Google Search Stories

Hi all,

Sometimes study can be very helpful and today I had to watch these videos for one of my subjects. They are all about searching and using Google products like Google Maps to find information and share knowledge. They are short videos (about 2 minutes each) and I encourage you to watch them. The way we are using the internet has changed everything and it's not just for finding pictures of cheese and cake!!

Google Search Stories

Enjoy!

Google Tips and Tricks

Next week we will be learning about Google Tips and Tricks. For those who are unable to make it, please take a look here and have a go! Consider it homework!

Next week will be our second last lesson for the year, with our last on 8 December and the club's Christmas party on 15 December.

See you next week!

New iOS7 for iPhones and iPads

Hi everyone,

A new operating system (iOS7) was released this week for iPads and iPhones. Here are a couple of articles that will help you back up your device and also remove some of the new quirks that come with iOS7 that people already don't like!

How to back up your iPhone (and iPad)

How to remove 7 most annoying things about iOS7

cheers,

Sally

Monday 26 August

Hi all,

I am unable to teach the two classes tomorrow. Please accept my apologies. I will see you all in two weeks on Monday 9 September. We can discuss then the possibility of a catch up class.

thanks,

Sally

Monday 19 August 2013

Thanks to everyone for two great classes today. I am attempting to make sense of my notes from this morning so I can share them with you all in a meaningful and useful way. Please stay tuned for another blog post tomorrow about file management moving files around.

This is the information about the open day next week at the State Archives in Kingswood: Local History News - State Records Open Day.

In the meantime, here are my key tips for managing your files:

1. Delete everything you don't need to keep! 
2. Open up Finder and take a look at the Downloads folder, remember this is everything you've opened or accessed via email and the internet.
3. As you open a document/photo from an email or download from the internet, decide where to move it and move it straight away!
4. Make folders in your Document folder (in Finder) that correspond to your own paper filing or whatever makes sense to you. 
5. To make a new folder, right click in the white space of Finder and select New Folder. To rename, click on the newly created folder once, then again on the folder name, then type the new name and press Return to save.

The afternoon class had a fun couple of hours working on their mouse and trackpad skills. It seemed a little silly to start with, however using the trackpad or mouse well gives you confidence and improves hand eye coordination! There was some pretty hot competition for the highest score on 3 Monkeys and Starry Night!

Whether you are morning or afternoon class, have a go at these links and games, you might be surprised.

• Skillful Senior Mouse Skills  These exercises are great. (Please don't attempt the 'Arrows Tutorial' which comes after the 'Mouse Tutorial' as the instructions do not match Mac keyboards!)
• Mouse Practice Simple mouse/trackpad exercises to get your fingers warmed tomorrow.
• 3 Monkeys Can you figure out how to catch the fruit and protect the monkeys from the bomb?
• Starry Night Can you make the star bounce across the falling stars to light up the sky?
• Solitaire  Yes! Solitaire is great for practicing dropping and dragging, double clicking and moving the mouse or trackpad around the screen.

See you all next Monday,

Sally

Monday 12 August

Can anyone help me? I've forgotten what we are doing tomorrow!!! email me: sallyturbitt at gmail.com

Thanks!

Troubleshooting (again!)

Bring your questions, problems and anything you'd like to go over that we've already done to class tomorrow and we will endeavour to find the answers!

Term 3 starts on Monday 15 July

Yes! We're back already!

As I've been away on holidays there is no plan for the term, so let's go with a troubleshooting session for Monday morning (10 am to 12 noon). Bring all your questions, on any subject and we'll work through them.

Monday afternoon (1 to 3 pm) will be back to basics as usual.

See you Monday!

Social Media and Networking ideas for SCCCC members

These are the websites shared at today's SCCCC general meeting.

Examples of Social Media and Social Networking
Christchurch Earthquake: map of destruction and emergency services information
Ravelry: knitting and crochet heaven (you'll need to join up to view everything)
Wikipedia Community Portal: this is where you can get involved in editing and sharing what you know with the world!
State Records NSW on Flickr
State Library of NSW on Flickr

Twitter (twitter.com)
Practical Tips for Twitter Beginners from the University of Leicester
Twitter for Beginners from Mashable
Examples of Twitter accounts to follow: @702sydney, @OurCentralCoast, @mygosford, @abcnews, @abcgrandstand
Examples of Twitter hashtags: #SBSTDF, #London2012, #spbkchat, #qanda

Facebook (www.facebook.com)
Permanently deleting your Facebook account
Facebook settings - a complete guide: this article is up to date and if you ignore the ads, really useful.

