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Print Envelopes with One Click – Video Tip

Using Microsoft Word and a little customizing of the Word toolbar, this tip will get you printing envelopes easily.

If you write business letters with the recipient’s address in the body of the message, Word will pick up the address and insert it into your envelope when you use the envelope tool. Click on the Tools menu and then Envelopes and Labels. From there, you can print your envelope and set your default return address. Experiment with your printer a little to get the direction and feed of the envelope correct to make your printing easier.

Now to get the button on your toolbar for one-click access, follow these steps for Microsoft Word versions 2003 and prior (the video shows the methodology for Word 2007 and OpenOffice Writer as well):

1. Click on Tools from the menus
2. Click on Customize
3. Click on the Commands tab
4. Click on Tools in the Categories column
5. Scroll and find the Envelopes and Labels button in the Commands column
6. Click on it and drag it out to your toolbar…you can place it anywhere you want (I put mine next to the printer button)
7. Click on close

Now anytime you need to print an envelope your button is within reach.

The short video tutorial demonstrates these steps for you in pre-Word 2007 steps, Word 2007, and OpenOffice Writer.

Tip within a tip: Use these same steps to add any button you want to the toolbar.

Is anyone out there?

There is no doubt in my mind that our site has the most relevant and easy to understand computer information for the average and beginner computer user. Unfortunately, the average computer user doesn’t know how to browse the web well and has trouble finding the information they need to know.

Search engines are confusing. Searching a web site is even more baffling. These computer users do well when they have a recipe of what to do in front of them or can watch someone else perform the steps.

Enter the above average computer user…YOU!

We desperately need your help in spreading the word about HelpMeRick.com Your neighbors look to you for help and computer advice. Your co-workers look to you when they need to find a lost file. And of course your family knows that you know the answer to their latest computer dilemma.

Unofficially, YOU provide tech support for a multitude of computer users. Those computer users you help need to be visiting HelpMeRick.com to help get answers to their questions and to improve their computer knowlege. You can help them get the computer education they need by using the thousands of answers we provide here at the site.

Send your tech support charges links via email to the exact answer to their question at HelpMeRick.com. No reason for you to have reinvent the wheel.

  • Grandma needs to know how to send an email attachment. Send her here.
  • Dan across the hall from you at the office would like to know how to organize his photos easier and then email them. Send him here and here.
  • Your neighbor, McElroy, is supplying free Internet to the neighborhood, unintentionally of course, but can’t get his kid’s computers to print to his printer. Send him here.
  • Your sister-in-law called and said that there computer is so slow that the household is almost at full mutiny. Print out the tips found here and mail them to her because her computer is so hosed that the Internet connection is unusable.

Get the picture? Help us, help you. Help us, help your friends.

Then tell your friends to visit HelpMeRick.com often so they don’t get in these messes to begin with or can learn new skills that make them more productive computer users.

And finally, let them know that they also should send their friends, family, and co-workers to HelpMeRick.com for education and computer help. Knowledge is power, and powerful computer knowledge can be found right here.

Quad Core Processors

I setup my first Quad Core processor computer today. It wasn’t for me, unfortunately, but I was impressed with the machine. My client ordered a Dell XPS Intel Quad Core machine with 4 GB of RAM and Windows XP. It was easily the fastest computer I have seen to date. With all that RAM, a 256mb video card, and the new Intel Quad Core processor everthing literally flew on this machine. One example is Adobe Photoshop Elements version 5. On most computers with 512 to 1 GB of Ram, Elements takes between 30-60 seconds to fully load. On this mahine today, it loaded in less than 10 seconds. I was floored.

Demand compensation from Microsoft

If I was independently wealthy, I would give discounts to customers with Windows Vista. Alas, I am not independently wealthy and my business supports my family, so I charge for time I spend in a client’s office or home. One customer , today, could have saved 30-40% off their bill had they bought one of the few remaining laptops with Windows XP.

Wacom Bamboo – an excellent artist’s tool



A Wacom tablet is a tool used by artists to design work on the computer using a natural pen and paper motion.

The tablet is hard and flat and the stylus that you draw with looks like a pen. The Wacom tablet is pressure sensitive providing the ability to draw thicker or heavier lines depending on the amount of pressure that you apply while drawing.

The stylus has a pen tip end and an “eraser” end. As you draw and design you can erase your mistakes by turning the stylus over and erasing with the other end as you would with a pencil.

Wacom has recently released the Bamboo. Although cheaper than previous models, the Bamboo is everything that most artists want in a tablet.

Make Microsoft Office 2007 Play Nice – Video Tip

The release of Microsoft Office 2007 introduced us to an entire new interface and file format (thanks Microsoft). If you upgraded to Office 2007, you are creating documents in Microsoft’s new XML formats. Word documents now have the .docx extension, Excel documents have a .xlsx extension, PowerPoint has the .pptx extension…well, you get the picture. This is all fine and dandy if everyone you know also use the 2007 version of Office, but unfortunately that is not the case. If you want to email documents back and forth, you need to save those documents in the more compatible formats.

Today’s video tip shows you how to do that.

If you are an Office 2003 version or earlier, you will need to download this massive 28 megabyte “Compatibility Pack” from Microsoft in order to be able to read documents created in 2007. Better yet, send this tip to those folks so they can make things easier on themselves and everyone else.

Ubuntu – Day 14 – Final Report

 
Ubuntu Header graphic

I can’t believe it has been two weeks already that I’ve used Ubuntu Linux exclusively. If I had to sum up the experience in one word, that word would be “satisfying.” And my regular readers/listeners know that I can’t sum anything up in one word, so I will use this format to provide a complete synopsis of my Ubuntu thoughts.

Ubuntu – Day 11

We are continuing to have problems with sending the newsletter out since our web host changed what they allow us to do. Rest assured we are working diligently to find a good solution for everyone. Remember that in the interim, we post the newsletter here on the site and you can read or print it from here. Please accept our apologies while we work on this problem.

I’m using the Ubuntu version of OpenOffice to work with our newsletter database to clean it up and find a new better solution for the newsletter. The spreadsheet in OpenOffice works great, but the database is pretty pokey compared to Windows based databases like File Maker Pro and Access.

Learning a new computer

I have spent more than 10 years helping computer users get the most out of their computers. Without hesitation, I can say that the biggest obstacle any computer user encounters is change (which is precisely why I can’t figure out what Microsoft was thinking with Vista and Office
2007).