Learn to Use your Computer

In Excel, the biggest problem with keeping your spreadsheet data on different worksheets rather than keeping it all together on the same sheet is being able to compare the information on the different sheets.
When you use a single worksheet, you can split the workbook window into horizontal or vertical panes and then scroll different sections of the sheet into view. The only way to do this when the spreadsheet data are located on different worksheets is to open a second window on a second worksheet and then arrange the windows with the different worksheets so that data from desired regions are both displayed on the screen. The easiest way to do this is to use Excel's new Compare Side by Side command to tile the windows one above the other and automatically synchronize the scrolling between them.

Here's a big secret: You don't really own Windows XP. Even when you buy Windows at the store, or it comes preinstalled on your new computer, it's not yours. No, the fine print says that only Microsoft owns Windows. You only own a license -- permission -- to run Windows on your computer. Worse than that, you're only granted permission to run Windows on a single computer.
In the past, many people bought one version of Windows -- one for both their desktop computer and for their laptop. And why not? They either used their desktop computer or their laptop -- they never used them both at the same time.
Windows XP changes that with its new Activation feature. When you install Windows XP, an annoying window pops up, asking you to "activate" your version of Windows. When you click the Activate button, Windows XP takes a "picture" of your computer's components, links them to the serial number on your copy of Windows XP, and sends that information to Microsoft over the Internet.
Then, if you or anybody else ever tries to install that same version of Windows on a different computer, Windows XP says you're using somebody else's version of Windows XP, and it won't work.
Okay, what happens if you don't bother to "activate" a copy of Windows XP? It simply stops working after 30 days. The new Activation feature ensures that each copy of Windows XP will only work on a single computer. Even if Windows XP came preinstalled on your new computer, you can't take the bundled Windows XP CD and install it on another computer.
No Internet connection? Then you must call Microsoft's toll-free number, talk to a customer service representative, and activate your copy of Windows by typing in a 25-number password.
If you want to install Windows XP on several computers, it might be cheaper to purchase a special multi-version license, called a Microsoft License Pak.
If you upgrade your computer -- adding lots of new parts -- Windows XP might think it's been installed on a new computer and stop working. The solution? You must call Microsoft's toll-free number and convince those folks that you're not trying to steal their software.

Photoshop has two categories of color -- a foreground color and a background color. You apply the foreground color when you use the type tools, the painting tools, or the shape tools. It is also the beginning color of the default gradient applied by the Gradient tool.
The background color is the color you apply with the Eraser tool (assuming you don't have layers) and is the ending color of the default gradient. When you increase the size of your canvas, you fill the additional canvas with the background color (also assuming you don't have layers). You find the swatches that represent the two color categories in the lower part of the Tools palette (also known as the Toolbox).
Here are a few tips about using tools with foreground and background colors:
Use the Brush tool or the Pencil tool with the foreground color.
Blend the foreground and background with the Gradient tool.
Fill selected areas with the foreground color.
Apply the background color by erasing.
Use the Shape tools to create shapes that are filled with the foreground color.
Add more background to your canvas and fill it with the background color.

