Classes for the Month of Jan

Transcription

1 Volume 18, Number 1 Jan 2018 Classes for the Month of Jan To enroll, sign into the website at Go to the calendar and click on the class you want to take. Now click on the green Enroll Me box. If you need to cancel your enrollment, please log back in, select the class again and click on Drop Me. This will make it available to others who may want to take the class and are on the waiting list. If you are on the waiting list, show up for the class to see if someone enrolled did not show up and you may be bumped into the class. All classes are geared for beginners unless otherwise indicated. IMPORTANT: You must have your SCA Resident ID with you to check-in at the Monitor desk AND AGAIN in the front of the Classroom to ensure you are enrolled. Check-in will begin 20 minutes before the scheduled class time. If you are late, you may be bumped from the class by someone on the waiting list. Buying a Computer: Are you considering buying a new computer for yourself or as a gift? Should you buy a desktop, a laptop or a tablet? What are the differences between them? Should you buy a Mac or a PC? Should you buy it from Best Buy, Costco, Fry's, Amazon or??? Will it be used for , to watch movies, organize your photos, write a book, etc.? Have your questions answered before you buy. If you ve recently joined our Club we encourage you to attend the New Member Orientation class to familiarize yourself with our Club s activities. Learn how to sign up for classes, schedule a house call, volunteer to be a monitor and more. Current members who are not familiar with all of the benefits offered by our Computer Club are also encouraged to take this Orientation as a refresher. Windows Parts 1 & 2: The Fall Creator s Update, version 1709, rolled out Oct 2017 with improvements that will allow you to further customize your computer. Part 1 is a newly revamped course covering Mouse and Keyboard, Start Menu, Notifications Pane and Actions Center & Windows Settings. Part 2 will focus on File Explorer, Windows utility for organizing and accessing your documents, documents, photos, music, etc. iphone Basics Parts 1 & 2: Part 1 provides an indepth introduction to the iphone and should help you enjoy your phone and make use of its many features. Please, bring your iphone to class! We will investigate: the phone itself, the home screen, the included apps, basic use of the iphone, setting up and syncing your iphone and additional settings. Part 2 continues the in-depth introduction to the iphone and includes a number of the built-in apps on the iphone and finding and downloading additional apps, as well as troubleshooting various types of problems. Emphasis will be on the latest release version ios 11. Macintosh Mail app: Topics will include basic account setup, creating and using mailboxes, mail filtering rules, attachments, signatures and stationary. We will also cover sending attachments, including pictures, by . Avoiding Spam and phishing schemes will be explained. Prerequisites: Mac for Beginners or familiarity with Mac operating system. Macintosh Safari Browser: Learn how to navigate the Safari Browser, used with Macintosh computers, ipads and iphones. Bring your MacBook, ipad or iphone to class. 1

