Talk on using GIMP
(written by JH)
I started off with a short introduction on some of the basics on how
to use Gimp, including how to reduce the size of a photographic image,
which you can do very easily in Gimp. The main part of my talk was on
how to type text onto a photo (or onto a white / coloured background),
and how to create simple borders for a photo. You could use the methods
I described to create an e-card to send to family & friends for special
occasions, or to make banner for your website, or to label a photo of
your ancestors.
All I described and more is on my website ....
http://jwebdesigns.angelfire.com/
All the software I've used on this website is available to you free of
charge ... you can download it from the internet yourself.
There is a free program called Scribus which you can download. This is
similar to Microsoft's Publisher. (You will also need to download a
free program called Ghostscript, to work in conjunction with Scribus).
I've only got as far as putting together the first page of our
Newsletter with this, but then I got stuck at this stage. Time
permitting (and if I can work out how to use Scribus properly), I
might publish an extra webpage or two on how to use this.
As I mentioned during my talk, there is a wealth of educational videos
available on the internet ... here is one of the excellent ones I found
on how to use Scribus (just by googling the words: Scribus video) ....
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4177383855307877860#
......................................................................
Using MSCONFIG
In our beginners' session today, Anthony Jordan described a way of
speeding up the start-up process of your computer, if it should appear
sluggish or if annoying pop-ups appear on your screen. You might be running
too many programs on your computer during start-up (or you might be
running programs you no longer need).
AJ advised clicking on your Start button > Run.
Type in the search box: msconfig (this stands for Microsoft configuration)
Select Start-up from the top of the menu box.
Have a look through the list of programs running in start-up.
Make an educated guess as to any nuisance or redundant programs, and
untick the relevant boxes.
Press OK, and then re-start your computer.
If anything appears not to be working properly, you can go back into msconfig
and tick one or more boxes. When you untick a box, you're not removing a
program from your computer, you're simply disabling it from running during
start-up. (Thanks for your info, Anthony, and for explaining it so clearly).
