Heads Seniors Techie Tips

Here is a handy list of tips for using on your computer, hit the Print Friendly button for a hardcopy.

Email SPAM tips:
Don't reply to spam. If spam sneaks past your protection or rules never reply to it, delete it.

Google search tips:

Type "weather" or "movies" followed by a post code or city and state to display current weather conditions or movie theaters in your area. For example, typing weather 2130 gives you the current weather conditions for Summerhill for the next four days. Typing movies 2000 would give you a link for show times for movies in that area.

Use the Google Search engine as a calculator by typing a math problem in the search. For example, typing: 100 + 200 would display results as 300.

Pull up the definition of the word by typing define followed by the word you want the definition for. For example, typing: define bravura would display the definition of that word.

Take full advantage of Google's options feature by clicking the Show options... link at the top of your search results. Clicking this link will display a bar to the left side of the results allowing you to refine your results to more of what you're looking for.

Internet Browser tips:

Web page favourites/bookmarks:
Quickly bookmark/favourite any web page in all major browsers by pressing CTRL + D on your keyboard. Pressing these two keys together will open the bookmarks or favorites for your browser and allow you to quickly place a bookmark for the page you're currently at.

Oops did you mistakenly close a tab you didn't want to close? Press CTRL + Shift + T to undo a close tab.

Scroll one page at a time in all major browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox by pressing the Spacebar key. Move back up the page by pressing Shift + Spacebar or the Home key on the keyboard.

Make your Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox the full screen without all the toolbars by pressing the F11 key. To restore the window back to how it was press F11 again.

Quickly move forwards and backwards between web pages by holding down the shift key and scrolling up or down on your mouse wheel.

Automatically enter the www. and .com into most major browsers URL or address bars by typing the name of the page and pressing CTRL + ENTER on the keyboard. For example, if you type: computerhope and then press CTRL + ENTER you will automatically be sent to www.computerhope.com.

Many programs support the ability to zoom in and out of a page or document also support the shortcut key to quickly zoom in and out. To do this hold down the CTRL key and scroll the wheel on your mouse up to zoom in or down to zoom out or hold down the CTRL key and press - or + to zoom out or in of a web page. To reset the zoom back to the default view press and hold down CTRL and press the 0 (zero) key.

In all major Internet browsers you can move move forwards and backwards by pressing and holding the ALT key and then pressing the left or right arrow key. Pressing the left arrow will go back a page and pressing the right will move forward a page.

Printing tip:
Save on your printer ink by selectively printing in Windows programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer (and other browser), WordPad, Outlook, etc. To do this highlight portions of text you wish to print and Copy/Paste into one of the programs above. Alternatively, click the Print option in the File menu. Then in the printer dialog window (like the one shown below) under Page Range choose the option Selection.

Windows tips:
Quickly get to the Microsoft Windows Desktop by pressing the Windows key and D at the same time on the keyboard.

Screenshot tip:
If you hold down the ALT key and then press Prt Sc only the active or front window will be copied for pasting into your document or PowerPoint.

To close a program without needing the mouse type CTRL+F4.

Using the F4 key in Microsoft Office programs allows the user to repeat the last used action. For example, if you have changed the font of a selected text and wish to change another portion of text to the same font, highlighting the text and pressing F4 will do this for you automatically.

In Microsoft Excel press CTRL and SHIFT and " to copy the above cells contents into the current cell.

Quickly undo mistakes in the majority of Windows programs by pressing the shortcut key CTRL + Z. For example, if you mistakenly cut or deleted text in Microsoft Word pressing the CTRL and the Z key at the same time would undo that change. CTRL + Y is Redo.

iPad tips:

To Undo the current change on an iPad note taking app just shake the iPad. Redo also works in this way. It really does!

You can take a screenshot on your iPad by pressing Home and then the Sleep/Wake button. The screen will flash and you'll hear a click, indicating that a photo has been taken. Your screen shots are saved automatically in your Photos gallery. Here, you can view or email them as you see fit.

Turn iPad caps lock on
To type a capital letter on the onscreen keyboard you first tap the left or right shift key, then the letter. If you need to type a whole word in caps this can be painful. Save time typing in caps by turning the caps lock on. To do this double tap on either shift key.

