Jessica's tips

by Jessica Padykula

Stitch it!

If you've taken a series of photos of the same scene, such as a beach or skyline, use Windows Live Photo Gallery to stitch them together into one beautiful, panoramic scene.

If you don't have Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can download it for free. After you've downloaded the program, click Start > All Programs > Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Your photo library will open. To create your panoramic view, select the photos you would like to use by clicking on them.

Once you've selected your photos - I chose several shots of a beach in the south of France - click Make on the top toolbar and choose Create Panoramic Photo. The program will stitch the photos together seamlessly.

Get personal! Change the colour of your desktop background

Change the colour of your desktop background to suit your mood.

Begin by clicking Start > Control Panel > Personalization > Desktop Background.

There will be countless colours for you to choose from. Are you in a great mood? Try for something bright such as yellow or orange. Feeling blue? Brighten up your outlook with green or pink.

Click on your colour of choice and click OK.

Start mousing around

Change your mouse pointer and how it looks during different activities such as pointing and clicking.

Begin by clicking Start > Control Panel > Personalization > Mouse Pointers.

Choose Pointers and you will see several options to choose from including

various sized arrows, a pen and a circle. Click on one and choose OK.

To change the speed of your pointer, choose Pointer Options, select a speed, and click OK.

Get an eyeful: Fix red-eye in a photo

Use Windows Photo Gallery to remove red—eye from your photos.

Begin by clicking Start > All Programs > Windows Photo Gallery.

Click on the photo you want to correct, click Fix, and choose Fix Red Eye.

Using your mouse pointer, draw a rectangle around the eye you want to fix. You will see a check mark next to Fix Red Eye when the task is complete.

Tag, you’re it!

Make your photos easier to find with tags.

Using tags is a simple way to categorize your digital pictures. For example, if you’ve taken several photos of your new puppy, tag them with the heading puppy or the name of your new puppy.

Begin by clicking Start > All Programs > Windows Photo Gallery.

Click on the photo you want to tag, and click Info. You will then be prompted to tag your photo. Add any name you deem appropriate and press Enter.

You can apply as many tags as you want to each photo. You can also apply several tags to a photo, such as those with more than one family member in them. Each person in the photo could get a tag with his or her name. You could also use the tag family.

At this point, you can also add a caption to your photo, and rate the image with one to five stars.

Give your PC an identity

Want a unique picture for your user account and Start menu?

Begin by clicking Start > Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety.

Under User Accounts, choose Change your account picture.

You can choose one of the 12 options listed such as a goldfish, puppy or soccer ball, or choose from your own files. To choose one of your own images, click on Browse for more pictures. Choose one of your own photos and click OK.

Achieve picture perfection!

If you’ve taken a photo that doesn’t look quite right, adjust the contrast and brightness to get the look you desire.

Begin by clicking Start > All Programs > Windows Photo Gallery.

Choose the photo you want to adjust and click Fix.

Click Auto Adjust. Windows Photo Gallery automatically adjusts the contrast and brightness of your photo.

Clicking Back to Gallery to automatically save your changes.

To adjust your photo manually, click Adjust exposure. Two sliders will appear allowing you to manually change the brightness and contrast of your image.

Slide out! Create a simple slide show

It’s easy to view photos in a slide show in Windows Photo Gallery.

Begin by clicking Start > All Programs > Windows Photo Gallery.

Choose the photos you want to see in the slide show. Choose more than one by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the pictures you want.

Click the Slide Show button at the bottom of Windows Photo Gallery to start the show.

Go on a recovery mission

Deleted something in haste? Not to worry. Accidentally deleted documents can be easily retrieved from the Recycle Bin in Windows Vista.

Begin by double-clicking the Recycle Bin icon on your Desktop.

To restore a single file, right-click it and click Restore.

To restore all items, go to the toolbar and click Restore all items.

Your files will be restored to their original locations on your computer.

Go for gadgets!

Is it time for a change of sidebar scenery? If you answered yes, then consider adding a new gadget or two to your desktop.

To begin, click Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Windows Sidebar Properties.

Choose Add gadgets to Sidebar. A window will appear containing the 11 gadgets that come with Windows Vista.

You can choose from these or click on Get more gadgets online. This link will take you to the Windows Gadget Gallery where you can choose from countless gadgets. I chose a calculator gadget to compensate for my poor math skills.

