English Vocabulary Builder: Using the Computer & Internet

Hi again, everybody.

Welcome to www.engvid.com.

I'm Adam.

In today's video, we're going to talk about using a computer.

Not necessarily the hardware; I have a different video for that that you can watch about the

actual equipment.

Today, we're looking at function - how to make use of your keyboard, how to make use

of the functions available on your screen, on the internet, etc.

This is especially valuable for those of you who are working in an office and in an English-speaking

office and you need to communicate with your peers.

You need to explain things.

Maybe you don't have the correct pronunciation for all the words.

You may know a lot of these words already.

A lot of them are on your keyboard, but you might not know the pronunciation or exactly

the functions of each.

And we're going to show you a few maybe shortcuts that can save you time and help you in that

way.

So, we're going to start with the keyboard and the actions that you can do on your keyboard.

So, we're going to start with "delete".

And we're going to look at "backspace".

So, both of these functions essentially do the same thing, but in different directions.

The "delete" button, of course, you can use that to delete entire files.

If you click...

Left-click on a file and press "delete", that file will go to the recycle bin or just be

gone completely.

But if you're typing and you want to delete something going a little bit forward, you

can just press "delete".

Whereas the "backspace" button, you'll... it'll generally have the arrow on it.

The "delete" will generally just be the "del" button.

So, "backspace" is when you make a mistake and you want to just go back and clear it

up and then continue.

If "delete", you want to... you want to basically cut something over here, you want to erase

something going forward, you just press "delete" and then keep going from there.

So, they both erase something.

Okay?

So, use that to erase.

And again, "delete" to get rid of files.

So, "de-lete", not "de-le-te", some people might say.

Next, "enter".

Most actions require you to press the "enter" button before the action happens.

In many computers, it will look like this.

"Enter" means "go", essentially, when you have... when you put in a command.

If you want to save something, "save", "enter", etc.

Next, "shift" plus whatever letter.

So, you have any letter.

If you want to make it a capital letter, you're going to press "shift" plus the letter and

it'll become a capital.

If you want to make all capitals, if you want to have all your letters appear in capital

but you don't want to press "shift" each time, press your "caps lock".

This will be on the left side of the keyboard, just underneath the "shift" button.

"Caps lock", "caps" means, like, capital letters, so that's why we call it "caps lock", and

it keeps the "shift" button down and everything will be in capital.

Keep in mind, if you do this, the numbers will still work.

If you want to have the symbols above the numbers, you still need to press "shift".

"Escape", this will be in the top left side of your keyboard.

If you're in a full screen mode, like a video or YouTube or whatever, press "escape" and

it'll bring it back down to normal size and you're back on your page.

If you're having...

If you want to get out of a program that's maybe a bit too slow or something's not working,

sometimes if your computer is frozen, if you press the "escape" button a few times, it

might help you stop the program and move on to other things.

Again, not as commonly used anymore, but it's there for you to escape a problem or situation.

"Scroll".

Now, there are a few ways you can scroll.

There are arrow keys on the...

On your keyboard.

You can scroll using these, or you can scroll with your mouse using the roller.

Okay?

There's a roller on your mouse.

But some people prefer to use this, and you can use "page up" or "page down" with the

function button and the arrows to move whole pages, especially if you're in, like, a Word

document, like a typing document, and you want to go page by page, instead of scrolling

up and down very slowly, you can use function and the arrow keys.

Okay?

Of course, if you want to cut, copy something, if you want to cut, take away from here, put

somewhere else, or if you want to copy, you want to take it from here and put it here,

but leave one here and one here, so you have two copies of the same thing, you can use

these functions.

You're going to use Ctrl+X for "cut", Ctrl+C for "copy", Ctrl+V for "paste".

"Paste" basically means, like, glue, like, I'm going to put it here and leave it here,

and that's where it will be.

And you can save items onto your hard drive.

You can save it as.

If you click "save", it means you already have this file on your computer, you've made

some changes, you click "save", and it'll stay.

