September 2009 Volume 24 Number 9
KNOWLEDGE TO SHARE
The Journal of The
1000 Oaks Personal Computer Club
FastStone
Image Viewer 3.9
Written by Charlotte Brown,
President of the Canton/Alliance/
Massillon Users Group, Ohio
www.camug.com
cbrown @ my stepco.com
If you want a really simple but powerful
basic photo program, look no farther than
FastStone Image Viewer 3.9. This is the
program that I encourage my students to use
in the beginning of their picture enhancing
journey. When you want to do more things
than Image Viewer offers, you can add another program. Many of the programs that
help you through the next steps are also
free. Working through the basics into more
advanced techniques is not as overwhelming as jumping into the middle of a professional program and wondering how to do
simple things such as cropping, adjusting
light, changing to sepia or grayscale, or
even converting to other file formats.
FastStone Image Viewer has powerful capabilities of batch converting images from
one format to another, for example, from
jpg to png. It also allows for batch renaming & resizing, batch watermarking and dpi
adjustments and more. To keep things simple, let me walk you through the process of
taking only 1 picture at a time through a series of adjustments to make the final print.
I always use 3 windows when working
with FastStone Image Viewer. This is the
default setting. The upper left window allows you to browse through Windows Explorer to the folder containing your photos.
Double clicking the folder opens thumbnails of the files in a large window on the
right. When you click on a picture to select
it, you see a large thumbnail in the lower
left-hand window. Look over my shoulder
as I browse to Pictures and double click
the folder inside that I have named Christmas 08. Large thumbnails of all the picture
files in that folder now appear in the large
window. I will select a file titled Jayden.
Now Jayden’s picture appears not only in
the window on the right but also as a large
thumbnail in the lower left hand corner.
The first thing I do is click File > Save
As. I rename the file as JaydenP and use
the drop-down menu by File Type to select
png. Then I click Save. The new file appears in the large window with all the other thumbnails. It is much bigger than the
original jpg. It is now in a lossless format,
allowing me to make all kinds of changes without losing any of the information
originally captured by the camera. I could
choose to work with tiff to accomplish the
same capabilities. Png files allow me to cut
out transparent areas if I wish and the file
size is smaller.
Let me insert something that will interest
those of you who are doing more advanced
work. The rest of you can skip to the next
paragraph! When I double click the picture, it fills my entire window. Moving the
mouse to the right side of the screen brings
up information about the picture. One of the
tab choices is Histogram. That provides me
with information about the lighting. Here
Continued on Page 3
WELCOME to our New Members
See Page 11 for list
May Their Knowledge of PC’s Increase Exponentially with Each Meeting.
Home Page: http://www.topcc.org
2
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
TOPCC Vendor
Presentation for
Sept. 24, 2009
Table of Contents
PAGE
NAME
1
FastStone Image Viewer 3.9
2
Vendor Presentation
3
Google Docs 4Everyone
4
Corel Ulead PhotoImpact X3
5
iBrain
7
7
8
An Easier Office 2007
Kepler’s World
How can I find Lost
computer files
Club Offices and Meetings
9
10
10
10
Virus Alert
Geotag Your Digital Pictures
Make Photos Jump off the
Page with Drop Shodows
11
October Calander
Software Available
for Evaluation
The following software packages are available for evaluation. Once you have evaluated the package you may keep the software. For more information as to what an
evaluation consists of or to obtain one of
the packages contact:
Bart Koslow at:
bart@koslow.net
or call him at:
(805) 492-3522
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 is an easy
and convenient partition manager and hard
disk toolkit. It works with both Windows
XP and Vista.
www.acronis.com
INFOWallet - will allow you to keep
medical information, insurance information, financial records, contacts, all your
passwords, and your software licenses, in
encrypted format on your computer.
www.infowallet.com
System Mechanic 9.0
Fix and Speed Up Your PC-Editors Choice
PC Magazine
NOTICE
Join the Celebration!
The 6th Annual Thousand Oaks
Art Festival
on
September 26 & 27, 2009
from
10AM to 5PM
at the
Thousand Oaks civic Arts Plaza
2100 Thousand Oaks Blouvard
and
The Lakes at Thousand Oaks
(www.toartsfestival.com)
A not-to-be missed FREE event
Local and Visual Performing Arts
More than 60 visual art exhibitors
Live performances on stage
Childres’s interactive art exhibits
Music & Booths at the Lakes
One City One Book kick-off
FREE PARKING
Attention
Badges
Please pick up your badge when arriving at a meeting and check your
name off the list. It would also be
appreciated if you returned your
badge prior to leaving the meeting
www.iolo.com
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
http://www.topcc.org
Klassic Specialties is based in Artesia, Ca.
and was established in 1998. Klassic was
established based upon the premise of providing the BEST Customer Service and
Highest Quality Imaging Products available at affordable pricing. To this end,
they have attained a position as one of the
primary suppliers for such events as; The
Academy Awards, Miss Universe and Miss
USA contests and many other significant
activities. Klassic Specialties, represented
by Don Baker will be providing a presentation entitled “Demystifying Inkjet Printing” .
