Hello, I'm the video professor, and you are about to learn software by means of a creative
new concept in the computer industry.
I'll take you step by step through learning your new software package.
On the screen now are some other tapes available in my series.
With them, you can watch and learn at your own speed, stop and practice any time you
want and review topics you don't understand.
I suggest that you view each tape in its entirety, then go back through the lesson with your
computer and your software and practice each step.
All of my tapes are designed to get you up and running quickly.
Once you have viewed and practiced everything that is on these tapes, I think you'll find
your software manual much easier to understand.
And now, let's get started.
And welcome to my tape on getting started with your personal computer for people using
DOS 5.0 or higher.
For this lesson, you'll need a few things.
Two new five and a quarter or three and a half inch floppy disks.
We assume you have a computer with at least one floppy disk drive and a hard drive with
DOS 5.0 or higher installed and some kind of software program like a word processor
already installed.
We also assume you have a mouse.
Before going further, I'd like to introduce you to my student helper, Lisa.
Ready to get started, Lisa?
Hello, professor.
Yes, I'm ready.
Okay, let's start off by learning the basics of how a computer works.
You've probably heard the words hardware and software before.
Well the information on the floppy and hard disk is referred to as software.
The computer parts such as the monitor, CPU, keyboard, and printer are referred to as hardware.
The main part of the system is the CPU, which stands for central processing unit.
It contains all these computer chips and circuit boards and is the factory for processing data.
It is the brains of the system.
The one bank of chips I would like to point out here is the RAM chips, which stands for
random access memory.
These chips take into their memory information or data that is stored on a floppy or hard
disk and keeps it there while you are using it.
For example, if you were to load a game into the computer, the information on your game
disk would be put into the RAM chip so you could play the game.
The thing to remember here is once you turn the computer off, the information stored in
these chips is lost.
The information on your disk however is permanent.
So when you want to play the game, you just load it into the computer again.
The keyboard is the main component for entering data into the system.
It is similar to a typewriter, however the added keys makes it possible to do many more
commands.
All keyboards have the same types of keys but vary as to where these keys are located.
They all have function keys which can be located on the left of the keyboard or along the top.
These keys usually marked with an F on them have many purposes.
Each program you run will use them in different ways.
Some programs come with templates that fit over these keys showing what they are used
for.
All keyboards have arrow keys which help you point and move to different parts of the computer
screen.
The enter key sometimes referred to as the return key is the most used key of all.
It usually has a bent arrow on it.
This key is used to tell the computer to accept commands we want it to do.
We will demonstrate how some of these keys work when we have something on our screen
to work with.
The monitor is where you see displayed the programs and data that is entered into the
computer.
They vary widely as to the resolution, meaning the sharpness of the image and how many colors
they can display.
Monochrome monitors have one color and some monitors can display millions of colors.
Printers also vary widely.
The three basic styles are dot matrix which print with little dots and makes letters look
a little ragged.
These printers have the capability to print graphic designs.
Daisy wheel printers also referred to as letter quality printers print with solid letters
like a typewriter and prints high quality letters but is limited to one style and size
of its letters.
The laser printers also print very high quality letters but unlike the daisy wheel can print
all different sizes and styles of letters and print out all kinds of graphic designs.
All of these components are worthless without programs to run with them.
The programs that allow you to do things with a computer are always originally stored on
a floppy disk.
A floppy disk comes in two different sizes, five and a quarter and three and a half inch.
They get the name floppy because the actual disk is floppy even though the floppy disk
in the three and a half inch size is enclosed in a hard case.
These disks hold lots and lots of information.
It's kind of like the way a cassette works which stores and plays sound.
The disk gets stores and plays data.
When inserted into the computer the computer can read the information on that disk and
display it on the screen.
Games, computer programs and even letters to a friend are all stored on these disks
and are referred to as data.
Taking care not to damage a disk is very important.
You should always put them in their protective sleeve and store them in a safe place.
A hard shell, dust free container is best.
Keep away from heat and sunlight, drinks and cigarette smoke, magnetic sources such as
telephones and TV sets, physical damage such as bending them and don't touch the exposed
area of the disk.
There is another type of disk called a hard disk.
The hard disk is a much thicker disk usually located inside the computer itself and can
hold many, many times the data a floppy disk can hold.
And a newer disk called the CD-ROM disk can hold even more data than the hard disk.
Better than the speed and amount of information these disks hold there is no difference in
the way information is stored on them.
Since the hard disk drive are internally mounted and can hold much more data than floppies
it has become the practice to take information stored on floppy disk such as computer programs
and store them on the hard disk.
To keep these stored programs separated on the hard drive you create what is called directories
for each of these programs so you can tell them apart.
The first thing you need to store on your hard disk is DOS.
And when you install DOS 5.0 it created its own directory on the hard drive.
