EXCEL: How to Turn the Heading Row “On” or “Off”

When we work in Excel (Spreadsheets) whether for numbers or data management, it's always best to be sure that we've typed in a heading row, so that when we sort a column - it will be easier to understand the meaning of the data. By default, the value in the heading is not included in the sort operation.

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Occasionally, you may need to turn on or off the heading so that the value in the heading is or is not included in the sort operation. Do one of the following:

<ul>

<li>To exclude the first row of data from the sort because it is a column heading, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort &amp; Filter, click Custom Sort, and then select My data has headers. </li>

<li>To include the first row of data in the sort because it is not a column heading, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort &amp; Filter, click Custom Sort, and then clear My data has headers.</li>

</ul>

How to verify an emails accuracy - scam or hoax

It's always a good idea to verify email stories or warnings that you receive, no matter how accurate they may seem, before you forward them on to family and friends… Better to be safe – than to have to send a second email apologizing for a story that is urban legend, hoax or scam…

There are several different ways to do this and it only takes a minute - first you might want to check the accuracy on one of the following websites, such as:

www.hoax-slayer.com
www.truthorfiction.com
www.snopes.com

I’m sorry to say that one of my favorite websites to verify email stories has decided to get out of the business – that was: www.breakthechain.org

OR

Visit you favorite search engine and put the basics of the email story or warning into the “search bar” on your favorite search engine, such as

• google.com
• bing.com
• yahoo.com
• ask.com

or whichever one you use…

It's estimated that 99 out of 100 of these stories and warnings are false with little or no validity - but they certainly clog up email inboxes, mail servers, cause people to be spammed and damage to computers and waste so much time...

So be safe & check the story out for yourself before you forward it on...

More computer & technology related classes

March is just around the corner, so if you’ve been busy with all the wonderful events about town these last few weeks, now is the time to learn a little more about your computer and/or that software you might not be comfortable with.. we can help.. I’ve added several new computer and technology related classes that you asked for, even expanded 3 popular topics to 12 hours instead of 8 hrs..
As always, if computers aren’t your thing, MCC has many wonderful credit and non-credit classes in a wide variety of subjects, including fitness, yoga, dance, ceramics, history, jewelry making, maintaining your motorcycle & many more...
Visit our website: www.mohave.edu ; or visit our campus at 1971 Acoma Blvd in Lake Havasu or call for more information.. Don’t forget to stop by and visit our Library at MCC and ask their staff to give you a tour and explain all the wonderful services available to you for free, including library books, using our computers to check your email or surf the web or accessing countless databases and much more..
I am teaching the following computer/technology classes the next several weeks (before MCC closes for Spring Break March 11th thru 18th) and we will have these and many more classes thru April.. We look forward to working with you. So sign up today and bring a friend along - Call Registration 928-855-7812 or 453-1139 and we’ll save you a seat...
Special Note-we are currently arranging several new 4 hour workshops for March and April – topic “ALL THINGS iMac” pertaining to all the Apple Mac questions many of you have raised about iPads, iPods, iPhones etc. If you are interested, be sure to email me so in turn we can notify you when the dates & times are finalized…
You are welcome to use the computers in our classroom or bring your own laptop; your choice. We do require a minimum of six (6) participants in every class (otherwise we will sadly have to postpone that class until the next scheduled class) but typically this time of the year – classes fill up very quickly, so call today….
As always, if you have any questions or aren’t sure which class might be best for you – just email me… cherie_houston@hotmail.com
FIND & ORGANIZE WHAT’S ON YOUR PC LSC062-125: Feb. 27 & 29, Monday & Wednesday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Two 4 hour classes-Learn to use Windows Explorer so that you can easily and quickly find & organize everything you’ve saved on your PC; organize your work, files & photo’s to find them quickly & easily. Learn to back up your pc, photo & documents with portable flash & hard drives, memory cards and memory card readers..