2 Classes for January (continued) Tune up and maintain your PC: For users of the Windows Operating system it is essential to properly tune up and maintain your system. In this class we will provide you with a recommended step-by-step procedure, which will improve the performance of your computer. Photos for Mac Parts 1-3: Part 1 is an introduction to Photos. Learn how to connect one s camera or memory card and how to organize photos. We will create albums using different search criteria and if time permits, introduce location tagging and facial recognition. Part 2 is a presentation on the editing capabilities built into Photos. Part 3 will show the creation of Projects including Books, Calendars, Greeting Cards and Slide shows. Photoshop Elements: Do you have a digital camera? Learn how to organize and edit your pictures. This hands-on class for both Mac and Windows users gives a basic introduction to Adobe Photoshop Elements. After taking this introductory class to this powerful photo-editing program, we recommend continuing with the Photoshop Elements SIG, where different tools, projects, and techniques are highlighted each month. Prerequisites: Must be comfortable using either the Windows or Mac operating system. SIG... What is it? A SIG is a special interest group that meets on a weekly or monthly basis. We invite ANY Computer Club member who is interested in learning more about a specific product/application to join in the discussions. All SIGs meet in the computer classroom. Participants ask questions and discuss various topics at each session. The Photoshop Elements SIG will meet on Friday, Jan 26 from 9:30 11:30 AM. Enhance your skills working with digital photos. Every month we cover topics that build upon skills learned in the basic Photoshop Elements class and participants can get help with Photoshop Elements related problems. Prerequisites: basic Photoshop Elements class or some experience using Photoshop Elements. If you are an Apple user, join our Apple USER SIG. We meet monthly to investigate Apple products. Did you recently buy a Mac, an ipad or MacBook Air? Do you have questions regarding specific Apple products or applications? Sit in on this month s meeting on Saturday, Jan 13th from 10 AM noon in the Computer Classroom and see if this is the group you have been looking to join. Computer Talk meets weekly from 9 10 AM every Thursday and is designed as a question and answer session. Can t figure out how to do something? Anyone can ask anything computer related. Do you have a question regarding a specific product or application? Bring your questions and join the discussion each Thursday. New members are always welcome. Your Computer Club s Board will meet on Thursday, Jan 25 in the Computer Classroom from 1:30-3:00 PM. The Board consists of your Club s Officers and Directors as voted on by you, the membership. Each Board meeting will discuss our Club s operations, policies and general business. A member comment period will be allowed at the end of each meeting. Learn how your Club functions and offer your feedback, recommendations and/or comments at the Board meeting. New members are encouraged to attend. Learn how your Club operates and how to best benefit from all your Club has to offer. Who knows? Perhaps you will want to be a Club Officer or Director next year. Any Computer Club member in good standing may attend a Board meeting. 2

3 Traveling in the Digital Age By Brian Corr I don t know about you, but traveling has become a digital experience for me rather than dead time spent getting from here to there. And when I finally get there I still have to maintain my digital connection. I m going to give you hints I ve learned in recent years that have made my travel more enjoyable. First, I am going to talk about getting there by car and then I will address your digital connection at your destination. My wife and I like to travel by car and have no problem spending hours on the road watching interesting sights go by, so let me tell you how I plan and execute our travel. Knowing my destination, I open the Maps app on my imac and put in the destination. Having done my homework I have already booked a hotel so I simply start typing in the name of the hotel (including the town) and when it recognizes my specific hotel, I click on it and I get an overhead view of the location. I like to see what it really looks like so in the upper right corner I choose the satellite option. I then click on Directions in the upper left. The app will plot out a route for you and show the fastest (if it has found more than one). If they are not showing and you would like to see the turnby-turn directions, double click on the highlighted route in the left column. At the lower left corner of the map I like to show traffic and labels so I can see where I might end up with traffic delays on my travel day. If you click on View in the upper menu and then select Directions/Driving Options/Avoid highways you will be presented with other options which will take longer but may take you on some scenic routes you might otherwise miss. Once I have selected my route I click on File/Share and then send it to my iphone. The next thing I do is add my destination hotel to my contacts so I have the address and phone number available simply by asking Siri. That done I now open my Calendar and enter an Event I will label Check-in and in the Location field I type the name of the hotel and it will fill in the address from my Contacts. I put in the desired arrival time as the start and my desired day and time of checkout as the end. If I have a confirmation number or other information I might want to access quickly, I put it in the Notes. By the way, many of the sites you use online to make reservations give you the option to automatically add your stay to your Calendar. The last thing I do before leaving the Calendar is to click on the Travel Time pull down, that appears since you have put a location in for your event, and select the drive time. It automatically adds the travel time to your check-in event and shows you when you need to leave. If you plan on stopping for lunch (maybe an hour) you can click on alert time and select 1 hour before travel and you will get a reminder to leave at the correct time so you still make your check-in time. With a plan in hand, or rather in my phone, I m ready to go. I get the alert at time to leave and proceed to my car where I put my phone in the magnetic holder I have and plug it into the power adapter I have. This is rather important because the phone will be operating continuously so the battery will be drained by the display and the GPS receiver in the phone if I don t have power to it. I click on the Maps app and select my already saved route and press the go button. It starts giving me turn-by-turn navigation directions that are also relayed to my Apple Watch, which taps my wrist at every turn. While I am traveling, if there is a slow down in my route, it will be reflected in the arrival time (constantly displayed on the iphone) and if necessary, it will reroute to avoid delays. If there is a delay, but the current route is still the fastest, it will also give me that information. If you exit the route to stop for any reason, on restarting it will give directions to get back on route. With the new Maps program you are given lane instructions visually so that you are in the right lane when it comes time to either exit or avoid exit by being in the correct lane. Once you ve checked in (remember that confirmation number in the Notes in you Calendar) you will probably be given information about the accessibility of an internet connection. Most hotels have their own Wi- Fi that is open to guests but exactly how it works can sometimes be puzzling. You will typically be given the name of their Wi-Fi network and a password but it is not always the same as hooking up to your home Wi-Fi. On your ipad or iphone you go to the Settings app and select the Wi-Fi section. On your MacBook (any model) you go to the System preferences (under the apple on the menu) and then select network and click on Wi-Fi in the left column. You should find the name of the network they gave you at check-in. If it has a lock symbol on it you will click on it and then type in the password they gave you and you will be on. If there is not a lock then you will click on it and after a short delay it will bring up a window where you will enter the password and usually agree to statement that everyone reads very carefully (yeah right!) but you are basically agreeing that the risks are all yours. If you are concerned with the security of what you will be doing on your device then you may want to consider investigating the use of your iphone as a hot spot to provide you internet access without the threat of being hacked because you signed into a rogue Wi-Fi. Now you can make those dinner reservations and relax for the rest of you vacation. 3

