Free Clip Art to Jazz Up Emails, Newsletters and Web Pages

There’s no need to snatch copy protected graphics from websites you visit. There are many sources of free clip art to use.

Even Microsoft has tons of free clip art. Visit office.microsoft.com/clipart/ for a huge selection of free graphics and photos that you can use free of charge.

Happy to help.
Mary Austin

Take A Peek At Windows 7

The newest Microsoft operating system will be available to the public in October, 2009. If you want to take a peek now, go to the Windows 7 home to look at 4 videos that give you a product tour.

When I took a look, I wasn’t excited until the video promised that with Windows 7 there would be fewer “alerts” and more control over the security setting that cause those obnoxious alerts. Now, that would be worth doing an upgrade.

My philosophy with new Windows operating systems is the same as any new software. Wait until the new product has been on the market for at least 6 months before deciding to upgrade. Let other folks find the bugs.

What if you really need to upgrade now and can’t wait until October?

Here is the promise from Microsoft:
“When you buy Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate either as a packaged product or on a qualifying PC you can get a comparable upgrade version of Windows 7 after it’s generally available on October 22, 2009.”

The catch is that you have to be sure your computer can handle the upgrade or you may wind up having to buy a new computer with Windows 7 already loaded.

You can use Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor to find out if your computer can be upgraded.  Look for “Try our upgrade advisor” on the right side of the page.

I will keep you updated as we get closer to the launch of the newest Microsoft operating system.

Happy to help.

Organize Your Email With Folders

I’ve discovered that many people never delete an email. Never.

To me, that’s like opening your snail mail every day, throwing it on your desk and just leaving it there. Yikes, what a mess.  It is easy to keep your email Inbox nice and clean.

I’ll explain how to stay organized with Microsoft Windows Mail which is the email program that comes with Windows Vista computers. If you use XP or some other email program, most of my directions will apply there too.

There is one main rule to observe so that your incoming emails don’t overwhelm you.

Read the email and immediately take action.You have four action options:
1. Reply to the email – now. Then delete it.
2. Delete it without replying – now.
3. Save a copy to a folder on your hard drive, then delete the original from your inbox.
4. Move it to a folder within your email program.

 

Some would say that another option is to Flag it to get your attention later, however that will just add to the overwhelm.

When you delete an email, it moves into the Delete folder which exists by default. The email isn’t really deleted yet, but at least it’s out of your inbox.

To copy an email into a folder on your hard drive:
Select the email from the list in your inbox by clicking on it once.
1. From the File menu, choose Save As.
2. In the Save As window, Browse to the folder where you want to store the email.
3. Name the email in the File Name field
4. Just under the File Name field is the Save As Type field. Click the little drop-down arrow to see what your choices are. Usually you will save as Text, or if the email has color and graphics you can save as HTML. You can also save it in its current email format if you think that for the rest of your life you will be using your current computer and that Microsoft will not change email programs again.
5. Click Save.

If you want to save an email to a folder in your email program, you will need to create the folder. In Windows Mail, Outlook Express or Outlook, follow these steps.
1. Right click on Local Folders and choose New Folder. 
2. In the Create Folder window, type in a name for the folder.
3. Click OK.

One of my most bulging folders is named, “2BRead.” 

Now that you have a folder created, you can just drag and drop the email from your inbox into the folder.

(This assumes that your email program is showing your Folder List. If not, go to the View menu and choose Layout. In the Layout Properties window, click to put a check mark in the little box next to Folder List. Click OK and the Folder List will appear, usually to the left of the emails and Preview Pane)

Shameless Plug Alert
Drag and Drop is a very basic tool that we explain in our Computer Tips PDQ digital book. We also have a tutorial that shows how to configure your email  program so that emails from specific people automatically go into specific folders that you have created. That’s a great trick that keeps your inbox clean.
End of Shameless Plug Alert

Now you can go and clean up your email inbox and keep it organized.

Happy to help.

Forward Slash or Back Slash?

A computer novice asked me, “What is the difference between a forward slash and a back slash?”

We see the forward slash  /  often in website addresses. The term “forward” refers to the fact that the topmost part of the slash is pointing to the right.

