Creating a Publication with Publisher February 15, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development , add a commentLet’s Learn Publisher!
Begin with a Blank Print Publication
(Do not choose a Publication Design)
Learn to use the Toolbars
In addition to the tools that you often use in Microsoft Word, these tools are very helpful in Publisher. If you rest your mouse on each tool without clicking it will tell you in a yellow box what that tool does.
1.Go to AUTOSHAPES and choose one. Draw it in the middle of the page.
2.Right click and on it and ADD TEXT.
3.Type a phrase or sentence into the shape.
4.Select the text, choose a FONT, and make it large enough to fill the shape without getting cut off.
5.Right click in the middle of the word text and choose PROOFING TOOLS -HYPHENATION – remove the checkmark for AUTOMATICALLY HYPHENATE THIS STORY.
6.You might need to widen your shape to make the text fit.
7.Select the font and use the FONT COLOR tool (formatting toolbar) to choose RED (go to MORE COLORS).
8.CENTER the text (Formatting Toolbar).
9.Right click in the middle of the shape and choose FORMAT AUTOSHAPE – Click on the TEXT BOX tab at the top and under VERTICAL ALIGNMENT choose MIDDLE.
10. Click once on the shape and use the FILL COLOR tool (formatting toolbar) to choose a SOLID COLOR (or go to FILL EFFECTS to choose something more funky).
11. Click once on the shape and use the LINE/BORDER STYLE tool (Formatting Toolbar) – choose 4½ PT.
12. Use the DASH STYLE tool (Formatting Toolbar) – choose any of the dashes.
13. Use the LINE COLOR tool (Formatting Toolbar) – a color for the outside of your shape.
14. Choose the ARROW TOOL (Object Toolbar) and draw an arrow from the bottom left corner to the top right of your shape.
15. Right click on the arrow and choose FORMAT AUTOSHAPE. Then change everything about the arrow – font, size, color, etc.
16. Right click on the arrow and go to ORDER – choose SEND TO BACK.
17. Click on the INSERT WORDART tool and choose a style. Type your name and choose a font. You do not have to change the size.
18. Move the WORDART above your shape and resize it using the circles surrounding it.
19. If you’d like, use the WORDART TOOLBAR to change the way your name looks – the shape, color, font, etc. Have fun experimenting with it.
20. Click the PICTURE FRAME tool and choose CLIP ART.
21. Search for a clip. Choose the one that you like by clicking on it once. It will take a second but then it will show up on your page. Use the resizing circles to make it smaller and move it under the text in your shape. Close the Clip Art.
22. Click the TEXT BOX tool and draw a box on your page. Type a message. Change the FONT, SIZE, and TEXT COLOR. Add a FILL COLOR to the box.
23. Save this in My Documents or on your Z: drive – call it LEARNING PUBLISHER.
You now know how to use all of the drawing tools in PUBLISHER! But wait – don’t leave yet. There’s still more to learn…
Learn To Make Any Kind of Publication
1. Go to FILE – NEW. You’re going to take a look at your options and decide what you want to make. On the left side of the page, look at the NEW PUBLICATION sidebar. You have several choices for publications now.
a. Click the little blue triangle next to PUBLICATIONS FOR PRINT and look at all the different kind of publications you can make. These are publications that are done for you (all of which can be changed). It’s a great way to make something if you are in a rush! Scroll down to see all the options. Click that little blue triangle again to see more options.
b. Take a look at the choices under BLANK PUBLICATIONS. I love this one because it will set up the pages for me and all I have to do is add the text and then set up the design any way I like it.
2. Choose the Publication that you want to work on. I highly recommend adding the text first and then working on the design. It will make your life much easier later on.
3. HAVE FUN!
Wait – we’re not done. There are some things you should look out for…
1. Watch for the 
symbol at the bottom of a text box. It means that you have text that is not showing. You have several choices: make the text smaller, the box bigger, or link this box to another box. Use the 
(CREATE TEXT BOX LINK) tool to do this.
2. On when you create some documents like the SIDE FOLD CARD or the BOOK FOLD, you will get this message:
You should always add pages in groups for documents like this. The program is doing you a favor. Don’t believe me, put something different on each page and print it out. It will be clear to you then how it works!
3. There are tons of options in Publisher. Give your document a try. If you want to learn more, be sure to visit Atomic Learning at http://www.atomiclearning.com/publisher_2003. You can also link there from Connect – click on Atomic Learning and the Our Tutorials. You are looking for the Publisher 2003 for PC tutorial.
Getting Your Files Organized February 15, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development, Windows XP , add a commentLearning Goal: To know where your files are, organize them in My Documents,
Organizing Your Files
Cheat Sheet
Click My Computer.
