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Internet Tips

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

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.

  1. In Firefox, RIGHT click on a blank part of the toolbar (or Click View –> Toolbars –> Customize from the menus)
  2. 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)
  3. Click Done

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

Password Tips

Creating a Better Password:

Mix it up – use number and letters in both upper and lower case

Spell words that you are familiar with such as p455w0rD (see how it kind of spells “password”)

Never use the word “password” as your password.

Creating that Secret Question:

Many services ask you to create a secret question incase you forget your password. This allows them to ask you for the answer to verify that you are who you say you are.

Choose a secret question that is true now and will be true five years from now – not, “what is your favorite movie?” or “what is your pet’s name?”

Choose a question that is very specific – not “Where did you meet your spouse?”

Zoho Sheet – Video Tip

Last week, I gave you a short video tour of Zoho.com’s Writer word processing application. This week the tour continues with the Sheet program (spreadsheet) from Zoho. Like the word processor program, Sheet offers all of the features that 90% of spreadsheet users need or use, including:

  • Mulitple sheets (workbooks)
  • Charting
  • Advanced calculations
  • Auto formatting
  • Link external data
  • Online collaboration
  • and much more.

Watch the short video below to see how far online applications from Zoho.com can take you.

Are you connected to your wi-fi signal?

One of my client’s today had a problem with slow and frequent disconnects with her wireless Internet (wi-fi) in her home. Upon my investigation, I discovered that her computer had hooked onto a neighbor’s weak, unsecured signal and was ignoring hers. After connecting to her signal, the wireless was strong and didn’t disconnect.

To make sure that you are connected to the wireless signal you think you are:

Zoho Writer – Video Tip

We have written quite a bit about Web 2.0 here at HelpMeRick.com and this week I decided to start a mini-series featuring my favorite Web 2.0 web site, Zoho. Zoho offers an online set of productivity tools unequaled anywhere else on the web. Many of the tools are offered at no cost and cover everything from word processing to project management.

In this first installment, I take you on a short tour of the Zoho word processor known as Writer. Writer offers all the tools that almost anyone needs in a word processor with the convenience of being available on any computer using any operating system or browser and at no cost to the user. Some of Writer’s features include:

  • Secure access to your documents from anywhere
  • Ability to export documents as PDF, Word, RTF and other formats
  • Collaboration tools for allowing others to work on your documents from any location
  • One of the best Thesaraus applications I’ve seen
  • Footnotes, headers, footers
  • Tables
  • Text styling
  • Open multiple documents at the same time
  • And any number of features you are used to using in a word processor

Watch this short tour of Zoho Writer to learn more and see it in action. 

Print just what you want…

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

  1. Highlight the part of the page you want to print with your mouse

  2. Click on File —> Print

What everyone ought to know about downloading security software

Already this week, I ran into five different customers who were bitten by security software impostors. Since security problems are rampant on Windows’ computers, many degenerate computer programmers and sheisters have come up with spyware and virus spreading software disguised as security software. And the worst part is that unsuspecting computer users know the name of good, legitimate software and these impostors sound correct to them so they download and install the software.

Another parental reminder

We mention this tip as often as possible on our show, but I felt it was necessary to bring it to the attention of our web visitors again: Parents, please install and use only Mozilla Firefox for your web browser. Kids, especially teens, plus Internet browsing with Internet Explorer spells disaster.

Too many Internet degenerates target their spyware and virus spreading programs at teens and teen related web sites. Also, teens tend to be drawn to bogus warnings, the lure of free ring tones or electronics, and online games. The technologies that allow these computer anchors to take root in your system simply don’t exist in Mozilla Firefox therefore providing you a great extra wall of Internet security.

Don’t run more than one antivirus program

I ran across too many computers this week that had multiple anti-virus programs installed. My advice has always been and still is that you should only be running one anti-virus product at a time. Multiple anti-spyware products are ok, and sometimes necessary, but running multiple anti-virus products will drastically slow down your computer and cause many more problems than they solve.

My top 3 anti-virus products as of today are:

1. AVG
2. Avast
3. Trend Micro (antivirus only, not the security suite)

Smoother Internet Audio and Video – Video Tip

The Internet is firmly a multimedia haven now. Video and audio make the Internet a much richer experience for everyone…providing you have a fast Internet connection OR learn the technique I describe in today’s tip.

When it comes to online audio and video, you need to know about streaming. Without a knowledge of streaming, you will continue to have choppy audio, stop and start video and overall be frustrated. Streaming means that a little of the audio and/or video is fed to us at a time.

Because audio and video make huge file sizes (10-20X that of photos), they cannot be sent via the Internet in one chunk. Instead, they are broken down into smaller pieces and fed down the Internet pipeline little pieces at a time (streaming). If our Internet connection can’t decode and play the little pieces of information fast enough, we interpret that as slow, jerky, choppy, and or stuttery (stuttering) audio and video.

The key to correcting this lies in this week’s video tip. You can thank me by leaving a nice comment or better yet, hit the donate button on our site. Either way, you WILL enjoy audio and video on the web more after learning this little trick.