Category Tips and Tricks


Has a colleague sent you an email with an XLSX file attached? It's not a strange new type of file for some new piece of software: it's just a newer Excel file type. But if you have an older version of Excel, earlier than 2007, then you might not be able to open it. Here is an update from Microsoft that will allow you to open XLSK files in older versions of Excel. Additionally, here are several other free and easy ways to open XLSK files

Posted by Joshua Shipman At 10:29 AM Location Glendale, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Just yesterday, I called a friend whose outgoing message was ridiculously long; so long, in fact, that it took less time for him to listen to my message and call me back than it took me to listen to his greeting so that I could leave the message in the first place! You've have probably had a friend that insists on making you listen to "Low Rider" for the maximum allowed duration just so you can say "Hey, call me back about dinner tonight." Luckily, if you know what his mobile carrier is, you can use one of the hot buttons below to skip through the junk and get straight to leaving your message:

AT&T: Press #
Sprint: Press 1
T-Mobile: Press #
Verizon: Press *

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 4:18 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Have you ever been part of an email chain that goes back and forth so long that the subject of the message no longer matches the topic being discussed? Someone you are talking about yesterday's conference call with might throw in, "Oh, by the way, my return flight number is 191..." and all of a sudden you have important information with the subject line of "Re: Yesterday's Call." There is a hidden feature in Outlook that allows you to edit the subject line for the necessary email. Simply double-click the message to open it and click in the subject line to edit it. Type in your new subject, hit 'Enter' and accept any error message that may have popped up and you are done. I was quite surprised to read about this, as I have only changed subject lines when replying or forwarding in the past.

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 9:56 AM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
There are an astronomical number of social networking sites that people use these days. Even if you just have accounts for the mainstream ones (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.), it is still a hassle to keep up with all of them.

This edition's tip highlights Ping.fm, a free service that allows you to update your status on almost any networking site you can think of at the same time - it will even update your AIM status! The sign-up process involves simply typing in an email address and password of your choice and you are good to go. Start adding any of the 40+ networking sites that you use and you will be able to send updates via E-Mail, AIM, Skype, SMS and about ten other methods. Ping.fm supports grouping, so you can blast out to MySpace and Facebook that you running off to "Burning Man" for a week of partying all while saving your reputation with your colleagues on LinkedIn. If you are any kind of networking fanatic and are looking for a huge time-saver, Ping.fm is a service worth looking into.
 

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 3:59 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
If you have a hi-fi audio system in your car or expensive headphones, you can probably hear the "wisp" of mp3s. While the iTunes AAC files are cleaner at the same bitrate, they still do not have that perfect audio quality that many enthusiasts look for. Now that mp3 players are growing in capacity, users have room for what are called "lossless" audio files. Windows Media Player and iTunes will allow you to import files as "WMA Lossless" or "Apple Lossless." These files are as much as 10 times larger, but they sound like the original no matter what you are listening on. FLAC (free lossless audio codec) files are also very popular, but many mp3 players do not play the format. See which lossless file types are compatible with your digital audio player and try it out!

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 4:33 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
If your organization has a document library of any kind that shares documents for reading and editing, it can become hard to find out where the last changes were made and if anything was omitted completely. There is a tool called track changes that helps, but people forget to use it in the same way they forgot to turn on auto-save before a big computer crash. Here is a good solution that will prevent you from intensely analyzing a document to find out what is different from its original version:

- In Word 2003 - Go to Tools > "Compare and Merge Documents"
- In Word 2007 - Go to the Review tab and select "Compare" or "Combine"


The Word 2007 option will provide a dialog box (see above) in which you specify the original document and the more recent one. The result will be an interface that shows where all text was moved, edited, deleted or added. This proves to be a valuable tool to many users, especially after the slight learning curve when deciphering the way the changes are displayed for heavily-modified documents.

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 3:56 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
When you are trying to keep an eye on your header data in Excel or trying to compare two parts from different locations on your spreadsheet, use the simple concept called "splitting." Splitting in Excel allows you to divide your spreadsheet into multiple panes so you can independently scroll through different parts of the residing data. Each pane that the sheet is split into is navigable and you can drag the dividing column and row to any point on the screen you like. Follow these easy instructions to start using this tool yourself:

-For Excel 2003, select "Window" and choose "Split."
-For Excel 2007, select the "View" tab and choose "Split."
-Both horizontal and vertical bars appear. You can drag them to any position you like and double-click on one to make it disappear.


