Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » toolbar

How to adjust toolbars in Internet Explorer – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:03:09 +0000

I ran across a question today that could not be explained verbally or in writing. It is so visual, that a video was warranted. The question was how to adjust or restore the default toolbars in Internet Explorer. Here’s a 49 second video demonstrating the skills you need to get this done. Take a look! Related [...]

Lost Outlook Express toolbar – Video Tip

Rick — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:56:56 +0000

I'm not sure why, but I've seen a rash of lost toolbars in Outlook Express and Windows Mail. If you lost your main toolbar with reply, print, new message, etc and you need to know how to get it back, watch this video. If you know other people with this infliction, please pass the video on to them.

1-click access to your favorite websites – Video Tip

Rick — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:30:16 +0000

Please DO NOT use the address bar as a repository to return to sites you use all the time...eventually they will get lost. The address bar history maintains a small amount of your recently visited site and can easily be wiped out via an update or disk cleaning and maintenance tools. Instead, use the Favorites (Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Firefox and every other browser). Favorites/Bookmarks are designed to save and give you quick access to your most used sites and sites you just want to keep track of for later use. Also, you can back them up easily. If you are like me, you visit a handful of web sites every single day and sometimes multiple times per day. Having bookmarks to these sites works fine, but that requires a minimum of three clicks to reach your favorite sites. In this video, I describe how to get 1-click access to your favorites using the extremely underutilized Links toolbar (Internet Explorer) and the Bookmarks toolbar (Mozilla Firefox). This tip requires no downloading and no installation of extra software. Everything is built-in to the browser and available to you right now. So watch the video and learn how to take charge of these extremely useful tools you never knew how to use!

Change your Bullets – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:24:11 +0000

Bullets, in Microsoft Word and other word processors, allow users to bring attention to a list of items as seen here:

Bullets are fun
Bullets are customizable
Bullets make documents easier to read

Unlike my boring 'dot' bullets above, you can use this week's tip to customize your Microsoft Word bullets to suit your style and document's purpose.

First, to create a bulleted list follow these steps:

Searching within a Web page – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:09:07 +0000

This tip falls in the category of "wow, that's easy to do, I wish I would have known about it long ago!"

When you are on a particularly long web page and need to find a term or phrase, click on Edit from your menus, then Find (or Find in page on some browsers). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + F. You will be presented with a small window that allows you to enter a word or phrase and then the computer will look for that word on the page and bring you right to it.

As with many other features, Mozilla Firefox's implementation of this feature is superior to all other browsers, as it gives you helpful extras like find the next or previous occurrence of the word or phrase you are looking for and even has an option to highlight all the occurrences on the page. (See the accompanying picture).

This tip is especially helpful for genealogy researchers. Sometimes your eyes can become crossed looking for a surname in a sea of text. Use the find function instead and cut your work and eye strain in half!

If you need to look for the same term again on the same page, you will notice that the function gives you the option to find again without retyping.

This type of search works best with single words, but you can experiment with phrases as well. You can also use the Find function in Word Processing documents, email, spreadsheets, and PDF files as well. Watch the short video below to see this tip in action in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

RocketDock for Windows XP and Vista – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:27:33 +0000

Windows Vista stripped out the ability to make an easy quick access toolbar to your most used files and programs. I posted a video last year on how you can make such a toolbar, but it certainly isn't as straight forward as it was in XP.

In my quest to find an easier way, I ran across two program, RocketDock and ObjectDock. I tried them both out and ended up liking the RocketDock a little better. Both are free and work well, and for $20 you can get even more features for ObjectDock.

If you like easy, quick access to your most frequently used programs and files, give RocketDock a try.

Solution for computer users who can’t print from Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7)

Rick — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:00:21 +0000

Since I use Firefox exclusively for my browsing, I haven't seen this problem yet, but today I ran into a computer that could print from anywhere but Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). Turns out that, in her case, the upgrade to AVG 8.0 caused the problem. A standard installation of AVG 8 installs a security toolbar in Firefox, if you use it, or Internet Explorer 7. The toolbar is meant to help users from clicking on potentially harmful web links. However, the toolbar, like most toolbars, slows down browsing speeds and in the case of Internet Explorer 7 with Windows Vista, it also disables the ability to print!

How to add the print and other buttons to Firefox toolbar – Video Tip

Rick — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:53:41 +0000

We love the Mozilla Firefox browser, but out-of-the-box it doesn't show the print button. Also, some people like to have the Bookmark and History buttons available as well. This tip shows you how to add any or all of these buttons as well as others you might want.

In Firefox, RIGHT click on a blank part of the toolbar (or Click View --> Toolbars --> Customize from the menus)
Click and drag the buttons you want to the toolbar (you can also drag buttons you don't need back into the customize box to delete them)
Click Done

To see this tip in action, watch the short demo below!

Selecting Text and Files – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:44:46 +0000

Here are some techniques for making the selection of files and text easier and more efficient for you as you work with your computer. This tip also includes a narrated video to further demonstrate these important skills.

Double click on a word to select it
Click and drag in the margin of your word processor to select entire line(s) of text
Push the Ctrl+A key on your keyboard to select all text in a document
Text that spans multiple pages: Click once where you want to start selecting, scroll to the end of the text and then hold the Shift key down and Click

3 Important Features of HelpMeRick.com – Video Tip

Rick — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:35:58 +0000

We launched this new version of HelpMeRick.com almost two years ago. In addition to the more consistent design, easier management for us, awesome search capabilities and a host of other features that work great, there are three features that we hope you all use and use often.

Feature 1 - Read More

Remember to click the "Read more" link at the bottom of many of our front page stories. If you aren't clicking that link, not only are you missing the meat of the article, but you are also missing the ability to use the next two features.

Feature 2 - Printer Friendly

Clicking this link pulls up a new web page showing only our logo and the article you were reading in a format that will fit on your printed page without any of the sidebar information on our site. It's fast and works much better than just printing from within the site.

Feature 3 - Stumble

Adam and I love to use the "Stumble Upon" toolbar. Seeing that someone developed this wonderful tool for our content management system, we installed it. When you click "Stumble" at the bottom of any of our tips or entries, you will be instantly transported to a random tip or entry on our site. Give it a try...not only is it fun, but you just might learn something along the way.

To see these features in action, watch the short 2 minute video below: