Your next Computer Class Series Begins the week of August 19th

On behalf of our entire team we hope you have enjoyed a healthy, fun filled summer break and are now ready to get back to playing with your computers and learning about all this changing technology.....

We have a wonderful new ten (10) week series planned based on topics you and fellow classmates have asked us to cover.  If you haven't registered to attend a class or two, be sure to contact the Southern Artery Office as soon as possible...

Our goal is to help everyone get comfortable with your computers and other portable devices – For some students, who are just getting comfortable with the computers and technology our morning program may be just what you are looking for - we offer three levels:

• Beginners: We will help you understand computer basics, laptops, etc & begin using the Internet
• Intermediate 1: Spend the entire series playing with the Internet & email
• Intermediate 2: Learn the basics of using Word for word processing and Excel for creating spreadsheets

For those students, who have been taking classes for a while and are comfortable with the basics, then our afternoon series is what you might be interested in.  Our goal for our afternoon students this series, is to help increase your understanding of the computer filing system using Windows Explorer, Flash Drives & Memory Cards and using Cloud Computing with SkyDrive, Google Drive, Syncing your emails, calendar and contact list to all your devices; We will spend lots of time on the ever changing world of the Internet – terminology, shopping safely, video websites and the last few weeks our goal is to get everyone comfortable with music on your computer and other devices...

WEEK 1 & 2...WINDOWS EXPLORER –ORGANIZe YOUR COMPUTER

Understanding your computers filing system

Copying & Pasting vs. click ‘n drag

Copying to & from flash drives & memory cards

Please bring a flash drive- we will:

Create folders, sub-folders & rename photos & documents & more

WEEK 3 & 4 CLOUD COMPUTING, SKYDRIVE, GOOGLEDRIVE & SYNCING

What is cloud computing all about & how it makes your life easier’

Learn to safely store photos & documents in the clouds

Using your cloud’s address book & calendar for easy access

Syncing between your PC & Phone, Tablet

How to use your calendar – new & repeat events (daily-weekly-yearly) & more

WEEKS 5, 6, 7 & 8 INTERNET – EVERYTHING YOU NEED/WANT TO KNOW...

 How’s & why’s of using the popular browsers??

Customize your browser with your Favorites/Bookmarks, tabs & lists

Meaning of: Virus, worms, Trojans, Spyware, malware, cookies & more

Shopping safely –Searching, how to pay safely

YouTube & HuLu – downloading & streaming??

Setting up accounts so you can save & upload video’s

WEEK 9 & 10 – WORKING WITH MUSIC ON YOUR DEVICES...

How to play & save CD’s on your computer

Using the “clouds for music”

Find & listen to your favorite radio station, Jango & Pandora

Understanding iTunes & others, purchasing & burning music to cd’s

How much space/room is left on any drive or folder?

Check your Computer Properties (determine how much space is used/ open) To determine how much space is used – unused on a computer (C Drive), or on a flash drive, portable hard drive or memory card, or in a specific folder –such a My Documents or My Pictures?

 

Open Windows Explorer – (Quick Access: Windows Flag Key + E) which is a 2 sided screen – whatever is highlighted on the left is what you are looking at on the right..…

• Hover your mouse over the Drive or specific folder you want to check
• When you do this, Right Click on the Drive or folder
• When the action list appears – find PROPERTIES at the bottom of the list
• Now Left Click on Properties

Rename digital photos quickly & easily

Summer is almost over – an no doubt we all have taken lots of photos – now to file them so we can find them in the future… As we all know when we take digital photos our camera names each photo with a number unique to that camera.. So once we’ve moved them to our computer, it’s helpful to rename them with a name that we can recognize. 

Personally I rename ever photo with the date it was taken and a brief name of the event… But it’s time consuming and totally unnecessary to do each photo individual – so let the computer do it for you – and that can be done using either Windows Explorer (open this with the Windows Flag Key & letter E) or for those who you Picasa you can do it there…  Here’s how…

In Windows Explorer - Use the Detail View and Sort by Date Created Or Modified so you can easily put your photos in order that they were taken before renaming them

• Select/Highlight your group of photos in your folder that currently have the camera numbers.  To highlight them either use CTRL+A for all, or use your shift or CTRL keys to select a group of random photos…
• Once the photos are highlighted that we want to “rename” right-click on the first photo, when the action menu appears, choose “Rename” from the menu. When you rename the first image in the group, all of the others you had selected will also get that name, followed by a consecutive number o they will remain in the order that you took them…
• This is a fast and easy way to group similar pictures together in a single folder. If you wanted to undo the batch renaming, all you’d need to go is highlight them all again, right-click them and choose the Undo option 

IN PICASA – Renaming a group of photos is called “Batch editing”…

Use batch editing to make the same edits to multiple photos at the same time. For example, use batch editing to auto-correct redeye for an entire album at once. Please follow these steps:

1. Select/highlight all the photos that you'd like to edit.
2. Click the Picture menu.
3. Select Batch Edit.
4. Select the editing feature that you'd like to apply to all selected photos (such as renaming)

Note.. You can undo edits for multiple photos at once by selecting those photos, then clicking the Picture menu, and selecting Undo All Edits .

