Welcome!  This is the first of a series of columns that will help you become more capable with your personal computer.  Notice that I said “help you become more capable”.  The goal is to make the computer work for you; not the other way around.  The information in these articles might help you save money and make your life easier.  As for the technical “geeky” things, there will be some of them from time to time.  But those will be minimal and explained in “people” terms you can understand.

Save money?  With a computer?  Yes.  People, businesses, and organizations are surprised when I tell them they can buy things safely using the Internet, not pay sales tax, and have their items delivered to their door at low or no cost.  Here are some examples: I bought $800 worth of furniture from Overstock.com, didn’t pay sales tax, and only paid $2.95 to have it delivered to my home in 3 days.  Every Christmas I do all my shopping on the Internet.  If I buy things from Amazon.com, I don’t pay sales tax, and if I buy at least $25 worth of goods, shipping can be free if I can wait a few days for delivery.

 Make my life easier with a computer?  Yes, with some tips and guidance.  I do my banking and bill paying securely using my computer.  And I get helpful emails to keep me on track. I don’t write checks often, and because I use so few checks my check printing fees are extremely low.  I’ve also decreased the amount of paper mail I get.

 Speaking of email, I use one of free services such as gmail.com.  Besides using it for mail, I use it to store electronic copies of important documents and pictures.  All I have to do is attach them to an email I send to myself.  They are “backed up” for free and I can get to them from just about anywhere there is a computer.

 None of the above speaks to the ability to “have the world at your fingertips” by pressing a few buttons.  Recently I arranged a trip for my wife.  I got the lowest fare, printed the ticket, picked seats, checked her in, and printed her boarding pass at home.   I also get status emails about how things are going at the airport before leaving home.

 These are just a few of the possibilities and benefits to be enjoyed and I’ll be covering them in future columns. I’ll also be passing along simple things you can do to help keep you and your computer safe and working well.    In the next column I’ll cover how you can keep your computer working at its best.

–Joe Vetrano of Gurnee has more than 30 years experience helping people, businesses and organizations with information technology.