Are your documents & photos safe & private in DropBox?

As soon as the post about DropBox hit last Thursday, May 10th, many of you sent me emails asking how private DropBox was.  Remember, DropBox, like most “cloud computing” services is very careful about privacy. DropBox even claims that files we store with them are actually safer while stored in your DropBox than on your computer; they also state that they use the same secure methods as banks.

So yes – your files are backed-up, they are all stored securely, and password-protected.  No one else using DropBox can see what is in your private files UNLESS you deliberately invite or you put your files into your Public folder.

HOWEVER – Personally, I wouldn’t recommend using DropBox on a “public computer” such as those in the classroom.  Your home and work computers, which are used by you and you alone are fine, but remember the DropBox folder is just like any other folder, so on a public computer it can be accessed…

Remember: everything and anything in your Public folders, just like those in your Shared/Public Folders on the computer are accessible to anyone...  

Next week we will be talking about “Google Drive” (which was introduced at the end of April 2012 and is a great addition to the Google Doc’s storage app).  Yes, like “DropBox” it is another “cloud computing” service, but obviously from Google.  For many of us, especially those with free GMAIL accounts this may be your better option, especially for those who often use public computers

Check back on Wednesday, May 16^th for more discussion about Google Drive vs. DropBox…

Happy Mother's Day!!

On behalf of all of us at Mohave Community College we want to wish all of our students who are mothers – in any way – a wonderful Mother’s Day… 

Here in the US by 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union and on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. 

Mother's Day is now officially celebrated in well over 140 countries around the world on different days throughout the year.  Here in the US and in many other countries, Mother's Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May – some of those countries include: Anguilla, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe

In the UK, Ireland and Nigeria, Mother's Day (also know as "Mothering Sunday") is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday. As Easter Sunday is a moveable feast, Mother's day is celebrated on a different date each year.  But in Norway, Mother's Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in February.

The day has become hugely popular and in several countries phone lines witness maximum traffic and over the years other traditions, such as giving flowers, cards and others gift have also occurred.  But for most “moms” there is nothing more special than just being able to spend time with those we love…

But no matter when Mother’s Day is celebrated the tradition is always the same intending to honor and pay tribute to mothers, grandmothers, aunts and everyone who is a “mother figure” in our lives - Yes today is a chance to remember moms no longer with us, and to say thank you to those of who are, for all their love and support.

So no matter how you spend your Mother's Day, we hope you enjoy your day….

What is DropBox?

Dropbox, which started just 5 years ago in 2007 by 2 MIT Graduates who continually forgot to bring their flash drives to class, has a free service (as well as other monthly & annual fee programs) and their software works with Windows, Mac’s, Android and other operating systems…  Yes – this is a “cloud computer” service, similar to what emails users who have hotmail, live or msn with SkyDrive or what gmail users use with Google Drive to save their photos, documents and other files to share or access from anywhere they are..…

Check them out at www.dropbox.com

How to use DropBox:

Go to www.dropbox.com and download their free software to your computer or smartphone (or any other mobile device).

• Select a location on your hard drive to place the "Dropbox Folder."

• Drag and drop files you want to upload to Dropbox into the new Dropbox folder on your computer. You can also upload files directly to your Dropbox account using their website upload tools.

• You can now access your Dropbox files from any computer using Dropbox website or installing the software on that specific computer.

• Access your files on an iPhone or Android device using the mobile Dropbox application.

• Any adjustments made to Dropbox files will synchronize automatically.

