THE LONG AWAITED BOOK WITH 360 APPROACH TO THE BASICS

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS

FREE TO SHARE

NEO BALAZ

(av_balajee@yahoo.com)

VIRTUALBRAIN INC
EVER EVOLVING

INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS TO COMPUTERS

______________________________________________

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS

______________________________________________
NEO BALAZ

VIRTUAL BRAIN INC

(av_balajee@yahoo.com)

EVER EVOLVING

This book is compiled so as to make the reader understand the very basics of computers. This book gives 3600 approach to various aspects like hardware, operating system, programs/applications, etc., I hope you all will enjoy reading this book. While going through this book you will notice some web addresses at some places, this is to provide a ready reference.

When you mention the word "technology," most people think about computers. Virtually every facet of our lives has some computerized component. The appliances in our homes have microprocessors built into them, as do our televisions. Even our cars have a computer. But the computer that everyone thinks of first is typically the personal computer, or PC. A PC is a general purpose tool built around a microprocessor. It has lots of different parts -memory, a hard disk, a modem, etc. -- that work together. "General purpose" means that you can do many different things with a PC. You can use it to type documents, send e-mail, browse the Web and play games. We will talk about PCs in the general sense and all the different parts that go into them. You will learn about the various components and how they work together in a basic operating session. You'll also find out what the future may hold for these machines.

Computer: A computer is a device that accepts data in a digital format and manipulates it to give an output. The output is determined by the instructions (program) given to the system. The computer may have a fixed in built program, or may be fed different programs depending on the required output. Modern computers also have the ability to store the programs and the data it is working with. The earliest computers were mechanical calculators, which were then replaced by the vacuum tube systems. The invention of the transistor and integrated circuits made widespread computing a reality. 'http://www.computer.org/history/' Defining a PC Here is one way to think about your PC: "A PC is a general-purpose information processing device. It can take information from a person (through the keyboard and mouse), from a device (like a floppy disk or CD) or from the network (through a modem or a network card) and process it. Once processed, the information is shown to the user (on the monitor), stored on a device (like a hard disk) or sent somewhere else on the network (back through the modem or network card)." We have lots of special-purpose processors in our lives. An MP3 Player is a specialized computer for processing MP3 files. It can't do anything else. A GPS is a specialized computer for handling GPS signals. It can't do anything else. A Game boy is a specialized computer for handling games, but it can't do anything else. A PC can do it all because it is generalpurpose.

System Box / CPU

Monitor

Mouse

Key Board

WHATS INSIDE IN YOUR CPU

POWER SUPPLY UNIT

FLOPPY DRIVE

HARD DISK CD DRIVE

CPU <CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT>

MOTHER BOARD

Let's take a look at the main components of a typical desk computer. Central processing unit (CPU) - The microprocessor "brain" of the computer system is called the central processing unit. Everything that a computer does is overseen by the CPU. CPU is also known as the microprocessor or just processor, it is the core of a computer system. It does all the arithmetic and logical calculations. Typical microprocessor operations include adding, subtracting, comparing two numbers, and fetching numbers from one area to another. They are built using VLSI technology. A CPU is characterised by the following factors: Instruction set: It is the set of instructions supported by a processor. A program that is compiled for a particular processor is converted into a group of instructions, each of which belong to the instruction set of that processor. Depending upon the instruction set used, CPUs can be classified as RISC and CISC CPUs. Bandwidth: This is the number of bits processed at a time. There are 32 bit and 64 bit processors available in the market today. Clock speed: Every digital circuit is given a fixed number of clock cycles to operate. A CPU's clock speed, usually stated in Mega Hertz (MHz) and Giga Hertz (GHz), is the number of clock cycles given to the CPU per second. It determines the number of instructions executed per second. Higher the clock speed, faster is the execution of the instruction by the CPU. Modern CPUs have clock speeds in the range of 1 to 3.2 GHz. Some of the major CPU manufacturers are Intel, AMD and SUN Microsystems.

On the Inside:

'www.chip architect.com' Memory - This is very fast storage used to hold data. It has to be fast because it connects directly to the microprocessor. Every computer system requires memory to function, as data and instructions are first placed in the memory before execution. There are two types of memory: physical memory and virtual memory. Physical memory is the actual memory in a system that can be used to process data also known as Random Access Memory. Virtual memory, on the other hand, is like an illusion. It is a combination of both primary and secondary memory. When there is a lack of physical memory, part of the program is swapped on to the hard disk. In this way, large programs that do not fit into the physical memory can also be executed. This is done by mapping a program's virtual addresses into physical addresses, using an address translator. There are several specific types of memory in a computer: [ Random-access memory (RAM) - Used to temporarily store information that the computer is currently working with

Virtual memory - Space on a hard disk used to temporarily store data and swap it in and out of RAM as needed. Read-only memory (ROM) - A permanent type of memory storage used by the computer for important data that does not change ]

Basic input/output system (BIOS) A type of ROM that is used by the computer to establish basic communication when the computer is first turned on. A computer's BIOS is permanent memory that is programmed with the basic instructions required for the PC to start and run. The BIOS is stored in a chip on the motherboard, and controls all the interactions between the operating system and components such as the graphics card, keyboard, hard disk, etc. Every time your computer starts, control is handed to the BIOS, which conducts a basic diagnosis to ensure the key components are working properly. This is called the Power On Self Test (POST). If all is well, you hear a single beep and the BIOS then hands over control to the operating system. The BIOS is programmed on to EEPROM chips, and can be upgraded to fix bugs or enable additional functionality though a process called flashing. Caching - The storing of frequently used data in extremely fast RAM that connects directly to the CPU. Cache memory refers to the Random Access Memory used by the processor to speed up the execution of instructions. Modern processors have it present on the processor die itself as Level1 (L1) and Level 2 (L2) cache. Normally, it operates at the same speed as that of the processor. This technique is based on a principle known as Locality of Reference. According to this concept, a resource be it an instruction or data that is referenced at one point in time will be referenced again sometime in the near future. Upon the execution of an instruction, the processor looks for the next instruction and the required data in the cache memory, rather than the main memory. If the required instruction were present in the cache itself, the speed up would be tremendous. This is particularly true for loops, where the same code is accessed repeatedly. However, cache memory is much more expensive as compared to the main memory. Hence, they are present in small amounts usually between 16 KB to 1 MB that are divided between L1 and L2, where L1 is more closer to the processor than L2

Motherboard - This is the main circuit board that all of the other internal components connect to. The CPU and memory are usually on the motherboard. Other systems may be found directly on the motherboard or connected to it through a secondary connection. For example, a sound card can be built into the motherboard or connected through PCI. The CPU uses Northbridge and Southbridge chips that are integrated on the motherboard to communicate with memory and peripherals respectively. The Northbridge chip is sometimes referred to as the motherboard chipset that contains the memory controller. However, modern processors such as the AMD Opteron have the memory controller on the processor itself. The major components present on a motherboard are: Central Processing Unit(s) Basic Input/Output system Memory Expansion slots such as PCI, AGP, ISA, etc Secondary storage devices Based on their physical dimension and type of power supply, motherboards come in two form factors: AT and ATX. 'http://www.motherboards.org/'

Power supply - An electrical transformer regulates the electricity used by the computer. Hard disk - This is large-capacity permanent storage used to hold information such as programs and documents. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) Controller - This is the primary interface for the hard drive, CD-ROM and floppy disk drive. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Bus - The most common way to connect additional components to the computer, PCI uses a series of slots on the motherboard that PCI cards plug into. SCSI - Pronounced "scuzzy," the small computer system interface is a method of adding additional devices, such as hard drives or scanners, to the computer. AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port is a very high-speed connection used by the graphics card to interface with the computer. The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a dedicated high performance interface between the PC's chipset and the graphics controller. It was developed specifically for 3D graphics to overcome the bandwidth limitation of the older PCI interface. The AGP slot gives high speed access to the system's RAM, which speeds up the processing of games and other 3D applications such as animation. AGP has allowed graphics to advance and deliver a richer and far more realistic experience. AGP speeds have increased over time. The original specification (AGP 1X), runs at 66 MHz and has a data transfer rate of 256 MBps. Since then, the standard has moved to 2X, 4X and now 8X, delivering 2 GBps at 533 MHz (66 MHz x 8). AGP 8X is compatible with all previous AGP standards. 'http://www.intel.com/technology/agp/' Chipsets are the heart of any computer. They are a combination of microchips that control Chipset your computer's functions and provide all the basic features on your motherboard. Communication between the CPU, memory, peripherals etc. is all controlled by the system chipset. Your choice of chipset determines the CPU you can use, the amount and type of memory, the types of expansion slots available, and all other aspects of motherboard design. A system's speed and reliability depend heavily on its chipset. Additional features such as USB are also chipset dependant. Besides companies such as Intel and

AMD that come out with chipsets for their CPUs, VIA, SIS and nVidia also manufacture them. ('http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/index.htm') Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), is a commonly used semiconductor for CMOS low powered applications. Silicon and Germanium are doped to increase conductivity of either negative (n type transistors), or positive charges (p type). Since only one of the transistors is active at any time, and there is no current flow when there are no gate switches, CMOS chips use very little power. CMOS memory is used in PCs to store the system date and start up settings. Sound card - This is used by the computer to record and play audio by converting analog sound into digital information and back again. Graphics card - This translates image data from the computer into a format that can be displayed by the monitor. Operating system - This is the basic software that allows the user to interface with the computer.

You Need Connections

No matter how powerful the components inside your computer are, you need a way to interact with them. This interaction is called input/output (I/O). The most common types of I/O in PCs are: Monitor - The monitor is the primary device for displaying information from the computer. Keyboard - The keyboard is the primary device for entering information into the computer. Mouse - The mouse is the primary device for navigating and interacting with the computer Removable storage - Removable-storage devices allow you to add new information to your computer very easily, as well as save information that you want to carry to a different location. Floppy disk - The most common form of removable storage, floppy disks are extremely inexpensive and easy to save information to. CD-ROM - CD-ROM (compact disc, read-only memory) is a popular form of distribution of commercial software. Many systems now offer CD-R (recordable) and CD-RW (rewritable), which can also record. DVD-ROM - DVD-ROM (digital versatile disc, read-only memory) is similar to CD-ROM but is capable of holding much more information Ports Parallel - This port is commonly used to connect a printer. Serial - This port is typically used to connect an external modem. Universal Serial Bus (USB) - Quickly becoming the most popular external connection, USB ports offer power and versatility and are incredibly easy to use. Firewire (IEEE 1394) - Firewire is a very popular method of connecting digital-video devices, such as camcorders or digital cameras, to your computer. Internet/network connection Modem - This is the standard method of connecting to the Internet. Local area network (LAN) card - This is used by many computers, particularly those in an Ethernet office network, to connected to each other. Cable modem - Some people now use the cable-television system in their home to connect to the Internet. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem - This is a high-speed connection that works over a standard telephone line. Very high bit-rate DSL (VDSL) modem - A newer variation of DSL, VDSL requires that your phone line have fiber-optic cables.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU START YOUR COMPUTER?

Now that you are familiar with the parts of a PC, let's see what happens in a typical computer session, from the moment you turn the computer on until you shut it down: 1. You press the "On" button on the computer and the monitor. 2. You see the BIOS software doing its thing, called the power-on self-test (POST). On many machines, the BIOS displays text describing such data as the amount of memory installed in your computer and the type of hard disk you have. During this boot sequence, the BIOS does a remarkable amount of work to get your computer ready to run. The BIOS determines whether the video card is operational. Most video cards have a miniature BIOS of their own that initializes the memory and graphics processor on the card. If they do not, there is usually video-driver information on another ROM on the motherboard that the BIOS can load. The BIOS checks to see if this is a cold boot or a reboot. It does this by checking the value at memory address 0000:0472. A value of 1234h indicates a reboot, in which case the BIOS skips the rest of POST. Any other value is considered a cold boot. If it is a cold boot, the BIOS verifies RAM by performing a read/write test of each memory address. It checks for a keyboard and a mouse. It looks for a PCI bus and, if it finds one, checks all the PCI cards. If the BIOS finds any errors during the POST, it notifies you with a series of beeps or a text message displayed on the screen. An error at this point is almost always a hardware problem. The BIOS displays some details about your system. This typically includes information about the following: Processor Floppy and hard drive Memory BIOS revision and date Display Any special drivers, such as the ones for SCSI adapters, are loaded from the adapter and the BIOS displays the information. The BIOS looks at the sequence of storage devices identified as boot devices in the CMOS Setup. "Boot" is short for "bootstrap," as in the old phrase "Lift yourself up by your bootstraps." Boot refers to the process of launching the operating system. The BIOS tries to initiate the boot sequence from the first device using the bootstrap loader. 3. The bootstrap loader loads the operating system into memory and allows it to begin operation. It does this by setting up the divisions of memory that hold the operating system, user information and applications. The bootstrap loader then establishes the data structures that are used to communicate within and between the sub-systems and applications of the computer. Finally, it turns control of the computer over to the operating system. 4. Once loaded, the operating system's tasks fall into six broad categories: Processor management - Breaking the tasks down into manageable chunks and prioritizing them before sending to the CPU Memory management - Coordinating the flow of data in and out of RAM and determining when virtual memory is necessary Device management - Providing an interface between each device connected to the computer, the CPU and applications Storage management - Directing where data will be stored permanently on hard drives and other forms of storage Application Interface - Providing a standard communications and data exchange between software programs and the computer User Interface - Providing a way for you to communicate and interact with the computer

5. You open up a word processing program and type a letter, save it and then print it out. Several components work together to make this happen: The keyboard and mouse send your input to the operating system. The operating system determines that the word-processing program is the active program and accepts your input as data for that program. The word-processing program determines the format that the data is in and, via the operating system, stores it temporarily in RAM. Each instruction from the word-processing program is sent by the operating system to the CPU. These instructions are intertwined with instructions from other programs that the operating system is overseeing before being sent to the CPU. All this time, the operating system is steadily providing display information to the graphics card, directing what will be displayed on the monitor. When you choose to save the letter, the word-processing program sends a request to the operating system, which then provides a standard window for selecting where you wish to save the information and what you want to call it. Once you have chosen the name and file path, the operating system directs the data from RAM to the appropriate storage device. You click on "Print." The word-processing program sends a request to the operating system, which translates the data into a format the printer understands and directs the data from RAM to the appropriate port for the printer you requested. 6. You close the Web browser and choose the "Shut Down" option. 7. The operating system closes all programs that are currently active. If a program has unsaved information, you are given an opportunity to save it before closing the program. 8. The operating system writes its current settings to a special configuration file so that it will boot up next time with the same settings. 9. If the computer provides software control of power, then the operating system will completely turn off the computer when it finishes its own shut-down cycle. Otherwise, you will have to manually turn the power off.

Terminology You Come Across:

Desk Computer Desk computer is a personal computer that's designed to be placed on a typical office or home desk. It consists of a monitor, a cabinet that encloses the processor, motherboard, hard disk, memory, the display card and other add on cards, and input devices such as mouse and keyboard. Most of the manufacturers ship these systems with the software and hardware required for home and office usage. These systems also support hardware such as modems and Ethernet cards to connect to the Internet and LANs.

Hardware In IT terminology, the terms hardware and software are used to distinguish between physical computer components and computer programs. Hardware are computer components that you can actually touch and feel. Typical hardware components are the CPU, motherboard, memory module, keyboard, mouse, cables, monitor etc. Of course, hardware is of no use without the proper software that can detect the device and control its functioning.

Input / Output A computer is an electronic device that takes in input in a variety of forms and gives output in a format understandable to humans. Input devices include keyboard, mouse, joystick and light pen. Output can be viewed using CRT and LCD monitors. It can also be printed using printers. There are also some devices such as hard disks, floppy disks, etc., that can act as input as well as output devices. Computer systems take data from these devices as input and store the output on them. Peripherals The term peripherals is used to refer to components that are not absolutely necessary for the functioning of a computer system. They can be classified as external devices, e.g., printers, scanners, joystick, etc., and internal devices, e.g., CD ROM drive, add on cards, etc. These can be connected to the computer using special interfaces or connectors such as USB, FireWire, COM port, etc. Keyboard A keyboard is the most basic input device for computers. It is basically a rectangular piece with over a 100 buttons representing characters, numbers and computer functions. The keyboard layout is popularly called QWERTY, simply because they are the first six characters you will find in the first row. Developed by Chrisher Latham Sholes, this layout dates back over a 100 years, and was actually designed to slow a typist down. This is because the hammers of mechanical typewriters that typed each letter used to jam when pressed in quick succession. So, Sholes moved the most commonly used letters away from each other. In the 1930s, August Dvorak re designed it to make it easier to type, but the Dvorak keyboard never really caught on. Keyboard technology has advanced to make the keyboard more ergonomic. Wireless keyboards have also been invented. Prices have come down and buttons to activate and control software such as Web browsers and media players have been added. Keyboard shortcuts are used extensively in today's PCs. Even handheld devices that lack a real keyboard often provide text input through an on screen keyboard. ('http://www.sjy.org/Technology/HKeyboard/')

Primary and Secondary storage A computer system uses two modes of data storage primary and secondary. Primary memory consists of integrated circuit chips that use electricity to store information. It is termed as Random Access Memory (RAM), since a byte of data can be retrieved from it in a fixed period of time, irrespective of its position in the chip. However, primary memory is volatile the information is available as long as the system is powered on. Secondary storage is used to store information even when the system is powered off. These devices use magnetic and optical storage technologies to store data permanently. Hard disks and CD ROMs are examples of secondary storage devices.

Floppy Disk Floppy disks are small secondary storage devices based on magnetic storage technique. They comprise a thin substance that's coated with magnetic material and placed inside a plastic enclosure. They come in two form factors: 5 1/4 inch and 3 1/2 inch disks, with a data storage capacity of 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB, respectively. A floppy drive is required to read and write data to the disk. They are very cheap and lightweight, but are highly prone to damages caused by environmental and physical factors. The 5 1/4 inch floppy disks are no longer used while the 3 1/2 inch floppy disks are gradually being replaced by USB and ZIP drives.

Hard disk Hard disk is a secondary storage device used to store large volumes of data. It consists of one or more platters coated with a magnetic substance and a read/write head per platter. Each platter is logically divided into cylinder, track and sector. Data is retrieved from the disk using the cylinder and sector number. Low end disks spin at a speed of about 4,200 to 7,200 rpm, while high end disks rotate at 15,000 rpm. Depending upon the rotational speed, the performance of the disk varies. Hard disks connect to a computer system using two main standards IDE and SCSI. IDE is used for desk PCs while SCSI is used for servers and workstations. SCSI drives are comparatively more reliable and provide higher transfer rates. Nowadays, hard disks are available in capacities ranging from 20 GB to about 300 GB.

Partition A partition is a part or section of your hard disk. To make a new hard disk usable, it has to contain at least one partition. The hard disk can also be split into multiple partitions, so that you can separate your data. You can also install different operating systems on different partitions, or format partitions with different file systems all within the same hard disk. The operating system assigns each partition a drive letter. The first drive is C, as A and B are reserved for floppy drives. When you boot your computer, control is given to the first sector on your hard disk called the boot sector. This contains the partition table, which stores details about all the partitions on the disk, and points to the relevant operating system and hands over control to it. There are dedicated tools available to manage partitions, but be warned, making changes to your partitions may prevent your computer from booting and may lead to loss of data. FAT The File Allocation Table (FAT) is the way in which files are indexed on your storage media. The FAT is basically a map that the operating system uses, to know where files are saved. All partitions have to be formatted with a particular file system. When the operating system requires a file, it looks at the FAT to see where it is located, and then reads the data. When writing a file, it updates the FAT with the file's location. Different operating systems use different types of FAT. MS DOS used FAT16, Windows 95 OSR2 onwards used FAT32, which supports larger disks. Windows NT, 2000 and XP natively use NTFS. Video Card The component of a computer responsible for producing the visuals on the monitor is commonly referred to as the video card. A video card is also called a graphics card, video adapter, or VGA card. Physically, it can either be an add on card or an integrated component of the motherboard. The video card comprises of the following components: the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), Video memory, RAMDAC, and the motherboard interface unit (present in stand alone video cards). The GPU is the most important part of a video card it performs a majority of the functions of the video card. It receives instructions from the computer's processor on what has to be displayed on the screen. The video memory is used by the GPU also to store the data that it requires frequently. The image stored in the frame buffer is in digital format it has to be converted into analogue signals. This function is performed by the RAMDAC (Random Access Memory Digital to Analogue converter). Finally, the motherboard interface unit on stand alone video cards interfaces with the motherboard via interface slots like the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) and the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect).

Display Units The monitor display consists of several tiny dots called pixels. The number of bits used to represent the colour of a pixel is called Colour Depth. The number of pixels on the screen is called its resolution. Typical resolutions are 800 X 600 and 1024 X 768. Higher the resolution the better is the display quality. The rate at which the display is refreshed is called the refresh rate. The minimum refresh rate should be 60 Hz and the recommended rate is 75 Hz or above. Display Standards Video cards produce images at different resolutions and refresh rates. To ensure uniformity, the industry has come together to set up standards that all the PC manufacturers will adhere to. Thus, a video standard comprises specifications of resolution, refresh rate, colours, etc. Though initially set by IBM, an association called the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) was formed to define new video standards. The first colour graphics standard was the Colour Graphics Adapter (CGA). Its highest quality text mode is 80 X 25 characters in 16 colours. Next came the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) that supported up to 16 colours and a screen resolution of 640 X 350, at a refresh rate of 60 Hz. EGA then gave way to Video Graphics Array (VGA), which was the last video standard from IBM. True VGA standard supports 16 colours at a resolution of 640 X 480, or 256 colours at 320 X 200. SVGA refers to any resolution that is higher than VGA. Modern day systems work at resolutions such as 800 X 600, 1024 X 768 and higher, with refresh rates of 60Hz, 75Hz, and more. pixel A pixel is the smallest information building block of an on-screen image. On a color monitor screen, each pixel is made of one or more triads (red, green, and blue). Resolution is usually expressed in terms of the number of pixels that fit within the width and height of a complete on-screen image. In VGA, the resolution is 640 by 480 pixels; in SuperVGA, it is 800 by 600 pixels. Sound Card A sound card is a printed circuit board (PCB) that plugs into your computer's motherboard usually in the PCI slot. It's used to generate input and output sound from the computer. Most audio devices such as speakers, headphones, etc., are analog. Hence, one of its most important functions is the digital to analog conversion for output, and the analog to digital conversion for input, with the help of its onboard processors. Some of them even have onboard memory to improve performance. Today, most motherboards come with an integrated sound card and provide connectors at the back. Those who demand better sound quality can opt for expensive high end cards that provide better frequency response and better MIDI synthesis. Digital outputs are also becoming commonplace on today's sound cards. The Creative Lab's Sound Blaster series is the standard for PC audio, and has been so for several years. As of now, the company offers external sound cards that provide the same features as their internal counterparts. Optical storage solutions Optical storage is the permanent storage of information on optical discs. Data is represented on these discs as pits and bumps, for zeros and ones. An optical disc player uses a laser to read from these discs. There are different types of optical storage solutions: CD ROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory are optical discs manufactured by a vendor for storing software. These are read only discs and cannot be over written with new information. They have a maximum capacity of 650 MB to 1000 MB. CD R: CD Recordable discs don't come preloaded with software, and users can write any information they want onto them. They can only be written on once, and have the same capacity as CD ROMs. CD RW: CD Rewritable discs can be rewritten over a thousand times, and can be read on CD ROM drives, or CD RW compatible Audio CD players. Their capacity is the same as CD ROMs. ACD: Audio compact discs are used to store audio in a digital format. They can hold about 74 minutes of audio. VCD: Video compact discs are used to storing video in digital MPEG1 and MPEG2 formats. They hold about 74 minutes of video. Double Density CD: This was the name given to a CD format that Nimbus Technology and Engineering proposed in 1994. It claimed to encode more than two hours of video and audio on a CD, by increasing

the number of tracks in the disc. This format was eventually forgotten with the invention of the DVD. DVD ROM: The Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Memory (originally called Digital Video Disc) is the latest in optical disc storage technology. It shares the same overall dimensions of a CD, but has a significantly higher capacity about the same capacity as 28 CDs. Single sided DVDs can store about 4.7 GB on a single layer discs, and about 8.5 GB on dual layer discs. Double sided DVDs can store 9.4 GB on a single layer and 17 GB on dual layer discs. DVD R: DVD Recordable discs can be written only once and have the same capacity as DVD ROMs. They are aimed at replacing CD Rs, and are supported by Panasonic, Toshiba, Apple Computer, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp DVD drives. DVD+R: DVD+R are recordable DVD discs that are similar to DVD Rs. The only difference is that they are supported by Philips, Sony, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Ricoh and Yamaha drives. DVD RW: DVD RW discs are re recordable discs similar to CR RWs. They are supported by Panasonic, Toshiba, Apple Computer, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp. DVD+RW: DVD+RW discs are similar to DVD RWs, and are supported by Philips, Sony, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Ricoh and Yamaha. DVD Audio: This audio only storage format is similar to ACDs. They offer higher quality sound (16, 20 and 24 bit samples) at a variety of sampling rates (ranging from 44.1 to 192KHz), as compared to 16 bits and 44.1KHz for CDs. DVD Audio can also contain music videos and graphics. DVD RAM: DVD RAM is a rewritable DVD standard put forward by Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshiba. DVD RAM discs with 4.7 GB of storage were released in 1999, and Double sided 9.4 GB discs in 2000. DVD RAM drives can read DVD Video, DVD ROM and CD media. DVD ROM drives and DVD Video players cannot read DVD RAM media. DVD Forum: The hardware and media manufacturers that developed the DVD formed a consortium known as the DVD Forum. Members include Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson, Time Warner, Toshiba and Japan's Victor. The forum promotes the acceptance of the DVD RAM and DVD+RW formats. Blu Ray Disc: This is an emerging format that promises to support much higher data capacities than DVDs. It uses a short wavelength blue violet laser as opposed to the standard red one to read information from discs that have a much higher track density than DVDs. It can store about 27 GB on a single sided disc.

