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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Let's Get Started

Let's Get Started

Facebook Link

The following lessons are delivered in bite size chunks to help you complete a specific Facebook task.

Once you sign up with Facebook, feel free to stop by the GCFLearnFree.org FAN page and become a fan. Find out first about new online tutorials and topics. You can also post feedback or provide a testimonial. We would love to hear from you!

Exploring the Facebook Home Page

Exploring the Facebook Home Page

The Home page displays all of your Friends’ recent thoughts and Facebook activities. Whenever your Friends update their status, it appears in the News Feed on your Home page. The News Feed chronologically streams this information down the middle of the Home page.


Review the interactive below to learn more about the features on Facebook's Home page

What Can You Do on Facebook?

What Can You Do on Facebook?

Applications and Features

Think of Facebook as a huge social network connecting people. These people, or members, of Facebook use the site for various reasons but mainly as a form of communication. Facebook offers many ways to communicate, with various applications and features that can enhance your Facebook experience. You can play games, send gifts, create photo albums, and more. We'll go into each application in detail later, but for now, here are the highlights:


Database Design Events

Do you have a birthday party to plan? Need to announce your engagement party? Want to plan a class reunion? The Events application allows you to plan an event and invite your Facebook Friends and your friends who are not on Facebook. If you're looking for an Event, Facebook can help with that also! You can search for local or national events to attend. You can keep up with your guest list, view the RSVP list, and even include a map to your event.

Database Design Photos

The Photos application makes it easy for users to upload, share, and comment on the pictures you upload. With the Tag feature, there is no need to email your Facebook friends the pictures you took of them. You can simply use the Tag feature to identify a friend and the picture is automatically sent to their wall. If you don't like the idea people being able to tag you and display pictures of you, you can always change your Account Settings (don't worry, we'll get to that in a later lesson).

Database Design Gifts

Gifts are icons that you can send to a Friend along with a message. There are thousands of different types of gifts you can send ranging from a cupcake to a puppy. Gifts start at a dollar which buys you 100 credits towards a gift.

Database Design Groups

Are you a member of a Fraternity, Sorority, or a national or local organization? Do you feel passionate about a particular cause like breast cancer awareness? It's highly likely that you will find a group to join on Facebook that matches your interests or affiliations. You can search for and join groups or create your own.

Database Design Notes

Notes are just another way to blog or communicate with your Friends. Everyone finds different uses for Notes. Some use them to post questions and start a discussion board and some use them to display a subject-based list. For example, recently Facebook users from all over started posting their 25 Random Things list. There were several versions of this but the point of it all was to list 25 things people may or may not know about you. Sharing this note prompted others to start their note and it spread like wildflowers throughout the Facebook community.

Database Design Videos

The Video application allows you to upload your mobile videos, YouTube videos, or any other video as long as it is an approved video format.

Database Design Chat

If you're not looking for it you may miss the Chat feature. It is another way to communicate with your Friends on Facebook. If you are familiar with other Chat programs like AIM or Yahoo! Messenger, it works the same except you can only chat with other Facebook members.

Database Design Wall

The Wall is the center of your profile where all the action takes place. This is the location where your Friends see your updated status, photos, videos, thoughts, and anything else that is added to your wall. People can post comments to your Wall and you can post comments back to their Wall which is called Wall-to-Wall.

Beyond the Basics

Beyond the Basics

  • You can create several different accounts using separate email accounts. You may want to do this if you want to have a personal profile and a professional profile.
  • You can only use an email account once to create a Facebook account. Multiple profiles can not be attached to one account.
  • It's a good idea to set your Privacy Settings (see Lesson 3) before you start adding Friends and joining Networks.

To Sign Up for an Account Face Book

To Sign Up for an Account

  1. Go to www.Facebook.com
  2. Enter your name, email address, gender, date of birth, create a password, and click the Sign Up button.
  3. Sign Up Sign Up Page
  4. Once you click Sign Up you will have to enter the information from box 1 into box 2 for a security check. Doing this just proves to Facebook that you are indeed a human and not some machine trying to create fake accounts. Click the Sign Up button.
  5. Security Check Security Check
  6. You will need to confirm your email address before moving on. This just confirms that you signed up for this account and not someone else. Click Go to [name of your email provider] to confirm. This will take you to your email account.
  7. Confirm Email Confirm Email
  8. You'll receive an email from Facebook with directions on how to confirm your email address. Once you've confirmed your email address, your account is valid. Congratulations! Just enter your password to get started!
  9. Create Password Create Password

How to create an account

How to Create an Account

In this lesson you'll learn how to create an account but be forewarned - Facebook can be very addictive! All jokes aside, it's a great tool for networking and keeping in touch with people. Let's get started!

Launch video! Watch the video (2:24). Need help?

Create a Account Face Book

Create an Account

My Accounts It's time to create your Facebook Account so you can connect with your family, friends, co-workers, and more! It's easy to sign up and remember, it's FREE!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Facebook (1

How it Came to be Facebook

The explosive phenomenon known as Facebook is not the product of some huge software company. In fact, it was created by a college student! In 2004, Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg had an idea to start a website based upon the paper "face book" that professors receive at the beginning of the year to help them identify new students. Zuckerburg created an online version of this, added various ways for users to communicate, and before he knew it almost the entire Harvard student body had joined what he named Thefacebook.com.

In its formative years, it was very popular with universities and in 2005 became Facebook. With the increase in popularity, Mark and a friend decided to drop out of school in order to work on Facebook full time. They opened the site up to high schools, and then later to several companies. By 2006, it was available to anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address. As of 2009 it is considered the most popular social networking site in the world.

Interesting Facts

  • If there were a Facebook nation, it would be the world's 6th largest country!
  • Everyday half a million people join Facebook.
  • The fastest growing group on Facebook is people over the age of 30.
  • Facebook is the #1 photo sharing site in the world.

Leraning Facebook

What is Facebook?

Facebook Icon Facebook is a hugely popular social networking site that allows you to make connections, share interests and join groups. As you may have heard, Facebook is becoming more open and social and impacting our experience of the web in ways we had not dreamed of.

Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world with over 400 million users, 70% of which reside outside of the USA. The average user interacts with approximately 130 Friends on their page. So what makes so many people join? We'll leave that up to you to decide after you explore the basics of what Facebook is all about.

Window 7 Lesson -1)-Y

Conclusion

Windows 7 desktop

Security and maintenance are ongoing processes, so you should revisit these tools from time to time. Try to deal with Action Center messages as quickly as possible, and even if you don't have any messages you can always explore the troubleshooters if your computer is running slowly or if something isn't right. Spending a little bit of time on security and maintenance can help you get the most out of your computer, and it can even save you time in the long run by helping to prevent serious problems.

Window 7 Lesson -1)-x

Recovering your Computer's Settings with System Restore

What is System Restore?

Programs that you install can make changes to your system settings, and occasionally this can cause problems with your computer. System Restore is often the easiest way to fix these problems. System Restore allows you to "rewind" your system settings to an earlier point in time, called a restore point. Keep in mind, this will not erase your recent documents, and it cannot be used to recover lost documents or other files. However, it may uninstall recent programs and drivers.


Running System Restore

  1. Click Recovery at the bottom of the Action Center.
  2. Getting to System Restore
    Access Recovery
  3. Click Open System Restore.
  4. Follow the instructions on the screen.
  5. You will be asked to select a restore point. If you've just installed a program that seems to be causing problems, you will probably want to restore your system to the point just before that program was installed.
  6. Choosing a restore point Choose a system restore point

Window 7 Lesson -1)-W

Windows 7 Troubleshooting

Not all computer problems will be shown in the Action Center. For example, you may be having trouble with a particular program or device, or with connecting to the internet. For these types of problems, you will want to view the Troubleshooting options.

  • To get there, click Troubleshooting at the bottom of the Action Center pane.
Getting to Troubleshooting
Access Troubleshooting

In the Troubleshooting pane you will see a number of programs called troubleshooters, which help you identify and fix problems with your software and hardware.

