REGISTRATION FOR NEXT SERIES-TUESDAY AUGUST 3RD

Just a quick reminder that registration for the next series at Southern Artery - Series #47 -will be held bright & early on Tuesday morning - August 3rd... so mark your calendar and pass the word...

Series #47, is ten (10) weeks and begins the week of August 16th and continues thru the end of October. During this series no classes will be held on Labor Day, Monday, September 6th or Columbus Day, Monday, October 11th..

If you know someone who might enjoy our classes invite them to join us and feel free to share the blog address with them:

http://www.saseniorpcgeeks.blogspot.com/

We have classes for everyone at every level

Our Morning Classes are Monday thru Wednesday 9am and 10:30am

• BEGINNER: Covers the basics of hardware, 4 different types of software (operating system, application, browser and drivers), keyboard and mouse skills – when to left & right click and much more...
• INTERMEDIATE 1: Covers the basics of the Internet, including the parts of a web address, how to surf the Internet, hyperlinks, using email and the parts of an email address, working with email attachments and much more
• INTERMEDIATE 2: Covers the basics of Word Processing using Microsoft Word – setting up a document, margins, font styles and sizes, inserting photos, clip art and word art, highlighting, copy and pasting and much more

Our Afternoon Classes are Monday thru Thursday, 1pm and 2:30pm

• ADVANCED: Every series our focus changes, but all afternoon classes use all of the basic skills that you have learned in our morning classes and we build on those and also introduce many of the new programs and technologies available...

The next Series #47 (Aug-Oct 2010) some of the topics our Afternoon Classes will be reviewing will be:

• Windows Explorer to quickly and easily find and organize what is on our computers and how to copy data, photos, music from the computer and/or digital camera to your flash/memory stick
• Skype - how to make calls and video calls to anywhere in the world for free
• Google application and features - many new ones
• New advanced features of hotmail and much more

Our afternoon class topics vary every series and students input on what they want to learn is a critical part of how each series is established..

Topics we've worked on: digital cameras and photos, including scanning and editing photos and photo projects such as creating and publishing books, making slide shows or movies, working with music including downloading from iTunes, creating CD’s, other special projects using word processing skills, such as creating iron-on transfers, note cards, invitations, mailing lists, mail merges for holiday mailings, excel list management, power point slide shows, using Picasa Photo Editing and Windows Movie Maker and much much more…

How to use the Windows “Find” & "Search" command

The "FIND" & "SEARCH" commands are so helpful when we are working on the Internet, in emails, and especially in operating system and application programs, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, BookSmart or others.

We use the 'FIND" & "SEARCH" commands to quickly and easily search for:

• within a web page that's open in your favorite browser OR
• search for a word or phrase in a Microsoft document OR
• use it to search for a file or folder on your computer

To access the FIND functions in the program you are working in, you can go the Menu Bar in that program, then go to Edit, and it will be in your toolbar list

OR

Use your keyboard shortcuts to find/search for text in a document or webpage - simply press the CTRL + F keys at the same time and this will open the FIND function.

OR

To access the SEARCH functions, to easily find a folder or file on your computer, go to your START menu and the SEARCH function is listed and it will then display the SEARCH dialog box to help you find what you are looking for by either name or contents

Adding Photos or Clip Art to Word Documents

There are so many ways to enhance documents created in Word, Excel and other programs – but one of the most common is to add photo’s we’ve taken or saved to the computer, or to add clip-art.

To “add” a photo or clip art you will go to “INSERT” on your menu bar or ribbon, which will give you the various choices of what you want to “INSERT”. In older versions of Word, you will go to:

• Menu Bar
• Insert
• Pictures
• Now choose File to find the photo you’ve saved in My Pictures OR Clip Art, OR Word Art, OR Symbols
• Once you choose what you want to insert, left click on the photo or clip art, choose OK and it will appear on your document

IMPORTANT TIP:
In order to easily work with your photo, clip art, word art or symbol once it is on your document – immediately go the Text Wrapping Icon (looks like a little dog on a postage stamp) – when you left click on thus icon a list will appear – choose THROUGH – this allows you to now work with (size and or move) your photo, clip art, word art or symbol, where ever and how ever you would like…

If you forget to activate this option – as you move your photo or clip art – you will see your text being “pushed out of the way” and they won’t work together compatibly…

So take control and remember to activate the Text Wrapping Icon…

Copy, Paste, the “Clipboard” & “Ditto”

“DITTO” is a free feature available in Windows Operating Systems XP, Vista & 7 and is free

The “CLIPBOARD” is the “virtual spot” where items are held when you use either the copy or cut feature. So when you activate the copy or cut command, whatever you have “highlighted” and then copied or cut, will be held on the CLIPBOARD. It will remain there until you activate the PASTE command and remember, you can activate the paste command wherever you’d like – in an email, in a document using word, word pad, word perfect, an excel spreadsheet, that book you are working on in BookSmart or Walgreen’s, or any where else.

