Easter

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

This is the third Spring for my business, and I'm coming to the conclusion that April is the most difficult month of the year. I suppose it's a combination of Easter and improving weather. For a start, I get tied up with other commitments in Holy Week - rehearsals and services in the very middle of the day - so that eats into my teaching time. So tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, the morning is completely taken up with singing. Then the middle of Good Friday is also devoted to a service - and anyway a lot of my clients observe Good Friday as a holy day rather than a holiday, so I wouldn't expect them to book lessons.

And with the weather improving, people are more prepared to travel and visit...so my clients either go away or stay home and entertain family. On top of that, the grass is growing, the gardens are burgeoning (I love that word!) and it gets more tempting to venture out there rather than stay indoors at the computer.

I expected Christmas and New Year to be the difficult time of the year, but I've found that people want lessons right the way up to 23rd December and then things pick up again straight after New Year, with January always being a good month.

So April's a bit of a dip in the turnover. But that's the way it goes, and I have to accommodate it. Ah yes...talking of 'dip', here's an interlude:

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This month's bird

Saw a dipper last week - and thought how smart he looked, bobbing up and down in the middle of a stream.

A very dapper dipper!

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Yes, Easter's a little unpredictable with the clients. I've had a few drop out this week - illness, builders(!) and families the main excuses. But they've all re-booked for May, so all is not lost.

And I need a break too, so I'm visiting bonny Scotland for a few days as soon as Easter Day is over and sung. We have three Bank Holidays in the space of eight days, so why fight it? Give yourself a break!

Colin

March Charity

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I know this post is a bit late, considering March is 15 days ago, but I did actually get March's charity sorted out in March. It's just that I'm late in telling you about it...

A letter came through my door, announcing that a Hereford postman was going to run a marathon for The Haven. This is a charity that supports people who suffer from breast cancer - I say 'people' because not all of them are women.

The postman is Mike Chandler and you can read all about his efforts and the text of the letter that his colleagues posted through doors by clicking on the link. He and his mate Glyn Jones have raised thousands and thousands of pounds in the last few years.

I must put in a word for postmen and women generally. They turn out in all weathers to deliver the mail and I feel so sorry for them when I realise that a major proportion of the weight they have to lug around must be junk mail!

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More on email...

We all suffer from 'junk' emails. Some of my friends say that they receive "hundreds of emails a week...most of it junk"

I do my best to advise my clients about junk email. A lot of it is bona fide advertising from organisations that they have subscribed to: online shopping, for example.

I do tell them that when they first sign-up for anything, they should watch out for those little check-boxes that offer to "keep you informed" by email or ask you whether you're willing to receive garbage from "third-party organisations". (They don't say 'garbage' of course....but it will be!)

You do have to watch these checkboxes. Sometimes they are already 'ticked'...and you have to read carefully to see whether a ticked box means Yes or No.

I also point out that a bona fide advertiser should provide the opportunity to 'unsubscribe' from all their emails. You have to scroll right down to the bottom of the email - and the unsubscribe link is usually very small - but it should be there.

Colin

Rogue Mail

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I've had a few new clients recently to whom I've promised notes on using email. I did this quite confidently because I have 25+ pages already prepared, and it's just a matter of printing out copies, laminating them and putting them into a presentation folder.

Or so I thought...

These new clients have recently bought computers - Windows computers with the Windows 7 operating system. Now, if you're in the computer tuition business, you'll know that you meet all kinds of computer systems as well as all kinds of people. And it's the variety of systems that cause far more trouble than the variety of people!

Microsoft had two 'mail client' programs in the Good Old Days - Outlook and Outlook Express. Fine! They worked on Windows 98 (RIP) and they worked on Windows XP, which I still use on my desktop PC. Then Microsoft brought out Windows Vista with much trumpeting. They also brought out Office 2007 which causes all kinds of problems of its own. Further to their policy of "If it ain't broke...fiddle with it" Microsoft made sure that Outlook Express wouldn't work with Vista and brought out 'Windows Mail' instead. Actually, Windows Mail is very similar to Outlook Express, so the changeover was pretty smooth, but Vista was a disaster and Microsoft hurriedly put a few things right (like a Shut Down button, for example!) and called the whole thing 'Windows 7'.

Hey! Guess what? Windows Mail won't work on Windows 7! Microsoft brought out a thing called "Windows Live Mail" instead.

So let's pause for breath and review what we have out there: There's Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail, which are mail clients, and there's Microsoft's webmail service which used to be called Hotmail but now they prefer you to call it Live Mail - not to be confused with Windows Live Mail, of course.

Now I've done my best to keep up with all these. I've prepared exhaustive illustrated (screenshots) notes on Outlook 2003, Outlook Express, Outlook 2007, Hotmail, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail and Live Mail (not to be confused with Windows Live Mail) Well, of course not. I mean - how could anyone get confused?

But now...Microsoft have updated Windows Live Mail. That's the mail client Windows Live Mail, not Live Mail like Hotmail....clear? Yes, they've updated it so that instead of the relatively friendly menus it used to have, it's now got that Ribbon-thing that they introduced with Office 2007

Which means that I have to get down to work yet again on a Microsoft mail system. The most time-consuming thing is taking and editing the screenshots. And I can see that I'll need even more pictures to demonstrate to users that you can get rid of that default 'Calendar' and you can get your Contacts if you make some effort on the 'View tab'. That's all before we start actually looking at the Inbox and how to send a mail etc. etc.

But the most embarrassing thing that I have to explain - on Microsoft's behalf - is that my new clients have to get in the habit of clicking on 'Inbox' before they close Windows Live Mail. This is the only way to make sure that when you open Windows Live Mail again, you go to the Inbox. As it is, Windows Live Mail returns to whatever folder you were last using.

Starting at the mail Inbox seems such a basic design requirement - and Microsoft just plain forgot!

Colin