help with orientation to thinkpad t23

[Cheryl Homiak]

If you can believe it, my thinkpad came Fed-Ex this morning; from what I had
read on the site, I didn't think it would even ship till today!
Please excuse my ignorance everybody, but this is my first laptop and I know
nothing. Since I don't have areader till wednesday, and she isn't computer
literate, I'm hoping some of you can help orient me a bit.
First of all, things that came with it.
There was one piece that fit on the back or the bottom I guess would be more
accurate; the part of the machine that is in contact with the table or your lap.
I surmised that this was probably the battery.
There is another piece that has an opening in the front and a protuberance out
to one side and a place on the back that looks like it might connect to the
computer somewhere (haven't gotten it to fit anywhere y
t though); I'm thinking this might be the floppy?
There's what is obviously a cord that goes to an electrical outlet but I haven't
yet found anything matching on the machine. However, the end of this electrical
outlet cord does attach to another piece I got. It's rectangular and fat, kid of
long and narrow, and has a cord on one end with an ending that does fit into a
jack on the computer. so I wonder if these two together are the AC adapter
though I've never seen something like this in two pieces before. also, would
this also charge the battery when plugged in?
I also got a cord that is obviously a cord to go from the modem to a phone jack;
at least something I know for sure.
As for the computer itself, if I open the lid and have the keyboard facing
correctly in front of me, the back has a bunch of ports and connectors. the left
side has an opening in it that looks like something would slide into it like the
separate piece i think is the floppy. so I wonder if this place on the side
might be the cd-rom?
As for the keyboard itself, can anybody tell me which keyboard this would be;
with speakup I need a speakup keymap anyway but when I'm using just the
braillelite i'm wondering what keymap this takes.
Below the keyboard itself, that is, closer to me than the space bar, are two
buttons (wider side to side and narrow front-to-back) and than one more below
that as wide by itself as the other two are put together.
On the bottom of the computer (would be in contact with the table or lap) there
is some kind of switch which I think has two positions.
Also on the bottom toward the back there is something that looks like it would
possibly be a port of some kind but it has two kind of lips over it that protect
it; you don't see the connector (if that's what it is) until you pull back the
lips.
I'm thinking there may be a place on the right side where what I'm thinking is
the floppy goes but haven't figured out how to get it to fit.
My guesses on some of this stuff could be totally ridiculous, so it's ok to have
your Monday morning laugh on me! But if anybody can enlighten me as to any of
this so i don't have to wait for a reader to start getting this to run, I'd be
very appreciative. Offlist replies are ok too.
Thanks.

Cheryl