Computer Corner

A man walks into a nature reserve. “I volunteered to help the rangers count amphibians,” he says. The receptionist (that’s me) replies, “That’s great. Will you tap your name on that video screen to let the rangers know you’re here?” He taps the name ‘Paul’. Bink. A tadpole appears on top of Paul’s name. Two other names sit tadpoleless. Paul smiles. “That’s cool. Does that go into a database or something?” “No,” the receptionist smiles. “It’s just a PowerPoint. But now everyone can see that you’re here even if you wander away from the door.” Gasp! “PowerPoint? How did you do that?” “I animate the tadpole to appear when the name is clicked.” Gasp! “How do you do that?” Of course, nobody listens long enough for the long answer, so I am subjecting you to it now. How to Animate a Tadpole to Appear When Paul’s Name is Clicked Let’s start with a blank PowerPoint slide. Add a text box and type Paul in it. PowerPoint secretly names the text box TEXTBOX 1. Insert a picture of a tadpole. PowerPoint secretly names it PICTURE 4 (or whatever number). You can see all the object names in the Selection Pane, which is buried in the Select button: [graphic] You can change those names to something more memorable. For now, I’ll let them stay generic so yours will look the same when you try it. Now select the tadpole – either the picture itself or its name in the list. We want it to only appear if Paul’s name is tapped. With the tadpole selected, open the ANIMATIONS menu and click APPEAR. Now open the Trigger menu and choose TEXTBOX 1 as the trigger. [graphic] Now run the slideshow and tap Paul’s name. Bink! Tadpole says Paul has arrived. [graphic] Paul You’d be amazed how many people are amazed by that simple little animation. You should see how teachers take this to epic proportions and make interactive games for their students. Classroom Jeopardy is a classic in the classroom. *** BONUS ROUND *** Now for your bonus points. Go back to the Selection Pane and rename your objects to sophisticated identifiers so you feel like a computer programmer. In this way, only you will know what intelligent design lies beneath that magic tadpole. Such is the life of a programmer. I hope you’ll try it. It really is emPowering. Computer Tutor SPVCA members get free computer help from Amy at the clubhouse. Call, text, or email Amy Howard to work out a time.

A woman walked into a nature reserve’s office. She tapped her name on the welcome screen kiosk. Bink. A tadpole appeared above her name to indicate she had checked in. She approached the receptionist (that’s me). “I’m here to pull invasive plants out of the reserve. Do you have a list of plants that grow here?” “Do I ever!” I exclaimed. I slammed a four-inch-thick binder onto the counter and flipped open the pages. “All these plants, complete with pictures and information.” The woman glowed with excitement as she flipped through the plant pages. “Do you have this in something I can carry?” Granted, she wasn’t much larger than the binder. While I sat stumped, she clarified, “Do you have a digital copy?” Long story short, she got a PDF she can flip through on her phone while out in the reserve pulling out invasive plants. The binder? It’s still in the front office as an artifact. What is a PDF anyway? It’s a picture file at heart, an array of colored lights. But unlike its older siblings JPG, PNG, and good old BMP, PDF is the only image file format that can hold multiple pages in one file. That’s what documents tend to do. They tend to grow beyond one page. My sister learned this when her scanner turned her 30-page report into 30 separate JPG files. She said, “I can’t email this report in 30 pieces!” Nope. Choose the PDF format and try again. PDF’s creator gave it some lame name like Portable Document Format. It certainly is more portable than that four-inch binder. Still, I prefer its spirit name, Paperless Document File. For me, paperless is a way of life. Thanks to PDF, I have squeezed ten file cabinets of important papers into a digital storage drive that fits in a shirt pocket. I call this “going paperless”. If you opt for PDF before it’s even printed, we call that “going green”. That decision saves trees. Trees grow leaves. Leaves are green. Leaves absorb carbon dioxide for their photosynthesis addiction. It’s a whole thing. So why would this woman at the reserve want to pull out perfectly healthy plants that are happily sucking up all the catastrophic CO2? Well, that’s another whole thing. Here’s a short answer. And that’s where Computer Corner is going, going, gone. I am trading my Computer Corner writing time for greener pastures in the new Native Garden Club. I hope the Computer Corner column has helped you in your computer life. I still write computer tips on my blog, PaperlessPonteVedra.com. I still offer free computer help at the clubhouse by appointment. Computers aren’t going anywhere, and neither am I.