Passwords!  We all hate ’em (but we all need ’em)

The good, the bad, & the ugly…

• Sequential #s: 12345678
• Repeating sequences (1111, aaaa, bbbb, etc.)
• “password”, “password”, “1lov3u”, “whatever”, “qazwsx”
• Don’t use common names or words that can be looked up in a dictionary
• Don’t use any personal info that can easily be found on the internet

Everything stored on your Desktop is kept active and running by your computer at all times.  This can be a significant drain on your computer’s resources, and will slow your computer.

If there are file/folders that you absolutely need on your Desktop, create aliases for them.  Aliases behave exactly like any other file or folder on your Desktop, but they do not tax your computer’s resources.  Here’s how to make an alias:

• Drag the file/folder from the Desktop to its final destination (e.g., Documents folder, Pictures folder, your Home folder).
• Select the file/folder you just moved, go to the File menu, click Make Alias.
• Rename the alias, if desired, and hit the Return key on your keyboard.
• Drag the alias back to the Desktop.

Click here to see the full notes for his presentation!

There are two types of risk we face

• Outside our control
• A hack has occurred on a company or organization that has our sensitive information.
• It could be the IRS, Equifax, a bank, a credit card company, a lending company, a mortgage holder, an investment institution. Any entity we deal with and to which we have given our name, address, and social security number.
• The use of this information by the hackers can be difficult to find and can last for years.
• Some of what hackers can do with this information is take out credit cards in our name, apply for loans or mortgages, commit crimes and even be convicted, and change our address so that we won’t receive any notifications of what has been done.

• Within our control. This list is long!
  1. Have weak passwords for websites we visit
  2. Use the same password for multiple sites
  3. Visit suspicious sites
  4. Download apps , movies, from unauthorized sites
  5. Click links in emails and enter our sensitive information on the website without ascertaining it is a valid site
  6. Post too much information about ourselves on social networks
  7. Use public wifi networks to visit sites that have our sensitive information
  8. Not secure our computers, phones, iPads with strong passwords
  9. Not have “Find My iPhone/Mac/iPad on in our iCloud account
  10. Not install the latest updates to our operating system
  11. Not install the updates to our applications

Click here to see the full notes for her presentation!

Tame Your Humongous Photo Library And
Learn to Share your Best Memories   

In this presentation, Nonnie Markeset illustrated more of the new features in the Photos App in Sierra, building on her two previous presentations.

Click here to see the full notes for her presentation!

New and Improved Features of the Photos App in Sierra!  

In this presentation, Nonnie illustrated how to work with Faces, Memories and Places… How to create Slideshows and Movies and to share your photos, slideshows and movies with friends and family.

Click her to see the full notes for her presentation!

Here are some tips to use Google search more efficiently.

1. Use the tabs

The first tip is to use the tabs in Google search. On the top of every search are a number of tabs. Usually you’ll see Web, Image, News, and More. Using these tabs, you can help define what kind of search you need to do. If you need images, use the Image tab. If you are looking for a recent news article, use the News tab. It’s rudimentary and most people use the tabs already. If you are not, then it’s highly recommended to get associated with them. They can cut search times dramatically if utilized properly.

 
Continue reading →

“By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.”

                                  Mark Zuckerberg

What we’re going to talk about today:

• What you might want to use Facebook for, and why thinking that through matters
• Setting up your Personal Page and controlling your presence and Privacy
• Recent changes and updates on Facebook
• Taking control of your News Feed
• Facebook pages for Business

Getting Started with Photos

The first time you open Photos on your Mac it will ask you if you want to migrate your iPhoto Library. You will say yes and all your photos will be brought into the new app. On your iOS devices once you update your operating system, the Photos App automatically replaces the old Photos app. The new Photos app on your Mac looks and acts much more like the Photos app on your iOS devices.

iCloud Photo Library: What is it and what does it do.

It will upload and store all your photos from your Macs and your iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods)

Most likely you will need to buy extra storage to use it as you only have 5gb of free iCloud storage.

System Preferences ­→iCloud­­­­­­­­­→Manage

50gb $0.99 a month

200gb $4.99 a month

1TB $9.99 a month

Be aware that if you have a large library it will take an enormous amount of time to upload everything.

But once your photos are uploaded they are available to all your devices.

All your photos are in the cloud so if your computer crashes, you have a backup.

With iCloud Photo Library you can optimize storage on your devices.

You can choose to keep the full resolution photos in the cloud and only have thumbnails on your devices. This will save a great deal of space for you.

Having all your photos in the cloud gives you a back up, but I would always have an extra backup on site as well.

My suggestion is to have your Mac photo library complete and at full resolution. That way you have it on your hard drive. You have it on your Time Machine backup and you have it in the cloud.

Your photos are now organized the same on all devices.

