|
Of all the icon, shortcuts and applets we have seen in the last eight articles,
none is as important as the “Start” button, found in the lower left corner on the task bar. By clicking the start
button, you access the start menu and many more utilities as well as the installed programs on your computer.
The start
menu has changed from version to version, but some utilities and menu items are included in all versions. These are the ones
we will discuss today.
|
| Click illustration to enlarge |
Microsoft has done an excellent job of providing help to system settings
and information for the user. By clicking the menu item named “Help” you will be presented with a new window containing
two panes. In the left pane is a column of general help topics. Clicking any of the general topics will expand the subject
tree and present the user with a more specific list of topics. Clicking any one of these topics causes information on the
subject to be displayed in the right pane.
By changing to the “Index” tab above the left panel you will
have access to an alphabetical list of subjects that can be searched with the text box above the list. As you type your word
in the box the help utility will automatically scroll to the subject heading being entered. By going to the “Search”
tab above the list you can search subjects by keyword. The system will display a list of any help article that has reference
to the keyword. Later versions allow you to save your most often used searches as favourites for easy access in the future.
Help,
in my experience is the least used tool on the computer. Get used to using it and trying to solve simple problems yourself
before asking friends or co-workers for help. You will learn much and remember what you have learned a lot longer.
|
| Click illustration to enlarge |
Also on the start menu is the “Find” or “Search”
utility. This program allows the user to search files and folders. Why would you need to search? During the use of your computer
you will be creating hundreds maybe thousands of files and filing them amongst many folders on the hard drive, at some point
you will be looking for that file you created three months ago but just cannot remember where you put it. In this situation
the search utility is your best friend.
Search not only allows you to search for files by name, but also by strings
of text within the file. For example, if you wrote a letter in February of 2000 but could not remember where you saved
it you could do a search for files containing the string “February” or “2000” or both, going on the
assumption that the text of the letter contained a date.
If you can remember the file name, such as “my letter”
you can do a search for files named “my letter.” You can also specify where to look. This is where your understanding
of the file structure comes in handy. If you save all your documents in “My Documents” then it only prolongs the
search by searching the whole hard drive; it will be quicker to start by searching “My Documents.”
There
are two “wildcard” characters you can also use in the search field if you can only remember a part of a name.
The first is the “*” you will find it on your “8” key. This character can represent any number of
unknown characters. For example: searching for “bi*” will return bid, bit, bill, bike, bite, bimini, bibliography,
etc.
Another wild card is the “?” it can represent any ONE unknown character. For example: replacing the
“*” with “?” in the previous example would be “bi?” This would only return bit and bid.
These
wildcards can be used in combination and multiple times to create quite specific searches. Depending on the version you are
using tabs or links will allow you to refine your search even more by specifying files of certain sizes and created on certain
dates.
The start menu also contains an item called “Setting.” This
allows you quick access to your Control Panel setting, printer, network and task bar. Once again most settings should be fine
by default until you are more comfortable with the system and feel comfortable making changes in how things work.
The
“Printers” sub-menu will allow you to install and configure a printer on your computer. If this is the first printer
being installed, clicking the “Printers” item will open a new window containing a wizard called “Add Printer”
which will take you step by step through installing the new printer. If other printers are installed icons will appear representing
all the printers installed on your system. Tinkering with printer settings is not for the new user and can leave your printer
unusable or printing garbage.
If you move your mouse pointer over the “Documents” menu item a sub menu
will appear displaying a list of recently used files. This allows you to go back to files you have been working on quickly.
In
the next article we look at the “Programs” menu and submenus. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions
please feel free to contact me. I am always happy to hear from readers and help out in any way I can.
|
