Take the Steps to Learn at Home

For many, the idea of being able to learn at home is somewhat of a dream come true. Between our jobs, our personal lives and everything in between, it’s hard to come up with the free time to take a class. With Video Professor, you can learn at home, on your own time. Whether you are interested in learning a new computer program or a new technology like wireless networking or an iPod, Video Professor can help you learn what you want to learn, at home.

Video Professor’s lessons will take you step-by-step through the program or technology you want to learn. When you learn at home with Video Professor, you will be taken from being a beginner Internet user to having an advanced understanding and knowledge of the program you are interested in, in as little as three hours! These tutorials can be paused, rewound, fast-forwarded and stopped as needed. And you can always pick back up where you left off, that’s the freedom you get when you learn at home!

Video Professor uses a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Do” method of learning. It is unique to these tutorials. When you learn at home with Video Professor, it’s nearly impossible to make a mistake because the tutorial plays on top of the program you are learning!

“It went above my expectations as far as how easy it was to follow, how easy it was to learn, and how fast I could do it or how slow I wanted to do it, so, it definitely exceeded my expectations in that aspect,” says Monique Banks, a customer of Video Professor. For those people who want to learn at home, Video Professor is the answer. Simple, straightforward learning, you can trust Video Professor for all your computer learning needs. 

For those you learning at home with Video Professor, they not only get a great learning tool, but they also get to be in control of how and when they learn. Video Professor has helped over eight million people learn at home, and the number is growing.

John Milton, a Video Professor customer says, “Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, the programs are really good at taking you through step by step, especially if you’re a beginner. But if you’re an expert, there’s still plenty for you to learn. It’ll still show you some things that you haven’t seen before.”

Beginners and experts alike will find that they have something to learn from Video Professor’s tutorials. You can learn at home, and it doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. With Video Professor, you can learn at home without sacrificing your free time. People often equate computer programs with difficulty. With Video Professor, the programs are broken down in an easy to digest way. Anyone on any level can learn the computer program of their choice when they choose to learn at home with Video Professor.

Don’t Go the Long Way, Take a Keyboard Shortcut

In my line of business as a writer and editor, and a former newspaper designer, keyboard shortcuts are my life. I rarely touch toolbars. When your profession revolves around speed and convenience, the least I can do is memorize some keyboard shortcuts and make my precious time as constructive as possible. So I decided to make a list of Windows® keyboard shortcuts for anyone who is interested in making themselves more efficient at whatever they need to get done on their PC.

 Windows System Keyboard Shortcuts

F1: Help

CTRL+ESC: Open Start Menu

ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs

ALT+F4: Quit Program

SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently

 Windows Program Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+C: Copy

CTRL+X: Cut

CTRL+V: Paste

CTRL+Z: Undo

CTRL+B: Bold

CTRL+U: Underline

CTRL+C

 General Keyboard-only Keyboard Shortcut Commands

F1: Starts Windows Help

F10: Activates menu bar options

SHIFT+F10: Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object

CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)

CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)

ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box

SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature

ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window’s System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)

ALT+F4: Closes the current window

 Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcut Keys

Windows Logo: Start menu

Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box

SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all

Windows Logo+F1: Help

Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer

Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders

Windows Logo+D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop

CTRL+Windows Logo+F: Find computer

CTRL+Windows Logo+TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray)

Windows Logo+TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons

Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialog box

I understand that all these keyboard shortcuts may seem a little daunting and too difficult to memorize, but I assure you that it is not as bad as it seems. There is a method to the madness of keyboard shortcuts, and once you get started learning and understanding them, the reward will be great. Not only will you get your work done faster, you will be proud that you are a more advanced Windows user.

Laptop Help for Theft Prevention

Everyone knows that taking a few extra cautionary steps can avoid theft. So, it only makes sense that if your laptop is easier to hack than the guy sitting next to you, yours is more in danger.

There are a couple steps that you can take to help prevent theft of your laptop, help is on the way. This is a condensed version of a chapter in Laptops for Dummies.