You can also use the "Freeze" option in the same menus to freeze various rows or columns based on what you have split. Test out the various options and remember that you can use the "Unfreeze" and "Remove Split" options to undo anything you have done.

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 3:11 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
I'd like to take a minute to share a really handy tip for all of you Microsoft Word users. Have you ever been working on a document (resume, research assignment, business proposal etc.) and what you wrote just barely spills over to another page? Not only is having a nearly blank page at the end of your document unprofessional looking, it wastes paper! Extending your margins can only get you so far and adjusting your paragraph / header spacing doesn't always cut it either.


Take a look at the option in print preview called "Shrink One Page" in Word 2007 (as shown in the screen shot) and "Shrink to Fit" in Word 2003. Clicking on this prompts Word to adjust your font size marginally until the whole document fits onto one fewer page, both saving you paper and making your document much more presentable. If the adjustment is too extreme for you liking, you can simply click the undo button (Ctrl + Z) and your work is restored to its original size.

Posted by Keith Lancaster At 2:06 PM Location Reseda, CA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
The secret to a quick and effective search is to narrow it down as much as possible. Here are a few little- known tricks that let you boost your searching power with Google:

Wildcards. When you don't know the word you're looking for, but it's on the tip of your tongue, substitute it with an asterisk (*). Google will try to fill in the blanks. For example, "holistic * for pets" returns holistic medicine for pets, holistic aroma therapy for pets, holistic care for pets and holistic veterinary medicine for pets.

Numbers. You can put 2 periods between numbers to get Google search for a range. Let's say you want a pair of dress shoes in the $100 to $200 range. Search "dress shoes mens 100..200" This also works for "Yosemite hiking trail 3..10 miles."

Definitions. Simply type in "define:word for definitions of your chosen word. You'll also see related phrases and translations.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 10:44 AM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
If you are a Windows Vista user, you are probably used to the pop-up security system that appears at nearly every actionable item from installing software to changing the time on your system clock. Winability Software heard many cries for help and developed a very small, efficient program called TweakUAC.
This FREE program, at only 85KB in size, does not require installation of any kind and will provide you with a very easy method (see image above) of turning the UAC on for all users, off for all users or off for Administrators only.

If you are using Vista Pro or Ultra, you can fine-tune your UAC settings by following the steps below:

    * Select "Start" and type "secpol.msc" without the quotes
    * Navigate to "Local Security Settings" on the left
    * Click on "Local Policies" and then "Security Options"
    * Scroll to the bottom for the User Account Control options
    * Select "Switch UAC to the quite mode."

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 1:40 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
"Preview Before You Print” is Excel-lent Advice

Sometimes when you print an Excel document, the data is just a little bit too wide for the printing area. This usually causes your printer to spit out a bunch of blank pages.

This is easy to fix.

Click on Print Preview and you’ll know in advance if you’re going to get blank pages. If this is the case, here are a few things to try:

First, select File | Print Area | Clear Print Area. Then go back to Print Preview to see if the problem has been solved.

If this doesn’t work, you probably have an empty cell somewhere that is causing Excel to create new pages. To fix this, highlight your data, and select Insert | Worksheet. A new worksheet will come up. Copy your data into the new worksheet, and delete the old one. This should get rid of the empty spaces, and prevent Excel from creating blank pages.



Set Your Priorities

When your application starts lagging, it is most likely because a less important application, such as anti-virus, is running in the background, eating up your Windows resources.

You can change this by giving more resources to the important application in the Task Manager applet. Change the priorities by clicking the Processes tab and right-click the file of the ‘heavy’ application. Click Set Priority, and choose a level. When you see the warning, click Yes. It is not recommended that you chose Realtime choice, the highest priority, as it will result in a completely stalled system.

But if you’re having problems such as burning CDs, increase the priority of the CD-burning software. Also, non-important applications can be set to a lower priority, giving the remaining applications a little boost.

You can get a group viewing of the priorities for all processes running on your system by choosing View | Select Columns in the Task Manager window. Check Base Priority and click OK. Each process’s priority information will be listed.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 1:57 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Stop "mouse-ing around" and try these keyboard shortcuts

If you aren’t using keyboard shortcuts already, make the standard universal Windows speed key combinations habitual. Using the speed key combinations (instead of the mouse) will be four times faster. The ability to cut and paste between programs will save time and effort.

Print out this chart of shortcuts and keep it handy. You'll be glad you did.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:02 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
5 Tips to improve your odds of recovering lost devices

1. Cell Phones – Add a contact in your address book titled “If Found” or “Me” with other ways to contact you in case your phone is found. Create labels with a way to contact you if found. Try ZReturn for waterproof labels that use a PIN code to identify you so your personal information is not displayed.

