In this article, I want to talk a little bit about two computer terms that I see people confusing or demonstrating that they don’t understand completely.  People often use the two interchangeably or consistently use the wrong one. These two terms are “cancel” and “delete.”

Let’s start with “delete.” To delete something is the process of taking something such as a file, like a Word document or photograph, and removing it.

The process generally involves moving it to the trash on a Mac or the recycle bin on a Windows machine and emptying the trash or recycle bin. The emptying part is what is actually deleting it.

When you delete a file, in most cases for most people, it’s gone. Technically, it’s still there but has been marked as available space on the drive — think of painting over a mark on a wall — it’s hidden but not technically gone.

Whatever space the file that has been deleted was taking up is marked as available. Until some other file comes along and is saved in that spot, or part of that same spot, the file is technically available and can be recovered with the right program.

However, as far as most people are concerned, once the recycle bin or trash is emptied, the file is gone for good. Until you empty it, it’s still available for you to pull back out and retrieve.

Another example of how to use the word “delete” correctly is when you delete not a file, but text.  For example, if I decided I didn’t want this specific sentence in this article anymore, I’d delete it with the “delete” or “backspace” key on my keyboard.  Again, as with deleting a file, this is the process of removing something.

In most writing programs (including word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, or email programs such as Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.) you can restore words you’ve deleted if you use “undo” to reverse the last thing you did.

Some programs may let you undo more than once, stepping back through each change you made, but in most or all cases once you close the program, any words you’ve deleted from your document are gone for good unless you’ve saved them in a different file.

What I see people doing sometimes is use the term “cancel” or “delete” inappropriately. Deleting is the process of taking information on a computer and getting rid of it. It is not the process of closing a window.

I have seen a lot of people refer to closing a window or getting rid of an error message that has come up as “deleting” it. That’s not deleting. If you close a window, you’re simply closing a window.

I’ve also seen people refer to closing a window as canceling. I’ve also seen people refer to deleting an item as canceling it. That’s not the correct terminology.

Canceling is when you have a process that has been started and you “cancel” that process. You stop it from continuing, or interrupt it in other words.  It takes you back to where you were immediately before the process.

What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. Let’s say you in a word processor, like Microsoft Word. You’ve written something, and then you close the program without saving.

What’s going to happen? Traditionally, the program will pop up a window or dialog box that presents you with some options. It will say something along the lines of, “You’re trying to close, and you haven’t saved yet. Would you like to save, cancel or continue without saving?”

The wording does vary from one program to the next, but something along those lines is what you might see in the situation where you’re trying to close without having saved yet.

Let’s just say the phrasing is, “Do you want to save the changes you made? Your changes will be lost if you don’t save them.” Then you’re presented with three buttons: don’t save, cancel and save.

What would happen in this situation if you tried these different buttons?

If you don’t save, it will simply close the program or window without saving it, and you will lose whatever work you’ve done since the last time you saved. If you click save, it will save the file, and probably ask you for a file name if you haven’t saved it before.

The other option is to cancel. Cancel would cancel the process of closing and take you right back to where you were before you started to close the window.

At that point you could continue writing, you could save and close or you could decide you’re going to close anyway and that you don’t care about saving. Then it would present you with the same three options, and you would be able to hit “don’t save.”

What I’m trying to say here is that if you are presented with a cancel option, it doesn’t mean it’s going to delete anything.

It just means that whatever process you’re in the middle of, in our example exiting a program, it interrupts that. It takes you right back to where you were immediately before that.

It’s not correct to refer to closing a window as canceling it. It’s not correct to refer to deleting a file as canceling it. Canceling only applies to a situation where you’ve started a process (a series of automated steps) which you have the option of cancelling before all the steps are completed.

If you want to get technical, if you hit the cancel button, it does close the little window with the question in it (the little window with the question in it is referred to as a “dialogue box” because it’s asking a question and waiting for a response — trying to have a dialogue with you).

This is probably where the confusion comes from for a lot of people. Closing the window is not correctly referred to as canceling even if sometimes canceling something will close a window.

I hope that makes sense. I know it’s a little confusing sometimes because you see these words out of context, and you don’t fully understand how they work and relate to each other.

I hope that makes some sense and will help you use those computer terms more accurately in the future so you can recognize and understand what people are saying when they’re using them correctly around you in the future as well.

What you’ve just read is an edited transcription of one of an audio lesson I recorded some time ago.  If you like to study written material to learn computers, you might check out my selection of computer training books on Amazon.com or if you prefer a visual approach you might want to check out my easy video lesson computer courses including the Mac Basics course and the PC Basics course here on my site.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

This question was asked by Paul Prior. Paul wrote saying, “Out of curiosity, after updates I get a message saying to restart my computer, which I always do. What’s the reason for this?”

Transcription begins:

This is a pretty simple thing to understand when you think about it the right way.

First off, the updates he’s talking about are Windows updates, or software updates as they’re called on the Mac. These are fixes and improvements that have been issued by Microsoft, in the case of Windows, or, in the case of Mac OS X, by Apple.

Generally, on the Windows side, they’re almost exclusively fixes for problems. On the Mac side, they are maybe 50% to 75% fixes for problems, and 25% to 50% are actually improvements and enhancements they’ve added in.

You want to do these updates pretty much any time they come out, especially on the Windows side. It’s not just on the Windows side. I should be fair. Any time there’s a security update on the Mac or Windows side, you always want to do that as soon as you can. Most updates are security updates on the Windows side, generally speaking.

It’s never a bad idea to do a backup first just in case. Occasionally, some people will have problems with these updates. It’s a minority, but some people have run into problems. As a precaution, it’s a good idea to do a backup first.

Doing the updates is a really important thing to do because it fixes problems and security issues. If they’re not fixed, they can cause your computer to get invaded by a hacker, malicious program or what have you. You don’t want to have that happen.
By doing the updates, in many cases, the computer has to restart. Paul was wondering why this is.

Think of it this way. The files on your computer are like a rug. If you’re standing on a rug, can you take that rug, pick it up and clean it? Probably not because you’re standing on it. It’s in use. Files are much the same. If a file is in use, it can’t be picked up and replaced with a new version of the file just as you could not replace the rug with a new rug until you get everything off of it.

Essentially, what happens when you restart the computer after the update is it’s getting all the stuff off the rugs, picking the rugs up and replacing them with new rugs, so to speak. That’s why you have to restart the computer after you do an update.
Basically, it’s just a matter of getting out of the way of the files so they’re not in use and they can be replaced.

Hopefully that makes sense and answers your question.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

I’m happy to announce that the first four of a series of books covering computer basics and online privacy & security advice are now available to order from Amazon.com (and on the overseas “local branches” of Amazon) for Kindle.

You can see cover images and titles for the books – clicking them will take you to Amazon where you can order them and have them instantly delivered to you.

Kindle books are electronic books you can read not only on Kindle devices sold by Amazon, but they can also be read on free software available for Windows, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and many other devices.

You can view my author profile and always see the most current list of books with this link: Worth Godwin Computer Training on Amazon.

I have three more Kindle books I plan to publish later this month, and I’ll also be making all of the books (as well as future ones) available not only on Kindle but on Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble Nook, etc. I’ll post updates here when they become available.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Computer users have a wide range of experience and levels of understanding of their computers. The great majority of users have just learned the most basic features of a few of the thousands of programs out there. It really can be a help for you to learn computer basics that you may have been taught.

But that’s nothing to be ashamed of — even the most advanced computer user was at that level at some point, myself included. Even if you’re just using your computer for word processing, learning a few simple skills can make your life a lot easier.

• First and foremost: save often!    If you type a long letter, or make a lot of changes to whatever you’re working on, and the power goes out or something else happens, you could lose everything you haven’t saved!Just imagine how upset you would be if you’d worked on something for half an hour, an hour, or longer, and *poof* it vanished.Just going to the File menu and clicking save can help you avoid losing all that work.
• Save as new versions periodically:   If you’re working on a large project — such as a story or essay, where you write multiple drafts — periodically use the “save as” option from the File menu to save your file with a new name.That way if the third draft had something good you deleted in the fourth draft, you can bring it back for the fifth.For example, if you’re working on a file called My Letter.doc and you’ve made a lot of changes since your last save, go to “save as…” from the File menu, and change the name to My Letter2.doc.This way, you have both versions.
• Remember you can click anywhere in the document with your mouse and make changes wherever you place the cursor (the blinking vertical line which indicates where what you type next will appear).So if you realize you’ve made a mistake two lines back, just click where you want to make the change instead of deleting everything back to the mistake, then retyping it all. When you’re done, just click at the bottom and pick up where you left off.
• Cutting, Copying & pasting:   If you want to move a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or even a page of text, you can cut it and paste it someplace else in the document.To do this, just highlight the section of text you want by dragging your mouse (click and hold the left button, then drag) across the text. You’ll see a highlight appear where you drag.Let go of the mouse button then go to the edit menu.In the edit menu you can select “copy” to make a copy of the text, or “cut” to remove the text that is highlighted.Then go to the part of the document where you want to move or copy the text and click there so the cursor appears where you want your text to appear.

