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Web Site Tour By Richard Rost 
6 years ago
Web Site TourThis 45 minute tour will take you through ALL of the features of my web site, including how to log on, watch your courses, download, and more. Don't worry, you don't have to watch the whole 45 minutes if you don't want to. I cover the important stuff first. However, if you want to get everything you can out of your learning experience, sit back and relax for the next hour. Helpful LinksSupport Links
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IntroThis page provides a complete tour of the Computer Learning Zone website, including how to log in, find and watch your courses, download files for offline viewing, and navigate both the older Theater and new Course Lessons systems. I will also show you how to access class outlines, participate in student forums, use the search and index features to find topics, manage your account, and understand the differences between course memberships, the Learning Connection, templates, seminars, and consulting options. This overview is perfect for new and existing users looking to get the most out of their CLZ experience.TranscriptHi there! Welcome to Computer Learning Zone. My name is Richard Rost, President and CEO. Allow me to take you on a tour of the website so I can show you how to log in, get your courses, and lots more.The first thing you are going to want to learn how to do is log on to the website, so click on the log on link. Enter your email address and password. If you want to stay automatically logged on so you do not have to keep doing this, check that button right there. Make sure it is a private computer, though. This will take you to the user main menu. You will also see a user bar across the top here. This is where you can access most of the features no matter where you are on the site. The first thing people want to know how to do is watch the courses they paid for. So, click on My Course Listing. Right here, you will see the different groups of courses that I have. Let us say you are learning Microsoft Access. Just click on Access. Then it is broken down even further. These are the older 2000 to 2003 courses. Here are the newer ones, 2007 and 2019. There are also seminars and templates. I will click on 2019. Beginner, expert, advanced, and developer are the different levels. Click on Beginner. There is a list of all the beginner courses. The ones that show up in bold are courses that you have paid for. Most of these are for 2013 to 2019, but that first one is specific for 2010. Sometimes you will see that. A lot of these courses are identical. They are just slightly different for beginners. But I will click on this one right here, Access Beginner 1. You can see the breadcrumb trail right here in case you want to go back to any level in the process. Here is the course, a brief description, and whether it is available or not in your library, which means you have paid for it. Now I am in the middle of transitioning between my older theater and the new course pages I have been developing for the past year. So, a lot of my older classes you still have to watch in the theater. To view this course online, click on the Theater link. This is the old, classic theater. If I scroll down here, you can see there is a tree over here to view all of the courses that are in the theater, as well as the different lessons for each course. Right now, I am in Access Beginner 1, and you can see here I am on Introduction. The lessons should start playing automatically. If you want to switch lessons, just click on it over here, and then you will see the lesson starts up automatically. I will pause it. Unfortunately, for these older theater lessons, this is the maximum size of the video. There is a full screen button down here, but it does not do anything. That is because I recorded all of these older videos at this size. If you want to make them larger, you can download them and play them on your computer, which I will show you in just a minute. Down here you will see some settings. There is a notepad that you can use here to keep notes for this class, but this is stored in your browser in your cookie. So if you clear your cookies, all this will go away. You can download courses from here, but I am going to show you an easier way in just a minute. Over on the right is the student interaction forum. This will show up and it is specific to whatever class you are on. You can post any questions that you have down here. Sometimes you will see other questions posted from different users down here as well. Make sure if you do see questions, read over them first before you watch the lesson. That way someone else might have already asked the question that you have. Let us go back to the My Courses list. I am going to close this tab. Notice how this opened up in a different tab. You can get to the student forum page for this particular class by clicking on the student forum link. That will bring you here, and you can browse through all the questions that people have asked about this particular class for each of the lessons. Feel free to contribute. If you want to see the complete outline of what is covered in this class, click here. There is the outline and it has descriptions, screenshots, and all the stuff that is covered in there. That is handy for looking through other courses to see which ones you might be interested in. If you want to download this course to watch offline, for example, if you are going on a plane ride and you want to be able to watch on your laptop and you will not be connected to the internet, you could download the zip file right here. There is a zip file for the course itself. If you have purchased the handbook, the PDF handbook, there is a link for that as well. You will also need these passwords. What I like to do first is double-click on the password and copy it to your clipboard (Control-C). Now, download the zip file. Just click on the zip file. That will download it. You will see it downloading right here. It is a big file, 97 megs. These are big video files. Give it a minute and let it do its thing. Once it is finished, I like to click on Show in Folder. That will open up your download folder. Here is my download folder. Now what you want to do is extract these files into a folder. Right-click and, depending on what version of Windows you have or if you have any programs like WinRAR installed, just click on Extract here or Extract files or Extract all, one of those. As soon as you do, you will be asked for the password. Just press Control-V on your keyboard to paste in that password. I happen to pick Access Beginner 1, which does not require a password, even though there is a password listed as it is a free course. If you try to open up the zip file directly, you can play the videos out of it, but you will have to supply that password every time. That is why it is better to extract the files and then you will not have to worry about that. But to make it clear, you do not need to bother with these passwords at all unless you are planning on downloading the files. This is only for older courses. The newer courses do not have passwords on them. Most of my users, though, are very happy just watching the courses online. If you have good internet speed, you do not have to download it unless you are going to be offline somewhere, like I said before, like on a plane or something. Now, these are the older courses that use the Classic Theater and the old download system. Let me go back up here to Access and 2019. Let me go to the Developer Classes. Some of the newer classes that are in here, like, for example, Developer 17, do not use the Theater anymore. They have what is called a Course Lessons page. If I click on that, it brings you to something that looks like this. All of the lessons now are embedded in my website. It is much easier than using the old Theater. For example, here is the Introduction Lesson. Click on the next one. In lesson one, we are going to... The database files that you might need are all here. You can click on these to download them. If you want to download the entire video lesson archive, it is right here as the zip file. Notice they are bigger because I record in full HD now. It is 215 megabytes, so it will take a lot to download. The handbook, if it is available, will come here. The handbooks always lag behind the courses by at least a week or two. When I finish the course, I have to send it to my author and the author writes up the handbook. You can resize these videos. You can go small. Medium is the default. Large takes up about that much space. Extra large is even bigger. I