Hello All,
Here are my Notes from the 05/17/2020 meeting of SLO Bytes' Photo Group
TOPIC: Still-life Photography - subjects could include household items like plants, bottles, vases and items in your garage. Let your creative skills come to the surface with unique lighting, composition and digital manipulation. The meeting took place via Zoom

Ralph Sutter opened the meeting by calling attention to two new resources on the Photography web site, www.slobytes.org/digital/links.html.
They were
   PhotoStage; a freeware slideshow creator; https://dl.4kdownload.com/app/4kslideshowmaker_1.8.1_x64.msi?source=website
   Thanks to Stanford Brown for the reference
   Video Backdrops from British TV; https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/empty_sets_collection/zfvy382
   Thanks to Ron Jeffries for this link

Ralph then presented a series of images of ripening bananas and a collection of belts
Alan Raul followed offering a tour of the new park at Shell Beach focusing on the light standards
Bob Styerwalt shared photos of plants and tools
Connie Sutter focused on a single crystal vase shown from different angles and in different lights
Kaye Raul also incorporated vases accompanied by fruits
John Waller showed family heirlooms and objects from travel abroad

The next meeting will take place on June 14th at 2:00pm
The topic is Animals; please share images of fauna that walk the earth, fly the skies or swim the seas

A Zoom invitation will be e-mailed to Photo Group members shortly before the meeting.
The meeting schedule for the remainder of 2020 is as follows
   July 12th
   August 9th
   September 13th
   October 11th
   November 8th
   December 13th

Ralph Sutter

Hello All,
What follows is a re-post of an e-mail that I received from Judy Taylour of SLO Bytes' parent organization, APCUG
Ralph Sutter

APCUG is pleased to announce that we will be having online workshops during the summer and fall.

Getting to Know Windows from An Insiders Point of View

The second Wednesday of the month at:
9 am PT
 
May 13, 2020
June 10, 2020
July 8, 2020
August 12, 2020
 
Moderator: Bill James, APCUG Advisor, Region 8
 
The four 2-hour workshops will be on how to get the best out of Windows 10. There will be how-tos, hands-on demos, and discussion with ample time for Q&A.
 
Week 1
What’s new with Windows 10, the 2004 Spring feature update.
Have you customized your Start menu, Taskbar, and Notifications? What are those  Hidden Icons? How can I immediately get back to my Desktop? Can you easily see your mouse pointer? How about the Display text size? We’ll also take a look at the powerful Search options.
 
Week 2
Settings
We’ll explore the many options you can change to make your computer more secure. Do you know how much Ram you have? What version of Windows? What about the Security & Update area, do you take a look at every once in a while?
Do you check your custom settings after the spring and fall Feature update?
 
Week 3
File Explorer
Back-in-the-day, Bill Gates told us to think of our hard drive as a file cabinet and to organize our files. File Explorer is our handy file cabinet. We’ll dig into File Explorer to see how it can help us with our daily life with our computer. Have you added the helpful checkbox?
 
Week 4
Edge
It’s now a Chromium-based browser. It brings a lot of new features to the table. We will explore all of them and find out if it is the best browser. We’ll also learn how to earn $$ by using Bing.
 
We will use the same Zoom password encrypted meeting URL for each workshop. You will receive the URL after you have registered by completing this form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehQt_aRFj8YItG4tWFPVSzv4byHbcFRIqTtF8ssX_vuoFu3Q/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

Judy will be the contact point for these workshops and will be available to assist you in connecting to the Zoom sessions.

The registration list will be used to identify everyone in the Waiting Room before being admitted to the session.
 
The next series of workshops will be on Home Automation for Seniors – same time, same place on:
September 9, 2020
October 14, 2020
November 11, 2020
December 9, 2020     

Week 1 - Why do I need it?
Week 2 - Where do I start?
Week 3 - Lights, doorbells, locks, and cameras
Week 4 - Doing It Myself vs Having It Done
 
We will begin by explaining why home automation is important to Seniors. What products are on the market, costs, security, and some real-world testimonials. In the second week, we will talk about how to go about planning your home automation project and best practices. In the third week, we will talk about applications using lights, doorbells, locks, and cameras. Lastly, we will talk about the benefits of making it a DIY project or having a professional install.