Copy and paste
You can quickly copy and paste text by tapping and holding down, and then choosing Select to select the exact portion of text you'd like the copy. Next tap Copy, then go to a different app, and tap and hold down again, then tap Paste from the menu that appears. 
Top tip: To select an entire paragraph of text you need to tap four times.

Replace a word
When you hold down on a word to copy it, choose Select, then you will see a new option: Replace. Tap this and, you can see suggestions for alternative words that have similar spellings. It's a good way of quickly correcting typos.

Hidden apostrophe and quote key on the keyboard
This is a great tip for any app, such as Notes, Pages or Mail, that you type into using the iPad's virtual keyboard. Rather than having to go to the second screen of the keyboard every time you want to type an apostrophe (which is a real pain) just tap and hold on the ! key and a hidden apostrophe option will appear - then just slide your finger up to access it. You can also enter a quotation mark by tapping and holding the ? key and a quotation symbol appears, which you can select by moving your finger upwards.

Add a full stop
Another great keyboard tip for typing in apps such as Pages, Notes or Mail is to doubletap the space bar at the end of a sentence. This adds a full stop and a space for you, which can be enormously time-saving when you're writing long articles.

Note: iOS 8 is now available and if you have automatic updates you will have it already. Read the Tips app for some important changes and be aware that your Photos will now display differently.

Photographic Competiton

Start clicking everyone for a chance to win a prize in the HSCC Best Animal Photo competition.

Richard Miller will be judging the competition. The winner will be announced at the Christmas Party on November 26. 

So get clicking! 

To save printing costs just email your photo to: 
headscomputerclub@gmail.com
or put it on a USB stick.

Here's some examples to get you inspired:

Dog-a-Log

STROKE!

Troubleshooting Tips September 17 2014

It's a Secret (Don't tell your friends)!

Speaker: (He who cannot be named)

What if my computer just stops working? What can I do?

Have you heard of the 3 finger salute?

No these guys haven't or perhaps Mr Spock invented it! But these 3 guys below definitely mean business.

That's why this little chap shot through:

But seriously (impossible!), we need a hard Task Master, I mean Task Manager to help us fix up programs that are broke.

Task Manager shows you the programs, processes, and services that are currently running on your computer. You can use Task Manager to monitor your computer’s performance or to close a program that is not responding.

• Open Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar and then clicking Task Manager, Or
• You can also open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL keys all at once.

Windows 7 Task Manager

When you hit the 3 magic keys all at once you see this screen:

Clicking Start Task Manager, then choose the Applications tab, you can see which program is not working.

Highlight this task by clicking on it with your mouse, then hit the End Task button once and wait, sometimes 30 seconds until it disappears, and the problem is fixed.

Windows 8 Task Manager

From the pretty Apps screen you can just type Task Manager as follows:

Or use your 3 fingers on Ctrl+Alt+Del and you will see the following:

Click Task Manager and cross your fingers (always works for me!). 

Choose the Processes tab.

Now select the task which is not working, e.g. Microsoft Word, and then the End Task button and viola, or violin depending on the song.

What about tablets and smartphones?

The Android tablet and the Apple iPad, and smartphones, have a powerful multitasking Operating System (OS), but this can occasionally lead to too many open programs. While they are fairly efficient at pausing apps that don’t need to be open, sometimes you need to close all those running programs yourself.Here's how to do it.

For an Apple iPad or iPhone:

Prior to iOS 7, to close a running app, you could double-tap the home button, which would reveal a row of quivering icons representing running apps. A tap on one of those icons would then close that particular app. However, with the release of iOS 7, that behavior is no longer available. Fortunately, the developers of iOS have seen to it to make the process much easier.


If you double-tap the home button, a preview of each running app will still appear. Note: if you have Multitasking Gestures enabled you can simply swipe up the screen with 4 fingers (is that a salute?).

As well as the icon, you also get a larger thumbnail of what was on screen when you last used the app, so it’s easier to see at a glance which app is which.

To close an app, you simply swipe upwards on the thumbnail to dismiss it 

For Android devices:

Press and hold the "Recently Used Apps Button". A menu will appear with a list of your recently-used apps.

Close active applications by tapping on an app and swiping it either to the left or right side.

Google Tablets

Your Google tablet comes with a handy widget which lets you kill all running tasks. This is great if you want to quickly free up some memory.