Again we assume your computer already has DOS 5.0 installed on your hard disk.
If you have an earlier version of DOS and are upgrading to DOS 5.0 and haven't installed
it yet simply put your installed disk in drive A.
Type install at the A prompt, enter and follow the directions.
Enter yes to let DOS 5.0 make the changes it wants to make to your computer's configuration.
If you are familiar with DOS and are upgrading to DOS 5.0 you may want to view my tape upgrading
to DOS 5.0 where we cover what's new with the program.
DOS stands for Disk Operating System and is the program that makes your computer work.
In other words you cannot run any software programs on your computer without first loading
DOS.
So what is a Disk Operating System?
Quite simply an operating system is a translator.
You see you have your computer hardware that is the CPU, monitor and keyboard and you have
your software that is the word processors, games or other programs.
The operating system takes instructions from these programs and translates them into instructions
the hardware can understand.
Computers are very simple machines.
They need system software such as DOS to transform high level commands like copy this letter
into simpler instructions the computer can understand.
Okay Lisa let's turn the computer on.
Make sure to turn your monitor on too.
With DOS already installed on your hard disk this is all you need to do.
This starting action is also called booting up the computer.
The disk drive will activate and you will see a light blinking on the hard drive as
DOS is copied from the hard drive into the system memory or RAM in the CPU.
You will hear a beep in a few seconds some information about your DOS and computer system
will appear at the top of your screen.
You may then see a request for the date and time.
Some computers are set up with an internal system for keeping track of this automatically
so you won't see this.
You can skip entering the date and time by hitting the return enter key twice.
Let's do that.
Simply press the enter key twice.
That is the one with the bent arrow on it.
I must emphasize that entering the date is very important.
Once you've started working with programs and documents on your computer you should
now see a C colon followed by a backslash and a greater than sign followed by a short
blinking line.
Don't worry if yours looks a little different.
This is known as the command line or the DOS prompt.
If you don't see this your computer has probably been set up to start running some sort of
shell or software program.
You need to exit any of these programs and join us at the C prompt.
Most of these programs will tell you somewhere on the screen how to exit or have a file menu
where exit will be located.
So we can all be starting at the same place everyone type CD backslash and enter.
This action takes us to the root directory.
We'll discuss what we just did later.
With the C prompt displayed DOS is waiting for you to enter a command.
There are all kinds of commands you can type here to ask DOS to do different things.
We'll cover some of these commands but first let's see how to enter them.
Notice the blinking line after the prompt.
This line is called the cursor and marks the spot on the screen where information or data
will be placed when you start typing.
Lisa try typing your name.
Notice how the cursor moves over a bit to mark where each letter will show up next.
If you make a mistake here you can correct it using the backspace key which is usually
located near the top right area of your keyboard.
It has a straight arrow pointed to the left on it and sometimes has the word back on it.
Try this.
Hold down the G key for a couple of seconds.
Notice how the letter keeps repeating itself.
Now press the backspace key and notice how the characters are erased one at a time from
the cursor position to the left.
Okay hold the backspace key down until all the text is erased and we are back to the
C greater than sign.
The current drive that is shown at the DOS prompt, drive C in our case, is called the
default drive.
Default is a computer expression meaning until you tell DOS otherwise every action you perform
will go to or come from the default or C drive like a home base.
For example a default color could be a background color you wanted to have on the screen every
time you wrote a letter.
Then every time you started your word processor to write that letter the screen would change
or default to that color.
If we had an A prompt on the screen all our information would default to or from our A
drive.
Here is how you can change the default drive.
You must first insert any kind of program disk or disk you know contains some sort of
data in the A drive.
If you use a new disk you won't see any results because it doesn't contain any data yet.
You are now looking at a floppy disk drive which is located on the CPU.
The floppy disk drive has an opening for the disk to go into and a little handle called
a drive door.
On a single drive system there is no problem finding drive A because it can only be drive
A. But on a two drive system referred to as a dual drive system the second drive is drive
B. The A drive is usually the top drive but not always.
You may have to check with someone to make sure which is drive A. To insert the disk
in the drive correctly make sure you have the smooth side up the side with a label.
Make sure the end with the disk exposed in the oval hole goes in first and close the
drive door.
At the C prompt type A colon and press enter.
We now see our DOS prompt is A colon and all data will be written to or read from our new
default drive the A drive.
Okay everyone type C colon enter and we are back to our C drive.
It's possible your computer's hard drive is partitioned into more drive names.
Your system may have a D drive and possibly an E drive.
If you're not sure you can find out by typing D or E colon and pressing enter.
If not you get a message saying invalid drive specification and return to the active drive.
You can have up to 26 different drives.
And at the C prompt DOS is waiting for us to give it a command.
