by Technophobes;the Kicking;Screaming Is This Thing On?: A Computer Handbook for Late Bloomers
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Q: How do I save an e-mail I want to keep?
A: Some e-mail services will store your e-mails permanently; others may only store them for as little as a month. Be aware that the service’s policy may change and you might not be notified. Some e-mail services offer a way to set up a folder system to store e-mails. However, the most surefire way to know that you have a copy of an e-mail is to print it. Alternatively, you can open the e-mail and click on File, then click Save As. You can now decide where the e-mail should live on your computer completely independent of your e-mail service.
Q: How do I know that the person sending an e-mail is who they say they are?
A: You don’t. It’s the same as someone calling you on the phone who says they are “Bill Smith” when they are really “John Doe.” You must be cautious, as you are in any situation in life, with a stranger. Use your instincts and powers of reasoning to determine if the person you are e-mailing is sincere or an imposter. Caution prevails! Be careful not to reveal any personal information, unless you are certain of who you are talking to and their intentions.
Q: Can I make changes to an e-mail before I send it?
A: Yes. Until you click Send, you can edit your e-mail to your heart’s content. Get it just right before you decide to send it on.
Q: If I have a PC and my daughter has a Mac, can I still send her attachments?
A: Yes. It isn’t the kind of computer you have that matters with attachments. What matters is if you have the necessary software on your computer for your daughter to be able to open the attachment on her computer. For example, if you send her a spreadsheet you created in Microsoft Excel, she needs Microsoft Excel on her computer to open and view that spreadsheet.
Q: Sometimes I can’t even open an e-mail with an attachment. The computer seems to stall or says “timed out.” What does that mean?
A: Your computer is having problems because either the attachment that was sent to you is very large or your Internet connection is slow. Are you using a dial-up? If you are, you may have problems opening up larger attachments. A document, no matter how large, will almost never be as cumbersome as a photograph, music, or video sent as an attachment.
CHAPTER 18
Picture This
Digital and scanned photos from A to Z
Gone are the days of Instamatic cameras, drugstore runs to drop off film and pick up photos, and costly photocopies at your local copy store. I can even remember back to flashbulbs and carbon paper. Thank heavens that is all behind us. Nowadays modern technology offers us a digital answer to taking pictures and copying documents. None of that would be possible without our good friend the computer. Your computer, along with a digital camera, a scanner, and photo-editing software, lets you play professional photographer and copy shop owner at a relatively reasonable price and all in the comfort of your own home.
Plan to Scan, Stan?
You were introduced to the concept of a scanner on page 20. Now we’re going to put one to use! As a refresher, a scanner works much like a copy machine. Lift the lid of the scanner, place an item on the scanner glass face down, and the scanner makes a copy. The difference is that rather than the copy being printed, it is stored in the brain of your computer. From there you can print the scan, e-mail it as an attachment, or store it to refer to at a later date. The scan lives on as a file in your computer until you decide to throw it away. If you haven’t already purchased a scanner, keep in mind that a flatbed scanner gives you more options because it offers the ability to make copies from a book or other bulky item, not just a single sheet of paper. I’ll tell you a secret, but you have to promise not to tell my publisher. I used to tear pages out of my cookbooks to scan and send recipes as attachments (a very bad habit). Now, with a flatbed scanner, my cookbooks remain intact and I can still share recipes with friends as e-mail attachments.
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“I no longer have to gather my newspaper clippings and make trips to the library copy machine with my change in hand. Having a scanner at home has saved me so much time and money. I can also make my own copies in color!”
—Arlene
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When you purchase a scanner or a combination scanner, printer, and copier, it comes with installation software. The machine will not work unless you install the necessary software and connect a cable from the scanner to the computer. Some stand-alone scanners do not require an electrical cord—they use the electricity of the computer. Follow the sequence of the installation instructions included with the scanner. Don’t hesitate to ask a friend to help. I believe you can install it on your own, but there’s no harm in having someone by your side.
Find a photograph, document, or page from a book that you would like to scan. Place the object face down on the scanner glass. There are usually arrows to guide the placement of an object to be scanned. Most scanners have a button that you push to initiate scanning. My experience is that if you have a choice between using the button on the scanner or initiating the scan through the software, you should go with the latter. (There’s not enough room here to explain why, but trust me: the process is more intuitive and less problematic when I go through the software first.) An icon probably appeared on your desktop screen during the installation of the software—it is the pathway to the scanner’s software.
• A flatbed scanner (top) allows a book to be scanned. A single-feed scanner can scan individual pages only.