Click the folder that needs organizing.
Maximize the folder.
Click on the FOLDERS button on the toolbar at the top. Use this to help reorganize files.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I make a new folder? Right click outside of all other folders and choose NEW and then FOLDER. Type the name of the folder immediately and click outside of it.
How do I move a file? Just DRAG and DROP it into the new location. If you can’t see both folders, you can also CUT it from the original folder and PASTE it in the correct destination.
How do I rename a file? Simply right click on it and choose RENAME
How do I delete a file? First you need to know that once you do it, it is permanent! Deleting is easy. Right click on the file and choose DELETE, then confirm in the next window. If you want to delete several files at once, select them but using the CTRL-Click method. Then Right click on one of the selected files and choose DELETE.
Where should I save my pictures? If they are school related photos put them in the shared photos folder for the respective division. If they are personal photos, put them in your My Documents folder.
I know I saved a file but I can’t find it anywhere. How do I search for a file? Go to START – SEARCH and follow the prompts. Still can’t find it, click on ADVANCED SEARCH OPTIONS to tell the computer where to search or to search for a word or phrase in the file.
Image Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/hawkexpress/183285256/
Excel Professional February 15, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development, Software , add a commentI. Intro – What Can Excel do for me
II. Workbook – Header and Footer; Columns and Rows
III. Worksheets – Insert, delete, rename, copy
IV. Cell Reference – Naming procedure
V. Cell Formatting – Font, font size, color, bold, italic, underline, borders, alignment, wrap text, number, currency, text.
Battleship with cell formatting
VI. Column & Row Formatting – Resize width and height
VII. Setup a Budget Worksheet;
1. Cell A1 Enter text ‘Family Monthly Budget – 2007
2. Highlight Cells A1 through O1.
3. Select Merge and Center tool
4. Cell A2 enter ‘Expenses’
5. Cell B2 enter January
6. Auto Fill February through December
7. Cell N2 enter text ‘Year to Date Totals‘ & Wrap Text
8. Cell O2 enter text ‘Average Monthly Expense‘ & Wrap Text
9. Beginning in Cell A2 enter one of the following expense items in successive cells: Rent, Phone, Electricity, Gas, Water, Cable, Waste Removal, Maintenance, Supplies, Food, Entertainment. The last entry should be Monthly Totals
10. In Column B, January, enter a dollar amount to correspond with each of the expense items listed in Column A
11. For February write a formula using cell references to calculate a projected 10% increase in January expenses
12. Calculate the Monthly Totals – Use Sum function
13. Calculate the Year to Date Totals for each expense item – Use Sum function
14. Calculate the Average Monthly Expense – Use Average Function
13. Create borders on cells
14. Insert > Row above Monthly Totals and add an entry for Transportation with a corresponding expenditure
15. Window > Freeze and Unfreeze panes
VIII. Edit > Move or Copy Sheet > Copy.
IX. Rename Worksheets: 2007; 2008; 2009
Color Code Tabs
X. Page Setup (File menu) – portrait or landscape?
100% or fit to one page wide by 1 page tall?
Print area?
Columns to repeat at top?
Rows to repeat at left?
XI. File > New > Templates – Microsoft Office Online
Family Budget
XII. Tutorials – Atomic Learning
http://www.atomiclearning.com/excel_2003_intro
Excel Gradebook February 15, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development , add a commentI. Intro – What Can Excel do for me
II. Workbook – Header and Footer; Columns and Rows
III. Worksheets – Insert, delete, rename, copy
IV. Cell Reference – Naming procedure
V. Cell Formatting – Font, font size, color, bold, italic, underline, borders, alignment, wrap text, number, currency, text.
Battleship with cell formatting
VI. Column & Row Formatting – Resize width and height
VII. Setup a Gradebook Worksheet;
1. Cell A1 Enter text ‘Gradebook for 6th Grade Math – Trimester 1
2. Highlight Cells A1 through L1.
3. Select Merge and Center tool
4. Cell A2 enter ‘Student Name’
5. Cell B2 enter Quiz 1
6. Auto Fill Quiz 2 through 10
7. Enter at least 5 students names in the A column
8. Enter Quiz scores for each student in Quiz 1 Column B
9. For Quiz 2 write a formula using cell references to calculate Quiz 1 scores – 2
8. Calculate the total score for each student – Use Sum function
9. Calculate the average score for each Quiz – Use Average function
10. Create borders on cells
11. Window > Freeze and Unfreeze Panes
VIII. Edit > Move or Copy Sheet > Copy.
IX. Rename Worksheets: Trimester 1; Trimester 2; Trimester 3
Color Code Tabs
X. Inserting and Deleting Columns and Rows
XI. Page Setup (File menu) – portrait or landscape?
100% or fit to one page wide by 1 page tall?
