Questions about converting to Firefox, malfunctioning keyboards, Wordpress consulting, Norton 360 problems, video editing, the Magic Jack phone, and more are brought to you by Dixie, Kitty, Jill, Anne, Diane, Elaine, Amber, Norma, Rich and Mike! Have a look!!
Bullets, in Microsoft Word and other word processors, allow users to bring attention to a list of items as seen here:
Unlike my boring ‘dot’ bullets above, you can use this week’s tip to customize your Microsoft Word bullets to suit your style and document’s purpose.
First, to create a bulleted list follow these steps:
What a week! For some reason, my scheduling went a little awry this week and made for some long days. In addition to my scheduling problems, however, I could have saved a ton of time (thus the 3 day hiatus of new posts) and my clients could have saved a lot of money if they were more diligent about backing up their data and keeping track of passwords and software.
This web site is exactly the same age as my business…almost 13 years old. In those thirteen years, I can emphatically claim that customers who read my site daily and follow the advice and tips have far less problems and trouble with their computers than those who never visit. And when regular readers of HelpMeRick.com do need an on site consultation from me, they rarely last longer than an hour and usually involve more instruction that troubleshooting. After building this site for 13 years and adding to it almost daily, I can answer at least eighty percent of the most common computer questions with articles found right here at HelpMeRick.com.
I pose the question to you, the faithful HelpMeRick.com visitor: What can
After two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.
Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple? when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most…after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.
For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don’t have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.
The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded
I love learning. My goal is to learn something new every single day I open my eyes. Luckily, I learn multiple new ideas, techniques, or facts every single day. When it comes to my job troubleshooting computers, I believe anyone can do it if they follow the formula I use.
I’ve laid out most of the steps and techniques I use every day to solve computer problems. Feel free to use them and develop your own skills. When you decide that you need more help, follow Callahan’s advice and then call in the professionals.
In almost any program where you can create, save, and edit documents, clicking the File menu (or the Office orb in Office 2007) shows a list of your most recently used documents for that program. With Microsoft Office, you can control exactly how many recent documents are shown.
With Microsoft Office 2003 applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) and all versions prior, you control this option by following these steps in any of the applications:
With Microsoft Office 2007 options, follow these steps to control how many recently used files show:
Not likely. In the Sarah Palin case, her Yahoo email account was not hacked…her password was hacked. That means the hackers guessed Sarah Palin’s password (maybe it was hockeymom). Seriously, it could have been that easy. More likely, however, the hackers used sophisticated programs that were used to crack the password.
The number one defense you possess to safeguard your email, bank account, or any other online account is a strong password.
I know, I know…”It’s too hard to remember.”. Write it down! No one said you have to memorize it. Write it down, but keep it in safe place and don’t forget where you put it. OR, you can use any number of password manager programs. Read my Password Mania tip for more info.
If you aren’t running for Vice President of the free world, you automatically reduce your chances of being hacked by almost 1 billion times. But, don’t get lazy and leave your account information open to the chance of being hacked.
Thankfully, more and more home computer users are securing their wireless networks. Most newer wireless routers offer to automate the whole process which works pretty well. However, if you are wanting a little more control, I recommend the following advice for setting up a wireless router:
If your name is Mel, Jim, Barbara, Happy, Sandie, Buddy, Larry, or David and a few others…your email answer is here! Their questions ranged from hard drive data retrieval to Macintosh password management to AVG and many other questions as well…tune in by clicking play!!
Editors note: Of course, I’m going to exempt smartphones (my current favorite is the iPhone 3G) because these are necessary to 21st century living.
Next to the smartphone, my vote for best technology currently available is the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). A DVR replaces the venerable VHS recorder for recording television programming. DVR’s use hard drives to record the programming digitally and require about a tenth of the knowledge necessary to program a VCR. The hard drives can record from 40 HD hours to almost 200 hours of programming. With DVR’s, there is never a tape to change or rewind, and the quality of the recording is flawless no matter how many times you watch it.
Another plus with DVR’s is their advanced fast forward feature. All DVR’s have a skip button on the remote that skips 30-60 seconds in one push. Does that time period sound familiar? Yes, it’s the length of a commercial. When watching a sitcom, most commercial breaks last about 3 to 4 minutes…a few quick presses of the DVR’s skip button and you are watching the next segment. A 30 minute program can be finished in about 19 minutes…I’ll take 11 minutes wherever I can get them. And a one hour crime drama can be over in about 40 minutes!
Sorry Oprah and Dr. Phil fans, daytime talk shows cannot be recorded with a DVR.*
Right now my family is recording nearly 18 hours of Olympic programming every day, but we can watch all that in about 4 hours or so by using the variable speed of the DVR’s fast forward feature. Very helpful to skip through boring soccer matches or 50 KM race walking at 300X speed. But because the recordings are digital, you can actually keep track of the action and