Before I post anything else: BPS Support Page (I realize some people have short attention spans and don't read past the first line, so I'm posting the most important thing first. :)
As someone who's really into computers, I of course am now the designated tech support person for not only my family, but my non-technical friends. Invariably at some point after I help them with yet another technical emergency, someone at some point asks, "how did you get so good at this?"
The answer to that is actually not a secret. Part of it, yes, is that my brain is wired that way. I understand computer stuff, but have severe difficulties figuring out a scrapbook page (I envy people like Stacy who make it look horribly easy). The other part is the part that anyone can do - keep your software up to date, use what you know, look up what you don't, and learn each time you solve a problem.
Keeping your software up to date - install all software updates - Windows, Mac OS, Quicktime, Acrobat, whatever you use. Trust me, it solves most of the software problems, especially problems you'll have at BPS with viewing video, or viewing any of the PDF files.
Using what you know is easy - if you've had a similar problem in the past, try to remember how you solved it, or how you might go about solving it. If one of the problems is that you're trying to upload an image to the gallery, and it won't upload, I almost guarantee you that the problem is with your image. Stop, look at everything about the image - how it's named, how big a file it is, etc...and see if you can logically figure out what might be wrong.
Looking up what you don't - that's honestly the big secret to becoming more tech saavy. I have a Mac and a PC (I use it to play games) at home, but if someone emails me asking me what some really weird Windows XP error means....I honestly have no idea (ssshhh...don't tell my boss that!). I take the first part of the error message, plug it into a search engine such as Google or Yahoo (TIP: put quotes around the error message before you do the search), and see what comes up. Usually I can get a pretty good answer as to what's going on in the first couple of hits.
Also, utilize the support pages for the product you're trying to get help with. Most web sites, not just BPS, have a support page. The one I linked at the top? It's at the bottom of every single BPS page under a "Support" link, so you can always find it.
The information on the support pages does actually work - and please trust me on this - when you email a tech support question to me at BPS, and claim you tried what the support page said and it still didn't work, and then I ask you for the error message you received, and I never hear back from you, I know you were bluffing the first time. Just make it easy on yourself and try what's written on the support page before emailing us. Pretty please with sugar on top?
The last one is obvious - learn, learn, learn. If you learn how to solve a problem and you think that might happen again in the future, write down the answer someplace. Pretty soon, you'll find you might be able to solve your own problem without waiting for someone else's email response. Also if you want to become more experienced at something technical - read a book, take a class, ask your 5-year old, and just keep learning.
None of this is meant to stop you from emailing us at BPS, but it's meant to help you maybe solve your problems faster.
* Note that nothing in this post is meant to be offensive, it's all based on my very large and convoluted sense of humor.
