Palm Creek Computer Club Taking Your Skills to the Next Level

Prompt Example I have a 22’ diesel truck towing a 39’ fifth wheel that weights 16,000 lbs. Combined GVWR of 25,900 lbs. Avoid toll roads. Prefer divided highways. Total mileage and daily mileage should be determined from Google Maps, without buffers. Prefer limiting speed to 60 mph. Prefer rest stops …

If you are bringing your computer to the club on March 19th to follow along on Canva, here’s a link to a set of files I’ll be using. You’ll want to download them to a separate folder on your computer. As we go through Canva, we’ll be uploading individual files …

I ran into an interesting situation today on a new HP laptop with Windows 11. When trying to download and install Microsoft Office 2021, the installation was prevented by Windows, because of S mode. Computers with Windows 11 Home S mode will only install software acquired from the Microsoft Store. …

People often ask if there’s a computer/phone repair shop in Casa Grande. I found the following on Nextdoor.com. https://www.dougslaptopshop.com/ I have no personal experience with the shop, so I can’t say anything about them. If you try them out, please let me know how things go. Update 04/01/2025 – There’s …

When using perplexity.ai to get information, I have to open a browser tab and either type perplexity.ai or click on a shortcut. When using ChatGPT, I have their app downloaded, but it’s a little flaky, so I sometimes use the browser and type in chatgpt.com. I’ve found an easier way. …

When I take a photo on my phone that I want to get to my computer, I’ve found several ways of doing that transfer. I think the simplest way I’ve seen is pairdrop.net. Both devices need to be on the same wifi. On each device, open your browser and go …

I frequently have to convert a PDF file to a graphic format like jpg or png.  I’ve found several tools that do that, but I find their operations to be clumsy.  The good news is I found I can do this on Dropbox.  If I go to the Dropbox website …

Getting better results from an AI Chat tool, whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, CoPilot, or any other, is in large part dependent on how you write the prompt. Here’s a cheat sheet that can guide you to construct better prompts. Most of the guidance applies to all chat apps, but …

Microsoft has just updated their position on upgrading your PC to Windows 11 where the hardware doesn’t meet the stated requirements.  They now say you can upgrade.  However, they also say it may not work correctly, and they won’t support you on old hardware.  Also, you may not get all …

Looking for Palm Creek Newsletters (formerly Happenings), Events, Calendar, Bistro or GetAway menu, or links to Clubs? It’s all available in one place now. PalmCreekInfo.com Check it out and bookmark the site.

Microsoft has released a very nice tool for managing your Windows 11 system and boosting performance. It’s free from the Microsoft Store (usually an icon on the task bar). Here’s a link.

The topics are set for this season and you can see what’s coming and when at this link. Our first meeting of the season will be November 20th. 9:30am in the SanTan Room. We’ve got three topics to cover. What you can do if you’re still on Windows 10 Managing …

Your responses have been scored and an average ranking generated for each topic. There are 9 topics where your average rating was a 4 or higher. An additional 5 topics scored between 3 and 4. Finally, 4 topics scored less than a 3. Accordingly, in no particular order, the highest …

I’m getting started on the selection of topics and the calendar for our meetings that’ll be starting soon. If you’re a member, your email is on file and you should receive an invitation to take a quick survey. I’ll use the results to plan topics for the season.

My wife and I just put together a video slideshow for her class of 2024. The video was put together using Canva. I’ve done a number of similar videos over many years, using various tools, and Canva was by far the easiest to use. But the audio track is what …

We’ve talked about the potential for AI to cause significant disruption in various industries, including the film industry, and the advertising industry. We’ve also seen the SORA AI demonstration videos that showed off what is possible. Now, the first real advertisement has been created: a 66 second video by Toys …

Microsoft Office programs (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) have an interesting feature that I came across recently. On the HOME screen, at the far fight, is a button for ADD-INS, which allows you to incorporate 3rd party features into MS Office apps. I’m using Office 2021, but this feature goes back to …