How to enlarge the size of your toolbars in Chrome & Firefox

According to www.ehow.com, you can edit the sizes of your toolbars in both Google chrome& Mozilla Firefox..Firefox versions prior to Firefox 4.0 have a menu bar at the top of the application that allows you to access the "File," "Edit," "Tools" and other menus.

If you find your menu bar in Firefox smaller than you prefer it, you can edit the size of the bar with the userChrome.css file, a Firefox configuration file that allows you to change any aspect of the browser using CSS code. Accessing and editing your Firefox configuration file gives you complete control over how large you want the menu bar to appear

1.   Click on "Start" and select "Computer."

2.   Go to the following location on your computer: "C:\Users\{Windows Profile Name}\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Firefox Profile Name}\Chrome."

3.   Locate the "userChrome-example.css" file. Right-click the file and select the "Rename" option. Rename the file "userChrome.css."

4.   Right-click the file and click "Open With." A new window will appear. Select "Notepad" and click "OK" to open the file in Notepad.

5.   Add the following code to the bottom of the file: /* Large Menus */ menubar, menubutton, menulist, menu, menuitem {font-size: 4mm !important;}

6.   Replace "4" with the font size in mm that you want to change the menu bar to.

7.   Click "File" and select "Save." Launch Firefox to view the changes to the menu bar.

For more information on this topic, go to this link at... www.ehow.com:.

How to Edit the Menu Bar Size on Firefox or Chrome | eHow http://www.ehow.com/how_8626717_edit-bar-size-firefox-chrome.html#ixzz2U1lYWuMe

What is an "Android" ?

We hear about Android Tablets & Android Smartphones all the time, but what is Android?

According to Wikipedia, "Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as Smartphone's and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later purchased in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance: a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. The first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008.

Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache License. This open source code and permissive licensing allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Additionally, Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in a customized version of the Java programming language. In October 2012, there were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.

These factors have allowed Android to become the world's most widely used smartphone platform and the software of choice for technology companies who require a low-cost, customizable, lightweight operating system for high tech devices without developing one from scratch. As a result, despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it has seen additional applications on televisions, games consoles and other electronics. Android's open nature has further encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems."

Registration for next series is this Thursday, October 25th-9am

We are pleased to remind you that registration for the next computer class series (#56) at 1000 Southern Artery will be held this coming Thursday morning, October 25^th, 2012 at 9am in the main building – so join us and bring a friend…

This Series #56, will run from Nov. 5^th, 2012 to February 7^th, 2013

No classes will be held for various holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and Martin Luther King Day.  

Morning classes, designed for those becoming familiar with computers and the various software application programs such as Word & Excel, will be held:

• Beginners held Monday 9am-10:30am & Wednesday, 10:30am-12Noon
• Intermediate 1/Internet are Monday 10:30am-12N and Wednesday, 9am-10:30am
• Intermediate 2/Word & Excel Basics is Tuesday, 9am-10:30am 

Our morning classes cover…

• Beginner classes cover Hardware, Software and an intro to the Internet
• Intermediate 1/Internet classes cover all aspects of the internet, surfing effectively and using your email to the full extent
• Intermediate 2/Intro to Word & Excel classes are an introduction to the two most popular software programs used worldwide-Word is the basis of all email programs, word processing & texting, and Excel is a spreadsheet program for list management and budgets… 

Afternoon classes are designed for those who understand computer, internet and word basics and are anxious to expand their horizons and have a better understanding of the changing technology (and terminology) and all the “new stuff” that’s available, and our afternoon classes will be held:

• Monday & Tuesday at 1pm-2:30pm
• Wednesday & Thursday at 12:30pm-2pm & 2pm-3:30pm  - Winter hours effective 11/5/2012 for these 2 days of classes 

Our afternoon classes this series will focus on the changing technology and all the wonderful things we keep hearing about – if you have any of these devices or are thinking of getting one, or just want to better understand the system you have – then join us, when we will cover:

• Photo Gifts: More than storing them on PC’s, Gift Ideas, Movies, Digital Photo Frames
• Ereaders… Kindles, Nooks & More..
• Tablets, Netbooks, iPads, Laptops
• Cloud Computing – SkyDrive, iCloud and Google Cloud..
• Music –MediaPlayers-Windows, VLC & Itunes
• Getting To Know Apple, Google & Amazon

Dealing With Error Messages

From time to time, we all have error messages appear on our monitor that we don’t know what they mean. Next time this happens this tip will help:

First:
I always save the error message in word for future reference. To do that easily:

· Use your CTRL Key – Print Screen Key together (this will take a copy of the error message & all that is on your monitor at the time)

· Now open your WP software (Word, Works, Word Pad) and use your PASTE command-now the error message is on a clean piece of paper-Now Save it so once you know what this means, you can type the answer on the same page for future reference

· And print the message so you can see it easily

Next:

· Type the error message into Google Search.

· You are not the first (and won’t be the last) to get this error message.

· Personally I read a few answers, to be sure I am getting an answer I understand and resolution I can work with

Last:
Once I have the explanation and resolution I need, I use my copy and paste skills:

· Highlight the information

· Activate your copy command

· Open the document that has the error message copy on it

· Put my cursor on that document and activate the paste command, which adds the answer and resolution

· And save it once again

Now in the future if the error message comes back up, I have my answer.

