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If you are in a Windows environment, you can use Notepad. Edit is very easy to use and is easier if you load a mouse driver. As for editing and using system files like CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, I ensure you that you will learn the most from an old DOS 5.0 book. I still keep mine with me to this day and I reference it maybe once or twice a year. If you have any other specific questions, feel free to post them.

Additional information: The CONFIG.SYS file is used for managing the memory resources and loading device drivers. The AUTOEXEC.BAT file is used for running programs, changing preferences and setting paths.

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In addition, a basic DOS tutorial can be found at

http://www.engr.umd.edu/~nsw/ench250/dostutor.htm (remove any spaces)

To get to a DOS prompt, you can either double-click on the MS-DOS Prompt item in your Start menu or you can simply type "COMMAND" in the Run Option from your Start Menu. Once at a DOS prompt, type EDIT and it will put you into the Edit program. You can open a document by going to File-Open and typing in the file name you wish to edit. You can also specify a file when you run EDIT
C:>edit autoexec.bat

That is how to get into edit. It is a very basic word processer program with very few bells and whistles. Both Notepad and Wordpad might be easier to use.

You need to be very careful before you make changes to your config.sys and/or autoexec.bat files regardless of what program you use to make the changes. ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP COPY OFTHE FILE BEFORE YOU MAKE CHANGES. It is very easy to make a change to the autoexec.bat file that will cause some/all of your machine to stop working properly, especially if you are on a network PC and use the autoexec.bat file to set your pathing.
However, you can also do neat things such as set up menus that will let you determine at boot up what to load. For example I have used it to determine what version of a program to load (both could not be loaded at the same time since they wouldn't work together).

If what you need Help with is "Edit" itself, just get to a DOS command prompt, type "edit" (without the quotes) and hit "<enter>". This should (will?) open the Edit application. You "may" be able to use the mouse (depending on how your system is setup, the version of Edit.com, etc. If not, or for an "adventure in DOS":
Some helpful keystrokes:
- <esc> clears the initial "Welcome" dialogue
- F1 will bring up a Help screen
- <alt>F opens the File menu, <alt>E the Edit menu, etc.
- use left and right arrow keys to move between menus
- use up and down arrow keys to move between selections on the menus, plus <enter> to select that option
--- or use the highlighted letter to select a menu option (e.g., <alt>F followed by S will save the current file)
- <esc> to close the current menu and return to the "data entry" part of the tool

First step, try creating a plain text file. Just type anything ("the quick brown fox was jumped by the lazy fence", or whatever). Then <alt>F, then X to exit. Notice how the dialogue comes up to Save? Great. Give it a name, and <tab> down to navigate to a "temp" directory in which to save the file. You will find out that you need to use <space> to select navigation items. (Oh boy, them was the days! Glad I was doing Unix.)

Well, that should give you a start.

BTW, your profs probably know how to use Edit reasonably well (but likely rarely do so themselves). I will bet that their point is for you to figure it out by exploring. As long as you're not messing in a "live file" (like autoexec.bat or config.sys) while you're exploring, you can't break too much, too badly. Once you're ready to fly on your own, then (after making backups) go into these system files and have fun (but not too much fun).

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