2. Digital Cameras – Store a picture of your contact info in your camera’s favorites or lock the picture so it can’t be deleted.

3. MP3 Player – Create an “If Found” artist and title track, record an audio file of your contact info and synch it to your player.

4. If your item is found, don’t annoy the finder. Pick up the item or pay for shipping, and send a small thank-you present to show your appreciation.

5. Back up your data before it gets lost. Don’t rely on your item being returned.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:17 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
Split personalities in Windows

Windows makes it easy to combine two or more instances of Windows applications, such as Word, Excel and Explorer, onto one screen. This function allows you to transfer files or cut and paste text between two different instances without having to constantly flip back and forth.

From your taskbar, right click the tab of the application you want to combine, and select Tile Vertically from the pop-up menu. If the taskbar windows are individual, first click one tab, Ctrl-right click the other and choose Tile Vertically from the pop-up menu.

Give this tip a try - it will definitely put your documents in a new perspective.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:27 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Save time in Excel by building your own template.

If you and your colleagues regularly work with the same kind of data in Excel, templates can save you hours of time. Whenever you find you’re repeatedly opening, renaming, or changing the data in the same spreadsheet, it’s time to make a template for it.

Microsoft has several templates available to choose from online. In Excel, open New Workbook task pane and select Templates on Office Online.

Still can’t find what you need? No problem. You can build your own.

When the spreadsheet is open, go to Data and Validation. The drop-down lists let you put limits on the kind of data that can be entered in the template. This will help you avoid errors later on.

Next you’ll want to protect your format and your formulas to make sure other users don’t make costly changes while entering new data.

Select the cells in which data can be entered, click on Format | Cells and click on the Protection tab. Deselect Locked. Then choose Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet. Select the actions that you want to allow users to do, then select Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells. Finally, click on File then Properties then Summary. Enter the details and enable the Save Picture Preview option. Go to File and Save As. Select Template from the drop-down menu and give your template a name before clicking on Save.

When you’re ready to use the template, go to File | New. On the right, go to Templates and click on My Computer. Double click on your template, and you’re all set.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:37 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
Troubleshoot your own digital camera problems

Often when you have a problem with your digital camera, the camera is just fine. Some camera repair shops report that ten to fifteen percent of the cameras that are sent in for repair aren't really broken. Here are some common digital camera “problems” that you can fix yourself:

Camera won’t take pictures.
The memory card is probably full.

There’s a soft spot on all of the pictures.
Clean the lens. It probably has a fingerprint.

Every shot is overexposed or underexposed.
Check the Program mode. There may be a two stop overexposure or underexposure programmed for certain conditions that you have accidentally activated.

The viewfinder is blurred
Adjust the diopter on the eye piece.

The camera is sluggish
You’re probably using the wrong batteries. Low- power cells are less expensive, but they don’t deliver the full power you need for digital cameras and other electronics.

Spend a few extra bucks on good batteries that were made for digital camera use, and you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration.

The pictures are pixelated
Check the menu and change the picture quality to the highest setting.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:42 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
Negotiate to lower your broadband rate.

Call up your service provider about a month before your annual broadband contract is about to expire, and ask for a better rate. Chances are, their rivals are offering you some sweet deals to switch over. As a result, your provider will often lower the rates to keep you as their customer. Even if you are not at renewal time, some providers will cut your rate if you are willing to recommit with them for 1 or 2 years.

Visit AT&T, Verizon, or MegaPath for new rate info.

Too many rows in Excel

To delete duplicate rows in Excel, just do the following: Click anywhere in the data. Select “data,” then “filter,” then “advanced filter.” Check the box marked “unique records only”. Click “OK”. Highlight the thinned down data, then copy and paste it in a new worksheet. You’re done!

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 2:50 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
If you’ve developed a unique look for your word documents, you can permanently change the default settings in Microsoft Word.

This way your documents will always look the way you want them to look, and you won’t have to go back and reinvent the wheel with every new document. Here’s what you do:

In Word, click on Format on the menu bar and then click on Styles and Formatting. Click on the down arrow next to the word Normal and then choose Modify.

A dialogue box will open up, which lets you make changes such as font, style, size and color of the text, alignment, indentation, and single or double space.

Make the changes you want, and check the Add to template box at the bottom. Click OK when you’re finished.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 3:01 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

About 12% of the US population has listened to internet radio, according to recent data by Arbitron. Nine percent, or about 27 million Americans, have listened to a podcast.

