June - ICON Computer Users Group
Transcription
June - ICON Computer Users Group
THE ICON—Newsletter of the Interactive Computer Owners Network — JUNE 2011 WHAT’S INSIDE Page 2 Program Schedules for June and July Page 3 Minutes of 5-28-11 Quote of the Month Interesting Sites to Visit on the Internet Page 4 Free Utilities from Google Page 5 Computer Term Equipment Roster Request Page 6-7 Windows Q & A (PowerPoint) Page 8 Little Word Annoyances Page 9 Legends and Short Stories on Flag Day Page 10-11 Anchoring the Heart Page 12 –13 Family Tree Maker (Part 3) Page 14 Help Line Answers Cards sent Basic Computer Classes Page 15 ICON Membership Applications Articles Deadline ICON Officers New Members & Renewals Page 16 Announcements Mission Statement PREZ SEZ: I’ve been thinking…about how much my life revolves around the technology I use daily. I‘m writing this with my laptop sitting on top of my lap (bad pun!) in a Holiday Inn in Johnstown, PA. (For those not at the last meeting, I‘m here helping my daughter and her sons move while her husband is deployed ‗somewhere in the Middle East.‘) My laptop almost always travels with me and I use it to check email, make slideshows of pictures while on vacation, surf the internet (when there‘s a connection available) and so on. I also take my new ‗smart phone‘ with me. ‗Smart Phone‘ is really a misnomer. I think of it as my pocket computer that I can use to make phone calls. I can use it to check email, surf the internet, load pictures from my camera (thru my computer, however) make slideshows, etc. Sound familiar? But, when the technology doesn‘t work right, it‘s frustrating and agonizing. For example, the ‗free‘ internet connection at this Holiday Inn does not allow me to connect to the internet. Oh, I can connect to the inns network but am unable to connect to the internet. And, I‘m too stubborn to call the desk and ask for help (it‘s a guy thing, I guess). But, interestingly enough, I cannot connect my iPod Touch and neither can one of my tow grandson‘s connect his iPod Touch. However, the other grandson can and my daughter can connect her laptop. Maybe 2 out of 5 is not bad but it‘s not what I‘ve come to expect. And it drives me slightly nuts! Mary Phillips has been nagging me (electronically by email – which I can read on my pocket computer) to get this article done and so I‘m going to try a new technology – at least new to me. As I said, I‘m writing this on my laptop. I‘m using MS Word 2010 as my word processor. Once done, a few more sentences from now, I‘m going to save it and then, trying to use the Bluetooth service on the laptop, connect my ‗pocket computer‘ and move the document to the ―Quick Office‖ Android application folder and then send it to Mary via email from my phone, ...er, pocket computer. If you are reading this in the newsletter, it worked. I‘m looking forward to seeing you at a future ICON meeting. We‘ve got some exciting things planned for this year so watch the newsletter and the website for more information. …Art Irish THE ICON JUNE 2011 PAGE 2 Program Preparations for June 2011 Dates, Times, & Topics Saturday, June 11, The Library Station (Frisco Room) 10:00 a.m. Digital Imaging SIG Understanding Digital Camera Controls 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag Lunch and 1-on-1 Help Desk 12:30 p.m. Mini-Seminar Internet Explorer 9…The Best Features 2:15 p.m. Advanced Technology Forum — Open Group Discussion 4:00 p.m. Using the Linux Operating System Saturday, June 18, The Library Center 3:00 p.m. Using the Linux Operating System (Harrison Room) Tuesday, June 21 , The Library Center (Harrison Room) 10:00 a.m. To Be Announced Saturday, June 25, Brentwood Library 10:00 a.m. Genealogy SIG — Genealogist’s Toolbox, Part 2 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag Lunch and 1-on-1 Help Desk 12:30 p.m. ICON Anniversary and Birthday Party 1:00 p.m. Monthly Meeting Finding What You Want Wherever You are (Location Based Services)! 3:00 p.m. Windows SIG — How to Train Your Dragon — Voice Activated software Program Preparations for July 2011 Dates, Times, & Topics Saturday, July 9, The Library Station (Frisco Room) 10:00 a.m. Digital Imaging SIG Revisiting Picasa and comparing it to Paint.net and the Gimp. 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag Lunch and 1-on-1 Help Desk 12:30 p.m. Mini-Seminar — Stretching Your Dollar 2:15 p.m. Advanced Technology Forum — Open Group Discussion 4:00 p.m. Using the Linux Operating System Saturday, July 16, The Library Center 3:00 p.m. Using the Linux Operating System (Harrison Room) Saturday, July 23, Brentwood Library 10:00 a.m. Genealogy SIG — Genealogist’s Toolbox, Part 3 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag Lunch and 1-on-1 Help Desk 1:00 p.m. Monthly Meeting — Using PowerPoint and Open Source Slide Show Applications to Share Photos, Videos, and Audio 3:00 p.m. Windows SIG — Windows Live Mail Tuesday, July 26 , The Library Center (Harrison Room) 10:00 a.m Spreadsheets: Excel, Open Office, Libre Office, Google Calc -- Basics, plus a little. THE ICON JUNE 2011 Minutes of the May 28, 2011 ICON General Meeting Terry Roberts called the meeting to order, welcoming everyone and referencing the upcoming programs. Then followed the installation of new officers elected on April 23, 2011: President—Art Irish, Vice President—John Somers, Secretary—Mary Phillips, Treasurer—June Moore (absent), Program Chair— Terry Roberts, Membership Chair—Barbara Wilkinson, Newsletter Chair,— Mary Stewart, Webmaster—Sarah Marshall Roberts. Terry Roberts turned the meeting over to Art Irish, and Art described to us a bit of his personal background. He then asked for the Minutes to be read. With