If you need more help using this, visit www.dropbox.com which has an easy to follow tutorial on their website, or visit our two favorite websites for learning just about anything:

www.ehow.com or www.youtube.com

As of October 2011, Dropbox had more than 50 million users and recently announced (in April 2012) a new feature that allows users to automatically upload photos and videos from their cameras, tablets, SD cards and smartphones.  We’ve also heard that they are going to be giving users up to 3 GB of additional storage space for free, which some feel is to encourage users to use them, vs. Hotmails SkyDrive or Googles Drive for docs & photos… 

CHANGE YOUR SCREEN DISPLAY SETTINGS

CHANGE YOUR screen display settings

You can access your Display settings by right-clicking anywhere on the Desktop and then

• In Windows XP choose Properties
• In Windows Vista & Windows 7 choose Personalize

Both of these bring you to the Display section of the Control Panel (so you can also get to the same spot by going to your Start Menu, Control Panel & Appearance/Display)

When you access the Properties or Personalize command:

• In Windows XP you will open the Display Properties Dialog Box – there are five tab choices: Themes, Desktop, Screen Saver, Appearance and Settings.
• In Windows Visa & Windows 7 a Page of Lists appear and you’ll have the ability to make changes in all these same categories – you will just have many more options…

Basically, this is what each segment allows you to do… 

Themes

This allows you to choose a theme which will apply to all your Windows screen,the icons, sounds and colors – such as jungle, underwater & many more.

Desktop

This will allow you to choose different desktop background images, from samples which are inlcuded or you can use the BROWSE button to find a photo you have saved in you’re My Picture Folder…  Remember – if you find a photo in an email or on the internet that you want for your background, when your cursor is on the image, right click on the image and choose Set as Desktop Background. In Windows 7 there is a grat new feature which allows yiu to have the desktop change using  photos from Windows or your own photos-similar to what happens in the Screen Saver segment

Screen Saver:

Screen Savers are the “motion” choices we use when our computer is idle – many different ones are built in, or you can use the photos in you’re my Picture Folder or when you are on vacation you can purchase “screen savers” to remind you of your trip… This is also where we can change our Power settings for the monitor, noting how long it should stay on when we leave our computer alone.. Remember you can change how quickly you want the screen saver to go on and other choices…

Appearance:

This choice allows us to change the style and colors and size of fonts for our Windows and buttons.  Just click on the drop-down arrow buttons to choose different settings; the font size option is great if text is too small – just change it to large fonts or extra large fonts..  The advanced tab allows us to change size & colors for all our screen items including borders, icons and the menus.

Settings:

This choice allows us to change screen resolution and color quality – remember the resolution determines the number of pixels used to make up the display. The higher the setting, the more detailed your display and the higher resolution gives you a larger screen area to work with, but if you find text and icons are now too small you may need to increase font size and use larger icons to compensate.

You can only go up to the highest resolution that your monitor can support. 

Experiment to find a resolution you are comfortable with – many opt for the highest setting.

When you set a high resolution, increasing the DPI (dots per inch) setting – it makes all screen items including text appear larger.

Word Processing-Tips to Create a Flyer or Invitation

BEFORE YOU BEGIN a new FLYER OR INVITATION

Be sure you have listed all information you need in your flyer and or invitation - It is too easy to forget something when you get busy “creating” so jot down the “5” W’s: 

Who - What - When - Where - Why

AS YOU BEGIN YOUR New Document:

Be sure to set your margins – If you are using paper with preprinted borders, measure the pre-printed area, so that you can set your margins allowing enough room so your typing doesn’t go into the printed border area (known as the gutter)

Once your margins (top, bottom, left & right) are set, then be sure to choose & set paper layout/orientation to either portrait or landscape

Name your NEW document:

Once margins & paper layout/orientation are set - now Name Your Document Immediately

·        When you open a document in Word, it will have a Document Number

·        The more “new documents you open” during the day the higher the numbers go

·        You want to name your document, so you can find it

·        In Word 97-2003, to the Menu Bar, File, Save As

·        In Word 2007, open the Office Button (Office Button replaced File in the upper left corner of monitor) and then choose Save As

·        In Word 2010, open File, Save As

*Note in Word 2007 & 2010 you want to be sure that you save all documents as 97-2003 compatible so that no matter what version of Word your friends or associates use, they will be open documents you send them and work with them…

Once you have chosen “Save As” the computer will open the “My Documents” folder in Word 97-2003, or in Word 2007/2010 it will open the Library First and then the Document master folder..

