Teaching IT in SE England for those of us too big for school
Back in 2020 I made a short video about removing a background from an image in Word and published it. Have a look here to see the video.
I thought that it would be nice to update this and use PowerPoint for those that find it more convenient. Here is the effort. Enjoy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12zk67oHk7ad9MQd2qOzcv-nvWBRITQKv/view?usp=sharing
Lockdown meant that there was a hive of online activity to keep people busy. The wordies project has been a great success with lots of positive feedback. Another possible avenue will be for PowerPresenters later in the year.
Thank goodness the days of covid isolation are behind us now and, unless monkey pox takes over the UK, most of us are getting outdoors with friends and relatives. Looking at the blog it seems to have had a holiday of its own. I have been inviting people to contribute topics that they would like to follow.
Spring and summer is the time for collecting life experiences and joining in. It will be autumn, with nights drawing in, all too quickly. It is nice to focus on building memories and promoting clubs. For this reason our focus is on productivity so that you can spend more time out enjoying spring and summer. Go get video and photos to turn into blogs, photo albums, podcasts or memory jars. Record your own memories as the new generations are hungry for belonging and relevance.
We are reviewing some simple techniques over the coming weeks of recording, filing, editing and presentation to help out starting with pictures and organising them. Your computers and the online world of google, icloud and amazon may seem to do a great job by themselves but finding things often seems just as awkward as is what to save.
Adding a background to a
page in word1. Add text
to a new document.
2. If you
want random text, try =rand() (enter) or =lorem()
3. Enter
everything and then use the spell checker to correct those words that the word
thinks you were wrong....
4. Add your
background picture from the internet using insert picture.
5. OR! Open
chrome
6. Select images
from top right
7. In search
bar type in what you would like to see
8. Look for
tools under search bar
9. Select creative
commons
10.Look for
size under search bar
11.Select large
12.Select
your picture so that the preview appears
13.Right click
and select copy picture from menu ( command click mac)
14.Go back to word
15.Paste in picture
16.Select picture tools from menu
17.Look for word wrap options and select
in front of text
18.Resize your image using handles
19.Use recolor option from color options
20. Finally select behind text in word
wrap menu.
Its a happy day for all of us today at Sedlescombe. The weather has confounded the weather people once more and it is a lovely day. Download the image below for our Pixlr session today.
As a reminder there will be no sessions during August 2021 enjoy the sunshine!
Tony
Hi All
Responding to Andrews request on Saturday, we ran through a demanding session using Word to complete a mail merge for making labels. As promised here is a step by step guide to doing it yourself. Any version of Word from 2010 will do for this exercise, except it must be the desktop version, and not the online version of Word that ships with Teams or Outlook.com.
The walkthrough uses the mailing wizard, and takes you from writing a list of names, to printing the labels. There will be another session to follow this one with other ways that this can be achieved.
Here is the link to the resources - click to view
This week it all went pear shaped at Rons cards and gifts when a certain young lady tore up all of Ron's latest Easter cards designs. Can you put them all back together using copy and paste techniques?
This challenge starts easy and gets progressively harder
Join us today on the carousel
Now download this file click here
We now seem to have a fixed home for the google meet. I reserved it last week and was not sure what would happen but all seems good today. I hope that you all have applied your updates this week or else you might have a tricky time today.
Click the roundabout to join us again
Hi All,
I have been hard at work on the Wordies power point resource. I am a great proponent of death by PowerPoint and, as the current tome is over 150 slides long, have made something that is really is everything that I don't normally do. The wordies evolution will be converted to PDF and I hope will become a useful book. Thanks to those that joined in the wordies sessions.
The workbook primer that I sent out has proved a challenge if only how to fill it in electronically!
We take a breather from the websites although I have many more tools to share on Google sites.
Today is carousel day, so bring along your 'nagging' computing issues and we will see how many can be solved in the session.
In both Apple and windows land there have been major upgrades around. Please install them before our sessions to avoid disappointment.
Apple Mac upgrade to big sur - click the image below
Windows 10
In Windows 10, you decide when and how to get the latest updates to keep your device running smoothly and securely. To manage your options and see available updates, select Check for Windows updates. Or select the Start button, and then go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update .
For more details click the picture link below
Hi All,
I am not sure how this is done in MacOs but will find out - so much has changed in Apple land with the roll out of yet another upgrade.
In Windows 10 a two edged feature from file explorer is Windows elephantine memory. It displays the recent files to help out, however, remove them from the list once you are done, and Windows replaces your recent files with not so recent files!.
The file explorer settings allow you to clear the file history keeping the list fresh. Have a look at the attached mini-tutorial on using the settings panel.
Hi All,
I am off for my covid jab
Here is the link for the session
The guide deals with creating the first page, changing the header, adding text, graphics and elements like maps.
There will be a follow up part two to improve your use of sites. I hope that this starter will help you all get going. I look forward to seeing the results. email me the name of your website so that I can track it down.
The first Sussex Wordies course is up and running. If you are interested in improving existing skills in Microsoft Word let me know by email or comment here.
Wordies has its own blog too sussexwordies.blogspot.com
So far we have covered different file formats and when you would use them, Using styles in word
I hope that we can move to teams on Saturday with some help from some willing guinea pigs this week
We will get the following features using teams
Last week we introduced the idea of making a free website with google sites. This session we will add items and pages to the website and also show you how to let everyone know how to find your website.
You might not have liked the title of your website from last week but it is really only a playground to learn how to use the tools.
If you have a project in mind though, it will be a good idea to register your website name as soon as possible. After all, last week you found out that websites have to be unique and somebody else might bag the name that you want for your site.
Below is the link to my website that I started last week. I have added a few extra pages already and will cover editing and adding features.
https://sites.google.com/view/mylastsite/home
