Lesson 2: Capturing Information
Course Sessions
- Organizing Favorites/History
- Capturing Information
- Customizing
- Understanding Security
- Saving Time
This section will help you understand common terms and tools of the internet: Cut, Copy & Paste, Copy URLs, Copy Hyperlinks, Select All, Saving Graphics, Downloading Files, Downloading Web Pages.
The true value of the information on the Internet is putting it to work for you. What good is all that data unless you can capture and save it? When you find something is especially valuable and you want to be able to use it in the future, how will you ever be able to find it again? Unless you have a photographic memory, you will want to learn various ways that you can save Internet information.
Cut, Copy & Paste
The first step in capturing Internet information is learning to Copy and Paste. You can copy an entire Web page or any part of it: text, graphics, or links by using Copy and Paste. To copy information from a Web page into a document, you must first select the information you want to copy by holding your left mouse button down while running your cursor across the selected information to highlight it. Then go to the Edit menu and click Copy. Start your word processor and open a new document or open the document where you want to insert the information. Position the cursor at the location where you would like the Web information to appear. Click on the word Edit in the menu at the top of the screen, then choose Paste. The information that you copied will soon appear. Don't forget to save your document so that this insertion is made a permanent part of your word processing document.
In programs like word processors or spreadsheets, you can also use the Cut choice from the Edit menu or the Cut icon (scissors) on the Toolbar to place information in the Clipboard. The Copy command copies the highlighted information leaving it intact. The Cut command will remove the highlighted information. When using Internet Explorer, the Cut icon and the Cut choice in the Edit menu will be grayed out because you are allowed to copy Web information but cannot delete it.
Note: Newer Microsoft Office products, like Microsoft Word 2002, enable you to keep more than one item in the Clipboard at one time.
Copy, Cut & Paste Icons
Instead of clicking on Edit then Copy or Edit then Paste, you can also use the Copy and Paste icons on the Toolbar.
Edit menu
An even better shortcut is to use the keyboard to save you time when you use Copy and Paste. Once the information is highlighted, just press the Ctrl key and the C key at the same time to perform the Cut operation. The shortcut for paste is Ctrl + V, so when you are ready to paste the information into your new document, just press Ctrl and V at the same time and the information that you copied will appear at the position of the cursor.
Copy URLs
Address Bar Showing URL to Copy
Even the best of keyboarding fingers makes an occasional mistake. Let me share one of the smartest and most valuable tricks involving Copy and Paste. Nobody wants to type a long Internet address (URL) and risk making a mistake. Here's a great shortcut. Just click on the URL you want to copy. Once it is highlighted, click on your Copy icon on the Toolbar or the Copy selection from the Edit menu.
Once again, go to your word processor and open a document. You can easily paste this URL right in the new location by clicking the Paste icon on the Toolbar or clicking Paste in the Edit menu. If you want to share this Web address with a friend, you can also paste the URL into an e-mail message.
Guess what? You can also use this method to copy any URL from a document, Web page, or e-mail. Then you can paste it into the Address Bar in your Internet browser. Once you have clicked on Go, you are on your way having been spared all the tedious typing that accompanies entering an exact URL.
Copy Hyperlinks
Copying a URL is easy, but what if you want to copy a hyperlink? You may think that you cannot copy a hyperlink because when you click on a hyperlink, you are transported to another place. Yet, the Windows operating system provides an easy way to copy a hyperlink. Simply place your cursor over the hyperlink and click the right mouse button. A small menu will appear. Choose Copy Shortcut from the menu. The hyperlink will now be in the computer Clipboard waiting for you to paste it wherever you like.
Select All
Have you found an entire Web page that will be valuable to you in the future? Want to save it? While you are viewing the Web page that you want to save, go to the Edit menu and choose Select All.
Select All is a very helpful feature that can save you much time and energy. When using Select All, the computer will do the highlighting for you. It will highlight the entire page. This saves you from having to run your cursor over the complete page to highlight it. You can then follow the usual steps to Copy, open a word processing document, and then Paste the entire selection in your document. Guess what? Select All will copy the complete page — text, graphics, and hot links as well.
Saving Graphics
Suppose the only thing you want from a Web page is a picture or graphic image. You may want to send the picture to a friend or use it to spice up some correspondence. It is possible to capture just the picture or graphic and not the entire Web page.
A couple of tips: be sure you name the graphic and be careful to place it in a folder that you can easily locate in the future. If you have a My Pictures folder, that is a good spot for accumulating graphics.
Downloading Files
Another way to capture Internet information is to download a complete file. Downloading is copying a file, document, program, or other data from the Internet or another computer to your computer. Once you have been on the Internet for even a short period, you will realize that the Web contains a lot of information that you might want to download. This is especially true of software programs. There are many useful free or inexpensive programs found on the Web.
Although the process of downloading files may seem intimidating to the neophyte, it is fairly easy. First, you hook up to the Internet and start your browser. Then locate the file that you want to download. Once you have found the correct file, you either click on the file name or click on a button labeled "Download" or "Download now."
Download
You may be asked to choose a download site. Choosing a site in the geographic vicinity of your current location is usually the best choice. Be sure that the file you are downloading is the appropriate one for your operating system. (For example, If you are using Windows 98 and have a choice of files, be sure to choose the file choice for Windows 98.)
Your Internet browser will automatically start the download process by presenting you with an informational window that asks what you want to do with the file. The choices will be: Run this program from its current location or Save this program to disk. The best choice here is Save the file to disk.
Save the File to Disk
This action will open another window where you can choose the Save As location. A default folder and a default name for the file will be shown on the screen. You can either accept these "so-called" defaults or you can change them. When you click on the Save button on this window, the file will be saved on your hard drive in the stipulated location.
Before you click Save to save the file to your disk, you should be aware of two important things. First, you will have to remember where the file is located and what it is called. It's perfectly okay to just accept the defaults and let the program choose where to put the file and what to name it. However, make a habit of writing down the name and location of the file so that you can find it later.
Second, if you do rename the file, do not rename the extension. The three letters that follow the period in a file name are the extension. The computer uses these three letters to determine the type of file that it is working with. Feel free to rename the file (the name in front of the period). However, you must keep the extension the same as the name suggested by the computer or you will confuse the computer when it comes time to install the file.
Downloading Web Pages
You may want to download a Web page instead of a file. It's easy. When you are at that Web page, click on File. Then choose the Save As option. Name the place where you would like to save the file. You may use the down arrow. Next to the Save in box, choose where to put the file. If you are unsure what to choose, the My Documents folder that appears in the Save in box by default is a good place to save the file.
When saving Web pages in this way, the hyperlinks (links that take you to related Web sites) on that page may become inactive, and, in many cases, the images or graphics will not be saved. However, this can be a quick and easy way to save important text from a Web page.