the absence of the Treasurer there was no financial report today. Discussion followed about how we might attract some younger people to our meetings. Toni Somers suggested that we might ask some younger people to be presenters. Terry will contact some of the OTC instructors who possibly will give class credit for attending meetings or making presentations. John Somers will be sending meeting announcements to the Week-end section of the Springfield News-Leader and also to community calendars of the TV and radio stations. Darin Kasterke, who has worked in radio for a number of years, was asked by Art to be on John‘s Communication committee. Jamie Dopp is the contact for Community Calendar at KY-3.com. The meeting was adjourned to the program presented by Col Bud Burke on Linux? What’s in it for Me? QUOTE OF THE MONTH: The difference between insanity and genius Is success. —-Jonathan Pryce PAGE 3 INTERESTING SITES TO VISIT ON THE INTERNET Nancy Preffitt HOW TO DO STRANGE THINGS! This site is fascinating, but more of a time waster than a ―how to‖ in my opinion. If you have ever wanted to make a rubber hose chair, make wallpaper out of money, or do strange electronic things that I don‘t what they are, spend some time here. There are things to make in almost any category you can imagine and a lot you can‘t! It‘s fun, though. http://www.instructables.com/ PHOTO CORRECTIONS This is a remarkable program for small corrections. You simply paint over what you want to go. The program tries to figure out what would be behind that object. It does this by pulling information from neighboring pixels. You can remove bars or a chain link fence. You could take out graffiti on a wall. It won't work for everything. And if you look closely you can make out the edit. But the results are surprisingly good. Just draw over something and it disappears. www.hanovsolutions.com TEST YOUR BRAIN AGE With these fun little games, the magician at the site can allegedly tell you how old your brain is! There are a series of games, which are timed, and your replies are analyzed and brain age supposedly calculated. (Can you tell how I did on this?) Even with not- so-good results, it‘s interesting. http://www.freebrainagegames.com ALARM CLOCK If your alarm goes on the fritz late one evening, or you need a timer so you won‘t burn dinner or be late for an ICON meeting, try Kuku Klok. It's a very simple free online alarm clock. Just set the time you want . Note that it is in military time. You can choose your sound from rooster, military bugle, electronic beeps, crazy guitar and an oldfashioned clock. www.kukuklok.com GOLF This is a fun little game of miniature golf. It‘s a full eighteen holes but it‘s easy to play. You‘ll enjoy it when you have some time to spare. http:// www.ibogleif.dk/spil/flashspil/minigolf/ minigolf.swf THE ICON JUNE 2011 More Free Utilities from Google by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://www.google.com/talk http://www.google.com/chrome http://desktop.google.com http://www.google.com/earth http://www.panoramio.com http://pack.google.com http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ Sometime ago, I wrote about several free utilities available from Google. Google has continued to update and enhance its offerings in its attempt to maintain its dominant position on the internet by offering dozens of free utilities for PCs, MACs, and Linux computers. The comprehensive listing of Google offerings is online at www.google.com/intl/en/options. Many people like to chat while online, and while old classics like AIM, Yahoo Messenger, IRC, and ICQ were partially responsible for the explosive growth of internet chat, Google has joined the fray with Google Talk. Available as a free download from www.google.com/talk, this utility provides both text chat and voice chat with others who also have Google Talk. As with the other popular chat utilities, Google Talk is an instant message utility for Windows PCs only that allows users to type-chat in real time, view the status of "friends", and directly transfer files between friends. Google Talk also offers voice chat which is basically a free PC to PC long distance call to anywhere in the world, provided that both parties have the free Google Talk application. Google Talk also integrates with Google's email service, Gmail, allowing for voice chat while in Gmail. For those with Gmail accounts, Google offers a video and voice plug-in for Gmail which allows Windows and MAC users to chat within Gmail directly from a web browser. In addition to Gmail, this video and voice plug-in works with iGoogle and Orkut. The browser wars have been heating up with the almost concurrent releases of Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4. At about the same time, Google released version 11 of its open source Chrome browser, which has been rapidly increasing in popularity, due to its speed, security, simplicity, and the availability of many apps, extensions, and themes for Chrome. Chrome can be downloaded from Google at: PAGE 4 www.google.com/chrome, and will mutually coexist with other installed browsers (such as IE and Firefox) without interference. Chrome is used for Windows PCs running on Windows 7, Vista, or XP. Several published comparisons have rated Chrome as the fastest browser to load, and among the fastest to display web pages. Many users like the clean and uncluttered browser window when opened, but the simple interface should not fool users, as Chrome is a very powerful full featured browser. Chrome is also compatible with almost all widely used web apps, making it the browser of choice for millions of users. Google is best known as the ubiquitous search