The presentation provided by Klassic Specialties will address areas of significance,
as related to Inkjet printing and today’s
marketplace. The topics to be addressed
will include - An update of the current development trends and marketing scenarios
of various printer manufacturers, and the
related impact on consumers. An overview
of the various digital printing techniques
and technologies, including; Dye-Sublimation Laser Printers Thermal Auto chrome
Inkjet Printing (piezo-electric, and thermal
bubble-jet) Cartridge Alternatives, Including Continuous Inking Systems A review
of the various considerations and factors
for determination of the selection of a new
printer. Which features are useful, and those
that provide less benefit, and major profit
margins for the manufacturer. Selecting a
printer that will provide synchronization
with your digital camera, application software, and printer. Selecting media, what to
look for in photo papers, and how they differ, also a sampling of various media and
the resulting impacts. And, of course various ink alternatives will be discussed.
Continued on page 3
Recycle your cartridges
(Inkjet or Laser)
And help your Computer club. During the
general meeting we will collect any cartridges you may be thinking of disposing
of. Please bring them and leave them at the
front desk. The sale of these cartridges will
help support your club. Thank you.
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
TOPCC Vendor Presentation not be exactly 5 x 7. One thing to rememContinued from Page 2 ber is that digital pictures are not the same
Don has attained a BSIT, and MBA degrees.
His career has included over 30 years as
General Manager, Director of Program
Management and other Engineering related
functions with various computer manufacturers and power supply companies.
Since the inception of Klassic Specialties,
Don has spoken at various National Conventions including The National Desktop Publishing Convention held in Hilton
Head, NC. Various articles have been written about Klassic Specialties, including
Paper, Paper, Paper (Peter Skye), mention
in Design News, and many other publications, and handbooks. Don has made over
350 presentations at various computer user
groups in Calif, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, including the Southwestern Regional
Conference.
FastStone
Continued from Page 1
is a little tip. If you double click the original jpg or you decide to save as tiff instead
of png, the tab titled EXIF will give you all
the camera information captured when you
snapped the picture: date and time, make
and model of camera, ISO setting (much
the same as film speed in the olden days),
the aperture setting, shutter speed, focal
length, and whether or not the flash fired.
Now let me return to the really simple
process of working with JaydenP, my png
file. I click on Edit on the menu bar, and
then click on Resize / Resample. Now I
can choose to size my picture by number
of pixels, percentage or print size. In this
case I want to make a color print so I will
click on the radio button titled Print size.
Next I will select 300 dpi by using the drop
down menu or hand entering the numbers.
Remember that digital cameras were developed for digital viewing. Most digital camera settings take pictures at 72 dpi. When
you resize to 300 dpi, you have a much
clearer picture that has a slimming effect
on your subject that is much more flattering!
In this case my picture is portrait, not landscape, so I will choose 5 x 7. I put a check
mark in the selection box titled Preserve
Aspect Ratio so I don’t create distortion effects similar to those created by convex or
concave mirrors! I notice that the photo will
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
scale as film pictures. In this example, my
picture turns out to be 5.25 x 7. I click OK.
Now I am back to the 3 pane original window and my picture is still selected (blue
frame around it). Now I click on the cropping tool. I check the Paper Ration to make
sure it says 7 x 5 and has a check mark by
Flip Ration so that I get a 5 x 7. A dotted
line around the picture shows that the program is suggesting an even crop from both
sides. After looking at the picture carefully,
I decide I want the entire crop to come from
the left side. When I move the mouse onto
the picture, it becomes a 4-sided arrow. I
click and drag the dotted outline to the right
as far as I can and click Crop followed by
Close. The picture is still selected in the
main work area.
3
I suppose you now are wondering about the
price. First of all you need to know where
to get the program. Go to www.faststone.
org. There is no charge to download this
program. You will be encouraged to give
a donation keep the developers encouraged
to work on future enhancements. If you decide you like the program as well as I do,
you will want to help them. There is no set
fee, so whatever you choose to give is up
to you.
This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for
publication by APCUG member groups;
all other uses require the permission of the
author (see e-mail address above).
Now I click on the Red Eye control on the
toolbars below the menu bars. The picture
pops open in a new screen. I like to use a
zoom ration of 200%. Then I click in the
middle of the eye and draw a circle that
covers the entire eye. I can click in the middle of the circle I have drawn, hold down
the mouse, and move the circle to fine-tune
its location. Then I click Remove Red Eye.
Whoosh! It is gone. The program takes me
back to the mail work are with the three
windows.
I click once more on Edit. This time I
chose Enhance Colors. The picture opens
in a full screen with controls at the bottom
for adjusting brightness, contrast, gamma,
red, green and blue levels, hue and saturation. You can create some wild looks here.
I brighten the picture slightly and make
a small color shift to enhance the reds. I
click on “Hold Down to See Original Image” to make sure I like the adjustments
I have made. When I am satisfied, I click
OK. Once again I click on File > Save As.
This time I rename the file Jayden 5x7 and
select the type as jpg. All my changes hold.
