The Computer Club Newsletter

March 2004

By Ron Uncapher

The March meeting featured an extended Beginner Basics session. The Tuesday, April 6 meeting will again begin at 6:30 PM with Beginner Basics Q&A. Also, Mike Weaver and Alan Hall, owners of Computer Clinic Plus in Loudon, will make a presentation of general interest to our membership at 7:30 PM. Watch our Website and Channel 3 for details.

This week I would like to talk about adding artwork to your word processor , spreadsheet or other documents. Perhaps you want to add a picture to your letter or poster. Or you may just want to jazz up a happy note to a friend or add seasonal art to a greeting. Whatever the reason, there is no reason not to do it. You can add clip art, photos, artwork you have created in Microsoft Paint or just about any object that you have saved on your computer.

I will speak mainly about Microsoft Word and Microsoft Works word processors. The same activity applies to any other brand word processor or even a spreadsheet. First, position your mouse pointer at the approximate location where you want the object. Left click to position the cursor. Then, look on the menu bar for the INSERT menu. Click on it and move your pointer down to PICTURE. Another menu will pop up with several selections; Clip Art, From File…, Word Art, etc. Once you get the hang of the process, you can experiment with any of the selections, but for our purpose, click on Clip Art. (You should have your program disk available.) The INSERT CLIP ART window will open. Clip art is a term used to describe small drawings or line art of just about anything. You can buy a CD-ROM with a hundred thousand little pictures called CLIP ART. In the case of MS Word, the art that appears in the clip art box will be found on your MS OFFICE or WORD disk.

You may have a topic or subject in mind. Type the word into the SEARCH FOR CLIPS window, for example, Halloween. A page full of thumbnails will appear; pumpkins, witches, black cats, and more. Select one and click on it. You may be asked to load your program’s CD-ROM. You must do so to load the full size picture. After you load the CD, a small selection menu pops up. One will say INSERT CLIP. Click on it. Close the INSERT CLIP ART window and you will see that the picture is now in your document.

Once you have copied the picture to your document, you can do many things. First, size the picture to suit your needs. Position your mouse pointer over the picture and click. A frame with "handles" at each corner and on each side will appear. Hover your mouse pointer over the handle at the lower left corner of the picture. Click and hold, then drag the corner up, down, left, or right until you get the size you want. Release the mouse button. Try dragging the other handles to see the effect.

There are many things you can do with the picture. For example, to make it fit your document, right click on the picture and select FORMAT PICTURE or OBJECT from the pop up menu. You can then select how you want to position the picture relative to the text; in line, inline, tight, square. You can also select the alignment; left, right or centered on the line. Experiment! Click and hold on the picture and drag it to wherever you want. Don’t like the picture after all? Select it by clicking on it, then press the DELETE key.

We have just scratched the surface with what can be done with embedded objects, or pictures in a document. By looking at the selections in the pop up windows you will get more ideas or have more questions. I leave it to you to look for the possibilities and then experiment.

Did you ever need a special character, such as ©, ®, or ♫, or any of a great number of symbols, characters or foreign letters. It is a snap. Go to START * PROGRAMS * ACCESSORIES * CHARACTER MAP. In the FONT box at the top of the Character Map window, type or select the font you are working with. Click on the character you want and then click on SELECT at the bottom of the window. You can select a series of characters in the window if you want them together in your document. Then press COPY. Go back to your document, position the cursor at the point you want the character(s), then click on PASTE. This is not word processor dependent. It will work in whatever program you need the character if the program has copy and paste capability.

Come out to the Computer Club meeting on April 6. 2004. We will start at 6:30 PM with a Beginner Basics session. Check the TVCUC Website for detail on the program. ( www.tvcuc.org ).

Finally, have you updated Windows and your anti-virus software this week?