INTERNET AND IT’S MANY USES LSC071-122: Feb 27 & 29, Monday & Wednesday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 Hour classes designed to help you get totally comfortable with the internet, tips& lingo, such as ISP, browser, blogger; when/why to use F5 & F11; website basics, hyperlinks, email basics, “tabbed browsing for multi websites”, using “Google & Bing” to search web, images, news; translating to & from different languages; blogging and more
POWER POINT FOR GREAT SLIDE SHOWS & PRESENTATIONS & TO CREATE LAYERED PHOTOS LSC069D-121: Feb 28 & Mar 1, Tuesday & Thursday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm Two 4 Hour classes designed to help you create basic slide show presentations to share with family, friends & your organization – how to enhance them with text, photos, clip art, animation, music, transitioning and timing features and how to create and save “slides” as photos for use in other projects such as greeting cards and books… Bring photos to class (on your camera or flash drive)
MOVIE MAKER LSC100A-121: Feb 28 & Mar 1, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 hour classes learn to create movies with your photos, music & other special effects: transitions, titles/credits, your favorite music, timeline narration, and much more. This software is free with Windows XP, Media, Vista and/or Windows 7… Bring photos to class (on your camera or flash drive)
SKYPE & GOOGLE VOICE WORKSHOP LSC100-129: Mar 2, Friday morning ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, One 4 Hour workshop reviewing the differences of using Skype and/or Google Voice to make free phone calls (with or without video web cams) all over the world for FREE from any computer and/or Smartphone… lots of tips.. Again bring your laptop and or Smartphone

LIST AND DATA MANAGEMENT WITH EXCEL LSC 069-122: Mar 3 & 10, Saturday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Two 4 hour classes-Learn to work with numbers & text (budget, contact lists for mail merges) Workbook vs. worksheet; cells, columns, rows, auto-formats; margins, grid lines, sorting numbers & data & print basics - Bring an address book or contact list to class

PICASA PHOTO EDITING LSC081-122: Mar 5, 6 & 7 – Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Three-4 hour classes learning to edit & print Digital Photos using Picasa (free Google software) learn to upload photos from your camera and/or scanner to the PC, learn lots of editing features including cropping, name tagging and what GeoTagging is, how to create collages & quick movies and of course printing tips.. Bring photos to class (on camera or flash drive)
WINDOWS 7 OPERATING SYSTEM WORKSHOP LSC100-127: Mar 5, Monday afternoon ~ 1pm-4:50pm, One 4 Hour workshop reviewing many of the features and improvements available with Windows 7 – including using the Libraries to manage files & folders, Jump Lists vs Task Bar vs Quick Launch, Running apps, Shuffling wallpaper & screens savers, System Tray, Media Player, Alerts vs action center and much more – Bring your laptop
EMAIL HOW TO’S LSC071-124 Mar 6 & 8
CREATE/PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK LSC100A-124: Mar 7, 19 & 21, Wednesday & Monday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, 3/Three 4 hour classes showing you how to create & publish your own book, using free book publishing software from www.blurb.com known as personal book making & publishing-use your wp skills & digital photos and learn in quantities as small as just one. You decide: soft or hard cover, various sizes, all text, all photos or a combination of photos & text, story book or recipe book-we will also work with walgreens.com to create a book & greeting cards using your photos Bring photos to class (on camera or flash drive)
WORD-CREATE GREAT LOOKING DOCUMENTS LSC068-122: Mar. 8 & 9, Thursday & Friday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 hour classes-reviewing the basics to open, create, save documents; highlight; cut-copy-paste, set & change margins; create letters, envelopes, labels& use clip art, word art to enhance documents, create flyers & invitations & lots of printing tips
SOCIAL NETWORKING, FACEBOOK & BLOGGING BASICS LSC080-126: Mar 9, 10 & 23rd Friday & Saturday morning ~ 1pm-4:50pm – note that the 3rd class will be Friday morning, Mar 23: 8:30am-12:20pm, Three 4 hour classes learning all about social networking, which includes texting, “Facebook”, blogging, “Twittering” – smartphones vs cell phones and much more… We’ll review the importance of Facebook Privacy settings-how to send private messages and post comments & photos and how to create a blog for a family or organization newsletter, learn how, why & when to post and comment and use Photos, Slide Shows, Blog Tools & more..

So come on by; be sure to check out our class blog often for lots of helpful technology tips and updates on what’s happening around town…

We hope you’ll stop by MCC – visit our campus, library and get a complete listing of these and all the other wonderful classes offered at Mohave Community College…

Presidents Day or Washington’s Birthday or both

Well, it’s Monday – February 20th, 2012 – and many of us have the day off – celebrating “Presidents' Day”, which is also known as "Washington's Birthday".