4 Windows and listening in ON THE AIR A topic that has come up in the past during Computer Talk referenced hard drive storage, cleaning up files, and making more space available on one s hard drive. Therefore, we thought we might touch upon ways to free up hard disk space while using Windows 10. Today s newer computers come with larger hard drives than previously so space may not be an issue. But as technology advances, so does file sizes. With highresolution photos, HD and 4K videos, or even some of the applications we use, disk drive space may be at a premium. On the other hand, maybe you have a computer that is several years old and the hard drive was small to begin with, then perhaps you are looking to free up some space and we will show you how. Did you know that Windows has built-in tools that delete temporary files and unimportant data? It is an easy tool to use but you have to know how to find it. Storage Sense in Windows 10 is easy to find and can be used to automatically delete files such as temporary files, recycle bin data, installation of previous version of Windows or basically files that you do not need. This might be the first tool to try if you are looking to free up more space on your hard drive. To find Storage sense, go to Settings> System> Storage. Use the shortcut keys of the Windows key + the letter i to get to Settings, and then select the System box and then Storage. Alternatively, click on the gear (some call it a cog) from the Start Menu (far left Windows icon key on the taskbar) OR click on the Action Center icon (on the far right side of the taskbar). It really does not matter HOW you get to Settings. Once there select the System box and then select Storage. You should see Storage Sense. By selecting Change how we free up space you will be able to select which files to delete (e.g. temporary files, files that have been in the recycle bin for over 30 days or files that are in the Downloads folder that haven t changed in 30 days). Check the boxes you want, and then click on Clean Now. If you want Windows to automatically do this (for you) whenever you are low on space, toggle the Storage Sense button to On. Another tool at your disposal is Disk Cleaner. One way to access it is through File Explorer. Look for OS (C:) and right-click on that and then select Properties. (Now if you happen to have more than one hard drive, simply select the one in which you want to access and do the same thing). You should see something that looks like the image on the right. The image will tell you how much used and how much free space you have on your computer. In this example, there happens to be a lot of free space available, but if you find you 4