Print area?
Columns to repeat at top?
Rows to repeat at left?
XII. File > New > Templates – Microsoft Office Online
Gradebook
Family Budget
XIII. Tutorials – Atomic Learning
http://www.atomiclearning.com/excel_2003_intro
Functional Word February 15, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development , 1 comment so farScenario: You need to create a document with images for a presentation for your students.
Open the word document in U:\2007-Feb-PD-Day\FunctionalWord.doc
Save it as ‘Your Name’ in your My Documents directory
Change the Page Margins to be 1” top, bottom, left and right
File ->Page Setup
Bold the title and make it larger than 24 points
Format -> Font or using the Toolbar
Change the font of the document to a font of your choice.
Select All (Ctrl+A or Edit -> Select All) and change font using Format -> Font or using the Toolbar
Insert a clip art picture into your document. Move it to the place where you want it, have the text wrap around it.
Picture > Clip Art, Search for image of your choice, Double click to insert
Click on your picture and hold the left mouse button down while you move the image
Right Click on image -> Format Picture -> Click on Layout Tab and Select Square as the Wrapping Style
6. Insert a digital photo into your document from U:\2007-Feb-PD-Day\insert_image.jpg (or an image of your choice). Resize it and move it to the place in the document where you want it, lastly wrap the text around it.
Select Insert -> Picture -> From File, Look in directory above -> Select insert_image.jpg and click on Insert
Click on the image, select one of the corners and make the image smaller
c. Right Click on image -> Format Picture -> Click on Layout Tab and Select Square as the Wrapping Style
7. Set up document for Tracking Changes
a. Go to Tools (you may have to wait 10 seconds for the whole menu to appear) -> Track Changes
8. Save your document in U:\2007-Feb-PD-Day\YOUR NAME.doc and close.
9. Find a partner, ask them to open your document, edit some of the text by deleting and copying and pasting, insert a Comment, and save and close it.
a. Insert comments by going to Insert -> Comment and edit document by deleting and adding text
10. Open the document, and view their changes.
11. Accept or Reject their changes
a. Insert comments by going to Insert -> Comment and edit document by deleting and adding text
12. Now, accept or reject the changes by viewing the Accept or Reject toolbar.
a. Toolbars -> Reviewing
b. Click on Review Next Change icon
c. Accept or Reject the Comment using the
(Accept) or
(Reject) icon
13. Now Save your document one last time.
14. Advanced: Insert a Table in your document and move some text and an image into the table
a. Click on Table -> Insert -> Table
b. Select 2 columns and 1 row
c. Select and drag text and an image into the table
At this point, you should go to Atomic Learning Word Tutorials:
Intro: http://www.atomiclearning.com/word_2003_intro
Intermediate: http://www.atomiclearning.com/word_2003_interm
Advanced: http://www.atomiclearning.com/word_2003_adv
Browse the topics and see which tutorials interest you and review one. If you have questions, please check with one of the technology department members or students as they circulate the room.
Getting the Most Out of Your Laptop/Tablet: February 14, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development, Windows XP , add a commentDefragmenting the HD:
On a frequently used hard drive, the files become broken up into non-contiguous chunks as they are created, modified and deleted. This slows the drive down. The defrag utility reassembles the files.
- Right-click on My Computer and choose manage
- Click Disk Defragmenter in the left column, which will load the defragmenter in the main part of the window
- Make sure the C: drive is selected in the list at the top. then click the analyze button
- If the drive requires defragmentation, it will prompt you do start the process
Running a chkdsk on the HD:
If a drive is heavily fragmented, chances are it has some file system corruption also. Running chkdsk repairs the corruption.
- Open My Computer, then right click on the C: drive and select Properties
- Click the Tools tab, and then click Check For Errors
- Check both checkboxes, and click Start
- You will be asked if the check should be done at the next restart. Click Yes, then restart the computer
Running Disk Cleanup on Your Computer:
Disk Cleanup removes temporary files from you hard drive. This can free up gigabytes of space on an actively used computer.
- Open My Computer, then right click on the C: drive and select Properties
- Click on Disk Cleanup
- Disk Cleanup calculates free space it can clean up on your hard drive.
- Check all of the boxes except Microsoft Office Install Files.
- Click OK and confirm that you want to delete the files by clicking OK.
- Once this is done, you may want to defragment your hard drive again.
Power Management:
Depending on you power source (i.e. battery of AC) and your needs, you may need to adjust the power settings. Click on the green power meter in the taskbar, and choose Maximum Performance or Maximum Battery Life, depending on your requirements
Symantec liveupdate and manual virus scan:
If you take your laptop home with you over the summer, it won’t be able to contact our server to download virus definition updates. You will need to run the liveupdate process to manually download virus definitions.
