Need advice from you smart people

[naughtybear]

I just bought a laptop. I can't seem to get used to it but I am going to need to.

1. What is the best way to transfer stuff to the laptop from the desktop. I actually don't seem to have much important stuff, just pics and my spreadsheets. I am copying everything to a disk because that's what I have. If I don't have excel on the laptop and try to install the files what will it look like?

[Tennesseer]

Cheapest way is to use a thumb drive if it just saved data.  And periodically transfer data you want saved to a thumb drive.

[Sharon]

The excel files can be copied over to the laptop.  If you don't have Excel installed on the laptop you will not be able to open the files.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 2, 2017 9:26:22 GMT -5 naughtybear said:

I just bought a laptop. I can't seem to get used to it but I am going to need to.

1. What is the best way to transfer stuff to the laptop from the desktop. I actually don't seem to have much important stuff, just pics and my spreadsheets. I am copying everything to a disk because that's what I have. If I don't have excel on the laptop and try to install the files what will it look like?

Regarding Excel-did Excel come with the desk top pc or did you purchase it? If you purchased it, you should be able to download it to the laptop by using the product key. Or if you have the disc (s) for Excel, Word, etc. you should be able to download the programs onto the laptop.

[naughtybear]

I am pretty sure it was installed by my ex, thanks for that because I hadn't thought about just asking him for the product code DUH, here I am stressing about it. I have no disks.

[Tiny]

Thumb drives are pretty cheap - I'd get two - I'd use one for a general back up of your files  (and then try to remember to copy to it every month or couple of months or maybe just after you've made a lot of changes to your files and can't bear the thought of loosing them) and then another one for general use (if your plan to plug your thumb drive into other PC/Computers - like to print out stuff at a friend's house.)


I have a couple of folders that I back up regularly - with excel spreadsheets, word files, txt files, some photos.  I use a  couple of 16 gig thumb drives (I have a back up of a backup - since the thumb drives can fail and I REALLY don't want to loose my data).  The drives are too big for what I'm saving  (but I paid like $5.00 for each drive) so I don't mind.   I keep all my music and photos on a special set of really ginormous (not yet into terabytes)  external hard drives.  


Photos and music (and movies) take up a lot of space.    Documents, spreadsheets, txt files and such not so much.     

[Deleted]

If you don't have a ton of stuff, I'd install Dropbox on the PC and copy everything to a file there. Then it's saved to the cloud and you can access it on any computer. I save pretty much everything there now so I can open files at work or at home.

[naughtybear]

Awesome MPL, this is what I kind of wanted to do in the interim from getting used to the laptop but be able to use files from the desktop and laptop.

[greenstone]

If you don't have MS Office on the laptop, you can still open and view your Excel spreadsheets by downloading the free MS Excel Viewer.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10

Another option would be to use Google Docs.  You can open existing Excel spreadsheets and create (basic) new ones that you can download to use elsewhere

[naughtybear]

MPL, can you actually change data on the spreadsheet and still view and change on both desktop and laptop?

[finnime]

If you want to use the spreadsheet function, or a word processor or presentation (like Powerpoint) app, and don't have the Microsoft licenses, download Open Office. It's free, very good and complete, and can open Excel and other MS files and also save as those files (such as .doc for Word). Good stuff.

Dropbox also good and free up to a size limit.

[naughtybear]

I am so confused by all the info.

I think I will just have to pay for office, then download all the files to a cd and do it that way.

[resolution]

Open Office is free, as finnime stated above.

[finnime]

naughtybear,  1) Download Open Office to your laptop
                      2) go to dropbox dot com and set up an account
                      3) download dropbox app to your desktop
                       4) download dropbox app to your laptop

                        5) upload files from desktop to dropbox
                       6) download files from dropbox to laptop
                        7) open files using Open Office; edit and save as you like

[naughtybear]

I have a bit of a scattered mind, and need written out steps. Like I make lists, it's difficult for me to follow verbal instructions etc. I will copy and paste all these posts and put them in a spreadsheet so I can see all of them at once LOL. Even scrolling up and down makes me forget the previous post LOL

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2017 11:26:46 GMT -5 naughtybear said:

MPL, can you actually change data on the spreadsheet and still view and change on both desktop and laptop?

