Feedback, take 2

Hopefully this link to the survey will work.

2012 Survey for Mac classes

Feedback for 2012 classes

I'm hoping everyone will have a spare 2 minutes to answer these 3 quick questions which help me with planning for next year.

See you next Monday for our last class of the year.

planning for 2013

Hi everyone,

This morning we talked about what the morning class will be doing in 2013. Now that I have the dates I've put together a rough plan. Please let me know what you think via comments at the bottom of this post.

Term 1

• Week 1, 4 February: Pages
• Week 2, 11 February: Pages
• Week 3, 18 February: Word for Mac
• Week 4, 25 February: Word for Mac
• 4 March: SCCCC Meeting
• Week 5, 11 March: File Management (need to think of a snazzier name for this!)
• Week 6, 18 March: Web Search Skills
• 25 March: Easter Monday
• Week 7, 1 April: iPhoto
• Week 8, 8 April: iPhoto

For those who weren't able to come this morning, you are welcome to attend all of the classes or just the ones that suit you.

A bit of news from Beverley: the club has received a grant to purchase two Macbooks that we will be able to use!

tomorrow's class

Just a quick message to remind everyone that classes are on tomorrow. The morning session will be on Pages/Microsoft Word and we will be working through formatting and creating a basic document.

See you then.

Info from today's AM class

Hi all,

We covered quite a bit this morning including: Address book groups and Word for Mac and Pages.

We looked at:

Urban Dictionary to keep up to date with all the weird language grandkids and kids are using these days!

Macquarie Dictionary

And also Pinterest.

Dates and topics for the next few weeks are:

5/11 - no classes as it is the Computer Club's General Meeting. 10.30 am at Kincumber Pub.
12/11 - will be a full session on Word for Mac and Pages. We will create a document and learn formatting, page layout and inserting images.
19/11 - welcome to Pinterest! Setting up an account, following, pinning and exploring.
26/11 - we will tackle iPhoto again.

See you in a fortnight!

Receiving an email from the blog

Hi everyone,

If you have entered your email address in the 'receive emails' box to the right, please check your email spam folder as the verification email might have ended up in there!

Better searching with Google

Visit the How To page for a great infographic on improving your searches with Google.

And don't forget to leave a comment below if you have any questions or something to include on our blog.

yes! we have updates!

Finally!

How to save files to a USB memory stick/USB stick/memory stick/message stick...whatever you like to call them! And how to make a playlist in iTunes.  Both are on the How To page or click here.

And on the What is... page you'll find a short and sweet explanation of RSS.

Changes to our blog

Hi everyone,

I've decided to change our blog to make finding information a bit easier.  Above this message you will see I have added pages for How to..., Music and Photos.  Over the next few days I will move the existing how to videos etc onto the correct page, as well as add new info.

Please let me know what you think of the new layout via email or at the next classes on 13 August.  And check back later in the week for what we will be doing at the next class!

Sally

topics for Monday 18 June

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that Monday 18th is a 'double' session, everyone is welcome to attend both the morning and afternoon classes.  In the morning we will be talking iTunes, including podcasts, internet radio and adding music to your library.  In the afternoon we will revisit iPhoto and cover any other questions that arise, Q&A style.

As always I'm happy to change topics if I've chosen the wrong one, we can discuss on Monday morning.

Have a good weekend, see you Monday,

Sally

updated dates for the term

Hi everyone,


I've made a mistake with the dates for the rest of the term.  I conveniently cut the term short!


Web browsers and the internet: 21 May 
Pages/Word and printing: 28 May
iPhoto: 4 June
No class (public holiday): 11 June
Classes in AM and PM (topics TBA): 18 June
No class (last week of term): 25 June
General Meeting at Avoca Beach Bowling Club (no classes): 2 July
No class: 9 July


Term 3 commences Monday 16 July!

Useful info on web browsers and the internet

What is a web browser? The answer is in this short video:

Excellent infographic:

[Via: Online Schools]

Great tips for searching the internet using Google: http://internoobs.wonderhowto.com/blog/few-helpful-google-search-tips-0128565/

Monday 14 May

Thanks for such great morning and afternoon sessions, I hope you are enjoying them as much as me!


And thanks to Helen for prompting us discover the joys of a bigger cursor!!  Here's how:

• Open Systems Preferences
• select Universal Access
• then Mouse & Trackpad (or it might be just Mouse)
• Use the slider to move the Cursor size bigger and smaller, it will change as you slide making it easy to decide how big you need it!

Don't forget: Command + Q for quitting a program completely. 


Two websites which you may find useful:
My First Mac
Switching to Mac


Web browsers and the internet: 21 May 
Pages/Word and printing: 28 May
iPhoto: 4 June
No class (public holiday): 11 June
Classes in AM and PM (topics TBA): 18 June
No class (last week of term): 25 June


See you on Monday!

Feedback for term 1

Hello everyone,


Please follow the link to the online feedback/survey form.  Your responses will help us to plan for next term to ensure that we are learning what we want to learn and enjoying ourselves in the process!  If you have any trouble with the form, please email me sallyturbitt@gmail.com


See you Monday.


SCCCC Mac Beginners and User Groups feedback form

a bit of housekeeping

Hello all,


Just to confirm, the dates for the next few weeks are as follows:


26 March - review of iPhoto plus iTunes and whatever else we need to discuss.
2 April - SCCCC meeting at Avoca Bowling Club. Guest speaker to be confirmed.
9 April - no classes (Easter Monday)
16 April - no classes (Sally away)
23 April - first classes for term 2.


I will be sending out a feedback form to you all this week and will also add it here on the blog.  This will help me plan for next term.


You will see that I have added a page to this blog for "Interesting Websites". You will see it listed next to home.

