Classes for May 11-13

Now that I am another year older, perhaps the classes will be wiser

For the Tuesday advanced Class  We will be using Excel to create a diagram of the CHSC garden plot.  This will have several uses,

1. It will be the basis for the watering schedule
2. It will serve as a planting diagram to show what items were planted in each bed.  If we get fancy, we can list the plant variety, location, planting date and have a evaluation section.  This will help with crop rotation, disease control and evaluation of varieties.
3.  Will also be included in our CHSC garden WIKI or blurb book

Wednesday Class  We will continue on with our basic word processing classes.  Also a discussion of the website www.openbible.info.

Thursday Advanced Class Using Excel to create a Watering Schedule and also create a Gardening Diary to record rainfall, planting details and harvest records.  

Earthquake detection and personal computers

Quakecatcher network.  A laptop computer can be used to create a network of inexpensive, though less accurate than other detection systems.  There are also add ons to a desktop computer to accommodate the same large scale detection networks.  We will talk about a recent BBC story and talk about the technology.  An example of using personal computers to solve complex problems.

Classes April 27, 28, and 29

The Tuesday and Thursday students have completed lessons on word processing.  On Tuesday, we will use some of these skills to write thank you letters to the garden helpers, Community Clothes Closet and the City.  Since we used the mail merge lesson last week, this will be a good opportunity to exercise our new skills.  We can also place a photo or two in the letters. 

Wednesday class will work on the Internet and Internet search and begin some simple word processing ideas.  We'll review checking and writing email and some of the basic letter writing functions such as type fonts and sizes and alignment. 

Classes March 16, 17 and 18th

On Tuesday, we will continue with our Word classes from the gcf website.

21: Working with Objects

22: Working with Pictures
23: Working with Diagrams and Chart
24: Inserting Hyperlinks
25: Using AutoText

On Wednesday, The Computer Beginners will study
email

We created email addresses for almost all participants last week.  Now we will look at recieving, sending, forwarding, and replying to emails

On Thursday and one additional session we will look at creating a Digital ScrapBook.  I think this will be one of the more interesting things we have done as a class recently.  Please look at the posts below.


How to Create Free Digital Scrapbooks


Contributor

By Carl Hose, eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (0 Ratings)

Scrapbooking has been around in one form or another for decades, but with today's graphics software and the personal computer, digital scrapbooking has come into existence and shows no sign of slowing down. With digital tools and a computer, creating vivid, interesting scrapbooks has never been easier or more enjoyable. If you've ever wanted to try your hand at creating a digital scrapbook, you can do it now without spending any money. The Internet offers the free tools you need to preserve your memories in a digital scrapbook.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Digital scrapbook software

• Image editing software

• Scrapbook templates

1. Step 1 Select a program you want to use to create digital scrapbooks. There are free programs available specifically for digital scrapbooking (see Resources), but almost any graphics software or word processor you already own can be used as well.

2. Step 2 Gather a few templates to get you started. Templates are predesigned scrapbook pages that come in many styles and themes. All you need to do is add your own text and pictures, which you can do with your software. There are free digital scrapbook template pages available online (see Resources). Be sure you download templates in a popular image format that can be read by any graphics program . The JPEG and GIF formats work well. You can also use PNG format.

3. Step 3 Open the software you want to use to create your digital scrapbook and prepare the pages using your own images. If you're using templates, you will use the picture insert command to add your pictures to the templates and a text tool to add captions and headings. Use text effects to add shadow and adjust the color and shape of your text.



References

• Digital Scrapbooking Tips: Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

• Digital Scrapbook Place: How to Digital Scrapbook

Resources

• Scrapbook Flair: Free Scrapbooking Software

• Serif: Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact: Free Scrapbooking Software

• Simple Scrapper: Free Digital Scrapbooking templates

How to Start an Online Scrapbook

Contributor

By an eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (0 Ratings)

If you have a lot of digital photos that you'd like to do something creative with, you can create a scrapbook online. With all of the digital scrapbooking programs and websites available, you can even create an online scrapbook that is virtually indistinguishable from a physical one. Free and trial software is available, so it needn't be expensive to start your own online scrapbook.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Online scrapbooking software

• Digital photos or scanner for uploading hard copy photos

Start an Online Scrapbook

1. Step 1 Find a website that offers online scrapbooking tools. There are quite a few places on the Internet devoted to giving people the tools they need to create an online scrapbook. Digital Scrapbook Pages is one such website worth looking into (see Resources below).

2. Step 2 Try out some online scrapbooking software. There are software packages that will walk you step-by-step through the process of creating an online scrapbook. Scrapbook MAX!® is one such program available in a free trial version online (see Resources below).

3. Step 3 Look at the software programs you try to make sure they come with all of the templates, clip art and other decorating tools you need to make your online scrapbook look like a physical one. Ideally, all you should need to provide is the photos.