  Go back to the edit menu and select paste.Your text will appear where you clicked.You can use this to move text around in a document, or copy and paste it into an other document or even an email, and vice versa. Copying and pasting also can work with graphics or even files and folders in some situations.

• Undo: if you make a mistake the “undo” option in the Edit menu will allow you to undo the last thing you did. Accidentally highlighted and deleted a paragraph in that letter?Just undo before you type anything else and it comes right back.  Like all of the skills I’m talking about in this article, you can undo in Microsoft Windows, and you can undo in Mac OS X
• Learn the common keyboard shortcuts which work in most applications:
  On Windows PCs, the common keyboard shortcuts include: CTRL-S to save, CTRL-C to copy, CTRL-X to cut, CTRL-V to paste. ALT-F4 will close a window or program (or prompt you to shut down Windows if you are not in a program).On a Macintosh computer, common keyboard shortcuts include: Command-S to save, Command-C to copy, Command-X to cut, Command-V to paste. Command-W will close a window, and Command-Q will quit the program you’re in.

  In all cases, these key combinations are done as follows: hold down CTRL (or Command), type the other key, and release both. Just like using the shift key to type a capital letter. On both Macs and PCs, these and additional shortcuts are typically printed in the menus next to the option.

These are just a few computer basics that can really make your life easier.

For more help, including easy video lessons, check out my computer courses or my new computer training app for iPhone and iPad.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

I’m very happy to announce the release of my new app
for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – Basic Computer Training & Tips iOS app:

Computer Training App

This only came out today, but in future versions I plan to make many more of my lessons available, but this is just version 1.0 – got to start somewhere!

In addition to the lessons in the app, you can submit a computer question to me directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and you can also find links (and bonus free lessons from)  my computer training audio albums that are available on iTunes.

I’ve recorded a tour of the app which I’ll post separately.

If you have friends or family with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, please share this page with them with the share buttons above or below this post!

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this audio lesson & transcript, I’m going to take a question from Mark. He writes and asks, “What’s a flash drive?”

Transcript of computer lesson begins:
A flash drive is a type of storage device for a computer. A storage device is the broad or general term for anything that is used to store data or files.

A hard drive in your computer is a storage device. An old floppy disk is a storage device. A CD-ROM or DVD is a storage device, and so is a flash drive.

A lot of people call flash drives by specific brand names. They think that is the correct name for them. Sometimes they’ll refer to them as a thumb drive, jump drive, go drive, key drive or any number of things. These are actually all brand names or partial brand names that people have mistakenly thought was the correct general term for that type of device.

A flash drive is a little piece of solid state storage. That means there are no moving parts. From the outside, it looks basically like a uniform block.

If you dig inside of it, there’s what’s referred to as a disk, but it’s not a disk shape, unlike a hard drive. Inside of a hard drive, there is a physical disk that looks like a disk. Even with floppy disks, I’ve heard people over the years say they aren’t disks. Technically they are. It’s square on the outside, but if you rip open an old floppy disk, you’ll find a disk inside. It would actually flop. It’s not rigid.

Basically, a flash drive uses something called flash memory. That’s solid state, so there are no physical moving parts unlike with a hard drive. That has a physical disk, like I mentioned, which spins much like an old record or a CD does when it’s playing.

That has a little thing called a read/write head that moves around and reads information from the disk and writes information to the disk. There are a lot of physical moving parts.
That uses more electricity than something that’s solid state. It also usually takes up more space than something that’s solid state. The big advantage of flash memory is that it’s very small and lightweight, and it doesn’t use much power.

You get these little devices that can store an increasing amount of information, or data, on them. They only take up a very small amount of room.

Any mobile device like an iPhone or any smartphone typically has some kind of flash memory in it. It wouldn’t make any sense to try to put a miniature hard drive in them. While there are hard drives that could fit in there, it would use way more battery power and run the battery down really fast.

There’s also an increased chance of damage to the disk and loss of files by impact. One of the liabilities of the hard drive is that because it has spinning and moving parts, if something hits it or it gets dropped, it can damage the drive, and you can lose files.

There are safeguards in modern hard drives that make it so they very rapidly will stop the disk spinning to minimize the risk of that damage, but it’s still one of the downsides of them and one of the reasons they’re not used in mobile devices.

The big advantage with flash drives is that they’re very small, light and portable.

In terms of dollar per megabyte or dollar per gigabyte, they are significantly more expensive than hard drives. The difference in price is getting less and less as time goes by, and you’re getting more and more storage space on these little flash drives.

I remember probably in 2002, I spent something close to $400 on a 1 gigabyte flash drive. These days in 2011, not a decade on from them but getting close, I don’t think you can even get a 1 gigabyte flash drive because it’s such a small amount.

The smallest amount you can get is at least 8 gigabytes. I’m not sure. I haven’t looked at this recently. It may be 16 gigabytes by this point. You can get that for a few dollars. That’s just how it is. It’s pretty crazy, but that’s a pretty typical thing with computers.

I hope that makes sense. It’s basically another method of storing files. Typically, you can just plug flash drives into a USB port on your computer and drag and drop files. You’ll be able to then unplug it, plug it into another computer, and it’s a way of transferring files back and forth. It also is a way you can back up your files to make a spare copy of them to protect them.

That’s pretty much what a flash drive is.

You might have heard of them as jump drives, thumb drives, go drives or what have you, but those are all examples of flash drives. It’s not, in other words, the generic term for a flash drive.

Basically, that’s what a flash drive is. It’s a small storage device that’s easily carried around. You can put it in your pocket, plug it in, move files on and off a computer, unplug it, and put it back in your pocket. I hope that makes sense.

You can learn more about USB flash drives and how to use them on these easy video lesson courses:

• How to Back Up Your Mac
• How to Back Up Your Windows Computer
• Apple Mac Basics Course
• Microsoft Windows Basics Course

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

I received a computer question by email from a subscriber named Willa Valdez, who is wondering what I think about Ubuntu and Open Source software in general. Here’s her question:

“Dear Worth,

Mahalo Nui Loa for your Newsletters. Your computer lessons have helped me tremendously.

I am thinking of purchasing a netbook. They both have the operating system Ubuntu (latest version) already installed. I am a newbie when it comes to Linux but I am curious about how how this system works. I installed Ubuntu via WUBI along side VISTA, however, my computer would freeze when I chose to boot with Ubuntu. I was able to boot with Ubuntu a couple of times and liked the Gnome desktop. Unfortunately, some of the applications I use were not supported i.e. Skype. I did not delve into learning the Command Line just yet.

I would appreciate your thoughts on Ubuntu and your general opinion on the Open Source concept.

Again, thank you for expertise and assistance.

Aloha,

Willa Valdez”

Below is a partial transcription of the audio:

What do I think about Ubuntu and open-source? There are a few things. Let’s start with some definitions. Not everybody is familiar with Ubuntu. A lot of people think it’s called Abuntu, but it’s Ubuntu. It’s an African word.

Ubuntu is a version of Linux. Linux is a type of operating system that is an alternative to the more mainstream Microsoft Windows and the mainstream, but not quite as mainstream as Microsoft Windows at least in terms of widespread use, Mac OS X. Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows are all examples of operating systems, which is just the underlying software that’s needed to let your computer run and allows everything else to work.

Linux is a project that has been going on for quite some time. It’s what is called an “open-source project,” and it’s part of the open-source movement.

Open source actually goes back to the roots of making software originally. The most widely used software is Microsoft Windows, and it’s developed by a particular company, which is Microsoft. That is not a value judgment but just how it is

That’s what you could call a closed-source program. It’s software that was designed by a particular company, and as a result, it’s guided a bit by the company’s agenda. That’s not some kind of “Microsoft is evil” kind of statement. Every company has some degree of agenda or plan.

Open source is an alternative to that. The way it works is you have a community of people from all over the world collaborating to find ways of improving the software and fixing problems.

They find problems in the first place. Person A finds a problem. Person B finds a solution, and then Person C implements the solution. That is perhaps how it might work. Basically, the whole idea is to work together to make the best software you can.

I think open-source is great. I don’t use it exclusively. There are some people who are very militant about it. It’s kind of cool in a way too, I should say. There are some people who insist on using only open-source software for ethical or moral reasons, but I don’t go that far.

I think open-source is great. It’s something that people can use in a lot of cases.
I try to recommend it in a lot of cases. Mozilla Firefox is an example of open-source software. Open-source generally, if not in every case, is free. They don’t charge for it, just like with Mozilla Firefox.

