INPUT DEVICES

An input device is any hardware device that sends data to the computer, without any input devices, a computer would only be a display device and not allow users to interact with it, much like a TV. In the picture to the right, is a Logitech trackballmouse and an example of an input device. Below is a complete listing of all the different computer input devices that can be used on a computer.

Types of input devices

• Audio conversion device
• Barcode reader
• Business Card Reader
• Digital camera and Digital Camcorder
• Finger (with touchscreen)
• Fingerprint scanner
• Gamepad, Joystick, Paddle, Steering wheel, and Microsoft Kinect
• Graphics tablet
• Keyboard
• Light gun and light pen scanner
• Magnetic-stripe reader
• Medical imaging devices (e.g., X-Ray, CAT Scan, and Ultrasound images)
• Microphone (using speech recognition)
• MIDI keyboard
• MICR
• Mouse, touchpad, or other pointing device
• Optical Mark Reader (OMR)
• Punch card reader
• Remote
• Scanner
• Sonar imaging devices
• Touch screen
• Video capture device
• VR helmet and gloves
• Webcam

Tip: Keep in mind that drives such as a CD-ROM, DVD, and aFloppy diskette drive may be capable of sending the computer information, but they are not input devices. These devices are considered storage devices.

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difference between input and output device

To understand the difference between an input and output device, you must understand the difference between inputand output. Any information or data that's entered or sent to the computer  to be processed is considered input and anything that is displayed from the computer is output. Therefore, an input device such as a computer keyboard is capable of having information sent to the computer, but does not display (output) any information. An output device such as a computer printer can print information from the computer but does not send any information (input) to the computer.

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HOW TO CREATE CSV FILE

A comma-separated values (CSV) file is any file containing text that is separated with a comma, but can also be a file separated with any other character. To create a CSV is as simple as creating any text file and can be created in any text editor, however, is often created in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc. Below are the steps on how to create a CSV file using a text editor such as Notepad, Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, and Google Docs.

Notepad (or any text editor)Microsoft ExcelOpen Office CalcGoogle Docs

Notepad (or any text editor)

To create a CSV file in a text editor open a new text editor program, such as Notepad. Once open write the text data you wish the file to contain and separate each field or column of data with a comma and each row with a new line.

Title1,Title2,Title3
one,two,three
example1,example2,example3

As an example, if you were to create a text file with the above data, and save it as a CSV file, each column is created by each comma and each row is created by each new line. Therefore, the above data if opened in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel would create a table similar to the below example.

Title1	Title2	Title3
one	two	three
example1	example2	example3

If the data you're planning to use in your CSV file already has comma's, such as an address; it's easier to use a differentdelimiter to separate each of the values. For example, in the below CSV file we will be creating names and addresses for labels that will be printed and are separating each name and address label with a tilde character. Alternatively a better solution would be to have the address, city, and state in their own column.

Name
Street Address
City, State ZIP Code
~Mr John Smith
123 Fake address
Salt Lake City, Utah 89110
~Mrs Jane Doe
586 Another fake
Delta, Utah 84624
~Bill White
123 N Fake Street
St Anthony, Idaho 83445

Microsoft Excel

Open Microsoft Excel and the file you wish to save as a CSV file. For example, below is the data contained in our example Excel worksheet.

Item	Cost	Sold	Profit
Keyboard	$10.00	$16.00	$6.00
Monitor	$80.00	$120.00	$40.00
Mouse	$5.00	$7.00	$2.00
		Total	$48.00

Once open, click File, choose the Save As option, and as theSave as type: select the CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)option. Once saved, if you were to open the CSV file in a text editor, such as Notepad, the CSV file should resemble the below example.

Item,Cost,Sold,Profit
Keyboard,$10.00,$16.00,$6.00
Monitor,$80.00,$120.00,$40.00
Mouse,$5.00,$7.00,$2.00
,,Total,$48.00

Open Office Calc

Open Open Office Calc and the file you wish to save as a CSV file. For example, below is the data contained in our example Calc worksheet.

