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Macintosh

Enable dictation for FREE with new Apple OSX Mountain Lion and later – Video Tip

Since I bought my first computer, I have been borderline obsessed with voice recognition, using your voice to input text instead of the keyboard. With the release of the newest version of the Apple operating system for their computers, dubbed Mountain Lion or Mac OSX 10.8 (and later), that function is now a standard feature of the system. It does… Read More »Enable dictation for FREE with new Apple OSX Mountain Lion and later – Video Tip

Create Labels Online – Video Tip

Avery’s Design & Print labels is a fantastic resource to create labels from your computer with nothing to buy except the labels!  Avery developed this free service so that you can create quick, clean and flexible labels. The service is free and works inside your browser. Since it is a Web 2.0 application (works in your web browser), any computer… Read More »Create Labels Online – Video Tip

World Backup Day 2014

The last few years since this day came into existence, I found out about it AFTER the day passed. This year, however, I found out the date BEFORE so I can celebrate it with you. Any long time visitor to HelpMeRick.com knows that I frequently get on my backup soap box and answer many questions about backup on my radio… Read More »World Backup Day 2014

Control + F

One of my daily visits brought me to a growing business today. As I waited to work on one of the employee's computers, I noticed that she spent a good 10-15 seconds scrolling through a medium size spreadsheet looking for a particular entry. I then asked if I could give her a quick tip on how to search through her spreadsheet faster using Ctrl+F on her keyboard. She said, "sure".

When you push Ctrl+F in a spreadsheet, a "Find" window appears. Type part or all of a word that you are looking for (or numeral) and press Enter and BAM the entry appears instantly. The tip is quick, accurate, and extremely helpful.

Customizing Apple’s Mac OSX Finder Tool – Video Tip

Since I’ve been featuring tips on file management this week, I thought I would demonstrate how to work with and customize the Mac OSX file management tool known as Finder. The finder is quite powerful as is, but sometimes having quicker access to tools you use often is helpful. Watch this short video to learn how to do just that.

Handspring Visor phone

Re-thinking my mobile tech

Right now, I carry an iPhone, an Asus EeePC netbook (running Ubuntu 10.04 NBR) on a daily work day basis. When I travel, I carry the iPhone and usually the EeePC. I also own a 13″ Toshiba laptop that I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7, but I only use the Toshiba only for teaching and presentations.

My thought process is:

  1. Should I sell both the Toshiba and the netbook and get a thinner, lighter laptop?
  2. Just sell the netbook and stay with the Toshiba?
  3. Sell the netbook and get an iPad or one of the upcoming iPad competitors running other operating systems?
  4. Sell the Toshiba and the netbook, and get a slightly bigger netbook to replace both devices?

As a traveling tech trainer and troubleshooter, my netbook is extremely handy to have with me when Read More »Re-thinking my mobile tech

Apple Solitaire

Free Solitaire for Apple Macintosh users

After years of looking and trying different programs, I think I found a great, free program for new Apple users that will help ease the move from Windows. Yes, believe it or not, a huge stumbling block for many of my clients in making the move to Macintosh is Solitaire, Free Cell, and/or Spider Solitaire.

Prior to today, I guided folks to the web in search of a solitaire program available from Hoyle or playing online Solitaire from Yahoo and other online sites. All these ideas were not 100% satisfactory replacements for their Windows games.

Today, I discoveredRead More »Free Solitaire for Apple Macintosh users