Mozilla Thunderbird, the email program I recommend for Windows users particularly, is another open-source program. I recommend using the OpenOffice program for Windows or NeoOffice for Mac.

Open-source is essentially just a collaboration of people from all over just trying to work together in a very altruistic kind of way to just try to make the world a better place through better software. That’s the principle behind it. Linux is an example of open-source software, and Ubuntu is one specific version of Linux, for there are many.

One of the downsides for Linux and one of the reasons that it has not been adopted widely is the fact that, on average, until recently, it has been significantly harder to use than Windows. I think Windows is harder to use than the Mac software.

It has really been something that was mostly used by the techy people who are really into tinkering. They want to be able to tinker with the computer as much as possible, and they’re perfectly happy with things not being set up and ready to go out of the box.

Ubuntu is one of the versions of Linux that has made a lot of strides to improve the situation and make it a lot more accessible to people. It’s not completely there, but certainly if you want to try it, I don’t want to discourage you.

A lot of the really inexpensive and lightweight laptops that have become popular over the last couple of years, and Netbooks particularly, are shipping with Ubuntu or some other version of Linux on it. It cuts down the cost of not just inexpensive hardware but also inexpensive software by providing this free open-source software.

It’s fairly easy to use the basic stuff now. You can get around. It’s usually going to come preloaded with most of the basic software you need, but you’re still going to run into issues.

I don’t have a copy of Ubuntu installed on any of my computers. I’ve played with it before, and it’s one of those things on my to-do list. When I theoretically start having free time to play with stuff like that, I definitely want to try it out because it has apparently become much better. I’ve seen a little bit with a couple of clients, and it has definitely come a long way.

It’s something that may not be for everybody yet, but it’s something that’s very cool. I really like the principles and ideals behind open-source software. It’s definitely something worth checking out.

One really neat thing about things like Ubuntu is that there is an easy way for you to try it if you want. They have something called a Live CD as you can do with a lot of Linux installations.

You go to their window and download an image of a CD. It’s stored in a file, and then you can use disc-burning software. They’ll have instructions on the website on how to do this.
You can burn a Live CD [or make a bootable USB drive] that allows you to start the computer and run Linux. You don’t have to worry about actually installing it, replacing anything, or trying to install it side-by-side with Windows, which doesn’t always work as Willa has discovered.

Those are some general thoughts about it. Hopefully that makes sense and answers some of your questions. Ubuntu and other versions of Linux are just going to keep getting better and better over the coming years.

I am a little bit hesitant about telling people to just rush off and start using it. If you’re a little more of an adventurous computer user and you want to try things out, then it’s definitely something worth trying.

I definitely support the concepts behind it, and I think that open-source software in general is a great thing. I’m actually using some to record this audio. WordPress is blogging software that I use for my websites many times. That’s free. It’s open source, and I highly recommend it.

Open Source is a great thing. I hope that makes sense and answers your questions.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Video Lesson Transcription Begins Here:


I want to explain the computer term “video card.” I’m answering a newsletter subscriber’s question about what a video card is. I’m going to explain to you what a video card is and what it basically does. I’m also going to give you a few suggestions on choosing the right video card for your computer.

I will not be going into specific makes and models of video cards because things change very rapidly. One of the fastest changing components in a computer is the video card because computers are putting greater and greater demands on it. Anything I could talk about that is specific to a particular make or model will be obsolete soon, so I’m not even going to get into that.

What I will do is give you the general ideas and principles that will always apply.

A video card is a piece of hardware. Hardware is the physical part to your computer, as opposed to software which is the nonphysical, intangible part of the computer.

A simple way I like to explain it is that hardware is like your brain, the physical part in your head that thinks. Software is like the thoughts in the brain. You can’t touch thoughts, but they’re there nonetheless and they make a difference.

In many cases, you have a video card that is a separate card. It’s thin and rectangular-shaped. It goes into a slot inside your computer. In other cases, you have what’s called an “integrated video card,” or it’s built into the motherboard or main logic board of the computer.

The ones that have integrated video or built-in video are usually not the best quality, and you won’t get the best performance out of the computer. There are a few reasons for this.

The video cards that are integrated are usually low-end video cards to begin with. It’s not always the case. Apple puts integrated video cards into their computers in a lot of cases, but depending on the make and model, they may or may not be a lower-end one.

That’s a generalization, but most of the time if you’re talking about a Windows computer with an integrated video card, it is a lower-end card and you’re potentially going to be sacrificing a little bit in performance. Part of this is because the video card itself is not the most powerful in the world.

Other times, it’s because the video card, which uses memory, borrows the main memory from the computer, so you can lose a quarter or more of your actual memory that it says on the box or label. You end up sacrificing a good chunk of it, so you don’t really get as much memory as you think you have or as much as the salesperson said if it’s an integrated video card.

All a video card really does is take the picture and put it on the screen. If you’re watching this on a computer, which I assume you probably are, it has a video card. You could be on an iPhone or something, and these have integrated video cards in them too.

It’s the same basic principle. The video card just takes the picture and puts it on the screen. It’s not just moving video but also all the desktop icons, your menu bars and so forth.

Then you have the higher-end cards. The cards that slot in separately are generally on a Windows computer because on the Apple side, they have integrated cards with most of the computers. Usually, they’re a little bit better quality than the integrated ones, or in some cases, a lot better quality than the integrated ones that you find on Windows computers.

The high-end Mac Pros do have separate cards that slot in. That’s partially because the cards that go in tend to be more beefy, robust or powerful than the integrated cards.

There is still a fairly wide range of quality. You have very cheap video cards and very high-end ones. Which one do you want to get? That’s a good question.

Again, with any of the ones that Apple is selling with their computers, you can fairly safely assume that it is going to be more than capable of handling the basic stuff that most people, the average computer users, are going to do. They don’t tend to put in cut-rate equipment.

On the Windows side of things, with a lot of the different brand names out there, this is not always the case. The low-end cards often make a fairly big sacrifice, especially if you’re running a newer version of Windows, like Windows Vista. It should be better with Windows 7, which is still forthcoming. Windows Vista does a lot better with a high-end video card.

You don’t need the highest high-end machine, but it’s helpful to have something other than the cheapest, least expensive, least powerful card. Something in the mid-range should be fine.

Who needs a really high-end video card? Someone who is going to be playing high-end games on the computer needs one. I don’t mean Solitaire. I mean a fast-paced, very complex, animated, fast-moving game with computer-generated images.

The games like first-person-perspective shooter games where you’re running around playing in a hostile environment tend to work better if they have a high-end video card. They’re going to look better. They will perform better. It’s not going to be slow. Someone who is a high-end gamer, of course, wants a high-end video card.

Generally speaking, if you play the latest, greatest games, you want to get the best video card you can possibly put in your computer. That’s the bottom line.

For someone who’s doing fairly high-end stuff with graphics or video editing, it doesn’t always make a big difference to have a high-end video card, but it can help. Someone who is doing CAD work or an architect perhaps might benefit from having a higher-end video card. They probably don’t need the highest end in the world, but it never hurts.

That’s basically what I want to cover. I can’t give you really specific advice about a particular make or model card because it gets outdated almost immediately.

The basic principle is that a video card is just a part of the computer. It’s a piece of hardware.

It puts the picture up on the screen and lets you hook your screen up. In the case of iMac or a laptop, it’s built in and internally hooked up to that video card, but you still have the screen hooked up to a card. Even something like a phone has a video card of sorts in it, and the screen is hooked up to it.

That’s what I wanted to cover in this lesson.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Today I want to answer another computer question, this one coming from Leslie G. who writes:

If you need more step-by-step help with working with photos on your Mac or Windows computer, take use one of the following links to learn more about these easy video lesson courses that cover easy programs for working with pictures:

How to Use Picasa – Course for Microsoft Windows
or
How to Use iPhoto – Course for Apple Mac

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

The following audio & transcript are from a live computer Q&A event I recorded back in 2008, discussing a topic which is just as important today as it was then. This segment is a lesson giving a few tips on choosing a safe password, and also explaining a why it’s important to use strong passwords (and why assuming no one would target you is missing the point).

Due to the nature of the live recording the audio will sound a little “thinner” than usual, and I may talk a little bit faster than I normally do on my “studio recordings”. Use the player below to listen and you can find a transcript of the audio below the player.

AUDIO LESSON TRANSCRIPT BEGINS HERE:

I want to give you a couple of guidelines when you’re setting passwords. There are a lot of mistakes I see people making with passwords.

 

You want to follow some guidelines. One, for example, would be to not use the same password for everything. I know it’s easier to remember, but it’s also an easy way to get into your stuff.

 

You have to think of passwords like keys. I would hope you would not use the same key for your house, car, post office box and safety deposit box. If someone gets one of the keys, they can unlock your life.

 

In addition to not using the same password over and over again, which I see people do all the time, you need to use a hard password. A “strong” password is the term. This is a more complicated one.

