Brief Practical Guides for Computer Newbies

Firefox Tutorials: Managing Search Engines

2009-09-24T04:29:00.001-07:00

We had previously learnt how to use the Search Provider or Search Engine to look up for the information we needed. We also knew that Firefox was packed with built-in Search Engines. That way, anyone could easily switch between them in order to retrieve better search results.

As you click on the search provider icon, you can see all the search engines listed there. Choose Manage Search Engines if you want to manage them. From this moment on, you can re-arrange the list (according to your favorable order) by choosing one of them and clicking Move Up or Move Down. You can also move it by clicking and dragging it.
Do you find one particular search engine that you seldom use? Don’t mind to remove it? Choose it from the list and click the Remove button to delete it (Note: You can add it back – in case you accidentally do that – as explained later on this tutorial).

But what if you want to add a search engine to the list?

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Firefox Tutorials: Searching for Information

2009-09-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Now as we come up with how to do the tab browsing, we can use the browser as the tool to find the information we need. There were times on the old browsers, we had to remember the address of each search provider (i.e. the website that provides the service to look up for the infos) in order to use it.

Say, we want to find any info on Google, then we had to type www.google.com on the Address Bar, followed by typing the keywords (i.e. the words used to query an information, such as “nearest grocery stores” or “discounted prices on books”) on search entry. But things changed quite a bit now. Firefox (and so does other browsers) has its own built-in info-search ability, called Search Bar. The way to retrieve infos as previously explained had became less practical these days (and yet, ridiculous. Really. I mean it).
Let’s see how we make use of Search Bar. In this case, we want to look for “computer tutorials” on the web.
1.   Type “computer tutorials” on the Search Bar
2.   Look at the results. Open the website by right-clicking on the title, and choose Open Link in New Tab.
3.   View the contents. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, try another one.
4.   Repeat the step no. 2 – 3 above as necessary.
...

Can I change the default search provider on Firefox?

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Firefox Tutorials: Tab Browsing

2009-09-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

At previous tutorial, we’ve learnt web browsing basics. Please keep in mind that we do browse using one active “tab” only. But the true power of a browser lies on what we called “tab browsing”.
It’s such a useful feature that enable us to browse multiple sites at once using different tabs in a browser. You could save the time waiting for a site to load up (unless you’re patient enough), by viewing other sites at the same instance.

To practice it, open this site: guidesfornewbies.blogspot.com (later on we would refer it, “the main page”) on Firefox (Don’t know how? Read this article). Previously, to read a complete article you click the title of it. But what if you want to read another one? You have to go back (by using Back button), and click another title. That wasn’t practical, though.
Then try this: Right-click on a title you wish to read from the main page and choose Open Link In New Tab. A new tab will open and display the content of the article. Try it again at another title...

Is that all that I can do with the tabs?

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Firefox Tutorials: Browsing Basics

2009-09-21T09:00:00.001-07:00

Now that Firefox’s interface had been explained, let’s just learn how to browse, the simple way. But before doing so, remember that you need a web address to go to. It’s just like you’re going somewhere, based on the address you remembered already. Otherwise, you’d likely get lost somewhere (or not go anywhere!).

Follow the steps below to start browsing:
1. Locate the Address Bar (read this article if you don’t know where).
2. Type this at it: guidesfornewbies.blogspot.com.
You must type it that way. No space(s) allowed. Press Enter.
There you go. You’d come to this website (again).
Now, try clicking on one of blog post titles there. For an example, click
Firefox Tutorials: Learning The Interface.
Notice that when your mouse pointer is over it, it turns to a “hand” pointer.
There you found a “link” – by definition, it is the text or graphic that
points to another web address. Click on it. As the result, the webpage changed, and so does the address. Now, look at the navigation buttons, right beside the address bar. The Back button lit up. It means that you can go back to the main page (i.e. guidesfornewbies.blogspot.com) by clicking on it.

Is that all? Then what about other navigation buttons?

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Firefox Tutorials: Learning The Interface

2009-09-20T01:38:00.000-07:00

As you’d familiarized yourself with how to open and quit Firefox, now let’s learn how Firefox interacts with you, or this is called the interface.
When you open Firefox (assuming you’re already connected to the internet), it will show up like this. So let’s get to know every part of the interface and what it does.

A.   Title Bar
        This shows the title of the webpage you’re currently viewing.
B.   Control Buttons
        They’re Minimize, Restore and Close Button. They do exactly what their names mean.
C.   Menu Bar
        This contains all the commands you can perform, organized in menus.
D.   Navigation Buttons
        There you’ll find buttons to navigate the web.
E.   Address Bar
       This shows the address of a site you’re currently viewing.
So what about other parts of the interface?

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Firefox Tutorials: Opening and Quitting It

2009-09-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

After installing it, there’s just so many ways for you to open Firefox. The simplest ones are using shortcuts located on desktop or on Quick Launch Toolbars.
Notice that if you uncheck the option to create a desktop shortcut, you won’t find a Firefox shortcut on your desktop.

This shouldn’t be a problem, since there’s other ways to open the application. If you access this application frequently, there might be a shortcut located on the Start menu which is adjacent to Program sub-menu as well.
Usually, there are the users who would go through the Start Menu to open it. Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox.
You could also make use of Run Menu instead.
Click Start > Run and then type “firefox” (without quotes) > OK to open it.