Click to enlarge

12 March 2012

Retrieving a forgotten password from Keychain.


Mail
Mail Assistant for setting up Mail to receive your webmail (Bigpond, Optus, TPG, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Gmail).  Just follow the instructions.
Setting up Smart Mailboxes.


Pages
I am still searching for an answer to the text box problem in Pages but in the meantime...

Downloading movies from YouTube
Instead of Wondershare, perhaps try YouTube Downloader. Its a free app which seems to work well.  Be aware that you can only download non-copyrighted or personal videos.


Free audio books and e-books
CCProse on YouTube - audio recordings of classic literature accompanied by synchronised text on the screen.
Librivox - listen to free audiobooks, download them to your iPod or iPad or help Librivox by recording a chapter.
Project Gutenberg -  thousands of free ebooks in multiple formats.
And you can now download audiobooks from Gosford Library!


Facebook
Facebook privacy and account settings change regularly. So if you are on Facebook, you need to check your settings every few months or when you hear about changes Facebook has made.  Make sure all your settings allow FRIENDS ONLY to see your information, no-one else.  This is the simplest way to make sure you are (relatively) safe on Facebook.  This video walks you through each page (it does not have any audio).

info for Monday 12 March morning class

Hello all,

Monday is nearly upon us again.  I've given some thought to having an iPhoto class again on Monday but I need to some more time to learn how to use the newest version of iPhoto so I can help everyone.

So Monday 12 March will be Mail, the Mac email application.  How to use it, how to set up Mail to use other accounts you may have and anything else you can throw at me!

The Pages/Microsoft Word/OpenOffice class will be slotted in at the end of the term if there is enough interest.

• 20 February - Basics
• 27 February - iPhoto
• 5 March - Pages/Microsoft Word for Mac/OpenOffice
• 12 March - Mail
• 19 March - iTunes
• 26 March - App Store OR Pages/Microsoft Word/OpenOffice
• 2 April - iPhoto.

20 February 2012

How to find out how much storage is being used on your Mac by all your applications, photos, music and more.

1. Click on the Apple (top left hand corner of the screen)
2. Then About This Mac
3. and More Info
4. then click on Storage and you will see how much storage is being used. 

iTunes - adding particular songs to iTunes from a CD (not the whole CD).

1. Open iTunes.
2. Insert your audio CD into your computer.
3. Click on the CD name in the Source list. (This shows a list of songs on that CD).
4. Uncheck any songs you don't want to import to iTunes.
5. Click "Import CD".
6. iTunes will now copy the selected songs from the CD to your iTunes library.
7. Once all the songs are imported, click "Eject Disc".
8. Done!

Lifehacker and Mashable are useful if you are looking for new apps, information and reviews.


iTunes gift cards on sale - stay updated on which shops have iTunes cards on sale.


World Radio - listen to AM and FM from all over the world. Well worth the $10!


Apple ID visit here for info on setting up your Apple ID which is used for iTunes and iCloud.

more on the "filter bubble"

Just a little more information on the "filter bubble".  This TED talk clearly explains how these filters work and what they mean for your information and connection with the world.  Enjoy.


(You might want to take a look at all TED, some fantastic talks about just about any subject you can think of).

13 February 2012 (part 2)

And we're back for part 2:


Making a collage for your Desktop Background - iPhoto doesn't "do" collages but this blog has a workaround using the book function in iPhoto.  (I will add this to the list for the week we cover iPhoto).

How to print in greyscale:

We also discussed search engines, in particular Google. DuckDuckGo is an alternative search engine which has a very clear no tracking and bubble policies (the bubble will make sense when you read the link!) and privacy policy.


And lastly, here is my suggested calendar for the rest of term 1.  It is open to change and subject to approval by SCCCC.

• 20 February - Basics
• 27 February - iPhoto
• 5 March - Pages/Microsoft Word for Mac/OpenOffice
• 12 March - Mail
• 19 March - iTunes
• 26 March - App Store, installing and uninstalling applications
• 2 April - (open to suggestions or for a recap of the term).

And that is it! See you next Monday.

13 February 2012 (part 1)

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who came to the first Mac Beginners group on Monday morning and also to everyone who came to the Mac Users group in the afternoon.  I am really enjoying learning with you all and have high hopes for the rest of the term.  (And a big thanks to SCCCC, in particular Beverley who has worked hard on publicity for the group and setting up the Mac Mini and fixing the Wifi!)


We got through a lot of topics on Monday and I hope I have remembered them all.  If I have left something out, please email me and I will add the relevant information here.


In the morning sessions we spent some time going through Systems Preferences.  I hope everyone will find some time between now and next week having a bit of a play with some of the settings (Desktop & Screen Savers for example).  Practice and repetition will help you become more familiar with your Mac!


I've created a video on How to Create Smart Groups (lists) in Address Book and is the answer to Ann's question about having lists of New Zealand and Australian addresses in her Address Book.

Dropbox: for anyone interested in the security issues with saving documents to the "cloud" this article details encryption and making files in Dropbox even more secure.


iCloud (note: is only available for those Apple devices that are running the latest OSX).


Margaret had a question about her email on the Mac and iPad.  When she was deleting emails on her Macbook they were still showing as unread on her iPad.  This link gives one solution.  


This blog post has become so long I've split it into two parts.  Part 2 should be up in a couple of hours.

6 February 2012

Hello to the new faces in our group and welcome back to the familiar ones!


How to make a list in Yahoo mail


Compound interest calculator


Bookmarks in Safari - this is a detailed yet well written explanation of how to bookmark in Safari.


Some links to information on the different "Office" programs available for Mac.
Microsoft Office for Mac
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
OpenOffice


I am working on a video for adding the right-click to your Trackpad and some information on Microsoft Word compatibility with other programs.  Stay tuned!