Making a Quick Video

I just discovered a great Web site to create quick animations of pictures. Take a dozen or less pictures and upload them to www.animoto.com to produce a 30 second video of your images with neat backgrounds and audio.

The site is easy to use and does just what it says it does. For a few dollars a month you can create unlimited flicks without their logo appearing at the end. It will link to your Facebook and Flickr pages (and other sites) so you can both grab your images and publish your results. You can also download the video to your desktop or publish it to your YouTube account.

Check out a clip I just made of some of my “old” pictures...

http://animoto.com/play/YlFIsz56JqepYDrCtrOyhw

Pictures in Documents

It is a wonderful change having digital cameras that take such high resolution pictures. Years ago we used 35mm film and it is costly and time consuming. You paid for the film, took your limited number of shots, then dropped the exposed film off to be printed. A week or so later, you picked up the prints and found a few worth saving. Then to make more prints you returned to the store and ordered additional ones from the negatives. Okay, some of you are not old enough to even remember doing that!

Back to the future. We can take as many shots as our SD card will hold. Even then all we have to do is pop in another to continue shooting. We get home and pop the card into our computer and get to see them right away. We can edit them, crop them, change the lighting, and even print them out in as good a quality as we used to see with the 35mm camera from years ago. And we can print as many as we need right in our own home.

The best thing is that we can send them to others in emails, post them on Facebook, include them in a Web page, and include them in writings created in our favorite word processing app.

To get that 35mm quality, the images are saved as pretty large files. Most are over 1mb and some more than 5mb. With hard drives of 320gb and more today, that is not a big problem. Even the SD cards for our camera are up to 32gb at reasonable prices. Size only becomes an issue when we want to email them to someone, post them on Facebook, or include them in a document.

Read the entire document at http://www.rwevans.com/Pictures%20in%20Documents.pdf 

LibreOffice

Downloaded LibreOffice this afternoon. The download was 220mb and it installed in a few minutes. When you open it from the shortcut it places on the desktop, it opens a window for you to choose the app you want to work with. The word processor is called Text Document.

You can save documents in its native format (.odf) or in a number of others including .doc and .docx. Yes, it support the new format for Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010. No, it does not have ribbons like Microsoft and that may be a plus or a minus for you. But the toolbars are familiar and easy to work with.

Although I have only used the text document app, I can say it is fast and easy to use. It includes the ability to output as a PDF and as an HTML file. Of course there is a spell checker and those familiar red squiggly lines when you spell something wrong. No green or blue squiggles, though.

Why would I even try out a non-Microsoft app like this? Well, I have more than one computer and to upgrade all of them with the latest Office 2010 app is expensive. I used Google Docs quite a bit, but that requires an Internet connection. This app installs locally and is free.

Oh, it also does mail-merge, which is an important feature for me.

What other apps are included? A spreadsheet app, a presentation app, a drawing app, and a database app. Pretty much all you need for home or office work. And there are versions for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Give it a try at www.LibreOffice.org

Another Excel Shortcut

Easy way to open a new sheet in an Excel workbook is to press Shift+F11

A New tab will appear at the bottom of the workbook with the name Sheet n with n being the next available sheet number.

More Online Storage

Yesterday I registered for Box.net. They are an online storage site offering 5gb free for personal use and a reasonable monthly charge for more. In addition to having a place to store files up to 25mb each, you can share and collaborate on those files easily.

Here is an overview I wrote on signing up for Box.net. Once I dragged and dropped it to the site using the easy web interface, I clicked Share and was given this address:

http://www.box.net/shared/t627p0pip3

All I have to do is share that address with anybody and they have access to view it, download it, or share the link with others. And I can see how many people have opened it by signing into my Box.net account. I can also have Box.net email me each time the file is accessed.

Don’t like that strange link address? Use Tinyurl.com to turn it into something else like:

http://tinyurl.com/evans-stuff

Another Cloud Application worthy of mention. Give it a try.

More Shortened URL’s

I have been messing around with a couple of other short URL Web sites, and there are a number of them out there. TinyURL.com has been around for quite a while. No registration to be bothered with and you can get a randomly generated address like http://tinyurl.com/y6gr3d or something like that. Or you can enter the address you want and if available that is what you will get like http://tinyurl/mypicture. That is it. Pretty simple.

I wrote about Google’s goo.gl last time, and it works a lot like tinyurl. But it tracks the URLs you have created and give you a chart of how often they have been clicked on. Of course you need a Google account to get this information, but that is free.

Then I found tiny.cc. It works like both of the above sites and generates random addresses. But, if you register you have access to two other features and registration is free. First you get to edit the address and request one that people can remember easily like tinyurl does. Second you can a number of reports on activity occurring when someone clicks on your links. Not just how many opens, but where it was opened from and more.

Give them all a try and let me know which one you like best.

www.TinyURL.com
www.Goo.gl
www.Tiny.cc

URL Shortener

I am sure you have seen the funny looking URL’s showing up on Facebook and other places. They look like this http://goo.gl/...

Google has given us another great tool.

When you have a long URL of any length and want to pass it on to someone else, go to goo.gl and get a shorter one!

For example here is a YouTube URL to a talk my wife recently gave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vNp2t1ERvA

Using goo.gl by simply entering that URL into the box and hitting Shorten, I get this url to use:
goo.gl/KF8BA

A lot shorter and easy to type when Copy/Paste doesn’t work.

Using Windows Live

Have you tried Window's Live? I have had a Hotmail account for years. I don't use it much because I have my own domains. Every once in a while I may use the address when asked for an email address at a site I do not know well so any junk emails fall to my Hotmail account. Hotmail is much more than a free email account. Now it is a piece of this new Cloud App called Windows Live.

You get 25gb of free storage on SkyDrive and a Cloud version of Microsoft Office 2010 that works for 99% of my writing. In addition to Word, you get Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Add to that a calendar, contact manager, integration with Messenger and MSN, and storage to upload and manage your pictures!

All you need is a computer with Internet access and a browser. All the apps you need are in the CLOUD. Don't get me wrong, some need to purchase Microsoft Office to do more complicated tasks like MailMerge in Word. But for everyday writing and spreadsheets the cloud app works great.

Check it out today at www.windowslive.com and choose what cloud app to run or at the old address of www.hotmail.com and start at your email.

Keyboard Froze!

Recently I had to rebuild my main notebook. All of a sudden it the keyboard and mouse pad stopped working! I tried an external keyboard and mouse and they worked. It seemed software related, but I could not find the issue causing it. So back to basics I went.

I backed up all my files to an external drive and double checked that I could read them. Then I used my notebooks built in system restore option and back to factory specs I went. Everything worked great. No more keyboard or mouse pad problems.

But now I had to reload the applications I wanted on the “new” machine. Bad news is I had to reload them. Good news is I could leave off all those apps I had installed in the past and no longer used.

I came across this Web site that allows you to pick and choose the apps you want to install. It downloads them all at once and installs them. This is much quicker than locating them online one at a time, downloading, and installing. Great site. Check it out at http://ninite.com/.

Oh, the piece that took the longest was getting all the Windows updates. But now I have a clean machine running a lot faster then before. Took some time to finish, but it was worth it.

Notepad in the Cloud by Dick Evans

I was looking for a way to enter text on a Web enabled cell phone so I could take notes while I am out and about. My old PDA had a version of Word on it and I got very used to being able to pull it out of my pocket and type a note. Many of the newer cell phone have nice slide out QWERTY keyboards, but no apps to use. The keyboard is for texting and updating contacts. I wanted more.

A couple of useful cloud apps allow you to take notes and keep a things to do list. I have talked about the to do list before and that Site is http://www.tadalist.com. No need to explain it. Just open the site and start your list. You have to register, but there is no cost.

The other one I just located is a notepad in the cloud. The site is http://www.notepad.cc. It too is free. When you open the site you are presented with a blank page. Just start typing. It is being saved using the URL in your address bar generated by the site. You have the option of changing the name at the bottom of the page. You can also password protect the page or share it with the world.

