s and 1s) while an analogue computer represents data in a
continuous form (uses continuously variable voltages rather than limiting itself to 0 and 1).
Analogue computers are measuring devices for measuring quantities such as temperature,
pressure, speed and voltages. A typical example of analogue is the speedometer of a car or a
thermometer for taking a patient’s temperature in a hospital. The hybrid computer on the other
hand can represent data in both continuous and discrete forms.

Classification by Purpose

Depending on the flexibility in operations, a Computer can be classified as being either a special
or a general computer. Special computers are computers that have been designed for a specific
purpose. Apart from this purpose the Computer cannot be used for anything else. They are
normally used by the Military, Navigators, Banks, Hospitals and for control process applications.
For example, an ATM machine is designed to enable users to get money from the machine. It
cannot be used to receive monies from customers or to calculate CWAs of students. Similarly, a
device such as a money counter can only count money and cannot be used for any other purpose.
Most robots are special computers. General computers on the other hand are computers that are
multi-purpose. For example a typical desktop computer can be used for all manner of tasks.

Classification by processing speed and storage capacity

Modern day Computers are often classified into general types based on processing speed and
storage capacity. As technology advances, lines of divisions among these types become thinner
and thinner. Since the days of ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer -
which was developed in 1946 and measured 18 feet by 80 feet and weighed 30 tons, computers
have undergone such a rapid metamorphosis like we have never witnessed in any other
technological area. The on-board guidance computer used by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969
weighed 31 kg (70 lbs) and could hold just 2000 characters in its memory, the equivalent of one-
tenth of what a floppy diskette of today can hold. The Mission Control computer on the ground
had only one million characters of memory – about half the capacity of a floppy diskette. And do
you know how much that computer cost? $4 million! Besides, it was about the size of a room.

Computers come in variety of types and with a variety of processing and storage capabilities. We
may classify computers as follows:

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 (a) Microchips (or Microcontrollers)
(b) Microcomputers
(c) Workstations (and servers)
(d) Minicomputers
(e) Mainframes
(f) Supercomputers

As mentioned earlier, lines of difference between these classes keep getting blurred and blurred
as technology advances. However, we shall try to define each of these classes.

(a) Microchips
Otherwise known as microcontrollers or simply chips, these are dedicated micro
programmed computers embedded in host machines or appliances like microwave ovens,
washing machines, pocket calculators, stereo sound systems, or even traffic lights. These host
appliances are often referred to as “computerized” or “smart” appliances. Microchips are
dedicated to performing a restricted number of tasks.

(b) Microcomputers
Also known as personal computers (PCs) are small computers that can only be used by one
person at a time. Microcomputers come in various sizes and shapes. They can be categorized
as desktops, towers, laptops and palmtops. Many people use desktop computers or desktops
as they are often referred to,
at work, home, school, or
the library. They can be
small, medium, or large in
style, and usually sit on a
desk. The term desktop
actually refers to the
casing, or the tower. Once
you add a monitor, mouse,
and a keyboard, you have
what is typically known as
a desktop computer. The
term desktop computer
Figure 1.5 A Typical desktop computer originated when the
computer case was wide
and flat, and was designed specifically to fit on your desktop with the monitor on top.

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Most desktop computers are easy to upgrade and expand, or add new parts. In addition to
expandability, another benefit of desktop computers is the cost. If you compare a desktop
computer with 128 MB of RAM and a 2 GB hard drive to a laptop with the same features, you
will most likely find that the desktop computer is priced lower. PCs are used as stand-alone
machines or connected to a network such as Intranet or a Local Area Network (LAN) – a group
of PCs and peripherals in an office or a building connected usually by a special cable.

The second type of computer that you may be familiar with is a laptop computer or laptops as
they are often referred to. Laptops are battery or AC-powered personal computers that can be
easily carried and used in a variety of locations. A
quick glance at the size of a laptop and you might
guess that it would be difficult to expand or
upgrade. While the desktop computer case is
relatively easy to open and access internal
components, the small laptop case makes this more
difficult in comparison; however, the primary
benefit of a laptop computer is its small size and
easy portability. A laptop computer is sometimes
Figure 1.6 A Typical laptop computer called a notebook computer because of its size.

Workstations, introduced in the early 1980s, are similar to desktop computers, but are more
powerful and are usually connected to a network. They are mainly used by engineers, scientists
and graphic artists or special-effects creators for
sophisticated purposes. Workstations provide many
capabilities of minis and mainframes, and are used
for such tasks as designing of aircrafts fuselages,
prescription of drugs and movies’ special effects. The
capabilities for low-end workstations overlap those
of high-end PCs and are often connected to larger
computer systems to facilitate the transfer of data and
information.

Servers are specialized computers that store and

Figure 1.7 A Workstation deliver, or “serve up,” information to other computers
on a network. There are many different types of
servers such as file servers, database servers, and web servers. For example, employees at a
company might store all the business documents on a file server so that they can share files and

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access then from any computer on the network. When you use your browser to click a link, a
web server delivers the page you requested on the Internet, the biggest network in the world.

Minicomputers

These were the main type of computers available in the late 1950s. Unlike PCs, minicomputers
or minis – as they are often called – are multi-user and multi-tasks computers. Multi-user - in the
sense that they can accommodate more than one user at the same time and multi-task - as they
can be made to be executing more than one task simultaneously. Minis are often larger in size
than PCs and possess more than one processor that is also more powerful and faster than those
found in personal computers. Users are connected to minicomputers from different locations
through terminals – consisting of only monitors and keyboards. A typical mini can accommodate
up to 100 users or more and within a radius of up to 200 meter square area making them suitable
for Local Area Networks.

Mainframes

Mainframes are an improvement on minis. Very fast medium-to-large size, large-capacity

computers introduced in the late 1960s.
Their size varies depending on how
many people or concurrent users they
serve – from few hundred to thousands
of people. Because they have larger
operational range, they are used in
Wide Area Network connecting
locations across cities and even
countries. Mainframes are used by
banks, airlines, insurance companies,
mail-order houses, universities and
some governmental agencies and
organizations.
Figure 1.7 A Mainframe Computer

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Supercomputers

These types of computers were first developed in the 1970s. Supercomputers are the fastest and
the highest capacity computers. Their cost ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions of
dollars. They may occupy special
air-conditioned rooms and are often
used for research. Among their uses
are worldwide weather forecasting,
oil explorations, aircraft design,
evaluations of aging nuclear
weapon systems and complex
calculations in mathematical
research. Supercomputers have
hundreds to thousands of
processors. One supercomputer
Option Red fills about 85 locker-
size cabinet of about 1600 square
feet at Sandia in Albuquerque,
Figure 1.8 A Supercomputer Sandia National Lab., New Mexico in the U.S.A.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A

Computer Information Systems of modern times consist of a combination of computers – hybrid

model. Because microcomputers are generally versatile, increasingly powerful, and more
affordable than the other types of computers, they are practical tools for organizations to improve
their productivity. Whatever their size, speed, and capacity, all computers operate according to
similar principles.

1-1.3 Parts of a Desktop Computer

Basic Parts of a Desktop Computer

The computer case is the metal and plastic box that contains
the main components of the computer. It houses the
motherboard, central processing unit (CPU), the power supply,
and more. Computer cases come in different shapes and sizes.
A desktop case lies flat on a desk, and the monitor usually sits
on top of it. A tower case is tall and sits next to the monitor or
on the floor. The front of the case usually has an on/off switch
and two or more drives.

Figure 1.9 Computer Case 13

Monitor

The monitor works with a video card, located inside the computer case, to display images and
text on the screen. The two main types are cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display
(LCD) monitors.

The

Figure 1.10a An LCD Monitor Figure 1.10b A CRT Monitor

CRT monitor is big, like a tube television, and takes up a lot of desk space; however, it is the
least expensive monitor option. The LCD monitor is thin and saves energy, but costs more. Over
the years you can expect to see fewer CRT monitors if not completely eliminated as LCD
monitors become the standard.
Your monitor has an on/off button and other control buttons that allow you to change your
monitor's display. Control buttons are either visible or located behind a small panel. Additionally,
some monitors have built-in speakers.

Power Cord

The power cord is the link between the power outlet and the power
supply unit in the computer casing. If the power cord is not
plugged in, the computer will not power on. It is a good idea to
keep the power cord plugged into an Uninterruptable Power
Supply (UPS), which serves as a surge protector with its own
temporary power source.

Figure 1.11 Power code

Keyboard

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 Figure 1.12 Keyboards

The keyboard is a piece of hardware that resembles a typewriter keyboard. It is one of the
primary ways we communicate with the computer and enter data. There are many different types
of computer keyboards such as wired, wireless, ergonomic, multimedia, and more. Although
there may be differences in the location of some keys or features, keyboards are very similar and
allow you to accomplish basically the same tasks.

The Mouse

The mouse is a peripheral that is known as a pointing device. It

lets you point to objects on the screen, click on them, and move
them. Previously, it was considered an optional device, but now all
desktop computers come with a mouse.

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Figure 1.13 A Mechanical
Mouse
There are two main types of mice -- optical and mechanical. The optical mouse uses an
electronic eye to detect movement and is easier to clean. The mechanical mouse uses a rolling
ball to detect movement and is more difficult to clean; however, it is less expensive, so many
computers come with a mechanical mouse. Another decision you have when choosing a mouse is
wired versus wireless. Wireless is popular right now, so it will be up to you to decide which type
will work best for you.

To properly use the mouse:

 Using your right hand, place your thumb on the desk or table top on the left side of the
mouse
 Your index (pointer) finger should rest on the left button of the mouse.

 Place your middle finger on the right button of the mouse.

 Your ring finger and little finger should rest on the right side of the mouse.

 The base of your wrist should rest on the mouse pad or desktop, for stability.

Left-handed computer users sometimes use their right hand to maneuver the mouse. However, if
you're left-handed and want to use your left hand, the mouse buttons can be switched.

To Switch the Mouse Buttons for a Left-Handed User:

 Click Start.
 Choose Settings Control Panel.

 Double-click the Mouse icon in the Control Panel window.

 Click Left-handed.

 Click OK.

Mouse operations:
 To Click, Select an object on the screen by pressing the left mouse button down with
your index finger and then release the button.
 To Drag an object on the screen, pressing and holding down the left mouse button with
your index finger while moving the mouse. When the object is where you want it, release
the button.
 To double-click, rapidly press and release the left mouse button with your index finger.
 To right-click, press and release the right mouse button with your middle finger.

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 1-1.4 Ports, Expansion Board and Slots And Busses
Use of All Buttons, Sockets (Ports) and Slots.

Take a look at the front and back of your computer case and count the number of buttons, sockets
(or Ports), and slots you see. Now, look at your monitor and count any that appear there. You
probably counted approximately 20.

Each computer is different, therefore the buttons, slots, and sockets will vary from computer to
computer; however, there are certain features you can expect to find on most desktop computers.
Being familiar with the names of each and how they are
commonly used will help you when the time comes for you to
connect that new printer, mouse, digital camera, or other device.

1. Power Button

The power button is used to power the computer on and off.

Additionally, you can use the power button on some computers
to place the computer in different energy-saving modes such as
hibernate, sleep, and standby. It is a good idea to read your
manual to learn how these features work on your computer. The
power button is usually directly above the keyboard, but can also
be located on any of the four sides of the laptop casing.

2. CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read-Only Memory) Drive

Figure 1.14 Front of Computer A CD-ROM drive, also known as an optical drive, allows you
Case to play a CD-ROM , just like a CD player allows you to
listen to music. With a CD-ROM drive you can listen to
music (if your computer is sound-enabled), view files, and install software that is located on
a CD.

3. A CD writer is a device that can be used in conjunction with a CD-ROM drive and allows
you to copy or burn information onto specific types of CDs called CD-RW (Compact Disk
Rewritable) and CD-R (Compact Disk-Recordable) discs.

4. DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc Read-Only Memory) Drive

A DVD-ROM drive, also known as an optical drive, reads DVD discs, all types of CDs, and
can display movies from digital video discs. DVDs can hold more data than a CD, so they are

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 a good storage option. A DVD burner is a device that can be used in conjunction with a
DVD-ROM and allows you to copy information onto DVD discs. It is considered a type of
storage. In many of the computers you can purchase today, the CD and DVD-ROM and/or
burners are combined.

3. Audio In/Audio Out

Every computer has a bank of audio ports where you can connect various devices, including
speakers, microphones, headsets, and more. This port may also be located at the back of the
computer case.

Back of Computer Case

Ports

Ports serve as connecting nodes for peripheral devices. A port is a socket on the outside of the
system unit that is connected by a bus to an expansion board on the inside of the system unit. It
can also be connected directly to integrated circuitry on the motherboard. Through ports,
peripheral devices like the monitor, keyboard, mouse and the likes are plugged in using a cable
to set up communication with the computer system.

Microcomputers have different

types of ports depending on the
platform on which they are used –
whether IBM / IBM-compatibles
or Mac. On the back of the
computer case are connection
ports that are made to fit specific
devices. The arrangement of these
varies from computer to
computer, and many companies
have their own special connectors
for the specific devices. Some of
the ports are color coded to match
a color on the device, which will
help you determine which port is
used with a particular device. .
Some types of ports are described
Figure 1.15 Labeled Back View of Computer Case below

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1. USB Port

The Universal Serial Bus port is one of the newest ports, but is also one of the most useful. These
USB ports let you attach a variety of devices such as mice, printers, keyboards, web cameras,
USB/flash drives, and digital cameras to your computer quickly. Almost every peripheral made
comes in a USB version, and installing the devices using USB ports is much easier than
connecting devices using parallel and serial ports. This is primarily because USB ports do not
require you to reboot your computer before you can use the new device.

The Universal Serial Port typically appears on the back of the computer case, but can sometimes
be found on the front of the case, or hidden under a panel on the front of the case.

2. PS/2 Port

These ports are called PS/2 ports and are used for the mouse and keyboard. Many people refer to
them as the mouse port or the keyboard port.

3. Ethernet Port

This port looks a lot like the modem or telephone port but it is actually wider. You can use this
port for networking and also connecting to the Internet. Ethernet

4. VGA Port

Your computer monitor can be connected to this port.

5. Parallel Port

The parallel port is one of the two original ports on the first
personal computer. It is commonly known as the printer port
since this port is used to connect your printer to your computer;
however, with the rise in use of the USB ports, you can expect to
see a decrease in the use of this port. Currently, a large number
of parallel port printers are still manufactured and used on older
computers that don’t have USB support.

6. Serial Port

The serial port is the other original port on the first personal
computer. Serial ports can be used to plug in devices such as
dial-up modems and other devices. On recent computers, the
Figure 1.16 Back view of
Computer Case
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serial port has been replaced by the USB port. This is due to the fact that most peripherals use the
USB drive.

7. SCSI ports: SCSI is an acronym for Small Computer System Interface and it is pronounced
“scuzzy”. In a daisy chain – linked SCSI-compatible devices that may include external hard disk
drives, magnetic tape, back-up units, scanners, or CD-ROM drives – transfer of data at high
speed rate for up to fifteen SCSI-compatible devices is made possible by the SCSI port providing
an interface.

8. Games ports: Game ports enable the attachment of game-playing devices like the joystick to
the system unit.

9. Infrared ports: These are wireless, data-transfer ports on some state-of-the-art computers
and hardware peripherals such as printers. Certain frequency of radio waves that require
unobstructed line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver is used to transmit data in this
type of connection.

10. FireWire Port: FireWire is actually the Apple brand name for the IEEE 1394 port, but the
term caught on and this port is commonly referred to as the FireWire port. It is the standard port
used with digital video cameras and high-resolution scanners. FireWire replaced the Parallel
SCSI, but it is not on every computer; however, you can buy an adapter card to add FireWire
ports to your computer. The labeled image does not include a FireWire port.

Expansion Slots

Modern microcomputers are built in such a way that they can be opened for users to add new
devices to enhance existing capabilities. This type of computer architecture is known as open
architecture and it spares users from having to change to a totally new computer anytime they
want to upgrade their system. Expansion slots are sockets into which you can plug expansion
cards. These sockets connect to buses.

Expansion Boards
(or Cards)

Expansion boards,
otherwise known as add-

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Figure 1.17 An Expansion Board

on boards are circuit boards that provide more memory or control peripheral devices. Boards and
cards are sometimes used interchangeably. Types of expansion cards include expanded memory
cards, display adapter or graphic cards, and controller cards that enable the microprocessor to
work with different brands of some particular devices. There are also some other add-ons such as
cards for modems, fax, video capture and networking. Expansion cards are inserted into
expansion slots on the motherboard. For example, your computer's video card is an expansion
card plugs into the expansion slots.

Video card

The video card is responsible for what you see on the monitor. If you like playing graphic-
intense games on the computer, a good video card is important to you. The main function of the
video card is to generate and output images to the computer screen. Better graphics card equals
better performance when playing games or working on a high resolution monitor.

Sound Card

The sound card, also called an audio card, is another type of expansion card. It lets the computer
play sounds through speakers. Some motherboards feature integrated sound, and do not require a
separate sound card.

Network card

The network card allows your computer to communicate over a

network. With the network card you can set up a home network
with a few computers and connect them by via Ethernet cords or
wirelessly. Network cards used to be expansion cards that plugged
into the motherboard; however, most new computers have a
network interface built into the motherboard.

Figure 1.18 A network card

Communication Devices

Communication devices make it possible for computers to communicate with each other and
share information and other resources in a network environment. When computers are linked
together to facilitate some form of communication, such a set up is referred to as a Network.
When the radius of the network is within a short range, the network is called a Local Area
Network (LAN) and if the radius spans over long distances like cities and even countries, it is
called a Wide Area Network (WAN).

21
Computers, though can be “stand-alone” machines, that is, they are not connected to any other
computer, connecting computers to communicate and share resources like information and
hardware vastly extend the computers range and utility.

Computer communication is accomplished in two ways. We have wired connection and wire-less
connection. Wired connection is implemented with the use of telephone lines and cables and
wire-less connection with the use of microwaves and radio waves. In the transmission of
information from one computer to another, particularly wired connection which is most
predominant, a piece of hardware known as modulator-demodulator and commonly called a
modem is needed for conversion of signals from digital form into analog form and vice-versa as
transmission over telephone lines is in analog form while computer data to be transferred are
usually in digital form. Other forms of channels are the cables. In this category, we have the
coaxial cable and the fiber- optic cable.

Coaxial cable commonly called “co-ax”, consists of insulated copper wire wrapped in a solid or
braided metal shield, then in an external cover. Co-ax is mostly used for cable television and to
connect parts of a LAN over a long range. A fiber-optic cable consists of hundreds of thousands
of thin strands of glass that transmit pulsating beams of light rather than electricity. These very
thin strands – as thin as human hair – can transmit billions of pulses per second with each “on”
pulse representing one bit, that a 0 or 1 digit. Remember that we said data are represented
digitally in series of 0s and 1s.

In wire-less connection, microwaves system devices are used. Microwave systems transmit
voices and data through the atmosphere as high-frequency radio waves. Microwaves are
electromagnetic waves that vibrate at 1 billion hertz per second or higher. These frequencies are
used to transmit messages between ground-based earth stations and satellite communications
systems.

Buses

A bus is simply an electronic highway by which bits of data are transferred within the processor
and also between the processor and other peripheral devices in the system unit. The computer’s
internal bus or the processor bus takes care of data transfer within the processor and the other
type – expansion buses – takes care of data transfer between various peripherals connected to the
computer systems through expansion cards inserted in the system board and the processor. A bus
has two parts namely the address bus and the data bus.

Computers transmit data in parallel form. That is, in groups of bits. For example, a 16-bit bus
will transmit 16 bits (2 bytes) of data at a time and a 32-bit bus will transmit 32 bits (4 bytes) of
data at a time.

22
SESSION 2-1: PROCESSING DEVICES AND MEMORY
CHIPS

2-1.1 Data and Program Representation

The Processor

The central processing unit (also called the processor or CPU) is the brain of the computer. It
receives all program instructions, performs the arithmetic and logical operations necessary to
execute them, and controls all the other computer components. In a microcomputer or PC, the
processor consists of hundreds of thousands of transistors residing on a single chip the size of a
large postage stamp and plugged into the computer’s main circuit board, the motherboard.

More than any other component, the CPU distinguishes one computer from another. In the kind
of computer you will be using (technically known as Window-based or IBM-compatibles for
reasons we shall discuss later), the processors are usually referred to by their part numbers; for
example, 80286, 80386, or 80486 – the larger the number, the more powerful the CPU. The
80286 was a 16-bit chip (remember a bit is either a 0 or 1) because it can process 16 bits of
information at a time. The 80386 and 80486 were 32-bit processors. The latest most powerful in
the line of CPUs for IBM-compatibles is the Pentium family of processors comprising of
Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium IV. These are 64-bit chips.

Processors are also distinguished from one another by speed (in megahertz, MHz and Gigahertz,
GHz) at which they can process information. Thus, in an advert for a processor, you may see it
referred to as 550 MHz Pentium III, or 800 MHz Pentium III machine. This is shorthand for a
computer equipped with a Pentium III processor running at 550 megahetz (MHz) or a Pentium
III processor running at 800 megahetz (MHz).

Prior to the introduction of IBM PC in 1981, along with DOS (disk operating system, developed
in cooperation with Bill Gates’ Microsoft) there was no industry standard for personal computers
and operating systems. After the success of IBM PCs and DOS, it was adopted by many
businesses as the industry standard. Today, most vendors design their products to be compatible
with this standard. These products are sometimes referred to as IBM clones and run on Intel
processors. The other relatively successful microcomputer products that rival the IBM clones are
the Apple Macintosh brands that run on Motorola microprocessor architecture.

23
Data and Program Representation

As we had mentioned earlier, the computer uses binary digits - which simulates its digital mode
of operation – to represent characters. This is the
language that the computer “speaks and
understand” – the machine language. Capacity of a
computer is expressed in bits, bytes, kilobytes,
megabytes, and gigabytes. The two common binary
coding schemes normally used in data
representation are the ASCII- and EBCDIC-codes.
There are also the Parity-bit schemes that are used
for accuracy.

Unlike the decimal system that we are accustomed

to, which has 10 digits: 0, 1, ..,9, the binary system
has only two digits; 0 and 1. Thus, in the computer,
Figure 1.19 Digital representation of data the 0 can be represented by the current being off
(or at low voltage) and the 1 by the current being
on (or at high voltage). All characters, in other words, data that go into the computer are
represented this way. For example, the letter H has a representation of the electronic signal
01001000, or off-on-off-off-on-off-off-off. So that when you enter the letter H from the
keyboard, the character is automatically converted into series of electrical impulses that the
computer is able to recognize.

Binary numbers consisting of series of 0s and 1s are the basis of all the “miracles” that the
computer performs. The binary digits, bits, are stored as charged and uncharged memory cells in
the computer memory. These bits are stored as positively and negatively charged magnetic spots
on magnetic tapes and disk. For output, the bits are converted into visual characters by the
monitor and printers. However, the data that are entered into the computer from the input devices
are encoded using binary or digital coding schemes to represent letters of the alphabets, numbers,
and special characters.

The two most common coding schemes are ASCII and EBCDIC. In each of these schemes
letters, numbers and all special characters are assigned unique numbers that are translated into
hexadecimal numbers and represented using binary digits. Thus, 8 bits – 1 byte – are used to
represent a character. In other words any single character occupies 8 bits or 1 byte of memory
space.

ASCII, which is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and
pronounced as “as-key”, was later extended to accommodate more special characters and the
latter version was referred to as extended ASCII or ASCII-8. The latest of the versions is the

24
ASCII-16 coding scheme which uses 16 bits. ASCII is the most widely coding scheme used in
microcomputers.

ASCII originally uses 7 bits but microcomputers use 8-bit bytes, so a zero was added in the left
positions to provide an 8-bit code, providing 256 combinations with which to from letters,
numbers, and characters, such as mathematical symbols and Greek letters. Although ASCII is
able to handle the English language well, it cannot handle all characters of some other languages
like Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic, hence the need for its extension.

Unicode or ASCII-16 which is a version of ASCII uses 2 bytes (16 bits) to represent a character,
instead of 1 byte (8 bits) and therefore can handle 65,536 characters rather than just 256. As both
hardware and software engineering advance to support multi-lingual applications conversion to
Unicode seems likely but might still takes some time. The disadvantage of Unicode or ASCII-16
is that characters takes up twice as much memory space and disk space as each ASCII character.

EBCDIC, pronounced as “eb-see-dick”, and stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange
Code is the most widely used scheme in mainframe computers. Table 1.1 shows the codes for the
uppercase alphabetic letters and numerical digits, 0 to 9. (See Table 1.1)

Table 1.1 ASCII and EBCDIC coding Schemes

Character ASCII EBCDIC Character ASCII EBCDIC

A 0100 0001 1100 0001 N 0100 1110 1101 0101

B 0100 0010 1100 0010 O 0100 1111 1101 0110
C 0100 0011 1100 0011 P 0101 0000 1101 0111
D 0100 0100 1100 0100 Q 0101 0001 1101 1000
E 0100 0101 1100 0101 R 0101 0010 1101 1001
F 0100 0110 1100 0110 S 0101 0011 1110 0010
G 0100 0111 1100 0111 T 0101 0100 1110 0011
H 0100 1000 1100 1000 U 0101 0101 1110 0100
I 0100 1001 1100 1001 V 0101 0110 1110 0101
J 0100 1010 1101 0001 W 0101 0111 1110 0110
K 0100 1011 1101 0010 X 0101 1000 1110 0111
L 0100 1100 1101 0011 Y 0101 1001 1110 1000
M 0100 1101 1101 0100 Z 0101 1010 1110 1001

0 0011 0000 1111 0000 5 0011 0101 1111 0101

1 0011 0001 1111 0001 6 0011 0110 1111 0110
2 0011 0010 1111 0010 7 0011 0111 1111 0111
3 0011 0011 1111 0011 8 0011 1000 1111 1000
4 0011 0100 1111 0100 9 0011 1001 1111 1001

25
Machine Language

Machine language – the language that the computer “speaks and understands” – is the binary
programming codes which can be processed directly. Instructions in machine language consist of
series of 0s and 1s which could be quite tedious to read and write to humans. One may ask,
however, if this is the case why then will a program run on one computer and not on another.
Software package that run on IBM compatible PC running Windows may not work on Apple
Macintosh. This is due to differences in their underlying hardware, particularly, the processor on
which they are running. Thus each model or family of processors has a unique machine
language. If this so wouldn’t it be too horrendous and difficult for programmers to write
computer programs in series of different machine languages.

