What is the NUM LOCK key on my keyboard?

NUM LOCK is just an abbreviation for numeric lock.

The NUM LOCK key is usually located in the upper left corner of the numeric keypad on your keyboard and enables and disables your numeric keypad.

When you turn the NUM LOCK on you can use the numbers on the keypad; when you turn the NUM LOCK off the keys now perform other functions such as using the keypad as an arrow pad (typically the “other” functions are noted right on the numeric keypad keys).

On most keyboards, when the NUM LOCK key is enabled, there will be an LED light indicator, so that you know the the NUM LOCK key is turned on (just like the CAP LOCK) light indicator…

How and Why's of Setting Up Users Accounts (with Windows 7)

How to set up different User Accounts on your Computer..
Windows Operating Systems have always allowed us to set up different user accounts for different users of the same computer, so that when each user signs in they will see the desktop icons/software – wallpaper, screen savers and of course files & folders that are just theirs…

Although it’s a little different in each of the operating systems – Windows 7 makes it easier than ever to do this…

Note: Whenever two or more user accounts are created, one of them MUST BE an administrator account. It is then the administrator account that is able to set restriction on what additional user accounts can and can’t do…

• Go to Start, Control Panel, User Accounts, then left click “Manage another Account”
• Now left click on “create a new account”
• Choose an account type, enter a name and then left click, create account
• To password protect the account, click that choice. You will see different account options in addition to creating a password

Remember passwords are always case sensitive, so be sure to note what the different passwords are that you assign to each user

Why set up different user accounts? I’ve found it helpful to have a user account with my name on it and another user account that says “kids” for the grandkids to use and another user account for “guests” which allows anyone else to use the computer… This way, the grandkids and guests can use our computer, and I'm never concerned that any of our personal and/or work information will be compromised - it remains private and can’t be accessed by anyone else using the computer…

Using Facebook's top bar for navigation

It's helpful to know how to "navigate" around Facebook and an easy way is to use the Navigation Bar which is located at the top of your Facebook page - to the right of your profile photo...

Here are brief descriptions of each of the available options on this navigation top bar..

Home (facebook logo) - Clicking this logo will take you to your wall (News Feed) that shows all friends recent posts.

Friend requests - If any friend requests are waiting to be approved this icon will show a notification of how many friends are waiting for approval. This icon can also be clicked when you want to view any friend recommendations or search for friends on Facebook.

Messages - This section allows you to send and receive private messages between one or more people you're friends with.

Notifications - Any time a friend or Facebook application creates a new post you'll be notified in this section. Clicking this icon will show all recent notifications. If you wish to change what is capable of sending you notifications including any Facebook applications or games click the See All Notifications link at the bottom and check or uncheck what you want to be notified on.

Search - Finally, the search box in Facebook can be a powerful tool that can be used to quickly find any current friends or people on Facebook. In addition searching for terms such as a company name, product, sports team, music band, etc. will find fan pages and groups that can be joined.

Facebook - Update your privacy settings

Despite all the bad press Facebook gets about their site and the privacy issue, one of the basic reasons there is a problem is that we, the users, don’t pay close enough attention to our privacy settings, which we should carefully and often..

As technology changes, Facebook has also changed and continually is adding more privacy options for us to use to help protect ourselves –but we have to use them…

Not sure how and what to do – then see what’s news:

Click Account in the top right corner of the Facebook window and then click Privacy settings to adjust who is capable of seeing what on your Facebook profile. We highly recommend going through all the privacy settings to verify your privacy is properly protected.

Understand, that anything that is not set to FRIENDS ONLY or FRIENDS OF FRIENDS can be seen by anyone searching on the Internet. Some good tips for most of us…

• Under Search in Privacy settings uncheck Public Search Results. This will prevent users from finding your account and profile picture in search results such as Google


• Under Application settings, make sure you're only allowing applications you want to have access to your information. Applications that you grant rights to can have access to your Facebook profile information.

Error Message: Windows-No Disk

Question: I am getting a error message a lot lately: “WINDOWS-NO DISK” pops up on the monitor and it makes no difference what I’m working on or have open and it happens several times a day…

Answer: Tech support forums and sites (including Microsoft) indicate that this is common (more so with Windows XP & Vista) than Windows 7. THe following is the solution, copied directly from Microsoft’s website at the following link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/windows-no-disk-exception-processing-message/b1a67525-d5e8-46ae-9801-6b169547e656

"The answer lies in the words "Windows: No Disk", your PC is looking for a USB device - e.g. a USB stick or a cell phone - that you've recently plugged in and have removed without using the "remove hardware safely" option in the right hand bottom corner of your screen. Put the last USB device you used back into the USB port and then use the "remove software safely" option.

