Hi ,

Welcome to the latest Geeks on Tour Newsletter.  Read on to learn
about our Video tutorials, also how to Map your photos, and why you should use that right mouse button all the time!
If you don't see the photos in this newsletter, you can view it
online at:
http://www.geeksontour.com/newsletters/200709/geeknews-20070925.htm

'Show Me' Video Tutorials

We're parked in Verde Valley Thousand Trails for a couple weeks and it is just perfect weather. This is a couple hours north of Phoenix, Arizona and it's a beautiful, peaceful place. I have a week to myself here because Jim flew to Fort Lauderdale to fix my Mom's computer! That's right, she'd rather pay his airfare and get the person she trusts most to fix it than pay an unknown 'geek'! He fixed it the first day and now he's going scuba diving. Hey Jim, bring me back some lobster ok?

Although I do miss him, I gotta tell ya - alone time is very precious in this lifestyle and I enjoy it. What a great place I'm in for peaceful contemplation. I may even be close enough to those Sedona 'vortexes' to get some motivating energy!?

I've brushed off the dust on my my most time-consuming projects. Like reviewing all our Geeks on Tour 'Show Me' Video Tutorials - get them more organized and update the formats. This will pave the way for making lots more!

If you haven't tried watching any of them yet, I encourage you to do so. Every page of the Geeksontour.com website has links to the tutorials on the left sidebar menu. There are tutorials on Picasa, Blogger, Essentials, Google Earth, WiFi, Safe Computing and more.

In these tutorials I record both my screen actions and my voice as I demonstrate the topics. All you have to do is watch. They're not very long, around 5 to 7 minutes. You can watch them over and over. You can even pause, rewind and fast forward. The explanations are aimed at beginners, but there's plenty of material in there for some more experienced folks. Ha! I even learned something myself when I was reviewing them! In the 'Backing up your photos with Picasa' I explained a method that I had forgotten about. This is good stuff!

If there is any topic you'd like to see covered in a 'Show-me' video, send us an email.

They work best if you have a good, high-speed Internet connection. If you don't, you can pause the video playback until you see the download has completed. On a dial-up connection this took 10-20 minutes! Another option is to buy them on CD.

Mapping your Photos with Picasa Web Albums

As travelers, we're always looking for better ways to share our travels with others, or just record them for ourselves. Photos are essential, and maps are great. Now you can combine them with free tools from Google. There are actually a few choices. You can place your pictures on the map using Google Earth and Panoramio. You can also 'geotag' your photos right in Picasa and it will place them on Google Earth. But the latest and greatest method is using Picasa Web Albums. I think this is the easiest way.

Step one: upload your photos to a Picasa Web album. If you don't know how, watch this video.

Step two: When you're viewing an album, you should see the 'View Map' button in the upper left. Click on that. The first time you do this, it will show you a map of the world and ask for a location. Typing a state is usually the best thing to do here.

Step three: Click on a photo on the list at left, then click on a place in the map. That's it! You should see a miniature picture appear in the place where you clicked. When you've selected and mapped all the pictures you want, click the Done button at the top.

When someone views your album and clicks on 'View Map', they'll see the little pictures like breadcrumbs dropped along your route. If they click on a miniature picture, it will expand. The example below comes from our current web album.

A 'Show-Me' video will be available on this soon.

Essentials: Right-Click is your friend!

If you haven't discovered the right mouse button yet, let me introduce you! It's special, and it will help you learn more about the options available to you on the computer. Right-click on any object and you'll see all the things you can do with that object: copy it, rename it, change it's properties. Every object is different, so, when you right-click on it - every object will give you a different list of choices. Whenever you find yourself asking, "How do I ...", I want you to right-click on it.

"How do I get rid of an icon on my desktop?" Right-click on it. Up pops a list of choices, one of which is Delete! "How do I change the background on my desktop?" Right-click on it. One of the items you'll see on the list is Properties, and background is a property. In Picasa, you see all of your photos in the library. Wonder what you can do with a photo? Right-click on it. You may be surprised with some of the choices.

The very first tutorial on the Essentials page, introduces right-click. Then, I think it is used in every other tutorial on that page!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Your next issue will be in a couple weeks. Any questions, please email us. If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your inbox. To see the archives of past newsletters, go to www.geeksontour.com/newsletters.

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com