I typed this post using notepad.cc. You can locate it at http://notepad.cc/sdfg67.

Back to the cell phone. I do not have a slide out keyboard on a data enabled phone. I assume one could simply go to either of these Web sites and work using the cell phone just like I have done on my notebook. How about giving them a test on your data enabled cell phone and tell me how it works?

Paste Options

When pasting text into a Word document, the Paste Options button displays and you have to go to the mouse and click it to choose the option you want. Well, usually I want to use Keep Text Only. There is a way to use the keyboard to select the option and keep your hands off the mouse.

Instead of Ctrl+V to paste the copied text, use Ctrl+Alt+V. A dialog box displays with three options and the second one is the equivalent of Keep Text Only. So, press the down arrow key once, and then press Enter.

Your hands never have to leave the keyboard and after doing it a few times it quick to use. Give it a try.

Another Word Shortcut?

I wish I could say I know all the shortcuts available in Microsoft Office. But, I do not even know all the visible buttons on the ribbons! Every once in a while I stumble upon something I have not used before. This time it is a shortcut to clear all formatting from a selected area.

Copy/Paste works great, but when what has been copied contains formatting and links and color we may want to clean it up for use in our new document. Sure, we can click the Paste Options button and select Keep Text Only. But that removes everything except text, even the images we may have wanted.

Now we could also select Match Destination Formatting from the Paste Options button. But, that makes the style of the character match the current document. It does not remove any links and actually changes them to be default, underlined blue. All images do remain.

Next time try this out. Paste the selected material to your document. Select it and then Ctrl+Spacebar. All formatting is removed and the images remain. Also, if any of the selected area was centered or aligned right, it remains that way.

Another useful shortcut is Shift+Ctrl+C and Shift+Ctrl+V. This is the equivalent of the Format Painter button on the ribbon except it does not disappear after using it. Yes, you can double-click the format painter button to have it stay on and press it again to turn it off-or Esc.

Simply click in the text with formatting you want to use elsewhere and press Shift+Ctrl+C. Now select text elsewhere and press Shift+Ctrl+V to paste the format to the selected text.

All the shortcuts I talked about in this article work in the previous versions of Word as well as the latest, Word 2010.

Change Normal Template in Word 2007

When I use Word 2007 I don’t care for the default settings in the Normal template—the default when you start a new document. I prefer the Word 2003 normal settings, but I do like the 1.15 line spacing. What do I do? Usually I start a new document and click No Spacing before starting. This gives me the spacing I like, even though it keeps the font and font size from 2007.

I have always known I could change the Normal template to be what I preferred, but never got around to it. Then I read an article on TechRepublic that reminded me of what I wanted to do and showed me step by step how to get it done.

To read the article and change the Normal template to your personal preferences, see
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6137320.html

Get the Message Out

Ever set up a phone tree to get the message out to members of a team or committee? Or even just had to make a bunch of calls to get the same message out to people?

Here is a site that will make the phone calls for you: http://www.phonevite.com -- 25 free calls twice a month or .05 per call for an unlimited number of calls. You record the message you want sent and give them the phone numbers--cool. Hours of phones calls done in minutes!

Disposable Email Address

Tired of all those spam messages clogging your inbox? Well, the next time you sign up for a new Web site or have to download something that wants your email address, use a valid dummy email address. Yep, I said dummy. It is really an email address, but only a temporary one. You can even check it on line to see what kind of spam gets to it.

You do not have to sign of for anything or register or leave you good email address. Just use it.

Go to www.mailinator.com and see how it works. Put simply, any mail you sent to xxxx@mailinator.com can be accessed at www.xxxx.mailinator.com or by opening www.mailinator.com and typing in the xxxx email name.

You use whatever you want for the xxxx. However, I suggest an odd combination of letters and numbers or you may be sharing the inbox with somebody else. Not that you really care since this is a disposable address anyway!

Want to check it out? I just emailed this message to myblog@mailinator.com so head over to http://myblog.mailinator.com to read it.

Save a Web Page as a PDF

I know I can save a Web page as an MHT file in IE and open it again in IE. But I really don’t need it in that format. I really want to send the page and not the link to someone else so they can view it.

Enter PDFmyURL.com. You supply the URL and it sends you a PDF of the page. Quick and easy and the links work on the PDF side. And it is free.

Try it at http://www.pdfmyurl.com

Making a Coloring Book

We have taken a good number of photos this summer and some of them would work nicely as pages in a coloring book. But how do you convert a full color digital picture into something that will look like a black and white line drawing? Good old Google. I searched and found a number of choices. This one works well, is intuitive to use, and is free.

Just download Photo to Sketch. It runs on any Windows PC from 95 up through Windows 7. I installed it on Vista and XP. It works great.

Here is the picture I used:

And here is the resulting sketch:

I downloaded it from http://download.cnet.com/Photo-To-Sketch-Standard/3000-2192_4-10547780.html?tag=mncol;1

Give it a try. Make some great coloring books for your grandchildren.
 

Building a Simple Web Site with FrontPage

Dick Evans has just released a new book called Quick and Easy Web Sites.

It is a simple approach to building sites using HTML and FrontPage and applications that come with Windows. There are plenty of screen shots and step-by-step instructions to walk you through the techniques I use. You will be creating great looking sites in no time.

Buy the book or download and print your own.

Click to preview a few pages...

Excel - Changing Case

Ever had a group of items you pasted into a worksheet and they were all UPPER case? What you copied was a list of names and you really want only the first letter of each name upper case. This a tedious change if you have to do it by hand, but you do not. Excel has functions for changing case.

Open a new workbook and enter the following in cells A5 down:

GEORGE SMITH
MARY JONES
HARRY HAPPY
SAM SPADE
JOE GERARD

Let’s say the names came into cells A5 down. Insert a new column between A and B assuming B is already occupied. Then, in B5 enter =PROPER(A5) and press Enter. The result is the name from A5 with only the first letter of each name capitalized. Point to the fill handle in B5 and double-click. The formula is propagated down through all cells adjacent to active cells in column A.

The fill handle is that square in the lower right corner of the active cell. As you mouse over it the white cross of the mouse pointer changes into a black plus sign. While it is a plus sign is when you double-click it.

Click on B5 to make it active. Scroll down to the row containing the last cell used in column B. Hold down the shift key and click once on that last used cell in B. You have just used the shift-click method to select all the cells from B5 down through the last used cell in B. Then Ctrl+C to copy.

Right-click A5 and select Paste Special > Paste Values. The properly formatted names now appear in column A. You may delete column B.

The resulting cells in A5 down now contain:

George Smith
Mary Jones
Harry Happy
Sam Spade
Joe Gerard

Two other case changing functions may prove useful as well. UPPER and LOWER. The former converts the text to all UPPER case and the later to all lower case.

Free Tape Calculator

I know, a great calculator comes with Windows. Just click Windows+R, type calc, and press Enter. It does all the basics and has a scientific mode and converts decimal to hex to octal to binary. What it does not have is a tape. So when you have added a column of numbers, you have no way to prove your work.

Enter the Moffosoft Free Calc. It has all the basics as well AND a visible and printable tape displaying all the entrees. So now you can add up a column of numbers and check your work before using the answer.

Check it out at http://www.moffsoft.com/

PageBreeze FREE

I just came across a great little HTML editor. Not only is it free, but it includes a WYSIWYG editor, a drag and drop form builder, spell checking, and FTP (download only for the free version). They have a professional version with a lot more features, but this version fits the bill for most of the day to day editing I have to do.

As the publishers description says “You'll find that you'll be creating great looking Web sites almost instantly with virtually no learning curve. It offers the kind of power you would find in the leading commercial products. It's visual editor is actually powered by Microsoft Internet Explorer, so you can always be certain that you are seeing exactly what you will get when your Web site is uploaded to your server.”

The reviews I read are mostly good. Looks like it works great for simple sites and a good way to learn HTML, but professional designers using lots of the tricks of the trade do not find it useful. Of course I would think they would be sticking to Expression Web or Dreamweaver anyway!

Give it a try.