Yes, but you'll need to have Excel on both computers to do so.  It's just that the place where the file is saved is not to the computer or PC and to a cloud location. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

If you don't want to pay for real Office, you could just use Google Docs & Sheets. It's not as adept as Microsoft Office, but it suffices for the type of use you're describing. 

[Happy prose]

I would email myself the documents I want to save. Just open and save on the new computer. For Excel docs, I'm also a fan of Open Office. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 2, 2017 13:25:53 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

I would email myself the documents I want to save. Just open and save on the new computer. For Excel docs, I'm also a fan of Open Office. 

I do that, too! I just figured I was the only one. 

[ken a.k.a OMK]

I also use email as my cloud.

[naughtybear]

But I still don't know what I am doing with onedrive or dropbox or open office or google docs. I just emailed it, I couldn't edit. Then I did it again and I could edit. Then I didn't know how to save. I get the concept of these things but I am not grasping how to use them functionally.

[grumpyhermit]

If it is a modern windows laptop, you almost certainly had a One Drive account created by default when you set up your Windows ID. If not, you can set up a free account, and link it to your laptop, or just access it through the web. 

Much like Google Drive, One Drive is online storage, and has web versions of the Office products so you can view and edit documents. 

If save the documents to the One Drive root folder (you can have sub folders just like with any drive) documents will sync across devices. 

The limiting factor is probably the old desktop, but you can probably install one drive as a program if it does not already exist (though this may not be possible if your OS is super out of date). 

[grumpyhermit]

Jan 2, 2017 19:23:20 GMT -5 naughtybear said:

But I still don't know what I am doing with onedrive or dropbox or open office or google docs. I just emailed it, I couldn't edit. Then I did it again and I could edit. Then I didn't know how to save. I get the concept of these things but I am not grasping how to use them functionally.

One Drive, Google Drive, and Drop Box, are all just online storage solutions. Essentially you are saving all of your documents to an external server in the "cloud". 

You can download programs to your computer to each that basically add a "folder" and when you save documents and files to that folder, it automatically updates to that external server. So it doesn't matter what computer you access the file from, since the "master copy" is not really saved locally on your PC (though some of the programs may have a temporary copy there so you can work on the documents offline).


They key to any of these, is making sure your files are being saved to the correct folder on your PC, otherwise it is not going to push out to that external server automatically.


 

[NoNamePerson]

Jan 2, 2017 13:43:57 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Jan 2, 2017 13:25:53 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

I would email myself the documents I want to save. Just open and save on the new computer. For Excel docs, I'm also a fan of Open Office. 

I do that, too! I just figured I was the only one. 

Nope you are not alone.  

[TheOtherMe]

I back up my important documents weekly to dropbox, flash drive and external hard drive.  Yes, I have had hard drives die on me.

[NoNamePerson]

Jan 2, 2017 20:29:06 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

I back up my important documents weekly to dropbox, flash drive and external hard drive.  Yes, I have had hard drives die on me.

Learned my lesson the hard way years ago when hard drive crashed. Had recovery disk but it put PC back to the day I took it out of the box.   So backup and like others I use email also.

[TheOtherMe]

I had one hard drive failure.  Worst part was pictures I lost.  Never again.

[dee27]

Naughty,


Take an Adult Ed class. I took a computer class after I bought my first computer, and I learned a lot of shortcuts. If you need one to one, ask a college kid or a business teacher for lessons. I think you learn through doing rather than just reading the info.

Do you have a PC or an Apple Product? The big Apple stores have classes on site.

[Anne_in_VA]

We've had hard drive failures too.  You need to back everything up so you don't lose your work.