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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, April 2, 2006
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Microsoft Word Office Assistant Tip of the Day
Tips & Tricks: Increase Text Size
This Week's Topic: File Size Lingo
Question: Turn off Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Websites of Interest: Traveling with your Pet; Antique Cameras; Volcanoes
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Special Feature: Microsoft Word Office Assistant Tip of the Day
The Microsoft Office Assistant is the little bicycle, dog, cat, robot or other character that appears when you open Word. (If you do not see the Office Assistant, open Word, click Help on the menu and then click Show the Office Assistant.
The Tip of the Day feature will display at the Office Assistant every time you open Word. It will give you info on features and functions of the program and can give you some pretty useful tips and tricks. To enable the Tip of the Day feature, right click on the Office Assistant. From the resulting menu, left click on Options. In the Show tips about section, click the small box to the left of Show the Tip of the Day at startup. Click the OK button.
Now, every time you open Word, the Office Assistant will give you some practical information.
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Tips & Tricks: Increase Text Size
Question: I am trying to make signs for my club events. Can I make the letters bigger than 72?
Answer:
Yes, you can. Highlight the text you would like to make bigger. Click Format on the menu and then Font. In the Font window, click next to the number in the Size box (probably 10 or 12, which is the default setting). Erase that number and type in the number you would like. Click the OK button.
Note: This tip works in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works Word Processor and WordPad. We did not test in WordPerfect.
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Today's Topic: File Size Lingo
Question: I see my file size listed in KB or MB. With so many different file sizes, it is be hard to keep them all straight. Can you explain the terminology?
Answer:
File sizes and the terminology can be a little confusing.
Bit. A bit is the smallest unit.
Byte. A byte is a unit made up of eight bits. A byte generally represents one character. For example, the word cat is three bytes.
Kilobyte(KB). A kilobyte is a unit of approximately 1,000 bytes (1,024 to be exact).
Megabyte (MB). A megabyte is a unit of approximately 1 million bytes or 1 thousand kilobytes (1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 kilobytes again to be exact). Also referred to as Meg.
Gigabyte (GB). Approximately 1 billion bytes (1,024 MB). Also referred to as Gig.
For some practical applications:
A typical page of text is around 4KB although if you save a file in a word processing program, you will see the file size about 20KB higher. The program takes that space just for creating the file.
A 3 1/2" floppy disk holds 1.44 Megabytes (1,474 KB).
A CD-ROM holds 650 to 700 Megabytes. This would be around 450 floppy disks.
A 20 Gig hard drive will hold the same amount as approximately 30 CD-ROMs or 14,200 floppy disks.
A see the size of a file, open Windows Explorer or My Documents. Right click on the filename and then left click on Properties.
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Question: Turn off Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Question: Every now and then a message pops up telling me that I have unused icons on my desktop and it wants to cleanup. I do not want to remove any of my icons and I cannot get rid of the message. Can you help?
Answer:
Yes, that is the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. You can turn that off. Here is how:
Right click on a blank area of the desktop. Left click on Properties from the resulting menu. The Display Properties window will appear.
Click the Desktop tab at the top and then click the "Customize Desktop button. The Desktop Items window will appear.
In the Desktop Cleanup area, click to remove the checkmark from the box next to Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days. Click the OK button to close the windows.
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Websites of Interest:
Traveling with your Pet
This site lists thousands of hotels, motels, beaches, campgrounds, and ski resorts that will accommodate your four-legged friends.
http://www.petswelcome.com/
Antique Cameras
This is a wonderful site for photographers and camera historians. You will learn all about the cameras of the 19th century.
http://www.antiquewoodcameras.com/
Volcanoes
Visitors to this site will find exciting pictures of volcano eruptions and information on volcanoes around the world
http://www.volcanolive.com/ |