1)      Mark your laptop

This helps with the recovery of a stolen (or lost) laptop. Either engrave your information onto your laptop or use a tamper-resistant asset tag. The best proof that something is yours is your name right there on it. Laptop help in this area could end up with recovery of your stolen laptop.

2)  Don’t use an obvious laptop carrying case

Using a laptop case with an emblazoned Dell logo (or IBM logo, or what ever you have) isn’t just a proud buyer appreciation/marketing gimmick. The custom laptop case tells the casual thief that something valuable lurks inside. A non-descript, soft laptop case doesn’t draw undo attention to your computer. Backpacks also make good places to store laptops.

3) Register the laptop and its software

Be sure to send in your laptop’s registration card, as well as the registration for any software that you use. If someone steals the laptop, alert the manufacturer and software vendors. Hopefully, they care enough so that if someone using your stolen laptop ever tries to get the system fixed or upgraded, your registration information helps you locate the stolen laptop. Help safeguard your possessions and make sure you register the laptop.

4) Keep your laptop’s information

Be sure to keep a copy of the laptop’s serial number and other vital statistics with you, specifically in a place other than the laptop’s carrying case. That way, you know which number to report to the police, as well as the manufacturer. Laptop help and support can come from the manufacturer too, so it is important to keep this information at home!

5) Be mindful of your environment

When you’re out and about with your laptop, stay aware of where your computer is and who may have access to it. Watch your laptop! Help can come from simple advice. For example, when dining out, put the laptop in its case beneath the table. If you need to leave the table, either take the laptop with you or ask your friends to keep an eye on it for you.

6) Universal Security Slot (or USS)

Your laptop probably comes with a hole or slot into which you can connect a security cable. That hole has an official name – the Universal Security Slot (or USS).

The USS is designed to be part of the laptop’s case. A thief can’t remove from the laptop any cable or security device that you thread through the USS; he or she can only cut (or unlock) the cable itself to free the laptop. Getting laptop help about security could help keep your laptop with you rather than in the hands of a stranger.

Obviously, the USS works best when you have the laptop in a stationery place. Like a bicycle lock, you have to park the laptop by something big and stable, then thread the cable through that big thing and the USS for the lock to work.

The best place to find a security cable for your laptop is in a computer or office supply store.

Some cables come with alarms. You can find alarms that sound when someone cuts the cable, plus alarms that sound when anyone moves the laptop.

Get on Course with a Beginner Computer Course

Technology is intimidating. It doesn’t matter if you have never worked on a computer or if you have to learn a new computer program. Everyone at some point needs a beginner computer course. And you can have all the beginner computer courses you ever wanted without any stress with one amazing service. This service is Video Professor.

John W. Scherer, CEO and founder of Video Professor, created these beginner computer courses more than 20 years ago for everyone who was interested. He ensured that these lessons could be used by anyone with a computer. These beginner computer courses utilize a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Do” method, which allows the students to work in the program they are learning while they are being taught. The tutorial screen literally runs atop of the screen you are working in. To make things even better, these beginner computer courses can be rewound, stopped, paused and fast-forwarded so the lesson is controlled by you. Feel free at any time to rewind when you need to hear something more than once or twice, or fast-forward if you are already familiar with the information being covered. These beginner computer courses can technically be completed in as little as three hours. You will not even believe all the beginner computer courses you can master in as few as three hours each.

The icing on the cake, these lessons can be done anytime at your home or office. Take control of your learning. A big deterrent to taking a beginner computer course normally is the thought of having to enroll in an expensive class that definitely does not revolve around your schedule. Many beginner computer classes come with the expense of enrollment fees and bulky and confusing manuals. Also, these beginner computer classes are not personalized. The teacher is required to keep a class full of students on the same page and up to speed. With Video Professor, you essentially have a private tutor whose attention is focused solely on you!

Also, keep in mind that while these lessons start off as a beginner computer course, they will leave you an advanced user of what ever program you selected to learn. The lessons are divided into 3-discs. The first one is a beginner disc, the second an intermediate disc and the third an advanced disc. So you may begin as a beginner but you finish up as an advanced user!