4. Step 4 Choose photographs for your online scrapbook. Just like a physical scrapbook, your online scrapbook will have a theme. The pictures you include in your online scrapbook should reflect this theme.

5. Step 5 Scan in any photos not already digitally stored and upload them to your computer's hard drive.

6. Step 6 Find a place to host your scrapbook online. There are a wide variety of websites to choose from for your hosting needs. Digital Scrapbook Pages is one (see Resources below). You can also start a blog to use to host your scrapbook or create your own website for this purpose.

7. Step 7 Decide if your online scrapbook will be public or private. A public scrapbook can be viewed by anyone. If you choose to make your scrapbook private, then only those who have a user name and password will be able to access it online.

8. Step 8 Following the prompts of the online scrapbooking program you bought, put your online scrapbook together page by page.



Tips & Warnings

• If you use scrapbooking software to create your online scrapbook, make sure it is compatible with your computer. Check the system requirements on the software box or the download page before attempting to install it to make sure it will run on your computer.

Resources

• Create an online scrapbook at Digital Scrapbook Pages

• Free trial software at Scrapbook MAX!

• How to Do Digital Scrapbooking Cheap and Easily

Member

By filiplee, eHow Member

Scrapbooking can be time consuming and expensive but with free software a person can do digital scrapbooking with less time and cost.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer

• Printer

• Photo paper

• Digital Camera

1. Step 1 Download a free scrapbooking software. There are a few available so find one that will work for you. To find the software you can type "free scrapbooking software" into a search engine. Some have more options than others.



2. Step 2 Download the pictures from your digital camera onto your computer and place into the scrapbooking program.

3. Step 3 Edit your pictures. Some scrapbooking software will let you do small edits to your pictures. If you want to do more advance edits you will need a picture editing software. You can find free picture editing software online also.

4. Step 4 Once you have completed your scrapbook page you can save to the appropriate media for you (online, to your computer, or a storage device) or you can print out the picture with your printer. Be sure to use photo paper as this will make the picture last longer. You may also be able to send the page to a photo printing place and have them print it out.

5. Step 5 Practice. The more your practice and use the program the easier it will be to make a page and make any changes.

Classes March 10 and 11

The Computer Beginners class is off to a roaring strart. We had 9 individuals for the class on Wednesday. Almost everyone got signed up for an email account and we watched the first three videos from www.gcflearnfree.com.

 

The Advanced class is studying Personal Health Records. These are electronic health records that are available in several different formats.

1. Electronic Security of records stored on the internet
2. Advantages of electronic records
3. http://www.myphr.com/
4. http://www.hhs.gov/       Search under family history
5. www.healthvault.com/microsoft
6. www.google.com/health

We set up an account and showed how to import prescription records from Walgreens. 

Classes March 2, 3, and 4

Last week Pastor Darrek Bell presented a class on using the internet for Bible Study
There were several members that could not attend, so I'll list some of the sites that he discussed.
1 www.intouch.org Website of Dr Charles Stanley. for Devotions
2 wwwlwf.org Website for Love Worth Finding/ Adrian Rogers
3 www.blueletterbible.org Search for bible verses. Buttons refer to Correlated Passages, Concondances, Commentary, Versions and Dictionary aids.
4 www.bibleanswer.com
5 www.biblequestions.org
Pastor Bell also discussed how technology has changed his ministery over the past 20+ years and how it has been adapted by the First Free Will Baptist Church.

Class for March 2. We will continue with the Table and Forms function of Word. Designing a simple table and using the Autoformat functions.

Class for March 3. Beginning Computer users. Session 1. Computers/parts and pieces.

Class for March 4. Garden design using interactive web tools. Creating a blog for the CHSC Community Garden. Creating a form for ISO (in search of) stuff for the CHSC Garden.

Mayor Deal is going to attend the Thursday Breakfast to accept our thanks for giving permission to have the community garden. The city will give us a site adjacent to the old Library and plow up the garden area.

Classes for Feb 23 and Feb 25

On Tuesday we will start the first of several lessons on creating tables and forms. Part of the session will use the www.gcflearnfree.org lesson on forms, but we will be working on several projects that are much more complex. I have sent out to most class members a document called the Rebel Tomatoes. We will do a form in class to function as a list of tasks and assigned persons. There are also several lessons on working with the Table functions.

Pastor Bell will lead the session on Thursday. He is discussing using the internet for Bible Studies.

Starting March 3, there will be a series of classes for the Beginning Computer user. This will start at 10:00. I am trying to limit class size to 6 people, but we have 9 that want to attend. We are still trying to balance the numbers with the attention required for "Newbies".

I have offered to do the Beginning Computer User classes for the Church Hill Library. If the Board approves, the classes would be after hours at the library so the public access to the computers can be maintained during the day.