You can do IT is a regular feature of laterlife.com aimed at trying to help laterlife visitors make the most of Information Technology on or off the web.     

Jackie Sherman who runs the You can do IT Question & Answer section is an IT trainer and author. Jackie has spent her career in education and specialises in teaching IT to adults. Her courses for adults include such topics as MS Office, the Internet, e-mail and basic web page authoring.  

Jackie has also written the four books shown here - you can find more details about these by clicking on the cover images above. Jackie has also been running a course specifically for over 50s. 

Via laterlife.com Jackie aims to particularly help those new to IT and the web to build up knowledge and confidence, so no question is too basic. At the same time she will cover Q&As for the more experienced user. 

So if you would like to ask a question of Jackie, why not email her jackie@laterlife.com

Or if you have discovered something which may be of interest to others in making the most of the web, then she would love to hear about that too jackie@laterlife.com

November 2008

 Q:  What is the best way to send someone a file that they cannot overwrite or change?

 

A:  One idea would be to save it as a PDF file.  This will maintain the content and layout exactly and people will not be able to do anything but copy it. 

To do this, you will need to download a free PDF printer driver and converter such as PDF995.  You can find safe links at www.pdf995.com/download.html or www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2128874/pdf995

Once installed, open the document you want to convert.  Now Select File – Print and select the printer name PDF995 that will have been added to your list of linked printers. 

You will be prompted to save the file with a suitable name to your chosen location. 

After clicking Save, the file will not be physically printed but will now open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. 

If you do not want to spend money and upgrade the software, you will have to put up with a small pop-up advertisement appearing each time you create a PDF file.

Q:  I want to follow some earlier advice to print out large letters that can be stuck on patterned paper and used for greetings cards or scrapbooking.  How do I create a mirror image so the text is not reversed on the final page?

A:  My advice was to use Word Art to create the letters, although you could create them in Publisher or PowerPoint.  Here is how to produce mirror image wording.

1. Create the block of text in WordArt.

1. When using Word Art (but not the other programs mentioned), you will find that when you click this object, you will see a black line border with small black sizing handles round the edge.  The object needs to be changed to one that has white circles and a green rotate arm.  To do this: 

1. Click the Draw button on the drawing toolbar.
2. Select Text Wrapping.  Although used to set how text wraps round images on the page, it is also used to change the object's properties.  Click an option such as Tight.

1. You will now see that the white circles have appeared. 
2. To create a mirror image, open the Draw menu again and select Rotate or Flip – Flip Horizontal.

1. Now print in the normal way, cut out and stick onto the back of patterned paper.

View previous editions of YoucandoIT for more useful Questions and Answers
 

For a wealth of books on the web and IT generally, visit Amazon and under the books section select Computers and Internet.

Don't forget to visit the general laterlife features section called laterlife interest