I am resurrecting this great tip from my archives. This tip first appeared about four years ago on the show and then the web site. I wanted to share it again because of our new listeners and the extreme usefulness of the tip.
Printing information from the web can sometimes be frustrating. A long web page yields reams of paper when you only wanted a couple of pages. Read on to learn how to print only the pages you want!
Firefox/Internet Explorer/AOL
Highlight the part of the page you want to print with your mouse
The ability to print out the contents of a folder (directory) on your computer does not exist in Windows.
“Why would I need to print out a list of what is in my folders?”, you ask. A couple of reasons actually; 1) it can serve as a quick glance reference to your computer’s contents and 2) you might want to print a copy of file names that you backed up.
Thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of programmers everywhere, you can print out those folders’ contents. One such program is called Folder Print 3. It is a FREE utility that you can download and install to satisfy this need.
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.
As promised, here is the technique for Outlook Express and AOL users:
Outlook Express Users
1. Start Outlook Express
2. Click on Tools from the menus
3. Click on Address Book
4. In the address book window, click on File from the menus, then Print
5. The print window gives you “style” options. Choose Business card for simplicity and to save paper
AOL Users
Use the “Print” option in your address book and choose from a single user, entire address book and choose whether you want all details for just essential information…choose the latter.
Many people would like to print their address books as a backup. However, a better backup is to save your address book periodically on floppy disk.
Netscape Users
1. Click on Communicator from the menus, click on Address Book.
2. Click on the File menu
3. Click on Export
4. Click in the “save in” box and choose Desktop
5. Name the file address
6. Click in the “save as type” box and choose tab delimited
7. Click on Save
8. Close the address book
9. Click on Communicator from the menus, click on Navigator
10. Click on File from the menus
11. Click on “Open 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 document to one page automatically. Here’s how.
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1. Type and edit your document as normal
2. Click on File, then Print Preview
3. Click on the “shrink to fit” icon