COPY FILES FROM COMPUTER TO YOUR FLASH DRIVE

Whether you are travelling and want to take the folders on your computer with you, or simply want to "back up" what you've saved on your computer, it's easy to copy any or all of the folders of documents, music, photos, etc onto a portable drive or flash drive) and here is how to do that quickly and easily... 

• Open Windows Explorer/My Computer to see which drives are shown – easiest way to do this is hold down the Windows Flag Key + E .

• Insert flash drive in the USB port, it will appear as “removable drive” or indicate the company name (Removable Disk (G)

• In Windows XP - Open MY DOCUMENTS & Select the files or folders you want to copy to flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click & select all the files to save.

• In Windows Vista & Windows 7 - Open LIBRARIES; then Open Each of the Cabinets you want to copy –My Pictures, My Music, My Movies, My Pictures; Select the files or folders you want to copy to your flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click folders or files at random; Or hold the SHIFT key to copy GROUPS of folders OR hold the CTRL + A to copy all folders in the parent folder…

• Once highlighted…. RIGHT-CLICK on the folders you want to copy (or go to Menu Bar & Edit) and choose COPY.

• Go to “My Computer”; choose the correct Drive you want to copy your work/files/folders to; highlight that drive (i.e. "Removable Disk (G:),

• RIGHT-CLICK on the Drive (or go to Menu Bar & Edit); choose PASTE

• When the copying is finished, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE FLASH DRIVE OR PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FROM THE USB PORT :
Always left-click on the REMOVE HARDWARE icon located in the System Tray to be sure it says: SAFELY REMOVE STORAGE DEVICE.

In Picasa - what’s the difference between Folders and Albums?

Q: In Picasa - what’s the difference between Folders and Albums?

A: Folders actually contain photos and they use space on your hard drive “C”; but “Albums”, only exist within Picasa.

Lets say you name your folders by date & event, like I do. You might have a main folder for a specific year, then within that year you might have sub-folders by months or events - then within a specific event folder you might have additional sub-sub-folder... For example, you went to California for 2 weeks, so inside a California Trip folder, which is inside your 2011 Folder, you have 3 sub-folders for: 320 pictures in a San Diego sub-folder; 120 in a Hollywood sub-folder and another 280 in a San Francisco sub-folder. Your family and friends might love you, but showing that many pictures to anyone would probably not be a great idea, so we want to “choose some from each city sub-folder, to create a “synopsis” folder or album, to create a slideshow, a book, or other project..

That’s where your Picasa Albums can come in very handy - but it's important you understand albums versus folders....

Folders actually contain photos.

• The folders you see in Picasa are the real folders you see when you are looking in your Picture drawer on Windows Explorer (what I call my vault).



• If you delete a photo from a folder in Picasa, the real photo in the real folder on your hard drive, will also be deleted.



• And, when you delete a photo from a folder in your Picture drawer on Windows Explorer (what I call my vault) it will no longer be in the Picasa view.

Albums, on the other hand, only exist within Picasa.

• Albums "point to" photos in folders, they don’t actually have their own copies of photos.



• Albums let us create multiple ways to view and organize the photos in your folders.



• If you add a photo to an album, the photo remains in its original folder and Picasa adds a reference to that photo to the album.



• If you delete a photo from an album, the photo remains in its original folder and Picasa removes that album's reference to that photo.



• A photo exists in exactly one folder, but the photo can appear in (be referenced by) several albums.



• If you delete a photo from a folder, the photo will be removed from the folder AND any albums it appears in (because the albums no longer have a photo to reference).

Some of us organize our photos using Windows Explorer by creating a main Project folders in the Picture "vault" for our “copies”, but another way to do that is to create Albums in Picasa, to organize your photos.

Main difference is, if I put copies in a folder in the Main Picture drawer using Windows Explorer they are truly copies; whereas albums are not true copies…

So when you use albums in Picasa, you are not using actual space on your hard drive

Windows Explorer-The computers filing cabinet

When you use Windows Explorer, you can see all the documents stored on your computer (or your network), which makes it easy to select documents, folders, travel drives, digital cameras portable hard drives to work with them.