 

I want to go back to my analogy of a password being like a key. The type of passwords I see most people using tend to be simple, regular words that you find in the dictionary or a person’s name.

 

In a recent email, I told a story about how 10 or 12 years ago, I was working at a computer shop in upstate New York where I used to live. Someone brought in their laptop. When I flipped the thing open and turned it on, I was somewhat dismayed to find that it had a password lock on it, which was pretty uncommon at the time.

 

She hadn’t bothered to tell anybody that there was a password. I couldn’t get in without it, but it also happened to have “If lost, return to Lisa,” or whatever her first name was, and the address. When I saw that, the very first thing I typed in was her first name, and that was the password. Not only did she use her own name as the password, but she also had it printed right on the screen.

 

I guessed on literally the first try. If I had been a criminal, or if someone had stolen the laptop and made the same guess, they would have had full access to everything on the computer.

 

It’s really important to use a strong password. The general guideline suggested for this is to make it long, and the longer it is, the better. You want a mix of letters and numbers. Get it as far away from a regular word that you might find in the dictionary as you possibly can. Mix uppercase and lowercase letters in a random way and even put in symbols like an exclamation point.

 

This will create a much stronger password. You might be thinking, “Why do I need to worry about my password? Who is going to target my information? Who’s going to target my computer?”

 

You can’t think of it that way because criminals these days use the internet. They use the internet and programs on the computers to commit crimes just the way that they used a lock pick in the past.

 

If you think of a computer as like a house, these programs are like a burglar. They can basically clone themselves a thousand times over and go to every single house in a dozen neighborhoods all at the same time.

 

They try every single door to see if there is no lock on the door. In other words, there is no password. They look to see if it has a bad, weak lock or an old-fashioned type of lock, both of which, of course, are easy to pick.

 

To use my key analogy, if you have a weak password, it’s like having a really old-fashioned key in an old-fashioned lock, like something they had 150 years ago. The reason they make different keys now, smaller and more complicated, is to make them harder to pick.

 

It’s the same idea with your password. They use these things called “brute-force password cracks.” They are little programs that basically try all the words in the dictionary starting with common ones. They run through them a thousand times in a minute on each computer, on a thousand computers at once.

 

It doesn’t have to be targeted, but you can still have your privacy violated or identity theft done on your computer if you’re not protecting it properly. There’s a whole series of things you can do to protect it, including adding a firewall and doing a lot of other things, which I deliberately included in my computer training courses, and I talk about them in my newsletter and so forth.

 

That’s passwords.

You can find more in-depth audio and video lessons expanding on computer security topics in my online courses, especially in the Safe & Easy Internet course for Apple Mac and the Safe & Easy Internet course for Microsoft Windows.

More related lessons can be found in the Safe & Easy Email course for Apple Mac and the Safe & Easy email course for Microsoft Windows.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this audio computer training lesson I answer a question from Vasilis who writes wanting to know just what the computer term “default” means.  Click the triangle play button below to listen to this computer question and my Plain English answer:

As I explain in the audio lesson, the computer term “default” is one that confuses a lot of people.  Basically, it means “what the computer is set to do until you tell it to do otherwise”.

So for example, you might get a brand new computer and have a certain picture set as the wallpaper (background image on the desktop) when you first turn it on. This is the default background image.

If you change that default image to a new one, it’s no longer using the default picture.

Another example would be the “default browser” on your computer.  Windows PCs come with Internet Explorer (the blue “E” icon) as the default browser, just as Apple includes their own Safari browser as the default on their Mac computers.

You can always install a different browser (highly recommended for Windows users) such as Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.  When you install a new browser, it typically asks you if you’d like to make it the default.  If you do, any time you do something which should take you to a web page (like clicking a link in an email for example) it will then open whatever browser you have “set as the default” to display that web page.

But that doesn’t prevent you from opening that same web page in a different browser if you prefer — you’re just not opening it with the default.

So it’s kind of like what the computer “assumes” (so to speak) unless you tell it otherwise.

Hope that makes sense.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

The following is a computer question I was sent by ‘AlainAiso’ who wrote with a question about why a new hard drive they bought was so cheap and whether this was because there was a problem with the drive.  Click the player below to listen to this computer question and my Plain English answer:

“Question about my external Hard drivers

I just Bought an external hard drive in Wal-Mart now I am worry about why the price was that low also I worry about companies  who did the hard drive…

The hard drive is 1500GB and cost me only 98$ Canadian. To copy a file from to this  it takes about 35 seconds. It seems quite fast right? If so why was the price that low?

I guess it should be something due to the material this mean the material won’t work after an period of 6 months?

Please tell me if it is possible that an hard drive only ‘live’ few months before expire en then lose all files”.

Listen to my answer to this computer question below, where I not only explain why a pretty big hard drive is so inexpensive, why it won’t seem like a big drive for long, and help you understand this in context, as well as give you some advice on not making a common mistake when buying an external hard drive:

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

If you’re upgrading your Mac to OS X Tiger it’s a good idea to make a bootable USB drive or DVD install disc to keep you covered in case of  problems, and to save time downloading when upgrading multiple Macs. Click the image below to watch the video lesson where I show you exact steps for how to make a bootable Tiger disk. More advanced users can read a summary of the steps below the video:

The full video above is intended to be easily understood by more basic Apple Mac users.

If you’re impatient you can skip the introduction by going to 1:07.

Instructions on how to make a bootable DVD begin at 2:45.

The steps if you want to make a bootable USB flash drive (I suggest 8GB or larger) or any USB or Firewire external hard drive begin at 4:03

More advanced users might find this quick summary of the steps helpful:

1. Download Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” in the Apple App Store
2. Once downloaded, before you install, double-click the Macintosh HD icon (or click the Finder face icon on your Dock) then double-click your Applications folder.
3. Locate “Install Mac OS X Lion” & right-click (Control click) the icon.
4. Click the “Show Package Contents” menu item
5. Double-click the Contents folder in the new window, followed by the SharedSupport folder
6. You should see file called  – this is the disk image you’ll make the boot disk from
7. Open Disk Utility (using the Spotlight search box in the upper right corner of the screen is the quickest way to do this)
8. Drag the InstallESD.dmg file into the column on the left side of the Disk Utility window

scroll down for either the bootable Tiger DVD instructions, or the bootable USB/external drive instructions…

To make a bootable Tiger DVD disc after completing numbered steps above:

• In the Disk Utility window, right-click (Control click) on where it says “InstallESD.dmg” and then click “BurnInstallESD.dmg”
• Put in a blank DVD when the new window drops down and click the blue Burn button
• Wait a few minutes and you’re done

To make a bootable Lion disk using a USB flash drive, or an external drive (USB, Firewire, etc.)

• In the Disk Utility window, right-click (Control click) on where it says “InstallESD.dmg” and then click Restore
• A new window will open. From the column on the left in Disk Utility, drag InstallESD.dmg into the top “source” box in the new window
• From your desktop, drag the icon for the external drive you want to back up to (drive recommended to have 4.7GB free at a minimum)
• Click the Restore button, followed by the Erase button (do NOT use a drive with important files or you will lose them at this point!)
• The drive icon will vanish from your desktop and then reappear once the process is completed. May take a few minutes or longer.

By making a bootable Mac OS X Lion disk, you’re protecting yourself and making your life easier.  Please comment below, and feel free to share this video lesson on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

This computer question comes from a student named Edward, who writes:

“Dear sir,
I have followed your comments on here with great interest and find them very helpful.  I have a problem I am trying to sort out first with an Apple iBook. My problem is I cannot download applications, and when I do they will not mount or the image is corrupt?
Yours respectfully.
Edward O’Toole”

Hi Edward,
I’m glad you’re finding my newsletter helpful, and thanks for writing!

I suspect the problem is that you have very out of date software on your iBook. OS X (the “operating system” software for Macs) is currently on version 10.6 — that’s three major versions (and several years) newer than what you have.

New versions add new features, and sometimes things on the Internet rely on those new features to work, which means computers running older software sometimes run into problems like this.

What you might do is ask around and see if you know anybody who could help you put OS X 10.4 (a.k.a. “Tiger”) on your computer. This isn’t the newest version, but your Mac may not be able to run the more recent versions of OS X released after Tiger, but Tiger should be enough to get things working for you.

Whenever possible, you should keep your computer’s software up to date to avoid a variety of problems.

I hope that answer makes sense and helps!

If you found this lesson helpful, you might want to look into the Apple Mac Basics Course or the Microsoft Windows Basics Course — quick, easy step-by-step computer training in Plain English.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

A lot of people are unwittingly publishing information about themselves online when they share photos and videos online. This information is revealed in something called “metadata” which you can think about as “data about the data”, or info about the information (data) in the file.

