Basic Computing: Tasks 11

11. Wikipedia

This is a living encyclopaedia where you nearly will always find a description of whatever you can think of.
Examples:

Click Wikipedia
Type in "Gregory Peck" in Wiki's search box (on the top right hand corner) and press enter. You'll see a lot of his details and also his filmography (list of what film he acted and when). Click on one of his films (e.g. Roman Holiday), then you'll see the details of that film.
Then you notice within Starring on the right side, Audrey Hepburn was there. Click on it (in fact any text in blue are links) then you'll have details of her.

Either you go back (click the Left arrow "back" key on top left corner and get back to the previous page; OR
You go home (click the Home button - the one that looks like a house) and start over searching with Google

12. Windows Task Bar

Windows is designed to allow you to switch from one task to another without the need to close the first one. This is called Multi-tasking. You can open as many different windows as long as you don't get yourself too confused. For example you can play a game of Solitaire, while keeping Internet Explorer open, and then still want to open a Word document, and so on.
The Task Bar is the bottom part of your desktop which is usually visible even when you are working with windows that are maximized.
You will notice when a program such as Internet Explorer is launched its icon will appear on the task bar. Even when it is minimized or you are working with other programs, it is still active.
If you are switching from one task to another (for example copying some content from Internet Explorer to Ms-Word, assuming you have opened both already). You can first click on the Internet Explorer icon on the task bar to restore it (make it active again). Do you copy, then click on the Ms-Word icon on the task bar to restore the Ms-Word window.
In many occasion when you have quite a few active windows and you want to see the Windows desktop it is a bit time consuming to minimize (or close) the windows one by one. One quick way to give you back the desktop (the screen you see right after you started Windows):

Right click on the Windows Task bar at the bottom of the screen.
Choose "Show the Desktop", this will immediately minimize all windows for you and give you back the desktop!

If you feel that you will be using a program very frequently, it is convenient for you to "Pin" the icon to the task bar.

Right click on the icon on the task bar and choose "Pin this program to task bar".
Next time you can simply launch this program by click on its icon on the task bar.

13. How to do a simple photo slideshow

A slight change this time - a Ms-Powerpoint presentation
Click here for the presentation (you will need to sign into a Google account)
Windows provides very basic slideshow features, for more sophisticated shows, one can consider programs like Google Picasa, Ms-Powerpoint, etc.

14. Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer helps you managing files and folders stored on your USB stick or the harddisk of your computer.
See the Powerpoint presentation above on ways to launch Windows Explorer.
The left side of the view pane gives you a list of locations for storage
For beginners I recommend you to stick to your USB fingers which is under "Computer"
When you click on "Computer" a further list will be shown and your USB finger is usually named as "Removable disk"
Click on it and the folders and files under it will be shown on the right pane.
Note that for every files there is a file type icon on the left of the file name telling you what type of file it is - e.g. Ms-Word document, Jpeg (a very common type of photo file), etc.
Double click on a file icon and Windows Explorer will launch the appropriate program to view its content.
If you are viewing a folder with many photos, there is a more handy way to view or locate your photos. You can change the view, by clicking "View" in the pull down menu on the top left corner, then choose "Large icons" or even "Extra large icons". Then the thumbnails of your photos will be shown in a concise manner. You can quickly glance or scroll through them to locate your desired photo.
Searching for "lost" files

We all had this experience - you clearly recall you save a document and simply cannot find it!
The usual reason is when you save it, you forgot to note WHERE to. You can blame on Windows because it simply gave you too many choices of locations, while the owners of different computers may choose different default locations to save files.
Don't fret, because Windows Explorer should be able to locate it for you.
Click on "Computer" first.
Then click the Search dialogue box on the top right corner and type in any keyword related to your "lost" file. For example part of your file name, or even a word within its content.
When you start typing the first letter, Windows Explorer will already start searching for all files with names containing what you typed. Start noticing whether your file appears in the list below.
If you cannot find it, or the list is simply too long, continue typing your keyword.
OK, even when you finish typing your keyword, no sign of your file.... It is likely Windows Explorer searches through all the file names while your keyword is only part of the contents of your "lost" file. Tell it to look deeper -- Click on "File contents" button in the right end of the row just below your search result.
It may take a further while now because Windows has to go through each and every file to look for the keyword. But if your keyword is correct, I am pretty sure it an find it for you.

15. Google Maps (http://maps.google.com)

Within Google search page (presumably your home page) look for a symbol like 9 dots in a square, on the top right hand corner - single click on it and there will be a few options (e.g. GMail, Google Drive, Calendar, etc) appearing - choose "Maps".
Within Google Maps, you can

Get into street view by zooming in all the way (get out of street view by zooming out)
dragging the Pegman (yellow little person) onto the map
Within street view, change view by dragging the picture left or right
Move along the street by clicking the arrow(s) on the ground

Basic Computing