You can do IT in later life - 6

Jackie Sherman who runs the You can do IT Question & Answer section is an IT trainer and author. Jackie has spent her career in education and specialises in teaching IT to adults. Her courses for adults include such topics as MS Office, the Internet, e-mail and basic web page authoring.  

Jackie has also written several books - you can find more details about these by clicking here. Jackie has also been running a course specifically for over 50s.

Via laterlife.com Jackie aims to particularly help those new to IT and the web to build up knowledge and confidence, so no question is too basic. At the same time she will cover Q&As for the more experienced user. 

So if you would like to ask a question of Jackie, or if you have discovered something which may be of interest to others in making the most of the web, then she would love to hear about that too. Why not email her jackie@laterlife.com

Working safely

Q: Do you have any general advice about working safely with computers?

A: I think the most important thing is not to sit too long at the computer for any one session. Take regular breaks and move around so that you change your position and don’t strain your back, neck or wrists. It is also a good idea to use a seat that supports you properly, to hold the mouse lightly rather than grip it hard, and adjust lights or blinds to reduce glare

Zip it up

Q: I need to send long documents to people. Is there any way to save them so that they take up less memory?

A: You may already have come across programs that "extract" various files when you have installed games or utilities on your machine. These files have been "zipped" or compressed so that they can be transferred more quickly.

A shareware (i.e. cheap) program is available from the Internet called Winzip that you can use to zip your own files so they will be more likely to fit onto a floppy disk or easier to send by e-mail.

To use the program, go to www.winzip.com and follow instructions to download the evaluation version of the program onto your computer. Once installed, you need to create an archive file that will store your originals and then select the files to compress. They will be packed into the archive file. At a later date, you or other users can open the archive file and extract any of the files it contains. These can then be stored or viewed in their normal state

Return to sender - capturing addresses quickly

Q: Is there a quick way to add e-mail addresses to my Address Book?

A: Yes. In most e-mail systems such as Outlook Express if you right-mouse click any sender’s name in the message box you can select the option to "Add Sender to Address Book". To set your system up to do this automatically, go to Tools – Options – Send and select the option to "Automatically put people I reply to in my Address Book."

Photos from the web

 Q: I often find fabulous photos or pictures on the Web that I would love to use in my own work. How do I make copies?

A: It is a simple process to save pictures from the Web. All you need do is right-mouse click any image and then select "Save Picture As". This will open the normal Save As window and you can select the appropriate location and name for your image file. Depending on the software used to create the original image, file types can vary but are most likely to be JPEG or GIF. You can leave these as set, or change them e.g. to Bitmap (.bmp) files if you prefer, by changing the entry in the file type box.
Don't infringe any copyright though.