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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, October 5, 2003
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Correct Your Computer's Clock
Tips & Tricks: Quickly Close Multiple Programs
Featured Computer Term: HTML
This Week's Topic: Anti-Virus Updates – Should I Download Them?
Question: PDF Files
Websites of Interest: Yom Kippur; Bandwidth Meter; Space Invaders
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Special Feature: Correct Your Computer's Clock
Question: My computer’s clock is wrong. Will you tell me how I can fix it?
Answer:
Double-click on the clock. To set the date, click the correct day, month, and year. To set the time, click the hour, then use the up or down arrow to set the correct time; do the same for the minutes and seconds.
Check to see if your time zone is correct. If it isn’t, select the correct one from the drop-down menu.
You can look up the Official U.S. Time at this website:
http://www.time.gov/
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Tips & Tricks: Quickly Close Multiple Programs
When you have several programs open and would like to close all of them at once, you can do that quickly. Here's how:
On the keyboard, hold down the Ctrl key. Select the programs you want to close by clicking on their buttons located on the taskbar (at the bottom of your screen)
When you have selected all the programs, right click on one of them, and left click Close or Close Group from the resulting menu.
All the programs you choose will close immediately.
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Featured Computer Term: HTML
Question: What is HTML? I see that term used frequently and I’m curious what it means. Thank you. I love this newsletter – I’ve learned so much from it.
Answer:
HTML is a "language" used to write web pages. It stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.
If you want to see what HTML looks like, go to a web page like ours, http://stsico.com, click on the "View" menu and then click "Source". You will see a text file that contains all the HTML code used to make the web page.
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of?
Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its
definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Today's Topic: Anti-Virus Updates – Should I Download Them?
I just got a new computer. It has Norton Anti Virus on it. I keep getting a message that asks me to purchase a Virus Definition Update. What is this? Should I download this?
Answer:
Yes, you should. You do need to update your virus software. When you get a new computer with an anti-virus software, or you upgrade the software on your existing computer, you are only partly protected from viruses.
There are people out there who create new viruses all the time. Your anti-virus program must identify those new viruses in order to protect your computer from them. The anti virus program uses virus Definitions to do this. The definitions tell the anti virus program what to look for, and how to get rid of specific viruses.
You can either purchase the updates from Norton, or buy a new Version of the software which will come with a full year of updates.
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Question: PDF Files
What’s a PDF file?
Answer:
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. These are file formats developed by Adobe Systems that make it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor as they were intended, no matter what kind of computer the recipient has (Mac or IBM), or what program the recipient uses.
In order to open a PDF file, you need a free program from Adobe called Acrobat Reader. Acrobat reader is a program that will allow you to read files saved in the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
PDF files are very common on the internet because the Acrobat reader is free. When someone has something that want anyone to be able to read, they save it as a PDF file and then anyone can install the free reader and view the document.
IF you want to be able to read these PDF files, you must download and install Adobe Reader on your system. You can download it at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
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Websites of Interest:
Yom Kippur
October 6 is Yom Kippur. Learn more about this holiday at this website:
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday4.htm
Bandwidth Meter
Want to know how fast your Internet connection is? This service will test your connection and let you know how it compares to others.
http://webservices.cnet.com/Bandwidth/
Space Invaders
Do you remember Space Invaders? If you do, this website will bring back memories – and you can play while you’re there.
http://www.spaceinvaders.de/
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