Wordpress help

My old IT Training website became so outdated that I decided the best answer was to start again from scratch.  So I've started the all new friendly computer training website.

New on this website is a section offering help for Wordpress users.  The Wordpress site provides excellent support, but there are a few questions that it doesn't answer.  Each time someone asks me for Wordpress help, I am taking that as the cue for a webpage.

To date there are pages offering help on how to add a plug-in to wordpress, how to add a theme to wordpress, and how to change the wordpress header graphic.

How to earn money online

A question I get asked a lot is "how can I earn money online"?  Many people would like to earn a little extra and "online" seems to be the in phrase.

Sadly that is a bit like walking into an employment agency and asking "how do I earn money"?  What can you do?  What are your skills?  What experience do you have?

There are many ways to earn money online.  You can sell physical products through your own website or through an auction site.  You can make products or buy in products.  You can buy products from wholesalers, jumble sales, sales.  You can sell stuff from your own attic.  You can sell stuff for friends.  You can sell books you have written.  You can sell books someone else has written.  You can run a website for your offline business.  You can run a website about a particular topic and earn money from advertising.  The list goes on.

Where to start?  That is the hardest question for anyone new to earning online.  

Earning online isn't easy.  Don't be fooled by the ads that promise you can "earn $5000 for 2 hours work".  You can't.  You have a lot to learn and it takes time, more time, work and more work.  

I have just started a new website for anyone that wants to start earning online.  It will recommend products that I have used myself.  I know what works and what is a scam.  The website will grow.  Be one of the first to see it.  How to make money online.  Be there or be square!

Firefox opening screen

You can tell Firefox to open with a blank screen, a homepage that you choose or tell it to start with the last internet page that you visited. Sometimes, especially if your computer crashes, these options can change and you will want to reset them.

To reset the options Click on Tools (menu bar at the top of the screen) then Options. Click on Main and you will see a downward pointing arrow beside the words "When firefox starts". Click on this to reset to the option you want. The three options you can choose from are "Show my windows and tabs from last time" - Firefox will open with the pages you last viewed, "Show my home page" - Firefox will open with your chosen home page, or "Show a blank page".

Show icons on desktop

Sometimes, as if by magic, the icons on your desktop can disappear. You turn on the computer and all you see is the blank desktop and the mouse cursor. Don't panic, it's easy to get your icons back.

Just RIGHT click on a blank part of the desktop. Point your mouse at view and look to see if there is a tick beside "Show Desktop Icons". If there isn't, just click on it and your desktop icons will come back!

Warning when changing between secure and non secure pages

If you use Internet Explorer you will often see a warning dialog displayed when you change between secure and non secure parts of a website. You can stop this box from being displayed if you prefer.

Click on Tools on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Choose Internet Options.

Select the Advanced tab and scroll down to "security". Under security, remove the tick beside "warn if changing between secure and non secure mode".

How to place a picture behind text in Word

To make your picture or graphic sit behind the text on a page in Word, you need to change the text wrapping properties of the picture. There is more than one way to do this (isn't there always?). This is how to do it using a right click on your mouse.

Word 2007

Picture - RIGHT click on the picture and select "Text wrapping". Click on "Behind Text"

Shape - RIGHT click on the shape and select "Format autoshape". Click on the Layout tab and choose Behind Text.

Word 2003/XP/2000

Right click on picture, choose format picture, click on layout tab and choose behind text.

How to rotate the picture on your computer screen

A few weeks ago my cat walked across my laptop keyboard. Suddenly the picture on the screen was upside down. Try using the mouse when up is down and down is up - if you see what I mean!! Short of standing on my head something had to be done. I had to work out how to rotate the picture on my screen.

There are 2 solutions to this.

1) hold down the ctrol + alt keys. While holding them down press one of the 4 arrow keys.
Up arrow = picture right way up
Down arrow = picture upside down
Left arrow = picture facing lhs of screen
Rigth arrow = picture facing rhs of screen

2) Right click on the desktop, select graphics options and then rotate (I'm using Windows Vista)