Windows Explorer uses the same “folder system” you would in a “filing cabinet”. Folders and sub-folders are "containers" to store documents (files). The folders that Windows creates for you are named My Documents, My Music, My Pictures & My Videos. They get their names from the fact that you use them as follows:

My Documents: Use this folder to store other types of documents you save, such as typed text or spreadsheets

• My Music: Use this folder to store music you copy to your computers


• My Pictures: Use this folder to store pictures, such as those you get from a camera or scanner, or from the Internet


• My Videos: Use this folder to store videos, such as those you get from a video camera, emails or from the Internet

In Windows XP and older operating systems you will see that you must open the My Documents drawer to see the other master folders, such as My Music, My Pictures, My Scans, My Videos...

In Windows Vista and Windows 7 Operating Systems, the Master folder is called a Library and in that you will find each of the individual master folders, including My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Scans, My Videos..

For those of you using MAC’s – you now have Macintosh Explorer – check it out at www.ragesw.com/products/explorer.html

How to Burn a CD or DVD

BURNING TO A CD OR DVD is as easy as copy and pasting.. You can burn documents, photos, music or video’s to share or for back-up.. Remember CD’s can hold up to 700MB; DVD’s hold about 4.5 GB.

Open Windows Explorer: use the keyboard shortcut: Windows Flag Key + E

Windows Explorer allows you to see your entire computers filing system at once – whatever is highlighted on the left column is hat you are looking at on the right side of the screen…

• Put a blank CD OR DVD in your drive
  


• Now you can drag and drop the files you want on the CD or DVD into that area OR.
  Simply right click on the files or folder you wish to burn to a to CD/DVD and Choose send to and then choose your CD/DVD drive...
  


• Once you’ve done this, you will see a balloon message appear in the bottom right corner of your monitor, reminding you that files are ready to be written to CD. If you click on this balloon it will show the writable CD/DVD folder and all of the files and or folders that you have ready to be “burned”.
  


• If the balloon disappears and you want to see what files you are adding to a CD, simply open my computer and press on your CD/DVD drive there.
  


• Simply choose to write these files to CD/DVD D in the left menu which is under the heading of CD writing tasks or Right Click on the CD/DVD drive and choose “Write files to CD”.
  


• You can name your to CD/DVD (not necessary though) and press next until it starts to burn…

Notes:

• When you insert a blank to CD/DVD into your to CD/DVD burner a Windows dialog box will appear. Here you can choose the Open to CD/DVD folder using Windows Explorer. It will open a to CD/DVD writing dialog box where you can drag and drop files into it to burn to CD/DVD
  


• There are so many different types of to CD/DVD burning Software, but it’s just as easy to use what came with your Windows Operating System and it’s free .
  

What is Windows Explorer?

Windows Explorer gives you a fast, easy way to view, copy, delete, move, etc., the folders and files found on all of your disk drives (like a big filing cabinet) It’s important to remember, Windows Explorer is very different from Internet Explorer..

Windows Explorer lets you play with – find & organize the files and folders on your computer, just as though it were a metal file cabinet and work easily moving and/or copying files and folders to and from different drives, such as when you are copying files/folders from your computer to your portable hard drive or flash drive.

Internet Explorer is “Browser” software that allows you to connect to other computers via the World Wide Web & search for information

The easiest way to access Windows Explorer is to hold the windows flag key down & tap the letter “E”. You can quickly and easily access the Windows Explorer this way without having to minimize any other applications or screens that you have open and are working with

Computer Classes Begin Monday August 16th

We hope everyone has enjoyed their summer break... weather certainly has been wonderful - although a little hotter and more humid than some might like...

Our next 10 week Computer Class Series, which is #47, begins next week, August 16th at Southern Artery and will run thru the end of October:

Morning classes will be held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am-10:30am and 10:30am-12N and there are three (3) levels

• Beginner covering basics of hardware, software, keyboard, mouse and the desktop
• Intermediate 1, which covers the Internet - Surfing the web & Using Email
• Intermediate 2, which covers Word and basic word processing skills, writing letters etc

Our Advanced Afternoon classes are held on Monday & Tuesday at 1pm-2:30pm and on Wednesday and Thursday, 1pm-2:30pm and 2:30pm-4pm - all afternoon classes are considered ADVANCED and we cover the same topics (so if you can't make class one day-come to another class. The afternoon classes continue to build on all the basic skills you learned in the morning and we also cover changing technology..

This series we will be focusing on the top requests you made in our recent survey, including:

• Finding and Organizing whats on your computer, using Windows Explorer
• How to add, delete & clean up your files & folders
• How to copy & paste, click 'n drag, drag 'n drop..
• How to save items and copy items to and from your flash drives
• How to use SKYPE to make free calls & video calls
• Using the Internet to shop, bank & travel arrangements on line - lots of security tips and recommendations for registering on websites safely
• Changes in hotmail - which are numerous...
• And much more...