Item	Cost	Sold	Profit
Keyboard	$10.00	$16.00	$6.00
Monitor	$80.00	$120.00	$40.00
Mouse	$5.00	$7.00	$2.00
		Total	$48.00

Once open, click File, choose the Save As option, and as theSave as type: select the Text CSV (.csv) (*.csv) option. Once saved, if you were to open the CSV file in a text editor such as Notepad the CSV file should resemble the below example.

Item,Cost,Sold,Profit
Keyboard,$10.00,$16.00,$6.00
Monitor,$80.00,$120.00,$40.00
Mouse,$5.00,$7.00,$2.00
,,Total,$48.00

Google Docs

Open Google Docs and the Spreadsheet file you wish to save as a CSV file. Click File, Download as, and then select CSV (current sheet).

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Drag and drop to the command line

When working with files with a long file path instead of typing the full path drag-and-drop a file into the command line. For example, if you needed to copy the picture.gif file from E:\Computer Hope\long path\tips\examples\images directory you could open that folder in Windows Explorer and drag and drop the file into the command line to have "E:\Computer Hope\long path\tips\examples\images\picture.gif" entered into the command line.

Note: This tip does not work in Windows Vista.

Tip: If you're having difficulty with the path being copied in Windows 7, make sure you're running the command line as Administrator.

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Quickly search in Windows Explorer

While browsing in Windows Explorer if you need to search for a file press the F3 key to move the cursor into the Windows Explorer search box, type what you are searching for, and press enter.

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Create a shortcut key for Internet web pages

Create a PC shortcut key to a favorite web page by following the below steps. Once this has been created you can have shortcuts to your favorite web pages on your desktop or anywhere else on the computer.

Internet Explorer users

Users using Internet Explorer can quickly do this by right-clicking on an empty spot of a web page and click 'Create Shortcut'.

Other Internet browser users

If your browser window is maximized make it a window. Once done click and drag the icon next to the URL and drag it to your desktop or other location you wish to create the shortcut.

Once the shortcut has been created locate the shortcut and right-click it and click Properties. In the shortcut properties assign a new shortcut key and click OK. Now when the shortcut key is pressed the web page will be automatically loaded. Additional information about creating a shortcut for an icon can also be found on document CH001130.

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HOW TO create a Windows shortcut key

Create a shortcut

1. Open the folder or directory that contains the program you wish to create a shortcut for.
2. Right-click on the program and click Create Shortcut.
3. This will create a shortcut named "Shortcut to <your program>" in the directory you are in. If you wish to rename this shortcut, right-click the file and click rename.
4. Once the above steps have been completed, you can copy or cut this shortcut and paste it anywhere to execute this program.

Assign shortcut key to that Windows shortcut


Once the shortcut has been created to assign a shortcut key to that Windows shortcut follow the below steps.

1. Right-click the shortcut and click Properties.
2. Click the Shortcut tab.
3. Click in the Shortcut key box and press a letter. For example, if you press "p" the shortcut key will automatically be made Ctrl + Alt + P. Which means if saved when pressing Ctrl and Alt and "P" all at the same time will run that shortcut.

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Computer keyboard keys descriptions

Number

101 Keyboard 104 Keyboard 8042 keyboard controller

A

ALT Any key Apostrophe Arrow keys Asterisk AT keyboard Azerty

B

Back quote Back slash Backspace key Bang Break Butterfly keyboard

C

Caps lock Caret Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Case sensitive Chiclet keyboard Colon Comma Command key Control keys CR CTRL Curly bracket

D

Dvorak keyboard

E

End key Enhanced Keyboard Enter key ESC ETAION SHRDLU Exclamation mark

F

FilterKeys Fn Forward slash Function keys

G

Greater than GT GWAM GWPM

H

HID Home key Home row keys Hotkey Hunt and peck Hyphen

I

Input device Input driver Insert key

J

Currently no listings

K

Key Key in Keyboard Keyboard buffer Keyboard controller Keyboard layout Keyboard repeat Keyboard shortcut Keyboard template Keycap Keylogger Keypad Keystroke