Printer Printers are devices used to transfer digital images from computers onto paper. Depending upon the printing mechanism used, a printer can print text, graphics and even high quality photographs. It can be connected to the computer using printer and USB ports. The driver software that is used by the PC to communicate with the printer usually comes bundled along. based on the printing technology used, they can be classified into the following categories: Dot Matrix printers: It prints a character by striking pins against an ink ribbon placed on rolling paper. It has a very low running cost and is only suited to print characters in a single colour. Inkjet printers: It works by spraying ink onto paper through fine holes present on the ink cartridge. They yield good text, graphics and photo prints. These printers have high operational costs. Laser printers: These use laser beams to mark an image on a photosensitive drum. A colour toner is then used to transfer this image on to paper. They produce high quality text and graphics at high speeds. However, they are very expensive compared to inkjet printers. Line printers: These printers contain a chain of characters or pins that print an entire line at a time. Line printers are very fast, but produce low quality print. Thermal printer: An inexpensive printer that works by pushing heated pins against heat sensitive paper. The image is marked onto paper and prints in a single colour.

UPS UPS stands for uninterruptible power supply. It is a device containing one or more batteries, and some circuitry to provide continuous power to a computer, even in the case of power failure. This prevents the computer from switching off abruptly, thus giving you time to save your work and shutdown properly. The computer can only continue operating normally for as long as the UPS' battery lasts. Modern UPS not only keep your computer on, but also ensure that uninterrupted power devoid of surges, spikes and sags in the voltage and frequency changes comes to the PC. A continuous UPS is one where the system is always running off the battery, and it is constantly being charged by the power outlet. A UPS can also be intelligent; informing your PC when the power cuts off so that an automated backup and shutdown can take place if the computer is unattended. ROM ROM is short for Read Only Memory, whose content can be read but not changed. In PCs, the simplest example of ROM is the memory from which the computer boots. This is called the BIOS and is always required to be there. Unlike Random Access Memory (RAM), ROM retains whatever data is stored in it, even when the power is turned off its also known as non volatile memory. Another common example of ROM is the good old CD ROM. A CD ROM's contents cannot be altered. EPROM is Erasable Programmable ROM. This type of ROM can be altered using a special light, making it more useful than standard ROM chips. Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM) is even more useful, as it can be altered using software. EEPROM is commonly used in a computer's BIOS. Reprogramming, or upgrading the BIOS is called flashing. Though ERPOM and EEPROM can be erased and reprogrammed, they still function as standard ROM chips during normal operation of a PC. IDE IDE stands for two different terms altogether in the industry. According to the first, IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is a standard electronic interface used between a computer's data paths (system bus) and the disk storage devices. The IDE interface is based on the IBM PC Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) 16 bit bus standard, but it is also implemented along with other bus standards. Most computers today come with a built in enhanced version of IDE called Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE). American National Standards Institute (ANSI) adopted IDE as a standard in November 1990. The ANSI name for IDE is Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA). Secondly, IDE also stands for Integrated Development Environment. It is a complete programming environment packaged as an application program. It consists of a code editor, compiler, debugger, and also a graphical user builder. It can be a stand alone application,

or can be used as a part of one or more existing applications, or programming tools. The most commonly used IDEs are for developing HTML applications such as Homesite, Dreamweaver, etc. IDEs automate many tasks from one place itself rather than having to use multiple programs for one achieving a single goal. ATA Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is the official name given by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). It's currently available in two different variants Parallel ATA (PATA) and Serial ATA (SATA). PATA is commonly used by IDE drives to interface with the Hard Disk Drive controller. SATA is a new standard for connecting hard drives into newer computer systems. Unlike PATA, which uses parallel signals to initiate data transfer, SATA is based on the serial signaling technology. Serial ATA SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a new standard for connecting hard drives to computer systems. It is a variant of the still popular Parallel ATA (PATA) standard, in which most hard drives and optical drives interface with the motherboard. Serial ATA is based on serial signaling technology. The underlying technology is the same as PATA. SATA cables are much thinner, more flexible and longer than those of the PATA drives. Bus Bus refers to data paths on a circuit board that has multiple devices connected to it. The bus on the motherboard is known as the Front Side Bus (FSB). Some of the devices connected to it include the CPU, memory, graphics card and the sound card. A device that uses a shared bus is assigned a unique address and data transfer between the devices is based on this address. The device initiating the transfer places the address of the destination device on the bus, followed by the actual data. Thus, only the device with the specified address responds, while the rest just ignore the transmission. In network terminology, bus refers to the transmission path between two connected systems. Here too, the path is shared and only one system can use the bus at a time. There are a number of bus arbitration methods used to ensure that all devices get to use the bus for data transmissions. USB The peripheral bus standard jointly developed by Compaq, IBM, DEC, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom, is a plug and play interface between the computer and add on peripheral devices such as keyboards, mouse, scanners, printers, and audio players, and is known as USB Universal Serial Bus. It facilitates adding new devices without having to install additional hardware such as add on adapter cards. Along with this, it allows adding of devices without turning the computer off which is known as hot plug and play. USB version 1.1 supported a data transfer speed of 12 megabits per second. The latest standard i.e. USB version 2 supports a data transfer rate of 480 megabits per second. The USB 2 standard is backward compatible with USB 1.1 devices. Any USB device needs to be connected to the computer through the USB port only. Most new computers today are equipped with a USB port. Most operating systems released after October 1996 have in built support for USB devices. Heatsink or Heat sink Most PC components generate heat, and need to be cooled in order to function for longer periods of time. Heat sinks absorb and dissipate the excess heat from components. They are made from metals that are good conductors of heat, and have fins which extend up from the base in order to dissipate the heat. If increased cooling is required, a fan is added to increase the air flow to the fins. When a fan is used, it is called active cooling, while using only a heat sink, is known as passive cooling. Overclockers and PC enthusiasts pride themselves on fancy heat sinks and coolers. Good coolers have better conducting materials, better designs that provide a larger surface area, as well as better (and quieter) cooling fans. Generally, heat sinks are made of aluminium, but copper is also used for increased cooling. 'http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1115'

Software Software is a collection of instructions to be executed by a computer. Software can be of two kinds system software and application software. System software provides basic functionality to the computer by handling individual hardware components of the system. This includes the operating system and some fundamental utilities like disk display managers, device drivers etc. On the other hand, application software are used to accomplish specific tasks. For example, Microsoft Word is used for word processing, as an application software, or simply, an application. Application software, if it consists of single program, is called software. If it consists of a small collection of programs, it is called a software package. If it is a larger collection of related but independent programs, it is called a software suite. Operating System The two basic things that complete a computer are software and hardware. And when we talk about software, we talk about application software and system software. Application software such as MS Word allows you to do a specific task i.e., word processing. System software is responsible for the basic functionality of the computer. Thus, an Operating System (OS) is the system software that's the first to load during the booting process and manages all the application software. The application software work with the operating system through an interface called the Application Programming Interface (API).Some examples of OSes are Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS (for Apple's Macintosh computers), VMS (Virtual Memory System), OS/400 (for IBM's AS/400 series of computers), AIX (for IBM\'s System/390 computers), and z/OS (for IBM's Mainframe computers). 'http://www.apple.com/macosx/' [A program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a computer and the computer hardware. Operating system goals: Execute user programs and make solving user problems easier. Make the computer system convenient to use. Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.] MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS DOS) was the first operating system marketed by Microsoft. It was similar to Personal Computer Disk Operating System (PC DOS) that Microsoft developed for IBM. Prior to this, IBM used a different DOS for small business computers. Both MS DOS as well as PC DOS feature a non graphical, line oriented, command driven interface. The interface was relatively simple but lacked user friendliness. The first version of Microsoft Windows was similar to an application that ran on of the MS DOS operating system. Recent versions of Windows continue to support the DOS command mode interface by emulating the DOS operating system. Program A program is a set of instructions for a computer to perform. When the program is executed, the computer reads one instruction, executes it, then reads the second instruction, and executes it. The memory of the computer stores into its memory the program as well as the data that the instructions operate upon. The programs can be batch or interactive. Batch programs execute continuously, without interruptions. It runs, executes the instructions and terminates. The interactive programs receive data from a user or another program. Interactive programs can also execute batch programs. A Web browser is a typical example of an interactive program. On the other hand, a program that prints salary slips for a company's employees is a good example of batch program. When a program is written, it is written in a programming language. Some examples of the programming languages are C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, C#, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. When a program is written using a programming language, it is called source code or source program. Since a computer can understand only machine language of zeros and ones, this source code is converted into the machine code using a special software called 'Compiler'.

Instruction An instruction is the most basic operation that a computer carries out. The parser and compiler break down a program written in a high level language such as Java into machine instructions, i.e., operations that can be understood by the system.For example, consider the following Java code: a = a + 10; This code tells the computer to increment the value of a by 10. But the computer has no means of carrying out this operation directly. So, the parser and compiler reduce this command to a series of step by step instructions as follows: R1 = R2; R3 = 10; R4 = R2 + R3; R1 = R4; Here, the value of a is initially stored in the register R2. Registers are the basic memory cells that the CPU deals with directly. They physically contain numeric values, which can be manipulated as above. MIPS MIPS (Million of Instructions Per Second) is a representation of how much work a computer can do in a given time. MIPS is usually considered for higher end computing, and used as a way to measure the cost of computing. More MIPS for the same cost is better value. Files and Folders A file is a collection of data or information that is stored on some kind of storage device, and is known by its name the filename. In other words, it is a sequence of bytes stored as a single unit on the storage. Almost all the information that is stored in a computer is in the form of files. Even things like device drivers are stored as files. There are different kinds of file for storing different data. For example, a text file stores plain text, a bitmap file stores images in bitmap format, and an executable file stores programs or applications. These different file formats are distinguished in the Windows operating system by their extensions. An extension is the string of characters after the last dot in the file name. For example, if the file name is 'My encyclopedia of.technology.htm', then the extension of the file is 'htm', and so it is an HTML file. When you double click a file name in Windows Explorer, it is opened in the default application for handling that file type. This application is determined by Windows, by examining its file extension. In other operating systems like Linux, file extension does not matter. The operating systems identifies the file by examining its header, i.e., the first few bytes of the file. Different files have different file formats. File formats are the layout of data organized in that file. Thus to open a bitmap file, you need a software that can recognize the layout of data in a bitmap file. There are some programs which examine the file extension first to determine whether they can read the format or not, and there are some programs that do not look at the extension, but directly use the bit pattern of the file to determine this. Files are normally arranged on the storage in different organizational units, called folders or directories. A directory is a container that stores files. In modern GUI based operating systems like Windows, the directories are called folders. All the files in a computer are arranged like a inverted tree, where the trunk represents the root folder (c:\\\\ in Windows), the branches represent the folders and the leaves represent the files. Thus, to reach any specific file, you need to know the exact path to that file, through different folders. In Windows, the path is something like C:\\\\Program Files\\\\Microsoft Office\\\\OFFICE11\\\\EXCEL.EXE. Data Any information (a series of bits) stored on a computer, that makes some sense, or is of some use, can be termed as data. Data is stored in a defined type. For example, the 'integer' type stores numbers, and the 'string' type is used for a string of text. When data is put together in a structured form it is called a database.

Bit A binary digit: the smallest piece of information that can be recognized and processed by a computer. A bit is either 0 or 1. Bits can form larger units of information called nibbles (4 bits), bytes (8 bits), and words (usually 16 bits). See also data bit Byte A sequence of adjacent binary digits that the computer considers a unit. A byte consists of 8 bits. Bits Per Second (bps) The number of data bits sent per second between two modems. Used as a measure of the rate at which digital information is handled, manipulated, or transmitted. Similar, but not identical, to baud rate.

Kilobyte (Kb) 1,024 bytes. Sometimes abbreviated as k (lowercase), K-byte, K, or KB for kilobyte and Kb for kilobit (1,024 bits). When in doubt about whether an abbreviation refers to kilobytes or kilobits, it's probably kilobytes, with these exceptions: the speed of a modem (as in 2.4 kilobits per second) and the transfer rate of a floppy disk (as in 500 kilobits per second).
Data transfer rate Data transfer rate refers to the maximum speed at which digital data can be transferred from a device to another. These devices can be two computer systems connected over a network, or components connected to a motherboard. It is also defined as the amount of data that can be transferred in a given amount of time, usually in seconds. The data transfer rate depends upon the bandwidth of the transmission media. In terms of networking, data transfer rate is specified in bps. Computer systems have data transfer rates specified in bytes per second. As an example, a broadband Internet connection supports transfer rates in the order of 512 to 1024 kbps while a hard disk transfers data to the system memory at about 30 40 MBps. Computer Network Two or more computers connected to each other form a computer network. Based on its size, a network can be classified as LAN, WAN, MAN. The medium used to connect them could be twisted pair, coaxial, wireless, etc. A network protocol is the language used by the systems to talk to each other. Some of the common protocols used are TCP/IP, Ethernet, ATM, etc. Client/Server is a computer network in which the server is a powerful system with lots of resources and the client is a comparatively less powerful. The client sends requests to the server, which processes it and sends back a reply. A server can accept requests from many clients simultaneously. Local Area Network (LAN) Local Area Network (LAN) refers to a group of computers connected together through a wired or wireless medium. They can be confined to a building or a small campus. The number of users on the network could range from two to as many as a thousand or more. The main technologies used in building local area networks are Ethernet for PCs and AppleTalk for Macintosh systems. A LAN can be characterised by the following properties: ology: The manner in which the machines or nodes are arranged on the network. Some examples of LAN ology are Tree, Ring, Star, etc., based on the shape the network takes. Protocols: It is the set of rules used by the nodes to communicate with each other. Media: The medium that is used to physically connect the nodes, in case of wired networks. Wide Area Network (WAN) The term Wide Area Network refers to networks dispersed over a large area. It is usually used to refer to public or shared networks, but they are sometimes privately owned too. The Internet can be seen as a collection of WANs. Networks can be broadly classified as LANs, MANs and WANs. A MAN is in between in size between LANs and WANs. WiFi WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. It is a set of standards that are used by Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). Corporates are swiftly accepting WiFi as an alternative to standard wired networks. Lap and handheld manufacturers are incorporating WiFi into their new products. WiFi cards enable desk PCs to connect to WLANs. Access points such as a base station are used to connect the systems. These points also plug into the wired LAN and interconnect the wireless and wired networks seamlessly using the CSMA/CA Ethernet protocol. WiFi is based on the 802.11 standards. The latest standard \"802.11g\" is capable of communicating at 54 Mbps. It is backward compatible with the slower (11 Mbps) 802.11b since both work at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. 802.11a operates in the 5 to 6 GHz frequency range and is capable of 54 Mbps but over very short distances. Areas covered by wireless LANs are known as hot spots. 'http://www.weca.net/'

Web Site Put simply, a Web site is a collection of (Web) pages that are related in some way, and placed in a distinct structure. A Web site could be about a company and its services, or a personal page about the creator and his or her specific interest. It could also be a Web site offering services such as news or downloads. Web pages are built on a markup language called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Users can access Web pages through a Web browser that reads the code off the Web server and draws (renders) the page for display to the user. Web sites always have a home page or a starting address that is advertised or published. E mail E mail or email stands for electronic mail. More and more companies and individuals are making extensive use of e mail because it's cheap, fast, flexible, and reliable. Any electronic document as well plain text can be sent over the Internet through e mail. Most e mail systems have a text editor for users to enter text messages and attach other files to the message. The e mail address is composed of two parts that are separated with the '@' sign. The second part is the name of the server that hosts the user's electronic mail box and the first part is the username on that server. For example, someone@something.com has 'something.com' as the name of the server and 'someone' as the username. Let's consider a mail sent from abc@xyz.com to someone@something.com. First, the user 'abc' logs onto the server 'xyz.com', composes his message and sends it. The server 'xyz.com' will send this message to 'something.com'. The server 'something.com' stores this email in 'someone's' mail box. The user 'someone' will be able to read the message when he or she logs on to the server 'something.com'. He can then read it, delete it, forward it or get it printed. There are two kinds of e mail accounts Web based mail accounts and POP mail accounts. Web based mail accounts, such as those provided by Yahoo!, need the user to log on to the server whenever he or she wants to read or send emails. In the case of POP mail accounts, the mails are downloaded to the user's computer using such software as Outlook. While composing a message, specify the address of the receiver in the 'To' field. More than one address can be specified using a comma or semicolon. Any address mentioned in the Carbon Copy (CC) field, will be seen by all the recipients in the mail header. Addresses specified in the blind carbon copy (BCC) field are not shown in the mail header. Internet The Internet is a collection of millions of computers interconnected over a network. It was started as a small network by ARPA for the US government in 1969 and it was known as ARPANET. Later, this design was used to create the Internet (or Net) as we know it today. The Net is based on the TCP/IP protocol, and uses resources similar to telecommunication networks. Unlike intranet, the Internet is completely decentralised by design. Every computer connected to the Net is independent, and you can decide what Internet services you want or don't want. To connect to the Internet, you have to contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP); the ISP gives you access to the Internet through their gateway. E mail (electronic mail) and IM (instant Messaging) are some of the most popular Internet based applications. ASCII ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and is pronounced as ASK EE. Each character in the English alphabet is represented as numbers in this code. For example, the character 'A' is represented as 65 and 'a' is represented as 97. These numbers start from 0 and go on till 127. Hence, a total of 128 (27=128) characters can be represented using this code. Conversion of characters into numbers is necessary because after all computers can manipulate only numbers. Text files using the ASCII format are also known as ASCII files. Most of the text editors and word processors can store files in the ASCII format. However, it's not always the default format. Only 128 characters can be represented since this code uses 7 bits to store each character. Variations of ASCII include 'Extended ASCII' that uses 8 bits to store each character. Thus, they can represent a total of 256 (28=256) characters. MS DOS also supports this code. Yet another format is ISO Latin 1, which is supported by many operating systems and Web browsers. IBM computers make use of EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code). 'http://www.natural innovations.com/computing/asciiebcdic.html'

Format In computer terms, format can mean multiple things. In the noun form, format, refers to the structure or layout of data. A program will only know how to handle data if it's in the correct file format. There are multiple formats for each type of data. For example, images can be JPEG, GIF, TIFF, Bitmap etc., each having its benefits and drawbacks. Similarly, text, movies or sounds all have unique file formats. Different formats are represented by file extensions the three or four letters after the file name. Many programs have their preferred 'native' file format, in which they prefer to save data. For example, Microsoft Word uses the '.doc' extension and Adobe's Photoshop uses the '.psd' extension. In the verb form, to format, refers to formatting partitions on a hard disk. Formatting a partition makes it ready for usage a quick format of a partition only sets up a framework so data can be written to it, while a full format will also physically erase the drive. Even removable media, such as floppies, need to be formatted. The verb 'format' also means to arrange data in a particular way. For example, we can format a Word document a particular way, or place data in a particular way in an Excel file, etc. Graphical User Interface (GUI)

A user interface is the way users can interact with the computer. In a graphical user interface, images and text are used to interact with a user. MP3 MP3 is short for 'MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3'. It is a compression standard which gives excellent reproduction of audio at one tenth the file size of uncompressed audio. The quality is said to be 'near CD quality'. MP3 files are indicated by the .mp3 extension. The format has gained widespread popularity and has become synonymous with music from the internet. Because of this popularity, there are several software to do everything imaginable with MP3s. Recording, ripping from CD, renaming, editing and, of course, playback. Most newer music systems also support MP3 through CDs. Portable players are all the rage too, with sales growing quickly. Because MP3 files are so small and convenient to send over the internet, they have been the source of rampant duplication. This has been blamed for the steady decline in music sales. The RIAA has taken up this battle and is going after all those who encourage sharing MP3 files over peer to peer file sharing networks. Record companies are not blind to the format's popularity, and are falling over themselves to deliver MP3s through paid services. Apple proved it would work when they launched their iTunes service, and served 1 million songs in the first few weeks. 'http://www.winamp.com' PDF Portable Document Format (PDF) was developed to allow a document to be ported from one location to another, without losing its appearance, layout and contents. Since this document is read only, its contents cannot be changed. Documents in this format can be created using Adobe Acrobat, and read using Adobe Acrobat Reader that's free to download and use. Third party tools such as pdf995 also allow you to create and read PDF documents. PDF documents can embed fonts and hence be read on any computer without losing their original appearance. The text and images in a PDF document can be copied easily. It can also embed buttons to trigger forms, sounds, and video. 'http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html'

Defragment Hard disks store data in tiny amounts called clusters. Each file is spread over several clusters that may or may not be close to each other. Over a period of time, files get split further. Opening a file involves finding all the relevant fragments on the disk and reading them. This is time consuming, and increases wear and tear of the mechanism. Hence, defragment the hard disk periodically. Defragmentation finds all the file fragments and arranges them together in one location, increasing reading speed. However, changes made to a file after defragmentation are not written contiguously. So, fragments start to build up again. Windows includes a free disk defragmenter, but there are other tools such as Diskeeper(www.executive.com) that offer to do a more thorough and faster job. Plug and Play When a computer has the ability to automatically configure hardware, without user intervention, it is called plug and play. The user should not have to configure jumpers or manually set IRQs etc. The jointly developed 'PnP' (Plug N Play) standard has made great strides towards this goal. After Windows95, computers no longer have to be told a device exists, it is detected automatically. For PnP to work, the operating system, the computer's BIOS and the hardware being added, must all support the standard. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a networking standard, which enables all the devices on the network to automatically be aware of each other. When a user plugs into an UPnP network, he will not have to worry about TCP/IP addresses. His device will use common Internet protocol to alert other devices on the network, about its presence. USB and other plug and play peripherals, which can be plugged in and removed while the computer is on, are called Hot pluggable or Hot Plug n Play. 'http://www.upnp.org/' Device Driver Device drivers or simply drivers are programs that control devices. Devices such as keyboards, mouse, printers, monitors, etc., need a driver program to communicate with the operating system and thus function normally. A device driver works as a translator between the operating system and the actual device. It translates the generic commands given by software into specific commands that the device can understand. The driver files normally have a .SYS extension in DOS and .DRV extension in Windows. Drivers for such devices as keyboard, mouse, etc., come with the operating system. The operating system itself searches for the correct driver and installs it. Drivers for such devices as printers, scanners, etc., are provided by the company manufacturing them. Registry The registry is the database maintained by the Windows operating systems to store configuration information. It replaces the functionality of the .INI configuration files of earlier versions of Windows. Most programs store information in the registry during the installation, and use that information to look for settings and supporting files when they are run. The registry consists of following major sections: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: Contains file associations and OLE information HKEY_ CURRENT_USER: Contains all preferences set by the current user HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: Contains settings for hardware, operating system and installed applications HKEY_USERS: Contains all the user information HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: Contains settings for the display and printers Normally, a user changes the registry indirectly through utilities such as Control Panel. The registry can be edited manually as well using the Registry Editor Start > Run, type 'regedit' and press [Enter]. The registry should be edited with caution, as invalid entries can result in a non functional computer. A better option is to use utilities such as TweakUI to optimise and tweak the registry. Another free utility is RegSeeker, which can be downloaded fromhttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/tips/regtweak.asp 'http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win2000/win2ksrv/w2kreg02.asp'

Wildcard character Wildcards are special characters used to represent none or more characters in a string, while searching for information in any type of computer database. The most commonly used characters are '*', which represents any number of characters in a string of characters, and '?', which represents a single character in the search string. For example, when searching through the following files: 123.XYZ, 223.XYZ, 1123.XYZ, 1223.XYZ and 123.XZY The search string '*1*.X*' will list all the files. The string '*.XYZ' will omit the 123.XYZ file The string '?23.XYZ' will omit 1123.XYZ and 1223.XYZ Finally, the string '??23.X??' will only show the files, '1123.XYZ' and '1223.XYZ'. Clock Frequency We know this from the ads: "A Pentium 166 MHZ." The 166 MHZ is the clock frequency. Actually, There is a small crystal on the system board. This continually ticks to the CPU at a steady number of clock ticks per second. At each clock tick something happens in the CPU. Thus, the more ticks per second the more data are processed per second.