If you click "save as", it'll give you a pop-up window, and you can give the file a name and

a location and save it there.

Okay?

Now, sometimes you don't have time, maybe you get an invoice receipt or you get an email

or you see a nice website that you like, you don't have time to cut and paste and move,

you can just press the "print screen" button.

I believe it'll be, like, something like that, PRSC or something.

You click that, you go to another file, Ctrl+V, and it'll give you that whole page, and then

you can do whatever you want with it later.

Save it, and then make the adjustments later.

Very, very useful button to use.

Okay?

Now, the cursor.

Everything on the computer, on the screen, is based on the cursor.

The cursor shows you the location of where you are, so where you're looking and where

the cursor is, not the same thing.

You move the cursor to the place you want, and then you do whatever function you want

with that cursor.

For most people, it's either an arrow or - that's a hand, if you're not sure my artistic skills

are terrible.

A hand, sometimes if you'll move the arrow to something that's not clickable - clickable

is a very good word - then the arrow will change to a hand.

You can move it or you can click on it.

I'll talk about that in a moment.

Now, Ctrl+ whatever, so like I said, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, these are all shortcuts.

You can - there are a lot of different shortcuts you can use with your keyboard.

Do a little bit of research on the internet, find out how you can use the shortcuts to

save yourself a lot of time, but just so you know, C-T-R-L button, Ctrl, that's what it's

there for.

So, these are the basic functions of the keyboard.

Now, we're going to look at the screen and what functions you have available there with

and without the internet.

Okay, so now our computer is turned on, we're looking at our screen with all the things

there.

Now, before I get into this stuff, let me first explain that I'm a PC user.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of these things might not apply if you're using an Apple and

Mac because they have different setup.

So, this is all for - this is all based on the idea that you're using a PC, a Windows

computer.

Okay?

So, a few things.

Now, again, I know, I'm sure that you already know most of these things, but again, you

might not know them in English, and again, if you're working in an office and you need

to communicate about some of the things on your screen, about some of the things you're

doing, it's important to know the words, to know how to pronounce them properly, and to

know how to use them effectively.

So, first of all, before you do anything, you should always make sure that you have

a password lock on your computer and on the various applications that you use, your emails,

etc.

Always make sure you have a very good password.

The password is your key.

It should not be - it should not be easy to guess your password.

So, "12345", terrible password.

Your birthday, terrible password.

Your phone number, terrible password.

This is an excellent password.

It means nothing.

It's random.

It's just letters, capitals, symbols.

Make something very random.

Make sure you have a good notebook or a good place to store them.

I heard a very good suggestion, somebody writes song lyrics, takes a whole sentence and just

changes a few of the letters to numbers or symbols, and it's easy to remember, very difficult

to hack into, okay?

And that's a very important word, "hack".

So, someone could be outside and somehow gets into your computer and does - takes a lot

of your information, your identity.

How do you prevent hacking or how do you make it more difficult?

It's a very good password, okay?

Next, you'll go to a lot of sites or a lot of programs, and you'll see at the top, you'll

see options.

"Sign up" or "log in".

"Sign up" means that you are - you don't have an account or you don't have a membership

with this particular application, so you can make one.

You can create an account.

"Log in" means you're already a member.

You already have your username and you already have your password, okay?

Your username is your identity.

This is who you are and you're going to put your username and you're going to put your

password and you're going to get into your account.

"Sign in" is the same as "log in".

So, if you see "sign in", it means you already have an account.

If you don't have an account, look for a place that lets you sign up or lets you create an

account for this application, okay?

You probably have a search window.

If you don't, you can add that.

It's part of the options on your windows, on your screen for your internet.

In your search window, you can search for everything - Google, Bing, Yahoo, whatever

search engine you use, okay?

Now, at the top of your page - and again, we're on the internet now, you have a window

open - at the top, you'll see three options, and again, with a Windows PC, minimize, maximize,

and close.

So, if you want to minimize your window to the tray, basically, you don't want to close

the window, but you want to get it off your screen so you can see something behind it,

you would minimize.

