Notes from October 31, 2006

    1. Bill tried to explain how to burn files to a CD

The basic idea is to select the file and then right click on it.Then use the "send to" function from the pull down menu to get the file to the computer's CD burner.

A bubble will come up in the lower right corner of the desktop saying that you have some files waiting to be written to the CD

Click on the bubble and explorer will open to the CD burner.

The option to "Write these files to CD" will appear in the upper left hand corner of the dialog box. Click on it to burn the files.


 Notes from November 7, 2006

1. We discussed whether AVG 7,5 is FREE or not. Bill decided that it was still free. Address www.grisoft.com

2. We looked at tabbing in Explorer 7.0. CTR/click to generate new tab of a link. To generate multiple homepages drag the icon to the homepage location under tools/Internet options or open the ones yo want for a home page and click on Tools/Internet Options/homepage/ use current.

3. Talked about setting up email accounts in Hotmail. Gmail and others.

4. We looked at the Google Homepage. Need a Gmail account to set on up.

5. Downloading IE 7.0 will take some time. It is 15 Mbytes.

6. To download updates to Windows got to Tools/Windows Update in IE and use the web page.

7. Use templates on Microsoft.com to help create documents.

BIG TIP of the day:

Hold the control key down and rotate the wheel on your mouse to change the size of the print on many (most?) web pages and emails.

 Notes from November 14, 2006 

1. To select any text click athe beginning to set the cursor. Then go to the end and hold the shift key down and click again.

 

2. To add a tab in IE 7 hold the control key down and click on the link.

 

3. When sending a document to a diverse population use the RTF format for maximum viewablity,

 

4. When sending pictures by mail keep the size low when they are for viewing on a computer screen. Keep the DPI below 100.

 

5. Deleting email from your email provider's server:

    Outlook Express:

        Go to tools/accounts, Click on the Properties button --Select the Advanced Tab -- at the bottom of the dialog box check or uncheck the box next to "Leave Messages on server."

    Outlook:

        Go to Tools/email accounts-- Select View or change existing email account-- Click on NEXT-- Select the account and click on change. Click on "More Settings button" and Advanced  Tab  -- at the bottom of the dialog box check or uncheck the box next to "Leave Messages on server."

 

In both cases this must be done for EACH email account being used.

 

There, I said I would find it!!!

 

 Notes from November 21, 2006

1. Use Ctrl-D to save a web pag  in your favorites.

2. To download IE7 put "IE7 download free" in the google searchbox and select the Microsoft site to download it from.

3. Use "Print Preview" in IE7 to see what the page looks like. If it doesn't fit use the "shrink to fit" option.

4. To make IE your default browser go to Tools/internet options and click on Default Browser option.

5. Bill's homework: find out how to turn off cookie popup.

          Got it!

  • Go to Tools on IE7
  • Click on Internet options
  • Open the privacy tab
  • Click on the advanced button
  • UNCHECK the "override automatic cookie handling" button
  • BTW, you can check the box and select exactly how you want to handle various types of cookies.

Happy Thanksgiving -- See you next week.

 

 

November 28, 2006

  • Autocomplete -- In IE7 go to tools/Internet Options/content then fill in the autocomplete stuff.
  • Use Print Preview to set margins or shrink to fit options for printing out web pages.
  • To burn a CD just use the right click/send to menu item.
  • I demonstrated Gdrive -- a way to use up to 1 GB of space on your Gmail website for storage.
      • I'm not too thrilled with it since all it does is set the files that you upload up as attachments to your mail. Not a real satisfactory solution. Well, so much for Google trying to be all things to all people. 

 

 December 5, 2006

  • Download Acrobat Reader to display .PDF files. You must install it to make it work.

  • To make the mouse wheel control the size of the print on a web page -- go to settings/mouse/wheel tab and set lines at a time.

 December 12

  • In answer to a question on finding the Product key for MS Office Bill sugested using Belarc Advisor. You can get it from www.belarc.com. Download advisor.exe and use it display a very comprehensive view of your computer and the software on it -- including all the product keys for installed software.

December 26

 

Bill spent a long time at the whiteboard explaining disk defragmentation.

 

 

Creating an instant restore point icon

  • To create an instant restore point icon copy the following into a NOTEPAD file:
  • Set IRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore")
  • MYRP = IRP.createrestorepoint ("Novice SIG Restore Point", 0, 100)

Save the file with a .VBS extension to your desktop. You can change Novice SIG Restore point to anything else but be sure to include the quotation marks(").

 

 

January 2, 2007

Bill waxed elequent on the necessity of knowing and understanding extension on file names.

To turn extension on open windows explorer and go to tools/folder options and uncheck the box in front of the statement "Hide extensions for known file types."

 

 January 9, 2007

1. How do I get to Safe Mode?

    Tap the F8 key when you boot the computer.

2. To get into a list of programs that run at startup.

       Do Start/run  and type MSCONFIG into the blank and press enter. Select the "Startup" Tab.

