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
The title bar is the long (usually blue) bar at the top of each program. The title bar contains three familiar buttons on the right; the minimize button (little bar), the maximize or resize button (middle button) and the often used "X" button to close a program.
On the left side of the title bar is a small icon in the far left corner that matches that of the program. The name of the current file (or web page on the web), and the name of the program also reside on the left side of the title bar. And even though one half to two-thirds of the bar is blank, it also has its functions.
Clicking on the little icon in the far left (once) will produce a menu that allows you to minimize, move, resize, maximize or close the window. This comes in handy when a window is shoved to one side and the right hand buttons are not visible. Double-clicking on the little icon closes the window/program.
Use the blank part of the title bar to move and position the window. This only works if the window is in the less than maximum position. Just click and drag the title bar and the whole window follows. This technique is helpful if you need to position two windows for dragging and dropping files. Also, double-clicking your title bar will automatically maximize the window.
Remember to use the minimize button to ‘shrink’ the window to an icon on your desktop so that you can access your desktop or a window/program behind the current window. This keeps the program running and to restore it back to the original position, simple click on it one time from the task bar.
The middle button on the right side of a title bar
changes between the maximize button (one square) and the restore button (two overlapping squares). The maximize button will fill the entire screen with the program window. The restore button makes the program windows less than maximum.
You many not necessarily use all these techniques every day, but keep them in mind and they will come in handy from time-to-time.
Watch the short 3 minute video below for a good visual tour of how these functions work.
Although we now have 19″ and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today’s monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users.
Never fear. Using this week’s tip, you can easily and quickly enlarge the text of any web page using only your keyboard and mouse. This tip will work with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc) and any operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X).
All you need is a mouse with a scroll wheel and your keyboard. This tip can be performed without the mouse as well, but I’ll touch on that later. First, when you are reading a web site, particularly news web sites and blog type sites like mine, look for an indication of a printer friendly page. Often designated as Printer Friendly, Print this article, or simply Print, clicking this link brings up a version of the article you are reading that is much less busy and cleaner than how the article presents on the web page itself. This alone may make enough difference for readability.
However, you can quickly increase the size of the text you are reading by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and spinning your mouse scroll wheel away from your body (towards the computer monitor). Amazing, no? Holding down the Ctrl key and spinning towards your body (away from the monitor) will shrink the text again.
The same result can be achieved by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the “+” or “-” keys as well. I think the mouse method is a little more intuitive and elegant.
Watch the short video below to see this tip in action and see the web as never before!
Many years ago, I shared this tip with you on how to measure the distance you may have driven, walked, biked or ran. It is still an applicable, fun and helpful tip to use and enjoy. I only brought up that older tip because it dovetails into today’s tip which demonstrates how to use the new and extremely useful measuring… Read More »How to use the Google Maps measuring tool – Video Tip
I know I’m late for this year’s Christmas season, but you can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make next year’s Christmas card mailings a breeze.
Too many computer users have no idea what a database is, how to use it, and how to merge it with another program to create labels. Since printing mailing labels is only a once per year activity for many of you, learning how to do it again every single year requires too much time and frustration.
Thanks to long time listener and web visitor, Daniel, for suggesting this week’s tip. I have been using this technique for more than ten years, but in order to learn it, you really must see it in action. Thus, it was a natural for our Video Tips, which are now almost 18 months old!
For Ubuntu and Windows users, you can quickly switch between open programs by pushing Alt+Tab on your keyboard. Macintosh users have a key called the “Command” key on their keyboards. By holding down the Command+Tab key, Mac users can switch between their open programs.
Why use the keyboard instead of your mouse? Time. I didn’t run any official tests, but I’m willing to bet that it takes at least three times longer to look at your task bar or dock (how many of you know what that is?), hunt for the application you need to switch to, then click on that program than it does to use the Alt+Tab or Command(Apple key)+Tab technique.
I know this doesn’t make much sense reading it, so click the play button on the video below and watch it in action! I show the Windows technique first, Ubuntu second, and end with the Macintosh tip. All told it’s about 2.5 minutes…2.5 minutes that WILL change your computing life. Pass this tip on to ALL of your computer buddies.
In January, this web site and my business will turn 13 years old. In that time, I have worked on thousands of computers ranging from the oldest DOS machines to the newest gaming and Mac monsters. My youngest client in that time has been 5 years old and my oldest was a 94 year old author writing a book for the first time on a PC. When your work in any field for a certain period of time, you start to spot patterns and consistencies.
After incubating the idea in my head for about six months, I want to share with you (and anyone you forward this article to) my opinion of how to use computer technology with the bare minimum of issues and cash. The following would be my advice to a computer user who truly wanted to follow my advice, no questions asked, based on my knowledge and experience.
Unfortunately, Google has not updated Picasa for Linux in almost 18 months. However, it remains a solid product for Linux users who want to easily manage their photos. I’ve tried F-Spot, but it just doesn’t seem intuitive or robust enough for everyday use. Anyway, I was helping one of my many clients using Linux Mint as their only operating system,… Read More »Burning CDs with Picasa for Linux
I repurposed my EeePC Netbook for my nephew with a copy of Qimo Linux for kids and it works great. Not only does my nephew now have a computer that is secure & virtually trouble-free, but it also comes packed with great learning resources & games. It also allowed me to reduce my computers by one. I now carry my… Read More »Downsizing my tech
Microsoft released Windows Vista a little over three years ago, and it hit the market (and customers) like a rock right between the eyes. Hardware configurations were too underpowered, hardware support was horrid, and tons of third party software did not work with it (including some of Microsoft’s own).
Supporting this abomination was even harder.
Out of the clouds, however, came sunlight because being enormously frustrated with what users were stuck with, I looked into options. The best option I could come up with was Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an Open Source (click link to read definition) and free operating system. The first version I discovered in 2007 was Feisty Fawn (7.04). It impressed me immediately. It loaded fast, looked usable (simple), and didn’t try to wow you with too much fluff…it just worked, and worked well. Sure, it wasn’t as refined as Windows, but it also blew the doors off of Windows in performance andRead More »Ubuntu 10.04 released tomorrow, manual today