The picture is still 300 dpi. The size will
be perfect with no surprise cropping by the
photo lab.
The program allows for so much more:
adding text, straightening a picture before
cropping, creating slide shows, and things
I haven’t yet explored. I downloaded the
newest version this week. There is now
an 83-page manual you can download to
learn from clear directions and screen shots
how to take advantage of this marvelous
program. The manual was written by Bill
Westerhoff who has written tutorials on
other free photo products as well as Photoshop Elements 3-7.
http://www.topcc.org
Google Docs
4Everyone
Reviewed by John Krill, Member,
NOCCC (North Orange County
Computer Club) California
Orange Bytes, August 2009
www.noccc.org
editor (at) noccc.org
Confession first: I’m a big Google fan. After two nightmare situations with Yahoo!,
I went over to the bright side and got a
Gmail account. Now I have four Gmail accounts. The center of my Internet existence
is Google’s Personal Web portal. I also use
Google Blogger for three blogs. Lastly
there is Picasa for organizing all my photos
and the Picasa’s web space for displaying
the photos I want to share with others.
Continued on Page 5
4
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
Corel Ulead PhotoImpact X3
By John C. Lee
Ulead PhotoImpact X3 is the latest release
of this sophisticated photo editing and basic
web page design program, and the first update since its acquisition by Corel Corporation. The program workspace consists of
four preset modes, each of which displays a
set of menus and commands needed for the
task you select to perform. The ExpressFix
mode offers quick one-click adjustments to
exposure, color, focus and skin tone. The
Full Edit mode allows the user to perform
more elaborate editing. The Web mode is
for web designers, while the Video & DVD
mode is designed for creating DVD menus
and labels for video productions. The user
has the option to customize the workspace
by inserting additional command buttons
in the standard toolbar or by removing unwanted buttons from it, and then saving it
as a Profile mode of the workspace.
Ulead Systems has introduced in this latest version several new features and some
enhancements of the existing composition/
editing tools. Among them are the two
new cropping tools-Golden Ratio Crop and
Rule of Thirds Crop. Golden Ratio Crop
also known as “Divine Proportion” overlays lines and curves to help you crop the
image more naturally, while the Rule of
Thirds Crop tool overlays grid to help you
crop the image for better composition. In
my opinion, neither of these crop tools is
necessary. I can do the same kind of cropping more easily and quickly by just using
the Selection and conventional Crop tools.
The Cool 360o panorama tool has an added capability of stitching vertical series of
photos as well as horizontal series. This is
useful when you want to make a seamless
panorama of tall buildings or trees.
Ulead PhotoImpact programs have intuitive
and easy-to-use Selection and Object tools.
You can insert or create single or multiple
objects directly on the base image, and perform all the editing of these objects right
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
on the base image without having to work
with layers in the Layer Manager panel.
The Object Extraction Wizard is a convenient tool to use for extracting an irregularly shaped object from the base image.
You simply brush paint around the boundary of the subject, and extract it as an object. Then you can refine the extracted
object using a brush to remove unwanted
areas, or to recover parts of the original image. However, the Wizard provides only
one brush shape instead of six available in
other paintbrush tools. This makes it difficult to obtain a thorough clean up of the
object. Irregularly selected or extracted objects sometimes may inadvertently include
some unwanted areas along the border of
the object. You can use the Defringe tool
to remove the edge pixels and blend them
into the background. However, I found that
in some instances, especially at large values of depth and tolerance settings, the tool
infringes into the interior of the object and
changes its shape.
In PhotoImpact X3, the White Balance tool
has been made simpler and easier to use.
You can either set it to Auto or select any
of six weather or light conditions to obtain
a natural color. Another interesting control
is the Noise Reduction mode that automatically cleans up and reduces the digital artifacts and grain often found in images that
are shot in low light or at overly high ISA
settings. This is especially useful if you
shoot a lot of pictures with a low-resolution
camera phone.
PhotoImpact X3 supports the processing
of RAW image data from popular digital
camera formats. The user’s manual lists all
the camera formats that PhotoImpact X3
supports. You can adjust characteristics of
your RAW photos such as white balance,
exposure, color and luminance noise. You
can also convert images from 24-bit to 48bit (16-bit per color channel) color depth,
and use almost all the editing tools for 48bit images that are available for 24-bit images.
SmartCurves is a useful tool to extend the
dynamic range of an image with missing
details in shade or bright areas. The tool is
based on the exposure characteristics provided by most of the leading camera manufacturers. You can also generate your own
smart curve by using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) wizard. I have found that the
tool tends to overcompensate towards the
highlight, and I had to reduce the brightness of the image.
PhotoImact X3 has large collections of gallery images, library images, and objects
in EasyPalette, and numerous customizable templates for DVD menus, labels, and
Lower third graphics. Any of these can be
exported to other video, image authoring
http://www.topcc.org
and editing programs.
One of the features I like is the web page
design capability, especially the wizard for
creating web banners, buttons, icons, etc.
The banner design menu lets you pick from
an assortment of banner templates the color
schemes and text to meet your individual
needs. PhotoImpact X3 also includes a
variety of other tools for designing web
pages, including creation of backgrounds,
text, html, design elements, etc.