Free Online HTML Editor

Often I have to create a line of HTML code. Rather than bringing up a large application like Expression Web or Dreamweaver this online service presents a WYSIWYG interface.

Create the document with graphics and pictures and lines and color. Then click the Source button to reveal the HTML. Select All and Copy and Paste it to your eBay product description, a newsletter you are about to send, or even to update a part of a page on your Web site.   

Try it out at http://www.free-online-html-editor.com/

Using the Cloud

So you just got that new notebook. It has plenty of hard disk space, a couple of gigabytes of memory, and the latest Windows 7 operating system. But you are not all set to go. Sure it may have come with a trial version of Office 7 or even 10, but after the trial you have to shell out almost as much as the notebook cost to continue to use it.

There is another way. Use the "Cloud". In other words, let the Web provide you a means to do your word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. All you need is a browser and an Internet connection. You can save the files in the cloud and access them with any type of browser capable "computer" -- your Windows based netbook, notebook, or desktop, an Apple Mac, Linux machine, and even your cell phone. If it accesses the Internet, you can work.

Save your work on your local machine or leave it on the cloud or both. While it is in the cloud, you can share it with others easily.

There are a number of different Web applications out there. The two I find very useful are Google Aps and ThinkFree. Both allow you the create Office compatible documents easily and for free. ThinkFree give you 1gb of free storage to maintain you files.

Try them by simply going to docs.google.com or thinkfree.com.

Use the cloud and save the bucks.

Resizing an Image

I have been a fan of many of the Windows XP Powertoys for many years now. One that I probably use more than any other is the Image Resizer. With it I can select a group of images taken with my digital camera and resize them to send by email, or resize them to upload to my Facebook page with just a right-click. Simple to do and the image sizes are reduced from 1-3mb down to less than 100kb!

I was not pleased to find that the program would not work in Vista or in Windows 7. Good thing I still have some XP machines to use…

Enter a new program that does the same job but in XP, Vista, and Windows 7!

Download the Prish Image Resizer (Click here) and install it. Now find an image (or a group of them) and right-click. Notice the new selection called Prish Resizer?

As you mouse over the option you see a number of options. Click any of the options indicating a size such at Resize to 1024 and the image you have clicked on will be resized and the results placed in a folder named resized. If you do not have a folder of that name, it will be created.

The top option is just Resize… It opens the application on the desktop and presents you with many options on how to resize it and where to place the results including overwriting the original.

Give it a try. I think it works great!

Convert PDF to Word

I have been waiting to see something like this for a while. Yes, I know I can purchase software to do the job. This one is FREE.

Run the application in the cloud by going to http://www.pdftoword.com/ three steps:

1. Browse your computer for the PDF you need to convert
2. Choose the resulting format—Word or RTF
3. Submit the email address you wish the results to be sent to  

Don’t expect instant response as the site places your conversion in the queue. When you get to the front of the line, it will be converted and sent to your email address. When I ran my trial, they were in the midst of a server upgrade and the conversion took a while to get back to me. It was worth it; the document was a perfect conversion of the PDF including pictures and links.

There is a 5 MB limit on the free on-line version, so if you have a larger file to do, split it into smaller pieces. To create a PDF I use PDFredirect and you can use it to print to PDF parts of an already PDF formatted document.

I have not tried it yet, but it is supposed to do Excel as well! Yes, you can pay for a version that will install on your machine and has more features.

What is Memory in my Computer?

There is much confusion over the meaning of all numbers associated with our computers. I touched on some of this when I wrote about the Task Manger a few blogs ago.

What are all those Mb’s and Gb’s all about?

When you go to the local store or surf the net looking for a good deal, each computer has numbers like the following:

2 GB memory, 160 GB hard disk, 2.4 GHz processor

First, let us review the terms. Mb is megabyte, GB is gigabyte, TB is terabyte, and GHz is gigahertz. Mb or megabyte refers to 1 million bytes and a byte in simple terms is how much storage is needed to store on character of data. GB means gigabyte and refers to 1,000 MBs. TB is terabyte and refers to 1,000 GB’s. GHz is gigahertz and is measurement of speed. Years ago this was referred to a gigacycles.

The memory even if not mentioned as such is that number from 1 GB -8 GB. This refers to the amount of RAM or random access memory in the box. RAM is primary storage. This is a key number as far as speed and the number of applications that can be open at the same time. More on this later.

The 80GB – 1TB number indicates the amount of hard disk space available in the box. This is not primary storage, but rather secondary storage. This is where all your applications including the operating system (Windows XP, Vista, or 7) is stored. It is where you save all your personal documents and pictures and songs and movies. The bigger the drive, the more stuff you can accumulate.

I can remember back in the 1980’s when I would tell customer they would never need more than a 10 Mb disk drive to store all their stuff. When Windows came along that number was not even large enough for the operating system never mind pictures and movies.

How much do we need today depends on what you are planning on storing locally. If you are not into digital pictures or downloading movies, 80 GB should be more than enough for the foreseeable future.

The GHz value indicates the speed of the CPU or central processing unit—the brain of your computer which is located inside the box on the motherboard (also known as the system board). Older machine ran at 400-600 GHz and the newer ones are much faster. Suffice to say, the bigger the number the faster your computer can process data. Yes this affects the speed of your Internet surfing.

How you find out the speed of your computer and how much RAM you have is simple. Hold down the Windows key (the flag key left and or right of your spacebar) and tap the Pause key (usually top right on the keyboard). This brings up the Systems Properties window. Under the General tab locate the Computer section. It tells you the name of the CPU, how fast it is, and how much RAM is installed.  To find out the size of your disk drive hold down the Windows key and tap E. This opens the My Computer window. Locate the C: drive and mouse over the icon. The Total Size value displays along with the amount of free (or available to be used) space left.

Back to RAM.  It is primary storage and is used by the CPU to access and run your applications and work on your data. It is volatile. When the power is turned off, the contents of RAM goes away. This is why we have secondary storage devices like the hard drive, CD/DVD drives, and USB flash drives. Those devices are used to save what we have been working on so we can access it again later.

When you turn on your computer the operating system is copied from the disk drive to RAM. You see a Windows GUI (graphical user interface) and select an application to use. Let’s say you choose Microsoft Word. That application is added to RAM and you see the interface for Word so you can type a letter. What you type is added to RAM. When you save your letter, a file called a document in Word, is created and placed in secondary storage on your hard disk drive. Even what you save on the desktop is placed on the hard disk drive.

Think of a chalkboard as RAM. As your write on the board it is like writing a letter in Word. You can write until you fill the board. When you are done, you erase the board (like closing the program). Now you can draw a picture as if you were in the Paint program. The chalkboard is the RAM that is temporarily storing your data. Need more RAM? Then you have to get a larger the chalkboard.

The more applications you have open as noted by the number of items on the task bar—that horizontal list of application on the bottom of your desktop, the more of RAM is used. When the amount of RAM in use is close to the physical memory available, you see a message saying you are running out of memory. This does NOT mean you need more hard disk space. It means you must close some programs. However, due to some issues with certain applications, you may want to restart the computer to free up the maximum amount of RAM.

Computer running slow?

Check the amount of RAM you have and the amount free disk space. Adding RAM is usually easy, but on older machines there is a maximum amount determined by the number of slots on specifications of the motherboard. The more RAM the better.

If the disk drive free space is not 10% of the total size of the drive, you could begin to slow down. Run the Disk Cleanup program under Start > Accessories > System Tools to clean out unnecessary files.

Replacing the hard drive can be a challenge. It is easier to purchase an external hard drive that plugs into a USB port. Transfer all your pictures and movies to it. This will free up plenty of space and leave the files accessible when you need them.

Other reasons for a slow computer have to do with ad-ware and malware you may have picked up even with a current security program. More at another time on how I deal with these issues.

