Bob Bowman's Free How-To Guides for Free Educational Technology
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FREE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES
HOW-TO GUIDES ©

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Send e-mail to: rbowman@shentel.net(Comments Welcome!) UPDATED: 09 MAY 2002
URL: http://www.user.shentel.net/rbowman/
Underlined words are links to text, files, or URL's
"How-To" Guides are provided as a starting point to show users where to find Internet treasures, how to download them, and how to use them in a self-paced approach. Free online guides, reference links, and software selected for their educational/technical value help users to become information literate and better equipped to deal with technology while learning some essential mechanics of information management. Please see related page on Educational List of ONLINE TUTORIALS (Includes courses, guides, and activities).


"HOW-TO" GUIDES:

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How to Use BEGINNING POINTERS :

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CONTINUE

NOTE: Although the focus in these guides deals with IBM®-compatible computers, please note that more technical guides for the above and Apple® or Macintosh® computers can be found in: CCS Technical Notes and Tips (Univ. of Chicago)

More information about specific questions can be found in subsequent sections (especially Find more information/Support).

Software titles listed in this document and other links are written for specific computer platforms, so you have to know what operating system software is installed on your computer before downloading available titles (some titles are available in separate versions for separate platforms). For the PC, the older one is for Microsoft® DOS, Microsoft® Windows® 3.1® (a 16-bit architecture), a newer one is Microsoft® Windows® 95® & up (a 32-bit architecture), although there are some sites for IBM® OS®-series platform, Microsoft® NT® platform, a FREE LINUX platform, and other very specific systems. With few exceptions, these operating systems are commercial software packages.

SPECIAL THEMATIC NOTE: Throughout these guides, I will describe command statements issued at the Microsoft® DOS prompt in a Pentium/160Mhz system using DOS 6.2 with Microsoft® Windows® 3.1® (later versions are now recommended). (Refer to DOS 6.2: Advanced online tutorial). Other steps will be explained using the Netscape® 4.0 browser. Hopefully, this is typical of many of the computer configurations being used in many of the schools across the country.


How to setup/network an Internet PC

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How to protect against viruses

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How to Understand Internet/Intranet Terms

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Search Strategies and Internet tools

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Search engines/tools make it very easy to find any information on the Internet (and they are compared in some of the following links). In Altavista's advanced search block, for example, typing all the words in the following compound search string:
"free software" AND Windows
(NOTE the quotes around two or more words and the capitalized Boolean AND)
would yield somewhat limited hits of free software for Microsoft® Windows®.

A power-user hint to find related information at a given site is to use the directory-climbing method: Click twice on the URL address in your browser. with the cursor at the end of the address and then backspace to remove the last sub-directory in that address, one at a time: (http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/) becomes (http://www.microsoft.com/education/). Press enter for the new directory.

REMINDER:
Save time by using the FIND button on your browser to find key words in any displayed document (which is another search tool!)


How to download information/files

  • If you want to make a copy of an online document displayed in your browser, select SAVE AS under the FILE menu function. When prompted for a name, rename it to something that makes sense to you so you can find it later.

  • NOTE: You will lose the contents of an old file if you use the same filename for any new file (in the same directory)!

  • If you have located an underlined file to download, move the pointer to the file you want and click the left mouse button to activate the download process (and choose the SAVE button).

  • Introduction to the Internet: Using the Internet (tutorials on getting connected, downloading, exploring, etc. (Sofweb)

How to unzip compressed files

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    To save online transmission time, many files are compacted (compressed or "zipped"). There are many formats you will encounter and you must use the tool which is appropriate to your downloaded file based on its extension. Some files are conveniently compressed into an executable file (*.exe) which, when run, will unzip one or more files in your working directory. That is why it is important to create a temporary directory and copy the downloaded file to that directory before unzipping.

    See free tools at:

  • Unzipping, Unstuffing & Extracting Software on the Net

How to copy large files to other computers

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NOTE: You should use diskettes which are compatible to both the computer you copy the programs/utilities from and the one you will copy them to. If they are not preformatted, follow the instructions in your DOS manual or
How To...Format DOS Diskettes

A free PC utility Directory Control - by Peter Esherick (based on PC Magazine's CO and DR: view, copy, delete files and more in DOS) will simplify marking multiple files to copy to other media.

Programs larger than what will fit entirely on one diskette may be copied piecemeal by free DOS utilities See hjspldos.zip at HJSplit home page. There is a Microsoft® Windows® version there also.


How to install programs and plug-in's

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  • Many software authors include an install program to automate the process or they provide instructions on how to perform the installation by a README file or other documentation.

  • If any Microsoft® Windows® 3.1® program has its own install program but no associated uninstall program, it is strongly advisable to use a separate pre-installation utility such as PC Magazine®'s PC Magazine's InCtrl4 1.1 (823KB) Install/Uninstall utility to log system/file changes in case you ever want to manually reverse them.
  • Browser Plug-in Listing by BrowserWatch

How to retrieve information from stored media

USEFUL FILE RETRIEVAL UTILITIES

Sometimes a file may not be where you thought you saved it:

  • If you forgot what it was named, you might try adding a DOS utility called SINCE.EXE to the root directory of your hard drive: Typing the following command will find all files added to your hard drive in the last 5 days: SINCE 5 A | MORE

  • Secondly, try another DOS utility called WHEREIS.COM - a File Finder Utility. Typing the following command will find the location of all files starting with my__: WHEREIS MY*.*

  • If you want to find every file in a given directory on your hard drive that has the word "holiday" and put the results into a file called found.doc, use the DOS utility called Bfind - Finds file strings and type:
    BFIND "holiday" *.* > found.doc

  • Before you plan to download or install programs on your hard drive, it makes sense to defragment the hard drive (See DOS command for defragment).


    How to create Home Pages, Presentations, & Resumes

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    How to use shortcuts to new links

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    • CUT & PASTE SHORTCUT TO NEW LINKS: While using your browser in Microsoft ®Windows® 3.1®, you could open a text file in the Write/Notepad program (say a list of recommended educational sites from a local teacher) and use the cut & paste technique - hold down the left mouse button and scroll the mouse cursor to block the desired site's URL address (say http://www.ibm.com for example) then use CTRL-C to copy, then switch back to the browser and place the cursor at browser's location window, clear existing entry by pressing ENTER then SPACE bar) and use CTRL-V to paste new address.


    How to Find more information/Support

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    Standard Disclaimer

    INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED AS A GUIDE ONLY WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. USER MUST VERIFY SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS. *Back To Top*


    Copyright (c), 1997-2002 Bob Bowman - RESERVATIONS: Permission is hereby granted to post a hyperlink to this website. (Any other distribution of this work must be limited to noncommercial uses - allowed only with proper citations, including web address and credits for this work). The right to revise this notice is reserved. Note: Dida is a trademark of FAICO Information Services; MS DOS (DOS), Microsoft (MS), Windows (WIN) 3.1 & 95 are registered trademarks of Microsoft; Macintosh (MAC) is a registered trademark of Apple Computers; IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corp; Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation.