Tech Tutor Mark

I recently had a question about how to sync and ultimately back up your Google Calendar through the native Calendar app on the iPad.  Teachers often retire or move to another school district and have to give up their district-issued iPad, and they would like to easily move their calendars, contacts, mail, etc. to another iPad.  I figured this would be an easy thing with iCloud, and it is for the most part.  However, what if their calendar is in Google and they do not want to buy or download a third-party app?  Patrick Jordan wrote this up in his iPad Tips & Tricks .  Check out the tip and the rest of his tips on his iPad Insight site, which also features iPad App Reviews and the Best Free iPad Apps.

Here's the scenario.  The person you replaced at your new office desk created a form in Microsoft Word and password-protected it.  To make matters worse, the person who created the form is now: 1) unreachable, 2) in the hospital, 3) in jail, or something even more bizarre.  How to remove the password?  Well, in order to remove a password, you usually need to know what the password is.  That is the challenging part.  I found a fix for Excel today, which is to just install Apache Open Office and open the Excel file in Open Office Calc, then go to the Tools>>Protect Document  and un-check "Protect Document" and/or "Protect Sheet."  This un-protects the document, which can then be re-saved as an Excel file and re-opened in Excel without the protection.  In Microsoft Word 2010, for example, this method didn't work as well for me in Open Office Writer.  Instead, it opened as a "Read Only" file in OpenOffice....

Without a doubt, one of the most annoying of Microsoft's new pop-up notifications.  I hope this tip helps you to better cope with Internet Explorer 9's incessant " Speed Up Browsing By Disabling Add-Ons " pop-up message.  It's always the little things... Just one of many great tips for Windows 7 users at Windows User ( http://www.winuser.co.uk/ ).

One of the educational tech resources I now use is SimpleK12's EdTech Unconference, and part of that resource is their ILoveEdTech Blog.  A recent post by Elizabeth on "How to Use Jing in Your Classroom" is helpful at showing the various uses for Jing.  It shows what you can and cannot do with this great, free TechSmith tool.  Best of all, it includes important things to remember before you jump in and start using Jing. 

Free, high-quality software tutorials are easier to find than they once were, but the quality varies greatly from site to site, from pretty good to downright horrible.  That said, TechTutor.TV is not messing around.  Their tutorials are downright excellent, and very much free to everyone.  I found the site purely by accident when looking for a particular Photoshop CS3 tutorial .  Currently, video tutorials on TechTutor.TV include such highly-useful topics as Word, Excel and Publisher 2007, all of the Adobe CS3 applications, OpenOffice Impress and Calc, Paint.Net, as well as Firefox and Internet Explorer.  Although they are about one version behind in each software application, the tips and tutorials are first-rate, showing a wide variety of excellent skills.  You just can't beat the price, considering how much you can get without having to subscribe to an online service or buy a training DVD.  Check out TechTutor.TV and bask in its wonderful co...

If you're interested in using Pandora Music Radio , this is an excellent article from the folks at MakeUseOf.com, one of my very favorite tech Web sites.  It makes a great guide to read before you jump in: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-cool-pandora-music-radio/ #

This is just an example of the many great tips found on SimpleHelp.net Rebecca Bollwitt from Miss604.com created this screencast which shows how to use Omnidazzle .  This is a tool that lets you do some very cool and flashy things with your mouse cursor while delivering a screencast.  This is available for Mac.  Of course if you have a Windows PC, you already have such great tools as Camtasia Studio, the free CamStudio and Jing available.  I really like this screencast.  Take a look.  And check out SimpleHelp's other great tips as well. 

I am posting this because I keep forgetting how to do it.  I don't always use a Mac.  In fact, up until now, I preferred to use Windows.  However, I find that I'm using the MacBook more and more often.  So, when it comes to doing a screenshot, I'm looking around for the PrtScn button like I have on a typical Windows keyboard, and it's nowhere to be found.  When looking for this Apple keyboard combination, I ran across TechieCorner.com and this extended tip on how to do a Print Screen on a Mac .  I would like to add that when using Command, SHIFT+4 and then the Space Bar, the resulting screenshot will include a drop shadow .  This is a nice touch.  I hope the tip helps you as much as it does me. 