PhotoImpact X3 comes bundled with
two bonus programs. Corel MediaOne
is a management suite for organizing and
cataloging your images as well as for performing some simple photo editing. Corel
Painter Essential 3 is a digital arts program
for painting realistic artistic effects. PhotoImpact X3 no longer carries the usual
companion programs of Photo Explorer,
PhotoImpact Album and Ulead GIF Animator. It also comes with a comprehensive
printed 193-page (4”x 6” page size) User
Guide. But the text size is so small that is
not too easy for a person with poor eyesight
to read it.
PhotoImpact X3 is an excellent image editing and web design software program. It
offers abundant editing tools and a largecollection EasyPalette with virtually thousands of images, templates, photo effects,
masks, frames, DVD menus and labels.
But I do not believe that there are enough
differences between this version and its
previous one to warrant an upgrade from
PhotoImpact 12, unless you have Windows
Vista operating system or are a new user.
The list price of the full version of PhotoImpact X3 is $69.99, and that of the upgrade from previous versions is $49.99.
The Corel version of Ulead PhotoImpact
is not available in North American Retail
Outlets, but may be purchased online or directly from Corel.
System Requirements:
•
Microsoft® Windows® Vista,
Windows® XP with Service Pack 2
•
Intel® Pentium® III processor
compatible or above
•
CD-ROM Drive
•
512 MB RAM (XP), 1 GB RAM
(Vista)
•
750 MB available hard drive space
for main program and content files
•
An additional 320 MB available
hard drive space for bonus programs
•
True Color or Hi-Color display
adapter with 1024x768 resolutions or
above
Ulead Systems website is http://www.ulead.com and its support URL is http://www.
corel.com. Corel charges $15 for telephone
support and free for 24/7 e-mail technical
support.
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
mediately blasted with a feature clip from
a Los Angeles area TV show’s brief review
of the book and the topic of brain plasticity.
iBrain: Surviving
the Technological
Alteration of the
Modern Mind
Authors: Gary Small, M.D.
and Gigi Vorgan
Reviewed by Bayle Emlein,
Secretary, PC Community,
California PCC News,
May 2009
www.pcc.org
pcc @ ix.netcom.com
In iBrain, Dr. Small addresses the differences between the mental processes of
“digital natives” and “digital immigrants.”
Digital natives are those born after about
1980, who have never known a world
without computers, Internet, video games.
Those born before electronic saturation
have, with varying amounts of skill and
willingness, learned to use these electronic
extensions of the human mind. But no matter how proficient we become, we always
operate as outsiders, immigrants with the
slightest trace of accent, not quite able to
function with the unconscious abandon of a
native speaker in the digital culture.
Gary Small is the Director of the Memory
& Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA. In
previous books he popularized some of the
new information on brain development,
plasticity, and neurological changes.
This is a book, actual paper with static
black ink. the book itself does not have a
Web site, though Dr. Small has one that
focuses heavily on the book -- http://www.
drgarysmall.com. I went there and was imVolume 24 Number 9 September 2009
The book has many short case studies/vignettes that make a point or describe how it
looks in real life. While these are all probably valid for the group they describe, it’s
missing large segments of the population.
It seems to me that Dr. Small is stuck in
a restricted point of view that every kid in
the industrialized world has the same kinds
of experiences that his UCLA environment
provides his family. Where are the single
mothers holding down two minimum-wage
jobs, the foster kids pushed out on their
18th birthday? I wonder what kind of differences Dr. Small would find in looking
at the brains, and minds, of the digital native generation who struggle with basic
literacy or with the English language. He
frequently mentions that digital natives
‘multitask and parallel process with ease,’
though other sources find that multitasking sets the mind up for errors and may not
be as productive as linear focus sequential
tasks. Since he doesn’t give his sources for
these tidbits, it’s hard to check his accuracy
against other studies.
Frequent anecdotes put the brain science
into everyday life and illustrate how we’d
see the neurochemistry in the everyday
world. There are several self-analysis surveys. They are designed to help the reader
figure out from her/his own behavior what
might be going on inside his brain. The
questions are worded in such a way that
they add to understanding of the topic.
There are points for both groups to consider.
Digital natives, often fail to develop social
and interpersonal skills. Digital immigrants
plod through information, missing connections. Immigrants generally know they are
in foreign territory: digital natives might be
surprised to consider that their citizenship
in the post-information age is not necessarily an all-encompassing advantage. This
might be a book you’d like to show to your
acquaintances (including family members)
who have a different orientation than you
do.
I’ve heard that when writing was introduced
to many oral cultures, it was lamented as
the end of memory, since people no longer
need to memorize in order to preserve history and culture. Whether writing is ultimately a blessing or a curse, it appears here
for the foreseeable future. The same can
be said for always-on electronic communication. It’s silly to lament a simpler past.
It’s equally silly not to use the tools now
http://www.topcc.org
5
available to understand the implications of
changes taking place and make the most of
developments. iBrain helps folks from each
side understand their own point of view better and gain some perspective on the other.