This information about the file can be something as simple and visible as the file name, but the information most people are talking about when they mention metadata tends to be more “hidden” inside the file.

One example is “ID3 tags” in MP3 files which hold the musician’s name and other information, another example is the data in a photo which can reveal mundane information such as the camera settings when taking the photo and the date, but also GPS location information revealing exactly where the photo was taken.

This information is visible in typical photo viewing and editing programs such as Picasa for Windows or iPhoto for Mac OS X. It also often is revealed automatically on photo sharing websites.

A file name could be thought of as the simplest example of metadata since it can be used to describe the contents.

However, many types of files contain more information stored inside a special part of the file. Common examples of files with metadata include music, photos, & video files.

In photographs and videos the camera or smartphone typically records GPS information about your location and this can end up visible to the world when you share those files online.

This may not be a problem with all photos or videos, depending on where you shoot them, but ones taken of your home reveal where you live and what kinds of things you own. In effect, you’re casing your own home for potential burglars.

Most cameras and phones that can record this information will have a setting to prevent saving location information to the image. Consider sharing your photos privately with family and friends instead of in public galleries. When uploading to any site, look around (under privacy on the settings screen for example) for a setting that lets you turn off displaying GPS location data.

I show you how to disable location services in one of the video lessons in my How to Use the iPhone App.

Listen to the audio above for the full Plain English explanation and understanding of metadata and how it can affect your privacy.

You can also take a look at my easy online computer training courses for more in-depth and step-by-step computer help.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Here is one of my early video lessons (please excuse the video quality) where I use one of my Plain English explanations of computer terms — explaining what a hard drive is and what RAM is, and what they do in your computer.  Many people confuse those two terms with each other, and many people don’t understand either at all.

If this is true for you, it’s not your fault — it’s just never been explained to you in a way that you could relate to. Watch this video and both computer terms will finally make sense, even if you feel like the most basic computer user in the world:

If you need help understanding computer basics and mastering the fundamental computer skills, look no further than my Computer Basics Course, available for either Windows or Apple Mac computers:

Microsoft Windows Basic Computer Skills

or

Apple Mac Basic Computer Skills

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Here is a simple thing to learn but is a big time saver you really need to know about when using the Internet.

I see many rookie, and even experienced computer users making this blunder (and remember, I’m not being critical; it’s not your fault if you’re making this computer mistake)

Don’t use a search engine like Google or Bing to search for web pages or web sites if you already know the address!

Search engines are like phone books. A lot of people don’t use them at all anymore, but when woukd you use one? You’d use one to look up a number if you don’t know it, right?

You don’t use a phone book when you already know the number, because that would be a waste of time and wouldn’t make sense, right?

But that’s exactly the mistake I’ve seen people making again and again over the many years I’ve helped people with their computers.

So for example, in my computer newsletter I may send out a link to a lesson on my site. Now normally you should be able to click on, but sometimes email programs will “break” the link so clicking it doesn’t work.

So what some people do is they try typing the address of the link into a search engine, and end up not being able to find the page!

That’s because the page in the example is for my subscribers only, and so is an “unlisted number” (so to speak) which isn’t listed in Google or any other search engines, just like an unlisted number isn’t found in the phone book.

Make sense?

So how do you “directly dial the number” of a web page you know?

Simple. In your web browser window (a web browser is the program you use to look at web pages, such as Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer) at the top of the window you should normally see a bar with the address of the website you are currently viewing.

So if you are on Amazon you’d see

http://www.amazon.com/

or if you’re using Google you’d see:

http://www.google.com/

etc.  In most cases you’d actually see something longer, but it will always begin with the “domain name” of the website.

That bar where you see the address of the site is called the location bar, or the address bar.

All you need to do to go to a website you know the address of, whether it’s a public page a private page, is to click ONCE on the address bar and typically this will “highlight” that address.

You can then either hit the delete or backspace key on your keyboard to clear it, or usually you can simply start typing and everything that is highlighted in blue will be replaced by what you’re typing.

So if you wanted to go to Facebook, you could type

http://www.facebook.com/

into that address bar and press Enter or Return on your keyboard and it would take you directly there.

You could also just type

facebook.com

and that would work too because the first part is almost always optional.

This is much better than *searching* for an address, finding it in the search results (or maybe not even finding it at all). Then clicking the link in the search results to get there, when you could just dial direct.

Even if it’s a public page that is listed, at the very least you’ve wasted time and effort searching for something you don’t need to search for, because you already know where it is.

Again, this is like using a phone book to look up a number you already know — and if it’s a private, unlisted web page, like the ones I share with my newsletter, it won’t even turn up.

Personally, the only time I type the address of a website into a search engine and search for it is when I’m trying to learn more *about* the site, rather than searching to get there.

So learn this basic computer tip:

If you know an address of a website, just type it into the address bar at the top of your web browser window and press the enter key on your keyboard.

Do not search for it as you are at best wasting time and effort, and at worst will not get where you’re trying to go.

I hope that helps.

Since I’ve seen so many people making this mistake over the years, I made a point of including an easy step-by-step video lesson on exactly what I talked about in this article as one of the first lessons on my “Safe & Easy Internet” course.

You can learn more tips to use the search engines correctly, browse more easily and more safely, all explained visually with my easy video lessons in Plain English. Just use one of the following links:

How to Use the Internet for Microsoft Windows

or

How to Use the Internet for Apple Mac

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this video lesson I explain the two general methods of backing up your important files, namely incremental backup (a.k.a. versioned backup) and “cloning” backup.

I also give specific suggestions about how to do either one or both to protect the important files on your computer. Failing to back up is perhaps the biggest single computer mistake I see people making, and failing to back up correctly and regularly can lead to the loss of time, money and irreplaceable files, which can have devastating consequences.

Watch and learn how to protect yourself.

This video appears as part of my course on how to back up. To learn more, use one of the following links:

How to Backup – Apple Mac

or

How to Backup – Windows (XP, Vista & 7)

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this computer question & answer audio lesson I’m taking a question from user brandang17 who asks:
“So because I have wireless internet an stuff with my phone when I turn WiFi on does that mean I am getting free Internet or am I still paying for it though my plan? Thank you”

Use the player to listen to the audio computer lesson where I’ll not just answer the question “Is WiFi free?” but give my usual Plain English explanation of what I’m talking about so everyone can understand the answer, even non-technical people.

Bottom line is, someone always has to pay for an Internet connection somewhere along the line, so whether you’re using a computer or a mobile device like a smartphone it’s not “free” even if you’re not paying to use the wireless signal. And while using WiFi on your phone may not count against any monthly limits on data that your phone plan offers, it doesn’t mean you won’t get charged the regular monthly fee for phone data (Internet) connections.

You may be able to cancel the data part of your phone service, depending on the details of your contract, however. If you do, keep in mind you’ll be limited to *only* using WiFi signals and so will be much more limited about where you can go online with your phone.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Heat is one of the most damaging things for electronics. People are often not aware of this and are causing their computers and other devices to fail long before their time because they’re not doing what they need to do to keep them cool.

You’ve probably noticed that computers typically have fans which you can spinning whenever the computer is running. You may also have noticed that the fans get louder sometimes more than others.

Most parts of a computer generate some amount of heat, with certain parts such as the hard drive and the processor generating more than others. The fans are designed to keep the computer from overheating and burning out.

Because of this, it’s important to make sure the fans are able to do their job, or you might end up having to replace your computer before its time.

A few steps you should take to help keep your computer and other electronics from overheating:

1. Keep them out of direct sunlight - I often see people who keep their laptop or desktop computer near a window where it’s exposed to direct sunlight for a few or several hours a day. This will, understandably, raise the temperature in the computer above what it’s supposed to be.The internal fans are designed mainly to cool off components from the heat those parts generate themselves, not from external heat sources
2. Don’t put them on a desk right next to a radiator or over a floor vent – this one is pretty self-explanatory; basically the same idea as keeping them out of direct sunlight
3. Don’t put your computer in a tight space – this is one I see a lot. People will hide their desktop computer in a cabinet or one of those desks with the internal space for a computer, or perhaps they’ll hide the computer in a cramped space between the desk and the wall.

   This is a bad idea because this usually will block the vents and trap heat, or trap the heat in the space surrounding the computer, which is just as bad.

4. Never pile stuff on top of the computer – a couple of things is fine, but don’t go overboard with stuff packed in around or on top of the computer as this can also trap heat and block vents
5. Avoid using a laptop on a soft surface where the computer sinks into the surface, such as in bed with the laptop resting on the blanket; this will usually mean at least one of the fan vents is blocked, plus the blanket is an insulator (that’s why it keeps you warm, after all) and it will trap the heat in the laptop, causing damage over time.

   If you like to use the laptop in bed, or while sitting on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, you can still do this, just rest the laptop on a hard flat surface to give it plenty of airflow and to avoid blocking the vents.One great way to do this is by using one of those trays you can buy very inexpensively that have a nice flat surface on the top and a built-in cushion underneath.

