|
Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, May 20, 2007
To observe the unofficial Beginning of Summer, we will not be publishing this newsletter next week. Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend! See you in June.
In this Issue:
Special Feature: How to Buy a Printer
Tips & Tricks: Delete Many Emails
Featured Computer Term: Tooltips
This Week's Topic: Internet Explorer 7 Menu Bar
Question: Customize Word Toolbars
Websites of Interest: Memorial Day; FamilySearch; Talk to a Person; The Reluctant Gourmet; Archive of American Rhetoric; The Global Warming Survival Guide
**************************************************************
Special Feature: How to Buy a Printer
Question: My old printer finally rolled over and died. What are some of the things I should consider when shopping for a printer?
Answer:
In most stores, printers are plugged and a test copy can be made. Try it out; make sure you like the results. While it is running, listen to it. Printers can be very noisy, which is bothersome to some people.
Are you going to be using different types of paper? Check if the printer can handle different sizes, envelopes, cards or any other type of paper you are going to use.
How much paper can the printer hold? If you print a lot, you do not always have to refill the tray.
Check on the ink cartridges, both black and color. How much do they cost? In some cases, buying new cartridges costs more than the printer did.
Is it easy to install? Check with the salesperson on this; although you may get a better answer if you do an Internet search on this one.
What kind of volume will you be printing? Will you be using it a lot? If you will, you will want to buy a durable printer.
Will you be printing a lot of photographs? You may want a printer that specializes in photo printing.
What type of warranty does the printer come with?
How much does it cost? Once you have a printer in mind, price it at your local electronics store, and then see if you can find it online for less.
Check some of the consumer report websites:
cnet.com
pcworld.com
consumerreports.org
tech.yahoo.com
epinions.com
**************************************************************
Tips & Tricks: Delete Many Emails
I use Outlook Express for my email and I never remember to delete the emails from the Deleted Items folder. There are so many in there now that it will take me forever to delete them all. Do you have any shortcuts to get rid of them quickly?
Answer:
Yes, right click on Deleted Items on the left. A menu will open; left click on Empty Deleted Items. That will clear out the whole Deleted Items folder.
For those using web based email (Yahoo, Gmail), you can delete multiple emails quickly, too. See the small checkbox to the left of each email? If you click that, you will select the email to delete. Rather than clicking each one, which can be very time consuming if there are a lot of emails in there, click the checkbox way at the top of the list, above the first email. Now, the checkboxes next to each email is checked. Click Delete and they are all gone.
If you do not want to delete every email, click the checkbox to unselect the ones you want to keep.
**************************************************************
Featured Computer Term: Tooltips
Question: I was reading something that mentioned the term Tooltip several times but I was unable to figure out what it was referring to. Can you tell me?
Answer:
When you point your mouse on just about any object on your computer screen, you usually see a small box pop up with some information in it. For example, point to the clock in your system tray (lower right of the screen) and a box with the day and date will pop up. That is a tooltip.
You will see tooltips in many places. Another example is pointing to buttons on the toolbars within programs. A tooltip will usually display the buttons name.
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of? Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its definition in an upcoming newsletter.
**************************************************************
Today's Topic: Internet Explorer 7 Menu Bar
Question: My new computer has Internet Explorer 7. It does not have the menu displayed, and I cant, for the life of me, find it. Can you tell me where to look?
Answer
If you just want to see the menu temporarily, press the Alt key on the keyboard. You can then give whatever command you would like, and, when you are done, the menu will disappear again.
If you would like it to permanently display, click Tools, which you will see on the far right side, towards the top, of the window. A menu will drop down, click Menu bar. That will permanently display the menu at the top of the window.
**************************************************************
Question: Customize Word Toolbars
I like using Microsoft Word for my typing. I would like to use the handy toolbar buttons at the top but they are just so small and hard to see. Can I make them larger?
Answer:
Yes, you can. Here are the steps:
Click Tools on the menu and then Customize. At the top of the window you now see, click the Options tab. You will see a choice for Large Icons. Click the box to the left to select it. Click the Close button.
If you do not like the way the buttons look, follow the above steps. Click the box to the left of Large Icons to remove the selection.
Note: depending on your version of windows, this setting may affect some of the other Microsoft Office programs such as Excel.
**************************************************************
Websites of Interest:
Memorial Day
Visit our website for many informative and fun links.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/memday.html
FamilySearch
For those interested in genealogy, this site claims to have the largest free searchable database of family history.
http://www.familysearch.org/
Talk to a Person
If you have called just about any big company lately, you will know it takes a very long time to get a real, live person on the phone. This very useful site features a list of big companies and the numbers to call to find a human being.
http://gethuman.com/
The Reluctant Gourmet
This official website of The Reluctant Gourmet will teach amateur cooks how to create culinary masterpieces.
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/
Archive of American Rhetoric
At this website, you can listen to some of the most famous speeches made in America. You will find speeches made by Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., FDR, Malcolm X, Lyndon Johnson and many more.
http://americanrhetoric.com/
The Global Warming Survival Guide
From Time Magazine, this website will tell you about 51 ways that you can save the environment.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/ |
|