Usually you would be starting some kind of program like a word processor here but this
lesson is about learning what DOS does so let's take a look at some DOS commands.
One of the most used is DIR which stands for directory.
Let's see what entering DIR at the prompt will do.
Lisa type DIR.
Remember if you make a mistake you can press the backspace key one or more times to correct
it.
Then press the enter key.
The DIR command displays a list of all of the files contained in the root directory
on the C drive.
Remember we said the drive can be divided up into different directories.
The root directory will display these.
Notice all the file names followed by the word DIR in brackets.
Those are your directories.
The DIR command is used to show you the files contained in directories and or floppy disk.
Suppose you have a floppy disk hanging around and you wanted to find out what information
it contained.
Let's try it.
You should still have the program or data disk we had you get earlier in drive A.
Now type A colon and enter to tell DOS to look at that drive and type DIR and enter.
We put in a word processing program in our A drive and are now looking at the files on
that disk.
Type C colon and enter.
Use watch as we look at another directory.
If you have a large number of files on a diskette, DOS will scroll directly to the end.
Lisa, did you notice that as the files went racing by that there were many more files
than we could see in this directory?
Let's look at a variation of the directory command to fix this.
But first let's clear the screen.
We do this using the CLS command which stands for clear screen.
Go ahead and type CLS and press enter.
This clears the screen of all information and returns you to the prompt.
We'll be doing this throughout the lesson to make things easier to see, so don't be
worried if our screens don't always look alike.
Let's add the slash p option to our DIR command.
After the DIR command type slash p as you see now.
When the enter key is pressed, watch what happens.
The screen stops at each screen full.
Press the message.
Press any key to continue.
To advance the listing, simply press any key until the entire directory is seen.
Again, notice the names with the DIR beside them.
Viewers, your display will look different than ours here, but the principle is the same.
The programs you have on your computer should show here with the DIR beside them.
Typing CD backslash and the directory name will take you to that directory.
The CD stands for Change Directory.
Let's try that to look at the files in the DOS directory.
Viewers look in your root directory listing to make sure you have a DOS directory.
If you don't, your DOS may be residing in your root directory.
Also, your DOS directory may be written as DOS 5 or DOS 5.0.
If it is, you need to type our next command with the same name that shows in your directory.
Lisa type CD backslash DOS and enter.
This takes us to the DOS directory on the C drive.
Again, viewers, if you come up with an invalid directory here, your DOS is probably stored
in your root directory or under a different name like DOS 5 or DOS 5.0.
If you don't see a DOS directory, just stay where you are.
If you do see a directory, you need to type CD backslash and the directory name.
If your prompt just shows the C greater than sign instead of the C colon backslash DOS
like ours, type prompt, a space, dollar sign P, dollar sign G, and enter.
This tells DOS to display the active directory name on the command line.
Okay, everyone, type dir slash P and enter.
And you now see the files in the DOS directory.
Now let's get a better idea about what these files are.
The first column displays the name of each file.
Files are the computer's way of organizing information on a disk.
Hard and floppy disks hold files just like a filing cabinet you would see in an office
or library.
Think of each disk or directory as a drawer in a filing cabinet.
Suppose this drawer contained a word processing program.
When you open the drawer, you can see all the files that it contains, just like the
dir command does to look at the disk or directory files.
Now suppose that in this filing drawer, you had a letter to a friend.
All you would do to see it is open that file.
The same is true for the files on the disk.
If you had a letter to a friend, all you would do to see it is open that file.
This is an oversimplified explanation because each file has certain procedures that need
to be followed to open that file.
The files you see on this DOS directory are separate programs that the computer needs
to operate and to perform certain functions.
For example, the file diskcopy.com is a program which makes exact copies of files from one
diskette to another.
Other disks or directories may contain files that are lists of information like names and
addresses or they may be word processing documents like your letter to a friend.
Files are either programs or data.
DOS has certain rules about file names.
A file name can only be one to eight characters long with an optional extension.
An extension is a period followed by one to three characters.
The period does not show up in this file listing.
A file name can include the letters A through Z and digits zero through nine.
You can use most of the special character symbols like dollar signs, percent signs,
or the underscore character, but there can be no spaces between characters.
Oh, one more thing.
Each file must have its own unique file name and extension.
No two files in the same directory or on the same diskette can have the same file name
and extension.
The extensions must be different if the file names are the same and the file names must
be different if the extensions are the same.
As you can see on the screen, there are files with the extensions exe, com, and sys.
These extensions are usually abbreviations that tell what kind of file it is.
For example, exe stands for execution, com is a command file, sys is a system file.
Some word processors automatically name all documents with a doc extension, ltr is an
extension that is often used to designate a letter.
There are many other types of extensions.
Some programs add their own and others let you create them.
With the letter to your friend, you could enter under the file name and extension friend.ltr.
