ASSORTED COMPUTER USAGE TIPS
TIP.... BE CAREFUL CHANGING THINGS AND DONT DELETE IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT
ANYTIME YOU WANT TO BRING THINGS UP, THIS MAY BE AOL ONLY, HOLD DOWN CTRL KEY WHILE HITTING LETTER.
Ctrl C Copies Highlighted Text Ctrl G Gets a Member Profile Ctrl K Opens the Keyword Box Ctrl I Opens Instant Message Ctrl L Locates a Member Online Ctrl M Opens New E-Mail Ctrl N Opens a Notepad Ctrl P Opens the Print Dialogue Box Ctrl R Opens Your Mailbox Ctrl V Pastes Copied Text Ctrl X Cuts Highlighted Text Ctrl Y Adds to My Calendar
AIM.............Instant Messages
For those of you who are on AOL and those of you who are not:
If you are on Aol and a friend is not:
your friend or relative can go to:
aol.com
and download AIM onto your computer
it is free!!!
then the person that downloads aim makes himself a name and then enters it and your aol name and you can talk through instant messages when you see them online:
if both are not on aol then both people have to download aim and activate it.
this is a marvelous free tool that AOL has online.
RIGHT CLICKING FROM YOUR MOUSE
I...SAVING A PHOTO
saving photos, webpages, music etc.,
If you find a photo on one of the pages you wish to have or keep
Some websites wont let you save their graphics or photos.
Most will.
To save or download to a certain folder.
The best way to do this is open your main computer desktop go explore to C drive.
Highlight C folder so after C is highlighted
click on file at the top left, then
new, then
folder......
a new folder area comes up on the right name it
so when you save things you can save to that folder.
if you dont make a certain folder to save to it always saves to download.
you can name several directory folders with photos, genealogy or etc..
and have several different folders to put your things in.
You can alos use my documents area to download things to. I prefer my own named folders.
Right click on any photo on the internet,
a box will come up
go to
save picture as
click on it
another box will come up
3 areas here to work on:
1....a box at the bottom to name the photo
a box below it
2....what kind of file to save, also has to be changed before you download the photo
dont save them as art files, you cant open them in the desktop. save them as bmp files.
3....at the top of that box is a file name
click the small triangle on the right all your desktop files will come up
find the one you named
and save it to that folder,
You can also save it directly to a disk on a. drive
You can make folders on disks the same way; just highlight A, after a disk has been put in, and follow instructions same as C: above.
you can save any photos on any of the newsletters or genealogy pages this way, remembering to save it as a bmp file.
II...SAVING THE BACKGROUND
If its a background, click on the background then a box will come up, click on save background.
and save as you did the photo above as a bmp file.
If you are researching and you want to save the whole page in html code
right click on an area of the background of the page , the box will come up
click on view source, the whole page will come up on wordpad in html code you can save this page but usually it has the servers ads on it too if you know html code you can take them off dont do this on a page that is not free to use
some places have this barred and a box will come up and say its disabled
III...PRINTING THE PHOTO OR GRAPHIC
RIGHT CLICKING gives us a box with many different things depending on what we are right clicking on
You can also print the graphic or photo from this box.
Right Click on the photo you wish to print. Click on Print.
These will print on regular paper or Photo paper. You might wish to try regular paper first to check the size.
SEARCHING
In aol KEYWORD, all you have to do is type in a word and all kinds of pages will come up with that word in it.
In other searches you can put the whole word in "between" sometimes that helps
using one word usually helps or one name and if you are searching for genealogy
Type in ohio genealogy or even the county pike county kentucky genelaogy.
There are many ways of searching for things
try your name???
There are many many searches on the internet
aol of course has its own, two really, keyword and search
google.com
google also has a picture search on theirs
altavista.com
rootswebsearches: http://searches.rootsweb.com
Most genealogy sites have a search
DESKTOP TIPS: Off the Intenet
Right click anywhere on your desktop background
1...Click on arrange icons: you can change the icons on desktop from here
Click on new;
Shortcut comes up: a box comes up: browse
Find a game or file or anything you wish to make an icon for and find the execute file .exe, then it will make an icon shortcut for your desktop.
You can place these icons in one folder: or several folders on your desktop
Games: Documents: etc.
To make a folder
Right click on Background on desktop, a box comes up, Click folder: then name the folder: games, works, graphics etc.
and if you have other icons on your desk top you want moved to the folder you just made: left click on it and hold the click down drag it on top of the folder and let go. and now its in the folder.
Left clicking and holdling down you can drag almost anything anywhere and move it.
