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How to add album art to iTunes

February 20th, 2010, 7:46 am by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: I ripped CDs to my PC and they are all in the WMA format. Many of the CDs ripped brought with them album art which shows when the folder is viewed in Windows Explorer.  I downloaded iTunes and it found and converted the music to iTunes format. What’s missing from the conversion is the album art from the CDs that were previously ripped to the PC. Is there any way to convert or get the album art loaded into iTunes music? I’d like to do this before loading music on to an iPod.

PC CLUB: First of all, ripping a CD is another term for extracting the music tracks from the CD onto your PC. Even though the common term is to rip or extract, nothing is removed from the CD. I can’t tell from your question how you ripped your CDs but you most likely used the Windows Media Player (WMP). WMP does download album art as soon as you begin the ripping process. iTunes, on the other hand, does not. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Music • Stump the PC Club • • • • • | 1 Comment »

How to move your fonts to a Windows 7 PC

February 6th, 2010, 1:31 am by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: Here’s one that should have strong general application. I do editorial work using XP, and have built up a useful stable of fonts. I just got a new computer using Windows 7, and want to move the fonts over to it, but can’t make anything work. Is there a way to do this?

Fonts!PC CLUB: Before we get to the punch line, let’s start with some font facts:

  • Windows 7 ships with 235 fonts, versus 191 in Vista and 133 in Windows XP. PrePressure.com offers a handy  list of typefaces that ship with Windows 7 (link: bit.ly/windows7fonts).
  • The more fonts that you install, the more computer memory (or RAM) is used. Your system must load all fonts at boot-up and this may extend your boot time. This is not as critical with newer PCs since they have faster processors and more RAM but it’s something to keep an eye on. Read the rest of this entry »

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Where are my Contacts in Windows 7?

January 30th, 2010, 2:46 am by

Hi folks! PC Club is moving to Saturday publication with this post. Thanks for reading!

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: I notice that the Contacts folder in Windows 7 does not match the Contacts in Windows Live Mail, however, in Vista the Contacts folder does match the Contacts in Windows Mail. What happened?

PC CLUB: The Contacts feature built into Windows has changed with each new version of Windows including XP, Vista and now, Windows 7. This is related to how the built-in support for e‑mail has changed. Windows XP uses the term Addresses and subsequent versions use the term Contacts but the terms are interchangeable. The implementation in each version is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

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What’s the real capacity of your hard drive?

January 19th, 2010, 3:15 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: I have a PC running Vista Home Premium.  I have a 500 gigabyte hard drive with an actual capacity of 455 gigabytes. When I look at “Properties” for the C drive, it shows that I have used 444 gigabytes with 11 gigabytes remaining. However, when I use Windows Explorer and add up the sizes of each directory (e.g. Documents, Windows, Program Files, etc), I end up with 400 gigabytes used.  I have a gap of 44 gigabytes between what Properties says and what I added up.  What is in the hidden 44 gigabytes and how can I see what it is?

PC CLUB:  This is a common question since there’s a lot of confusion regarding advertised disk capacity versus the capacity reported by Windows. This confusion stems from the fact that 1 gigabyte is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes, or 230.  Therefore, if you open My Computer (or Computer in Vista or Windows 7) and examine the properties of a hard drive by right‑clicking it, you will see 2 numbers. Assuming the disk is advertised as a 500 gigabyte disk, the numbers will be listed as follows:

Capacity: 500,096,658,212            465 GB

This confusion led to a lawsuit several years ago resulting in disk drive manufactures having to place the following or similar statement on their packaging:

One megabyte (MB) = one million bytes, one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • • • • | 6 Comments »

How to fix a computer that has lost its sound

January 13th, 2010, 3:02 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: The speakers that I have connected to my computer system stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Other than taking my system to a computer repair shop I don’t know what to do. For example, I can watch a PowerPoint presentation, but don’t get any sound, i.e., music. Any suggestions?

PC CLUB: There are several explanations for losing your sound from the very simple to an actual hardware failure. Here are some possible problems.

Connection Problem: Although it may sound obvious, the first thing I usually do in is check all of the connections to the computer. Most speakers use an AC adaptor that plugs into an outlet and have a cable that plugs into the green jack on the rear of the PC. After checking the connections, the next thing I do is try another set of speakers or even a headset if possible.

Hardware Problem: To see if you have a hardware problem you can open your Device Manager and check the sound hardware. Follow these steps:  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

All about iPods and organizing music, Part 2

January 11th, 2010, 2:34 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

This is Part 2 of a 2-part article on iPods and managing your music, pictures and videos. This covers copying of music, pictures and videos to and from your iPod. Read part one: “All about iPods and organizing your music library, Part 1.”

How to copy music to your iPod

There are a few ways to get music on an iPod. Here are two methods:

Use the iTunes library

  1.  
    1. Open iTunes and click File, Add Folder or Add File to Library
    2. Browse to any location on your hard drive or external hard drive and click Add Folder (or select files)
    3. Plug in your iPod now or prior to step 1, it doesn’t matter
    4. Select the Music link under your Library
    5. Create a new Playlist if desired and drag the newly entered songs to the new or existing Playlist.
    6. You can now drag songs from the Library onto your iPod. You may want to create a new Playlist first. Just right-click you iPod icon and select New Playlist.

The above method assumes that you are managing your iPod manually.

Skip the iTunes library Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: iPods • Music • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

How to print multiple photos on a single page

December 23rd, 2009, 2:35 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: I have a Dell Inspiron 530, with Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3, 4GB of RAM, and 160 GB HD. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 installed and have been using it. My problem is I cannot make multi-photo printing work, but just single photos are being printed ok. After the setup of multi-photo printing was done, even though the “Print” button is clicked nothing happens: the computer and printer do not go any further.

It has been printing multi photos well, but I found out it is not working when I tried to make prints a couple of weeks ago. I should have mentioned that I already had reinstalled the Photoshop Elements Program and 3 printer drivers, but that did not solve the problem.

Multiple photos on one pagePC CLUB: First of all, I assume that your printer is functioning correctly and is able to print documents other than multiple photos correctly. If not, please see a previous article titled How to Reinstall a Deleted Printer in Windows (link: bit.ly/printerinstall).

Printing multiple photos on the same sheet of paper is one of the tasks at which Photoshop Elements excels. The process has not changed significantly between earlier versions and the most recent version, Photoshop Elements 8. Elements is really two programs in one. The first one is the Editor where you can enhance or correct your photos and the second one is the Organizer. In the Organizer program you can print multiple photos on a page.

Here are the steps to print multiple photos: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Stump the PC Club • • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

10 more answers to your Windows 7 questions

December 15th, 2009, 5:01 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

Previous articles on Windows 7 have discussed the details of installing the software and can be found at “All your Windows 7 questions answered, part I” (link: bit.ly/pcclub2) and “Windows 7 part II: How to upgrade” (link: bit.ly/pcclub3).  This article will address other recent questions that have been asked on Windows 7.

Question: I’m enjoying XP, why should I care about Windows 7?
PC CLUB: A lot of you share this belief. Yes, Windows XP remains a robust, reliable, brisk operating system. At the same time, sticking with XP forever isn’t a slam-dunk, either. You miss out on better security, better looks, better search and a huge number of convenience features. And over time, more and more new products and services will require a more recent operating system such as Windows 7. But, if XP is doing the job for you, stick with it.

Q:: Microsoft omitted calendar, address book, photo, video, and e-mail software from Windows 7, how do I get these features back? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Stump the PC Club • • | 1 Comment »

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