Flip It

Here is a new one for you. Ctrl+Alt+DownArrow on some video cards will flip you screen 180* -- turns it upside down! Ctrl+Alt+UpArrow turns it back. Does not work with all video cards, but will not hurt anything by  trying. Useful? Probably not, but fun to try. Might make your neighbor at work really confused when you flip his/her screen when they are not looking... LOL

Free eBook

In addition to these tips, I write a daily Inspirational Thought as part of our ministry--The Evans Ministries. You can download one month of ITs that I recently put into book form. I hope you enjoy each of these writings and comment on them in this blog or directly to me in an email. I know this is not a technical post, but it is an important piece of what I do.


Download the FREE eBook from http://www.rwevans.com/freebook/itaug02.pdf

A Simple Temperature Conversion

With the temperatures diving down under freezing this winter, the subject of Fahrenheit versus Celsius comes up. In the USA we use F and other countries use C. When we are at 32F they are at 0C. So in the Celsius world zero is freezing and anything above zero or + is above freezing. Anything in the minus like -10C is below freezing or really cold!

There are other calculators out there and Excel can do the job as well. Here are the formulas for Excel:

F to C: =5/9*(temp-32)
C to F: =temp*9/5+32

Note: temp should point to the cell where the inputed degrees is located.

Do it right off the Web by linking to http://www.rwevans.com/convert_temp.htm

Task Manager and More

Hardly a day goes by when I do not learn something more about something. You may have known this, but I did not and it is very useful.

I know Ctrl+Alt+Del usually opens the Task Manager. You can even right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager, but these do not always work. There is another way. To open the Task manager simply Shift+Ctrl+Esc.

Who cares, you say. What is the Task Manager anyway? Well it is a utility process in Windows and it shows what is happening inside your computer; in RAM. RAM stands for Random Access Memory and this is where the OS or operating system resides. When you start up Windows, or “boot” the OS loads from the hard disk into RAM. When you click to open an application, the OS finds it on your hard disk and loads it into RAM.

How much RAM do I have?
When you bought your computer there were three numbers that were important. The computer I am on right now has a 2.26 GHz processor, 2.0 GB of RAM, and an 80 GB hard drive. GHz has to do with speed. The bigger that number, the better. The smaller of the other two GB numbers indicates how much RAM you have. In today’s world, 2 GB or more is best but 1 GB will do. The last number indicates the size of the hard disk drive. This is where the OS, all your applications, and all your documents including pictures and movie files are located. Nowadays, the hard drives are usually 160GB or greater.

To see the first two numbers on your keyboard press Win+Pause. This will open the Systems Properties window in the General Tab. The numbers are under the Computer section near the bottom of the window. To see the size of the hard drive, Start > My Computer and then mouse over drive C: and a popup will display the used and total size.

Back to the Task Manager. There are five tabs on the window: Applications, Processes, Performance, Networking, and Users. Let’s look at the first three.

Applications
This list shows the open applications. These are the applications you have opened like MS Word, FireFox, etc. If one of those is stuck, this is where you can select it and then click End Task to close it down. I have found that using Switch To sometimes gets it going again, so try that first.

Processes
This is a list of the behind the scenes programs that are running in RAM. Some are OS related, some are pieces of the applications you have active, and some could be the result of malware on your computer. Malware is a generic term a that refers to a Virus, a Trojan, Spyware, a Worm, etc. Malware is short for Malicious Software. Right now I have 87 processes running and I do not know what most of them are. Some are obvious by their name, but most names are cryptic.

Performance
This displays a neat graphical representation of how hard the CPU or Central Processing Unit is working. If it is at 100%, the machine is going very slow. Typically this number is less than 10%. It moves up when you are moving data or applications in and out of RAM and when heavy processing is happening.

There are four sections below the graphs that show Totals, Commit Charge, Physical Memory, and Kernel Memory.

Totals
These numbers relate to the number of different things going on within RAM. Threads are portions of processes that are running. One process may have any number of Threads. Handles are reference points the processes use to jump around to locate what they need next to run the job. Kind of like using a door handle to get from one room to the next.

Commit Charge
This is the amount of RAM + Disk Cache that is currently in use. Disk Cache is storage (like RAM) associated with the hard disk drive and used to hold frequently accessed data from the hard drive to improve access times. This is graphed in real time on the second set of graphs and listed as PF Usage or Page File Usage

Physical Memory
This shows the actual amount of available memory. The Total should always be larger than the Total Commit Charge. If it is not, then the hard disk drive is being used as temporary storage or pretend RAM and your machine starts to crawl.

Kernel Memory
This is memory used by the OS. Paged can be used by other programs if needed. Non-paged can only be used by the OS.

So what’s the bottom line? When your system says you are out of memory, it does not mean you have to add more RAM or get a bigger hard drive. It means the processes currently running are taking too much available RAM. Solution is to close some processes from the taskbar and perhaps even to restart the machine. Sometimes applications do not handle garbage collection (the removal of all work space when the program is closed) very well and pieces of memory are locked so other processes cannot use them. Restarting is the only way to correct this issue.

Free Images

I have written about the seriousness of using images that belong to someone else without their permission. We all like free stuff, but just because it is on your end of a Google search does not make it free for anything except for viewing. The copyright can come back to bite you BIG. Click to read the previous post.

I was looking for a free animated image to use to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I found a nice site in the UK that has a number of royalty free images. They give permission on the site for you to use them as you wish. Here is what their site reads "If anyone wants to use the free animated gifs on this site for your web site, powerpoint presentation or as animated avatars do feel free to use them and download them to your hard drive."

Give them a try. They are located at http://www.sevenoaksart.co.uk

Which Browser Do You Use?

For a long time I was stuck on Internet Explorer. I guess I assumed if Microsoft made it then it must be the best to use for Windows. Wrong!

Well IE starting freezing up on me in different ways on more than one of my machines. I was getting tired of forcing IE to close and reopening it or even having to restart the machine to get it back working.

So I tried Firefox and was greatly impressed. It did everything IE did and seemed to do it better. At least it did not hang up on me. There were even some add-ons that IE did not have that are pretty cool.

Along comes Google Chrome, so I tried it as well. And I like it the best out of these three. Smooth to use, seems faster than either IE or FF, and it takes much less real estate at the top of the screen. I like the fact that the address bar is also my Google search engine. And when I type something like ric.edu and hit enter, it knows to put in the http:// and open the site.

I have downloaded Opera and it looks fine, but I have been so pleased with GC that I have not spent much time with it.

One downside with GC is that there are some sites that will not work with it. For some of my emailings I have been using Constant Contact. It is a great service and reasonably priced. Much of it works with GC, but when I get to updating there are issues. I switch to FF and all the problems go away. Oh, IE will not work on that site either--editing issues.

Which one is your favorite and why?

Reducing File Sizes

You take a picture with your digital camera and then try to email it to a friend. It is so large that you can only attach one at a time. Even if you just want to upload it to Facebook, it takes a long time. Want to fix that problem? Read on.

Not too many years ago we were careful about the size of our files. We had to be or they would not fit on a 1.44mb diskette. Now our digital cameras create pictures over 1mb each. But with computer hard drives reaching into the terabytes, it is easy not to pay attention to the size of the files we save.

However, bloated files take longer to open and when located on a network drive they tie up bandwidth on the network as well as being slow to open. In our anxiousness, we often double-click two or more times on the same seemingly non-responsive icon only to wait and have multiple windows open, one for each of our frustrated clicks.

Why should we be concerned? The more bloat on the hard drive, the slower it runs and the more frustrated we become. We can control the size of our files and here are some examples of what we can do.

Click to read the complete white paper as a PDF

Forwarding Email

I really dislike those emails I receive that have been forwarded a number of levels down and are filled with all kinds of junk. Do you feel the same way?

For the few I do send on to others, I spend the time to clean them up. This can be a simple task done right in the email program after I have clicked the forward button. Most often I have to select all of the body of the message and paste it into Word to clean it up. When I have finished the fixing, I copy and paste the results back to the email and send it.

This process works well, but it does take a little time. I have discovered a neat little program that is free and does the job well. Google emailStripper, and download it from its maker, www.papercut.biz.

Here is what they have to say about it:

emailStripper is a free program for cleaning the ">" and other formatting characters out of your emails. It will restore "forwarded" or "replied" emails back to their original state so they're easier to read.