Google Docs - Part 2 of 2

For anyone who is using Google Doc's - Google has a great new software plug-in “Cloud Connect” that easily will move any and all of our Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint files to Google Docs.

Cloud Connect, was released by Google on Thursday Feb 24^th, 2011 and it will allow users to save our files to save their files to "the cloud," which in this case is on Googles servers.

That means that once our files are saved in Google Docs, we can then edit files in Microsoft Office and sync them up to the clouds. This will also mean that it will be much easier if and when we want to collaborate on documents and will eliminate the confusion as to which version of a document is the most recent one.

"For example, you can edit a Word document's Opening Page of Grandma’s Life Story from Lake Havasu, AZ, while your sister in Quincy, MA is adding the family tree and your brother in Weymouth, MA is making other revisions.. This way, instead of having to send emails with tons of attachments, your whole family or group can work together."

And the great news is that Google will save every revision of any document users of Cloud Connect make, whether those edits take place in Office or Google Docs. And files can be shared in a view-only form via Google Docs as well with each document getting a unique Web address (just in case you don’t want someone make changes).

Cloud Connect is free and works with Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 on Windows PCs. Cloud Connect, however, won't work with Mac versions of Office. Sorry – it’s not available for Mac Users yet, but Google indicates it’s working on it, so no doubt it will be in the near future….

Check it out for yourself…

http://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudconnect

What are Google Docs?

Have you tried Google Doc’s yet? Check it out - if you have Internet access, you can use the various aspects of Google Docs, which include Documents (Word Processing); Spreadsheets; Presentations, Drawings and Forms..

Google Docs is great for:

• anyone who travels so you can access your documents anytime anywhere


• groups who want to collaborate on various projects


• those who only use word processing software once in a while and don’t want to buy and download software on their computer...

Why Google Doc's is becoming so popular:

• You store your documents online, so you can access your documents from any computer


• No need to transfer documents to flash or portable drives or "synch" anything


• Works great with all Microsoft Office products, such as Word, Excel & PowerPoint, as well as OpenOffice, so you can upload or download your files.


• You can export documents as PDF files, so if you have Office 97-2003, this is a great/free way to convert documents to PDFs without having to upgrade to Office 2007 or 2010, or use other plug-ins


• Easy to collaborate on projects-you can make a document public or show it to others by sending a link. If you want to allow others to work on the document, you can send out an email to others notifying them that they can access the document.

Use your existing email account to sign into & set-up a Google Account-this video on YouTube explains just how to do that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJpkRbNto7E

Google's How To Videos

One of my favorite Boston based tech support people, Kevin Bachleder, recently shared with us a wonderful website that we should all add to our favorites/bookmarks…

http://www.teachparentstech.org/

This great website, provided by GOOGLE, shares with us their new 54 how-to videos tutorials produced and hosted by their Google employees. Each of the video tutorials runs for just under a minute on a wide variety of topics to help us better understand some of the new (and old) computer technology..

These video tutorials are a wonderful way to reinforce the “how to steps” on a variety of topics that we ask others to help us with each and every day… They cover such basics as "how to attach a file to an email" or "how to copy and paste" through to "how to find cheap flights."

So, like our other favorite Google website: http://www.allmyfaves.com/

This new one is a great addition to our favorites/bookmarks..

And if you’d like to read a little more about the new Google video help site, read the article in December 2010 PC Magazine:

www.pcworld.com/article/213621/send_your_parents_a_care_package_of_howto_videos.html

Working With Bookmarks/Favorites In Chrome by Google

FOR THOSE OF US WHO USE “CHROME" GOOGLE'S WEB BROWSER, use the bookmark manager to organize your bookmarks and folders. Remember "Website Favorites" are called "Bookmarks" in Chrome & other browsers.. To open the manager, follow these steps:

1. Click the wrench icon (in the upper right hand corner of your chrome web page screen) on the browser toolbar. Mac users: If you don't see the wrench icon, go to the menu bar at the top of your screen and click Bookmarks.
2. Select Bookmark manager.

Here are a few tips for using the manager:

• Move bookmarks or folders around
  Simply click the item you want to move and drag it to its new destination within the folder list on the left.
• Edit the name or web address of a bookmark, or a folder name
  Select the item you'd like to edit, click the Organize menu, then select Edit. You can also easily edit bookmarks and folders from the bookmarks bar by right-clicking the item in question and selecting Rename.
• Search bookmarks
  Use the search box at the top to quickly find a bookmark within the manager.
• Add a new bookmark folder
  In the folder list on the left, right-click the location where you want the new folder to reside and select Add folder
• Delete a bookmark or folder
  Right-click the item and select Delete.

Tutorial for Picasa's many features

There are so many wonderful features to use in Picasa ~ a great free software program from Google, that allows you edit and be creative with your digital photos..

If you don't already have Picasa on your computer, just go to their website and download the free software - it's easy and only takes a minute... you may be pleasantly surprised by all the photos it finds on your computer that you knew you had but couldn't find!!

www.Picasa.com

For those of you who do have Picasa and are confused or not sure how to use some of the many features - such as their new picnic editing; name tags which recognizes faces; creating a movie; using web albums to share entire photo folders, geotagging and much much more - Google has a great tutorial website that will work with you on all these wonderful features... This is definitely a website that should be in your favorites...

www.picasatutorials.com

So if you are bored on these cold winter days... experiment with your digital photos and videos and you'll be amazed at all you can do and how easy it is...