Definitely worth reading while waiting for
the next discovery in brain science.
Product Information
iBrain: Surviving the Technological
Alteration of the Modern Mind
List price, $24.95
Gary Small, M.D. and Gigi Vorgan
Harper Collins, Publisher, 2008
www.drgarysmall.com
This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for
publication by APCUG member groups;
all other uses require the permission of the
author (see e-mail address above).
Google
Continued from Page 3
The one Google application that I have
wanted to use but have put it off is Google
Docs. This application is a word processor,
spreadsheet, and presentation program in
one wrapper. Why use Google Docs when
Microsoft Word and Excel are fast and easy
to use? The primary reason is Google Docs
ability to easily collaborate and share with
others.
You can’t learn this stuff on your own -can you? That’s where Google Docs 4Everyone comes into play. Let’s be honest I
really didn’t think I needed a manual to
learn Google Docs. I was wrong. The first
chapter alone gave me information on
Google accounts that I’ve already taken
advantage of. If you only read about the
collaboration tools (Chapters 5, 8, and 10)
in Google Docs you will benefit greatly.
The book covers word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and collaborating and
sharing the documents you work with in
Google Docs.
Remember the manual you received with
your software? Well Google Docs 4Everyone is your manual for Google Docs. It’s
that simple. Most of you have a wealth of
knowledge using word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation software and
what you need is a manual that gives the
basics of Google Docs, especially its limits.
Continued on Page 11
6
Journal
ofof
the
Thousand
Oaks
Personal
Computer
Club
Journal
the
Thousand
Oaks
Personal
Computer
Club
YOUR HELP LINE
“Help Line Members Needed”
Are you willing to offer your fellow members some assistance?
If you wish to become a HELP line member, please submit the program(s) you are willing to assist with, the hours you
are available, and your telephone number. Our members will appreciate your
contribution. For
further information call Eli Spater at (805) 496-8053
Ed Allen (805) 794-3338 or surfguyed@verizon.net, will make evcery effort to help you with any of your software
or hardware problems.
Chuck Johnson (805) 497-4835 or chukybaby@aol.com, can help on the following: Quicken, Norton Utilites,
Windows, Office 97, Smartsuite and can be called most times.
Bart Koslow (805) 492-3522 or bart@koslow.net can help with Hardware & Software including System Suite,
System Mechanic, Quicken, Windows XP & Vista, DVD/CD backup, EBay, & computer boot problems.
Emerald Jones (805) 498-0296 or ejones1234@gmail.com between 9:30AM till 8:00PM can help with basic
computer questions or Microsoft Word
Statue of Liberty National Monument
by: Emma Lazarus
A poem by Emma Lazarus is graven on a tablet
within the pedestal on which the statue stands.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
http://www.topcc.org
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
Kick Word 2007’s Mini Toolbar to the
Curb
7
Kepler’s world
As much as I like Office 2007 a few of its
fea¬tures seem to annoy me. One of them
is Word 2007’s little on-the-spot editing
toolbar, which is officially known as the
Mini Toolbar. Perhaps you’ve encountered
it: The Mini-Toolbar appears when you
highlight some text and move your mouse
up. Admittedly, this new feature can be a
handy addition, but if you are not used to it,
it can be a Major Annoyance.
An Easier
Office 2007
Learning your way around Microsoft Office
2007 interface can take a while. Obviously
the biggest change involves the Ribbon
which can be daunting at first but has some
genuine benefits. It’s really just a smarter
way of organizing various features. If you
sped a little time customizing Office 2007
like making additions to the Quick Access
Toolbar, getting rid of the annoying Mini
Toolbar, and setting up Outlook’s spelling
checker things will look much better.
Add Features to the Quick Access Toolbar
If you miss certain icons from the old Office 2003 toolbar, such as Print and Open
it’s easy to add, just about any Office feature, to the Quick Access Toolbar, at the
top of your screen. By default, the toolbar
sports Save, Undo, and Redo icons, but you
can customize it as you see fit. Although
we are discussing Word 2007 the process is
the same for Excel and PowerPoint.
For starters, click the little down arrow on
the right edge of the toolbar. You’ll see a list
of popular commands such as Open, Quick
Print, and Spelling & Grammar. Click any
of them to add the corre¬sponding icon to
the Quick Access Toolbar. (Likewise, click
any already-checked item to remove it from
the toolbar.)
If you want to add a feature that doesn’t appear on this list you can right-click almost
any icon on the Ribbon (or in the Office
menu) and choose Add to Quick Access
Toolbar. To remove one of these custom
jobs, just right-click its icon and choose
Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.
If you agree it’s easy, fortunately, to turn
off:
1.
Click the Office button and then
choose Word Options.
2.
Clear the check box for Show
Mini Toolbar on selection.
3.
Click OK, and you’re done.
To restore the toolbar, you just recheck that
check box.
Make Outlook Automatically Check the
Spelling in Your E-Mail Before You Send
It
I think it is nice if I spell everything correctly in my messages, so it bugs me a little
when I goof or I see an e-mail con¬taining
egregious spelling mistakes.