But if you do this in your C Drive Files, be careful its not something you have linked to to a shortcut or other link, or it wont work if its moved to another file.
if you open EXPLORER:
RIGHT CLICK ON START: OPEN EXPLORER
Click on a folder open it: if you want to move a file or graphic to another folder then just left click on it highlighting it hold the click down. dont click twice or it will open. if it does then close it and start over; holding click down: drag it to wherever you want to move it to. when you see the folder become highlighed you want to move it to as you move it over it: let it go and it is in that folder now:
I have done this and it went in the folder next to it, so be careful as you go over it slowly making sure it is the folder you want to move it to
you can also do this to move a whole folder or file to a disk or a cdwriter
DELETING:
If you need to delete a program go through program files first: on your control panel
add and remove programs area
if you dont have it there: then find the folder and delete it from the Explore C area
If it is a file you have downloaded then deleting from your files is ok
Be careful deleting, but you can always retreive it before you clean out the recycle bin.
If you want to delete one file: highlight it then click file in top left corner: then click delete a box will ask if you are sure
if you want to delete several other items but not all:
highlight one, then hold down the ctrl button and while holding down this button on lower left of keyboard, highlight all you want to delete. if you click twice it will make a duplicate and you will have to delete these as well so only click once to highlight, then go to file, then delete.
if you want to delete all in that folder
highlight folder name:
then go to edit: select all:
then delete
MAKING A NEW FOLDER:
highlight directory you wish to make a new folder in
whether its C Drive. or a directory within C drive.
click file on top left tool bar:
new:
folder:
name the folder
thats it
PROPERTIES:
Click on file in top left: then properties:
Tells you how much memory you have on your computer
FINDING A FILE YOU DOWNLOADED OR SAVED:
ON AOL IF YOU DONT DESIGNATE A SPECIAL FOLDER:
then it automatically downloads it to aol folder in aol download
if you dont have aol then remember the name of the file and use the search:
then you can go and move it if you need to wherever you want it
USING COPY AND PASTE:
LEFT CLICK ON WHATEVER YOU WANT TO COPY
STARTING AT THE END OF THE LINE OR THE BEGINNING RIGHT CLICK AND HOLD THE CLICK DOWN HIGHLIGHTING THE ENTIRE AREA YOU WANT TO COPY CAN BE A LINE OR ONE WORD OR A WHOLE PAGE GO DOWN THE PAGE UNTIL YOU HAVE ALL YOU WANT HIGHLIGTED: THEN LET UP ON THE CLICK
Then right click on the highlighted area: a box will come up: click on copy
the go to wherever you want to put it. in wordpad or if you are online in an email:
then right click on the background of that page: then a box will come up: click paste
and there you have it: Copy and Paste
If you cant right click:
using the mouse right click is much easier
Highlight the text you want copied: same as above
hold down ctrl key and hit key C
then go to where you want it copied to
hold down ctrl key and hit key V and it will paste it
CHANGING YOUR APPEARANCE ON YOUR DESKTOP OR THE SIZE OF YOUR SCREEN ITEMS
in control panel you can go to the Appearance and Themes
a Box will come up:
changing computers theme
desktop
screensaver
or resolutions
most people use 800 by 600 resolutions and if yours is set any different you might want to change it to 800 by 600
LEFT CLICK ON START BRINGS UP PROGRAM FILES: EVEN IF YOU ARE ON THE INTERNET YOU CAN ACCESS THESE AREAS FROM START;
BRING UP A GAME AND PLAY IT WHILE ON THE NET WHILE TALKING TO SOME OR IM'ING SOMEONE.
THE COMPUTER IS AMAZING REALLY, WHAT IT CAN HANDLE.
I KEEP MY GENEALOY HARDWARE OPEN AND USING THE SMALL - MINUS SIGN IN THE TOP RIGHT CORNER IN THE CORNER KEEP IT ON MY TOOL BAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN. SO WHEN I AM ONLINE AND I FIND ANYTHING I NEED TO ADD I CAN ADD IT EASILY AND QUICKLY WHILE ONLINE. AND COPY AND PASTE INFORMATION INTO THE GENERATONS FILES AND CAN ALWAYS GO BACK AND EDIT IT. SAVES A LOT OF TYPING AND TRYING TO PUT THEM IN A FILE AND REMEMBERING TO ADD THEM LATER.
THIS DOES TAKE UP MEMORY SO IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT MORE THAN 8 GIGS OF MEMORY THEN YOU MIGHT CAN ONLY KEEP A COUPLE OPEN WHILE YOU ARE ONLINE.
IF SO THEN WORDPAD AND YOUR GENEALOGY FILE WOULD BE MY CHOICES
Other Dektop tips
If you're in a folder window and want to see the contents of your entire hard drive via the handy Windows Explorer "folder tree" view, right-click the folder icon on the left side of the window's Title bar, then select Explore. If you're in Explorer mode and you want to switch to a folder view, just click the X (Close) button at the top right corner of the left-hand pane (also known as the Explorer bar), and you're back where you started.
Windows also lets you view the contents of folders as icons or lists. For file management purposes, the best view is the one known as Details. This contains information such as file size and date. You can designate certain folders to display in Details mode.
