You Mean I Have to Learn How to Use Another Word Processing Tool

Some day soon, a customer may ask for some word processing assistance. You had taken the various Word trainings that I have offered so you approach the customer's computer with confidence. But when you arrive, you see something quite different than Word. Did we change word processing software and not notify anybody? No, we would never do that.

Chances are, the customer is using www.writely.com. This is an online word processor that Google now owns and it is free with registration. Click here to take a tour.

You can also use this if you ever need to collaborate with several staff in various branches. Instead of sending attachments back and forth, just create the document on Writely and anyone can update the document from anywhere. You can assign who can see and edit the document, or you can make it available to the whole world. Once the document is complete, you can transfer it to Word easily, or just print it directly from Writely.

If you want to give it a shot, I have created a document that anyone can edit. Just click here and type away! You will need to Sign Up, which is super quick.

NOTE: Make sure you are using the right browser (click here to see a list of supported browsers).

Search with Google (or other search engines) in the Address Bar

Many of you know that you can search the Web by typing words in the Address Bar. The browser will understand that you did not type a web address and will perform a search with a search engine.

You may not have known that you can select the type of search engine the browser will use. To do this, click on Search on the Internet Explorer toolbar (same toolbar with the Back and Home buttons). A search pane should appear on the left side of your screen. Click on the Customize button on the top of that pane.

A dialog box will appear and you will see an option to "Choose a search provider for address bar searches". Select the search engine of your choice and click OK. Now, your random words you type in the address bar with use the search engine of your choice.

Toggling Between Open Programs

I was recently conducting a presentation in which I was toggling between Internet Explorer and PowerPoint. Someone asked after the presentation how I did that.

To toggle between open programs, press and hold the Alt key and then hit the Tab key. In the middle of the screen, you will see icons of all open programs. Each time you hit the Tab key (while still holding down the Alt key), you move to a separate program. To go to the selected program, let go of the Alt and Tab keys.

Free E-Books Abound (In Other Languages, Too)

The amount of material available on the web is ever-increasing, as we all know. One area of expansion that should be of interest to librarians is the collection of free e-books.

First, we have Project Gutenberg,"... the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today." Click here for further information about this project.

You can search the Project Gutenberg catalog here. Notice that they have many titles in other languages. They have over 50 titles in Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tagalog.

And, if you have an aggregator, you can subscribe to their RSS feed and be notified of the new books they receive (http://www.gutenberg.org/feeds/today.rss).

Adobe has many classics in PDF form (of course). See their listings here (scroll down to see the classics).

The ALA Techsource Blog recently mentioned the new service, Wowio. Read about that here.

You also have Google Books in which you can perform and advanced search by Author, Title, Year, or even ISBN.

What are AOL Users Searching For?

Here is an article by Lee Gomes at the Washington Post about the AOL Web-search data. This is a great synopsis of what people use the web for.

Upcoming Technical Training and Presentations

UPDATE: This is being replaced with the new calendar found on the sidebar. Just scroll down and you will see it.

MPLIC is contantly offering trainings and presentations to assist staff adapt to technological changes in the workplace. Below is a constantly updated list of upcoming events in technical training and Technical Trainer activities.

September 26: PowerSearch Demonstration at the Children's Services Meeting / closed meeting
September 27: How Do I Format My Document? 9-10am / contact Cynthia to register
September 28: Search Something (trainer: Kevin) 9am-12pm / contact Cynthia to register
October 11: The Spider Catches the Fly (Aggregator Workshop) 9-10:30am / contact Cynthia to register
October 25: Library Databases (trainer: Debbie) 9am-12pm / contact Cynthia to register
November 1: What's Wrong with my Document? 9-10am / contact Cynthia to register
November 8: What's Up with Bullets, Numbers, and Tabs? 9-10am / contact Cynthia to register
November 14: The Spider Catches the Fly (Aggregator Workshop) 2-3:30pm / contact Cynthia to register
November 15: How Do I Customize a Resume Template? 9-10am / contact Cynthia to register
November 29: Search Something (trainer: Laura) 9am-12pm / contact Cynthia to register
December 13: How Do I Create a Brochure and How Do I Add Pictures? 9-10am / contact Cynthia to register
December 14: Library Databases (trainer: Chris) 9am-12pm / contact Cynthia to register

International Keyboard Shortcuts

I was using a computer a few weeks ago to send an e-mail message. There was a slight problem. The keyboard was slightly different than the keyboards I was used to. Well, I was in another country at the time and the computer was coin operated. My time was ticking down so rather than trying to find the right keys, I just typed away. Sure, every word had a letter or two that were blatantly wrong, but I knew the receiver of the message could figure it out.

Now, imagine a customer from a far-away land attempting to use our keyboards. They will be slightly different that the ones they are used to. And not everyone is like me in that they will probably want to know how to duplicate letters and symbols that are in their language. Even an experienced typist may have difficulty using our keyboards.

You can use this document from Microsoft to help customers in these situations. Since this situation is few and far between, the couple of times that a customer did need this type of assistance, I just printed this document out and gave it to them.

All About PowerPoint Training and Tutorials

Over the past couple of years as the Technical Trainer, I have had a few requests for PowerPoint training. If you will be giving a work-related presentation and would like to implement a PowerPoint slide show, then you can contact either me or Damone and we can assist you in the development of that presentation.

If you prefer a classroom setting, the City of Memphis Quality and Professional Development offers a full-day training on PowerPoint. The next scheduled session is October 24, 8:00am - 4:30pm. The registration form for all QPD classes can be found on the Staff Development site under Helpful Handouts.

Finally, if you would like to give it a go on your own (as Cynthia proved is possible by winning a prize in the Display Contest on her first attempt at PowerPoint), then you may want to take advantage of some of these online tutorials. Some of these may be for older versions:

Microsoft1
Microsoft2
WebJunction
Learning Electric
Rutgers
Electric Teacher
List of Sites from Kent State

You see, there are plenty of opportunities. You could just do a web search.

I also have a tip sheet on the finer details of PowerPointing available on the Staff Development Helpful Handouts section. Or you can just click here to get it.

Finally, if you want to learn more about presentation design, check out Garr Reynold's blog, Presentation Zen.

Mouserobics in Other Languages

The Central Kansas Library System has the familiar Mouserobics or Mousercise program that I am sure you all have seen before (the one with the dancing mouse).

The great thing is that on top of this, they have this tool in several languages:

Danish
French
Hmong
Italian
Spanish
Tagalog

MPLIC Public Computer Availability Above Average

Below is a message that Betty Anne recently sent:

There was a story in yesterday’s CA on page A2 entitled “Schools refocusing on Math, Science”. One of the sections of the article “Net available – not” talked about the availability of public-use Internet terminals in pubic libraries. It pointed out that TN had the sixth-worst number at 2.2 per 5,000 population.

Given the commitment Memphis Public has had to increasing the number of computers to the public, I did a little research on where Memphis Public stood.

Our population based upon what the State Library says we are responsible for: basically, Memphis, Bartlett and unincorporated Shelby County, has the population figure of 820,151. The article based their info on per 5,000 population, so we would have 164.03 units of 5,000.

From the computer angle, Memphis Public has 516 computers for public use.

I am happy to report that means we have 3.15 computers per 5,000 population. That ranks well above the TN figure of 2.5 and puts us ahead of the national average of 3!