I've Downloaded Something and I can't find it!!

Where do items go when you download them and how can you find them?

Usually when you download something you are asked where you would like the item to go. If you are like many of us you have often just pressed OK and the item downloaded, but you are not sure where it went.






SET UP WHERE YOUR DOWNLOADS GO

First of all to set up WHERE your downloads go you must do it in the browser (a browser is a program that allows you to search the Internet). That is either Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or any other browser. You can choose to download things to the default folder which is usually called downloads OR you can designate another place where you would like your downloads to go. To do this in a Mac go to the Preferences (located under the name of the program). It is usually under General. On a PC you will use the TOOLS menu and choose Options. Once you set this up you should know where your downloads are going and be able to find them.


DOWNLOAD FOLDER


Most programs have a folder called "downloads" where anything that is downloaded goes to automatically. Once you find that folder you can put a copy of it on your desktop so that it is easy to find.
On a Mac there is a copy of the downloads folder on the bottom left on the dock. If you would rather have one on your desktop here are the steps.

When I search for the word Download using Sherlock (the magnifying glass) on my Mac it finds the folder for me.
I can click on it then and it opens and I can see where it is sitting.
I can also press control while I click and choose Make Alias and an alias of the folder will be made. This is not a copy, but just a pointer to the real folder.
Then drag the alias onto the desktop and now it will be easier to find.


I do not have pictures for the PC, but the process is the same.

1. Search for download using START>SEARCH
2. When you find the folder click on it. A window should open showing you where the folder is. 
3. Right click instead of CTRL click and choose Short Cut instead of Alias. A short cut of the download folder should appear.
4. Drag the short cut to the desktop and now when you download something it will be easy to find.

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING YOU DOWNLOADED, BUT CANNOT FIND

But what if you already downloaded something, but you cannot find it? There are several ways to search your computer to find something. On a Mac you have Sherlock (see image above), represented by a magnifying glass. When you put a little information into the box that you know is part of the download the computer will search all over and give you a list of what it finds. If you do not have success this way you can go to the Finder (just click anywhere on the desktop) and on the left side you will see the words "search for" and "yesterday" "past week", etc... This will also return a list of items that were saved or downloaded on those days.

On a PC you can also search for what you have downloaded or saved. Click on the START menu and look for the word Search. This will open a window where you can designate what you are looking for and the computer will return a list.

Hopefully this has helped you to find what you downloaded. If not, feel free to contact me at http://helpimnotageek.blogspot.com for some one on one help! Next week is Facebook week, so look forward to Facebook tips.

Bookmarks or Favorites using Delicious

When you find a site that you like and want to find it again you may bookmark the site or make it a favorite. It is then added to a list kept on your computer. This is helpful, but ONLY on the one computer that you are using. If you go on a trip to visit a friend and use their computer or to the library and use that computer you will not be able to access your bookmarks or favorites.

That is why many people use Delicious, Diigo or other online tools to save their bookmarks. For this post I am going to use Delicious as an example (http://delicious.com) as an example, but there are many others that do similar things.

When you go to Delicious for the first time you have to sign up for a free account. This will give you a password protected space where you can save your bookmarks. You can decide to share them with others or to make them private. You can even have some shared and others private.

Once you have an account you can sign in and begin using it. Begin by following the directions to import all of your current favorites or bookmarks into Delicious. You can also add a browser button to the top bars of Internet Explorer or Firefox (or whatever browser you use). There are instructions for doing this that you can get back to at any time using the HELP menu.


When you add a bookmark to Delicious it is now saved on "the cloud" so that you can access it from any computer. You can also use Delicious to search. Just log in and there is a search window on the first page. You can search your own bookmarks or everyone's shared bookmarks. Each bookmark has a number in a blue box on the right that shows how many people have saved that particular bookmark. Sometimes this is helpful information to show how good a site it is. The words on the bottom are called TAGS and describe the site so it shows up when you search for those things.

Now when you go to any site you want to save you can just click on the Delicious button on your toolbar or the Menu at the top of Firefox and choose Save new bookmark. It will be added to your list of bookmarks in Delicious and you can find it on any computer!

