Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com

Must See Videos

Continually updated, these videos cover topics such as Cyberbullying and more.

http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos

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Technology Training and more for Counselors

Download a booklet with comprehensive descriptions of technology training and resources for counselors (PDF; 116KB).

http://www.schoolcounselor.com/pdf/booklet.pdf

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TIPS AND TRICKS

Zoom

One of my favorite shortcuts is to hold the Control key down (CTRL) and use the Mouse scroll wheel to zoom in (scroll forward) or zoom out (scroll back) of a document, spreadsheet, or other file. It beats clicking on the View menu, finding zoom, and then having to change the setting there. On the web, this trick will increase or decrease your text size no matter what browser you are using. Try it.

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Microsoft Word Keyboard Shortcuts

When you press Page Down in Microsoft Word, you will scroll down the page about a screenfull. If you want to actually go to the next page, press CTRL Page Down. Here are some other useful shortcuts using your keyboard to get around in a Word document:

– To move to the top of the previous page, press CONTROL + PAGE UP key

– To move to the beginning of the document, press CONTROL + HOME

– To move to the end of the document, press CONTROL + END

– To move to the beginning of a line, press HOME

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Don't Break Me Up (Text): Non-Breaking Spaces & Non-Breaking Hyphens

Source: http://www.softwarepro.com/tips/word.htm

Most of the time, we want text in a Microsoft Word document to automatically wrap text, that is, to move to the next line when it is too long. Word wrap is great except when it breaks up text that we want to stay together such as dates, names, phone numbers, phrases, formulas, titles or other text that should stay together.

Some examples of text you might want to keep together:

    August 2, 2005

    Christopher A. Jones, Ph.D.

    (555) 123-4567

    state-of-the-art

The common solution: what most people do to keep text together is move to the beginning of the text and press [Enter]. This is fine until any of the text changes and causes breaks in the wrong place.

The right solution: add non-breaking spaces or non-breaking hyphens instead of normal spaces and hyphens:

    * Non-breaking space: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Spacebar]

    * Non-breaking hyphen: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Hyphen]

As the name implies, non-breaking characters connect the text together and it will all automatically move to the next line together but only as needed.

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Can’t Open Microsoft Office 2007 files?

You need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

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Google Docs Adds PowerPoint Export, Saved Searches

Source: LifeHacker

Google Documents has added something that may not have a lot of flash, but it's probably the most-demanded feature since its Presentations tool launched—a plain ol' "Export to PPT" feature. That's a nice relief to a lot of cross-office compatibility problems, but a more quiet addition of saved searches is what's really new and helpful. Choose key words, document types, date ranges, authorship, or whatever else you're regularly looking for, and get those files quickly from the sidebar. Nifty.

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Move E-mail to Gmail with the Google E-mail Uploader

Windows XP and Vista only: Google releases an open source e-mail uploader that moves existing e-mail and contacts in your desktop client into your Google Apps Gmail account. (That's Google Apps Gmail account, not vanilla Gmail.) Download and install the Google E-mail Uploader, and choose mailboxes from Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and/or Thunderbird to start uploading.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/email_uploader.html

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Microsoft Office Outlook 2003: Add a Picture to a Contact

   1. In Contacts, create or open a contact.

   2. On the Actions menu, click Add Picture.

   3. Locate the picture you want to insert.

   4. Double-click the picture you want to insert.

Note The picture is automatically sized to best fit the contact picture space.

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Microsoft PowerPoint 2003: Importing Slides from Another Slide Show

1.       Insert - Slides from files….

2.       Browse to the location of the PowerPoint presentation

3.       Select the presentation and click Open

4.       The slides should be shown in the window - if they don't automatically show - click Display

5.       Click on all the slides you want to add to your show

6.       Click Insert - do not chose Insert all unless you want the entire show to be added

7.       Close

8.       Check the location of the slides that were added - they can be moved in your outline window or in slide sorter view.

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WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE

SECOND LIFE & TEEN SECOND LIFE

Source: WebWiseKids.org

At trainings and workshops around the country people are asking "What is Second Life?". We have asked Linda Zimmer who serves on our advisory board and is the president and CEO of MarCom:Interactive and an expert on this subject to write an article to answer your questions. This primer on Second Life and Second Life Teen will explain these virtual worlds, share areas of benefit and concern and offer tips for parents. Please feel free to share this article with parents and colleagues.

http://www.webwisekids.org/Second_Life_Article.pdf

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It’s Photoshop. On the Web. From Adobe.

