HelpMeRick.com - Computer help for beginners - Castellini on Computers » Ubuntu Tips

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

Rick — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:54:02 +0000

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 [...]

How to print labels the EASY way! – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:35:11 +0000

I know I'm late for this year's Christmas season, but you can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make next year's Christmas card mailings a breeze. Too many computer users have no idea what a database is, how to use it, and how to merge it with another program to create labels. Since printing mailing labels is only a once per year activity for many of you, learning how to do it again every single year requires too much time and frustration.

Burning CDs with Picasa for Linux

Rick — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:51:04 +0000

Unfortunately, Google has not updated Picasa for Linux in almost 18 months. However, it remains a solid product for Linux users who want to easily manage their photos. I’ve tried F-Spot, but it just doesn’t seem intuitive or robust enough for everyday use. Anyway, I was helping one of my many clients using Linux Mint [...]

Cut, Copy and Paste! – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:10:06 +0000

These techniques should be standard tools for any computer user. However, many computer users find these techniques elusive.

The ability to move (cut) or copy information from one computer program to another sets you free to do so much more with your computer. Cut, Copy and Paste function by temporarily storing the information, cut or copied, into a temporary holding spot of memory known as the clipboard (Click here for the Webopedia definition).

The information held in the clipboard stays there and is available to Paste until either the computer is restarted or another item is cut or copied. Make special note of this fact when using the "Cut" command, because if you cut or copy another item before pasting the first item, the first one is lost.

Before choosing Cut or Copy, the computer needs to know what you want to cut or copy. This is done by using the mouse to

Ubuntu 10.04 released tomorrow, manual today

Rick — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:48:42 +0000

Microsoft released Windows Vista a little over three years ago, and it hit the market (and customers) like a rock right between the eyes. Hardware configurations were too underpowered, hardware support was horrid, and tons of third party software did not work with it (including some of Microsoft’s own). Supporting this abomination was even harder. [...]

New Ubuntu Software Center – Video Tip

Rick — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:18:54 +0000

Ubuntu released their newest version this past October. In addition to cleaning up the code and making it boot faster, look better, and run faster, I think one of the nicest additions (particularly for beginners) is the Ubuntu Software Center. This tool allows users to easily search for and install programs and utilities with just [...]

Set Firefox to recognize web mail for mailto links – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:27:25 +0000

If you use a web based email system like Gmail, HotMail, or Yahoo email or any derivative of these, you more than likely run into occasions where you want to email someone from a web site. However, when you click the link (known as a mailto link), you get presented with an email system you [...]

How to set Puppy Linux to double-click instead of single click

Rick — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:32:22 +0000

I use Puppy Linux to troubleshoot computers and backup data from dead hard drives. However, by default, the system automatically opens a file or folder when it is clicked just one time. For me, it seriously slows down my work. I finally learned how to set Puppy Linux to double-click instead of single click for [...]

Make reading the web easier than ever – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:33:54 +0000

Although we now have 19" and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today's monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users. Never fear. Using this week's tip, you can easily and quickly enlarge the text of any web page using only your keyboard and mouse. This tip will work with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc) and any operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X). All you need is a mouse with a scroll wheel and your keyboard. This tip can be performed without the mouse as well, but I'll touch on that later. First, when you are reading a web site, particularly news web sites and blog type sites like mine, look for an indication of a printer friendly page. Often designated as Printer Friendly, Print this article, or simply Print, clicking this link brings up a version of the article you are reading that is much less busy and cleaner than how the article presents on the web page itself. This alone may make enough difference for readability. However, you can quickly increase the size of the text you are reading by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and spinning your mouse scroll wheel away from your body (towards the computer monitor). Amazing, no? Holding down the Ctrl key and spinning towards your body (away from the monitor) will shrink the text again. The same result can be achieved by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the "+" or "-" keys as well. I think the mouse method is a little more intuitive and elegant. Watch the short video below to see this tip in action and see the web as never before!

Portable Ubuntu lets you try out Ubuntu Linux

Rick — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:37:59 +0000

For a little over two years, I have been yammering on about Linux and Ubuntu. To get started using it, you need to either order a free Linux CD from the distribution of your choice or download a copy then learn how to burn a bootable CD from it. For many, this just isn’t going [...]