L

LT

M

Modifier key MouseKeys

N

Numeric keypad NUM Lock

O

Octothorpe On-Screen keyboard Option key OSK

P

Page Down key Page Up key Pause key PC/XT keyboard Percent Period PGDN key PGUP key Pipe Plus Pound Print screen key Programmable function key PS/2

Q

Quote QWERTY keyboard

R

Repeat rate

S

Scroll lock key Semicolon Shift clicking Shift key Shortcut key Single quote Spacebar SysRq

T

Tab Togglekeys Touch type TTY Tilde ToggleKeys Type Typematic rate

U

Underscore Unprintable character

V

Currently no listings

W

Wack WAM Whack White space Windows key Windows keyboard WPM Wrist rest WSAD keys

X

Currently no listings

Y

Currently no listings

Z

Currently no listings

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What are the F1 through F12 keys?

Commonly known as "function keys", F1 through F12 may have a variety of different uses or no use at all. Depending on the installed operating system and the software program currently open will change how each of these keys operate. A program is capable of not only using each of the function keys, but also combining the function keys with the ALT or CTRL key, for example, Microsoft Windows users can press ALT + F4 to close the program currently active.

as seen in keyboard

Below is a short-listing of some of the common functions of the functions keys on computers running Microsoft Windows. As mentioned above not all programs support function keys and may perform different tasks then those mentioned below. If you are looking for more specific shortcut keys and function key examples we suggest seeing our shortcut key page.

F1

• Almost always used as the help key, almost every program will open the help screen when this key is pressed.
• Enter CMOS Setup.
• Windows Key + F1 would open the Microsoft Windows help and support center.
• Open the Task Pane.

F2

• In Windows commonly used to rename a highlighted icon or file.
• Alt + Ctrl + F2 opens document window in Microsoft Word.
• Ctrl + F2 displays the print preview window in Microsoft Word.
• Enter CMOS Setup.

F3

• Often opens a search feature for many programs including Microsoft Windows.
• In MS-DOS or Windows command line F3 will repeat the last command.
• Shift + F3 will change the text in Microsoft Word from upper to lower case or a capital letter at the beginning of every word.

F4

• Open find window.
• Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+)
• Alt + F4 will close the program currently active in Microsoft Windows.
• Ctrl + F4 will close the open window within the current active window in Microsoft Windows.

F5

• In all modern Internet browsers pressing F5 will refresh or reload the page or document window.
• Open the find, replace, and go to window in Microsoft Word.
• Starts a slideshow in PowerPoint.

F6

• Move the cursor to the Address bar in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
• Ctrl + Shift + F6 opens to another open Microsoft Word document.

F7

• Commonly used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, etc.
• Shift + F7 runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.
• Turns on Caret browsing in Mozilla Firefox.

F8

• Function key used to enter the Windows startup menu, commonly used to access Windows Safe Mode.

F9

• Opens the Measurements toolbar in Quark 5.0.

F10

• In Microsoft Windows activates the menu bar of an open application.
• Shift + F10 is the same as right-clicking on a highlighted icon, file, or Internet link.
• Access the hidden recovery partition on HP and Sony computers.
• Enter CMOS Setup.

F11

• Full-screen mode in all modern Internet browsers.
• Ctrl + F11 as computer is starting to access the hidden recovery partition on many Dell computers.
• Access the hidden recovery partition on eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo computers.

F12

• Open the Save as window in Microsoft Word.
• Shift + F12 save the Microsoft Word document.
• Ctrl + Shift + F12 prints a document in Microsoft Word.
• Preview a page in Microsoft Expression Web
• Open Firebug.

Tip: Earlier IBM computers also had F13 - F24 on the keyboards. However, because these keyboards are no longer used they are not listed on this page.

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