With emailStripper open, you select the body of the email, then on the emailStripper screen click Paste. Next click Strip It! and the email is restored to a readable format. You can make additional changes in the text, if necessary right in the emailStripper window.

When you have it the way you want, click Copy and the cleaned up text is placed on the clipboard. Return to your email screen, remove the existing body text, and then Ctrl+V to paste the cleaned up version.

The next time you click that Forward button, take the time to clean it up. Your email friends will appreciate it.

Copyright Issues

I understand that when someone creates something, they own it and the copyright for it. Of course, if someone were to take that item and use it, they would be violating the copyright. But who would know?

Truth is nobody would know unless they came across the item and knew it was theirs or belonged to someone else they knew. When that is discovered, the original owner must be able to provide the proof that they do hold the copyright.

There are a couple of ways to copyright something. You can apply to the government for a copyright and it will be officially registered with the US Copyright Office. Another approach is to mail a copy to yourself and not to open the package. Tell the post office what you are doing and they will seal all the edges and hand stamp each seal. If you have to take someone to court about violating your copyright, you can produce the sealed package as proof you own it.

The real message here is for you to make sure you are not violating someone else's copyright. It is a principle I speak often of when teaching Web Development classes. If you create it, you own it. If you Google it and copy/paste you are probably stealing it. Want to use a picture in your work, grab your digital camera and take it yourself. Do not grab it off the Web.

If you really like the work someone else has done, contact them and ask permission to use it. In most cases, they will grant permission. Sometimes they ask that you give them credit for it by including a link to their site or their email address. Do not just use their image and hope you do not get caught.

Of course, you can purchase thousands of royalty free images on CD's over on the Web and in your local office supply stores. These can be used without worrying about the copyright because when you bought the package you received a license to use the items that came with it. Make sure that license allows you to use it publically and not just on documents you print out. It will usually not allow you to use the items for sale to others.

A few weeks ago, I received a lawyer's letter telling me I had violated the copyright on an image used on one of my Web sites. This was a simple graphic I had added in 1999—10 years ago. The letter said I needed to prove I had a license to use the image or be prepared to be sued for up to $25,000!

I had no idea where I found that image. I could not believe that I found it on the Web and copy/pasted it into my site. This was against all I had been teaching for years. However, I could not remember anything about the image. Well, I removed it from my site and copies of it from my computers.

This was good, but they still wanted payment for its use. We negotiated down to a reasonable figure and were just wrapping things up when, in my work of cleaning out for our move, I came across a CD of royalty free images I had purchase in 1996.

You guessed it; the image was on that CD. I was able to prove I had a license to use it and did not have to pay any penalty.

So remember, if you use someone else's item like an image or picture, get permission in some form and SAVE IT where you can find it later. Ten years down the road you may be challenged and have to pay a huge penalty for not keeping good records.

I suggest keeping your documentation right in the folder you have the work (Web page, document, etc). If it comes from a CD, scan the license into a PDF and keep it in the folder. If it was an email giving you permission, save the email in the folder.

Be careful as there are people out their searching the Web for unauthorized usage of their work with the intent to collect large sums of money for your failure to abide by the copyright laws or being lax in keeping good records of your work.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Over the years I have accumulated a number of shortcuts I find useful in my everyday dealings with the commputer. This list is not in any particular order. I suggest reading it one at a time and trying them out. Start to use them a little at a time and you will be surprised how your productivity improves. These simple keyboard clicks save me time as I use applications daily.

Please let me know of others you may use. I always like to add to my toolbox.

Win+D - Minimizes all open windows so you can see the desktop. A second tap restores them

Win+E - Opens Windows File Mamanger

Win+F - Launches Windows search

Win+L - locks they keyboard and can only be unlocked with your windows password.

Win+Pause - Opens the System Properties

Win+R - Opens the Run dialog box

Win+Pause - Opens System Properties

Win+U+U - to shut down

Win+U+R - to restart

Alt+F4 - Closes the active window/application

Ctrl+Alt+Del - Opens the Task Manager

Ctrl+F - accesses the Find feature in the currently-running program

Ctrl+Shift-F9 - Removes hyperlinks in MS-Word (great for cleaning up pasted web pages)

Shift+Alt+D in Word pastes the current date in the default format

Ctrl+; in Excel pastes the current date

Shift+Ctrl+C in MS-Word copies the format (same as format painter)

Shift+Ctrl+V in MS-Word copies the saved format

Ctrl+1, 2, and 5 in MS-Word changes the spacing to single, double, or space and a half

Shift+F3 in MS-Word toggle the case from UPPER, to lower, to Sentance case

F4 in MS-Excel toggle $ in a cell reference

Alt+= in MS-Excel is AutoSum

Alt+F9 in MS-Excel to reveal the hidden programming behind the text

Ctrl+X, C, and V are used in most programs to Cut, Copy, and Paste to the Windows clipboard

Ctrl+H in Word opens Find and Replace

Ctrl+N in Windows Explorer 7 and earlier opens a duplicate window

Ctrl+S opens the Save dialog in most programs

Shift+Ctrl+S opens the SaveAs dialog in some programs

Ctrl+O opens the Open dialog in most programs

Ctrl+Z is undo in most programs

Ctrl+Y is redo in most programs

Ctrl+P opens the print dialog in most programs

Ctrl+A selects all items in most programs

F5 restores the current window

F2 opens the rename function for the selected item

F1 opens the Help function in most programs

PrtScrn causes the picture of the desktop screen to be saved in the Windows clipboard

Alt+PrtScrn causes the picture of the active window to be saved in the Windows clipboard

Ctrl+L, E, R, and J in MS-Word for aligning Left, Center, Right, and Justified

=rand(p,s) in MS-Word generates random text (p=# paragraphs, s=# sentances)

Add a Calendar to the Desktop

I cannot count how many times I have double-clicked the clock in the system tray to get a date from the calendar. Of course you have to be very careful not to click OK and change the system date or all your new and modified files end up with the wrong dates.

Well, I finally did something about it. Check out www.rwevans.com/calendar. It opens a small browser window with an easy to use calendar. Nothing fancy. All it does is allow you easy access to the calendar so you can find that date you need to find. Drag it to a location on your desktop or minimize it to the task bar where it is ready at any time to use.

I Lost Send To Compressed!

All of a sudden the right-click > sent to compressed option was gone! Along with it was missing the ability to double-click a compressed file to extract the files.

I had no idea what caused the removal of this ability from my Windows XP machine, but it was a problem. I used to use PKZip and it was great, but it takes extra steps to decompress and compress files and folders. XP is great; right-click and you are good to go. But, no more.

I Googled every combination of words I could come up with and found a few suggestions. Here is the simple solution if it happens to you, or to me again.

First, locate a computer that has the right-click working. Then, from the Run dialog box (Win+R) type at the run line type this %userprofile% \sendto, and then click OK

Copy the Compressed (zipped) Folder file to a flash drive, diskette, or CD. Or somehow get it over to your desktop.

On your desktop, at the run line type this regsvr32 zipfldr.dll, and then click OK

At the run line type this %userprofile% \sendto, and then click OK

Next, drag the file from your desktop to this folder

Now right-click > send to should have the compressed folder selection

Instant Virus Check

Wonder if there is a virus lurking around in your machine right now? If you have an Internet connection, try out http://www.nanoscan.com/. This is especially useful when you are away from your own machine or even using your notebook at one of the local WiFi available restaurants or coffee houses. It work very quickly--try it out.

Getting Rid of U3

Not to be confused with R2D2, U3 is an application that is piggybacked on the SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash drives. The Cruzer flash drives are a nice size and I like the slider to expose the connection. Those darn caps seem to always get lost or do not stay on after a while. However, I am not thrilled with the included U3 and extra software that comes with it. It takes too much time to mount the drive, I do not want the extra software, and I want all the gigs I paid for.

