Maps 101 Trial-- Note new date!

We have set up a trial for another online product called "Maps101". It is good through April 19, 2007. This product is from Nystrom and has many great things for kids learning about geography.

• Over 4,000 printable maps
• Up-to-date World & US Reference Atlases
• Over 200 K-12 lesson plans
• Daily and weekly Current Events articles, including Geography in the News
• Educational geography games such as "geography crossword puzzles, word find puzzles, state capital games, etc.
• Maps for younger children

Go to Maps101 by clicking it and once at the site, click on the Subscriber Login button. Enter the username of trpts 1587 and the password of trial. Please send your comments about the product to Lynn Duhamell or you may comment directly on this post.

PTS Workshops called Open Labs

PTS offers "Open Labs" as a means of you getting individual help on one of your projects that you have developed. That can mean anything from developing/tweaking a formula for Excel, adding different report formats to an Access Database, answering STI questions to creating transitions in a PowerPoint presentation. There are several versions of "Open Labs" out there. Pick one that meets the area in which you need help or have questions. Stay as long as you like (or until the schedule time runs out).

We provide a trained person that can answer most of your questions and give you help. We do require that you sign up for a lab even though we do not pay you for your time, we do have to pay for the "answer person". If we don't have people sign up ahead of time, there is no lab for that night. This is not a "drop-in" kinda thing.

We will have some lab days this summer setup to cover just about anything you want to do. Usually they will happen on Mondays and you can just pop in, stay awhile, catch up on email, tweak a video project, plan with your team for the fall in a cool comfortable lab at the IMS.

We hope to see you afterschool or during the summer!

Copy Text from the Internet into Word

This tip comes from a newspaper article written by April Miller Cripliver published 12/14/06 in the Times. It will allow you to easily copy only the text without all the html formatting coming along with it from the web by creating a Word macro. There are several steps so just follow them exactly and it will work like a charm.

1. Start Microsoft Word
2. Click Tools/Macro/Macros
3. Type NoFormatPaste in the Macro name box
4. Click the Create button
5. Where the cursor is flashing (it should be above the words End Sub), type the following line exactly Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteText (Note: that there is only one period after the word selection and only one space after the l in special and before the D in DataType
6. Click File/Save Normal
7. Click File/Exit and return to Microsoft Word

The macro is now written, but it is not easy to use so we will assign it to a buttom in our Word Toolbar.

1. Click Tools/Customize
2. Click on the Commands tab
3. On the left side, scroll down to click on Macros. When you click Macros, you will see all the macros in the right pane.
4. In the right pane, click on the macro called Norma.NewMacros.NoFormatPaste
5. Drag the Normal.NewMacros.NoFormatPaste to the top of your screen next to the scissors button. Release your mouse button only when you see a vertical black bar appear to the right of the scissors button.
6. Your Customize box is still open.
7. Click on the Modify Selection button there, and choose Default Style
8. Click the Modify Selection button again
9. Choose Change Button Image, then choose an image (maybe the Smiley button)
10. Click the close button of your Customize box.
11. Next to the scissors, you should see your new image.

Ok, now that everything is set up, how do you use it? Let's give it a try!

1. Start your browser and surf the net until you find a sentence, a paragraph, a page that you want to use (remember copyright regs!).
2. Highlight the passage.
3. Press Crtl-c (remember that is the shortcut for copy) It sends the highlighted items to the computer's memory.
4. Now switch to Word (you may either start it or open it from the task bar if you have minimized it)
5. Normally, you would press Crtl-v (for paste) or click Paste from Word's Menu bar. If you did, you would still get all the web's formatting of this document.
6. Instead, click your smiley face or the button that you created (remember you put it next to the scissors button in the Menu bar).
7. Your selection now comes into Word without any formatting and leaves you to change the font, color, size, whatever you want to do with it.

Now each time you need something copied from the web, all you have to do is the last 7 steps. Your macro will stay there as long as you don't delete it.

