Open Forum

Presented by Jeff Hensel

July 23, 2015

Attendees: 14

Open Forum 2

The following topics were raised and we worked through the methods to get through them.

  • How to organize photos once they are on Dropbox
    • Since Dropbox is simply a folder in Windows Explorer, and Camera Uploads resides directly below, one can create additional folders below Dropbox for the photos. The folder structure might look like. Dropbox/Pictures/2014 Hawaii Vacation.  Dropbox/Pictures/2014 Christmas. Cut and paste the photos from Camera Uploads to the new folders you create.
  • Dropbox questions
    • If one moves photos, and all of the folders created, from the My Pictures folder to the Dropbox folder, will the folder structure remain intact? The answer is Yes.
    • Please remember to Cut the pictures so you don’t have duplicates of everything.

Photos from Camera Uploads to New Folders

  • How to copy photos in Picasa to a thumb drive
    • Open Picasa
    • Plug the thumb drive into the computer
    • Select the folder or photo(s)
    • Choose the File menu option
    • Export Picture to Folder
    • At the Export Location box (top), browse to the Thumb Drive and select it.
    • Click Export
    • Although Picasa is a really good photo editor and viewer and not a file manager, it is still possible to accomplish this task.

Picasa Export to Thumb Drive

  • How to make things larger in Windows
    • Go to Control Panel
    • Choose Display (this works in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10)
    • Choose Make Text and Other Items Larger or Smaller
    • At the Change Only the Text Size, a dropdown menu for the area and font sizes are available. Personally, I change Menus and Icons from the default 9 to 12. Click Apply at each option change.
    • The screen will say “Please Wait” and last about 15 seconds after each change
    • Many of us desire larger text in all of Windows and here is a method.
    • In the Browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari or Firefox) allows for one to increase the size, called Zoom, by holding the Control Key and the hitting the ‘+’. Control and ‘-‘ to reduce the size.

Control Panel Display

Control Panel Change Only Text

  • Printing an email from Gmail doesn’t print the entire email. The bottom is cut off.
    • A common method of printing within the browser is using the key combination of the Control key + ‘P’.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well for emails in the browser as this print command just prints what is on the screen and not the email itself.
    • Gmail has a small printer icon near the upper right (see screen capture) that allows one to print just the email and its contents.

Print from Gmail

  • Windows 10 – first impressions
    • Windows 10 arrives July 29, 2015
    • Upgrading from Windows 7 and 8.1 is FREE before July 28, 2016. Yes, really!
    • The conventional wisdom is for people to wait a month or 2 for the dust to settle and for Microsoft to  fix bugs that appear when the “masses” upgrade.
    • However, if you don’t mind dealing with this type of inconvenience, the upgrade will be available at Microsoft.com on July 29. Upgrading is easiest via download.
    • Personally, since I have been part of the Windows Insider Program for Windows 10, I have been able to start using Windows 10 since last October and worked through all of the updates to this date. I have the final version, but make no mistake, Microsoft plans to frequently updating Windows 10 for fixes and feature additions and improvements. In fact, since July 20, there have been 2 updates.

REMINDER

The next Meeting is September 10, 2015

Thurs, July 23 Meeting Location Change! We will be in Summerset I Main Room

Change

Our regular meeting room is not available this week, so we will meet at the Summerset I main room.

The gate will be open between 6 and 7.

The meeting will start at the regular time (7 pm) and it will be an Open Forum.

Bring your PC, tablet and smart phone questions and we will answer them.

If you would, please email questions to Jeff (henselj@gmail.com).

Open Forum – July 9 2015

Presented by Jeff Hensel

24 Attendees

Questions were sent in advance and shared during the meeting and we did our best to answer them all. We were not able to get everyone connected to the local wifi network so this created a few problems but we made due.

A common question has been how to get photos from one’s smart phone to their computer quickly, easily, automatically and without technical knowledge. Jeff shared a method he uses and this is with the cloud service called Dropbox. One can sign up for Dropbox and install it on their smart phones and computers and works for all brands and operating systems.

  • Install the FREE app on the smartphone
  • Create a FREE account with email address and a password (please remember the password)
  • Select ‘Yes’ when the app asks if you want Dropbox to save photos to the Camer Upload Folder.
  • Let the photos upload.
  • Go to www.dropbox.com, sign-in with the ID and Password created above to see the Camera Upload folder and the photos from your smart phone.
  • From the Dropbox site, download Dropbox for your Mac or Windows PC and install it.
  • Sign-in and watch the Dropbox folder get created and then the Camera Upload folder will come down too with all of your photos.
  • Drag and drop other folders from your computer into the Dropbox folder and those folders and documents will synchronize up to Dropbox in the cloud.

Dropbox for iOS

Dropbox for Android

Dropbox for Windows

Dropbox for Mac

Jeff noted that there are other apps that do the same thing as Dropbox and it is a personal choice.

We will absolutely revisit this topic soon so everyone has a proper opportunity to get Dropbox up and running to their satisfaction.

The next meeting is July 23. Open Forum again. Please email your questions to Jeff (henselj@gmail.com) in advance of the meeting so he can prepare. I we cannot get to all questions during the meeting, a written answer or personal visit will take place.