Skype and I

Posted on Tuesday by Mrs C.

computer keyboard A couple of years ago I used Skype to communicate with a marketer in Japan. At that time, I was always self-conscious about whether I was using the program correctly, could he hear me properly – in other words, I had technophobia where Skype was concerned. So I never used it again.

Last month, my daughter and I tried a Skype video chat. Feeling a little more comfortable by now, but still nervous about it. This is ridiculous, thought I, a lot of people really like Skype and I can use it to call a land-line phone from my computer, so I needed to give it a proper workout.

Well, I have to say, I ended up majorly excited about using Skype. My reason? Continue reading →

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Using Word 2007

Posted on Friday by Mrs C.

A good cup of coffee When I have a coffee, I like it to taste like my usual coffee. When I use a computer program, I like it to behave the way I’m used to. Call me inflexible, but I wish that Microsoft had left Word alone. I could quickly and easily find the tools I needed in the older versions, but now I feel like a lost puppy. I’ve been helping out with a beginner Word class and it’s pretty embarrassing when I, as the instructor, can’t find the tool to Select Text :(   Nor can I easily find Print Preview.

I suppose if I had never used any other version of Word, I’d appreciate the program more. And maybe there are a lot of useful features that I haven’t discovered yet. But for now, I’m glad I can at least use the Help files. Although a little question mark icon in the corner isn’t nearly as noticeable either.

I did learn one thing though. I can go to each of the tabs, find the features that I miss, right click and add them to the short-cut bar on the Word home page. Then at least I can find some of my old helper tools.

Maybe the best thing is for me to find a book to help me wade through the changes. Any suggestions?

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Laser Ink Disposal

Posted on Wednesday by Mrs C.

Last week I did a very stupid thing and I’m sharing it in the hopes you don’t follow in my footsteps. I have a laser printer that needed new ink.

Ink jet printers have a small black cartridge. With a laser printer, the cartridge (I think it’s called toner) is almost as wide as the printer and fits into another part called the drum.

My husband has an identical, brand new, laser printer. So when mine stopped working, I took his whole ink unit out and put it into my printer. Then i ordered a new cartridge so I could give his back.

I added my used toner to a collection of them that I needed to dispose of and planned to take them to a computer store for recycling. I ended up buying new ink from a local business and giving him the bag for recycling. Can you see where this is going?

Next step, put my hubby’s laser ink back in his printer and put the new one in mine. As soon as I opened the package, I realized my mistake. I had no drum to put the cartridge in.

It was in the bag, with the cartridges to be recycled. Thankfully, I was able to retrieve my drum and put it back into my printer. If I’d dropped it off at a big box store, the outcome might have been very different.

This was an easy and possibly very expensive mistake to make. The toner fits into the drum and if you aren’t paying close attention, they look like one piece. The price of a new drum had I needed to replace it? I could probably have bought a new laser printer instead:(

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Internet Browser Tips

Posted on Tuesday by Mrs C.
  • I use a lot of shortcuts on my computer screen so that I can quickly access a file or program without hunting for it. But I didn’t know until the other day that it’s possible to create a shortcut icon on your desktop to get to an Internet address. To do that: right click anywhere on your desktop and choose ‘new’. Then choose ‘shortcut’.  A dialogue box will appear and in it you have to paste the website address you want to go to. For example, I might paste in ‘http://www.creativehomecomputing.com’ to quickly get to one of my favourite web sites. (Biased self-promotion I know). Save and that’s it, you’ve got a short cut to a website. You can also right click on the shortcut you’ve just created , click  ‘new’ and then ‘icon’ to change the appearance of the image that represents it.
  • If you don’t like where your Internet browser automatically downloads things to your computer, you can change it. Go to your Internet toolbar and click ‘Tools’, then ‘Options’ and in the general tab, select ‘always ask me where to save files.’

There you go, two things I’ve learned this past week that make my computer life much easier. What tips have you found that might help the rest of us?

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Posted in Internet and Email | 2 Comments

How To Publish A Newsletter

Posted on Monday by Mrs C.

Laptop Computer

Time for our guest blogger, Paul E. Lubic, Jr., a seasoned IT professional who has held positions such as Computer Programmer, IT Security Manager and Chief Information Officer. Paul’s HomeComputing Blog discusses the various aspects of home computing. Great minds think alike and this month Paul is talking about publishing a newsletter. Just what you need if you’ve been asked to write one for your club!

Have you wanted to be able to contribute to your organization, business or to an extended family in some way? We should all want to add value to the work we do. Publishing a newsletter on your home (or work) computer is a way to add great, tangible value by providing needed communication to the organization, business or family’s members. You can be a star!!

Before you doubt that you can do this; consider that, if you can write a few paragraphs that make sense, and with the help of technology and a simple step-by-step method…you can publish a newsletter. Are you ready to get started?

Here are some things you’ll need:

Notebook

Pen

Computer

Printer

Digital Camera

Instructions

  1. Decide what you’d like your newsletter to look like; such as the design (title, number of columns, header graphics, use of photographs). Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a graphic artist to have a great-looking newsletter…there are free templates you can use on the Microsoft Home website. You’ll need to have Word 2003 or later to use these. Just download the template you want and replace the example text with yours.
  2. Decide what stories or articles you want to have in the newsletter. Make sure it’s information that the audience will want to know. You should ask them, on a periodic basis, what they’d like to read about. Next, gather the information for those articles by interviewing people or otherwise obtaining information from the club secretary or other officer. When deciding the content of each newsletter, consider having a calendar of events, birthdays (minus years of birth) of members, awards received by members or the organization…these can be items that are running features that appear in every issue.
  3. Write the articles from your notes taken while interviewing and gathering information. Keep the articles fresh and interesting. You know…catchy title; opening paragraph; middle content; and a good closing summary.
  4. Use photos whenever possible to add interest and color. Photos or clip-art can be used to highlight the topic of the article; such as a photo of the person who got the award, or an appropriate piece of clip-art that relates to the subject. Three or four photos per issue should be plenty.
  5. After writing the articles, paste them into the template, paste photos or clip-art, and when happy with the newsletter’s appearance, save it and send it to someone who will proofread it for you.
  6. Once you’ve made the suggested changes; send it out to your audience through email or printed copies and sit back and wait for the compliments.

© Paul Lubic, Jr. paulshomecomputing@yahoo.com

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