5 Windows and listening in continued do not have a lot of space available and want to free up some space, click on Disk Cleanup. When you do, another image, like the one to the right appears and you can choose which files you want to delete, or you can simply accept what is checked. This includes temporary files, log files, files in your recycle bin and other unimportant files. Select OK and you are done. HOWEVER, IF you want to take it a step further, select Clean up system files and it will calculate how much space you can regain. After calculating, you will see how much space can be freed up. Again, you can select which system files to delete by checking the boxes. Select OK and you are done. Warning: But be careful, as these will delete system files. In addition, a More Options tab will allow you to use the Clean up button to remove programs you do not use. When you select More Options, you will be presented with yet another screen with the options of a "Programs and Features button that will remove programs that you do not use and another button, System Restore and Shadow Copies that will remove all but the most recent restore point. If your hard drive is almost full and you need to free up space, you might consider using these options. Be very sure this is what you want to do before using them. Lastly, a quick way to get to Disk Cleanup (instead of through File Explorer) is to just search for Disk Cleanup in your search window and it will take you right to it. Another option to free up hard drive space is to uninstall programs that take up a lot of space. Some programs use very little space, but others are space hogs. To see which programs are taking up a lot of space, type uninstall programs in the search window. Alternatively, you can go to the Windows Settings by using the windows key + the letter i and then selecting Apps & features. Here you will see the applications on your computer, as well as, their size. Clicking on a program will reveal its Uninstall button. This will let you remove either Windows Store apps or regular apps. Why would you want to uninstall a program? Perhaps it is something that you no longer use? Maybe you installed something thinking you might use it and now decided that you do not want it or need it on your computer. Uninstalling it will free up some space. Still looking for other ways to free up space on your hard drive? A new feature in Windows 10 Fall Creator s Update is OneDrive Files On-Demand. This feature enables those on the go to access their files and folders whenever they want. Tablet and laptop users may find this feature most useful. And it is also useful for saving 5

6 Windows and listening in continued ON THE AIR drive space since you can use Files-On-Demand to upload files to OneDrive and then download them, as you need them. First, you need to have OneDrive enabled. If for whatever reason you have disabled OneDrive (perhaps you do not use Cloud storage), then you will not be able to use Files-On-Demand. If this is the case, this section will not pertain to you. However, if you do use OneDrive, to enable OneDrive Files-On-Demand, right-click on the OneDrive icon (shaped like a cloud) on your taskbar s notification area. (You might have it hidden and in that case, click on the up arrowhead on the taskbar to display your hidden icons.) Select Settings and in the Files-On-Demand section, check the Save space and download files as you use them box. Click OK. Now on your OneDrive folder, you can select the files and folders you want to keep in the cloud by right clicking on them and then selecting Free Up Space. Now all of these files will still appear in File Explorer but they will be online only and marked with a cloud icon. Still looking for yet another option to free up space on your hard drive? OK, how about moving apps and games to an external drive? Perhaps this is the best way to free up space on your main Windows drive (or any other drive you might have) connected to your computer. You can move any and all of your documents, downloads, videos, music, photos, etc. and even apps and games to an external drive or even a flash drive You might want to keep photos on its own flash drive or perhaps specific apps on an external drive. First, make sure your external drive or flash drive is connected. Open File Explorer and find the app, file or photo you want to move to your external drive. Select it on your computer and drag it to your external drive. HINT: you might want to first create folders on your external drive and name them, e.g. Pictures, Documents, Music, etc. before moving the files from your computer to your external drive. This way it will be better organized and you can find them easily on your external drive. Do you have other ideas as to how to free up space on one s hard drive? Let us know. Useful things you may want to know, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we made up ourselves Q. How to I create shortcuts for settings that I want to use? I know I can find what I want by searching through Windows Settings but sometimes it takes me so long to find things. Once I find it, that s great but is there a way to create a shortcut so I can just click on the shortcut and it takes directly where I want to go? A. Wow, what a great question! If you know the right commands, you can create shortcuts that will take you to a specific page with a single click. Settings were much easier to find in older versions of Windows via the Control Panel. But as Windows 10 evolves, Microsoft has moved a lot of them into the more modern Windows Settings app. Let s say you want to go directly to Windows update history. You can click on Settings> Update & Security> Windows Update> View Installed Update History and you are finally there. Another way to get to the same location would be to create a shortcut on the desktop and simply double-click on it. To create such a shortcut, minimize all open windows and then right-click any empty space on your desktop and then click New> Shortcut. Now you will have to enter a valid mssettings command (see the list on the next page) and click Next. Name your short cut and 6

