Question: I have enjoyed learning more about using Excel and have found quite a few additional uses for Excel that at first I did not think possible. For example, I have used Excel to set up calendar pages, using the columns for the days of the week and the rows for the weeks of the month. This has been helpful in setting up assignments pages for students. But I feel there must be a better way to enter the days of the week and the days of the month. Can you help?

Answer: The designers of Excel must have had uses such as this in mind and for such uses the designers included some amazing shortcuts. To see one of these shortcuts in action, key in the following example:

1. Open a blank Excel workbook and in Cell A2, key in “Sunday:

2. If you look closely at cell A2 you will see when it is selected that there is a small square in the lower right corner. You will also note than when you place the mouse pointer over that small square, it turns into a “plus sign.” With that plus sign displayed, hold the left mouse button down and drag to cell G2.

3. As you can see, Excel “knew” you were going to enter the days of the week and by dragging across the row, Excel did the data entry for you. You probably already have guessed that if you were to drag the little square into column H that “Sunday” would appear in cell H2, and the series would be continued. But we still have the days of the month to enter. Place a “1” in cell A3 and drag the square to the right to column G.

4. As you see, Excel wasn’t certain what you meant by entering the “1”, so chose to play it safe and just duplicate the “1” in the next six columns of row 3. But there is an easy way around that. First delete the “1’s” in B3 through G3 and then key in a “2” in B3. Then select both cell B3 and C3 and drag the little square to the right to include cell G3. Now Excel knows what you meant in the first place.

5. There are several ways to follow to complete the calendar. Obviously you could key in a “8” in A4 and a “9” in B4, select A4 and B4 and drag to G4 and then continue this process until the calendar is complete. However, there is another way. To see it in action, key in an “8” in A4, select A3 and A4, and drag the plus sign down to A7.

6. As you see, Excel continued the series, counting by 7’s, and entered the days of the month for the Sundays of that month. Using the same steps, let Excel enter the days of the month for the Tuesdays.

7. Now to get Excel to enter the rest of the days, select the cells from A3 diagonally through B7, drag the little square to the right through column G and see what happens.

8. It is obvious that some of the cells in row 7 will be cleared because at my last check there were no months with more than 31 days. But with Pluto no longer being a planet, who knows?

Hope that helps with data entry. The designers of Excel certainly appear to have been very interested in helping us reduce the tedium in data entry.

–Norman Bell, Co-Editor

Question: In the last issue you highlighted the freeware program CutePDF. Could you please provide instructions on how to use this program?

Answer: CutePDF is a a great freeware program that allows you to create quality PDF files. We are providing links to a few tutorials that will help you with downloading the program as well as use it. The first link is to a PDF file that explains both of these and the next two links are video tutorials.

Instructions on Downloading and Using CutePDF

Video Tutorial on Downloading CutePDF

Video Tutorial on Using CutePDF

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Question: A few weeks ago there were several warnings about the Blackworm virus (also known as Nyxem.E, Blackdoom, Kama Sutra, or MyWife) infecting computers and wiping out many different file types. I’m usually very cautious about opening email attachments or clicking unknown links. Could I still be at risk and what steps should I take to protect myself?

Answer: With a new virus threat happening on a daily basis, it is very important to take steps to protect your computer. The majority of viruses are spread through email attachments. By not opening these attachments you are taking the first step to protecting your computer.

However if you’re like me, your friends will often email you attachments that contain funny stories, pictures or chain letters. Most viruses are disguised to appear as harmless attachments from your friends or colleagues. If you think an email is from somebody you know, you are more likely to open an attachment – and thereby activating the virus. Many viruses ’steal’ e-mail addresses from a person’s address book, and then send themselves to all those addresses. Therefore you or your friends may be sending out a virus without even knowing it. Even if they did send out an email with an attachment, you might still be at risk if they are not good about running Anti-Virus scans or careful about what they download.

Another way viruses can attack your computer is through downloads from the Internet. If you must download a program from the Internet be sure you are doing it from a reputable site. The threat is not only from software. Viruses can attach themselves to files such as Word documents too. Don’t download Word documents or other non-HTML files that have something other than .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, or .avi. extensions. Always scan downloaded Internet files for viruses before opening or double-clicking them.

Even if you don’t have an internet connection and you don’t use email, you still could be at risk of a virus infecting your computer. If somebody wants to share a file with you, they might give you a CD or flash drive with a Word document or similar file, which you can copy onto your machine. However if that file was originally copied from an infected computer, you might just have accidentally infected your own computer.

The following are steps you can take to protect your computer from becoming infected with a virus.