To circumvent this problem, programmers write in special programming languages – high level
languages – that more closely resemble human languages. Codes in these high level languages
such as BASIC or C++ are then translated by system software programs called language
translators or compilers into the machine language that the particular type of processor can
“understand”. However, because this translation occurs virtually instantaneously, the user is not
aware of it.

2-1.2 Inside the Microprocessor

Inside The Microcomputer

The box that contains the microcomputer’s processing hardware and other components is called
the system unit. The monitor, keyboard, and printer are not contained inside the system unit.
Components that are inside the system unit includes the power supply, the motherboard, the
microprocessor, specialized processor chips, RAM chips, ROM chips, other forms of memory –

26
cache, VRAM, flash – expansion slots and boards, ports, bus lines, PC slots and cards. After all
that have been said about the computer, it will serve a useful purpose if we could further take the
mystery out of the computer by examining what is contained inside the box one after the other.
Apart from the components listed above we also have the hard disk drive, a diskette drive, and a
CD-ROM drive among components that are found inside the system unit. We shall however
reserve discussion on secondary storage and other peripheral devices till next chapter. For now
let us concern ourselves with the following parts of the system unit:

 Power supply
 Motherboard
 Microprocessor
 RAM chips
 ROM chips
 Other forms of memory - cache, VRAM, flash
 Ports
 Expansion slots and boards
 Buses, PC slots and cards

You might have heard some of these components or terms mentioned in advertisements for PCs
and been wondering what all these jargons are. Hold it a second. We are going to demystify them
all now.

The Power Supply

The power supply is the device that converts power from AC to

DC to run the computer. The electricity available from a standard
wall outlet is an alternating current (AC) but microcomputers
run on direct current (DC). The on/off switch in the computer
turns on or shut off the electricity to the power supply. As
Figure 1.20 A Power Supply electricity generates lots of heat, a fan is provided to cool the
components and prevent them from getting too hot.

For precaution sake, it is advisable to connect your computer to an uninterrupted power supply
(UPS) or surge protectors instead of connecting it directly to the electricity power outlet. This is
because electricity from a standard AC can be quite uneven and a sudden surge in voltage can
burn out the low-voltage DC circuitry of the machine, thus “fry the motherboard”.

The Motherboard

27
 Also known as the system board, the motherboard is the
main circuit board in the system unit. It's a thin plate that
holds the CPU (Central Processing Unit), RAM, ROM
chips and other forms of memory, connectors for the hard
drive and optical drives, expansion cards to control the
video and audio, as well as various external ports and
peripherals. The motherboard connects directly or
indirectly to every part of the computer.

If you decide to open the computer case and take a look, be

sure to touch a grounded metal object to discharge any
Figure 1.21 A Typical static buildup. Static electricity can be transmitted through
Motherboard the computer circuits and ruin them.

The Microprocessor (CPU/Processor)

The Central Processing Unit (CPU), also called a processor, is located inside the computer case
on the motherboard. It is often called the brain of the computer, or the computer's engine. Its
main function is to interpret the various instructions in a given program. After the interpretation
it may either carry out the instructions or sees to it that the component responsible for carrying
out such an instruction carries it out accordingly.

The processor has two main components

namely the Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU) and
the control Unit (CU). The ALU is the
component that performs all the arithmetic and
the logical operations, that is, operations such
as addition, subtraction, multiplication,
division and comparison of two or more items
are all done by the ALU. The ALU has a
number of registers and an interconnection
between the different components of the
Figure 1.22 A Typical Memory Chip
Computer. The CU is the unit that fetches the
next instruction to be executed from the main memory. It decodes the fetched instruction and
issues appropriate command to the ALU, the memory or the input/output controllers for the
execution of the instruction.

The CPU is generally a 2 inch ceramic square with a silicon chip located inside. The chip is
usually about the size of a thumbnail. The CPU fits into the CPU socket, which is covered by the

28
heat sink, an object that absorbs heat from the CPU. There are many processor manufacturers for
personal computers including Intel, Cyrix, VIA, and AMD.

Today, the clock speed of a processor is measured in giga Hertz (GHz). Two identical processors
having different clock speeds will run at different speeds. The processor with the higher clock
speed will execute instructions faster than the one with a lower clock speed.

The market of microprocessor is shared between the two giants in the hardware industry – Intel
and Motorola. While Intel develops processor chips for IBM and IBM-compatibles, Motorola
chips power Apple Macintosh computers.

Microprocessors are “downward compatible” with older chips meaning one can run software for
old version chip on a newer version. That is, that your word processing software and files
running on Pentium II machine will continue to run if you upgrade to Pentium III.

RAM Chips

The main memory or the RAM (random access memory), is the temporary work space for the
processor. Remember we said the main memory is the workbench for the processor. It temporary
holds data and instructions that will be needed shortly by the processor. RAM is like a notepad
that is constantly being written onto, then erased, and then written onto again.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is your system's short-term memory. Data is temporarily stored
here until you save your work to the hard disk. RAM is used by the system to store data

Figure 1.13 A Typical Memory Chip

that is processed by a computer's CPU. The computer's work takes place in RAM. This is where
programs run when you are using Word to create a letter, or Excel to produce a company
spreadsheet.

29
This short-term memory disappears when the computer is turned off, so always save your file
before turning off the machine. When you save a file, you are saving it to long-term storage that
does not disappear when the computer is turned off.

The more RAM you have, the more things your computer can do at the same time, and the faster
your computer performs certain tasks. RAM is measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).
In many cases, additional RAM chips can be added by plugging a memory-expansion card into
the system board. If the RAM is insufficient to run software, the computer will place part of the
software and data on the secondary memory. This means that the computer will constantly be
swapping data back and forth between RAM and disk thereby slowing down rate of processing.
A Microcomputer or PC will need at least 32 MB of RAM to run most of today’s software.
Having enough RAM has therefore become a determining factor for processing power of the
microcomputer.

To understand megabytes and gigabytes, you need to know about bits and bytes. A bit is the
smallest unit of data in computer processing. A byte is a group of eight bits. A megabyte is about
one million bytes. A gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes. To put this into perspective, consider that a
printed page of single-spaced text contains about 3,000 characters. One MB holds about 400
pages of single-spaced text.

ROM Chips

The Read Only Memory (ROM) chips also called firmware, cannot be written on or erased by
the computer – as the name suggests, its content can only be read. Firmware is the term that is
used for software permanently stored on a chip – microprogrammed. If we say that RAM chips
temporarily remembers (information supplied by the user or software), then ROM chips can be
said to permanently remember (information supplied by the manufacturer). ROM chips contain
instructions that need to be available at all times for the computer to “get up and run”. One of
these is the bootstrap – instructions that tell the computer what to do when it is switched on or
booted. To get the computer going, a ROM also performs a “power-on-self-test” (POST).
Another ROM contains the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) – instructions that oversees the
transfer of information to and fro the input and output devices and other peripherals to ensure
that all units function properly. Fundamentally, ROM BIOS is an interface, a connector, and
translator between the computer hardware and the software that you run. Yet another ROM chip
tells the computer how to construct each character displaying on the screen.

There are three variations of ROM chips that are used in special situations. The three variations
are PROM, EPROM, and EEPROM.

30
PROM: Programmable Read - Only Memories are blank chips on which instructions or programs
are written using special equipment. Once the program is written, it cannot be erased. Some
microcomputer software packages come on PROM units.

EPROM: Erasable Programmable Read Only Memories are like PROM chips except that the
contents can be erased, using special equipment and new data or instructions can be written. A
special device that uses ultraviolet light is used to erase its content.

EEPROM: Electronic Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory can be reprogrammed using

special electrical impulses. The advantage of EEPROM chips is that they need not be removed
from the computer to be reprogrammed.

2-1.3 Computer Memories

Computer Memory Capacity

How much data – in other words, how many 0s and 1s – a computer memory or a storage device
can hold is very important for its operation. As we already mentioned, a 0 or 1 occupies one bit
of memory space. A character consists of eight bits thus occupies eight bits of memory space. As
data are keyed into the computer in characters, bits are grouped into eight bits – 1 byte. A Byte is
used to hold a letter, number, or a special character (such as *, &, $, etc).

Bytes are grouped into larger denominations of kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte. Just
hold your breadth at these jargons. We shall demystify them now. Because, we are dealing with a
code in binary forms – base 2 – we do not have a number which is a power of 2 that is precisely
1000, the closest number, 1024 (which is 210) is therefore used. Thus 1024 or 210 bytes are
grouped together to form 1 kilobyte (KB). The kilobyte is the common unit of measure for
internal memory of microcomputers. An average printed page such as in this book would take up
about 2500 bytes or 2.5 kilobytes of memory space.

A Megabyte (MB) is about 1 million bytes. Precisely 220 bytes (1,048,576 bytes) or 210 KB.
Capacities of secondary memory devices – such as floppy diskettes – are often expressed in
megabytes. A floppy diskette for example has a capacity of 2 MB.

A Gigabyte (GB) is about 1 billion bytes. Precisely 230 or 1,073,741,824 bytes or 210 MB. This
measure is often used to measure the capacity of hard disks of microcomputers or PCs, CD-
ROMs and main memory capacity of mainframes and supercomputers. A typical CD-ROM has a
capacity of about 740 – 800 MB approximately text document that will consume about 300,000
sheets of paper.

31
A Terabyte (TB) represents 1 trillion bytes or 240 bytes or precisely 1,009,511,627,776 bytes.
Supercomputers main memory capacities are expressed in terabytes.

RAM Capacity, Word Size and Processing Speed

RAM capacity

The power of a computer is determined by the capacity of its main memory (RAM), the number
of bits it can handle at one time, and the speed at which it can execute a machine cycle plus the
capacity of its secondary memory - or the hard disk. You will recall in Chapter 1 that we
classified computers according to how powerful they are: supercomputers, mainframes,
minicomputers, workstations, microcomputer, and microcontrollers. Their power is measured
according to three main parameters: RAM capacity, wordsize capability, and processor speed.
There are other deciding factors, though these three are the most important.

Remember we said the main memory to the computer is what a workbench is to the craftsman or
the carpenter. The more spacious the workbench is the more convenient and voluminous the
work that can be done on it. The capacity of the RAM therefore determines how large the
software that can be run on any computer and how fast it can run. As we mentioned earlier, the
main memory of most microcomputers are measured in megabytes (MB). If a microcomputer has
less than 16 MB RAM, it will not be able to handle Windows and many Window-based
application efficiently. Many software manufacturers recommend 32 MB and above of RAM
space for microcomputers. In fact, today some high-end microcomputers have as large as 512
MB RAM. The RAM capacity of mainframes and supercomputers is measured in gigabytes (GB)
and supercomputers’ RAM capacity runs into terabytes (TB).

Wordsize

The next deciding factor of the power of a computer is its wordsize – the number of bits its
register can hold and process at one time and can be transferred to and from memory, output /
input devices and remote sites through its internal bus – electronic highway. A 32-bit processor
will process data and instructions in 32-bit chunk and a 64-bit processor in 64-bit chunk thereby
being twice faster.

It should be noted that expansion bus capacity (also measured in word size), the capacity of the
bus that connects the processor, RAM, and registers to the peripherals of the computer also plays
a major role. We may therefore characterize a processor by how many bits it can process at any
one moment and how many bits it can send or received at a time. All these are main determinants
of the speed of the processor.

Processor speed

32
With transistors of the processor switching on and off at perhaps millions of times per second,
the repetition of the machine cycle occurs at a blinding speed. Processor speed is measured in
three ways with respect to the frequency of its system clock (in megahertz), the number of
instructions processed per second and floating-point operation per second.

Every computer contains an internal timing device that is switched on when the power of the
computer is turned on. This device is called the system clock. The system clock controls the pace
at which all operations take place. The device uses fixed vibrations from a quartz crystal to
deliver a steady stream of digital pulses to pace the processor. The faster the clock, the faster the
processing. Microcomputer processing speeds are often measured in megahertz (MHz), with 1
MHz equal to 1 million machine cycle or beats per second. Average speed of PCs of toady ranges
between 550 – 800 MHz. It is not uncommon today to find PCs running on Pentium IV
processors at 1800 MHz (1.8 GHz) or even faster.

Processing speed of Workstations and Mainframes are often measured in number of instructions
processed per second (IPS) which currently runs into millions. Thus, MIPS (million of
instruction per second) is a measure of computer processing speed. As technology advances
high-end microcomputers like Pentium IV processors are able to attain a speed of millions of
instructions per second with workstations and mainframes running at a blinding speed of billions
of instructions per second (BIPS).

For Supercomputers, processing speed is often measured in flops – floating-point operation per
second. Floating-point operation is a special kind of mathematical calculations. This measure is
often expressed in megaflops (millions of floating-point operations per second), gigaflops
(billions of floating-point operations per second) and teraflops (trillions of floating-point
operations per second). The Option Red supercomputer runs at amazing 1.8 teraflops. If you did
one arithmetic operation every second, it would take you more than 31,000 years nonstop to do
what Option Red will do in second or what whole world population will do in 31/2 years!

2-1.4 Other forms of Memories

In trying to further enhance processing speed, one of the means devised was to find a faster way
in which data can be transferred to and fro between the processor and the main memory. In the
most powerful computers and in high-end microcomputers, RAM is divided into two sections
with one section relatively large and called the main RAM. The other section called the cache
memory being tiny and containing few but more expensive chips. Cache memory is a special
high-speed memory area that the processor can access quickly. It serves as a buffer (or bridge)
between the processor and the main RAM. A special program transfers data and instructions that
were transferred to the RAM from the RAM to the processor to minimize swapping of
instructions back and forth the secondary storage by the processor and thus enable it run faster.

33
Video RAM (VRAM) or video memory chips are used for storing and displaying images on the
monitor. The capacity of VRAM determines how fast images are processed and how many colors
can be used to display images. VRAM chips are mounted on a special but small board known as
video adapter card. Video adapter cards are usually inserted in an expansion slot on the
motherboard.

Another form of memory is the flash RAM cards that consist of circuitry on a credit-card-size
plate or card. Flash RAM cards are derived from EEPROM and are non-volatile. They are used
to simulate main memory and also to back up or supplement the hard disk drives. Connection is
by means of insertion in slot on motherboard.

Unit 2
INPUT/ OUTPUT AND STORAGE DEVICES

Introduction

Input, output and storage devices are very important components of the computer system and
there is the need therefore to know and understand the use of these devices. We shall begin with

34
the input devices followed by the output devices and the storage devices. It is important for you
to know the different types of files since the format in which a file is saved has to be
compactable with a particular software so that the software can use it or process the file.

Unit content

Session 1-2: Input and Output Devices

1-2.1Input Devices
1-2.2 Output Devices
1-2.3Pointing Devices
1-2.4 Scanning devices
Session 2-2: Storage Devices
2-2.1Data Representation and Storage Capacity
2-2.2Types of Files
2-2.3Storage devices
2-2.4The Read/Write Operations of a Hard Disk

SESSION 1-2: INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES

Input / Output devices or simply I/O devices translate all data going into the computer into series
of binary digits of 0s and 1s which is what the computer understands. They also translate back
these binary digits coming out of the computer into characters that are understandable by
humans.

Input devices consist of devices that translate data which are usually in humans’ natural
languages into the form that can be processed by the computer. Whereas the language of human
beings consists of words and sentences the computer language otherwise called machine
language consists of 0s and 1s.

Output devices are devices responsible for conversion of computer-processed information which
are in the machine language into human readable form of characters, words and sentences of
natural language. We shall cover a few more input devices next.

1-2.1 Input Devices

Input devices include keyboards, pointing devices, and source-data entry devices like scanners
and digital cameras as well as voice and audio/video input devices like microphones and video
cameras. The most common input device and the one you will probably have to learn how to use
is the keyboard. The computer keyboard unlike the ordinary typewriter keyboard converts letters,

35
numbers, and other characters into electrical signals in machine language and can be processed
by the computer processor. The computer keyboard looks like the typewriter keyboard though
with some additional special characters.

Other devices that are commonly used in conjunction with the keyboard are pointing devices like
the mouse. These devices control the position of the cursor – pointer on the screen. Pointing
devices include:

 Mice, trackballs, and joysticks

 Light pens
 Digitizing tablets
 Pen-based systems
Data-entry devices that do not require keyboard for inputting data include the following:

 Scanners
 Voice-recognition devices
 Audio input devices
 Video input devices
 Digital cameras
Often times we find keyboard, pointing device and other source-data entry devices like scanners
combined in a single computer systems. For example, in typesetting this textbook using word
processor, we combine keyboard, a mouse, and an image scanner.

The Keyboard

The keyboard is the commonest input device. It is usually connected to the system unit of the
computer through a serial port with a cable. You do not have to be a touch typist to use the
computer keyboard. It much resembles the ordinary typewriter keyboard but with additional keys
to perform some special functions (Figure 3.1). The keys on the keyboard can be divided into
four groups namely:

 Standard keys
 Cursor-movement keys
 Numeric keys
 Function keys

The Standard typing keys are similar to that of the typewriter with the familiar QWERTY
arrangement of letter, number, and punctuation keys. QWERTY refers to the alphabets in the top
left row on the standard typewriter keyboard. On the computer keyboard, it can be found on the

36
third row. The Caps Lock, Shift, and Tab keys and also the Space bar work the same way as they
do on a typewriter keyboard.

The Caps Lock key is a toggle key. When it is pressed the caps lock light is turn on to show you
are typing in ALL CAPITAL mode until it is pressed again to reverse it to lower case letters. The
Enter key that works like the return key on a typewriter – and even often referred to as the
Return key – is used to send commands to the computer, in addition to beginning a new
paragraph in a word processing environment.

Cursor-movement keys – sometimes called the arrow keys – are use to move the cursor around
the text on the screen. The cursor is the blinking vertical bar on the screen that indicates insertion
point or where data may be entered next. The cursor-movement keys move the cursor left, right,
up, or down. Keys labeled Page Up and Page Down move the cursor the equivalent of one screen
(page) up (backward) and down (forward) at a time respectively.

37
Numeric keys are laid out separately on the numeric keypad – a separate set of keys, 0 through 9
like those on a calculator – on the standard 101-key keyboard previously known as the AT-style

Figure 2.1 The Keyboard

keyboard. The numeric keypad serves two purposes. With the Num Lock key off, the numeric
keys duplicate as arrow keys for the movement of cursor and perform other functions such as
Page Up and Page Down. And when the Num Lock is on, the keys may be used for entering
numbers, as on a calculator. The Num Lock key is also a toggle key like the Caps Lock key.
However, to maintain keyboard standard the numeric keys can also be found on the second row
of keys with other special characters just like the typewriter keyboard.

38
Function keys are the keys labeled F1, F2 through F12. These keys are not used for typing but
rather for issuing commands. Desktops normally have 12 function keys while some portables

like notebooks have only 10. The function that each of these keys perform are however
software-specific.

Figure 2.2 Some ergonometric keyboards

Keyboard manufacturers, in recent years have been giving a lot of attention to ergonomics – the
study of physical relationships between people and their working environment. Various designs
of keyboards have been introduced to make working with keyboards more ergonomically sound.

Audio Input Devices

An audio input device records or plays analog sound and translates it for digital storage and
processing. Voice-recognition devices are only one kind of audio input device which can
translate music as well as other sounds. Analog sound is converted to digital data through
sampling – the number of times per second analog sound is turned into binary digits.

In digitizing voice the computer samples the sound waves 8,000 times per second to attain FM-
radio-quality output. Music is sampled 44,000 times per second to attain CD-quality output.

Video Input Devices

Like sound, video or photographic images are captured in analog forms with the signals being
continuously varying waves. The signals that come from a VCR or a camcorder has to be
converted into digital form through a special video card installed in
the computer. The most common video cards are Frame-grabber and
Full-motion video cards. Frame-grabbers can capture and digitize
only one frame at a time. Full motion cards can convert analog to

39

Figure 2.3 A Webcam

digital signals up to 30 frames per second (TV quality), giving effect of continuous flowing
motion picture.

1-2.2 Output Devices

Information processed by the computer is translated into human readable form by Output
devices. These devices include printers, plotters, and multifunction devices; display screens and
audio output devices. The most common of these however, are the monitor and printers. We may
categorize output devices by their method of presentation – audio, softcopy, and hardcopy.

Audio output devices are devices that present information in sound form. Softcopy output
devices present information on a screen, and hardcopy devices present information on paper.

Audio Output Devices

Audio Output devices are those devices that let you hear information in sound form. These
include sound output devices and speech synthesis devices. Audio output devices use two forms
of hardware:

 A sound card that translate the digital recording of sounds

 A set of speakers (any speakers at all, you may even hook up your Blaster speakers to get
high-quality sounds)
Sound output devices reproduce recorded sounds whereas speech synthesis output devices
actually ‘create’ speech output. A speech output system takes a text of sentence and produces the
equivalent speech sound for human hearing.

Figure 2.4a A Head Phone Figure 2.4b A Speaker

Softcopy Output Devices

40
These devices are the display screens or monitors. Monitors are the most popular softcopy output
device. There are basically two types of monitors – the Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) and the Flat-
panel display (sometime referred to as Liquid-crystal display or LCD).

LCDs used to be mostly used in portables like laptops even though they are now becoming
increasingly available for desktops computers too. Monitors, regardless of whether they are CRT
or LCD are often described by their use of color and resolution. There is the olden type of
monitors that uses only one color – monochrome – while we have modern type of monitors that
can produce up to 17 million colors.

Resolution – sharpness of image – is determined by the number of pixels a screen contains. A

pixel – short of picture element – is the smallest display unit on a screen that can be switched on
or off and made different shade of colors. Pixel resolution is measured in terms of the number of
rows and columns that make up the matrix of a screen. For example, 1024 x 768 resolution
implies that a screen has 1024 rows and 768 columns of pixels totaling 786,432.

Other properties of a monitor that determine clarity are Dot-pitch and Refresh rate. Dot-pitch is
the amount of space between pixels, the closer the dots the crisper the image. For example a
monitor with 0.25 dot-pitch – implying pixels are 0.25 mm apart – will produce a crisper image
than a monitor with 0.30 dot-pitch. Refresh rate is the number of times per second that the pixels
are recharged so that their glow remains bright. The higher the refresh rate the more solid the
image looks on screen.

In reality however, type of monitor only partly dictates

the use of color and resolution, what really determines
color and resolution is the graphic board or graphic
adapter card – the interface board that connects the
monitor to the rest of the hardware. The best softcopy
output device therefore is a monitor connected to a
graphic adapter card that supports the largest number of
colors and shades for that will produce the crispest and the
most colorful image.

Figure 2.5 A CRT monitor

Hardcopy Output Devices

Hardcopy output devices produce output on some tangible medium like paper. They include
printers and plotters. The most popular hardcopy output device is the printer. Plotters are special
hardcopy devices capable of creating high-quality freehand drawing and pictures. Often used by
graphic designers and architects to produce outputs such as drawings and home designs.

41
Printers are often categorized in terms quality of output and process of output. Quality of output
is the sharpness of the images and text produced. Output quality can be draft, near letter quality,
and letter quality. Process of output is how the printer records images and text on paper – impact
or non-impact. Impact printers are those that strike the surface of paper with pre-arranged
(matrix) pins to record images and texts. These types of printers are also referred to as dot-matrix
printers. The quality of dot-matrix printers are either draft or near letter quality. Non-impact
printers do not strike the surface of paper to produce texts or images. There are two categories of
non-impact printers – ink-jet and Laser.

Figure 2.6a A Laser Printer Figure 2.6b An Inkjet Printer

Ink-jet printers are letter quality non-impact printers that spray ink onto the page. These ink
droplets are formed by a special nozzle to form characters of text and images. The nozzle can
also spray different colors. Laser printers use a laser beam source to create images on a drum.
These images are magnetically charged to attract ink-like toner. The toner is then heated and a
piece of paper passes over the drum to capture the images. Laser printers produce letter quality
outputs.

Dot-matrix printers are the oldest of the three

print technologies, cheapest and the noisiest;
they also produce the poorest quality of output.
Dot-matrix printers however have two market
advantages that will make them survive for a
long time to come. First, because they are
impact, they work extremely well for multi-page
forms. Second, you can purchase a dot-matrix
printer with a speed of 10 ppm (pages per
minute) for less than $100. Speed at that price is
Figure 2.7 Dot-matrix Impact not possible for ink-jet or laser printers.
Printer

42
Plotters are special hard copy output devices for creating non-text images like architectural
drawings, maps, diagrams, and charts. Plotters are letter quality output devices that use special
writing instruments attached to an arm that moves over the page and writes or draws the output.

Multi-function Printers. Everything is

now becoming something else, and even
printers are becoming devices that do
more than print. We now have state-of-
the-art printers that are multi-function –
sometime referred to as hydra printers.
These combine several capabilities such
as printing, scanning, copying, and faxing,
all in one device. An example is Hewlett-
Packard’s OfficeJet, which combines four
pieces of office equipment – photocopier,
fax machine, scanner, and laser printer –
Figure 2.8 A Multi-function
in one.
Printer

1-2.3 Pointing Devices

The act of pointing has been one of the most common natural human gestures for ages. Hardware
manufacturers have therefore tried to incorporate the act in several kinds of input devices. The
principal pointing tools used with microcomputers are the mouse, the trackball, the joystick, and
the touchpad.

