From the "Pen of a Ready Writer"
MAJones
Mary Jones
I just got back to Point ‘N Click’s Online Lab and I realized that so many people are running in a hurry. They run to catch a plane, they run for the bus, and some even run across the street. Let me ask you: What does it feel like to run to your car in the morning with your briefcase, coffee, and the last of your toast that you don’t want to fall? Are you tired before the day starts? Many are in such a hurry. Sometimes we do things too fast. Then it becomes a habit for us to rush. You may not need to rush to complete that assignment, but your mind is in fast forward and the multi-tasking area has its hand on the gears to shift faster when your thoughts shift.
I bring this up while I am gathering some things together for the online lab. It reminds me that things are forgotten when you rush and things get out of sorts because your mind is in high gear from running. I didn’t say I was running. Nor am I rushing. It just came to my mind that is in high gear, even now.
Let me slow down and bring this to its lowest common denominator – “Point ‘N Click” and it is done. I tell my students that reading is fundamental. Take your time and stop running in fast forward mode in your mind, especially when you are working on an important document. A lot of system problems and document errors can be avoided if you take the time to read. Microsoft and other software applications are designed with Graphical User Interface (GUI). GUI is actually pronounced like this - gooie. This is an interface that has pictures as well as words on the screen. Originally it was invented by Xerox. Now adopted by other companies, such as Apple Computers, it displays drop-down menus, icons, windows, popup windows and the like. This makes your learning experience easier and more user friendly. That was a side bar or a slide in to my next comment. Software applications, especially Microsoft, will always prompt you when you need to do something different or in addition to the command that you just gave the computer. If you don’t understand what it is saying read it again or don’t do anything.
Example: This is good so pay attention. If you are working on a document and you are using a flash drive to originally save your data on and to transfer the data to another computer to print. When you insert the flash drive and open the document on the other computer, that document is now on your screen for printing. You print the document, take your flash drive out and walk away. You come back with the flash drive and insert it into the computer. You make changes to the document that is still on the screen. Now! (This is weird, it does happen, and you don’t know when.) Now! You go to save the document not choosing a drive or maybe you do, but it comes back to tell you that the document cannot be found. Now the document already has a file name because you saved it before. The reason why it tells you that the document cannot be found is because it automatically puts in the file name box, in the save window, a name as a temporary file name (~W00013). So the message window pops up and it asks if you want to give it another file name. You click no and then click okay because you think the file is saved. You did not read the message that came up on the screen. You also did not read the file name that it was trying to give your document from the beginning. Check this out! When you go to look for that file it is deleted. The original file on the flash drive is also deleted. I told you this was weird, but typists beware. It is not retrieval. So I say again take your time and slow down in your mind. Reading is fundamental.
