Introduction

Windows 95 is an operating system on which you can find your files, directories, and programs such as MS Word or MS Power Point at the click of your mouse. By using Windows 95, you can organize the information stored on your computer any way you like and have the convenience of easy access to all your files. These handouts are designed for your reference purposes after our workshop is over and for you to follow as we explore the Windows 95 environment.

I. What's on Your Windows 95 Screen

"My Computer" (seen here as HCL_100_12)

Double-click on this icon to see your computer's contents and manage your files. You will see different drives that are available to you.

"Network Neighborhood"

Double-click on this icon to see available resources on the network. Don't worry about this one right now.

"Recycle Bin"

You may have seen this called "trash" in other places. When you would like to delete a file, you put it in the recycle bin. Files can be retrieved from there.

(Other icons appear depending on what you have on your PC).

II. How to Open Programs

1. "Start"

At the bottom left-hand corner, you will see a "Start" key. It is located on a gray area called the "taskbar." Go ahead and click on the "Start" key. You are given a list of choices.

2. Move the mouse to "Programs."

Notice that it becomes highlighted. You do not need to click on this area. To the left of "Programs" another box will appear that shows what Programs are available to you.

3. Drag your mouse down to "Documents."

You will see another box to the left. You can tell if a choice has a menu of its own (like the "Programs" choice) by looking to see if an arrow is beside the name pointing left.

*Try this: Find Microsoft Word.

Click on "Start."

Highlight the "Programs" area.

Drag your mouse (without clicking) over to the Programs menu.

Find "Microsoft" and put the mouse over this area.

Find "Word" on the "Microsoft" menu.

Now click on "Word."

III. Creating a Document

Now that you are in MS Word, we can use this opportunity to create a document. This will be the document that you use during the workshop to learn about Windows 95.

1. Type anything on the blank screen.

2. Place the mouse arrow on "File" in the top left-hand corner. Click one time.

3. Find "Save As" on the "File" menu.

4. Find the "Save In" line on that screen.

It should say "My Documents." This can be changed depending on where you want to save a document. More on this in the Word workshop. For our purposes today, just agree to save this practice document in "My Documents."

5. Name this document using your last name.

Go to "File Name" at the bottom of the screen. If it is highlighted in blue, you can just start typing. Type your last name plus ".doc" (for me, hutchins.doc).

6. Highlight "Save" and click once.

Now we will go looking for the document using Windows 95!

1. Put the mouse on "File." Click once.

2. Find "Close." Click once on this.

3. Put the mouse on "File." Click once.

4. Find " Exit." Click once on this.

"Exit" will close Word, but not Windows 95 or log you out.

3. Now you will see your desktop again.

V. Finding Your Document

1. Place the mouse arrow over the icon (picture) called "My Computer." Double-click this.

A smaller screen pops up with other icons. These icons represent different drives on the computer.

2. Locate the "C" drive. Double-click on this.

3. A new screen appears with a list of different folders and documents.

The folders will be listed first. Folders have the icon of a manila folder. It is in these folders that you will find documents. The documents have an icon of a piece of paper along with an indication of which program you were in when you first created the document.

4. Open the folder labeled "My Documents" by double-clicking on that area.

5. Look for the document you just created in Word. Double-click on this.

6. Notice that Windows 95 opens the Word program for you and then opens the document.

7. Let's get out of this:

Click on "File" and then "Exit."

VI. Alternative Ways to Find Your Document

1. Go back to "My Computer" and double-click on this.

2. Place the mouse arrow on "File" and click once.

3. Notice one of your choices is "Find." Click once on this.

A new screen pops up asking you to enter the name of a file or document.

4. Type the name of the document you are looking for in the "Named" section.

A blinking cursor prompts you to type the name of the file or document you are looking for.

5. The "Look In" box should be highlighted. Choose "C."

Some guessing is involved in this step if you can't remember where you saved your document.

6. Now click the box called "Find Now."

A new box will appear telling you different things about that document including the name, how big it is, where it is currently located, when was the last time you worked on it, etc. This is a good thing to know if you saved something and cannot remember the full title. You can type in a partial title and explore all the documents that fit that title.

* You can also find a document using the date (day, month, or period) you worked on it last.

1. Look at the choices on the "Find" screen.

2. Put the arrow on the choice "Date Modified." Click once.

You wrote a brilliant paper entitled "Aphra Behn and the 'Sugar-candied Reader'" sometime in Spring of 1993. Who knows where you saved it? This "Date Modified" choice lets you search your drives for the document using "between" 1/1/93 and 6/1/93.