Technology Shifts---What an Impact!

Take a look at this short movie, Shift Happens, on the effects of technology will have on the future. It holds some powerful ideas and thought-provoking impact for us in education and for our children. Let me know what you think. Don't hesitate to use the comment section. That's what is there for to interact.

PC Troubleshooting Before You Need It!

Everyone knows the simple fact that it is not if your computer will fail, but when it will fail. It will creep up on you and before you know, all that information you worked so hard to create is gone. Following these rules might buy you some peace of mind (for awhile).

• Rule 1 Always make a weekly backup or at least when you have added a large number of files to your system.
• Rule 2 Empty the Trash/Recycle Bin -- It will free up some space on your hard drive. Note that deleting files actually does not remove them from your hard drive; it only removes location key to that file. If you have sensitive files, consider purchasing software such as "Sure Delete 'or 'Digital Shredder" that will remove the entire file.
• Rule 3 Clean out your Internet cache -- Removing the files that are saved can speed up the reloading of future pages. Try to do it monthly or more if you are a heavy Internet searcher.
• Rule 4 Clear your Web History -- Old information is stored here taking up room too! Your browser can be set to keep the history so many days and then it automatically deletes the oldest according to the rules you have chosen.
• Rule 5 Make sure you have your AntiVirus program running -- also check to make sure it is uptodate either set it to automatically update or do it manually every week.
• Rule 6 Defragging -- computers are kinda like people in that if a place where it is suppose to store something is all filled up and it can't fit the last piece in, it puts it in the first empty drawer it finds! You will know when your computer needs to be defragged. It takes forever to load a file. You have a handy tool in the "Accessories" group that will do the job for you.
• Rule 7 System Updates -- make sure that you have your OS (operating system) set to receive automatic updates from your vendor (Apple, Microsoft, etc.)
• Rule 8 Restart your computer occasionally if you leave it on all the time. It will clean out the old stuff stuck in memory.

Thanks to Jeffrey Branxburg for his article "Lean and Mean, Keeping your PC running smoothly with these tips" in "Teaching and Learning". You may catch the expanded version of this article at www.techlearning.com/lean&mean

E-mail those Progress Reports!

From Jay Drew, one of our PHS teachers, comes this tip on how to email parents STI Progress Reports! (Remember that you have to have the parent's email address to make this work!)

Thought I'd share this tip. I have a few parents who send me weekly e-mail requests for their student's progress even though their child does not readily "remember" to bring them home. ;-)

You will need to go to http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
(NOTE from Lynn: This program is saved onto your servers' G drive Volume 1 with the CutePDF folder inside the Apps folder. There is also an instruction sheet there as well to tell you how to download and install on your school computers.) if you want to install it at home go to the above URL to download and install the "CutePDF Writer", a free download. This creates a virtual printer on your computer that will create a .pdf file (Adobe Acrobat) of any document.

Before you open STI, you need to set CutePDF Writer as your default printer. (Start > Printers and Faxes. Right click on CutePDF Writer and select "Set as Default Printer")

Open STI and print the Progress Reports as you normally would, but you will be asked to save the file rather than print. Give it an appropriate name and save it somewhere you can find it.

Voila! You've done it! Attach to an e-mail and all is well in the world.

Spring Workshops Available NOW

Spring workshops have now been added for March, April, and part of May. Your choices this time include Blogging, Microsoft Access in 3 easy classes, Excel also in 3 classes, GroupWise - our email program, United Streaming--lots of things to do in this program besides watching videos!, and DV camera with Microsoft Movie Maker.

Sign up for these workshops online by going to the main PTS webpage, select the STI-PD button on the right side (you may have to scroll down the page to see it), enter your username and password. If you have never been on the site before OR have forgotten your username and password, email or call Amy Leach at the IMS office (x6350) and she will check your information and walk you through the signup process. It is that easy!!!

Hope to see you in class!