Generally, if a file name has an extension, you must include it when you refer to that
file.
The next part of the file list displays the file size which is measured in bytes.
This part of the file tells how many bytes the file is taking up on the disk.
The word byte is a computer term which is generally regarded to be the same as a character.
A character is any letter, number, symbol, or space between them.
If you have a floppy disk that holds 360,000 bytes of information, that means it can hold
about that many characters or enough letters to make a paperback book of approximately
240 pages.
Hard disks come in many sizes.
To give you an idea of how many bytes they can hold, a small 20-meg hard drive can hold
20 million bytes of information or as much information as 55,360k floppy disks.
The last part of the file name shows the date and time the file was created or last modified.
Remember when we first started the computer, I said it was important to enter the date.
Well here's why.
When you create or modify a file, the current date will help you distinguish it from other
files making it easier to keep track of.
At the bottom of the file listing we see how many files are in that directory and how many
bytes are free, meaning how many characters can be added to the directory.
Let's clear the screen and look at some more variations to our dir command.
One is to replace the P with a W. Type dir slash w.
This will display the directory in columns.
Watch.
You will notice that this method does not show the file size or the date and time.
If you had more than one screen full of files with slash w, the slash P option can be added
here to stop at each screen full.
Earlier versions of DOS only had the slash P and W switches for looking at directories,
but with DOS 5.0 there are many new ways to look at file names plus a new help command.
Please hit type help a space dir and press enter.
Here is our help screen showing all the different switches you can use to display files.
We can't show you all of them, but you may want to come back later and play around with
the different options.
After typing dir you need to add a slash, then the letter for the directory display you want
from this section.
If you add the A switch, then you need to add one of these letters without a slash to
display certain kinds of files.
If you add the O switch, then you must add any of these letters without a slash to see
the file sorted in the order you want.
Professor, I understand looking at files on a floppy disk using the dir command, but I'm
a little confused looking at the directories on the hard drive.
Lisa, a hard disk can hold many different programs on it.
The one program every computer must have is DOS.
Other popular programs are word processors for creating text documents.
Databases are used to keep track of names and addresses, such as you see in the phone
book.
Spreadsheets are used to keep track of finances, using numbers like a calculator to show profit
and loss.
Desktop publishing lets you draw things and design the way you might put a newsletter
together, and of course, there are games.
Each of these programs list as a directory on the hard drive, and each directory contains
its own files.
To help keep the programs separate and organized on your hard disk, different directories are
created for each.
And within these directories, you create more directories or subdirectories to put and organize
different types of data created within those programs.
In this example, the first directory on the hard disk is called the root directory.
This is what DOS looks at when you first boot the computer and get the C prompt.
Then DOS has its own directory.
The directories would be for the programs we mentioned earlier.
Then each of the programs could have subdirectories of their own.
The structure of these directories is referred to as the directory tree, because the different
branches from the root directory does resemble a tree.
Lisa typed tree, a space, and a backslash.
The backslash tells DOS to display the tree beginning at the root directory.
Now press Enter.
Here is how DOS displays our tree structure.
Viewers, yours will look different depending on how your computer is set up.
We'll see more of this when we get to the shell.
Remember we had you type CD backslash DOS?
That told DOS to look at the DOS directory.
Again, the CD stands for change directory.
To change to any of these directories from the command line, you type CD backslash and
the name of that directory.
It can get a little more complicated than that because to see the files in a subdirectory,
you have to enter what DOS calls a path.
For example, to see the files of the document subdirectory of the WordPerfect directory,
you need to type dir C colon backslash WP51 backslash document.
This tells DOS to look in the root directory to find the WordPerfect directory, then go
to the WordPerfect directory where it can find the document directory and display those
files.
Let's try that Lisa.
Type dir a space C colon backslash WP51 backslash document, Enter.
And there's our files of the document directory.
It's good to understand the principles of how this works, but fortunately selecting
directories in the shell, as you'll see in a minute, is a lot easier.
OK, before moving on, we need to create a work disk to practice with.
In order to do that, we need to learn about the DOS command format.
The reason for this command is a disk must be formatted before it can hold data.
You can buy pre-formatted diskettes, but usually you must format new disks.
The format command physically prepares the disk to hold data by creating invisible tracks
and sectors.
This is kind of like an unmarked parking lot.
Until the lines are painted on it, cars don't know where to park.
These tracks and sectors tell data where to park.
The format command also checks for defective spots on the diskette.
You need to format a diskette when it is new, however, you can format it again at any time.
This is called reformatting.
Don't be warned, reformatting erases any data already on the diskette.
DOS 5.0 can retrieve a disk's data, but we won't be covering that in this lesson.
Now be careful here.
If you are following along with the tape, be sure to follow our instructions carefully.
We don't want you to reformat and erase any disk that may be important.
