Computer Times
For the Beginner
A Champagne Presentation On A Beer Budget
This article is for beginners who want to give a nice looking presentation on their computer but don't want to invest in a fancy presentation graphics software package or a high-end multimedia system. In this article we show you how to create a knock-out presentation with your word processor, which is usually standard software on most PC's.
A key ingredient for a nice presentation is visuals (clipart, photos, screen shots, etc.). You can capture these from the World Wide Web quite easily. Simply point to the photo with your mouse pointer, RIGHT click (that's the opposite button from what you usually use), and select copy from the pull down menu. Then, you simply open the application where you wish to paste the image and select Edit/Paste.
Another way to acquire some nice images for your presentation is by using the Print Screen key to capture any image showing on your screen. This lets you capture images of Web sites, news photos from online services, screen shots of software you are running on your computer, etc. All you need to do is press the Print Screen key (found at the top right of your keyboard). When you do this, a copy of whatever is on your screen is captured to the Windows clipboard. If you want to use the full image, you can simply click on Edit/Paste in any Windows word processor to paste the image into your document. If you only want a portion of the screen image, use the Windows accessory Paint (or Paintbrush) to cut out just the portion you want and then Edit/Copy it to the clipboard before you paste it into your document.
Now that you know how to get some nice images into your word processing document, all you need is to type in the text of your presentation. We suggest you use a rather large font for your text - Arial bolded at 36 point is very easy to read. Set your page layout to no margins. Then, type out each page of your presentation and add your images from the Internet, or insert clipart images from your word processor. Use only the top half of the word processing page.
To show your presentation:
1. Set your word processor viewing image of the page at a size large enough where only the top half of each page shows (the area where you placed your text and images).
2. Clean up your word processor screen by turning off all toolbars and rulers (an option usually found under the View menu).
3. Using the key commands for your word processor (usually Ctrl-Page Down or Alt-Ctrl Page Down), step through your presentation pages.
By experimenting with font sizes, image size, page layout, and screen features, you can give a million-dollar presentation with a simple Windows word processor This gives you an inexpensive way of presenting sales pitches, training, recipe instructions, and a host of other items.
Till next month...
Happy Computing! J
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Encoding / Decoding Graphic Files
Have you ever browsed through the Internet Newsgroups and found an interesting message title, clicked on it to read the message, but you ended up with a lot of weird text that looked like this?
BEGIN -- Cut Here -- cut here
begin 644 charlene.jpg
M_]C_X``02D9)1@`!`@$`2`!(``#_[1#F4&AO=&]S:&]P(#,N,``X0DE-`^T`
M`````!``2`````$``0!(`````0`!.$))30/S```````(```````````X0DE-
M!`H```````$``#A"24TG$. . .
Don't panic. There is nothing wrong with your computer. It is simply a graphic file that has been converted to text. You might also receive a similar file from a friend as an attachment to an e-mail message. The weird text shown above is the beginning of a text file used to create the picture charlene.jpg shown at the left.
To see the picture, though, the text file had to be decoded using a special software package developed to decode text files. Why, you may ask, don't they just send the graphic file through the Internet? Why convert it to text in the first place?
The problem lies in the capabilities of Internet e-mail and the Usenet Newsgroups. These two systems cannot handle graphic files. They can only handle text. That means you must convert (encode) any graphic files you may want to send from their standard graphic format to a text file. So, how do you do this?
Online services, like America Online (AOL), will generally convert most images automatically, depending how they have been saved and attached to your e-mail. Also, you can get commercial programs like Conversions Plus, from Dataviz, that will automatically convert these files.
If you are using a "plain vanilla" set of software and a "no frills" Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides no capability for image conversions, you could use one of the freeware programs designed to encode/decode a graphic file. You can find free encode/decode programs on most BBS's and online services. Computer user groups are also a good source. One good encode/decode program is Wincode.
For this review, we went to the Internet and searched on the keyword Wincode. Among the many sites listed was http://www.cae.wisc.edu/software/pages/wincode.v2.6 , which had a hot link to download Wincode.
When you download Wincode, and many other useful programs, you will usually get a zipped file with the extension ZIP (i.e., WINCODE.ZIP). Zipped files are files that contained several smaller files. Before you download a zipped file, be sure to create a brand new folder (directory) where you can save your downloaded zipped file. For Wincode, you may want to create a folder called WINCODE. Then, save the downloaded zipped file to the new folder. This will keep all of the files contained in the zipped file together in one folder.
To unzip a zipped file you can use PKUNZIP.EXE, which is a common program found on BBS's, at various Internet sites, and distributed with many software programs. You may already have a copy of PKUNZIP on your computer. To find out if you do, click on Start, Find, Files or Folders, and search for PKUNZIP on the C: drive. If your search finds a copy of PKUNZIP, you can use Explorer to drag it from the Find window to the new folder (i.e. WINCODE) which you created earlier.
To use PKUNZIP, assuming your zipped file is in the WINCODE directory, click on the Windows 95/98 Start button, select Run, and then type the following into the text box: C:\WINCODE\PKUNZIP yourfile.zip. (Substitute the actual name of your zip file.) This will unzip the zipped file and copy each of the zipped programs into the WINCODE folder. Double click on the Install.exe file to install Wincode.exe. Once installed you double-click Wincode.exe to bring up its very friendly window (shown here). To decode a file from text to graphic format, click on the menu item File/Decode, and select the file you want to decode.
Occasionally, you will find encoded graphic files on the Internet in several parts. For example, a large graphic file that was encoded and split up into three text files would have the files labeled (1/3, 2/3, 3/3). You need to copy all three files from the Internet to your hard drive and decode the first file. Wincode will automatically use all three files to complete the one large graphic file.
Most graphic files on the Internet will be decoded to JPG format. To view JPG files, you will need a graphics program or a JPG viewer which can be found on most BBS's and online services.
Have fun on the Internet.
Till next month ... Happy Computing! J
To find great prices on hardware and software we recommend you start with
Office Depot. Just click on the Office Depot ad below and you will be connected directly with Office Depot on the Internet.
Till next month . . .
Happy Computing! J