"Only what is selected gets affected by what you do next." This statement holds true for most applications. The only difference is the type of object that is being selected. For example, after you make a selection, you cut, copy, scale, rotate, or perform another task on that object the same way in most programs. In a word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word), you will select text, in an image editing program (e.g., Photoshop), you will select pixels, in a 3D program (e.g., 3D Studio Max), you will select a 3D object, in a vector-based program (e.g., Adobe Illustrator), you will select vectors. etc.
"Children will inherit properties of their parents unless they define their own." This statement also holds true for many applications. In web development, cascading style sheet (CSS) children tags (e.g., <p>, <h1>, etc.) will inherit text properties (e.g., color, font type) of its parent tag (e.g., <body>) unless the children tags are defined with a new style of their own. In object-oriented programming (OOP), child objects created from their parent objects inherit properties of their parents unless they define their own.
One day while teaching on OOP programming, one of my co-workers commented after the class by saying, "Thanks for the parenting class." I was not talking about parenting. However, because I gave a lot of analogies (e.g., parent/child relationship, inheritance, etc.) that relates to parenting, she could easy understand the subject of programming! For example, I said, "If a mom is pregnant, the child goes wherever the mom goes (i.e., parent/child relationship). However, when the child
is born, it inherits certain properties of its parent (e.g., skin color, eye/hair color, etc.) unless it eventually defines its own (e.g., as a teenager, he or she decides to dye his or her hair purple)."
"Nesting – Parent/Child relationship." This is a third concept that is common to many programs. Whenever you nest (place one object inside of another object), you create a parent/child relationship. Typically, if you move the parent, the child moves as well because it is nested inside of its parent. If you delete the parent, you delete the child as well because it is nested inside of its parent.
"Back it up before you jack it up." Nothing worst than losing critical data that you did not backup on a regular basis. I often tell my students that "I have backups of my backups."
Many computer users get confused about when to use the three modifier keys (ALT, CTRL, and SHIFT). "The ALT key is typically used to ALTERNATIVE/TOGGLE the functionality of a program when used with another key. The CTRL key is used to CONTROL the functionality of a program and the SHIFT key is used to selected multiple objects or to reverse the direction of a task." For example, the SHIFT + TAB keys are used to go back one text field when filling out a form.
The definition of many computer terms can be derived by looking closely at the term itself. For example, I was teaching on database concepts and posed the question to my students, "What is a recordset?" Most of them looked at me like a calf at a new gate. Then I told them if you know what a record is then you know what a recordset is. "What is a recordset? A set of records." Typically, if you reverse the words in a term you can get the essence of the definition. For example, you may not know what a property inspector is. However, if you reverse the words, you can get an idea of what it is. A property inspector will inspect the properties (of an object).
"Look behind the scene to see what it means. (Design view/Code view)" Don't rely totally on wizards to create code for you. Look behind the design view into the code view to see what was created so that you can learn from it.
There are many skills that are transferable to other programs. So once you learn them, you do not have to relearn them in other programs. For example, you cut, copy, paste, rotate, scale, insert images/tables the same way in most programs. I refer this as "transferable skills." Students often ask me how can I learn so many programs and not get confused about using them. I tell them that there are many skills that are transferable across many programs. I focus on the concepts that are different between programs, not what are common.
"I get most of my revelations on how to program not at the computer but away from it" (e.g., typically while driving). To borrow an adage, "If you study long, you may study wrong." This holds true for programming as well. It is best to work with a "fresh mind" when it comes to programming and not when you are frustrated because you are not getting the code to work correctly.