like extra large. It stays in a window and it fits inside my browser usually, but my video window is smaller than this. I am going to go back to large. There is FS, which is full screen. There is also a full screen button right here, and yes, those do work. You can also play in slow, regular, fast, or 2x speed. If you want a good laugh, play it in slow motion. It sounds like I am drunk or just woke up or something. It is funny. But a lot of my users who are more advanced, when they want to review some of the older lessons or they are just going to go over something they watched already, play it in faster, 2x speed and it runs by quicker. So that does save some time. The volume control is over here. It actually supports a picture-in-picture mode too. If you click on that, it pops it up here and you can slide this anywhere you want on your screen. If you want to watch this while you are doing some other stuff like in the background. That is kind of neat. I will come back down here and go to medium. The full course description page is right there. This is like the sales page. It covers all the topics and shows you what is covered in each lesson. I will go back to the full course lessons page. Again, for the new lessons, you can see there are the breadcrumbs right there. Courses, access, developer, developer 17, then the lessons. There is a topic outline, which you can view all the course topics that are covered right there. I will go back. I will talk more about outlines and how to search for a feature that you are looking for in just a few minutes. You will see a link here for a skills test quiz. Hopefully this will be available by the time you are watching this video. I am putting together skills tests for each of the lessons so you can check on whether or not you learned things properly after you take the course. You can print out a certificate of completion for each of the courses that you take. That also is being worked on right now. You can still use the old one, though. There is a post class survey. When you are done with each class, I suggest you take this and give me a hand and let me know what you thought about each of my courses. That is how I make my classes better, with your feedback. So that is really all you need for the new stuff, the course lessons page. The student forum for each of the courses is actually on the bottom of the lessons page. If you scroll down, you will see all the questions are down here. To reply to a conversation that is going on already, just click here and you can type in your reply. If you want to add a new comment, a new thread, you post it down here on the bottom. If you subscribe to this page, you will get notifications anytime a new question or answer is posted on this course. You can subscribe to each course you want individually. There is also the whole forum, the access forum, the word forum, and you can subscribe to those as well. I will talk about that in a few minutes as well. Back on the My Courses page, which you can get to again by clicking up here on the top, My Courses. We have groups that are available, or if you want to just see the courses you have purchased and do not want to go through all these groups, click on the My Courses Only link down here. As you can see, this particular account has only purchased a few different courses. If you have got hundreds of them, like a lot of my Access students, they have got all the beginner and the expert and developer. It is easy to run through the group categories, but if you have only got a couple of courses, you might find it easier to use this. The same links are on this particular listing. For the older courses, you can click on these to go to the outlines. There is the forum, viewing it in the theater, downloading the zip file, and there is the password, the course, and the handbook. For the newer courses down here, you will see there is the forum and the course page, which are basically the same thing. I am going to be splitting them soon, that is why I left it like this. Sometimes people find it easier to use this My Courses Only link, especially if you are a new user and you only have a couple of courses. In addition to the My Courses page, there is also the My Account page. Click on that. This will show you information that we have on your account. Here you will see your customer ID, email name, company name. There is a bug I have to fix that puts zero on there sometimes. I am still trying to knock that one down. Your address is pretty much just for billing purposes for your credit card. I do not really ship anything anymore, so I really do not need this. If it changes, do not worry about it. For existing customers, I do not bother verifying addresses. There is your customer since, how long you have been a customer. I am working on badges that you will get after being a customer for six months, a year, five years, and so on. You will see your membership status. I have got a couple of different membership types available. I will talk about those toward the end of the video. If you want to change your password, it is right here. You can click on the change password link. There it is. Very simple rules. Your password should be between four and 20 characters in length. Letters and numbers only. I do not allow special characters. Why? It is a long story, but it goes back to the fact that I built my site back in 2004. My user log on database is designed for alphanumeric characters only, and I do not feel like upgrading it. So stick to letters and numbers. Very important, you should use a unique password on every website you visit. Most browsers nowadays save your passwords in there, so you have no reason not to do this. Read my article here on password safety tips. Do not use the same password on my site that you use on your bank and on Facebook and on all those different sites. Use a unique password everywhere you go. That is enough of that. Watch this video down here. Let us go back to the my account page. I am currently updating this. I am making a brand new account update page. I will talk about that a little bit later. If you want to change your email address, click on that. It will show you what email address I have got and then type in your new email address. This process is not automatic. This sends it to me and then I change it in my office database and then I update the website, so it could take a business day or two. Usually I get to it the next business day. Yes, I will be automating it soon, but I get very few requests to change email addresses, so it is not high on my priority list. Maybe once or twice a month someone asks to. I have got to update the website and my back office database and a few other places. I just do it myself. I have got a button in my Access database that updates it automatically and then populates it up to the website. I just have not gone through the process of coding it yet. This one you might need from time to time: Upgrade your account on the server. What this does is if you place an order and it is not showing up on the website yet, you can run through the update account. When you place an order, I do not store credit card information on the website for security purposes. So, when you place an order, my back office Access database grabs it off the website almost immediately, processes the order, then emails you your information and updates the website with your new courses. This way, I do not store credit card information and other sensitive stuff on the website. Just in case you are hacked, you never know. The main reason is to keep your information safe. Sometimes there is a glitch in that process and the website does not get updated with your new courses. You can come in here and force my back office database to update the website. Here is your information. Just click submit. This should be populated automatically if you are already logged on. This is just for verification purposes and then, usually within a few minutes, the website is updated and you will receive an email as soon as it is. That is what that is for. Next feature is something called My Views. This will show you the pages that you viewed on my website. This will also show you my blog entries and forum posts and stuff, but you can use it to track what classes you have watched last. Like, I can see here I have been looking at Developer 17. This way you will have a bookmark where you left off last, and it will take you right to that page. It will only show the last 50 views and only store data for a month, but if you are in the middle of watching courses, it is a good way to get back to where you were. The forums are right here. In addition to each