engine of choice for many users, with the trade name often used in common vernacular as a verb, as in "Google it". While it is one of the premier internet search engines, Google also offers a free desktop search utility, that allows a user to search his own computer as easily as he can search the internet. Google Desktop (desktop.google.com) is available for MAC, Linux, and Windows (Windows 7, Vista, and XP), and offers the users the ability to find and directly launch applications, as well as locate any data or other files on the computer. There is also an option to install "Google Gadgets" on the desktop, allowing the user to select any of hundreds of gadgets to display news, weather, sports, games, stock quotes, clocks, calendars, and other gadgets directly on the desktop, without the need to open a browser or other utility. One of my personal favorite Google utilities is the free version of Google Earth (www.google.com/ earth). Google Earth integrates Google maps with other enhancements, and lets the user virtually fly anywhere on the surface of the earth, to the depths of the oceans, to outer space. Interactive imagery can be displayed as satellite imagery, maps, terrain, buildings and land features in 3D, Street View, and several other ways. In addition to relatively current maps and images, Google Earth can also display historical images and maps, such as ancient Rome. Google Earth can also integrate with several models of GPS, allowing tracks and other information to be displayed or shared with others. There are many third party applications that integrate with Google Earth, including real time hurricane tracking and predictions, real time flight tracking, business intelligence, voter demographics, and countless other uses. Continued on page5 THE ICON JUNE 2011 Continued from page 4 More Free Utilities Google recently released an intriguing new utility, Panoramio (www.panoramio.com) which can integrate personally uploaded photographs with Google Maps or Google Earth. Panoramio provides an interactive and searchable map that combines the standard map images with the millions of photos that have been uploaded, allowing anyone to view much more than a typical map or satellite image can display. For example, zooming in on downtown Beaumont using Panoramio displayed dozens of small icons representing photographs taken at those locations; clicking on the icons displays the photos. I noticed a photo icon at a familiar location in downtown Beaumont, clicked on it, and displayed a small photo of the Examiner building! Clicking directly on the small photo opened another window showing a larger image along with a map for reference, and thumbnail images of other photos taken nearby. Many of these photos can be clicked again to display the original format of the photo, often a large image. Many users like the idea of a single download that can install multiple free utilities, and Google obliges by providing its Google Pack for Windows 7 (pack.google.com). This utility allows the user to choose which programs he wants from a checklist, and download a single installer that will install the selected programs on the computer. Included in Google Pack are a variety of utilities from Google including Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Apps, Desktop, Google Earth, Picasa (image editor), Talk, and toolbars for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Several security utilities included in Google pack include avast! Free Antivirus, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus, and Immunet Protect Antivirus. Miscellaneous utilities included in the pack are Adobe Reader, Skype phone service, RealPlayer, and the WebM for IE9 video player. Google has developed a reputation for good quality software and utilities, most of which are available for free. Any or all of the utilities above may contribute to the user's enjoyment of the internet by allowing him to do things that he may have been unaware of. Thanks Google! Computer Terminology Term for the month of June Dusty Deck (Find the definition elsewhere in this issue) PAGE 5 Equipment Roster Request As the new officers take over ICON roles, we realized that as in any long running group, things happen and there is no record other than memory as to what has been purchased, gotten etc. So—we realized that we need a record on paper or electronically to pass along in the future of what equipment the group has purchased including software, hardware, CD‘s and DVD‘s, materials from TechSoup, books etc, and who has it. We don‘t want to duplicate things we already have and not have equipment we should have. We also need to know who has what so people with needs can know who to go to. So, if you have anything the group has acquired, computers, projectors, software etc, please email me and I will work at putting the inventory together. I will need model number, serial numbers, and date acquired if you have it. You can reach me at one of the meetings or at [email protected] . Thank you for your help, John Somers FLAG Day is Tuesday, June 14. Let’s fly our colors proudly. THE ICON JUNE 2011 Windows Q & A – June 2011 By Mary Phillips Q1. What is PowerPoint? What can I do with it? A1. Power Point is a multimedia program that can be used for many different things. Anything that could be shown in slide show format can be done with Power Point such as financial reports and presentations, worship images and song lyrics, inspirational messages often with music and/or flash video, instructional slides, self-paced tutorials, family reunion photos, and vacation videos. AND, it can also be used as a small desktop publishing program to design resumes, posters, games, and