Using Google Docs

Google Docs is a great online tool that is a great substitute for Windows Microsoft Office or Open Office. It offers you all the same capabilities of using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and even a survey making tool such as Survey Monkey. The most exciting feature is you can use it from any operating system with an internet connection. Google Docs are also supported by mobile devices such as, Iphone, Ipad or Android. All your work and files are stored on their server, so accessing it from anywhere is easy to do.   
                                                               
Getting Started with Google Docs
1. Register for, or sign in to your Gmail account.
2. Once you are logged in to your Google account, you click on the link for "Documents" on the top left set of commands.
3. This will take you to the Google Docs Page.
4. You see a bar list of different functions: CREATE NEW, UPLOAD, and a few file-management tools.
5. To create a new project, click on the CREATE NEW tab to find options for document, spreadsheet, presentation, forms, etc.

As I mention before, Google Docs is comparable to Microsoft office, or Open Office.

Document = Word

Spreadsheet = Excel

Presentation = PowerPoint

Forms = Survey Monkey


Great Feature

• Uploading and converting files such as, word, RTF, HTML, xls, csv, PDF, PPT, TXT, and many   more.
• Collaborate online in real time with others you invite to view or even work on projects.
• Chat in real time with others who are collaborating on the same project.
• Publish documents online as a web-page or blogs.
• Google Docs atomically saves your work for you as you are working on your projects.

Vegetable Garden Survey

According to The American Medical Association, they advise citizens to eat more vegetables in order to stay healthy. Vegetables have vitamins and minerals as well as fiber that's important for maintaining health and energy. Many people enjoy keeping a vegetable garden because they feel that it encourages them to eat more veggies. I'm a conducting a quick survey to see if people have a vegetable garden, what kind of veggies they grow and would they be interested in perfecting their green thumb skills on gardening.

Thank you for participating!
Click Here for Veggie Survey **( For a new window or tab, right click mouse and select)**

Fundamentals of Email Etiquette.

Should there be a class topic of email etiquette taught as the basic fundamentals in

Using Technology 101? Most of us who receive emails on daily basis would say YES!
I could give by daily blow on all the emails I receive throughout the day, but when someone includes you in a group email, (with no further discussion needed for the group) why do other recipients feel the need to reply all when emailing back to the original sender? So then are you not only bothered by the first email, but then all the other responses that follow. ( HINT) Don’t reply all unless it’s necessary that all the recipients need to know your reply.

Here is a quick reference guide to email etiquette. (Note) there are many web-sites with many guidelines and suggestion, However to keep this blog post short and sweet (to the point), I choose ones that would more commonly adapt to the majority of us.

• Do Not Default to "Reply All" (Oh covered that…moving on)
• Keep emails short and to the point. Don’t babble on and on, tell your recipient exactly what you need to.
• Address the recipient properly. (Mrs., Mr. or just Name)
• Write in the subject line; tell your recipient what the email is about. Think of it as a “Title” to your letter. Subject: I want you to comment on my blog!
• Use proper grammar. Format the email, just as you would a letter and using appropriate punctuation!!!!!!!! ;0) j/k….lmao
• Spell check, sometimes the auto spell check won’t pick up on missed used words.
• Use a readable font, suggested size, 11 or 12. Sometimes it can get annoying if your font is too small to see or font face used is unclear ( such as cursive) or the color to light or blends in the back ground. 
• DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (That’s consider shouting)
• Proof read your email. Little mistakes can be avoided.
• Double check on who you are sending the email to. Doh! I Didn’t mean to send my boss that joke. Yikes!
• Stop forwarding crap! Unless it is a really funny joke, but be cautious, just because it’s funny to you, might not be funny to another.

I hope that we all can have a bit more email etiquette and pass the knowledge on to others, so we all can experience a happier “You’ve Got Mail!

http://www.101emailetiquettetips.com/
http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/tp/core_netiquette.htm

What EMAIL is right for you?

There are many email applications subscribers can use to receive their messages, however choosing the one that meets your needs depends on what you’re using it for.

The most convenient way to obtain an email account is through a Web-based email services such as AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. It enables you to access your email via your web browser to send and retrieve email. Although this is a free service, it usually features banner ads and has limited ability to customize your email. A downfall with web-based email is that you are limited to a small amount of storage space, so you won't be able to keep your old messages for very long before you run out of room; however, this is a great option for a personal email account that can be accessible on any computer with an internet connection.

