Tech Tutor Mark

I've had some requests recently to share my entire Screencast.com library.  So, instead of just sharing a few tutorial videos here and there, I am going to share them all at once.  Click here to see all of the video tutorials I have created within the past couple of years, including all of the ones I did in 2013.  I hope you find something here that helps you. 

I created this tribute to my all-time favorite film directors using the free version of Animoto.  I just dropped in pictures (all about the same size) of these great directors and picked one of their Christmas themes.  I like how it turned out.  Give it a try and see what you can come up with.  Try to give yourself a limited time to work on this project.  Animoto is a great tool and the results look very professional.

In honor of Marine City winning the Class 4 2013 state championship for the 2nd time, I am posting a link to the complete (and very colorful) MHSAA Football State Champions list/table for anyone from Michigan who is interested in re-living high school football history.  Definitely an eye-candy trip down memory lane.  

I first saw this after visiting Bangor, Maine for the 2nd time in my life and after taking the official Stephen King Tour with my wife.  It got me wondering how many of the Stephen King characters and locations were related.  Well, Tessie Girl, who has her own design company, created this pretty amazing Stephen King Flowchart.  The one I originally saw was finished in 2012, but I see that she has revised it for 2013 here , adding even more pieces to it.  An educational inforgraphic if there ever was one, and a good use for the keyboard shortcut Ctrl and + (or Ctrl+roll your mouse wheel up) to get the full benefit of this flow chart.  

I like to use Techsmith's Camtasia Studio in many different ways.  This video was created to show teachers how to use the Epson remote control which came with the various Epson PowerLite projectors we have in our school district.  We have various models: the 83 the 85, the 95 and the 96.  So far, this remote control has worked with all of them.  Teachers asked how you use each of the buttons and what they do.  So, I created this video to show them.  See what you think.  All of this was done with a hand-held camcorder on a tripod sitting on a table.  It never moved.  I then added the overlay of the remote and did all of the rest in the Camtasia editor.  Kind of a fun but time-consuming project, like all video projects are.  I hope it comes in handy.  

There really is no better source for quick tech guides than MakeUseOf.com .  This past week, they featured this excellent article:  A Guide To Good Deals: How To Save Money On Everything You Buy Online The article features Comparison Sites, Deals and Coupons, Alerts, Daily Deals and a great site to compare hotel rooms.  If you like shopping online and are always looking for the best deals, MakeUseOf's guide to good deals is worth reading, saving and keeping.  It's all there. 

Sure, there are others, but this is the Android alternative to Siri that I use.

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.

Are you tired of all of the core desktop applications including unneeded toolbars with every installation, even on updates?  Are you tired of having to click through every installation?  Don't you wish that applications were just simpler and quicker to install, and available from one location...almost buffet style?  Then you really need to check out Ninite.com .  This simple site makes all of your basic computer application installs so much easier and more convenient.    Install and update all of your programs at once.  Tick the check-boxes for all of the apps you want, click "Get Installer" and run it, and then run it again later.  Your installer will update apps to the latest versions.  If something is already up-to-date, Ninite will skip it.  It doesn't include any unnecessary toolbars, it doesn't require you to click through a lot of buttons.  It just installs updates automatically.  You download what ev...

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....