CARING FOR YOUR CD’S & DVDS..

So much information comes to us today on CD's & DVD's - so it's important to take care of them properly...

• Handle only at the hub or outer edge. Don't touch the shiny surface with your fingers
• Store in a protective case when not in use
• Don't bend the disc when taking it out of the case
• Be careful not to scratch the disc when placing it in the case or in the player tray
• Make certain the disc is properly seated in the player tray before you close it
• Keep discs away from radiators, heaters, hot equipment surfaces, direct sunlight (near a window or in a car during hot weather) and other destructive forces
• DVD specs recommend discs be stored at a temps between 50 °-90 °F with less than 27 °F variation per hour, at relative humidity of 5 to 90 percent
• Artificial light and indirect sunlight have no effect on replicated DVDs, BUT
• Exposure to bright sunlight may affect recordable DVDs, specifically write-once DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) that use light-sensitive dyes
• Magnetic fields have no effect on DVDs, so it's OK to leave them sitting on your speakers

WHAT IS A MEDIA PLAYER?

Basically it is “application software” that we use to play and manage all of our music and video files. By manage, it means that we can format music & video files to various formats; rip and burn our music & video files (so that you can transfer them to & from CD and or DVD) and many offer “visual effects” so when we listen to the music there are various patterns that will flash on our monitors (similar to screen savers).

Microsoft Operating Systems include a media player “Windows Media Player” and many people use iTunes Media Player so that they can synchronize their various iPod devices…

But personally – my favorite is VLC Media Player – which is also free… VLC works on most Operating systems including Windows 98 thru to Windows 7); and it can be installed and run from a flash drive and portable hard drive. I also think it’s one of the easiest media players to use to convert music and video formats and you can take screenshots of video’s you are watching which is a feature many people like… to download go to:

www.vlcmediaplayer.org or www.videolan.org

There are many others and it helps to check out these out at some of the “freeware” websites, such as:

www.download.cnet.com
www.freewarefiles.com
www.freeware-guide.com
www.gofree.com

Enjoy this music video

I hope you will enjoy this ~ One of your fellow students shared this “hyperlink” with me and I thought you might enjoy it…. It is amazing what technology can do today and with the Internet we all get to enjoy so many interesting things…

This “hyperlink” is a video of street singers from around the world being recorded, overlayed and mixed with one another while singing the song "Stand By Me".

It is a marvel to listen to and watch. They all deserve to be heard.

The finished product is tremendous! So click below where it instructs you to "click" and enjoy what some think is an incredible piece of sound engineering

So enjoy - turn up your speaker volume and [Click Here]

When it opens the website - you can begin by left clicking on the "play arrow" on the bottom left corner of the screen - and remember to use your F11 key to get the "full screen" impact

Keyboard Shortcuts for Outlook

Some great shortcuts when you are using Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook is one of the Office programs, which allows us to easily control contacts, calendars, email accounts, tasks, a journal and other daily functions that we maintain on the computer. It is a very popular program used by companies and individuals alike.

If you use keyboard shortcuts a lot like I do, you might want to use these keyboard shortcuts when you are working in your Microsoft Outlook Program, to easily switch from one Outlook pane (subject) to another…. So, if you were in any segment of your calendar, and you wanted to quickly go to your contacts, you would use CTRL+3..

Keyboard Shortcuts when using Outlook to change between Navigation Panes:

• CTRL+1 Mail Navigation
• CTRL+2 Calendar Navigation
• CTRL+3 Contacts Navigation
• CTRL+4 Tasks Navigation
• CTRL+5 Notes Navigation
• CTRL+6 Folder List Navigation
• CTRL+7 Shortcuts Navigation
• CTRL+8 Journal Navigation

What is Picasa Movie Maker

Picasa is a free “Google” digital photo editing software for anyone who has a PC or MAC. For anyone using Picasa Version 3+, there is a wonderful feature “movie maker” that allows us to quickly and easily convert any photo folder on Picasa into a slideshow/movie..

