While you may not be a computer technician yourself, there are several general maintenance procedures you can carry out yourself to keep your computer running smoothly. Something as simple as cleaning the ball in your mouse or using a tape-cleaning cartridge in your tape backup drive will help keep your computer problem free.
One step you can take to maintain your computer's performance is to de-fragment the hard dive. All computer drives will eventually suffer from fragmentation. When a file is written to the hard disk the computer will try and store it in one continuous area. If the computer does not have a single free area big enough to handle the whole file it will split it into smaller segments and store it on different areas of the hard disk. This is what's called fragmentation. Over time, your computer will add and delete many thousands of files, so fragmentation will get progressively worse. While fragmentation is not dangerous to your computer, it does have an impact on your computer's performance. The more fragmented a hard disk is the longer it takes to retrieve and store data. Microsoft operating systems include a utility called Defrag that you can run to de-fragment your hard disk. Defrag reorganises the files so each is stored in a single continuous area.
To access Defrag:
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Open MY COMPUTER from the desktop
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Right click on the C Drive and select PROPERTIES
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Choose the TOOLS tab
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Select DEFRAG and follow the prompts
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As the Defrag program will be re-organising the files on your hard disk, you need to make sure that no other program is running at the time. If you have a virus checker you need to also make sure this is disabled during de-fragmentation. Depending on how badly your hard disk is fragmented the process may take several hours, so it's best to start defrag before leaving work and let it run overnight.
Due to popular demand another date has been scheduled for the First Class introductory course:
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Introduction to First Class |
Monday 29 April 2002 |
This course provides a great overview of the software as well as tips for using shortcuts and other useful features. The cost of the course is $195 (ex. GST), which includes a light lunch and a copy of the First Class training manual for you to keep.
On completion of the course you will know how to:
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Import data into First Class from First Class 6 and in the form of text files
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Export data from First Class to other programs
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Create and enter data into databases
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Create and enter data into a grid
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Resolve clashes
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Allocate students to classes
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Move students between classes
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Allocate extras
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Generate and edit a timetable
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The course commences at 9.00 am and concludes at approximately 4.00 pm. As our training courses are a forum for you to have your questions about the software dealt with, we remain flexible about the finishing time. Our instructors want to make sure that you get as much as possible out of your day and part of this is ensuring that we spend as much time as necessary answering your queries!
How do I delete allocations from the allocations table?
There are two types of allocations - Blocks and Single Group (Form). The method for deleting each of them may be different, depending on what the end result needs to be.
Deleting Allocations from the Allocations Table (and the Timetable)
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Go to MAINTENANCE>ALLOCATIONS
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Change into EDIT mode
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Filter by TEACHER or FORM
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Select the particular Teacher/Form (either will do as a deleted Form allocation which has a Teacher in it will be deleted from the Teacher allocation as well)
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Pass the mouse over the PERIOD DETAILS field for the allocation you wish to delete. A Context button will appear
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Click on the Context button
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Change all the numbers under COUNT to 0
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Click OK. If this is a single group allocation it will disappear. If it is a block it will remain in the table but with 0 allocations.
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Deleting Blocks
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Go to MAINTENANCE>BLOCKS
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Get into EDIT mode
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Click on either the CODE or NAME of the block you wish to delete
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Click on the DELETE button
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If this is a parent block, you will be asked whether you wish to delete the daughter blocks as well. If it is not a parent block it will simply be deleted.
If this is a daughter block and you simply need to delete all those that no longer have allocations on the timetable, consider using TOOLS>CLEAN UP DAUGHTER BLOCKS instead.
"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."
Kahlil Gibran
Regards,
Robert Bakker
Computer Techniques P/L
Phone: +61 3 9699 9777
Fax: +61 3 9690 2802
Email: firstclass@human-edge.com.au
Human Edge adheres to a policy of not sending unsolicited (SPAM) e-mail. You are receiving this e-mail because you are listed as a contact for a product or service that our organisation provides or have requested that this service be activated for you. If you are receiving this message in error or wish to have our records changed please advise us via return e-mail or call us on +61 3 9690 5044
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