But then, what about the ways that I can perform to close it?

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Firefox Tutorials: Installation Steps

2009-09-18T00:58:00.000-07:00

After getting to know what Firefox is, let’s review the installation steps prior to using it. But first, get yourself a copy of the software at the official site.
In this tutorial, I’ll install Firefox (version 3.5.3) in Windows XP. Generally, the installation steps involved are the same for any version of Firefox and Windows you are currently using.

Assuming that you’ve downloaded it, here’s how to install it:

Locate the folder where you put the file. Double-click the setup file.
This should launch the Setup Wizard. Click Next to start the installation.
You will see two types of setup. Choose Custom to have a full control of installation steps, instead of Standard one. Make sure Use Firefox as my default web browser is checked (I’d like to assume you have no other browser installed on your computer or you want to replace the existing one). Click Next to continue.

...

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Firefox Tutorials: Introduction

2009-09-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

In order to retrieve the information from internet, you need a piece of software, called browser. Today, there are just so many of it that you can use. I remembered back in the day where Internet Explorer – the browser that Microsoft had created – was just so superior to Netscape Navigator. Being integrated to Windows environment had made this become (well, almost) one and only choice for the users to surf the web. But things are quite different now, there are also competitors like Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera’s Opera, Apple’s Safari and yet, Google’s Chrome.

The reason why I made this tutorials was that although Internet Explorer (IE) still hold the greatest usage share of web browsers (for about 65% according to an August 2009 report), people started looking for other alternatives. The main (yet, classic) reason behind it is about security problems. Its presence as widely used browser had made it an interesting target to malicious acts. OK, it seems that Microsoft had made a great effort of making it more secure, but still IE is so vulnerable today. That’s one thing.

There are also another thing...

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Capturing Screen Display: More About Snipping Tool

2009-09-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

Well, Snipping Tool can actually do more than just capturing specific area of the screen. The “snips” or captured area could be set to free-form, windowed, or full-screen one, instead of the “normal”, rectangular one.

Let’s just see how to make a free-from snip:

Click the arrow next to New button, and choose Free-form Snips.
Click New when you’re ready.
Now, draw a free-form shape around the object you want to capture. Notice that the mouse pointer turned to a scissor.
Release the mouse button when you’re done. You’ll see the preview of it.
You may save it then (Refer to this article, if you don’t know how).

What about other capture modes (i.e. window and full-screen mode)? Can I capture Start menu list?

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Capturing Screen Display: The Snipping Tool

2009-09-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Are you using Windows Vista? Are you trying to grab what your screen displays? If the answer is “yes” for both questions, then your job can be a lot easier. Vista came pre-loaded with screen capture utility, called Snipping Tool. This comes in handy when you want to capture specific area of the screen.

Here’s how:

Open Snipping Tool. Click the orb button > All Programs > Accessories > Snipping Tool. Alternatively, click the orb button > type “snippingtool” (without quotes) on Search Pane, and press Enter. As it shows up, the background gets white in color. Your mouse pointer changed into a big white plus sign.
Now, click and drag over the area you wish to capture. As you release the mouse button, you’ll see a preview of the captured area. If you aren’t satisfied with the result, you can do another capture. Press Esc and prepare anything first. When you’re ready, click New button on Snipping Tool. Repeat all the steps above.

Then how to save it? Can I remove red border surrounding captured area?

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Capturing Screen Display: The Basics

2009-09-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

There might be some occasions where you need to capture what goes on your screen. Such as you bumped into an unknown error and before asking someone for help, you want to capture the very moment when it happened.

The simplest (and yes, the old-fashioned) method to do this is by pressing Print Screen button. Don’t know where to find it? Look at your keyboard. Sometimes it’s abbreviated into Prt Scr or something like that.
When you press that button, Windows actually records everything on the screen (except the mouse pointer) into the memory or “clipboard”. To transfer it, you need to open application capable of handling images. A simple graphics program such as MS Paint will do the trick.
OK. Let’s practice it. Close all open applications. We’ll capture the whole screen. When you’re ready, press Print Screen button. Now, open MS Paint, by typing “mspaint” (without quotes) on Run Menu (for Windows XP) or Search Pane (for Windows Vista). From the menu bar, choose Edit > Paste. There you’ll see a “copy” of your desktop.
So how you're going to save it? Plus, what if you choose to capture the active application or active window only?

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Launching An MS Office Application: The Alternative Way

2009-09-13T03:33:00.000-07:00

To all users of MS Office application, perhaps the common way to launch an application – say, MS Word – is through the Start Menu (or Orb Button in Vista) > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Word.
You could also use shortcuts located on Start Menu, Quick Launch Toolbars or Desktop to do just the same. But there’s also – yet, practical – way to open an MS Office without locating the shortcuts or going through the menus.

For those of you who used Windows Vista, do you recognize the Search Pane?

It doesn’t just sit there for you to type the name of the file or folder you expected to find, but you could also use it to launch an application.
Let’s say that you want to open MS Excel. All you have to do is to type “excel” (without quotes) in it, press Enter and the application will show up just as fast.
So, what about other MS Office applications? What if I'm still using Windows XP?

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