I cheat a little by using Outlook 2007’s
spelling checker to give my outbound mail
the once-over before sending. You can do
the same—without having to remember
to click the Spelling but¬ton every time.
Here’s how:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Select Tools•Options.
Choose the Spelling tab.
Tick the box marked Always
check spelling before sending.
Click OK.
Now, when you click Send, Outlook’s
spelling checker will imme¬diately appear,
giving you an opportunity to fix those mistakes.
Of course, by default, Outlook uses squiggly red lines to indicate misspellings as you
type—giving you the chance to pause and
make corrections—but I know many folks
who prefer to just bang away at the keys
and only afterward fix the errors.
Celebrating the work of a
neglected astronomer
Much has been made of the 400th 11/1
anniversary this year of Galileo pointing a telescope at the moon and jotting
down what he saw (even though this had
previously been accomplished by an Englishman, Thomas Harriot, using a Dutch
telescope). But 2009 is also the 400th anniversary of the publication by Johannes
Kepler, a German mathema¬tician and astronomer, of “Astronomia Nova”. This was
a treatise that contained an account of his
discovery of how the planets move around
the sun, correcting Copernicus’s own more
famous but incorrectly formulated description of the solar system and establishing the
laws for planetary motion on which Isaac
Newton based his work.
Four centuries ago the received wis¬dom
was that of Aristotle, who asserted that the
Earth was the centre of the uni¬verse, and
that it was encircled by the spheres of the
moon, the sun, the planets and the stars beyond them. Copernicus had noticed inconsistencies in this the¬ory and had placed
the sunat the centre, with the Earth and the
other planets travelling around the sun.
Some six decades later when Kepler tackled the motion of Mars, he proposed a
number of geometric models, checking his
results against the position of the ‘ planet as
recorded by his boss, Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer. Kepler repeatedly found
continued on page 8
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
http://www.topcc.org
8
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
MEETING TIMES
Kepler,s World
Continued from Page 7
that his model failed to predict the correct
position of the planet He altered it and, in
so doing, created first egg-shaped “orbits”
(he coined the term) and, finally, an ellipse
with the sun placed at one focus. Kepler
went on to show that an elliptical orbit is
sufficient to explain the movement of the
other planets and to devise the laws of
plane¬tary motion that Newton built on.
A.E.L. Davis, of Imperial College, London, this week told astronomers and historians at the International Astronom¬ical
Union meeting in Mo de Janeiro that it was
the rotation of the sun, as seen by Galileo
and Harriot as they watched sunspots moving across its surface, that provided Kepler with what he thought was one of the
causes tithe planetary motion that his laws
described, although his reasoning would
today be considered entirely wrong.
In 1609 astronomy and astrology were
seen as intimately related mathematics
and natural philosophy, meanwhile, were
quite separate areas of endeavor. Kepler,
however, sought physical mecha¬nisms to
explain his mathematical result. He wanted
to know how it could be that the planets
orbited the sun. Once he learned that the
sun rotated, he comfort¬ed himself with
the thought that the sun’s rays must somehow sweep the planets around it while a
quasi magne¬tism accounted for the exact
elliptical path. (Newton did not propose
his theory of gravity for almost another 80
years.) As today’s astronomer struggle to
deter¬mine whether they can learn from
the past, Kepler’s tale provides a salutary
reminder that only some explanations stand
the test of time.
TOPCC General Meeting
6:00 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Goebel Center
Steering Committee Meeting
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Goebel Center
Photo Group Meeting
6:00 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Library
Photo Group Steering Committee
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Goebel Center
Video Group Meeting
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Goebel Center
with the free Windows Search from microsoft.com. The add-on can dig up e-mail
mes¬sages, attachments and documents of
just about any type.
You can also try a third-party system, many
of which are free. Google Desktop Search
(desktop. google.com), for example, marries your local PC file system with the Webbased Google search system, allowing you
to find virtually any kind of file, and gives
results in a familiar Google dis¬play.
HOW CAN I FIND
LOST COMPUTER
FILES?
Another option if speed is your main concern: Copernic Desktop Search (copernic
.com), which can complete most searches
in less than a second. Keep in mind that all
of these tools let you search within the text
of a file as well.
You know that somewhere on your hard
drive, the file you seek is happily sitting,
awaiting you. But you just can’t find it, and
you can’t even remember the name of it.
Mac users can try the built-in Spotlight feature, which has lots of power and hidden
capabilities, including searching by type,
creation date and more. Or, for $60, Leap
(ironicsoftware.com) lets you tag files so
you can run complex searches (say, “Word
files that talk about South Africa” or “photos that include Mary”) to track them down
later.