If you want to then bring it back up, you would maximize, or if your window is small

and you want it to fill the full screen, you can press maximize and it will expand and

be a full screen, and if you want to just close it, you just close it with the X, okay?

So, you can close the window.

Now, speaking of windows, you can open new windows or you can open new tabs in the window.

What's the difference?

If you open a new window and you want to go back and forth between windows, you always

have to go down to your tray or to your taskbar at the bottom of your screen and click on

the new window to go back and forth.

You can create shortcuts on your keyboard, but that's...

You can look into that.

A tab means it's a new page in the same window, and then you'll have...

At the top of the page, you'll have, like, this and like this, and different windows

with different internet pages, and you can just go back and forth that way, and again,

you can also control...

Press control plus a key to go back and forth with that, and you can set these up as well.

At the top of your internet page, on the left side in windows, you'll have a back button,

and if you go back, then you'll suddenly have a forward button.

If you want to go back to where you were before.

So, to go back and forth from where you are to where you were to where you were before

that.

If you're not sure what's going on and you want to update a page, like a news page or

a financial page, like a stock market page, you want to get it updated to the most recent,

you press the refresh button, okay?

It looks like a circle, like a recycling button, but it's called refresh, and it just loads

up the page again to the most updated one.

You can also press F5 on your keyboard, and that'll refresh your page for you.

Then, you'll see a little house somewhere, also at the top left of your screen.

This will take you...

This is your home button, and it will take you to your home page.

You can set up your home page by going to the internet options and deciding what page

will be your home page, okay?

Next, a lot of these things also depend on the browser you're using.

The most common browsers are Microsoft Edge, I guess some people still have Explorer, Firefox,

and Chrome.

If you're using any of these browsers, then the things...

The positionings of all these things might be a little bit different.

Study the browser you're using, study the screen setup, and know all the different functions

that you're using, okay?

All the browsers keep a history of the pages you've visited.

It's a good idea every once in a while to clear this, otherwise if somebody can...

Steals your computer or hacks into your computer or you just leave it open by accident, they

can go and look at all the pages you've visited.

Sometimes this could be a little bit embarrassing, I'm not suggesting anything, but if you're

doing something that you don't want other people to see, clear your history, clear your

cache, clear your cookies.

Cache spelled like this, but pronounced like the money, cash, okay?

Make sure you clear that, also speeds up your internet.

You can also create a toolbar at the top of your windows, of your internet window, you

can create a toolbar where you have your favourite sites that you go to frequently, so you don't

always have to search for them or type in the address, you just click on them and that

page opens.

The bottom of your screen, that's called the taskbar, you can also put all the programs

that you use very commonly, instead of going to the start menu and opening the menu and

finding that program, you can place them, you can pin them to the taskbar.

If you pin it to the taskbar, it's always there, you just double click on it and it

opens or even single click.

And you can...

And then finally, you can bookmark things.

If you find a page that you like or you find an article that you like, but you want to

read it later or you want to read it on a different computer, you can bookmark it.

You can press Ctrl+D to bookmark, let me just make sure we understand.

Now, bookmark basically is like in a book, you take a bookmark, you put it inside so

you know where you were and you come back later, you open your book to the same page.

Bookmark on a computer is the same thing, you can save it for later, usually you can

also just press the star at the top of your window there to bookmark and you can also

organize this.

So, I'm assuming by now, or I'm hoping at least, that all of you have engVid bookmarked

so you can come back and watch us all the time.

But anyways, for now, if you want to just review all of this information, there's a

quiz at www.engvid.com, you can also ask me questions or you can also add your own suggestions

of functions and tools that you think are very important that other engVid members might

be interested in.

Put those in the comments section as well, I'm sure everybody will be very appreciative

of that.

In the meantime, if you liked the video, please give me a like, don't forget to subscribe

to my YouTube channel, and come back, I'll try to give you more practical, everyday vocabulary

for all kinds of things.

Okay?

I'll see you then.

Bye-bye.