Registration for this series was held on Tuesday August 3rd - if you haven't registered yet or know someone who would like to join us, there are a few seats available - so please contact Linda Roach at the Southern Artery Office, 617-471-1000 ASAP...

On behalf of Bob Donovan, Jean McCarty and Jack Bowes, we all look forward to seeing you all again for another great series... Cherie Houston

What is a ZIP file?

.Zip file format is the standard method for "compressing" files on a computer - it allows us to condense large groups of files into one smaller file. If and when someone sends you a "compressed or zipped file" you will need to decompress or "unzip" the files. The most popular Zip program is "winzip" and you can download a free trial version from "winzip.com" or other free programs from many other shareware sites (such as shraeware.com or passtheshareware.com or thesharewareportal.com)

You can also "unzip" a file from Windows Explorer:

• Open Windows Explorer (using the Flag Key + E is the easiest way)
• Now Right click on the folder you are attempting to "unzip"
• Select "Extract to"
• Now choose the folder you want WinZip to decompress the files to.
• Make sure the "Use folder names" box is checked so any specified folders are recreated.
• If the box is left blank, all the different files will be unzipped into the single selected folder

COPY, PASTE & HIGHLIGHTING TIPS

COPY AND MOVE FILES & FOLDERS:
Cutting, copying, and pasting are essential techniques in working with and organizing files and folders. There are several ways to copy and move objects in Windows Explorer (AND TO OPEN WINDOWS EXPLORER-USE YOUR WINDOWS FLAG KEY + E)

• Copying a file or folder by using the Standard Buttons Toolbar
• Copying a file or folder by using the Menu
• Copying a file or folder by dragging

COPYING A GROUP OF DOCUMENTS, PHOTOS OR MUSIC:

• In the left pane, choose/highlight the drive you want to add items to: C Drive; Removable Drive or CD/DVD (to seee what's on it); Right click on it – choose PROPERTIES on the menu list to see how much space is used/available
• Point to the drive you are taking the work/photo’s from, "C" drive, "My Documents", "Your folder".. On the right pane you will see all the sub-folder, highlight the folder/folders (see highlighting tips noted below) you want to copy, Activate COPY command
• In the left pane, Add/create a new folder for the items in the Drive they are going to
• Once created, point/highlight the folder the work is being sent to
• Now activate the PASTE command – you will see them flying over!!
• On the left pane, highlight the new folder and you will see all the work that’s been added on the right pane

To Copy documents from one folder to another, you can select all the documents by either holding down the shift or control buttons, then holding down the left mouse button and dragging the documents into the correct folder.

HIGHLIGHTING TIPS:

• JUST ONE ITEM: Simply left click on it to highlight it
• RANDOM: To highlight “random documents, files, pictures etc.: Hold down your CTRL key on the keyboard, then left click/choose the files you want
• GROUP: To highlight “group of documents, files, pictures, etc” Left click/choose the first picture or file in the group; hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard, then left click/choose the last photo or file in the group
• ALL: To highlight all of the documents, files, pictures, etc. at once, simply use hold down your CTRL key and the letter A (CTRL+A) or go to the Menu Bar, File, and choose Select All.

HOW TO CUT/COPY & PASTE:

1. Select /highlight what you want to Cut or Copy
2. Then activate CUT or COPY (any of 5 ways)
3. Go to Where you Want what You’ve Cut or Copy to GO-be sure to choose the correct drive, fodler and or sub-folder..
4. To find your travel drive-Open my computer & find the right driveThen activate PASTE (any of 5 ways)

Using Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is the computers “filing cabinet” allowing you to quickly & easily move and or copy item (s) from one folder and or drive to another..

QUICK & EASY WAY TO OPEN "WINDOWS EXPLORER" use keyboard shortcut: hold down the windows flag key and tap the letter E... This will always open the Windows Explorer no matter where you are on your computer (minimizing anything else you had open)

• The Windows Explorer Screen is divided into two sections/panes: Left & right and divided with separator bar.
• In Windows Explorer - whatever is highlighted on the left column, is what you are looking at on the right side of the screen
• Windows Explorer Left Pane uses plus (+) and minus (-) signs to display or close what is in a folder in older operating systems (XP & older) and in the newer vists or 7, it uses > arrows

TO CREATE A FOLDER (OR SUB FOLDERS) IN WINDOWS EXPLORER:

• Open Windows Explorer – Expand whatever drive or folder you want to put your new folder in
• Be sure on the left that you have highlighted the folder you want your new folder to be in
• In older operating systems (XP or older) you can either right click on the folder/drive you are on or go to the menu bar, File, New, then choose folder - a folder will appear and you now type in the new name for this folder
• In newer operating systems (Vista or 7) you will see on the action bar at the top of your screen - New Folder or Create new folder - again when you choose this, a folder will appear and you now type in the new name for this folder