Use the interactive below to see information about some useful troubleshooters. Note that your computer may have a slightly different list of troubleshooters.


Windows 7 Troubleshooting

Not all computer problems will be shown in the Action Center. For example, you may be having trouble with a particular program or device, or with connecting to the internet. For these types of problems, you will want to view the Troubleshooting options.

  • To get there, click Troubleshooting at the bottom of the Action Center pane.
Getting to TroubleshootingAccess Troubleshooting

In the Troubleshooting pane you will see a number of programs called troubleshooters, which help you identify and fix problems with your software and hardware.

Use the interactive below to see information about some useful troubleshooters. Note that your computer may have a slightly different list of troubleshooters.



Window 7 Lesson -1)-V

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Changing Your User Account Control Settings

What is User Account Control?

User Account Control warns you when a program or user is trying to change your computer's settings. It puts a temporary lock on your computer until you confirm that you want to allow the changes. This helps to protect your computer from malicious software. When it was introduced in Windows Vista, many users found that it generated too many disruptive pop-up warnings. Windows 7 now lets the user decide how often they will receive those warnings.


To Change Your User Account Control Settings:

  1. Open the Action Center.
  2. Click Change User Account Control settings.
  3. Change User Account Control settings
    Change User Account Control Settings
  4. Use the slider to choose the level of protection you want from User Account Control. It is recommended that you use one of the top two settings. The other two should only be used in special circumstances. It may be best to choose the highest setting and if you end up getting too many pop-ups, you can always lower it to the second setting.
  5. User Account Control slider
    Adjust how you receive notification messages

Friday, June 18, 2010

Window 7 Lesson -1)-U

What is the Action Center?

The Action Center is a centralized place to view Security and Maintenance messages, and it also makes it easy to find and fix problems with your computer.

Learn more about how to use the Action Center in this video.

Using the Action Center:

  1. To open the Action Center, click on the small flag icon on the taskbar.
  2. Review the messages.
  3. Click Open Action Center to respond to messages.

If you have any important messages, the flag icon on the taskbar will display a red "X" symbol.

Launch video! Watch the video (3:02). Need help?
Getting to the Action CenterOpen the Action Center

Another way to access the Action Center is:

  1. Click Start.
  2. Go to the Control Panel.
  3. Click Review Your Computer's Status under System and Security.


Fixing problems using the Action Center:

Your messages are displayed in the Action Center pane. Important messages will have a red bar, and less important ones will have a yellow bar. If a security or maintenance issue has a solution, there will be a button on the right side of the message.

Some messages are just notifications and do not indicate a problem with your computer. Those messages will not include a solution button, but they may still have important information or instructions.

  • To fix a problem, click the (solution) button and follow the directions on the screen. When you are done, the message will disappear from the Action Center.
Windows Action Center
Respond to messages in the Action Center

Window 7 Lesson -1)-T

Security and Maintenance With the Action Center

Windows 7 desktop

Security and Maintenance are important with any computer, and Windows 7 has made a number of improvements that make it easier than ever to keep your computer in good shape.

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Action Center, User Account Control Settings, and Troubleshooting to keep your computer running as smoothly as possible. You will also learn how to recover your system settings with System Restore to fix more serious issues.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Window 7 Lesson -1)-S

Conclusion

This concludes our lesson on Search and Libraries. As previously mentioned, you determine what content goes into your Libraries. You may decide to use the default libraries or create your own. Either way, you will need to take the time to move folders into the Libraries you desire.

You can still continue to access your files in the classic way of sorting through tiered stacks, but you will not be able to take advantage of the convenience of the Search function. It's a new way of accessing your files and may take some customization to work as effectively as you wish. Take some time to reconsider your filing system and how you would like to access your files.


Default Libraries

Window 7 Lesson -1)-R

Setting Up Your Libraries

You decide what folders and content to include in your Libraries.


Create your own Library.

  1. Select New Library in the tool bar or right click on Libraries in the Navigation pane.
  2. Select New and then Libraries.
    Create new LibraryCreate a new Library

Customize your Libraries

  1. Right click and select Properties.
  2. Select Optimize and choose one of the following:
    • General Items, Documents, Music, Pictures, Video.
    Optimize LibrarySelect item type for new Library
  3. The new Library will prompt you to add Folders.