classroom projects in a variety of sizes. A scrapbook feature is so easy in Office 2007 or 2010. It‘s uses are limited only by one‘s imagination. Q2. How do I get PowerPoint? A2. PowerPoint is included in every version of MS Office including the Home and Student version. There are also free presentation programs in the Open Office Suite (http://www.openoffice.org/) and Libre Office (http://www.libreoffice.org/). Q3. How do I get started with a slide show? A3. Assuming you have a version of MS Office installed on your computer, click on Programs – MS Office – PowerPoint. When PowerPoint opens in 2007 it has a default slide background theme called ―Office Theme‖ (white with black letters in Calibre font), and text boxes for a title and a subtitle. The slides in this creation view are shown in the left column. PAGE 6 Type in the Title of your slideshow and the subtitle can be your name. Click on the Office Button (2007) in the upper left corner or File (2010) and Save As: filename. Continue to Save As: same filename after each slide. To add the next slide, click on the down arrow point beside New Slide (on the Home tab) or press Ctrl M. You‘ll see different ones from which to choose, but let‘s choose the Blank one to insert our first picture. Click on the Insert tab and click on Picture. Select the first picture by clicking on it, then click the Insert button. Use the resizing handles to make it the size you want and nudge the picture to the position you want by using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Perhaps you‘d like to add some descriptive text to your picture. Still on the Insert tab, click on Text Box. Draw the text box by holding down the left mouse button and making a rectangle. Type in your text and increase the font size as needed. Suggested font size for good viewing is a minimum of 32. Clicking on Text Direction provides options for the direction of the text and the rotate handle on the text box will tilt or turn to the desired angle. Continue to insert photos and text. If you decide you want to change the order, click on the Slide Sorter button in the lower right corner, and click and drag the slides to the preferred positions. When you want to see your slide show, click on Slide Show view button (see above) or on the Slide Show tab at the top of the screen. Slides can be advanced manually by several ways: 1) left mouse clicks, 2) keyboard arrow keys, 3) a wireless presentation clicker or 4) automatically, on the Animation tab, click Advance slide after desired amount of time. The slide show can be interrupted at any time by pressing the Esc key on the keyboard. A really quick way to create a photo slide show from a whole folder of pictures is to: 1. Open PowerPoint, click on the Insert tab, then click on Photo Album (2007) 2. Under Album Content, Insert picture from, click on the File/Disk button. Double click on the folder containing your pictures to open it. 3. Either press Ctrl A (Select All) or click on the first picture, press and hold the Shift key; navigate Continued on page 7 THE ICON JUNE 2011 Continued from page 6 PowerPoint to the last picture and click it to select everything in between. (If you want only some of the pictures, select the first one, press and hold Ctrl, and click on just the pictures you want.) 4. Press the Create button. The photos will all go in maximized to fit the slides. 5. Name your slide show by clicking on the text box. Save As your file. 6. Add desired text in the photos or add additional slides by right clicking on a slide and selecting New Slide. The new slide will be inserted following the one you clicked on. The same procedure can be done in the Slide Sorter view to add slide. Save your file. Audio and video can be a part of your presentation as well as animation. (See http:// pptheaven.mvps.org/) Q4. How do I use PowerPoint as a Word Processor/Publishing program? A4. To use PowerPoint as a word processor/ publisher: 1. Open PowerPoint and press Ctrl A (Select All) to select the two default text boxes. Press Delete. Now you have a plain page. 2. Click on the Design tab, in Page Setup section click Orientation and choose Landscape (the default) or Portrait. 3. Click Page Setup and Size slides for Letter Paper (8.5 x 11 in) by clicking on the down arrow point. 4. Set margins (width & height minus margins) 5. Click OK. The sample poster above contains two text boxes in Calibri 36pt font and the inserted graphic. Note the handle at the top of the picture that allows for turning or tilting. There is a beautiful resume designed by David Seah using PowerPoint at http:// davidseah.com/2008/07/powerpoint-resumelayout-tips/. It does have a bunch of individual text boxes. The main advantage of PowerPoint over a word processor is that text boxes can be placed anywhere on the page and formatted however you choose. Graphics can also be placed anywhere at any angle. PAGE 7 Q5. How do I make an interactive game using PowerPoint? A5. Download a template and fill in the slides. There are templates for games such as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Pyramid, Password and others at http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/. On that same homepage, click on Game Resources. (http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/ gameresources.htm) a page that contains links to other pages of templates and pre-made games. An- other website with a wide variety of games is http://projects.coe.uga.edu/lrieber/wwild/ search/PPT-search-results.asp. Following are some websites where you‘ll find tutorials and instructions for other uses. Create a Twitter background with directions from Tomas Carrillo at