class's student forum, there are general forums. If you have a question about Access or Excel or whatever that does not necessarily fit into any class you are watching, feel free to go in here and just post it in the general forum. Now for Access especially, and since 90 percent of my students are Access students, if you have a question and you are having a problem, check the troubleshooting checklist first. It is right here. This is a list of stuff as a small video you can watch. There is a list of stuff you can go down if you are having an issue with your database and you cannot figure it out. Try this stuff first. These are all the common problems that I have encountered over the past 26 years of using Access. If that does not solve your problem, go ahead and post your question in the forum. You can read through the existing questions here. You can see them all in a thread. You can reply to individual ones, or if you want to post a new one, right here, just click the post a new one right there. You can also view these in table format. There is a link there a lot of people do not know about. The table format just shows all the posts in a more concise way. You can see them all right here. You can go back as far as you can. Here is previous and next to go to the oldest ones. You can also use this little link here that says your comments, and that will show you all the things that you have posted or replied to. There is me. That is good if you are like, I asked a question two months ago, where was it? You can come in here and find all the stuff that you have posted or replied to. That link is also, I believe, on the My Account page and it is down here, right here, see all of your comments and replies. This was Alex's idea. Yes, my forums do use an approval system. There are two people right now that can read all of the unapproved posts, that is me and my forum administrator Alex. He helps me out a lot. When you post anything in the forums, it has to be reviewed before we let it go live and we do this for a couple of reasons. One is to prevent garbage: only students can post in my forums. This is not a public forum so you have to be a student. Sometimes people post things in the wrong places or they post stuff that is irrelevant. We like to review stuff. Sometimes people accidentally post important stuff like their password. Before stuff goes live, we like to check it out. Usually, one of the two of us gets to it within 24 hours. This will be your primary conduit for asking questions and we do answer a lot of them so feel free to post them up there if you have got questions. There is a search box up here that you can use to type in to look for different stuff. For example, if you are looking for information on how to use the DLookup function, just type in 'DLookup'. Keep it simple if you can. Try a single phrase first. My search feature, I wrote it myself. It is not as complicated or as sophisticated as Google, but it does the job. You will get a couple of different types of search results. The first up here will be a list of things I have hand-picked to try to answer your search query. You can see I covered DLookup in Access 2013, Expert 10. Here is a DLookup TechHelp video. I will talk about TechHelp in a minute and here is a DLookup tip, which is usually just a printed tip. Down below you will see where it shows up in all of my course listings. You can see that DLookup shows up quite a lot. If you want to see more than just the first 20 items, click here. It will show you all of them. Keep going down. These are posts found in the news, basically my blog entries, the news listings. Here is my DLookup Plus function that I wrote. Down below here, you can see comments in the forums. These are things that other people have posted about DLookup, so it is quite a popular topic. You can also do an actual Google search for DLookup. This will search for DLookup using Google across my entire site. That is another way you can do it. If you are not sure, click here and tell me what you are looking for. In addition to the search box, if you drop this little menu down, if you are looking for a topic pertaining to Access or Excel, there is an Access index and an Excel index. The other courses are coming. I just have not had a need for them yet. Usually it is Access or Excel people are looking for. So the Access index. Now there are two of them because I am switching systems. All of my older stuff will be found on this page. This is simply one big long page that has every topic covered in every one of my classes. It is searchable, though, using your browser. If you press Ctrl-F, that brings up a find box in pretty much every browser. Type in what you are looking for here. Do you look up DLookup? You can see there are 45 instances of the word DLookup on this page. You can use this to scroll down and find where you want to be. If you find, oh, I want this one, just go up a little bit and you will see what class it was covered in: Access Expert 11. You can click and go right to it. So, that is this page. There is a second one and you will see right here the new Access index. This is for my newer courses and you can see it looks a lot nicer. Here is a link back to the old one. Everything before June 2020 was in the old link. For Developer 14 and on, you will find it in here. I am sorry. It is a lot of work to move these things over. I am slowly moving everything over to here, but it is probably going to take me a year. So that is how you find topics. There are two ways: you can try searching for it in the search box or you can use the indexes. There is the Access index and the Excel index. Once you are logged in, by the way, on the home page, you will see anything on here that shows up as new that you have not viewed yet. Again, the website keeps track of which pages you have viewed. You can see here I have already looked at these pages. These ones that say new I have not seen yet. That is why there are some out of order here because it is not necessarily by date; it is by which pages you have looked at. The news is stuff that I post. These are things like my TechHelp videos or new course information. Forums over here are generally questions posted by other users. There is a lot of good stuff posted in the forums. Both Alex and I spend a lot of time answering questions. Most of the time it is a topic we have already covered, so we will just point to whatever lesson it is covered in. But sometimes we get unique stuff that we answer right in the forums or I will make a TechHelp video about it. I will talk more about TechHelp and what that is in just a minute. Over here you will see all the popular courses: Access, Excel, VB, and ASP. Those are my four most popular topics. There is some other stuff down here below it. I will be updating a lot of these soon, like Word, Windows, and PowerPoint. Those are in desperate need of updating. Over on the right here, you will see the new releases. That check right there is your seminar and this stuff. This is the newest releases as of the time this video was recorded. You can see all of them and what is coming soon right here. If you want to see more news, you can click on the Latest News link right there. That will take you to this page again. This is all the latest stuff that I posted. There is the news feed. There are new releases, which are new course releases only, the big stuff. All the user comments, your comments, and there is a Get Notifications here. This is if you want to sign up to get notifications every time I post something new. It is a daily email. You will get no more than one a day, but every time I post something new that shows up here, you will get a notice. You can also subscribe to each of the forums individually. If you go to the Access forum here, any time there is a new post in the forums, just click on the subscribe button and you will get a notification every time something is posted. If you post a question in the forums, you will get an email notification any time someone answers it or replies to it. There are a bunch of emails and every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link on the bottom. If you are getting notifications from the Access forum and you do not want them, just click on that unsubscribe link. That is pretty much everything on the homepage. We have talked about the news feed. Let us go to Courses. This is a list of all the courses that I have available. There they are. The popular ones are up top. The other courses are down below. You can click on any one of these. Just drill down to go and see my list of Excel courses. Click on the version you want and you can view all of the different