Basic Computer Skills

This handout contains information on moving files in Windows between your local drive and your Internet account, and access to files from classroom, lab, and home computers.

Managing files

You'll need to manage files on your local computer.  This will require Windows Explorer and will include

• identifying directories (folders), local drives, and networked drives
• making a subdirectory
• sending a file there
• finding a file there
• delete a file
• copy a file
• move a file
• rename a file
• selecting multiple files
• recognizing file types

Internet Skills: Printing Files

• To print an entire page, File, Print (if printing a frames page, the last frame clicked will print)
• or right-click Open in New Window, then File, Print
• To print a partial page, Print Preview, note the pages desired, and Print... specific pages
• To print a single image, right-click, View Image then File, Print
• You can change the orientation from Portrait to Landscape before printing
• To copy a web page, File, Save As...
• To copy an image right-click, Save Image As...
• To copy a hyperlinked file, such as a program file that is linked, right-click, Save Link As...
• Copy any text block as follows.
  • click-and-drag over text block
  • CTRL+C to copy it into memory
  • change program
  • CTRL+V to paste

Moving files from local to Unix drive

• Moving files from the local drive to the worldwide web is a little more difficult.
• As an NEIU student, you should already have a UNIX account to which you can publish files. 
• By now you probably know about NEIUport, your NetID is typically your first initial, your middle initial, and six letters of your last name, (e.g. ejhowens).  I think you can get your password from NEIUport with your PIN number. Change your password in NEIUport.

1. Find out more about NEIUport and passwords HERE. 
3. You may not know that you have personal space on the University's server. This computer, in the Classroom building, is huge. It does not run Windows, it uses a DOS-like operating system called UNIX. Your space on the server is in a sub-sub-sub-sub folder which ends in your NetID. I'll refer to it as your UNIX folder and I'll tell you how to copy things to and from it. First you must understand about one special subfolder there, called "http". This looks and behaves like any folder you might find on the hard drive of your computer -- you can put files and sub-folder there move, rename, delete and copy them. But anything in the http folder is "published" on the worldwide web. Put a map there and Sven in Helsinki can take a look at it; it'll be found by web crawlers spiders and robots and it may appear one day in a google search.
   
   Copy files one of two ways. One is quick, the other is secure. First the quick one. Use either Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer and type, in the location bar the following code: ftp://NetID@ftp.neiu.edu , where NetID is your own NetID. You'll be prompted for your password and then it will drop an "ftp" folder into your Explorer bar which will hook into your UNIX accoung.. Copy to and from it just the way you would if it was another directory in your hard drive. It's not so secure, however -- you should use it only when you have sole access to the computer (or if you are trusting). It occasionally bypasses the password step and sometimes even remembers your NetID.
   
   The second way is to use an FTP program -- File Transfer Protocol. There are many good free ones -- anything with FTP in it is this kind of program. You may need to indicate the port is 21, the host is ftp.neiu.edu, and then give your NetID and password. I recommend CoreFTP but they're all good. There's no reason to not use the SSH setting, which will make the session even more secure.

1. If you are just copying files up for your own use, make a directory in your UNIX account and copy your files there.   You may make multiple subdirectories and all files in them will be locked to anyone without your NetID and password. They'll be able to see the file names.
3. In your UNIX "http" directory you're likely to find a default file called "home.html." If it does, this will effectively block anything you publish, so you have to delete that file. Home.htm, home.html, index.htm, or index.html (or these in any upper/lower case combination) will become the default page for that folder. It's a nuisance; delete it. Dont' make a file by these names this term; it will block me from your homework.

After copying files to your http directory always verify that they look the way you intended. Here's how. Open your browser and type http://www.neiu.edu/~NetID , where NetID is your id. You will see the files and folders in your http folder. Click on them and they will open if they are a format recognized by your browser. Right-click on them to copy them to your local computer.

HINT:  Most browsers make a temporary copy of pages and images to memory or to the local hard drive.  If you make changes to your map and copy up the fixed one, but the changes don't appear when you view them in a browser, try CTRL+RELOAD (control key and the reload button in Netscape).  This will force a re-read of the actual Internet file. Also, unlike Windows UNIX is case sensitive. Map.jpg, map.jpg, map.JPG are all different files. Also know that you can't copy from one UNIX folder to another, but you can copy from one UNIX folder to your local computer, back to a different UNIX folder.

Backing up your work

Do this regularly.  If you don't have jump drive get one, but don't keep your only copy of anything important on it. Have you ever lost a pencil? One good technique is to save the file immediately under the assignment name as you begin to work.  In both S242 and S252 you can only save to the C:/temp/ directory or directories you create there.  After the first Save As... periodically select Save.  That will overwrite the saved copy with a fresh one.  You should know that if the computer in S242 (the smart classroom) shuts down the C:\temp\* drives are immediately deleted (this is not true in S252). For complex projects, you might want to save copies with the date or time (e.g., 6_12_3.cdr) so if the file goes bad you have backups at several stages.  That is probably not necessary in this class.

In S252 all the computers have CDR drives and you may use a CD-R or CD-RW to hold all your work.  Use DirectCD or the program Roxio which should be on every station. Losing your work won't necessarily get you more time to do it. You can count on my sympathy, though.

Smart Classroom (S242)

• The C: drives are local
• Networked drives, including the P: drive is "public"  and accessible in all computer labs on campus. I put files there in the G&ES_377 folder.
• Students can only write to the C:\temp\ subdirectory, and directories within that one (or My Documents)
• When the computers are shut down (or power off), the entire C:\temp\ structure is deleted.
• The room is accessible only during class times.

• All computers with black case are like those in the smart classroom 
• They have access to networked drives (including P:) and the internet.
• Only the C:/temp/ drive and My Documents can be written to
• -- create a subdirectory under your initials (e.g. C:\eh_drive) where you can put your files, but they are only on that one machine, of course
• The room is swipe card accessible. Public Safety will let you into the building if necessary.

Access from Home

You can use either method to FTP files to/from your UNIX directory from anywhere with Internet access.
If you don't have a telnet program, try putty.
• Use Windows Explorer or an FTP program to copy files to your account