Monday, July 09, 2007

Really Useful Tips

I often post on message boards, and I've noticed that newer posters on the internet don't always know some simple tricks finding out information on pictures or saving the pictures they produce or find. Three came up recently, so to spread the joy, here are some simple techniques. They're for Windows machines. There may be easier ways of doing these things, but they tend to involve buying something extra.

1. I found this picture on the web/ Someone sent me a picture from the web. Who is in the picture? When was it taken?
2. Someone sent me this funny file. Ha ha. (Or maybe they sent you an MP3 of their great band.) There's no links on the page they sent me so how can I find out if there's more at this website?
3. I got a high score on this game but no one will believe me because there are no embedding instructions and I don't know how to email a picture of my screen. How will I impress me mates? Or, this photo has right-click disabled so how can I rip it off, pretend it's mine and get thrown off my ISP? (Second scenario not recommended.)













1. I found this picture on the web/ Someone sent me a picture from the web. Who is in the picture? When was it taken?

A quick way to find out something about a picture you've found online is to right-click it and select "save as". The default name Windows offers you is the name the previous person saved it under. If the previous person called it "Me and Hillary Clinton, 2006," or something else useful you're home free.

If they didn't, save the file to somewhere you can find it to get rid of it later (like the Desktop), and right click the icon (not the picture, its icon) and select properties. Is there anything under "Summary"?

No? (Well, at least now you know to fill in the summary on pictures you put on the internet so you can recognize them later.) Open it with Microsoft Office Picture Manager (it comes free with Windows) and look under File – Properties. There's information there on the camera that was used to take the picture and some other stuff that might be useful.

No? Then copy the File Name exactly, e.g.

iguana3

and paste it into Google Images.

That fooled you, didn't it? It isn't an iguana! I don't know what they all are, but it just illustrates that Google Images looks for the filename (possibly among other things) when searching.

If Google Images doesn't find it, try Google web search.

If that doesn't work, write to the poster and ask. (Alternatively you can do this step first, but you'll feel silly if he replies, "It's me and Hillary Clinton in 2006, you moron.")



2. Someone sent me this funny file. Ha ha. (Or maybe they sent you an MP3 of their great band.) There's no links on the page they sent me so how can I find out if there's more at this website?

A lot of people keep personal websites with no good index or links between them. If there are no links on the page you're looking at, cut down the URL to the page under it.

Let's say you were given this URL (I'm making it up. There aren't any URLs beginning with hxxp://)

hxxpp://www.barrysbollocks.ipanema.com/2007/07/wildwood/lilypad.html

You thought that "lilypad.html" was a really interesting page and want to see if there are any more gems on the site.

Take off the end of the URL - lilypad.html - and have a look at the page called wildwood. If there's nothing of interest there, cut it down to

hxxpp://www.barrysbollocks.ipanema.com

You'll probably see an index of some sort there. If it says the server refuses your request, give in. (Or be considered a hacker.)

3. I got a high score on this game but no one will believe me because there are no embedding instructions and I don't know how to email a picture of my screen. How will I impress me mates? Or, this photo has right-click disabled so how can I rip it off, pretend it's mine and get thrown off my ISP? (Second scenario not recommended.)

Put the part of the screen you want to keep on top of all the other windows, so it shows clearly.

Hit Shift-Printscreen

Open All Programs – Accessories – Paint.

Control-V to paste the picture of your screen into Paint

Use the top right hand square tool to draw around the part of your screen you want to keep. (Beware because having a picture of your screen on your screen leads to dizziness and disorientation.)

Ctrl-C to put that square's worth of data into the Clipboard.

File-new to open a blank Paint picture. (It may ask you if you want to save the previous picture. Say yes until you're sure you know what you're doing. After that, say no.)

Ctrl-V to paste the square's worth of data into a new picture.

Save the picture and email it to your best friend.

(He or she will probably hate you because a Paint bitmap file is huge, but saving it as anything else is for the intermediate class next semester. Oh, all right, here goes: save it as a .jpg. It's part of the dropdown menu on the "save as" screen.)


This is a picture of a bit of Paint's own interface saved by this method. The square crop tool is the top right one. Don't get confused and press it. It's just a picture of a tool.

I cut and pasted the rose in there from a website. It isn't mine. It's a lovely rose but I don't own it.

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