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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, May 21, 2006
To observe the unofficial Beginning of Summer, we will not be publishing this newsletter next week. Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend! See you in June.
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Finding Files
Tips & Tricks: Microsoft Word – Select the Whole Document
This Week's Topic: External Drives
Question: Hard Drive Info
Websites of Interest: Memorial Day
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Special Feature: Finding Files
Question: I have a lot of files on my computer and sometimes have difficulty remembering the filename and finding a file that I need again. Is there any easy way of doing this?
Answer:
Yes, there is. You can use the Windows Search feature. With that, you do not have to remember the name of the file, the date you created it, or the folder where you saved it. All you need to remember is a few words that were in the file.
To open Windows Search, click the Start button and then click Search (Click Find if you are using a version of Windows older than XP). Click Files or Folders. Click in the box for A word or phrase in the file (Containing text, in older versions of Windows).
Type in a word that you remember being in the file. Click the Search button. The Search program looks through the computer disk for files containing your word. The search results will appear in the right pane of the Search window. To open a file, double click on it.
Note: When searching for files, type in the words least likely to appear in many files.
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Tips & Tricks: Microsoft Word – Select the Whole Document
If you ever need to highlight all of the text in a document, there are several ways that are easier than pointing the mouse at the beginning of the document and dragging all the way to the end.
Hold down the CTRL key and press the a key.
Click Edit on the menu and then click Select All
Point the mouse somewhere in the left margin, hold down the CTRL key and click once.
Click at the beginning of the document. Point after the last word in the document, hold down the Shift key and click once.
Any of these methods will select all the text in the Word document.
Note: Some of these methods will work in Microsoft Works Word Processor, too. Give them a try.
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Today's Topic: External Drives
Question: I often see USB thumb drives and flash drives on sale. They look like good gadgets to have, but I don't know how to use them. Can you please give some instructions?
Answer:
A USB Flash Drive is a small, portable device that plugs into a computer’s USB port. It is used to save files similar to the way a hard disk or floppy disk will. The device is small and very durable because it does not contain any moving parts.
USB flash drives are easy to use because they are small enough to be carried in a pocket and can plug into any computer with a USB drive. Most computers will immediately recognize the drive without having to install any software, making it a very convenient device to just plug in and start using.
USB flash drives also are called pen drives, key drives, thumb drives, USB drives and jump drives.
If you have Windows XP, the setup is very easy. Plug the drive into any one of the USB ports on your computer and XP will automatically recognize the new hardware. You can then start dragging your files to your new drive.
If you have Windows 98 or ME, plug the thumb drive into one of your USB ports. Windows will detect that you have placed new hardware into your system and display a message like New USB storage device. Click the Next button.
Windows will ask you where the driver is for the new hardware, click the Browse button and locate the drive that your computer selected, usually the E: drive. Find the driver; click the Next button and then finish. Double click on the My Computer icon and find the E: drive. Double click on that. Now you can start to drag and drop your files onto the thumb drive.
To use the thumb drive, double click on the My Computer icon and then on the thumb drive. Open the folder that contains the file or files you would like to put on the thumb drive. Position your drive folder next to the file folder and simply drag the file or files into the thumb drive folder.
Most flash drives have a small indicator light. When files are being copied, the light will flash. A solid light will indicate completion.
Visit our newsletter archives to learn more about thumb and flash drives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/011605.html
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Question: Hard Drive Info
Question: How can I find out how much my hard drive holds and how much space I have left?
Answer:
Visit our newsletter archives our article on Hard Drive Information:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/112005.html
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Websites of Interest:
Memorial Day
Visit our website for many informative links.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/memday.html |
