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    BE A BRIGHTON COMPUTER CLUB GURU TO YOURSELF

  • Preamble:

    I imagine most of you have been attending our meetings with the hope of gaining insight into how to improve your computer knowledge, meet community people who are using computers, and perhaps to solve a current problem. If this is true, perhaps there is a way to be pro active between meetings.

    This discussion is about how and where to do this. I will be inserting web site links. They can be accessed by just clicking on the underlined name. To return to this discussion, click your 'Back' button. If the suggested site is of interest to you, while there, save the Universal Resource Locator(URL) in your Favorites/BookMarks.

  • Using Forums:

    There are virtually hundreds (if not Thousands) of web sites that help novices. You can search for these using 'Google' or other search engines found on our Links site. Or you can just go to Computing.net where expert users offer help for 15 different operating systems, including all versions of Windows.

    If you have never used forums, they are designed to allow you to 'Lurk' (read questions and answers but do not get involved); submit a question on any related topic; or if you know the answer to one of the questions - submit your information. if you submit a question, it may take a few days to receive any answers so you have to return daily to find out...

    A second site Tech Support Guy has 15 very active forums, including Windows 98 and Microsoft Office (Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, etc).

  • Using Search Engines:

    I'm going to use Google as my example for searching. Four basic tips when entering words/phrases into any search engine.

    • One. There is a hierarchy to the sequence of the words entered in the search box. the first has more weight in the search than the last.
    • Two. To search for something very explicit, put the words/phrase inside quotes. This tells the search program that the results must contain all the words between the quotes, in the given sequence.
    • Three. If you want a more flexible search or don't know a complete phrase, use wild cards. Just place an '*' in place of missing data to generalize your search.
    • Four. Google doesn't recognize dates so use a "+" or "-" next to a date. ie., "window 98 updates" -2002, -2001, -2000
    When your selection of a site from your search criteria lands you on a large complex web site, the Google Toolbar gives you two nifty tools:
    • Click its Google button.
    • Choose Toolbar Options.
    • Scroll to "Finding words within a page".
    • Click on the check boxes by Highlight and Word Find.
    From now on, you can click the Highlight button on the toolbar to turn on/off one of the words (originally highlighted) from you search and find the next occurrence of the key word within the site that you are reviewing.

    If you end up on a foreign language site, do not despair. Google can translate a phrase from one of the main European languages such as: French, German, etc. to English and vice versa:

    • Click its Google button.
    • Select Language Tools.
    • Enter phrase you want translated in Translate Text box.
    • use drop-down list below to pick your language.

    Wrapup:

    I started this as a continuing discussion for club members. If you have any more ideas, or direction, or comments, please e-mail me by clicking on "PageMaster" below. I will add them to this discussion. If you are not a member, I will use editor discretion. :-)

    PageMaster