Once the Document master folder is open, choose or create the folder you want to save your work in; or if you intend to save yr work onto a flash or portable drive, go to My Computer, find the drive you are using, then open the Document master folder and then find or create the correct folder for your work to be saved in

Once you are in the specific folder you want your work stored in (Always look up to the top of the address bar in the Save As Dialog Box that your work will be saved in the correct folder you have chosen or created for it) you will now name your document

When you finish typing the document name, just use the enter key on your keyboard or you can left click on SAVE in the bottom right corner of the Save As Dialog Box

Tips:

• Type in all the information you will need on your flyer/invitation – do the formatting once the typing is done so you know how much data you have to work with
• Before printing the document on your pre-printed paper, print one on plain white paper & hold it against your paper to the light to be sure it is inside the border
• Have someone else read it, before your pint, so that you are totally sure you have included all of the information needed

Word Processing Basics - Highlighting & Fonts

As requested, for the next few posts we are going to review some WORD PROCESSING BASICS:

SELECT TO EFFECT (highlight)

When you want to edit/change text (add Bold, Italic, Underline, Delete, change color, cut, copy, past, change font size or style and lots of other "formatting options") remember to "select the text first/highlight it" and then click the button of your choice..  

TIP: To highlight everything in a document, whether 1 page or 100 pages: use SELECT ALL or CTRL + A (keyboard shortcut)

BASIC SCREEN: Insertion Point “I” vs. Work Bar, Title Bar, Menu Bar, Toolbars, Ruler, Scroll Bars (right & bottom), Status Bar & Task Bar

BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINE: B – I – U Highlight text, use icon on formatting toolbar OR Menu Bar, Format, Font

DON'T PANIC WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - Use your "Undo" & "Redo" buttons

FONT STYLE:  The design of your characters – letters – numbers

FONT SIZE: the size of your characters – letters – numbers

STANDARD  BUSINESS FONT & SIZES

Commonly used in business:

Times New Roman, 12pt.

Arial, 14 pt.

STANDARD INTERNET/WEB PAGE FONT STYLE & SIZES:

Verdana or Tahoma – 8 pt, 9 pt or 10 pt.  (smaller than normal business prints)

What do DIFFERENT font sizes mean?

A 72 pt. Is always equal to 1" inch high Upper Case Letters

so a 36 pt = to 1/2" inch high; 9 pt = 1/8" inch high 

Should I wait until Windows 8 Is out to buy a new computer?

So many of you have asked – should I wait to buy a computer until Windows 8 Operating System is released and installed on the new computer?

My personal opinion is absolutely not!! Fox news reported today that Microsoft will release a new test version of the "Windows 8 Operating System" sometime in June this year – but remember this is just a test version.. Although Microsoft seems to be quite happy with the “overall” operating system, there are still countless challenges with respect to drivers, so until this is worked out – which may take some time – I wouldn’t hold off buying that new computer…

To me it’s like waiting to buy a car until the next version is released with all the new bells & whistles; we know that cars – just like appliances - change each year, so we buy them when we need them. That is especially true when it comes to the world of technology – if you are going to wait until something comes out that has all the “new stuff” – you’ll never buy anything…

Here is the link to the article Fox News published today re Windows 8: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/24/windows-8-release-preview-coming-out-in-june-microsoft-says/

What are the different Music File Formats??

MUSIC FILE FORMATS (modified from nch.com.au)

• wav - standard audio file format used mainly in Windows PCs. Commonly used for storing uncompressed (PCM), CD-quality sound files, which means that they can be large in size - around 10MB per minute of music. It is less well known that wave files can also be encoded with a variety of codecs to reduce the file size.

• mp3 - the MPEG Layer-3 format is the most popular format for downloading and storing music. By eliminating portions of the audio file that are essentially inaudible, mp3 files are compressed to roughly one-tenth the size of an equivalent PCM file while maintaining good audio quality. mp3 always works with most third party software programs such as Picasa, Power Point and Windows Movie Maker.

