March 2012-Tips and Tricks
Presentations:
Diane George presented tips and useful information.
BeLarc Advisor (belarc.com) will scan your computer and generate a report about your computer—software keys, version numbers, hardware information, updates available. The new version includes a network map. Run this free utility to get a current profile of your system, print and save the information in case of emergency or before upgrading.
Diane offered some tips on Searching in Google.
- If you want to look up a phrase, put it in "quotes" to make the phrase searched as a whole. To eliminate a given word, put a space after your first phrase, then a minus sign before the term you do not want to get.
- To search a specific site for a term, enter (the word/phrase you are searching for)_site:(SiteName). ~_phrase will find sites with your phrase.
- "Search Term"_filetype:(doc, pdf, etc.) will find you files of the type you want with the search term you need.
- Put an OR (in caps) between two or more terms to find sites that have one or the other term. Phonebook510-874-3700 will find all the sites that include the target phone number (Note: no space).
- In the search window, enter "James Buchanan" 1928..1940 will find the target search to the specified dates. Note the two dots.
- To look up a word, in the search window, type Define: Your term.
- In the Google Tool Bar, click on the camera and Google will match similar images to the one you upload.
- The News button lets you search for news and different kinds of newspapers and archives.
- he Books tool searches for books by a variety of criteria.
- The Translate tool has many language pairs, looks at alternate choices, and has a read-aloud option.
- People are familiar with Google Maps. The Street View lets you see distant places.
- Check the More and Even More sections for an amazing array of things to check out.
- Google+ is the Google social network. With Google Plus, you can control your circle(s) of contact and who gets what messages from you.
- Google Hangout is a way to bring up to 10 people together for live chatting, using the camera and microphone in your computer. You can talk with and see people, and share the screen of a participant. Be aware that the person who initiated the Hangout doesn’t retain control.
View the PowerPoint presentations.
After the break, Chuck demoed “How To Remove Your Google Web History.” The presentation will be on the PCC website. While figuring out how to remove his web history, Chuck found Google.com/dashboard for managing one’s online presence in Google apps.
The Experts were asked about browser screen overwriting (one line of print covering another). It might be due to too large a screen size or too large a system font size. Change Font Size in the System settings or check your drivers. Browser settings and System setting are independent of each other and both should be checked. Holding down the Control key and scrolling your scroll wheel will enlarge and reduce the screen in many applications.