Yes, some states – including Arizona & Massachusetts, do celebrate Presidents' Day as a state holiday BUT remember President’s Day has never been recognized at the federal level. On the national level, the third Monday of February is the official observance of Washington's Birthday.

And did you realize, that some states that don’t honor/celebrate Presidents Day or Washington’s Birthday - those states that don't (according to Wikipedia) are Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Washington's Birthday, February 22nd, was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress.. In 1968, legislation was enacted that affected several federal holidays celebrated at that time and one of the holidays, was Washington's Birthday this act was put in place in the hopes of simplifying the yearly calendar of holidays. President’s Day is now observed on the third Monday of February throughout the United States.

A common misconception is that Presidents' Day is the unification of Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday, or that it is a celebration of all U.S. Presidents, but neither of these are true..

And because we follow the school calendars - our computer classes are not held on Presidents Day - Washington's Birthday, so enjoy your day off.. I know we will...

What does “cloud” computing mean?

No the angels in heaven aren’t going to help store your work and photos when you use "cloud computing"..

Cloud computing simply means that whatever task you are performing is happening on the internet, instead of on your own PC.. So for anyone who uses many of the free email accounts, such as hotmail – yahoo – gmail, well they’ve been using “cloud” computing, because when they went to that companies website, and signed in with their user name & password, they were working on that companies computer, not their own… If you use Walgreens.com to store your photos for prints, and projects – such as a photo book or mug, then you were using “cloud” computing..

Cloud computing isn't new - far from it - it's been around since the early 1960's..50 years!!!

Some sources say cloud computing began with the beginning of the IT (Information Technology) Outsourcing industry by using idle/excess compute power (processing, storage, and connectivity) of one entity, to carry out the work of another. It's possible the first such use was when Mr. Ross Perot started the IT Outsourcing industry in 1962, and then rented idle computing power from one company (Southwestern Life) to carry out the processing needs of another (Collins Radio).

Update: Yes-Facebook Timeline will be compulsory

I've been inundated with questions as to whether or not the new Facebook Timeline design will be compulsory - this is the notice found on the Facebook Forum on January 30th, 2012:


Facebook has confirmed it is making the move to Timeline compulsory to ALL members in the next few weeks


Note however that a petition is being circulated asking Facebook to change this decision, as of now it already has more than 1 million signatures - but remember there are more than 800 million Facebook users...


Like everything new - it may just take us a little time to get used to the new design...

Stay in Charge from Hospice of Havasu

From time to time we are pleased to include community events in our blog that might be of interest to our readers.. this is one of those events which is being presented by Hospice of Havasu..  If you are interested in attending or woudl like more information please call Hospice of Havasu at 928-453-2111

STAY IN CHARGE

Advanced Directives outline your health care choices now,

sparing loved ones from tough decisions later on.

Learn more about these important documents

in a free, no-obligation session.

Thursday, February 16

1-2:30pm - 232 London Bridge Road

(Next to the Hospice of havasu Resale Store)

Presented by Teri Geier, Social Work Supervisor

for Hospice of Havasu

Light Refreshments will be served

February - Classes, Spring Frenzy & Winterfest

February is here and we hope everyone is going to take advantage of some of the wonderful events all over town during this week of “Spring Frenzy” February 6th -12th”. If you aren’t sure what’s happening, just stop in at the Aquatic Center and they’ll gladly fill you in – it’s only $4 a Class or $30 for the week to learn about fishing, kayaking, how to BBQ, golfing, and lots of technology & other classes all over the city, including here at MCC…


The end of the week, Saturday & Sunday, February 11th & 12th is our annual Winterfest on McCulloch Blvd (Main St) between Acoma & Smoketree – enough vendors, food & music to satisfy everyone’s taste, so “come on down” and remember to stop by and visit the Mohave Community College Booth..


You asked for it and you’ve got it - I’ve added several new computer and technology related classes that you asked for, even expanded a few to 12 hours instead of 8 hrs.. And if computers aren’t your thing, then MCC has many other wonderful credit and non-credit classes in a wide variety of subjects, including fitness, yoga, dance, ceramics, history, jewelry making, maintaining your motorcycle & much more...


Visit our website: http://www.mohave.edu/ ; or visit our campus at 1971 Acoma Blvd in Lake Havasu or call for more information.. Don’t forget to stop by and visit our Library at MCC and ask their staff to give you a tour and explain all the wonderful services available to you for free, including library books, using our computers to check your email or surf the web or accessing countless databases and much more..