outlines and stuff in here. Pretty straightforward and self-explanatory. In addition to courses, I also have seminars. My courses are designed to teach you a little bit at a time in order, starting from the beginner stuff to a little more intermediate, which I call expert, then advanced and developer stuff. But the seminars are designed to cover a specific topic. Most of my seminars are for Access. So I will click on Access here. You can see how they revolve around specific topics. This one covers building a check register, and that is it, just a check register. This one covers a genealogy database. This one covers connecting Access to SharePoint, and so on. If you have a need for a specific type of database, that is what the seminars are for. This one covers just relationships, building a calendar, and so on. That is what the seminars are. In addition to seminars, I have got templates. Templates are usually databases. I have got some templates in mind for some of these other things, like invoice templates for Word and a time clock for Excel. I have not gotten to it yet. I have been spending most of the last couple years working on Access, as you can tell. Now templates are generally database only. You just get the database. Things like the loan amortization database, the date picker database. Some of them do come with video explanations, though, either walkthroughs or like my ABCD. This is the new business contact database that I am building. This does have video walkthroughs, but it is primarily a database template. The video walkthrough just shows you how I built it, but it is not a teaching video. It just shows you how it was built. A lot of these will come, like the check register template is if you want the check register database, but you do not want all the videos that go with it teaching you how it was built. You can usually buy things as a seminar if you want the instruction or just the template if you do not want all that, you just want the database product. So that is the difference between seminars and templates. The help function here goes to my help system. There are different kinds of help that people need and I have tried to break it up here. There are sales questions, customer service, and technical questions. I break it up into three different groups. Like it says here, sales questions are always free. Customer service questions and sales questions are things like you have a particular problem, you need to know what classes cover that problem to give you what you need. Like, I want to be able to build a check register in Microsoft Access, what classes do I need? I will refer you to what classes you need. Those kinds of questions are always free. I do not charge for that. You can post your question here. Again, most of my pages at the bottom, if you are a logged-in student, will have this post a question that goes straight to me. You can email me, which I will talk about in a second. There is a Frequently Asked Questions page. I will show you that real quick. Here are the frequently asked questions and here are a lot of them. Ordering stuff, watching lessons, before you order, your order problem, a lot of questions people already have are in here. If you do not feel like digging through these questions, send me an email. I do not mind. But if you want the answer yourself, you can look it up in the FAQs. In addition to sales questions, there are customer service questions, again always free, how to use your tutorials, what is up with your order, your videos will not play, these kinds of things. You can post them in the customer service forum. There is a walkthrough, that is what you are watching right now. Here is the troubleshooter, account info. If you have problems or questions with your account, customer service is always free. Now, technical questions are not always free. If you have a question like, I am trying to run a DLookup in Access with this parameter and it is not working, it does not necessarily pertain to anything in my classes. It is a question you have got about Access or Excel. I do my best to answer as many of these questions as I can for free, but there are only so many hours in the day. I get hundreds of emails a day sometimes from people all over the web and Facebook and YouTube asking me questions. I really wish I had enough time to answer everybody personally, but I do not. So what I try to do is take these questions and keep them in a list. I have got a big long list of all the things people ask me, and the stuff I get asked the most I try to make TechHelp videos for. I will talk more about the TechHelp videos a little bit later. That is something like, hey, I am trying to calculate my time clock and daylight savings time just went in. So how do I fix that? I have seen that a bunch because daylight saving time just went in, so I made a video about it. You can post your question to me here and I will answer it if I have time or I will make a video. If not, I do offer consulting. I will talk about consulting in a minute. This is paid support where if you have a problem, if you need a database built, if you cannot figure out how to do something in your database, I will do it for you. But of course, I charge for my time. With other technical questions, you can search, check the forums, and see the tips and tricks section. I will talk more about these two options in a little bit. Now, emailing me is right up here. There is Email Richard. Click on that. This is my contact page. Again, if it is sales or customer service related, you have got questions about what classes you need, all that stuff, that is fine. Email me. I prefer you post it as a comment on the website, though, right down here using this box. Why do I prefer that? Because it goes into my customer service database. It is attached to your record, so I can immediately see your information, what classes you have. I will know how to answer your question. If I know what classes you have watched, if I know you are one of my Developer students and you have taken all my Expert stuff, I know how to answer your question better that way. If you need to do a DLookup, for example, if you are a beginner and I can see you have only taken Access Level 1, I know to answer your question on a different level. That is why I prefer it here, because it is easier for me to pull up your account information. I check this first every morning. I check my customer service database. It is my Access database, it pulls all these questions in. You can email me if you want to. Here is my email address. I make it public, that is okay. But I get lots and lots of email. I get hundreds of emails a day, not including spam that gets filtered out. I get stuff emailed to me from all kinds of different sources. I do my best to filter through it, but it can be a couple of days before I might get to your email, whereas if you are a customer and you post it here, you will get it answered faster. Technical support, again, we have two options. There is TechHelp and consulting. I will go over these in a minute. A quick tip: keep your email short. If you send me 15 paragraphs that I have to read through, the chances are I am going to snooze it until later when I have time. The faster and briefer your email is, the quicker you will get a response. Sorry, but again, there are only so many hours in the day and I get a lot of email. Do I offer phone support? If you come down to the very bottom of my website, you will see there is a phone support option here. There are faxes also. If you really need to send me a fax, let me know ahead of time. If you click on phone number, you will find my phone number, but read this stuff first. In a nutshell, I hate talking on the phone. I really do. I was in sales for many years, and I think it is a very inefficient means of communication. However, I know a lot of you like to talk on the phone, so my phone number is right there. It is a Google number. It goes to a voicemail prompt. I only offer phone support if you pay for it. I am sorry. I do not have time to talk to everybody on the phone. You can also text this number too and I will text you back. Email is my preferred method of communication. I am sorry. I do not have time to talk to everybody on the phone. But I am available for phone support if you want it, or I can do Zoom meetings or online screen sharing or whatever. But, of course, that is all paid support. It is just me here. I do not have staff. I run this company all by myself. I do not have any secretaries or anybody else who can answer phone calls. I manage just fine doing email, but that is the support method that I have chosen. You will also see an option