This is useful for URLs (web addresses from your browsers address bar), news articles, instant messaging, e-mail and much much more.

Typically the clipboard can only hold one thing at a time*. You can copy a block of text and paste it somewhere else. Then you have to go back for the next block. To copy and paste multiple things, you have to go back and forth.

*The clipboards in newer versions of Office programs, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, Access & others can hold many more items than a single item; this has been true since Office 2000 and the number items which can be stored has increased with each newer version of Office
You can activate “Ditto” which takes away the “one item a time” limitation. It allows your clipboard to hold more than one entry. So copy a URL and some text and a few e-mail messages. Then paste them wherever you'd like without going back and forth. Your clipboard holds it all.

You can copy and paste just like you've always done. To activate “Ditto” use your keyboard shortcut - press Ctrl + `. You'll see a list of past items you have placed on the “clipboard”; just click on the one you want to paste.

Excel – what do the “auto’s” mean

When you are working in Excel – there are several “auto” functions and they can be confusing as to how and why they are different.. Hopefully this will help…

AutoFill – creates and/or completes a series of values in an Excel spreadsheet – for example you can type January at the top of a column, and if you then drag the + auto handle from the bottom right corner of the cell that January is typed in across the rows to the right of January, Excel will now “auto-fill” February, March, April etc and continue on…

AutoFormat – adds chosen attributes to your spreadsheets, such as font styles and sizes, borders and even ranges of numerical styles – so highlight the table or area you want to format and when you choose format, auto format various styles, colors etc will appear – choose the one you like and Excel will now format that portion of the table or spreadsheet that you have highlighted – don’t like what you’ve chosen – change it

AutoSum – this adds up a column or several columns or a row of figures in a spreadsheet. This is the icon for Auto Sum “S” – So if you put your cursor in a cell at the end of a row or column (or you can highlight the range of cells” and then click on this icon on the toolbar – once you have clicked on the icon, press enter on your keyboard and Excel will calculate the total for the selected range (By the way the keyboard shortcut for this that does the same thing is: Alt + =)

Aligning your text

It is very easy to align your text - but let the computer do it for you - never use the space key several dozen times to "center" text in a document, email or other application....

When you use Microsoft Word, Works, Word Pad or Word Perfect an this also works for cells in Excel, slides in Power Point, in most email programs when you are typing a new email message and many other software programs when you are working with “text”.

The "alignment buttons" allow you to easily align your text and the 4 standard options are:

• Left
• Center
• Right
• Justify/full justify (used to be called block style)

On your formatting toolbar (or in the Home Tab Ribbon of Word 2007/2010) you will see 4 “alignment buttons”.

When your cursor/pointer is in the word, sentence or paragraph you want to change the alignment for, simply click on the alignment button of your choice..

Quickly Minimize & Restore Open Windows/Applications

Keyboard Shortcuts allow us to implement commands quickly and easily – 2 favorites that we use are:

• When you want to “minimize” all open windows/applications so that you can return quickly and easily to the desktop – simply hold the Windows Flag Key and tap the letter “M”..
• Then to return/restore your windows/applications to their original state, simply hold the Windows Flag Key, the Shift Key and the letter “M”..

BLURB-BOOKSMART PROJECTS

If you have worked on your book project at home that means you have already gone to http://www.blurb.com/ and downloaded their free software bookmaking software – called Booksmart.

If you have done this and are working on your project at home – it is important to copy your up-to-date project from your computer and bring it back to class. Where is it??

• You will find it in a folder in the Documents or My Documents drawer called BookSmartData on your computer. You want to be sure you copy the book from the left side of the screen when you are using your Windows Explorer, so that you copy the entire folder and all sub-folders. So highlight it, and now go to your flash drive - you should have a folder on your flash drive for BookSmartData - so highlight it and then Paste.. if you had an earlier version on the flash drive, it will say it sees the folder already - do you want to replace it - say yes so that you now have the latest version you've been working on.

