The Old Shoebox Newsletter - help, tips and experiences

Yellow Bellied Marmot. Rocky Mountain National Park. GPS: 40.3959145357269 -105.713834166527 (C) Copyright 2009 Photo by Marlo E. Schuldt The following newsletters contain help, tips, instructions, a smile and a little encouragement. Share newsletters with family and friends for their personal use. Newsletters come from personal experiences. You may link to this site for family history purposes. Feedback is always welcome along with questions and suggestions for future newsletter topics. Newsletters are in PDF format.
New! Where in the World Is?	Where in the World IS? Part 1 This is a fun newsletter. I think you will enjoy reading about a new device I’d recommend to record GPS coordinates and automatically put the coordinates into the photos you take. Don’t let the word “GPS” put you off if new technology challenges you. This is something you need to learn about and consider using. I’m glad I purchased this unit and I’ve had a lot of fun using it. In fact, I consider it part of my camera. My past experiences with GPS and Google Earth helped me stumble into the concept of “regional geography” which may answer other questions and provide clues to the solution of many other family history mysteries. Added 06/30/2009
New! Newsletter Storage and Organization	Newsletter Storage and Organization There are over thirty-five newsletters on this site. More newsletters are added each month. This Newsletter will help you learn how to manage your newsletters by doing four things: Save and import newsletters into Heritage Collector. Find a specific Newsletter. Search a PDF for a word or phase. Learn to create a new folder on your computer. Added 05/27/2009
Scanning Preparation	Scanning Preparation Please take a minute before you jump into that pile of old photos and start scanning. Your old scanner has some tricks that will help you get better scans. Added 05/22/2009
Getting Started	Getting Started Determining where to begin is the first step of getting started in any endeavor. You are not alone if you’ve become frustrated trying to determine the best place to begin organizing your photos. This newsletter will provide suggestions to help you get started. Added 04/04/2009
Sharing & Collecting	Creating and Sharing PDFs Sharing photos and information has always presented a difficult problem until now. Consider using PDFs to e-mail and put on family history web sites. This Newsletter shows you how to make a PDF. Added 03/05/2009
The Preservation Paradox	The Preservation Paradox We've all worried about the best way to preserve and protect our family history. This newsletter will offer a simple and free way to preserve your family history Added 02/17/2009
The BIG Screen Experience	Using Heritage Collector With Your New High Definition TV. A New Way to Make Family History Informative and Fun - For ALL Ages Added 12/20/2008
You and Your Mouse A Touching Experience!	Make using your computer a little easier and more efficient without spending a ton of money. It’s time to give your mouse a long overdue checkup and good cleaning. Consider the advantages of getting a new wireless laser mouse. Makes a great present for the holidays. This newsletter will be of special interest if you are purchasing a new big screen or plasma TV. Added 12/02/2008
Holiday Sharing on CD/DVD	Send the Family Newsletter on a Self-Running Gift CD/DVD Send a newsletter on a self-running gift CD/DVD. Imagine how exciting it will be for your children and grandchildren to hear your voice speaking directly to them even though you may be thousands of miles away in a different state or country. This newsletter will take you step-by-step.. I have included a strategy for you procrastinators to save your bacon because you always put this off to the last minute. Added 11/11/2008
Using Sound	Preserve the verbal personalities of your grandparents, parents, children and relatives. Narrating a slideshow adds interest and captures attention. Adding sound to Hotspots enables a photo to tell a story in the words and voices of the people in the photo being viewed. Recording your narrative and the speech of others is a relatively simple and inexpensive process. This newsletter will help you get started and provide a basic understanding of how to use your computer to create, capture, and convert old tape recordings into computer sound files. I challenge you drag out the old tape recorder or get a new digital voice recorder and practice using it so you will be prepared to capture the special stories shared during the holidays. Added 10/25/2008
Storytelling With a Purpose	Share Stories About Your Life and Family. Storytelling is an activity near and dear to us. We cherish the memory of stories our parents shared with us. We love stories about how they grew up and challenged their parents with teenage shenanigans. We gain strength listening to stories of trial and triumph surviving the Great Depression. Stories about our grandparents are still of great interest and curiosity to us. Children enjoy sitting at the feet of a grandparent to hear “stories of the olden days.” If you are a grandparent it’s now your privilege and duty to begin sharing your experiences and wisdom with your grandchildren. Added 10/16/2008
The Importance of Family Traditions	What Things Do You Value Most? The biggest holidays of year will soon be here. Be ready to make the most of them. Some ideas and ways to record and share your traditions. Added 10/14/2008
Tenacity and the Field of Dreams Never Give Up!	Stories Can Work Miracles With Children. A short story about a young father’s battle with a weedy cornfield. Working two jobs and 18 hour days in the hot sun to support his family created a foundation to anchor his future dreams. Added 9/16/2008
A Family Geocache Never get lost again	Exploring, Traveling and Making a Geocache. . Introduce your children and grandchildren to a new high-tech treasure hunt that uses space age technology. It’s called Geocaching and it’s fun. Added 9/9/2008
Digital Photography in Family History	An Open Letter to You and Your Parents. Someday the photos you have taken will become a significant part of your family history. Learn more about your camera, how to take better photos, and some new features in digital cameras. Added 7/15/2008
The Search for the Missing Person	Finally! Solve the Big Mystery. Who is the person missing from all your group photos? Added 3/11/2008
GPS - The Ultimate Toy For Big Kids (Fun - Pioneer Soda Pop)	Using a handheld or car GPS to find and catalog family history sites can be loads of fun and educational for the kids. Using a GPS is almost like going on a treasure hunt for adults. I share three GPS stories - Finding my grandfather's dry farm, Grandpa's secret fishin' hole and how to find a springs where you can make an all natural pioneer soda drink that tastes just like 7-Up or Spite. An experience my kids still remember and talk about.
