Mousercise

2006-01-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I’ll bet there’s a bunch of new computers in homes today. Based on discussions I’ve had these past few months at our Center forActive Generations, a lot of seniors planned to either buy or were going to get a new computer as a gift. Great. Upgrading is outstanding, regardless of age.

If you are new to computers, I encourage you to devote a lot of time learning to use your mouse. I teach several classes a week at our SeniorNet Computer Learning Center, and the biggest problem with new students is a lack of mouse skills. Gaining that dexterity can be easy and fun.

I assume your new computer uses the Windows XP operating system. Click on Start, then put your cursor on that little green triangle, All Programs. You’ll get a drop down menu. Move the cursor straight up to Accessories, then straight across to the new drop down menu, and go straight down to Games and click on Solitaire.

The reason I say move in straight directions rather than diagonally, is that mouse. When you move obliquely across the drop-down menus, you light up all sorts of things you don’t want to accidentally light up. Takes practice, but eventually it becomes second nature.

Now, Solitaire. The reason I suggest this game, is you have to click on a card, then hold down the mouse button and drag it to its new position. If you click on the word Game, you can change the type of Solitaire you wish to play; single or triple card draws. I like the Las
Vegas option. When the cards are dealt, you start with an imaginary debt of $52. The computer pays you five dollars for every card you play on the aces. Fun and great mousercise, too.

If your Santa visit produced a new digital camera, I suggest you go on-line to www.picasa.com, and download this fantastic, free, photo editing program. It’s simple to operate even for a newbie. If you live in Sioux Falls, enroll in our one session, two-hour class on Picasa. Everyone that’s taken the class thinks both the program and class are fantastic.

Again, email me if you have non-technical questions. John26hagerman@yahoo.com

2005-12-10T05:58:00.000-08:00

I can see how blogging can become a way of life. Blogspot, the service that I use, has made it so easy to do you own web log (blog). A good friend in Minneapolis has spent a good deal of her adult life involved with bugs. I met her when she developed and managed a butterfly exhibit here in Sioux Falls. She is now involved in an international organization devoted to butterfly exhibits...not the exhibit that has hundreds of these lovely creatures mounted on pins, but the alive and flittering sort.

I tried to persuade her to do a blog, but without success. I wish she would. She has things to say that are well worth reading. About butterflies? No, about the world in which these fragile critters live, or are trying to live. If we start to lose butterfly habitat, then a whole of other things..bad things...can happen. Maybe I can get her into blogging. We need her voice.

Back to computers. My early days in these machines involved knowing a ton of commands to get from point A to point B. Surprisingly, these same commands still work. Most of my students that are just getting into computers, learn only the word commands, such as clicking on Edit, then on Copy, then on Edit then on Paste. Gets the job done. But in our early computer days before Windows 95 and XP, we'd do the same things, only we'd go to Ctrl C, (copy) then Ctrl V (paste). Still seems a lot quicker.

Next time you click on file, edit, view and the rest, check out the drop down menu. Right next to (example) the word Copy in the Edit menu, you'll see Ctrl+C. If you start to learn some of these you'll find it a lot faster, and require a lot fewer movements with the mouse. Edit, Select All, is also Ctrl+A.

I expect a lot of my fellow seniors will be getting new computers for Christmas. If you do, I hope you'll make a New Years Resolution to check with the SeniorNet Computer Learning Center at the Center for Active Generations. A few easy (an inexpensive) lessons can make that learning curve a lot easier. On-line you'll find full information at www.cfag.org/seniornet.htm, classes, times and price.

Holidays are divided into two camps. One a mountain of advertisments trying to sell us the perfect Christmas gift. And the other equally large quantity of editorial space devoted to ways to avoid saying Merry Christmas. Nuts. I grew up in a home where the reason for the season came first, the gifts and giving was second. But Merry Chirstmas was proclaimed by one and all.

And perhaps Scrooge had it right after all.

2005-11-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

My mailbox has been full of thoughts and questions, mostly from friends, students and fellow volunteers from our Center for Active Generations. I also had many emails asking how they can make comments. To make a comment, just click on the word "Comment" at the bottom of the blog. It will then ask you for a user name and password. Get creative if you wish, or make it simple. I've found you can develop your user name and password and use it on any blog besides mine. I have a lot of fun reading blogs.