http:// theclosetentrepreneur.com/create-a-twitterbackground-using-powerpoint. http://www.suite101.com/content/powerpointfor-the-learning-a116320 http://www.suite101.com/content/powerpointlectures-a46045 http://ezinearticles.com/?PowerPointPresentation---Uses-andImportance&id=1105064 http://ezinearticles.com/?Creative-Uses-ForMicrosoft-PowerPoint&id=4055905 http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/ creative-uses-for-microsoft-powerpoint2103211.html http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/ ten_secrets_for_using_powerpoint.htm http://www.ehow.com/list_7317396_uses-mspowerpoint.html http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ powerpoint_advanced.htm http://www.slideshare.net/vviereck/many-usesof-powerpoint Definition for Term of the Month ―Dusty Deck‖ An ancient, poorly understood computer program that goes back to the days of punched cards: something that is obsolete but has to be kept useable because someone needs it THE ICON JUNE 2011 7 Little Word Annoyances and Their Easy Fixes By Nancy DeMarte, Columnist, Office Talk, Sarasota PCUG, Inc., FL from the March, 2011 issue Sarasota PC Monitor www.spcug.org [email protected] Below is a collection of frustrating things that can happen when using Microsoft Word. These annoyances can occur in any version of Word although most are geared to Word 2007 and 2010. In Word 2003, the fix-it steps may be different. Annoyance 1 -- You accidentally press the Caps Lock key on your keyboard before typing a paragraph. When you finish, you find everything in capital letters. The Fix: Rather than retyping the whole paragraph, highlight the text, then click the "Change Case" button (Aa), located on the Home tab in the Font group. Click "Sentence case" to transform your paragraph into normal sentences. Annoyance 2 -- You create a party invitation with a light blue background (Page Layout tab - Page Color). But when you print it, the background is white. The Fix: Office has set Word to not print full page background colors, probably to save users from wasting ink. You can, however, make the colored background print. Click the Office button, then Word Options -- Display. Put a check mark next to "Print background colors and images," then click OK. Until you remove this checkmark, all colored backgrounds will print. Annoyance 3 -- You're working on a document where you've set the text size to be a fairly small 10 points. But you find that the text is too small to view comfortably while you're typing. The Fix: Drag the Zoom slider located in the bottom right corner of the Word window to the right to enlarge the screen view of the text. When printed, the text will be 10 points no matter how big it appears on the screen. Annoyance 4 -- You find that the spaces between lines of text in your document are wider than you want. The Fix: If all the spaces are wider than expected, you can change the line spacing for the whole document at once. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Select -- All to highlight all the text. Next click the Line Spacing button in the PAGE 8 Paragraph group and select 1.0 for single-spacing or one of the other choices. Note: Word will not remove extra space after paragraphs when you choose a line spacing size. To remove extra space after a paragraph, select the paragraph before the extra space, click the Line Spacing button and choose "Remove Space After Paragraph." A more permanent way to create no extra space between paragraphs is to open the Paragraph group dialog box launcher (small diagonal arrow) on the Home tab and put a checkmark in front of "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." Annoyance 5 -- Every time you type an email or web address into a document, it turns into a clickable hyperlink with underlined blue text, even if that isn't your intention. The Fix: The quickest fix is to right click the address and select "Remove Hyperlink." But this is only a one time remedy. To remove this action permanently, click the Windows button, then this sequence: Word Options -- Proofing -- AutoCorrect Options -- AutoFormat As You Type. Remove the checkmark next to "Internet and Network paths with hyperlinks" and click OK. Annoyance 6 -- You find that as you type, distracting wavy red and green lines show up under words and phrases. The Fix: Word is set to check spelling (red lines) and grammar (green lines) as you type. This is another Proofing option which comes enabled from the factory. To turn off one or both of these features, go to Word Options (Office button Word Options) and click Proofing. Remove the checkmarks next to "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Check spelling as you type." You can always check spelling and grammar after your document is complete by clicking Spelling & Grammar at the left end of the Review tab. Several of these fixes involve the settings found in the Options area of the Office 2007 menu (File menu in 2010). Options are available for all the Office programs (Word Options, Excel Options, Access Options, etc.) These default settings were determined by interviews with thousands of people who use Office regularly in the workplace. If you find that the factory settings are causing you more trouble than help, changing them is a simple task. All Office users should take a personal tour Continued on Page 9 THE ICON JUNE 2011 Continued from page 8 Little Word Annoyances of the Options menus, which resemble this Word Options window with the AutoCorrect box open. PAGE 9 Using a computer should be fun as well as useful. Take a few minutes to think what your personal computer annoyances are and try to find fixes for them. Customizing your programs makes using the computer