• wma - the popular Windows Media Audio format owned by Microsoft. Designed with Digital Rights Management (DRM) abilities for copy protection.

• aac - the Advanced Audio Coding format is based on the MPEG4 audio standard owned by Dolby. A copy-protected version of this format has been developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from their iTunes Music Store.

• ra - a Real Audio format designed for streaming audio over the Internet. The .ra format allows files to be stored in a self-contained fashion on a computer, with all of the audio data contained inside the file itself.

• ram - a text file that contains a link to the Internet address where the Real Audio file is stored. The .ram file contains no audio data itself.

Digital Camera Setting Suggestions – Part 2 of 2

Saturation Settings, which are found in the Main Menu, usually under “color mode” – be careful with this one because if you move it too much your pictures will have a hazy quality to them…

Sunset Mode Setting – More and more digital camera’s today have a sunset mode setting, which adds more warmth (or orange tones) to photos we take. It can brighten up a sunset, so try this setting

White Balance or WB Setting -  give us the ability to adjust the color of the picture. Most digital cameras are preset to “automatic white balance” or “AWB”. But you might want to experiment a little and set the white balance to manual, so that you can adjust the balance for certain lighting – you can usually do this by pressing and holding the White Balance/WB button and rotating the dial to choose: tungsten light, fluorescent light; sun light, cloudy light, light bulb, flash light etc so that the camera will adjust the color to get the color of the picture exactly the way that you wanted

Remember, with websites like  www.youtube.com and www.ehow.com and those for your specific cameras, you can find print and video tutorials that will help you master each and every aspect of your digital camera…  In the meantime, here are some highlights of some of the standard settings for most digital cameras – remember experiment and play with your camera – it’s the best way to learn…

Digital Camera Setting Suggestions – Part 1 of 2

Great weather usually means more time spent outdoors, which often means taking more pictures… If you haven’t begun to play with all the different aspects of your digital camera – now’s a perfect time to begin.

With websites like www.youtube.com  and www.ehow.com  and those for your specific cameras, you can find both print and video tutorials that will help you master each and every aspect of your digital camera…

In the meantime, here are some highlights of some of the standard settings for most digital cameras – remember experiment and play with your camera – it’s the best way to learn…

Action Mode Setting – Icon usually looks like a man running and can help with shots of action, children playing, sports, etc and you want to change to this setting prior to taking your pictures; if you don’t have this setting most cameras allow you to change them to Manual Setting, icon is usually a capital '"M." and then Set your camera to a fast shutter speed setting such as 1/250th, 1/500th or 1/1000th of a second – most cameras today do this automatically when set on "Shutter Priority, icon is usually a capital "S." Remember to turn off your flash and change the ISO setting to 400-800.. to get great action shots


Burst Mode or Continuous Shooting Mode Setting – Icon looks like several pieces of paper stacked up and this setting helps reduce shutter lag and lets you take several pictures by pressing the shutter button just once. This will help you make sure that you get at least one good shot of an action sequence. If it isn’t on the top dial, then go to the cameras menu setting to make this change on the LCD screen looking for the same icon. When you shoot in continuous mode, be sure to focus your camera on the subject you want to capture and hold down the shutter button without releasing it. The camera takes pictures until you stop pressing the shutter button or the buffer memory or memory card fills up.
Notes about continuous shoots:

• Be sure you have a fully charged battery when you plan to do “continuous shooting”
• Continuous shot images are typically first stored in the internal memory buffer on your camera, because writing data to the buffer is faster than writing data to the memory card. By initially storing the image in the buffer, the camera is able to take another picture much more quickly than if the image is written directly to the card. Writing the data to the memory buffer also allows in-camera image processing to occur before the final image is saved to the card usually stored on the Cameras Internal Memory Buffer before putting them on the Memory Card. i.e. the buffer may fill up after 10-14 pictures in Fine/Large/JPEG mode, or after three pictures in RAW mode. The LCD display shows "Busy" when the buffer is full, and shows "Full CF" when the memory card is full . Once the information has been converted to a digital form, it is stored in the camera's internal-memory buffer. Image data is initially stored in the memory buffer because writing data to the buffer is faster than writing data to the memory card. By initially storing the image in the buffer, the camera is able to take another picture much more quickly than if the image is written directly to the card. Writing the data to the memory buffer also allows in-camera image processing to occur before the final image is saved to the card

