Drag and AI Graphics

About two weeks ago, I apologized for not doing an episode for a month. Actually, I did not do an episode for two weeks, but it seemed like a month. I like to think that this episode has some very important uses and organizing your files and folders - how to organize a messy desktop rather than just demonstrate commands. And later, will get into the use of voice control into doing some fascinating graphics with artificial intelligence.

So, - I am keeping this episode about half the length of the usual podcast episode in this series - so you would be more inclined to go back and listen to it twice or even three times. It is full of information that might be hard to assimilate the very first time, but I wanted to become second nature.

Imagine that - like me - you have all kinds of files scattered around your MacIntosh desktop - some you probably should throw away, some have information that you would someday like to use, and some that you should definitely throw away.

Oh one thing before we start-what you want to do is move a document on the desktop, but it is much easier in voice control to say drag a document. And I have a voice control turn off now, so my computer will not be doing all kinds of things when it thinks I'm issuing a command.

Transcript

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About two weeks ago, I apologized for not doing an episode for a month. Actually, I didn't do an episode for two weeks, but it seemed like a month. I'd like to think that this episode has some very important uses in organizing your files and folders. In other words, how to organize a messy desktop rather than just demonstrate commands. And later, we'll get into the use of voice control into doing some fascinating graphics with artificial intelligence. So I'm keeping this episode about uh half the length of the usual podcast episode in this series so that you might be more inclined to go back to listen to it twice or even three times. It's full of information and might be hard to assimilate the first time, but I wanted to become second nature, so just don't listen to it the very first time. It's worth going back to learn all the information. Now imagine that, like me, uh you have uh all kinds of files scattered around your Macintosh desktop desktop. Some you probably should throw away, some have information that you would definitely like to use, and some, well, you wonder why you have them in the first place. Uh now uh one thing before we start, uh what you want to do is move a document on the desktop, but it's really much easier in voice control to say drag a document. And uh I have voice control uh turned off by the way right now, so my computer won't be doing all kinds of things uh when I say some words that uh it interprets as issuing a command. Anyway, the first time I tried this, I wanted to move a file into the trash can. So I said show numbers and then noted the number beside the file I wanted to trash. And then I said, move document number to trash. Nothing happened. I checked to see that voice control was on and said again, move the number of the document to trash. Nothing happened. And then I said one more time, uh move seven, the number on the grid, to trash. Again, nothing happened. Well, after a few minutes of checking with ChatGPT, I realized that nothing was going to happen. Voice control did not understand move, uh move such and such and such a number to trash. It responded to drag such and such a number to trash. So me, and you know my memory aids, thought of drag and drop or a drag queen when I wanted to move a file to the trash. So when you want to throw away a file or a folder for that matter, first say show numbers, and numbers will appear all over the screen. Then identify the document number in your mind and say drag the document number to the folder number. And in a similar way, you can say show numbers, and after you have identified the documents number, say drag document number to folder number. For example, say show numbers, and that will well identify the document's number. You can see that all over the screen. Say drag document number to folder number. And if you want to drag the document to the trash, say drag document number to trash. Or if you're dealing with files or documents and folders, be sure you have said show numbers, then drag document to folder. For example, you said show numbers. The document is under or besides fourteen. The folder is under or besides six. So you would say drag fourteen to six. Let me say that again. You're dealing with files or documents and folders, so before you expect them to move, be sure that you've said show numbers. Then drag document to folder, not move, but drag. Drag document to and the number that you've gotten when you say show numbers, and then the document is under or besides 14. So the folder is under our besides six. So she would say drag 14 to 6. I know by saying it it might sound totally confusing, but if you try it, it becomes a lot easier. And if you have any problem, go to ChatGPT and it'll make it plain too. And remember that drag is a much more reliable command than move for desktop organization. In my case, move didn't even work at all. First, again, you need to simply open a document or file first so that you can read it and see that it's worth keeping, in your opinion. And so to do this, and this is method one, say show numbers. A series of numbers will appear all over the screen. Say double click the number of the file of which you were interested. An example, the file appears as number eight. And you would say double click eight and that opens the document. Method two, if the file is already selected, say open that or just simply open. And let me interrupt here to say that in voice control you use the word that a great deal, such as select that or copy that or paste that. Or as we learned in a previous episode, enter that, or except it would be enter that with emphasis, with an emphasis on that, enter that. You can even use select all, copy that, and then paste that, and you have a whole document of text. Well, once the document opens, you can obviously read the document. And let's say uh uh you might try scroll down or scroll up, page down, page up, and that would take you around the document, and you can look at different places. So conceptually, the steps are open the file, read enough to remember what it is, close it, show numbers, drag the file into its new home, whether it be a folder or the trash. I'd like to think that uh this description feels much closer to real desktop life than the polished demos that people usually show. Now I'd like to completely change the topic to another exercise that I think you're going to really enjoy getting ChatGPT to do graphics for you with voice control. First, you would type or say chatgpt.com into the uh text block at the top of the page. If it takes you to another page that has a link to Chat GPT, for goodness sakes, click on that link and that will take you to ChatGPT. Now when you get there, wait a few seconds. Uh I know uh well with an impatient person like me, it seems like it's taking forever. But you will see three items are text items underneath the text box. They are create an image, write or edit, or look something up. Say show numbers. Choose the number, and it should be something like 60 or 61. Besides the words create an image, uh, well, we'll bring you to a text block that has five boxes with graphics in them underneath that main text box. One of them is actually called blank and says upload a photo. The uh text box says describe or edit an image. Put a few words uh that name or describe the image you want to see and sit back and wa uh and wait. And usually uh within a minute or less you'll have a great picture of what you've just described. I was using this with a future episode that involved running, and it gave me a picture of a running shoe with the word Brooks on it. I didn't want to take any chances and have the name of a company or on a graphic that I used, so I decided to edit the image by telling it to take the word Brooks off the shoe Brooks off the shoe. It did, and now I'm using it for that future episode, but without the word Brooks on it. So, sure, this this could have all been done with a great deal more trouble with the mouse, but it's easier to use voice control. Now, as some of you may all uh already know, and I've certainly talked about it more than enough, it uh seems uh that um I have I've have had uh that I have carpal syndrome from thousands of hours of interpreting for the deaf, as well as doing thousands of pages for this podcast and my master's thesis. This June the 1st, I have an appointment with a doctor regarding the situation, and as I have mentioned, or may have mentioned, I want to get to the point where I do this podcast or any other I might do in the future completely with voice control. So stay with me on uh on this uh deeply personal journey, a journey that just might make a difference in your life as well. Thank you for listening to How to Talk to Your Macintosh.