A sure way to protect from erasing any disk is to attach what is called a write protect
tab.
Simply cover up the notch on the side of the disk with the tab and no information can be
written over the data already on the disk while the computer can still get information
from the disk.
To write protect a three and a half inch disk, slide the little tab so you can see through
it.
Okay, everyone should still be at the C prompt in the DOS directory.
Now remove the disk in drive A and take the new blank disk we asked you to have ready
and put it into drive A.
You can use an old disk, but remember format will erase everything on that disk.
Now type format slash S, a space, and A colon.
This tells DOS to format the disk in the A drive.
The slash S tells DOS to copy two hidden system files we need on this disk.
Everyone press enter and notice the message insert new diskette in drive A and press the
enter key when ready.
With the disk we want to format already in drive A, press the enter key.
The messages and numbers displayed on your screen will vary here depending on the type
of system you have.
This takes a while, so we'll skip to the end.
When DOS finishes formatting, the message format complete will appear and you're asked
if you want to enter a volume label to name this disk.
We don't need one, so press enter.
Now displayed is the bytes of total disk space, the bytes available on disk, and finally you
are asked if you want to format another disk.
This message also may include information about bad sectors.
We don't want to format the other blank disk we asked you to have for this lesson, so press
end for no and enter.
Now we have a formatted diskette and it is ready to hold information.
Before we go to the DOS shell, I'd like to demonstrate the copy command from the DOS
prompt to make sure you understand the principles of how DOS works.
Lisa, make sure you are at the C colon DOS prompt.
Let's copy this file, command dot com from our DOS directory to our disk in a drive.
Copy, space, C colon, command dot com, space, A colon.
The C drive is the source drive where our command dot com command is located and the
A is the destination or drive we want to copy our command dot com file to.
It is source, destination, or from to.
Obviously you don't need the C colon in this command since we are in that directory to
start with, but it is always a good idea to add it to make sure there are no mistakes.
Okay, everyone press enter.
When the file is copied, the one files copied message will appear.
To check and see that our command dot com file was copied, type dir a space A colon,
which tells DOS to look at the directory for the disk in drive A but not to leave the C
drive.
Press enter and there is our command dot com file on the disk in drive A. Notice our prompt
is still C colon backslash DOS.
Now that we have an understanding of what files are and how DOS commands work from the
command line, let's learn about the shell.
Lisa type DOS shell and let's add slash G which tells the shell to go into graphics
mode and press enter.
Notice the shell reading all the files and directories as it comes on screen.
The DOS shell is a graphical environment which means commands, directories, and file names
are visually listed for you to choose and manipulate with a keyboard or mouse instead
of having to type out and remember DOS commands and file names.
This is how the MS DOS shell looks when it is first opened.
If you previously installed DOS 5.0 and ran the shell, it may look different.
If it does, press the function key F10, then V, then F, and our screen should look somewhat
the same.
The screen is divided into several windows.
The title bar displays that this is indeed the MS DOS shell.
The area just below is the menu bar where we can choose commands and different ways
of displaying the shell.
We'll come back and explore this and the other parts of the screen better after a quick tour.
Directly below the menu bar, the active drive is displayed.
This should be a C colon backslash.
Then there are drive icons which represent all the different drives on your machine that
we discussed earlier.
Icons are little graphic pictures of things like file folders or disks to help you visually
see what you are choosing.
The highlighted icon in this display also shows which drive is currently active, C in
our case.
The next area, directory tree, displays the different directories on the C drive which
we saw from the DOS prompt earlier.
The window to the right of that displays the files of the selected directory in the tree
area.
This is like having the DIR command we typed earlier always displayed.
The bottom area shows the main program list which allows you to go to the command prompt.
You can choose the MS DOS editor to write text files and MS DOS QBasic for programming.
Last is the disk utility submenu which allows you to do some disk utilities like the format
command we did earlier.
To work in any of these areas it must first be selected to activate it.
Lisa press the tab key and the selected area changes from the first area, drive icons,
to the directory tree area.
Press shift tab and the selected area goes back to the drive icons.
Press tab twice to move to the file directory.
Again, the file area displays the files of the selected directory in the tree area.
Notice the title bar becomes highlighted to show this area is now selected.
By pressing the shift and tab keys together our selection moves back to the tree area.
Lisa move your mouse around and notice the cursor, now a pointer, moves around the screen
in a corresponding manner.
Now move it anywhere into the file area and click the left button once and notice that
the area is now the active area.
Now move your cursor to the tree area and click anywhere in that box to activate it.
Here is where all your directories are displayed.
The top shows our root directory for drive C. Under that are all the directories and
sub directories that exist on the C drive.
Professor, what exactly is the difference between a directory and a sub directory?
Actually there isn't any, it's all in the way you look at it.
