Victoria Computer Club

Updating ALL Your Devices

Posted on 2020-04-29 by George Bowden

Here is a link to the slide show, “Updating ALL Your Devices” presented at the zoom meeting Wed April 29th 10am

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Rick’s Recipe for Foto File Management

Posted on 2020-04-25 by Rick Lavoie

Hello Fellow Fotogs,

I’m going to share My Way of managing photo files and catalogues. Some of you have already heard some of this, but I’d like to go further in depth and do it over a few emails. It’s a very simple process, but over the years, it has worked great for me.

Some of you probably have different methods, and that’s fine, use them. This is for anybody that might want to use these tips if they are struggling at all with organizing their photo libraries.

To start, every December 31st, I make a new sub-folder in my Pictures Folder and name it “Photos (insert the Year here)”.

Like what I did this year as an example…Photos 2020. (see screen shot)

In that folder, I’ll make sub-folders…

2020 Family Pix (for edited and finished photos of family members, etc.)
2020 Finals All Others (artsy, everyday photos, edited and sharpened)
Originals from (your camera here)
Originals from (another camera here)
Photos from others (anything I download from relatives, etc.)

So, once that’s done I’m ready to select the photos from my SD card and drop them all in the Originals folder that is set up for either camera, since I use two different cameras. The Original files will always stay in their respective folder, unless they are total crap and get thrown out.

This is where the editing process starts…Look through your originals any time you want, and open the one you want to edit in your application.

When you are done editing, cropping, colour correcting, etc., now is the time to save it in one of your 2020 Finals folder. You MUST do a “SAVE AS” with a modified file name that is different from your original. This will prevent you from overwriting and losing your original photo. I usually save my finished photos as Jpegs. You always want to keep your original intact, because you never know how much you might learn in the future to make an even better version some day!

So, you did your Save As, but the little trick I do to each file name, to make it different from the original, is add “es” to the end of the file number.

For example: DSC01237.JPG becomes… DSC01237es.JPG

That way, the files are kept in sequential order all through the year in all the folders, and you immediately know that that file was edited and sharpened. Hence the “es”. And you original stays intact!

Now that you’ve seen how I start my new year with fresh picture folders, the other thing that you need to do is start backing up these new folders to a separate external hard drive. You’ve no doubt heard of Back-Ups?

I have two external hard drives and I copy and paste any new stuff to each of them. I like to do this all manually, but there are apps that can make this happen automatically, but I would rather know what’s being done myself, rather than depending on somebody else.

I would recommend backing up to two places in addition to your computer or laptop storage. Even if you back up to memory sticks, at least you have a solid way to keep things safe. You can’t depend on only your computer to keep your memories.

Backing up on Google Photos is another way to have at least a second copy of your libraries, which you can access in case you lose your computer files. You can make photo albums in Google Photos that match the titles of the ones you have on your computer and your back-ups.

Ok, if you look at the attached screenshot picture of one of my external HDDs, you will see what I did for last year’s collection of photos. There are the basic folders and some additional folders of special events and travel trips.

Because everything that was in my computer’s 2019 Photos folder has been copied to the external hard drives, the whole collection of 2019 photos can now be deleted from the computer, freeing up valuable space. Just make sure you have good backups!

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APCUG Virtual Technology Conference Sat. May 2nd 10am

Posted on 2020-04-23 by George Bowden

Now that members are getting familiar with Zoom, it is time to join the Virtual Technology Conference , put on by our Association of PC User Groups, Saturday, May 2nd at 10am for a couple hours. Register for free at Event Brite days before the meeting.

TRACK 1
10am Let’s Go Shopping Online
Ron Brown, Program Chair, Silvercom Computer & Technology Club
Ron will discuss shopping apps that your favorite grocery store uses Continue reading →

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Our Zoom Slide shows

Posted on 2020-04-22 by George Bowden

Here is a link to the slide show used on the first Zoom meeting of April 15th, on getting into zoom https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JovRdI22X74u9bEK3HQDdmDZ8xBLrGOBBneXP5GdaV4/edit?usp=sharing

And here is a link to today’s slide show, of April 22nd on headphones and microphones:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OLRmoW1mVzKknj0oad4RByvn0ZMzKrb69RkbDE2Not8/edit?usp=sharing

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Past Presentations

Posted on 2020-03-25 by George Bowden

Artificial Intelligence by Scott Dyer

A very popular presentation to the Monday Computer Basics class on Jan. 27th 2020

Windows Basic Basics. Did you know that your mouse doesn’t send clicks or double clicks to your computer? Do you remember what Ctrl C, Ctrl V, Ctrl X, Ctrl A do and why you should know? George Bowden

Dorothy’s tips on using your android smartphone.

Magical Google Lens explanation by Dorothy Cushway

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Adding photos to a shared google photo album

Posted on 2020-03-22 by George Bowden

Empty Victoria at 2pm Sunday March 22

During the COVID-19 shutdown, our club photo outings will continue, because your photos can be shared online for others to view and to add comments while in their homes. Outings will be done alone, or in very spread out groups of 5 or so. They will also be spread out over time, with a week or so to upload your photos.

We propose to use shared google photo albums, like this one of an Empty Victoria. Anyone with a google account can comment or “like” a photo, but to add your photos, email gtbowdeng@gmail.com specifying your gmail address and George will add you as a collaborator of the album.

Most of our members have a gmail address, and so can add photos to the shared album. Browse to https://photos.google.com/sharing and click on the album that you want to add photos to. You will have to log in with your gmail address and password.

You can click the circled icon (near top right) and upload your photos.

Choose “from computer” unless the photo is already in your google photos.

Please upload only a few photos. As the album fills, you can remove your less interesting photos, so that we end up with perhaps about 50 photos in each album.

If you have a cell phone, but no google account, you can create a google account following the instructions here. If you do not want to use a cell phone number, you will have to fill in a birth date that would make you less than 15 years old, like 01-01-2006. Your gmail account name and password are also your google account name and password. Google uses only one name and password for all your google apps.

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Android Class March 19th

Posted on 2020-03-19 by George Bowden

Hello members of the Android group.

Though you cannot attend the group in person today, here is a link to the slide show by Dorothy. Note that you can add comments.

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Due to COVID-19, Corona Virus, the Clubhouse is Virtual till further notice

Posted on 2020-03-16 by George Bowden

Due to COVID-19, our club activities take place outdoors or in Zoom online meetings. We are using Silver Threads limited openings to teach Zoom to those members unfamiliar with video conferencing. Refer to our calendar for details.

This website contains slide presentations that you may have missed.
We will also put up new pages with links to interesting sites.
We plan photo shoots outdoors and share the photos via photo albums, which let you add photos and comments.
And we deliver classes online using the Zoom video conferencing app.

Home visits to fix computers are still ruled out for now.

If you have questions, please email VictoriaComputerClub@gmail.com

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