TeachingDegree.org posted this excellent article on their site. 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom .

I had heard that you could have Adobe Reader read a PDF to you, but I had not tried it until today.  The Read Out Loud feature reads aloud the text in a PDF document, including the text in comments and alternate text descriptions for images and fillable fields.  It uses the available voices installed on your system.  These voices may have been installed from text-to-speech or language applications, and you can choose them to read your PDFs by going to Edit>>Preferences .  Here you can stick with the default voice, or pick one of remaining voices.  You can also control pitch and speed settings directly below the voice choice.  This article published online by Adobe takes you through the steps .  After activating Read Out Loud, don't forget to go back to the View menu and click on  Read Out Loud again, and choose whether you want it to read the entire document, or just the rest of the text left on the page. 

The newly-revised " Best Free Tools & Tips for Busy Educators " is now available for free download in PDF format.  The links work in Adobe Reader, too.  These are my favorite sites, Web tools, tips, tricks, free software, and a getting-started introduction for each.  Let me know what you think. 

By Becky Waring One of the best ways to increase your computing productivity doesn't cost a cent: learn the keyboard shortcuts for your most-used commands. To help you stop mousing around and become a keyboard maestro, I rounded up the best resources for finding, using, and creating shortcuts. Lincoln Spector struck a nerve with his Jan. 13 column , "Twenty-six ways to work faster in Windows 7." Many of those tips involved keyboard shortcuts. After all, almost any time you can use the keyboard instead of the mouse, you work faster. But there are lots more shortcuts where those came from. This article aims to show you where to find the ones that can speed up your workflow. In case you can't find the shortcuts you need, I'll show you how to create your own. You probably already know that you can invoke many menu and dialog-box items via the keyboard by pressing the Control or Alt key plus an underlined letter. For example, pressing Alt + F in m...

The Snipping Tool was introduced in Windows Vista for the first time and also exists in Windows 7 . With the Snipping Tool you can capture text, graphics, and any associated annotations and then save them in your desired format. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not defined a default keyboard shortcut for the Snipping Tool in Windows 7.  It’s a pain to have to dig into the Start menu to find the tool quickly. To create a keyboard shortcut for the Snipping Tool, use the steps below: 1. Go to Start , Accessories , right-click on Snipping Tool and select Properties . 2. Move to the Shortcut tab. 3. Select the Shortcut key box, and then press any desired key as your shortcut to the program.  For example, press the S key. 4. Windows will define the new shortcut to the Snipping Tool and will also add Ctrl + Alt as the prefix to the shortcut. 5.  If you have assigned the “ S ” key to Snipping Tool, then you will need to press Ctrl + Alt + S to launch it. 6. Click Apply ...

Google search is a wonderful tool for students of all ages, but the search giant takes it a step further with Google’s Wonder Wheel.  This fascinating visual search tool helps students refine searches, and learn about connections between terms.  Using Wonder Wheel is easy!  To begin, go to http://www.google.com and type in your search term(s) as you would on any other search.  Once you click the Search button, your results will be listed.  Above the results list is a small hyperlink that says Show Options.  Click on this link to open a sidebar with more options. Once the sidebar has opened, click on Wonder Wheel under the Standard View menu: Clicking on Wonder Wheel will open up your search term as the center of the ‘wheel’ with related terms branching off: Clicking on one of the related terms opens up a new branch of the wheel, and lists search results for that term along the right side of the screen: You can continue clicking on related term...

