how do i move the bottom icons to the side

If you're talking about the Dock on the desktop, you can right-click or ctrl-click the dividing line between the applications and the folders/trash, and click Position On Screen - Bottom. If you can't get that to work, you can also get to the setting from System Preferences - Dock.

Matt

Thank you it was very helpful, I had inadvertently moved them to the side and didn't like it!!

Thanks so much for the help. I'm new to Macbook and I appreciate the non shaming assistance for this newbie.