IMPORTANCE OF BINARY NUMBERS

If you have used a computer for more than five minutes, then you have heard the words bits and bytes. Both RAM and hard disk capacities are measured in bytes, as are file sizes when you examine them in a file viewer. You might hear an advertisement that says, "This computer has a 32-bit Pentium processor with 64 megabytes of RAM and 2.1 gigabytes of hard disk space." Here you get the answer. Decimal Numbers The easiest way to understand bits is to compare them to something you know: digits. A digit is a single place that can hold numerical values between 0 and 9. Digits are normally combined together in groups to create larger numbers. For example, 6,357 has four digits. It is understood that in the number 6,357, the 7 is filling the "1s place," while the 5 is filling the 10s place, the 3 is filling the 100s place and the 6 is filling the 1,000s place. So you could express things this way if you wanted to be explicit: (6 * 1000) + (3 * 100) + (5 * 10) + (7 * 1) = 6000 + 300 + 50 + 7 = 6357 Another way to express it would be to use powers of 10. Assuming that we are going to represent the concept of "raised to the power of" with the "^" symbol (so "10 squared" is written as "10^2"), another way to express it is like this: (6 * 10^3) + (3 * 10^2) + (5 * 10^1) + (7 * 10^0) = 6000 + 300 + 50 + 7 = 6357 What you can see from this expression is that each digit is a placeholder for the next higher power of 10, starting in the first digit with 10 raised to the power of zero. That should all feel pretty comfortable -- we work with decimal digits every day. The neat thing about number systems is that there is nothing that forces you to have 10 different values in a digit. Our base-10 number system likely grew up because we have 10 fingers, but if we happened to evolve to have eight fingers instead, we would probably have a base-8 number system. You can have base-anything number systems. In fact, there are lots of good reasons to use different bases in different situations. Bits Computers happen to operate using the base-2 number system, also known as the binary number system (just like the base-10 number system is known as the decimal number system). The reason computers use the base-2 system is because it makes it a lot easier to implement them with current electronic technology. You could wire up and build computers that operate in base-10, but they would be fiendishly expensive right now. On the other hand, base-2 computers are relatively cheap. So computers use binary numbers, and therefore use binary digits in place of decimal digits. The word bit is a shortening of the words "Binary digIT." Whereas decimal digits have 10 possible values ranging from 0 to 9, bits have only two possible values: 0 and 1. Therefore, a binary number is composed of only 0s

and 1s, like this: 1011. How do you figure out what the value of the binary number 1011 is? You do it in the same way we did it above for 6357, but you use a base of 2 instead of a base of 10. So: (1 * 2^3) + (0 * 2^2) + (1 * 2^1) + (1 * 2^0) = 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 11 You can see that in binary numbers, each bit holds the value of increasing powers of 2. That makes counting in binary pretty easy. Starting at zero and going through 20, counting in decimal and binary looks like this: 0= 1= 2= 3= 4= 5= 6= 7= 8= 9= 10 = 11 = 12 = 13 = 14 = 15 = 16 = 17 = 18 = 19 = 20 = 0 1 10 11 100 101 110 111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110 1111 10000 10001 10010 10011 10100

When you look at this sequence, 0 and 1 are the same for decimal and binary number systems. At the number 2, you see carrying first take place in the binary system. If a bit is 1, and you add 1 to it, the bit becomes 0 and the next bit becomes 1. In the transition from 15 to 16 this effect roles over through 4 bits, turning 1111 into 10000. Bytes Bits are rarely seen alone in computers. They are almost always bundled together into 8-bit collections, and these collections are called bytes. Why are there 8 bits in a byte? A similar question is, "Why are there 12 eggs in a dozen?" The 8-bit byte is something that people settled on through trial and error over the past 50 years. With 8 bits in a byte, you can represent 256 values ranging from 0 to 255, as shown here: 0 = 00000000 1 = 00000001 2 = 00000010 ... 254 = 11111110 255 = 11111111 a CD uses 2 bytes, or 16 bits, per sample. That gives each sample a range from 0 to 65,535, like this: 0 = 0000000000000000 1 = 0000000000000001 2 = 0000000000000010 ... 65534 = 1111111111111110 65535 = 1111111111111111

Bytes are frequently used to hold individual characters in a text document. In the ASCII character set, each binary value between 0 and 127 is given a specific character. Most computers extend the ASCII character set to use the full range of 256 characters available in a byte. The upper 128 characters handle special things like accented characters from common foreign languages. You can see the 127 standard ASCII codes below. Computers store text documents, both on disk and in memory, using these codes. For example, if you use Notepad in Windows 95/98 to create a text file containing the words, "Four score and seven years ago," Notepad would use 1 byte of memory per character (including 1 byte for each space character between the words -- ASCII character 32). When Notepad stores the sentence in a file on disk, the file will also contain 1 byte per character and per space. Try this experiment: Open up a new file in Notepad and insert the sentence, "Four score and seven years ago" in it. Save the file to disk under the name getty.txt. Then use the explorer and look at the size of the file. You will find that the file has a size of 30 bytes on disk: 1 byte for each character. If you add another word to the end of the sentence and re-save it, the file size will jump to the appropriate number of bytes. Each character consumes a byte. If you were to look at the file as a computer looks at it, you would find that each byte contains not a letter but a number -- the number is the ASCII code corresponding to the character (see below). So on disk, the numbers for the file look like this: F o u r a n d s e v e n 70 111 117 114 32 97 110 100 32 115 101 118 101 110 By looking in the ASCII table, you can see a one-to-one correspondence between each character and the ASCII code used. Note the use of 32 for a space -- 32 is the ASCII code for a space. We could expand these decimal numbers out to binary numbers (so 32 = 00100000) if we wanted to be technically correct - that is how the computer really deals with things. Standard ASCII Character Set The first 32 values (0 through 31) are codes for things like carriage return and line feed. The space character is the 33rd value, followed by punctuation, digits, uppercase characters and lowercase characters. 0 NUL 4 EOT 8 BS 12 FF 16 DLE 20 DC4 24 CAN 28 FS 32 35 # 39 ' 43 + 47 / 51 3 55 7 59 ; 63 ? 66 B 70 F 74 J 78 N 82 R 86 V 1 SOH 5 ENQ 9 TAB 13 CR 17 DC1 21 NAK 25 EM 29 GS 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 67 71 75 79 83 87 $ ( , 0 4 8 < @ C G K O S W 2 STX 6 ACK 10 LF 14 SO 18 DC2 22 SYN 26 SUB 30 RS 33 ! 37 % 41 ) 45 49 1 53 5 57 9 61 = 68 72 76 80 84 88 D H L P T X 3 ETX 7 BEL 11 VT 15 SI 19 DC3 23 ETB 27 ESC 31 US 34 " 38 & 42 * 46 . 50 2 54 6 58 : 62 > 65 A 69 E 73 I 77 M 81 Q 85 U 89 Y

90 Z 94 ^ 97 a 101 e 105 i 109 m 113 q 117 u 121 y 125 }

91 [ 95 _ 98 b 102 f 106 j 110 n 114 r 118 v 122 z 126 ~

92 \ 96 ` 99 c 103 g 107 k 111 o 115 s 119 w 123 { 127 DEL

93 100 104 108 112 116 120 124

] d h l p t x |

Lots of Bytes When you start talking about lots of bytes, you get into prefixes like kilo, mega and giga, as in kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte (also shortened to K, M and G, as in Kbytes, Mbytes and Gbytes or KB, MB and GB). The following table shows the multipliers: Name Kilo Mega Giga Tera Peta Exa Zetta Yotta Abbr. K M G T P E Z Y Size 2^10 2^20 2^30 2^40 2^50 2^60 2^70 2^80

= = = = = = = =

1,024 1,048,576 1,073,741,824 1,099,511,627,776 1,125,899,906,842,624 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

You can see in this chart that kilo is about a thousand, mega is about a million, giga is about a billion, and so on. So when someone says, "This computer has a 2 gig hard drive," what he or she means is that the hard drive stores 2 gigabytes, or approximately 2 billion bytes, or exactly 2,147,483,648 bytes. How could you possibly need 2 gigabytes of space? When you consider that one CD holds 650 megabytes, you can see that just three CDs worth of data will fill the whole thing! Terabyte databases are fairly common these days, and there are probably a few petabyte databases floating around the Pentagon by now. Binary math works just like decimal math, except that the value of each bit can be only 0 or 1. To get a feel for binary math, let's start with decimal addition and see how it works. Assume that we want to add 452 and 751: 452 + 751 --1203 To add these two numbers together, you start at the right: 2 + 1 = 3. No problem. Next, 5 + 5 = 10, so you save the zero and carry the 1 over to the next place. Next, 4 + 7 + 1 (because of the carry) = 12, so you save the 2 and carry the 1. Finally, 0 + 0 + 1 = 1. So the answer is 1203. Binary addition works exactly the same way: 010 + 111 --1001 Starting at the right, 0 + 1 = 1 for the first digit. No carrying there. You've got 1 + 1 = 10 for the second digit, so save the 0 and carry the 1. For the third digit, 0 + 1 + 1 = 10, so save the zero and carry the 1. For the last digit, 0 + 0 + 1 = 1. So the answer is 1001. If you translate everything over to decimal you can see it is correct: 2 + 7 = 9.

Quick Recap Bits are binary digits. A bit can hold the value 0 or 1. Bytes are made up of 8 bits each. Binary math works just like decimal math, but each bit can have a value of only 0 or 1.

OPERATING SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
The Operating System acts as an interface between the User, Application Programs, Hardware, and the System Peripherals. All Computer need basic software known as an Operating System to function. The Operating System is the first software to be loaded when computer boots up. Application Programs are loaded after the Operating System. Users interact with computer and software through the Operating System. The Operating System interpret the input given by a user through a Keyboard, Mouse or other input device and takes appropriate action. Users interact with computer and software through Operating System.

FUNCTIONS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM

APPLICATION

DISK DRIVE

MONITOR

OPERATING SYSTEM

MOUSE

KEYBOARD

PRINTERS

CLASSIFICATION OF OPERATING SYSTEM OPERATING SYSTEM

DEPENDING UPON MANUFACTURES

DEPENDING UPON NETWORKING

Microsoft DOS 1.0 DOS 6.22 DOS 6.23 DOS 7.0 WINDOW 3.11 WINDOW 95 WINDOW 98 WINDOW ME WINDOW 2000 WINDOW XP WINDOW 2003 WINDOW VISTA

Non Microsoft UNIX LINUX MACINTOSH NOVELL

Client O.S. DOS WINDOW WINDOW WINDOW WINDOW WINDOW

Network O.S.

WINNT Server 95 WINDOW 2000 Server 98 WINDOW 2003 Server ME 2000 Prof. XP

PC loaded with Network Operating System can act as Client as well as Server. Client Operating System acts as Client Only not Server.

CONCLUSION
Here we can say that Operating System is the interface between Hardware and User. Without any Operating System it is not possible for anyone to work on computer, hence Operating System is required for work on Computers.

Microsoft Word 2000

Introduction to Microsoft Word 2000
Introduction
Now a days word processing can be done in much more easily way because of new Word processing software. Microsoft Word 2000 is such type of Word Processing Software. As we all know Microsoft Word 2000 is a tool of Microsoft Office 2000, which provides you the following functionalities Efficient mode of text editing Facility of Cut, Copy, Paste Redo, Undo Search and Replace Text Justification, Indentation etc. Pagination Spell Checking Importing/Exporting Text Mail Merging Tables Print previewing of text Offer a Varity of font style and font sizes. Graphical Drawing Document Template Document wizard And this word processor can be used to Write letters Thesis Newsletters Resumes Applications Books World Wide Web Pages

Standard Toolbars
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Common Buttons of the Standard toolbars are 1 2 3. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 New Open Save E-mail Print Print Preview Spell Checker Cut Copy Paste Format Painter Undo Redo Insert Hyperlink Tables and Borders Insert Table Insert Microsoft Excel Worksheet Columns Drawing Document Map Show/Hide Zoom Help

These tools are discussed later in this unit with their respective actions.

Starting of MS-Word
Microsoft Word is a Windows based word processing application. Following are the steps to start Word 2000 in Windows 9x.

Click on the start button on the Taskbar Then Click on the Program option in start menu. After that click on the Microsoft word option icon which is there on the program menu bar .

This command will launch the Microsoft word 2000 on your computer. Microsoft word always opens with a new document.

Components of the Word Window

Contents of the Microsoft Word window is as follows: 1. 3. 5. 7. 9. 11. Title or Caption Bar Standard Tool Bar Ruler Drawing Toolbar View Buttons Document Navigator 2. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12. Menu Bar Formatting Toolbar Cursor Status Bar Scroll Bars Office Assistant

Function of the Various Components of Microsoft Word Window

1. Title Bar Title bar shows the name of the document and situated in the of the window application. 2. Menu Bar Menu bar contains the various commands under the various ics to perform some special tasks. Menu bar is located under the title bar 3. Standard Toolbar Toolbar is nothing more than the shortcut of the Menu options to execute or perform the menu options in the easiest and faster way. Standard toolbar contains the commands for the Words most frequently used commands. 4. Formatting Toolbar Formatting toolbar contains the various commands related to the formatting of the document. 5. Ruler From Ruler margins and indents can be adjusted in the easier way and it also provides measurement for the page formatting.

Microsoft Word Window

6.

Cursor Cursor is Word pointer, which tells that from the or on the cursor position you, can perform your action.

7.

Drawing Toolbar Drawing toolbar has the various commands related to the graphics and the drawing options.

8.

Status Bar

It displays the positioning of the cursor, displays the status of some important keys of keyboard, shows the messages for the toolbar button when a mouse points to it, display messages for menu option when a menu option is selected or pointed out by a user. 9. View Buttons View buttons are shortcuts of various views in the View Menu which will be discussed later. 10. Scroll Bars There are two types of scroll bars i. ii. Horizontal Scrollbar Vertical Scrollbar

Working of both the scroll bar is to scroll the document in the either directions 11. Document Navigator Document Navigator allows navigating the document in different types of objects and is activated when clicked on the ball type button on the vertical scroll bar. 12. Office Assistant Office assistant provides you the online help, real-time tips while working.

Start Working with Word Document

When you open the word a blank document opens. You can start typing on it directly. But for performing various other options you have to learn about the different menus in the menu bar and the options under these menu bars. You can select the different menus with the mouse and you can select it through the hotkeys also. These hotkeys are there in each and every menu and is underlined. Just press the underlined word with the alt key and you can access it from the keyboard. For example if you have to select the file menu you have to press the alt+f keys to open the menu or alt+v to select the view menu. Before going on menus lets see how to move within the document using various keys.

Movement of the cursor using keyboard

Movement of the cursor Left of Right one character Left or Right one word Up or Down one line Up or Down one paragraph To the start or end of a line Up or Down one screen To the or bottom of the current screen To the start or end of the document Or Ctrl + or Ctrl + Or Ctrl + or Ctrl + Home or End Page up or Page Down Ctrl + Page up or Ctrl + Page Down Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End Keys

File Related Operations

You can do all the file or document related operations from FILE menu. Such a File menu is shown in the following figure:

1.

Open a New File To open a new file, perform the following steps i. ii. iii. Click on the File menu Then Click on the New option or you can directly press the Ctrl+N from the keyboard. Select the Blank document from the General Tab from the following dialog box and then press OK button

2.

Save a Document

For saving a document, following are the steps 1. Click on the File->save option. OR Press Ctrl+S OR

Press the Save tool from standard toolbar If you are saving the file for the first time the Save as window will appear

2. 3. 4.

Choose the appropriate folder from Save in combo box. Write the proper file name in the File name text box And then press the Save button

Save and Save As options do the same work of saving a document but the difference between both options is that the Save As command every time gives you the Save As dialog box and you can save the file with different names also. But the Save option will gives you the Save As dialog box when you are saving the document for very first time. Other times it will save the document with the previous name without giving any dialog box.

Opening of an Existing Document

To open an existing document, following steps are required 1. Select the Open option from the File menu OR Press Ctrl+O OR Click on the Open tool from the standard toolbar

Then the open dialog box will appear as shown in figure

2. 3.

Select the appropriate folder from Look in combo box. Select the required file from the file window Or Write the required files name in the File name window

4.

Click on open button on the right hand side

Page Setup
From the Page setup option the one can setup the page layout according to his work. For using the Page setup option you have to perform the following steps. 1. 2. Click on the Page setup option from the file menu then the following window will appear. Adjust the different margins or apply different options from the margin tab where

i. ii. iii. iv. v.

In margin enter the distance you want between the of the page and the of the first line on the page. In Bottom margin enter the distance you want between the bottom of the page and the bottom of the last line on the page. In Left option enter the distance you want between the left edge of the page and the left edge of unindented lines. In Right option enter the distance you want between the right edge of the page and the right end of a line with no right indent. In Gutter option enter the amount of extra space you want to add to the margin for binding. Word adds the extra space to the left margin of all pages if you clear the Mirror margins check box, or to the inside margin of all pages if you select the Mirror margins check box. In Header option under From edge frame enter the distance you want from the edge of the paper to the edge of the header. If the Header setting is larger than the setting, Word prints the body text below the header. In Footer option under From edge frame, enter the distance you want from the bottom edge of the paper to the bottom edge of the footer. If the Footer setting is larger than the Bottom setting, Word ss printing the body text above the footer. Check Mirror margin check box to Adjusts left and right margins so that when you print on both sides of the page the inside margins of facing pages are the same width and the outside margins are the same width. Check the 2 pages per sheet checkbox to Print the second page of a document on the first page. This check box is used when the printed page is folded in half with the two pages on the inside. The outer margins (gutter) of the page will be the same width, and the inner margins will be the same width. In the Apply to list box, Click the portion of the document you want to apply the current settings to in the Page Setup dialog box. And the options of this list box are Whole document, This point forward etc can be changed according to the situation.

vi.

vii.

viii.

ix.

From the Paper size tab you can set the length or width of the page. When you click on the Paper size tab the following window will appear.

In the above window you can adjust the following i. ii. iii. From Paper size list box you can select the predefined Paper sizes. From Width and Height text boxes the custom Paper size can be defined by adjusting the Height and width of the paper. Select the orientation of the paper from Landscape or Portrait orientation frame.

Print Option
For taking the printout you have to select the print option of the file menu. After selecting the print option from file menu, the window given below will appear. You can set various options before taking the printout. i. ii. iii iv. v. vi. From the Name combo box you can select the printer if more than one printer is installed. You can select the range of pages i.e. all pages or current page or number of pages you require from Page range frame. From the print what option you can choose which part of a document you want to print i.e. the whole document or comments or anything else. From print option the types of pages can be selected to print i.e. all pages or even pages or odd pages. You can choose number of copies from Number of copies option under Copies frame. From Pages per sheet option under Zoom frame you can Select the number of pages in the document that you want to print on each sheet of paper.

vii.

From scale to paper size option you can select the paper size on which you want to print the document. For example, you can specify that a B4-size document prints on A4-size paper by decreasing the size of the font and the graphics. This feature is similar to the reduce/enlarge feature on a photocopy machine. The collate check box can print the copies of the document in proper binding order.

viii.

Editing of Word Document

To edit a document, Edit menu is used. Following are the options available with Edit menu.

Reversing Commands
1. Undo To reverse changes while editing, undo command is used. To perform undo you can i. Click on the Undo option under Edit menu Or i. Click on the Undo button on Standard toolbar Or i. 2. Redo If an undo has to perform on last reversed action that is known as Redo. To perform redo you can i. Click on the Redo option under Edit Menu Or ii. Click on the Undo button on Standard Toolbar Or iii. Press Ctrl+y Press Ctrl+z.

Cut and Paste

Cut and Paste means moving of text and moving of text means removing text from one portion of the document and placing it at some other location. To cut text: i. ii. Select the text or make the block of the text Select cut from Edit menu Or Click on the cut button of standard toolbar Or Press the ctrl+x button Or Move the mouse pointer on the selected text and right click and select cut . To paste the selection i. ii. Move the cursor at the location where the text is to be pasted Select Paste from Edit menu Or Click paste button on the standard toolbar Or Press Ctrl + v Or Click the right mouse button and select paste from the context menu.

Copy and Paste

Copying means duplicating the contents of the document at some other desired place. The procedure for copying text is almost the same as that of moving text with a little difference, which is being discussed in following steps. To copy a particular text i. ii. Select the text or make the block of the text Select copy from Edit menu Or Click on the copy button of standard toolbar Or Press the ctrl + c button Or Move the mouse pointer on the selected text and right click and select copy.

Paste operation is same as described in the cut and paste section

Find, Replace and go to Options

Find Some times while working in document you need to find a particular text. Finding of text can be done in following way 1. To find a particular text you have to perform the following steps

i. ii.

On the Edit menu, click Find. Then you will see the following window In the Find what box, enter the text that you want to search for.

iii. iv.

Select the direction of searching from Search list box. Select any other options that you want.

Match case: To find the characters that are a word by themselves and are not a part of another word. Find whole words only: To find the characters that are a word by themselves and are not a part of another word. Use wildcards: To specify the wildcard characters (? Or *) in the Find what text box Sounds like: To find words that sound similar but are spelt differently. For example hair, heir, hear and hare sound similar to here. Find all word forms: To find all grammatical forms of the word. For example, on entering the word eat it also searches ate, eaten and eating words. iv. v. vi. Replace If you have to replace a word in the document with another word you can use find and replace command to do that. Find we have discussed above now its the turn of Replace i. ii. iii. iv. On the Edit menu, click Replace. Then you will find the following window The Find what box, enter the text that you want to search for. In the Replace with box, enter the replacement text. Select any other options that you want. For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option. Click Find Next. If you want find similar word again in the rest of the document click on the Find next button.

v. vi. vii. Go to

For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option. Click Find Next, Replace, or Replace All. To cancel a search in progress, press ESC.

To go to on a particular location or particular item use Go to option under the Edit menu. Steps are as follows. 1. 2. Click on the Go to option under the Edit menu. Then the following window will appear on the screen. Select according to what you want to navigate in the document from Go to what combo box.

3. 4.

Enter the parameter as page number or name of the bookmark. Click on the previous or next depending upon the direction you want to go.

View Menu
Word provides you a wide variety of views to work or to see your document in different ways. For this View menu is there and there are various other options under this menu, which we will discuss in this chapter. To access the view menu you have to click on the view menu of press alt + v from keyboard. Then you will see the following menu Word 2000 provides you the following options to view a document in different styles. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Normal Web Layout Print Layout Outline Full Screen

Normal View
In the Normal view you can only view the Horizontal ruler instead of both horizontal and vertical ruler. It does not display the margin areas of the page thats why you cant seen the headers and footers (will be discussed in next pages). The advantage of the Normal view is that you differentiate between the Soft page break (One that word gives you when the text flows out of one page), which will appear as horizontal line running across the page. Or A hard page break (One which you insert to end the page before it goes full) which will appears as dotted horizontal line with the words Page Break in it.

Web Layout view

With the help of Web Layout view one can view the document in the style of seeing it on Internet on the browser. That how it looks on the browser while surfing on the internet. Clicking on Web Layout under View menu can set the Web layout view. Following is the view of Web Layout view. In this layout also you can view the horizontal ruler instead of both the rulers as Normal view. But there will no page break displayed on the page in the Web layout view. The whole document looks likes that it is of single page.