   These help protect the laptop from trapped heat, and have the side benefit of make it more comfortable to work with the laptop by keeping your lap cool and putting the computer at a more comfortable angle and height.

6. Use a laptop cooling pad whenever possible – this will help save your computer and keeps your legs cool too.  Some of them come with fans, and this is the type I suggest using as it does the best job cooling. Usually these will require you to provide power through a power cord, or more commonly, through the laptop’s USB port.

   Just as with the internal fans, make sure not to block the fans on the cooling pad with papers or a bedspread or anything similar, or they can’t do their job.

7. Avoid keeping computers in dusty environments such as on the floor – dust can get inside computers and coat the parts inside and can even block the air vents in extreme cases. If either one of these happens, heat is trapped inside causing damage.It’s also a good idea to use a can of compressed air, which you can pick up pretty much anywhere that they sell electronics, and periodically open up the case and use the compressed air to clear out the dust.

   Be careful when you do this, however, as touching the electronics inside can cause damage, something I explain in another article.  If you feel more comfortable doing so, consider letting a technician do this for you to prevent accidentally damaging something.

Hopefully by following the advice I’ve given you, you can avoid causing  your computer to break down before its time by not making these common computer mistakes.

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this video computer lesson I want to share some tips to help you understand how forms work (including order forms, surveys, newsletter signup forms, etc.).  This covers a lot of fundamentals that more basic computer users often need help with, but also includes tips for how you can use your keyboard and mouse together to navigate more easily and save time and effort — using simple steps that even experienced computer users often aren’t aware of!

In the video I use the order form on my website as an example, but the same principles work on most forms you’ll ever have to fill out on a computer — whether you’re talking about a form on a website, or a form in a program stored locally on your computer which has nothing to do with the Internet.

This lesson will be added as part of a new disc in the updated version of the Safe & Easy Internet computer course (both the Windows and the Mac version). The site doesn’t list it yet, but any orders will include the new disc.

(If you’re watching this video lesson on my website, you should see two players below for compatibility reasons. The first should give you a sharper picture & the option of full-screen on a computer, the second is for mobile devices such as the iPod Touch, iPhone & iPad, and for that reason is the version which goes out on the podcast.)

Click the player below for the high quality computer version:

or tap the image below for the version of  the video lesson formatted for mobile devices:

“Discover How to Use the Internet Safely & Easily With Simple,
Step-By-Step Video Lessons”

Wish you had a complete course to make it easier using the Internet,
from finding what you’re looking for when searching online, to tips
to save time and make you safer? Use one of the two links below for
either the Windows version or the Mac version of the Safe & Easy
Internet course:

How to Use the Internet Apple Mac Course

or

How to Use the Internet Windows PC Course

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Around this time of year people are doing a lot of shopping to buy gifts for others. One of the challenges when buying a gift (or receiving one!) is knowing the right thing to get a person. With some people it’s easy, but for others it can be a real pain to figure out what to get them.

For years I’ve used the wish list on Amazon.com to help people figure out what to get me, and I wish more people would do the same (especially my dad who is really hard to pick presents for!). The great thing about the way the Amazon Wish List works is that by putting a selection of items in the wish list, you can make sure you get something you’d like while gift givers can still feel like they’re picking out a gift for you.

Today I’ve posted a video on how to set up your own wish list — if you have friends or family members who you wish would make your life easier by setting up their own wish list, why not share this lesson with them?

Computer Tip: in the lower right corner of the video player above is a square button which will make the video full screen so you can see the details more easily. To the left of that button is a volume control you can use to make it louder if needed.

“Discover How to Use the Internet Safely & Easily With Simple,
Step-By-Step Video Lessons”

Wish you had a complete course to make it easier using the Internet,
from finding what you’re looking for when searching online, to tips
to save time and make you safer? Use one of the two links below for
either the Windows version or the Mac version of the Safe & Easy
Internet course:

How to Use the Internet Apple Mac Course

or

How to Use the Internet Windows PC Course

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

The following article is another except from Worth’s new book titled “How to Avoid 7 Common & Costly Computer Mistakes – Explained in Plain English” and follows from my previous post where I answered the question “Why Back Up?”

In this article I want to explain one general method for how to back up your computer, namely “incremental backup”.  I won’t go into the many reasons why it is absolutely essential that you back up on a regular basis, but I will give you some recommendations on methods you can use to protect yourself, including information for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac computers.

First off, let’s define “incremental” backups, also known as “versioned” backups. When you create an incremental backup, it is where you are backing up your files in such a way that you have multiple copies of each file, or at least multiple copies of the files that have changed.

Incremental backups can be achieved either “manually”, by burning a new disc each time you backup to CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/etc., or automatically by a backup program.

The benefit of versioned backups is that if you make unwanted changes to a file or it becomes corrupted or otherwise lost, you can go back to an earlier point and retrieve the old version.

First, use either optical disks or USB flash drives or maybe online backup (or all of the above to be extra safe) for your documents and other smaller files which are frequently changed or updated.

This incremental backup should be done on a frequent basis, once a week for the average computer, once a day in an office environment where you have files critical to running your business. This can take as little as five minutes to do and it’s well worth it!

Again, if you use optical discs such as CD or Blu-Ray, don’t use reusable discs but instead burn a fresh disc each time and keep at least the last 2-3 copies as spares.  If you use USB flash drives (or flash memory cards, which are basically the same as far as this goes) you again should rotate between at least two drives so you have a spare copy.

You also don’t have to do incremental backups “manually” like this, as there are backup programs that you can set up once and then they will do this for you automatically.

On the Windows side, the built-in backup software can do this, but the problem is it is notoriously hard to set up and use for most computer users. Fortunately, there is a very simple program I’ve discovered which puts an easy to use “front end” on the Windows backup system that makes it dead simple to use.

The program is called Oops!Backup and while you do have to pay for it, it is a one-time payment (not a yearly or monthly subscription in other words) and very inexpensive. The peace of mind and insurance you get from using it are well worth the low price (under $40 US the last time I checked).

The program will run automatically and back up all of your critical personal files & settings either on a regular hourly basis, or automatically as soon as you plug in a backup drive. You can use either an external hard drive for this, or get a large-capacity USB flash drive or memory card.

On the Mac side there is an incredibly simple to use program called Time Machine which is so simple to set up it literally requires only one click to do with standard settings.  Time Machine works the same basic was as Oops!Backup (in fact, Oops!Backup is designed to be the Windows version of Time Machine according to the company website) and lets you “go back in time” through a simple screen and grab any older version of a file and “bring it forward in time” to replace a lost or damaged file.

Note: Time Machine is not the same thing as Time Capsule. Time Capsule is an physical device which combines a wireless router and a backup (external) hard drive.  Time Machine does not require a Time Capsule, even though Time Capsule was designed with Time Machine in mind (hence the similar names).

In fact, I strongly suggest that you do NOT buy a Time Capsule as they are designed to be left on all the time, which as I mention several times in this report, is a bad idea because it makes the drive less reliable.

In my opinion, I think an external USB or Firewire hard drive is about the best place you can back up your files, but ideally you should leave the drive off when not in use to reduce wear and tear. If you leave it turned on all the time, then the backup drive isn’t really any more reliable than the main drive, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Regardless of which exact method you use to create your backups, make sure you do back your computer regularly; it’s a huge mistake to do otherwise.

If you need more help, take a look at my easy video lesson course on backing up your computer, available for either Mac or Windows computers. In the lessons I show you step by step how to correctly set up use the programs I talk about in the article you just read.

To learn more, click one of the following two links:

How to Back Up – Apple Mac

How to Back Up – Windows PC

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

The following article is an except from Worth’s new book titled “How to Avoid 7 Common & Costly Computer Mistakes – Explained in Plain English”.

Why Back Up?

I’ve seen it over and over again in the many years I’ve been helping people with computers: people – both at home and at work – who never back up their files.

This is a really bad idea, and if you’re guilty of this, I suggest you make a point to start regularly backing up your files.

Let me explain why.

As you may know, every file on your computer – from photos, to music, to email, all of your programs, and even Windows itself, or Mac OS X – everything is stored on a part of the computer called the hard drive.

Hard drives (both the older mechanical ones and the newer “solid state drives” a.k.a. SSDs) are the best technology available to us right now to store files on a computer, but unfortunately they can break down for a lot of reasons. Because of this, pretty much every hard drive will fail eventually.

Anything in a computer, of course, can break down, but the hard drive is one of the most common parts to go.

When this happens, chances are some, if not all of the files on the drive will be lost. Unfortunately most people learn this lesson the hard way, myself included!

Years ago, when I was fresh out of high school, I still owned my first computer which was a few years old by that point. One day I was using my computer when I started hearing a clicking noise from inside the case, and suddenly couldn’t open any of my files — my computer’s hard drive was breaking down!