Note: If you choose to not use iCloud Photo Library, you will still have “My PhotoStream”, which will show the last 1,000photos or the last 30 days of photos on all your devices.

How to get started with iCloud Photo Library

On your Mac

Photos →Preferences →iCloud

On your iPhone, iPad, iPod

Settings → Photos & Camera

Also, make sure in Settings → iCloud, iCloud Drive is on and Photos is on and iCloud library is on.

Features of Photos on the Mac

The new Toolbar has four tabs. Each allows you to see your photos in a different manner.

Photos shows all your photos chronologically then by location.

Shared shows all your photostreams that you have shared with others and streams that have been shared with you.

Albums shows you all the albums you have created as well as albums Apple has preset for you. The preset albums are All Photos, Faces, Last Import, Selfies, Panoramas, Videos, Bursts, Screenshots, Hidden and Recently Deleted.

You can create new Albums under this tab or under the Photos tab.

Projects shows all the photobooks, calendars, cards and collections of prints you’ve created. Slideshows you’ve created will also show here.

If you have migrated your library from iPhoto you can see the events and albums created in iPhoto by choosing “Show Sidebar” from the View Menu in the Menu Bar. Under Albums in the sidebar you will now see albums created in iPhoto as well as a section titled iPhoto Events.

The Photos Tab

You can view your photos in Years, Collections and Moments. These designations show on your iOS devices but not in Photos on your Mac even though the features are the same.   You hone in or out by pressing the back and forward arrows in the toolbar. Each section also lists not only the time period but also the geographic location.

Double clicking on any photo will enlarge that photo and take you into that Moment. The Toolbar will also change and have additional features.

You now have a favorites option represented by the heart, an info button and an edit button.

If you want to see all the photos in that moment, click on the Split View button next to the arrow in the Toolbar.

The Shared Tab

Photos from your old photostreams and all shared photos will show here.

Using Keywords

These were such an important part of iPhoto. They are still here but not as obvious. Under Window in the Menu Bar, chose Keyword Manager. Here you can edit and add keywords. All the keywords you created in iPhoto are here. In the Toolbar you can do a search on a keyword to bring up all the photos that have been assigned that keyword (or stars from iPhoto).

You can add keywords to photos by selecting them and double clicking on the keyword in the Keyword Manager window.

Creating albums and folders of albums

To create an album, go to All Photos. Select the photos you want to add. Choose “Add Album” in the File Menu. Name the album.

You can manually arrange your photos in the albums you create.

To create a folder, choose “New Folder” from the File menu. Name the folder. Drag the albums you want to include in that folder into the folder. (Easiest way to do this is to have the sidebar showing and drag and drop there.

Arrange your albums and folders

You can arrange your albums and folders by dragging and dropping in the order you want. You can do this in the sidebar or by just dragging in the Albums window.

The Power of Faces

Photos goes through your whole photo library and records faces.

When you click on the Faces Album, it will show you the faces you have identified and named and then below it will show you all the other faces it has found.

The great thing about this is you don’t even have to open/find the photo in which that face is. If it is already someone you have identified, all you have to do is drag that face over the person’s photo.

If the person is yet to be identified, double click on the face and name it.

Then when you click on the face, all the photos that contain that person will display. And you can see them in two different ways: as the whole photo or just the face in the photo.

One of the features of iPhoto I miss most is the batch change option.

I can’t figure out how to change name, date and location on a number of photos at a time.

Each one has to be dealt with separately.   I think instead Apple wants us to use keywords and faces.

Understanding deleting photos

If you are using iCloud Library, when you delete a photo from All Photos, you delete in from all your devices.

If you delete a photo from an album you created, you only delete it from that album. The photo stays in your iCloud Library.

Retrieving a deleted photo. You have a Recently Deleted Album from which you can extract a photo you inadvertently deleted.

Placing your Photos Library on an external drive.

You may need to do this if your internal drive is almost full or is very small.

How to do it:

1. Make sure you have a recent backup either in Time Machine or another back up mechanism.
2. Quit Photos.
3. Open a Finder Window and go to your Pictures folder.
4. Drag your Photos Library to the external hard drive.
5. Once complete open Photos while holding down the Option Key.
6. Select the Library located on the external.
7. Once you know that it is fine and complete you can delete the original in the Pictures folder.

Note: you will want to make sure in Time Machine you have selected to back up not only your internal hard drive but also the hard drive on which you have your Photos Library.

Additional Notes

As a general tip, if you’re looking for help managing various Photos Libraries, look at Fat Cat Software’s PowerPhotos. While it costs $30, it includes a copy of iPhoto Library Manager, which can help prep or manage older iPhoto libraries, too. PowerPhotos is the only tool that can merge Photos libraries, and works with Apple’s database format to find and remove duplicates.