In fact, if you just get into blogspot.com, you'll find a never ending list of blogs, and one leads to another and that to another. All from peole that have something to say. There isn't enough space here to list just the subjects offered by blogs.

Start your own? Why not. A lot of blogs are hobby based. Example, if you like to garden, start your own garden blog and share your green thumb stuff with others of the same ilk. My thing happens to be computers and seniors. As a senior with some non-technical computer knoweldge, combined with teaching and coaching computers at our senior center, a blog was a natural move. You could follow the same trail. Click into Blogger, and take the three easy steps to your own blog. Caution, as soon as you have your user name and password, write it down. Trying to recover that information if you've forgotten or misplaced it, is an adventure in frustration. Blogger doesn't seem to care if you can't recover it.

So, give it a try. Explore blogs, add comments to those that intrigue you. Better yet, do your own blog. I did, and it is really fun. Sure disproves the theory that you can't teach an old do (me) new tricks. This geezer is a blogger and proud of it.

Tip of the blog. When sending photos by email way too many folks just attach a photo to their email and send it. The result is a photo so big, you have to scroll like crazy to see the picture. Or, you have to right click on the photo, save it to My Pictures, then open My Pictures and see the photo. And if you don't want to keep the photo, you have to delete it. Lot of work when there is an easier way.

In Windows XP, merely click on the photo or photos you wish to email. Then you get a drop down menu. About 2/3 the way down you'll see, "Email this item," or, "Email these selecxted items." Click on it, and it will open the Outlook Express create mail form, with the photos embedded. Now when the email is opened, photos will be screen sizee, easy to view, print, save odr delete. Much easier to see and use. Try it.

Me and my Mouse

2005-11-17T09:10:00.000-08:00

To some this may be a strange name for a blog.  Not so, however, if you spend anytime in the computer classroom at the Center for Active Generations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  The Center, called C-FAG for short, has over 4,000 members, and is devoted to the lives and activities of our community’s senior citizens.  Cards, pool, crafts, art, lunch and a ton of other activities keep the place humming.

Not the least of which is our SeniorNet computer classroom and lab.  SeniorNet is an international organization devoted to helping the over 50 folks acquire and improve their computer skills.  The classroom has 10, state-of-the-art-computers, all with high-speed cable connections to the Internet.  The instructor’s computer is tied to a projector so students can readily see if their monitor and actions match the teachers. Our lab has 7 computers with printers, so students can practice or be tutored.  Many students come early to class, or stay after class and use the lab.  I teach and/or coach computer classes.  And that’s the reason for the blog.

The name, Mousercise, is a combination of mouse and exercise.  Reason is simple.  Many of our senior students find using the mouse  a skill that is difficult to master.  The first class for beginners, Computer Fundamentals, is devoted to mouse exercises.  We play Solitaire, Hangman and Memory Blocks.  Hopefully, with practice, the clicks, double clicks and drag and drop efforts will become second nature.  If you or someone you know needs to work on this problem, check out our online exercises in the SeniorNet website for this link,  www.seniornet.org/howto/mouseexercises/mousepractice.html.  For newbies to the Internet this is a link, just click anywhere on the blue-underlined phrase, and it will take you there.

Back to the web log (blog).  I intend to devote this web location to helping seniors like myself (looking 80 in the eye) get to know their computer better.  Please note, however, I am not a geek, and can’t help with the hardware side of your machine.  I will be able to afford you some help in keeping it worry free and operating correctly.  Beyond that, you’ll need to call someone.

But software is more my field.  If you have a software question, please use the email to send your query.  If I can’t answer it, I’ll find someone that can.  But each time you check in, you will find a tip or two that may be of use.  And as we progress I will add some reviews of software, (you may have to pay for if you want it) shareware, (send a contribution if you wish) or freeware (like it sounds, free).

Now, we’ve set out the rules and goals, and the rest is up to you.  I’ve been around computers since I got my first PC in the early 70’s.  Things have changed a lot since then, and will continue to change.  But if you’ll stick with me, we can deal with those changes together and make them work for us.  Deal?  Here’s my email address for your questions: john26hagerman@yahoo.com.   M

2005-11-17T07:16:00.000-08:00