This procedure will remove U3

1. Open your browser to:

http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1415

2. Download the application

3. Plug in the flash drive and wait for the U3 launch pad to load.

4. Run the application choosing one of the two options. Both options remove U3 and format the drive. (Yes ) keeps all your data (takes about 1 hr/gb) or (No) destroys all data on the drive (takes about 10 sec)

You now have a full sized USB flash drive without the U3 application

Converting Formulas to Values in Excel

Ever need to convert cells containing a formula to its value?

Sure, you can select the cell, copy it to the clipboard, paste it back to the same cell, click the Paste Options button, click Paste Special, and then click Values. The cell contains the value instead of the formula.

There is a better way. Simply select the cell to be converted, press F2, and then F9.

IE7 and the Scroll Wheel

I just discovered a neat feature in IE7. Click a link with the scroll wheel instead of the left or right mouse button and the page opens in a new tab. Use with links off a Web page, the Links bar in IE7, and the Favorites links. This saves a number of clicks. To close the tab, click the tab with the scroll mouse.

Remove the Hyperlink

How many times have you copy and pasted from a Web page into a Word document and been frustrated with all the links that carried over? Sure, you can pull down the Paste Option button’s arrow and select Keep Text Only, but this removes all the formatting as well. You may want to keep the fonts and colors, but just not the links.

One at a time, you might right-click each link and select Remove Hyperlink. A longer method is to click Insert > Links > Hyperlink, and then on the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click Remove Hyperlink.

There is a better way.

Click the hyperlinked word(s) and press Shift+Ctrl+F9. The hyperlink is removed. To do all at once, Ctrl+A to select the entire document, then Shift+Ctrl+F9 and all hyperlinks in the document are removed.

Closing Multiple Excel 2007 Workbooks

I often end up with many open workbooks. To close them one at a time takes a number of clicks by right-clicking and selecting close for each one. If I had made any changes to a workbook, a dialog box opens and I have to decide to save or the workbook, or not. There is a better way.

http://www.ric.edu/faculty/revans/webct_files/Closing%20Multiple%20Workbooks.mht

What Happened to About?

Finding the version of current applications is not as easy as it used to be. Since the early version of Windows, every application has had a menu option for Help. Clicking Help dropped down a list which included at the bottom an About selection. Click it and you were given a window listing the company who wrote the application and its version number.

With Office 2007, this has changed. No longer is there a Help menu option to click or an About selection. But there still is an About screen.

Click the Office Button, then in the lower right of the status bar, click Word Options (or Excel Options, or PowerPoint Options). In the left pane, click Resources. Locate and click the About button.

OR: Office > Word Options > Resources > About

The familiar About window displays with the current version of the application. Notice the System Information button? Clicking it will display details about the hardware you are using.

Excel AutoFormat

Office 2003 had a neat feature allowing you to take a generic worksheet and apply formatting (color and style) by selecting from a list of premade sets. This is not available by default in Office 2007. However, it can be added to the quick access toolbar with a few clicks.

To see how go to:
http://www.ric.edu/faculty/revans/webct_files/excel%20autoformat.mht

AutoFill

Every so often I have a worksheet with many rows and I need to copy a formula from one row all the way down to the last row. Using the Fill Handle I drag the formula down to the last cell in the row. When there are hundreds of rows involved this can take a long time. What I did not know about until recently is the double-click option. Double-click the fill handle and Excel copies the entry all the way down through the last active cell in the row.

Need to create a column with sequence numbers from 1 to the whatever? Enter a 1 in the first cell and a 2 in the second cell, select both cells, and then double-click the fill handle. Excel completes the sequence all the way down through the last cell in the series.

Excel 2007 Tip

One of the features of Word I have liked is having each Word document open in a new application window. Then when closing one document, they do not all attempt to close. This was a problem in prior versions and I was guilty more than once of closing a file I had not yet saved by accident. With Office 2003 the problem was solved by opening new application windows for each document.

Excel did not make that change until the 2007 version. It even added another feature when closing that works better than Word 2007. Press Alt+F4 at any open workbook and all open workbooks attempt to close—you get the do you want to save window for each file. If you just close a single workbook, non of the other workbooks are affected. Word does not have the Alt+F4 feature and pressing that combination just closes the active document.

IE7 Shortcut Tips

It is nice to discover that some of the old shortcuts still work with the new browser. Alt-D move you to the address bar with the current address selected. Just type the new address and hit Enter to change it—or type the domain name, then Ctrl+Enter to have IE7 add the prefix of "http://www." and the suffix of ".com" automatically.

If you are editing the existing URL in the address bar, Alt+D to select it and switch to it, then Ctrl+arrow (left or right) to move to the beginning of a section. To move to and select a section, use Shift+Ctrl+arrow.

Ctrl+N still opens a new incident of the same page in a new browser window. It does not open it in another tab. When you are through with the page, simply close the browser and the original browser with all your tabs is still available.

An Excel Range Tip

This formula does not look correct =COUNTA(A:A), but it is. By entering a range with column letters without row numbers, Excel assumes you are referring to all the active cells in the column listed. And it works the same for rows. =SUM(15:15) will add up all cells in row 15.

=SUM(A:B) would add up all the cells in both column A and B.

Cute, but is it useful? Yes, in a worksheet of email addresses I use for one of my emailings, I need to know how many are on the list. At the top of the worksheet I created a formula containing =COUNTA(A:A)-1 to count the number of emails in the list. I subtracted 1 to exclude counting the row containing the column heading.

Internet Explorer 7 Tips

By now you have probably installed Internet Explorer 7 and experienced the Microsoft version of Tabbed Browsing. To be honest, I was not unhappy with IE6. It did what I needed and I frequently used Ctrl+N to open a new instance of the current window so I would not loose my place when browsing. The taskbar would fill up pretty quickly, but I was used to it. (This still works with IE7)

 

Enter IE7 with tabs--very nice. The taskbar is now clean with only one IE task open. Quick tabs (Ctrl+Q) lets me see miniature windows of the contents of each tab. And there is plenty of help on the Microsoft site. Of course most of us will just figure out how to use it on our own—perhaps this is a geek thing.

 

I have done some exploring and here are some shortcuts I have found useful to me:

 

Ctrl+Click will open a favorite item or an item on your link bar in a new tab and gives it focus.

 

When clicking a link on an open Web page, there are three options:

• Click opens the link on top of the existing page (unless the link is set by the Webmaster to open on a new page)
• Shift+Click opens the link in a new instance of the browser
• Ctrl+Click opens the link in a new tab but the current window keeps focus
• Shift+Ctrl+Click opens the link in a new tab and gives it focus

 

When typing an address into the address bar, there are some additional options:

• Type and hit Enter, the new site opens in the tab currently having focus
• Type and then Alt+Enter, the new sites opens in a new tab with focus
• Type the domain name without the .com, then Ctrl+Alt+Enter and IE7 adds the http://www to the left and .com to the right, then opens the site in a new tab with focus
• Ctrl+Enter adds the rest of the .com, but opens in the tab currently having focus (just like it did in IE6)

 

To close a tab:

• Click the X on the tab (visible if the tab has focus)
• Right-click the tab and select Close
• Middle_click the tab (the middle button is the scroll wheel)

 

For a lot more information on tabbed browsing, see the FAQ page at Microsoft at http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/b37c030b-bdc5-488e-aeca-3e64b739736e1033.mspx

 

Speeding up Windows
The search tool in Windows XP is a great way to look for a file when you forgot where you put it, or what you called it. To make those searches move at the fastest pace possible, Windows XP defaults the "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" option on the General tab of the Disk Properties dialog box.

My hard disk seemed to always run and run, even when I was not actively doing anything. I would check the Task Manager and find the CPU usage at 100% and then just wait or restart the system. I opened the Disk Properties dialog box (Start > My Computer, right-click Drive C:, and then choose Properties). On the General tab, I unchecked the Allow Indexing… option, and clicked OK. The process took a few minutes to complete—it had to update all files on the drive.

What a difference this little change made. No more was the CPU usage at 100%. The search stills works great, even though it might be a little slower.

