I believe that before you use a tool you need to learn how to use the tool. Let’s say a carpenter picked up a new power saw and started using it before he knew how to use this great invention. He could be seriously injured if he didn’t know that the blade can sometimes bind during the cut and “kick” backwards. The same holds true for that PC sitting on your desk. I’m not suggesting that you will be injured if you don’t learn to use your PC correctly, but you can lose data, productivity, time and most of all patience. 

 

I have been in this industry for many years and it never ceases to amaze me that somebody will purchase a PC (or some other high-tech device), spend a lot of money for it and never learn how it works. Yes, you may be able to surf the web and send an email or two, but when you go outside of that you call tech support.

 

A PC, like the proverbial power saw, takes an investment of time to learn how to use properly. How do I create a folder? What’s a Giga Byte anyway? Why do I need to store my data in the “My Documents” folder? All these questions and many more can be answered with just a little time spent with a book or tutorial.

 

I have found a place on-line that has great tutorials on computers and it’s found at: http://vlaurie.com/index.html. All tutorials are free for home users and I think they are well done. The author, Vic Laurie, a retired chemistry professor who is a volunteer instructor of computer classes at the SeniorNet Learning Center in Ewing, NJ. He has many topics from basic computers to how to keep your PC virus free. They are small, single topic lessons that have lots of pictures (a picture is worth a thousand words). I highly recommend them.

 

I know, a lot of you will say, “but I don’t have the time,” and that’s a copout that most of us use. Look, donate one hour a week to make yourself a bit more computer savvy; it will be time well spent! Give the tutorials a try. Learn the tool!