There's an endless list of gadgets to choose from: instant messaging, Internet radio, news feeds from around the world and more.

Change that sound

If you think that sound your PC makes every time you empty your recycle bin is permanent, think again.

You can easily change the sounds your computer makes when you do various tasks. For instance, I changed the standard sound heard when I receive new mail to the one heard when a pop-up is blocked.

To begin, click Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization > Sounds.

Under the Sounds tab, you will see a list of functions associated with certain sounds, such as new mail notification and program error.

Click on one of the items and then choose a sound from the Sounds drop-down menu. Once you’ve chosen a sound, click Test to hear it. If you like it, click Apply. If not, keep trying until you find something appropriate.

Get gaming

Find out what games you have on your Windows Vista PC.

Begin by clicking Start > All Programs > Games.

This folder will display all of the games on your PC, including the ones that come with Vista. Some games that come pre-loaded on your Vista PC include Spider Solitaire, Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans.

To add a new game to your Games folder, insert the game DVD into your DVD-ROM drive computer and follow the installation instructions. The new game should be automatically added to your Games folder. You can then download game information such as rating and product version, and keep track of the games you've recently played.

Picture this: Use a photo as your screen saver

Create a personalized photo screen saver by displaying selected pictures and videos as a slide show.

Begin by clicking Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization > Screen Saver.

Choose Photos from the Screen saver drop-down menu. Click Settings to choose which file of photos you would like your screen saver to show. My screen shows photos from a recent trip to France.

Create captions

Make your photos easier to find and organize by using Captions in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

If you don’t have Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can download it for free. Once you’ve downloaded the program, click Start > All Programs > Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Your photo library will open. Click on the photo you would like to add a caption to. On the right navigation pane choose Add Caption. You will be prompted to type in a caption for your photo. This could be anything from fishing with Dad, to ski trip with the girls.

When you want to find these photos again, simply type ski or fishing in the top search pane and the applicable photos will pop up instantly.

Captions are a great way to organize your photos. They’re also a fun way to remember things about the circumstances of when and where they were taken. Add dates and names, as well, to ensure nothing is forgotten.

Power-down.

Think green when you compute. Change the power settings on your laptop to save energy.

Begin by clicking Start > Control Panel > Power Options.

Then choose Create a Power Plan from the menu on the right.

Click on the Power Saver option. This option saves energy by reducing your computer’s performance wherever possible.

Publish your pics.

If you have photos you want to show off, use Windows Live Photo Gallery to publish them to your Windows Live Space.

If you don’t have Windows Live Photo Gallery, download it for free, here.

To access your photos, click Start > All Programs > Windows Live Photo Gallery. Your photo library will open. It contains all the photos you have on your PC.

Click on the image you want to post to your Space. Choose Publish > Publish on Windows Live Spaces from the top navigation bar. You will be asked to name the album (a good option if you plan on adding more photos from the same event), or you can add the photo to an existing album.

Click Publish and the photo will be automatically published to your Space. I have an album called Friends and Family that I add photos to regularly.

Make movies in a flash.

Show off your pics in a whole new way. Make a movie using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

I wanted to send my sister some photos of our recent trip to the Caribbean. Instead of e-mailing her the dozen or so photos, I decided to make a movie. Windows Live Photo Gallery makes this task very simple.

If you don’t have Windows Live Photo Gallery, download it for free, here. Once you’ve downloaded it, click Start > All Programs > Windows Live Photo Gallery. Your digital library will open.

Choose all the photos you want to use in your movie by clicking on them. Click Make on the top toolbar and choose Make a movie.

Live Photo Gallery will upload your choices to Windows Movie Maker, which comes with Windows Vista. Click AutoMovie in the top toolbar and you will be given several choices for how you want your movie to look. These include Old Movie, which gives your film an aged effect and Music Video, which uses quick edits and transitions. Make your selection and click Create AutoMovie.

Hit the Play button and watch your instant masterpiece. To e-mail your movie, choose the e-mail option under Publish in the left navigation pane.

I can’t wait to see what my sister thinks of my mini-movie.

Snip it!

Want to spice up a document or project? You can easily add images from the web, photos or parts of an image by using the Snipping Tool in Windows Vista.

This tool allows you to "snip" images or parts of images, save them to your computer and add them to documents or projects.

Begin by opening the web page or photo you want to snip from. Open the tool by clicking Start > All Programs > Accessories > Snipping Tool.

