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New to computers: where to begin
Job applications, benefit forms, a clinic’s patient page, a child’s school: more and more of it happens on a screen, and nearly all of it takes for granted a hand that knows a mouse and a head that knows what a tab is. Plenty of people were never shown: people who have been away for years, people who never had a computer at home, people for whom someone else always did this part. This page puts our four practice pages in an order, one step after another, with a page on scams at the end. Begin at the first step that is new to you, and go at your own speed. Nothing here has a countdown.
The path: five steps, in order
Each step is a page of its own. Skip any step your hands already know. Steps 1 and 2 need a mouse or a trackpad and a keyboard, so they are for a desktop or laptop computer; a public library is one place that often has them, and more on that is below.
The mouse or the trackpad
Mouse and trackpad practice · 8 short lessons · scarletbeast.com/mouse-practice/
Moving the pointer, clicking, clicking smaller things, double-clicking, right-clicking, dragging, going down a long list, and the parts of a form: a box to check, a round button, a list that drops down, a box to type in, a button. Each lesson asks for one thing at a time, in words, and waits.
Go on to step 2 when the pointer goes where you mean it to, and a click lands on a small button most of the time.
The keyboard
Typing practice · 19 short lessons · scarletbeast.com/typing-practice/
The lessons start with two keys, F and J, and add two more each time; then come capitals, numbers, whole words and sentences. The page shows a picture of the keyboard with the next key lit, and says which finger goes there. A key that is not the one asked for is counted, and the page waits.
Go on to step 3 when you can find the letters, make a capital and find the number keys, at any speed. There is no need to finish all 19 lessons first: the rest can go alongside the later steps, one lesson at a sitting.
Web pages and the browser
Web page practice · 9 short lessons · scarletbeast.com/web-page-practice/
A pretend browser with a pretend library site inside it. The lessons: links; Back, Forward and Reload; the address bar; tabs; the bottom of a page; the Menu button; the search box; boxes that cover the page; and all of it together. Only the step at hand answers, so the pretend browser stays as it was whatever else is clicked.
Go on to step 4 when you can get back to the page you were on, and close a box that has covered the page.
Accounts, passwords and signing in
Sign-in practice · 8 short lessons · scarletbeast.com/sign-in-practice/
A pretend library site with a pretend account. The lessons: signing in; the dots in a password box and the “Show” button; a password that does not match; making an account; a code sent to a phone; a forgotten password; “Keep me signed in” and signing out; and all of it together. Every name, password and code is made up by the page. Please do not type a real one there.
Go on to step 5 when lesson 8, all of it together, holds no surprises.
Messages, calls and pages that feel off
Is this a scam? · a page to read, not a lesson · scarletbeast.com/scam-check/
A new email address and new accounts bring messages from strangers, and some of those are written to frighten or to hurry. This page has a red-flag checklist, what to do in the next five minutes, a step-by-step list if you already paid or gave your information, where to report, and a card for the fridge.
Read it once now, and come back to it the day a message, a call or a page feels off.
This section prints on its own, as a short list with a square to tick beside each step: use your browser’s Print. The page itself does not keep track of which steps you have done.
Words you will meet
The practice pages use these words, and so do the people who help at a library or a job center. They are in the order the path meets them.
- Screen
- The part you look at. On a laptop it is the lid; on a desktop computer it stands on its own.
- Pointer
- The small arrow on the screen that moves when the mouse moves. Over a link it often turns into a hand, and over a box to type in, into a thin upright line.
- Mouse
- The hand-sized thing that slides on the desk. Most have two buttons, a left and a right, and many have a wheel between them.
- Trackpad
- The flat rectangle below the keys of a laptop. A finger sliding on it moves the pointer. It is also called a touchpad.
- Click
- Press the left button once and let go, with the mouse held still. When a page says “click”, it means the left button.
- Double-click
- Two clicks, one right after the other, with the pointer held still. It is used to open some things on a computer. A link on a web page needs one click.
- Right-click
- One press of the right button. It usually opens a small list of things that can be done there. Clicking somewhere else usually closes the list.
- Drag
- Press the left button, keep it down, move the pointer, and let go.
