LOGGING IN

In most organisations, your computer will be on a network and access will be restricted to a personal area or certain authorised parts of the system. To start work, you will have to follow the procedure known as logging in. This means typing in a username (your I.D.) and password in the appropriate boxes.

You may be provided with a username by your employer so that it follows company conventions e.g. your initial and the first 4 letters of your surname. (Paula MacKay would therefore have the username pmack). This can be typed in upper or lower case letters as it is ‘case in sensitive.’ As your username will be widely known or easy to guess, you will also need to choose a password that remains secret. It is the combination of username and password that allows you access to your area on the network.

When choosing passwords, there are several golden rules:

• 1.Passwords are ‘case sensitive’ so make sure you always type any capitals carefully: note that you won’t actually see them on screen to check as you are only shown *****. Ideally, combine upper and lower case letters and numbers e.g. sail4Home3.
• 2.Don’t tell anyone your password or use words that will be easy to guess – so don’t choose the name of your house, partner or new puppy that everyone in the office will be familiar with.
• 3.Change your password regularly – there may be an option to do this in the logging in window. In some cases, the company provides you with your first password and then this must be changed by you straight away. (If you worry about forgetting new passwords, simply change one character each time e.g. a number or capital letter and write down this character only. Someone finding G or 7 on a piece of paper will not be able to do much with it.)
• 4.Remember to log off after every computer session or another member of staff may gain access to your work.

COMPUTERISED FILING SYSTEMS

Programs and files can be stored in a number of areas:

Non-removable storage:

• On the hard disk inside the computer you are physically working at, which is usually referred to as the C: drive.
• On a remote computer (known as a server) in another drive that may be labelled S, T or J etc. depending on how computers are organised within your company.

Removable storage:

• On optical CDs placed in the D: drive of your machine.
• On 3½ floppy disks placed in the A: drive – although these are now being phased out as they are prone to virus infection and can only store a limited number of files.

Wherever you are directed to store your work, a folder will usually have been set aside for this purpose labelled My Documents. As you create more and more files, it is sensible to organise them systematically. Make named folders inside My Documents to group related files together and help you locate them again quickly. This can be done either from the desktop or within the program you are using, at the same time that you save your work.

CREATING FOLDERS ON THE DESKTOP

• 1.To create a folder labelled Planning inside My Documents, open My Computer first from the desktop or Start menu or go straight to My Documents if there is an icon or link provided. You will see all the files you have created so far listed in the window.
• 2.Click the Make a New Folder link in the left-hand pane (XP computers) or open the File menu and select New – Folder.
• 3.A yellow folder will appear in the window with the title New Folder showing against a blue background. Type Planning directly over the name and then press Enter to complete the naming process. (If you make a mistake, right-click the folder1 and select Rename.)
• 4.To create further sub-folders such as Planning Letters or Planning Meetings, double-click to open the parent folder and then repeat the process.

• 5.To move planning-related files previously saved in My Documents into the Planning folder, find any in the window and either drag them directly into the folder or click them and then right-click if necessary to select the Move this file option.
• 6.In the list of destination folders, click Planning and then the Move button and the file will be moved automatically. You may first need to click a + sign next to My Documents to reveal the folders inside. (The + sign will now change to a – sign.)

USING WINDOWS EXPLORER

• 7.A different way to move files into folders or sub-folders is to click the button labelled Folders. This opens the Explorer window that reveals all the drives, folders and sub-folders in your computer system. Once again, any folders containing sub-folders will show a + sign, so click this to expand the structure.
• 8.To move any files, you must be able to see the destination folder in the Folders list. Now click a folder in the left-hand Folders list to reveal its contents in the right-hand pane. Select the file you want to move and then drag it across the divide to the new destination folder showing on the left. Let go when the folder turns blue and the file will be dropped inside.

CREATING FOLDERS WHEN SAVING

• 1.When creating work, you will click the Save button to save a copy safely in a selected folder. The automatic (default) choice which will show in the Save in: box is likely to be My Documents, or the last folder you were working with. If you open in a sub-folder, click the Up arrow to move to higher level folders.
• 2.To save a document into a new Planning Budgets sub-folder that has not yet been created, drop down the list in the Save in: box to locate My Documents (or click the link in the Places Bar) and then double-click the Planning folder showing in the main window. It should now appear in the Save in: box.
• 3.Click the Create New Folder button and type the name Planning Budgets in the box that appears.
• 4.Click OK and check that the new sub-folder is now showing in the Save in: box. If not, double-click and it will open. When you click the Save button, your document will be saved directly into Planning Budgets.

Save As

To save different versions of the same document, you need to distinguish between them. Either save them with a different name, or into a different folder.

Clicking the Save button will update your current document and overwrite the original, so open the Save As box by selecting this option from the File menu. Now you can amend the file name or change the location in the Save in: window before clicking Save.