Blogs
Blogging Flavours from Christchurch City Libraries
Talkin' bout my Generations - personal family history blog
The $120 Food Challenge
Clones 'n' Clowns
Raspberri Cupcakes
Smitten Kitchen
The Wednesday Chef
Garden Rant
Top 50 Gardening blogs from Blogrank
Top 100 Australian blogs index
Australian Genealogy and History blog list
and finally, you thought I was joking . . . here's the Vienna to Pyongyang blog that I spent 5 hours reading in the middle of the night (you've been warned!).


Photo Credit: khalid Albaih via Compfight cc

Term 3 is coming soon!

Just a reminder that there are no classes for the next two weeks due to school holidays. Classes resume for term 3 on 15 July. There is however a SCCCC general meeting on Monday 1 July at the Kincumber Pub. I am the guest speaker (again!) and will be talking about Social Media, specifically Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

I'll be putting up the plan for next term over the next couple of days so stay tuned. If you have a topic you'd really like to cover next term, please email me or leave a comment below.

Social networking

On Monday we look at social networking and media and discussed the advantages to using these technologies to stay in touch, read the news, meet new people who share the same as interests as you and even crowdsourcing information to help citizens following a natural disaster (we took a look at a Christchurch earthquake map). You can do a lot more than just share photos of your dinner!
These are the links and videos that we look at on Monday.

Videos
Introduction to a digital world video.
Videos on the Technology Explained website, we watched the one called Social Media.
YouTube
Vimeo

Photos
Instagram
Flickr (State Records NSW have a great selection of historical images)

We also looked at Facebook and Twitter. Next week we will go through the steps of setting up a Facebook account. And take a look at some more social networking sites.

Reminder

Just a reminder for everyone that tomorrow is the first Monday of the month so there are no classes. The club's monthly meeting is on at 10.30 am at Kincumber Pub instead. The guest speaker is me, and I'll be talking about iPads.

The Mac Users Group is meeting tomorrow at 1 pm at my house. Please email me if you would like to come (sallyturbitt at gmail.com).

Classes resume on Monday 16 June (9 June is a public holiday).

See you all either tomorrow or in a couple of weeks!

Printing and Scanning

How to print as a PDF instructions (from the Dummies website, which is not a reflection of our class, purely a great resource!) This method means you don't have to save the file twice (once as a Word doc and once as a PDF).

Here's the list of keyboard shortcuts. The list is quite long but mastering ones like Command + C for copy, Command + V for paste will make your life easier!

How to print instructions from Mac.

That's about all. See you Monday for e-books and e-readers. If you have an e-reader or iPad, bring them along so we can play).

Monday finds

Seven simple tricks to speed up your iPad. The iPad users amongst us might want to save this one for future reference!

Carmel's Tech for Travel tips. For all the travellers!

And some more National Broadband Network information for those interested, How Fast is the NBN? The background to this website is an interesting read as well.

What have you found online recently?

Monday 22 April

Hi all,

Today's iTunes (making playlists and burning CDs) class turned into exploring iTunes U and Podcasts and we found some great lectures to listen to, there's something for everyone!

I mentioned this article, The Great NBN Fail is about the National Broadband Network and (in my opinion) gives a great (and lengthy) overview of what the NBN will/can do for Australia.

Next week (29 April) we are looking at Contacts and Calendars (iCal) - adding contacts, creating groups, using iCal and syncing to other devices.

And to everyone who is unwell at the moment, wishing you a speedy recovery and that we'll see you soon!

Term 2 2013

Term 2 starts next Monday, 15th April.

Hopefully I've managed to include everything!

15 April, Week 1
Files and Images: moving files and images to and from USB drives, CDs, cameras and memory cards. BYO USB etc. if you'd like to work on something in particular.