The tool will ask you to drag the cursor around the area you want to capture. This area can be anything — big or small.

Once you’ve snipped the image, you can save, copy and paste, or e-mail it. You can also get creative with the Pen, Highlighter or Eraser tools.

I recently took a palm tree that I’d snipped from a beach photo and added it to a homemade greeting card.

Easily e-mail photos

I firmly believe good photos should be shared. If I've taken pictures at an event or social gathering, I try to e-mail them to others who were in attendance. With Windows Live Photo Gallery, sharing pics is a snap.

If you don't have Live Photo Gallery, download it for free, here. Once you've downloaded it, click Start > All programs > Windows Live Photo Gallery. Your photo library will open.

Click on the photo you want to send and choose E-mail from the top toolbar. If you want to send more than one, hold down the CTRL key while selecting images.

Select a picture size from the Picture size list. Medium is usually a good choice, but if you're sending several photos, a smaller picture size will reduce the overall size of the e mail message.

Click Attach. Outlook will create an e-mail message with your photo(s) attached.

All you have to do is add a recipient, write a message and hit Send.

Link up

Microsoft Word makes it easy to add hyperlinks to your documents. This is a handy feature for me since I'm online a lot and so are the people I work with.

Being able to quickly add links to my documents is very helpful. To do this in Word, highlight the word or name of the web site you want to link to.

Click Insert from the top toolbar and choose Hyperlink. You will be asked to paste the web site you wish to link to in the box provided.

Paste it in and click OK. The text should now be live and take you to your desired web site when clicked.

Play with pictures in Microsoft Word

Adding photos to Word documents has never been easier. In an existing or a new Word document, choose Insert > Picture from the top toolbar.

Select the photo you want to add from your Pictures folder by double-clicking the photo.

Now get creative with your photo. Under the Format tab in the top toolbar, there are several options to embellish your photos.

I tried changing the shape of my photo. Choose Picture Shape to try this change yourself. Options include an oval, a teardrop, a heart and a smiley face. A photo of last year’s Christmas dinner received an extra heaping of meaning when reshaped as a star!

Choose Picture Border to add a border to your photo. There are many styles and colours to choose from.

You can also choose Photo Effects to change the overall look of your photo. Options include 3-D rotation, shadow and bevel, and each has several variations. I love the glow effect as it softens a photo’s edges.

Play with your words

Use WordArt in Microsoft Word to jazz up your documents. I like to use this feature for headlines or greetings if I’m creating a card or letter. WordArt gives your words colour, texture and funky shapes.

In your Word document, click the Insert tab in the top toolbar. Choose WordArt from the menu along the top. You will see a variety of styles to choose from. Click the one you like best, type your word or phrase, and then click OK.

Voilà: added dimension to your document.

Edit a photo in Microsoft Word

If you need to do basic photo-editing, work in Word. In an existing or a new Word document, choose Insert > Picture from the top toolbar.

Choose the photo you want to add from your Pictures folder by double-clicking the photo.

From the Format tab in the top toolbar, choose Brightness or Contrast from the Adjust menu, and select the degree that best suits your photo.

If you’re not happy with the size of your photo, crop it in just a few clicks. Under the Format tab in the top toolbar, you’ll find the Size menu. Choose Crop.

Get up and stretch

I work at my computer all day and often forget to get up and stretch. But when I do remember to take breaks, I feel so much better. Stretching eases my muscles and helps me to think more clearly when I get back to work.

If you work at home and have an exercise mat, place it on the floor first thing in the morning within view of your desk. I find that seeing the mat is a great reminder to take a stretching break.

If you work at an office, book a stretch period into your calendar or 10 to 15 minutes for a quick walk to shake up your muscles. To book a reminder in Outlook, go to New > Task.

Write Stretch break or Fitness break in the Subject line. Leave the Start and Due date blank unless you want to only book the breaks for a limited time. Click Recurrence in the top toolbar and choose Daily > Every weekday > No end date. Your break will appear in your Task list daily.

To set a reminder once you’ve set your task, go to Tools > Options > Change the appearance of tasks. You will be given the option of choosing a reminder time. Pick one that works for you and hit Apply. Click here for some simple stretching exercises.

Clear your cache

It is a good idea to clear the history of the web sites you’ve visited. Doing this can free hard disk space and protect your privacy.

