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Learning how to use a computer proficiently requires practice in the use of software. The basic software that you will find on most computers are a word processor, some sort of a spread sheet and a graphics program. You will hear people talking about Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works and others. They all work about the same, but there is a learning curve with each one. I use Office and also have Works on my laptop. I have never used StarOffice, but have read good reports on it. StarOffice is a product from Sun Microsystems.
You may wonder why you would need a word processor when you can write a letter on Windows built in Word pad? Which you can, however, if you want to do things like make a word bold or underline a sentence or design a brochure, usually a more powerful application is required. Spreadsheets are a must for working with a lot of numbers and graphics software will allow you to do more work with images etc. When you start using one of these programs it may seem that they have a mind of their own and, they do. It is best to have a project you want to do, such as compose a business letter. You may have to train yourself to go to the help menu often and get a good book on how to use your software. What I do is write down things that I don’t understand and take the list with me when I am shopping for a book. I pick a book that solves my problems.
Excel is a Microsoft spreadsheet product. This is a very powerful program that does amazing things with numbers.
You can think of a spreadsheet as a whole lot of columns and rows consisting of cells that you can enter data in. For a simple example column A could represent miles driven, column B represents gallons of fuel used and column C could have a formula which divides A by B and shows the mileage. Now think of a complex spreadsheet consisting of 100 rows and 100 columns with 25 formulas manipulating the numbers. Scientists use spreadsheets to do calculations for space projects. Business people use them to calculate return on investments. These are only a couple of examples. Think of the power of being able to change a number in cell A1 and have the spreadsheet software do all of the calculations in milliseconds to make the result in the lower right cell change. Some people call this a tool to play “what if” games.
Another use for this software would be to use it as a data base. Supposing you had a 1000 names with data such as age, gender, years of education and on and on. One thing the software could do for you is do a sort on these 1000 names and put them in alphabetical order in a few milliseconds. Or you could have it sort on criteria such as everyone between 40 and 50 years of age. Once you see the power of a spreadsheet you will be convinced that it is worth putting some time in to learn more about it.
I use an early version of Paint Shop for my graphics editing software. There are many others on the market, but make sure you can do things like crop pictures and make slide shows with narration etc. Most of them have a free 30 day trial before you buy. Before you buy software, talk to other computer users and ask what they are using and why they like or dislike it. One thing to keep in mind is the value of popular software when you are sharing information with other people. Life is tough enough without spending time and effort converting the information to a form you can use.
In the next section we will talk about going online. One of the powerful features of going on line is the ability to download files. Download is where you transfer files from a server to your computer. You will find some of these files will come as compressed files with an extension such as .zip. For these you will need a software program to uncompress the file or unzip it. There are several programs to do this and most of them will allow you to use a trial version. Ask what your friends use.
Another file that you will experience has an extension of .PDF, which stands for public document file. these will require a free reader found at www.adobe.com.
This could all sound a little overwhelming, and it is. My first computer experience was in 1966 and I remember how difficult it was learning all of these new things, but if you take them one at a time and try not to get frustrated, it will soon become old hat.
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