much more enjoyable and efficient. Legends and Short Stories to Share on Flag Day — Betsy Ross and the Flag By Harry Pringle Ford (Adapted) Annoyance 7 -- You often save documents to the same folder which is buried within other folders in My Documents. It takes several clicks to find this folder each time you want to open or save a document to it. Fix 1: You can find almost any folder on your Windows Vista or 7 computer by typing its name into the Start Menu search box just above the Start button. Often it takes only a letter or two before the folder appears in the search results. On the downside, you have to do this each time you want to open the folder. Fix 2: A way to make any folder immediately available is to add it to the Favorites section of the navigation pane. This pane appears on the left side of any explorer window where you are viewing, opening or saving files and folders. To make a folder a Favorite, start by creating or opening a file, like a document, and click Save As, which opens the Save As dialog box. This reveals the navigation pane on the left, showing a list of possible places to save the file. Navigate to the folder you want to make a favorite so that it is the last item in the history bar across the top. Then right click the word Favorites in the left pane. From the drop down menu, click "Add current location to Favorites." Your special folder will now appear in the Favorites list. It will also appear in the Favorites list of the other MS Office programs on your computer, such as Excel and PowerPoint. To remove a folder from Favorites, right click the folder and select Remove. On the 14th day of June, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the following resolution: "RESOLVED, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." We are told that previous to this, in 1776, a committee was appointed, and together with General Washington they called at the house of Betsy Ross, 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Betsy Ross was a young widow of twenty-four heroically supporting herself by continuing the upholstery business of her late husband, young John Ross, a patriot who had died in the service of his country. Betsy was noted for her exquisite needlework, and was engaged in the flag-making business. The committee asked her if she thought she could make a flag from a design, a rough drawing of which General Washington showed her. She replied, with diffidence, that she did not know whether she could or not, but would try. She noticed, however, that the star as drawn had six points, and informed the committee that the correct star had but five. They answered that as a great number of stars would be required, the more regular form with six points could be more easily made than one with five. She responded in a practical way by deftly folding a scrap of paper - then with a single clip of her scissors she displayed a true, symmetrical, fivepointed star. This decided the committee in her favor. A rough design was left for her use, but she was permitted to make a sample flag according to her own ideas of the arrangement of the stars and the proportions of the stripes and the general form. Sometime after its completion it was presented to Congress, and the committee had the pleasure of informing Betsy Ross that her flag was accepted as the Nation's standard. June 14 is FLAG DAY. THE ICON JUNE 2011 Anchoring the Heart E.M.Hazell When son Alva, attempted to locate his place of birth his effort ended in disaster. ―I‘ll tell you; it‘s not there anymore. All I could find was a place where people dump trash.‖ Daughter Barb and I decided to take a trip to the past to the beginning of my American experience. I thought it would be relatively easy. From the house to Oak Grove Lane, turn north and take Oak Grove to Grand, follow Grand to Grant and turn north to reach College. Once on College we‘d just head west and wind up on historical Route 66 highway. About five miles out of town we‘d reach the place where the Sunset Outdoor movie theater was. From there it would be just a few blocks heading north and west on little roads and we‘d be there. The place would be easy to recognize by the pine tree in the front yard and the tulip tree behind the house. We ran out of College Street before we reached historic Route 66 and wound up lost as usual. Barb was not a person to give up. A few more turns and we found ourselves at a small complex where auctions were held. We entered the restaurant in the complex. We figured we‘d ask for direction there. A friendly, slightly bearded gent, waiting for his food, was accommodating. We left with new directions but it wasn‘t long before we were lost again. Then Barb heard a train and I remembered; Nichols Junction was a train junction. We followed the sound. The landscape looked familiar. We weren‘t far from our destination. We checked out the railroad track and met up with a man collecting tin cans .We asked for direction once more. He smiled and pointed toward a distant sign that said NICHOLS. The house we were looking for, he explained, burned years ago in a fire caused by a train wreck and so did the lone pine in the front yard. The large tulip tree behind the house had been struck by lightning and cut up for firewood. We were just a short distance from the place. Nichol‘s Junction had changed but not much. We parked the car. Camera in hand we started walking. Sunset Theater was now a trailer park. Things may have changed in appearance, but they looked and felt familiar. We were no longer walking the road; the road was walking us. PAGE 10 When husband, Alva, and I purchased our first house there wasn‘t much money. The house his brother Dwight