Category: Tech tips

Tech Tip #54: How to Auto Forward a PowerPoint Slideshow

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: My students are learning to use Powerpoint for presentations. They’ll stand in front of the class and the slideshow will play behind them. We want it to go automatically without requiring them to click the mouse or push the space bar. How do we do that?

A: Presentations are a great skill to teach students. I applaud you on this. Auto-forward isn’t difficult:

go to Transition on the menu bar
go to Timing on the right side
Leave ‘on mouse click’ selected (in case you as the teacher need to move it forward automatically. I’ve had students mistakenly put five minutes on a slide instead of five seconds and we would sit waiting forever if I didn’t do the mouse click)
set the timer to serve the needs of the slide. This will require students to practice before presenting so they can put the correct time in. A good default of 5-10 seconds.

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Tech Tip #53: How to Pin Any Program to the Start Menu

Q: There’s a program I use all the time, but it’s not on my desktop. I have to click through All-Programs-(etc–wherever it is you must go to find it). Is there a way to add it to my start menu so I can find it more easily?

A: Absolutely.

Click through All-programs to wherever it is, but don’t open the program.
Instead, right click on the icon that would normally open the program and select ‘pin to start menu’ from the drop down menu.

This will attach this program to your Start button in the future. Much easier! From this same menu, you could attach to program to your Taskbar if you prefer.

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Tech Tip #52: Roll Your Computer Back to a Problem-Free Date

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Q: Something happened and now my computer isn’t working right. I downloaded a program/music/video or installed a new program and it hasn’t worked right since. What do I do?

A: These days, that’s not as hard as it used to be. All you have to do is type ‘restore’ in the search box (on the start menu) and follow instructions. What it’ll do is turn your computer back to an earlier date, before you did the download or the install. It won’t affect documents, only the bad stuff. It’s saved me several times.

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Tech Tip #113: Back up Your Blog!

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Q: I’m paranoid of losing my documents so I back them up to an external drive, a flash drive, and in the cloud. My blog, though–It’s become an important cog in my writer’s creds. If it blew up, I’d be lost. What do I do about backing it up?

A: If you use Wordpress, it’s easy. Here’s what you do:

Go to Tools>Export
Select the bubble for ‘all’
It’ll back it up as an XML file (you don’t have to understand what that is. Just know it’s the file that will save you if Wordpress crashes)
Save that backup file somewhere safe in case you need it. Preferably where your Cloud automatic back-up will grab it (assuming you have one of those. If you use Carbonite, you do)
Do this once a month–or a week if you’re active

My business website is a Wordpress theme with a ton of widgets. I can back it up exactly the same. Which I do, even though it has an automatic back-up.

That’s it. Now you’re safe.

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Tech Tip #50: The Easiest Way to Outline

Q: My fifth graders are learning outlining in the classroom. Is there an easy way to tie that into technology?

A: Outlining can’t be easier than doing it in Word. Here’s what you do:

Select the Numbered List or the Bullet List in MS Word. MS Word 2010 even lets you select the style up front. MS Word 2003–it’s a bit more complicated
Your first bullet or number appears on the screen. Type your item
Push enter to add another number or bullet
To create a subpoint, push tab after you’ve pushed enter to start the next bullet/number
To push a subpoint up a level, push Shift+tab after you’ve pushed enter for the next bullet/number

That’s it–three keys:

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Tech Tip #49: The Fifteen Second Slideshow

Q: My kindergarten and first grade students are too young to create their own slideshows for Open House (or any parent day) and I’m just too busy. What’s an easy way to display their work digitally for parents that also involves the students in the preparation?

A: I had this problem last year. I simply ran out of time trying to prepare so I offloaded the work onto the students. I was worried it would be too much, but it turned into a wonderful experience for students and parents alike. Here’s all you do:

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Tech Tip #48: Quickly Switch Between Windows

Q: I’m copy-pasting between a Word doc and an Excel doc on my computer. I know how to do that, but here’s the problem: I have three Word docs open. I don’t want to close the other two because I’ll need them soon. It takes a lot of time to click down to the taskbar, bring up the Word group and find the correct Word doc. Is there an easier way?

A: Oh yes, Much easier. Use Alt+tab. That takes you to the last window you visited. If you’re toggling between two windows, this is the perfect solution. I use it a lot for grading and report cards.

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Tech Tip #47: Tool Tips

This week’s tip: I’m supposed to find a tool on the toolbar, but there are so many and I have no idea what they are for? It’s just as bunch of pictures to me. Is there an easy way to figure this out?

A: To figure out what a tool does on the toolbar or 2007/10”s ribbon, hover your mouse over the tool (place the mouse above it without clicking). A tool tip will appear with a clue as to what it’s for.

This works in any program with a toolbar or ribbon–MS Office, the internet, Photoshop, and more.

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Tech Tip #46: The Easiest Way to Explain Right and Left to (Little) Kids

Q: I teach kindergarten. They don’t always understand the difference between left and right.

A: There are two times kids get confused about right and left when I’m teaching:

right mouse button
clicking in front of a spot (to edit, use the tab key, format–stuff like that)

I’ve found an easy way to clarify. Here’s an example:

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Tech Tip #45: Your Screen Upside Down?

Q: My screen is sideways 90 degrees. How do I fix that?

A: If you ever needed this, you’re going to be blessing me. If you’ve never faced that off-kilter screen, you’re going to wonder why I’d post this tip.

Of course, I’ve faced it–I run a tech lab and there are always those pesky prodigies who want to outsmart me. They know if they push Ctrl+Alt+(down arrow), it’ll turn the screen upside down. The first time it happened, I was at a loss. That’s when a different pesky prodigy told me how to fix it:

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