I am teaching the following computer/technology classes in February and we will have these and many more classes thru April.. We look forward to working with you. So sign up today and bring a friend along - Call Registration 928-855-7812 or 453-1139 and we’ll save you a seat...


You can use one of our class computers or bring your own laptop.  We do require a minimum of six (6) participants in every classes, otherwise we will sadly have to postpone that class until the next scheduled class, but typically this time of the year – classes fill up quickly….


As always, if you have any questions or aren’t sure which class might be best for you – just email me… cherie_houston@hotmail.com


PICASA PHOTO EDITING LSC081-121: Feb 10, 11 & 17 – Fri, Sat & Fri mornings, 8:30am-12:20pm, Three-4 hour classes learning to edit & print Digital Photos using Picasa (free Google software) learn to upload photos from your camera and/or scanner to the PC, learn lots of editing features including cropping, name tagging and what GeoTagging is, how to create collages & quick movies and of course printing tips.. Bring photos to class (on camera or flash drive)


COMPUTERS FOR THE FUN OF IT LSC062- 122 : Feb 13 & 14, Monday & Tuesday mornings, ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Two 4 Hour classes reviewing computer hardware, software (operating systems, application software, browsers and drivers), printing tips, keyboard shortcut tips, customizing desktop-changing backgrounds, create shortcuts, using quick launch bar, Start Menu, Task Bar, control panel & much more…


DIGITAL CAMERA BASICS LSC100A-122: Feb 15 & 16, Wednesday & Thursday afternoons, 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 hour classes-Intro to digital cameras; pixels, camera lingo, basic how to’s, move photo’s to your PC with memory card & memory card reader, organize photos on your PC using Windows Explorer; save photos to portable drives Bring your digital camera to class


HOW TO BUY & SELL ONLINE LSC101-122 Feb 13 & 14, Wednesday & Thursday mornings, ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Two 4 Hour classes reviewing tips for making travel arrangements-flights-hotels-rental cars-how to register, when to and not use your credit card; selling & buying online using eBay, Amazon, CraigsList and others – shortcuts & security tips…


WINDOWS 7 OPERATING SYSTEM WORKSHOP LSC100-127 Feb 15, Wednesday afternoon, 1pm-4:50pm, One 4 Hour workshop reviewing many of the features and improvements available with Windows 7 – including using the Libraries to manage files & folders, Jump Lists vs Task Bar vs Quick Launch, Running apps, Shuffling wallpaper & screens savers, System Tray, Media Player, Alerts vs action center and much more – Bring your laptop


SKYPE & GOOGLE VOICE WORKSHOP LSC100-123 Feb 16, Thursday afternoon, 1pm-4:50pm, One 4 Hour workshop reviewing the differences of using Skype and/or Google Voice to make free phone calls (with or without video web cams) all over the world for FREE from any computer and/or Smartphone… lots of tips.. Bring your laptop and/or Smartphone to class


FIND & ORGANIZE WHAT’S ON YOUR PC LSC062-124: Feb. 27 & 29, Monday & Wednesday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, Two 4 hour classes-Learn to use Windows Explorer so that you can easily and quickly find & organize everything you’ve saved on your PC; organize your work, files & photo’s to find them quickly & easily. Learn to back up your pc, photo & documents with portable flash & hard drives, memory cards and memory card readers..


INTERNET AND IT’S MANY USES LSC071-122: Feb 27 & 29, Monday & Wednesday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 Hour classes designed to help you get totally comfortable with the internet, tips& lingo, such as ISP, browser, blogger; when/why to use F5 & F11; website basics, hyperlinks, email basics, “tabbed browsing for multi websites”, using “Google & Bing” to search web, images, news; translating to & from different languages; blogging and more


POWER POINT FOR GREAT SLIDE SHOWS & PRESENTATIONS & TO CREATE LAYERED PHOTOS LSC069D-121, Feb 28 & Mar 1, Tuesday & Thursday mornings ~ 8:30am-12:20pm Two 4 Hour classes designed to help you create basic slide show presentations to share with family, friends & your organization – how to enhance them with text, photos, clip art, animation, music, transitioning and timing features and how to create and save “slides” as photos for use in other projects such as greeting cards and books… Bring photos to class (on your camera or flash drive)


MOVIE MAKER LSC100A-121: February 28 & March 1, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 hour classes learn to use the Free Windows Movie Maker software to create movies with your photos, music & other special effects: transitions, titles/credits, your favorite music, timeline narration, and much more. This software is free with Windows XP, Media, Vista and/or Windows 7… Bring photos to class (on your camera or flash drive)

Facebook's New "Timeline" Design & Features

WHAT IS FACEBOOK’S NEW PRIVACY FEATURE CALLED “TIMELINE”..