Mouse:

A mouse is a device that is rolled about on a desktop to direct a pointer on the monitor. The
mouse pointer is the symbol that indicates the position of the mouse on the display screen. It may
be an arrow, a rectangle, or even a representation of a person’s pointing finger. It may change to
an I-beam to indicate that it is a cursor identifying the place where text or other data may be
entered.

The mouse is usually connected to the system unit by plugging it into a port or socket at the back
of the unit using a cable. We however have state-of the-art mice that are wireless and use infrared
signals to send input to the computer through a battery-powered receiver hooked up to a serial
port at the back of the system unit. Mice come in different sizes to fit hands of different sizes. A
ball under the mouse translates the mouse movement into digital signals and on top of the mouse
are one to four buttons depending on the variation of the mouse. Whereas the first button is the

43
most commonly used for common functions such as clicking and dragging, the second, third, and
forth are software-specific.

Trackball:

The trackball is another type of pointing device. It is a variation of the mouse. A trackball is a
movable ball, on top of a stationary device, that is rotated with the fingers or palm of the hand. It
looks like the mouse turn upside down; instead of moving the mouse around, you move the
trackball with the tips of your fingers. Trackballs are specially suited for portable computers like
laptops which are often used in confined working environments such as airline tray tables. It may
appear at the middle of the keyboard as in some laptops or centered below the space bar, as on
the Apple PowerBook or built into the right of the screen. It also comes in the form of a separate
device clipped to the side of the keyboard in some portables.

Joystick:

A joystick is a pointing device that consists of a vertical handle like a gearshift lever mounted on
a base with one or two buttons. Joysticks are principally used in some computer-aided (CAD)
systems, computerized robot systems, and in video games. There are also specially designed
joysticks for the handicapped that are unable to use the mouse. A typical example is SAM-
JOYstick from RJ Cooper & Associates.

Touchpad:

Mostly found on laptops, touch pads are flat-top rectangular devices that let you control the
cursor/pointer by rubbing your finger on the surface of the pad. The touchpad uses weak
electrical field to sense user’s touch.. The cursor follows the movement of the user’s fingertips as
they are rubbing on the surface of the pad A click action is accomplished by tapping on the pad’s
surface

Light Pen

The light pen is a light-sensitive device that is connected to the computer terminal. The user
points to a desire location on the monitor and presses the pen which then sends the signal
corresponding to the location to the computer. Light pens are used by graphic designers,
engineers, and architects.

44
Figure 2.9a A light pen in use Figure 2.9b A digitizing tablet

Digitizing Tablets

A digitizing device consists of a digital tablet that is connected to a stylus or a puck. A stylus is
pen-like device that is used to sketch images in digitized form. A puck is a copying device that
the user uses to copy or trace an image.

A digitizing tablet used with a stylus enables the user to paint “naturally” and achieve effects
similar to what an artist will achieve using pen, pencil, or charcoal. Alternatively, a digitized
copy of a painting can be traced and stored into the computer by laying the painting or drawing
on the tablet. Digitizing devices are used primarily by artists and graphic designers.

1-2.4 Scanning devices

Hardcopies of graphic images such as drawings and photos are translated into digital form by
scanners using laser beams and reflected light. The images can be processed by a computer,
displayed on a monitor, stored on a storage device, or communicated to another computer. Types

45
of scanners include Bar-code readers, Mark- and character-recognition devices, Fax machines,
and Imaging systems.

Figure 2.10 Bar-code readers in use

Digital Cameras

Unlike analog video cameras which convert light intensities into infinitely variable signals,
digital cameras convert light intensities into discrete 0s and
1s. With the appropriate software, digital cameras (whether
video or still) can be transmitted (downloaded) directly to the
computer. The main limitation in capturing full video is not
input but storage. It takes a huge amount of storage space to
store just 1 second of video.

Digital cameras have enjoyed wide popularity in industrial

photography and journalism because the images are instantly
available, can be deleted to make storage available for more
photos, and can be transmitted over telephone lines.
Figure 2.11 A digital camera

46
SESSION 2-2: STORAGE DEVICES
Storage devices are media for storing data. Often referred to as secondary storage, storage
devices can range from a personal computer diskette drive with a diskette holding the text of a
letter to a giant video server of the type being developed to store and distribute thousands of
movies over cable channels

As we learned in the previous chapter, the data you are working on is stored in the RAM
(primary storage) in an electrical state during processing. Because RAM is an electrical state,
data in RAM disappears when you turn off the power to your computer. For this reason, you
must save your work onto a storage device that stores data permanently – until it is intentionally
or accidentally erased – such as a floppy diskette, a pen drive or a hard disk before you turn off
your microcomputer. Saved to a secondary storage device, your data remains intact even when
the computer is turned off.

Computer software or programs in additions to data must be stored in a computer-usable form.

Software instructions must be retrieved from a permanent storage device and placed into RAM
for any processing to take place. Special software – the operating system – is responsible for the
way data and programs are stored on the secondary storage devices.

Generally, a secondary storage can be likened to a file cabinet in which files (data) are stored
until they are needed. Then you open the drawer, take out the appropriate folder or file, and place
it on top of your desk (in primary storage, or RAM), where you work on it – either to write some
few things on it or to remove and throw some few pages away. However, in the case of electronic
documents, you are actually taking out a copy of the desired file and putting it on the desktop.
The original file remains in the file cabinet (secondary storage) while the copy of the original is
being edited or updated on the desktop (in the RAM). After working on the file, you take it off
the desktop (out of primary storage) and return it to the cabinet (secondary storage). Thus the
updated file replaces the original file.

2-2.1 Data Representation and Storage Capacity

In fact all forms of data whether text, numeric, or graphic objects are transformed and
represented in the computer memory as binary digits character by character or point by point in
the case of graphic objects such as pictures. Each character occupies one byte of memory space.
As explained in the previous chapter, these bytes are grouped into higher denominations such as
kilobyte, gigabyte, and terabyte for ease of computation.

 Kilobyte (KB): 210 or 1024 bytes.

 Megabyte: (MB): 220 or 1 million bytes (round off)
 Gigabyte (GB): 230 or 1 billion bytes (round off)
 Terabyte (TB): 240 or 1 trillion bytes (round off)

47
Hence, the amount of data in a file in your personal computer might be expressed in kilobytes or
megabytes. Files containing musical data or video clip could run into gigabytes and remote
databases accessible to you over communication lines could run into terabytes.

2-2.2 Types of Files

A file is a collection of related data or information that is identified by a unique name and treated
as a unit by the computer. Not all files however, can be used by all software. The format in which
a file is saved must be compatible with the particular software for the software to be able to use
or process the file. Each file is given a unique named and a “tag” (PC-based) or extension names
added after a period such as .DOC added onto the name of a Microsoft word-processed
document file (MYFILE.DOC). Normally, the applications software automatically adds an
extension to file names.

The following are some common types of files:

 Program files: These are files containing software instructions. Source program files
contain high-level computer instructions in their original form, written in a programming
language by computer programmers. These instructions are translated into machine
language instructions in order for the processor to use them. Files that contain the
machine language instructions are called executable files (or binary files). Source
program file names may have the extension .COM; executable files often have .EXE
extensions. Some systems that support files that also contain machine-language
instructions are given .DLL and .DRV extensions.

 Data Files: Data files contain data, not programs – that is, they contain user-created text
documents. Such documents are often created using application software programs.
These files are given extension names by the software that was used to create them.
Example is spreadsheet files created with Excel having .xls extensions or documents
created using word-processing software, such as Microsoft Word having .doc extensions.

 ASCII Files: Also referred to as text files, these are plain text-only files. They contain no
formatting such as boldface or italics, and no graphics. The characters are in ASCII code.
This file format is used to transfer documents between incompatible platforms, such as
IBM and Macintosh. ASCII or Text file usually have .txt extensions.

 Image Files: These file types hold digitized graphics. They often have many different
extensions, depending on the software used to create them. Some examples are .JPG (still

48
 images compressed according to standards of the Joint Photographic Experts Group),
.GIF (graphics interchange format), and .BMP (bitmap) files that use standard Windows
graphics format.

 Audio Files: Audio files contain digitized sound. Common extensions are .WAV and
.MID

 Video Files: Video files contain digitized video images. Common extensions are .MPG
(Moving Pictures Expert Groups) and also .AVI.

There are more types of files that are not listed here, however those listed and described
above are the most common ones you are likely to be working with.

2-2.3 Storage Devices

Storage devices can be said to consist of two physical parts namely the storage medium on
which information and software are stored, and the device that reads and writes to and from the
storage medium. When listening to a tape or a CD, the storage medium is the cassette or CD and
your cassette or CD player is the device that reads from the cassette or CD.

Storage devices can be categorized in two ways. One is by their method of storage the other is by
method of access. Method of storage implies the technology used for storing or writing
information onto the storage medium. Most popular types of technology include magnetic,
optical and magneto-optical. Method of storage can be likened to the method you use to record
information on paper – writing with a pen or pencil or typing.

Method of access implies the order in which information is written to and read from the storage
medium. Basically, we have two main types of access methods which are sequential and direct.
To understand access methods, think about the difference between cassette tapes and CDs.
Cassettes use sequential method; music tracks are stored sequentially on them. You cannot play
or listen to a certain track without first listening to or passing over (fast forwarding) all the tracks
preceding it. On the other hand, CDs use direct access as such you can play any track by going
directly to it without having to fast forward or rewind to the track.

Storage devices fall into families of cassettes or CDs – tape or disk. Tape storage devices use
sequential access method and magnetic storage method while disk devices use direct access
method and magnetic, optical or magneto-optical storage methods.

49
 Tape Storage Devices

Magnetic tapes – simply called tape drives – used to be a common secondary storage medium for
large computer systems. However, these days magnetic tape is used mainly on large systems for
backup and archiving – maintaining historical records – and on some microcomputers for
backup.

Tape storage devices use a magnetic method of storage and a sequential method of access to read
and write information to and from a magnetic tape. These are similar to cassette tapes. A
magnetic tape is a thin plastic with magnetic coating on one side on which data or information is
stored. The magnetic surface of a tape is split into columns that run vertically across the tape and
tracks that run the length of the tape. A read-write device stores in or reads a character or byte
from each column. Each track in a given column is used to store one bit. A cell – intersection of a
track and a column is either magnetized or un-magnetized to represent on or off – 1 or 0.

Disk Storage Devices

Disk storage devices are the most common storage device in use today. These types of devices
are so named because of the shape of their storage medium. The storage medium is called a disk
– round platter on which information is written on tracks in the form of concentric circles.
Reading and writing to and from the disk is done by the disk drive. The disk is rotated by the
disk drive that moves the read-write head over the concentric tracks.

As we mentioned earlier, the disk storage devices can use magnetic, optical or magneto-optical
storage method to write information onto disks. More specifically, data is stored as
electromagnetic charges on a magnetized spots on the metal oxide film that coats the surface of
the disk. Data is represented by the presence (indicating 1-bit) or absence (indicating 0-bit) of
these charges, following standard patterns of data representation such as ASCII. The
electromagnetic charges on the disk can easily be changed by the disk drive read-write head. The
storage capacity of disk storage devices is measured in the same way as the internal memory –
kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), and gigabytes (GB). The storage capacity of magnetic disks
ranges from few megabytes to several gigabytes – billions of characters. Variations of magnetic
disks include the floppy disks, internal hard disks, compact disks and hard cards.

Floppy Disk

Floppy disk, popularly known as diskette is a removable, round, flat piece

of circular plastic that is place inside a hard jacket – a squared plastic case
– to protect it from being touched. Diskettes are often called floppy

50

Figure 2.12 A 5.25 inches Floppy

because of their fragile nature. The disk is rotated within the jacket while inside the disk drive.
Floppy disks
come in 5.25”
and 3.5” sizes.
However, the
smaller 3.5”
disks have
replaced the
5.25” as the
predominant
floppies in
microcomputers
and
workstations.

A typical 3.5” floppy disk can store up to 1.44 MB of data (Figure 4.2). Advantages of these
diskettes are that they are smaller and therefore easier to carry and since they are contained in
hard plastic jackets, they are less susceptible to physical damage. The use of diskettes is however
fast fading out due to the availability of more reliable, high capacity, robust, portable and yet
cheap storage devices such as the Pen drive.

Characteristics of Diskettes

Floppy diskettes have the following characteristics:

 Tracks and sectors: Data is recorded on diskettes in concentric rings called tracks. These
tracks too tiny to be visible to human eyes and they are closed concentric rings rather
than visible grooves nor a single spiral. The number of tracks on a diskette is calculated
as tracts per inch and usually referred to as tpi. The higher the tpi, the more data the
diskette can hold.

Each track is divided into sectors. Sectors, like tracks are invisible and are wedge-shaped
used by the computer for storage reference purposes. Each sector typically holds 512
bytes of data. However, the number of sectors per tract varies according to the recording
density – number of bits per inch. Data saved on diskette are distributed by tracks and
sectors on the disk. The operating system then uses the intersection point of tracks and

51
 sectors to reference the location at which a data is stored to spin the disk and position the
read-write head for a read or write operation to be performed.

 Unformatted vrs Formatted diskette: Most diskettes today come of the factory formatted.
For a diskette to be ready for use, it has to be formatted. If not, it means you have the task
to perform before you use your diskette with your computer and disk drive. Formatting –
or initializing as it known in Macintosh environment – means that you must prepare the
disk for use so that the computer operating system can write information on it.

Unformatted diskettes are without tracks and sectors on it. By formatting the diskette you
define the tracks and sectors on it as well as setting up the file allocation table (FAT) for
the diskette. To understand this better, think about a notebook of plain white pages
without any ruled lines, margins, nor page numbers. Formatting a diskette is like ruling
lines and setting the left and right margin and page number for each page.

Optical Disks

Optical disks are removable disks on which data is written and read using laser technology –
there is no mechanical arm, as it is the case with floppy disk drives and hard disks. These disks
store much more data than floppies. A single optical disk of type called CD-ROM can hold up to
700 MB of data. This works out to 250,000 pages of text, or more than 7000 photographs or
graphic objects or 19 hours of speech, or 74 minutes of video. The greatest advantage to optical
disk is its great capacity as result of the precision of laser technology. Recently, some
manufacturers have even developed CDs that can hold as much as 6 GB. The most notable
drawback to most types of optical disks is that information cannot be changed once stored or
written to the optical disk medium. Although some disks are strictly used for digital data storage,
many are used to distribute multimedia programs that combine text, visuals, and sound.

The structure of an optical

disk is sandwich of
protective plastic layers and
plastic read-write surface
with reflective aluminium
(Figure 2.14). The two
outer layers are protective
plastic, and the two middle
Figure 2.14 Cross-section of compact disk
structure
52
layers are a plastic read-write surface and a layer of reflective aluminium thus making four
layers.

With the principal types of optical disk technology, a high power laser beam is used to represent
data by burning tiny pits into the bottom of the plastic read-write surface. Low-power laser light
scans the disk surface to read data. Pitted areas are not reflected in the process and thus
interpreted as 0 bits while smooth areas that reflect are interpreted as 1 bits. Because the pits are
so tiny, a great amount of data can be represented more than it is possible on the same amount of
space on a diskette and many hard disks.

Figure 2.16 High power laser beam burns pits or write on optical disk (Top) and a low-
powered beam read data by reflecting smooth areas (Below)

The main types of optical technology used with computers are:

 CD-ROM disks
 CD-R disks
 CD-RW disks
 DVD/DVD-ROM

CD-ROM Disks

One of the most popular of optical disks is the CD-ROM – compact disk-read-only memory.
This type is used only to hold software programs and data. CD-ROM is much like the music CD;
it is a read-only storage medium. Read-only means once data or information – which may

53
include visuals and sound – is written on the disk from the factory, it cannot be overwritten or
erased by the user.

Most microcomputers have built-in CD-ROM drives. Often times the drives are labeled with
their speed; written as 10x, 20x, or higher. A 10x drive can access data at 1.5 megabytes per
second – the equivalent of 500 typed pages of text. The faster the drive spins, the more quickly it
can deliver data to the processor. Typical PC CD-ROM drive is used with only one disk;
however, there are multi-disk drives that can handle up to 100 disks. Such drives are called
jukeboxes, or CD changers.

CD-R Disks

CD-R, which stands for compact disk-recordable, is a CD format that allows users with CD-R
drives to write data, only once, onto a specially manufactured disk that can then be read by a
standard CD-ROM drive. Typical example is the Photo CD system developed by Kodak. Photo
CD technology allows photographs taken with ordinary 35 millimeter camera to be stored
digitally on an optical disk. CD-R are now becoming the industry standard for backing up files
on the hard disk and for coping large volume of software programs and data including audio
visuals. A typical CD-R has a capacity 700 megabytes

CD-RW Disks

CD-RW stands for compact disk rewritable. It is sometime referred to as erasable CD. CD-RW
allows users to erase data so that the disk can be used over and over again just like the pen drive.
The most common type is the magneto-optical disk which used aspects of both magnetic and
optical disk technologies.

DVD-ROM Disks

Originally, DVD was not abbreviation for anything according to the industrial sponsors. The
letters used to be interpreted as “digital video disk” and later, when its diverse possibilities
became obvious, for “digital versatile disk”.

54
 DVD is a silvery, 5-inch optically readable
digital disk that looks like an audio compact
disk but can store up to 40 gigabytes,
allowing great data storage, studio-quality
video images, and theatre-like surround
sound. The home-entertainment version is
simply called DVD. The computer version of
DVD is called the DVD-ROM disk. It
represents a new generation of high-density
CD-ROM disks.

Figure 2.17 A Notebook computer with CD-ROM / CD-RW

/ DVD combo drive

Pen Drives

Pen drive is a portable USB flash memory device that can be used to quickly transfer audio,
video and data files from the hard drive of one computer to another. With a construction that is
small enough to fit into a pocket, the pen drive derives its name from the fact that many of these
USB drive devices resemble a small pen or pencil in size and shape.

A USB flash drive consists of a NAND-type flash memory data storage device integrated with a
USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable,
much smaller than a floppy disk, and most USB flash drives weigh less than an ounce (30 g).[1]
Storage capacities typically range from 64 MB to 128 GB with steady improvements in size and
price per capacity. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles and have 10-year data retention,
connected by USB 1.1 or USB 2.0.

A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board protected inside a plastic, metal, or
rubberized case, robust enough for carrying with no additional protection—in a pocket or on a
key chain, for example. The USB connector is protected by a removable cap or by retracting into
the body of the drive, although it is not likely to be damaged if exposed (but it may damage other
items, for example a bag it is placed in). Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection
allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer, but drives for other interfaces also exist.

Equipped with a large amount of memory capacity, the pen drive is considered to be an
improvement on both the older floppy drive disks and the more modern compact disks that are
often used to copy data and reload the files on a different hard drive. Even a pen drive with a
relatively low storage capacity tends to provide plenty of space for a number of files. The types

55
of files that can be loaded onto a pen drive are all the common types that can be housed on any
hard drive. This makes it possible for persons to copy photos, spreadsheets, word processing
documents, movie clips, music tracks, and just about any other type of file.

Figure 2.18a Pen or USB flash drive Figure 2.18b A USB flash drive with a keychain

2-2.4 The Read/Write Operations of a Hard Disk

Unlike floppies, hard disks are composed of many layers of thin but rigid metal or glass platters
covered with a substance that allows data to be held in the form of magnetized spots. Hard disks
are also tightly sealed within an enclosed unit to prevent any foreign matter such as dust or
smoke from getting inside. Because hard disks have multiple double-sided platters; they can hold
much more data than floppy diskettes. Capacity of hard disks keeps on soaring every year. Today,
it is not uncommon to find 160 GB hard disks.

A disk drive is a device that holds, spins, read data from and writes data to the disk. An internal
hard disk is a single unit that contains both the disk drive and the storage medium (multiple
platters). This type looks like part of the front panel of your system.

Reading data from the disk entails the data represented by magnetic spots being converted to
electronic signals and transmitted to the primary storage – internal memory or RAM. That is
‘read’ means data is copied form the disk. ‘Write’ operation entails the recording of electronic
information processed by the computer onto the disk. Data – represented as electronic signals
within the computer’s memory – is transferred onto the disk and then stored as magnetized spots.
Data is read from or written onto a tape in similar fashion.

A hard disk cartridge is a disk storage device in which the disk drive is separate from the hard
disk storage medium. This type provides increased storage capacity of hard disks and ability to
change disk media, as with floppy disks.

56
 Hard card, often referred to as memory cards, this is a type of hard disk that can be added to
your system by inserting it into an expansion slot. However, hard cards do not holds as much
information as other types of hard disks.

Detailed Operation Of The Internal Hard Disk Drive

In microcomputers, the internal drive is installed in a drive bay, a slot or opening in the computer
cabinet. A hard disk is not visible from the outside of the
microcomputer; it simply looks like part of the front panel on the
system cabinet. However, in the inside are disks on a drive spindle,
read-write heads mounted on an actuator (access) arm that moves
back and forth, and power connection circuitry (Figure 4.3). The disks
are often 1 to 3.5” in diameter. The operation is much the same as for
Figure 2.19 A Typical Hard
Disk
a diskette drive, with read-write heads locating specific pieces of data
according to track and disk surface number.

Hard disk drives do not use the sector method to locate data. Rather, they use what is known as
the cylinder method. Because the access arms holding the read-write heads all move together, the
read-write heads are always over the same track on each disk at the same time. All tracks with
the same number, lined up one above the other, thus form a cylinder (Figure 4.3).

Hard disks have

the advantage of
capacity and
speed. A typical
hard disk can hold
80GB of data or
above. Seek time
– the time it takes
for read-write
heads to move to
the correct track –
measured in
milliseconds
(1000th of a
second). Seek
time for
microcomputers
Figure 2.20 Layers of disks and Read-Write arm inside disk drive hard disks ranges
from 1 to 3ms.

57
After the head reaches the desired data, it must wait for the disk to rotate so the head is
positioned over the correct sector; this rotation time is called latency, which may be about 1 to 2
ms for a hard drive. Access time is the sum of seek time and latency.

Main disadvantage of hard disk remains the possibility of head crash. A head crash happens
when the surface of the read-write head or particles on its surface come into contact with the disk
surface, causing the loss of some or all of the data on the disk. A head crash can also be caused
by jarring or even power outage when the hard disk is in use. Hard disk crash can be disastrous
particularly if the data on it has not been back up, so care has to be taken to backup your data at
all times. It is also strongly recommended that your system be always connected to an
uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

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 Unit 3
COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND PROGRAMS

Unit content

Session 1-3: System Software, Drivers and Utility Programs

1-3.1 System Software
1-3.2Common Operating Systems: Platforms
1-3.3Device Drivers
1-3.4Utility Programs
1-3.5 Language Translators
Session 2-3: Application Software
2-3.1Common features of Application Software
2-3.2Different Types of application Software

SESSION 1-3: System Software, Drivers and Utility

Programs
Software consists of step-by-step instructions that the computer follows to perform a task or
solve a problem. Unlike hardware, software is “soft”. Soft in the sense that the instructions they
consist of are not touchable the way hardware components are.

Note that software basically consists of programs (electronically coded instructions), and not
data. Hence, software is “run”, and data is “processed”.

Principally, software can be classified into three categories:

 System software
 Applications software
 Language Translators

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1-3.1 System Software

System software is a suite of computer programs that control and manage the basic operations of
the computer and also act as interface between the user and the computer. System software is the
platform on which applications software are run. Without the system software you won’t be able
to run any application software. In fact, the user won’t be able to communicate with the
computer at all.

While you are using the computer or running application software, the system software is in the
background making sure that the hardware carries out the tasks you want to perform. Because
system software is the closest to the hardware, it must handle a number of difficult and tedious
tasks that include:

a) System Initialization: Initialization process takes place on switching on the computer system.
At this point, the system software stores the hardware configurations, for example type of
monitor and amount of internal memory available, and loads the operating system.
b) Managing System Resources: This task entails controlling of the execution of the application
software and coordinating how the various peripherals work together. This is part of the
operating system task and we will discuss it in detail in the next section
c) Utilities: These are subprograms that manage the interface to storage devices like the hard
disk and the CD-ROM. They also handle such tasks as file storage and retrievals, file copying,
and disk formatting. For example, when you save a Word document, the system software utility
for file saving takes over and complete the task.
d) Handling Input / Output: This entails responsibilities for input and output such as reading
characters from the keyboard and displaying them on the screen.

It is the system software that enables communication between the user and the computer and also
between the computer and its connecting peripherals. As a computer user, you will have to use
system software, it is therefore important to understand the role it plays in the computer system.
System software comprises of a large number of program units that can be grouped into the
following categories:

(i) Operating system and BIOS (Basic Input / Output system)

(ii) Device Drivers
(iii) Utility programs

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Operating System

The operating system, popularly referred to as OS is the most important of the system software
components. The
operating system
can be described as
the intelligence of
the computer. All the
“common sense”
that a computer
exhibits is due to the
operating system
that runs it or runs
on it. It serves as the
interface between
the user and the
machine and also
Figure 3.1 A figure showing the how the Operating System Interacts with the
enables
Computer and programs
communication
between the computer and its connecting peripherals or external devices. It consists of master
programs, called the supervisor, that manage the basic operations of the computer. These
programs reside in the RAM while the computer is on and provide resource management
services of many kinds, handling such tasks as running and storing programs and processing
data. The operating system shields the user from the complexities of managing the computer thus
enables the user to concentrate on personal task or applications.