This is where this window gets the name tree structure.
The C colon is the main or root directory.
Everything else in this tree structure is a sub directory of the root directory and
each of these directories can have sub directories of their own.
Click on our desktop publishing program, the oldest directory in this window.
Notice I said directory instead of sub directory.
That is because when it became the current directory it left its sub status and any directories
that are created in this directory would become a sub directory until it's activated and
becomes the directory.
Confusing?
Not really, just think of it like this.
You are the son or daughter of your parents, but as you have children you become the parent
so now you are a child and a parent at the same time.
It's all in the way you look at it.
Lisa, did you notice when you selected the ALDIS directory that the files of that directory
were displayed in the files window and the title bar now reads ALDIS.
Now select the DOS directory and notice the DOS files are now displayed in that window.
Now click anywhere in the files area and press the down arrow key until the CHKDSK file is
highlighted.
This is a DOS command to check a disk.
With the files area active and our file selected, move your cursor to file on the menu bar and
click on your left mouse button once.
Any commands chosen in this file menu will work on our selected CHKDSK file.
When an ellipsis, 3 dots appears after a command, a dialog box will drop down asking for additional
information.
Lisa, remember we copied a file from the command line earlier.
Now let's see how to copy files to our disk in drive A using the shell.
Move your cursor to copy and click on it.
A dialog box appears asking us where we want to copy the selected file to.
Type A colon and move your mouse pointer to OK and click once.
Let's see if our file did copy.
Lisa, move your pointer to the symbol for A drive and click once.
Notice the tree area changes to show we are looking at the A drive and in the files area
are both the files we have copied so far.
Lisa, select the C drive again and then select the files area.
We'll do more commands in a minute but first I want to show you the many ways in which
you select items in the shell.
Lisa, move your mouse once again to the file menu.
While holding the left mouse button down, move the mouse downward.
Notice how the highlight moves accordingly through the menu options.
When you get to copy, release the button.
The copy window appears again, this time move your pointer to cancel and click once.
Notice the bottom of the screen has the message F10 for actions and shift F9 for command prompt.
Shift F9 will take you back to the familiar DOS prompt.
If you go there, typing exit will return you to the shell.
Lisa, press F10 and notice the main menu now has highlighted or underscored letters in
it.
This is to show you what letters to press on your keyboard to select options.
Press F for file and our file menu appears.
Beside some choices are speed key commands that also select that option and again the
highlighted letters for keyboard users.
Lisa, use your down arrow to highlight copy or press C, the highlighted letter for copy
and our copy area appears again.
Press tab until the cursor moves to cancel and press enter or hit the escape key.
The same principles work for all areas in the DOS shell.
As you can see, you can use both the mouse and the keyboard together.
There are usually several ways of doing things so you have the choice of which one suits
you the best.
Professor, what are the little pluses for in the tree area?
If there is a plus in any directory, that means that it contains subdirectories.
Lisa click on a directory with a plus inside and its subdirectories appear.
To close the branch, simply click in the directory box again.
Now press the letter D and the cursor jumps to the first entry starting with the letter
D. D base in our case.
Lisa press the D key again and the DOS directory is highlighted.
Press the tab key and the files area is highlighted.
Now press the down arrow to move downward through the file names.
Press page down to see a new screen full of files.
Now type U and the cursor moves to the first file starting with the letter U.
There is one more file search tool mouse users have here.
The scroll bars on the right of some areas.
Clicking on the arrows at the top or bottom will scroll through the file list.
Or you can click anywhere in the scroll box and that portion of the files will be displayed.
Lisa press control and the forward slash keys and all the files in this directory are highlighted
or selected.
Now select the file menu again.
Normally you would want to move, copy or delete our selected group of files.
In this case we only want to show you the file menu commands to select and deselect.
So select deselect all and our files are back to normal.
Lisa let's look at some other ways to select files.
Move your cursor back into the files directory and click on a file towards the top of the
displayed list.
Then move the cursor down several files.
By holding the shift key down and clicking on the last file we select not only the first
and last files but all those in between.
These files will remain selected even if we leave this directory.
To deselect a sequence of files just select another without using the shift key.
To select a sequence of files with the keyboard use your arrow keys to select the first file.
Then while holding the shift key use your arrow keys to select the remaining files in
the group.
To select two or more files not in sequence select the first file you want then press
shift F8.
The word add will appear in the status bar.
This tells us we can continue to add to this selection with a simple hit of the space bar.
First use the up or down arrow to move to the second file you want then press the space
bar to select it.
To select groups of non-contiguous files click on the first file then press the shift key
while you click on the last file in the group.
To select the next group of files press and hold down the control key while you click
on the first file name in the next group.
Then press and hold down the control and shift keys while you click on the last file name
in the second group.
For the most part we will just tell you to select options for the rest of this lesson.