When you get to class, plug in your flash drive, open Windows Explorer so that you can do the reverse and go to your Flash Drive, Open your BookSmartData folder and copy your entire book folder (with all sub-folders)
Then go to the My Document drawer on the classroom computer you are sitting at, highlight the BookSmartData folder and Paste your book project into that folder…
Again - if you had an earlier version on the flash drive, it will say it sees the folder already - do you want to replace it - say yes so that you now have the latest version you've been working on

Now you are ready to work – so go to the desktop and open the BookSmart software.....

Reminder for everyone: at SA when you come to the classroom and open the "Booksmart" program on our computers, remember these are “public” machines and it is likely that someone else’s project will appear on the screen, which is the last project being worked on:

A. when it is not your project and you have started a book you want to

• Go to the menu bar, choose file, choose OPEN BOOK - a list will appear of all books in progress - highlight/choose yours and then in the bottom corner of the dialog book, choose OPEN BOOK - now your book project will appear

B. when it is not your project and you have NOT started a book but want to

• Go to the menu bar, choose file, choose NEW BOOK – the dialog box that opens will offer you the various book styles & sizes – choose the size & style you want – then above the book choice – give your book a name and put in your name as the author. At the bottom of the dialog box – choose continue
• Now it will ask if you want “BookSmart” to do the book or you will see the WING IT OPTION, which is what you want to choose, so that you can do the book yourself… Now choose continue and
• Now you will be ready to begin your book and remember next time you open the program you will use Option A…
  

What is the Computer Control Panel?

The CONTROL PANEL is where we can change many ways in which our computer and the peripheral hardware work, including your printer, keyboard, mouse, monitor – your audio & video functions and add or remove software just to name a few..

To access the control panel – you can go to Start and when the Start Menu appears – choose control panel (in older versions of Windows – you need to go to Settings to find the control panel).

The look of the Control Panel has changed considerably with with Windows Vista & Windows 7 Operating Systems. Both of these newer Operating Systems offer two different views of the Control Panel: Classic View and Category View, and it is possible to switch between these views through an option that appears on the left side of the window

Many of the individual Control Panel “commands” can be accessed in other often quicker ways – a favorite is when you want to make changes to the Display Properties – instead of going to the Control Panel and choosing Display, when you are on the Desktop – simply Right Click on any emptry area of the Desktop, choose Properties and the same Display Properties Dialog box will appear for you to work with.

Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend.. and a little trivia about the 4th

On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, starting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As always, this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country.

Independence Day was first observed in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. In 1941, Congress declared July 4 a federal legal holiday. John Adams proclaimed: "It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."

The basics of the U.S.A. :

• Capital: Washington, D.C.
• Motto: "In God We Trust"
• National Anthem: "The Star Spangled Banner"
• National Bird: Bald Eagle
• National Flower: Rose

A few facts about our National Bird, the Bald Eagle…

• Benjamin Franklin, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson served on the committee that picked the eagle for the national seal (Franklin wanted the turkey.)
• Bald eagles have few natural enemies & live only in North America.
• Bald eagles get their white head & tail feathers about 4-5 years of age.
• The only other kind of eagle in North America is the golden eagle.
• Bald eagles mate for life, but if one dies, the survivor will accept a new mate.
• It is a felony to shoot an eagle

That Fireworks were invented in China in the 12th century to ward off evil spirits and the US imports an estimated $128 million in fireworks from China each year.

'The Star Spangled Banner' was written by Frances Scott Key and was originally set to the tune of an English drinking song in 1814.

Calvin Coolidge, our nation's 30th president, was born on July 4th, 1872. He is the only president to claim this honor.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, all presidents, all died on a 4th of July.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council state that over 150 million hot dogs are consumed during Independence Day festivities. That's a lot of dogs, people!

The Liberty Bell sounded from the tower of Independence Hall on July 8, 1776, summoning citizens to gather for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.

The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence did not sign at the same time, nor did they sign on July 4, 1776. The official event occurred on August 2, 1776, when 50 men signed it. Their names were kept from the public for six months to protect the signers since they would have been punished with death if independence had not been achieved (you know, treason and all).

The salute of the union occurs on Independence Day at noon: One gun shot is fired for each state.

The American flag has 50 stars (one for each state) and 13 alternating red and white stripes (one for each colony). There is no official designation or meaning for the colors of the flag. However, when the Great Seal of the United States was chosen this is what was listed for them.

• white for purity and innocence
• red for valor and hardiness
• blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice

Bristol, Rhode Island is noted as having the oldest continuous 4th of July celebration.