down here for a mailing address. This is my PO box. I do not have my address public because when I first started this company, I had people showing up at my house asking if they could buy CDs. Yes, I run the business home-based. This is my PO box. If you mail me something like a check or something else, make sure you email me and let me know. I do not check this PO box often, maybe once a month, unless I know someone is sending me something. So that is pretty much all the help options. Again, I try to get back to people as fast as I can, and I am pretty good about it. A couple of years ago, I used to be pretty bad because the business really shot up and I was not expecting it, but now I have got it under control. So let us talk about TechHelp. Like I said before, I get lots and lots of people asking me questions. How do I do this? How do I do that? I love it. I really do. I love helping people. In fact, one of my favorite things to do every day is record a TechHelp video. I do not have time to do it every day, but I try to do it at least two or three times a week. They are short videos, usually five to ten minutes. I post them up on YouTube for free, and it is stuff that I know people are asking me about. You can find the video directory right here. Pick your topic. Access is the most popular, of course, and here are all of the TechHelp videos that I posted recently. There are lots of them. I think I am up to like 60 something and I try to do it every couple of days. Just recently, here is one on Do Not Delete Data. Click on that, and here is a big page about it. There is the video. These are all on YouTube as well. They are on my YouTube channel, but you can watch them right here. You do not have to go to YouTube. I do have a special extended cut that I do. There is usually a five or ten minute video for free, and then there are channel members. You can become a member of my YouTube channel. That is all handled on YouTube. There is Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The Silver members and up get access to the extended cut, which is like another five, ten, maybe 20 minutes of additional information about that topic. That is a little perk you can get for becoming a member. But all the TechHelp videos are free. Feel free to browse through them. Subscribe if you want to get notifications every time I post one. I like doing this. I like helping people. The bottom line is if you have a problem or have a question, send it to me and I will add it on the list. As soon as I see a bunch of people that are asking the same questions, I will make videos about it. That is how I do it. Members also get priority, so if you are a Gold member and up and you ask me a question, you are pretty much going to get your question answered. That is one of the perks of becoming a member. I do also offer paid TechHelp videos now. You can click on there. The rule right now is it is $50 for a five minute video, and if I do not think I can answer it successfully in five minutes, I will not charge you. So that is the rule. If you want to have your own video made for you, there you go. Now, the only questions that I will usually answer via TechHelp are things that have mass appeal, things that I think other people will benefit from. If you have specific questions about problems with your database or how to do something and it is really unique to your business, then we are talking about consulting. This is my consulting page. I do offer consulting. I have three types of consulting. The first type and the least expensive is what I call offline support. These are the prices as of November 2020. They may fluctuate depending on how busy I am. The busier that I am, the more I increase these, of course. Sorry, but that is just supply and demand. There is very little of me to go around. Offline support is where you email me your questions and I email you back. Or I might even make a video about it if it is easier to do a video. It is not live interaction. I do offer live support, whether it is on the phone or Zoom or I have screen sharing software I can use. I charge a different rate for that. Then there is in-person training, which I am not offering right now due to COVID. I am not doing any in-person training, but once the pandemic is over, of course, I do offer online training. If you want to get a bunch of people together in your office, or if you want to put a seminar together, I am happy to do that as well. Yes, I will travel. I am currently in Fort Myers, Florida, but I will travel pretty much anywhere. Feel free to read through all this stuff. If your need for help involves sending me files, if I have to look through your database, there is a minimum $100 troubleshooting charge. It is much easier for me to build you something from scratch or to show you how to do something that affects your database. Sometimes what you might think is a simple problem, I have got to go all the way through your database to figure out why. So if you ask me how to solve a particular problem, it is easier for me to show you than to try to repair what you have got. Before asking for consulting service, please read through all this stuff. There is a lot of stuff in here, especially this section here on Quality, Time, and Cost. You can pick two. Speed, quality, and cost. Pick two of those. If you want it done fast and good quality, the cost goes up, and so on. If you want it low price but high quality, well, it is going to take me a while. Read through this stuff, especially this stuff down here about Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. I am sorry, I had a typo in Nikola Tesla. It is a fun little story. So that covers TechHelp and my consulting services. We have talked about the forums already. The order page is right here. If you want to order something, all my courses are in here. Courses, templates, seminars, whatever you are looking for, Access. What version you want. Some of these are the same. For example, most of my Access courses recently are valid for 2007 all the way to 2019, but people get confused if they have got 2016. If you click on this, it just shows you pretty much the same list of courses. This is the actual version that the class was recorded in. But again, if you are at this level, you cannot tell the difference. This is what it is used with, a brief description of what is covered in that class. You can click on the Outline link here. This selects the class. You click on the Outline link over here to jump to the outline page. The shopping cart is programmed to give you a bigger discount, the more stuff you select. You can see my discount is 8% there. The more stuff you pick, it goes up to 10%, and so on. All the way up to 50%. Now I am up to 15%. So the more stuff you order, the bigger this discount gets. If you click on this combo package deals, it will explain all that. I do have membership available. Let us talk about membership real quick. If you go to the My Account or My Courses page, either one of these, you will see down here there are two statuses. There is NYOLP and there is Connection Member. Let us talk about the Learning Connection first. Click on that. This takes you to the Learning Connection page. The way this works is you tell me what courses you are interested in, like Excel, Access, whatever. Every week you get one new class and you get an automatic 50% discount by being a member. This is the best discount I usually offer: 50% off if you are a member. In a nutshell, you can go down here and read all the different rules. You have to take them from the beginning. You have to start from the beginner lessons and go up. If you are more advanced, this might not be the best for you. Although, I do recommend, even if you think you are more advanced, to take the beginner lessons. They are inexpensive and I cover a lot of fundamental stuff in there that people sometimes skip over and then do not realize why they do not understand stuff. So I do recommend, even if you have been using Access for a while, take my beginner classes. If you really do not think you need them, contact me and maybe we can work something out. If you think you belong in the middle of the Expert series, we will figure something out. If you are a member and you want any of the seminars or templates, you get a 50% discount off of those. If you already have some of my lessons, the system will skip over them. If you have already bought Beginner 7, it will go from 6 to 8. You will not be charged twice. You do not have to remain a member to keep the courses that you purchased. Once you buy them, they are yours forever. You can cancel anytime you want to. You do not have to be a member. If