|
Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, July 25, 2004
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Finding, Downloading and Installing Fonts
Featured Computer Term: USB Flash Drive
This Week's Topic: Resizing Icons
Questions: Saving Email; MP3 Players
Websites of Interest: 100 Wonders of the World; Lance Armstrong; Microsoft’s Spam Fighting Suggestions; Just for Fun
**************************************************************
Using Links
A Link is a reference to a website. In this newsletter you will see links to
many worthwhile, informative and fun websites. Here are the instructions on
how to use links:
A link will be used one of two ways, depending on your email program.
If you see the link in blue, underlined text, all you have to do is click on
it and a window with the Website in it will automatically appear on your
screen.
If you see the link in plain text, you can copy and paste it into the address
bar on your browser. Highlight the link with your mouse, click Edit up on
the menu bar, and then click Copy from the menu that you just opened up. Open
your browser (click the Start Button, point to Programs, click on Internet
Explorer); click on the address bar. Click Edit up on the menu bar, and then
click Paste from the menu that you just opened up. Press the Enter key on the
keyboard and this will take you to the Website.
**************************************************************
Special Feature: Finding, Downloading and Installing Fonts
Question: I do a newsletter for the development that I live in. I would like to dress it up a little with different lettering and text styles. I know that I can download new and fancy fonts. Can you tell me how? Thank you so much.
Answer:
A font is a set of characters that includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks, blank lines and spaces. It is how the characters look and the color and size of the characters.
Most computers have many fonts already installed. Windows provides many fonts, your word processing program will add fonts when you install it, and your printer will add fonts, too.
Despite the number of fonts already on your computer, it can be very easy to get bored using the same ones over and over again, especially if you are working on documents where you would like to get a little more creative.
You can download fonts from the Internet. There are many websites that offer hundreds and even thousands of fonts free of charge. Here are a few that you may want to take a look at:
http://www.fontfreak.com
http://www.fontfoundry.com
http://www.1001freefonts.com
http://www.fontparadise.com
Make sure you download the font into your My Documents folder – then it will be easy to find when you need it. Some fonts will download in a zipped file. After you are finished downloading, open My Documents, and, if you see the font you downloaded is a zipped file, double click to unzip it.
After you download a new font, you have to install it. Here is how:
Click on the Start button and open Control Panel.
Double-click the Fonts icon in the Control Panel. (If you are using Windows XP, click Switch to Classic View on the left; you will then see the Fonts icon.)
You will now see a window that lists all of the fonts that are already installed on your computer. To install the font you just downloaded, click File on the menu bar and then Install New Font.
From there you just select where you downloaded the font, choose the ones that you want to install, and click OK.
Now you will be able to use your new fonts in programs such as Microsoft Word.
**************************************************************
Featured Computer Term: USB Flash Drive
A USB Flash Drive is a small, portable device that plugs into a computer’s USB port. It is used to save files similar to the way a hard disk or floppy disk will.
At this time, USB Flash Drives are available with up to 2GB of storage capacity; less than an external hard drive but much more than a floppy disk or CD-ROM. And the device is much smaller and more durable because it does not contain any moving parts.
USB flash drives are easy to use because they are small enough to be carried in a pocket and can plug into any computer with a USB drive. Most computers will immediately recognize the drive without having to install any software, making it a very convenient device to jut plug in and start using.
USB flash drives also are called pen drives, key drives, thumb drives, USB drives and jump drives.
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: Resizing Icons
Question: I would like to make my desktop icons smaller. Would you tell me how to do this?
Answer:
You can make the icons larger or smaller. This is one of the settings that you can change when you customize the display properties.
To open the Display Properties dialog box, right click on a blank area of the desktop. Left click Properties from the resulting menu.
You will now see the Display Properties dialog box. Click the Appearance tab that you see on the top.
You will see a drop down list box labeled Item. (If you are using Windows XP, click the Advanced button and then you will see the Item box). Click the down arrow next to the entry in the Item box. Click on Icon.
To the right of Icon, you will see a number. To the right of the number are two very small arrows – an up and a down arrow. To make the icon larger, increase the number by clicking on the up arrow; to make it smaller, click the down arrow.
When you are done, click OK and close any open dialog boxes. You will now see the changes you made take effect.
**************************************************************
Question: Saving Email
I have many emails that I would like to save. I know that I can save each one by opening the email and then File Saving it. But I have so many that it would take forever with that method. Do you know of a quicker way?
Answer:
It depends on what you are using for your email. If you use a web based e-mail like yahoo or hotmail, you will probably have to copy and paste the contents of the e-mail to a word processing document on your computer, and save from there.
If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, you can drag the e-mail from your Inbox to your desktop or a folder that you have open. You can drag messages one at a time or select several by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the messages you want to save. Once you have selected all the emails, size the Outlook program down so that you can see the desktop or folder. Then point somewhere in the highlighted emails and drag to the destination. Your e-mails will be copied to the folder.
**************************************************************
Question: MP3 Players
My grandson has an MP3 player and it looks like a pretty useful little device. I would like to have one myself so I can listen to music while I walk. There are so many on the market, though, I don’t know what to look for. Can you help?
Answer:
MP3 players, also know as Digital Audio Players, are putting the old Walkmans out of business. The higher end ones can hold hundreds and even thousands of songs and some are not much bigger than your thumb. There are many choices with a large range in price and features. Take a look at this article on about.com for an explanation of the many different features.
http://portables.about.com/cs/mp3players/f/mp3playbg.htm
CNet.com, another website to check out when you are thinking about purchasing any electronics, also offers some MP3 Player buying tips:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5020764-1.html?tag=cnetfd.dir
**************************************************************
Websites of Interest:
100 Wonders of the World
Visit this website for pictures and information on the 100 Wonders of the World.
http://www.hillmanwonders.com
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong won a record sixth Tour de France. Read about him and his victories.
http://www.lancearmstrong.com/
Microsoft’s Spam Fighting Suggestions
Here are some good tips from the Microsoft people to help you reduce the amount of junk email you receive
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spam/fightspam.mspx
Just for Fun
Take a little time out from you busy day and play a game.
http://www.playaholics.com/play_game.php?game_name=plasticballs
|