I don’t know what brand or model scanner you own, so these scanning instructions will be general to all scanners. When you open your scanner software, look at what’s on your computer screen and patiently try to find the equivalent of what is in the illustration of a scanner window in the steps to follow. Remember the rental car analogy? All scanners have similar components and essentially function in the same way, but your screen may look different than what you see here. Don’t let that throw you for a loop. Any time you use the computer, it’s important for you to be flexible and develop intuition about how you decipher what’s on the screen because there may be no consistency from one program or website to another. Adaptability and patience help you conquer something like your scanner. You’re in no rush, so take your time reading everything on the screen before clicking. Take a break whenever you need one.
• Double-click on the icon for your scanner/printer. If there is no icon on the desktop, go to your Programs/Applications and open it from there.
• Click on Scan, Scan Picture, or Scan Document. If you don’t see the word Scan, click on File and it should appear in the menu. If you don’t see the word Scan anywhere, look for the word Import. You’ll be given a chance at some point to let the scanner know whether you’re scanning a picture or a document and in color or in black and white. The scanner will scan the item differently according to the nature of the item to be scanned. Text can be scanned with less definition than a photo.
• A preview of your scan will appear.
CLICK AND GO
1. Click and drag edges to crop image.
2. Customize the image.
3. Click Accept.
• Most scanners at this point will show you a preview of the image being scanned. Often there will be a dotted line around the image. You can click and drag this dotted line to establish the edges of the item (or portion of the item) to be scanned. You’ll likely also be offered a variety of options for customizing your image (e.g., resizing, lightening/darkening).
• A few examples of complete scans.
• Be patient when scanning. The scanner may make some bumping and grinding noises while it calibrates preparing itself to scan. Don’t try to speed things up… wait.
• Before accepting the Preview of your image, check the resolution. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi). The higher the number of dpi, the more detailed or clearer the image will be. However, the higher the dpi, the more space the image will take in bytes, and the larger size may make it difficult or slow to send as an attachment. Look for the
word Resolution on the screen. If it isn’t visible in the window you’re viewing, click on each item in the Menu Bar to reveal where you can customize the resolution. I suggest you scan images at 100 dpi, especially if you want to e-mail the image.
• Now is the moment of truth. Click Scan, Accept, OK, or whatever else makes sense to continue the scanning process. Again, you’ll have to wait because this step may take a minute or two.
• If you’re asked whether you have another item to scan, click No. (Let’s not get into multiple pages on your maiden voyage.)
• Again, wait. At this juncture, another part of the scanning software will open revealing your fabulous new scan, but it may take a moment to appear. Look at the Title Bar of the new window. This may give you a clue as to where to find the scan later. See if somewhere you can click on the name of this new file. (Probably it is scan.jpg or scan1.jpg.) Click on the name and see if you can change it to whatever would make sense to you. This is important so you can identify your scan later.
Congratulations! You created a scan of a photo or document.
While you’re viewing the scanner’s software, click on every item listed in the Menu Bar. Read the drop-down menus for each item. Even if you don’t understand most of what you see, some of it will look familiar to you (i.e., Print, Save As, etc.). A little investigation goes a long way in becoming familiar and comfortable with your computer and its programs.
If your first attempt didn’t work properly, don’t be hard on yourself (or your friend, the computer). You are learning. It is inevitable that things won’t always go your way along this journey of discovery. Don’t be discouraged. Try again. Write down the steps you take so you can follow them or amend them as necessary. A week or longer may pass before you have the need to scan again. It’s always helpful to have clear notes at the ready to assist you next time, in case you forget the sequence of steps that worked.
Say “Cheese”
The popularity of digital cameras is no surprise. There isn’t any film to buy, you view your photos almost instantaneously, and you can share them with friends and family without a middle man. Long ago before digital cameras, I stopped taking pictures entirely because my photos always looked like they were taken during an earthquake. I’d be so frustrated because I wouldn’t know for a week that the pictures were lousy, and the disappointing discovery was expensive. So, I threw in the photography towel. Now, however, I’m back in the game. If you haven’t played with one yet, most digital cameras have a display screen, so you can view the photo seconds after you shoot it, to see if a retake is necessary. Amazing technology!
Instead of film, a digital camera has a memory card on which to store the photos. You can view, edit, and delete photos on the camera, but that can be a drain on the batteries. Most people transfer the photos to their computer and do the edits and purge from there. When you buy a camera, it will come with software, as the scanner did. Once the software is installed on the computer, the camera and computer communicate through a cable included with the camera that you’ll plug into both pieces of equipment when you want to transfer your photos.
A SPARE PAIR
Always bring an extra set of batteries with you in your camera bag. When you view the photos on the screen of the camera, it uses up a lot of battery power, so it’s easy to wear down the batteries in a short amount of time.