you decide you want to put it on hold, if you are going on vacation, that is fine too. Just contact me. There are actually automated links in there to put your account on hold or to send the next class. I will show you those in a second. Can you get more than one class per week? Absolutely. Some people get two or three a week. If you want to get them, you can automatically have the next one sent. If once a week is too fast, you can slow it down. You can do it once every two weeks. The minimum is once per month. To stay a member, you have to take one class per month. When you click the Join Now button, it will ask you what classes you are interested in. Just pick the ones you want. Those are the ones that will be sent to you. Tell me what you want. You want one course every seven days. That is the default. You can change it. Do you want the handbooks to go with? You get a discount on those too, those PDF handbooks. You do not have to get them. A lot of people like to use those to refer to after the class. Of course, your information, credit card number, and all that. Down here, tell me what versions you are using. If it makes a difference, I will make sure you get the right versions of the software sent to you. That is the Learning Connection. The other type of membership I have available is here, called MYOLP. It stands for My Online Learning Partner. This is actually something I started even before I was doing 599CD, which everybody asks me where that comes from. It is a long story. The story is on the website. If you are really curious, just go to the search bar and type in 599CD, and it will tell you the history behind it. Where does 599CD come from? It is a big long story here. I am not going to bore you with it right now. Read that if you are curious. But it is a short domain name, so I kept it. It is really nice and short for all my links. So I do not have to worry about typing in computerlearningzone slash whatever. But My Online Learning Partner, this is different from the Learning Connection in that you get access to everything at your level, all the courses. So if you do not want the new course every week method and you just want everything, there is Beginner, Expert, and Developer. You can sign up for a month, annual, or lifetime. So if you want Developer for a year, it is $949 and you get access to all of my Beginner, Expert, and Developer courses for the entire year. You can watch whatever you want in whatever order. You do not have to worry about stuff coming once a week or whatever. Mathematically, it is about the same discount. As I add more Developer courses, this price goes up. It is really just a matter of preference. Some people like this method better, some people like the other method better. This, you do not keep the courses when your membership is over, though. So you get them for the year and then it turns off, like Netflix. I also have lifetime memberships available. I have a few lifetime members. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I have no plans on going anywhere. I have been doing this since 2004, so that is 16 years. I have no plans on retiring anytime soon. I will be doing this for at least the next 10 years, releasing a couple new classes every month and my Developer lessons. If you want to save some money, that Developer price is really cheap compared to what you can get and what is coming out, just saying. So that is what My Online Learning Partner is, and there are the two differences there. Once you are on My Courses or My Account, if you are a Learning Connection member, you can click here to receive your next course. This sends a message to my back office server, which processes the next class in order for you and it will automatically be added to your account. Your credit card will be charged and it will send it right to you. If you are going on vacation and you need to pause delivery, it is right down here. You can click right here. It will pause it for two weeks. If you need more than that, just make sure you click it again before two weeks is over. If you are going on an extended vacation or something is up, like I had a lot of people with the COVID pandemic say, hey, I am out of work right now, I cannot afford it. No problem. I will put your account on hold indefinitely if you have personal problems, are out of work, any of that stuff. The goal here is I want you to learn and I want it to be effective and affordable for you. I do not want anybody getting courses because they feel obligated. I have been there, trust me. It is just a convenience for you to pause it if you know you are going on vacation or if you get behind. I get a lot of people like, oh, you sent me the last three courses and I have just been busy at work. I have not had a chance to catch up on it. Not a problem. Pause your account or email me if you want me to pause you for a longer period of time. A couple other things to talk about real quick, things that people ask me all the time. Sample downloads for the different classes. For all the new classes, if you look for example at Developer 17, the sample downloads that I build in class will be shown on that page. If you go to the lessons page, you will see down here are the database files. For all of the older classes, they are all on the same page and the link, just type in database in the search window, that is the easiest way to get there. There is a link mentioned in the intro video for pretty much every one of my courses, but I know you guys do not watch those intro videos. I have talked to a lot of you. You just skip over the intros. But it is right here: Access Sample Database. Here is the student database files for all the older classes. They are all on the same page. The password for this sample database file is the same as the password for the course itself, which you will find on your course page, your My Courses page. So when you download the sample database, you will need that password. Here are all the older seminars. This database here, I recommend you build yourself. That is kind of why I do not really make this front and center, because I want you to build this database yourself. You will learn more by building the database yourself and following along with me in the videos than you will from just looking at my database. I know some of you like to tear apart other databases. I learned that way too. I used the Microsoft Access Northwind database that came with it. I learned a lot from that. So if you want to download some of my databases and tear them apart, be my guest. But I also did not have the videos when I was learning, so I think the videos are a lot better. So that is pretty much it. That is all I can think of to show you on the website. Let me take a look here. There is a big long list at the bottom of all the different links and the popular stuff you can do. Here is that link to the student databases right there. I also have a thing called the Insider Circle. This is for people who use Access as part of their job or run their business with it and they want the ability to have priority email support. It is not that expensive, I charge $129 to join and it is $29 a month, and you get 30 minutes of my time included in the membership. It includes a 50% discount on the tutorials as well and you get access to my cell phone number if you need it. Read through all the rules on here. If you want someone on call in case you have an Access problem, if your business depends on it, I have got a couple people that are signed up for it or more than a couple. But you get guaranteed support so you can call me whenever you need help. So that is pretty much it for the website tour. