Laptops for Dummies Quick Reference (ISBN - 0471798339)

242 Pages·2021·8.99 MB·English

by Corey Sandler

Laptops

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E

01_798339 ffirs.qxd 3/10/06 8:14 PM Page i

02_798339 ftoc.qxd 3/10/06 8:12 PM Page vi

by Corey Sandler

Laptops

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E

01_798339 ffirs.qxd 3/10/06 8:14 PM Page i

Laptops For Dummies® Quick Reference

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise,
except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without
either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appro-
priate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923,
[phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to
the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317)
572-3447, fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for
the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related
trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in
the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. © Copyright
2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P., images of laptops credited to HP are reproduced
with permission. The Hewlett-Packard Company, the Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.,
and their affiliates make no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the foregoing material and
hereby disclaim all responsibility therefor. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS
OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING
WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY
MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND
STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS
SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING
LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS
REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT.
NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HERE-
FROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A
CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT
THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR
WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD
BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAP-
PEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print
may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920625

ISBN-13: 978-0-471-79833-0

ISBN-10: 0-471-79833-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1O/QV/QU/QW/IN

01_798339 ffirs.qxd 3/10/06 8:14 PM Page ii

About the Author

Corey Sandler has written more than 150 books on personal
computers, business topics, travel, and sports. A former Gannett
Newspapers reporter and columnist, he also worked as an
Associated Press correspondent covering business and political
beats. One of the pioneers of personal computer journalism, he
was an early writer for publications, including Creative Computing.
He became the first Executive Editor of PC Magazine in 1982 at the
start of that magazine’s meteoric rise. He also was the founding
editor of IDG’s Digital News.

His bestselling books include Fix Your Own PC, Upgrading & Fixing
Laptops For Dummies, the Econoguide Travel Book series, and
Watching Baseball (coauthored with Boston Red Sox star and
broadcaster Jerry Remy).

Sandler has appeared on the NBC’s Today Show, CNN, ABC,
National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, and dozens of local radio and
television shows, and has been the subject of many newspaper and
magazine articles.

He lives with his family on Nantucket island, off the coast of
Massachusetts, at the very end of the information superhighway.
From his office window, when the fog clears, he can see the
microwave tower that carries signals from his keyboard to the
mainland 30 miles away.

He has lugged his laptop across the United States and around the
world. Recent trips have seen him searching for and sometimes
finding WiFi web connections and cell phone signals in Machu
Picchu at 14,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes, in New Zealand and
Australia, the Canadian Arctic, and in Svalbard, the northernmost
inhabited territory of Europe, with the Arctic Circle at the edge of
the North Pole ice pack.

He can be reached through his web site: www.econoguide.com.

01_798339 ffirs.qxd 3/10/06 8:14 PM Page iii

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration
form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media
Development

Project Editor: Tonya Maddox Cupp
Acquisitions Editor: Greg Croy
Technical Editor: Lee Musick
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss
Media Development Manager:

Laura VanWinkle

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez
Layout and Graphics: Lauren Goddard,

Stephanie D. Jumper, Lynsey Osborn,
Melanee Prendergast, Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Techbooks
Indexer: Techbooks

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

01_798339 ffirs.qxd 3/10/06 8:14 PM Page iv

Contents at a Glance

The Big Picture: The Laptop Computer ............................BP-1

Part I: Built-in Stuff ..................................................................1

Part II: Connecting Stuff Together: Ports ..............................19

Part III: The Essentials of Windows ......................................31

Part IV: Managing Storage ......................................................53

Part V: Folders, Subfolders, and Directories ........................65

Part VI: Working with Files ....................................................77

Part VII: Networking ..............................................................95

Part VIII: Using the Internet ................................................109

Part IX: Tips and Tricks for the Road ..................................117

Part X: Keyboard Shortcuts for Laptop Users ....................135

Part XI: Microsoft Excel Shortcuts ......................................143

Part XII: Microsoft Word Shortcuts ......................................151

Part XIII: Microsoft PowerPoint Shortcuts ..........................159

Part XIV: Packing an Emergency Kit ..................................173

Glossary: Tech Talk................................................................189