THE DREADED LOST FILE
SYNDROME:
Now what? If you’re a Windows user, replace the painfully slow built-in search tool
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
http://www.topcc.org
TOPCC
PRESIDENT.................Stuart Dreifus
........................... president@topcc.org
Vice President...................Steve Carter
---------------vice_president@topcc.org
Treasurer-----------------Chuck Johnson
----------------------treasurer@topcc.org
Secretary & Technical Coordinator
.........................................Gordon Huff
---------------wa6fmx@worldnet.att.net
STEERING COMMITTEE
Newsletter Publisher.--------------Eli Spater
------------------------.newsletter@topcc.org
Webmistress----------------.Leslie Monahan
----------------------webmistress@topcc.org
Program Coordinator...----...Harry Isaman
-------------------------programs@topcc.org
Exec. at Large-----------------.Harry Norkin
------------------..harry23nork@verizion.net
Software Review---------------Bart Koslow
-----------------------------review@topcc.org
Photo Group
Chairman-----------------------Darrel Priebe
-----------------------PhotoGroup@topcc.org
Vice Chairman-----------------Connie Wade
------------------PhotoViceChair@topcc.org
Secretary---------------------Chuck Castaing
-------------------PhotoSecretary@topcc.org
Field Trips-----Jerry Koenig & Milt Morris
-----------------------– Fieldtrips@topcc.org
Digital Newsletter-------------Judy Forman
-----------------------PhotoNews@topcc.org
Digital Image Wizard –------- Mark Reden
----------------------photoentries@topcc.org
Video club Officers
Audrey Bishop-audreyinca@sbcglobal.net
David Stelman-dstelman@roadrunner.com
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
9
9
9
The Computer Club meets every fourth Thursday of the month except Nov. and Dec. During these two months we meet on the
third Thursday at one of two locations below:
The Phot Group meets the first Monday of each month at the Thousand Oaks Library.
The Video Group meets on the third Monday of each month at the Goebel Adult SEnior Center.
For exceptions to the above times check the information below.
Goebel Adult Senior Center Thousand Oaks Library
1385 E. Janss Road, 1401 E. Janss Road,
Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks, California
Computer Club
Video Group
Photo Group
January 22, 2009
February 26 2009
March 26, 2009
April 23, 2009 May 28, 2009
June 25, 2009
July 23, 2009
Aug. 27, 2009
September 24, 2009
October 22, 2009
November 19, 2009
December 17, 2009
January 19, 2009
February 16, 2009
March 16, 2009
April 20, 2009
May 18, 2009
June 15, 2009
July 20, 2009
August 17, 2009
September 21, 2009
October 19, 2009
November 16, 2009
December 21, 2009
January 5, 2009
February 2, 2009
March 2, 2009
April 6, 2009
May 4, 2009
June 1, 2009
July 6, 2009
August 3, 2009
September 7, 2009
October 5, 2009
November 2, 2009
December 7, 2009
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club Users
Group is an in-dependent, not for profit, computer
group open to anyone interested in computers. It is
not affiliated with any business. Our purpose is to
serve as an educational, scientific, and literary organization designed to enhance computer literacy.
DISCLAIMER:
Neither the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club,
(TOPCC), its officers, board of directors, nor members
make any ex-pressed or implied warranties of any kind
with regard to any information or offers disseminated
in the Journal via advertisements or articles, including
but not limited to warranties of merchantability and/or
fitness for a particular purpose. Opinions provided by
Journal articles, or by speakers, members, or guests
who address the TOPCC meetings are individual
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
opinions only, and do not represent the opinions of the TOPCC, its officers, the board of directors, or members.
All opinions, information, and advertisements should be carefully considered by every individual and neither the
group, its officers, board of directors, nor members shall in any respect be held responsible for nor be liable for
any and all incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the furnishing or use of any
information, advertisements, or opinions provided by or through the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club.
The Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club Journal is a monthly publication of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club. Subscriptions are included in the cost of membership. Reproduction of any material herein by any means is expressly prohibited unless written permission is granted, except that other user
groups may reprint non-copyrighted articles, provided credit is given to the author and the publication.
http://www.topcc.org
10
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
‘Geotag’ Your
Digital Pictures
Your digital camera can keep track
of your travels for you
By David LaGesse
VIRUS ALERT
VERY IMPORTANT , PLEASE
READ THIS
Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo,
Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both
Microsoft and Norton Please send it to everybody you know who has Access to the
Internet. You may receive an apparently
harmless e-mail titled ‘Mail Server Report’
If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: ‘It is too late
now, your life is no longer beautiful...’
Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person
who sent it to you will gain access to your
Name, e-mail and password. This is a new
virus which started to circulate on Saturday
afternoon. AOLhas already confirmed the
severity, and the anti virus software’s are
not capable of destroying it.
The virus has been created by a hacker who
calls himsel f ‘life owner’.
THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY
SNOPES.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/
mailserver.asp
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
Too many travelers return from a long vacation, flip through their photos, and wonder if that big cathedral is Bradford in West
Yorkshire or Ripon in North Yorkshire.
Now, digital photos can answer the question with a bit of added information—the
precise latitude and longitude where each
was taken.
Putting location info on pictures is called
“geotagging.” Once location tags are added, photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Smugmug, or Picasa can trace a camera’s route
across a map. It lends a whole new perspective to that big trip.