The operating system gets loaded into the RAM – the main memory – upon “booting” the
computer. Booting refers to the process of switching on the computer from the main power
supply and triggering off the execution of the bootstrap loader or boot routine – instructions
wired into the ROM which in turn loads the operating system automatically into the RAM or
main memory (usually from the hard disk). In the process other programs, diagnostic routines
also starts up and test the main memory, the central processing unit, and other parts of the system
to make sure they are all running properly. Diagnostic messages that are output of those tests are
often displayed on the monitor. Finally other programs known as device drivers are stored in the
main memory that help the computer interpret, for example, keyboard characters or transmit
characters to the display screen.

The operating systems from then on takes over the time to time running of the affairs of the
system communicating with the user and performing complex tasks such as file, task, and job
management. File management involves storing and keeping track of file locations on disk,
loading files form disk into the main memory and deleting files. Task management involves the

61
simultaneously running of more than one program and servicing the need of such programs. Job
management entails managing units of work to be processed. Here job means a specified
operation such as saving a document or organizing data into a document.

Another important task of the operating system is the basic input /output system (BIOS). This
consists of program modules that manage the connecting peripherals or devices such as the
keyboard, monitor, disk drives and parallel and serial ports. BIOS also manages some internal
settings of the computer such as date and time. Actually, this part of the operating system resides
in the ROM and runs the diagnostic test upon booting the computer after which it then loads the
rest of the operating system.

1-3.2 Common Operating Systems: Platforms

The operating system a computer is running is often referred to as its platform. However, the
operating system that can be run on a computer also depends on the type or brand of its
processor. Therefore, a computer platform is defined by its processor model and its operating
system. The type of processor used in a computer determines the type of machine language it
uses, and the computer’s operating system is created to work with that particular type of machine
language thereby defining the computer’s platform – the type of architecture of the computer or
family – such as the IBM PC or Apple Macintosh. Without some form of modification or
conversion, software created for one type of platform will not work for or run on another
platform. Once you understand the platform, you can begin to understand what particular
computer system is capable of and what type of tasks it can be used for. As a computer user, in
addition to learning how to use your application software, you must learn to some degree, the
operating system with which they work.

Today, more than half of microcomputers in the world run on Microsoft Windows. However,
popular operating systems available include the following:

* DOS * Windows 3.X/95/NT/98/Me/2000/Xp

* O/S2 * Unix

* Mac OS * NetWare

Because of the popularity of Windows and for the fact that most microcomputers run on it, we
discuss Microsoft Windows exclusively and extensively in Part 2 of this book.

1-3.3 Device Drivers

Device drivers can be viewed as “divisional managers”. When you buy an external device such
as printer to connect to your computer, for the computer to be able to work with the device, there
has to be some form of communication between the device and the computer. To enable such
communication, the device needs to “introduce itself” to the computer in some way specifying its

62
nature and the “form of language it speaks”. Such introduction is done by special software called
the device driver. Device drivers comprise software programs that support specific peripheral
devices, such as printers, CD-ROM drives, mice, and display adapter cards. The driver contains
the detail machine language necessary to control each device. The operating system commands
the driver, which in turn commands the peripheral devices.

Most computer systems are configured with a variety of peripheral devices. So that the operating
system does not need to load support for all types of existing peripherals every time the computer
is switched on, it contains directions for device-specific software drivers.

The trend now is that software companies like Microsoft enter into agreement with device
manufacturers and are given the right to include drivers for their products as part of their
software so that users of a particular operating system, for example Microsoft Windows, will not
have to be installing drivers for some peripherals before they are able to use them. Latest
versions of Windows come packaged with hundreds of device drivers from different
manufacturers so that if you are running Windows you just connect most devices to your
computer and off you go.

1-3.4 Utility Programs

Utility programs act like domestic aids. They perform such tasks as setting the dining table,
cleaning the kitchen and washing of utensils before and after meals. In computer systems, utility
programs are generally used to support, enhance, or expand existing programs built in for
common purposes. They perform tasks like: system diagnostics, backup, data recovery.

 System diagnostics: In addition to the basic diagnostic routines that are performed by
BIOS, more sophisticated diagnostics programs are provided in the form of a utility. A
diagnostic program compiles technical information about computer hardware, including
peripherals that can be used to diagnose any technical problem.

 Data Recovery: In computing there is always the danger of losing data due sudden
technical problem. Hence the need for a kind of “disaster management” mechanism. Data
recovery utilities provide such services. A data recovery utility program is used to restore
data that has been physically damaged or corrupted. This damaged could be as result of
hardware failure like the crushing of hard disk, occurrence of power fluctuations during
read/write operation or even by virus infection.

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  Virus Protection: We have come to be living in a dangerous world as a result
of our own deeds and
misdeeds, and just as human
beings, computer programs
and data are not left out in
susceptibility to virus
infections. A virus – in the
world of computers –
consists of hidden,
destructive programming
instructions that are buried
within a program or data
file. Often, they multiply by
Figure 3.2 An Antivirus program screen copying themselves to other
programs, causing havoc.
Sometimes the virus is merely a simple prank that pops up as a message. Other times too,
it can destroy programs and data and wipe out the hard disk clean. Just as human virus
spread when people dine and wine indiscriminately and unprotected, computer virus
spread when people exchange storage devices such as pen drives or download (make
copies of) files from computer networks or the internet just any how. Antivirus utility
program scans hard disks, pen drives, and memory to detect, give information of possible
virus behavior, and destroy viruses.

 Backup: For fear of ever persisting menace of data loss due unforeseen circumstances
such as those mentioned in previous sections, it important to always backup – make
duplicate copies of – important programs and files, so that in the event of any loss of data
you can fall on the duplicate copies to recover the files. Backup utility programs are
meant for such purposes.

 Defragmentation: The file management part of the operating systems tries to store the
element of data contiguously in memory. However, this is not always possible due to
frequent moving of data in and out of memory as a result of processing. After several
save and delete operations, there remain many scattered areas of stored data that are too
small to be used productively. This is referred to as fragmentation. High degree of
fragmentation causes the computer to run slower than if all data in a file were stored
together in one location. Utility programs known as defraggers provide the service of
defragmenting the disk, thus rearranging the data so that the data units of each file are
repositioned together contiguously in one position on the disk.

64
There are many other utilities on the market as third party software, such as those for transferring
files back and forth between a desktop microcomputer and a laptop, and also Antivirus software
like Norton and McAffee Antivirus tool kits.

1-3.5 Language Translators

Language Translators

Language translators are generally used by Computer Programmers. These programmers

normally write Computer Programs using languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN, C++, Visual
Basic, etc in which instructions are written close to mathematical and English-like expressions.
These instructions tend to be meaningful to the programmer and not the computer as the
computer understands only the machine language. Since the program is not in the language that
the Computer has been designed to understand, there is the need to have a program translator. A
program translator may be defined as any computer package capable of translating a source
program written in either a high level language or an assembly language into a machine
language. As mentioned earlier, to date, the Computer only understands instructions written
using zeros and ones. Apart from the machine language, the other programming languages do not
use only zeros and ones. This means that whenever one writes his or her own Computer
programs, there is the need to have the instructions translated into zeros and ones so that the
Computer can understand. A translator capable of translating symbols and numbers into zeros
and ones are therefore needed. Fortunately, early programmers have designed a number of
translators to translate the programs that we write into machine language. Presently, we have
Computer programmers who continue to write better translators or improve on the existing
translators. Since these translators are computer programs, they are usually referred to as
program translators. There are three types of program translators namely Compilers, Interpreters
and Assemblers.

INTERPRETER

Most of the early microcomputers were programmed in BASIC language and equipped with an
interpreter (BASIC interpreter) stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM) chip. Every program
instruction is translated or interpreted on each occasion the program is run (not just once initially
as with assemblers and compilers). If any statement does not conform to or violates the rules or
grammar (syntax) of the language an error message is displayed on the screen. Until this error is
corrected, program execution cannot proceed and this has the disadvantage of slowing down the
running of the program. An interpreter, however, allows errors to be corrected more quickly than

65
a compiler which prints a (long) list of errors which have to be corrected as a whole rather than
individually before program execution can continue.

ASSEMBLER

This type of software translates and assembles a program written in assembly code into machine
(object) code. The assembler translates the symbolic function codes into the equivalent machine
operation code; symbolic addresses are allocated actual internal memory locations. After
assembling, the object program is retained on a storage device in machine code. Errors are
diagnosed during the assembly process. This is a once only process and does not have to be
performed each time a program is run as with an interpreter. Assembly programs tend to run
faster than interpreted ones, because assembly language is low level and nearer to machine code
and fewer instructions are necessary to accomplish a desired result.

COMPILER

This is another translation program for compiling high level language instructions into machine
code. A compiler has more capabilities than an assembler because each source program
instruction generates a number of machine code instructions. A compiled program may not be so
efficient in the time taken to process a task because of the nature of the high level language used,
COBOL for instance. This results in more detailed and less direct instructions than those
generated by an assembled program written in assembly code. A compiler is usually used
together with a program called the linker, capable of linking together the different translated
modules. The use of a linker makes it possible for standard functions (provided by the compiler
developers) to be added to one's program to make it a complete working program. The output of
the linker is the executable version of the source program.

SESSION 2-1: APPLICATION SOFTWARE

Prospective buyers often agonize over what and what specifications must their computers have
for months. However, it is rather your choice of software that really determine the utility or
usefulness of your computer. Application software – users’ tool – is what makes your computer
tick besides system software. Application software is special computer programs that are
specifically designed and written to perform specific tasks. These software can be acquired
directly form the software manufacturers or companies or even vendors that specialized in the
sale and support of microcomputer hardware and software. There are thousands of programs to

66
choose from – games alone numbered over 2500 – and some of them can make life easier and
more productive than you can imagine.

Application software are those designed to be used by a user for a specific purpose. For example, if
a user wishes to type a document, then he/she would need a Word Processor which is an application
software that allows a computer user to use his/her Computer in the same manner as he/she would
have done using a typewriter. Below are some of the major application software classes.

2-3.1 Common Features of Application Software

Since the advent of Windows operating systems, all window based application software
developed exhibit many similarities and functionalities that are characterized by the underlying
operating system’s graphical user interface. Some common features of application software are

■ Windows ■ Scroll bar ■ On-line Help Menu/ Screen

■ Menus / Menu bar ■ Dialog box

■ Icons ■ Macros

■ Tool Buttons ■ OLE

■ Toolbars ■ Clipboard

■ Cursors ■ tutorial / documentation

Windows

A window is a rectangular screen display of a running program or opened document or file with
a title bar on top. Several windows may overlay each other or cascaded alongside one another
depending on the number of executing task. Each window may show a different application
display, such as a word processing document and a spreadsheet document.

Menu/Menu bar

A menu bar is a row of menu options displayed across the top or the bottom of the screen. A
menu is a list of command options or choices. Various tasks that can be performed in an
application are grouped under different names or titles. These names or titles are then used to

67
form the menus. To perform some particular task, click the mouse button on the menu option to
open the menu containing the task and then select that particular task.

Icons

An icon is a small on-screen pictorial object that represents a program or a file. Icons serve as
short-cut way to access the target programs or files and are therefore referred to as short-cuts.

Tool buttons

These are simulated buttons are provided to serve as quick way of executing commands. They
are often small graphic objects arranged on toolbars. Tool buttons when clicked with the mouse
triggers off execution of the commands associated with them.

Tool bars

A toolbar is arrow of on-screen tool buttons, displayed below the menu bar, and used to activate
a variety of functions of the applications program. They can be customized and move around the
screen.

Cursors

The cursor, sometimes referred to as the insertion point, is the blinking movable vertical or
horizontal line symbol on the screen that indicates where the next data is entered. You can move
the cursor around using either the mouse or the directional arrows on the keyboard.

Scrollbars

Scrolling is the way to quickly move through text in a document or the active file upward or
downward. Using the directional arrow keys or a mouse, you can scroll through the display
screen and into the text above and below. However, when you have to scroll through a large file
that spans many pages, it is easier to using the scrollbars.

There are vertical scrollbars as well as horizontal scrollbars. Vertical scrollbars often appear at
the right side of the document screen small triangular arrows pointing up and down. To scroll up
(or view the bottom part of document), simply click the left mouse button on the down-pointing

68
small triangular arrow of the scrollbar. To view the top part of document scroll down by clicking
the up-pointing small triangular arrow of the scrollbar. Horizontal scrollbars often appear below
a document window and are used to scroll the document window right or left.

Dialog box

A dialog box is a window through which the user provides some needed information that the
computer or the application program require to perform some task. It also used to display helpful
messages at times.

Macros

Series of steps that may be needed to perform a task can be grouped together in a way and the
entire routine assigned a keystroke. Pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard in combination with
the assigned key triggers the execution of the programmed routine assigned to the keystroke.
These programmed steps are referred to as macros.

OLE (Object Link and Embedding)

This feature enables the user to link and/or embed document of one application program such as
a spreadsheet to or in another such a word processor. Changes made to the embedded object
affect only the document that contains it. If the object was rather linked, then changes made to
the object are automatically made in all the linked documents that contain it. Thus OLE
facilitates sharing and manipulating of information. An object may be a document, worksheet,
picture or even a sound recording.

Clipboard

During working sessions, it sometimes become necessary to copy an item or part of a document
from one document and then paste it into another document or application or even in another part
of the same document to save time and labor. The area in the memory where the copied item is
held temporarily before and even after it is pasted to a destination is known as the clipboard.

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Tutorial and Documentation

This resembles the on-line Help but rather acts like an electronic instruction book or program
that takes you through a prescribed series of steps to help you learn the product. Tutorials are
supplemented with documentation. Documentation is a user manual or reference manual that is a
narrative and graphical description of a program. It may be instructional but often features and
functions are grouped by category for reference purposes. Documentation may come in booklet
form or on diskette or CD-ROM; it is sometimes also available on-line from the manufacturer.

On-line Help Menu and Screen

A Help menu offers a choice of help screens – specific display of explanations of how to perform
various tasks, such as setting the page lay-out of a document, embedding picture objects and
many more. On-line help screens mostly can be displayed by opening the Help menu on the
menu bar or clicking on the F1 function key on the keyboard. Help screens serve like electronic
reference manual. Sometimes, on-line help may also come in the form of a wizard – in-built
program that leads the user through a series of questions to determine exactly what the user’s
problem really is.

2-3.2 Different Types of Application Software

Word Processing Software

The traditional machine for typing out documents was the typewriter. However, the machine has
long out-lived its usefulness. In fact, if you have a manual typewriter, pray that it never break
down – a prayer that may never be granted anyway – for it is becoming as difficult to get it
repaired as it is to find a blacksmith. Today word processing is what is in vogue.

Word processing software allows you to use computers to create, edit, store, and print
documents. The user can easily insert, delete, and move words, sentences, and paragraphs –
without ever using an eraser. Word processing programs also come with several features for
“dressing up” documents with variable margins, font types and sizes, and styles. All these can be
done by the user on screen in “wysiwyg” – what you see is what you get – fashion, meaning the
screen displays documents exactly as it will look when printed.

Word processing offers additional features such as spelling checkers and thesaurus. Among
popular word processors are Microsoft Word, Lotus Word Pro, and WordPerfect.

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Spreadsheet Software

Traditionally, a spreadsheet was a grid of rows and columns, printed on special green paper,
which was used by accountants and others to produce financial projections and reports.
Accounting personnel using the spreadsheet often spend long hours and days penciling tiny
numbers into countless tiny rectangles. When one figure changed, all the computations on the
sheet had to be done all over again.

An electronic spreadsheet allows users to create tables and financial schedules by entering data
into rows and columns arranged as a grid on a display screen. See Figure 6.3. The electronic
spreadsheet is computerized and largely incorporates automation of computations. This software
tool quickly became the most popular small-business program, and has been held directly
responsible for making the microcomputer a widely used business tool. Today, the principal
spreadsheet programs include Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quatro Pro.

Presentation Software

Presentation software are software tools designed to use graphics and data/information from
other applications or software tools to communicate or make a presentation to audience such as
clients, supervisors, directors, or even students in a lecture theatre. Presentations software may
make use of some analytical graphics such as charts but they usually look much more
sophisticated, using, for instance, different texturing patterns, color, and three-dimensionality
(Figure 6.4).

Presentation graphics are output as 35mm slides, which can be projected on a screen or displayed
on a large monitor. Presentation software packages often come with slide sorters, which group
together a dozen or more slides in miniature. The person making the presentation can use the
mouse to click a slide to bring it up for viewing. Some also include clip art (grouped art works)
that can be electronically cut and pasted into the graphics. Depending on the system’s capability,
you can add text, animated sequences, and sound. Examples of well-known presentation
software packages are Microsoft PowerPoint, Aldus Persuasion, Lotus Freelance Graphics, and
SPC Harvard Graphics.

Database Management System Software

Generally speaking, a database is any electronically stored collection of data in a computer

system. To be more specific however, a database can be described as a collection of interrelated
files in a computer system. These computer-based files are organized according to their common
elements or fields, easy retrieval. Database Management System (DBMS) software, therefore, is
a program that controls the structure of a database and access to the data (Figure 3.6).

71
A DBMS has several advantages over the traditional file managers or flat-file management
system. A DBMS can access several files at one time as against file manager that can access only
one file a time. Also, you can not extract information across more than one file with the flat-file
system while this can be easily accomplished with a DBMS. For example, using a file manager
or the flat-file system, you could call up a list of all Faculty of Science students. You could also
call the list of all Africa Hall students. But you could not extract all Faculty of Science students
resident in Africa Hall. A DBMS allows you to do that and even more.

Databases are getting more and more sophisticated. Some years back, they included only text.
Today, they incorporate new data types – not only texts but also pictures and even sound, and
animation. Some popular database management software include Microsoft Access, Microsoft
Visual FoxPro, Paradox, and Claris Filemaker Pro.

Statistical Packages
These packages are used by Computer users for statistical analysis and also for producing different
types of graphs. They can be used for performing regression analysis, computation of statistical
parameters such as the mean, median, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness, etc., They can also be
used for solving systems of linear equations, etc. Typical examples of statistical packages are SPSS
PC+, MathLab, MINITAB, MATHEMATICA, SAS, etc.

Accounting Packages
These are packages designed to be used by Companies and individuals for accounting purposes.
Thus, these packages can be used in preparing documents such as Trial Balance, Balance sheet,
Statement of account, Invoices, etc. They can be used by individuals at home in tracking their daily
transactions or income and expenditure. Examples of these packages are SAGE Accounting,
CA-Simply Accounting, MS Money, Quicken, etc.

Communication Packages
These are software packages that allow two or more Computer users to communicate with one
another if the necessary hardware components are in place. Examples of these packages are Derlina
WinFax, EUDORA, INTERNET in a Box, etc.

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Web Browsers
These are packages that enable one to surf or browse the internet for data, information, chatting,
sending and receiving emails, etc. Some of the commonly used web browsers are Yahoo, Netscape,
Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google, etc.

Unit 4
OPERATING SYSTEM AND FILE MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Unit content

Session 1-4: Windows as an Operating System

1-4.1The Windows XP Desktop
1-4.2Running Application Programs
1-4.3Windows XP Bars and Buttons
1-4.4The Control Panel
Session 2-4: File Management
2-4.1Files and Folders
2-4.2Exploring My Computer
2-4.3Understanding User Accounts
2-4.4Systems Tools

SESSION 1-4: Windows as an Operating System

Whenever a new computer is purchased, an operating system has to be installed on the Computer
before the Computer can be used. One of the most popular operating system is the Windows. The
operating system is a software package that enables you to communicate with your computer by
way of running application programs. There are different versions of the Windows such as
Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

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Unlike Disk Operating System (DOS) that allows you to run a single application at a time, the
Windows operating system has multitasking capabilities, meaning that it can run several
application programs at the same time. For the purpose of this course we will consider Windows
XP as it is more popular than the other versions. Every operating system must be able to perform
the following functions:

 Manage the Computer resources such as the memory, the processor, date files and the
other hardware devices.
 Allocate resources for use.

 Must have a policy such as round robin, first-in-first-out, etc in deciding who to allocate a
resource to when multiple requests for a particular resource are made at the same time.

 Reclaim resources after use.

1-4.1 The windows XP Desktop

All the different versions of Windows use a desktop for the standard interface. Think of the
desktop as workspaces where you can access everything that is on your computer. For example,
using your desktop it is possible to access your disk drive, run an application program, access the
internet, change your computer settings, etc. The desktop contains three main items namely the
start button, the taskbar and icons.

 Start button: This is the most important tool you will frequently use while working in
Windows XP. Whenever the start button is clicked, it gives you the option of running a
program, logging off so that another user can use the Computer and turning your
computer off when you no longer wants to use it.

 Taskbar: This bar enables a computer user to switch between open programs and
windows. Remember we have already said that Windows is multitasking and therefore
one can have a number of programs opened at the same time and is the taskbar that
makes it possible for
you to switch between
the programs.

 Icons (or graphical

pictures): These are
normally small
graphical images or
pictures that represent
applications, files, and
other parts of the

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Figure 4.1 A Typical Windows XP Desktop

 operating system. For example, one of such icons is the Recycle Bin where all files that
are deleted are temporary stored, another is my Computer which makes it possible to
access information on the different drives of your computer.

Figure 4.1 is a typical Windows XP desktop

The Start Menu

The start menu is basically used to explore Windows. Also, any application
program that does not have a shortcut on the desktop can only be run by first
clicking at the start and then selecting the appropriate options. The start menu appears when the
start button is clicked. When the start menu opens, you will see on the left side the list of
programs on your computer and the right side gives you access to the common Windows folders
such as My Documents, Control Panel, Help and Support, Search, and Run.

The All Programs when highlighted gives you a pop-up menu

of all application programs and utility programs that have been
installed on your computer.

One good thing about the start menu is that it is able to keep
track of items you've recently opened and places the icon on
the Start menu so that you can easily open it the next time you
open the Start menu.

The Icons
Figure 4.2 The Start menu
These are the small pictures on the desktop. Some of the icons
are for objects. Object icons allow you to open programs and files. Examples of object icons
include My Computer, Recycle Bin, and Internet Explorer. Non object icons are normally
shortcut icons and these allow you to run application programs or open files quickly. The
shortcut icons are those with little arrow in the left corner. Adding or deleting an icon does not
affect the programs on your computer but just the link.

Opening a program using an icon:

There are many ways that one can run a program. If the program has an icon, then its best to
open the program using its icon.

To do that,

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  Place your mouse over the icon of the program you intend to open.
 Then, double-click the icon.

The Taskbar

The taskbar is the small blue bar that appears you see at the bottom of your desktop. It contains
the Start menu and the Quick Launch bar, which contains icons for Internet Explorer,
Windows Media Player, and Show Desktop. Click an icon to open a program. Click Show
Desktop to quickly view your desktop without closing any programs or windows.

Figure 7.3 The Start button and

Quick Lunch toolbar on taskbar

The Figure 4.4 shows the area called the

Notification Area. This area shows the clock and several other icons
depending on what one has installed on his/her computer. For example, Figure4.4 Notification
if you have installed yahoo messenger and an anti virus software on your Area on Taskbar
computer then icons for these will also appear in the Notification Area detailing the status of
these softwares. Also, when you are printing a document, the printer icon appears and disappears
when the printer finishes with the printing. Microsoft and other software developers also use the
Notification Area to remind you when software updates are available for download.

Whenever you open or minimize a window or program, a rectangular button appears on the
taskbar that shows the name of the application. However, these buttons disappear when you close
a window.

Log On/Off and Switch Users

Any Computer that is running Windows XP can be used by more than one person at a time. For
example you may have one Computer in your room that is being used by you and your room
mates. In order to keep record of each others information on the shared Computer such as your
unique settings, email account and documents, Windows XP allows everyone who uses your
computer to have separate computer accounts.

To use your account, you will have to log on and you will have to log off after you have finished
using your computer. Windows XP even enables you to log off the computer so someone else can
log on without having to restart the computer. Switching user means changing users. Note that
for a particular PC only one user can use the Computer at a time. However, if two or more people

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have already log on to the same Computer, only one of them can be active at a time, therefore,
anytime someone else intends to use the Computer he/she must switch to his/her account on the
Computer.

To log off/switch users:

 Click the Start menu and click Log Off.

 A dialog box appears as shown in Figure 4.5
asking you if you want to Switch User or
Log Off.
 Switch User allows someone else to log on
to the computer. If you choose to Switch
User, your applications will continue to run
in the background while the new user logs
on.
 If you choose Log Off, your applications
will close and you will have to log on and
run your applications again if you have to do
Figure 4.5 Log Off Windows dialog box so.

 In any case, you are taken to a Windows XP log on screen where you are prompted to
enter your username and password. Note that if the username and/or the password
provided are incorrect Windows XP will deny you access to the Computer. You must
therefore remember your password at all times.

Turning Off and Restarting the Computer

Any time you finished using a Computer, you must turn it off. The following is the correct
procedure for turning off a Computer. Failure to do so may at times result in loss of data or file.
For example, whenever you turn your computer off by switching the power off you are likely to
damage your Windows XP and the next time you turn your Computer on Windows XP will
display a message that you did not turn off your computer the proper way and will you like to
start your computer in a ‘safe’ mode? Starting a Computer in a safe mode causes most of your
hardware devices not to function properly since the drivers for these devices may not be loaded

To turn off the computer:

 Click the Start menu.

 Click Turn Off Computer.

 A dialog box as shown in figure 4.6 opens. Click

Turn Off.
Figure 4.6 Turn Off computer dialog box

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To restart the computer: Most of the time, after you have installed a new driver or program,
you are prompted to re-start your computer. This is to enable the Computer to recognize the new
device whose drivers have just been installed. The procedure for re-starting a computer is as
follows:

 Click the Start menu.

 Click Turn Off Computer.

 A dialog box opens as above. Click Restart.

1-4.2 Running Application Programs

Running a Computer (application) Programs enable you to do work on the computer. On your
Computer every application program has been installed for a particular work. For example, if
you intend to type a document then you will have to install a word processor such as Microsoft
Word on your Computer. You can easily run a program from the Start menu using the All
Programs button.