Understanding Scanners is Easier Than You Think

Everything is going digital, especially in the world of photography. The problem is that you still have boxes and boxes of old pictures. Whether they are in print or negative form, there is a way that you can scan them into your computer. The advantages of storing pictures on your computer are far greater than any method of storing prints, and understanding scanners is the first step towards gaining those advantages. Losing a print and not having a replacement can be very devastating, especially if it is a valued picture. Storing your pictures on your computer assures that you will always have a copy of your pictures, and you will be able to print as many as you need. Once you begin understanding scanners, you can save your picture files on your computer and even save them to several portable devices for extra security. Don’t worry about losing once in a lifetime pictures anymore when you can catalogue them on your computer and always keep them safe. Once you start understanding scanners, you will gain a whole other level of comfort.

One of the first things to know about scanners is that the best way to know if you like a certain model is to try it out. Understanding scanners is all about trying them out. The price tag or the brand name is far less important than whether you like the results or not. Try scanning some of your pictures in and see if the color looks right to you. You can spend plenty of time researching and understanding scanners, but unless you really understand all the technical terms associated with scanners, you would be better off just scanning some prints and seeing what results you like.

One of the biggest things to know when understanding scanners, especially flatbed scanners, is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Most of the cheapest flatbed scanners will provide you with more than what you need. In terms of resolution, a lot of flatbed scanners have far more than what you need for everyday use. Unless you have a professional need for impeccable resolution, there is no need to shell out hundreds of dollars. You can probably find a flatbed scanner that more than meets your needs for under $100.

A lot of flatbed scanners will come with an adapter for scanning film, but most of these scanners will give you really poor color quality, and you are better off scanning your prints. Flatbeds with adapters are decent for black and white film, but if you are working with color, you need to get a real film scanner dedicated to scanning negatives only. These start at around $300 and will give you the performance that allows you to print your own pictures at the quality you might be used to. When understanding scanners, it is important to know the difference between these two types of scanners.

Another aspect of understanding scanners is knowing what you want to do with your pictures. If you are just focused on scanning your pictures onto your computer for e-mailing or posting on a web site, then you don’t need to worry about getting a scanner with great resolution because having a smaller file size will likely be your main goal. If you are going to be making a lot of prints, especially large ones, you might want to look into scanners with better resolutions or a scanner for film only. You don’t need to rack your brain when understanding scanners, just know what you want from them.

Create Your Own Marketing Materials with Some Publisher® Assistance

If you have your own business or other project that you want to gain attention for, then you could use some Publisher assistance. No one knows your business or other venture better than you, so make sure your promotional materials look the way you want them to. Publisher has plenty of tools that can help you create customized promotional materials. Create something that is very beneficial for your company and specifically tailored to your business. With Publisher assistance, you can learn all the features that are at your disposal to design what you need.

What you need to make your business successful is to make it identifiable. Designing a sleek and professional logo can help give you a business identity or brand that is recognizable to people. Publisher offers templates or customizable designs for creating your own logo including contact information and your company name. With Publisher assistance, you will be able to create something that represents your business and stands out among the crowd.

Publisher has a wide array of customizable design templates for almost any kind of document you want to create. Publisher assistance can show you templates for designing e-mails, web sites, flyers, brochures, business cards, postcards and more. Spread the word for your business through as many ways as possible, and you can create them all in the same place with Publisher.

If you are running your own business, you want to save as much time as possible. There are surely a thousand tasks that need your attention at any given time so make sure you learn time saving tools from John W Scherer’s Publisher assistance. With the Content Store feature, you can store frequently used text, graphics and other design elements in a place where they are easily accessible to use for other publications. This will help streamline your design process and create a uniform look for all of your marketing materials. This will go a long way towards making your materials and designs more recognizable and memorable. If you want to create a design or color scheme that is easily associated with your business, there is no easier way to do so than saving your design elements in the Content Store. Rather than trying to recreate an original design, you can easily access the exact colors, text or graphics and Publisher assistance can show you how.