7 Useful things you may want to know, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we made up ourselves (continued) then Save it. Double-clicking on the new shortcut takes you immediately to where you want to go. Here are some useful shortcuts you might try. Be sure to type in the command (exactly as written ) into the box. In the example below, we typed the command ms-settings:appsfeatures without the quotes. The line after the letter s that appears is only the mouse cursor, nothing that we typed. Click Next and then name the shortcut. Lastly, click Finish. The command we used will take us directly to Uninstall, modify, or repair an installed app or program. Here are some other useful commands you might use to create shortcuts. ms-settings:about This command displays the version about your PC and operating system (OS). ms-settings:dateandtime Change the time or time zone ms-setings:defaultapps Change default apps, including your web browser ms-settings:windowsupdate These three self-explanatory settings get you to useful Windows Update pages ms-settings:windowsdefender Displays information about the Windows Defender engine and latest definition file, along with shortcuts to more Windows Defender security settings ms-settings:personalization Customize your lock screen, colors, desktop background and more ms-settings:display Set resolution and scaling, manage multiple displays and more ms-settings:notifications Customize the Quick actions button and fine-tune app behavior ms-settings:recovery This is where you will find Reset and Advanced Startup options Useful things you may want to know, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we made up ourselves (continued) Q. I travel quite a bit with my laptop and when I do, I connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots such as those at the airports and those in hotels and restaurants. My girlfriend told me to be sure to 7

8 turn off File Sharing so that I am more secure. I don t know what that means. Can you help? A. File and folder sharing may be convenient or even necessary when you are on your own secure home network or even in an office setting (if you still work). It is however a big security risk if you are using a public Wi-Fi hotspot or network. If it is turned on, all of your shared folder and files may be accessible to everyone who connects to the same public network. On a public network, someone with nefarious intent can set up a shared folder with malicious files and your computer might get infected if you are curious enough to click on them. Curiosity not only killed the Cat as they say, but can wreck havoc on your system if you let curiosity get the best of you and click on things you know nothing about. So to reduce your risk and ensure the privacy of your files and your laptop, turn off File Sharing before connecting to a public network. To do so, type in Control Panel in the search window. From the results, select Desktop app. On the left margin, find Change advanced sharing settings and select it. Under Guest or Public (current profile), click on the down arrow to display the image below. Look under Network Discovery to find Turn off network discovery and make sure it is checked. Next look below under File and printer sharing and be sure that Turn off file and printer sharing is also checked. Lastly, Save Changes. If you have a Mac computer, you can do the same thing by going to System Preferences (the gear on the dock). Next look for the Sharing icon and click on it. On the next page, uncheck File Sharing. Consider unchecking all the other sharing services when connecting to public Wi-Fi. Close your window and you are done. Now don t forget: If you rely on shared folders at home or perhaps in an office setting, be sure to turn them back on when you get home. If you have a question you want answered in the monthly Newsletter, submit it via the Club website at Along the top menu, select Contact Us. Fill out the form (be sure to check the category Newsletter and in the Message section, type in your question. Be sure to scroll down and check the I m not a robot box and follow the prompts. Lastly select Send and we will do our best to answer your question. 8