1. Put the mouse arrow over "File" and click once to make menu appear.

Notice that "Close" is an option under this menu. By clicking on the "Close" area, you can get rid of the "Find" screen. There is a quicker way to accomplish this.

2. Find the "X" at the top of the "Find" screen.

This is the "Close" button. It will do the same thing as "File," "Close."

3. Click once on the "Close" (X) button.

1. Locate the "Minimize" button at the top right-hand side of the screen (it looks like an underscore _ ).

You are now in the screen titled "My Computer."

2. Click once on the "Minimize" button.

1. Look at the gray area on the bottom of the screen and locate the button "My Computer."

2. The "My Computer" screen has not been closed, but minimized.

3. Click once on this button. Now the screen has returned.

4. Notice that the screen is not full size. The button beside the "Minimize" button is "Maximize."

5. Click once on the "Maximize" button. Now the "My Computer" screen fills the whole desktop.

*What is this good for? If you are working with a document, in Word for example, and you decide that you want to check your e-mail or you decide that you want to see how much space you have on a floppy disk you don't have to close it. If you minimize the document, it is simply on the taskbar instead of filling up the whole screen. You can easily maximize it again.

1. Minimize the "My Computer" screen again using the "Maximize/Minimize" button at the top of the screen.

Notice that the screen does not minimize completely, it just shrinks.

2. Put the mouse arrow on the blue bar across the top of that screen.

3. Click the mouse once and hold it.

4. While holding the mouse, drag the screen to another part of the desktop. Release the mouse key.

*You will find this useful with your Netscape e-mail, too. More on this in later workshops.

1. Place the mouse arrow at the lower right-hand corner of the "My Computer" screen.

Notice that the mouse arrow changes.

2. Click and drag the window the arrow (either out or in).

This re-sizes the screen both vertically and horizontally.

3. Place the mouse arrow on one side of the screen.

If you click and drag here, you can re-size the screen either horizontally or vertically, but not both.

1. Find your Word file in the C: drive.

Double click on the C: drive. Double click on "My Documents." Locate your document.

2. Click once on your document to highlight it.

3. Go to the "File" menu. Locate "Rename."

4. Click once on "Rename."

Notice that the document name is highlighted with a cursor blinking at the end of the name. You may type over the name. There is no need to backspace or use the delete key on your keyboard.

1. Go to the "My Computer" screen.

2. Locate the U: drive. Double-click on this.

3. Go to the "File" menu. Find "New."

When you highlight "New," you are given a number of options on a secondary menu.

4. Locate "Folder" and click on this.

Now you see a new folder that appears with that name. This name is highlighted and the cursor is blinking at the end of the name.

5. Go ahead and name this folder "Workshop."

Remember when we renamed the file above-you do not have to backspace or use the delete key.

1. Move the U: drive screen so that you can view "My Computer" and "U:" at the same time.

2. Double-click on the C: drive and locate your Word document.

3. Minimize the C: drive screen so that you can see the C: drive and the U: drive at the same time.

4. Highlight your Word document by clicking the mouse once. Don't release the mouse button.

5. Now drag the file from the C: drive to the new folder that you created in the U: drive labeled "Workshop."

6. Release the mouse.

7. Now double-click on the folder "Workshop."

You will see your document in that folder.

8. Notice that your Word document now exists in both folders "My Documents" and "Workshop."

Just because you move a document does not mean that it has been deleted. If you wish to delete the file, you must do something else.

1. Return to the folder "My Documents."

2. Locate your Word document and highlight it by clicking once with your mouse.

3. Now find "Delete" on the "File" menu.

4. Click on "Delete."

It will ask you if you are sure. You will click "okay" or "Yes".

*Alternative Method

1. An easier method would involve recycling the document in the "Recycle Bin."

2. Highlight the document by clicking and drag the document from the "My Documents" folder over to the "Recycle Bin" located under "Network Neighborhood" on your desktop.

3. Notice that the name of that document has been deleted from your folder.

4. Documents can be retrieved from the "Recycle Bin" in the same method you would use to retrieve a document from any other folder or drive.

1. Locate your Word document in the folder "Workshop" on the U: drive.

2. Highlight the document and drag it to the desktop. Release.

3. Notice that you now have an icon just for your document.

* What is this good for? A shortcut allows you to by-pass a lot of what you have learned about opening files and finding files. You can double-click on the shortcut icon and go straight to the document.

1. Highlight the shortcut and drag it to the "Recycle Bin."

You will delete the shortcut, NOT the document itself. You can always retrieve the shortcut from the "Recycle Bin" anyway.

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