To run a program using the Start menu:

 Click Start.
 Click All Programs and move the mouse pointer over the program you intend to run (it
turns blue).
 Click to run the program you have highlighted. (Note that programs with small black
arrows beside them will open another cascading menu. Just drag your mouse pointer to
make your selection.)

 To close a program, click the located at the top right of the window.

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Launching Microsoft Word from the Start menu

To run the Microsoft Word 2007 these are

the steps needed:

 Click Start
 Select/Highlight All program (it
turns blue)
 Move mouse pointer over to
Microsoft Office (it turns blue)

 Move mouse pointer over Microsoft

Office Word 2007 (it turns blue)

 Click the highlighted Microsoft

Office Word 2007, and the
application will run.

Figure 4.7 The windows XP Start menu with All Programs

option selected

1-4.3 Windows XP Bars and Buttons

Windows XP got its name from one of its most basic elements: the window. The rectangular
work area for a program, file, or other task is called a window.

On going through the steps above to run

Microsoft Office Word 2007 for example,
you will obtain the screen (window) to the
left. The three buttons at the top left of the
window (title bar) are the Windows XP
buttons.

The white area inside the window is the

workspace where you do your work with

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Figure 4.8 Microsoft Word Initial Screen showing a blank
Workspace
the program, such as typing a letter. Note that the workspace appears different for different
programs.

There are several other several Windows XP tools, menus, and commands that make the
operating system easy-to-use.

The title bar is the horizontal blue bar at the top of a window. By default, it displays white text
on blue background.

Figure 4.9 The Title Bar at the top of a Window

The Control menu button is the icon at the far left end of the title bar. The Control menu
button opens a menu you can use to control the window.

The Close button is at the far right end of the title bar. It is usually a red box with
an X in it. It is used to close a window whenever one does not intend to use the
window again by just clicking the Close button.

The first two left buttons shown here are the Minimize and Maximize buttons respectively.

Minimizing, Maximizing, and Restoring Windows

With Windows XP, you can easily enlarge, hide, or shrink a window using
the Minimize, Maximize, and Restore buttons.

The Minimize button is the leftmost of the three buttons at the right end
of the title bar. This button has a small dash (or minus sign). The Minimize button shrinks the
window and places it on the taskbar while leaving the program running at the background.

The Maximize button which is to the immediate right of the minimize

button, looks like a small window, It is used to enlarge a window to
cover the entire desktop (screen). After a window is maximized, the
Figure4.10 Minimize,
Maximize button changes to the Restore button which looks like two
Maximize, and Restore
buttons
windows near one another. If you click the Restore button, the
maximized window shrinks to its previous size (the size it was before
you maximized it). Note that when a window is maximized, you can double click the title bar to
restore the window to its previous size and if you double click again the window will be
maximized.

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Sizing Windows

Sometimes you might want to see two opened windows on your screen
at the same time. If you use maximize or restore you can only see one
screen at a time. However, you can manually resize the open windows
so that you can see all of them at the same time. Sizing window is
slightly different from minimizing, restoring, or maximizing.

Note: You cannot size a window if it has been maximized.

To resize a window,

 Move the mouse pointer over any corner or border of the window.
 The mouse pointer changes into a double-headed arrow pointing either up and down,
left and right, or diagonal if the mouse pointer is move over the bottom or top, left or
right, or a corner respectively. You should always make sure that the mouse pointer
changes to a double-headed arrow before you proceed to the next step.

 Click and hold down the left mouse button.

 Drag the double-headed arrow out or in to make the window larger or smaller.

 Release the mouse button when the window is the size you want.

Alternatively, you can also resize a window by the following method:

 Right click any blank area of the title bar.

 Select move from the menu options

 Press either the Up or Down arrow key of your keyboard if you want the window to be
longer or shorter. You are to press the left or the right arrow key if you want the window
to be wider or narrower. This locks the one side of the window to the mouse pointer such
that as the mouse pointer is moved around the window resize.

 Click the left button of the mouse when the desired size is obtained. Before clicking at
the left mouse button, you can press the escape (Esc) key if you change your mind on
resizing so as to return your window to its initial size.

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Moving a Window

Sometimes one window may obscure another window or an item you want to click on or view.
For example, if you open two windows (of two disk drives) and you want to copy a file from one
window to the other, it will be easy if the two windows can be seen at the same time (as shown
above). Therefore, if one of the windows is overlapping on the other window then one or more of
the windows must be moved so that all windows can be see at the same time. To move a window,

 Place the mouse pointer over the title bar (at the top of the window).


 Click and hold down the left mouse button. (Note that you cannot move a window that
has been maximized)

 Drag the window to the place where you want it and release the mouse button.

Alternatively, you can also move a window by the following method:

 Right click at any blank area of the title bar

 Select move from the menu options

 Press any of the cursor control movement (arrow) keys of your keyboard to lock the
window to the mouse pointer.

 Simply move the mouse pointer where you want the window to be. Note that as you
move the mouse pointer anywhere on the desktop the window to be moved moves
accordingly.

 Click the left button of the mouse when the desired position is obtained. Before clicking
at the left mouse button, you can press the escape (Esc) key if you change your mind on
moving the window so as to return your window to its initial position.

Switching Between Windows

Windows XP allows you to have more than one program or window opened at the same time so
that you can easily move between open windows if the need be. The window you select becomes
the active window. To know that a window is active on the desktop, its title bar is deep blue.
When a window is inactive, the title bar is light blue.

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To switch between windows you will have to

 Open all the required windows.

 Size the windows, if necessary, so they are open on the desktop.
 Click on any part of the window you want to work with and this will make the window
the active one.

 To make a different window the active one simple repeat the third step above.

OR

 Simple click the required program/window button on the taskbar to activate the window
you want to work with.

Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows XP keeps the taskbar

from getting too cluttered. It groups the buttons when you open too
many windows such that all the names cannot appear on the task bar.
For example, when you open Outlook Express, you will see one
button on the taskbar. However, if you have three or more email
message windows open, one button represents the Outlook Express's
Figure 4. 12 Grouped | open windows as shown in the figure on the left. You can open any of
Buttons on Taskbar
the windows by first clicking at the Outlook Express button on the
task bar. This pops up a list of open windows within Outlook Express. Simply move the mouse
pointer over the required window and click the left button of the mouse.

Switching Using the Keyboard Method

When you have more than one window open, you can also switch between them using the
keyboard. Using the mouse is faster however if you do not have a mouse then you may have to
use your keyboard. To do so using the keyboard,

 Open the required programs or windows.

 Press and hold down the Alt key while pressing the Tab key.
 A menu containing all files and program icons appear.

 While holding down the Alt key, keep Tabbing to the window you want to view or open.
Once it is selected, release both keys.

More Windows XP Bars and Buttons

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The menu bar is a very important bar and lies just below the title bar. It contains several menus,
which let you see a list of commands.

Figure 7.13 The Menu Bar

Some menu options are followed by ellipsis, or... Choosing a menu option
followed by ellipses will open a dialog box, which feature helpful tools to
help you perform tasks. Choosing a menu option followed by an arrow head
displays another set of menu options to choose from.

Some Windows XP programs (such as Microsoft Word have toolbars across

the top of the window. The toolbar buttons allow you to print, cut, paste, or
Figure 4.14 Menu
do other tasks. The options vary depending on the program.
options showing
ellipsis and arrow
heads

Figure4.15 Microsoft Word Toolbar

Scrolling

Whenever for a particular window, one cannot see all the information within the window at the same
time, Windows XP displays the scroll bar at the right side or the bottom of a window. This is to make it
possible for you view the hidden information by either moving the vertical scrollbar up or down, or by
moving the horizontal scroll bar left or right depending on where the hidden information is. It is
especially convenient when viewing a long document. To scroll,

 Click the arrow to scroll up.

 Click the arrow to scroll down.
 Click the arrows to scroll up one page at a time.

 Click the arrows to scroll down one page at a time.

84
  Click the button to open a browse menu.

OR

 Click and drag the scroll bars to view your document.

85
1-4.4 The Control Panel
The Control Panel provides a number of tools that helps you to customize the appearance and
functionalities, add and remove programs to/from your computer, set up your network and also
to create or remove user accounts. It also provides a means to ‘troubleshoot’ your computer for
problems and their solutions. To do any of the functions mentioned above, you will have to

 Click Start.
 Click Control Panel to open the control panel window.

OR

 Type Control Panel in the Address dialog box found on any Windows XP window. As
you start typing, windows XP will provide you a tool tip to help you to enter the control
panel correctly or to select it.
OR

 Many folders feature a link to the Control Panel in the See Also dialog box (only in XP
view).

In Windows XP there are two different views of the control panel namely the classic and the
category as shown above. Thus, no matter
how you get the control panel window you
will obtain one of the screen. You can easily
change from one of the view to the other. If
the view is Category, the window presents a
List of Tasks and related Control Panel
icons. However, if the view is category then
windows present the categories to which the
list of tasks belongs to.

Figure 4.17 Classic View of Control panel

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 Task and Control Panel icons perform basically
the same functions. If you look at the left side
of the window, you will notice that the See Also
and Troubleshooters dialog boxes provides
several more related options.

The new Control Panel design provides

Figure 4.18 Category View multiple ways to do something, thereby making it
more user-friendly.

As mentioned above you can easily switch between the two views. If you are using the category
view and you want to switch to the classis view simply look at the left side of your current
window and you will see ‘switch to Classic View’ as shown on the left. Just click the Classic
View to change the view. While in the Classic view, you can also change to the category view by
just clicking the Switch to Category View link.

Figure 4.19 Switching between Views

Setting Date and Time

Your Computer has an internal clock that keeps track of the date and time. The time is normally
displayed at the bottom right of the taskbar. You will only see the date when you move the mouse
pointer over the time or when you double click the time. Whenever you notice that the date
and/or the time is not correct you can easily make the necessary changes. The following steps
explain how to set or change your date and/or time.

To change the time and date:

1. Click start
2. Select Control panel to Open the Control Panel window.
3. Under Pick a Category, click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options.

4. Under Pick a Task, click Change the date and time.

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 5. The Date and Time Properties dialog box opens.

6. Use the drop down box to set the month and year.

7. Click the correct date on the calendar.

8. Click and select the current time to make a change.

9. If necessary, click the Time Zone tab and use the drop down box to change the time
zone.

10. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Alternatively

1. Right-click the time in the lower

right on your desktop.
2. Choose Adjust Date/Time.

3. The Date and Time Properties

dialog box opens.

4. Follow steps 6 through to 9 as above.

OR

1. Double click the time at the right of

the taskbar. This opens the date and
Figure 4.20 Date and Time Properties dialog box time properties dialogue box above.
2. Follow steps 6 through to 9 above.

Changing the Wallpaper

Wallpaper is the background image that appears on your desktop. Windows XP offers many
wallpaper choices that you can select from if you don’t like
your current wall paper. To change the wallpaper,

 Click start
 Click control panel to Open the Control Panel
window

 Under Pick a Category, click Appearance and

Themes.

88
Figure 4.21 Display Properties
Dialog box
  Under Pick a Task, click Change the desktop background.

 The Display Properties dialog box opens with the Desktop tab selected as shown on the
left.

 In the Background box, click or use the arrow keys to view the choices.

 Use the drop down boxes to alter wallpaper position or color.

 Click OK to close the dialog box.

Alternatively,

 Click Browse (see Figure 8.5 above) to choose a picture from the My Pictures folder
 Click the Customize Desktop button to alter your desktop icons or display a web page
on your desktop.

Changing the Screensaver

Screen savers are very important to your monitor. In the early days of computers, they were use
to prevent images from being burned into the monitor. Today, screen savers entertain us, by
providing some privacy or preventing unauthorized user from using your computer if you should
leave your computer unattended to for some time. For example, the screen below shows that the
screen saver should wait for 10 minutes and if the Computer is not used then the screen saver
should start. You will also see that there is ‘on resume, password protected’, when enabled will
prompt whoever intends to use the computer for the password and access will be granted if only
the password provided is correct.

To set your screen saver properties,

 Click at the start button

 Open the Control Panel
 Under Pick a Category, click Appearance and
Themes.

 Under Pick a Task, click Choose a screen saver.

 The Display Properties dialog box opens with the

Screen Saver tab selected.

 Click the arrow to open a drop down box. Click or

use the arrow keys to view the choices. Or, click Preview
Figure 4.22 Display Properties
dialog box with screen saver tab
selected
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 to view each option on your computer screen. Press any key on your keyboard to return to the
dialog box.

 Click Settings to customize the appearance or your chosen screen saver.

 In the Wait box, determine how many minutes should pass before your screen saver turns
on.

 Click OK to close the dialog box when done.

Customizing the Taskbar

The taskbar has a default settings or appearance; however, you can customize the taskbar to
appear the way you want. To do so simply,

 Click at the Start button

 Open the Control Panel and switch to
the category view

 Under Pick a Category, click

Appearance and Themes.

 Under Pick a Control Panel icon, click

Taskbar and Start Menu.

 The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties

dialog box opens with the Taskbar tab
displayed.

 Use the checkboxes to customize its

Figure 4.23 Taskbar and Start menu appearance and click OK.
Properties dialog box with taskbar tab
selected
Note that the Start Menu tab in the above
figure allows you to switch between the XP

90
Start menu and Classic Start menu. Classic Start menu is the Start menu as featured in older
versions of Windows.

SESSION 2-4: FILE MANAGEMENT

2-4.1 Files and Folders

Files are collections of related information stored on a computer. There are many different types
of files, including operating system files, program files, and your personal files. Different types
of files store different types of information. Each file is given a filename and has a three-letter
file extension that identifies the file type. (The filename and filename extension are separated by
a period.) For example, a document created using Microsoft Word might have the file name,
computernotes.doc. Some of the common file extensions are as follows:

 doc: Word or WordPad document or docx: word 2007

 txt: text file example document created with note or save as a plain text file by word or
word pad.

 eml: Email file

 xls: Excel spreadsheet or xlsx (Excel 2007)

 htm or html: HTML file (web page)

 ppt : PowerPoint presentation or pptx (power point 2007)

 mbd: Access database

Creating, Renaming, and Deleting Files

Normally you must give meaningful names to your

files so that by just the name you can easily tell what
the file is all about. With Windows XP, you can create
a file using different programs such as WordPad or
Notepad. To create a file using Notepad:

 Click Start.
 Choose All Programs Accessories
Notepad.

91

Figure 4.24 The Save As dialog box

  Notepad opens.

 Type, "This is my new document."

 Choose File Save from the menu bar (Ctrl + S).

 The Save As dialog box appears.

 Save your file to the desktop.

 Name your document new document.

 In the Save as type drop down box, be sure your document is saved as a text document.

 Click Save. Your file is now saved to the desktop.

Once you have created a file, you can rename it if you think that the current file name does not
help you to easily identify what the file is all about. To rename a file,

 Locate your file either on the desktop or in a folder

 Right-click the file icon.

 Choose Rename.

 The filename is highlighted in blue, ready to be retyped.

 Type a new name and press Enter.

 The file is renamed.

OR

 Locate the file either on the desktop or in a folder

 Click slowly on the file name twice (not the file icon)

 The current file name will be selected. It will be in a white rectangle and the filename in a
blue background.

 Use the cursor keys to move around to effect the change or simply type the new name.

 Click anywhere outside the file name rectangle box when done.

To delete a file:

92
Unwanted files on your computer take up storage space. A time may come that you may not have
enough space to store new files that you create. When that happens, the only way to store the
new file on your computer hard disk is to remove or delete some of your old files that you no
longer have a need for. This frees the space taken up by the files for other files to be stored. To
delete a file,

 Locate your file

 Right-click the file icon.

 Choose Delete.

Figure 4. 15 Confirm File Delete dialog box  A Confirm File Delete dialog box
appears asking you if you are sure you
want to send the file to the Recycle Bin.

 Choose Yes.

 The file is moved to the Recycle Bin

OR

 Locate your file and click the file icon or the file name once
 Press the delete key on your keyboard. You will also obtain the confirm file delete box
as above

Folders

A folder is just like a file cabinet. When you begin to create many files you may not want to keep
all the files in the same area. If you do this, it makes it difficult at times to find a file as you have
to scan through all the files. To keep your files organized, create need to create folders. Windows
XP uses various folders to store and manage files. Each folder is then used to keep files that are
related so that whenever you need a particular file and you know the folder to search, you can
find the file within a short time as there may not be too many files in that folder.

To open and view the contents of a file:

 Locate the file whose content you need to view. Note that some files such as the system
files are meant for the Computer and therefore obtaining such files will result in funny
characters being displayed on your screen. Files with extensions such as .doc, .docx, .txt,
etc can be viewed by a computer user.
 Double-click on the name of the file to view

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  The application program that was used to create the file will first run and then the
document/file to be viewed is loaded into memory for you to view.

OR Right-click on the file name after you have located it and click on Open

OR Locate the file, click the name of the file once and then hit the enter key to open it.

Alternatively, you may

 run the application program used to create the file

 go to the file menu
 select open

 locate the file

 click the file name

 and then select OK.

Creating, Renaming, and Deleting Folders

At some point, you may want to create a folder within a folder or create a folder on the desktop.

To create a new folder for example:

 Locate where the folder is to be created.

 Choose File New Folder.

 A new folder icon appears with its default name ‘New Folder’ highlighted.

 Type a new more meaningful name and click Enter.

Alternatively,

 Locate where the folder is to be created.

 On a blank area right click the mouse
 Select New Folder

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  A new folder icon appears with its default name ‘New Folder’ highlighted.

To rename a folder:

 Locate your folder.

 Right-click the folder icon.
 Choose Rename.

 The folder name is highlighted in blue, ready to be retyped.

 Type a new name and press Enter.

OR

 Locate the folder

 Click at the folder once
 Click at the name of the folder, this will select the current folder name to enable you type
in the new name

 Type a new meaningful name

To delete a folder:

 Locate your folder.

 Right-click the folder icon.
 Choose Delete.

 A Confirm Folder Delete dialog box appears asking you if you are sure you want to
send the file to the Recycle Bin.

 Choose Yes.

 The folder is moved to the Recycle Bin.

OR

 Locate the folder

 Click the folder icon.
 Press Delete (Del) on the keyboard to delete the folder. Note that when a folder is deleted
its content; files and sub folders are also deleted

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Drives

A drive, or disk drive, is a hardware device on which you can store files and folders. Disk
drives are assigned a letter.

 Your hard drive (the drive inside your computer) is known as the (C:) drive.

 Your floppy disk drive is known as the (A:) drive. If your computer has two floppy disk
drives (3.5 and 5.25 inches) the drives will have the letters A: and B: respectively. Today,
most computers do not come with the 5.25 inch drive.

 If your computer has a CD ROM drive, it is usually called (D:)

 If you insert a pen drive into your USB port, it will normally be given a drive letter
higher than your CD-ROM drive letter.

2-4.2 Exploring My computer

My Computer is another tool you can use to manage files and folders. With this tool, you can
create, rename and move folders and copy, print, move, delete and rename files. It also
allows you to gain access to other system tools.

To open My Computer:

 Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop.

My Computer opens.

Alternatively,

 Right-click the My Computer icon (on the

desktop).
 Choose Open.

OR

Open the Start menu and choose My

Computer.
Figure 4.26 The My Computer window Copying Files and Folders

Copying files and folders is a means of getting extra

copies of the files and the folders to a different location.
Windows offers several ways of working with files and
folders. To copy a file or folder,

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Figure 4. 27 Copy Items dialog box

  Locate the file or folder you want to copy in the required folder or its subfolders.
 Click the file or folder you want to copy. The file or folder darkens when you select it.

 Under File and Folder Tasks, click Copy this file or Copy this folder.

 In the Copy Items dialog box, select the place where you want to copy the file or folder
from.

 Click the Copy button.

OR

 Choose Edit Copy. (Ctrl + C)

Alternatively,

 Right-click the file or folder and choose Copy.

 Locate the file or folder you want to copy and choose Edit Paste. (Ctrl + V)
OR

 Right-click the file or folder and choose Paste.

Alternatively, to copy a file from one folder (source) to another (destination) you can open and
juxtapose the two folders. You can then click at the file to be moved from the source folder, hold
down the left button of the mouse and drag the file to the destination folder. Release the mouse
button when done.

Moving Files and Folders

If you don’t like the current location of a file, you can

move it to another location. Moving files and folders is
relatively easy using My Computer or Windows
Explorer. The difference between copying a file and
moving a fie is that while the copy makes a duplicate
copy of the original file to the new location, the move on
the other hand remove the file from its present location
and send it to its new location.

To move files and folders:

Figure 4.28 Move Items dialog box
 Locate the file or folder you want to move in the
required folder or its subfolders.
 Click the file or folder you want to move. The file or folder darkens when you select it.
 Under File and Folder Tasks, click Move this file or Move this folder.

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  In the Move Items dialog box, select the place where you want to move the file or folder.

 Click the Move button.

OR

 Choose Edit Cut. (Ctrl + X)

 Right-click the file or folder and choose Cut.
THEN

 Locate the file or folder you want to copy and choose Edit Paste. (Ctrl + V)

OR

 Right-click the file or folder and choose Paste.

Selecting More Than One File or Folder

More often than not you may need to copy or move multiple files and folders at the same time.
To do so,

 Hold down the Ctrl key (if the files and the folders are scattered) or shift key (if the
files and folders follow one another, that is, are consecutive group of files) and click to
select the files or folders you want to move or copy. For the shift key, just click on the
first file, hold down the Shift key and then click the last file and all those between them
will be selected as well.
 The files or folders darken as they are selected.
 Copy or move the file or folder using one of the methods explained on the previous
pages.

Choosing Views

You can choose how you want to display files and folders. You can
display them as thumbnails, tiles, large icons, small icons, as a list,
or as a list (Details) with details including size, type and date last
modified.

To choose the view for your files or folders:

 Open the required folder

Figure 4.29 The View menu
 Click the Views button.
 A drop down menu appears. Choose the required view.

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  A large black dot appears next to your current choice.

OR

 Open the View menu and choose your view.

Shortcuts

A shortcut offers the best way of doing a task more quickly such as starting a program or
accessing a document. The shortcut icon has a small arrow in the left corner to help you
distinguish it from the actual icon that represents programs and files.

Figure 4.30 a desktop shortcut for the Things to Do document that's actually
stored in this particular user's My Documents folder. Deleting a shortcut does
not affect the original item the shortcut points to.
Figure 4.30 A
Desktop Shortcut

Creating a Shortcut

There are a number of ways by which one can create shortcuts for files and programs. Below are
some of the commonly used methods.

Creating a shortcut to the desktop using

Windows Explorer or My Computer:

 Open Windows Explorer or My

Computer.
 Double-click a drive or folder.

 Click the file, program, or folder for which

you want to make a shortcut. The item
darkens when you select it.

 Choose File Create Shortcut.

Figure 4.31 Creating a Shortcut
 Resize the window to see the desktop.

 Hover the mouse pointer over the shortcut icon and hold down the left mouse button and
drag the shortcut onto desktop (in the left pane).

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  Release the left mouse button and a shortcut is moved to the desktop.

Alternatively, press Ctrl + Shift while dragging the file to the desktop to create a shortcut.

Right-clicking to Add a Shortcut

The quickest way of creating a shortcut requires a right-click. To add a shortcut by right-clicking:

 Open Windows Explorer or My Computer.

 Double-click a drive or folder.

 Right-click the file, program, or folder for which you want to

make a shortcut.

 A pop-up menu appears. Select Create Shortcut.

 Resize the window to see the desktop.

 Move the mouse pointer over the shortcut icon and hold down the
left mouse button and drag the shortcut onto desktop (in the left pane).
 Release the left mouse button and a shortcut is moved to the desktop.

The Recycle Bin

Sometimes you may have a number of files and folders on your computer that you may not be
very sure whether they may be
needed again. If somehow, if
feel you are unlikely to use these
files again then you can delete
them from your computer. When
you delete any file, the file is
kept in the recycle bin. A file in
the recycle bin can be retrieved
if the need be. The Recycle Bin
is the desktop icon that
resembles a wastebasket. It is
Figure 4.32 A typical Recycle Bin window possible to open the Recycle Bin
folder anytime and see what's

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inside by double-clicking the Recycle Bin icon located on the desktop or using Windows
Explorer.

A typical recycle bin is as shown in figure 4.32

You can delete an item by moving it to the Recycle Bin. The items can be moved from anywhere.
To move an item to the Recycle Bin from the Desktop, Windows Explorer, or My Computer, the
steps required are as follows:
 Click and drag the file or folder to the Recycle Bin.
OR

 Right-click the file or folder you want to delete. .

 When the pop-up menu appears, choose Delete.
 A dialog box appears asking, "Are sure you want to send the file or folder to the Recycle
Bin?"

 Click Yes.

OR

Click the file or folder you want to delete.

 The file or folder darkens.
 Choose Delete this file (or Delete this folder) from the File and Folder Tasks list.

Restoring Files From the Recycle Bin

Though items in the Recycle Bin are deleted items you can still retrieve them at a later date. You
can restore either a single file, group of files or all files. Using the Restore all items link
(located in the Recycle Bin Tasks list) will move all files and folders in the Recycle bin back to
its original location on your computer.

To restore all items in the Recycle Bin,

 Click the Restore all items link in the Recycle Bin Tasks list that appears on the left side
of the screen in Figure 9.9.
 The items are restored to their original locations.

To restore one file, click to select the file.

 Restore all items changes to Restore this item.

 Click Restore this item.
 The item is restored to its original location.

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To restore a group of items, click at each file one at a time while holding the Crtl key or use
the shift key if the files are contiguous,

 The Restore all items changes to Restore the selected items

 The items are restored to their original locations

To restore one or more files you can also select the files, right click on any of the selected files
and then select Restore from the list of options.

