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Computer Tips

When to use a CD for backup

Our regular listeners hear us talk about this subject often, but it bears repeating as much as we can talk about it for your data's safety and your sanity. Backing up to CD's is a multi-step process and all the steps need to be followed for it to go right.

CD's work great for archiving data that won't change. This includes pictures, music, your finished novel, etc. CD's should only be burned ONE time. CD-R's have the capability of being written to many times, but this also increases the likelihood of problems with the CD. Burn them once and store them in a safe place.

Using Picasa to make a CD of your favorite pictures – Video Tip

Lately I have had several people ask me how to make a CD from only certain pictures from several folders. Here is a short video explaining how it's done.

The background music came out pretty bad, but the rest of the video should run OK. (click "read more if the video isn't already showing)

Create a docked Quick Launch bar in Windows Vista – Video Tip

One of my favorite tips to teach people is the use of the Quick Launch bar (click here for the tip for all other versions of Windows) for always having your most commonly needed files or programs at your ready. Microsoft made the process harder to accomplish in the new Vista, but it can still be done. Here's how:

  1. RIGHT Click on a blank part of your desktop.
  2. Click New —> Folder
  3. Push Enter on your keyboard.
  4. Carefully drag the new folder to either the top or sides of your screen. Once at the edge, let go of the mouse and your new toolbar will appear.
  5. RIGHT click on the new toolbar
  6. Uncheck the "Show title" option
  7. RIGHT click on the new toolbar
  8. Click Toolbars from the menu
  9. Click Quick Launch
  10. Now you can delete the new folder from your desktop.

Watch the video below to

Format Painter – Video Tip

I demonstrated today's tip in Microsoft Word, but it also works in all the Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook, etc), WordPerfect, OpenOffice and others.

The tip is simple in its performance and gargantuan in its function. Format Painter copies formatting from one location and applies it to another. In the video example below, I formatted one line of text to have a particular look and it took 31 clicks of the mouse. Using Format Painter, I copied the look of that text to some plain text in just three steps. This technique comes in handy when formatting longer documents, spreadsheets, newsletters, etc and can save you a boat-load of time. Here's how to do it:

  1. Highlight the text that has already been formatted to your liking using your mouse.
  2. Click the Format Painter button. format painter button
  3. Highlight the text you want to apply the formatting too.

That's it!

Tip Within a Tip:

If you DOUBLE-CLICK the Format Painter button, you can apply the formatting changes to different parts of your document over and over until you unclick the Format Painter button.

Fill in Forms Quickly – Video Tip

Are you tired of filling out forms using your keyboard and mouse?

To quickly move from field-to-field (box-to-box) while filling out a form, use the TAB key on your keyboard. For example; after you fill in your name, to move the cursor from the name field to the address field, simply push the TAB key on your keyboard.

Some of you may be aware of that keyboard trick, but this next one is a doozie!

OK, so you've tabbed from Name to Address to City and now you are in the State field that has one of those drop down lists to choose the proper answer. Normally, I would reach for the mouse, Click on the field, then scroll through the list and Click on the proper state. It works, but takes extra time.

Alphabetize your Favorites (or Bookmarks)

Sort menus alphabeticallyThis question came up a couple of times on the show on Saturday and numerous times recently via email; How do I alphabetize my favorites or bookmarks?

Internet Explorer

  1. Click Favorites from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the favorites list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Click Bookmarks from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the bookmarks list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

That's it! You can do that as often as you need to keep your lists in order. Incidentally, you can apply this same technique to your programs menu…

Temporary Internet Files – Don’t let them stack up

Cleaning out temporary files on our computers (see the archives for Disk Cleanup) remains an extremely important step in keeping them running clean and error free. Programs and Windows create temporary files, when needed, to perform certain functions. The Internet uses temporary files to store cookies, and recently visited web sites and their graphics.

Temporary Internet files serve a useful function when you visit web sites on a regular basis. By storing the graphics and some of the text, our browser doesn't have to re-download the files, thus the page loads faster. On the other hand, these files are extremely small and too many of them on our computer (10's of thousands in some cases) can cause a sever performance drop in our computers.

Today I found a print screen utility that I had forgotten about….

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away computer users used to be able to push a single button on their keyboards and get a printout of whatever was displayed on the screen. When Windows took over computers, this function was lost. Pushing the Print Screen key on keyboards did nothing…seemingly. It actually does something, but I wrote a tip about what it does many years ago (click here to read it again…maybe for the first time) .

Today, I want to share with you a discovery I made while helping a customer. I had helped her setup her new computer a few years ago and she wanted a print screen utility…that was free. After some searching and experimenting, I came across a neat little utility called PrintDesktop (click here to download) . After I installed it for her, I completely forgot about the little gem…until today.

Can’t read forwarded message attachments in Outlook

One of our callers today, Jeff, couldn't get forwarded emails to open if they were attachments. We believe this method may work to rectify the situation:

Use the following steps to use the Clear Cache button in Outlook:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab.
2. Click Advanced Options.
3. In the Advanced Options box, click Custom Forms.
4. In the Custom Forms box, click Manage Forms.
5. In the Forms Manager box, click Clear Cache.