IT News - May 2008

Welcome to the latest newsletter.

Using a Computer - And Enjoying IT!

Over the last three newsletters I have discussed how to safely use your own computer and public computers and how to improve your PC's performance. All very necessary but not very interesting!

This time I thought it would be good to help you achieve something with your PC. I will show you how to share your photos, use the tabs in Internet Explorer and Firefox and, finally, how to change the default location of My Documents so that you can take advantage of additional disk drives.

Sharing Your Photos - Google Picasa

Google is continually improving its facilities: not only is it an efficient search engine but it has an excellent email product, online storage and edit facility amongst others. It has recently upgraded its Picasa software to allow on line sharing of your photos. In the past I have just emailed photos to friends and families but this is far from convenient (particularly for the recipients with slow Internet connections). This way you can upload your photos and then add your friends' email addresses to the allowed viewers list. It really is quick and easy. If you still want to email your photos this is easy to do from within Picasa.

This is from their website:

"Picasa Web Albums is the fast and easy way to put your photos online so you can start sharing. Use it with the Picasa software to upload entire albums of high quality photos in a click of the software's "Web Album" button, or use your normal web browser to add pics. Each account gets 1GB (and counting!) of free storage - that's enough to post and share around 4,000 standard resolution photos. Best of all, you and your friends can download your photos at the same high quality to print and enjoy."

If you already have a Google account (and if not, why not?!) then just download the software (a quick download) and run it. It will automatically find all photos in "My Documents" or the entire disk depending on the option you choose. Be warned: it will find ALL photos. If there are more than you want you can easily remove folders from the list. Speaking of the list: it provides the folders in date order which makes slideshows really interesting.

Uploading is really easy and then you can easily invite people to view your album and add captions. Of course, this means that your photos are available to you wherever you are as long as you have access to the Internet (and you can remember your password!).

Internet Explorer 7 Tabs (also applies to Firefox)

Now that Microsoft has lifted the restrictions on the availability of its latest browser (IE7) many of you will be using it. One of the important improvements is the introduction of 'Tabs'. These have been available with Firefox for some time and Firefox is still my preferred browser.

The Tabs allow you to view multiple sites at the same time each one appearing in the same window but under Tabs so that only the one you are viewing is fully visible. You activate each tab to make it 'live'. I thought I would share some of my tips on how to get the most from them:

• Although clicking the tabs with your mouse cursor to switch between them is handy, you can also switch between tabs by pressing [Ctrl][Tab]. [Shft][Ctrl][Tab] changes direction.
• If you have a wheel mouse, you can open a link in a new tab by clicking the link with the wheel button.
• Clicking the Tab (at the top of the window) with the wheel will close that Tab.
• To open a new Tab: Select File --> New Tab from the menu; Click the small New Tab button or open a new tab by pressing [Ctrl]T.
• If you’re scanning several sites on multiple tabs and want to return to this same set of tabs at a later date, click the Add To Favourites button and use the Add Tab Group To Favourites command.
• When scanning several sites on multiple tabs, you can click and drag the tabs in any arrangement that you wish.
• If you have a number of sites that you go to almost every time you browse the Internet open them in different tabs and then change your home page (Tools --> Internet Options then click Use Current.

Firefox Shortcuts

The notes above also apply to Firefox. In addition, you can use the following in Firefox:

• Middle-clicking or [Ctrl-clicking] opens a link in a new tab in Firefox.
  
• Ctrl-Shift+T reopens the most recently closed tab in Firefox.
• Click Bookmarks and then Bookmark All Tabs [or just press Ctrl-Shift+D] to bookmark all open tabs in Firefox. This one is a bit different than Internet Explorer 7's steps.
• Ctrl+(1-8 using the number pad on right of your keyboard) to switch to the first through eighth tabs, respectively.

My Documents - Changing the Location

• 1. Click the "Start" button on the bottom of your screen.
  2. Move your cursor over "MyDocuments" and press the RIGHT mouse button.
  3. Select Properties to display My Documents Properties.
  4. Click "Move" and then browse to and select the folder to move your old documents to. You will have a chance to create a new folder at this point if your chosen folder doesn't exist.
  5. Click OK to exit and your Documents will now be moved to the new location.

I have never been a big fan of MyDocuments, MyMusic etc but over the years I have come to accept it. I don't like it because I like to be in control of where and how my information is stored, organised and accessed.

By default, Windows stores the MyDocuments folder on the C: drive but if you add a second drive to your PC you will want to store your files there to take advantage of the extra storage.

To do this:

Take this opportunity to defragment your C: Drive.

Final Word

I hope that these tips will help you get more enjoyment, production and usefulness out of your PC now that it is running securely and efficiently!

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea, criticism or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

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