Now we can instantly send messages back and forth using email. Having an email account will not only allow you to communicated with your friends and loved ones electronically, it will allow you to register with trusted websites as you get to know the Internet and utilize it for a variety of reasons such as banking, shopping and research.

As Google is quick to point out, setting up a Gmail account is much more than just an email account. Establishing a Gmail account will allow you to log in on YouTube to watch and upload videos, save your maps and store contact information online. However, before you run you’ve got to learn to walk, so let’s start with email.

Go to Gmail

To begin, open your web browser. Type www.gmail.com into the address bar and hit return to go to the website. Once you’ve landed on the Gmail page, look for the bright red box in the upper right hand corner of the page that says “Create an Account” and click on it.

Enter the requested information

You’ll be asked for your first and last name, and then you’ll need to create a username and password for Gmail. You should take special care to note both your username and your password so that you’ll be able to access the account again in the future.  Gmail will prompt you to make changes if your username has already been taken.

A few notes about usernames:

• In general, a short user name is better than a long one because you want to avoid having to enter a 35-character username each time you want to sign in to email.
• Think about the context of your username. If you’ll be using it professionally, you probably don’t want to make your username “LOVESTODISCODANCEALLNIGHT.”
• Consider adding punctuation if your preferred username has been taken. GrannyJill might not be available, but perhaps Granny_Jill is available.

Google will also judge the strength of your password and will require you to use more than 8 characters, so be sure to check out How to Create a Strong Password.

You’ll need to check the button next to the Google Terms of Service, and then you can decide if you’d like to allow Google to share your account information with content and ads on non-Google websites. If you are interested in sharing that information and utilizing the Google +1′s with your contacts and friends online, you can select that box. If not, simply leave it blank.

Once you’ve entered all the information simple hit the blue box marked “Next Step” and you are ready to roll! You can decide if you’d like to upload a photo or customize your profile, but the simple process of establishing a Gmail account is complete at that point and you are ready to use email as a verb! Email your children so that they have your new address, let them marvel at your level of web-savvy, and congratulate yourself on your new technological skills.

No matter what you are searching for, whether it is a hotel in Botswana or a post office in your neighborhood, there are a few things you should know to make your web searches more effective.

There are many search engines to choose from, but the most popular and easiest to use is Google. For the purpose of this article we will discuss how to search using Google.

Here are 6 how-to-tips for search success:

1. 

   Open your web browser

   Your web browser is your window into the Internet. Before it can show you what is on the Internet, you’ll need to open the window. You may use Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox as a web browser but they will all take you to the same Internet. On a PC, find the icon for your web browser in the “Start” menu. On a Mac, it may be located in the row of icons at the bottom of your display. Once the web browser is open, look for the address bar at the top of the window. The address bar is the way that you steer the web browser to go where you’d like it to go. Use your mouse to clear the line of text and then type www.google.com into your address bar.

2. 

   Use Google SafeSearch

   Keep it clean. Google SafeSearch (see How to Set Up Google SafeSearch) is a must for anyone who shares a computer with children or wants to make sure that every search is PG rated. In your search settings you can change your preferences so that all adult content and images are blocked when you search.

3. Know what you are looking for and whether it is general or specific

   If you are looking for information about internal combustion engines then you are looking for general information. If you are looking for an engine for your 1948 Ford then the information you are seeking is very specific. The more precise you are with the search term that you enter into Google,  the better the results returned to you will be.

   For instance, searching “internal combustion engines” will return results about how the engines work, what they look like and how they were created. Searching for “engine for 1948 Ford” will provide you with a list of dealers selling the 1948 Ford Flathead engine in original condition with dual water pumps. The level of specificity in the information you provide to the web browser will control the quality of the information it returns to you.

4. 

   Use Google Categories

   The Google site is very simple looking, with a colorful logo and a plain design, but if you look closely you’ll see a row of categories in the upper left hand corner of the window. Using the categories narrows your search by filtering out the other types of content available on the subject of your search.

   When you are using the site specifically to find a map to your cousin’s new house in Poughkeepsie, rather than searching the entire Internet for directions you can use the categories to go directly to maps by clicking on the word “maps” in the top left hand corner of the window.

   If you are going online to find a picture of an angry cat then you would go to the “images” category so that your search results would be limited to pictures instead of pulling up the entire of catalog of angry cat content on the Internet. Trust us on this. It’s a surprisingly robust subject online.

   Using the categories will help you to find more specific information and can help you to find what you are looking for faster.

5. 

   Use quotations around your search term

   If you are looking for an article or bit of information that is very specific, you can use quotation marks around your search phrase. This will only give you results that include the exact phrasing you use within the quotation marks. Usually, when you search for things you don’t need to include “the,” “a,” or other common words. In the case of quotation marks, you should be exact.

