User manual VTECH PRECOMPUTER POWERPAD COURSE

[. . . ] 3 PRINTER CONNECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 MOUSE CONNECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 GENERAL OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHAPTER 3 THE KEYBOARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 SPECIAL KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ACTIVITY SELECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 CHAPTER 4 ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . 11 HOW TO PLAY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 CHAPTER 5 WORD PROCESSOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 FILE OPTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 EDIT OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 FORMAT OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] It was designed for students who had no previous experience in programming computers. BASIC is a basic language; however there are differences in the language based on the computer that uses it in much the same way that English is different depending on which country it is spoken in (Great Britain or the United States) or which part of the country the language is spoken in (East Coast, Midwest, South or the West Coast). The differences in the language will depend on the computer that is being used and on the computer that produced the language for the computer manufacturer. Microsoft BASIC is found on Apple II+, IBM PC and PC jr. , Laser Computers, Commodore VIC20 and Commodore 64 and others. Other computers such as the Timex Sinclair ZX80 and the Texas Instruments 99/4 use versions of BASIC similar to MS-BASIC. WHAT IS A PROGRAM? A computer program is a series of instructions that tells a computer what tasks you want it to perform. BASIC is one of the languages that both a human and a computer understand and so BASIC can be used to write a program that a computer can carry out for you. WHY SHOULD I LEARN TO USE A COMPUTER? Computers can to be done, by done to do the do this requires to get started. For a particular job a person or a machine, we must specify the steps which must be job. This chapter will help you WHAT IS THIS CHAPTER FOR? This chapter is a step-by-step guide for understanding programs and learning to use the computer language called BASIC. WHO IS THIS CHAPTER FOR? This guide is written for students and adults who have little or no computer experience. With a little time and effort you will discover that there is nothing difficult about learning to talk to a computer. WHAT IF I MAKE A MISTAKE? Don't worry about making a mistake, this program allows you to experiment. The cursor is the blinking symbol "_" on the display that indicates where the next character that is pressed on the keyboard will be entered in the computer. The SHIFT key is used with another key to enter a character into the computer. PRECOMPUTER POWER PADTM PLUS stores the line with the other lines into memory. Enter the following (no line number in front): PRINT "HI THERE" press ENTER This time PRINT was used as a command and the results appeared immediately on the display after the ENTER key was pressed. The computer executes the command right away, without waiting for you to type RUN. This is not recommended for creating programs but highly recommended for use as a calculator. The following are some additional commands to be used: NEW This command clears the memory of any BASIC statements that have been previously entered. LIST This command displays each line of your program starting with the lowest line number. If you enter the command with a line number after the word, i. e. , LIST 50, PRECOMPUTER POWER PADTM PLUS will list the statement at line 50. 32 RUN This command instructs PRECOMPUTER POWER PADTM PLUS to begin executing each BASIC statement with a line number that was typed into memory. The computer will start with the lowest line number and proceed up to the highest numbered statement. EDIT Use the EDIT command when you want to change a statement that has been typed into memory without re-typing the entire line. Use the DEL key to remove an unwanted character, or type in a new character. The PRECOMPUTER POWER PADTM PLUS will sort them out for you and LIST them or RUN starting with the lowest numbered statement to the highest numbered statement. It is a good idea to number your lines in increments of 10 (10, 20, 30. . . ) or 100 (100, 200, 300. . . ). [. . . ] The unit will ask you to save a TXT file or BASIC program, then press the Enter key to select option. Do not use spaces as characters, and please remember you have up to 8 characters. The data will now be saved on your personal computer. Load File After selecting this option, you can view a list of files in the personal computer on the PC monitor. Use the up/down arrows on the PRECOMPUTER POWER PADTM PLUS to scroll through the list of files on the PC monitor. [. . . ]