You can decide which selection method you like best.
Before we explore the menu bar let's turn the add feature off.
Just press shift F8 then select a single file to deselect our contiguous group of files.
Now Lisa select the options menu which allows you to set up the shell to suit your preferences.
By clicking on confirmation we are given a new dialog box asking if we want to confirm
each file deletion, overwrite or mouse action.
For now make sure we have an X on every option.
Click on ok and open the option menu again.
Lisa look at enable task swapper and notice we have a little diamond before this command.
This shows the command is activated.
We'll cover what the task swapper does in our level 2 tape.
For now highlight it and press enter.
This will unselect it.
So once again open the options menu and notice our diamond is gone.
This time select file display options and another dialog box will appear.
Remember our dir command.
Under sort by are some different ways of displaying files in the shell.
We'll keep the listing as it is for now so don't make any changes here.
The file defaults to ascending order.
Put an X here to change to descending order.
Enter the hidden files hidden and make sure there is no X in this box.
To look for certain types of files you type their specifications in the name text box.
For example Lisa type an asterisk better known in dot circles as a star then a period then
exe and press enter.
This action finds all the execution files in the selected directory.
Lisa open the options menu and select the file display option again.
In the name text box type star dot star and enter to return to our normal mode.
Professor, I noticed the stars in the files area before and now in this command.
What do they mean?
Lisa Doss uses the star symbol as a wild card.
Just as in a card game where a wild card can represent any card you want it to the star
can represent any file name or extension in Doss.
When we type star dot exe we were telling Doss to display any file with a period exe
extension.
Lisa highlight our WP51 directory.
Remember we talked about paths earlier.
If you look at the title bar for our files window you now see the path Doss took to display
these files.
This includes the name of the active drive the directory name which is the highlighted
directory in the tree area and the star dot star which means display all the files and
their extensions.
Doss uses the backslash to separate the different directions the path is taking.
Now Lisa click on the plus on the WP51 directory and highlight the document subdirectory.
Now look at the title bar of the files area.
Reading this backwards may help.
We are looking at all the files and extensions represented by the star dot star of the document
subdirectory located in the WP51 or word perfect directory which is located on drive C.
It is important to understand how paths work.
Fortunately when using the shell there are only a few command options where you need
to know how to enter the correct path to accomplish that option.
Options are usually already displayed for you to work with so you don't need to know
how to type them out for every little command.
Now open the view menu.
In this pull down menu we have several ways of displaying the way we can look at files
in the shell.
The program file list option is grayed out because it is already selected.
Viewers when you see an option grayed out it means the option is not available to choose
at this time because it is already selected or it is just plain not available for use
at this time.
Lisa select the all files option.
This option shows you all the files on your C drive in alphabetical order.
This can show you any duplicate copies of programs and files that may exist in different
directories.
Lisa open the view menu again and select the dual file option.
Sometimes you want dual file list so you can copy from one place to another and see the
source and destination on the same screen.
Let's see how this works.
From the top window select the drive A icon.
Now our top window shows our disk in drive A and the bottom shows our hard disk for drive
C.
Lisa make sure the DOS directory is highlighted in the bottom tree area.
Then select about five files from the files area making sure to include the CHKDSK file.
That's right select the first file by clicking on it then hold the shift key and click on
the last.
We could go to the file menu and choose copy but I'd like to show you an easier way to
do this.
Press and hold down your left mouse button anywhere in the selected files.
While holding the mouse button press and hold down your control key.
Now move your mouse pointer out of the files area toward the top tree area where the A
drive is still displayed.
Notice the pointer changes to an icon representing files.
Put the icon on top of the A and release both the control key and mouse button.
A dialog box opens asking if we are sure we want to copy these files.
Enter yes and our selected files will copy to our disk in drive A.
What's this professor?
It's asking if I want to replace my CHKDSK file.
Remember I said earlier that no two files can have the same file name.
Well DOS sees there is already a file with that name and wants to know if you want to
overwrite it or keep the original.
Since they are both the same files say yes.
And there are all the files now copied to our disk in drive A.
Sometimes you want to move files from one place to another.
For instance to move old files from a crowded directory to a floppy disk to make more room
on your hard drive.
This move option is in the files menu but the shell offers an even easier way.
Lisa select a few files in the files area for our disk in drive A. Click and hold your
left mouse button down.
This time without the control key move the mouse pointer on the A in the tree area and
drop the files there simply by releasing the mouse button.
A dialog box appears asking if you are sure you want to move these files.
We definitely don't need to do this since this would just move them back to where we
got them from so answer no.
Viewers there are a number of ways of doing things in the DOS shell.
If you are not comfortable with using the mouse and keyboard yet you may want to stop
the tape at this time and practice the various ways of moving and selecting items.
