U3A

GROUP: Computing 2008/09

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Practical computing

LEADER: Sheila Jaworski (651279)

ORGANISER: Nita Draper (682052)

WHEN: Fridays 10-12 a.m. (6-8 weekly sessions)

WHERE: Haslewey

The course is designed to help members to understand and master their machines. The course is in the Haslewey Computing room so that members can have hands on practice.

Each session follows the previous session to build up member's knowledge. The session notes may be found below as downloadable documents.

Extra computing

LEADER: Seb Welford (683620)

ORGANISER: Nita Draper (682052)

WHEN: 2nd Wednesdays 10-12 a.m.
(Not November 12th)

WHERE: HH1

Members are welcome to request topics of interest.

As member's confidence increases we will move to more advanced subjects, such as dealing with the intricacies of MS Word.

There is time at the end of each session to look at member's problems and answer questions. Members can bring their own laptops.

Course notes for Practical Computing

Session Contents Document
Lesson 1 MY COMPUTER - Using the Mouse and Keyboard Lesson 1
Lesson 2 Toolbars and Menus Lesson 2
Lesson 3 MS Word sample text Lesson 3 text

Course sessions for the original beginners course

Session Contents Document
Prospectus This outlines the contents of the course. Prospectus and Schedule
Introduction This presentation introduces the course and what it covers.
It introduces Computers with a little history. It tries to help you understand what a PC does.		 Session 1
Basic PC Introduction How to get the best out of the Windows desktop and its applications Session 1a
The File system This week we will look at how files are arranged and stored on a PC. To keep your work safe you need to be certain where it is! Session 2
The File system continued We will look at renaming, moving and deleting files and folders. You need to be confident with creating files and folders. Session 3
Housekeeping Just like at home the PC has to be kept clean and tidy, and your stuff safe. The topics for today are Disc health, Backing up and the Registry. Session 4
Security How do you keep your PC safe from intruders? There are people out there who have nothing better to do than try and mess up your PC. There are others who try and steal your information. Session 5
The Internet How to make best use of it. Session 6
MS Word These sessions give an overview of how to make the best use of MS Word, and save yourself trouble. MS Word howto

Additional information

The archive utility mentioned in the Housekeeping session may be downloaded:

The archive readme batch file
Right click and Save Target As to the desktop and rename it to archive_readme.bat then double click it to display information about the following:
The archive batch file
Right click and Save Target As to the desktop and rename it to archive.bat

The Paste Buffer is where objects (files, words etc.) go when they are Cut or Copied.
The contents of the paste buffer may then be retrieved by the Paste command.

Because Windows has many different ways of doing things, this list of shortcuts may help you to find your preferred method.