Business cards are still a huge part of networking and making sure people remember you. Even in this digital age, a quality business card can make a lasting impression. Publisher assistance can show you how to access the hundreds of templates that you can use to create a business card. You can also create your own customized business card and incorporate the same color schemes and logo you use on all your other promotional materials. Having an impressive looking business card readily available can make a huge difference because you never know when you are going to run into someone who can be very beneficial for your business. It’s not what you know, but who you know, so make sure you never miss an opportunity to network with influential people. Publisher assistance can help people remember you.

Your Guide To The Perfect Laptop

We all know too well how quickly technology changes. It has to be one of the, if not the most, frustrating parts of buying any new gadget. Nowhere is that more true than when purchasing a new desktop or laptop computer. So, how can one avoid buying a computer that will be out of date a week after it’s purchased? Hopefully, this article will shed some light on the subject.

I’m the proud owner of a 2000 Sony Vaio laptop. What am I doing with an eight-year-old laptop, you ask. That’s a brilliant question. I ask myself the same thing every time I impatiently wait for it to start up. The short answer is that it still kind of works, and I hate buying computers so much that I’m willing to postpone the experience as long as possible. However, I know the time is coming.

As I’ve poured over laptop guide after laptop guide, one thing has become abundantly clear– to stay slightly ahead of technology, you have to spend a lot of money. That’s not good, because just behind buying a new laptop, spending money is one of my least favorite things to do. But, as I sit here, wanting to throw my current laptop out the window, I know that it’s something I need to do. But, before I did anything, I had to decide if I was going to go for a PC or Apple.

Both make great laptops. Both types of laptops have their pros and cons. The guides have good and bad things to say about each. But after carefully researching the guides, I’ve decided to go with an Apple. Why? Quite simply, I’m tired of the bugs, add-on anti-virus software and near endless required updates that PCs require. My wife has an Apple laptop, and I love the thing. It’s intuitive, it’s easy to use and, most important, it hardly ever crashes and not once has it had a virus. Find me a PC laptop that can do the same and maybe I’ll consider it. Until then, my laptop of choice is the MacBook.

Patrick C.

Creating New World on Your Computer

It is always fun to pretend, for a little while at least, to be someone else. And for this reason, I want to talk to you all about a small secret I have. I am…a Sims fanatic. I love it. I love the world I create, I love my characters, I love the expansion packs, I love playing it, for hours at a time, and I love being in control of all of them. Being a self proclaimed Sims fanatic comes with certain stigmas, one all of us fanatics have to live with. We are seen as people who sit in the dark, drooling, eating and drinking over our computers with crumbs beneath our chair. Thank you very much, but I have a cup holder and dust buster to cure those problems…plus we all know that sitting in the dark and looking at the computer is bad for eyes, so I don’t do that either. I come home from work and relax a little by opening up my Sims. These reality based games that let you, the player be in complete control are becoming more and more popular as the technology improves.

(Read about what John W Scherer has to say about digital photography.)

So, if you don’t know what I am talking about, let me inform you on the world upon which you are missing out.

So, the Sims was first released on February 4, 2000 and is one of the best selling PC games in history, having sold over 70 million units as of January 2007. Designed by Will Wright and published by Maxis, the Sims is a life-simulation computer game that simulates daily activities of a “Sim,” a human-like character who has its own language. You control their daily activities, their careers, their home life, you build their homes, and try to keep them happy and prosperous. But, as with life, there are some sticky situations these Sims get themselves in and you must keep order. Will Wright has been quoted as calling it a “digital dollhouse.”

Will Wright is also known for having created such games as SimTower, SimCity and SimAnt. All of these are awesome.

So, back to my Sims. If you are interested, they are all doing quite well, and are in general, quite happy. I recently purchased a new expansion pack and they are all going on vacation, to the islands. My Sim recently made a lot of money at work and we are celebrating. Bon Voyage!

Make a Seamless Transition with a Windows® Vista Tutorial

If you have used Windows operating systems for most of your life, then learning to use Vista probably won’t be too difficult for you. You can increase the ease of this process by using a Windows Vista tutorial. One of the best options available is a Video Professor Windows Vista tutorial. You can learn from a CD tutorial or an Internet lesson. Whatever option is more convenient for you will give you the same valuable advice in order to master the new operating system. You will be able to work in Vista as you view the Windows Vista tutorial, an option not afforded to you by other teaching methods.