In Windows XP and Me, Details view can show more than the usual column headings (Name, Size, and Date). For example, a folder containing MP3s can display other relevant data such as Album Title, Artist, Duration, and so on. To choose which columns you want displayed, select View, Details, then select View, Choose Details (in XP) or View, Choose Columns (in Me). Double-click a column or detail to select or deselect it, and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to move a selected column/detail, rearranging the order the columns will be displayed.
As you install more and more new programs on your system, the Start menu can become long and unwieldy. But you can remove unwanted items with just a few mouse clicks. Click Start (or if you're using XP and not its "Classic Start menu," select All Programs). See the items above the horizontal line toward the top of the menu? If you want to get rid of them, right-click an item (say, Open Office Document) and select Delete. When you're done trimming there, proceed to the Programs submenu (in XP, the entries below the line in the All Programs menu) and follow the same procedure for other unwanted items. (If you delete items from the Programs submenu, though, you'll have to go into My Computer to start those infrequently used applications.) After you've finished giving individual items the boot, right-click any file or folder on that submenu and select Sort by Name. Things should start to look much more organized.
If you come across a picture you like on the Web, you can save it as your wallpaper, your desktop's background. Simply right-click the image, and, depending on your version of Windows, select Set as Background or Set as Wallpaper. While you're at it, if you want to store the picture on your hard drive, right-click the image, click Save Picture As, rename the file whatever you like, and select a folder to store the image in.
your wallpaper later? You can overwrite your wallpaper by saving a new image or by going back to what you had before. Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and click the Background tab (or in XP, after you select Properties, click the Desktop tab). Highlight the item you want from the list of options and click OK.
Pretty Please (The Sequel)
Windows' default wallpaper images are downright insipid. The same goes for its screen saver offerings. For a more spectacular desktop, download WebShots
from PCWorld.com Downloads
Browse through the collections of fine art, maps, puppies, spiders, and other categories, and grab the images that make you smile. You can also download individual photos by going to WebShots' Web site (www.webshots.com)>. Click the Photo Search link on the top bar, type a keyword in the search field (such as Kauai, Picasso, schnauzer, and so on), and browse the available photos to find one you like. Click on a photo to see a larger version. When you find one you want to use, click the Download link, and the image will be added to your hard drive's collection.
To further customize the way WebShots handles the images, right-click its icon in the System Tray (the right side of the taskbar) and select Settings. Click each tab and specify your preferences for the screen saver (frequency and duration), wallpaper, and transitions between screen-saver images (in the Effects tab).
When you've collected enough images, press Ctrl-Shift-S whenever you want to launch the screen saver (a slide show of all your images), or Ctrl-Shift-W to change your wallpaper on the fly (the images will be selected randomly).
(You can also use WebShots to upload your own images to a public or private album on the program's Web site; only people you invite can see your private collection.)
Or, if you often take breaks from the computer, you can set your monitor (the biggest energy hog in your system) to shut down automatically after a certain period of inactivity. Right-click anywhere on your desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab. Then click the Power button and set the delay time. My recommendation: 20 minutes before the monitor shuts down and 45 minutes before standby kicks in.
If you're using Windows XP, click the Hibernate tab and make sure Enable Hibernation is checked. The hibernation mode essentially turns off your system, but not before taking a "snapshot" of everything you have open and running. Click Start, Turn Off Computer, then hold down the Shift key while you click Stand By, and your system will go into hibernation. To wake up your machine, press the power button, and you'll quickly be back where you left off.
Remember to save anything you have open before leaving your PC, just in case there's a power outage while you're away.
The display resolution on your system determines the sharpness of the display and the size of icons, dialog boxes, and so on. The higher the resolution, the smaller your onscreen objects. If you have trouble seeing small details, keep the resolution at 800 by 600 pixels. But if you haven't reached middle age yet and can easily see tiny items on your screen, you might enjoy the sharper display that comes with a higher resolution.
To alter the resolution, right-click your desktop, select Properties and click the Settings tab. Drag the slider toward 'Less' or 'More' to adjust the resolution; you can see the effect in the preview screen. If you'd like to try the new resolution, click Apply and watch your desktop resize itself. If you don't like the results, let Windows reset what you've done (in Windows 98/Me/2000), or drag the slider back (in XP) and select Apply
View Thumbnails
If you have a folder that contains image files, you might want to view thumbnails or small versions of those pictures without having to open a viewer or image editor. It's an awkward process in Windows 98, but a snap in XP.
In Windows 98: Right-click the folder that contains the files you would like to preview and choose Properties. Click the General tab, check the Enable Thumbnails box, and click OK. If you're already in that folder, get out of it, then reopen it. Right-click in an unoccupied area within it and select View, Thumbnails. Close the folder, then reopen it. The folder now contains two additional files: Desktop.ini and Thumbs.db. If you delete them, you'll lose all your hard work and will have to repeat these steps.
In Windows XP, Me, and 2000: Right-click within the folder you want to view and select View, Thumbnails. Presto! (The Thumbnails option doesn't appear if the folder doesn't contain any image files
Gayl Wells