Picasa software is easy to use, but a few tips on using Movie Maker..

Once the Picasa folder is highlighted, simply choose the “CREATE MOVIE” icon which is:

• located above every Picasa album and also located in the action bar at the bottom of the Picasa screen

Once this icon is selected the movie is created and you can now make other enhancements to personalize your movie...

You can enhance your movie by uploading a song - an audio MP3.
When you add music, you will have several options as to how the music will work with your photos - If you choose ‘fit photos into audio’, Picasa will space your photos to fill the length of the song you have chosen

You can choose various transitions, how your slides will appear on the screen, such as “PAN & ZOOM” seems to be the most popular

You can also rearrange your photos, you can add captions, you can add slides that contain just text AND throughout the process, you can “view” your movie to see how it looks and sounds…

When you are finished you can save it to the computer, send via email, share with Skype, save to your Picasa web albums for easy sharing, or export/upload directly to YouTube or other social networking sites…

Your finished movie is saved and will then be uploaded as a.mov file.

And you can re-edit the movie later if we want to change –remove or add photos..

Try it today – go to www.picasa.com

Name & Save Your Work

Whether you are writing a letter using Word Pad, Word, Word Perfect OR creating a list of items from home or contact list using a spreadsheet software such as Excel OR creating a slide show for a power point presentation - remember when you begin - name your document immediately.
How we name a document is the same, although it varies some based on the version of software you are using...

You will notice when you open a document in Word it will have a Document Number in the title bar; if you open a spreadsheet in Excel it will have a Workbook Number - these will be replaced when you name your work (the more “new documents or spreadsheets you open” the higher the numbers get all day )

We name documents and save them in our choose of specific folders so that we can find them easily when we need them again... Saving work in folders is done in the same way in which we file work in a metal file cabinet...

• Go to File on the Menu Bar (or in newer versions go to the Office Button)
• Choose "Save As"
• In the newer versions of Word/Excel etc - you want to choose "Save as 97-2003" so that it can then be opened by others using these earlier versions
• Be sure you are in the correct DRIVE - at home the C Drive - OR if you are using a flash memory stick-choose that drive; OR at work or in school, choose the drive assigned to you.
• Then open the “My Documents” or "Documents" drawer
• Now choose or create the folder you want your work saved in
• Now NAME THE DOCUMENT, such as 2010.10.18 letter to paul
• Remember you can not use / or \ slashes when naming anything on the computer and numbers always come before letters on the computers filing system
• Once you are done typing the name you can use Enter on the keyboard, or choose OK or save with the mouse
• It is now saved and when you look at the work on monitor you will see the new name at the top on the title bar and on the open button on your task bar

Using a Mouse-Left or Right Click??

The "mouse" allows you to do many things - when you watch your monitor, the mouse control you will see is called the "cursor"...

By default (standard setting) "Mice" are set up assuming the person using it is "right handed" - you can change that default setting by going to: start, control panel, mouse - and changing the setting from right hand to left hand...

In all cases - these will affect whatever your mouse/cursor is on, on the monitor. It can open an application software program for you to use or when you are on the internet it will take you to another website; it can move an icon from one side of the screen to another, or when you right click you will have a list of various actions that you can have occur to whatever is under your mouse/cursor... Key is to know where your mouse/cursor is on the monitor before using your mouse keys...

When you are learning to use the mouse or speaking to a tech support or other person who is explaining something about your computer - the terms they will use for actions of the mouse and what they mean are:

• Pointing: Position the mouse over an item on your monitor
• Clicking: Pressing and releasing the mouse button
• Double-clicking: Press and release the mouse button twice rapidly - usually the left button
  Click n'Drag (or dragging) : Holding the left mouse button down while dragging it, will move or carry w whatever was under the cursor on the monitor
• Left-click: Press and release the “left” mouse button (Makes something happen) to whatever your mouse/cursor is on
• Right-click: Press and release the “right” mouse button (Get an action menu for whatever your mouse/cursor is on)