This new operating system from Windows is designed to be more intuitive and user-friendly, and learning it properly from the beginning will only help you achieve this end. There is no need to struggle with the system that makes your computer work, and you will accomplish tasks much more quickly than someone who is trying to teach themselves.

Video Professor’s Windows Vista tutorial starts off by describing exactly what Vista does for your computer and will describe the many items on your desktop and how to use them to your advantage. Get comfortable with your surroundings in this system during the first lesson. There are a variety of ways to accomplish any given task so take the time to learn all the options. The search tool will help you find files quickly rather than searching through several pages. You will also learn how to create shortcuts to your most important information. Let a Windows Vista tutorial show you how to keep what you need easily accessible.  

A Windows Vista tutorial can show you how to keep your information safe in the face of spam, worms and viruses. Whether you need to protect your home computer or an entire network of office computers, a Windows Vista tutorial will reveal the necessary steps to avoid a catastrophe. Viruses, worms and spyware have too many forms of entering your computer such as discs, CDs and the Internet. Protect the memory on your computer for full functionality and surf the Internet without being deathly afraid of identity theft. Luckily there are more than enough ways to protect yourself from infections and a Windows Vista tutorial will inform you of those safeguards.

Something that a lot of people fail to familiarize themselves with is the system tools feature in the start menu. The system tools are available to help you keep track of your data and perform regular maintenance on your computer. Tools such as the Disk Cleanup, System Restore and Task Scheduler are there to keep your computer running properly and are fully explained in a Windows Vista tutorial. Protect your computer from errors and stay organized with this short lesson.

There are also many steps you can take to keep you Vista system current. Connect it to the Internet, and you can automatically receive the most recent updates and software upgrades. If you take just a few hours to learn the features of Vista, you can save yourself plenty of time and frustration.

The Key Items to Consider When Buying a New Computer

Computer prices have come down a considerable amount as technology keeps advancing and they become more cost efficient to make, but buying a computer is still a relatively large purchase for most of us. There are an incredible amount of choices when you are looking for a new computer and, if you are like me, you are concerned that you will end up buying the one terrible computer out of the bunch. You can spend anywhere from $300 to $2,000 or more on a computer so there is obviously a wide range in what you are getting. The more you are likely to spend on a computer, the more selective you should be and the more you are going to demand from it.

The first rule of buying a computer is knowing what you want from your computer. Obviously the person who just wants a word processor, reliable Internet access and a relatively fast computer will buy a markedly different computer than the person who carries their laptop with them at all times, needs constant wireless access, saves all kinds of different files on the computer, and does a substantial amount of their work on a computer. So know what you want and even that amount of information can go miles when the computer store employee is trying to point you in the right direction.

First of all, understand what kind of processor you need. You might want to research this fairly extensively if you need your computer to do more than the average person. But if you don’t need your computer to do all that much, there is no need to find the most advanced processor. For the average person who works with spreadsheets, word processors, the Internet and the other basic needs, you should have a 2.66-GHz Pentium or an Athlon XP 2800+ processor.

Buy as much memory as you can afford. Look for a computer with around 512 MB, but the more you can afford, the faster your computer will perform and the less often you will have to delete items and update your computer.

Give your eyes a break if you can afford getting the right monitor. If you spend a lot of time staring at your screen this might be an area to focus on. One thing to consider is looking for an LCD monitor, which is easier on the eyes than a CRT monitor. The prices of LCD monitors drop like any technology as it becomes more common, so you might be able to find a deal on this. Also look for a larger monitor if you have the money and the space. This will give better composition to documents and other items you view on your screen and is also better for your eyesight.

Make sure that you buy an anti-virus protection program because there is no use in having a nice new computer if a virus quickly cripples it. The more you rely on your computer, the more protection you might need. You also might want to look into anti-spyware protection and advanced firewalls.

Good luck shopping.