Classes for the Month of May

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1 Volume 15, Number 5 May 2015 Classes for the Month of May How do you use your computer or tablet? Read and write s? Search online? Shop? Save vacation photos? Do you want to learn more about using specific applications or computer programs? Do you want to learn more about your smartphone and some of its features? If so, why not take a FREE class at your computer club? The following classes are offered during the month of May. To Enroll, please Log-in to the SCA Computer Club website: Simply click on the Class Calendar (upper left hand margin) and select a class. Then click on the Enroll Me box and you will automatically be enrolled. All classes are FREE for members in good standing. If you need to drop a class or cancel your enrollment, please log back in, select the class again and drop the class by selecting Drop Me. This will make it available to others who may want to take the class and are on the waiting list. Windows 8: Parts 1-4: Each of the four classes are on a different day and each class will cover aspects of the Windows 8.1 operating system. The classes should be taken in succession (e.g. Part 1 before 2, 2 before 3 and 3 before 4) because you will build upon your knowledge in each succeeding class. Classes fill quickly and waiting lists are being established. If you don t get into the class, check the class calendar for the following month. As a courtesy to others, please be sure to drop the class if you previously signed up, but cannot make it. If you are wait listed show up before the start of the scheduled class to see if someone cancelled at the last minute or did not show up. You may get in: the wait list will be taken in precedent order for those who are in attendance. Are you considering buying a new computer? Do you want to know more about hard drive size, memory size, or the operating system? If so, then take the class Buying a Computer to learn a few terms you should be aware of so you don t get snowed by the sales folks. When it is time to buy, make an informed decision. ipad Basics Parts 1-2: Do you have an ipad and want to learn more about how to get the most out of it? Learn about its many features including its apps, setting up and synching, the home screen, etc. BRING your ipad to class as this is a hands-on class. In Part 2, you will continue to learn and enjoy your tablet. Want additional apps? We ll show you where to find and download them. Learn to troubleshoot various types of problems and expand upon what you learned in Part 1. Have you recently joined the Computer Club? Do you know what opportunities exist for all members? Do you want to know about monitoring or available classes or how to schedule a house call to get that new computer online? We encourage all new members to attend the New Member Orientation class to familiarize with the Club s activities. 1

2 Photoshop Elements: Learn to organize and edit your pictures. This is a hands-on class for both Mac and Windows users and introduces you to Adobe Photoshop Elements. Pre-requisite: must be comfortable using either the Mac or Windows operating system. How safe are you when you are online? Take the Basic Internet Security class to learn about firewalls (routers), virus protection, Spyware and Cookies. We will also discuss identity theft and password creation. itunes Introduction: This is an introduction to itunes for both MAC and Windows users. Learn to create playlists, burn audio CDs, put photos, movies and music on your iphone, ipad and ipod. Learn to manage your multi-media content and your Apple mobile devices. We will also introduce you to the world of podcasts and itunes University. Didn t see the class you wanted this month? You can check the Calendar for several months ahead or drop us a line at Contact Us. Choose the Education category and let us know what class you would like to see offered. Don t want to take a class but want to know more about a specific program or application? We have Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that meet on a weekly/monthly basis and they are open to any member in good standing. These are open discussions among members who are familiar with the specific product/ application or those who just want to learn more. All SIGs meet in the computer classroom. Participants ask questions and various topics are discussed each week. Enroll via the website at Computer Talk meets from 9:00-10:00 AM every Thursday. If you have a question about anything computer related, join us any Thursday. This group is for beginners and experts alike. If you are an Apple user, join our Apple USER SIG. We meet monthly. May s meeting will be on Saturday, May 9 from 10 AM-noon. ipad Exploration is a SIG that explores features and capabilities of the ipad and ipod beyond the basics. Bring your ipad/ipod/iphone and we will explore the many apps available and some of advanced built-in features on your ipad. We meet Tuesday, May 12 from 1-3 PM. Want to learn more about Photoshop? The Photoshop Elements SIG will meet on Friday, May 29 from 9:30-11:30 AM. 2

3 Cloud Setup By Brian Corr Everyone has heard of The Cloud and virtually everyone is using at least 1 cloud, but do you know where your cloud is and how to configure it? This is kind of a trick question. I m not going to give you a geographic location, although undoubtedly the resources to provide these clouds are at a physical location. What I am going to discuss is the providers of some of the popular clouds and how you can use them to make your life easier. I m not going to address the online storage capability that some of these clouds offer, we ll save that for a future article. Using myself as an example, I am currently connected to 6 clouds and am using some portion of each of those so that my 2 computers and 2 mobile devices remain synchronized. The names of these clouds are Google, Yahoo, AOL, Live, Cox and icloud. (See Fig.1 below) You might recognize these all as mail servers and in fact that is the first piece of cloud synchronization. If you setup all your computers and mobile devices in the Internet Accounts in Systems preferences on your Mac and the Mail, Contact, Calendars in Settings on your mobile devices you will have accomplished the first step of cloud setup. If you are asked during setup whether to use POP or IMAP choose IMAP. What that means is that the server is the master and each device will mirror what is on the server and all the devices will be able to make changes to the server so that every device, as long as it is connected to the internet, will reflect identical content. This even includes the Sent Messages, Drafts, In Box, any personal mailboxes you create and even the Trash mailbox. As you were setting up your mail accounts you probably saw a window like the one in Fig.2 (next page) with multiple check boxes depending on the server. As you can see in my example I have only checked Mail for my Google account because I use my icloud server to synchronize the other information. A note here about why I think that is important. If you use the Calendar and Contacts apps on Fig.1 your Mac and IOS devices you get to access the events and contacts in all your clouds merged into one display. The hang up in using this mixed server technique comes about when you try and access the server through your browser, like you might on a shared windows computer while travelling. When you login to Google or Yahoo or icloud you will only have access to the information on that server. My recommendation is to use only one account for synchronizing your contacts and calendars and my choice is to use icloud because it gives the added benefit of synchronizing reminders, safari bookmarks, notes, photos and keychain passwords. Also using icloud by going to icloud.com will give you access to the data through web apps that look and act almost identically to the apps on your Mac or IOS device. 3