ISO Settings – these can be changed to control how much light goes into your camera and it’s easy and can make a vast difference in the “brightness” of your photos… Change to the lowest possible setting as noted… By default, the standard Automatic ISO setting in most digital cameras is 200..
Other settings you might want to try would be..
50-100: for photos taken in very bright light
200: for photos when it is overcast
400: for photos taken indoors or with action
800: for photos with continuous shot action


Post continued in Part 2 of 2 on Thursday, April 12th, 2012

Wishes for a wonderful Passover and Easter Holiday

On behalf of our entire staff we want to wish each of you a wonderful holiday – whether you are celebrating the Festival of Passover or the culmination of the Lenten season with the celebration of Good Friday and Easter - we wish you and your families a safe, happy and blessed holiday…

Passover will begin tonight at Sunset, Friday, April 6th and continue for 8 days until next Friday at sunset, April 13th. The eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, of the Hebrew month of Nissan, to commemorate the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.

Easter… For Christians throughout the world, the Easter Holiday is a culmination of the 40 day Lenten period which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.. Today, April 6th, Friday before Easter, is the commemoration of the Crucifixion of Our Lord, and Easter Sunday celebrates the Lords resurrection. This year Lent Began on Wednesday February 22nd and Holy week will culminate this last week of Lent on Sunday April 8th with the celebration of Easter.

In the Greek Orthodox Church, Easter will be celebrated next Sunday, April 15th

How can I freeze both my top row & first column in Excel at the same time?

Q: I want to freeze the top row & first column in my Excel Spread Sheet at the same time?

A: Love this tip – this this will freeze all rows above the selected cell and all columns to the left of the selected cell –
Example: if you highlight cell B2 – then your top row and first column would be the only 2 things frozen!!!

In 97-2003 Excel
• Left click on a single cell of your worksheet
• Then go to Window; then choose Freeze Pane

In 2007-2010 Excel
• Left Click on the View Tab, go to the “Window Section”
• Open drop down list for "Freeze panes"
• Choose Freeze panes

Note-If you have Office Starter (Word Starter, Excel Starter, Power Point Starter) which is a Microsoft Application program that has replaced the former Microsoft Works - you cannot FREEZE or UNFREEZE cells. Although the starter programs allow you to perform many tasks, it is not a full featured program such as the Microsoft Office for Student & Home Versions and above...

A Kindle or a Nook or an iPad or a Tablet?? Oh My!!! Part 2 of 2

Continued from Wednesday, March 28th, 2012…

Then of course there’s the question – is an e-reader enough or should I spend the extra money and invest in a tablet and if so should I get an iPad or a tablet??? Tough choices for sure…

Differences between an iPad or one of the many Android Tablets…
1. The iPad is a single product, Android tablets are a common name for a variety of products
2. The iPad runs on the MAC iOS; Android tablet run on Android based system
3. The iPad lacks flash while Android tablets have it
4. The iPad doesn’t have true multi-tasking; Android tablets do
5. The iPad has more apps than Android tablets – but both are increasing their numbers daily
According to an independent survey done by cnet.com, their recommendations are as follows in these major categories… so happy shopping… and remember as always with technology – do your homework first and set your budget next…

Best basic e-book reader: Amazon Kindle ($79, no touch screen), Amazon Kindle Touch ($99 to $189, with touch-screen), Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch ($99, touch-screen),

Best reading tablet for under $200: Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

Best all-around full-featured reading tablets: Apple iPad (third-gen), Apple iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the new Samsung Galaxy 8.9

A Kindle or a Nook or an iPad or a Tablet?? Oh My!!! Part 1 of 2

Every where we go, someone is using an e-book reader, iPad or Tablet. Yes, whether you are on a train, plane, bus or automobile; or walking down the street or sitting in a lobby – to many, the days of fumbling with newspapers and sneakily removing recipes & coupons from the doctors office are long gone… Today with many of these devices you can do all of this and surf the web and much more…

But how do you decide which is best for your needs.. 