Print Layout View

This layout is the default view layout. Print layout view gives you the view that you are working directly on the piece of paper. It includes both horizontal as well vertical ruler to tell you exact position of your text or picture in the document. It

also shows you all the four i.e. , bottom, left, and right margins as well the text you have typed in the header or the footer section of the document with light gray color. To change the view to Print layout you have to click on the Print Layout option under View menu

Outline View
Outline view displays the contents of your document in a traditional outline format, with text indented beneath headings in a hierarchy structure. In this view, you can display just headings, or any level of detail beneath the headings that you wish. Notice that when you are in this view there is an additional toolbar that enables you to open and close headings to reveal more or less detail, and to promote or demote headings to change their position in the outline hierarchy.
Expand Collapse

Demote

Promote

Show

Heading Buttons

Full Screen View

If you like working in a completely spic and span environment, youll like the Full Screen view. To switch to this view, choose Full screen option from view menu. You document enlarges to cover the entire desk. The title bar, menu bar, and toolbars in the Word window are temporarily hidden to give you as much room as possible to see your text. If you want to issue a menu command, point to the thin gray line running across the of your screen to slide the menu bar into view. To view your document in full screen, Click the Full Screen in View menu.

Header and Footer

Headers and footers are typically used in printed documents. You can create headers and footers that include text or graphics for example, page numbers, the date, a company logo, the document's title or file name, or the author's name that are usually printed at the or bottom of each page in a document. A header is printed in the margin; and the footer is printed in the bottom margin. Steps to create a header or footer are given below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Select Header and Footer from the View menu. Header and Footer toolbar is displayed, Header area is activated and documents text color changes to light gray. Type the text in Header area. If you want to create footer, click the switch between Header and Footer toolbar button to enable footer area active. Type the text in footer area. Apply any formatting that you like on header or footer of the document. Click on close button to return back to the document.

Insert Menu
Insert menu helps you to insert various word components in between the word document. Insert menu has the following options.

Break Option
Break option is to insert a break in between the page. This break is of any kind i.e, it can be page break, column break etc. To insert a break choose the Break option from Insert menu. It will give you the following dialog box.

This dialog has various options 1. Page Break It inserts a manual page break at the insertion point. 2. Column Break Inserts a manual column break at the insertion point. 3. Text Wrapping Break Ends the current line and forces the text to continue below a picture, table, or other item. (The text will continue on the next blank line that doesn't contain a picture or table aligned with the left or right margin.) 4. Next Page Inserts a section break and breaks the page so that the next section starts at the of the next page. 5. Continuous Page Inserts a section break and starts the new section immediately, without inserting a page break. 6. Even Page Inserts a section break and starts the next section on the next even-numbered page. If the section break falls on an even-numbered page, Word leaves the next odd-numbered page blank. 7. Odd Page Inserts a section break and starts the next section on the next odd-numbered page. If the section break falls on an odd-numbered page, Word leaves the next even-numbered page blank.

Auto Text Entries

AutoText provides you a way to store and quickly insert text, graphics, fields, tables, bookmarks etc. that you use frequently. Microsoft Word comes with a number of built-in AutoText entries that are divided into different categories. For example, if youre working on a letter, Word can offer letter-specific AutoText entries, such as greetings and closings. Also you can create you own AutoText entries. This is useful if you often use the same large or complex item and dont want to have to reinsert or retype it, or if you want to store text that contains a particular style or format. To Create an AutoText entry you have to perform following steps: 1. 2. 3. Select the text that you want to create in AutoText entries. Select the option New under Insert -> AutoText options or press alt+F3 keys to display the AutoText dialog box given in following figure. Enter the name of the entry you want to give to the AutoText entry in the text box.

4.

Click Ok.

To insert an AutoText entry into your document you have to follow these steps. 1. 2. 3. 4. Place your cursor where you want to insert your entry Type the first few letters of the name. A screen tip will appears for your entry. Press Enter. A more convenient way is to write the name of AutoText entry and press F3 key.

Create Cross-references for Index Entries

1. Select the text you want to use as an index entry (index entry is a field code that marks specific text for inclusion in an index. When you mark text as an index entry, Microsoft Word inserts an XE (Index Entry) field formatted as hidden text.) Press ALT+SHIFT+X. Under Options, click Cross-reference, and then enter the text you want to use as a cross-reference for the index entry. Click Mark.

2. 3. 4.

Table of Contents
Creating Table of Contents has following advantages 1. 2. The table of contents is actually a field, so you can update it at any time to reflect changes in your document. Word can update both the headings and page numbers or just the page numbers. Each heading in the table of contents is a hyperlink that leads to that heading in the document text. The hyperlink lets your table of contents double as a navigation tool.

Before creating Table of Contents you have to apply heading style. Then you have to follow these steps.

1. 2. 3.

Click the location where you want the table of contents to appear, if you want it to be on a separate page, insert manual page breaks before and/or after it as necessary Select the Index and Tables from Insert menu to display the Index and Tables dialog box, and click the Table of contents tab. Select the desired format from Format drop down list.

4. 5.

Select the levels up to which you want to take the heading levels from Show levels option. Click the Ok button.

Inserting Images, Auto Shapes and Word Art

Inserting Images from Clip Gallery

To insert an image from Clip Gallery you have to follow these steps 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Move the cursor where you want to insert the image. Select Clip art option from Insert->Picture menu. Click the picture category from which you want to insert the picture. If you know what type of image youre looking for, type a descriptive word or two in the Search for Clips text box, and press Enter. Word displays the images that are most closely match your keywords. When you find out the image that you want to use, click it. Clicking on the image will display a small toolbar. From that toolbar, click the Insert button as given in the figure given below. This will insert a clipart in your document.

Insert

Applying Word Wrapping

Word gives you six options for controlling how text flows around your image. The same options are available for all graphics. To set a text-wrapping option you have to perform following steps. 1. 2. Click the picture or drawing object. On the Format menu, click the command for the type of object you selected for example, AutoShape or Picture, and then click the Layout tab.

3. 4.

Click the text-wrapping style you want. For more text-wrapping options, click Advanced, and then click the Text Wrapping tab.

Formatting a Document
Once the text of a document has been typed, it is required to be formatted. MS-Word provides Format menu to give a meaningful format of your document, so that a user can read and understand the document in an easy manner. Following are the options available in the Format menu.

Text Formatting
Format of font i.e. the font type, font size, font style, font Color, character spacing etc can be changed by going in the option Font of Format menu.

Changing of Fonts
The word font means the way of writing characters. To change the font-using Font dialog box gives you the opportunity to see the result within the dialog box before applying it on the text. Other benefit of using the font dialog box is that you can apply several effects within the same dialog box like font color, bold or font size etc. Following are the steps to change the font using Font dialog box. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Select the desired text to change the font. Select the Font option from Format menu. It will give you the following window. Scroll through the Font list and click the font that you want. Select the font color, underline style and Effects of your choice. Select the font style according to the text.

6.

Click on Ok button

Paragraphs Formatting
Alignment of the Paragraph
Alignment refers to the way the right and left edges of a paragraph line up along the right and left margins of your document. Word gives you four alignment choices - left, centered, right and justified. Click on the paragraph in which you want to change the alignment.

Center Aligned

Left Aligned

Justified

Right Aligned

1. 2. 3.

Bring up the Paragraph dialog box as stated above Choose the alignment from Alignment drop down list. Press the Ok button.

Tabs
A position you set for placing and aligning text on a page. Microsoft Word has four kinds of tab ss, as shown below. Left text extends to the right from the tab s. Center text is centered at the tab s. Right text extends to the left from the tab s until the tab's space is filled, and then the text extends to the right. Decimal text before the decimal point extends to the left, and text after the decimal point extends to the right. Bar tabs generates a bar.
Center

Right Left

Bar

Decim al Tab

Bullets and Numbering

Words bulleted and numbered list features add bullets or numbers for you, and they create hanging indents so that when text in an item wraps to the next line, it doesnt wrap underneath the number of bullet. Word enables you to create single level lists as well as multilevel lists.

Single Level Lists

Single level lists are shown below in the figure Follow these steps to create a single-level bulleted or numbered list: 1. 2. Click where you want to start a list. Click the Bullets or Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar

Bulleted

Numbered

3. 4.

Type the first item in the list and press Enter. Word automatically inserts a bullet or number on the next line for you. After the last item press Enter twice to turn off the bullets or numbers.

Instead of turning on the bulleted or numbered list feature and then typing the list, you can also type the list first, select it, and then click the Bullets or Numbering toolbar button.

Working with Columns

You can use columns to create documents such as newsletters or book pages. The column option controls the width and number of columns. Narrower column widths make your text easier to read. Often, creating columns enables you to fit more text on a single page. Columns work particularly well where you have several shorter ics making up a larger document, as with a newspaper. To create a column 1. 2. 3. Select the text which you want to convert in column Click on the column button in the Standard toolbar. A drop-down list appears with four columns across it. Click on the first column in the drop-down list and drag across to highlight desired number of columns.

4.

Leave the mouse button.

Adjust Column width and Add a vertical Line Between columns

1. Click anywhere in the column-text.

2. 3. 4.

Choose Column option from Format menu to display the column dialog box. Click on the format that you want for the column. If you have specific requirements for column widths, fill it into the Width and spacing and fill the Number of column box.

5. 6.

For line, check the Line between check box. Press Ok Button.

Working with Style

A style is a set of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text in your document to quickly changes its appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats in one simple task. For example, you may want to format the title of a report to make it stand out. Instead of taking three separate steps to format your title as 16 pt, Arial, and centeraligned, you can achieve the same result in one step by applying the Title style. When you start Microsoft Word, the new blank document is based on the Normal template, and text that you type uses the Normal style. This means that when you start typing, Word uses the font, font size, line spacing, text alignment, and other formats currently defined for the Normal style. The Normal style is the base style for the Normal template, meaning that its a building block for other styles in the template. There are a number of other styles besides Normal available in the Normal template. A few basic ones are shown in the Style list on the Formatting toolbar. You can preview and select others in the Style dialog box (Format menu, Style command).

Advantage of using Styles

1. 2. 3. 4. Styles can dramatically reduce the time it takes to format a document often by 90% or more. Styles can also help you make sure all your documents look consistent, with very little effort on your part. If you export your word document to a desk publishing program, most programs can use Word styles to help automate their work. If you need to change the way your styled document looks, you need to change only a few styles, not hundreds of manual formats.

5.

Its much easier to take advantage of Words powerful automation and organisation features if you use styles. For example, Word can automatically build and update a table of contents based on the styles in your document. Without styles, you would have to manually apply a field to every single item you want to include in your table of contents.

Types of Style
Style comes in two types 1. 2. Character based style Paragraph based style Character based Style: A character style affects selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, and bold and italic formats. Characters within a paragraph can have their own style even if a paragraph style is applied to the paragraph as a whole. If you want to be able to give certain types of words or phrases the same kind of formatting, and the formatting isnt in an existing style, you can create a new character style. Paragraph Based Style: A paragraph style controls all aspects of a paragraph's appearance, such as text alignment, tab ss, line spacing, and borders, and can include character formatting. If you want a paragraph to have a particular combination of attributes that arent in an existing style (for example, a bold, italic, center-aligned heading in the Arial Narrow font), you can create a new paragraph style.

Apply a Different Style

1. Do one of the following: To apply a paragraph style, click the paragraph or select the group of paragraphs you want to change. To apply a character style, click the word or select the words you want to change. 2. 3. On the Format menu, click Style. In the Styles box, click the style you want to apply, and then click Apply. If the style you want is not listed, select another group of styles in the List box. A paragraph mark appears to the left of each paragraph style. A bold, underlined letter "a" appears to the left of character styles.

Create a New Character Style

1. On the Format menu, click Style.

2.

Click New and the following dialog box will appear.

3. 4. 5. 6.

In the Name box, type a name for the style. In the Style type box, click Character. Select the other options you want, and then click Format to set attributes for the style. Click Ok button.

Create a New Paragraph Style

The quickest way to create a new paragraph style is to format a paragraph, select it, and then base the new style on the formatting and other properties applied to the selected text. 1. 2. 3. 4. Select the text that contains the formatting you want to use for your style. On the Formatting toolbar, click inside the Style box. Type over the existing style name to create the name for the new style. Press ENTER.

Modify a Style
1. 2. On the Format menu, click Style. In the Styles box, select the style you want to modify, and then click Modify.

3. 4.

Click Format, and then click the attribute such as Font or Numbering you want to change. Click OK after you've changed each attribute, and then repeat for any additional attributes you want to change

Text Animation
Microsoft Word comes with a number of built-in text animations, such as Sparkle Text to add visual interest or emphasis to a document. Text animations are most effective in documents that will be displayed on-screen, because in a printed document, animations appear as regular text. For example, animating the title of an e-mail memo would be effective, but animating the headings for a printed report would be less so.

Animate text
1. 2. 3. Select the text you want to animate. On the Format menu, click Font, and then click the Text Effects tab. In the Animations box, click the effect you want.

Text Animation

Remove animation from text

1. 2. 3. Select the text you want to remove animation from. On the Format menu, click Font, and then click the Text Effects tab. In the Animations box, click None.

Tools of Microsoft Word 2000

Microsoft Word Tools menu provides various tools to make your work more accurate and faster.

Spelling and Grammar

As you typed, Word can automatically check your document and underline possible spelling and grammatical errors, spelling errors by default underlined in RED color and grammatical errors are underlined in GREEN.

To correct the Spelling of Words and Grammar

1. Right click the word. A context menu will appear with a list of possible spelling corrections.

2. 3. 4.

Select the best suitable spelling or grammar. Or, Add the word using add option if you think that the word is correct. If you dont want to add the word, you can ignore it, if according to you, the word is right.

Using the Spelling and Grammar Checker

The spell checker lets you check the spelling and grammar of an entire document all at once. You wont really need to use it if you use automatic spelling checking to fix your spellings. However if youre working on a rather larger document, the spelling and grammar checker comes in use. To check your document with spelling and Grammar checker do the following steps. 1. Click on the Spelling and Grammar button of Format toolbar, or Spelling and Grammar option of Tools menu, or press F7 key.
Spelling and Grammar

2.

This will bring you the following dialog box and the first error it encounters within the red color text and the suggestions in the next window.

3. 4. 5. 6.

Sometimes Word doesnt offer the correct spelling or the grammar for a misspell word. If this happens, select the word in the half of the dialog box and type the correct grammar or the word there. If the word is spelt right, then click the add button. To leave the word as it is, click the ignore button. After finishing of spell and grammar check, it shows you a message box to inform you of the finishing of the spell check. Click on the Ok button.

What is AutoCorrect?

You can use the AutoCorrect feature to automatically detect and correct types, misspelled words, grammatical errors, and incorrect capitalisation. For example, if you type the plus a space, then AutoCorrect replaces what you have typed with "the." You can also use AutoCorrect to quickly insert text, graphics, or symbols. For example, type (c) to insert , or type ac to insert "Acme Corporation."Add an AutoCorrect Entry to Correct a Typing Error 1. 2. 3. 4. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect. In the Replace box, type a word or phrase that you often mistype or misspell for example, type usually. In the With box, type the correct spelling of the word for example, type usually. Click Add.

Create an AutoCorrect Entry to Store and Automatically Insert Text and Graphics
1. Select the text or graphic you want to store as an AutoCorrect entry. To store paragraph formatting with the entry, include the paragraph mark in the selection. 2. 3. 4. 5. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect. Make sure the Replace text as you type check box is selected. In the Replace box, type a name for the AutoCorrect entry (that is, the abbreviation or word that Microsoft Word replaces automatically as you type). Do one of the following: To save the entry without its original formatting, click Plain text. To save the entry with its original formatting, click Formatted text. 6. Click Add. When you're ready to automatically insert the AutoCorrect entry, type the entry name, followed by a space or other punctuation.

Mail Merge

What is Mail Merge?

Mail merge is a pretty simple concept. You take a document (such as a form letter) and a set of information (such as the names and addresses of all your clients) and you merge them. When you merge the form letter and the list of names, you can generate a mass mailing. Each copy of the document you print will be personalised with a different name and address. Typing the letter once, combining it with your client list, and printing it can therefore accomplish a mailing to hundreds of clients.

Before Starting Mail Merge

Before you start learning mail merge process, you need to understand the two documents that make up a mail merge: 1. Main Document In a mail-merge operation, the document containing the text and graphics stays the same for each version of the merged document. For example, the return address and the body of a form letter. 2. Data Source A file that contains the text and graphics that vary with each version of a mail-merge document. For example, a list of names and addresses for a form letter you want to send to a list of clients or in any report in which you want to use information from a database.

Creating the Main Document

The main document can be a form letter, an invoice, an invitation or any type of document. The idea here is that the document will go to many recipients, and some unique information must be included to personalize it. 1. 2. 3. If you have an existing letter that you want to use for your form letter, open it, and modify it according to your need or if you want to start a letter from scratch, start a new blank document. Save the document. Choose tools, Mail Merge to display the Mail Merge Helper Dialog box.

4.

Click the Create button.

5. Select Form Letter from the drop-down list. A dialog box will appears with two choices: to create a form letter within the active window or in new window. 6. 7. Click the Active window Button Then the Helper dialog box will come again but with different shape: with some more buttons and some active

buttons, which were inactive before. 8. Click on edit button if you havent written the letter body.

Building Data Source

In this second phase, you tell Word which document you want to use as your data source. You can either create a new one or open an existing one. A data source is a file that contains the data that varies in each copy of a merged document. For example, a data source can include the name and address of each recipient of a form letter.

Create a New Word Data Source

1. 2. 3. 4. Make sure you've already set up the main document. If you don't see the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click in the main document, and then click Mail Merge on the Tools menu. Under Data source, click Get Data, and then click Create Data Source. In the Field names in header row box, specify the data fields (A category of information in a data source. A data field corresponds to one column of information in the data source. The name of each data field is listed in the first row (header row) of the data source. "PostalCode" and "LastName" are examples of data field names.) that you want to include in the data source: To delete a data field, click the field name in the Field names in header row box, and then click Remove Field Name.

To add a data field, type a new field name in the Field name box, and then click Add Field Name. To change the order of the data fields, click a field name in the Field names in header row box, and then click one of the arrow buttons.

5. 6. 7.

When you finish specifying the data fields, click OK. Locate the folder that you want to save the data source in, type a file name, and then click Save. Click Edit Data Source.

8.

In the Data Form dialog box, fill in the information for each data record (A complete set of related information in a data source. A data record corresponds to one row of information in the data source. All information about one client in a client mailing list is an example of a data record: To fill in a record, type information for a data field, and then press ENTER to move to the next field. If you don't want to include information for a particular field, press ENTER to skip the field. Don't type spaces in the box. To start a new data record, click Add New.

9.

To return to the main document, click Mail Merge Main Document on the Database toolbar.
Mail Merge Main

Now the main document displays out with the new toolbar of Mail Merge

Inserting the Merge Fields

Its time to enter merge fields in the form letter you typed. The merge fields in the letter will correspond to the fields in your database. 1. 2. Place your cursor halfway between the date and salutation. Choose the Insert Merge fields button on the Mail Merge toolbar.

3.

Word inserts the merge field surrounded by chevron brackets. Insert the remaining merge fields in the address block, pressing Enter and adding spaces and commas where necessary. If you have a salutation field, add it after Dear, and follow it with a colon or comma. Save the main document.

4.

Merging Document and DATA

At this point you have the following options: You can view the letters that would result from performing a mail merge. You can run a check for errors in the merge before performing any of the above actions. This check looks for things such as fields that dont match the fields in your data source. You can merge your letters to a new document, creating one large file containing all the letters, one after the other that would result from combining your data and document. You can merge to your printer, proceeding to print out these letters without previewing or saving them to a document. You can print the documents to e-mail. It is always safer to view your merged document before printing or check for the errors in the merging if any.

Checking the Document

1. In the main document click on the Check for errors button on the mail merge toolbar. Then the checking and Reporting Error dialog box appears.
Check for

2.

You have three options here. If you want to check for errors without actually performing the merge, select the Simulate the Merge and Report Errors in a New Document option. If you want errors reported as the merge occurs, select Complete the merge, pausing to report each error as it occurs. If you want to go ahead with the merge, but have errors reported at the end, select the last option.

3. 4.

Select the desired option Choose OK button.

Merging to a Printer or Document

1. Choose the Mail Merge Helper button. Now the look of Mail Merge Helper dialog box changed and some new buttons get activated.

2. 3. 4.

Choose Merge button. The merge dialog box appears. Open the Merge to drop-down list. Select the option from Printer, New Document, Electronic mail for the destination of the mail merge.

5.

Select the New Document option and click on the Merge button. Then you will get a new document named as Form Letters 1 with a copy of letter with different names and address on different pages.

Macro

What is a Macro?
If you perform a task repeatedly in Word, you can automate the task by using a macro. A macro is a series of Word commands and instructions that you group together as a single command to accomplish a task automatically. Instead of manually performing a series of time-consuming, repetitive actions in Word, you can create and run a single macro in effect, a custom command that accomplishes the task for you. Here are some typical uses for macros: To speed up routine editing and formatting To combine multiple commands; for example, inserting a table with a specific size and borders, and with a specific number of rows and columns To make an option in a dialog box more accessible To automate a complex series of tasks Word offers two ways for you to create a macro: the macro recorder and the Visual Basic Editor.

Recording a Macro
The macro recorder can help you get started creating macros. Word records a macro as a series of Word commands in Visual Basic for Applications. When you record a macro, you can use the mouse to click commands and options, but the macro recorder doesn't record mouse movements in a document window. For example, you can't use the mouse to move the insertion point or to select, copy, or move items by clicking or dragging. You must use the keyboard to record these actions. When you're recording a macro, you can temporarily pause recording and then resume recording where you sped. For quick access to your macro, you can assign it to a toolbar, a menu, or shortcut keys. Running the macro is as simple as clicking the toolbar button or menu command or pressing the shortcut keys. You can also use the Macros command (Tools menu, Macro submenu) to run a macro.

Record a Macro in Word

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Record New Macro.

2.

In the Macro name box, type a name for the macro.

3. 4. 5.

In the Store macro in box, click the template or document in which you want to store the macro. In the Description box, type a description for the macro. If you don't want to assign the macro to a toolbar, a menu, or shortcut keys, click OK to begin recording the macro. To assign the macro to a toolbar or menu, click Toolbars. In the Commands box, click the macro you are recording, and drag it to the toolbar or menu you want to assign it to. Click Close to begin recording the macro.

To assign the macro to shortcut keys, click Keyboard. In the Commands box, click the macro you are recording. In the Press new shortcut key box, type the key sequence, and then click Assign. Click Close to begin recording the macro.

6.

Perform the actions you want to include in your macro. You can use the mouse to click commands and options, but the macro recorder cannot record mouse actions in a document window. To move the insertion point or select, copy, or move text, for example, you must use shortcut keys.

7.

To s recording your macro, click S Recording.

Note: If you give a new macro the same name as an existing built-in macro in Word, the new macro actions will replace the existing actions. For example, the File menu command Close has a macro attached to it called FileClose. If you record a new macro and name it FileClose, it becomes attached to the Close command. When you choose the Close command, Word performs the new actions you recorded. To view a list of built-in macros in Word, point to Macro on the Tools menu, and then click Macros. In the Macros in list, click Word Commands.

Tables in Microsoft Word 2000

Overview of Tables
A table is made up of rows and columns of cells that you can fill with text and graphics. Tables are often used to organize and present information, but they have a variety of other uses as well. You can use tables to align numbers in columns, and then sort and perform calculations on them. You can also use tables to create interesting page layouts and arrange text and graphics.

Create a Table
Word provides you three methods for creating tables. 1. 2. 3. Create table using Insert Table button in Standard toolbar. Create table using Insert Table option From Table Menu. By Drawing Method.

Creating a Table with the Standard Method

1. 2. 3. Place your cursor from where you want to create the table. Click on the Insert Table button on Standard toolbar. Drag the mouse over the grid that appears while holding down the mouse button and highlight 3 x 2 Table.

4.

Word will insert an empty table when you release the mouse button.

Create Table using Insert Table Option from Table Menu.

1. 2. Place the cursor from where you want to create the table. Choose Table option from Insert option of Table menu.

3.

Enter the desired number of columns and rows for table in the dialog box that appears.

4.

Press the OK button

Drawing a Table
1. Make sure that you are in print layout view, (Tables and Borders menu is available only in Print Layout view.) and then click the Tables and Borders button on standard toolbar to display the Tables and Borders toolbar.
Table and

2.