Computers understand a language variously known as computer language or machine language. It's possible but extremely difficult for humans to speak machine language. Therefore, computers and humans have agreed to sort of meet in the middle using intermediate languages such as C++. Humans can speak C++ (sort of) and C++ is converted into machine language for the computer to understand.
In the early 1970s, a consortium of really clever people worked on a computer system called Multix. The goal of Multix was to provide inexpensive computer access to graphics, e-mail, and stock data. Of course, this was a completely crazy idea and the entire concept failed.
A small team of engineers working for Bell Labs decided to save some portion of Multix in a very small, lightweight operating system that they dubbed UNIX (Un-ix, Mult-IX, get it?).
Unfortunately for these engineers, they didn't have one large machine but a number of smaller machines each from a different manufacturer. The standard development tricks of the day were all machine-dependent, and they would have to rewrite the same program for each of the available machines. Instead, these engineers invented a small, powerful language, named C.
C was indeed a powerful language, and it caught on like wildfire. However, new programming techniques were devised (most notably object-oriented programming) that left the C programming language behind. Not to be outdone, the engineering community added these new features to the C language, and the result was called C++.
The C++ language consists of the following:
A vocabulary of commands that humans can understand and that can be converted into machine language fairly easily
A language structure (or grammar) that allows humans to combine these C++ commands into a program that actually does something (well, maybe does something)
The vocabulary is often known as the semantics, while the grammar is the syntax.
What's a program?
A C++ program is a text file containing a sequence of C++ commands put together according to the laws of C++ grammar. This text file is known as the source file (probably because it's the source of all frustration). A C++ source file carries the extension .CPP just as a Microsoft Word file ends in .DOC or an MS-DOS batch file ends in .BAT. The concept extension .CPP is just a convention, but it's used almost exclusively in the PC world.
The point of programming is to write a sequence of C++ commands that can be converted into a machine language program that does whatever it is that you want done. Such machine executable programs carry the extension .EXE. The act of creating an executable program from a C++ program is called compiling (or building — there is a difference, but it's small).
How do I program?
To write a program, you need two things: an editor to build your .CPP source file with and a program that converts your source file into a machine executable .EXE file to carry out your commands. The tool that does the conversion is known as a compiler.
Nowadays, tool developers generally combine the compiler with an editor into a single work-environment package. After entering your program, you need only click a button to create the executable file.
The most popular of all C++ environments is Microsoft's Visual C++, but the software is expensive. Fortunately, there are public domain C++ environments — the most popular of which is GNU C++. (Pronounce GNU like this: guh NEW). You can download public domain programs from the Internet. Some of these programs are not free — you are either encouraged to or required to pay some usually small fee. You do not have to pay to use GNU C++.
GNU stands for the circular definition "GNU is Not UNIX." This joke goes way back to the early days of C++ — just accept it as is. GNU is a series of tools built by the Free Software Foundation.
GNU C++ is not some bug-ridden, limited edition C++ compiler from some fly-by-night group of developers. GNU C++ is a full-fledged C++ environment. GNU C++ supports the entire C++ language and executes all C++ programs.
GNU C++ is not a Windows development package for the Windows environment. You'll have to break open the wallet and go for a commercial package like Visual C++.

If you don't want to clutter your Outlook Journal by recording everything automatically, you can enter selected items manually -- just drag them to the Journal icon. For example, you may not want to record every transaction with a prospective client until you're certain that you're doing business with that client. You can drag relevant e-mail messages to the Journal and retain a record of serious inquiries. When you actually start doing business with a new client, you can set up automatic recording.
To manually record items in the Journal:
Drag the item that you want to record (such as an e-mail message) to the Journal icon.
The Journal Entry form appears. At the bottom of the form is an icon representing the item you're recording, along with the item's name.
Fill in the information that you want to record.
You don't have to record anything, though. The text box at the bottom of the screen gives you space for making a note to yourself, if you want to use it.
Click Save and Close.
The item that you recorded is entered in the Journal. You can see your new entry when you view your Journal.

A Trojan horse program tricks you into loading and running it by pretending to be something that it's not. (Surely you remember this story from Greek mythology.) The perfect example of a Trojan horse is a file that masquerades as an antivirus software patch but is really a virus.
Some Trojan horses are coupled with other types of viruses, such as macro viruses, which then generate new Trojan horses that get passed along to others.
The most famous example of a Trojan horse is the Melissa virus, which took the computer world by storm on March 26, 1999. Melissa arrived as an e-mail message with a Word document attached. Anyone foolish enough to open the attachment soon found out that the document was a Trojan horse for the macro virus embedded within the attached Word document.

Authentication is a fun word to try to say quickly ten times in a row, and it's also a common security technique used on the Web. This measure simply involves assigning approved users an official username and password that they must enter before gaining access to a protected network, computer, or directory.
Most Web servers allow you to set up areas of your Web site to be protected by username and password. Not all Web hosts allow this, however, because it requires setting up and maintaining a special password file and storing the file in a special location on the computer that holds the Web server software. If you need to make some content on your business site (such as sensitive financial information) available only to registered users, talk to your Web host to see whether setting up a password-protected area is possible.

Want to build a Web site that people love? Here are just a few more pointers you should keep in mind:
Make links meaningful; avoid generic "click here" links. Instead, link on a phrase that describes what the payoff for clicking the link will be.
Keep anything that's really important within three clicks of your homepage
Keep directory names and filenames short and consistent. Use lowercase, not mixed case,directory names and filenames.
Tell your users the size of any downloadable files -- they need to know whether they can manage the file. Also tell them the format of the files and what software they'll need, if any, to use them.
Provide an email link for feedback or to a specific contact person.
Test, test, test. Test concepts by showing index cards to a focus group or friends. Test the site before you go live. Test it after you go live. Test it until you can't stand to look at it another minute. Then get others to test it. Find all the bugs and squash them.
Document, document, document. Document your plans, the decision you made as the site is built, and the specifics of how the site is created, which tools are used, and so on.

