Tag Archives: mouse

Using Paint to make a photo collage

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Microsoft Paint
Image via Wikipedia

You’ll need to resize your photos to the final image size you want in a free program like Irfanview. Paint can’t do this.

One of the best ways to collect photos and to send them is the photo collage. Most people’s minds veer off the idea of making a photo collage. It seems too hard to contemplate. But it’s not hard. It’s fun!

There are tons of software programs, some free, available for download on the net that can help you create a photo collage that works. But in actuality, a little work with your friendly Paint program, usually installed on your hard drive, is all you need. It’s not as easy to control the final image size, but putting together a collage in Paint is easy.

Open a new Paint file, click the bottom right-hand corner dot and drag down and to the right to make the page the size you want. You can repeat this process to make it bigger and bigger. If you want a background that’s a different colour from the automatic white one, choose the colour you want from the colour toolbar, click the paint bucket icon, then click inside the page. This colour can be changed later using the same process.

Get all the photos you want together in a single folder, using thumbnails to view them at a glance. Right-click on the first photo and choose “Open with Paint.” From “Edit,” choose “Select All,” then “Copy.” Go back to your original collage page and choose “Paste” from “Edit.” Your photo will appear on the page and you can drag it to where you’d like it.

Continue the process with the other photos until you’ve finished your collage. By working with your picture programs, you’ll quickly become adept at your new hobby.

There is a new free way to create a collage video now. Try Animoto

You can see my quick test here.

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The complete beginner on a PC part 1

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Believe it or not, there are still people who are afraid of technology and the older we are the less likely we will be technologically savvy. So here is the first section of a PDF ebook I once wrote. I have tutorials on making ebooks with HTML and PDF.

History of computers.
In brief:

* Previously, the DOS system was the main operating system for IBM-type computers (ie non-Apple computers)

*DOS was developed mainly for engineers and programmers, and required the user to type complex commands onto the screen. If you made a typing mistake, or failed to specify some link in the chain of command, DOS refused to co-operate.

* Windows was revolutionary in developing a flexible ‘user-friendly’ system for ordinary people that allowed users to point and click at icons (little pictures) of programs or other items to activate them and make other choices

* Most programs nowadays- for word-processing / accounting / design / record-keeping
etc – are written for Windows, and all are presented in a similar way, so that experience in one program can help you understand most others

* Windows 95/98/NT/XP is one version of this operating system, and is the one that we’ll be using. Windows 2000 operates slightly differently.

MS Office 97 (Most of these instructions still apply to MS Office 2000)

This is a suite or family of programs developed by Microsoft, and consists mainly of

Word for word-processing – letters, books, faxes, posters etc

Excel for spreadsheets and calculations/book-keeping

PowerPoint for slide shows and presentations

Access for keeping records (database)

Word-processing is the most popular function of computers for most people, and we will learn the basic operations for this powerful and interesting program first.

The Desktop

computerdesktop.jpg

This is the screen you see when you first switch on your computer. It will look more or less the same, depending on what programs are installed.

Opening a program – 3 ways

1. Using the Start button

Click on the word Start in the bottom LHS of the screen, then click on Programs, then choose Microsoft Word

2. Clicking on the program icon (small picture), if it has been installed

Find the Microsoft Word icon on the desktop, and double-click on it

The Start Button

The Start button shows you everything installed on your computer, arranged into categories.

* You can quickly get help

* You can ask the computer to find documents for you

* You can change or modify the look of your screen, date, time, colors etc (Control Panel)

* You can see at a glance all (and open) the programs installed on your computer

* You can open some of the most recent documents that you’ve been working on

Explore this button, but remember that the menu of contents will look a little different to some other computers – it depends what is actually installed on it.


Starting to use Word

The sequence of skills to learn:

* Using the mouse using the left mouse button to ‘point & click’

* Understanding the screen menu bar, toolbars etc

* Basic typing becoming familiar with the keyboard

* Correcting your work using Backspace, Delete and Enter keys

* Highlighting the key to more advanced operations

* Saving keeping you work for next time

* Formatting making your work look attractive

BEGINNING TO TYPE

For simple typing, we need to use the keyboard as well as the mouse (‘point & click’). You need to become familiar with the keyboard, where the keys are, and how to use some of the special keys. I’ve listed them below, and if you practise typing some of the samples here, you will use some of these special keys.

Important parts of the keyboard

Shift shift key + letter makes a capital

Spacebar for spaces between words

Caps Lock makes EVERYTHING CAPITAL

Enter makes a new line

Backspace removes a character to the left

Delete removes a character to the right

Arrow keys move around the document

Or … Use the mouse!

THE MOUSE

We use the mouse to ‘point & click’ (or double-click) to make choices.
It should become an automatic extension of your hand rather than a foreign object.
Rest your hand lightly on it, with your index finger lightly on the LH button.
The RH button is used in more advanced work, for shortcuts, so avoid it for now.

Note: the mouse arrow / I-beam is called the cursor

When you click in any place, you get a vertical blinking line; this is then called the insertion point, and shows where text will next appear.

Posture

* adjust the chair so the back is straight and close to vertical

* adjust the keyboard height to a fairly low position

* try a piano-style hand-position, using as many fingers as possible

* stretch, rest your eyes and move around if you get tired at the computer

Typing rules

* one space after a comma, colon or semi-colon

* two spaces after a full stop, question-mark or exclamation mark

* no spaces between last letter and any punctuation

* Press Enter only when a new line is required, eg for a new paragraph

* Never use the spacebar (ie multiple times) to position text on the page!

How to make a tube in paint shop pro if image has a white background

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Adobe Photoshop CS2 – How to Manage Your Images

I subscribe to google alerts. Google tells me every time someone searches for one of my keywords. In this case it took me to another site and not my own. I was surprised to see it was about how to make a tube but in a much easier way than I do it. My methods are on my site here.

I’ve just checked out this tutorial and it only works if your background is white.

1. Open a picture with a white background in psp.

2. In Layers, you will see Background. Right click on this and select Duplicate.

3. You now have two layers of the same image. Click on the Magic wand and select the new image. Click the Magic Wand on any part of the white background while clicking the Delete key at the same time. It looks like nothing happened but it has.

4. Go to Layers again and right click the layer marked as Background, then delete. You will now see some ants round the image and a grey and white background.

5. Export that to your Tubes folder. Go to File> Export> Picture tube. Name it. You can now close the image.

6. To test the tube, open a new image about 200×200 pixels. Go to the picture tube icon.

picturetubeicon.gif

Find the tube you just made and click on the new image you just opened. Bingo!

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