5 Basic Rules.
1. Computers Change. (or, "Don't be afraid to try something a little different...")
This rule is an important one, because it governs how you interpret guides and tutorials like this one. I'm going to be taking you step-by-step through various processes, like "Click the Tools menu, then click Folder Options on the Tools menu..." But, since newer versions of the program (which may be a small application like Notepad or an Operating System like Windows) sometimes change the locations of things, you may not be seeing exactly what I'm describing. But the changes aren't very drastic; for example, you might have to look on the View menu, instead of the Tools menu, to find your Folder Options. Since it only takes a second to check out the other menus and find the option you're looking for, this isn't a big deal.
It's big enough to get its own rule, though, just to make sure that you're comfortable with poking around and finding things on your own sometimes. Which leads into the second rule...
2. Poke around. (or, "Get to know what happens when you click this or highlight that.")
Most people are a little nervous when they try new things, and computers seem to be especially daunting to newcomers. But really, poke around. The only way to become comfortable with using a computer is to, well, use a computer. As long as you're not pressing the Delete key, and as long as you click "Cancel" when Windows asks you to do something that you're not sure of, you'll be OK. (By the way, there's almost always a Cancel button. And even deleted items just get moved to the Recycle Bin, from which you can un-delete them anyway.)
3. You can pull the plug. (or, "If it stops working, turn it off and then back on.")
Many people think that it's the end of the world when a computer freezes (or crashes, or hangs, etc, etc.). "Freezing" can be anything from the monitor going blank, to the mouse pointer not moving when you move the mouse, to Windows just sitting there and not responding no matter what you do. Of course, these things ideally shouldn't happen. But when they do (and they do), it won't hurt anything to turn the computer off and then back on again. (And besides, what else are you going to do if it's frozen?)
The only thing that's bad about this is that, if you had a document open that you were typing in to, and you didn't press the Save button before the crash, then whatever you typed since the last save would be lost. That's why you hear people say "always save your work, and save often." Here's the reason: your stuff is all saved on the hard drive inside your computer, and even when the computer is turned off, that stuff is still there. (You can think of it like a music tape or CD in that sense.) But when your computer is turned on and you're typing a document, it's not getting put on the hard drive. Instead, it's being temporarily stored in RAM (memory) until you press the Save button. Pressing save stores it on the hard drive, so that it's there even when your computer is turned off, until you choose to delete the file. RAM, on the other hand, is cleared every time the computer restarts.
I know, that's techie-talk, but it's such an important concept that you should read it a few times until you remember it.
4. The internet is your friend. (or, "When in doubt, search the net.")
At least half of my computer knowledge came (and still comes) from the internet. There's simply no better way for people to share answers to questions and solutions to problems. If you're using Windows, then you almost certainly have Internet Explorer ("IE") already installed. And once you've got a browser like IE installed, then you're set. You're set because anytime you have a question or problem, you can go to a search engine and type in your question (or some of the main words from your question), and you'll find that there are many many websites where people have answered the question for you. More on this later, but if you're itching to look something up, here are a few search engines: search.go.com, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com.
5. Get an email address and use it. (or, "Write to me for help.")
The first thing any new computer user should do is get a good email account. "A good email account?", you ask? Yes, a good one. They're not all the same, you know.
Anyway... it's important to setup and use an email account because you'll often want to write to the creator of some webpage and ask a question, or write to your favorite tech for help, or buy something online (contrary to popular belief, shopping online is highly secure, and you will always find better prices online, even after shipping, or at the very least, you'll find the same price online as you do at a local store). Typically, people who write tutorials are more than happy to answer any questions you may have (myself included).