   For instance, if you type in a search for “30 minute souffle” WITHOUT using quotation marks, Google will provide you with thousands of results including recipes for souffles, articles about 30 minute meals and a plethora of other potential leads. Utilizing the quotation marks around the search term will pull up a very short list of articles highlighting a 30 minute souffle without all the other results, thereby streamlining your search process.

6. Understand advertising

   Keep in mind that in order to keep services free, Google and other search engines place ads. The ads are at the top of the page or along the side. You can tell it’s an ad if, directly above the links it reads “Sponsored Links.” If you’re looking for a product or service, this may be useful. But understand that these links are paid advertisements and not a reflection of the best deals on the internet.

The answer is Copy & Paste, a basic function of all computers and most mobile devices. When you copy text, it is temporarily placed in your computer’s memory for you to use later… Until you copy something else. Generally, you can only have one thing saved in memory at a time.

Copy & Paste works differently on Windows computers than it does on Apple computers, and each mobile device (like an iPhone or an Android phone) have their own ways of doing things. For this lesson, I’m concentrating on Windows and Mac computers.

Here’s how it works on a Mac. The first thing you’ll do is select the text you want to copy. You do this with your mouse. This short video shows what it looks like on your screen:

Once the text you want to copy is selected, it’s time to copy it into memory.

On a Mac, you’ll press two buttons at the same time. First is the Command key, which is next to the space bar. Then, while holding that down, click the ‘C’ key. Release both and the text is now copied into your computer’s memory.

On a Windows computer, it’s almost the same thing, except you use the CTRL key, which is under the Shift key.

Once your text is copied, it’s time to paste it somewhere. Let’s say you want to send the text to a friend on email. Open up your email and start to compose a new message. Inside the message, when you hit Command-V (or on a Windows computer, CTRL-V) your text will appear wherever your cursor is.

It’s that simple! Copy the text you want to send, and paste it wherever you want.

What’s a password?

A password is a ‘code’ that only you know, that you use to sign in to web sites, email, and much more. Most people choose a password they’ll be able to remember easily. But this can be a huge mistake, because someone trying to break in to your accounts will be thinking the same way. If you have a dog named Rover, for example, Rover not a good password. Someone who knows you might be able to easily guess that Rover is your beloved dog, and that you probably used his name for your password.

Need help creating a secure password? Ask a young person that you know to use this lesson to help you.

Creating a secure password

First things first: you will either need to remember your password, or write it down somewhere. But when you write your password down, you run the risk of someone finding it and using it to impersonate you online. It’s not likely, especially if you hide your password well, but it’s definitely possible. Instead, use the following info to create a password, and do your best to commit it to memory:

1. Think of a word, phrase, movie title, book, etc

   Before creating a password, think of something — in this example, a word — that you’ll be sure to remember. I love the movie Casablanca, but most people don’t know that about me. So, Casablanca could be a good starting point for me.

2. Turn your word into a password

   Let’s start by mixing some of the letters up, making it look a little more cryptic. Like this:

   Casablanca becomes: c@sabl@nc@

3. Use a variety of upper and lower case letters

   Make your password more complex by capitalizing certain characters. One option, so you don’t forget which letters are capitalized, is to use upper case letters for only the first or second half of the alphabet (A-M or N-Z).

   Example (with first half of alphabet upper case): c@S@bl@Nc@

4. Finish by adding more characters

   Finally, add symbols, punctuation and numbers to the beginning and end to make your password even longer. Use more characters and numbers to replace words and letters like $ for “s” and “2″ instead of “to.” This is optional, but the longer your password, the stronger it will be.

   Example: c@$@b1@Nc@!

    

   That may look confusing at first, but you’ll get the hang of it and you’ll always remember your password. And, it’s much more secure than ‘Rover.’

How to Download Songs from iTunes

1. Open up your iTunes

   The icon should be in the dock or Applications folder of your computer.

1. Click the iTunes Store button

   Once you get into iTunes, you’ll see the iTunes Store button in the left-hand list of buttons.

1. Search for the song you’d like to download

   From the iTunes Store main page, you can search for the song you’d like to have.

1. Select the song or album you’d like to download

   iTunes allows you to play a preview of the song you’re about to download so that you know it’s the correct one.

1. Click “Buy”

   On the right side of the page, next to your song, there is a “Buy” button. Click this when you’re ready to purchase a song.

1. Enter your Apple ID and password

   A window will pop up asking you for your Apple ID and password if this is the first time you’ve downloaded from iTunes. Type in your information and click “Buy” again.

1. Download Song

   At the top of the iTunes page, it will tell you if your song is downloading. On the left side of the page, you can click the “Download” button in the “Store” tab to see how your song download is progressing.

1. Listen to your song

   Once your song is downloaded, you can listen to it by either going to your Music Library or by clicking the button “Purchased” in the left-hand list of buttons.