Flash Drives and file management.
Most of what I presented today was a re-hash of earlier talks, which you will find in the archives of the Computer Club blogsite…
http://nottu3a.blogspot.com/
I’ve created an index for the blogsite on our main Computer Club page (scroll down the page to see this) …
http://www.nottu3a.freeuk.com/compclub.htm
So here is the link to my blog page dated Tuesday October 28 2008,
which is an update on how to use a flash drive….
http://nottu3a.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
Here is a link to my page on “Moving photos & folders (& clearing clutter)”
dated Thursday 18 December 2008.
http://nottu3a.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html
Dennis Apple suggested an easy way of shrinking down / expanding an
opened folder ... a double mouse-click on the thick blue line at the top
of the page. This is easier than clicking on the centre button at the top
right-hand corner of your document.
I would suggest you adopt two ideas which will save you a lot of time
and frustration trying to find stuff on your computer, and also save
time when it comes to backing stuff up onto a flash drive or CD-Rom.
When you create a Word document, put a title for it at the
top of the page..
eg 091217 talk on flash drives
091217 is the code for the year 2009, the month December, and the
day of the month: the 17th.
When you come to save this document … File > Save As
you will see that the title of the document will appear in the little
"Save As" box.
When viewing a collection of documents in a folder, select “View” on
the top toolbar, and then “List”. Straightaway, you will see all
your documents stacked up in date order. You will then be able to
find your docs much more quickly.
Ray Gosling passed the above tip onto us, from his knowledge of how
the BBC files its documents.
The second idea is a way of labelling your folders of photos (and
also individual photos) to save yourself some time.
I usually don’t alter the jpeg image number of my photos …eg IMG_8945
However, if I alter a photo in say Gimp (which is free photo-editing
software), I usually tag something onto the end of the image number…
eg IMG_8945min
The latter is my code for a photo I’ve reduced in size, for website use
or to email to family & friends.
If you’re looking at a folder of photos, and select “View” and the top
toolbar and then “List”, you will see all your photos stacked up in the
order you took them, with all your minimised photos listed in order too.
So you’ll easily be able to pick out the smaller photos and move them
across to a new folder of their own, if you wish.
You can create separate folders for your photos, and label them with a
date and name …
0209lanz ... my code for our February trip to Lanzarote.
0309pics … photos I took in March 2009
0409pics … my April photos
0409minis … my smaller photos for April, to upload onto Flickr.
When you come to view a list of these folders, you’ll see them all
stacked up in date order. I keep all my photo folders on my Desktop,
in a folder named “Photos”, for easy access.
As Graham Godfrey pointed out at today’s meeting, keep any deleted
items stored in your Recycle Bin for a month or so, just in case
you need to see them again. You might lose the CD copy or the flash
drive copy of your items, and then wish to see the originals again.
I also think it’s a good idea to keep your original photos on a
camera memory card for as long as possible, for back-up purposes.
So buy a few more camera memory cards. I mislaid my CD with all
my Lanzarote photos on it, and was able to make another CD from
the originals on my camera card.
As Jack Schofield of The Guardian says from time to time, you
need at least two forms of back up for important documents / photos.
CD-Roms are the best. Make copies for a family member or friend
to keep for you, in case of a house fire, which would destroy
everything.
Brian Morgan showed us how to make a shortcut for your flash drive
on your Desktop … Start > (My) Computer > right mouse click on
“Removable disk” or similar wording for your flash drive. Select
“create shortcut” onto your Desktop.