Hello All,
This is a re-posting of a notice that I received from Judy Taylour of SLO Bytes' parent organization, APCUG
Ralph Sutter

VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE (VTC)
Saturday, May 2
10:00 – 1:00 PT
 
APCUG's Virtual Technology Conferences are FREE!

Registration closes @ 11:30 PM ET on May 1
•   Attend using your computer, tablet or phone with the Zoom.us app.
•   Download the app for the device you will be using at:
https://zoom.us/download
 
Test your mic and speakers at: https://zoom.us/test
•   Sessions are 50 minutes with time for Q&A
•   Register once via Eventbrite;
•   You do not need an Eventbrite account to attend the conference
•   You do not need a Zoom account to attend the VTC
•   Before the event, you will receive an email with directions and links for attending Tracks 1, 2 and 3. The links are encrypted, please do not share them with anyone.
•   Day of conference, after connecting via Zoom, it is very helpful if you sign into each presentation you attend via the Chat Box; first and last name you used to register at Eventbrite.
•   Why? If all of the questions aren’t answered during the session, the rest of the answers will be sent to you. Or, there might be a handout.
Register at Eventbrite; https://apcug2.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2cbe3397fb80bd3345cfd3e8f&id=960bdf965e&e=de35115502
 More information at:  https://www.apcug2.org

Questions: Contact virtualconferences@apcug.org
 
TRACK 1
10:00 AM PT
Let's Go Shopping
Ron Brown, Program Chair, Silvercom Computer & Technology Club
Ron will discuss shopping apps that your favorite grocery store uses and show some interesting things you can do with the Walmart software. Navigating the Amazon Eco System with Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Deals of the Day, and Amazon Prime Day can be challenging. Ron will cover how to pay on-line, return items, and get your warranties. 

1100 AM PT
Audible
Hewie Poplock, APCUG Rep, Central Florida Computer Society & Sarasota Technology User Group; Chromebook Evangelist
Many people, especially seniors, are finding more free time while confined to their homes. One technology that is not often considered is audiobooks. Reading becomes more difficult as we age. Listening to someone read has become very accessible. There are many ways to get professionally read books for free, inexpensively, or by subscription. Hewie will give a brief background and then provide ways to find thousands of audiobooks. He will also provide a few sample excerpts of books to illustrate the quality of audiobooks.
 
Track 2
10:00 AM PT
A hearing revolution with healthable devices
Dr. Rachele Orsini, Au.D, Central Florida Field Representative
Starkey Hearing Technologies
Today’s technology is more advanced than ever before with artificial intelligence and sensors leading the way and changing lives in many areas including healthcare. Hearing technology has always been an effective and proven solution for individuals with hearing loss but what if we could do more with an ear worn device? At Starkey we are the first and only manufacturer with a life changing healthable device that incorporates Artificial Intelligence and Sensors that do more than just improve hearing.
We have started a hearing revolution with healthable devices that do more for us….they go beyond the traditional hearing aid. Did you ever think that your hearing device would track your physical movements, provide you with a daily brain engagement score, detect a fall and send alerts, answer to voice commands, translate 27 languages in real time and much, much more. This session will highlight who is Starkey and why you should rethink your hearing healthcare with a healthable.

11:00 AM PT
Digitize old album photos into Google Photos and Chromecast to TV
Chris and Jim Guld, Geeks On Tour
Is technology passing you by? Jim and Chris are here to help. Their presentation will show us how to digitize our old album photos into Google Photos and Chromecast them to our TV. Sounds like a great project while we are staying safer in place.

TRACK 3
12:00 PM PT
What's happening with your group while everyone is staying safer in place? Let's share what we are doing with our groups? Meeting via Zoom or another online app? Streaming via Facebook or YouTube? Members are afraid of anything online. Over-thinking how to start having meetings via Zoom? Let's help each other through this crisis and, at the end, still have members who want to attend meetings.

