The Parks School - On-line Manual

To close this help facility down, just click the x symbol in the top right of this window at any time. To go to any particular section of the manual, just click on it in the index. If you want to return to the index at any point, just click on the many "Return to index" links within the text.

Manual Section

Internet page

Page No. (in book)

Introduction

- From the beginning….

- What is the internet, and why should I use it?

Navigating the site

Browser controls

- The menus

- The navigation toolbar (and a history lesson)

- The scroll bars and window sizing

Site (and internet) controls

- Following links

- The margin buttons

- Sending your first e-mail

Searching for yourself

- Following your nose

- Letting the computer do the hard work!

(Using the Copernic search tool)

"Practice makes perfect!"

Finishing off

- Closing the browser

- Turning it all off

Appendix A – Glossary of terms

Appendix B – Site map

Appendix C – List of resource sites

Appendix D – Further reading

Appendix E – On-line version of this manual & tutorial

3-4

5-6

12-13

18-19

22-23

25-29

Welcome to the Parks Nursery Family Resource Centre. This book (or on-line tutorial) is designed to help you to find the information you want from our web-site, and the internet as a whole. If you’ve never had a go at using the internet before, or even a computer, I’ve got two words to say:-

Everything you’re going to do is as simple as I could possibly make it. I’m going to lead you through each stage, both in this book and on the computer screen, so that you don’t feel lost. You're going to learn first about the computer and what the internet really is, and then you'll move on to using the machine to get at the information you really want. And finally, I’m going to turn you into a confident and capable user who’s not scared to try things through demonstrations at every stage. Still worried? Well, stay calm and read the rest of this introduction. It tells you a little more about computers, the internet, and why it’s so useful (if you already know and understand these things, you might want to skip onto the next chapter, "Getting Started").

P.s – Don’t feel that you have to read this book from cover to cover. A lot of the info is just for reference and to help if you have a problem, and there isn’t going to be a test at the end! There should be helpful hints stuck on the wall behind the machine for a lot of the common operations, so use those, and also don’t forget that there is a copy of this book available to be loaned out by the toy library – see Terry. Most of all, relax – you never know, you might even find that you enjoy learning a new and extremely valuable skill like using the internet.

So, you don't know much about computers or the internet, but you're keen to learn, right?! Right. So lets have a look at the various bits of a computer (and what they do) first :-

The monitor (or screen) - This is where all the information is displayed for you to see, which in your case will be the information from the internet that you want to view. All the information is presented in a series of boxes called windows, which I'll explain about a bit later.

The system unit - This is where all the fancy stuff goes on. All the equipment which makes the computer do it's job is hidden away in here, including assorted disk drives (see below).

The disk drives - There are three types of disk drive that you'll come across mainly (although the machine in the resource centre has a fourth type, called a Zip drive, which you really don't need to know about) :-

The keyboard - This is where you type written information into the computer by pressing the keys. It can also be used to control the computers actions in various programs.

The mouse - This is the major way you will control the computer. The mouse, when moved, makes a small pointer (sometimes called a cursor) move around the screen. By placing the cursor over items displayed on the screen and clicking the buttons on the mouse the computer can be made to do something. More later.

The speakers - Just like on your stereo system, this is where sound and music comes from that's produced by the computer (these aren’t shown on the picture).

Generally, all this equipment is known as hardware – the components of the computer itself. We’ll look at software later.

Right, so now we know what all the bits do, lets try and work out what this internet business is all about. You might already have heard terms like "The information superhighway" and "The world wide web" bandied around before without knowing what the heck was really going on, but the amazing thing is that behind all the jargon it's actually really simple. Don't believe me? Well read on.

Right. Imagine one of those great big spiders webs that you always walk into as you go through the front door on a Monday morning. Yuck! Ok, because you don't want to imagine it, I'll draw it for you :-

Believe it or not, this is a perfect model for the internet. The net (short for internet) is made up of a vast number of pages (represented by anywhere two threads cross) which contain the information on lots of different computers all over the world. To move around you follow a thread (known as a hyperlink, or link for short) between one page and another (you are actually linked to the other computer by a phone line). Finally, an inter-linked collection of pages which have been put there by one particular person or organisation is known as a web-site, or site for short.

The only other thing to remember is that none of the information on the can be viewed without a computer program called a browser. What this does is organise all the information the way the person who wrote the page wanted you to see it. Browsers have a number of controls which you can use to help you move around the internet quickly and effectively, but I'll tell you more about these later.

That's it! You now understand everything you need to know about the internet and how to move around it. But why? What's the point? Why should you use it?

Think of the biggest library you could possibly imagine, crammed to the gills with books, journals, music, magazines, and every other form of information you could possibly need. Well, you're not even close. The internet can be thought of as an effectively infinite resource of information on every subject under the sun, which is fully searchable and regularly maintained by those who use it. Anything and everything is there, all accessible, ready and waiting for you to find it.

Still not convinced? Well here's an example. Your child has just been diagnosed with a condition you know nothing about. What can you do? Well, you could go down to the local library, but chances are they'll have precious little extra info that you don't already have. Your G.P.'s probably rushed off his feet, and you'd like some information fast - what can you do?

Get on-line! (this means use the internet). You can find information on your child's condition, the drugs and treatments used, and the latest medical research. You can get conference dates, discuss the problems and frustrations with others across the world who know them by experience, and subscribe to specialist magazines and newsletters associated with the sufferers, carers and national associations all dedicated to helping people like you. Convinced? I hope so, because now I'm going to get off my soapbox and teach you some of the real things you need to know to "surf the net". Don't worry, it's going to be really simple and straightforward. Before long you'll be getting all the information you want confidently and without hesitation!

Before we dive headlong into the actual nitty-gritty stuff, I'd just like to show you a couple of things that will pop up throughout this book. They're there to help you get over problems, give you handy tips, or just plain avoid panic!

If you see the top symbol, it means that I've spotted a potential problem that might cause you to panic, but don't worry! Full instructions will guide you through any difficulties you may have.

So you've followed the instructions, but what's happened doesn't seem to match what's written in the instructions? If this might happen I've used the middle symbol. Read this and there should be a number of alternatives to help you to rectify the problem.

The bottom symbol is just here to give handy hints and tips. You don't have to follow what it says, but it might help you make things that little bit easier and faster.

Oh, and if you see anything in italics (like this!), it means there will be a definition of that word in the glossary of terms (Appendix A, page ?).

That’s just about it! It’s now time to delve into actually using the computer to get at the information you want. Don’t worry, if you’ve understood every thing so far, you won’t have any problems. There is, however, just one more small point to explain.

The internet connection on this (and every other) computer is a cable connected to the telephone system. Now, as the information comes into the back of the computer down this wire, there’s no way either you or indeed the computer could understand it. To help the computer out, a piece of software (a computer program) called the browser interprets all of this information, puts it in the right order, and displays it on the screen for you to see. Simple, right?! Right. If you’re having trouble, think of it like a window in a room – without the window, the view would still be there, but you wouldn’t be able to see it because the wall would be in the way. The browser works in just the same way – without it, the information would still be there, but you wouldn’t be able to view it properly.

The real gist of this is that to control your view of the internet, you’ll have to control the browser. Don’t worry, it’s very simple, and I’ll show you how to do it. The only reason I bothered to explain this now is because it can be quite important that you understand what the browser really is when you come to do more advanced things later.

The links below change to these pages in the main web-site window, not this one!
To view them, click the _ or x symbol in the top right of this window.

On-line Manual for the Parks School Website