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, of course, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Again, my name is Richard Rost, and thanks for learning with me and Computer Learning Zone. Thanks for watching. QuizQ1. What is the main purpose of the "My Course Listing" page on the Computer Learning Zone website?A. To display all available courses, including those you have not purchased B. To show your purchased courses and allow access to their content C. To provide technical support for your courses D. To update your personal account information Q2. What is a "breadcrumb trail" as mentioned in the video? A. A feature that allows you to save favorite lessons B. A way to download all lessons as a zip file C. A navigation tool to help you go back to previous pages or categories D. A summary of your learning progress Q3. If you want to watch older courses offline, what do you need to do? A. Use the full-screen button in the Classic Theater B. Download the zip file and use the provided password to extract it C. Subscribe to the course outline page D. Only access them via the YouTube channel Q4. Where are the student forums found for newer course lessons? A. At the bottom of the course lessons page B. Only in the main website menu C. In the download section D. In your email notifications Q5. What is the advantage of the video player on the new Course Lessons page over the Classic Theater? A. It does not require any login B. It allows video resizing and full-screen, and more playback options C. It is only available for paid members D. It can play external YouTube videos Q6. What happens if you try to open a protected zip file directly instead of extracting it first? A. You get an error and cannot access any files B. You have to enter the password every time you play a video C. The files are automatically copied to your account D. The password is no longer needed Q7. What is the recommended way to keep notes when watching lessons in the Classic Theater? A. Use the built-in notepad, but remember it is stored in your browser cookies B. Write notes on paper only C. Send your notes to Richard via email D. Note-taking is not supported Q8. What information does the "My Account" page display? A. Only your course progress B. Your customer information, membership status, and ability to change password/email C. Payment details only D. List of all available courses on the website Q9. How can you recover access to your purchased courses if the website does not immediately update after an order? A. Contact phone support immediately B. Use the "Upgrade your account on the server" feature to force a sync C. Wait one week for automatic updates D. Re-purchase the course Q10. When changing your password, what are the rules according to the video? A. Any characters up to 50 in length are allowed B. Only letters and numbers, 4-20 characters, no special characters C. Minimum length is 10 characters, must include symbols D. You must use your email as the password Q11. What is the function of the "My Views" feature? A. Shows overall site statistics B. Tracks your last viewed pages for easy resuming C. Allows you to view other users' activity D. Recommends new courses each week Q12. Before posting a question in the Access forum, what should you check first? A. The troubleshooting checklist B. The latest news feed C. The homepage banners D. The course handbooks Q13. What is the approval process for posts made in the student forums? A. Posts go live instantly for everyone B. Only Richard and Alex approve posts before they are visible to others C. All registered users can approve posts D. Posts require no approval unless flagged Q14. If you want to search for a topic covered in the courses, what two main tools are available on the site? A. Only the drop-down menu B. Search box and the course/topic indexes (Access or Excel) C. Forum posts only D. Emailing Richard support Q15. What distinguishes a seminar from a template on the site? A. Seminars are for advanced students, templates for beginners B. Seminars provide instructional videos on a specific topic; templates are database files, sometimes with walkthroughs but not full instruction C. Only seminars include downloadable files D. Templates are always free Q16. Which type of help question is always answered for free? A. Technical questions about Access code B. Sales and customer service questions C. Requests for new videos D. Consulting services Q17. What is the preferred method for contacting Richard if you have a support question attached to your account? A. Emailing Richard directly B. Posting a customer service comment via the website's comment box C. Calling the Google phone number D. Posting on social media Q18. What are TechHelp videos? A. Long-form instructional courses on YouTube only B. Free short videos on frequently asked questions, posted on the website and YouTube C. Paid consulting services D. Part of the beginner classes only Q19. What are the two membership options described in the video? A. Free and paid B. Learning Connection (weekly discounted new class) and My Online Learning Partner (MOYLP, access to all at your level for a flat fee) C. Guest and Silver Member D. Platinum and VIP Q20. Which statement best describes access to courses under the My Online Learning Partner (MOYLP) membership? A. You own the courses forever after one payment B. You have access as long as your membership is active; access ends when you stop C. You only get one course per week D. You must take a skills test before viewing courses Q21. How can you pause Learning Connection delivery if going on vacation? A. Email Richard, as there are no automated options B. Use the "Pause delivery" link in your account and click again if you need more time C. Call the phone support number only D. Cancelling immediately pauses it Q22. For sample databases in the older courses, what is needed to open the files? A. No password is required for any files B. The same password listed on your My Courses page C. A special password retrieved by email D. They cannot be downloaded Q23. What is the purpose of the Insider Circle? A. It offers priority email support and extra discounts for people who use Access in their work B. It is only for developers C. It is a free bonus for all students D. It is the entry-level membership Answers: 1-B; 2-C; 3-B; 4-A; 5-B; 6-B; 7-A; 8-B; 9-B; 10-B; 11-B; 12-A; 13-B; 14-B; 15-B; 16-B; 17-B; 18-B; 19-B; 20-B; 21-B; 22-B; 23-A DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks. SummaryToday's video from Computer Learning Zone takes you through a complete overview of the website, highlighting how to log in, access your courses, manage your account, and make the most out of the resources available.To begin, you will need to log in to the site using your email and password. There is an option to remain logged in for convenience, but I recommend using it only on a private computer. Once logged in, you are brought to the user main menu, and you will notice a user bar at the top. This bar provides access to most of the website's features from anywhere on the site. One of the most common tasks is finding and watching courses you have purchased. By going to My Course Listing, you can browse through different course groups, such as Microsoft Access. These groups are organized further by product version and course type—ranging from beginner to developer levels. Courses you own will appear in bold. Clicking on a course like Access Beginner 1 will bring up the course page, which provides a description, your ownership status, and navigation breadcrumbs above for easy return to previous pages. Courses fall into two categories: older classes, which still use the Classic Theater interface, and newer classes, which offer improved Course Lessons pages. For older classes, lessons play inside the Classic Theater window, which cannot be enlarged beyond its original size. You can pause, switch between lessons, and take notes, although these are stored in your browser and may be erased if you clear your cookies. Downloads are available here as well, but an easier download method is provided on the course page. Each class offers a student forum specific to that course, allowing you to post and read questions from other students. It's helpful to check this forum before watching lessons, as your question may already have been answered. For downloading courses to watch offline—such as during travel—you can download ZIP archives of video files and handbooks (when purchased). Some older courses require a password for downloads. It is often easier to extract the zip files before playing videos, so you only need to enter the password once. Generally, if you are just streaming courses online and not downloading, you will not need to worry about passwords. Newer courses, like Access Developer 17, have migrated to the Course Lessons page format. Here, all lessons are organized and embedded directly on the website. Additional materials, like database files, are available for immediate download, and the video player allows for adjusting speed and size, including full screen and picture-in-picture options. This helps you watch lessons the way that best fits your workflow or screen setup. A complete outline of each course, including screenshots and topic lists, can be accessed through the outline link. This is useful if you are deciding which course to take next. Once you complete a course, you can also take a skills test quiz (where available) to assess your learning. Certificates of completion are provided, and a post-class survey is always appreciated; your feedback helps improve classes for everyone. The My Courses Only view lists just the