Emptying the Recycle Bin

As mentioned above, items in the Recycle Bin can be restored if

necessary. When you are very certain that the items will no longer
be needed you can have them deleted permanently. Note that
items that have been deleted permanently from the Recycle Bin
cannot be recovered. As such, you must be careful whenever you
Figure 4. 33 The Recycle Bin Tasks want to delete items in the Recycle Bin. Empty your Recycle Bin
list periodically to keep your computer running smoothly.

To empty the Recycle Bin,

 Click the Empty the Recycle Bin link in the Recycle Bin Tasks list.

It is also possible to delete some of the items in the recycle bin. Note that this will delete the
items permanently. To do so, just select the item(s0 to be deleted. Right click the mouse button
and then select Delete.

Opening the Search Companion

At times, it is possible for one not to remember where an item on his/her computer can be
located. This is normally the case when you have too many folders and folders within folders.
Windows XP has a search facility that makes it possible to look for files and folders whenever
you are in trouble looking for a file by using the Microsoft XP's Search Companion.

To open the Search Companion:

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  Click the start button to obtain the Start menu and choose Search.
OR

 Open My Documents and click the Search button.

OR

 Open My Computer and click the Search button.

Any of the three methods opens the search companion. The Search
Companion opens in the left pane and presents the following list
of options:

Depending on the option one chooses from the Search companion

menu, you are presented with various ways to conduct your search.
Figure 4. 34 The Search
For example, if you are looking for a particular file, you will have
Companion opened
to select All files and folders, the Search Companion prompts you
with questions to help you refine your search. It is good and helpful if you can remember
something about the missing file such as all or part of the filename, file type, when you last
worked with the file, a word or phrase in the file, or what drive it's on, etc. The more criteria
contained in your search, the more refined the search becomes.

To search using the Search Companion:

 Enter as much information as you

can remember into the Search
Companion. For example by
providing all or part of the file name,
a word or phrase in the file, which
drive to look in, etc
 You can also click the drop down
Figure 4.35 Enter information into the Search arrows to add more criteria if
Companion necessary.

 Use the Back button if you have to go back and change your option.

 Click Search.
 Once you click Search, the Search Companion tells you what it's searching.

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  Your search results display in the white space.
 The Search Companion tells you when the search is complete and prompts you with more
Search options.

 If your search is complete, click Yes, finished searching.

 If the file is found then simply double-click the file to open it.

No matter the number of files on your computer, finding a file can take seconds, minutes or
much, much longer depending on the type of search and where you are looking. If the search
fails to locate the file on your first try, type in a different name and/or location.

2-4.3 Understanding User Accounts

A user is someone who uses a computer. A user account defines what a user can do using
Windows XP. In Windows XP, there are basically three types of user accounts namely the
administrator, standard and guest accounts. Each of these account users has different privileges.
For example there some computer setting that only the administrator can change.

1. Administrator account. The administrator is the only user that can do everything with
the computer as he or she desires. The administrator account can never be disabled or
deleted by anyone.

2. Standard account. Users with standard accounts can only install programs and
hardware, change pictures and related personal data, and create, change, or remove his or
her password.

3. Guest account. The guest account does not require a password. A guest cannot install or
remove programs from the computer, and is disabled by default. This account type is
good for children and/or adult who may not be very knowledgeable in the use of
computers.

Managing User Accounts

To easily manage user accounts, click the User Accounts icon in the
Control Panel.
The User Accounts window presents you with an easy-to-use
Figure 4. 36 The User
interface. By this interface one can easily create an account, change Accounts Icon in the
an account and also change a picture of an account. Control Panel

Creating a New Account

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You can create new user accounts as needed, giving others access to your computer. In this way
you do not have to
give your password
to the other users
of your computer.
To create a new
account,

 Click
Create a
New
Account in
the User
Accounts
Figure 4.37 User Accounts window
window (as
shown in the figure above).
 A User Accounts window appears (as shown in figure 4.38). Enter the name of the new
account and click Next.

 The next window asks you to pick an account type. Choose Computer Administrator or
Limited by clicking the appropriate radio button.

 On clicking either of the two options you are given a list of actions that can be performed
by the account type.

 When finished, click the Create

Account button.

 The new account now appears in the

User Account window.

Note that the Password you add when

creating an account provides you with
security and prevent unauthorized users
from logging in to someone else's user
Figure 4. 38 User Accounts window for creating a new
account.
account

Changing an Account

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You can change an account easily from the User Accounts window. To change an existing user
account,

 Click Change an Account in the User Accounts window.

 A window appears asking you to pick an account you want to change.
 Select the required account

 The next window asks you of what you want to change about the account such as to
change the name on the account, change the picture, change the account type, create a
password, or delete the account. Make necessary changes.

 Use the Back button to return to the original list to make any additional changes if
necessary.

Changing User Log on/Log off Procedures

Windows XP provides a means for you to

specify how people who use your computer can
log on and off.

To change log on and log off options:

 Click Change the way users log on and

off in the User Accounts window.
 Here you will see two checkboxes that
allow you to enable the Welcome screen
and Fast User Switching.
 Fast User Switching allows you to
switch to another user account without
closing any programs.
Figure 4. 39 User Accounts LogOn and LogOff
options

Adding a Printer

A printer is one of the hardware components of

the Computer that makes it possible for you to
have hardcopies of your documents. For
example, when you type a letter and save it
onto a disk or pen drive that is a softcopy.
When you print the information on a paper
then it becomes a hardcopy. You will normally
need hardcopies of your document. So, when
you acquire a need computer or a fax machine
Figure 4. 40 Add Printer Wizard screen

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you can add them to your computer. Adding a printer is simple using the Add Printer Wizard
available in the Printers and Faxes folder. To add a printer, you must

 Make sure your printer is compatible with Windows XP. If buying a new printer, make
sure to do your research before you make a purchase.
 Get out your printer's manual or CD-ROM and read it.

 Set up your printer and attach it to your computer using a printer's cable and correct port
on your computer.

Most of today’s printers are Plug and Play printers and once connected to your computer through
a USB port they are ready for use. If your printer does not fall into this category then you will
have to use the Add a Printer Wizard to add your printer to your computer. If you do have to use
the wizard and your printer isn't listed in the Windows XP list (which usually displays when you
try to add a new printer) you may have to contact the printer manufacturer for a driver. When you
get the driver, follow the Add Printer instructions on your computer.

When the above screen is obtained,

 click next. You will be asked to indicate whether the printer will be used as a local one or
as a network printer.
 Select the required option and click next.

 The wizard will guide you through the rest of what you have to do. In most cases you will
only have to click next.

When your printer refuses to print?

After you have added a printer it is possible that if you issue a print command your computer
will not print. There are a number of reasons why your printer is not printing. Below are some of
the important things you should try when this happens to you. Take care of the basics. Make sure
the printer is plugged in, turned on and has paper in it. Carrying out any of the following is
called troubleshooting.

 Make sure the printer cable is properly connected to the printer and to the computer.
 Check to see if there is a paper jam. Most printers have a flashing light to indicate a
paper jam. Also, if the paper size selected differs from the one in the paper tray, you will
not be able to print. To choose a paper size, select File Page Setup. Click the Paper
Size tab.
 Check to see that the printer toner, cartridge or ribbon has not run out of ink. If not,
printed documents may appear streaky, blotchy, or even blank.

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  Make sure the printer is switched to Online mode. There is usually a button on your
printer's control panel. If it is switched to Offline mode, it will not print.
 Make sure the printer is your default printer or let the computer knows what printer you
are using. You can check this by clicking Start Control Panel Printers and Other
Hardware View installed printers or fax printers. If an icon for your printer doesn't
appear, try restarting your computer. If you printer still doesn't appear, you may need to
add it. Click Add a Printer and follow the instructions in the Add Printer Wizard.
 If you work in an office environment where several people share a printer, there may be a
network problem. Contact your Network Support person.
 If you can find the manual for your printer, read it to see if you can find the solution to
the problem.
 If your printer still doesn't work, go to Help and Support Center. Under Pick a Help
Topic, click Printing and Faxing. Or, enter the term printer into the Search box.

 Open the Printing Troubleshooter. Answer the questions and follow the instructions so
the computer can help you figure out what's wrong.

To open the Printing Troubleshooter:

 Click Start Control Panel Printers and Other Hardware.

 In the left pane, open the Troubleshooters category.
 Click Printing.
 The Printing Troubleshooter
opens.

2-4.4 Systems Tools

Systems Tools
The system tools are powerful tools that help
you to maintain your PC and window XP from
time to time. It provides users with Windows
XP basic tools to make the maintenance
process as painless as possible. You can access
these tools as shown in Figure 9.18.

 Click start and select All programs

 Select Accessories

Figure 4.41 Accessing System Tools

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  Select System tools. This then gives you the system tools menu indicating the basic
operations that you can carry out. The detail is shown in Figure 9.19.

Disk Defragmenter
If you have a Computer, be it a laptop or a desktop, it will have at least
one hard disk. As you keep adding or creating files and folders as well as
installing programs on your Computer, these are kept or stored on your
hard disk. Thus, the hard disk acts as your computer's storage area.
Because user tend to create and delete files and folders, at some point in
time parts of the same disk file become scattered over different areas of
the disk. This usually has the tendency of slowing down your computer as
well as hindering its performance. Therefore, to keep your hard disk
running smoothly, you must routinely defragment or "defrag" the hard
disk. The Disk Defragmenter tool helps you do this.

Figure 4. 42System Tools menu

To use Disk Defragmenter,

 Choose Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter.

 The Disk Defragmenter opens as in Figure 9.20.

 First, click the Analyze to check

whether you will have to defrag
or not. When this is complete
and you will have to defrag, the
Computer will display the
following:

Figure 9. 1 Disk Defragmenter Window

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Figure 9. 2 Disk Defragmenter Analysis box
 Click Defragment to start the process if you have to proceed to defrag.

Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is another tool that helps keep

Windows XP operating as it should. It checks your
entire hard disk looking for files that can be deleted
without causing any problem. Deleting these
unnecessary files frees up valuable disk space for
other use.

To run Disk Cleanup:

 Choose Start All Programs Accessories

System Tools Disk Cleanup.
 The Disk Cleanup window opens as shown in
Figure 9.22. Click the Disk Cleanup tab if it's
not showing.

 Disk Cleanup lists several potential files that

can be deleted and the amount of disk space
you'll gain by deleting each one.
Figure 9.4 Disk Cleanup window with Disk Cleanup
tab selected  Click view files if you intend to learn more
about a file category. You need to select the category before clicking at the ‘View files’. Note that
not all categories have the view file option. Each category of files that you select, Windows gives
you a description so that you know what you are deleting.

 Click the checkboxes next to the categories you want to delete and click OK.

 A dialog box appears, stating, "Are you are sure you want to perform these actions?" Click
Yes or No as appropriate.

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The More Options tab gives you even more disk
cleanup options such as the ability to remove
optional windows components that are not being
used, by removing programs that are not being used, etc.
The More options tab when clicked give the figure to
the left which is self explanatory. Generally, one is
expected to run the disk cleanup at least once every
three months.

Figure 9. 3 The Disk CleanUp window with

More Options tab selected
The Scheduled Task Wizard
Windows XP has a scheduler that makes it possible
for you to schedule tasks such as running an anti
virus program, disk clean, yahoo or hotmail
messenger, etc without having to remember when to
run each of these tasks. When the scheduled date is
up, Windows will automatically run all scheduled
task.

To open the Scheduled Task Wizard:

 Choose Start All Programs

Accessories System Tools Scheduled
Figure 9. 6 The Scheduled Task Wizard Welcome Tasks.
Screen OR

 Choose Start Control Panel Performance and Maintenance Scheduled Tasks.

THEN

 The Scheduled Tasks folder opens.

 Double-click Add a Scheduled Task.
 The Scheduled Tasks Wizard opens.
Keep clicking Next to select the program(s) you want Windows to run. If the task you want is not
listed, click the Browse button to locate it. Then schedule a convenient time.

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 Unit 5
WORD PROCESSING USING MS-WORD

Introduction
Word Processors (WPs) are packages that allow a Computer user to use his/her Computer in the same manner
as he would have done using a manual typewriter. Typical examples of Word Processors are MS WORD,
WordPerfect, Professional Write, MS WORKS, AMIPRO, etc.

Unit content
Session 1-5: Microsoft Word 2007 Basics
1-5.1Setting Up Word Environment
1-5.2Initial Important Tasks
1-5.3Word Text Basics
1-5.4Saving Word Documents
Session 2-5: Working With Word Document
2-5.1Grammar and Spell Check
2-5.2Working With Hyperlinks
2-5.3Creating and Printing of Documents
2-5.4 Handling Images and Pictures
2-5.5 Using Templates and Working With Lists

SESSION 1-5: Microsoft Word 2007 Basics

Even though Word Processors use the Computer facilities like a typewriter, it has the following
advantages over the manual type writer.

1. It is possible with WP to check for the spellings of all the words in a document before the document is
printed at the printer.

112
2. WP allows for the appearance of the document when printed to be viewed on the screen before the
document is finally printed at the printer. This is done so that editing can be done if the appearance does
not meet your specifications.

3. Assuming you are using a typewriter and that you want about hundred copies of each page of your
document. You may have to type the same page(s) a number of times before getting the required number
of copies since a typewriter has a limit to the number of carbon sheets it can take at a time. With WP you
need not to retype a page more than once. You only have to tell WP the number of copies required for
each page and it takes care of that.

4. Editing with WP does not demand that a whole page be retyped, hence deletions, insertions, additions,
etc.. can be done easily with WP.

5. WP has a Math feature which allows you to use WP for calculations such as totals, subtotals, grand
totals, etc.. and the evaluation of other mathematical formula (See Calculating A Table) without using any
calculating device such as a calculator.

6. Graphics images (pictures and drawings) and complex special characters such as the integral sign,
summation sign, etc.. can be inserted into ones document using WP.

7. WP has a number of fonts that you can choose from. For example, you can use Roman, proportion,
Elite, news, etc.. but the typewrite has none of these fonts.

1-5.1 Setting Up Word Environment

Microsoft Word is a word processor program for creating and editing document by inserting, deleting, and
moving text. It is a powerful word processor that comes with a number of features that make it easy for
you to create all kinds of documents.

Whenever word is installed on a PC it comes with its own default settings. Some of these settings may not
be suitable for you and therefore you may want to makes changes so as to make it easy for you to work.
There are number of settings that you can set, however, we will look at a few key tasks such as how to
minimize and maximize the use of the Ribbon, configure the Quick Access toolbar, display the ruler, and
use the Word Count and Zoom tools.

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Tasks to Set Up and Use Word

To Minimize and Maximize the Ribbon: The Ribbon is the different toolbars that appear at the
top of your screen when using Word. Minimizing the ribbon hides all toolbars except
the main menu (which has options such as Home, Insert, Page layout) and the quick
access toolbar. When the ribbon is maximize all the toolbars as shown in the figure
below are made visible.

Figure 5.1 Maximized Ribbon

To minimize the ribbon,

 Right-click anywhere in the main menu.
 Select Minimize the Ribbon in the menu that appears. This will toggle the Ribbon on and off.

If there is a check mark beside the Minimize the Ribbon option, then the minimize feature is active.

To Add Commands to the Quick Access Toolbar:

The quick access toolbar contains a list of task that are normally performed more often. This
includes saving, undo, redo, etc. It may not contain some of the tasks that you perform

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Figure 10.2 The Quick Access Icon clicked
 quite often and when that happens you can easily add your own items to the toolbar.
The quick access icon is located within the title bar of Word as shown in Figure 10.3
to the left.

To add an item to the quick access,

 Click the arrow to the right of the Quick Access toolbar.
 Select the command you wish to add from the drop-down list. It will appear in the Quick
Access toolbar.

To Display or Hide the Ruler:

The ruler plays an important role while creating a document. The ruler helps you to indent your work so
as to appear as more professional work. The ruler is under the View option of the main menu.

To show the ruler,

 Click the View Ruler icon over the scrollbar.

The View Ruler icon works as a toggle button to turn the ruler on and off.

1-5.2 Word Text Basics

After you have set your environment up or if you decided to you the default settings, you can start typing
whatever document you may have. The white part of your word screen shows where you can type
whatever you have. While typing, there may be the need to carry out certain operations such as deleting a
text, inserting text, etc. We shall now look at some of these basic operations.

Inserting Text: A text is usually inserted when during typing a text is missed out or during proof reading
you realize that there should have been a text between two words and the text is missing. To insert text,

 Move your mouse to the location you wish text to appear in the document.
 Left-click the mouse at that location. The cursor (insertion point) appears there.

 Type the text you wish to appear.

Inserting Symbols: There are certain characters that at times one may want to use in a document
but are not available on the keyboard. Characters that are not normally on a keyboard
are known as symbols. To insert a character that is not on your keyboard you will have
to

 Place the cursor or the insertion point where you will want the symbol to be inserted
 Click the insert tab of the main menu
 In the symbols group click at the Symbols

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  Select the symbol from the list of symbols. If the symbol you intend to use is not one of
the available symbols then click at the more symbols so get more symbols to select from.

 At the symbol dialogue box, scroll up or down to get the required symbol

Figure 5.3 Symbols Dialog box

 Select the required symbol and click at the Insert button.

Inserting equations
Mathematicians will normally include mathematical equations in their documents. To add an
equation to a document you will have to

 Place the cursor at where the equation is to be inserted

 Click Insert tab from the main menu

 Click at the down arrow to at the right of the Equation tab from the symbols group
 Select the type of equation to create. For a customized equation, select insert new
equation
 Edit or create the required equation
 Click anywhere in the document and outside the equation and you will have your
equation inserted.

Deleting Text:

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  Place your cursor next to the text you wish to delete. You can then use either the backspace or the
delete (del) key depending on where the cursor is placed.
 Press the Backspace key on your keyboard to delete text to the left of the cursor or
 Press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete text to the right of the cursor.

Please don’t hold down the backspace or the delete in deleting text else text that you don’t intend
to delete may be deleted.

Selecting Text:
Selecting a text is one of the things you will often do. Texts are selected so that you can apply
style or styles such as bolding, underlining, copy and paste, etc. To select a text
 Place the insertion point at one end of the text you wish to select.
 Left-click your mouse and while holding it down, move the mouse pointer over the text to the
other side to select it. The text will normally appear in a light blue background.
 Release the mouse button. You have selected the text.

Copying (Ctrl C) and Pasting (Ctrl V) Text:

Whenever it becomes necessary to duplicate a piece of text at

another location within a document or in another document you can
use copy and paste. You must first have the text copied and you can
then have it pasted at another location. If the text has to be pasted
several times within a document, you need not copy the same text
several times. Once you copy, windows places the text in the
clipboard and is available for pasting as many times as it may be
needed. The steps for copying and pasting are as follows:
Figure 5.4 Copy button on
 Select the text you wish to copy.
Home tab
 Click the Copy command on the Home tab.
 Place your insertion point where you wish the text to appear.

 Click the Paste command on the Home tab. The text will appear.

Alternatively,

 Select the text to be copied

 Right-click on the selected text

 Select Copy from the pop-up menu

 Place the insertion point where you want to paste the text

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  Right-click the mouse button

 Select paste to have the copied text pasted.

Note that in each of the above methods, where you need to select copy you can simply use the
shortcut keys Ctrl + C and where you are to select paste you can use Ctrl + V.

Cutting (Ctrl X) and Pasting (Ctrl V) Text:

Unlike the Copy when you cut a text, the text is deleted from it current location and is stored in
the clipboard for pasting when necessary. Cutting is normally done when you feel that
a text, sentence, paragraph, etc have not been placed at the right place and has to be
moved to where it is supposed to be. On the home tab, the cut icon appears as a pair of
scissors. The steps for cutting and pasting are as follows:
 Select the text you wish to cut.
 Click the Cut command on the Home tab.
 Place your insertion point where you wish the text to appear.

 Click the Paste command on the Home tab. The text will appear.

Alternatively,

 Select the text to be cut

 Right-click on the selected text

 Select Cut from the pop-up menu
 Place the insertion point where you want to paste the text
 Right-click the mouse button

 Select paste to have the cut text pasted.

You can use the shortcut keys Ctrl + X wherever you have to select cut and Ctrl + V wherever
you have to select paste.

To Drag and Drop Text:

Drag and drop is very similar to cut and paste in terms of function. Thus, drag and drop allows
you to select a piece of text and then move them to a different location within the
document. To drag and drop,
 Select the text you wish to move.
 Move the mouse pointer over any part of the selected text.
 Hold down the left button of the mouse and drag the text to the location you wish it to be. As
you move the mouse pointer to the new location of the text, you will not see the text itself

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 following the mouse pointer but rather a small rectangular box to indicate that you are moving a
text.
 Release the mouse button and the text will appear.

1-5.4 Saving Word Documents

When you type a document, the document is only temporary in

memory if the document has not been saved before. Also, if you
load in an existing document and makes changes, the changes
will only be temporal in memory. The only way of having a
permanent copy of your document is to have the document
saved or printed. Saving the document gives you the
opportunity to re-load the document at another and make
changes if necessary without having to retype the document.
Saving a file also makes it possible for you to also share and
Figure 5.5 Some Options of
receive documents. If you intend to share your file with
the Microsoft office Menu
someone who does not have word 2007 or if you intend to print
your document on a friend’s computer who has a printer then
the way you save your file can affect how you save your
document. You will have to save it in a compactable mode. We will look at some of the different
ways of saving your document.

Using the Save As (F12) Command:

The Save as command is best used when you want to
save a document in a different format such
as word 97-2003 so that earlier versions of
word can be used to open the document.
You also use the save as when you want to
save the document under a different name
and/or different location. To use the save as,

Figure 5.7 Save As Option of the Microsoft

Office Menu

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  Click the Microsoft Office Button at the very top left of your word screen.
 Select Save As Word 93-2003. The Save As dialog box appears which prompts you for the
name of the document, the location and the save as type.

 Select the location you wish to save the document if different from the default using the drop-
down menu.
 Enter a name for the document.

 Click the Save button.

Alternatively, you can press F12. This opens the same save as dialogue box that prompts you for the
name, the location and the save as type.

Note that the Save As command allows you to save as

 Word Document-This saves your document as word 2007 document. In this way you can only
open the file at another time by using Word 2007. Earlier versions of Word cannot be used to
open the file.
 Word Template- This saves the document as a template so that whenever you intend to type a
new document you can load the template for all the formats of the template to be applied to the
new document. This is good if you prefer for example different page settings to the default.
Normally, this template is created as a blank document or a blank document with headers and
footers if necessary.

 Word 97 – 2003: This saves your document in a fully compactable format so that your file can be
edited with any version of word 97 through to word 2003.

 Other formats: This option allows you to save your current document in a format other than
those mentioned above. For example, this option makes it possible to save your document as web
pages, Plain Text, Rich Text, WordPerfect 5.0, etc

Using the Save (Ctrl S) Command:

The save command is best used for an existing document, that is a document that has been saved
before. Once a document has been saved it means it has already been given a name.
You need not name a document anytime you make changes and want to save.

To re-save your document,

 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Save from the menu.

Using the Save command saves the document in its current location using the same file name. If
you are saving for the first time and you select Save, the Save As dialog box will appear. The
faster way of re-saving your document is to use the save icon. This appears as a floppy disk at
the top of your screen.

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To Download the PDF Extension:
There are many situations where it is useful to save your file in a fixed-layout format that is easy
to share and print and hard to modify. Examples of these situations include resumes,
legal documents, newsletters, and any other file that is intended to be primarily read
and printed. The 2007 Microsoft Office system offers a free add-in to save or export
this type of file, but you must first install the add-in before you can use it. Other third-
party products may also be available to export a Microsoft Office file into a fixed-
layout document. To be able to import a pdf file,
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Save As
 Select add-ins for other file formats. If you are already connected to the internet, your web
browser will be opened to the Microsoft site.
 Follow the instructions on the Microsoft site for downloading the extension.

To Save a Document As a PDF file: After you have added the add-in for pdf, you will be able to
save your document as a pdf file. To do so,
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Save As PDF. The Save As dialog box will appear.
 Select the location you wish to save the document using the drop-down menu.
 Enter a name for the document.
 Click the Publish button.

Figure 5. 6 The PDF Option of the Microsoft Office

button

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SESSION 2-5: Working With Word Document
2-5.1 Grammar and Spell Check
Whenever you type a document, irrespective of the number of pages, you are likely to make some
typographical mistakes or grammatical errors. It is even possible that you may want to use a particular
word and you may not know how to spell it. You may also want to use another word for a particular word
because you think you might have used the same word so many times and want a change. You need not
worry when that happens to you. Word provides you with several proofing features that will help you
produce professional, error-free documents. On your word 2007 screen, the proofing tools are under the
Review of the main menu. The most important proofing tools include checking spelling and grammar,
translating a text to a different language (such as Arabic, US English, French, Spanish, etc), suggesting
other words with similar meaning to choose from, word count, setting a language for checking spelling
and grammar, opening the Research Task Pane to search for references such as dictionaries, encyclopedia
and translation services.

By default, Word automatically checks your document for spelling and grammar errors as you type. If
an error is found, it is indicated by colored wavy lines.

 The blue line indicates a contextual spelling error.

 The red line indicates a misspelled word.

 The green line indicates a grammar error.

Figure 5.9 Proofing Tools under the Review Tab of the Main menu
Checking Spelling:

You can check for words that have been wrongly spelt using the spell check feature of Word. To
do so,
 Right-click the underlined word. A menu will appear.
 Select the correct spelling of the word from the listed suggestions by Left-click your mouse on
the word. It will appear in the document. For example, if you accidentally typed or spelt the word
‘good’ as ‘guod’ and if you are checking spelling of ‘guod’ you will be given the suggestions
‘good, god and gouda’

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If you feel that the word underlined is a correct word, you can choose Ignore to leave the word as it is,
add to dictionary to add to the dictionary, or Spelling to open the Spelling dialog box.

