If I could impart one aspect of my computer knowledge to everyone who uses a computer, it would be the ability to understand file management.
File management, in the computer world, means how information (files) are stored and utilized on a computer system. Understanding file management, means understanding:
I fielded a call from a client today who wanted to know how to transfer a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) form he received via email to Microsoft Word so he could fill it out using his computer, save it, then email it back. My short answer was that he couldn’t do it.
Technically, it can be done through a series of computer hocus-pocus, Jedi mind tricks, a great deal of knowledge about the Windows clipboard, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word and a lot of time. Knowing that this client didn’t have these tools at his disposal, I elected to tell him that it couldn’t be done.
Adobe Acrobat forms (PDF files) are not easy to edit or annotate because the purpose of a PDF is to preserve the formatting and integrity of the original document. Some PDF form designers can make their forms fillable using our computers, if they choose to do so. For example, many government sites like the IRS have forms that can be downloaded and printed or filled out right from our computers. Again, these forms are designed this way and not all PDF forms can be filled in via computer.
It bothered me all day that I still didn’t know of a better solution for this common question; how to fill in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) form on the computer. I did some research tonight and found that our new favorite PDF reader (Foxit Reader) has this capability built-in (see illustration). However, the free version will let you fill it in, but if you save, print, or email the filled in form, it will have some verbiage along with it stating that the feature is a pay feature. If you pay Foxit $40, you can use the feature and not have the trial verbage printed on your form. If you need to fill out a lot of PDF forms, this looks to be a great solution.
I write and talk about Web 2.0 all the time and lo-and-behold there is a
Today, I helped my customer who I installed Ubuntu for almost four months ago. “It has been working great so far”, he informed me. We mainly worked on fine tuning some aspects of the desktop and panels (Ubuntu toolbars). He also wanted to use a calendar, but didn’t know how to approach the included Evolution program which is similar to Microsoft Outlook. However, as I pointed out last summer during my “14 days with Ubuntu”, I like the direction Evolution is heading, but it is far from polished.
Although Evolution comes with Ubuntu automatically, I still recommend using
Lately, more than a few people have had trouble with missing file names in the thumbnail view of some of their folders. It isn’t entirely apparent why this happens, but fortunately the cure is pretty simple. If you are one of the poor souls who happens to be missing their file names, follow these steps:
You should now see thumbnails with file names under them.
I’m late in writing my daily Shotgun report because I have four computers sitting in my office in various forms of failure. Fortunately, at some expense to the owners, I was able to extract some valuable data from two of the machines. The other two machines didn’t fair as well and nothing was salvageable.
Today’s lesson? BACKUP!!!!!!!
I just searched HelpMeRick.com and found no less than 15 articles and tips directly related to
We would love to triple, quadruple or quintuple our traffic to HelpMeRick.com. I think we can do it if we can get some honest feedback from you, our regular site visitors.
Please leave comments below this story to tell us what you like and don’t like about HelpMeRick.com And more importantly, we want to know what it would take to get you to visit our site every single day to see the new content we post or use it as a reference for people you might help with their computers.
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We were pleased to run into my favorite Web 2.0 app representatives in the hall at CES, Zoho! Zoho offers a complete online office experience for no cost. Zoho applications can be accessed any time, any where with any computer and a web browser. How can they offer such a great product for no cost? I asked them that very question… Read More »Zoho at CES
Software upgrades can cost you much more than they help you. Very few computer users need to upgrade any software, except for daily updates for security software.
Today, I helped a couple who became frustrated after updating from AOL 9.0 to 9.1. They relayed to me that they went ahead with the upgrade because of the promise that AOL would be easier and faster with the upgrade. After the upgrade, AOL changed their Internet Explorer and Firefox home pages, made getting to email more time consuming, and even lost some of their bookmarks.
It didn’t take long to get them back to their familiar 9.0, but they were extremely frustrated by the changes made to their system.
Moral of the story: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it nor upgrade it.
Ahh, the power of the Internet. I make no secret of the fact that I love to cook. I’m not much of a baker, but I’m always in search of the best oatmeal-raisin cookie, my favorite. Last weekend, I did simple Google search for “best whole wheat oatmeal raisin cookie”.
After sifting through about ten different recipes, I tried three of them. All were good, but the one I’m linking here is from a site I never heard of called Recipezaar. It is hands down the best oatmeal-raisin cookie I’ve ever eaten.
I added a little nutmeg to the recipe and some ginger, plus I cut back a little on the brown sugar and added a little more non-sweetened apple sauce. One thing to keep in mind is that the recipe says you will get 48 cookies, but it actually yields just about 20 cookies.
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
Click on File —> Print