Another email application that is popular is POP (Post Office Protocol) email services, it is a client e-mail receiver software that is installed to your computer, such as Outlook Express, Window Live or Eudora, a great benefit is that you can read and compose your emails without being connected to the internet and you can connect to the server at any time and download your mail into your local computer. A drawback is that you can only access your emails through that software and the ones that you downloaded are only saved to your local computer.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) gives users great control over their email accounts. It works similar to a POP3mail; however you can pick and choose what emails you want to download to your computer. It is a secure spam free email that is reliable for your personal and business accounts. It can hold up to multiple email accounts and offers more storage space and has many features such as a shared address books with secure sharing facility between users, folders and sub-folders for sorting email, secure message boards and online document storage space. There are many IMAP mail service providers such as, Cwazy Mail, Fast Mail or Safe-mail. They offer free storage space for smaller accounts with limited functionality, and upgrades are available for users seeking to host multiple email accounts with unlimited functions available.

The Battle is on!

Is emailing becoming a thing of the past and is it soon going to be replaced with social media sites? As technology is changing rapidly, the younger generations way of communicating is becoming more adapted to that change, just as email replace snail mail, text message replaced phone calls. Even though you are required to have

an email account to register on social networking sites, are the email account still being used for as a two way communication tool?, Or just to received messages that have been posted to you blog, or facebook wall. As I don’t consider myself as part of the older (out of date) generation, even though I am, I tell my peers to facebook me and continue the lines of communication through social media sites. A good example would be the way my family communicated, we would send an email to a list of recipients who we wanted to communicate with to coordinate dates and times for family get together, but over the last year that has all changed. We now create an event page or bulk message through Facebook to coordinate our activities.
As most of sit back and watch this entire new technology advance faster than we can type out an email, or log on a social networking site, what other lines of communication will become extinct or be invented? The days of exchanging phone numbers and email addresses are becoming a thing of the past.

Time Management

College Inc.

The full video is @ http://video.pbs.org/video/1485280975

QR Codes

GoAnimate.com: QR Codes by katford

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Google now offers Free voice and video chat.

QR Codes

As we are all familiar with barcodes, that have been used in all industries for various reasons such as to track inventory and price products, they are a one dimensional code that can only hold numerical digits. Quick response code are becoming extremely popular as they are a two dimensional codes that can hold alphanumeric characters of information. These codes have the ability to connect people with multimedia digital content with the quick scan of the code. Companies in every industry are always competing to stay ahead of their competition. As technology advances and consumers have immediate access to relevant information at their finger tips, companies are trying to find the next coolest thing to make their product or service stand out among the all others.  

How it works.

The new technology with smart phones gives consumers an advantage of getting information on any type of product or service that is available. The application for a barcode or QR code reader can be downloaded to your phone for free. Scan the QR code and it will link you to the information within the tag. This information can either be a webpage, pdf, or a video, just to name a few. The creator of the code has the ability to link whatever information they wish to share. 

There are many code genorator avaliable on the web, here is one I used. 

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

I posted one for business Lil Petite Chefs, simply scan the code with your mobile device and it will automatically link your to my web-page. 

I also created one for my facebook and Twitter account, however the possibilities are limitless.

Facebook Me! 

 Twitter Me!

Search engines are rapidly expanding because users want to find certain information based on criteria they search. Google Inc is the pioneering search engine on the internet, and because of this, we were conditioned from the beginning to Google whatever we were looking for. We can say, do a search on the internet, or more communing known phase “Google it”, even though you may be using a different search engine, such as yahoo, or Bing. You can browse through hundreds of search query and tailor them to your needs and specifications. Do you want a search tools to only search travel, music, recipes or books? I am sure there won’t be a problem for you to find on. 

Bing is making a name for themselves for users who are indecisive. Their catch phase is “For Decision that Matter, Bing and decide. The company ran commercial that portrayed people searching for a particular product or service. By choosing one of the results that Bing gave you, you can relax about your decision from the beginning.  

Evaluating websites

The criteria for evaluating websites for legitimacy can include authority, objectivity, clarity, appropriateness and accessibility. As there are many web-sites available for users to gather information from, the users must keep the criteria in mind while determining if the information they are gathering is true data that can be used as a creditable source. The URL can say a lot about the creator of the website and its purpose. Domain names can be registered by anyone who wishes to publish a page, with no validity check involved.

The old saying, first impression is everything; the same would be true when evaluating webpage’s. Scanning the page can tell you plenty of the validity of the creator and the information they are trying to employ. When scanning the page looks for the author, the company or organization that is affiliated with the page. You are looking for signs of accountability and responsibility for the contents in contains. Is the page outdated or is it current? Is the page link to other creditable pages or is it just a phantom page.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html