Yes, it’s true – Amazon’s Kindle was the first, but it didn’t take long for Barnes & Noble to introduce their Nook, and of course we are all familiar with Apples iPads, and then of course other manufacturer’s are introducing their own, including Sony’s Reader Wi-Fi, Kobo Reader and many Android manufacturers which are a step up from the SmartPhones and just below (according to some) a tablet, such as the popular Samsung Galaxy Tablet… Sure can get confusion…

As with all technology, it’s all about the options – what do you plan to use the device for – just reading books and magazines, or do you want to be able to store and listen to music, what about taking and storing photo’s, streaming videos like youtube, hulu or netflix, and surfing the web… so many choices – so many options.. And for most, just as importantly, should be that you establish & stick to a budget before you head to the mall..

Yes, prices are coming down daily and surprisingly as the prices drop, the list of features grow with each new model – the result obviously of competition….

• Basic Black & White e-reader: Prices range from $80 to $150
• Color e-reader with a 7” color screen from $400-$300
• Full Size, multi-feature, color tablet (like the iPad2 or “new iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tablet ) where screen choices used to be 7” or 10”, but that’s changing and prices are $200 to $800+

Continued Part 2 of 2 on Saturday March 31st, 2012

COPY FILES FROM COMPUTER TO YOUR FLASH DRIVE

With so many of our students preparing to return to "cooler climates" making sure you copy your folders of documents, music, photos, etc onto a portable drive or flash drive is always a good idea (great way to back-up just in case)... so here's a reminder on how to do that quickly and easily... Safe Travels....

• Open Windows Explorer/My Computer to see which drives are shown – easiest way to do this is hold down the Windows Flag Key + E .

• Insert flash drive in the USB port, it will appear as “removable drive” or indicate the company name (Removable Disk (G)

• In Windows XP - Open MY DOCUMENTS & Select the files or folders you want to copy to flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click & select all the files to save.

• In Windows Vista & Windows 7 - Open LIBRARIES; then Open Each of the Cabinets you want to copy –My Pictures, My Music, My Movies, My Pictures; Select the files or folders you want to copy to your flash drive by left-clicking on them. To copy multiple, hold the CTRL key while you click folders or files at random; Or hold the SHIFT key to copy GROUPS of folders OR hold the CTRL + A to copy all folders in the parent folder…

• Once highlighted…. RIGHT-CLICK on the folders you want to copy (or go to Menu Bar & Edit) and choose COPY.

• Go to “My Computer”; choose the correct Drive you want to copy your work/files/folders to; highlight that drive (i.e. "Removable Disk (G:),

• RIGHT-CLICK on the Drive (or go to Menu Bar & Edit); choose PASTE

• When the copying is finished, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE FLASH DRIVE OR PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FROM THE USB PORT :
Always left-click on the REMOVE HARDWARE icon located in the System Tray to be sure it says: SAFELY REMOVE STORAGE DEVICE. 

How to design & print calendars

A question I’m asked quite often is where can I get FREE calendars that I can modify and or print??