I quickly realized what was going on and started copying my files as fast as I could to floppy disks (it was around 1990 when this happened).

Hours later, after I don’t know how many floppies, and after hitting “retry” over and over and over, I managed to scrape maybe half of my important files off the drive before it completely fell apart.

I was devastated: I’d lost so much of my early writing (short stories I wrote for myself, plus school work, letters, etc.) and a bunch of other important files that represented years of work.

Imagine the most important things you keep on your computer. I don’t know if this would be your favorite memories in the form of pictures or home videos, important writing, like business or personal emails or Word documents, critical financial records – imagine what it would feel like to watch all of those irreplaceable things just go up in smoke right before your eyes.

I’m a writer, and I lost at least half of my early writing, which I still miss sometimes, over 20 years later!

And I was lucky!

I have seen so many people bring their computers to me with a failing or dead hard drive. I’ve worked on their computers and in some cases I was able to get their files, but a lot of times it was just too late.

They lost everything.

And people don’t lose files just because of hard drives going bad as a natural result of years of use!

Other times, people lose files due to viruses, careless mistakes by someone using the computer who accidentally erases something important, or due to clumsy mistakes such as spilling a liquid onto the computer and frying the hard drive in the process.

The results can be stressful and upsetting if this happens on a personal computer, but it can be fatal to a business: according to the Gartner Group, a major IT research company, the estimate is that “43 percent of businesses fail… following a major disaster and 29 percent fail within the first two to four months.”

Believe me, for a business – and for a lot of home users who keep their tax records, loan info, and other critical financial information on their computer – losing your files can truly be a major disaster.

But it’s so easy to avoid.

If all those people had just taken a few minutes to back up their files on a regular basis, at worst they would’ve lost a few days’ worth of work, or as little as a few hours – however long it was since their last backup!

Now that I’ve explained why back up your computer, do yourself a huge favor and get in the habit of backing up regularly. It’s not hard or time consuming and is well worth it.

It’s almost inevitable that something will go wrong that can cause lost files. Better to be prepared and keep your files than to make the mistake of failing to back up and losing everything as a result.

If you need more help, take a look at my easy video lesson course on backing up your computer, available for either Mac or Windows computers:

How to Back Up – Apple Mac

How to Back Up – Windows PC

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

A reader named David Friedberg writes in with a computer question, asking:

“how do i download emails that have been sent to my Mac using Adobe etc…?

Dave”

Dave,

thanks for the question — you can use the audio player above to listen to my full response, but the basic gist of the answer is this:  any Mac made in the last few years has a built-in program called Preview which should open Adobe PDF (Adobe Reader files) just fine.  You can still go to Adobe.com and download the free Adobe Reader, but Preview should do the trick.

As memory serves, Preview’s PDF capability was included in Mac OS X “Tiger” (version 10.4 in other words) — if your computer is using an older version of OS X, I really recommend upgrading as the older software will leave you “out in the cold” in a lot of ways.

On a Windows PC you also could use Adobe Reader, but honestly I’m not a big fan as Adobe’s software has a lot of security flaws and has some annoying spyware-like tendencies these days.

What I suggest using is Foxit, which you can find by googling “download foxit” — it’s free and lets you read PDF files without some of the problems of Adobe Reader.

I hope that helps.

If you need more help with the basics of using email safely and easily, take a look at my Safe & Easy Email Course which is available for either Windows or Mac computers by using the links below:

Safe & Easy How to Use Email Course for Windows

Safe & Easy How to Use Email Course for Apple Mac

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

A few days ago, I posted an article called Understanding URLs or Web Addresses To Help Be Protected From Phishing Scams which taught you the basics of understanding “URLs” or web addresses, so you could recognize and avoid a common trick used by online scammers to fool people into thinking links in emails were legit.

I strongly recommend reading that article if you haven’t yet, as it contains valuable information to help protect your privacy and security online.

In that article I mentioned an email I’d received which looked like a legitimate email from Amazon.com on the surface, but which was clearly an example of a dangerous phishing scam if you knew what to look for.

Well, as it happens, I recorded a video where you can safely watch as I pick apart the actual scam email I received and listen as I point out all of the warning signs which helped me recognize and avoid this common type of online scam.

I just updated this video and decided to post it here and to my podcast to help you learn how to stay safe online. It clocks in at about 9 minutes long and explains everything in Plain English.

If you’re watching this on my website, you should see two players below for compatibility reasons. The first should give you a sharper picture & the option of full-screen on a computer, the second is for mobile devices such as the iPod Touch, iPhone & iPad, and for that reason is the version which goes out on the podcast.

Click the player below for the high quality computer version:

Tip: in the lower right corner of the video player above is a square button which will make the video full screen so you can see the details more easily. To the left of that button is a volume control you can use to make it louder if needed.

Tap the image below for the mobile version of this video:

If you found this video helpful, imagine how much more benefit you’ll get from hours of quick, easy video lessons like this, explaining computer basics and more in Plain English.

Use the links below to learn more about my quick & easy video lesson CDs.  You can also use the tip I shared in the video above to see the links are legit because they point to pages right here on WorthGodwin.com…

Click for: How to Use Email for Windows PC – Safe & Easy Email Course
or
Click for: How to Use Email for Apple Mac – Safe & Easy Email Course

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

An online scam that almost had me fooled – here’s a tip to protect you

A while back I wrote you about how a number of people had their Apple iTunes account broken into, and I mentioned how this most likely happened due to “phishing scams”.

Phishing scams, of course, are scams where a criminal tries to trick you into entering personal information ranging from username and passwords, to credit card numbers or other information that can be used for identity theft.

Knowledge is the most powerful tool you can use to stay safe. In this email I’ll teach you something about web site addresses which will help protect you against phishing scams and similar threats.  URLs (short for “Uniform Resource Locator” or basically, a website address) can be broken down into smaller parts which can help you understand how they work, which can help you stay safer online.

I recently opened an email which at first glance looked like it came from Amazon.com and was an order confirmation. It looked very official and for a half second, I was totally fooled, despite being very knowledgeable about these things.

[Update: I've added a new post to the blog where I show you the email and go over in plain English exactly how to was able to recognize the scam email - use the link to watch the video]

Now there were a number of things in the email which made me realize it was a scam, but the big tip-off  was that the links in the email didn’t actually point to Amazon.com, although I’m sure if I’d clicked them I would have been taken to a website designed to *look* like Amazon.

Understanding how website addresses work will help you avoid falling for that trick, and it can help make your life easier in general.
Let’s start with the term domain name. We’re not just going to talk about domain names themselves, but also “top level domain names” (TLDs) and “subdomains”.

Not everyone understands what a domain name is, exactly, and some people think they do, but actually misunderstand exactly what it is.  That’s OK — keep reading to make sense  of the computer term, and others related to it.

Phishing scams usually can only fool people if the person doesn’t understand how to read and break down the address of a website into it’s individual parts.  The scammers will make a website address that looks official if you don’t read it carefully or if you don’t understand how the addresses work.

If you can’t read the address properly and can’t tell a real address from a fake one, then you can get into real trouble.

Let’s take a look at the parts that make up a website address so you understand it better. We’ll use a real & legitimate website address as an example.

When you’re looking at a website address, it typically has a format something like the following (note – the example is not a link)

www.worthgodwin.com/computer-training-cds/

You’ll notice is has a few sections to the address, so let’s break it down into parts, using the above address as an example.

www — this is the “subdomain” and despite popular belief, it is optional, and also does not have to be “www”. “www” is by far the most common subdomain, but pretty much anything could be a subdomain, or you can even leave it off in most cases.
But the bottom line is you can set it to anything you want, including something potentially deceptive.

worthgodwin — in the above example, this is the actual domain name. Typically the domain name is the name of the business or organization that runs the site, or it is descriptive of what the site is about.

This has to be purchased, and has to be unique, so you can’t use someone else’s domain without their permission.

.COM — this is the “TLD” or top level domain name. .com is by far the most common, but there are many others. The TLD is supposed to give the visitor an idea what broad category the site should fit into.

.Com means commercial, (although many non-commercial sites use it) .org is some kind of organization like a non-profit organization, etc.

Each country has it’s own TLD, too, like .US for the United States, .UK for the United Kingdom, .IN for India, etc.

Many of the TLDs are pretty casual — i.e. you can use whatever you want, even if it’s not an exact match for your type of site.

But some of them are very carefully restricted, such as .GOV for US government, .MIL for military, .EDU for actual schools or universities, etc.

/computer-training-cds/ — the last part of the address above refers to a folder, just like a folder on your computer. This is normally used to indicate a specific section of the site, and in this case is the main page with information about my computer training CDs.

If you are setting up your own site, keeping it organized like this can help Google figure out what your site is about, and help you get the visitors you want.