courses you have purchased, which is helpful if you own only a handful. For those with a broad collection, using the grouped categories may be faster. Each listing includes links to outlines, forums, course viewing, downloads, and handbooks as applicable. On the My Account page, you can see your customer information, membership status, and options for managing your password or updating your email address. Note that updates to your email are still processed manually, so it may take a day or two to reflect changes. If you have recently ordered but your new courses are not showing, the "Upgrade your account on the server" feature helps synchronize your purchases with the website. This process protects your credit card data by processing everything in a secure, back office Access database. My Views is a handy feature that tracks the last 50 pages you visited on the site for up to a month, allowing you to quickly resume your previous viewing location. Beyond course-specific forums, there are general topic forums for Access, Excel, and more. Before posting questions about technical issues, take a look at the troubleshooting checklist—a resource compiled from years of support experience that addresses the most common database problems. You can read through existing threads, post new questions, view your own comment history, and browse forums in both threaded and table-based layouts. All posts are subject to approval to maintain quality and avoid public display of sensitive information. Only enrolled students can post in the forums, and questions are typically moderated and approved within 24 hours. A search box at the top of the site helps you find topics and resources. The search will return curated results, links to relevant course sections, forum posts, and more. Additionally, Google search integration allows you to search the website using external tools. For targeted browsing, Access and Excel indexes list every lesson and where specific topics are covered, and you can use your browser's search feature to locate the exact course you require. The homepage displays new and relevant content, news feeds, forum highlights, and quick links to the most popular courses. Updates and announcements are posted regularly, and you can subscribe to receive notifications or set your forum preferences to get alerts for specific topics. The Courses section lists all available learning modules by subject and version. Courses are laid out in order from beginner to more advanced, while seminars focus on specific projects or topics. For example, Access seminars might cover building a check register, a genealogy database, or connecting to SharePoint. Templates, mainly for databases, are ready-made resources for those who want functional database files without step-by-step instruction. The Help section is organized by the type of assistance you need: sales, customer service, or technical questions. Sales and customer service inquiries are always free and can be posted through the website or direct email. Frequently asked questions are also available for quick answers. Technical support for questions on Access, Excel, or related tools is handled through both free and paid options. While I try to answer as many questions as possible, I receive a high volume of requests and prioritize those that have broader appeal by creating TechHelp videos. If you require one-on-one assistance unique to your business, consulting services are available for a fee. If you need to reach me, the preferred method is to post a comment or question through the site, as it connects directly to your account and allows me to assist you more effectively. If you wish to email, you can, but replies may take longer due to the volume I receive. Phone support is reserved for paid support only, and you can find more details and contact info on the bottom of the website. For those who need to mail something, my PO Box is listed, but please email me to confirm as the box is checked infrequently. The TechHelp section hosts a collection of short, topic-focused support videos, which are free to watch on the website or YouTube. Membership options through YouTube give you access to extended cuts with more in-depth coverage. If you want personalized help, you can order custom TechHelp videos or schedule consulting sessions at varying rates depending on the level of interaction and support you require. Ordering courses, seminars, or templates is streamlined through the order page. The more you purchase, the larger the discount, up to 50%. Membership options provide further savings and convenience. Membership comes in two main forms: the Learning Connection and My Online Learning Partner (MYOLP). The Learning Connection delivers a new course to you each week (or at your own pace) at a 50% discount, building your skills from beginner upward in the subject of your choice. MYOLP, on the other hand, offers access to all courses at your chosen level for a set period, with options for monthly, yearly, or lifetime access, similar to a streaming subscription. Membership status, course management functions, and options for pausing or resuming course delivery are available in your account dashboard. Flexibility is built in, so you can accommodate your learning schedule as needed. For sample database downloads used in courses, newer courses make these available directly on the lessons page. For older courses, a single page collects all sample files, and passwords (when required) match those displayed on your course page. Although you are encouraged to build the databases yourself for better learning, sample files are provided if you wish to analyze them. An additional support level, the Insider Circle, is available for those who depend on Access professionally or for their business. This includes priority support, regular consultation time, and substantial membership discounts. This overview should give you a solid foundation for navigating Computer Learning Zone's resources, managing your learning, optimizing your experience, and knowing where to go for support. If you have any questions, post them in the comments section below. You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions covering all of these topics on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends. Topic ListLogging in to the websiteNavigating the user main menu Accessing My Course Listing Locating purchased courses Navigating course groups and versions Understanding course availability and descriptions Using breadcrumb navigation Watching courses in the Classic Theater Navigating lessons in the Theater Using the Theater's notes notepad Downloading courses for offline viewing Copying and using course download passwords Extracting downloaded course files Distinguishing password requirements for old vs. new courses Accessing student interaction forums Posting and replying to course forums Viewing complete course outlines Using the Course Lessons page for new courses Accessing and downloading database files for lessons Adjusting video size and playback speed Using picture-in-picture and fullscreen mode Printing certificates of completion Taking post-class surveys Using and subscribing to course forums Viewing only purchased courses Viewing course outlines, forums, and download links Navigating the My Account page Changing your password Changing your email address Upgrading your account on the server Viewing page and course history with My Views Accessing general topic forums Using the Access troubleshooting checklist Posting and finding forum questions Searching the website for topics Using the Access and Excel topic indexes Viewing new and unseen pages on the homepage Exploring the courses and seminars listings Understanding the difference between courses, seminars, and templates Using the help and FAQ system Contacting customer service Posting sales, customer service, and technical questions Understanding TechHelp free and paid video options Requesting custom TechHelp videos Understanding consulting services and pricing Placing orders for courses, seminars, and templates Understanding discounts and combo packages Learning about Learning Connection membership Receiving, pausing, and managing Learning Connection classes My Online Learning Partner membership benefits Receiving and pausing courses as a member Accessing sample downloads and student databases Using Insider Circle for business support and discounted tutorials |
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| Keywords: web site tour downloads getting started features my courses my account PermaLink How To Log In, Access Courses, Download Videos, and Use Forums on the Computer Learning Zone Site |