The pop up message will disappear."

In my case, I didn't have to plug the USB device in, I just needed to click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray, and tell it to remove the device that is no longer plugged in.

Change the desktop "wallpaper" on your pc

FOR THOSE WITH WINDOWS XP..

When you are on the desktop, put your mouse on a blank area (just make sure you are not on an icon) – now RIGHT CLICK

• At the bottom of the action list, the command you want to choose is “Properties”




• Now the Display Properties Dialog Box will open, which has several tabs: Themes-Desktop-ScreenSaver etc..



• Choose DESKTOP – and when this section opens, you can now change what is showing for the desktop wallpaper – there is a list of choices – NOTE: “none” which is at the top of the list is what we use to display the solid color MSN basic blue screen or



• You can go to the BROWSE button which opens My Pictures and add a photo from your folder



• Now you can now decide to have the picture "stretch" which covers the entire screen, such as you cat photo; or "center" which means the picture will be in the center will color around it, or "tiles" so that it takes the photo and replicates it many times.



• When you are done, at the bottom of the dialog box choose APPLY and then OK and your desktop wallpaper is changed until you change it again...

FOR THOSE WITH WINDOWS 7..

When you are on the desktop, put your mouse on a blank area (just make sure you are not on an icon) – now RIGHT CLICK

• At the bottom of the action list, the command you want to choose is “Personalize”



• Now a list of choices will appear, once of which is Desktop Background




• Click the picture or color you want for your desktop background



• As with the directions for Windows XP users above, you can now choose either a picture from those supplied by Windows 7, or if you want to choose something else left click the Picture location down arrow to view other categories, or click Browse to search for the picture on your computer. When you find the picture you want, double-click it. It will become your desktop background and appear in the list of desktop backgrounds.
  

What is Excel? And why would I use a spreadsheet?

Most of us understand that word processing software makes it much easier to create documents such as letters, forms, invitations, greeting cards and anything that contains text. Well – Excel does the same thing for us – making it easier to work lists, figures, numbers for list management, budget, statistics, data – anytime any type of calculation needs to be done. Although Excel spreadsheets/worksheets used to be used primarily for accounting and other analytical information where calculations needed to be made easily; but many of us find them a wonderful resource for list and other data management.

Like so many software application programs, Excel opens with a blank document – but in Excel that blank document is a blank worksheet, which is actually a grid of rows and columns.

In Excel, the rows of you spreadsheet/worksheet are serially numbered 1,2,3 .... and the columns are serially lettered A,B,C..... This numbering enables each space or cell to have its unique address; thus D15 represents the cell in the 4th column and the 15th row.

In Excel, using the ‘=’ sign, simple mathematical equations or formula can be used and sums, differences, products etc. calculated. Thus typing say, ‘=23+56’ in any cell will give the result of 79. The same work can be done by typing in the numbers 23 in cell A1, 56 in A2 and ‘=A1+A2’ in cell A3 and in fact what you have done is create a “formula”

Using a formula with cell references allows us to change the value in either cell A1 or A2 to get the revised result. This has significant advantages when using a complex formula or the same formula across multiple cells. The more recent your version of Excel, the easier it is to create and/or use formulas included in the software command list.

So many of the basic commands that we use all the time in Word Processing whether you use Microsoft Word Pad, Word or Word Perfect, such as Open, Save, Copy, Paste, Find, Replace Undo, Redo, Center, Left, Right etc.. are also available and work the same in Excel, Excel also offers a variety of basic commands that are designed to work with spreadsheets – whether you are managing a list of data or one with numbers and some of those are Paste Special, Filter, Sort, Wrap Text, Autofill, and Freeze panes.

And with the newer versions - Excel 2003, 2007 and 2010 - each new version adds more and more "templates" so that we don't have to recreate the wheel - so whether you are creating a budget for the holidays, a special event, your vacation or next years income & expenses - or various lists for managing data - there are hundreds of templates to choose from with the formulas already built in...

So whether you are trying to create a basic budget or want a way to quickly and easily maintain you all of your contact lists in one document – Excel is the answer.. So give it a try... it's easier than you think and can be used for so many things..