Computer Basics · Mouse, Touchpad & Keyboard · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: The Mouse Obstacle Course

Help Grandpa Joe click, type and fix his way through a new laptop.

Open the photo

Grandpa Joe just got his first laptop. His granddaughter Maya wants to teach him, so she sets up a little obstacle course.

On the screen is a folder of photos. One of them is a picture of his dog, Biscuit. Maya asks him to open it.

Grandpa clicks the Biscuit photo one time. It turns blue, but nothing opens. He looks worried. Maya tells him he did nothing wrong. Clicking around won't hurt the computer.

She points out that the blue color is a good sign. It means the computer knows which photo he picked.

Give it a name

The photo opens, and Grandpa smiles. Then he closes it and notices its name: IMG_2041. He would rather call it Biscuit.

Maya shows him the trick. He taps the touchpad with two fingers on the photo. A small menu pops up with a list of choices.

Fix the caption

Next, Maya asks him to type a caption for the photo. Grandpa types slowly and carefully:

Biscuit at the prak

The blinking cursor sits at the very end. He spots the mistake in the middle of the last word. He starts pressing Backspace, but Maya stops him. That would erase letters he typed correctly.

Oops, undo

Grandpa fixes it to say park. Then, while reaching for his coffee, he selects the whole caption by accident and presses a key. The caption vanishes.

He groans. Maya laughs kindly and says there is a two-key rescue for exactly this. After that, he should save his work.