Smaller Word Files
Ever wonder why Word files are so large? And why they grow at an unusual rate as you make changes to the document? It has to do with the Fast Save feature--on by default.

In Word, choose Tools > Options > Save and uncheck Allow fast saves.

You probably will not notice the difference in time it takes to save the document, and the size of the document will be smaller. Fast save stores information about the last fifteen modifications you have made to the document resulting in larger file sizes. Turn it off and this old information is not recorded.

Speak to Me
When writing a document, paper, or a novel, the next step is to proof read it. I find errors in things I proofread and then published. Heck, when I read published novels I even find errors. No matter how many times I read something over, I seem to always miss something. I wrote it and my brain knows what I meant to say, so as I read it over, I miss some of the mistakes. A method that has been working for me is to read it out loud to my wife. As I do, mistakes I missed the first time pop out at me and I fix them as I read.

There is another way. Let the computer do the reading and you listen. A feature in Microsoft Word 2003 allows the computer to read any text selected in the document out loud. The voice is a little robotic, but very understandable. Simply select the text (Ctrl+A to select all) and then press Win+S (Win is the Windows key on the keyboard--usually a flag to the left of the spacebar).

Smart Quotes
I use Word as my word processor even when creating articles for email publication. Sure, I could just type in the compose window of my email program, but it does not have the same level authoring tools as Word. I use the spelling checker, the grammar checker, and the Alt+click access to the research task pane frequently. I am actually typing this blog entry in Word right now! One thing Word does to make the document professional looking causes an issue in my email program—the way it automatically converts a double-quote to left and right quotes. Each copy and paste would require manually fixing the odd character caused by the left and right quote. With one checkbox entry in Word, the problem is solved.

Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As You Type, then uncheck "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes"

Quick Dates in Word
Typing a date is not difficult to do, and Word makes it easy by auto completing it. Type Feb and a screen tip pops up asking if you are typing February. Just hit the Enter key and you are done. If you know the current date, you can just type it. If you do not, Insert > Date and Time… opens the Date and Time dialog box where you select from various date formats.

However, there is an even easier way—use the shortcut Alt+Shft+D. Today’s date will be placed at the insertion point in the default date format (mm/dd/yyyy unless you have changed it). To change the default format, Insert > Date and Time…, select the desired format, and then in the lower left corner click Default.

Office on the Web

I use Office 2003 and am experimenting with the beta of Office 2007. I was really turned off at the thought of not having the familiar drop down menus and toolbars. I have to admit I am adjusting very quickly to the new look and feel of the ribbons.

But, what if I purchase a new notebook for the road and really do not want to spend as much on another copy of Office 2003--heck, Office Professional costs almost as much as the discounted low end notebooks today. Sure, I can install a 2007 beta copy and get by over the few months of the beta trial. There is another way.

I have been working online with two different sites offering word processing and spreadsheet capability over the Internet. Nothing needs to be installed on your end and you can save the work in Word, Excel, and even PowerPoint format on your own machine. Other formats are also available. The documents can even remain online for you to access or share with others.

Check out www.thinkfree.com for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Yes, it is free to use and quick to execute. I am using broadband, so I do not have experience using it over a landline. Another couple of alternatives are from Google and include a word processor at www.writely.com and a spreadsheet at www.spreadsheet.google.com.

As with many new, free applications today, these are beta versions so try them at your own risk. I have and think they are great!

Another Useful Excel Function

Excel has hundreds of built in function, but the most used ones seem to be sum(),min(), max(), average(), count(), if(), and perhaps pmt() and even vlookup(). When presented with a problem requiring the creation of a complex formula, check the functions first. There just might be one to solve the problem instead of you having to use various Excel features to solve it mannualy.

For instance, finding the largest value in a range such as A5:D50 is easly solved using max(A5:D50). What if you needed the two largest values or even the second largest? Without a function, you would probably sort the data and manually find the next to largest.

Yes there is a function to do it! The large() function will pull out the nth largest value in any range of data. In our example above, you would enter large(A5:D50,2) to locate the next to the largest value. Yes, the small() function will do the reverse and find the next (or nth) to smallest value.

Graphing in Excel
One of the last pieces of Excel I taught this semester was graphing. This is the ability to take ranges of cells and turn them into graphical representations using a variety of chart types. The two most used seem to be the column chart and the pie chart. The line graph might be third, especially when graphing progress over time.

The Chart Wizard is what the textbook uses, and what I concentrate on as well. However, for a quick chart there is even an easier way. Select the items to be charted, then press F11. It could not be simpler. A new worksheet named Chart1 is created containing a column chart of the selected data.

Want to alter the automatic results? Click the chart and you will notice a menu bar entry named Chart where you have options to change any of the defaulted items including the chart type.

Cleaning up Email
I really dislike getting emails forwarded to me with all the >>> next to each line. There is so much junk, it makes reading the message like decoding a secret document. You can copy the offending text into Word and then use find/replace to clean it up; even make use of the Alt key to left drag vertically to select columns of the annoying characters and delete them.

A little program called emailStripper make it an easy task. Simply copy/paste the email text into this programs window, click Strip It, and the original message appears. Copy/paste it back to the message you are forwarding and your readers will never cuss at your emails again.

Find it at http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

SaveAs Shortcut
No matter how much we think we know there is always something new to learn. With computers, this is true all the time. Yesterday, while reading some web page somewhere, I came across a reference to a shortcut to opening the SaveAs dialog box in Word.

In Word, on the menu bar, if you click File, the Save option has the shortcut Ctrl+S listed to the right. I use this one all the time to save the document I am working on. This works for almost every application and has since the early days.

F12 will open the SaveAs dialog box in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It is not listed on the File menu, but it works great. Next time you open a document to use it as a template for a new document, press F12 before getting started to save it with its new name so you do not click Save and override the original. This shortcut is unique to these three programs.

Debugging a Slow System
The first thing I recommend is shutting down and restarting. Many systems are left on all the time and a re-boot can solve a number of issues. It does not eliminate the cause of the slowdown, but it could stop the offending process which was running. The slowdown may have been caused by a process started off the Internet that will never be accessed again.

If an application has been installed in the past few days, it may be the cause of the problem. I try uninstalling it and/or using System Restore to back the system up to a date prior to the slowdown issues. This process restores the registry to a previous point that worked. To use Restore press Win+F1 > Pick a task > System Restore, then choose Restore my computer to an earlier time. Choose a likely date and see if the issue goes away.

Next, I make sure an anti-virus program has been running and do a full scan of the system after downloading the most recent signatures. Then I use an anti-spyware tool to remove any spyware on the system. This usually improves performance greatly.

MSCONFIG is a great command line tool to manage the processes and programs starting when the system turns on. To run it, Win+R to open the RUN dialog box. Then type MSCONFIG and hit ENTER.

Click the Startup tab to view the programs starting each time the system boots. One issue with MSCONFIG is its inability to explain what each startup program is doing, as the names are cryptic. To determine what the program actually does and to see if you should stop the program from starting, try googling its name. For a slow running system, I turn them all off and then turn them back on one at a time until the issue I was debugging returns.

On the same screen, click the Services tab to see what services are started when the system boots. The Essential column shows the ones Windows needs to have running. This does not mean you can shut them all off; the system may boot successfully, but a number of your applications may fail to start without the services they require running. Read the descriptions to help determine what should or should not be running.

One service known to slow down the system is the Indexing Service. On older versions of Windows it was called Find Files. It is responsible for indexing the content of each hard disk to make the Search utility find files faster. Disabling it will usually improve performance.

Another tool to try is the Administrative Tools menu—Right-click My Computer, then select Manage. Locate Services and Applications, click the plus sign to open the list, and then click Services. The list of Services opens in the right window. Click on any service to see a detailed explanation. This list is more detailed than MSCONFIG. Double-click on any one service to open its Properties window.