Speed Up Vista	You must read this if you are using a new laptop running Vista. This simple tip will show you how to make your laptop run much faster.
Google's New Candid Camera	Smile! You and your home could be on Google’s candid camera any day now! The next time someone wants directions to your home – send them to Google maps so they can get the map, with directions and a photo.
Backup	Backup - The Sequel. Information to help you backup your family history photos and information.
The Inkjet Money Pit	Your inkjet printer may be quietly eating you out of house and home. This newsletter provides some comparative information and recommendations for ways to save money the next time you print.
Help Your Laptop Battery Last Longer	Most of us never take the battery out of our laptop and usually have the laptop plugged into the AC adapter. Find out how this shortens the life of your battery and what you can do to make the battery last longer.
Take it ALL with you - in your pocket	Next time - Take All Your Photos and Collections With You - But Leave Your Computer Home! Run Heritage Collector from an external drive just like you were using your home computer with all the same information and program functions.
Monitor Cleaning Alert	Careful with that Windex! I ruined the anti-glare coating on my 19 inch monitor with just one little spay! It caused so much damage that I had started pricing a new monitor. Thankfully, after a lot of experimenting, I was able to "refinish" the screen and continue using it. I'll tell you what I discovered and the "solution" was so easy you won't believe it.
Family History Fun For All Ages	Learn some fun and easy ways to make family history interesting for the whole family.
Creating and Sharing Holiday Memories	Special occasions provide an opportunity to remember and share priceless memories. Tips and suggestions will help you get ready and make the most of any important occasion..
Home Computer Repair - Yes You Can!	Replacing a fan or CD/DVD writer may be easier than you think. I supply the steps I followed to replace a fan in my computer.
Converting Printed Pages Into Text Documents	Turn Printed Pages into Text. This newsletter will inform about helpful software that comes with most scanners. It’s called Optical Character Recognition or OCR.
Free Family History Templates	Capture the Memories - Free Family History Templates. Holly Hansen, President of My Ancestors Found, generously gave us permission to share thirteen (13) family history templates and five (5) other helpful files with our users.
BACKUP – Avert Disaster Before it Strikes YOU!	What’s that strange clicking noise coming from my hard drive ? ? ? Do you smell something funny over by the computer ? ? ? Why is it taking so long for my computer to boot up ? ? ? I knew I should have updated my virus program ? ? ? What’s this blue screen with a bunch of geek speak, computer codes and something about scanning my hard drive ? ? ?
Organize and Find Original Photos	*Finally a simple way to organize and find all your original photos, paper documents, and files.* After 10 years of struggling and mumbling with this impossible dream I just stumbled onto an unbelievably simple solution. I can now cross reference my paper photos with my digital photos and find a paper photo in just minutes.
A Family History Time Capsule	Make your own time capsule for future generations to enjoy. We did a little home remodel project, took photos and then turned the story into a time capsule. You can take a sneak peak inside the sealed time capsule to experience our adventure.
Buying a New HP Scanner to Use With Vista? Take Caution!	I recently purchased a new HP scanner to use with my HP laptop running the Vista operating system. The results were costly and very disappointing since I already had a trusty old Epson 2400 that works with Vista! What shall I do with this new "XP" scanner?
New Patent Announcement	It's official. Heritage Collector software changes status from "Patent Pending" to "Patented Software."
Should You Upgrade to Vista? "The good, the bad and the not so good" news	The new Vista operating system has its good and bad points. I'll share my "Vista" experience and then you can decide if it's time to take the plunge. Just remember, if you dive in, you will not be swimming in a heated pool and the lifeguards only yell out warnings in geek speak.
Customer Support - Do's / Don'ts A Success Story	Some simple suggestions that will help have a better support experience. For example. Call early in the morning. You will spend less time on "eternal hold" and your chances of getting a knowledgeable tech are much better.
The Magnifier Mouse	Click a little button on your mouse and it will magically enlarge or magnify a portion of the screen. Makes it much easier to enlarge and view photos and documents or anything that is on your display. The only trick is getting the right mouse and I'll tell you how to do that.
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