SC ICT Certification
Level 1
01 Desktop Basics
By Ross Parker

01.1
THE DESKTOP

Mastery of the desktop
• Why do nerds make things look easy?
• “The mysterious process by which difficult things become simple”.
• Learn to master the computer “desktop”:
– Increase efficiency
– Enjoy computing
– Dazzle your colleagues
– Become a Zen master!

Desktop as a metaphor
• The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer.
• The desktop metaphor treats the monitor of a computer as if it is the user's physical desktop , upon which documents and folders of documents can be placed.
• A document can be opened into a window, which represents a paper copy of the document placed on the desktop.
• Applications (calculator, word processor) are available

Directory
File
The Desktop
Wallpaper
Visible application
Start button Running applications
Mouse pointer
System tray

The Clipboard
• Ever use cut, copy and paste?
• Wonder where things go when you cut and copy?
• The answer is the clipboard.

Warning
The following exercises are for Windows XP.
Most skills apply to other Operating Systems
(with some variations)

Explorer, directories, files
Windows explorer
Directory
File

01.2
BASIC INPUT

Mouse magic
Right button
Scroll wheel
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Left button

Mouse magic II
• Single Left Click aka left click, click, select
• Double Left Click aka double click
• Single Right Click aka right click
• Left Drag and Drop aka drag and drop
• Right Drag and Drop aka right drag and drop
• Links/Buttons vs Icons

Keyboard: single keys
F1 F2 F5 Print Screen Insert Num Lock
Tab
Super
Control Alt
Shift
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Scroll Lock

01.3
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Keyboard: multiple keys
• Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V
• Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Shift-S
• Ctrl-O
• Ctrl-P
• Ctrl-F
• Super-D
• Alt-tab
• How do you discover these?

Explorer, directories, files II
• Directory Structure : stay organised!
• File extensions
• Hidden Files
• Selecting Files
– Mouse, Shift and Ctrl
– Lasso/Rubberband
• File View
• Arrange Icons By
• Locating a file by typing it's name

Manipulating Text
• Highlighting Text
– Mouse
• Left mouse button
• Double click
• Triple click (so extreme!)
– Keyboard
• Shift
• Ctrl
• Arrow keys
• Page Up, Page Down
• Find, Find and replace

01.4
OUTRODUCTION

Sharing
There are many, many such tricks.
With computers, no one knows everything.

Practice
Remember

Licensing
•
All original work used here is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 Unported license. For more details please look at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
•
This license has been chosen to permit a high degree of sharing, whilst protecting the author’s control as to how the content is used.
• Please respect this license and use accordingly!
•
Recycled and borrowed works from other sources are used under appropriate licenses, which are not affected by this license. The original source is always given.
• All original work created by Ross Parker (Sha Tin College, English Schools
Foundation, Hong Kong), except where specified.