Hello All,

I wrote the following tutorial explaining how one can change the order in which the outstanding freeware image editor, Irfanview, displays images

Irfanview is a powerful free image viewer and much more.

I use it as my default program to open image files.

With Irfanview as my default image viewer, when I click on an image, for example a .jpg file, Irfanview opens the file.

If I want to see the file full screen, I press the Enter key.  The image now covers the entire screen

To display the next image in a file, I press the Right Arrow key.  To go back, I press the Left Arrow key.

To exit full screen display, I press the ESC key

To configure the order in which Irfanview displays images, go to the File Tab of Irfanview and click on Thumbnails

This will open the Irfanview Thumbnails window

In the Irfanview Thumbnails window, click on Options then Sort Thumbnails

This will present the following options
Sort by
    Name
   Date
   EXIF Date (date taken)
   File Size
   File Extension
   Image Width
   Image Height
   Image DPI
   Image Megapixels
   Portrait/Landscape
   No Sort
Choose the desired option and then hide or close Irfanview Thumbnails

When you return to Irfanview (not Irfanview Thumbnails) and press the Right or Left arrow key, the next image will appear according to the sorting choice you made in Irfanview Thumbnails

Ralph Sutter

Hello All,
How to Control Microsoft Magnifier
Microsoft offers a tool, Magnifier, that, when enabled, allows the user to enlarge the screen incrementally. 
I find to be a quite useful tool when I am presenting to a large group of people and I wish to highlight a particular part of my screen.

With Magnifier enabled, you can enlarge the screen by holding down the Windows Key and pressing the + key.
To reduce magnification, hold down the Windows Key and press the - key

I only use Magnifier when others are viewing my screen.  In normal usage, I don’t need or want Magnifier to be active. 

I could close the application by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner and Magnifier would close until I manually opened it again.
  Note that Start Magnifier at Startup does not always appear as an option on this screen.  In testing, I found that sometimes it did, other times it didn’t.

With the option, Start Magnifier at Startup not visible, I restarted my computer. Magnifier enabled itself on Startup.
I searched on line for how to change this behavior and found some information at
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-windows_programs/how-do-i-stop-magnifier-initialising-at-startup/b014e91d-8f89-4c8e-a487-d92e1feb3699

I followed the steps set forth but when I restarted my computer, Magnifier still launched at Startup.

At that point, I did some searching on my own.
To configure Magnifier so that it doesn’t launch at Startup I did the following
In the Search Box the magnifying glass icon (just to the right of the Start Button) type Ease of Access Magnifier Settings

Uncheck the box Start Magnifier after Sign-in

As advertised, with this change, Magnifier will not start automatically the next time that you restart Windows.

If you want to call up Magnifier, type Magnifier in the Search Box.

The application may or may not automatically start up automatically when you reboot your computer

Ralph Sutter

Changing the Default Address Book in Microsoft Outlook

My e-mail client is Microsoft Outlook, part of the Microsoft Office 365 Package.

It has always frustrated me that when I click on the Address Book icon, I see the Global Address Book.  In that address book, my e-mail address is the only one listed.  This is apparently normal because I run Outlook on an Exchange Server and I am the only "employee" in my "organization"

If I want to insert the e-mail address of anyone else, I have to open the drop down menu and select Contacts.

A Google search revealed that this behavior can be changed.

In Outlook, from the Home Tab, click on Address Book.  When it opens, click first on Tools and then on Options

Select the radio button Start with Contact Folders rather than Start with Global Address List.  If you want more choices, select the Custom radio button.

Next time that you click on Addresses, your Contacts, not the Global Address Book will appear.

Microsoft goes into more detail at the link that follows

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/change-the-default-address-book-84c7be39-282a-4096-aeb8-89a2661a5162

Ralph Sutter

Hello All,

I have uploaded my SLO Bytes Second Session presentation to my personal web site. 
It contains a written description and a video screen capture showing how I used Windows Media Player
to extract audio from CDs and save it in .mp3 format.
View the notes at www.fullbean.com/tutorials/wmp.docx
Watch the screen capture video on Youtube at https://youtu.be/OY5KSgmXwjA

Ralph Sutter