Beyond Motherhood

Here is my super simple tutorial on how to watermark or copyright your image. There are a lot of ways and style to do it and this is one of the easiest steps.

Step 1: Open image or you can use mine. Type the desired word using the type tools. For the copyright (©) symbol press and hold ‘Alt’ key and using the numeric keypad type number 0169, and you will get the symbol. You can place the text everywhere and set whatever colour you like.

Step 2: Add a layer style. In this step, you can play around with style and choose your preferred style. I choose stroke, change colour to black, set the size to 1 px and reduce opacity to 50% leave the rest as it is.

Step 3: set the text blending mode to overlay

Step 4: Reduce the text opacity to 18% or whatever percentage you choose.

There you are easy and simple for a beginner.  Now I need to continue reading my motorhome insurance quotes. Happy trying!

Previous Tutorial :How To Create Border For Your Picture

This is a very simple and easy tutorial to create a border for your picture of course there are other ways of creating one. This tutorial is one of the ways I use to create my picture border. So here goes.

Step 1: Open the image. Press CTRL A (to select all), or you can also use the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Step 2: Right Click on the image. Select stroke. Depending on your preference set the width and colour desired. I normally set 20-40 px and set the colour to white. The rest remains the same. Once set click ok. Press CTRL D to deselect the selection.

Step 3: For this step repeat step 2 but you need to set the pixel size smaller (2-4 px) and different colour (I normally use black) and you are done. Your border should look like the above image.

Here are 10 simple steps which we normally perform at home to lighten up the computer.

1. Remove unwanted files
   When the last time you did housekeeping or check your files. Do you really need all of them? I can bet there are some files have been sitting there since you first got your unit and never even open. Just remove unwanted or redundant file.
2. Defragment your drive
   It is good to defragment your drive from time to time but not too often. This will rearrange all your files in order to improve loading time.
3. Open only needed program
   Yes, limit the programs to be open simultaneously. The more you open, the more it consumes your system resources. This will lead to slower response time.
4. Scan for virus or spyware
   Both virus and spyware will cause system malfunction and drain system resources.
5. Make your virtual memory page file permanent
   All windows XP and Vista come with auto configure page file. This will sometimes cause system to slowdown when it is readjusting the size. It is a good idea to make it permanent with the right size. Rule of thumb; make it 3 times your physical memory size.
6. Reduce background process
   Turn off background process that is not needed as it will free up more memory for your main application.
7. Get a 2nd hard disk
   Split your system files in primary unit and the rest on the secondary hard disk. 2 channels is better than 1. Data can be process faster as the throughput  is increase.
8. Increase the RAM (optional)
   Bigger size means more programs can be loaded and process simultaneously resulting in performance increase. RAM module is now fairly cheap and is one of the best investments you can get to improve the speed of your computer.
9. Processor upgrade
   If your unit is 2 years or more maybe you can consider this. There maybe better, faster and reasonable price processor that is compatible with your system. Upgrade it.
10. Install only needed program
    Sometimes when new programs available, we install them without realizing they belong to the same group of application. E.g. Internet Explorer and Firefox, 2 or more antivirus software installed, etc. Remove the extra application.

note :**input from hubby