Logging Off, Shutting Down

Your computer is not a TV. One of the most common mistakes newbies make when using a PC is
simply to turn off the PC when they’re done. This is not good because it doesn’t give you, or your
computer, a chance to save any changes you made or any work you accomplished. The first thing you
want to do when you plan to shut down your computer — or even just plan to walk away from it for a
while — is save any work in progress. In this chapter, you haven’t created anything, so there’s nothing
to save. But for future reference, bear in mind that anything left unsaved on your screen is likely to go
bye-bye forever if you don’t remember to save your work before shutting down your computer.
Tip As you’ll learn in Chapter 3, you can easily save your work at any time. In fact, it’s a
good idea to save your work every few minutes, just to make sure you don’t
accidentally lose it.