This month, we will start your twelve-month program for basic technology and Internet skills with a focus on the very basics. These are things everyone who uses technology is expected to know. There are lots of terms and basic concepts to understand, all of which will add greatly to your overall understanding and proficiency (not to mention reduced frustration) of today’s technology.

While there are too many concepts mentioned to individually cover in one article, you can use the lists and information to either ask questions of your local mentor, or to hire a tech guru for private lessons, or to take a class in basic skills. At the end of your sessions, the following skills are what you will need to have.

Microsoft Windows(tm) Terminology

A basic Windows course will help many of those “self taught” individuals gain an understanding of Windows terminology, which is very helpful to those who are not familiar with all the technology jargon. Many well-intentioned new users get lost in the jargon alone, and end up throwing in the towel on the whole effort.

You should have a good understanding of the following terms, not just know the definition you looked up in your manual. Knowing these will not only help your confidence, but also enable you to progress to the “next level” of understanding relating to technological concepts. Remember, don’t worry about getting too “techie” about learning these things. Don’t get too caught up in the technical descriptions and definitions. However, you should be familiar enough with them that you could explain it in “lay person’s terminology” to another agent.

• RAM, (Random Access Memory), it's purpose and capacity
• CPU, (Central Processing Unit)
• DSL vs. Cable Internet
• HD, (Hard Drive), it's purpose and size
• CD-R (Read), CD-W (Write), combo
• Mhtz (Megahertz) and Ghtz (Giga hertz)
• Download vs. Upload
• Save vs. Save As
• Cut-Copy-Paste conceptual fundamentals
• File Size Measurement (Bytes, Kilo Bytes-KB, Mega Bytes-MD, etc.

Basic PC Skills

These are some basic things you must know, “stepping stones of wisdom” you must master before you can even think about creating that listing presentation, or sending out that bulk e-mail to your farm list. Mastery of these basic skills will cause you to reap big dividends in the future!

1. How to turn computer on/off.
2. Saving a file to multiple locations (folders, disk drive, CD, Zip, etc.)
3. How to install and remove software
4. How to locate missing desktop toolbars
5. Basic Keyboarding skills
6. How to locate and use the “Character Map”
7. Mouse skills (left click vs. right click, and how to use the scroll feature)
8. Using “Find” and “Replace” features
9. Switching between more than 1 program
10. Keeping your anti-virus software updated
11. Window manipulation: open, close, resize, maximize, etc.
12. Cut-Copy-Paste practical skills
13. Mouse click highlighting skills
14. How to download files and where to put them

File Management Skills

What are file management skills? Basically, they are activities that require you to have a good understanding of the drive locations on your computer and how to get around between these drives. The benefit is that you can easily and quickly move information between locations, which is very important in an ever increasing mobile society.

I can’t tell you how many agents I’ve worked with over the years need some improvement with this one! They seem to know that they’ve saved something, only to look dazed when I asked them to recall where exactly they put it! They say, “I don’t know where it is, I just saved it!”. Or they say, “I saved it in Word!”, which is the program they used to create the document, not the location they put it. Also, lots of agents seem to retrieve items from their File menus (the most recently used items appear at the bottom of this menu).

First, learn about your computer “drives” or locations you can store and/or retrieve data. Each drive has a unique letter associated with it. The computer “hard drive”, or permanent storage, is Drive C. The disk drive (for a 3-1/2” floppy) is Drive A. These are standard designations. You must learn these.

Each computer is essentially different with respect to the remaining drives. Your computer may have a CD-ROM drive and that will probably be Drive D. If you install an external hard drive like a Zip Drive (about $125 at www.iomega.com ), then that will probably be Drive E. (The computer will assign these letters automatically as you install more and more hardware.) You can double click on the My Computer desktop icon to view the drives on your computer.

If you store large files or just have lots of them that you keep track of on a daily basis, then you really should consider getting a CD-RW ROM drive. This is one that “reads” (meaning retrieves) and “writes” (meaning saves) data to a CD. This will save you lots of time looking for files, because there is more than enough room on a CD for all of your projects (unless you have lots of high resolution graphic and sound files). Also, you can put client files onto CD’s with a lot less effort, then either drop them in the mail or deliver the CD’s as needed. It’s just a lot less cumbersome than carrying around a lot of floppies.

Once you understand the basics of file management locally (meaning on your own computer), then you can begin to understand how computer networks work and move files between different computers on the network. Also, you can begin to explore working with online storage locations. These are web sites you can upload your files to from your computer. You would do this to safely store important files away from your office, or to work with files in a remote location (say you are traveling) where you can download the files and work with them or print overheads, etc. If you have multiple types of handouts or client documents this is a safe way to ensure you will always have access to all your documents, no matter where you are located at the present moment. You can find a long list of online storage locations by going to www.cnet.com and typing “online storage” in the search box and checking “search the Web”.