Think about labelling all your files with the
current day’s date.
I will save this article as follows:
080417 computerclub blog
08 is the year, 04 April and 17 the day of the month
I date my photo folders in a slightly different way
eg 0408photos … my April 2008 photos.
After saving several files / folders into My Documents,
go into My Documents, click View on the top toolbar, and then List.
You will see your files stacked up in date (and alphabetical) order.
Windows will do all the hard work for you, if you adopt this simple
way of dating your stuff.
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Taskbar shortcuts (to one or more of your favourite folders) …
Right mouse click on the bottom toolbar > Toolbar > New toolbar
… browse for the folder > Select folder.
Click on the set of double arrows just alongside the folder name
on the taskbar, to reveal the contents of the folder … slide your
mouse up the list, to a sub-folder, to reveal the sub-folder’s
contents.
Remove a taskbar shortcut … Right mouse click on the toolbar
> toolbars
… and then untick the folder shortcut you wish to delete.
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Here are the links to a couple of websites I mentioned in my talk
about hiding your files / folders, with password protection ….
Free Hide Folders on the PC World site … click HERE
(this site is not for Windows Vista users)
For another site which is said to be compatible with Windows Vista,
click HERE. I haven’t tried this one out myself, so I don’t know how
safe / good this site is.
Remember to create a RESTORE POINT before putting any new program onto your computer.
Start > Help & Support
> “Undo changes to your computer with System Restore”
If your computer were to crash during installation, then it would be
possible to restore your computer to its earlier state.
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One of our members asked about organising her photos which were
scattered around her computer.
I think that using the Picasa program would help locate
where all the photos are.
You can download this program free of charge … click HERE
Once you’ve downloaded it, Picasa will ask if you’d like to set
up a photo-gallery of all your photos … which it will do for you
at all levels in your computer. I’ve used Picasa twice in the
past (on a temporary basis), and have discovered photos which
I thought I’d deleted ages ago. The photos will be displayed as
rows of small thumbnail photos, so you will be able to look at
them all very quickly.
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Another member asked me about Nottingham’s Freecycle for
recycling some stuff.
The original Nottingham group recently reformed itself as
Nottingham Realcycle -- a splinter group.
Here is some info about Nottm Realcycle …
Here are a couple of webpages with some info about Nottm
Realcycle
... click HERE and HERE.
You will see that you will need to set up an ID with Yahoo, to be able
to access the Yahoo Group forum.
I use a Yahoo email site to post emails / adverts to the Group site.
(I don't usually bother looking at the forum page)
Here is the Yahoo email address for the group ...
realcycle_nottingham@yahoogroups.com
There is a hyphen or a short underline between the words realcycle
and nottingham.
You will need to apply to the group's moderators to be able
to join the group ... you have to state where you live in
Nottingham to be able to sign up ... they restrict membership to
people living inside the city boundary.
They have a strict protocol in how you should complete your emails
to the group, and they will tell you about this when you've been
accepted. Let me know if you don't understand what to do.
If you’re looking for a specific item, I’ve found it more effective
to put in a “wanted” advert, than wait for the item to turn up on
the message board.
You can also email the group with a digital photo of an item you
wish to donate ... I've found it difficult to sort out what to do,
but I have managed to do this a few times.
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Googlemail
Another member was having problems using Hotmail's email address
system, which I have experienced also.
When you start typing someone's email address into Googlemail or
Yahoo email, the person's email address automatically appears,
together with anyone else with the same first name. So if I start
writing the name Christine into our Googlemail address box, up pops
a list of about eight Christines I could choose from.
With both Hotmail and Yahoo, I dislike the look of all the adverts
on the email sites, so I can recommend Googlemail to anyone who
fancies a change. Perhaps you'd like an extra site just for family
and friends? I've use Googlemail for family & friends, and Hotmail
for anyone/anything else.
Googlemail has a brilliant search facility ... put a name like
Ken into the search box, and all my email correspondence with Ken
will come up on the screen in date order.
Another good feature with Gmail is the fairly easy way of transferring
all your email addresses from say Hotmail to your Gmail site. Gmail
has a short video showing you how to do this. You would need the
Microsoft Excel program (or a similar program) on your computer to do
this, as you'd be creating a csv file.
Gmail also allows you to send out an email to a large group of
people, such as the 100+ online members of Nottm U3A. Hotmail and
Yahoo won't let me do this, but Outlook Express will. If anyone
in the U3A would like to know how to send bulk emails, please let
me know.
To sign up for Googlemail, click HERE for the introductory page, and
then select Create an account.
