This month's articles: Updates, Clipart, and Windows 7 Maximize

Updates, Updates, all those *maddening* updates. I just have to vent. Updates are important, and I will continue to accept them and wait for them to install, but OMG they've become SO numerous.

If you live in a house and have a hardwired Internet connection, you probably don't notice it so much. Just leave your computer on and update automatically. But for folks who travel and have spotty Internet connections, we can spend all of our time downloading updates. I bought a new computer last fall, but the old one still works OK and I keep it in the bedroom to play an occasional movie, or watch TV with a USB TV tuner. Last night I turned it on for the first time in a couple weeks. It had 28 updates waiting to download and install. I fell asleep before it finished!

Ten to fifteen years ago, when Jim was a network administrator, he would often put off updating for a couple months, until they had proven themselves. We don't have that luxury today, you must update.

Windows comes out with updates once each month, and sometimes more. There are two reasons for updates - to add functionality and to fix bugs. Most bugs today are about security. And, it's not just Windows. It seems like Adobe Acrobat (necessary for viewing .pdf files) has sent updates almost every week this last couple months. And, programs like your anti-virus software, and Picasa. And now I have updates for the operating system and apps on my Droid cellphone too!

You really need to plug those security holes so you need to get the updates installed ASAP. But, if you feel like cursing at all those updates ... I hear you!

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We all know that pictures are worth a thousand words. But how do we find the picture that says the right thing? There are millions of images available to us now on the Internet. Did you know that you can 'google' for pictures just like you can google for anything else?

Let's say you wanted an image of a motorhome. You can just google for motorhome, then find the little link that says 'images.'

Now, instead of 41,000,000 results just for 'motorhome', you should be seeing around 1,250,000 images of motorhomes. If you see an image you like, you can right-click on it and either 'copy image' or 'save picture as' to grab yourself a copy of that image.

Copyright Free Images

But, those pictures that Google found for you may belong to someone else. If you're just using it for something for yourself, that's one thing, but if you want it for a brochure or website for example, that's something else. You should find images that are copyright free. If you google for copyright free clipart, you will find a lot, but many of them come with spyware attached. It's important to trust your source.

I use Microsoft clipart for free, copyright-free images. You can search for just about anything and you can get results that include drawings, or photographs or both. I searched for 'waiting' to get that image above of a person at their desk with cobwebs. Microsoft gets their images on a promotional basis from some of the best names in the business.

If I need really good images, I'm willing to pay a few dollars to iStockPhoto. It truly blows me away the quality of the photos you can get for just a few dollars. I use them for all the websites I build. When using a photo on a website, you only need the smallest image. It costs more for the larger ones, but they're really unneccessary on the web.

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Windows 7 has added several innovative ways to move your windows around the screen, and manage your desktop. A great way to familiarize yourself with them is to watch the Microsoft official Windows 7 videos.

I just want to tell you about one new windows management technique that I now use *all* the time. That is to Maximize the window just by dragging it to the top of your screen. No need to find that little maximize button and click it. No need to remember the keyboard shortcut, just click and drag the top of the window to the top of the screen. When it bumps into the top of the screen, it will 'snap' into the maximized state.

If you've got that ... then try snapping two windows. You can drag one to the left and the other to the right. They will 'snap' into place, taking up exactly half of the screen. This is a great way to arrange 2 windows so you can see both at the same time. For example, you could arrange your screen so that Picasa is on the left, and instructions from our PicasaTutorials.com website are on the right.

Note: if you use 2 monitors, like I do, you can only 'snap' to the left side of the left monitor and the right side of the right monitor.

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