Source: Photojojo

We all knew this day would come sooner or later, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting, does it? Today, Adobe releases Photoshop Express for the web. Now before you go berserk, let us exercise some journalistic caution — it’s not everything you can do in Photoshop fit into a web browser. Not nearly. No layers here, no fancy pants masking. But for 95% of your photos, it offers pretty much all you need to fix ‘em up, and it does it with style. Whether adjusting exposure, white balance, or hue, touching up blemishes, or distorting your image, Photoshop Express provides an easy slider and thumbnails to give you an instant preview of your image at various settings. Even undo is better than you’d expect. Being on the web, this Photoshop’s made for sharing. Everyone gets their own URL at photoshop.com, and the slideshows are top-notch — big, beautiful images with classy transitions. Want to load in and edit photos from Picasa, Photobucket, or Facebook? No problemo. No, it’s not a Photoshop replacement, but it is a remarkably slick and well-designed basic photo-editing and sharing application. Arguably the best so far. So what does it cost? It’s free, amigo.

http://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

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Our Overscheduled Lives/Our Childrens' Overscheduled Lives

Source: Digital Smarts Blog

We worry about how many projects we have going and how we are going to keep up. We worry about our kids and how many activities they have both in school and after school. For the kids there's basketball on Monday, gymnastics on Tuesday, piano on Wednesday, three major tests on Wednesday, a quiz on Monday, a project due on Tuesday.... Sound familiar? Is there ever time for all of us-parents and kids-to relax and think? Probably not, for we are running from activity to activity and project to project, aren't we? MIT's Dan Ariely in his book Predictably Irrational tells us that we simply have difficulty giving up our options. Maybe it's like being hesitant to get rid of clothing we think we might possibly someday, some time wear again? Maybe it's like over-scheduling our kids so that they'll be able to get scholarships for sports or dance or playing a musical instrument? Maybe we just don't know how to let go? We want to keep all our options open. To check into this problem, Ariety had students at MIT play a game in which they could get higher scores if they gave up options. The students didn't want to give them up even for better scores. You and your family can try the game to see if you can fight the urge to keep all your options open. What's the answer to our over-scheduled lives? Perhaps Professor Ariety's book can help.

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Soundsnap is a free online sound library and community for sound designers and producers. People can upload sounds and share them with the world.

http://www.soundsnap.com/

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Three Ways to Avoid problems When Sharing Office Files

Read this helpful column here.

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Kickstart

Yahoo! Kickstart is a professional network with a distinct purpose: to connect college students, recent grads, professionals, and alumni to discover internships and jobs, and to get career advice and mentor ship. Kickstart allows you to create a professional profile, browse company profiles and network with your peers, professors, alumni and potential employers. If networking is the best way to launch a career, then Kickstart is the best way to start building your network - by leveraging what you have in common with the people you need to get to know.

http://kickstart.yahoo.com/

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EZAnalyze Time Tracking Edition is in Beta Testing: I have been working on a new project to help school counselors keep track of how they spend their time, the 'EZAnalyze Time Tracking Edition'. It is an Excel file with a user interface built in to help you keep track of your interactions with students (including documenting the session length with a timer, visit reason, and space to type in counseling notes). It can provide summary reports of your work with an individual student, or summarize all of your activities with students. There is also a function for tracking the time you spend not providing direct services to students. If you would like to help me test the EZAnalyze TTE, you can sign up and download the file by providing your e-mail address. This file does not work with Apple versions of office.

http://www.ezanalyze.com/tracktime/index.htm

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Saving PowerPoint Slides as Pictures

http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointtips/ss/save_as_jpg.htm

Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators - CD Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D. My newest CD is designed to help you become more proficient in using Microsoft Excel™ to make data an important part of your comprehensive school counseling program. From data-driven decision making, to monitoring progress, to reporting the positive impact you're having on kids -- this CD will demystify how it's done. The content on the CD is equivalent to a full-day workshop in the computer lab! Visit and learn more about the contents of the CD and view a couple of sample videos http://www.schoolcounselor.com/store/data-bootcamp.htm  $21.95 (FREE shipping) please allow 5-7 working days to arrive

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JUST FOR FUN

Google Sky now available online

If you use Sky in Google Earth, it's now easier than ever to look at your favorite planets, galaxies, constellations or star clusters. With the launch of the browser version of Google Sky, you can search for your favorite stellar objects, listen to Earth and Sky podcasts, switch wavelength lenses and explore historical maps. You can also browse through the universe with the menus at the bottom of the page.

http://sky.google.com

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Tom & Jerry: Trap-O-Matic

At this site, you can construct your own mousetrap. You can use all the popular props from cartoons: mini cannons, roller skates, bowling balls and a bevy of other tools.

http://daflax.com.br/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=109i

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How to Leave Work at Work

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/02/how-to-leave-work-at-work.html

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Hulu

Hulu is an online video on demand service offering streaming video of TV shows and movies, primarily from NBC and FOX and their cable networks. Hulu has online social networking features, allowing users to clip videos, or parts of videos, from the site for posting in outside online communities. (Hulu has called this aspect video sharing, though users cannot upload content.) Watch full-length episodes of current primetime TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and clips from Saturday Night Live, Nip/Tuck, and others. Hulu also offers full-length feature films like The Usual Suspects, Ice Age, Three Amigos!, and The Big Lebowski as well as clips from films such as Napoleon Dynamite, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Devil Wears Prada and many more. Hulu is free and ad-supported — available anytime in the U.S.

http://www.hulu.com/

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