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PC manual for beginners may be slowly catching on

Chris Paulus is a longtime hairstylist who has self-published a computer handbook for beginners. She sells copies from her house and the hair salon where she works in Coeur d'Alene. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Taryn Brodwater Staff writer
Chris Paulus is a longtime hairstylist who has self-published a computer handbook for beginners. She sells copies from her house and the hair salon where she works in Coeur d'Alene. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

If anyone offered a Ph.D. in hairdressing, Chris Paulus said she would have easily qualified with three decades in the business and years of specialized training.

But when she traded in her scissors in 2000 to study computers in college, Paulus was suddenly dumbstruck. She didn’t even know how to turn on a computer. The language her tech-savvy instructors threw at her – hard disk, hypertext and modem – sounded foreign. Even the most basic computer classes were over her head.

“All of the teachers I had – except maybe one – the way they teach is they start in the middle of the sentence,” Paulus said. “You’re lost from the get-go.”

Paulus’ frustration inspired her to write a guide as a project for the technical writing class she was taking at Washington State University. The semester project eventually became a textbook – a book even more dumbed-down than “Computers for Dummies.”

Titled “PC Navigator: The Painless Computer Primer for New Users,” the book has been used by Alaskan teachers wanting to brush up their skills and North Idaho senior citizens just wanting to learn the basics.

The spiral-bound book, self-published by Paulus, has step-by-step instructions for everything from turning the machine on to properly shutting down. She offers advice on “what to do if you hit the wrong key and a weird screen pops up,” how to use the mouse if you’re left-handed and an entire chapter on “What happens when you right click.”

The 101-page book contains simple versions of answers Paulus said she had to comb tons of fat textbooks and guides to find. She interviewed novice computer users to find out what their major frustrations were and addressed them in the book.

Unlike the bulky books she had in college, Paulus said, her book has thick, easy-to-turn pages, large print, a tough cover and stays open. It sells for $22.

Paulus finished school right as the dot-coms were going bust. She found herself competing for the few available jobs against more experienced people with degrees higher than hers – and missing the business she’d left behind.

Now the 57-year-old Paulus is back in her station at Coeur d’Alene’s 5th Avenue Salon, cutting hair and selling her books on the side. Every once in a while, she gets an order for 50 or 100 copies and rushes to produce another batch.

Sue Sloyka was getting her hair done when she spotted the book on display at Paulus’ hair-cutting station. She bought copies for herself and her mother-in-law.

Sloyka had tried other computer books, including the popular “For Dummies” series, but said she prefers Paulus’ book.

“It’s just really easy to understand,” Sloyka said. “That’s the kind of thing I need.”

Though Paulus said she’s had some success with the book, she doesn’t plan to write a sequel on how to handle cutting-edge technology. She just wants to cut hair.