Update your virus protection

One of the best ways to protect your system and keep it running smoothly is to update your virus protection program regularly. My current favorite anti-virus program is the free addition of AVG (see our link for it on the home page). I like not only its thoroughness, but the update utility is extremely easy (in fact automatic if you spend at least an hour a day online). After all, an anti-virus program can only help if it is...

Selecting or Highlight Text Tips

Selecting Text on the web or with your word processor: Double click on a word to select it Click and drag in the margin of your word processor to select entire lines of text If you have text that you need to select that spans multiple pages, then Click once where you want to start selecting Hold the shift key down and click your mouse after the last word you want to select. ...

Re-installing a troublesome program

First step; backup any user files that you have created in the program. Second; properly uninstall the program by either using its uninstall or remove option in the Programs menu OR using Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. When finished, restart your computer (Start –> Shut Down, Restart) Next, reinstall the program with one small change: When the setup screen comes to the destination directory (something...

Properly Uninstall programs

Deleting files on your computer can become a harrowing experience if you accidentally delete a file vital to your computers health. This week I will outline two ways to delete programs from your computer and a safe method of deleting individual files. Removing Unwanted Programs Method One 1. Click on Start 2. Click on Programs 3. Find the application?s folder in the list 4. Inside the applications folder, look for...

Print your Word document on one page

If you have a letter or some other document you typed in Microsoft Word 97 or 2000, and you want to print it on a single page then this tip will save you some time and frustration. Before I discovered this feature, I would adjust the margins, shrink the font and make other formatting changes to make my letters fit on one page. Thankfully, one of the more useful additions to Word 97 and Word 2000 is the ability to shrink a...

Microsoft Word Users: Learn to Turn Off the Squigg...

If you have ever used Microsoft Word, you are familiar with the little red and green squiggles that crop under your words. The red squiggle represents a misspelled word and the green arrow represents a grammatical error of some kind. The purpose of these lines are to call attention to your miscues. In my opinion, they break up the flow of your thoughts as you type. I prefer getting my thoughts on paper (or the screen) and...

Mailing Labels

Since you are likely to be sending out some sort of Christmas/holiday cards soon, I thought you might appreciate some advice on creating mailing labels. First, if you have a copy of Microsoft Works or almost any card publishing program, you have the ability to create an ‘electronic address book’ and produce labels. Check out the help sections of these programs to learn how. I like the Microsoft Works approach...

High Tech DVD Rental

Do you like convenience? Do you like shopping in your pajamas? Do you enjoy renting movies? Do you forget which movies you want to rent? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then online DVD rental services may be a great fit for you. My family has been using Netflix online rental service for more than two years now and enjoy it immensely. For less than $18 month, Netflix sends us three DVD’s at...

Give Your Digital Pictures an Artistic Flair

Whether you use a digital camera, scanner, get your film developed on disk, or just collect digital photos from your friends and family via email, learning to work with and edit your photo’s with your computer is great fun. One of my favorite (and easy) tricks to do with digital photos is convert them to black and white. Black and white photos offer a unique perspective and effect to almost any photo but work...

Disable or Change Clippy

Who is ‘Clippy’? He’s the little paper clip guy that pops up in Microsoft Word, Excel or any other Microsoft Office program in their 97 and 2000 versions. In the computer world, he appears to be like the Dallas Cowboys…people either love him or hate him. If you are on the dislike side of the fence, follow this procedure to disable him once and for all: 1. RIGHT Click on Clippy 2. Click on Options...

Customize Office Toolbars

Starting with Microsoft Office 2000 and the XP version afterward, software engineers in Redmond decided that showing an entire menu in Word, Excel or any of the Office programs would confuse software users. Instead of showing the entire menu when clicking on File, Edit, Format, etc, from the menus, we are presented with an abbreviated menu showing only two or three options. In order to view the entire menu, we can either wait...

Create a Watermark in Microsoft Word

Believe it or not, the post office is capable of mailing a real letter! Letter writing in this era of email is slowly becoming a lost art. However, if you had some nice stationery to write on, you might be more willing to write letters. Even if you want to ‘write’ your letter on your computer, learning how to do so with some nice self-designed stationery would be nice. Watermarks are the very lightly printed...

Become an (Word) Artist

Microsoft programmers provided users of their products a fun little tool called WordArt. WordArt transforms your text into…well, works of art. If you use Microsoft Publisher, Word, PowerPoint, or even Excel and need to spruce up a document, learn to use WordArt. The headline on today’s tip is an example of WordArt. WordArt can be used as headlines in newsletters or headings for a chart in Excel and of course in...