New in Windows 7 The → symbol stands for the right arrow key, ← for the left arrow key, etc. Win+ ↑ Maximize the current window Win+ ↓ If the current window is maximized, restore it; if the current window is restored, minimize it Win+ ← Dock the current window to the left half of the screen *If it is already docked left, it is moved to the right half of the screen *If it is already docked right, it is restored to its original size Win+ → Dock the current window to the right half of the screen *If it is already docked right, it is moved to the left half of the screen *If it is already docked left, it is restored to its original size Win+Shift+ ← Move current window to the left monitor (with dual monitors) Win+Shift+ → Move current window to the right monitor (with dual monitors) Win+Home Minimize all but the current window Win+Space Peek at the desktop Win+[Plus sign] Zoom in Win+[Minus sign] Zoom out Win+P Open the projection menu (generally used for laptops connected to...

This article appeared on Kim Komando's Web site and I think it really sums up what everyone needs to know about downloading music over the Internet. It is good information for the layman, but also provides some insight and a few useful tools to do it legally and sucessfully. Let me know if it helps any of you: Can I Really Download Music Online for Free? I get a lot of questions about downloading music. People hear they can get it for free using certain programs. While that is true, it's not wise.  The programs in question are peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. These can also be known as torrent programs. Torrent is the file format used by these programs to start downloads.  Peer-to-peer file sharing is a sensitive topic. On one hand, it is an excellent tool for distributing files. Some paid music services use it, for example. However, it's mostly associated with illegally downloading copyrighted material, or piracy. Peer-to-peer file sharing was popularized in...

Wow.  How did we exist without Evernote?  Well, if you're still not using this nifty online note-taking service, you're really missing out.  The good folks at MakeUseOf.com (my current favorite Web site) have put together 7 Ways to Make Use of Evernote and its phenomenal note-organization tools.  See if you can take advantage of some, if not all seven, of these great uses.  Personally, I'm about ready to start paying for this service.  It's that good! 7 Ways To Make Use Of Evernote A companion article that goes perfectly with this one, and which also appeared on MakeUseOf.com is " 6 Ways to Add Your Information to Evernote ."   Between these two great articles, you will become an avid, knowledgable Evernote user in no time. For additional Evernote articles on MUO, click here .

Sending text messages (SMS) through email is extremely easy.  If you can be reminded through email, you can now be reminded through text messaging (SMS). People have email reminders sent to them for all kinds of things.  If you know the correct email address, you can also send these messages to your cellular phone.  Here are the email addresses for the six most popular cellular phone carriers: T-Mobile: phonenumber @ tmomail.net Virgin Mobile: phonenumber @ vmobl.com Cingular: phonenumber @ cingularme.com Sprint: phonenumber @ messaging.sprintpcs.com Verizon: phonenumber @ vtext.com Nextel: phonenumber @ messaging.nextel.com *where phonenumber = your recipient's 10-digit phone number For those carriers whom we forgot, you can also send SMS through email for US Cellular, SunCom, Powertel, AT&T, Metro PCS and Alltel .

Inspired by Gina Trapani's excellent April article in MaximumPC magazine entitled The Power User's Guide to Google Apps , I did a Google Apps demo in May for the Computer Operators of Marysville and Port Huron ( C.O.M.P. ), a computer user group in Port Huron, MI.   Picking out the tips that mainly pertain to Google Maps, GMail and Google Docs, this best-of-the-best tips demo provides a nice focus on the features that are not readily apparent to the typical Google user. 

Featuring many of my favorite Web tips, sites and Web services, here is the handout I used for the Internet Tips, Tricks, Great Web Sites & Web Services class.  It was a pretty big hit: 1. TinyURL : Allows you to turn a long Web site URL into a much shorter one. 2. Delicious.com : Social Bookmarking service allows you to save all of your bookmarks online and access them anywhere that you have an Internet connection. Xmarks Free Bookmark Sync is a free add-on for all popular Web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome. Install it from www.xmarks.com and your bookmarks will be backed up and synchronized from any Web browser you have this installed on. 3. Foxbright : (The PHASD CMS system for building a free classroom, department or school Web site). Check out our How-To’s page for tips and tutorials on using Foxbright, or attend one of our many training workshops to learn how to use it. 4. The WayBack Machine : http://www.archiv...