Click the Draw Table button. Now your mouse pointer will looks like a small pencil.
Draw Line Style Border Color

Eraser

Line Weight

3. 4.

Choose the Line Style and Line weight. Choose the Border Color.

5. 6.

Starting from the upper-left corner, drag diagonally down and to the right, releasing the mouse button when the outline is the right size. Now draw the inside lines for rows and columns.

7.

Use eraser to delete any unwanted lines.

Entering and Editing Text in a Table

1. Enter text in table just as it is entered in the MS-Word document. Use mouse or arrow keys to position the insertion point in a cell and then type the text. MS-Word will automatically wrap the text within the cell as we reach the right edge. To move from cell to cell within the table, se mouse or use the Tab or Shift + Tab keys to move to the next or previous cell. If Tab is pressed in the last cell of the last row, MS-Word creates a new row. Since we use the tab key to navigate within a Table, we cannot use Tab to enter tab characters, for this use Ctrl + Tab keys. When a table is inserted, the insertion point is positioned in the first cell. We can start typing right away.

2. 3. 4.

Inserting Rows and Columns

1. Place the cursor in the table where you want to insert the row or column.

2. Note:

Choose Insert row (above or below) or insert column (right or left) from Insert option of Table menu To add a row at the end of the table, position the insertion point in the last cell of last row and then press the Tab

key. The cells in the new row will have the formatting of the cells in the preceding row.

Deleting Rows and Columns

1. 2. Select the Rows or Column which you want to delete Right Click. A context menu will appear and the delete option is there according to your selection.

3.

Select the option of Delete row or Delete column that will appear according to your selection of row or column.

Change the Column Width in a Table

Rest the pointer on the column boundary you want to move until it becomes , and then drag the boundary until the column is the width you want.

Notes
To change a column width to a specific measurement, click a cell in the column. On the Table menu, click Table Properties, and then click the Column tab. Choose the options you want.

To make the columns in a table automatically fit the contents, click a table, point to AutoFit on the Table menu, and then click AutoFit to Contents. To display column width measurements, click a cell and then hold down ALT as you drag the markers on the ruler.

Change the Row Height in a Table

Rest the pointer on the row boundary you want to move, and then drag the boundary.

Notes
To change a row height to a specific measurement, click a cell in the row. On the Table menu, click Table Properties, and then click the Row tab. Select the options you want.

To display row height measurements, click a cell, hold down ALT as you drag the markers on the vertical ruler.

Merge and Splitting Cells

Merge Cells into One Cell in a Table

You can combine two or more cells in the same row or column into a single cell. For example, you can merge several cells horizontally to create a table heading that spans several columns. 1. 2. Note You can quickly merge multiple cells by selecting them and clicking Merge Cells from the context menu produced by right click. On the Tables and Borders toolbar, click Eraser. Drag the eraser over the cell dividers you want to remove.

Split a cell into multiple cells in a table

1. On the Tables and Borders toolbar, click Draw Table. The pointer changes to a pencil. 2. Drag the pencil to create new cell partitions.

Note: To split multiple cells, select them, and then click Split Cells

Sorting of the Table

1. 2. 3.

Select the table or the column which you want to sort. Choose Sort option from table menu. you will find out the following dialog box on the screen. Select the Column on which you want to do the sorting. You can select more than one column.

4. 5.

Select the Ascending or descending option. Select the Header row if there is any header row in the table.

6.

Click on the OK button.

Calculation in Tables
You can also perform the calculations on the table columns. Steps for performing calculation will be. 1. Put the mouse in the cell in which you want your calculation. (But remember that the numeric values on which you want to perform calculation must be in continuous order i.e. there must not be any blank cell or there must not be any text value. Select the option Formula from the Table menu.

2.

3. 4. 5.

Select the type of calculation you want to perform from the paste function list box. Whatever you select will come in Formula Text box. By default it is SUM(). Select the Number Format. Press Ok Button. Results will come out in the cell.

Summary
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. This unit has introduced you to the basic features of a word-processing software and what it can do for individuals and other business houses. WORD 2000 new features make the investment of both money and time worthwhile. We have learnt how to create our own documents, open existing documents and finally save them before closing. The standard toolbar and the formatting toolbar offer a variety of buttons which offer a quick service to the user. With the help of word wrapping feature of WORD 2000, the user is saved the effort of hitting the <Enter> key each time he or she reaches the end of line. The text which exceeds the right margin is automatically shifted to the new line. WORD also allows the user to insert new text, delete unwanted text, copy and move text from one portion to other. The look of the document can be made impressive and eye-catching by applying different font types, styles and sizes. You can emphasise or highlight your text by making it bold, italicised and underlined. Lowercase characters can be changed to uppercase and vice-versa by pressing <Shift + F3> keys together. Text placed neatly between the margins again looks very attractive and beautiful. So, text can be left, right or centre aligned. Text can also be justified between the margins. Proper line spacing can be given in between the printed lines. Text entries separated by commas can be put in the bulleted or numbered form. This makes the major heads clearly readable and remembered. The 'Find and Replace' feature of WORD 2000 helps us in finding a particular word and can be replaced with some other desired word. This makes searching of the words easier and global replacements happen without fail in no time. WORD 2000 can also give numbers to your page which make referencing easier. The looks of the document can be enhanced by adding clips to it from the Clip Gallery. WORD 2000 flags the misspell or incorrect words. The 'Spell Check' facility helps in finding out incorrect words and finally correct them. Information can be put in a tabular form which makes text more readable and understandable. Mail Merge feature helps in preparing repetitive documents. It personalises each copy with information like name, address, date, etc. With all these advanced features, WORD 2000 is fast gaining popularity among users. Its easy and ready to use tools have made the life of end users very comfortable.

Microsoft Excel 2000

Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2000
EXCEL 2000 is a very powerful and easy to use spreadsheet package, which is being commonly used these days. It is basically an end user application package. It works very well with numbers and their complex calculations. Excel 2000 helps to prepare your data in an organised, orderly and meaningful fashion. Excel 2000 finds its major contribution in creating reports, using formulas and performing calculations. It is best suited for scientific and statistical analysis. Excel 2000 can also be used to prepare Profit and Loss accounts, Balance sheet and other Tax statements. It works well for both simple and complicated numbers. It can be used for preparing analytical reports including statistical analysis, forecasting and regression analysis. Good looking and attractive charts can be created which depict data in clearer and meaningful fashion. Excel 2000 can also used to create relationships between different types of data. Excel 2000 can do all the work of a full-fledged word-processor but it lacks the advanced features of desk publishing it also supports the high level features of object linking and embedding which means data from WORD can be safely and easily put and linked with data in Excel and vice versa is also true.

How to Start Microsoft Excel 2000

To start Excel you have to follow the following steps. 1. 2. Click on the Start button at windows taskbar. Select Program option

Start Button

3. 4.

Select Microsoft Excel option. Choosing this option will open up Microsoft Excel and you will see the following screen.

Components of Excel Window

A Normal Excel window has the following components. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Title Bar Menu Bar Standard Toolbar Formatting Toolbar Status Bar

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Formula Bar Cell Rows Columns Name box Help Assistant Scroll Bars Worksheets

Function of Various Components of Microsoft Excel

Functioning of various components of Microsoft Excel is given below. 1. Title Bar Title bar shows the name of the document and situated in the of the window application. 2. Menu Bar Menu bar contains the various commands under the various ics to perform some special tasks. Menu bar is located under the title bar

3.

Standard Toolbar Toolbar is nothing more than the shortcut of the Menu options to execute or perform the menu options in the easiest and faster way. Standard toolbar contains the commands for the Words most frequently used commands.

4.

Formatting Toolbar Formatting toolbar contains the various commands related to the formatting of the document.

5.

Status Bar It displays the positioning of the cursor, displays the status of some important keys of keyboard, shows the messages for the toolbar button when a mouse points to it, display messages for menu option when a menu option is selected or pointed out by a user.

6.

Formula Bar Formula bar shows you the formula instead of the result whenever you click on a cell in which you have a formula.

7.

Rows

Rows are combination of all the horizontal cells joined together in single horizontal line. An Excel workbook has maximum 65,536 rows in a worksheet 8. Columns Columns are combination of all the vertical cells joined together in single vertical line. An Excel workbook has maximum 256 columns in a worksheet 9. Cell A Cell is an intersection point of row and column. It is used to store data. There are 65536 x 256 = 16777216 cells in a single worksheet. 10. Name Box This box shows the name or the address of the currently active cell. 11. Office Assistant Office assistant provides you the online help, real-time tips while working. 12. Scroll Bars There are two types of scroll bars i. ii. Horizontal Scrollbar Vertical Scrollbar

Working of both the scroll bar is to scroll the Worksheet in the either directions 13. Worksheets As name suggests it is the working area in which you can work. Each worksheet of a single workbook has its own identity they are separate from other worksheets. The maximum limit of the worksheet in a workbook is 255.

Working with Toolbar

Show or hide a toolbar
Right-click any toolbar, and then click the toolbar you want to show or hide on the shortcut menu.

Tips
If the toolbar you want is not listed on the shortcut menu, click Customise on the Tools menu, click the Toolbars tab, and then select the check box for the toolbar.

Add a button to a toolbar

1. 2. 3. 4. Show the toolbar you want to add a button to. On the Tools menu, click Customise, and then click the Commands tab. In the Categories list, click the category for the command you want the button to perform. Drag the command you want from the Commands list to the displayed toolbar.

Move or copy a menu to a toolbar

1. 2. Show both the toolbar with the menu you want to move or copy and the toolbar you want to move or copy the menu to. On the Tools menu, click Customise. The Customise dialog box must remain open; however, you might need to move it out of your way. 3. Do one of the following: To move a menu, drag it to the new location on the same or another toolbar. To copy a menu, hold down CTRL and drag the menu to the new location.

Delete a menu from a toolbar

1. 2. Show the toolbar you want to delete a menu from. On the Tools menu, click Customise. The Customise dialog box must remain open; however, you might need to move it out of your way. 3. Drag the menu you want to delete off the toolbar.

Create a custom toolbar

1. 2. 3. 4. On the Tools menu, click Customise, and then click the Toolbars tab. Click New. In the Toolbar name box, type the name you want, and then click OK. Leave the Customise dialog box open (you may need to move it out of the way), and then do one or more of the following: To add a button to the toolbar, click the Commands tab. In the Categories list, click the category for the command associated with the button, and then drag the command you want from the Commands list to the displayed toolbar. To add a built-in menu to the toolbar, click the Commands tab. In the Categories list, click Built-in Menus, and then drag the menu you want from the Commands list to the displayed toolbar. 5. When you have added all the buttons and menus you want, click Close.

File Menu

Open a New Workbook

To open a new workbook, you have to follow these steps.

1. 2. 3.

Click on the File Menu Select Option New. You will get the following window Click the OK Button. Now you will get a fresh new workbook to work on.

Save a Workbook
For saving a document, following are the steps Click on the File->save option. OR Press Ctrl+S OR Press the Save Button from standard toolbar

If you are saving the file for the first time, the Save As window will appear 1. 2. 3. Choose the appropriate folder from Save in combo box. Write the proper file name in the File name text box And then press the Save button

Opening of an Existing Workbook

1. To open an existing workbook, the following steps are required. Select the Open option from the File menu OR Press Ctrl+O OR

Click on the Open tool from the standard toolbar Then the open dialog box will appear as shown in figure shown above.

2. 3.

Select the appropriate folder from Look in combo box. Select the required file from the file window Or Write the required files name in the File name window

4.

Click on open button on the right hand side Or Press Enter

Closing of Document
To close an already opened workbook just choose the close option from file menu but keep it in your mind that only the current window or document will close because Microsoft Excel works in MDI (Multi document interface) environment unlike notepad which works in SDI(Single document interface).

Save Workspace
By creating a workspace file you can open a group of workbooks in one step. A workspace file saves information about all open workbooks, such as their locations, window sizes, and screen positions. When you open a workspace file by using open command, Microsoft Excel opens each workbook saved in the workspace. The workspace file does not contain the workbooks themselves, and you must continue to save changes you make to the individual workbooks. 1. 2. 3. Open all the workbooks that you want to open as a group. Size and position the workbook windows as you want them to appear the next time you use the workbooks. On the File menu, click Save Workspace option. The following dialog box will appear.

4.

Write the name of the Workspace and Press Ok button.

Page Setup
From the Page setup option, one can setup the page layout according to his work. For using the Page setup option, you have to perform the following steps. 1. 2. 3. Click on the Page setup option from the file menu. Then the following window will appear. Select the page Orientation from Portrait or Landscape. Setting the Adjust to setting will Reduces or enlarges the printed worksheet. Select the Adjust to check box, and then enter a percentage number in the % normal size box. You can reduce the worksheet to 10 percent of normal size or enlarge it to 400 percent of normal size.

4.

Give the value to Fit to. Setting to Fit To reduces the worksheet or selection when you print so that it fits on the specified number of pages. Select the Fit to check box, enter a number in the page(s) wide by box, and enter a number in the tall box. To fill the paper width and use as many pages as necessary, type 1 in the pages(s) wide by box and leave the tall box blank. Select the Paper size Click on the Margin tabs to set the Margins you will find the following dialog box. Adjust the different margins or apply different options from the margin tab where

5. 6. 7.

i. ii.

In margin enter the distance you want between the of the page and the of the first line on the page. In Bottom margin enter the distance you want between the bottom of the page and the bottom of the last line on the page.

iii. iv. v. vi. 8. 9.

In Left option enter the distance you want between the left edge of the page and the left edge of unindented lines. In Right option enter the distance you want between the right edge of the page and the right end of a line with no right indent. In Header option enter the distance you want from the edge of the paper to the edge of the header. If the Header setting is larger than the setting, Excel prints the body text below the header. In Footer option enter the distance you want from the bottom edge of the paper to the bottom edge of the footer. If the Footer setting is larger than the Bottom setting, Excel ss printing the body text above the footer

Click on the Header/Footer tab to set the header and footer for the Worksheet. You will find the following dialog box. Set the header by clicking on the Custom Header button.

10. Set the footer by clicking on the Customer Footer button.

Print Option
For taking the printout you have to select the print option of the file menu. After selecting the print option from file menu the window given below will appear. You can set various options before taking printout.

i. ii. iii iv.

From the Name combo box, you can select the printer if more than one printer is installed. You can select the range of pages i.e. all pages or current page or number of pages you require from Print range frame. From the print what option you can choose that which part of a worksheet you want to print i.e. some selection or Entire workbook or active sheet only. You can frame. choose number of copies from Number of copies option under Copies

Editing in Excel-2000
To edit a Worksheet Edit menu is used. Following are the options available with Edit menu.

Data Entry and Editing

A cell contains the data entered by you. At any time, one cell is always highlighted which is called the currently active cell. The address of this currently active cell is shown in the Name box, which lies in the upper left corner of the screen, exactly above the column letter A. You can place your data in any portion of the worksheet. Take your cell pointer at a place wherever you want to put your data in any portion of the worksheet. Take your cell pointer at a place wherever you want to put your data with the help of either the mouse pointer or move to that particular cell with the help of arrow keys. Similarly, in order to select a group of continuous cells, take your mouse pointer at the cell from where you want your range to start. Click at that cell and then drag your mouse pointer diagonally to the opposite corner, release the mouse pointer when the desired range is made. All the cells in the range become highlighted.

Reversing Commands
1. Undo To reverse changes while editing undo command is used. To perform undo you can Click on the Undo option under Edit menu Or Click on the Undo button on Standard toolbar Or Press Ctrl+z. 2. Redo If an undo has to perform on last reversed action that is known as Redo. To perform redo you can

i.

Click on the Redo option under Edit Menu Or

ii.

Click on the Undo button on Standard Toolbar Or

iii.

Press Ctrl+y

Cut and Paste

Cut and Paste means moving of text of cells and moving of text means removing text from one portion of the worksheet and placing it at some other location. To cut text of cells: 1. 2. Select the cells or make the range of the cells Select cut from Edit menu Or Click on the cut button of standard toolbar Or Press the ctrl+x button Or Move the mouse pointer on the selected text and right click and select cut as shown in figure given below

To paste the selection 1. 2. Move the cursor at the location where the text is to be pasted Select Paste from Edit menu Or Click paste button on the standard toolbar Or Press Ctrl + v Or Click the right mouse button and select paste from the context menu.

Copy and Paste

Copying means duplicating the contents of the document at some other desired place. The procedure for copying text is almost the same as that of moving text with a little difference, which is being discussed in following steps. To copy a particular text i. ii. Select the cell or make the range of the cells Select copy from Edit menu Or Click on the copy button of standard toolbar Or Press the ctrl + c button Or Move the mouse pointer on the selected range and right click and select copy Paste operation is same as described in the cut and paste section

Find Replace and go to Options

Find
Some times while working in Worksheet you need to find a particular text. To find a particular text you have to perform the following steps 1. 2. 3. 4. On the Edit menu, click Find. Then you will see the following window In the Find what box, enter the text that you want to search for. Select the direction of searching from Search list box. Select any other options that you want. Match case: To find the characters that are a word by themselves and are not a part of another word.

Find entire cell only: To find the characters that are a word by themselves and are not a part of another word. iv. For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option.

v. vi.

Click Find Next. If you want find similar word again in the rest of the document click on the Find next button.

Replace
If you have to replace a word in the document with another word you can use find and replace command to do that. Find we have discussed above now its the turn of Replace i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. On the Edit menu, click Replace. Then you will find the following window The Find what box, enter the text that you want to search for. In the Replace with box, enter the replacement text. Select any other options that you want. For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option. Click Find Next, Replace, or Replace All.

vii. To cancel a search in progress, press ESC.

Go to
To go to on a particular location or particular item use Go to option under the Edit menu. Steps are as follows. 1. 2. 3. Click on the Go to option under the Edit menu. Then the following window will appear on the screen. Enter the parameter as page number or cell name in the reference text box. Click on the Ok button.

Create Linear and Growth Trends with the Series Command

When you use the Series command, the resulting series replaces the original selected values. To save the original values, copy them to a different row or column. Then create the series by selecting the copied values. 1. 2. 3. Select the cell where you want to start the series. The cell must contain the first value in the series. On the Edit menu, point to Fill, and then click Series. Do one of the following: To fill the series down the page, click Columns. To fill the series across the page, click Rows. 4. In the Step value box, enter the value that you want to increase the series by. In a linear series, the step value is added to the first starting value and then added to each subsequent value. In a growth series, the first starting value is multiplied by the step value. The resulting product and each subsequent product is then multiplied by the step value. Under Type, click Linear or Growth.

5.

6.

In the S value box, enter the value you want to s the series at.

Clear Command
Clear command is used to clear a content, format or comments. 1. Format: Clearing format means that if there is any content with some format is there in current cell then by issuing clear format command will clear that format only not the contents. The content will remains same as it is but the format of the cell or the format of the content will be cleared. Contents: Clearing content means that if there is any content with some format is there in current cell then by issuing clear content command will clear that content only not the formats. The format will remains same as it is but the format of the cell or the format of the content will be cleared. Comments: Clear Comments will clear the comments settled in a cell for reference. Setting of comment you will learn in next few chapters. All: Clearing all means to clear all whatever there in the cell or the in the range.

2.

3. 4.

Delete
Issuing command Delete from Edit menu will give you four options to delete. These are 1. 2. 3. 4. Delete cell and shift the right cell on the place of the current cell, which is going to be deleted. Delete cell and shift the left cell on the place of the current cell, which is going to be deleted. Delete the whole row. Delete the whole column.

Delete Sheet
Delete sheet command is used to delete the current sheet and keep remember that once a sheet deleted cant be recovered. So take care while issuing this command that you are on the sheet, which you want to delete.

Move or Copy Worksheet

A sheet can be copy or moved to the same workbook as well to the other workbook to do this the user has to make use of the Move or copy sheet option from the edit menu.

To copy or to move a worksheet, follow these steps. 1. 2. 3. Select the workbook from To books list box in which you want to copy or move the current worksheet. If you want to create a copy of the current work sheet check mark the Create a copy option. Otherwise if you want to move the current worksheet, remains the Create a copy option unchecked. Press Ok button.

Working with View Menu

View menu includes the following option

Views
There are two options to view a work book in two different views 1. 2. Normal View: Normally work is done is Normal view only. Normal view is the default view of the Microsoft Excel. Print Layout View: Shows you what data will go on each page and lets you quickly adjust the print area and page breaks. In this view you can see the page number as the background of the page. But it will not come in the printout. Also in the page break view the view of the page is limited up to the data i.e. up to the position of the data ends.

Full Screen View

If you like working in a completely spick and span environment, youll like the Full Screen view. To switch to this view, choose Full screen option from view menu. You document enlarges to cover the entire desk. The title bar and toolbars in the Excel window are temporarily hidden to give you as much room as possible to see your text. To view your document in full screen clicks the Full Screen in View menu. Full screen view of a worksheet is given below.

Custom Views
Custom views change the way workbooks, worksheets, objects, and windows are displayed. You can define sets of particular display and print settings and save them as views. Then you can switch to any of the views whenever you want to display or print the workbook in a different way.

What can be Stored in Custom Views?

The stored settings include column widths, display options, window size and position on the screen, window splits or frozen panes, the sheet that is active, and the cells that are selected at the time the view is created. You can also optionally save hidden rows, hidden columns, filter settings, and print settings. The custom view includes the entire workbook. If you hide a sheet before a view is added, Microsoft Excel hides the sheet each time you show the view.

Before you Create a View

Set up the workbook to appear the way you want to view and print it. If you include print settings in a view, the view includes the defined print area or the entire worksheet if the sheet has no defined print area.

Create a View
1. 2. 3. Change the settings that you want to save in the view. On the View menu, click Custom Views. Click Add.

4. 5.

In the Name box, type a name for the view. Under Include in view, select the options you want.

Note: When you display a view, Microsoft Excel switches to the sheet that was active when you created the view. Because Excel lists all views in the workbook in the Custom Views dialog box, include the active sheet name in the name of a view to make it easier to identify.

Display a View
1. 2. 3. On the View menu, click Custom Views. In the Views box, click the name of the view you want. Click Show.

Print a View
1. 2. 3. 4. On the View menu, click Custom Views. In the Views box, click the name of the view you want to print. Click Show. Click Print .

Note: Microsoft Excel saves previously defined print areas for each sheet in the workbook with your view. If a sheet has no defined print areas, Microsoft Excel prints the entire worksheet.

Delete a View
1. 2. 3. On the View menu, click Custom Views. In the Views box, click the name of the view. Click Delete.

Inserting Elements in Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel has several components, which you can insert into your worksheet.

Insert a Cell
You can insert a cell or a number of cells in your worksheet. For inserting cell(s) you have to follow these steps. 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on the cell where you want to insert a new cell or select group of cell where you want to insert the cells but keep in mind that you can insert those many cells equal to selected cells numbers. From the insert menu, choose the option cell. Click shift Cells right or Shift cells down according to your requirement. Click the Ok button.

Similarly you can insert a row and a column too. Just select the Rows or Columns option from the Insert menu.

Insert a New Worksheet

You can set the no of worksheet in a workbook after starting with a new workbook. But in existing workbook if you need worksheet(s) then you have to insert it through the Insert menu. To insert a new Worksheet follow these steps. 1. Select the Worksheet option from Insert menu. 2. If you want to insert multiple worksheets at a time just select more than one worksheet by holding shift key and clicking the number of sheets you want to insert in the work book. 3. Click on the Worksheet option form Insert menu.

Selection of multiple sheets By holding the shift key and clicking on the sheets

Formulas
To insert a function you have to follow the following steps. 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on the cell in which you want to insert the function. Select the option Function from insert menu. Above dialog box will appear. Select the desired function and click on OK button

Function, you are using

Result of the function

5.

Resultant window will look like this

If you know the syntax of the function you can directly write the formula including the function in the cell without going on the function wizard.

Comment
Inserting a comment can help you in remembering the value of the cell or why the value is written in the cell, definition of a word or something else you want to give to define any word. To insert a comment in a cell you have to perform the following steps. 1. 2. 3. Select the cell on which you want to give the comment. Select the option Comment from Insert menu. The resultant window will look like the following figure.

Comme nt

Commented cell has a red marks

4. 5.

Type the comment in the comment Textbox Click anywhere in the window.

You can see your comment by putting your mouse pointer onto the commented cell and the comment will appear same as in the comment text box. To Delete or edit a comment select the cell and right click on the desired option from Delete comment or Edit Comment from the context menu.

