In today's lesson, I'm going to walk you through a computer setup.

Basically, we're going to look at all the different pieces of hardware, all the actual

tools that you're going to be using.

All the actual equipment that you're going to be using when you're using a computer.

Now, the main purpose of this lesson is to help you if you're working in a computer store,

if you want to go buy a computer, or if you have a computer and you want to call the technical

support department.

So, for example, tech support.

If you have a problem with your computer and you need to explain to someone, especially

over the phone, what's going on, you need to know all the different words for all the

different pieces of equipment that you have in order to explain what the problem is.

So, we're going to start with the actual hardware, with the actual things.

And then we're going to look at different functions for each one of these things that

you really need to know.

We're going to look at some shortcuts, some functions and things that you can do with

them anyway.

So, let's start with the actual computer.

There are different ways to use a computer.

You can use a laptop or a notebook.

Essentially, these are the same thing.

It used to be - the difference between laptop and notebook was size, but now, anything you

can put on your lap or anything that's foldable and you can carry is basically a laptop or

a notebook.

Okay?

These are mobile, as I said.

You can carry them with you.

You can put them into your bag and take them anywhere you want.

And these days, many of them have a touch screen, meaning that you can actually touch

the monitor that is on the laptop and do things on it without using your mouse.

Okay?

Next, we're going to look at a desktop.

A desktop is something that you have in your home or office.

You don't carry it around with you, it's bigger.

It has a tower.

The tower is where the actual computer is, where all the - the motherboard is, okay?

Laptops and notebooks also have a motherboard.

The motherboard is the - it's like a sheet inside the computer that has all the microchips,

that has all your memory and all the different functions of the computer.

If you don't know anything about computers, do not touch the motherboard.

Take it to a professional to fix it for you or to make changes to it, okay?

The desktop has a tower, and inside is the motherboard and everything connects to that,

including the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse, everything.

And then you use it on your desk.

On your desk will be nothing but the monitor.

The tower is usually underneath your desk.

You can also buy an all-in-one.

An all-in-one computer is just the monitor, and the computer is built into the monitor.

So, there's really nothing else except for the monitor and then you connect everything

to that, okay?

Speaking of the monitor, the monitor basically is like the TV.

This is where you see everything that you're going to be doing on your computer.

It is usually measured in inches, so let me just make this a little bit clearer so you

don't get confused.

Just so you know, one inch is 2.54 centimeters.

If you're in North America and you're going to buy a monitor, they will ask you how many

inches, like what size of monitor do you want?

In other places, it might be by centimeters, so make sure you understand the differences

for the monitor that you want.

These days, you can get curved monitors.

So, you have, like, regular flat monitors, or you can get curved monitors that give you

a little bit of a different perspective, a little bit different graphics, okay?

You can use a monitor just like you would a TV.

In fact, you can use a TV as a monitor for your computer as well.

Everything is connected these days.

Next, you have your keyboard.

This is where you're typing and you're doing a lot of your functions for computing, okay?

The traditional keyboard is a QWERTY, meaning that all the letters start at the top row

with Q,W,E,R,T and go on like that.

That's a QWERTY keyboard, that's the standard keyboard in English, okay?

The keyboard has keys.

Everything that you press on the keyboard is called the key, that's why it's a board

with keys, keyboard.

You can get a Chiclet keyboard or a regular keyboard.

Chiclets are very thin keys.

So, most laptops use chiclet keyboards, but you can buy external keyboards that are thicker

or different shapes, sizes, etc.

Most keyboards have a number pad.

So, you have the numbers at the top row, but you can also have them on the side, so it's

a little bit faster to type numbers.

And laptops also have a touchpad, which is usually like a square area on the keyboard

that you can use as a mouse, if you don't want to use a mouse.

Okay, so speaking of mouse, let's talk about the mouse.

A mouse is like a little device on the side of the computer that you use to move around

and move the cursor around, and I'll talk about the cursor a bit after.

The mouse lets you do a lot of the functions without having to type anything.

So, you can move pages up and down.

You can open different windows.

You can press on different programs to open them.

They - the mice or the mouse has a right click, a left click, and a scroll button.

So, click so the things you do with your fingers, and in the middle is a button to scroll to

move pages up and down, okay?

Next, if you want to connect to the internet, you're going to need a modem.

A modem is basically the phone line or the cable line that connects the computer to the

internet.

And if you don't want to connect your computer to the internet with a cable, then you need

Wi-Fi, okay?

And just make sure we understand - I know in some countries they pronounce it a little

bit differently.

In English, we say "wi-fi", okay?

And this is our router, "rou-ter", okay?

Not "root-er", "rou-ter" if you need to explain to someone.

So, the router basically sends out the internet signal throughout the space it's basically

programmed for.

And you have Wi-Fi and you can connect all kinds of devices to this, okay?

So, you have all kinds of devices.

You can have a phone, you can have games, you can have all kinds of different things

connected by Wi-Fi.

Then you have all your accessories.

So, what we've looked at so far, these are the essential pieces of the computer setup,

if you want to do computing, if you want to get on the internet.

Now, all these extra things are extra.

You don't have to have them, but they do make life a bit easier.

So, they are called accessories.

They're not necessary, they're extra.

If you want to listen to things, you can use speakers.

You can also plug headphones into the jack.

Every computer will come with a jack, that's like a little hole in the computer where you

put the little metal tipped wire inside.

You plug it into the jack and you can get speakers or you can use your headphones.

If you need to print things out, if you have files and you need to print them, you would

use a printer.

If you have documents that you want to send someone else, then you would use a scanner.

A scanner basically takes a picture of the document, creates a file in your computer

and then you can send that file to somebody else.

Now, if you have to keep a lot of things on - a lot of files or videos or music and you

don't have enough memory space on your computer, you can use an external hard disk drive, okay?

So basically, this is a little box like this, sometimes it's a little bit bigger.

And it has a lot of memory space, and you can put all your files, all your movies, all

your music on there and keep it separate from the computer.

A lot of computers, they come with a lot of memory these days, but files are getting bigger

and bigger and people generally need to use external hard disks as well.

Now, if you need to carry files with you from one place to another, but you don't want to

carry your external hard disk with all your files, you can just use a thumb drive.

Some people call it a thumb drive, some people call it a memory stick.

It's basically a small USB component, and we'll talk about USB as well.

USB is the plug, so the headphone plugs into a jack.

The memory stick or the thumb drive plugs into a USB slot.

There are slots, especially in the laptop, they will be on the side.

In the tower of the desktop, you will see USB slots.

You put your thumb drive in there.

Okay.

So now, we have all our equipment set up.

Now, let's see what you can do with some of these tools specifically.

Okay, so now, we're going to look at some of the functions that you can do with your

hardware, with your equipment.

But just before we get started, this is a very basic list.

If you really really want to know how to do a lot of different things with your computer,

with your keyboard, with your mouse, etc., make sure you do some more research.

This is just to get you started with the basics, okay?

So, let's start with shortcuts.

These are for the keyboard.

You can do a lot of things with the keyboard instead of always using your mouse and clicking

and clicking.

Sometimes, it's a little bit faster just to use the keyboard.

So, we have a control key.

This should be on your - probably on your bottom left of your keyboard.

There might be another one more in the middle.

You can use control + the x key to cut something that you can move somewhere else.

Ctrl + C = copy.

So, cut and copy are a little bit different.

Cut, you're removing it from one place, putting it somewhere else.

Copy, you're just leaving it there but putting it somewhere else as well.

Ctrl + V = to paste.

So, after you cut or copy, you go to the new location.