If you don't have Facebook Timeline already, you will soon - during the next month or so, Facebook is introducing its updated “Timeline” design to all Facebook users.

Facebook Timeline is basically a cosmetic design change, but it will affect the layout of your profile and also has some functional changes intended to make it easier for others to see your Facebook history and parts of your profile and this is where you want to pay attention, because now others will be able to see those embarrassing photos, status updates when you didn’t know any better, and what your friends have posted on your wall since the day you joined Facebook.

Profile (Timeline) Review is a new privacy option that lets you approve or reject posts that you've been tagged in before they go on your profile (timeline). When you turn it on, posts may already be visible in other places on Facebook, but they won't appear on your profile (timeline) until you approve them. When you have a post to review, it will show up in the Pending Posts section of your profile or in your ACTIVITY LOG (if you you've upgraded to timeline).

• Note-Your ACTIVITY LOG is a list of your posts and activity, from today back to the very beginning. You’ll also see stories and photos you’ve been tagged in, as well as the connections you’ve made, like when you liked a Page or added someone as a friend.

Many articles and forums are saying the same thing – Facebook Timeline is a great new feature, but Everyone should take some time to review exactly what is available on our own profiles, especially reading those old, forgotten posts that we may have written a long time ago, because now they will be a lot more visible for people to read (same goes with pictures from those late night or weekend escapades!!).

You may want to start deleting what you don't want anyone to see and setting limits on "the audience" (such as friends, friends of friends, vs. everyone)  for the content you want only some people to see.

How to Use our Class Blog

We hope you find our “CLASS BLOG” helpful as you continue to learn your computer more effectively, because no doubt as soon as you learn something – it will change and there will be something new to learn. We hope our Class Blog helps with the ever changing technology… Feel free to become a follower, to comment, and to share this website with family and friends. And feel free to ask questions – your questions become the topics we cover on the blog and we continue to learn from each other.. ~ Cherie Houston - email me at: cherie_houston@hotmail.com

 

WHAT IS A BLOG AND HOW DO I USE IT?
All BLOGS are intended to be "informational" like any newsletter you might receive. But in addition to reading the "posts-otherwise called articles" that we publish on our BLOG, you can also copy any of the "post/articles" and save them to your word processing files so you can then print them and you can comment on what we've said in a specific "post/article" - The how to's are noted below..

 

TO COPY A POST/ARTICLE to save or print for yourself or to change the size and/or print: highlight any portion of the post/article - activate the paste command, now open or go to your word processing program and on a clean piece of paper - activate the paste command. What you highlighted is now on the page. Change the font size & style, and you may want to change the color of the entire post/article to BLACK because most blogs use a light gray print (even though it may look black)... To save it on your PC, go to File, Save As, Open or Create a folder you want it saved in - remember to give it a name that will make it easy for you to find in the future - Now print it...

 

TO COMMENT ON A "POST/ARTICLE" we’ve added, beneath each "post/article", left click on the word “comment” , which takes you to a dialog box, so you can type your comments about the "post" article that you have just read...

 

HOW & WHY TO FOLLOW A BLOG? For our blog or any blog you read often, become a follower, to easily keep track of the blogs via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard - On our Blog, at the bottom of the right column, you will see a "Follow" button under the "Followers" widget, and when you left click on it, a popup window appears asking if you want to follow the blog publicly or privately

• EMAIL: Most blogs have an “email signup” so simply type in your email address and you will receive anemail whenever a new post is added
•  FOLLOWING PUBLICLY: Your profile image will appear in the blog's Followers widget. You will also be subscribed to updates for this blog which will appear in your Reading List on your Dashboard and following a blog creates a listing in your Google Reader account.
•  FOLLOWING PRIVATELY: Your profile image and will NOT be displayed in the blog's Followers widget, but you’ll be subscribed to updates for this blog which will appear in your Reading List on your Dashboard and following a blog creates a listing in your Google Reader account