- Every 1-2 weeks, open Symantec Antivirus by double clicking the yellow sheild icon in the system tray, or run it from the start menu
- Click the liveupdate button to start the update process
Wireless/Access Connections:
You connection to wireless networks is managed by Thinkvantage Access Connections. If the Access Connections status icon has a red “X” over it, you are not connected to the network. (SCREENSHOT NEEDED) To reconnect to the network:
- Press Fn-F5 on your keyboard.
- Make sure the “connection profiles” tab is selected in the window that pops up, and click on the profile of your choice, e.g. “Collegiate” or “home”.
To connect to your home wireless network with Access Connections, check out our tutorial: http://blogs.collegiateschool.org/tech/2006/12/13/configuring-access-connections-for-wireless-at-home/
System Tray:
If you computer is running slowly, you might have nonessential programs running in the background. Often these programs will have icons in the right side of the Task Bar, which is called the System Tray.
- If you hover your mouse pointer over an icon, a Tool Tip will pop up with the name of the program
- To quit a nonessential program, right click on it’s icon and choose quit or exit
Toolbars:
Don’t install toolbars!! See below:
Disk Photo Credit: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/330155843_2cbf7546e9.jpg?v=0
How to send an email to your roster from Collegiate Connect February 2, 2007
Posted by admin in : Collegiate Connect, FirstClass, How To , 1 comment so far- Click the blue button to the right of your choice
- Note the instructions that appear under the email addresses . Change the delimiter to carriage return (1), select all the names (2). To make this process easier - copy the list into the body of your email.
- Select all the names and drag them into the To or CC field of a new email message.
Professional Development Day Offerings January 29, 2007
Posted by admin in : February 2007 Professional Development, Internet Safety , add a commentFunctional Word: In this session, you will practice creating stylish documents using Word’s formatting tools, how to digitally peer edit documents, and save time using Office Templates.
Excel Gradebook: A Basic Excel Primer for faculty. Learn how to create a functional grading and budget spreadsheet in this session.
Excel Professional: Using spreadsheets in the office. Special focus on formatting cells, entering data, creating formulas using cell references, graphs and other advanced features of Excel.
Great Presentations with PowerPoint: Ever wanted to create a PowerPoint Presentation but did not know how? In this session you will learn good presentation habits and create a formatted presentation with text and images.
Creating a Publication with Publisher: Ever wanted to create a newsletter, flyer, banner, or some other publication? In this session you will have the chance to create one or more of these.
Getting the Most Out of Your Laptop/Tablet: (for tablet/laptop users) Explore how to optimize the performance of your laptop using hard drive, power management, wireless, and other utilities.
Getting the Most Out of Your SmartBoard: Immerse yourself in SmartBoard use from hooking up a laptop to SmartNotebook skills including capturing images and text from other programs and inserting images from the Gallery. Sessions will also include examples from veteran SmartBoard users.
Getting Your Files Organized: Do you have 500 files in your my Documents folder? Can you never find the file you are looking for? Do you know the difference between the My Documents on the z: drive and, and the LS/MS/US Share Folders? If you answered no, sign up for this session.
Getting the Most Out of FirstClass: Do you use FirstClass but feel like there is a lot more functionality that you don’t know about?
Internet Search and Library Resources: Do you want know the secrets of successful Internet Search? Learn about Google Scholar, site specific search, and many other techniques.
Digital Photography Tutorials January 12, 2007
Posted by admin in : How To, Software , add a commentDownloading a Digital Photos on our PC
Digital Photography Workflow: Editing a Photo and Photoshop and Preparing
Uploading a Photo to Flickr
2005: Editing a Photo and Printing it on the Art Lab Epson
Recycle/Donate Your Old Computer January 10, 2007
Posted by admin in : Being Green , add a comment
NYC residents can discard unwanted or broken electronics (computers, monitors, TVs, cell phones) in the trash, but recycling these items keeps hazardous materials out of the waste stream and the environment. See Electronics Recycling Info below.
Rechargeable batteries (found in cell phones, tools, toys, laptop computers, etc.) must be recycled. It is illegal for New York City residents to discard rechargeable batteries in the trash or in residential recycling containers. All NYC stores that sell rechargeable batteries or products that contain rechargeable batteries (with the exception of small food stores) must accept up to ten batteries of the same shape and size as they sell.
PerScolas - Plinio Ayala ‘81 became President and CEO of Per Scholas in November 2003.
Per Scholas brings computers to low-income children and families at the lowest possible cost, trains community residents to gain employment as computer technicians and provides environmentally responsible recycling of end-of-life computer equipment.