Clean your inbox

Update:  Following on the heels of Gmail’s update, I thought I would re-share this article as well that I posted nearly 4 years ago. To this day, I still follow these recommendations and email is no longer a thorn in my digital side. Give it a try! Email truly revolutionized communication. The ability to retrieve a message from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds is mind boggling. However, judging by the size...

Google rolling out new Gmail look and functions &#...

UPDATE: I posted this tip in November of 2011, but many Gmail users didn’t have the new Gmail interface yet, so I’m bringing this back out of the archives since all new accounts and most exiting ones are now in the new format. Starting today, Google is rolling out the option for you to try out there new interface (look and function). You will see an option to try out the system in the lower right hand side of your...

How to find the best apps in Apple’s App Sto...

If you use an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you have access to more than 600,000 apps (at the time of this writing) and growing. Great news right? Yes and no. If you don’t practice a little search narrowing , then finding a good app can be a frustrating and time consuming experience. In this tip, I give you a step-by-step outline on how to quickly and accurately separate the good apps from the mediocre or poor apps. Give...

Adding Photos to an iPad or iPhone using Picasa &#...

This week I worked with a gentleman ironing out how to use Picasa to add photos to his iPad. These are the notes (download PDF version here) I took for him and left with him. The only steps not shown in the notes below are how to create a folder called iPad (or iPhone) then configure that folder in iTunes to sync to your iPad or iPhone. Here’s how to do that (click the screen shot below the steps to see a larger...

How to Scan a Picture with HP Scan and Windows 7

HP continues to refine and change their scanning software…mostly for the better. However, many computer users detest change. These notes are ones I created for a long time Windows XP user who just moved to Windows 7 and needed some help with scanning. I have some previous HP Scanning notes you can read here, and these notes can be downloaded in PDF format here. ...

FBI warning of possible Internet problem in July

This weekend, my local newspaper ran a story similar to this one at PC Magazine. It outlined (in usual newspaper sensationalism fashion) that “thousands of computer users could lose Internet in July”. I call it sensational because the headline alone (which I’m suspecting is all many people read) has two words that should calm people down a little, thousands and could. Currently, there are more than 1...

Notes from helping a cartoonist

Today’s notes were created for a cartoonist who has a Mac and has already learned how to scan in his cartoons (via my tutelage months ago), but now he wanted to learn how to add his captions using the computer. The goal was to get it done with as few steps as possible and with his existing software. We used Apple Pages and Preview to get the job done. For your convenience, here is a PDF file of the notes...

How to create a photo book using Shutterfly.com &#...

Digital photography allows us to take thousands of photos, but they don’t do much good if they stay on your computer and you never get to share or enjoy them. For sharing, nothing beats printing. And I highly suggest you do NOT print your own photos at home unless you have two things: 1) an enormous amount of time, 2) it’s your love and hobby and you have take some of that time to properly learn how to print at...

Don’t buy Microsoft Office when you buy a ne...

Despite what big box store sales people try to sell you, don’t buy a copy of Microsoft Office. On all new commercial computers today, manufacturers install a trial version of Microsoft Office AND a copy of Microsoft Office Starter Edition. Microsoft Office Starter Edition does NOT expire and is every bit as functional as its costly brethren. The Starter editions includes only Word and Excel. If you need PowerPoint or...

How to download and install CutePDF Free – V...

CutePDF has been one of my favorite computer utilities for many years. This small (free) utility lets you create a PDF (portable document format) file from anything that you can print. I use it to save web pages, online shopping receipts, and many other items that I might be tempted to print to paper. Instead, I print it using CutePDF and save the resulting PDF file in a folder for long term storage and retrieval. No paper,...

How to save money on paper and ink

Business Week published an article in 1975 touting the virtues of and dawning of the paperless office. Sadly, except for the paper industry, we still aren’t there 35+ years later! In the past 40 years, paper use has tripled. In the United States alone, we use more than 400 million ink cartridges per year. I do not consider myself an environmentalist. However, I do consider myself a practicalist (I’m coining the...

How to transfer photos to a Windows 7 computer and...

Pictured below are two sets of instructions I put together today for a new Windows 7 user who uses the MSN browser and email. He was frustrated at the learning curve and asked for help…here are the results. I hope these instructions help others as well because the steps can be generalized for AOL browser users, Windows Live Mail users, and Microsoft Outlook users as well.   ...

Microsoft Excel Handouts, Tutorials and Help Sites

I talk about or teach Microsoft Excel on a regular basis and compiled this list of Microsoft Excel learning and support information for a recent class. If you know of any other great Microsoft Excel resources, please post them in the comments. Some great handouts Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2007 from California State University, Los Angeles Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2010 from West Virginia University Introduction...

How to type on a PDF or scanned form – Video...

One of the computer’s greatest weaknesses is filling in forms…until now! For a long time, I have recommended using FoxIt Reader as my PDF (Adobe portable document format) reader of choice. On and off, they have offered tools to help you fill in forms or annotate documents, but with their newest version, the form filler or typewriter tool is now enhanced and permanent. FoxIt’s typewriter tool is fast,...

Listen to music online customized for your tastes&...

This past week I learned about an incredibly convenient and useful web site that allows you to listen to unlimited online music for free. The site is Pandora Radio. Sure there are other web sites and radio stations that let you do the same thing, but this one also customizes your station based on your musical tastes…for free (requires listening to a commercial occasionally). Or you could do like I did, and pay the...