You needn't worry about doing anything wrong while exploring the menu bar and its dialog
boxes.
As long as you click the cancel button or press escape nothing will happen and you can
continue looking around.
If you have any questions about any section of the DOS shell opening the help menu can
help you find answers to your questions.
Now let's look at the disk copy command.
It is always a good idea to make a copy of all your disk containing software programs
and using them instead of the originals.
We will use the disk copy command to make these copies.
The disk copy command is a little different than the copy command because it will make
an exact copy of everything from one floppy disk to another floppy disk including the
format.
In other words if you use the disk copy command you don't have to format a new diskette before
you copy files to it.
Disk copy will not work for copying files to or from the hard disk.
Its purpose is to make exact copies of floppy disk.
Lisa in the view menu select the program file list.
Then go to the main window and select disk utilities.
Now select disk copy and the dialog box opens asking you to enter the source and the destination
drives.
The default is A to B. Simply change your B colon to A colon if your disk drives aren't
the same type and click OK.
Notice DOS drops you out of the shell.
You are now prompted to insert the source disk in drive A. We're going to copy our disk
in drive A and it's already there.
If you wanted to copy a different disk you would put that disk in drive A. Press any
key and DOS reads the data on that disk and prompts you to put the destination disk in
the appropriate drive.
Let's use the new disk we have not formatted now.
Your disk copy copies the format along with the files.
Also remember if you have any data on your destination disk it will be erased.
Everyone press enter when ready.
You may be asked to switch disk a few times copying from and to your A drive.
After a short time we see a prompt asking you if you want to copy another disk.
Press N for no and press any key to return to the shell so we can move on to deleting
files.
The delete command is another important DOS command.
This is the command to make a file or files vanish from the disk.
Perhaps you need to remove old documents you no longer need.
With the disk we just did, disk copy 2, in drive A, select any files on top of the command.com.
Now select the file menu and then the option delete.
A dialog box appears displaying the first file we want deleted and asks if we want to
delete this file.
Answer yes and it is gone.
Here's an even faster way to delete files.
Select all the files under command.com and simply press the delete key.
Click on OK and answer yes to delete all the files.
Be very careful with the delete command.
It's possible to lose files you really wanted to keep.
DOS 5.0 now has an undelete command but we won't have time to cover that in this lesson.
Here's a trick you should know about.
Sooner or later your computer will get stuck or freeze up and you won't be able to get
it to do anything.
There are many ways that this can happen.
If you get stuck and cannot get your computer going again, rather than turning it off and
starting over, you can warm boot the computer.
A warm boot recycles the machine much like turning it off and then on, but much faster.
To warm boot your computer, hit the control, alt, and delete keys at the same time.
You will lose data that wasn't saved to disk if you are in the middle of a program, but
if you are really stuck, it's about all you can do to get started again.
If by some chance the machine still won't start, you can try using the disk we now have
in drive A. What we have left on this disk are the bare bones files needed to boot your
computer, command dot com and the hidden system files.
If you have this problem, putting this disk in drive A and pressing control, alt, delete
at the same time should get your computer started so you can figure out what went wrong.
So take this disk out and label it DOS vanilla boot and keep it in a safe place.
Warning, never use an older version of DOS with DOS 5.0 to boot your computer.
You could damage the information on your hard disk if you do.
Lisa, I want to show you one way of starting a program through the shell.
Select the C drive, choose the WP51 directory in the tree area and then activate the files
area.
Every program has a startup or execution file usually marked with the program name and an
EXE or COM extension.
When you find this file, simply double click on it and the program will start.
If you have a program made to run with the Windows program, it will not start from the
DOS shell.
Okay, everyone, if you opened a program, be sure to exit it properly and return to the
shell.
It is very important to always exit any program before you turn your computer off.
This includes the shell.
Lisa, choose the file menu and select exit.
Once you have a DOS prompt on the screen, you are safe to turn your computer off.
But before we do, I should mention that everything that can be done in the shell can also be
done from the command line and there are several more commands that can only be done from the
command line.
One of these I want to show you is the help listing.
Lisa type CD backslash DOS and enter.
Now type help and press enter.
Here is a list of all the DOS commands which DOS has helped for.
Pressing enter will scroll the rest of the commands.
Now type help a space and format and enter.
DOS displays information on the format command.
Typing help and any DOS command will give you information on that command.
Again with us back at the prompt, we are safe to turn the computer off.
Well, that is all the time we have for this lesson.
Is that all there is to DOS?
No.
There is a lot more to know about DOS.
My tapes on learning DOS level 2 and 3 will take you through the steps you need to know
to help you understand and master your computer.
But you now know a lot of the basics.
Thanks professor.
You make learning easy.
Thank you for being such an excellent student and remember there is always more you can
learn from my collection of easy learning videos.
Other videotapes available are on your screen now.