Computer Fundamentals

It was my intent to make this useful and easy to use by everyone—yes, even from those who have used a computer to those who have never touched one. Please note that it was written for those who have never touched a computer.
Organization. This text tries to build on itself. I was very concerned about “overload” (too much information which leads to frustration) and even “underload” (too little—which leads to confusion). Everything in the textual parts which are not flagged as “Advanced” or “Expert” are important to understand why the computer does certain things and why it can’t do other things. Please be patient and read through all of it. It is also intended to be a reference once you’re done with the course. So, there are several Tables and Indices at the end of the text.
Notation. You may see some interesting notations in this text. To help you, this notation tries to be consistent with computer manuals. For example, you may see Enter. This means (and all other angle-bracketed notes) a particular key on the keyboard (in this case, it means the Enter key to the right of the alphabetic keys). If you see Ctrl-F or Alt-F4, that means holding the Ctrl, Alt or Shift key then pressing the other key (e.g. Ctrl-F4 means pressing the F4 key while holding the Ctrl key). Also, Edit|Cut means “under menu ‘Edit’ select option ‘Cut’.”