Explore Your Computer
Most people who are called computer geeks use a simple method to figure things out. Check out these suggestions to help you work the same way.
That way is to explore until you find the answer. Say, you are using Microsoft Word and you want to change your page to display in landscape mode instead of the standard vertical display. A person who is comfortable with using computer would explore until they found what they were looking for.
- Experiment: Not sure how to do something? Experiment by trying out options, changing values, modifying configurations, making test files. Anything you can do to learn. Every minute you spend with an application, the more you will understand. Don’t worry too much about breaking something. This is very important. You need to be willing to mess something up and then fix it. That being said, if you are worried about messing up an important file, back it up or make a copy before experimenting. It’s easy way to cover yourself.
- Search through all of the menus in the program. Look for anything that you feel has some relation to what you want. Many programs have a similar layout, so try to use your knowledge of other programs to give your best guess as to how to do something.
- On Windows computer, do a right-click on an icon or in a window. Many important options can be stored in the context menu that shows up when you right-click.
- Do some research: If you can’t find what you are looking for by just exploring, do a Google/Yahoo!/Bing search. You would be surprised how many times a person with your same exact issue posted on a messageboard or website asking for help. The Internet is your best resource available!
- Looking for a specific file on the computer? Do a file search in your Operating System. If you know what type of file it is, say a bitmap, type in “*.bmp” without the quotes. That will find all bitmaps on the computer. To make the search work faster, limit it to specific folders on the computer.