So now that you have a better understanding of the individual parts of a web address, how does this relate to protecting against phishing scams?

Well, first off, anytime you see a link in an email, you can put your mouse pointer over it and see where the link will take you.  If the link doesn’t match the supposed sender, that’s a dead giveaway.

So if the email is supposed to be from Amazon.com, but the link actually points to someplace completely different, do not click on the link!

But some scammers get a little more clever with it and will make the link point to something like:

amazon.fakesite.com

See what they did there?

If you look at that with understanding of website addresses, you’ll see the fake address has Amazon in the address, but it’s the *subdomain* not the domain name!

That should clearly tell you that the site is NOT Amazon.com, but someone who doesn’t understand the difference could fall for that trick very easily.

And that’s the tip I wanted to share with you to help keep you safe.

One last thing — I mentioned you can put your mouse pointer over a link and leave it there for a moment to see where the link will take you.

On most email programs and web browsers, the link address will show up on the very bottom of the window in something called the “status bar”. If you don’t see the status bar at the bottom of your email window, look in the “View” menu and you should see an option to show or hide the status bar.  The exact location of this menu option varies from one program to the next, but it’s generally found in the View menu somewhere.

The one big exception to this is newer versions of the Mac OS X Mail program did away with the status bar and instead the address will show up in a “tool tip” which is like a little word bubble which appears after a second or two when you put your mouse pointer over the link.

Why not test this tip out with the links below.  The links take you to my website to a page where you can find out more about my easy video lesson CD course on Safe and Easy Email — included in the lessons is a lot more info on protecting yourself online (including video lessons showing you more like what I talked about in this article), plus simple basics of how to use email and more.

Here are the links to try out:

If you have a PC running any version of Windows:

Microsoft Windows How to Use Email Safely

If you have an Apple Mac computer running OS X:

Apple Mac How to Use Email Safely

When you put your pointer over either link you’ll see it points directly to my website and so is safe to click.

I hope that helps, and that you stay safe and have a great day.

Until next time, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity For This Complex Modern World

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic behind a car with one of those custom license plates like “LUVYZ1″ and you’re scratching your head for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what on Earth it’s supposed to mean?

I was doing that earlier today on my way home and it made me think of a computer tip I thought I’d share with you to make your computer more organized and easier to use.

Back in the day when I first got into computers, the names of files on your computer were a lot like custom car license plates: you had a very limited amount of space to name the file and so you were forced to come up with weird
abbreviations just like you see on license plates.

To this day I still have a few really old Word files which have names such as “MITYLIKE.DOC” where I had to try to describe what the file was in the 8 characters I was given to do so. (If you’re not sure what I mean by “characters”, that’s the term that includes letters, numbers, and punctuation)

If you’re wondering, the above example is a short story I wrote in 1990 or so which was inspired by The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a classic short story written by James Thurber which also made into a film starring Danny Kaye.

Knowing that, you can see why I named the file MITYLIKE, and can probably also see why I wished I could’ve given it a longer and more descriptive name?

So what does this have to do with make your computer more organized and easier you might be wondering?

Well, something I’ve noticed over the many years I’ve been helping people with their computers is that most people don’t take advantage of the ability to use descriptive file names, and they’re making things harder on themselves as a result.

Now this is no criticism at all if you’re making this computer mistake yourself, but that’s why I’m writing this to help you.

You see, in the 1990s, the maximum length for file names went up a lot from the old 8 character name plus 3 character extension for DOS or Windows PCs, and the 31 character limit older Apple Mac computers had to a total of 255 characters.

(The “extension” is the end part after the dot, such as .DOC which is used to tell the computer what type of file it is, such as a Word DOCument.)

These “long file names” give you the ability to give useful & descriptive file names which can make your life easier when organizing and locating files.

You can name (or rename) a file by clicking once on the name of the file (not the icon!) pausing a moment, then clicking again and you should see the name get highlighted.

Note: this is *not* the same as double-clicking the file name. This is a single click, a short pause, then a second single click with the left button on your mouse.

You can then type in a nice long descriptive file name such as “Unnamed short story inspired by “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.doc”, which I’m sure you’ll agree is much easier to recognize than “MITYLIKE.DOC”!

And don’t worry about counting the letters in the name while you’re typing; your computer won’t let you type any more than you’re allowed.

I also suggest you might put a date or maybe a version number into the file name, especially if you keep different drafts of a document.  If you do this you’ll want to write the date something like 7-7-2011 rather than 7/7/2011 as the / character is not allowed on Windows PCs (and I recommend this for Mac users too to make the name more compatible in case you ever send it to a Windows computer).

One last thing is, as I mentioned above, the extension (such as .doc) is there for a reason and you should leave that part as-is.  Many newer computers will automatically help you avoid accidentally changing that part of the file name, but not all do.

By taking advantage of the long filenames allowed by modern computers, you can help yourself more easily recognize what a file is, and it can help turn up the file you’re looking for if you do a search on your computer for information you’re needing, that photo you want to look at, and so on.

Hopefully these tips will help you get more out of your computer and make your life a little easier. I’ve used these suggestions myself for many years now and and very glad that I did. Really has made my life easier on many occasion.

Remember, if you do need more help with this, I show you step-by-step how to do all of this and much more on my computer basics video lesson CDs.

If you don’t already have these CDs, they are video recordings of the actual screens of the computer where you get to see each click of the mouse and sit back and watch every step while my voice comes from your computer’s speakers, walking you through the entire thing in simple Plain English.

While each easy lesson CD has an hour of material, individual lessons are 30 minutes or less, with most being just 5-15 minutes long so it’s easy to learn at your own pace.

You can find out more on my site and even place a secure order if you want by using one of the following two links:

Fundamental Windows Computer Skills – Training CDs

or

Fundamental Apple Mac Computer Skills – Training CDs

Either way, until next time, take care, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity For This Complex Modern World

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

This latest computer question & answer comes from Mavis Wood who writes:

“I have PeoplePC news in my Bookmarks, and I read that news every day.  But each category headline has the words “Back to Top” super-imposed on it.  That makes the headline very difficult to read.  My computer geek doesn’t know how to erase that or how to move it up or down so that it isn’t on top of what I want to read.

Also, each time I read a news story and click the “Go Back One Page” arrow, I always end up back at the top. I wish it would come back to where I had been when I clicked on a story I wanted to read. There are always many stories I like to read about at that site.

Thanks so much for your time and patience.

Mavis”

I’ve seen that kind of thing before, where the text is overlapping like that, and it usually means the webpage was not written well for compatibility with whichever web browser you’re using. Sometimes you can fix the problem by making the web browser window wider or more narrow.

If you’re not already using it, I strongly recommend using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.  If you’re using Firefox or any browser which supports “tabbed browsing”, one thing you can do is right-click the headline (control-click for Mac users) you want to read and you’ll see a menu pop up which includes the option “open in new tab” or words to that effect.  Use this to open the headline in a new tab in the same window and then just close the tab when you’re done and you’ll still have the original list open.

Listen to the audio for the more complete version of this computer question & answer lesson.

For step-by-step video lessons on how to use tabbed browsing and a lot more that makes your web browsing experience safer & easier, take a look at my

Basics of How to Use the Internet CDs for Apple Mac

or

Basics of How to use the Internet CDs for Windows

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.

In this audio lesson I’ll be answering a computer question from Gold Club member Peter Proud, who asks:

“Good morning,
Having subscribed to your tutorials I now am having a problem of my own.
I am using windows xp on my laptop and when go to use Internet Explorer get “navigation to webpage was cancelled”.
I can still use Google for the net but would appreciate any advice you can offer to solve this problem. Regards,

Peter”

Well Peter,

It sounds to me as if your Internet connection is working just fine since you’re able to use Google, so my guess is that whatever webpage you are using as your homepage (the first page that opens when you open up your web browser window) is having a problem.  This may resolve itself, or you may need to change your homepage.

On a different but important & related note, I strongly suggest you do not use Internet Explorer for your web browser as it is not the most secure program in the world; you’re much better off using Mozilla Firefox which you can download and install for free from Mozilla.com.

As a side benefit, installing this may fix the problem you’re having too.  One thing to nearly guarantee it will fix it: when you install Firefox, during the setup it will ask you if you want to import your home page from Internet Explorer or use the one provided by Mozilla — if you choose the option to NOT import the one from IE (it’s OK to have the program import/bring over the other stuff such as your bookmarks) it will move you to a new homepage which has the Google search built right in and should avoid the problem you’re writing about.

I hope that makes sense.  Listen to the audio lesson to get the more detailed answer to this computer question.

For easy, step-by-step lessons on using the Web take a look at my

Basics of How to Use the Internet CDs for Apple Mac

or

Basics of How to use the Internet CDs for Windows

Audio and video lessons also available via computer training podcast.