Google Calendar - Free and Easy

“Free” and “Easy” are part of what makes Google Calender (www.google.com/calendar) a terrific help in keeping you organized. Use it to add single events (Little League game, doctor appointment), recurring events (birthdays, anniversaries, other yearly events), or monthly or weekly activities. Make it fun, decorate with a birthday cake, soccer ball . . . you get the idea.

Display business, personal, organization calendars and the like by different colors, separately or with all calendars together, by day, week or month. Google saves your calendar on its cloud servers, ready to use any time, from anywhere.
 

 

Share your calendar with family, friends, business associates or organization members, sync with your desktop calendar, access it on the go or print a hard copy. It’s available in 40 languages and tracks appointments across time zones.

Need to set up meetings between members of your organization? Just pick a date and time, and Google Calendar checks each member’s calendars; if that time and date is clear, it adds the event to each person’s calendar. If not, it suggests alternate “clear” times for everyone. Saves all those phone calls or emails.

Ditto for a family or school reunions and the like. Or use the calendar to send invitations and track replies.

Google Calender can send you reminders of events via email, text message or a popup window and lets you add a mini-version to your Internet browser’s home page so it is always there.

No excuse not to get organized now. Free and easy works! More info in our column at www.norma-tony.com

Searching The Internet: Tips And Tricks

You know the information is on the Internet somewhere, but with BILLIONS of Web pages and sites, how do you find what you want?

Use search engines -- those specialized Web sites such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com or ask.com. Enter words or phrases related to info you want, and the search engine displays a list of Web sites that include your search words or phrases.

Each search engine has its own set of rules so may not display the same results. Try more than one site or use meta search engines, such as Metacrawler.com or DogPile.com, which simultaneously search several search engines.

Or, narrow your search by using:

* phrases in quotes that search for a whole phrase rather than individual words.

* the + or - signs to include or exclude specific words.

* advanced search to specify languages, file formats or other parameters.

* a wild card symbol * when not sure of word ending.

* natural language, such as “My computer locks up when I try to save a Word document to a thumb drive.”

* a comprehensive list of search engines www.search-engine-index.co.uk.

* parental controls for safe searching; also www.askkids.com.

* help menu from each site.

Be patient and persistent to get results.

Explore (surf) the Internet with www.awwwards.com for sites that have won awards for good design and useful content, or try www.stumbleupon.com. But be sure your anti-virus and anti-malware is installed and up to date.