To do this in Windows Vista, click Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Internet Options.

Click the General tab, and then under Browsing history, click Delete.

Under History, click Delete history, and then click Yes to confirm you want to delete the history.

Click Close and OK.

Express yourself

All versions of Windows Vista come with Paint, a program that allows you to create works of art right on your PC.

To open Paint, click Start > All programs > Accessories > Paint.

Once the program is open you’ll have access to a wide variety of tools. You can draw or paint freehand, create shapes and add effects to your creations such as airbrushing and stamping.

The best part: Because the paint and canvas are virtual, you can start your drawing over as many times as you like without wasting paper.

To save your project, go to File > Save > Save as type. Choose the type of file you would like to save your masterpiece as.

Name your picture and click Save. Now you can go back to it whenever you feel inspired.

Reach for the sky

I store all of my documents and files on my laptop. I feel fairly confident they are safe and secure, but some back-up is always a good idea. For this, I use Windows Live SkyDrive.

To begin, simply log in with your Windows Live ID and click Get Started.

SkyDrive gives you access to 5 GB of free storage from any online PC or Web-enabled mobile device. This means if you forget your laptop or something happens to your computer, you can still access your files by logging into SkyDrive from another computer.

If you want to share documents or photos with friends, co-workers or family, you can store them in a Shared Folder and control who can see or add files.

Each folder on SkyDrive also has its own web address that you can send in an e-mail, paste in a document or add as a favourite.

Cookie crunch

Cookies are small text files that web sites put on your computer to track information about you and your preferences. It’s a good idea to delete the ones stored on your PC.

Deleting cookies means web sites won’t remember the information you entered on previous visits, such as your user name and preferences.

To delete cookies in Windows Vista, click Start > Control panel > Network and Internet > Internet Options.

Click the General tab, and then under Browsing history click Delete.

Under Cookies, click Delete cookies > Yes.

Click Close and then OK.

Manage kids’ computer time

Windows Vista makes it easy to manage how your kids use the computer.

Use Parental Controls to set limits on your children’s access to the web, hours they can log on to the computer, which games they can play and what programs they can run.

To set up Parental Controls go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Set up Parental Controls.

Click the standard user account you want to set Parental Controls for.

Under Parental Controls click On.

Now you can specify the areas you want to manage, such as web restrictions, time limits and games.

Share your world

It’s so easy to keep in touch with family and friends online with a Windows Live Space. Post photos, write your thoughts in a blog and share your likes and dislikes with pals.

To create a space, you’ll need a Windows Live ID. If you have a Hotmail or MSN e-mail address, you already have one. If not, head to Windows Live to sign up.

Go to the Live Spaces homepage and click Get started.

Now you can customize your page. There are hundreds of visual themes and colours to choose from. Pick the one that best matches your personality.

Start a blog, post your photos, create cool slideshows right on your page and comment on your own and your friends’ pics.

It’s a simple and creative way to stay in touch.

Stick with your favourite font

It’s not uncommon to find a font you really like and end up using it for all your documents. For me, it’s either Tahoma or Calibri.

If you have a favourite font, it makes sense to set it as your default. That way, every new document you open will use the font settings you’ve selected.

On the Home tab tab in Microsoft Word, click Font. Choose the options you want to set as your default such as font style, size and colour.

Click Default and Yes. The next document you open will use these settings.

Game control

Kids love computer games, but there are bound to be some you don’t want them to play. Moreover, seven and 14-year-olds have completely different criteria.

Windows Vista allows you to limit the games your children play with Parental Controls.

To block your child from playing certain computer games, begin by opening Parental Controls.

Click Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Set up Parental Controls.

Under Parental Controls click On.

Under Can [person’s name] play games?, click Yes.

Under Block (or allow) any game on your computer by name, click Block or allow certain games.

An alphabetical list of the games on your computer will appear. Click the games you want to block and click Always block.

Easy editing

Often when you’re working on a document you end up revising it several times. It’s easy to track your changes using Microsoft Word.

Open the document that you want to revise. Click the Review tab on the top toolbar. Click Track Changes.

Make the changes that you want by inserting, deleting, moving, or formatting text or graphics. You can also add comments by highlighting the section of text you want to comment on, then clicking Review > New Comment.

Using Track Changes allows you to keep track of your revisions and makes it easy for others to see what changes have been made. (Not only that. Don’t like the change you made? Reject it!)