Inserting Images, Auto shapes and Word Art

Inserting Images from Clip Gallery

To insert an image from Clip Gallery you have to follow these steps 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Move the cursor on the cell where you want to insert the image. Select Clip art option from Insert->Picture menu. Click the picture category from which you want to insert the picture. If you know what type of image youre looking for, type a descriptive word or two in the Search for Clips text box, and press Enter. Excel displays the images that most closely match your keywords. When you find out the image that you want to use, click it. Clicking on image will display a small toolbar, from that toolbar click the insert button. As given in figure below:

Insert

This will insert a clipart in your worksheet.

WordArt
WordArt lets you add flair to your text itself. It provides a different look to your text as well worksheet. Its perfect for creating flashy headings and titles. To insert a word art in your worksheet do the following steps. 1. 2. Click the place on the worksheet where you want the WordArt image to be placed. Choose Insert, Picture, WordArt or click on icon. This will open the WordArt Gallery dialog box.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Choose the desired format and press Ok button. Then the figure given below will appear. Write the desired text instead of Write your Text Here. Select the desired Font and Font size. Press Ok button.

Insert Objects
Excel provides you the facility to link or embed the objects of other softwares in your worksheet and work on the linked or embedded objects as you are working on that software itself. To embed an object you have to follow these steps. 1. Click in the document where you want to place the embedded object.

2.

On the Insert menu, click Object, and then click the Create New tab.

3.

In the Object type box, click the type of object you want to create.

Menus and Toolbar changed according to the embedded object

4.

To display the embedded object as an icon for example, if others are going to view the worksheet online select the Display as icon check box.

Notes:
Only programs that are installed on your computer and that support linked and embedded objects appear in the Object type box. When you click Microsoft Word Document in the Object type box, an entire document is inserted into your worksheet. The document displays only one page at a time. To display a different page, double-click the Microsoft Word object, and then click a page down button.

Insert Chart
Pictures are more understandable than words. Charts are visually appealing and make it easy for users to see comparisons, patterns, and trends in data. For instance, rather than having to analyse several columns of worksheet numbers, you can see at a glance whether sales are falling or rising over quarterly periods, or how the actual sales compare to the projected sales. You can create a chart on its own sheet or as an embedded object on a worksheet. You can also publish a chart on a Web page. To create a chart, you must first enter the data for the chart on the worksheet. Then select that data and use the Chart Wizard to step through the process of choosing the chart type and the various chart options.

Using chart wizard

One of the easiest way to generate a chart from data you enter in a worksheet is by using Chart wizard. Chart wizard is a simple four-step process of making selections to produce a finished chart. 1. Select the range of data on which you want to make a chart.

2.

Select the option chart from insert menu following dialog box will appear.

3. 4. 5.

Select the type of chart you want. Click on the Press and Hold to view Sample button to preview your chart. If the given charts are not of your choice then click on the Custom Type tab.

6. 7.

Select the graph type and Click on the Next button. If you have forgotten to select the data range or you want to change the data range then you can select the data range

from here by clicking the button next to Data range combo box.

8.

Click on the Series tab. Following dialog box will appear.

9.

You can add or remove the series (Columns) from the series list box by clicking add or remove button.

10. Click on the Next button the option dialog box will appear on the screen.

11. Fill up the entries as Heading of the chart, (x) axis category heading, (Z) axis values heading.

12. Click on the Legend tab

13. Legend dialog box will be displayed on the screen 14. Check mark the Show legend check box to show the legends 15. Select the Placement position. 16. Click on the Data Labels Tab.

17. Choose the type of labels you want to see in your graph.

18. Click on the Next button.

19. Select the destination of the Chart on new sheet or in the current sheet. 20. Select New Sheet and click on the Finish button.

Formatting
With the format menu, one can give a new format to cell, row, column or even worksheet. Options of format menu are given below.

Formatting Cells
You can give different formatting to a cell 1. Format a cell entry in a particular number format. To give a particular number format to a cell, you have to follow these steps. i. ii. Select a range of cells on which you want to apply a number format. Choose Cell option from format menu.

iii. iv. v. vi. vii.

2.

Select the number format you want to apply on the cells or a range of cells. Adjust the Decimal places Select the other settings Preview of the number can be seen from Sample Frame. Click on the Ok button.

Formatting Alignment of the Cell To change the Alignment of the cell follows the following steps. i. ii. Select the cell on which you want to change the alignment. Click on the Cell option from format menu.

iii

Select the Alignment tab.

iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. 3.

Set the vertical and horizontal alignment. Select the orientation of the Text. For example, set it to 45 Degrees. The selected cells text will rotate to 45degrees upwards. In the option, you can select the wrap text to make the text able to come in one cell only if it is going outside the cell. It will adjust the text in one cell and in multiple lines. To fit the text within the cell without wrapping, you have the option of shrinking text. It will shrink the text within the cell. To merge two or more cells select the cells. Check mark the merge cell option and press Ok button.

Change the Formatting of the text. Change the formatting of the text means changing of font, font size, font color, font style etc. to change the formatting of the text perform the following steps. i. ii. Select the cells whose text you want to format. Select the Cell option from Format menu.

iii.

Select the Font tab.

iv. v.

Select the options you want to change. Click on the Ok button.

Resizing of columns and rows

Resizing of Row height

Sometimes it is needed to change the row height according to the text for some reasons. To change the row height you have to follow these steps. 1. 2. Put the cursor on the cell which rows height you want to change. Drag the boundary below the row heading until the row is the height you want. Or Select the height option from row option of format menu.

3.

Fill in the height manually.

4.

Press the OK button.

The other options of row option of format menu are 1. Fit the contents To make the row height fit the contents, double-click the boundary below the row heading. 2. Hide and Unhide the rows. Some times you want to hide particular rows. To do that, perform the following steps. i. ii. iii. iv. v. Select the rows which you want to hide Choose the option Row under Format menu. Select the Hide option After clicking the hide option the rows will be hide. To unhide these rows select the 4th row and 7th row and click on unhide option.

Change Column Width

1. Drag the boundary on the right side of the column heading until the column is the width you want. Or 2. Manually change the width To manually change the width, select the column, point to Column on the Format menu, click Width, and then enter a number.

Auto Format
Microsoft Excel provides you some predefined formats of the table that you can apply to your cells. To select the predefined formats of a table perform the following steps. 1. 2. Select the range to provide auto format Click the Format

3.

Select the option AutoFormat.

4. 5. 6.

Select the formats you want. Select the options you want. Press Ok Button.

About Conditional Formatting

If a cell contains formula results or other cell values that you want to monitor, you can identify the cells by applying conditional formats. For example, you can apply green shading (highlighting) to the cell if the sales exceed forecast and red shading if sales fall short.

When Conditions Change

If the value of the cell changes and no longer meets the specified condition, Microsoft Excel temporarily suppresses the formats that highlight that condition. Conditional formats remain applied to the cells until you remove them, even though none of the conditions are met and the specified cell formats are not displayed.

Highlight Cells that Meet Specific Conditions

1. 2. Select the cells you want to highlight. On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.

3.

Do one of the following: To use values in the selected cells as the formatting criteria, click Cell Value Is, select the comparison phrase, and then type a value in the appropriate box. You can enter a constant value or a formula. If you enter a formula, you must start it with an equal sign (=).

To use a formula as the formatting criteria (to evaluate data or a condition other than the values in selected cells), click Formula Is in the box on the left, and then enter the formula in the box on the right. The formula must evaluate to a logical value of TRUE or FALSE. 4. Click Format.

5.

Select the font style, font color, underlining, borders, shading, or patterns you want to apply. Microsoft Excel applies the selected formats only if the cell value meets the condition or if the formula returns a value of TRUE.

6.

To add another condition, click Add, and then repeat steps 3 through 5. You can specify up to three conditions. If none of the specified conditions are true, the cells keep their existing formats. You can use the existing formats to identify a fourth condition.

Tools of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel provides various tools to make your work easier and faster.

Goal Seek
Goal seek is a method for finding the input value that a formula needs to return a given result. When goal seeking, Microsoft Excel varies the value in a cell that you specify until a formula that's dependent on that cell returns the result you want. Use the Goal Seek command when you want to find a specific value for a particular cell by adjusting the value of only one other cell.

Steps of Goal Seeking

Suppose if you have a condition that you have a value of 10000 in A1 and you dont know the value of B1 but you know the result of A1 and B1 is 20000 and now you want to know the value of B1. Perform the following steps. 1. 2. 3. Write 10000 in cell A1 and write the formula in C1 to calculate the sum of cell A1 and cell B1. Put the cursor on the C1. On the Tools menu, click Goal Seek.

4. 5. 6. 7.

In the Set cell box, enter the reference for the cell that contains the formula you want to resolve i.e. C1. In the To value box, type the result you want i.e. 20000. In the By changing cell box, enter the reference for the cell that contains the value you want to adjust. This cell must be referenced by the formula in the cell you specified in the Set cell box i.e. B1 Press the OK button. You will see the result in a dialog box if the result is right press Ok button other wise Press Cancel Button

Data Management
Data menu of the Excel provides various commands, which you can apply to your data.

Sorting of Data
To sort the data you have to perform the following steps. 1. 2. Select the columns which you want to sort. Choose Sort option from Data menu. You will find out the following dialog box on the screen.

3. 4. 5. 6.

Choose the Column on which you want to do the sorting. You can select more than one column. Select the Ascending or descending option. Select the Header row if there is any header row in the table. Click on the OK button.

Filtering List
Sometimes the user wants to locate some information from an extensive list. To find the information quickly, Microsoft Excel provides Filter list option. This option enables the user to display the information regarding the selected options. Microsoft Excel provides two commands for filtering lists: AutoFilter, which includes filter by selection, for simple criteria Advanced Filter, for more complex criteria

Using Auto Filter

You can apply filters to only one list on a worksheet at a time. 1. 2. Click a cell in the list you want to filter. On the Data menu, point to Filter, and then click AutoFilter.

3. 4. 5.

To display only the rows that contain a specific value, click the arrow in the column that contains the data you want to display. Click the value. To apply an additional condition based on a value in another column, repeat steps 3 and 4 in the other column.

Filter a List by using Advanced Criteria

Your worksheet should have at least three blank rows above the list that can be used as a criteria range. The list must have column labels. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Select the column labels from the list for the columns that contain the values you want to filter, and click Copy . Select the first blank row of the criteria range, and click Paste . In the rows below the criteria labels, type the criteria you want to match. Make sure there is at least one blank row between the criteria values and the list. Click a cell in the list. On the Data menu, point to Filter, and then click Advanced Filter. To filter the list by hiding rows that don't match your criteria, click Filter the list, in-place.

To filter the list by copying rows that match your criteria to another area of the worksheet, click Copy to another location, click in the Copy to box, and then click the upper-left corner of the area where you want to paste the rows. 7. In the Criteria range box, enter the reference for the criteria range, including the criteria labels.

Criteria

To move the Advanced Filter dialog box out of the way temporarily while you select the criteria range, click Collapse Dialog.

Validation
Sometimes you need to put some validations on some particular cells for the users to not to enter value other than some specific requirement. To provide validation you have to follow the following steps. 1. 2. Select the cells in which you want to provide some validations. Select the Validation option from Data menu.

3.

Click a data validation option in the Allow box to apply restrictions on data entry to selected cells on the worksheet. Click the Custom option to enter a formula, use an expression, or refer to a calculation in another cell to determine valid entries. Click the comparison operator you want to use. The available operators depend on the type of data you chose in the Allow box. Enter the minimum value, start date, or start time as a value, cell reference, or formula for the data validation option you chose in the Allow box. Apply the maximum value, end date, or end time as a value, cell reference, or formula for the data validation option you chose in the Allow box. Now Click the Input Message tab to provide an input message when user clicks on the cells in which validation is set.

4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10.

Enter the value of Title and Input message. Click on Error alert to provide some error message when the user enters value other than the validations. Enter the Error message title and Error message and click Ok button

11. Now the if someone click on the restricted cells then he will input message will be displayed 12. If user will make some error then error message will flash.

Text to Column
If you have copied some lines from outside of Excel and now you want to paste each word of the line as a heading or want to copy each word in different columns then you need Text to column option. To use text to column follow these steps. 1. 2. 3. 4. Copy the text from outside Excel like from Microsoft Word. Paste it on any one cell. Select the cell Select the option Text to column from Data menu.

5. 6.

If items in your text file are separated by tabs, colons, semicolons, or other characters, select Delimited. If all of the items in your text file are the same length, select Fixed width. Press Next button

7. 8. 9.

The above dialog box will tell you that what text is going to store in which column. You can adjust your column from here also. Just drag the lines to make new columns or to remove columns. Click on the next button. The next screen will let you select each column and set the Data format.

10. Click on the finish button. 11. Now every word will goes to its separate column.

Pivot Tables
A PivotTable report is an interactive table that you can use to quickly summarise large amounts of data. You can rotate its rows and columns to see different summaries of the source data, filter the data by displaying different pages, or display the details for areas of interest.

When to use a PivotTable Report

Use a PivotTable report when you want to compare related totals, especially when you have a long list of figures to summarise and you want to compare several facts about each figure. Use PivotTable reports when you want Microsoft Excel to do the sorting, subtotaling, and totaling for you. Because a PivotTable report is interactive, you or other users can change the view of the data to see more details or calculate different summaries.

Creating a PivotTable Report

To create a PivotTable report, use the PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard as a guide to locate and specify the source data you want to analyse and to create the report framework. You can then use the PivotTable toolbar to arrange the data within that framework. Follow the steps give below to create a pivot table: 1. 2. Select the source table in the worksheet for which a pivot table is to be created. A pivot table from an external data source can also be created. On the Data menu choose the Pivot table and Pivot Chart Report option.

4. In this step click an option for the data source type and click next.

5. 6.

In the next step specify the data source range in the Range box if you havent selected the range yet. Click the next button

7. 8.

Click the layout button to set the layout of the pivot table. Select the field, drag and drop it into the section Row (summarises the data from down as well as applies a vertical format to the table). Column (Summarises the data from left to right as well as applies a horizontal format to the table), Page (Create a drop down menu above the table.), or Data (Data drop area is the summary of numbers) of the dialog box to create a desired layout.

9.

Click Ok button and then click the Finish button.

Summary
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. EXCEL is a very powerful and easy to use spreadsheet package. It's easy to use interface has made it very popular among end-users and non-programmers. It can perform complex calculations in a matter of few seconds. Data can be put in more organised and orderly fashion which can make the understanding very simple and less complicated. It can also act as a word-processor though it lacks the advanced features of desk publishing. It helps us in analysing and interpreting complex data. A file in EXCEL is called a document or a workbook. One workbook contains many worksheets under it. The idea is to put all the related information at one place. The default name given to a file in EXCEL is 'Book1'. The extension of an EXCEL file is 'xls'. An electronic spreadsheet is a grid of rows and columns. An intersection of a row and a column is called a cell. A group of continuous cells is called a range. At any one time, one cell is always highlighted and this cell is called the currently active cell. Any kind of entry can only be done in a cell. A cell entry can be modified by double-clicking at that particular cell. New rows and columns can be inserted in the worksheet. The row height and the column width can be changed to suit special requirements. Different types of cell entries can be made in EXCEL which include Text, Number and Formulae. The text entry can contain text, number or any special character. Any entry is treated as numeric value if the first character entered is a number or a mathematical operator such as + or -. Formulae establish relationships between two or more cells. It performs mathematical or arithmetical operation on these data values. EXCEL offers some built-in functions which are very handy to use.

6.

7.

Microsoft Access
Basic Database Concepts
What is Data and Why it is Required by an Organization
It is said, if data is lost, business is lost. Data is of utmost importance to an organization. Data is derived from Greek word Datum that means facts and figures. Data is collection of raw facts and figures, which may consists of numbers, letters, events and transactions. It is like a raw material from which information will be extracted. Data is are known facts or things used as the basis for inference or reckoning. Information: Processed data is information. It consists of facts and figures, which have been processed to enable the person who receives it to interpret the data. System: A System is a group of associated activities or functions with the following attributes: A common goal or purpose Identifiable objectives A set of procedures including inputs, outputs and feedbacks An environment in which system exist Mutually dependent subsystem A business is a system and database system is a subsystem and database management system is a part of this complex system. The information, which is derived from the processing of data, will now be used in DBMS under this complex system. Database: Database is a collection of related items grouped together under a single heading, for e.g. a customer file, A/C in a Bank, Employee Details etc. According to Oxford dictionary a database is an organized store of data for computer processing. A database can be said to be a collection of files containing records of similar nature. Each record contains all the data relating to one subject in the file. The grouping of such files is called a Database. Database can be kept manually or electronically.

Components of Database
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Records: A record is a collection of fields containing the alphanumeric characters. Fields: A field is an item, which distinguishes one record, from another. A field can either be in the form of alphabets, numeric, or alphanumeric. Each field is identified by a field name. Key Fields: a key field is a field that is unique to a particular record and is used to distinguish a file from another in one or the other respect. Entity: A person, place, thing or event about which information must be kept. Attribute: Piece of information describing a particular entity. These are mainly characteristics about the individual entity.

The hierarchy is summarized as follows:

Database: a collection of related files File: a collection of related records Record: a collection of related fields Field: an individual data item

FIELDS

Category ID 1 2 3 4 5

Category Name Beverages Condiments Confections Dairy Products Seafood

Description Soft Drinks, Coffees, Teas Sweet and Savoury Sauces Deserts, Candies Cheese Seaweed, fish

R E C O R D S

Database Management System

A database management system is probably best defined as a software system that allows access to data contained in a database. A database management system consists of a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access those data. The collection of data, usually referred to as the database, contains information about one particular enterprise. The primary goal of DBMS is to provide an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use in retrieving and storing database information. The database management system interfaces with application programs that the data contained in the database can be used by multiple applications and users. A database system comprises a database of operational data together with the processing functionality required to access and manage that data. Some commercially available DBMS are :INGRES, ORACLE, SYBASE, and SQLSERVER.

Starting an Access Session

To start an Access Session : Click on the Start Button The Program menu will be displayed on the screen as illustrated Select MS Access from the Program Menu You now get started with your Access Session. The following screen will be displayed as soon as your Access Session is started, which asks for the various options such as Blank Access database Access database wizards, pages, and projects

Open an existing database (by default) followed by existing databases on your System

Depending on the task you want to do you can choose the appropriate option and perform the specified task.

Features of Access
Windows based application Large Data Management Capacity Importing, Exporting and Linking External Files Wizards Built in Functions Macros

Steps to Create a Database

Invoke Ms Access The starting screen is displayed as shown in the figure below.

If this is the first time you have launched Access, you will not have the entries in the list box at the bottom of the dialog box.

As soon as your Access Session is started, which asks for the various options such as: Blank Access database (this will create a new container ready for you to fill in with various database objects. Access database wizards, pages, and projects (this will also create a new database, but by use of a wizard or two to give you a quick start. Open an existing database this will allow you to choose from a list.

Navigating the Database Window

After you have opened the already existing database, your screen will be as follows. This is called the database view. This window contains all the objects in your database and toolbars for manipulation of these objects.

The series of buttons on the left pane allows you to choose from different objects present. Clicking on the particular object gives the list of related database objects on the right pane. For example in the figure above the list of tables (object selected) is shown in the right pane.

Now going through the Database view window we first encounter the following Open Launches an object in its native mode, such as for data entry. Design Launches an object in such a way as to allow you to edit its structure rather than its data. New Create a new object of the type highlighted within the Object list.

Delete Delete the highlighted object. This functions for the objects, which are created by the user. Large Icons Displays the database objects in large icon view. Small Icons Displays the database objects in small icon view. List Displays the database objects in list view. Details Displays the database objects in details view (with name of the object, description of object, modified date and time, created date and time, and type of object you are looking at). Right clicking on any of the objects, you will see a shortcut menu containing all the actions within the database view as well as a few more.

Steps in Creating a Table

After you plan the structure of the database, your next step is to create the database file itself. The database file will eventually contain all of the objectstables, queries, forms, and reports. To create a database, you must assign it a name. Then you can create the first table object.

Using Table Design View

Each database object has a Design view in which you can modify its structure. The Design view of a table allows you to add or delete fields, add field descriptions, or change field properties. Field properties are additional characteristics of a field, such as its size or default value. The design view is the way, which is mostly used by the Access developers to create their tables. The grid is the only way to have the fine control of your fields properties. Here are the steps to create a table using design grid: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. From the Database view, click New and then choose Design View from the resulting dialog box, and click OK Enter a field name in the first row of the Field Name Column. Press Enter or Tab to move to the Data Type Field. Enter a data type for this field. Access will scroll using the first letter of the data type, or you can also use the drop down list provided to you. Alter the Field Properties section of the table design grid as needed. Add a comment in the description column for your better understanding.

The following are the various data types that are available in the Access database. A brief description of all data types that you will be frequently using is as follows
Data Type Text Memo Number Date/Time Currency Auto Number Yes/No OLE Object Lookup wizard Type of Data Stored Alphanumeric Characters Alphanumeric Characters Numeric Values Date and Time data Monetary data Automatic number increment Logical values: Yes/No, True/False Pictures, Graphs, Sound Displays data from another table Up to 1 GB Generally 4 bytes Storage Size 0 255 characters 0 64000 characters 1,2,4, or 8 bytes 8 bytes 8 bytes 4 bytes 1 bit (0 or 1)

Table and Field Properties

After you have entered the field names, data types and an optional description, you may want to further refine the data design and have more control over the way data is stored, formatted and validated. You can specify all these characteristics of a field in the Field Properties Pane in the Design view. The properties of a field are the characteristics that define the field. Two properties are required for every field: field name and data type. Many other properties, such as field size, format, caption, and default value, are defined in the Field Properties section of the table's Design view. As you specify more property entries, you are generally restricting the amount or type of data that can be entered in the field, which increases data entry accuracy. The available field properties vary depending on the data type of the selected field. The Caption property, however, allows you to override a technical or sample field name (for example, Project Description) with an easy-to-read caption entry (that is, Project Description) when the field name is displayed on datasheets, forms, and reports.

The property list box as shown in the previous page lists various properties of the selected Field, one of which is validation rule. Lets learn more about it The Validation Rule and Validation Text field properties can help you eliminate unreasonable entries by establishing criteria for the entry before it is accepted into the database. For example, the Validation Rule property of a Gender field might be modified to allow only two entries: "male" or "female." The Validation Text property is used to display a message when a user tries to enter data that does not pass the Validation Rule property for that field. Without a Validation Rule entry, the Validation Text property is meaningless. You can use Validation Rule expressions to specify requirements for data entered into a record, field, or control. Validation Rule expressions can be any combination of operators, constants, literal values, functions, and names of fields (columns), controls, and properties that evaluates to a single value.

Using Datasheet View to Make a Table (Steps in Creation)

1. 2. 3. 4. Launch MS Access and start a new blank database. Access now launches a blank table for use. Enter 000234 for the first field in the first row. Right click on the first column header (labeled Field 1) and choose Rename from the shortcut menu. This allows you to change the column header, change it to Employee ID for this field Enter come name data for each of the next three fields, editing the field names to Last Name, First Name, and Middle Name respectively.

5. 6. 7. 8.

Move to the next column, enter Yes, and edit the column header to Vested. Move to the next column to enter date and edit the header to Vestment Date. Click on the Save icon in the toolbar and name the table tblBydatasheet. Click the view button to switch to Design View.

Creating One to Many Relationships

Once the initial database design and table design phase have been completed, you must link the tables together in appropriate one-to-many relationships. Some field properties that do not affect how the data is stored (such as the Format property), can be changed after the tables are linked, but other properties (such as the Field Size property), cannot be changed once tables are linked. Therefore, it is best to complete all the table and field design activities before linking the tables. Once the tables are linked, however, you can design queries, reports, and forms with fields from multiple tables.

Steps in Creating a Relationship

1. 2. 3. 4. Click relationship button on Database Toolbar Click Employees on the tables tab, Click Add button, Click Attendance, Click Add button, Click Courses, Click Add button and then Click Close button. Click SSN and then drag SSN from the Employees in the Attendance table to the SSN field. Click Enforce Referential Integrity check box in the Entity Relationship dialog box and then click Create Button.