To use the widget, press and hold for 2 seconds on a blank part of any homescreen. Then find the Program monitor widget and drag it on to your homescreen. Once that is done, press the widget and it will show you all currently running Apps. Press End all to close all running Apps.

How to set up Email on an iPad or iPhone

Just follow these five steps to have your email easily accessible from your iPhone or iPad, you can even set up multiple accounts.

1. From your home page, tap ‘Settings’.
    
2. From here, scroll down to and then tap ‘Mail, Contacts Calendars’.
    
3. Tap ‘Add Account’.
    
4. Select your email provider from the list and enter your details and then tap ‘Save’.
   If your email provider is not on the default list then select ‘Other’. From here, select ‘Add Mail Account’ and then enter in your details. The next screen will probably ask for information which you don’t have access to, but you can usually find it by Google searching: ‘[insert name of your email provider] email settings iPhone’.  Alternatively, you can contact your email provider and ask them for this information.
    
5. You’re done! From here you’ll be able to change some settings and choose how frequently your device will check for (fetch) new mail.

 By Ryan Boutland  from Your Life Choices

Weekly Meeting September 10 2014

Topic: Backing Up

Speaker: Andy

On Windows 7
START Menu
Type backup
Choose backup and restore
Ensure you have an external hard drive, such as a Seagate 1TB, which you can purchase at any computer retailer, like Hardly Normal. Andy recommended using a Hitachi external hard drive.

On Windows 8
You use File History, which will save only your personal folders.

However, you can still use the Windows 7 backup as described above.

Links:
Windows 7 Backup

Windows 8 File History

Back to Basics September 3 2014

Speaker: Andy

But First - Important News!

There is now a button in the right hand column for you to be able to print out the lesson for each week. BUT make sure you read and remember the TIP before printing.

Printing Tip (Read 1st) 
Select only the lesson that you want to print by clicking on the Title, for example, "Weekly Meeting August 12 2014". Otherwise you may print every lesson which will use lot of paper.

Now back to our presenter: 

Basic File Handling
Copying documents:

1. Open 2 Explorer windows
2. Resize them to fit on either side of the screen as below

3. Right click Copy, or. Edit+Copy, or simply drag the file from one window to the other in the desired folder.


Selecting multiple documents
Use CTRL key and click on the files you want to copy or move. Use the SHIFT key if you are selecting a continuous block of files.

Working with Libraries
Documents library is a virtual place containing pointers to other libraries.   

Some useful links:
http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/windows-7-tutorial6/

http://www.7tutorials.com/

More PhotoShop Ideas August 27 2014

Let's start by a review of Photoshop's workspace to get more familiarized with the lay of the land. The Toolbox contains all of the tools for making your pictures better. The colour coded sections help to remember where to look for the right tool.

The Magic Wand (in the blue section above) is a different kind of Selection tool. So far, we’ve looked at tools that select pixels by dragging a square or circle around them. The Magic Wand selects pixels somewhat differently; it selects them based on color values. This enables you to cut foreground objects, such as a lighthouse, out of the background. You might need to combine several selections by holding the Shift key and when you see a little + appear next to the magic wand click the left mouse. If you select too much just use CTRL Z to undo the last selection. You can also adjust the Tolerance in the top menu bar to a less sensitive number.

Here's an example: The sky is a little grey and doesn't really capture the mood of the day, so let's fix that. Select the Magic Wand tool and click on the sky.

You can see that most of the sky has been selected. To select more you can hold down the SHIFT key and click in the unselected sky. That may select too much, like the sea as well, don't panic, just use CTRL+Z to UNDO the last change. We may need to change the tolerance.

Previously the tolerance had been set at 50, so by setting it lower to say, 30, the selection will be less sensitive. By using the SHIFT key again on the unselected sky the whole sky is now selected.

Now that we have the sky selected, be careful not to click anywhere on the picture again otherwise the current selection will be undone. We can now colour the sky. Choose the Image menu, then Adjustments and Color Balance.

By adjusting the slider colours you can recolour the sky. Increasing the Cyan seems to work best. When you are happy with it click OK.

 

Before                                                                             After

Make sure you save this photo with a meaningful name to help identify it again, e.g. Callala Beach Sky Fixed.