Many smart phones, including Apple’s
iPhone 3G and some BlackBerrys, can already geotag their photos. For better pictures from dedicated cameras, it can take a
bit of effort to get the location data into that
photo file. Some snapshooters carry a GPS
device that tracks their travels. They later
match where they were at different times
to when the photos were taken and manually type the latitude/longitude data into the
photo’s file.
New devices are arriving that can ease the
process. A memory card from a camera
can be transferred to the ATP Photo Finder
($100), where the gadget’s software uses
time stamps to automatically match photos
with locale.
Perhaps the easiest is the Eye-Fi Explore
($130). The 2-gigabyte memory card not
only stores hundreds of photos but also
stamps each with location data. The card
isn’t always accurate and is mostly limited to metro areas because it depends on a
database of wireless Internet access points
instead of using the GPS satellites. But it’s
still the closest thing to having a GPS receiver built into a camera, a feature that is
just starting to arrive in high-end models.
Camera makers like Nikon, Canon, and
Pentax are making geotagging a priority
for future models. They’re looking to add
features to encourage buyers to upgrade
their digital cameras. And they know that
all shutterbugs have trouble remembering
who or what is in a photo, much less where
it was taken.
http://www.topcc.org
Make Photos Jump
off the Page with
Drop Shadows
IF YOUR PHOTOS live mainly on your
computer, you might not traffic much in
real frames any¬more. But the virtual
frame of a drop shadow—that is, the hint of
a “shadow” under your image—can add an
interesting touch to pictures that you share
online. And in Adobe Photoshop Elements
6 or later, you can introduce this effect with
only a few clicks.
To get started, open a photo in Elements.
Be¬cause the drop-shadow effect is designed to work on a layer, you need to promote your photo to layer status. Find the
Layers palette—it’s on the right-hand side
of the screen—and double-click the image, which should be identified as “Background.” The New Layer dialog box will
appear. Click OK.
Notice that your image is now a layer, as
indicated by the name Layer 0 in the Layers palette. (You can change the name of
the layer if you want to, but since Layer 0
is the only layer you’ll be work¬ing with
in this project, that step is really not necessary.)
You’re almost ready to add drop shadows.
But before you do that, you need to expand
the canvas around the edges of the photo.
Otherwise, your drop shadow will have nowhere to go.
In the menu, click Image• Resize• Canvas
Size. You’ll want to make the canvas a little
bigger by 10 percent, say. Just switch the
unit of measure from inches to percent, and
then en¬ter 110 for both height and width.
Click OK.
You should see that the canvas has expanded by 10 percent, and there should be
a transparent border around the edges of
your photo.
Now it’s time to experiment with drop
shadows. In the Effects palette located on
the right side of the screen, click the Layer
Styles button and then choose Drop Shadows from the menu. You can drag any of
the drop-shadow presets from the palette to
your photo. If you don’t like the one you
dragged, simply replace it with another.
When you find a preset that suits your image, save your finished product.
Journal of the Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
October 2009
Sun
Mon
4
11
18
25
Tues
5
Wed
6
Photo Group
Computer Club
General Meeting Board Meeting
Thur
7
12
13
14
19
20
21
Video Group
General Meeting
26
1
8
Fri
2
11
Sat
3
9
10
15
16
17
22
23
24
30
31
Photo Group
Board Meeting
Computer Club
General Meeting
27
28
29
For more details on the above items go to the TOPCC web site at
topcc.org and click on your area of interest
Google aspx?isbn=0789739364)
Continued from Page 5 This article has been obtained from APThe important subjects are those that make
Google Docs special. Primarily its collaboration tools and Google Docs ability to
publish to the Web and post to blogs. It’s
all covered in Google Docs 4Everyone.
This book is very much recommended. I’m
now a big fan of Google Docs because of
Google Docs 4Everyone. The list price for
Google Docs 4Everyone is $19.99 and it
can
be had at Amazon for $13.59. (It also can
be ordered from the publisher with a 35%
discount if your group is a member of the
Pearson User Group program).
Google Docs 4Everyone is authored by
Steven Holzner and Nancy Holzner. 251
Pages. Publisher: QUE, 800 East 9th St.,
Indianapolis, Indiana, 46240.
(http://www.informit.com/store/product.
Volume 24 Number 9 September 2009
CUG with the author’s permission for
publication by APCUG member groups;
all other uses require the permission of the
author (see e-mail address above).
NEW MEMBERS
as of 9/1/09
Lance Boepple
Christian Dequet
Deborah & Richard Fletcher
Michael D. Guzzardo
Kristina Haygood
Harriette Henderson
Lia Johnson
Marlene Votion
http://www.topcc.org
Attention
To make our job a little easier
we would greatly appreciate
your assistance in sending your
renewal checks for $30
directly to:
Chuck Johnson
632 Briar Cliff Road
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360.
Or, you may give
it to him personally
at our meetings.
Thousand Oaks P.C. Club
P.O. Box 6981
Thousand Oaks, CA 91359-6981
Your renewal date is located on the top of your address label. Do not
forget to renew at your proper time
Journal of The Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2009 when...
1.. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your mobile phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in
the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your mobile phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 or 40 years of your
life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list