22 April, Week 2
iTunes: adding CDs to your iTunes library, burning CDs and making playlists.

29 April, Week 3
Contacts and Calendars: adding contacts, creating groups, using calendars and syncing to other devices.

6 May
SCCCC Meeting at Kincumber Pub OR User Group

13 May, Week 4
Mail: organising your emails, creating folders, adding emails to folders automatically.

20 May, Week 5
Printing and Scanning: printing plus scanning images and photos and saving them.

27 May, Week 6
eBooks: borrowing and purchasing ebooks for iPads, tablets, laptops and ereaders.

3 June
SCCCC Meeting at Kincumber Pub OR User Group

10 June
Public Holiday

17 June, Week 7
Social Networking: setting up a Facebook account, Q&A plus Twitter.

24 June, Week 8
Social Networking: Blogs and what's new online?

1 July
SCCCC Meeting at Kincumber Pub OR User Group

Please bring along anything you think might be useful for classes.

See you next Monday!

"how to"

The How To page on this blog has a small collection of How To videos and slides. I'll continue to add to these as we go.

The schedule for next term will be ready in the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Searching the web

Updated web search tips sheet is ready! Hope it's useful. Just click here. Colour copies will be available at the classes next Monday.

Also, I'm putting together the plan for the Monday AM classes for next term. If you have any ideas or topics that you'd like included please leave a comment or email me sallyturbitt@gmail.com

Thanks.

Web Search Skills

These are the Google slideshows that were used in today's class.

Understanding Search Engines: What is the Web?

Features and Operators: Hello Operator

Search Techniques and Strategies: Which link should I follow?

User group Monday 4 March

Hi all, please accept my apologies but I need to cancel the User Group tomorrow morning at 9.30 am. I have a sick person in the house following a hectic weekend away. I will hold a catch up class to be organised ASAP.

Thanks, Sally

Monday 25 February

Just a quick reminder that the SCCCC General Meeting is on next week at Kincumber Pub. Or if you fancy coming to the Mac User Group with questions, we meet at 9.30 am in the small computer room.

Otherwise see you in a fortnight for Web Search Skills.

updated outline for term 1

I am hoping that everyone has had time to digest the changes to our classes and if you are Mac for Word person that you have contacted Beverly (4369 2530) to discuss moving to the PC Word classes.

Here is the outline for the rest of term 1 for the morning Mac group (10 am to 12 noon):

Week 3	18/02/13	Pages
Week 4	25/02/13	File Management: keeping your Mac and files organised.
	04/03/13	SCCCC Meeting at Kincumber Pub or Mac User Group (AM)
Week 5	11/03/13	Web Search Skills
Week 6	18/02/13	Web Search Skills
Week 7	25/03/13	iPhoto
	01/04/13	Easter Monday no classes
Week 8	08/04/13	iPhoto

See you all for Pages on Monday.

Sally

Changes to Mac classes

Hi everyone,

It was great to see everyone on Monday and to see some new faces too. Following extensive discussion with Beverly over lunch we have come up with a plan for the term which will accommodate existing class members and any new people who join us.

The Monday AM class (10 am to 12 noon) will remain as planned, covering topics and applications each week.

If you had planned on attending the Word for Mac classes on 18 and 25 February, please contact Beverly ASAP (4369 2530) to discuss attending the Microsoft Word classes with the PC people instead. Beverly and I think this will work better as Microsoft Word can't really be mastered in 2 weeks and there are only a couple of differences between Word for Mac and PC.

Monday PM class (1-3 pm) will now be a beginners class. We will start with the basics of using a Mac. Everyone is welcome to come along to this class and see if it is right for them. We won't be covering any applications other than Mail and Safari later on in the term.

The Mac User Group will be meeting on the first Monday of every month when the SCCCC meeting is being held. This class will be 10 am to 12 noon.

I'll let everyone digest that information and post again with an updated term outline for the morning class.

If you have any questions, please email me.

Sally

Change of plans

Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a happy Christmas and New Year and are staying cool and inside today!

Unfortunately I am not going to be available on 11 February for our second week. I've been given the opportunity to attend a conference in Brisbane that I just can't pass up! The second week was scheduled to be Pages. I am happy to come in another time to do a catch up (depending on what is available at the Centre) or to hold the class here at my house on another day. We can discuss this on our first day back which is 5 February.

See you all sometime during the term (depending on which sessions you are coming to!)

Sally