1. Email: If someone sends you a picture, text or sound file (these attachments end in the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and .avi), you are probably safe. Keep the following in mind when dealing with email attachments:
   • Do not open unexpected files received by email
   • Do not open any files received by email with the following extension names at the end of the file name: .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif, .com, .src or endings you are not accustomed to receiving
   • Do not open files that end with two extension names (example: image.jpg.vb).
   • If you think the attachment is OK, first save it to a separate folder, then run a virus check.
2. Downloads: Never install software that comes via an email or web page pop-up. It’s probably dangerous. Do not download anything from the Internet unless you are sure it is a reputable site.
3. Anti-virus Software: There are several commercial programs that offer virus protection available on the market. These programs act as a defense against viruses when they first try to infect your computer AND afterwards if one gets into your system. Virus protection programs will identify which virus is present, try to clean or quarantine the infected files and prevent the virus from doing any more damage. You may also want to consider a firewall and run an anti-spyware program. Below is a list of paid and free anti-virus services.
   • McAfee Virus Scan – $39.99
   • Norton’s Antivirus -$39.99
   • AVG Anti-Virus System - Free
   • Avast 4 Home Edition – Free
   • AntiVir Personal Edition -Free

   *Note: Staples has offered a special on McAfee and Norton Anti-Virus programs when purchasing Turbo Tax or Tax Cut. Through my Turbo Tax purchase and my Norton Internet Security upgrade I was able to get Norton Internet Security 2006 for free. Other stores will offer similar specials. Look through your sales ads when you are thinking about purchasing anti-virus software.

4. Back-up Your Files: It is good practice to back up all your files and programs anyway. Computers have been known to crash for many reasons rather than just viruses. With regular back-ups you can avoid much of the hassle of restoring your computer when a catastrophe strikes.
5. Check for Updates: When using Windows and Internet Explorer it is always important to check for updates or patches. You can set up your Windows Update to automatically download these for both the operating system and Internet Explorer. Even better would be to switch to a more secure web browser such as Firefox or Opera.

I have only briefly touched upon ways for you to protect your computer against viruses. There is a lot of information out there on this topic. A great place to start if you would like more information about viruses, how they work and how to protect your computer is http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm. They give a lot more information on this topic.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Question: While reading your newsletter as well as other electronic and printed documents I notice images that are taken from a computer screen to help the reader know what they should be seeing next. I would like to create a document of steps that students will need to take for an assignment that is to be done on the computer. How can I get these screenshots and how can I insert them into my document?

Answer: Great question! There are several ways to capture screen shots. The most common way is to use the tools that are already provided on your computer. Both Mac (Shift-Apple-3) and Windows (PrintScreen) have options for capturing the screen which we will describe below.

As you mention this is a great way to provide visual directions for steps to be taken on a computer, Internet site, etc. You can also use this function to capture screen shots of error messages that you receive while trying to complete a task on your computer. This allows you to send the error message to your Technology Director/Coordinator, Tech Support, or a tech savvy friend to troubleshoot the problem.

Windows Print Screen Key

The PRINT SCREEN key, often abbreviated Prt Scr, allows you to take a snapshot or picture of your computer screen and copy it to the clipboard. You’ll have to look for this key on your keyboard, it’s placement varies with the type of keyboard.

To capture the entire screen:

• Press the PRINT SCREEN key. The image will be placed on the clipboard.
• Open an application such as Microsoft Word, pull down the Edit menu and choose Paste. Or, press Ctrl-V to paste.

To capture only the currently selected window on your screen:

• Press the ALT + PRINT SCREEN key. This allows you to target that specific window that you have open and nothing else eliminating the need for cropping. The image will be placed on the clipboard.
• Open an application such as Microsoft Word, pull down the Edit menu and choose Paste. Or, press Ctrl-V to paste.

Macintosh Screen Capture

If you have Mac OSX, it’s easy to use the built-in key commands for grabbing a screen.

• Press Command-Control-SHIFT-3 (all at the same time) to save a picture of the screen to the clipboard.
• Later versions of the Mac OS let you capture rectangular portions of the screen using Command-Control-SHIFT-4. The pointer turns into a bull’s eye. Select the area of the screen you wish to capture. If you leave the CAPSLOCK on during this key sequence, you can then just click on a window to capture that window to save a picture of the screen to the clipboard.
• Open an application such as Microsoft Word, pull down the Edit menu and choose Paste.

Screen Capture/Grabber Software Downloads

Although the screen capture options built into Mac and Windows will serve most purposes, you may wish to use a commercial software package for more advanced applications.

For Windows:

• 5 Clicks – Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
• CaptureEze – Windows
• Screen Capture – Windows
• SnagIt – Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

For Macs:

• Screen Catcher – Older Mac (contains lots of choices and options)
• Snapz – Mac -

–Carrie Albin, Co-Editor

Question: What is a good way to go directly to a particular slide in a PowerPoint while the show is being presented? I often see presenters hit the [Esc] key, click on the Slide Sorter View icon in the lower left corner of the screen, then click on the slide to be displayed, and finally click on the Slide Show from current slide icon, again in the lower left corner of the screen. There must be a better way!Answer: You are right, there is. While the PowerPoint is being presented, type the number of the slide you wish to display, and press Enter. PowerPoint will immediately display the selected slide as if it were the next slide in the sequence. Unless you have the numerical order of your slides memorized, it would be most advantageous to have a printout of your slideshow. A quick way to do that is to display the Slide Sorter view, take a screen print by pressing Alt and Print Screen, importing that into any graphics program, and printing. You will have at least 28 slides on a single 8½” x 11″ sheet of paper.

–Norman Bell, Co-Editor