4 Cloud Setup (continued from Page 3) One last point about your icloud account, although my Apple ID is a mac.com , most people have an Apple ID that is their primary address (whether it be cox, yahoo, Gmail or some other mail service). Please realize that this is for identification only and the password for your Apple ID is not the same as the password for that mail account unless you intentionally made them the same. If you ever change the password on any of these accounts, you need to go into Fig.2 all your devices and change the password there, it will not carry across your devices automatically. I hope this article gave you a basic understanding of what a cloud is and how to setup your clouds to serve you. About the Contributor: Brian Corr (aka MAC Daddy) currently serves as our Club Vice President (second term) and regularly contributes to the Club Newsletter with innovative articles. Additionally, Brian teaches many of our MAC classes and performs house calls for any of our Club members (Mac or PC) in need of in home support. THANK YOU, Brian, for all you do to support our SCA Computer Club. Did You Know? Wi-Fi is now available in all of our Sun City Anthem Centers (Anthem, Independence and Liberty). If you are having trouble with obtaining the SCA Guest account, please contact the FSR representative, Mr. Teag and he will assist you with your connection. Have you ever experienced an application hanging? For Mac users, the beach ball simply goes round and round. For PC users, you may see a blue arrow going round and round or see the words Not responding near the top of the page. You can wait to see if the application remedies itself OR you can force the application to Quit. - For Mac users, use the key combination of ALT + CMD + ESC - For PC users, use the key combination of Ctrl + Shift + Esc. You will then see the application(s) running and you can End Task (see lower right corner) for the one(s) you want to quit. 4

5 Gentle Reminders: Our SCACC provides a forum for the exchange of information and knowledge among our members with respect to personal computers and their uses. We are dedicated to providing our members in good standing with opportunities to enhance one s knowledge. We provide access to the use of computers and various software programs in our computer Lab, as well as our computer Classroom. Please be mindful of the following courtesies, so that all of our members can enjoy the benefits of our Club. We have several printers available for use in both the Lab and the Classroom. When using the printers please remember: members in good standing are allowed to print ten (10) copies per day for personal use. The printers are not intended to be used to print 50 copies of your other club s minutes, agendas, etc. nor are they intended to be used to print your 100-page family recipe book, your son s thesis, the entire Friday Fry s Ad you get the point. If you need to print out a few s, or a form, or our Club monthly Calendar, your boarding pass, etc. that s fine. Please do not bring in your own printer paper to use in our Club printers. (Doing so does not negate the above policy of 10 copies/day). Our dedicated printers are LASER printers which do NOT use inkjet paper. Using the wrong type of paper in the printers can result in jams. If you need assistance with a printer (e.g. out of paper, clearing a jam, etc.) please ask the monitor on duty for help. Some well meaning member(s) recently tried to fix a printer which resulted in damage to the fuser unit and consequently that printer was no longer useable (as it awaited new parts to get it up and running again). Not only was it out of commission for a period of time, the replacement part was NOT cheap. Our volunteer monitors are trained to properly load paper (when the printer is out of paper) and some monitors may even be able to clear a paper jam. If the monitor cannot, he or she will assist you in printing to another available printer in the Lab or Classroom and will also notify our Club Officers of the printer problem so it can be addressed. In the Computer Lab, we have a dedicated computer with a scanner that is reserved for members in good standing who need to scan documents, pictures, etc. This computer is the first computer on the left side wall when one enters the computer lab. Please use this computer ONLY if you are scanning. There are several other computers available for you to use if you are surfing the web, checking , reading the news, etc. Members who need to scan have priority on this dedicated computer. One of the benefits of being a member of the SCACC is access to a number of FREE classes to enhance your knowledge and optimize use of your phone, tablet, or computer. The Classroom has a more computers than the Lab and members can use any of these Classroom computers (as long as a class is not in session). Please observe the Class in Session sign and wait until the class has ended before using one of the Classroom computers. Tips and Useful Information Windows 8.1: Customize your Start Screen Background - Swipe from the right side of the screen to display the Settings Charm menu (or use the Key combination of the Windows key + C). Tap or select Settings. Select Personalization to change the colors of the background as well as the accent. Want to see the photos of your grandkids as a slideshow on your Windows lock screen? You can. In Windows 8.1, create a slideshow from your favorite photos. Go to the Settings Charm menu, click on Change PC Settings. Click on PC and Devices, select Lock Screen and enable the option ON (play a slideshow on the Lock Screen). Choose the appropriate options. 5

6 More Useful Tips and Information If you are using Internet Explorer 11, there is a Reading View that eliminates ads. Here is a view of the website Snopes. Note the advertisements. Also note the Read icon on the right of the address bar. If you click on the Read icon, the page will reload and display a clean version that is free of advertisements. This is much easier to read as there are no distracting ads displayed. (See below) This feature is only available from the Tiles and not available from the desktop version of Internet Explorer 11. This is the Reading View of the same Snopes.com website without the advertisements displayed. 6