Computer Operator

The X in the upper right corner of a window. When clicked, it will close the current window.

The current window that is being used.

This is what you see on your computer screen when you have no windows open. It may be a solid color, or it may be graphics. On the desktop, there will be icons, including one called "My Computer" and one called "The Recycle Bin."

Compact Disc - Read Only Memory. A CD-ROM is any compact disc which contains computer data. These discs can store huge amounts of data (up to 640 megabytes). If there is a large amount of data on a CD-ROM, then it is usually impractical to copy the data on to the hard disk; in this case, you must insert the disc whenever you want to use the data. The ROM simply means that you can not save information onto these discs. CD-ROM may also refer to the drive used to read these discs.

Select means to highlight data. To select text, for example, hold down the mouse button at the beginning of what you want to select, then move the mouse to the end of what you want to select (and let go of the mouse button). The selected text will now be in inverse (opposite) colors. This is only to show what text is selected, it does not affect the printed document.

You must open a file to view or edit it. When you open a file, it is copied from the hard disk into the computer's high-speed memory. Memory is temporary workspace only. If you change the file, you must save it (which copies the file back to the permanent hard disk).

A folder can be thought of as a location on your hard disk or floppy disk. Folders used to be called directories/subdirectories. A folder contains files and can contain nested folders (subfolders). Folders and subfolders are used to organize your hard disk. For example, you probably already have a folder named "My Documents" on your hard disk; you could place a subfolder named "Work" under "My Documents", and place all your work documents within this subfolder. This way, you can keep your work documents separate from your personal documents.

When you use a dialog box with many items to fill out, only one of the items can be accepting input from the keyboard at a time. The active item is said to be the item with the focus. You can press the TAB key to move the focus to the next item; press SHIFT+TAB to move the focus to the previous item. The item with the focus will usually have a dashed border around it, or it will have a blinking text cursor in it.

A file is a long sequence of bytes which represent data. Each file has a name and an extension which are separated by a dot (a period). The name, of course, identifies the file. The extension tells the computer what type of data is contained within the file. For example, a file called "Letter to George.DOC" is a Microsoft Word DOCUMENT. The file you are reading now is called "glossary.html". HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and it is the file type for web pages.

A round, flexible piece of magnetic media stored within a 3.5 inch square protective plastic case. One floppy disk can store 1.44 megabytes of data. Because floppy disks use magnetic media, they must be kept away from magnets, or the data on them could be erased! Computer speakers are magnetically shielded to prevent erasure of floppy disks, but standard speakers are not!

To click with the right mouse button rather than the usual left button.

Restore means to make a window smaller than full screen, so that it can be resized.

Associating a network drive. Doing this will have the drive appear in My Computer.

A vertical flashing line that shows the user where text will be inserted.

To make a window disappear from the screen and move down to the taskbar.

A series of keystrokes and mouse clicks that can be abbreviated into a single keystroke or mouse click.

A device, usually connected to a serial port of a computer, that transmits data over regular phone lines. Modem stands modulatordemodulator ; it converts a digital stream of data into sound for transmission (modulator) and converts incoming sound signals into data (demodulator).

An icon is a picture used to represent an object. Some example objects are: data files, program files, folders, email messages, and drives. Each type of object has a different icon. That means that different types of files each have an icon representing its file type. MS Word files will have the MS Word icon; MS Excel files will have the MS Excel icon; Etc.

To make a window appear at its largest possible size. he maximize button is a square in the top right corner of the window.