If I try all of the above and the system is still sluggish, it may be time for a reload. I backup all critical files and do a factory restore. This brings the system back to the way it was when it came out of the box. If it is still slow, there is a hardware problem—hard disk failing, RAM failing, or something else. Remember, after a factory restore SP2 probably needs to be applied, as do all the Windows updates since. Add the anti-virus and anti-spyware tools, and then restore the critical files from backup. Any applications not installed on the factory fresh system must be re-installed. This might be a good time to reassess what was previously installed and not bother with any applications no longer used.

I cannot guarantee the above will work for you. These are the steps I usually take. Before starting any debugging be aware you could do some damage, so always backup critical files before starting, if possible. When asking someone what files are critical, they often forget about their collection of pictures and music. Back them up as well. Recall that some programs do not store their files in My Documents—AOL and Outlook Express are two culprits I know of. Therefore, if I must restore a system to factory specs, I suggest a new hard drive. They are so inexpensive today it is well worth it. The new drive will be larger and faster and all the old data will still be on the old drive. It can be installed as a secondary drive temporarily so you can pull over necessary data and then be kept for a while in case some files were missed.

Maxthon
I just began to use the Maxthon Internet Browser. I like it. Based on Internet Explorer, it is a powerful tabbed browser with a highly customizable interface. It is filled with many efficient features that will take me weeks to discover and experiment with.

One feature of IE I like is the ability to type a Web site name, press Ctrl+Enter and have IE fill in the http://www. and the .com for me. Maxthon adds a Shift+Enter and Ctrl+Shift+Enter to fill in .net and .edu (or whatever .xxx you wish to opt for). Download your FREE copy at http://www.maxthon.com/

Another Address Bar Shortcut
To jump to the address bar and highlight its content with one shortcut, press Alt+D. Now to copy it to the clipboard use Ctrl+C. Then you can use Ctrl+V to paste it to an email you are composing or add it as a hyperlink to a letter or Web page. If you want to type a new address, simply begin typing. The selected address will be replaced with the typed characters. To navigate in the address bar, use Ctrl+arrow -- right arrow to move right one section at a time and left arrow to move left. Try it. This is easier than using the arrow keys and delete or backspace when modifying an address.

Another Excel Shortcut
To reveal formulas, you probably know about Ctrl+Tilde—that is the tilde key just below the Esc key. Press the combination once and all cells containing formulas will display formulas instead of resulting values. Press the combination again and the display toggles back to values. A slight variation to the keystrokes and you can change the formatting for a cell or a range of cells to General formatting--Ctrl+Shift+Tilde.

SNARFing
An interesting approach to sorting the every increasing number of emails we receive on a daily basis. SNARF or a Social Network And Relationship Finder uses social analysis to organize incoming email. Read the article at:
SNARFing your way through e-mail

Entering Fractions in Excel
Enter 1/4 in any unformatted cell in a worksheet and Excel assumes we have entered a date. It displays what we keyed in the format 4-Jan and assumes the current year (2005). The actual value stored in the cell becomes 38,356, the number of days since 1-1-1900.

What if we wanted to enter the fraction 1/4 and not the date?

We can select the cell, then pre-format it to fraction by clicking Format > Cells > Number tab > Fraction > OK. Then we enter the 1/4 and it remains a fraction.

Yes, there is another way. In an unformatted cell, enter a zero followed by a space, then the 1/4. The zero-space overrides the default Date formatting and creates the Fraction formatting.

Another Excel Shortcut
In Word inserting a date is pretty straightforward; there is a menu option for it using Insert > Date. In Excel you can search all you want in the Insert menu without ever finding Date as an option. Sure, there are functions like =TODAY() to display the current date every time the worksheet opens. With =NOW() you are given date and time. To insert a fixed date or the time right now, like in a time stamp, you might think you have to just type it in.

Recall from a previous entry Ctrl+; results in the current date (system date) being inserted into the active cell. There is also an easier way to insert the system time; Shift+Ctrl+;

Free Web Based Word Processing and More
On the road and without your full office suite of products? Or perhaps you have acquired a great notebook but have not wanted to part with any more cash to get a full office suite. There is an alternative thanks to gOFFICE. This is an office suite available online. All you need is an Internet connection and a browser. The Word Processor and Desktop Plublishing pieces are up and running. Fonts and spellchecker and more. And since it uses HTML behind the scenes, you can display the source making it a simple HTML WYSIWYG editor as well.

You have to try this one out! The Spreadsheet and Presentation pieces are still in Beta. Free to try and free to use. There are additional features if you sign up for the pay for option. Try it at http://www.goffice.com/

Date and Time
We all know the time appears in the lower right of our Desktop; right side of the Taskbar. To view the current date, mouse over the time and a screentip will appear. With XP, if you make the Taskbar double size, the date and time appear all the time. Neat, but it takes up screen real estate. When I wanted to see a calendar, I used to double-click the time to pop-up the Date and Time properties dialog box. This is a little dangerous; change the date and hit OK instead of Cancel and you have changed the system date!

I found a better way with a freeware program by Dale Nurdeen called TClockEx. You may download it from http://www.rcis.co.za/dale/tclockex/. It allows you to display the date and time in place of the current time. You pick the format and color scheme. Click once and a calendar pops up -- one which will not change your system date.

The Address Bar
When we view a web site (like this one) the address bar contains the URL to the web site. If we want to travel to another site, we can type the desired address in the Address Bar text box. Getting there is as simple as a mouse move and a click, but there is a shortcut. Hold the Window key down and tap F4 -- Win+F4. When you arrive at the Address Bar, the current address is filled with blue indicating it is selected and the list of previously entered addresses drops down. Choose from the list or enter a new one. Because it is selected, as soon as you begin to type or Copy another address, the highlighted address is replaced. You do NOT have to erase the old address to enter a new one. When using Internet Explorer, typing a new address ending in .com, just type the name (ie: blogger) , hold the Control key down and tap Enter -- Ctrl+Enter. The http://www and the .com are added for you! Press Enter or click Go to find the site.

All Those Shortcuts
A good number of my posts are for shortcut keys when using Windows and Office products. You can find a complete list of all their shortcuts on the Microsoft site at: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx. And of course you can always use the Help index of a Microsoft product. In Help, type "keyboard shortcuts" in the Answer Wizard or Index boxes. You will be returned a list of keyboard shortcuts for that application.

Title Bar Shortcut Menu
One little known way to close a window is to double-click the title bar icon located at the far left of the title bar. Alt+Spacebar opens the title bar shortcut menu (this was referred to as the control program box in Win3.1). The default option is Close which is why the double-click works. Other options allow you to manipulate the screen without using a mouse. This is helpful when the window is off screen or the mouse stops working. To open this menu without the mouse, click Alt+spacebar.

Scrolling
The vertical scroll bar in Internet Explorer allows us to move a window up and down to see more of a web page. As you know, clicking the top arrow moves the page up; the down arrow moves it down. A quick way to scroll through the page is to grab the scroll bar by mousing over the bar located between the arrows, then hold down the left mouse button and drag up or down. Often this method is too quick.

A better approach is to click in the white space between the scroll bar and one of the arrows; top to scroll up and bottom to scroll down. This results in a scroll of one screen worth of data at a time. There is a shortcut for this method -- simply press the spacebar on the keyboard.

A Typing Test
Ever wonder how well you type. Here is a simple typing test you can take online to see what your speed and error rate is. Try it out; it only takes a minute or two. http://www.typingpal.com/test/

Systems Properties
To open the Systems Properties screen, most are aware of right-clicking My Computer off the Start menu, then clicking Properties. This is easier than finding it in the Control Panel. However, there is an even easier path -- Win+Pause will open it right away.

Minimize All
A little while ago I showed you a shortcut to clear the desktop. This one is similar, but useful when you have a number of open windows and one or more hidden dialog boxes on the screen. I say hidden because they are hiding behind some other window. This will happen to me when I am trying to do two or three jobs at the same time. I start an install and while it runs I check my email. The email screens are on top so I do not see the message dialog box that popped up regarding the install. I wonder why the install is taking so long. Then I finish the email and close the program. Now I see the message. So much for multitasking! Win+D would have cleared the desktop and I would not have seen the message. Win+M minimizes all windows having a minimize button. The messags dialog boxes will remain.