Unit 5 PDA 304 : Frequently Asked Questions


Unit 5 PDA 304 : prepared by Ben Matthews : October 23 and 25, 2000 \| February 27, March 1, 2001 : NCHS room 161
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One of the greatest benefits of any class or workshop comes from getting your specific questions answered. Here I have included the questions that were asked (some of them have been combined, etc.) to help you find answers to your questions. Remember you also have other resources, such as the "help" options in your applications, building techs, the IT department and helpdesk, and a nice library of tech books in your school IMC!	Frequently Asked Questions Below are some questions that were asked after the first session along with some answers: *How do I create folders on my home directory or hard drive to store files in (especially images or clipart)?* From your desktop select the "My Computer" icon. If you are working on application, hit the windows key (with the windows logo) and the "m" key at the same time to minimize all your windows and get to your desktop. Choose the drive you want to create a folder on - the c drive, or your h drive (home directory named with your username) When you select that drive by double-clicking it, the new window should show you the content of that drive. You have two choices - you can right click in the white space of the window by the other folders and then choose "new" and then select "folder" or you can click the "file" option at the top and then select new and then folder - both ways should get you this screen: Now you can type the name that you want to give this folder - for example "images" or "clipart" click off the folder or hit return and your folder is created - you can now save files here as you would to any other folder such as "My Documents" return to top *How do I clean up, change, alter, manipulate graphics (color, erase sections, improve quality, etc.)?* In order to clean up, change, alter, or manipulate documents you will need to use an image editor. Some allow you only to alter images, some allow you to create and some allow you to do both. You have Microsoft PhotoEditor on your computers, which allows you to make a number of changes to your images First you must have the image saved as a file somewhere on your computer or on a 3.5 inch disk (such as from the digital camera) Open Micosoft PhotoEditor - it should be in your application launcher window - if not you should call or email the helpdesk. when MPE is open, you need to open the file/image you want to work with. Go to "file" and choose "open" and then find the image it is you want to work on Remember when you finish to select "file" , "save as" and give it a new name so that you will have the original as well! Here is what the screen(s) looks like: select and open the correct image it will appear in a "work space" in the middle of the window - at the top of the screen it will tell you what percentage of the actual size the image appears at (i.e. 50%) - this is important to remember Most digital camera pictures will come in at 640x480 pixels (or about 8x6 inches) in size! Now you can work with the image itself: use the options across the top to change the appearance, add effects, etc. you can also use the icons. One of the best ones to use is "image" - it will allow you to balance the color and light in the picture, resize it, crop it, etc. To change the resolution of the picture (especially for the web), right click on the image, select properties, and change the resolution to 72 pixels per inch (jpegs usually come in at 300, gifs at 96) Use an image as a test, and play around with the buttons and options to see what you can do. In order to erase sections, change colors of sections, etc. you will need a program that allows you to paint, such as Microsoft Photo Editor or an Adobe Photo product. There should be a copy of MIC in your building that you could use. return to top *How do I scan pictures into a document?* When you scan place your image face-down on the glass Make sure the computer that it is connected to is turned on and logged on Place the lid back down Press the scan button on the front of the scanner (usually green I think) The software should open and your image should be scanned - but you will need to tell it what to scan it as and where to scan it to You can scan it as a text document, as an image, etc. Once it scans it will show you a preview of the image with blue lines around the parts it scanned You will need to accept it if you are happy with it, otherwise you will need to re-scan it You can then save the scanned image to a disk or a drive - if you scan it into a Word Document, it will be saved as a Word document return to top *How do I send images attached to an email?* In Group Wise write your email now click the "attach" button find the file/image you want to attach from where you have it stored either double click the image, click and drag it to the attachment window, or click it once and select "open" your image should now be attached and you can send it keep in mind that if it is jpeg or gif others should have no problem viewing it If it is in a native file format, some might not be able to view it unless they have a program that will view that format! return to top *How do I put a graph into Word and then move it around?* Open Word Choose "insert" Find one of the charts or graphs These are manipulated with a small spreadsheet within Word If you already have one made it should be saved as an object or image Now treat it like clipart or an image click off the chart, then right click on it choose format object now you can go to "position" and allow it to float over text" return to top *How do I crop and save a scanned picture?* Follow the direction above in scanning You can crop it when the scanner shows you the preview or you can crop it afterwards - when it shows the blue lines you can crop the part that will be saved If you wait until after you can open it in MPE and crop it there To save the scanned image, follow the directions in scanning To save an image after it is scanned and saved and you have manipulated it, go to file, save as, and name it and place it in the folder you wish return to top *How do I "spice up" my newsletter with borders, etc.?* You can find some templates through microsoft.com that you can download, although it may be better to come up with your own. This is really kind of outside the scope of this course, but if you want more detailed information you could take one of the Microsoft productivity tools course offered through the PDA I would encourage you to use tables rather than text boxes for giving yourself sections to work in - they move with text better return to top *How do I resize pictures?* See directions on MPE - go to "image" and then resize return to top

graphicsbasics \| digitalcameras \| scanners \| wordart \| practice \| evaluation \| home