Your First Hour at the Computer: Keyboard, Mouse and Saving a File

Most beginners think the first lesson starts with the screen. In my classes it starts with the chair. Sit so your forearms rest level with the keyboard, your feet are flat on the floor and the top of the screen sits at about eye height. If the laptop is too low, a couple of hardcover books underneath will do. Ten minutes of fussing here saves a sore neck by the end of the hour, and it makes every later step feel less like an exam.

Next, check the light. Mid autumn means shorter afternoons, and a screen in a dim room tires the eyes quickly. Turn on a lamp beside the computer rather than behind it, so the glow does not reflect on the glass. If the text looks small, ask the machine to enlarge it in the display settings; nobody earns a prize for squinting. Keep a pen and a notebook at your elbow for anything you want to remember.

• Forearms level with the keyboard
• Feet flat, back supported
• Lamp beside the screen, not behind it
• Notebook and pen within reach

The mouse is the first real obstacle, because it asks your hand to move in one place while something happens in another. Rest your palm lightly on it, with your index finger on the left button and your middle finger on the right. Slide it gently across the desk and watch the small arrow follow. If you run out of desk, lift the mouse and set it down again; the arrow stays where it was. Everyone does this on day one.

Practise three movements only: pointing, a single click to select, and a double click to open. A single click means press once, quickly. A double click is two quick presses in the same spot, and it often takes a few dozen tries before the rhythm settles. If the double click keeps failing, the speed can be slowed in the mouse settings. Spend five minutes opening and closing a harmless program such as the calculator until your hand stops tensing.

• Point: move the arrow over an item
• Click once: select it
• Double click: open it
• Right click: show a menu of choices

A keyboard looks crowded, but you will use only a small part of it at first. Think of it in three zones. The large middle area holds letters, numbers and the space bar. On the right sit the arrow keys and, on many machines, a number pad. Along the top are the function keys, which you can safely ignore for now. Type your own name and address into a blank document to get the feel of the layout, using one finger per key if that is what comes naturally.

Four keys deserve a name early. Enter starts a new line. Backspace erases the letter just before the cursor. Shift, held down, gives you a capital letter. Caps Lock keeps everything in capitals until you press it again, which is why an email can suddenly shout at its reader. If something strange appears on screen, press Backspace a few times rather than reaching for the power button; most surprises can be undone in seconds.

• Enter: new line
• Backspace: erase to the left
• Shift: one capital letter
• Caps Lock: all capitals until pressed again

Programs are simply tools, and you open them from the Start menu or from the row of small pictures along the bottom or side of the screen. Click the word processor, and a blank page appears with a blinking line called the cursor. That blink shows where your next letter will land. Write three sentences about your morning. Do not worry about mistakes; the point of this exercise is to connect your fingers, the keyboard and the screen so the three begin to feel like one action.

Look at the top of the window. The three small symbols in the corner minimize, enlarge or close the program. Minimize hides it without losing anything, which surprises many learners who assume it has vanished. Try it: minimize the page, then click its picture on the taskbar to bring it back. Learning that your work is still safely there, waiting, removes a good deal of the worry people carry about breaking something.

The most common frustration I hear in the first week is, I wrote it, but where did it go? Saving is the answer, and the habit is worth forming in your first hour. Choose Save from the File menu, or press the Control and S keys together. A box asks for a name and a location. Give the file a plain name you will recognise, such as Morning Notes, and choose the Documents folder, which every computer has.

Then close the program, open it again and look for your file in Documents. Seeing it return is the moment many learners relax. Think of Documents as a filing cabinet and each folder inside it as a drawer. Later you can make a drawer for letters, one for recipes, one for photographs. For now, one folder and one clear name is enough. Save again every few minutes while you type, because a power cut will not wait for you to finish a sentence.

• Pick a name you will recognise
• Choose the Documents folder
• Close, reopen and find the file
• Press Control and S often

End the hour the way you will end every session: close your programs, then use the Start menu to shut the computer down, rather than holding the power button or closing the lid on a running machine. A proper shutdown lets the system tidy itself and avoids the odd error message on the next start. If you are using a laptop, plug it in overnight so it is ready when you return.

Before you stand up, write two lines in your notebook: one thing that went well and one thing you want to repeat. Short, regular sessions beat one long afternoon, so a half hour on three days of the week works better than a marathon on Sunday. Next time you can take the document you saved and practise attaching it to an email, which builds directly on what you did here.