One way, if you have WORD on your computer, is to use one of the Microsoft office templates – simply go to your File Menu or Button, and choose “New” depending on the version of Word that you will have you will see a variety of templates – check them out, download them and once downloaded save them in a folder with a name you give them…

OR

There are numerous websites that offer free printable calendars, a personal favorite of mine is

www.eprintablecalendars.com

How To Add a Link In Your Email To A Popular Video

Whether you are visiting “YouTube.com” or “HuLu.com” or a local media stations, there may be times that you will see a video that you think someone you know would like to see. It is easy to copy that video location and paste it into your email. Here’s how:

If you have just watched a video on Youtube, look up at the address bar. You will see something that looks like this in the “address bar” of the internet browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox) that you are u sing.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-6dQvOSYmI

• Highlight the letters in the address bar, by hovering your mouse over the highlighted area and right click.
• When the action list appears, choose “copy”
• If you email account isn’t open it, then by using your Tabbed Browsing, open another Internet connection and open your email account (Hotmail, Gmail, AOL…).
• Add the addressee and subject fields.
• Type your letter. (Something like “I thought you’d enjoy this.”) and once you have written what you’d like, be sure to come down to an empty line, then right click and when the action menu appears, Choose paste.
• The link will now be in your email. Notice it is normally a different color than your regular font because it is an active “hyperlink”
• Click send.
• Now, all the receiver has to do is “click on the link” and they will be taken to the website and see the video.

Why you can’t add or delete photo’s from you SD Memory card…

The number one reason – you’ve inadvertently locked your SD, Mini or Micro SD Memory Card. On the side of all memory cards, there is a small slider. Check to see if your SD card is locked. If the slider on the left side of the card is in the "locked" position, you will not be able to delete photos. Move the slider away from the "locked" position.

SD-Stands for Secure Digital...but is becoming the most common memory card used today

Now when you reinsert the Memory card into your Smartphone, camera or camcorder - you will be able to take photos. When you put the Memory card into your computer you will be able to copy all photos, music, and other data to and from the computer. You will also now be able to delete anything not wanted.

Remember, never delete or remove the DCIM folder that is on every memory card.

What is the DCIM Folder? DCIM (Digital Camera IMages) is the default directory structure for digital cameras and is there to keep your photos and or videos organized. When you put a memory card into a camera, camcorder or Smartphone, the camera device immediately looks for a ‘DCIM' folder. If it doesn't find such a folder, most cameras will create one.

WE DON'T CHANGE OUR CLOCK IN ARIZONA THIS WEEKEND

Here in Arizona, as well as Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands - we don't need to worry about changing our clocks at anytime during the year.. But remember, if you travel elsewhere, they will be changing their's this weekend... So Sunday we will be the same time as California & Nevada until November...

Yes, for the rest of country (and many parts of the world) they will be setting their clocks AHEAD ONE HOUR before going to bed THIS WEEKEND - TOMORROW EVENING, SATURDAY, March 10th, 2012. Spring's daylight saving time begins this Sunday, March 11th at 2 am

They will then "fall back" on Sunday, November 4th, 2012 2am., at which time California & Nevada will be one hour behind us again...

Despite the change they make to their clocks and watches, almost all computers, cable boxes and other satellite services (including those for smart phones, cell phones, blackberry’s, dish & satellite TV services) will make this change automatically without any help..

Visit this website to learn what other parts of the world change their clocks:

www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2012.html

For those of you who wonder how DST began, here are some tidbits about its origins and pros and cons of these time-changing events. According to lots of sources on the Internet, several events led to our modern-day DST:

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers, suggested something akin to daylight saving time in a 1784 essay

During World War I in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria began saving daylight by advancing the hands of the clock one hour from April through October

A postal clerk from New Zealand was the first to propose modern DST

Congress first put America's clocks ahead one hour during World War I and (later for WWII)

Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to eliminate confusion about DST across the country-thanks to this act, DST in the United States now begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November

My Classes at MCC - Updates & Important Notices

Two very important notices:

• Apologies… We had truly hoped to arrange several new 4 hour workshops for March and April for “ALL THINGS iMac” but the gentleman who was going to teach these classs is now unable to do so.  We assure you we will continue to search for a well informed MAC person to work with you, who can answer the Apple Mac questions many of you have raised about iPads, iPods, iPhones etc. I will continue to maintain the list of names, which is now more than 40, and as soon as we find someone, we will let you know.  I'm not sure that we can do this before the end of March when many of you will be returning to “cooler climates”… But keep your fingers crossed…

•  March 11th thru March 18th, all Mohave Community College campuses, including the libraries, will be closed for “Spring Break”..

