| Puckish
Peeves |
Cures
for Peevishness |
| Have you ever decided
to print something from a web site and printed more pages than you
had in mind? |
1. Copy the content
you want and paste into a word processing document.
2. Download the image(s) to your computer.
3. Select Print Preview, if available on your computer, and
see what will be printed. That will give you an idea of what
you're going to get and how you can limit it.
4. Specify in the Print window that you want to print page(s)
1-1. If you need more, you can add print them later, but at
least you won't waste reams and reams of paper.
|
| Have you ever picked
up a pencil or pen to copy the address of web site you are visiting
on the computer? |
Never,
ever touch a pencil or pen when you want to remember a web address!
Highlight the address and copy it to a word processing document
or add it to your Bookmarks. If you really have to have it on
actual paper, print it from the word processing document. |
| Do you make your students
take notes from web sites by writing them by hand on notecards? |
Of course, learning
to take notes on notecards is a good idea, but why not let students
learn to take their notes using the computer? You can demonstrate
the skills needed as you teach your students to copy, paste, and
add sources to their digital notes. You'll teach them to add quotation
marks so they'll remember what is not their words, and you'll show
them how to paraphrase other information they find to add to their
notes. If you want them to hand in their notes in the form of traditional
note cards, you can show them how to adjust the settings on their
printers so that their notes with come out in notecard form. We
think you'll find this a more accurate way for your students to
take notes. Think of all the mistakes they make as they transfer
the web content by hand! |
| Do your students type
information from their notecards back into their computers for their
reports and papers? |
More and more teachers
are requiring reports and papers to be word processed. --And when
teachers are not requiring this, students of all ages are handing
in word processed documents anyway. Many students are transferring
notes and ideas written by hand on notebook paper or notecards into
their computers. If they had saved their notes and ideas on their
computers in the first place, they wouldn't have to go through this
additional step. They could add their ideas and notes to their reports
or papers and then go through them to revise, edit, and polish as
needed. |
| Have you ever put a
web site address in your Favorites (IE)or Bookmarks (Netscape) and
then when you wanted to use it, the link wouldn't work? |
Web addresses don't
always work. We've all experienced that frustration. Sometimes webmasters
have their sites down for additions or repairs. Some leave you a
message that they'll be back, but many don't. Most often web pages
you want are still online, but at a different address. As sites
are updated, addresses do change. Therefore, it's best to bookmark
in your Favorites or Bookmarks by using the main address of a site
(This one usually doesn't change.) instead of a page deep within
a site. See Path Guidelines for addition ideas about finding sites. |
| Do you read or skim
the content on web sites to locate the information you want? |
To save time, once you've
found a web page that looks promising, you can use the Find option
(on your menubar, look for Edit and scroll to Find) to search for
keywords or phases that you want to access. Be warned that these
searches are page by page; the Find option will not search throughout
the site for the keyword(s). But, if it's a long page, it will certainly
save you from reading and scrolling through everything on that page.
What you're looking for, if it's there, will be highlighted on the
web page. |
| If you find a web site
you want to share via email, do you type it into the note, copy
and paste into the note, or ...? |
How about clicking on
(or holding down) on the mail icon on your browser? Then select
Send Link . |
| Is your browser out-of-date? |
To make sure you have
the latest version of your browser, head to Netscape (www.netscape.com)
or to Internet Explorer (www.microsoft.com/windows/ie). Our computers
on the Worcester network are using IE, but you might have Netscape
at home. |
| When you
open your browser, do you go to the page you use most or to some
other page that you don't want? |
If
you don't, change it. It's a waste of time, isn't it, to go to
a web page you don't usually use? Here's how to change what is
called your homepage.
Internet Explorer
PC: Go to Tools (on menubar), scroll to Internet Options
Mac: Go to Edit (on menubar), scroll to Preferences, select Browser
Preferences.
Following these directions, you
should see a window called Homepage. Erase the url that's in the
window and type in the web address for the homepage you want.
|
| Have you ever lost valuable
information on your computer? We all have. So why would anyone want
to save only on the computer? |
You've heard the term
back-up, and if you computer crashes or the electricity goes off
when you're in the midst of typing an important document, the person
who comes to fix your computer will ask, "Did you back-up?"
So--copy your folders and important documents to a place on your
school network, to a CD, or to separate hard/backup drive. In addition,
files that are not large can be sent by email to your home or school
address so that you'll have them in two places. |