To Use the Grammar Check Feature:

 Right-click the underlined word. A menu will appear.
 Select the correct word from the listed suggestions.

 Left-click your mouse on the word. It will appear in

the document.

You can also choose to Ignore an underlined word, go

to Grammar dialog box, or find out more information
about the word and its usage.

To check grammar and spelling of your entire document,

Figure 5.10 Menu after Right-clicking
underlined word
you can wait and run the spelling and grammar check
after completing the document. In this case, you will
 Select Review tab from the main menu
 Click the Spelling & Grammar command (appears as ABC with a tick mark
underneath).

2-5.2 Working With Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is a piece of text or an image in a document that

connect readers to another portion of the document or a
different web page. You can also use a hyperlink to connect to
and open an email client window.
You can use these in electronic versions of your Word
documents just like you do in web pages.

Figure 5.11 Hyperlink button in the

Links Group under the Insert tab

Inserting Hyperlinks
 Select the text or image you would like to make a hyperlink.
 Select the Insert tab from the main menu.

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  Click Hyperlink in the Links group. The Insert Hyperlink dialog box appears. If you
selected text, the words will appear in the Text to display: field at the top.

 Type the address you would like to link to in the Address: field.
 Click OK. The text or image you selected will now be a hyperlink.

Figure 5.12 Insert Hyperlink dialog box

It is also possible to insert a hyperlink that links to another portion of the same document.
Word recognizes many emails and web addresses as you type and format them as hyperlinks
automatically after you press the Enter key or spacebar.

Removing Hyperlinks:
 Select the hyperlink you would like to deactivate or remove.
 Select the Insert tab.
 Click Hyperlink in the Links group. The Edit Hyperlink dialog box appears as shown in Figure
11.5.

 Click Remove Link.

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2-5.3 Creating and Printing of Documents
Printing Documents

Once you complete your document, you can either save or print
it. Saving a document only gives you a softcopy. However, if you
will like to have a print out (hardcopy) of the document then you
need to print at the printer. Word provides you with a number of
options such as previewing the document before it is printed.

Figure 5.13 The Microsoft Office

menu

Previewing the Document Before Printing:

Previewing a document is a means of looking at exactly how the document will appear on paper
on the screen before the texts are sent to the printer for printing. This enables you
adjust your margins, your page length and other changes you might want to make if
the need be. To do so,
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Print
 Select Print Preview. The document opens in Print Preview format.

When satisfied with the look of your pages on the screen, Click Print to print the document or Close
Print Preview to exit the preview format and make changes to the document.

While in Print Preview mode, you can do many tasks including:

 Modify the margins
 Change page orientation
 Change the page size

 Zoom in and out to view various parts of the document

 View multiple pages

 Access Word Options to change many Word settings

To Print:
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Print
 Select Print. The Print dialog box appears.

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 Select the page(s) you would like to print -- either all pages or a range of pages.

 Select the number of copies.

By default 1 copy is printed per
page
 Check the Collate box if you
are printing multiple copies of a
multi-page document.

 Check to see if the correct

printer is selected, else Select a
printer from the drop-down list.

 Click OK.
Figure 5.14 The Print Dialog box
To Print via Quick Print:
When you want to print without making any changes you can use the Quick Print. The Quick
Print basically sends the document directly to the default printer without making
changes.
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select Print
 Select Quick Print.

 The document automatically prints to the default printer.

Creating a New Document

It is not always that you will be working with existing

documents. You will most of the want to be able to create new
documents. Each time you open Word, a new, blank document
appears; however, you will also need to know how to create new
documents while an existing document is open.

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To Create a New, Blank Document:
 Click the Microsoft Office Button.
 Select New. The New Document dialog box
appears.

 Select Blank document under the Blank and

recent section. By default, the Blank document is
selected whenever a new document is to be created.

 Click Create. A new, blank document appears in

the Word window.

If you have already installed templates on your

computer then you can access these templates or on
Office Online. Click the Microsoft Office Button and
Figure 5.16 The New Document dialog box select New. You can create blank documents and
access templates from the dialog box that appears.

Formatting Text

To create and design effective documents, you need to know how to format text. In addition to
making your document more appealing, formatted text can draw the reader's attention to
specific parts of the document and help communicate your message. Formats such as selecting
font size, style, and color; and use the Bold, Italic, Underline, and Change Case commands.

To Change Font Size

By default a font size is 12 points. However,
Windows allows you to either increase
or decrease a font size. The font size
box when click it shows that you can
specify font size from 8points to 72
points inclusive. If you require a font
size higher than 72 points you can
specify that by entering the required
font size by typing it in the font size
box. The steps involved in changing a
font size are as follows:
 Select the text you wish to change the size.
Figure 5.17 The Font Size drop-down menu

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  Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the font size box on the Home tab. The font size drop-
down menu appears as shown.

 Move your cursor over the various font sizes. A live preview of the font size will appear in the
document.

 Left-click the font size you wish to use. The font size will change in the document.

Changing Font Style

Word has a number of different font styles that one can

choose from depending on the type of
document one is creating. To change a font
style,
 Select the text you wish to modify.
 Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the font style
box on the Home tab. The font style drop-down menu
appears.

 Move your cursor over the various font styles. A live

preview of the font will appear in the document.
Figure 5.18 The Font Style drop-down menu
 Left-click the font style you wish to use. The font
style will change in the document.

Font Color

Word allows you to choose different colors for selected

text in your document. There are over 50
colors to choose from. The default font color is
black. To change the color of a particular text,
 Select the text you wish to modify.
 Left-click the drop-down arrow next to the font color box
on the Home tab. The font color menu appears.

 Move your cursor over the various font colors. A live

preview of the color will appear in the document.
 Left-click the font color you wish to use. The font color
will change in the document.

Figure 11. 12 The Font Color drop-down 128

menu
Note that your color choices are not limited to the drop-down menu that appears. You can select
More Colors at the bottom of the list to access the Colors dialog box. Choose the color that you
want and click OK.

Bolding (Ctrl + B), Italics (Ctrl + I), and Underlining (Ctrl + U) Commands

Bolding a piece of text is to make that text

appear much darker than the
others when printed at the printer.
This is done to make the text to
stand out. You can also use italics
for a piece of text. This slants that
text forward. Word also allows
you to underline text you want to
highlight in your document. To
Figure 11. 1 Bold, Italics, and Underline Commands in
apply any of the three formats, the Font group on the Home tab
 Select the text you wish to modify.
 Click the Bold, Italic and/ or Underline command in the Font group on the Home tab.

To remove any of the formats after it has been applied to a text, simply select the text and click the
required format to remove. Thus, each of these commands toggles the format when format icon clicked.
Note also that instead of clicking at the appropriate command button, you can equally use the key
combinations. The key combinations for bolding, italics and underline are Ctrl + B, Ctrl + I and Ctrl + U
respectively.

The Format Painter

When you have already applied formats to a text and want to apply the same formats to another
text you can quickly do so by using the format painter. The format painter is under the Home tab
and it appears as a painter’s brush. In the above figure see the last icon in the clipboard group of
commands. To use the format painter,

 Select the text that is formatted the way you want

 Click the Format Painter command on the Home tab. The mouse pointer changes shape
to a paint brush

 Select the text you want to change. The new text now appears modified.

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Changing the Text Case
Word allows you to change a text case from one case to another. The different text cases are as
follows:

Sentence case: This option when selected ensures

that the first character of the sentence is
in uppercase.
Lowercase: When selected changes the case of all
selected text to lowercase characters
(small letters).

UPPERCASE: When selected changes the case of

all selected text to uppercase (capital
Figure 11. 14 THe Change Case menu
letters)
Capitalize Each Word: When selected changes the case of the first character in each word of
the selected texts to uppercase or capital letter.
tOGGLE cASE: When selected ensures that the first character in a text is in lowercase while the
remaining characters are in uppercases.

To change text case to any of the above,

 Select the text you wish to change case.
 Click the Change Case command in the Font group on the Home tab.

 Select one of the case options from the list. You can either click at the required case or simply
press the underline character in the case that you want.

Defining Text Alignment

Word comes with four different alignments as

explained below. These are Align
Text left (Ctrl + L), Center (Ctrl +
E), Align Text Right (Ctrl + R) and
Justify (Ctrl + J). To define a text
alignment,

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Figure 11. 15 The Change Alignment Command Button

  Select the text you wish to align or change alignment.
 Select one of the four alignment options from the Paragraph group on the Home tab.

o Align Text Left: Aligns all the selected text to the left margin. That is for more than one
line, this option ensures that the first character in each line is align to the left.

o Center: Aligns text an equal distance from the left and right margins. If the text consists
of more than one line, each line of the text will be centered.

o Align Text Right: Aligns all the selected text to the right margin.

o Justify: Justified text is equal on both sides and lines up equally to the right and left
margins. Traditionally many books, newsletters, and newspapers use full-justification.

Working with Text boxes

If you intend to draw attention to a specific text in your

document you can insert a text box. Using a text box
make it easy to move text around within a document. Text
boxes can be resized and moved. There are more than 30
different types of text boxes that one can select from. If
you don’t like any of the predefined or preformatted text
boxes Word allows you to draw your own text box and use.

To Insert a Text box: Figure 11. 2 The Text Box Command

button
 Select the Insert tab on the Ribbon.
 Click the Text Box command in the Text group.

 Select a Built-in text box or Draw Text Box from the

menu.

 If you select Built-in text box, left-click the text box you
wish to use and it will appear in the document.

OR

 If you select Draw Text Box, a crosshair cursor will

appear. Left-click your mouse and while holding it
down, drag your mouse until the text box is the desired
size.

 Release the mouse button.

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To Change Text Box Style:
 Select the text box. A new Format tab appears with Text Box Tools.

Figure 11. 3 Format Tab with Text Box Tools

 Select the Format tab.

 Click the More drop-down arrow in the Text Box Style group to display more style options.

Figure 11. 4 The More Drop-down Arrow

 Move
your cursor over the styles and Live Preview will preview the style in your document.
 Left-click a style to select it.

To Change Shape Fill:

 Select the text box. A new Format tab
appears with Text Box Tools.

 Click the Shape Fill command to display a

drop-down list.

 Select a color from the list, choose No Fill, or

choose one of the other options.

Figure 11. 20 The Shape Fill Drop-down list

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To Change the Shape Outline:
 Select the text box. A new
Format tab appears with
Text Box Tools.
 Click the Shape Outline
command to display a drop-
down list.

 Select a color from the list,

choose No Outline, or choose
one of the other options.
Figure 11. 21 THe Shape Outline Drop-down list

To Change the Text Box Shape:

 Select the text box. A new Format tab appears with Text Box Tools.
 Click the Change Shape command to display
a drop-down list.

 Select a shape from the list.

To Move a Text Box:

 Left-click the text box. Your cursor becomes a
cross with arrows on each end.
 While holding the mouse button, drag the text
box to the desired location on the page.

 Release the mouse button.

To Resize a Text Box:

Figure 11. 22 The Change Shape Drop-down list  Select the text box.
 Left-click one of the blue sizing handles.

 While holding down the mouse button, drag the sizing handle until the text box is the desired
size.

If you drag the blue sizing handles on any of the 4 corners, the text box will resize in the same
proportions. The sizing handles on the top or bottom of the text box will allow you to resize
vertically, while the handles on the left and right sides will resize the text box horizontally.

2-5.4 Handling Images and Pictures

Inserting Illustrations

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 Whenever you want to include an illustration in your document to
make it more visually appealing, you can insert ClipArt, Pictures,
SmartArt, Charts, and others.

Figure 11. 23 The ClipArt

Command button

Inserting ClipArt

A ClipArt may be drawings, movies, sounds and photographs that one can insert into a document
to illustrate a specific concept. To insert any clip art,

 Select the Insert tab.

Figure 11. 5 The ClipArt button

 Click the Clip Art command in the Illustrations group.

 The Clip Art options appear in the task pane on the right.
 You can enter keywords in the Search for: field a word that
is related to the image you wish to insert.
 Click the drop-down arrow next to the Search in: field to
specify where to search.

 You should normally select Everywhere to ensure that Word

searches your computer and it's online resources for an
image that meets your criteria.

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Figure 11. 25 ClipArt Options in Task
Pane
  Click the drop-down arrow in the Results should be: field to specify the type of illustration you
are searching for.

 Deselect any types of images you do not wish to see.

 Click Go.
 Review the results from a clip art search.
 Place your insertion point in the document where you wish to insert the clip art.
 Left-click an image in the task pane. It will appear in the document.

OR

 Left-click the arrow next to an image in the task pane.

 Select Insert, Copy, or any of the other options on the list.

Wrapping Text Around an Image

When you insert an image into your document you have the option of writing your text either on
the top or the
bottom of the text.
However, word
allows you to wrap
text around the
image. To wrap text
around an image
you will have to

 First Select the image by

clicking at the image.
 Select the Picture Tools
Format tab.

 Click the Text Wrapping

Figure 11. 26 The Text Wrapping Command button of the Picture Tools command in the Arrange
Format Tab group.

 Left-click a menu option to select it. In this example, we selected Tight.

 Move the image around to see how the text wraps for each setting.

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If you can’t get your text to wrap the way you wish, click the Text Wrapping command and
select More Layout Options from the menu. You can
make more precise changes in the Advanced Layout
dialog box that appears.

Alternatively, you can wrap text around images via the

format picture dialogue box if your are using the
compatible mode for your document. You do so by
 Right-click on the image to wrap text around.
 Select format picture from the drop down menu
This opens the format picture dialogue box
 Click at the layout tab

Figure 11. 27 The Format Picture dialog box  Select from the wrapping style your preferred
choice
 Select from the horizontal alignment your choice.

Cropping an Image

Most of the time when you insert an

image into a document you
may probably be interested
in a small part of the image
rather than the entire image.
This means that you may
have to take off the part that
you don’t need. Removing
part of an image that you
don’t need is called
cropping. Note that when
an image is cropped the
amount of storage space
required to store the image
is not affected no matter
how much of the image is
cropped. It is only by
compression that you can
Figure 11. 6 The Crop Command button

136
 reduce the file size. You can crop from any of the four sides as well as the four corners
of the image.

To crop an image you have to

 Select the image.
 Select the Format tab from the Picture Tools.

 Click the Crop command. The black cropping handles appear.

 Left-click on any of the handles and move it to crop an image.

 Click the Crop command or anywhere outside the image to deselect the crop tool.

If you want to maintain proportionality of the height and width of the image then you should use
a corner handle instead of a side handle.

Alternatively, if you are more familiar with the earlier versions of word (and your are using the
compatible mode) then you can crop using the format picture dialogue box. The steps
needed here are as follows:

 Right-click at the image you intend to crop

 select the Format Picture
 Click the picture tab
 Under the crop from option, specify the size you want to crop from the top, bottom, left
and/or right as may be needed. Since you may not know exactly the size to specify you
may have to repeat the above steps a couple of times before getting a desired imgae.

Compressing a Picture

The main reason why you will want to

compress an image is to reduce the
amount of storage space that the
image will take when the document
is saved. Images take up a lot of
storage hence in a document in
which you have so many images it
will be a good idea to compress the
Figure 11. 7 Compression Settings dialog box
images.
 Select the picture.

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  Select the Format tab.

 Click the Compress Pictures command in the Adjust group. A dialog box appears.

 Click the Options button to access the Compression Setting dialog box.

 Choose the target output.

 Change any of the default picture settings you wish.

 Click OK in the Compression Settings dialog box.

 Click OK in the Compress Pictures dialog box.

You need to monitor the file size of your images and documents that include images, especially if
you send them via email. Cropping and resizing an image doesn’t decrease the image file size,
but compression does.

Other Picture Tools

There are many other tools that you can use to modify a picture. From the Format tab, some of
the other useful commands include:

Figure 11. 8 Other Pictures Tools of the Format Tab

 Rotate command: This allows you to rotate the image by 90 degrees either to the left or to
the right. It also allows you to flip the image vertically or horizontally. The effect of the
rotations are as shown below

138
 Original image rotated 90 degrees right rotated 90 degrees left flipped vertically

 Bring to front command: bring an image in front of a text

 Send to back command: Sends an image to the back of a text

 Group command: Allows to place two or more images together as one so that they can be
moved and edited together when the need be.

 Change Picture command: Select a new picture from your computer.

 Reset Picture command: Revert to original image.

 Brightness command: Adjust the brightness of the image.

 Color command: Adjust the contrast of the image from light to dark.

 Recolor command: Modify the color in a variety of ways including Black and white, sepia, pink,
purple, and more.

Changing the Shape of a Picture:

 Select the picture.
 Select the Format tab.

 Click the Picture Shape icon. A

menu appears.

 Left-click a shape to select it.

To Apply a Picture Style:

 Select the picture.
 Select the Format tab.

 Click the More drop-down arrow to

display all the picture styles.

Figure 11. 9 The Picture Style's More drop-down arrow

139
  Hover over a picture style to display a Live Preview of the style in the document.

 Left-click a style to select it.

To Add a Border to a Picture Manually:

 Select the picture.
 Select the Format tab.

 Left-click the Picture Border command and select a color.

OR

 Select Weight from the menu and choose a line weight.

Figure 11. 33 The Picture Border

Drop-down menu Drawing and Shapes

You can add a variety of shapes to your document including

arrows, callouts, squares, stars, flowchart symbols and more.
While you may not need shapes in every document you create,
they can add visual appeal and clarity to many documents.

Figure 11. 34 The Shapes Drop-

down menu

To Insert a Shape:
 Select the Insert tab.
 Click the Shape command.
 Left-click a shape from the menu. Your cursor is now a cross shape.

 Left-click your mouse and while holding it down, drag your mouse until the shape is the desired
size.

 Release the mouse button.

140
To Change Shape Style:

Figure 11. 35 Drawing Tools of the Format Tab

 Select the shape. A new Format tab appears with Drawing Tools.

 Click the More drop-down arrow in the Shapes Style group to display more style options.

 Move your cursor over the styles and Live Preview will show the style in your document.
 Left-click a style to select it.

To Change the Shape Fill Color:

 Select the shape A new Format tab

appears with Drawing Tools.
 Click the Shape Fill command to display
a drop-down list.

Figur  Select a color from the list, choose No

e 11. Fill, or choose one of the other options.
10
Dra
wing
Tools
of
Figure 11. 36 The Shape Fill Drop-down list
the
Form
To Change the Shape Outline: at
 Select the shape. A new Format tab Tab appears
with Drawing Tools.
 Click the Shape Outline command to display
a drop-down list.

141

Figure 11. 11 Change Shape Outline and Change Shape

Drop-down list
  Select a color from the list, choose No Outline, or choose one of the other options.

Change to a Different Shape:

 Select the shape. A new Format tab appears with Drawing Tools.

 Click the Change Shape command to display a drop-down list.

 Select a shape from the list.

To Change Shadow Effects:

 Select the Format tab.
 Left-click the Shadow Effects command.

 Move your mouse over the menu options. Live Preview displays how it
will appear in your document.

 Click an option to select the shadow effect.

Select Shadow Color from the menu and choose a color from the palette
to change the color of the shadow on your shape.

Figure 11. 38 The

Shadow Effects menu
options

To Change 3D Effects:
 Select the Format tab.
 Left-click the 3-D Effects command.

 Move your mouse over the menu options. Live Preview displays how it
will appear in your document.

 Click an option to select the 3-D effect.

You can not add a 3D effect to all shapes.

After you have chosen a 3D effect, you can also change some other
elements of your shape including the color, depth, direction, lighting,
and surface of the 3D effect on your shape. This can change the way the
Figure 11. 39 The 3-D
Effects menu option shape looks dramatically. You can access these options by clicking the 3D
Effects command.

142
2-5.5 Using Templates and working With Lists
Using a Template

 When discussing creating a new document

we mentioned briefly what a template is. A
template is a pre-designed document that
you use to create new documents with the
same formatting. For example, you can
create a template which is your letterhead so
that whenever you have to write an official
document on a letterhead you can use the
letterhead template. With a template, many of
the big document design decisions such as
margin size, font style and size, and spacing Figure 11. 12 The New Document dialog
box
are predetermined.

Click the Microsoft Office Button.

 Select New. The New Document dialog box

appears.
 Select the required template group such as envelope, calendar greeting cards, invoices
and labels (if you are connected to the internet to get it from Microsoft’s website) or
Select Installed Templates to choose a template on your computer.
 Review the available templates.
 Left-click a template to select it.
 Click Create and the template opens in a new window.

When you select the Microsoft Office Online option of the New Document Dialog box it will
display templates that are available online free of charge. Your computer must have Internet
access to download these templates.

Working with Lists

You can use Bulleted and numbered lists in your documents to arrange and format text to draw
emphasis on some major or important points. The way a bullet or a number list is inserted into a
document is the same. You can add bullets and/or numbering to text you have already type or
about to be typed.

To add bullet or number list to an existing text you have to

143
  Select the text that you want to format as a list if the text is already typed.
 Click the Bullets or Numbering commands on the Home tab and under the paragraph group of
commands.

 Left-click the bullet or numbering style you would like to use. It will appear in the document.

 Position your cursor at the end of a list item and press the Enter key to add an item to the list.

To remove numbers or bullets from a list, select the list and click the Bullets or Numbering
commands.

To Select an Alternate Bullet or Numbering Style:

 Select all of the text in an existing list.
 Click the Bullets or Numbering commands on the Home tab by clicking on the arrow tip next to
the bullet or the numbering. If you don’t do this, the last used bullet or numbering is assumed.
 Left-click to select an alternate bullet or numbering style. This will immediately change the old
style to the new one

To Use a Symbol as a Bullet:

 Select an existing list.

 Click the Bullets command.

 Select Define New Bullet from the

list. The Define New Bullet
dialog box appears.

 Click the Symbol button. The

Symbol dialog box appears.

 Click the Font: drop-down box Figure 11. 13 The Symbol Dialog Box and
select a font category as shown in the
figure.
 Left-click a symbol to select it.
 Click OK. The symbol will now appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog
box.
 Click OK to apply the symbol to the list in the document.

144
You can use a picture as a bullet. Click the Picture button in the Define New Bullet dialog box,
and then locate the image file on your computer or select one of the predefined bullets you intend
to use.

As mentioned above you can add a bullet or number to a text yet to be typed. To do so you will
have to

 Place the cursor at where the bulleted or numbered list is to begin

 Click the bullets or the numbering command

 Select the required bullet or numbering style

 Type text to be bulleted or numbered after the bullet or number depending on what you
selected to do (that is to add bullet or number)

 Press enter key when done with an item of the list. This gives another bullet or number
for you to type the next item.

 Repeat step 5 until you have typed all the items to be listed.

 Press the backspace key or click the bullet/numbering command again to stop the bullet
or the numbering

To Change the Bullet Color:

 Select an existing list.
 Click the Bullets command.

 Select Define New Bullet from the list. The Define New
Bullet dialog box appears.

 Click the Font button. The Font dialog box appears.

 Click the Font color: drop-down box.

 Left-click a color to select it.

 Click OK. The bullet color will now appear in the Preview
section of the Define New Bullet dialog box.

 Click OK to apply the bullet color to the list in the

Figure 11. 42 The Font Dialog box document.

You can also change the bullet font and formatting in the Font dialog box.

145
Line and Paragraph Spacing
As students when you are to write your final year thesis you
will be given certain formatting for your report. One of the
formats is the line spacing. Line spacing can be 1.0 (single),
1.15, 1.5 (one and half), 2.0 (double spacing), 2.5 or 3.0. By
default line spacing is single (1.0).

To change the default or current line spacing,

 Select the text you want to format. Figure 12. 1 The Line Spacing
 Click the Line spacing command in the Paragraph group drop-down list on
the Home tab.

 Select a spacing option.

OR

 Select Line Spacing Options. The Paragraph dialog box

appears.
 Use the Line spacing drop-down menu to select a spacing
option.

 Modify the before and after points to adjust line spacing,

as needed.

 Click OK.

Just as you can format spacing between lines in your

document, you can also choose spacing options between each
paragraph. Typically, extra spaces are added between
paragraphs, headings, or subheadings. Extra spacing between
Figure 12. 2 The Paragraph dialog box
paragraphs adds emphasis and makes a document much easier
to read.

146
Formatting Paragraph Spacing

As mentioned above, one can also format the

spacing between paragraphs. To do so
you must
 Click the Line spacing command on the
Home tab.
 Select Add Space Before Paragraph or
Remove Space After Paragraph from the
menu.

OR

 Select Line Spacing Options. The

Paragraph dialog box appears.
 Change the Before and After points in the
Paragraph section.

 Click OK.

Line spacing is measured in lines or points, which is referred to as leading or trailing. The
spacing after a paragraph is a leading while that before a paragraph is trailing. When you reduce
the leading, you automatically bring the lines of text closer together. Increasing the leading will
space the lines out, allowing for improved readability.

147
 Unit 6
TABLES, SMARTART GRAPHICS AND REFERENCES

Unit content
Session 1-6: Page Layout, Tables and SmartArt
1-6.1Modifying Page Layout
1-6.2Tables
1-6.3Using SmartArt Graphics
1-6.4Using Indents, Tabs, Find and Replace
Session 2-6: References and Mail Merge
2-6.1Adding New Citation and Source to a Document
2-6.2Generating Bibliography
2-6.3Creating and Generating Table of Contents and Indexes
2-6.4Mail Merging

SESSION 1-6: Page Layout, Tables and SmartArt

1-6.1 Modifying Page Layout
Modifying Page Layout

If you find that the default page layout settings in Word are
not sufficient for the document you wish to create then you will
have to make the changes yourself. There are different page
layout settings that you can change. Some of the changes
includes changing page orientation, paper size, and page
margins, page numbering, columns and insert a break.