To print out the Web pages listed under Internet Explorer's Favorites menu, follow these steps:
Click on the Start button, point to Programs, and then click on Internet Explorer.
On Internet Explorer's File menu, choose Import and Export.
In the Import/Export Wizard, click on Next.
Click on Export Favorites and then click on Next.
Click on Favorites -- the topmost folder -- and click on Next.
Click on Export to a File or Address, type C:\MY DOCUMENTS\BOOKMARK.HTM in the Export to a File or Address box, and then click on Next.
Click on Finish and then click on OK.
Quit Internet Explorer.
Open the My Documents folder on your desktop and open your newly created BOOKMARK.HTM file. (It opens in Internet Explorer.)
0. On Internet Explorer's File menu, choose Print. Click in the little check box marked Print table of links and click on OK.

To move text or copy it from one place to another in Word 2002, you have to select it first. You can also erase a great gob of text merely by selecting it and pressing the Delete key. So it pays to know how to select text.
Here are some shortcuts for doing it:
A word: Double-click the word.
A line: Click in the left margin next to the line.
Some lines: Drag the mouse over the lines or drag the mouse pointer down the left margin.
A paragraph: Double-click in the left margin next to the paragraph.
A mess of text: Click at the start of the text, hold down the Shift key, and click at the end of the text.
A gob of text: Put the cursor where you want to start selecting, press F8 or double-click EXT (it stands for Extend) on the status bar, and press an arrow key, drag the mouse, or click at the end of the selection.
Yet more text: If you select text and realize you want to select yet more text, double-click EXT on the status bar and start dragging the mouse or pressing arrow keys.
Text with the same formats: Right-click text that is formatted a certain way and choose Select Text with Similar Formatting.
A document: Hold down the Ctrl key and click in the left margin, or triple-click in the left margin, or choose Edit, Select All, or press Ctrl+A.
If you have a bunch of highlighted text on-screen and you want it to go away but it won't (because you pressed F8 or double-clicked EXT to select it), double-click EXT again.

The Outlook Journal can automatically record any document you create, edit, or print in any Microsoft Office application. The Journal also automatically tracks e-mail, meeting requests and responses, and task requests and responses. Outlook asks you if you want to turn on the automatic journaling feature every time you click the Journal icon.
To turn on the Journal's automatic recording feature, follow these steps:
Choose Tools, Options.
Click the Journal Options button.
Click to place a check in the check box for those items and files you want to automatically record and for the contacts about whom you want the information recorded.
The list of people in the For These Contacts box is the same as the list of people in your Contact list. You can also manually create Journal entries for people who are not in your Contact list.
When you add names to your Contact list in the Contacts module, those names aren't set for automatic recording in the Journal. If you want the Journal to keep track of them, then you have two ways to tell it so:
(a.) Check the name(s) in the Journal Options dialog box.
(b.) Open the Contact record, click the Journal tab, and check Automatically Record Journal Entries for These Contacts.
Click OK.
The Journal promptly begins automatically recording the items and files you selected for the contacts you named.

Myth Man MYTH People are anonymous on the Internet FACT Whenever u use the Internet u leave tracks, like digital footprints. These can be used to track down what you've been doing, which sites u look at, who u chat to and even where u log on from. Every Website keeps a record of the computers that look at it.Every e-mail u send passes through other people's computers.There are even special programs to monitor what you're doing.
Every Internet-connected computer is identified by a number, called its IP address. Whenever you connect to another computer, it has to know your IP address and might keep a record of it.
If that address can be linked to your computer, it's pretty obvious which Websites you've been visiting and which chat rooms u hang out in.

How to hide where u've been on the internet Be careful, some adults place tracking software on the machine and this can't be deleted by u without a password. In general though, doing the following will perform a surface clean of the websites u've visited: Using Internet Explorer
Click Tools and select Internet Options
Select the General tab
Under Temporary Internet Files, click Delete Files
Under History click on Clear History
Select the Content tab
Under Personal Information choose Auto Complete
Click Clear Forms Using Netscape
Click Edit and select Preferences
Click on Navigator and choose Clear History
Click on Advanced then select Cache
Click on Clear Disk Cache Using AOL
Click the Members menu and select Preferences
Click on the WWW icon
Select Advanced then Purge Cache

