SeniorNet Marlborough Sounds April 2019

Wavelength

Greetings to all SeniorNet members and friends,

May I remind everyone of the Open Day/ Seminars to be held on the

fourth of May at Linkwater hall? The full programme for the day will be

found elsewhere in this newsletter. It should prove to be an interesting

day.

Included in the programme is a short time set aside for the committee

to report to you, the members, and a chance for you to tell us what you

would like us to offer in the way of workshops, interest groups, etc. We

regard this as an opportunity to gauge the support for SeniorNet within

our community. Come and join us for the day including a shared lunch.

Planning for the rest of the year is well underway.

Also this will be an opportunity for members to pay subs and receive the 2019 membership

cards. These cards contain the bar code entitling members to a discount when making pur-

chases from Noel Leeming.

The digital imaging group (camera club) will be hosting SeniorNet Nelson on May 3rd

in the

Linkwater hall at 1:30 p.m. If you would like to join us you would be most welcome.

Just a reminder to be aware of, “too good to be true” claims you may hear or read about. For

example I heard of an easy way to improve my computer’s performance, called “Xtra-PC”—

lightening fast. The offer and attached comments sounded great. However on digging deeper

I found that this is a Linux based operating system available on a pen drive. Further explor-

ing suggested that this is not for the average user and could cause all sorts of problems. Re-

member the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true it probably is”.

If you are a rugby fan you were probably worried to learn that Spark had won the rights to live

stream all matches. The future of television? Not helpful if you have slow internet speed as

many of us do in the Sounds. However don’t despair I understand TVNZ will be covering the

all black games on free to air. Now there’s a shiny knight!

Regards Donald

Subscriptions for 2019 are $20 for a single person and $30 for

a couple. They are now due and may be paid to rhe account

number shown below

Banking details for SeniorNet Marlborough Sounds

SeniorNet cellphone

020 40 69 1226

38 9010 0788795 01

our theme for April was framing depicting any type of frame

Alternatives to Microsoft Office Access.

At a recent SeniorNet meeting, it was pointed out that a lot of people do not have MSO, main

reason is of cost and having to repurchase frequent and subsequent updates. Certainly, there

are plenty out there. Some of these are based on Microsoft’s WORDPAD, others are fully func-

tioning APPS and many are cloud- based.

Cloud computing is today a reality, in which you access web-based applications via their web

browsers (the Internet). Google Docs appears most popular web-based application suite, but it's

not the only one available. Adobe Buzzword, AbiWord, Quip and Zoho Writer are other cloud-

based APPS.

While there are advantages in cloud -based APPS, many of us like to have the APPS on our own

computer in our own home with our files on our hard drive.

There are two computer- based APPS I will mention. The first is OpenOffice, and the second is

LibreOffice. Both are FREE and both have similar start pages. LibreOffice does however ask for a

donation, but in true Kiwi fashion, you can by-pass that option. In both, you would think you are

looking at the pre-ribbon versions of MSO. The major advantages of these two APPS are: • You

can download them to your computer without having to give any personal information. • They

are multi-functional, meaning, they have word- processing, spread-sheeting, presentation etc.

within one APP. • You can install them on as many computers as you like.

• You can give copies to your friends. Since its file formats are open you will still have access to

them in years to come. This is a major problem with MSO as there are difficulties in opening

documents with different versions of MSO. • And a disadvantage: they don't do a lot of the

more obscure things you can do in MSO (if you don't know what they are, it's not surprising,

most users are unlikely to notice). What makes LibreOffice a great tool? In this summary, I am

only talking about Li- breOffice Writer. LibreOffice Writer comes with tem- plates that make it

easy to get started on a writing task, be it creating a memo, resume or an index content for a

book. While you work along the templates, additional features like auto-complete makes predic-

tions based on common phrases and helps you save time. Complete with a Dictionary, Spell-

checking, all basic font formatting tools and such, LibreOffice is a full-fledged Office Suite. Li-

breOffice is also capable of handling different types of file formats, including Microsoft Doc and

dox.

Thank you Ashburton

TIPS TO BECOME COMPUTER SAVVY

Following are some tips to become computer savvy. 1. Conquer Your Fear Fear holds us back from living our best lives. While exploring a new thing can be intimidating and scary, you know that you will get better with time. You have not come this far in your life by being timid, but by being brave. Look back at all those things that you were once afraid of that now enjoy, maybe it was making a speech or dancing and see how you conquered that! This too will be fun. 2. Have A Positive, Open Attitude It is true that your attitude determines your altitude. Have an open attitude towards learning about com-puters and the Internet. Your friends and colleagues have probably said some negative things about it and therefore held some strong opinions against it but now is the time to let that go and find out on your own. You may like the experience a lot and even find it exciting. 3. Reach Out Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help when you make the choice to learn about technology. Most young people are really good at this and will be more than willing to help. This could also be a great time to spend time and bond with your child or grandchild. If you are an older person, who is still working you could request your younger colleagues or someone from the IT depart-ment to spend some of their breaks teaching you. 4. Google In some cases, you may not have someone physically there to assist you, not to worry Google is your friend. Once you are connected to the Internet, you can use Google to find out anything you need to know. If you search ‘how to use Microsoft word,’ Google will provide you with countless detailed results to pick from. Follow the instructions that are simplest to you. 5. Basic Settings Should Suit Your Needs Making simpler alterations to suit your needs such as larger text size and louder sounds will improve your experience. 6. Write Down Your Passwords As you get older you may experience some level of forgetfulness which is quite normal. It is therefore advisable to have a backup plan. Write down your new passwords in your journal so that in the event you log out and forget, you can always get them in hard copy. Thanks to Ageing.com N.C.F.A.C

Sources

SeniorNet Committee

Please contact any one of us if you have any

comments or questions.

Chairperson: Donald McIver 574 2326

Deputy: Liana Bull 574 1372

Past Chair: Bryan Strong 574 1311

Secretary: Ian Cameron 574 2558

Treasurer: Brian Cameron 574 2267

Executive Members:

Yvonne Blakey 5741068

Robert Boren 574 2333

Jan Godsiff 574 2409

Diane Payton 5741029