Figure 12. 4 Page Layout options

148
Changing Page Orientation

The page orientation allows you to

specify whether the page
should be a portrait or a
landscape. A portrait page
orientation is the common
page layout that makes the
page oriented vertically.
However, there are times you
will prefer the orientation to
Figure 12. 5 Page Orientation Options be landscaped, that is the page
to be oriented horizontally. Landscape is best used when one intends to create a
document with shorter pages but wider lines. The figure to the left shows the two
different page orientations. Generally, portrait is the default page orientation. You can
change your page orientation as follows:

 Select the Page Layout tab from the main menu.

 Click the Orientation command in the Page Setup group.

 Left-click either Portrait or Landscape to change the page orientation.

You can also change the page orientation via the page setup dialogue box. To do so means you to

 Select the Page layout tab from the main menu

 Click margins
 Select Custom Margins to open the page setup
dialogue box.
 Click at the Margins tab and select the required
orientation.

Note that you can also access the page setup dialogue box
much faster by clicking the arrow at the bottom right hand
corner of the page setup tab. If you have used an earlier
version of Word then the page setup dialogue box should
look familiar to you.

Figure 12. 6 The Page Setup Dialog box

149
Changing the Paper Size

Since we have different paper sizes on the market you must select
the size of the paper you intend to use to print your document.
Selecting a wrong paper size may either lead a waste of paper if
the pages are very short or loss of some text if small paper size is
selected long pages. Word has the different paper sizes that you
can choose from. To change your default paper size you have to

 Select the Page Layout tab from the main menu.

 Left-click the Size command and a drop-down menu will
appear. The current paper size is highlighted.

 Left-click a size option to select it. The page size of the

document changes.

Changing Page Margins

If you are writing a book or a letter to a friend you will not
use the same page margins. Some documents Figure 12. 7 Sixe Drop-down menu
require wider page margins while some require of Page Layout Tab
smaller margins. If you were to send a paper for publication in a journal, the editors
will normally define the page margins for you. Your paper may be rejected if it is not
formatted to the prescribed margins or specifications.
To change or set your page margins you will have to
 Select the Page Layout tab from the main menu.
 Click the Margins command. A menu of options appears.
Normal is selected by
default.

 Left-click the predefined

margin size you want.

OR you can customize you page

margins by using the page setup
dialogue box. In this case you will
have to

 Select Custom Margins

Figure 12. 8 The Margins Drop- from the menu. The Page
down menu Setup dialog box appears.

150

Figure 12. 9 Page Setup diaog box

  Enter the desired margin size in the appropriate fields.

You can always access the Page Setup dialog box by clicking the small arrow in the bottom-
right corner of the Page Setup group.

To Insert a Break:

If you have ever created a document

of more than a page long
you will have notice that
when the page gets full
with text, Word
automatically creates a
new page to enable you
continue with your
document. We say Word
has automatically inserted
a page break. There are
different page breaks. We
have page, column and
Figure 12. 10 Break Drop-down menu text wrapping. You can
also have section breaks.
 Place your insertion point where you want the break to appear.
 Select the Page Layout tab.

 Click the Breaks command. A menu appears.

 Left-click a break option to select it. The break will appear in the document.

Note that the different breaks work differently. The different page breaks options works as
follows:

 Page breaks move text after the current position of the cursor to a new page before
reaching the end of a page

151
  Section breaks allows you to create a break between parts of the document for
formatting purposes. For example, you can lay out part of a single-column page as two
columns. You can separate the chapters in your document so that the page numbering for
each chapter begins at 1. You can also create a different header or footer for a section of
your document.

 Column breaks allows you to split text in columns at a specific point.

Columns and Ordering

I am sure you have probably seen a newspaper, academic journal,
newsletters or a magazine before. If yes, you would have noticed that
each page of the newspaper or most magazines is made up of two or
more columns for different news items. Word provides two useful
formatting features namely columns and ordering commands.
Ordering is the process of layering two or more shapes so that they
appear in a certain way. For example, if you have two shapes that
overlap and want one shape to appear on top, you will have to order
the shapes. We will first look at how to create columns.

Figure 12. 11 Column Drop-down list

To Add Columns to a Document:

 Select the text you want to format.

 Select the Page Layout tab.

 Left-click the Columns command.

 Select the number of columns you would like to insert.

A two column page document will appear as follows:

152
Figure 12. 3 A Two-column page document

Click the Show/Hide command on the Home tab to display the paragraph marks and breaks.

To Change the Order of Objects:

 Right-click the object you wish to move. In
this example, click the shape.
 In the menu that appears, select Order.

 Select a menu option that will arrange the

item in the desired way. In this example,
select Send Behind Text.

 The text and image are now displayed layered

on top of the shape.

Figure 12. 13 Order options available

153
Working with Headers and Footers

A header is a section of the document that appears in the very

top margin, while the footer is a section of the document that
appears in the very bottom margin. Headers and footers
generally contain information such as page number, date,
document name, etc. If you don’t insert section breaks, a
header or footer by default appears in all page of the document
you are working on.

Figure 12. 14 Header and Footer

To Insert a Header or Footer you will have to command button of the Insert Tab
 Click the Insert tab of the main menu.
 Click either the Header or Footer command. A menu
appears with a list of built-in options you can use.
 Left-click one of the built-in options and it will appear in
the document.

OR

 Left-click Blank to select it.

The Design tab with Header and Footer tools is active.

Figure 12. 15 Built-in Options

Figure 12. 16 header and Footer Tools of the Design Tab

 Type the required information into the header or footer.

Figure 12. 17 An Active Footer Section ready to accept

Text

154
To Insert the Date or Time into a Header or Footer:
 With the header or footer section active, click the Date & Time command.

 Select a date format in the dialog box that appears.

Figure 1.4Third Generation Computers (1963-1972)

 Click OK. The date/time now appears in the document.

155
 There are other header and footer options that one can use to design sections of your document.
If you click at the Header and Footer Tools Design tab, you will see all the available design
options.

1-6.2 Tables

A table is a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns.

Rows are the horizontal grids while the columns are the
vertical grids. By default you can create a table of a
maximum of 10 columns and 8 rows. Creating is table is
quite simple. The steps involved are as follows:

 Place the cursor at where you will want the table to

be.
 Click at the insert tab from the main menu
Figure 12. 4 Tables Drop-down grids
 Click at the table tab

 Move the cursor over the grids to define the number of rows and columns required. As
you move over the cells, Word gives you a live preview of your table. Simply click the
left button of the mouse when the required table size is obtained.

To Convert Existing Text to a Table:

If after you have typed a text it becomes necessary for you to convert the text to a table, Word
allows you to do so by the following steps
 Select the
text you
wish to
convert.
 Select the
Insert
tab.

Figure 12. 22 The Convert Text to Table

Figure 12. 21 The Convert Text to Table
Option of the Table Drop-down menu
dialog box
156
  Click the Table command.

 Select Convert Text to Table from the menu. A dialog box appears.

 Choose one of the options in the Separate text at: section. This is what word uses to determine
the end of each column. This may be a paragraph, tabs, commas or any other character in the
selected text that you intend to use.

 Click OK. The text appears in a table.

To Add a Row Above an Existing Row:

 Place the insertion point in a row below the location you wish to add a row.
 Right-click the mouse. A menu appears.
 Select Insert
 Select Insert Rows Above.
 Click ok
You can also add rows below the insertion point. Just follow the same steps for inserting a row
above, but select Insert Rows Below from the menu.

To Add a Column:
 Place the insertion point in a column adjacent to the location you wish the new column to
appear.
 Right-click the mouse. A menu appears.

 Select Insert

 Select Insert Columns to the Left or Insert Columns to the Right. A new column appears.

To Delete a Row or Column:

 Select the row or column.
 Right-click your mouse and a menu appears.
 Select Delete Columns or Delete Rows.

To Apply a Table Style:

Generally, the default table is basically without any formatting or style. Word comes with a
number of built-in styles to choose to give your tables a better appearance. You can
apply a style by
 Select the to table and a Table Tools Design tab will now appear on the Ribbon.

157

Figure 12. 5 Table Style and Options of the Table Tools Design Tab
 

 Select the Design tab access all the Table Styles and Options.
 Click through the various styles in the Table Styles section to see a live preview of how your
table will appear in the document.
 Left-click a style to select it. The table style will appear in the document.

A B C D

JAN 100 300 45 89

FEB 231 78 1009 90

MAR 67 999 34 90
A B C D
APR 100 290 98 100
JAN 100 300 45 89

FEB 231 78 1009 90

Original table After applying
MAR 67 999 34 90
light shading –
APR 100 290 98 100 Accent 2 with
borders

You can modify which table styles are displayed. In the Table Styles Options you can select and
deselect various table options. For example, you can select Banded Rows and only tables with
banded rows will appear in the Tables Styles section. Banded rows and columns make a table
much easier to read.

Modify a Table Using the Layout Tab

When you select a table in Word 2007, Design and Layout tabs appear under Table Tools on the
Ribbon. Using commands on the Layout tab you can make a number of modifications to the
table. These include:

 Adding and deleting columns,

 Adding and deleting rows,

158
  Changing the cell size,

 Aligning cell text,

 Changing text direction,

 Merging and splitting cells,

 And More

1-6.3 Using

SmartArt Graphics

SmartArt allows you to visually communicate information

rather simply using text. Illustrations can really make an
impact in your document and SmartArt makes using
graphics especially easy.

To Insert a SmartArt Illustration:

 Place the insertion

point in the document
where you want the
graphic to appear.

 Select the Insert tab.

 Select the SmartArt

command in the
Illustrations group. A
dialog box appears.

Figure 1.9 Computer Case

159
  Select a category or diagram type from the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box.

 Left-click a graphic to select it.

 Click OK.

About the Text pane

The Text pane is the pane that you can always use to enter and edit the text that you enter in your
SmartArt graphic. The Text pane appears to the left of your SmartArt graphic when the graphic image
is selected. When you add and edit the content in the Text pane, the SmartArt graphic is automatically
updated so that shapes are added or removed as needed.

When a SmartArt graphic is created, the SmartArt graphic and its Text pane are populated with
placeholder text that you can replace with your information. At the top of the Text pane, you can edit
the text that appears in your SmartArt graphic. At the bottom of the Text pane, you can view
additional information about the SmartArt graphic.

Figure 12. 6 SmartArt Graphics and its Text Pane populated with placeholder text

In SmartArt graphics that contain a fixed number of shapes, only some of the text in the Text pane
appears in your SmartArt graphic. Text, pictures, or other content that is not displayed is identified in the
Text pane with a red X. Content that is not displayed is still available if you switch to another layout, but
if you keep and close this same layout, the information is not saved, to protect your privacy. The Text
pane works like an outline or a bulleted list that maps information directly to your SmartArt graphic. Each
SmartArt graphic defines its own mapping between the bullets in the Text pane and the set of shapes in
the SmartArt graphic.

To create a new line of bulleted text in the Text pane, press ENTER. To indent a line in the Text pane,
select the line that you want to indent, and then under SmartArt Tools, on the Design tab, in the Create
Graphic group, click Demote. To negatively indent a line, click Promote. You can also press TAB to

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indent or SHIFT+TAB to negatively indent from within the Text pane. Any of these manipulations
updates the mapping between the bullets in the Text pane and the shapes in the layout for the SmartArt
graphic. It is not possible to demote text more than one level from the text in the line above, nor can you
demote the top level shape.

To Add Text to a SmartArt Graphic:

 Select the graphic. The first text box is selected. If the task pane on the left of the graphic is
visible, the insertion point appears in it. If the task pane is not visible, click the arrow to open the
task pane.
 Enter text into the task pane fields. The information will appear in the graphic.

Figure 12. 7 An Organizational Chart Graphics Style

OR

 Click X to close the task pane.

 Enter text into the first text box in the graphic.
 Continue to enter text in the text box graphics.
Notice the text you enter automatically resizes to fit inside the box.

To Add a Shape to a Graphic:

 Select the graphic. The SmartArt Tools Design and Format tabs appear on the Ribbon.
 Select the Design tab.
 Click the Add Shape command in the Graphics group.

 Decide where you want the new shape to appear and select one of the shapes nearby the desired
location.

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  Select Add Shape Before or Add Shape After. If we wanted to add a superior or a subordinate,
we could select the Above or Below options.

To Move Shapes Using the Promote or Demote Commands:

 Select the graphic. The SmartArt Tools Design and Format tabs appear on the Ribbon.
 Select the Design tab.

 Select the shape you would like to move.

 Click the Promote or Demote commands in the Create Graphic group.

Figure 12. 8 The Promote Command button of the SmartArt Tools

The Promote and Demote commands allow you to move shapes and really customize the
graphic, rather than having to use the predefined default illustration.

To Change the Graphic Style:

 Select the graphic. The SmartArt Tools Design and Format tabs appear on the Ribbon.
 Select the Design tab.

 Left-click a style to select it.

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Click the More arrow to see all the style options. Hover over each to display a Live Preview of
the style in your document.

To Change the Color Scheme:

 Select the graphic. The SmartArt Tools Design and Format tabs appear on the Ribbon.
 Select the Design tab.

 Click the Change Color command. A menu of color schemes appear.

 Left-click an option to select it.

You can explore the options in the Layout group by switching to another graphic, but keep the
existing text. You can select the Format tab to access additional formatting options including
fill, text, and line color.

Some of the options will differ from graphic to graphic. Look carefully at the SmartArt Tools
tabs and explore the active commands.

1-6.4 Using Indents, Tabs, Find and Replace

A great way to draw attention to specific text is to indent it.

There are several ways that one can indent a text in Word,
however, it is important to use these tools appropriately and
indent correctly each time. Generally Word allows you to
either increase or indent text. You can also indent by using the
tab key. The use of the tab key is more common with most
people as this method is best for indenting one line rather than
multiple lines.

Figure 12. 31 Indent Command

Button
To Indent Using the Tab Key:
 Place the insertion point to the left of text you wish to indent.
 Press the Tab key. This indents the line 1/2 inch by default.

To Use the Indent Commands:

Using the Tab key to indent multiple lines can make formatting difficult if you add or remove
text later. Indenting multiple lines is best done using the Indent commands.

 Select the text you wish to indent.

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  Click the Increase Indent command to increase the indent. The default is 1/2 an inch. You can
press the command multiple times.

 Click the Decrease Indent

Figure 12. 9 Increase Indent Command button
command to decrease the indent.
 Select the Page Layout tab.
 Select the text you would like to modify.
 Use the arrows or enter text in the fields to modify the Left and Right Indents.

To Modify the Default Indent Settings:

The Tab Selector

The tab selector is above the vertical ruler on the left.

The tab options are:

 First Line Indent : Inserts the indent marker on the

ruler and indents the first line of text in a paragraph.
 Hanging Indent : Inserts the hanging indent
marker and indents all lines other than the first line.
 Left Tab : Moves text to the right as you type.
 Center Tab : Centers text according to the tab. Figure 1.13 A Mechanical Mouse
 Right Tab : Moves text to the left as you type.
 Decimal Tab : Aligns decimal numbers using the decimal point.
 Bar Tab : Draws a vertical line on the document.

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To Set a Tab Stop to Indent the First Line of Text:

 Click the tab selector until the First Line Indent icon is visible.

Figure 12. 10 First Line Indent Selected on the Tab Selector

 Left-click at any point on the horizontal ruler. The First Line Indent icon will appear.
 Press the Enter key to start a new paragraph and your insertion point will automatically indent to
that point. I
To move a tab stop once you have inserted it, left-click and drag the tab stop back and forth on
the ruler. You can set the Hanging Indent the the same way; however this tab stop changes all
the other lines in a paragraph.

To Set the Left, Center, Right, and Decimal Tab Stops:

 Click the tab selector until the tab

stop you wish to use appears.
 Left-click the location on the
horizontal ruler where you want your
text to appear.
 Press the Tab key to reach the tab
stop.

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To Use Find and Replace to Replace Existing Text:
 Click the Replace command on the Home tab. The Find and
Replace dialog box appears.
 Enter text in the Find field that you wish to locate in your
document.
 Enter text in the Replace field that will replace the text in the Find
box.

Figure 1.14 Front of

Computer Case

Figure 12. 11 Find and Replace Dialog box

 Click OK. The change is made in the document.

You can also use the Find command to locate specific text in a document. You can use the Find
command to locate all instances of a word or phrase in the document. This is a great way to save
time when working with long documents.

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SESSION 2-6: REFERENCES AND MAIL MERGE
Whenever you write a book, thesis, report or a paper for journal publication you will normally have
citations, bibliography, footnotes, table of content, indexes, etc in your document. Word refers to these as
references.

2-6.1 Adding New Citation and Source to a Document

When a new citation is added to a document, you also create a new source that will appear in the
bibliography. A bibliography is a list of sources that have been used in a document to support citations. A
bibliography is usually placed at the end of the document. In Microsoft Office Word 2007, you can
automatically generate a bibliography based on the source information that you provide for the document.
Each time you create a new source, the source information is saved on your computer, so that you can
find and use any source you have created. You can create a bibliography at any point after you insert one
or more sources in a document. If you don't have all of the information that you need about a source to
create a complete citation, you can use a placeholder citation, and then complete the source information
later. To create a citation,

1. Click the References tab, and in the Citations & Bibliography group click the arrow next to
Style.

2. Click the style that you want to use for the citation and source.
For example, social sciences documents usually use the MLA or
APA styles for citations and sources. The default is GOST-T
format
Figure 13. 1 The Citation and 3. Click at the end of the sentence or phrase that you want to cite.
Bibliography group 4. On the References tab, and in the Citations & Bibliography
group, click Insert Citation.
5. Do one of the following:
 To add the source information, click Add New Source.

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 Figure 1.17 An Expansion Board
or

 To add a placeholder, so that you can create a citation and fill in the source
information later, click Add new placeholder. Type in the name of the placeholder in the
dialogue box and click ok. The specified name appears in closing brackets within the
document. You can edit the placeholder by clicking at the placeholder and then the down
arrow tip next to it and select Edit Citation.

6. Start filling in the source information by clicking the arrow next to Type of source. For
example, your source might be a journal paper, conference paper, book, a report, or a Web site.
7. Fill in the bibliography information for the source.

To add more information about a source, click the Show All Bibliography Fields check box.

Repeat steps 3 through to 7 for the other citations.

 To find additional sources, or additional information about sources that you are
citing, click Insert Citations, and then click Search Libraries.
 If you choose a GOST or ISO 690 style for your sources and a citation is not unique,
append an alphabetic character to the year. For example, a citation would appear as
[Bosu, 1848a].
 If you chose ISO 690 - Numerical Order and you add citations to your document,
you must click the ISO 690 style again to correctly order the citations.

2-6.2 Generating a Bibliography

Having inserted citations in your document you can now generate the bibliography. To do so you will
have to

1. Click anywhere you want to insert a bibliography, usually at the

end of the document.

2. Click the References tab, and in the Citations & Bibliography

Figure 13. 3 Bibliography group, click bibliography.
command button in the
Reference Tab

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 3. Click a predesigned bibliography format (Bibliography or cited works) to insert the
bibliography into the document.

2-6.3 Creating and Generating Table of Contents and Indexes

Table of Content
Whenever you write a book or your thesis, one will expect you to include a table of content to provide a
quick way of getting to a chapter or a topic. A table of content gives the list of chapter and headers as well
as the pages where the chapters and headers (and sub headers) can be found. You can create a table of
contents by choosing the heading styles — for example, Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 — that you
want to include in the table of contents. Word then searches for headings that match the style that you
chose, formats and indents the entry text according to the heading style, and then inserts the table of
contents into the document.

MS Word 2007 provides a gallery with multiple table of contents styles to choose from. You will first
have to mark the table of contents entries, and then click the table of contents style that you want from the
gallery of options. Word 2007 automatically creates the table of contents from the headings that you
marked.

Mark entries for a table of contents

The easiest way to create a table of contents is to use the built-in heading styles (Heading 1 through to
Heading 9.). You can also create a table of contents that is based on the custom styles that you have
applied. Or you can assign the table of contents levels to individual text entries.

Mark entries by using built-in heading styles

1. Select the heading that you want to apply a heading style to.
On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the style that you want.

For example, if you selected text that you want to style as a main heading, click the style called
Heading 1 in the Quick Style gallery.

After you have marked all entries for the table of content, you can then create the table of content as
follows:

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Creating a table of contents from built-in headers

After you mark the entries for your table of contents, you are ready to build it .You can use this procedure
if you have already created a document by using heading styles.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents, usually at the beginning of a document.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then
click the table of contents style that you want.

Please note that if you need more options then you will have to
click Insert Table of Contents to open the Table of Contents
dialog box.

Creating a table of contents from custom styles that you applied

Use this procedure if you have already applied custom styles to your headings. You can choose the style
settings that you want Word to use when Word builds the table of contents.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents, usually at the beginning of the
document.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then
click Insert Table of Contents.
3. Click Options.
4. Under Available styles, find the style that you applied to the headings in your document.
5. Under TOC level, next to the style name, type a number from 1 to 9 to indicate the level that
you want the heading style to represent.

Please note that if you want to use only custom styles, delete the TOC level numbers for the built-in
styles, such as Heading 1.

6. Repeat step 4 and step 5 for each heading style that you want to include in the table of
contents.
7. Click OK.
8. Choose a table of contents to fit the document type:
 Select Printed document if you are creating a document that readers will read on
a printed page, create a table of contents in which each entry lists both the heading and the
page number where the heading appears. Readers can turn to the page that they want.
 Select Online document for a document that readers will read online in Word,
you can format the entries in the table of contents as hyperlinks, so that readers can go to a
heading by clicking its entry in the table of contents.

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9. To use one of the available designs, click a design in the Formats box.
10. Select any other table of contents options that you want.

Updating the table of contents

If you added or removed headings or other table of contents entries in your document, you can quickly
update the table of contents by simply following the steps below:

1. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click

Update Table.
2. Click Update page numbers only or Update entire table.
Top of Page Figure 1.21 A Typical
Motherboard

Deleting a table of contents

If you include a table of contents and later decides that you don’t need it then you will have to delete it.
As such, a table of content can be deleted by going through the following steps.

1. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click

Table of Contents.

2. Click Remove Table of Contents.

Figure 13. 6 Table of Content
command button

2-6.4 Mail Merging

Mail merge is a useful tool that will allow you to easily produce multiple copies of letters, labels,
envelopes, directory and E-mail messages and more using information stored in a list, database,
or spreadsheet.

Mail Merge
The mail merge process entails the following overall steps:

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1. Set up the main document. The main document contains the text and graphics that are the

same for each version of the merged document. For example, the return address or salutation in a
form letter.
2. Connect the document to a data source. A data source is a file that contains the information to
be merged into a document. For example, the names and addresses of the recipients of a letter.
3. Refine the list of recipients or items. Microsoft Office Word generates a copy of the main
document for each item, or record, in your data file. If your data file is a mailing list, these items
are probably recipients of your mailing. If you want to generate copies for only certain items in
your data file, you can choose which items (records) to include.
4. Add placeholders, called mail merge fields, to the document. When you perform the mail
merge, the mail merge fields are filled with information from your data file.
5. Preview and complete the merge. You can preview each copy of the document before you
print the whole set.

To Use Mail Merge Using the Mail Merge Wizard:

 Select the Mailings on the Ribbon.

 Select the Start Mail Merge command.

 Select Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.

The Mail Merge task pane appears and will guide you through the
six main steps to complete a mail merge. For example to create a
letter the first step requires that you select the type of document you
are working one, the second step requires you to select how you
intend to setup your document, the third steps allows you to select
recipients of the document, etc. You will have many decisions to
make during the process. The following is an example of how to
create a form letter and merge the letter with a data list.
Figure 13. 8 Choosing Document
Type  Choose the type of document you wish to create. In this
example, select Letters.

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 Click Next: Starting document to move to Step 2.

 Select Use the current document.

 Click Next: Select recipients to move to Step 3.

 Select the Type a new list button.

 Click Create to create a data source. The New Address List dialog box appears.

To Customize the New Address List:

Figure 13. 1 Customize Address list dialog box

o Click Customize in the dialog box. The Customize Address List dialog box appears.
o Select any field you do not need and click Delete.

o Click Yes to confirm that you wish to delete the field.

o Continue to delete any unnecessary fields.

o Click Add. The Add Field dialog box appears.

o Enter the new field name.

o Click OK.

o Continue to add any fields necessary.

o Click OK to close the Customize Address List dialog box.

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  Enter the necessary data in the New Address List dialog box.

 Click New Entry to enter another record.

 Click Close when you have entered all your data records.

 Enter the file name you wish to save the data list as.

 Choose the location you wish to save the file.

 Click Save. The Mail Merge Recipients dialog box appears and
displays all the data records in the list.

 Confirm the data list is correct and click OK.

 Click Next: Write your letter to move to Step 4.

 Write a letter in the current Word document, or use an open, existing

document.

To Insert Recipient Data from the List:

o Place the insertion point in the document where you wish the
information to appear.
o Select Address block, Greeting line, or Electronic postage from the
task pane. A dialog box with options will appear based on your
selection.

OR

o Select More Items. The Insert Merge Field dialog box will appear.
o Select the field you would like to insert in the document.

o Click Insert. Notice that a placeholder appears where information from the data record will
eventually appear.

o Repeat these steps each time you need to enter information from your data record.

 Click Next: Preview your letters in the task pane once you have completed your letter.

 Preview the letters to make sure the information from the data record appears correctly in the
letter.

 Click Next: Complete the merge.

 Click Print to print the letters.

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 Click All.

 Click OK in the Merge to Printer dialog box.

 Click OK to send the letters to the printer.

The Mail Merge wizard allows you to complete the mail merge process in a variety of ways.
The best way to learn how to use the different functions in Mail Merge is to try to develop
several of the different documents -- letters, labels, envelopes -- using the different types of
data sources.

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