Using the internet for researchThe 1st step is to decide what you need the research for. Think about how it will sit in your own work. Are you looking for facts or opinions? Do you need to support an argument or present one? Knowing where you're coming from will help shape where you end up. Don't forget, if you've found it on a search engine, then so can your teacher.
Keyword searchesDoing a general subject search can be a waste of time, so think about what you really need. Imagine an article already written about what you're looking for. Now type 10 keywords from that article. To change the results, simply add or reduce the number of keywords. Find a keyword quicker on the results page
Press Ctrl + F to bring up a search dialogue box
Enter the word or words you're searching for
Press the continue button until you find that word on the pageThe web is huge, and it's easy to get lost in the billions of pages out there. A keyword search is not always the best way to get at the good stuff. It's almost guaranteed that it will throw back a few sites with misinformation. The key is to cross check the info you find
Open a new browser window by pressing Ctrl + N
Take keywords from the found information and try a new search
Compare the information with at least three sources

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics and was originally designed to replace the popular GIF format. PNG is much more sophisticated than GIF -- it supports 24- and 48-bit images, while GIF supports only 8-bit images. PNG can support RGB, Grayscale, or Indexed color image modes. You can also have varying levels of transparency in a PNG image, something both GIF and JPEG cannot do. The downside to PNG files is that the color images are often larger than GIFs or JPEGs because they contain more colors than GIF and do not have the advantage of JPEG's great compression scheme. Therefore, the PNG file format is good for small images, such as buttons and thumbnails with details.

Prevent Internet Explorer from automatically completing words
Microsoft Internet Explorer automatically completes words that you type into the address bar, forms, password boxes, and other boxes based on information you have previously typed in those boxes.
If you are using a shared computer and you don't want other people to have access to this information, you can prevent Internet Explorer from doing this.
In Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options.
On the Content tab, click AutoComplete.
Do one or more of the following:
Under Use AutoComplete for, clear the check box next to each item that you do not want Internet Explorer to complete for you.
To clear your Internet Explorer history of any entries you have previously typed into web forms, click Clear Forms.
To clear your Internet Explorer history of any passwords or user names you have previously typed into web pages, click Clear Passwords.
You can also prevent Internet Explorer from displaying a list of sites you've visited when you click the History icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, under History, click Clear History.

Windows XP includes an uninstall utility that takes the pain out of removing unneeded or obsolete versions of a program from your computer. To uninstall a program, follow these steps:
Click the Start button and then click Control Panel to open the Control Panel window.
In the Category view, where you see a list of Control Panel categories, click the Add or Remove Programs hyperlink to open the Add or Remove Programs dialog box. In the Classic view, where you see individual Control Panel icons, double-click the Add or Remove Programs icon.
Click the Change or Remove Programs button on the left side of the Add or Remove dialog box to display the Currently Installed Programs list box.
In the Currently Installed Programs list box, click the program you want to remove (when you click a program name, the description expands to include a Change/Remove button or separate Change and Remove buttons).
Click the Change/Remove button or the Remove button, if Change and Remove are separate.
Click the OK button in the alert dialog box that appears to confirm your removal of the program. When the uninstaller finishes removing the program, click the Close button to close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box and to return to the Control Panel window.
Use the Windows XP uninstaller to get rid of any unwanted program that you've installed with the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel. Using this utility to remove a program (rather than just deleting the program folder) ensures that all vestiges of the program are removed from the system and that you get back every byte of storage space to which you're entitled.
To remove unneeded Windows components, click the Add/Remove Windows Components button in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box and then locate and remove the check mark from the components you want removed before you select the Next button. Remember that if you remove the check mark from a category of components rather than from a particular component within that category, Windows will remove all the components.

An auto macro is a macro that runs automatically whenever some key event happens, such as when Word starts or when a document closes. Word recognizes auto macros by their names. For example, a macro named AutoNew automatically runs when you create a new document from a template, and a macro named AutoClose automatically runs when you close a document.
Here are the various auto macros available in Word 2003:
AutoExec: Runs when Word starts. Store it in the Normal.dot template.
AutoExit: Runs when Word exits. Store it in the Normal.dot template.
AutoNew: Runs whenever a new document is created using the template that contains the AutoNew macro.
AutoOpen: Runs whenever an existing document opens. You can create an AutoOpen macro in the Normal.dot template or in the template that's attached to the document. Or both.
AutoClose: Runs whenever an open document closes. This macro can reside in Normal.dot or in the template attached to the document.