Here are some other bookmarking online sites you may want to try:

Diigo-http://diigo.com - Diigo can do more than just bookmark sites. You can save highlighting, comments and other annotations on a site. You can share these with others or make them private. It can also do many other things.

Stumble Upon - http://www.stumbleupon.com/home/ Stumble Upon gives you a bar with an icon that takes you to a different website every time you click it. It can be a fun way to explore the web. You can set up your interests so that it sends you to sites that you may like. It also sends a weekly email with suggested sites depending on your settings.

List of many sites: http://www.social-bookmarking-sites-list.com/  - Look through this list!  Each of these does something in addition to saving your bookmarks.


Remember I am available to help you in person to set any of these things up or explain them more and answer questions. Just email helpimnotageek@gmail.com. And as usual please add helpful information to the comments!

Searching with Google

I just spent time with family and I realized that most people really have no idea how to search the web. Most people 'google' when they want to find something, but is it effective?

When you put a search term into Google it automatically finds MILLIONS of pages. Sometimes they are not what you want at all. Here are some tips that might help you find what you want more quickly:

1. Reading search results is a new type of reading that they do not teach you in school. Here are some important things to remember. I will use the example that your child (or you) have a stomach ache that you want to find more about:

• Ads are always the first things at the top of the page and down the right side. People are paying to have their ads show up in these locations. Click on them first if you want to purchase something. Sometimes they can be helpful even for information about something, but be aware of why they come to the top.

• Right below the name of the site is the URL (or web address) of the site. You can tell A LOT by breaking the URL down. http://www.mayoclinic.com is called the kernel. Often by the name you can tell if it is what you want. For example when searching for "stomach ache in children" I found http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/.../chronic-stomach-ache-in-children this might be a helpful site, but I can tell that it is a person giving advice. It may or may not be the information you seek.

• Search Tools - Along the Left side of the page you may see something that says "show search tools"

When you click it you will see a list of different ways to search. One of my favorite is that Google can help me find the latest news on something when I click "past hour". There are also very visual ways of searching. Try these different searches out and see if there is anything helpful for you!

2. Search basics - When you search you will have the most success if you put in as many search terms that you can think of that relate to what you are looking for.




SPECIAL SYMBOLS:

•  - A minus sign narrows your search. For example when searching for snakes I might put -plumbing so that I just get animals.

• "" Quotation marks mean that there is a phrase you are looking for. "1011 Olive Street" I don't want the search engine to return a bunch of results on 1011.

• Google also makes suggestions when you are typing in your term. Sometimes clicking on one of these is helpful.

• Advanced Search-Google will do all of this and more for you if you chose the ADVANCED SEARCH.  It will give you a screen that will help you to narrow down your search.

3. Other Search Engines

Contrary to what many people think Google is NOT the only search engine. In fact the WEB is so huge that it is impossible to really search everything. There are many other search engines and some of them are specialized to find certain types of websites. At the top of the screen you may have a pull down like I do that makes it easy to change to a different search engine. Here is a list of other search engines to try:

Most of these search engines were found at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/specialized.html on the Webquest page which is a project of Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University. There are more at this link.

• Alta Vista was one of the best search engines before Google came along. It has been purchased by Yahoo and so when you do a Yahoo search it goes to Alta Vista.http://www.altavista.com/ 
• There are a few search engines that actually search OTHER search engines and put all of the results onto one page. Here are two of them Dogpile- http://www.dogpile.com/   and Webcrawler-http://www.webcrawler.com/
• Microsoft has come out with a very different search engine. It is really worth trying. It searches in a whole different way. Bing-http://www.bing.com/
• Delicious allows you to search the bookmarks of millions of other people who have made their bookmarks public. The benefit of this is that you are finding things that other people thought were helpful. http://www.delicious.com/ (Delicious is so helpful I will talk about it also in another post).
• Internet Movie Data Base is where to go when you want to find out ANYTHING about a movie. It is amazing! http://www.imdb.com/
• If you need a map here are two map databases Perry Castenada Library at UT-http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html and Mapserver-http://mapserver.maptech.com/
• You can find any Webcam that you are interested in looking at here: Earthcam-http://www.earthcam.com/
• Technorati is a search engine for blogs. It goes out and searches blogs for the terms you are interested in. http://www.technorati.com/