found for us was a modest tarpaper shack. There was a kitchen and a small space for a table and chairs and beyond that a bedroom. Pa and Ma outdoor plumbing provided bathroom facilities, a two-seater toilet. Water came from a well in the backyard. We paid a hundred dollars down and agreed to pay twenty-five dollars a month ‗til the place was paid off. For the first time in my life I owned a house. We were out of money and out of a job but we had faith. That was in 1949 and now it was 2011. The roads were still there and so was the place where trains unloaded their cargo. There were two small ancient homes that I could identify; but a short distance down the road we found a familiar place. It once belonged to Ed and Dollie Ollie those first friends we knew. Ed was a hauler by profession. He had an old truck and with it he earned a living. He hauled ice in the summer and coal in the winter. In between times he hauled whatever folks wanted to have hauled off. Part of his backyard served as a containment area for the stuff he hauled. There he sorted out what he thought was worth keeping and the rest he hauled to the city dump. His wife, Dollie, had a love for animals. I never knew so many animals could exist in such a small place. The house was home to dogs, toy breeds mostly, cats and kittens. There were cages with delicate birds, rare finches, parakeets and canaries. Chickens and ducks and geese roamed the backyard, next to Ed‘s shop. Ed and Dollie have been gone a long time but the house was still there. The elderly man who lives there now introduced himself as Thom Stephenson. He invited us in and we recalled all the treasure we used to find there. We knew it was Ed‘s territory when the man showed us that unusual gadget sticking out of the tree. It served as a device for hoisting motors. It is perhaps the only one of its kind still in existence. Ed had intended for that gadget to stay. The tree it was fastened on to had grown around it. The man pointed toward a small, heart-shaped piece of iron resting on a shelf next to the gate. ―It‘s an anchor,‖ Ed had explained so long ago, and then added ―Everybody needs an anchor for anchoring the heart.‖ After all he said, I had a new country and a new house and a new family, it was time to anchor the heart. Continued on page 11 THE ICON JUNE 2011 Continued from page 10 Anchoring the Heart I didn‘t take him up on his offer. I was young and what could I do with an anchor. Ed loved my first born son. He referred to him as ―The Little Dutchman‖. Ed spoke an English all of his own. It consisted mostly of four-letter words, words we really didn‘t want Wolf to learn. But Wolf learned them anyhow. Wolf loved that gruff old man and the salty language. He was particularly fascinated with Ed‘s tobacco-chewing habit. Ed used to take the child on his knees and point at a fly circulating near by. ―See that #%#* fly?‖ he‘d say. He‘d chew a bit harder on the tobacco and directly produced a brown spit wad that found its mark. Wolf thought that was great and always asked for more. Dollie didn‘t appreciate cleaning up second hand chewing tobacco. Her language was a perfect match to Ed‘s when she told him, ―Take your @#%&*@ out of the house.‖ Dollie was the only Indian I knew. She did not look like an Indian but Ed told us that she was Cherokee. He was proud of his wife‘s Native American heritage. We did not stay at Nichol‘s Junction very long. Eventually Alva found a job. I worked for a short time at a restaurant known as The Seven Gables just a few blocks from our house on Route 66. The owners were known as the Hayden Family. They were country music performers. I became a bona fide dishwasher washing dishes at night. Alva worked during the day-time hours at SMS. Alva Junior was born at Nichols Junction. We could not afford the hospital and there was no insurance. The doctor came out to the house and delivered the child for $45.00 dollars paid before the service was performed. Now, standing there, lost in memories I often wondered how we survived. I looked at that anchor and returned to the present. PAGE 11 ―It‘s a ship‘s anchor you know,‖ Mr. Stephenson explained. Yes I knew. Good old Ed had offered it to me once as a gift. I finally turned to the present owner of the anchor and said, ‖I‘d like to buy that.‖ I was willing to pay whatever price. But the person standing there just smiled and said, ‖It‘s yours.‖ We left the gentleman and owner of Ed and Dollie‘s place and walked down the road I had walked so often in 1949. We found the place where the old house used to stand and my son will be surprised when he sees the pictures. There is a garage three times the size of that little house that stood there once. I was given permission to take pictures. The place of business is a place where old cars become new again and in the process sport bright and colorful designs. The door to the office looked a lot like a door we may have had for a front entrance. Painted blue, it sported an escutcheon, the proprietors‘ coat of arms, his name Jim Catron, and the name of the business FULL ARMOR CUSTOMS. It was, in a way a modern Cinderella story; what entered as old bits of metal, emerged as a modern work of art, road-worthy and pleasing to the eye. Mr. Keith Henson whose antique car was in the process of renewal, proudly showed us his car presently a work of art in progress. Mr. Henson also told us that he was employed in an army facility on the other side of the tracks known as AVCRAD, a place where helicopters were renovated. We parted with a handshake. Once more, we had learned a lot and once again we had met a stranger and parted as friends. It was almost as if that little junction was somehow impervious to the ugliness of road-rage, greed and abusive speech. I was grateful that we found Nichol‘s Junction again. The people we met were kind and gentle, reassuring and generous. They were an affirmation that there was still goodness to be found among the human race. As one of them said: ―Yes, this is Nichol‘s Junction and we‘re proud to be here.