 

January 16, 2007

1. Bill talked about Picasa

 

January 23, 2007

1.A good site for downloads is www.majorgeeks.com.

2.There is a great difference between audio cd files and MP3 files.

 

 

January 30, 2007

 

  • Long discussion of MIDI files (usually found with MID extension). Here is the Wikipedia definition of MIDI files :

    MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is an industry-standard electronic communications protocol that enables electronic musical instruments, computers and other equipment to communicate, control and synchronize with each other in real time. MIDI does not transmit an audio signal — it simply transmits digital data such as the pitch and intensity of musical notes to play, control signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato and panning, and clock signals to set the tempo. As an electronic protocol, it is notable for its success, both in its ubiquitous widespread adoption throughout the industry, and in remaining essentially unchanged in the face of technological developments since its introduction in 1983.

 

  • Talked about changing to a new ISP in Outlook Express:

 The main problem will be with the SMTP server designation. Find it (Tools/Accounts and select the mail account involved and choose Properties )- Click on Servers tab and change the "outgoing mail(SMTP) setting to reflect your new ISP.

 

 

 February 6, 2007

 

To turn off the Preview pane in Outlook Express go to view/layout and uncheck the box to show preview pane.

 

February 27, 2007

 

Based on user comments I guess I'll have keep this space up.

Here goes for today:

Setting Outlook/Outlook Express to remove email from the server

  • go to Outlook Express and click on Tools/accounts
  • Select the acount that you want to remove the mail from the server for.
  • Click on Properties and then the Advanced tab
  • Undery Delivery at the bottom of th box be sure that the "Leave a copy on the server" box is UNCHECKED.
  • Click on Apply and OK.
  • Do this for each account where you want to remove your email from the server -- This is not usually necessary for accounts such as Yahoo mail and Gmail.

Getting the selection box back for the CD drive (or any other drive for that matter)

  • Click on My Computer
  • Right Click on the drive you are interested in
  • Click on Properties and then the AutoPlay tab
  • Make sure the "prompt me each time to chose an action" box is CHECKED.
  • If that box is not selected, the action selected will always execute and you will not see the box of options.

Is that enough for today???

 

See you next Tuesday.

 

 

March 6, 2007

In answer to a question on how to create business cards with WORD, I launched into a LONG discussion of templates. (BTW, my recommendation is to buy one of the $5 programs in Walmart that makes business cards as its only business.) Well, here goes:

Templates are a special type of Word document. They hold components for other documents, especially text, Autotext, Macros & Toolbars. They also hold style definitions. When you save a document as a template Word will attach the three-letter extension of ".dot" to the end of the name instead of ".doc".

The template can be thought of as a blank document of a specific type, ie, letterhead, fax sheet, resume, etc. When you call up the template from the File/New/"On my computer"  command you will see all the templates available for your WORD documents that are on your computer. Clicking, the template will bring up a COPY of the template which you can use to create a document and SAVE. The fact that the "Save As" dialog box comes up instead of the "SAVE" box when you atempt to save a document based on a template should be a clue that the template will not be changed as you put things into the NEW document. The template will be the same every time you bring it up.

A good place to get templates for almost every purpose is  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx. Just indicate the type of template that you are interested in in the search box at the top left side of the page.

As you can see on that page templates are used in all of the Microsoft Office programs.

 

Have a nice week. See you Tuesday.

Bill

 

 March 13, 2007

1. A good place to see the speed of your connection

 http://www.wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp

 

2. Let's set up a Google Personalized Home Page.

 

March 27, 2007

Click on link below to see the docment that we talked about.

 

10 Dumb Things That Users Do That Can Mess Up Their Computers

 

Have a nice week.

 

April 3, 2007

Put Picasa Tutorial on here.

April 17, 2007

Answered the question: What is a cookie?

Cookies are small files that Web sites put on your computer hard disk drive when you first visit.

Think of a cookie as an identification card that's uniquely yours. Its job is to notify the site when you've returned. Cookies should not be confused with viruses. While it is possible to misuse a cookie in cases where there is personal data in it, cookies by themselves are not malicious.

Many Web sites, including Microsoft's, use cookies. Cookies tell them how often you visit pages, which helps them find out what information interests you. In this way, they can give you more of the content you like and less of the content you don't.

Cookies can help you be more efficient. Have you ever put something in a virtual shopping cart in an online store and then returned a few days later to find that the item is still there? That's an example of cookies at work.

Cookies let you store preferences and user names, register products and services, and personalize pages.

But if you never register or leave personal information at a site, then the server only knows that someone with your cookie has returned to the Web site. It doesn't know anything else.

You're in charge of deciding whether they know anything about you.

 

How to view your cookies

in IE 7, click Tools, Internet Options, then in the Browsing History section, click Settings, View Files. You can open ony of the files that you see using Notepad in the Start/Accesories folder.