When classes begin again Monday March 19th - we have lots of classes scheduled.  So call today and register for that class you thought about taking, especially the Digital Camera, Mail Merge & Laptop Classes which will be held the beginning of the week, when Spring Break is over…

Take a little time and learn a little more about all that your computer and/or software can do.. We’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.. and 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..

We have lots of great classes schedule for the remainder of March and April and 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...

As always, 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….

Whether it’s today or the middle of the summer, remember if you have any questions about any of the subjects we teach, or a class you’ve attended or aren’t sure which class might be best for you – just email me… cherie_houston@hotmail.com

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..

DIGITAL CAMERA BASICS LSC100A-123: Mar 19 & 20, Monday & Tuesday mornings, 8:30am-12:20pm, 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

MAIL MERGE USING WORD & EXCEL LSC068-124: Mar 20 & 22, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons, 1pm-4:50pm, Two 4 hour classes-creating a data list using both Excel & Word software, learning to enter & sort data various ways to merge data for multi[le personalized documents, such as mailing labels, envelopes and form letters. Bring an address book or contact list to class

LAPTOP BASICS LSC100-121 Wednesday morning, March 21st ~ 8:30am-12:20pm, This one 4 Hour Fun Workshop during which we’ll review desktop/laptop-notebook-netbook differences, laptop tips, accessories needed, maneuvering around, Fn key, internet & Wi-Fi Basics, shortcuts, security & more – bring your laptop to class.

COMPUTERS FOR THE FUN OF IT LSC062- 123 : Mar 29 & 30, Thursday & Friday & Monday 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…

FIND & ORGANIZE WHAT’S ON YOUR PC LSC062-125: Mar 30 & Apr 4, Friday & Wednesday afternoons ~ 1pm-4:50pm, 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 LSC071-123: Apr 2 & 3, Monday & Tuesday mornings ~ 8:30am-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-122: Apr 2 & 9, Monday afternoons ~ 1pm – 4:50pm 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)

LIST AND DATA MANAGEMENT WITH EXCEL LSC 069-123: Apr 3 & 10, Thursday afternoons ~ 1pm – 4:50pm, 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

HOW TO BUY & SELL ONLINE LSC101-123 April 4 & 5, 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…

SKYPE & GOOGLE VOICE WORKSHOP LSC100-130 April 5, 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.. Again bring your laptop and or Smartphone

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… And 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…

Windows 7 - turning the new style Taskbar off

The single most visible change in Windows 7 is the new “dock style” taskbar, which shows icons instead of buttons, with all application windows combined within a single button. To me it appears as though they’ve simply combined the Quick Launch and Applications Open Tasks into one area – personally once you get used to it, I think you’ll really like the new style… But many of you continue to email me to ask how to get it back to the “old look” so here is how you can “turn it off”:

 

Windows 7 Taskbar to XP/Vista Style:

• First, right-click on any open area of the taskbar
• Choose Properties from the menu
• From the Taskbar buttons drop-down menu, you’ll want to choose “Never combine”, which will make every window show up as a separate button on the taskbar, or you could choose “Combine when taskbar is full”, which does just like it says
• Now you should see the buttons show up with text labels like you are probably used to… but in the Windows 7 style
• If you chose the “Use small icons” checkbox in the properties screen, the taskbar will actually shrink down to look very similar to Vista
• The only problem is that the “pinned” icons are still sitting on the taskbar, which isn’t the same as Vista or XP, but you can easily remove all of them by right-clicking and choosing “Unpin this program from taskbar”. And now the taskbar looks and works very similarly to Windows Vista 

If you wanted to be really silly, you can choose the “Windows Classic” theme under the Desktop \ Personalize section… but that would be taking it a little too far, I think.

I would urge you to at least give the new Windows 7 taskbar a try… it takes a little getting used to, but it’s a great new change..

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.

<div>

&nbsp;</div>

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)