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…
  

RGISTRATION-MARK YOUR CALENDARS-MAY 4TH 9AM

Mark your calendar: Tuesday, May 4th - 8:45am - Registration for Computer Class Series #46 at the Southern Artery Office

This next series, #46, will begin the week of May 10th and continue thru the end of July - however no classes will be held:

• Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day


• Monday-Friday, July 5th - 9th for July vacation

The next series will be 11 weeks vs. 10 weeks... And we totally understand and expct that there will be classes you will miss for summer activities and that's fine

Morning classes offer three level of classes - Beginner, Intermediate 1 which focuses on the Internet and Email and Intermediate 2 which focuses on Word.

Afternoon classes are open to anyone who has completed the morning series and the topic vary every series. This summer will work on a special project, using your windows explorer organizing skills along with your word processing and photo skills... You will write, create and publish your own book using free BOOKSMART software from Blurb.com (check it out) You will decide what type of book - maybe from a favorite vacation, a book of poetry or recipes, or your life story to share with your family... once the project is done - you can decide to order the book or just enjoy what you've learned and order nothing.. the choice is yours... so no expense is involved at all..

This is an entirely new topic and we encourage everyone to join us..

So be sure to regixter and bring a friend - and as always we welcome your suggestions for topics for future classes...

What to do with the digital photos you are taking?

Here we go again – taking lots of photos and then stashing them in our computers – like we’ve done over the years with photos that weren’t properly identified with whose in the photo, when it was taken or where – we meant to do that, but life got in the way.. Now it's the digital age and we're doing the same thing when we put them in our computer instead of in a box, bureau drawer or closet… We hope these ideas will help you as you build your photo library on your computer

When you copy photo's from your camera's memory card to your computer to the "My Picture or Picture" folder it is beneficial to immediately create a folder indicating what the event is - better yet, consider having master folders for each year, and then sub-folders for the 12 months during the year and within the months, sub-folders for specific events... When you want a particular photo (s) in one of these sub-folders, simply create a new folder with the project name on it, or to email, or to print, and copy the photos you want from the various folders, to the project folder; done with your project-empty/delete the folder - and you will know that the original photo is safe in the correct folder...

Editing photos using Google's "Picasa" a "free photo editing software program" that allows you to easily and quickly edit your photos, crop them - improve color, change to sepia or black & white, add soft focus lighting or enhance them in a variety of other ways; upload them to web albums to share with friends & families or to add to your blog, create collages, movies, print them and many other wonderful features... and it's all free...
to download this free software, go to http://www.picasa.com/ and follow the download wizard

Windows Movie Maker: another free software, that will allow you to create movies with your photos and enhance those movies with with animation and music that you've downloaded from your favorite CD's. Again, this software is free and easy to work with - finished movies can be saved to CD's or DVD's for gifts or personal use..
This free software is included on all computers with Windows XP & Vista and can be downloaded to those pc's with Windows 7 - for more info on this go to the following hyperlink:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/02/11/windows-movie-maker-2-6-available-for-vista-windows-7/

Create and Publish your own book: another free software from either http://www.blurb.com/ or http://www.lulu.com/ that allows you to create and publish your own book - either all photo's, all text, or a combination of both... Sizes, styles, paper choices all vary depending on what you want and your budget... when you go to these websites - you can download their free book creation software - blub.com uses "booksmart" and you can then create your book in your own time; personally I know of people who've taken over a year - so no rush.. once the software is on your computer you can work at your own pace...

Hopefully we've given you some food for thought - we will share more ideas with you in the weeks ahead, including digital scrapbooking and more. If you have a suggestion, send it to us so that we can share it with your fellow students... In the meantime - enjoy...