‖ THE ICON JUNE 2011 PAGE 12 There are two tabs in the Media Workspace: Collection and Details. Below is the Collection tab. The images shown and the Smart Story are located in the Documents Library in a folder called FTM 2011 in a folder called Jones3 Media — (Documents\FTM 2011\Jones 3 Media). Clicking on an image opens it in the Edit panel on the right where information is entered for: Caption: Name for picture Date: date the picture was taken Categories: Choices — Audio, Cemetery, Census, Documents, Other, Photo, Video, Vital Records, Wedding are set up by FTM but you can create your own and more than one category can be selected. Description: Can be information about the picture or information included in a document or census. The filename and location are listed at the lower right corner and the size of the thumbnails can be adjusted with the slider at the bottom of the middle section. Other items that can be added to illustrate a family tree are personal items that can be scanned such as a lace shirt collar (in the possession of a cousin) that belonged to my grandfather Jones and a picture I took of an antique press (used for storing linens and now in the possession of a niece) made by hand for Elzarado as a wedding gift from a neighbor. Several years ago, we attended a family reunion in Texas and toured an old Jones homestead that has been restored to 1800‘s or early 1900‘s; as an example for young people today, I have photos of the old corncrib, the tool shed, the house, etc. that I will include in Continued on page 13 Family Tree Maker 2011 (Part 3) Review by Mary Phillips Tab 4 Media — The Media Workspace serves as a storage space where all the photos, family documents, records, and audio recordings, etc (or copies) can be kept so that it‘s easy to back up. However, the media doesn‘t HAVE to be in a Media folder. Media can be added into the folder or linked from other places on the hard drive. THE ICON JUNE 2011 Continued from page 12 FTM Media my tree. Sound clips of favorite songs and storytelling are also things that can be included. One of my father‘s favorite songs was My Blue Heaven; I can find a sound clip on the web, and I have a tape of my older sister telling what it was like when she was growing up in Texas. (She was seventeen shortly after I was born in Arkansas.) Audio files/sound tracks have to be in either MP3 or .wma format. Media can be added to Individuals in the People Workspace on the Person tab. In the lower left corner, click the Media tab then the down arrow beside New. Select: Add New Media (Navigate to where it is on the hard drive and choose to either 1) Copy this file to the media folder for this tree and link to it there, or 2) Link to this file where it is without copying it.), Link to Existing Media (in the Media folder), Create New Smart Story (Choose either Auto-Populate with facts from the tree or Blank Page), or Scan Media (Scans directly from the scanner into FTM Media folder and into individual‘s media.) See image at upper right. Create a slide show by clicking Media on the Menu Bar of the Media tab. Click Create Slide Show and change the slide show options as needed. Choose number of seconds between images. Add music by clicking the Browse button PAGE 13 and navigating to the audio file. Click Next, Next, Finish. Save file to the media folder. Click OK. To Assign a Portrait to an Individual, right-click on the silhouette and either Add New Picture or Link to Existing Picture. For the Details tab, one has options to change picture orientation, add details (If more description room is needed, click on Notes in the lower left corner and continue writing.), scroll through all the items in the Media folder, or Fit an image (percentage or Zoom in or out). Media can be attached to Facts or Sources. Notes can be attached to media in the Collection tab by double-clicking the media item you want to add the note to, then click the Notes tab at the bottom of the Details window. 50 years in September!!! THE ICON JUNE 2011 PAGE 14 For help, you can also log onto ICON‘s Forum at www.iconusersgroup.org and post your questions. Free registration is required in order to post questions and then you need to wait a day or so for an email confirmation to complete the registration. However, while you‘re there, click on Search and enter the topic about which you‘d like information and see if someone has already started a ‗thread‘ — a series of question and responses. All questions and responses can be read without having to register. BASIC COMPUTER CLASSES Basic computer classes are taught at St John‘s Whiteside Clinic lab by ICON members Mary Phillips and Art Irish with ICON helpers for five sessions each month plus three sessions on Internet & email. Sign up by calling St John‘s Seniors 841-0333. Need a refresher course or want to be a helper, now‘s your chance. We guarantee you‘ll learn something you didn‘t know! PLEASE! Please Notify us of Change of Address. Each time the newsletter goes to the WRONG ADDRESS, the Post Office charges ICON a fee to notify ICON of a change of address. So when you move or go out of town, e-mail: [email protected] THE CONTENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE ARTICLES IN THIS NEWSLETTER ARE THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHORS . NOT THOSE OF THE ICON USERS GROUP