Sorting and Filtering in Tables

The records of a datasheet are automatically sorted according to the data in the primary key field. Often, however, you will want to view or print records in an entirely different order. Access makes it easy to sort data, find data, and filter a datasheet with the buttons on the Table Datasheet toolbar. Sorting reorganizes the records in either ascending or descending order based on the contents of a field. To sort a table or other datasheet is database talk to order it in a determined fashion. Ordering records alphabetically is an alpha sort. Sorting allows you to reorder the records in a datasheet. (We will see the sorting of record in the Northwind database) 1. 2. 3. 4. Click the Tables entry in the object bar. Locate the Customers table and open it in Datasheet view by Double clicking on it. When opened a table will order itself to its primary key, which is the Customer ID for this table. Click anywhere in the Contact Name column (field). Click the Sort descending button on the toolbar. The table order changes. Click the contact Title field. Click on the Sort Ascending button on the toolbar to re sort the table.

Filtering
Filtering temporarily isolates a subset of records. This is particularly useful because the subset can be formatted and printed just like the entire datasheet. Filtering means to filter out all but the data you let pass your criteria. Access makes this operation as simple as sorting.

Steps in Filtering
1. 2. 3. 4. Click the Filter by Selection button on the toolbar for Customer table in the Northwind database. Click the remove Filter button to remove the filter. Click the same button to reapply the filter. Click the Remove Filter button to remove any filter by selection. Click the Filter by Form button. Note the pull down buttons. Pull down the combo box for Contact Title and choose Accounting Manager. Click the Apply Filter button. This will apply the filter as before. You can filter on more than one field using this method.

Once you have filtered a datasheet to display a subset of records, you can still sort the records and find data just as if you were working with the entire datasheet.

Modifying the Table Design

Sometimes changes are necessary to the table design because of change in the applications need and specification or the table might not generate the desired output. To do this you may require to add a new field or delete an existing field or just change the data type of the existing field.

Inserting New Fields

The steps involved in inserting a new field are as follows: Place the cursor on the field before which you want to insert a new field Select the Field option from the Insert menu A new field is added to the table design.

Renaming Fields
You can change the name of the field by placing the cursor on the field and typing the new name. This change should be made in all the reports, forms and queries that you have created.

Deleting Fields
The steps involved in Deleting a field are as follows: Select the field by clicking on the field selector (a button on the left of a field) and press the Delete key. Select the field and then choose Delete from the edit menu. Whenever you delete a field, you receive a warning from Access stating that you will lose all data stored in the field.

Changing the Field Size

Fields need to be resized to hold more data or to save on database size if the width is more than required. You can only resize the fields with data type that of Text and Number as all other data types have predefined sizes. To increase the field size: Increase the Field Size property for the text. For numeric fields, specify a different field size in the General group in the Properties pane. To reduce the size: Reduce the Field size property in the field Properties Grid for the text fields. For numeric fields, reduce the Field Size or the Decimal places.

Adding Records in the Table

If you have created the table through datasheet view, you will already have a few records in the table. If you have created the table through design view you will have to explicitly insert records into the table. Steps to add records to a table are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on the Tables tab in the Database Window. Click on the table name you want to add records to. Click on the Open button. (You can also double click the table icon) Bring the cursor to the first field and type the value. When you start typing a second row is also visible.

The moment you write another record, Access saves the previous record. When you have entered all the records, save the records in the table by selecting Save Record option from the Record menu. After you have saved the records close the table.

Making Changes to Existing Data (Editing and Deleting Records)

Very often you need to replace existing data with new data or delete a record. Editing consists of: 1. 2. Adding a new value Replace an existing value

To add a new value, you can type in the new value into the field. The steps are : 1. 2. Select the entire value either by double clicking it or pressing F2 Type in the new value

To edit the value in a field, click once on the existing value and edit the value.

Deleting Records
You can delete a record by selecting the record and pressing the Delete Key. You can also choose the Delete option from the Edit menu. Multiple records can also be deleted selecting all the records to be deleted.

Operators
Operators are building blocks of Access operations. They help you in specifying criteria for queries, creating calculated fields in forms and creating summaries in reports. Operators let you add numbers, compare values, concatenate strings and create queries. Whenever you use validation rules for data entry, you have to use operators.

Types of Operators
The following are the types of operators that are provided by Access:

Mathematical Operators
There are several mathematical operators. These are also known as arithmetic operators because they are usually used for performing arithmetic calculations. The mathematical operators are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Multiplication operator ( * ) Addition operator ( + ) Subtraction operator ( - ) Division operator ( / ) Integer operator ( \ ) Exponential operator ( ^ )

The Exponential operator raises a number to the power of another number the exponent. For example to raise the number 2 to the exponent 3 (that is, 2 cubed) you can use: 2^3

Relational Operator
There are six relational operators, also known as comparison operators. They compare two values or expressions in an equation. The relational operators are shown below in the table.
Operator Comparison

Equal

<>

Not equal

<

Less than

<=

Less Than or Equal

>

Greater Than

>=

Greater Than or Equal

String Operator
Access provides two string operators to work with Text type data only. These operators are the concatenation ( & ) and Like operator.

The Concatenation operator ( & )

As we cannot add two strings so we use the concatenation operator. The concatenation operator joins together two strings into a single string. For example to join the First name and Last name we can use: [First Name] & [Last Name] The concatenation operator does not place a space in between the strings which are being concatenated. If you want to give a space between two strings you can do the following: [First Name] & & [Last Name]

The Like operator

This operator compares two strings by using wildcards. This operator determines whether one object matches the pattern of another object. The result of the comparison will be True or False or Null. The syntax for the Like operator is: <expression object> Like <pattern object>

The above syntax of the like operator tells that the like operator looks for the expression object into the pattern object and if it is present, returns True. The wildcards that you can use are as follows:

Character ? F # [ list ] [ !list ]

Matches A single character (A to Z, 0 to 9) Any Number of characters (0 to n) Any single digit (0 to 9) Any single character in the list Any single character not in the list

Boolean Operator
Access uses six Boolean operators that are used for setting conditions in expressions. Like relational operators, these always return either a logical value (True or False) or a Null. The Boolean operators are AND operator The AND operator is used to perform a logical conjunction of two objects. The AND operators returns the value True if both conditions are true. The syntax is as follows Expression 1 AND Expression 2 The OR operator The OR operator returns a true if either of the condition is true. The NOT operator The NOT operator returns a value true if the condition being evaluated is not true. This operator thus reverses the logical result of the expression. The syntax is as follows NOT <expression>

Operator Precedence
When the expression being evaluated has several operators, they are evaluated by following a set of rules. These rules are known as operator precedence rules. Precedence is determined first by the category of the operators. The following list ranks operators by the order of precedence 1. 2. 3. Mathematical Comparison Boolean

Each of these categories internally maintain a order of precedence which is listed below

The Mathematical Precedence

1. 2. 3. 4. Exponential Negation Multiplication and / or division Integer division

5. 6.

Addition and / or Subtraction String concatenation

The Boolean Precedence

1. 2. 3. NOT AND OR

Functions
Functions are small programs that always return a value based on some calculations, comparison or evaluation that has been performed. The value returned can be a string, or numeric, depending on the type of function. Access functions can perform financial, mathematical, comparative and other operations. You can use functions in queries, reports and validations rules. Functions are always followed by parentheses. Some functions require a value to be passed to them what is called as parameter or argument. A parameter is a value that you supply to the function when you run it. The value can be a name of the object, a constant, or a quantity. Some Access functions are discussed below: 1. 2. 3. Now () that returns the current date and time Rnd () that returns a random number. Ucase () that returns the uppercase of an object.

Types of Functions
Access offers several types of functions. They can be placed in the following categories: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Conversion Date/Time Financial Mathematical String

Conversion
Conversion functions change the data type from one type to another. A few of the conversion functions are: Str () accepts a number as a parameter and return the string equivalent of the number. For example Str129.432) returns 129.432 (remember string is always written within opening and closing double quotes ( ) ) Val () accepts a string as argument and returns its numeric equivalent. For example Val (234.65) returns 234.65. Val (10 Haunted House) returns 10. Format () returns an expression according to user specified format: Format (Fine >) returns FINE Format (987654321, @@@-@@-@@@@) returns 987-65-4321

Date/Time function works with date and time expressions. Some of the date time functions are : Now () which returns the current date and time. Time (), which returns the current time in 12-hour format

Financial
Financial functions perform financial operations on a set of values. The set of values is contained in a field. The field can be in a form, report, or query. The two common financial functions which are being used the most are : Avg () that returns the average of all the values of a field passed as a parameter. For example Avg ([Price]) will return the average of the field called Price. The field can be in a form, a table or a report. Sum () that returns sums one or more field values. For example, Sum ([Price]).

Mathematical
Int (), which determines the integer of a specific value. For example Int (1234.55) returns 1234 Int (-67.1) returns-68 Fix () that determines the correct integer for a negative number. For example Fix (-234.55) returns -234 Sqr (), which returns square root of the number, passed as parameter. For example

Sqr (25) returns 5 Sqr (89) returns 9.433

String
String functions manipulate text expressions. Some of the functions are : Right () that returns the specified number of characters from the right. For example Right (qwerty, 3) returns rty. Len (), which returns the length of the string passed as parameter. For example Len (qwerty) returns 6 Lcase () that returns the lowercase of the string passed as parameter. For example Lcase (ROHIT SHARMA) returns rohit sharma

Introduction to Queries
The primary purpose of DBMS is to provide accurate information in a custom format. The efficiency of a database is determined by the speed with which it retrieves data and presents it in a user defined format. The process of accessing the database and retrieving data selectively is known as querying. Many developers call queries as the heart of Access. The data thus retrieved can then be formatted according to the users requirements.

What is a Query?
A query is a database object that creates a datasheet of specified fields and records from one or more tables. A query displays the answer to a "question" about the data in your database.
You can edit, navigate, sort, find, and filter a query datasheet just as you can a table datasheet. Because a query datasheet is a subset of data, it is similar to a filter, but much more powerful. One of the most important differences is that a query is a saved object within the database, which means store all data need to be re-created each time you want to see that derive their Although tablesthat it does not its the queries from which the vast majority of objectsparticular subset of flexibility when selecting or view of the data whose tables is much more data. A filter is a temporarymanipulating data than the criteria do.discarded when you th filt l th d t h t

data. Queries allow

Types of Queries
Access provides many different types of queries. They can be grouped into the following categories: Select Query is used to extract from tables based on criteria specified in the query object, and display the dynaset in Datasheet view. You can use query to display fields from more than one related tables. Parameter Query prompts the user for the criteria on which data will be retrieved. Thus, the record selection criteria are determined at run time. Crosstab Query is used to display summarized values (sums, counts and averages) of both the rows and columns in the query. Action Query is used to perform an action on records that meet the criteria specified in the query object. This type of query enables you to change or move data, create new tables or delete records from a table. SQL Query is created using Structured Query Language (SQL) statements. SQL is a database query language that can be used to specify multiple tables joins on the basis of foreign keys, records selection criteria and data groupings.

Creating a Query
Steps involved in creating a Query are shown below: 1. 2. Click Queries on the Object Bar Click on the New Button

3. 4. 5.

Click OK to accept the default of starting a Query in Design View Click on the Customers table (in Northwind Database) and then click Add button to add this table to the Query. Click Close to close the Show Table Dialog Box.

6. 7. 8. 9.

Click and drag the first four fields (one at a time) from the Field list box and drop them in the first four columns. Click on the next field down the Address. Then press Ctrl and click the next field City. This will select both the fields, then drag them to the grid and drop them to the right of the Contact Title field. Click the Run button on the toolbar to see how the query is coming along. The Run button has an exclamation point. Save the Query and close the window.

Creating Query with Query Wizard

1. Click queries on the Object Bar, and then double click Create Query by using Wizard.

You will see the above figure after performing step 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Wizard will default to the Customer table. You can pull down the Combo box labeled Tables/Queries to see other objects you can query. Add Customer ID through Region fields to the Query by clicking several times on the right pointing caret button. Click Next to move on. Name the query qryWizardQuery and click Finish. This will run the Query.

Creating Multitable Queries

The Multitable query is a query which s based on more than one table which are linked together with help of one or more fields common in them which can be Primary key in one table and Foreign key in the other table. The following task shows how to use data from two different linked tables to construct a datasheet containing elements from both tables.

Steps in Creating a Multitable Query

1. 2. Click on the Query tab in the Object Bar. Click New to start a new query. Choose the Design View. Add the Products Table and Supplier Table from the Northwind database. Click and Drag the Company Name Field from the Suppliers to the First column in the grid, and the Product Name field from Products to the second column.

3. 4.

Save the Query. Run the query by clicking on the run button on the toolbar or choose Datasheet view to see the result of this query.

Sorting within a Query

When viewing a datasheet, you may want to display the data in some sorted order. You may want to sort the dynaset to make it easier to analyze the data. The Steps to sort records in the Datasheet view are: 1. 2. 3. Select the field to sort on by clicking on the field selector (the button on of the column). Select the Sort option from the Records menu. Select the Sort order ascending or descending.

If you want to change the sort order in the query design view, click on the sort box in the field column. Click on the downward pointing arrow. Access displays the two sorting options. Select the appropriate sort Order.

Query Criteria
Using criteria in queries to select only certain records is perhaps the most called on use for queries. This facility is similar to filtering in Datasheet view. Every object in the database has a Design view in which you change the structure of the object. You can build a query directly in Query Design view, or you can let the Query Wizard help you. In either case, if you want to add criteria to limit or expand the number of records that you view in the datasheet, or if you want to change the fields you are viewing, you must use the query's Design view. Criteria placed on different rows of the query design grid are considered OR criteria. In other words, a record will be selected for inclusion in the query results if any one of the specified criteria is true. Placing additional criteria in the same row, however, is considered the And criteria. In general, OR criteria broaden the query results, whereas And criteria narrow the results.

Working with Fields

After you have selected fields, you may need to rearrange their order, add other fields or delete some fields.

Changing the Field Order

1. 2. Select the field by clicking on the field selector above the field name. Drag the field name to the column before which you want to place the field. Release the mouse button.

The field is moved from its original location and placed it before the column where you release the mouse button.

Removing a Field
1. 2. Select the field by clicking on the field selector above the column. Press the Delete key.

Alternatively, you can select the Delete option from the Edit menu. To delete all the fields, select the Clear Grid option from the Edit menu.

Inserting a Field
1. 2. Select the field in the table Drag it and drop it on the field before which you want to insert it.

Changing the Field Display Name

To make the query datasheet easy to read, you may want to rename the field in your query. You can rename the fields in either of the following ways: 1. 2. Prefix the field name in the query name with the new name followed by a colon (:). Now when the query is run, Access will display the tag that you have specified instead of the field name. Alternatively, you can right click on the field name and select the Properties option. Enter the tag name in the Caption box.

Hiding Fields
You can hide fields in the query dynaset. Clear the Show Check Box to hide the field. To display it again check the box in the Design View.

Creating Calculated Field in a Query

When you are working with tables and queries, there will be some information that can be calculated from the values in other fields. A query can be made with one of the fields as a calculated field. A calculated field is a column in a query that is calculated every time a query is run. The steps involved in creating a calculated field are: 1. 2. 3. Create a new query or if the query exists open it in the Design view. Click on an empty column. Type the expression as [Price]-[Price]*0.2 (in case you have a Book Collection database with Books table with one of the fields as Price and Publisher allows a standard discount of 20 %). The expression gets prefixed with Expr1:. 4. Run the Query.

More on the Query Wizard

In the above session, you used the Query Wizard to create a simple Query. You can also use the Query Wizard to create two more kinds of query. Find Duplicates Query Find Unmatched Query

Find Duplicate Query

Access can generate a query that lists all the records having duplicate field values. You van use this query to find out whether some values are repeated in the key fields or to list records having a common value. The steps to create a Find Duplicate Query are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Switch to the queries view by clicking on the Query tab in the database window. Click on the New Button Select the Find Duplicate Query option Select the table that you want to check for duplicates and click next button. Select the field that you want to search for duplicates and click on the Next Button. Select other fields and click on the Next Button. Type a name for the query and click on the Finish button.

When you run the query, Access searches the fields that you have specified and retrieves all those records that have duplicate values.

Find Unmatched Query Wizard

You van use the Find Unmatched Query Wizard to find those records that do not have a matching record in a primary table. The steps in creating a Find Unmatched Query are as follows 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Select the Find unmatched Query from the New Query Dialog box. Select the table and click on the Next Button Select the table that needs to be searched for matching records and click on the Next button. Select the field that needs to be matched and click on the Next button Select the fields and click on the Next Button. Type the name and click on the Finish button.

The second table is searched for each value in the fist table and those records that do not have a matching record are retrieved.

Forms

Introduction
Properly organized and well-designed forms increase productivity. Forms are the primary objects used to enter and edit data. Forms are often built to match a source document (for example, an employment application or a medical history form) to facilitate fast and accurate data entry. Now, however, it is becoming more common to type data directly into the database rather than first recording it on paper. When data is viewed in many ways, forms provide a great degree of flexibility for viewing and entering data. Though a datasheet also allow you to view many records at a time, the number of fields that can be seen is limited. Forms, on other hand can help you rearrange fields and view many more on a single screen. Form design considerations, such as clearly labeled fields and appropriate formatting, are important. Other considerations include how the user tabs from field to field, and what type of control is used to display the data.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Labels Text box List box Combo box Tab control Check box Toggle button Option button Bound Image control Unbound Image control Line and rectangle controls Command button

Types of Forms
1. 2. 3. Columnar Forms Tabular Forms Main/Subforms

Columnar Forms
The fields are arranged as columns and resemble a manual data entry form.

Tabular Forms
The fields are arranged as columns and the records are entered in rows. Thus, it resembles a datasheet.

Main/Subform
This type of form is normally used to depict one to many relationships. The main form displays the main record and subform displays the records from the related table in Datasheet view.

Creating a Form
You can create a form from scratch using Form Design view, or you can use the Form Wizard to create an initial form object, which you can modify later if needed. The Form Wizard provides options for selecting fields, an overall layout, a style, and a form title. 1. 2. 3. Using the AutoForm feature. Using the Form wizard. Using the Design View.

Using AutoForm Wizard to Create a Form

1. 2. 3. Select the Forms tab in the Database window. Click on the New Object button in the Standard toolbar. Select Auto Form: Columnar from the New Form Window as shown below Select the table or query on which you want to create a form. A columnar form containing all the fields in the selected table or query is generated by Access. (In this case we are using Supplier table of the Northwind database)

4.

Save this Form and close the form.

Creating Form with Help of Form Wizard

Like all Wizards, the Form Wizard simplifies the Layout of the fields. You are guided visually through a series of steps, which help you to decide on the type to be created, and then the form is created automatically. The steps in creating a form through Form Wizard are as follows: 1. Open the New Dialog box by using one of the following ways Select the Form option from the Insert menu. Select the Form tab and then click on the New command button in the Database window. Select the New Object toolbar button and choose the Form option.

The New Form Dialog box is displayed as shown. You need to specify the table or query on which the form will be based, from the list of tables and queries. The New Form Dialog box gives you the following choices. Design View: displays a blank form that user needs to design by adding Fields. Form Wizard: is used to create a form with one of three layouts columnar, tabular, or datasheet. A step by step procedure guides you in customizing the form. AutoForm Datasheet: is used to create a datasheet form. AutoForm Tabular: is used to create a tabular Form. AutoForm Columnar: is used to create a columnar Form. Chart Wizard: is used to create a Form with Graph. Pivot Table Wizard: is used to create an Excel PivotTable. A PivotTable is used to perform calculations, such as count, sum and average, on the rows and columns of a table. 2. 3. Select the table or query on which the form will be based. Choose the form type in the New Form Dialog box.

4. 5. 6. 7.

Select the fields that you want on your form and click Next button. Choose the required layout and click Next button. Select the form style and click Next button. Type the name of the form in the text box and click Finish button.

Designing a Form
The Form Design window is used to create a form without the help of the wizard. You need to open the relevant tables and include in the form. You can also add controls in the form, like text boxes, labels and option buttons.

Bound and Unbound Forms

A form can either be bound or unbound. A Bound form is linked to an underlying table or query and derives its data from and writes to that object. Unbound: Form neither gets data from nor writes to any object. The Recordsource property of a form controls what object, if any, is bound to a form. Controls are of following types: 1. 2. Bound Controls are linked to a field in a table. They are used to display a field value or accept values into a field. For example Text Boxes are controls that are used to enter values in a field. Unbound controls are not linked to any field in a table. They are included in a form to enhance the display of a form. For example, the logo of a company can be displayed in a form. The logo, which can be a bitmap image, is an unbound control object. Calculated: controls are based on expressions, such as functions. Calculated controls are also unbound, as they do not accept value in a field.

3.

Some of the commonly used controls are Labels: A label is a descriptive text that prompts the user to enter a value. A label is an unbound control because it does not accept a value. Text Boxes: a text box is a control that accepts a value that is entered by the user, which is prompted by the label. It can accept all data type values. Text boxes are bound controls. Option Buttons (Radio button): An Option button is used to accept a value into a field that can hold only a fixed number of values. For Example you can use Option button at a place where you want the user to enter the Gender in the request form. List Box: Lists of values or entries. Usually bound, but can be filled programmatically too. Combo Box: Familiar pill down box. Actually a combination of a text box and a list box. The Steps in creating a form in Design View are: 1. 2. Switch to the Forms tab in the database Window. Click on the New Button The New Form dialog Box will be displayed as shown in the following figure. Here you have to specify the form that you have to create and the table or query on which the form will be based. 3. Select the Design view option and select the table or query name.

Steps to add fields in a form are a. b. Select the Field list option from the View menu. The Fields of the table or query that you have selected while creating the form are displayed. Drag and Drop the field sin the Detail area by holding the left mouse button.

The field is placed at the desired position. The label for the field is the field name by default. A text box is automatically created at the time of drag and drop for the data entry into the field.

The steps for creating control objects are a. b. c. Activate the form toolbox by selecting toolbox option from the View menu. Select the control object from the toolbox once on it. Create the control by dragging the control in the detail section of the form. Size the box appropriately.

The next step is to bind the control i. ii. iii. Select the control object. Click the right mouse button Select the properties option from the shortcut menu. The properties window is displayed as shown below:

iv. v. vi. vii.

Switch to the Data tab in the properties window. Click on the Control Source box and select the field in which you want to store the value selected in the control. Click on the Row Source type and Select the table/Query option from the drop down list. Click on the Row Source box and select the table or query name from which the values of the field will be looked up.

Moving and Resizing Controls

After you create a form, you can modify the size, location, and appearance of existing controls in Form Design view. Form Design view also allows you to add or delete controls. When you move and resize controls, the pointer assumes different shapes, as shown below:

Format Properties of a Form

Forms Default to certain properties that many a times are not needed at the same time on the same form. Some of the default properties are shown in the table below.

Property Name Default View

Usage Form or Datasheet (forms can display in the datasheet format too.) Horizontal, vertical or both Selects entire row in datasheet view. No use in form view. Move one record forward or backward, or to end or beginning of the records. This is the box to the extreme left side of the title bar in Standard Windows applications. Opens the control menu. Closes the application (or form in this case) Context sensitive help The minimize and maximize buttons in the standard windows application.

Scroll bars Record Selectors

Navigation Buttons

Control Box

Close button Whats this button Min Max Button

When you create a form with the Form Wizard, it places a label to the left of each text box with the field's name. Often, you will want to modify those labels to be more descriptive or user friendly. You can modify a label control by directly editing it in Form Design view, or you can make the change in the label's property sheet. The property sheet is a comprehensive listing of all properties (characteristics) that have been specified for that control. You can modify one control or multiple selected controls at the same time. Once all of the controls have been added, moved, and resized on the form, you might want to check and probably modify the tab order. The tab order is the order in which the focus (the active control) moves as you press [Tab] in Form view. Because the form is the primary object by which users will view, edit, and enter data, careful attention to the tab order is essential to maintain productivity and satisfaction with the database.

Steps to Change Tab Order and Tab S Properties

1. 2. 3. Launch Access and open the database desired by you. Click Forms entry in the object bar. Locate the form you want to edit for setting tab properties and open it in the Design view. Drop down the View menu and choose Tab Order from the menu. This will open the Tab Order dialog box as shown in the screen above. The Tab Order dialog box has two ways to change the Tab Order of a forms controls. You can click on the Auto Order button to order the controls from left to right and to bottom, or you can click on the gray square to the left of the each controls name then drag and drop the control to a new place in the order. Using either method, alter the tab order so the fields are ordered from left to right and to bottom.

4.

The Tab S property enables or disables the objects capability to accept focus from the tab order.