Index ......................................................................................197

02_798339 ftoc.qxd 3/10/06 8:12 PM Page v

02_798339 ftoc.qxd 3/10/06 8:12 PM Page vi

Table of Contents

The Big Picture: The Laptop Computer ....BP-1

What You See: Basic Hardware ..............................................BP-2
What You See: Input and Output ............................................BP-5
What You See: Legacy I/O Options ........................................BP-6
What You See: Basic Software ................................................BP-8
Types and Models of Laptops ................................................BP-9

Basic laptop ........................................................................BP-10
Fully equipped road warrior ............................................BP-10
Lightweight Champ ..........................................................BP-11

The Basics: Inside the Box ....................................................BP-12

Motherboard ......................................................................BP-12
CPU ......................................................................................BP-12
Memory (also known as RAM) ........................................BP-13
Chipset ................................................................................BP-13
Input/output ......................................................................BP-13

The Basics: Adding Hardware ..............................................BP-13

Plug-ins ................................................................................BP-14
Attachments ......................................................................BP-15

Operational Essentials: Windows ........................................BP-16
Operational Essentials: The Internet ..................................BP-17

The World Wide Web ........................................................BP-18
Electronic mail ..................................................................BP-18
Instant messaging ..............................................................BP-19
Voice over Internet Protocol ............................................BP-19

Operational Essentials: Files, Extensions, and Folders ......BP-19

Part I: Built-in Stuff ..................................1

Checking Out the Screen ..............................................................2

Settings ......................................................................................3
Color quality ..............................................................................3
Screen brightness ......................................................................4
Screen angle ..............................................................................4

Going with an External Monitor ..................................................4

Configuring a second screen ..................................................5
Setting screen positions ..........................................................5
Choosing the primary monitor ................................................6
Extending a desktop across both monitors ..........................6

Grabbing the Keyboard ................................................................6
Letting Your Light Shine and Button Press ................................8

Turn on, turn off ........................................................................8
Multimedia controls ..................................................................9
Indicator lights ..........................................................................9

02_798339 ftoc.qxd 3/10/06 8:12 PM Page vii

Lighting up with Batteries ..........................................................10

Hibernation and standby modes ..........................................10
The ultimate battery recharge ..............................................12

Listening to the Sounds and Furies ............................................13
Pointing and Clicking ..................................................................13
Putting It in Storage ......................................................................15

Hard disks ................................................................................15
Optical drives: CD and DVD ..................................................17
Flash memory ..........................................................................17
PC Card or Cardbus ................................................................18
Floppy disk drives ..................................................................18

Part II: Connecting Stuff Together: Ports ....19

Communicating at High Speed ..................................................20

USB Ports ..................................................................................20
iLink/FireWire/IEEE 1394 ........................................................22
Infrared ....................................................................................22
WiFi ............................................................................................23
Bluetooth ..................................................................................24

Enjoying Audio and Video ..........................................................24

RGB monitor connector ........................................................25
S-video ......................................................................................25
Microphone jack ......................................................................26
Line-in jack ..............................................................................27
Headphone jack ......................................................................27
Line-out jack ............................................................................27

Networking for Fun and Profit ....................................................28

Ethernet ....................................................................................28
Telephone modem ..................................................................28

Pairing Up with Legacy Ports ......................................................29

Parallel/serial ports ................................................................29
Keyboard/mouse ports ..........................................................30

Part III: The Essentials of Windows ............31

Accessing the Desktop ................................................................32
Biting into the All Programs Menu ............................................33

The Startup submenu ............................................................35
Creating a desktop shortcut to a program ..........................35
Organizing the All Programs menu ......................................35

The Control Panel ........................................................................36
My Computer ................................................................................37
My Documents ..............................................................................38
My Network Places ......................................................................40

Displaying My Network Places ..............................................40
Removing My Network Places from the Desktop ..............41

The Recycle Bin ............................................................................41

viii
Laptops For Dummies Quick Reference

02_798339 ftoc.qxd 3/10/06 8:12 PM Page viii