- Scroll
- Moving a page up or down to see the rest of it: with the wheel of the mouse, with two fingers on many trackpads, or with the bar at the right edge of the page.
- Cursor
- The thin blinking line in a box you are typing in. It shows where the next letter will go.
- Shift
- A key at each end of the bottom row of letters. Held down while a letter is pressed, it makes a capital.
- Enter
- The large key at the right of the letters. It ends a line, and in many forms it does the same as clicking the button. On some keyboards it is marked Return.
- Backspace
- The key that takes away the letter to the left of the cursor. On Apple keyboards it is marked “delete”.
- Browser
- The program that shows web pages. Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox are browsers.
- Web page, website
- A web page is one page shown in the browser. A website, or site, is a set of pages under one name.
- Link
- Words or a picture that open another page when clicked. Links are often underlined or in another color.
- Address
- The line at the top of the browser that says which page is showing. The name of the site is its first part. It is also called a URL.
- Tab
- A browser can hold several pages open at once. Each has a small label at the top, called a tab, and the × on a tab closes that page. (Tab is also the name of a key.)
- Menu
- A list of choices that opens when its button is clicked. On a small screen the button is often three short lines.
- Search box
- A box to type words into, to look for them on a site. A small magnifying glass often marks it.
- Form
- A page with boxes to fill in and a button at the end that sends what was filled in.
- Account
- A site’s way of knowing it is you again: usually an email address or a user name, and a password that goes with it. Each site has its own.
- Password
- The secret half of an account. It has to be typed letter for letter, and a capital and a small letter count as different.
- Sign in, sign out
- Signing in (some sites say “log in”) is typing the two halves of an account to open it. Signing out closes it again.
Good to know
On a computer other people use
- Many public libraries have computers that anyone may use at no charge, and staff who can show how to get started. Many give each person a set length of time. The desk is the place to ask how it works there.
- The screen can be seen by people nearby. For anything private, a seat with a wall behind it helps.
- “Keep me signed in” or “Remember me”: leave it without a check mark.
- If the browser offers to save a password, the answer on a shared computer is no.
- Sign out of every site before you get up. Closing the tab may not sign you out.
- A file you saved or a page you printed can stay behind. Take the paper with you, and ask the staff how saved files are cleared.
If you are sitting beside someone who is learning
- Their hand on the mouse, not yours. A hand learns by doing it.
- Say what to look for (“the button marked Next, near the bottom”) and let them find it, rather than reaching across.
- One thing at a time, and then wait. The practice pages wait too.
- Use one word for one thing. The list of words above is the one these pages use.
- A click that lands somewhere else is part of learning. On the practice pages it changes nothing.
- Stop when either of you is tired. The lessons are short, and stopping loses nothing, because nothing is kept.
- On real sites, their passwords stay theirs. Let them type their own, and look away while they do.
What this page does not do
- It is not a class and has no teacher. It is a list of four practice pages and one page to read, in an order.
- It does not teach a phone or a tablet. Steps 1 and 2 need a mouse or trackpad and a keyboard. Steps 3 and 4 were built so they can also be worked by tapping, and a program that taps has gone through them, but they have not been tried on a real phone by us.
- It does not teach downloads, printing, video calls, or writing a document. Those are not here yet. Email has a page of its own, Email practice, which is not a step of this path yet.
- It does not keep which steps you have done, gives no certificate, and makes no promise about how long any of this takes. People differ.
- It has not been tried by people new to computers or by teachers, or with a screen reader.
After the path
- Email practice: opening, replying, writing and attaching a file, in a pretend mailbox.
- Resume builder: one plain page, made on your device.
- Cover letter: a short letter to go with it.
- Job search log: every application on one list.
- Interview practice: the questions, out loud, before the day.
- Start here: up to three questions, and the pages on this site for what is going on.
- All the free tools, and how to save them on your phone.
This page and the practice pages it lists were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). There is no AI inside any of them. What this page says about computers is general knowledge, written plainly; computers, keyboards and browsers differ, and yours may not match every line. It has been checked by a program, not yet by people new to computers or by teachers, and the Spanish has not been read by a native speaker. It keeps nothing, so it has no line on My data on this device. Also in Spanish: Empezar con la computadora. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].