Digital Camera Basics
Digital cameras come in a wide spectrum of designs, styles, and prices. Consult with friends and family who are already taking digital photos, and ask what they recommend you purchase. Thankfully, all digital cameras come with simple, but detailed instruction manuals (unlike your computer!). Start snapping away as soon as you buy the camera because you can delete any bad pictures, but promise yourself that at some convenient time, you’ll sit down with the camera in hand and go through the features in the instruction manual. There are so many options about the quality and size of the images you take as well as editing tricks when you take the photo.
Quality Counts
Do you know the size of the image you want? Are you printing it or only sending it over the Internet? Here’s a guide for choosing the resolution:
• less than 640 × 480—for Internet use only
• 1024 × 768—Internet and any size up to and including 4 × 6 prints
• 1152 × 864—Internet and any size up to and including 5 × 7 prints
• 1600 × 1200—Internet and prints as large as 8 × 10
Memory Card Capacity
Your digital camera will come with a memory card, which stores the photographs taken by your camera, instead of storing the photos on film. When the memory card is full you transfer the photographs to your computer and then delete the transferred photos from the memory card, so it can be used again and again and again.
Usually the memory card that comes with the camera doesn’t store very many photos and isn’t adequate for your long-term use of the camera. I suggest that you purchase an additional memory card—one that offers more storage capacity—so you won’t worry about filling up the smaller memory card that came with your camera before you’re done taking pictures of your white water rafting trip. Think about purchasing a memory card with at least 2 GB (gigabytes) of storage. You may even want to have an additional memory card in case something goes wrong with the first or you fill the card before you get a chance to transfer the images to your computer.
• A memory card.
You may want to purchase a memory card reader. It is a device that plugs into your computer by way of a USB cable. You take the memory card out of your camera and place it in the reader. Now you can transfer images from the memory card onto the computer. Transferring images from the camera to the computer directly can be a real strain on the camera’s batteries.
Be Kind to Your Memory Card
Do not remove the memory card from the camera while the camera is taking a photo or a photo is being viewed. It is best to turn off the camera first. When the camera indicates that the battery is low, believe it. Taking a picture when the battery is low can corrupt the memory card. It is always better to delete photos from your computer than from the memory card. Deleting from the memory card can cause the card to become defective.
Pixel This
Pixel is an abbreviation of Picture Element. Digital images are made up of hundreds and thousands of small squares called pixels. Pixels establish not only the quality of the photo (more pixels equal a clearer image) but the color, as well as the size when viewed on a computer.
This can get confusing, so hang in there. (Keep in mind that you can take great pictures without ever truly understanding any of this. However, the information here allows you to be more specific about the size and quality of photographs taken.) DPI (dots per inch) is the quality of how your printer prints, not the quality of the photo it is printing. Think of it this way: The more dots per inch the clearer the image. PPI (pixels per inch) will affect the quality of the image you are printing. If your digital photograph is 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high and you print it with a PPI setting of 100 pixels per inch, your print will be 8 inches wide by 6 inches high. If you print that same image at 200 PPI, you’ll get a printed photograph that is 4 inches wide by 3 inches high. So the results at 200 PPI will be better quality, but the actual printed photograph will be smaller. In most cases 320 PPI is the highest number you’ll really need. The most commonly used is 240 PPI, and even that can be higher quality than you need. I wouldn’t suggest going below 180 PPI—that’s when you really notice a drop in quality.
When buying a digital camera, keep in mind that the pixels of the camera itself will affect the quality of the photographs it can deliver.
A 1 megapixel camera setting delivers images good enough for e-mail, or to put on a website, or to look at on your computer screen, but they do not make good prints.
Nowadays it’s unusual to find a new digital camera with only 1 megapixel. Even the lower-priced digital cameras offer at least 5 MP (
megapixels)—enough for any size print.
• Digital images are made up of hundreds and thousands of pixels.
Send and Receive Photos and Scans
Once you have an image living on your computer, whether it came there by way of a cable from your digital camera, from a scan you made, or because someone e-mailed it to you, you must give it a name that you’ll recognize down the line. Why? Imagine how many photographs you’ll accumulate over the time you have your computer. Now imagine if all of them had different numbers as their names. How on earth would you be able to quickly find that adorable photograph of Samantha with birthday cake all over her face?
In Chapter 20 we’re going to create folder systems for what you have stored on your computer. That way you can organize your photos and documents to access them readily, but for now let’s rename an image on your computer.
Often when you receive photographs as attachments from someone, the name of each image is a random number designated by their camera to the picture. You can rectify the situation after the image has been downloaded to your computer. (If you skipped the previous chapter, go back and read it to find out how to download attachments.)
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
As you’ve learned in Chapter 15, every file on your computer has a suffix or extension that identifies the type of item it is or the software it needs to be read. Most images end with either .jpg, .bmp, .gif, or .tif.