Creating Forms with Subforms

Several times you may want to create a form to accept data in two tables that are related by on to many relationships. In such case, you need to create a subform to display the details desired. A subform is a form that is embedded in another form to display records from another recordset related to the current record. It can said as a datasheet that displays all the records related to the record from the primary table. It is very good method for displaying data from more than one recordset in one form. As you view different records, you will notice that the records displayed in the subform are those ones related to the record in the primary table. Therefore, if you make a change in the record of the primary table, it will be reflected in all the records on the related field.

Designing a Subform
When you want to work with a subform, the first step is to design the form. It is quite common for the main form to be a columnar based form with each record displayed separately. The subform is often a tabular form to allow you to see more than one record at a time and to minimize the amount of time navigating between records. You can create the form using the form wizard or create the form from Design View. Steps in creating the Subform: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Ensure that onetomany relation is set up between the tables. In case the relation are not set, you need to first set the appropriate relations using the Relationships window. Switch to the Forms in the Database Window. Select new to open the New Form dialog box. Select from the Wizard option from the new Form Dialog box and click the Next button. Select the primary table from the Tables/Queries combo box and select the available fields from the available Fields list box. In the same dialog box, select the related table and select the fields that you want in the subform and click on the next button. A dialog box as shown in the figure below is displayed. From the dialog box that is displayed after you click the Next button you can either choose a datasheet subform or tabular subform. In the next screen you can specify the style . After you click the Next button enter the name of the subform in the text box provided and click Finish to complete the form.

The Subform looks like this

Reports Basic

Define Report
A report is an effective way to present your data in a printed format. A report is a flexible way of viewing and printing summary information. It enables you to display information of the required level of detail. The information can be viewed or printed in any format. Subtotals, statistical evaluations, pictures and graphs can be inserted in a report. Because you have control over the size and appearance of everything on a report, you can display the information the way you want to see it. A dummy report of the Northwind Database

Need for a Report

Reports are used for: Presenting information in a customized way both onscreen and on paper. Grouping and sorting data according to your needs and in order you want. Calculating averages, fields totals, and drawing graphs. For all the above functions, reports are indispensable.

Planning a Report
Hard-copy reports are often used to communicate database information with employees, external clients, and managers. A clearly designed, well-organized report effectively presents database information in print form. Although the Report Wizard can help you create an initial report object that you can later modify, you can increase productivity by first planning your report. Following considerations should be kept in mind while designing a report Identify a meaningful title for the report. Determine the information (the fields and records) that the report will show. Decide how the fields should be laid out. Decide how the records should be sorted and grouped. Within the report. Identify any other descriptive information that should be placed at the end of the report or at the or bottom of each page. You can create the following kind of reports in Access.

Tabular Reports
Tabular reports are similar to a table that displays data in a row column format. Tabular reports can group the data by one or more field values. Subtotals and page totals can be calculated and displayed on the report.

Columnar Report
Columnar reports display data vertically. You can use this kind of report to display one record per page or to display data that is related in a one to many relationships.

Mailing Labels
You can create mailing labels from the data stored in a table.

Creating a Report
A report can be created by any of the following methods AutoReport Report Wizard Design View

Creating a Report with AutoReport

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Launch Access and open the database in which you want to build a report. Click Reports on the Object bar, and then double click Create Report by Using Wizard Select the table or query on which the report will be based. Select the fields in the available list and click the Single Field button or if you want to select all the fields click on All Fields button and then click Next Click First sort order list arrow in the sort dialog box, click the field according to which you want to sort and then click the Next button. Click Next button to select Tabular layout and Portrait orientation, and then click Next button to accept corporate style. Give the report a name and click the Finish button.

You can now see the report, which you have made with the selected tables, forms or queries.

Alternatively you can choose to create a Tabular AutoReport. To do this, select the AutoReport Tabular option from the New Report Dialog box.

The Report Wizard

The AutoReport is a wizard without options. This is also a general-purpose report wizard thats quite capable. Like Form Wizard, Reports wizard give a layout for the report, which can then be customized according to your needs. You can use the Report Wizard to create reports with grouping and summaries. The steps to create a report with the Report wizard are: 1. 2. 3. Launch Access and open the database in which you want to build a report. Locate the New button on the Database view toolbar. Click that button to start new report. Choose Report Wizard from the main list box. Pull down the combo box at the bottom of the dialog box to choose the query or any other object for the report basis.

Your screen resembles as above. 4. 5. Click OK to start the actual wizard process. Specify the field what you want to be part of your report. The next dialog box enables you to specify what fields to group on, if any. The screen what you will see is:

6. 7.

You can specify the sort in the next dialog box. In the next dialog box you can choose the layout of the report. Give the name to the report which describes the outline of the report and then click Finish button to accomplish your task and to see the preview of your report. A report preview is a screen view of how your report will look on the web or from a printer.

The Report Design View (creating reports without wizard)

While wizard are good for creating simple reports quickly they give little control over field placement. In order to design complex reports, you require total control over grouping options, sorting, summarizes and the appearance of the report. The steps involved in Designing a Report are 1. 2. Launch Access and open the database in which you want to build the Report. Click on the Report tab in the Database window and then click the Design button on the Database view toolbar. This will launch report in the Design View. You can see the design view in the following figure.

First understand the parts of the design view This has a toolbox that is similar to the Form Design window. The report is divided into the following sections. The Report header that prints only at the beginning of the report. The Page header, which prints at the of each page. The Group header that prints before the first record of each group. The Detail line that prints each record of a table or dynaset. The Group footer, which prints after the last record of a group. The Page footer that prints at the bottom of each page. The Report footer that prints at the end of a report. The drag and drop facilities enable us to select fields from tables and place them up in the report. Once a field is placed on the report it becomes the control.

3. 4. 5. 6.

Select the Field list option from the view menu. Select the field that you want to add to the report. Drag and Drop the field in the appropriate position in the report. Save the report by giving the name and close the design view.

Grouping and Sorting in Reports

When we were creating reports with help of wizard, it took care of grouping. But what is Grouping? A group is a collection of records. By grouping records that share a common value, such as those in a particular category, you can calculate subtotals and make a report easier to read. In an Access report, a group also includes any introductory and summary information displayed with the records. Display the introductory information, such as a group title, in the Group Header section. Display the summary information, such as a subtotal, in the Group Footer section. You can use the Report Wizard to create groups on a report, or you can change an existing report's grouping and sorting fields in Report Design view. You make all structural changes to a report in Design view. Manually creating a group consists of three steps 1. 2. 3. Open the report in Design view. Click Sorting And Grouping on the toolbar to display the Sorting And Grouping box. Set the sort order for the data in the report. (Steps in setting the sort order are as follows) a. b. c. d. e. f. 4. 5. Open the report in Design view. Click Sorting And Grouping on the toolbar to display the Sorting And Grouping box. In the first row of the Field/Expression column, select a field name, or type an expression. The field or expression in the first row is the first sorting level (the largest set). The second row is the second sorting level, and so on. When you fill in the Field/Expression column, Microsoft Access sets the Sort Order to Ascending. Ascending order sorts from A to Z or 0 to 9. To change the sort order, select Descending from the Sort Order list. Descending order sorts from Z to A or 9 to 0. Click the field or expression whose group properties you want to set. Set the group properties in the following list. You must set either GroupHeader or GroupFooter to Yes in order to create a group level and set the other grouping properties. a. b. c. d. on. e. KeepTogether. Specifies whether Microsoft Access prints all or only part of a group on the same page. GroupHeader. Adds or removes a group header for the field or expression. GroupFooter. Adds or removes a group footer for the field or expression. GroupOn. Specifies how you want the values grouped. The options you see depend on the data type of the field on which you're grouping. If you group on an expression, you see all the options for all data types. GroupInterval. Specifies any interval that is valid for the values in the field or expression you're grouping

Change Sorting and Grouping Order in a Report

Open the report in Design view. Click Sorting And Grouping on the toolbar to display the Sorting And Grouping box. In the Sorting And Grouping box, click the row sector of the field or expression you want to move. Click the selector again, and drag the row to a new location in the list.

If the groups you're rearranging have header or footer, Microsoft Access moves the headers, footers, and all the controls in them to their new positions. However, you must adjust the locations of the controls in the headers and footers yourself.

Creating Mailing Labels

Access 2000 has a built in wizard for making mailing labels. Essentially, this wizard creates a label layout using the fields within the table or query you want to use, and then formats the report to a page size that fits a particular label or sheet of labels. Unlike other wizards, the Label Wizard turns out a report that requires no modification. You can use mailing labels to print addresses for mass mailings or to identify paper file folders. Once you enter raw data into your Access database, you can easily create mailing labels from this data using the Label Wizard. Steps in creating Mailing Labels are as follows. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Click the New button, Click Label Wizard in the New Report Dialog box Click the Choose the table or query where the objects data come from list arrow. Then choose the desired query or table from the fields of which you want to create labels. The next screen appears as follows, which asks you enter the size of the label, units of measure, label type and many other things. Click Next for the next screen. The next screen asks you to specify the Text color, Font name, Font size, and Font weight and whether you want the text to be Italic or Underlined. The next screen asks you to specify the fields( contents) on your mailing labels , then click next to specify the sort order. Give the name of the report and click Finish button.

Macros (Automating Application)

Introduction
A database continues to grow with time. As you add new records, perform queries and print reports, you realize that you need to perform most of the tasks repetitively. For example, you open the same form for data entry and run reports. Instead of performing the same steps every time, you can automate the process by using macros.

Macros?
Macros are small programs that perform a specified task every time they are run. A macro (a action or a set of actions that you can use to automate task) is a set of one or more actions (the basic building block of a macro; a self contained instruction that can be combined with other actions to automate tasks) that each performs a particular operation, such as opening a form or printing a report. Macros can help you to automate common tasks. For example, you can run a macro that prints a report when a user clicks a command button. or You can create a macro to open a data- entry form. After the data entry is over, the macro can run a query based on the data entered. Every task you want to perform is called an action. You can have maximum of 999 actions in a macro. You can use macros for any repetitive task you do in Access. You can use macros to perform tasks such as: 1. 2. Link and Run queries and reports together. Open multiple forms or Reports.

3. 4.

Check for data redundancy. For example, you can run a Find Unmatched query. Move data between fields.

Elements of a Macro
The four elements macro, one of which is optional are: 1. 2. 3. The event The reason the macro fires or trips. Some event examples are a form control gaining or losing focus, a mouse cursor moving over an area, a keystroke, or a form load. The action What the macro roughly does. Some actions are load object, close object, requery, launch another application, or delete object. The action arguments (properties) What specifies the action applies to. For example, when you use Access to create a macro that opens the form for data entry, the action is to open a form, whereas the property of that action is Data entry form. Conditions You can program your macros to fire (run) only when certain conditions exist. The conditional capability of macros is considerably less developed.

4.

Creating a Macro
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. In the Database window, click Macros under Objects. Click the New button on the Database window toolbar. In the Action column, click in the first cell and then click the arrow to display the action list (the list appear when you click arrow in the action column in the Macro window). Click the action you want to use. Type a comment for the action. Comments are optional, but make your macro easier to understand and maintain. In the lower part of the window, specify arguments (A constant, expression or variable supply information to an action event, method, property or procedure) for the action, if any are required. For tips on setting action arguments To add more actions to the macro, move to another action row, and repeat steps 3 through 6. Microsoft Access carries out the actions in the order you list them.

7.

Creation of a Sample Macro

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Click on the Macro button in the Database window. Click on the New button in the toolbar window. Click in the first row of the Macro Design view under Action heading. A drop down menu will be displayed. Scroll down the list and select Close option. In action arguments section in Object type select the object on which you want to place a macro Form in this case. In object name specify the name of the form, product in this case. The third option is optional. Save the macro by the appropriate name, which signifies its operation. Open the form named Product and now run the Macro you just created.

The result will be the forms will be closed.

Create a Command Button

You can create a command button on your own, or you can have Microsoft Access create your command button for you using a wizard. A wizard speeds up the process of creating a command button because it does all the basic work for you. When you use a wizard, Access prompts you for information, and then creates the command button based on your answers. You can create over 30 different types of command buttons by using the Command Button Wizard. For example, you can create a command button that finds a record, prints a record, or applies a form filter.

Create a Command Button with a Wizard

1. 2. 3. 4. Open a form in Design view. Click the Control Wizards tool in the toolbox if it's not already pressed in. In the toolbox, click the Command Button tool On the form, click where you want to place the command button. As you place a command button on the form a new window named Command Button Wizard appears as shown below.

5. 6. 7. 8.

Click on Miscellaneous in the categories List box, the action list box automatically changes. Select Run Macro option, and click next. The Next screen shows the macros built by you and asks you to select the macro. The Next screen asks you to specify whether you want a picture on the command button or a text. Click the appropriate option and click Next button. Save the Macro supplying the name and Click Finish to accomplish the task.

Macros and Events

Making Macros is interesting and useful as it reduces workload and helps users from repetitive tasks. Targeted events should trigger macro execution. A successful Access developer will not only do a good job designing macros, but also attaching them to the proper event. For example, take two events for a text box, After Lost focus (state when the control loses the focus) save event for that control must fire. You should now plan a macro to execute after a user makes an entry in a text box (user entry box).

Associating Events and Macros

1. 2. Open the Product form in the design view. Locate the command button called Add Record. Click on the properties icon to get the properties of the command button. Click on the event tab in the properties window.

3. 4.

Locate the On Click property and click on the drop down arrow to get the list of various objects (can be macros, forms). Select the macro you have created for the purpose you desire. Save and run the form.

The moment you click the Add Record button, the macro gets fired.

Why use Conditions in a Macro?

In some cases, you may want to carry out an action or series of actions in a macro only if a particular condition is true. For example, if you're using a macro to validate data in a form, you might want to display one message in response to one set of values entered in a record and another message in response to a different set of values. In cases like these, you can use conditions to control the flow of the macro. For example, the following macro carries out the SMacro action when there is no value in the Country field (when the value is Null). It carries out one of several pairs of MsgBox and Cancel Event actions if the length or form of the PostalCode value isn't appropriate for the country in the Country field. A condition is a logical expression. The macro follows different paths depending on whether the condition is true or false.

Examples of Macro Conditions

Use this expression [City]="Paris" To carry out the action if Paris is the City value in the field on the form from which the macro was run. There are more than 35 entries in the OrderID field of the Orders table. There are more than three entries in the Order Details table for which the OrderID field of the table matches the OrderID field on the Orders form. The value of the ShippedDate field on the form from which the macro is run is no earlier than 2-Feb-1995 and no later than 2-Mar-1995. The value of the UnitsInStock field on the Products form is less than five. The FirstName value on the form from which the macro is run is Null (has no value). This expression is equivalent to [FirstName] Is Null. The value in the Country field on the form from which the macro is run is UK, and the value of the TotalOrds field on the SalesTotals form is greater than 100. The value in the Country field on the form from which the macro is run is France, Italy, or Spain, and the postal code isn't five characters long. You click OK in a dialog box that the MsgBox function displays. If you click Cancel in the dialog box, Microsoft Access ignores the action.

DCount("[OrderID]", "Orders")>35

DCount("*", "Order Details", "[OrderID]=Forms![Orders]![OrderID]")>3

[ShippedDate] Between #2-Feb-1995# And #2-Mar-1995#

Forms![Products]![UnitsInStock]<5

IsNull([FirstName])

[Country]="UK" And Forms![SalesTotals]![TotalOrds]>100

[Country] In ("France", "Italy", "Spain") And Len([PostalCode])<>5

MsgBox("Confirm changes?",1)=1

You enter conditions in the Condition column in the Macro window. If a condition is true, Microsoft Access carries out the action in that row. You can have Microsoft Access carry out a series of actions if the condition is true by typing an ellipsis (...) in the Condition column of the actions that immediately follow the condition.

Adding Multiple Actions to Macros

Some of the other actions provided by Access that you can add in a macro are: Hourglass: You can run this macro as the first action in a list of macros. This macro changes the cursor to the Windows Busy pointer. Beep: You can run this macro to produce Beep. MsgBox: this action displays a custom message while the macro is being run. You can display a message to indicate the processing that is being performed. Show Toolbar: This action displays the specified toolbar.

Deleting Macro Actions

There might be situations that you created more than one macros by mistake for same operation, which does not serve any purpose. So its time to remove the second. To do so select the entire line where the action appears by clicking on the gray square thats the equivalent to record selector. This is directly to the left of the Action entry. Doing this highlights the entire row.

Press Delete key to remove this highlighted line. You can also choose Delete from the edit menu to remove the row. If you wanted to insert a macro action in between two existing ones, highlight the lower one and then press the Insert key. How you create a sub report depends on whether you want to create a sub report in an existing report or add an existing report to another existing report to create a report and sub report. A sub report is a report that's inserted in another report. When you combine reports, one of them must serve as the main report. A main report is either bound or unbound; that is, it is or isn't based on a table, query.

Data from Unrelated Record Sources in a Main Report with Two Sub-reports
An unbound main report can serve as a container for unrelated sub reports that you want to combine.

Data from One Record Source in a Main Report and Sub report

You bind the main report to an underlying table, query, or SQL statement when you want to insert sub reports that contain information that's related to the data in the main report. For example, you can use the main report to show detail records, such as every sale in a year, and then use a sub report to show summary information, such as the total sales for each quarter.

Data from Related Record Sources in a Main Report and Two Sub reports
A main report can also contain data common to two or more parallel sub reports. In this case, the sub reports contain the detail records related to the common data. A main report can include sub forms as well as sub reports, and it can include as many sub forms and sub reports as you want. Additionally, a main report can contain up to two levels of sub forms and sub reports. For example, a report can contain a sub report, and that sub report can contain a subform or a sub report. The following table shows the possible combinations of sub forms and sub reports in a main report.
Level 1 Subreport 1 Subreport 1 Subform 1 Level 2 Subreport 2 Subform 1 Subform 2

Create a Sub report in an Existing Report

If the sub report will be linked to the main report, make sure you've set up the table relationships correctly before using this procedure. For more information, click. Open the report you want to use as the main report in Design view. Make sure the Control Wizards tool in the toolbox is pressed in. Click the Subform/Sub report tool in the toolbox. On the report, click where you want to place the sub report. Follow the directions in the wizard dialog boxes. When you click the Finish button, Microsoft Access adds a sub report control to your report. It also creates a separate report that is displayed as the sub report.

Add an Existing Report to Another Existing Report to Create a Sub report

If the sub report will be linked to the main report, make sure you've set up the table relationships correctly before using this procedure. Open the report you want to use as the main report in Design view. Make sure the Control Wizards tool in the toolbox is pressed in. Press F11 to switch to the Database window. Drag a report or datasheet from the Database window to the section you want the sub report to appear in on the main report. Microsoft Access adds a sub report control to the report.

Modifying an Expression
An expression is a combination of fields, operators (such as +, -, / and *), and functions that results in a single value. A function is a built-in formula provided by Access that helps you quickly create a calculated expression. Arguments are the pieces of information that the function needs to create the final answer. You enter calculated expressions in text box controls. Every calculated expression starts with an equal sign. When the expression includes a function, the arguments for the function are placed in parentheses. The following are some examples of common expressions that include Access functions. Arithmetic, for example, =[Price]*1.05 Arithmetic, for example, =[Subtotal]+[Shipping] Page Number, for example, =[Page] Page Number, for example, ="Page "&[Page] Text, for example, =[First Name]&" "&[LastName] Text, for example, =[Left([Product Number],2) Aggregate, for example, =Avg([Freight]) Aggregate, for example, =Count([First Name]) Aggregate, for example, =Sum([Tracks]) Date, for example, =Date()

Preview the Layout of a Report

Layout Preview is a fast way to check the layout of a report because Microsoft Access uses just enough data from the underlying table or query to show you what the report will look like. If you want to review the exact data that will appear in a report, use print preview.

Preview the Data in a Report

To preview a report from Design view: In Design view, click Print Preview on the toolbar. To preview a report from the Database window In the Database window, click Reports under Objects. Select the report you want to preview. On the Database window toolbar, click the Preview button. In report Design view, click the arrow next to the View button on the toolbar and then click Layout Preview.

Preview Two or More Pages at a Time

To view two pages Open the table, query, form, report, or module in Print Preview. Click Two Pages on the toolbar. To view more than two pages Open the table, query, form, report, or module in Print Preview. Click Multiple Pages on the toolbar. Drag to select the number of pages to display. To view one page again Open the table, query, form, report, or module in Print Preview. Click One Page on the toolbar.

Adding a Chart
Another graphic element that can be added to your reports is a chart. Many people have an easier time comparing numerical data when it is presented in form of a chart. Chart in Access can be prepared with help of Chart Wizard, which comes with Access 2000. Like all wizards that you have dealt with till now Chart Wizard will also prompt you to select the information you want to chart, as well as to determine the characteristics of the chart.

Using Chart Wizard

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Select the reports from the Database Window. Select New to Open the New Dialog Box. Select Chart Wizard from the list, and select the query on which you want to build a report. Click OK to start the Chart Wizard. Add the fields in the next screen, which you want to be part of the report. Select the choice of chart you want to represent information in. (See figure on next page)

7. 8.

Select Pie Chart from the list and Select Next to adjust the data layout. (See figure on next page) Double click the field named Sum to choose the summary type in the Summarize dialog box (see figure below).

9.

Select Next to add a title and click Finish to complete the report.

100 Keyboard Shortcuts, very useful:

100 keyboard shortcuts compiled by BALAZ CTRL+C (Copy) CTRL+X (Cut) CTRL+V (Paste) CTRL+Z (Undo) DELETE (Delete) SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin) CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item) CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item) F2 key (Rename the selected item) CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word) CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word) CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph) CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph) CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text) SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desk, or select text in a document) CTRL+A (Select all) F3 key (Search for a file or a folder) ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item) ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program) ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object) ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window) CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously) ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items) ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened) F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desk) F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer) SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item) ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window) CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu) ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu) Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command) F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program) RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu) LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu) F5 key (Update the active window) BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer) ESC (Cancel the current task) SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)

DIALOG BOX KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs) CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs) TAB (Move forward through the options) SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options) ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option) ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button) SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box) Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons) F1 key (Display Help) F4 key (Display the items in the active list) BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

MICROSOFT NATURAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu) Windows Logo+BREA K (Display the System Properties dialog box) Windows Logo+D (Display the desk) Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows) Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows) Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer) Windows Logo+S (READ ALOUD WITH NARRATOR) Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder) CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers) Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help) Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard) Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box) Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager) ACCESSIBILITY KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off) Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off) Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off) SHIFT five times (Switch the Sticky Keys either on or off) NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the Toggle Keys either on or off) Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)

WINDOWS EXPLORER KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS END (Display the bottom of the active window) HOME (Display the of the active window) NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder) NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder) NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder) LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder) RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder) SHORTCUT KEYS FOR CHARACTER MAP After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts: RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line) LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line) UP ARROW (Move up one row) DOWN ARROW (Move down one row) PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time) PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time) HOME (Move to the beginning of the line) END (Move to the end of the line) CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character) CTRL+END (Move to the last character) SPACEBAR (Switch between Enlarged and Normal mode when a character is selected)

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Main Window Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+O (Open a saved console) CTRL+N (Open a new console) CTRL+S (Save the open console ) CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item) CTRL+W (Open a new window) F5 key (Update the content of all console windows) ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the MMC window menu) ALT+F4 (Close the console) ALT+A (Display the Action menu) ALT+V (Display the View menu) ALT+F (Display the File menu) ALT+O (Display the Favorites menu) MMC Console Window Keyboard Shortcuts CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane) ALT+Minus sign (-) (Display the window menu for the active console window) SHIFT+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item) F1 key (Open the Help ic, if any, for the selected item) F5 key (Update the content of all console windows) CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window) CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window) ALT+ENTER (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item) F2 key (Rename the selected item) CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console) Remote Desk Connection Navigation CTRL+ALT+END (Open the Microsoft Windows NT Security dialog box) ALT+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right) ALT+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left) ALT+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order) ALT+HOME (Display the Start menu) CTRL+ALT+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen) ALT+DELETE (Display the Windows menu) CTRL+ALT+Minus sign (-) (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.) CTRL+ALT+Plus sign (+) (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clip board and provide the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.) MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER NAVIGATION CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box) CTRL+E (Open the Search bar) CTRL+F (Start the Find utility) CTRL+H (Open the History bar) CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar) CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box) CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address) CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L) CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box) CTRL+R (Update the current Web page) CTRL+W (Close the current window

THANK YOU FOR DOWNLOADING THIS E-BOOK. SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO av_balajee@yahoo.com