The forward slash is a computer notation that indicates you want to get to something that is external to your computer, such as a website.

We see the backslash  \   less often. Back slashes instruct your computer to find something that is internal, such as a folder or file or even a drive.

What if the slash is vertical?  The vertical slash is on your keyboard, on the same key as the back slash. It is called a pipe.  |

Pipes are used as separators to indicate steps in a process or procedure. For instance, Start|Control Panel|Mouse would mean, go to the Start button, choose Control Panel, then Mouse to open the Mouse Properties window.

Because your computer recognizes these symbols as instructions, they cannot be used as part of a file or folder name.

You aren’t able to name your vacation folder, “Fiesta 4/25/2009.” You would have to name it, “Fiesta 4-25-2009″ instead.

I’m glad we got the slash confusion straightened out.

Happy to help.

Easy Way To Back Up Your Computer

One of the smartest things I have done recently is use an off-site company named Mozy to back up my computer. Its cheap, secure and effortless. You get 2 gb free. If and when you exceed that, its 4.95 a month.
 
I had tried a few other offsite options but they always did back ups in real time, and despite what they claimed, the back up activity did slow down my computer.
 
I now use Mozy and I have it set to back up automatically at a certain time or I can tell it to back up just before I turn my computer off for the night. 
 
Go check it out and if you decide to use Mozy, I will get an extra 512 mb storage for referring you. My referral code is in the link.  I thank you and my computer thanks you.

Half a gigabyte is enough space to back up:
250,000text email messages ( it seems like I get that many every day)
19,607 1-page spreadsheets
300 photos
100 mp3 files
or 50 1-minute video clips.

Everyone needs some sort of back up. Stuff happens.  Don’t wait until it happens to you. Take action now and save yourself grief later.

Happy to help.

Mary

Free Photo Editing For Home Computer Users – PicResize 2.0

I have been known to send people to PicResize for an easy to use image resizer.  Now it also offers easy image editing.

I heard about this great online tool through my association with Renegade University, the organization that teaches “Attraction Marketing.”  As part of my membership I needed to add some photos to my personal webpage. The photos had to be exactly a certain size, measured in pixels.

After uploading my photo, it only took a few clicks to crop and resize my photo. The step-by-step instructions were easy to follow. I had the choice to resize my photo as a percentage of the original image, or to specify certain dimensions measured in pixels.

After I had resized the photos needed for the Renegade University webpage, I tested out the other editing features.

I must admit to you that I rarely even look at “special effects” in most photo editing programs, because most of the time they are silly and worthless. As I looked around at PicResize I got an idea.

I had just gotten back from the King William Fair, a fun venue that is part of a week long annual celebration in San Antonio, Texas called “Fiesta.”

I had given myself a photo assignment so I could learn more features on my Canon digital camera. The assignment was to photograph the “patterns” of Fiesta.

Here are a couple of sample shots. I got a close up of some colorful pottery and a lavishly adorned chihuaha.

Using PicResize, I cropped an area of the photo, then used the “Spread” special effect to expand the pixels. I inserted the resulting photo into a Microsoft Word document where I could drag the dimensions of the photo to seven inches square.

Here is the resulting “pattern” for the two photos above.

Oops. Ok, I used SnagIt to capture the images off my computer screen and I apparently didn’t snag them to be the same size to upload here. Well, you get the idea, right?

I will take 6 of the seven by seven images and mount them on a large something or other to frame and put over my fireplace.  That’s called “free artwork.”

Create some “art” of your own at PicResize and have fun!

Happy to help.

Minimize All – My Favorite Tip For Vista or XP

This is my favorite tip because I use it myself so much.

You can minimize every window you have open by pressing  just two keyboard keys.

It doesn’t seem to be a well known tip. I have watched people manually move their mouse up to click the Restore Down box on every window they had open, in order to get back to their desktop . . . so they could click and open something else.

Take the easy shortcut. Press the Windows key and the M key. Everything will minimize. Ta da!

If you want to maximize all the windows again, press the Windows key, Shift key and M.

Happy to help.