Add folders to existing Libraries.

  1. Select the Folder from the Navigation pane.
  2. Click on the Include in Library menu in the Tool Bar
  3. Select the desired Library.
Add files to LibraryAdd files to new Library

You may also copy Folders from the Navigation pane directly into the Libraries pane based on preference.

Window 7 Lesson -1)-Q

A New Approach to Accessing Content

Libraries are collections of content defined by the user. They are the new "entry point" for accessing your files. Therefore, when Saving items, Windows 7 will direct you to Libraries. Libraries have automatic default save folders. Unless specified, your content will be saved in the default folder of the Library it matches.

  • You can change the default save folder by selecting Locations in the Tool Bar.
Save as dialog with libraryAutomatic default save

You are not required to save or access your content through Libraries. The Navigation pane gives you access to Computer where your folders and drives are stored. You may still sort through the tiered stacks of folders in the classic way to save and access content.

Save as dialog with folders Save to another location

Window 7 Lesson -1)-P

Using Search

  1. Locate the Search bar at the top right corner of the Windows Explorer pane.
  2. Start typing a file name or keyword.
  3. Search will start displaying matching items even before you finish typing.
    Search bar class=How to use the Desktop Search

Search Options and Features

Search and Libraries have a few features that assist with identifying and arranging items. Tags can be added to certain items in order to improve Search results. You can also rate and arrange content, like Pictures and Music, in the same manner. The Tag or Rating options are included in the Details pane as shown below.

Windows tagAdd tags to certain files

Various Search Filters can be applied to assist with finding content or narrowing a Search. Depending on the Library, Search Filters might include Type, Date Modified, Tag, Authors, etc. Below is an example of the Search Filter in the Video Library.


Search with filter Select a Search filter option
Search with filter "Date created" Search filter


For even more Search options, click on the Organize button and select Search and folder options.


Searching from the Start Menu

The Windows Explorer pane is not the only place you can access Search and Libraries. You will find a Search bar in the Start Menu, along with one click access to popular Libraries.


Search Conduct a Search from the Start Menu
Libraries Open popular Libraries from the Start Menu

Window 7 Lesson -1)-O

Windows Explorer Pane

Understanding the Windows Explorer pane will help you navigate through your content and work with your files and folders in an easy manner.

  • Open the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar to view the pane.
Insert ImageWindows Explorer icon

Instructions: Click on the numbers in the interactive to learn more about the Windows Explorer pane.


  • Move through your content by selecting folders, clicking on the Back and Forward buttons or by clicking on headings in the Address bar.
  • Preview files by selecting the Show the Preview pane button.

Change the view of the content in your folders.

You have several options for how you may view content in your folders. For example, you may prefer seeing "Details" when viewing file documents and "Extra Large Icons" when viewing pictures.

  • To change the view, select the View button and choose your preference.

View buttonChange view of items in folders

Change how your content is arranged.

Depending on the Library, you may Arrange content by month, day, rating, etc.

  • Select the Arrange by button and choose your preference.

Arrange by buttonChange how items are arranged

Window 7 Lesson -1)-N

What are Libraries?

Most users access their files through "My Documents", the "C" drive, or from other locations like a server or back up drive. You are likely accustomed to sorting through tiered stacks of folders to get to your content. This process can be time consuming, especially if you cannot remember where an item is filed. Microsoft wanted to make "finding your stuff" easier, so they developed Libraries.

Libraries are collections of your stored content that can be easily accessed through the Desktop Search function. Libraries do not replace your folders, they simply house them in a single collection. When files are placed in a Library, their properties are indexed by the Search function. This indexing makes accessing files in Search quick and easy.

Learn more about Search and Libraries in this video.

Launch video! Watch the video (2:50). Need help?

There are four default Libraries in Windows 7: Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos. Later in this lesson, we will also show you how to create Libraries of your own.


Default LibrariesDefault Libraries