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picture that you want to cut or copy with the mouse and with the keyboard, press down the "Control" or "CTRL" key and hold it down, then with the same hand using a different finger, press the C to copy, or the X to cut, or the V to paste. Practice this a few times, and you will find that it makes copying and pasting much quicker.

The keyboard shortcut for cut, is "CTRL" + "X" For Copy, it is "CTRL + C" and for paste it is "CTRL and V"

Once you have mastered this, you might want to learn about other keyboard shortcuts, as they can make your life so much easier and work more quickly. Almost all applications that are capable of editing will use the above shortcuts, but other shortcuts might be different per application. It is always good to look in the help files for keyboard shortcuts for your favourite applications.

Another important thing to know about computers is how to keep your system optimised. This will help keep it running quickly and efficiently. The main 3 things to know are clean out cache, defrag, and fix problems. You should do all these 3 things at least once per week. You might want to clean out your temp files once a day, and indeed this is possible.

If you are beginner in computers then you will not feel confident about deleting temp files. It is possible to do this manually, but it can be time consuming and so I would recommend the following.

A simple way to do this is to download a dedicated freeware application that will do it for you. There are several available by using Google, but one such program is CCleaner. This will help you to clean out your temp files and keep your system operating efficiently. It also has a facility to fix registry problems. If you prefer a different program, then just search for "Freeware Cache Cleaner" or similar on Google or your favourite search engine.

To defrag, or defragment, to use it's full name, in Windows click the Start Button, choose All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

These are the basics of computing that you need to know. There is so much more to learn, but hopefully knowing these will help you to keep your computer running smoothly and make the most of the basic applications in the Office Suite and other programmes. I hope it has been a good introduction.

Learn more about this author, Alice Jones.
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