Of course these percentages aren’t spread evenly over the population. The numbers increase as you look at groups with annual incomes of $100,000 or more.

And since nearly half of all teenagers own an IPod or other device for playing digital music, these numbers are bound to rise as these youngsters grow up.

Click here to go to Live 365's online radio music site.

Click here to go to iTunes's website.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 3:03 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
You've probably had a wireless connection fail at some point in your career. Often the culprit is a crowded bandwidth-when many routers or cordless telephones are using the same channel.

PassMark has developed software to help you find a less busy channel where you'll get better, more reliable performance. You can download the free evaluation version of this software.

The program will show you available channels and their availability by color. Red channels are busy, while blue ones are free from heavy use.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:20 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

 
It is recommended that companies should ensure all of their IT resources are corrected for this adjusted time in order for computers, PDAs, servers, or calendar events to be in sync. The following additional steps are also recommended between now and April 1st to reduce confusion:

    * When scheduling new events include time and Time Zone within subject or body;
    * From March 11 through April 1, reconfirm all calendar events to ensure they are not off by an hour;
    * Manually correct any calendar events should any communication or calendar devices not automatically be updated with the corrected time.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:32 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

 
Although standard time in time zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads in 1883, it was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act. The act also established daylight saving time, a contentious idea then. Daylight saving time was repealed in 1919, but standard time in time zones remained in law. Daylight time became a local matter. It was re-established nationally early in World War II, and was continuously observed from February 9, 1942 to September 20, 1945. After the war its use varied among states and localities. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided standardization in the dates of beginning and end of daylight time in the U.S. but allowed for local exemptions from its observance. The act provided that daylight time begin on the last Sunday in April and end on the last Sunday in October, with the changeover to occur at 2 a.m. local time.

During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on January 6 and in 1975 it began on February 23. After those two years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April. In 1986, a law was passed that shifted the starting date of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight time was not subject to such changes, and remained the last Sunday in October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates. Beginning in 2007, daylight time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

(Excerpt from the U.S. Naval Observatory website)

For a very readable account of the history of standard and daylight time in the U.S., see

Ian R. Bartky and Elizabeth Harrison: "Standard and Daylight-saving Time", Scientific American, May 1979 (Vol. 240, No. 5), pp. 46-53.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:29 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Unless you have a Library Science degree, you may have to wade through useless web pages whenever you use a search engine. Here are some easy tips to help you find more useful information in less time.

   1. Use the minus sign to eliminate common results that aren't what you want. For example, if you want to look up California biking but not mountain biking, search for California biking -mountain.
   2. Use quotation marks to get exact matches. Search for "cell phone reviews" instead of cell phone reviews. Using quotation marks will only bring up results for the exact phrase; omitting them will bring up pages that have the terms PC and reviews anywhere on the page.
   3. Ask for definitions. If your search is define contango you'll get pages which do just that. For Google you need a colon, so you'd type define:contango.
   4. Be specific. A detailed, but simple search query will usually bring highly relevant results. For example, instead of searching for auto parts, look for 1988 Volkswagen Rabbit muffler. Instead of weather report, try San Diego weather.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:37 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

 
Pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Daylight Savings Time for the United States has been extended by a total of 4 weeks this year. The annual time change will begin at 2:00 AM Sunday March 11th, three weeks earlier than in past years and ending one week later than normal, on the first Sunday in November.

Due to this change, all systems need to be patched with software updates that specifically address this change. Patches are needed on each workstation running XP, every server running nt/win2000/win2003 server, Exchange, and Domino, along with some cell phones and PDA's.

For Dependable Computer Guys customers using our Internet Data Center, rest assured that any systems that will be affected are being upgraded, and these upgrades will be completed prior to the March 11th event.

Keep in mind that if nothing is done, for a 2 week period in March and again in the fall, folks will have appointments off by 1 hour and mail routing will appear to be delayed for some users.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:30 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

 
Q1. Can the DST change be made by simply updating the system clock?
A1. This is not recommended. If the former DST rules still are defined in your system, a simple change of the clock will not change the DST rules that are used in time and date calculations.

Q2. What caused the need to change the Daylight Saving Time rules for our hardware and software products?
A2. In the U.S., the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the rules for Daylight Saving Time (DST). These new rules will go into effect in March 2007. Canada and Bermuda made similar changes to their DST rules to be consistent with the U.S. time changes. DST rules affect date and time processing functions in computers and applications. If not set properly, the time could be incorrect by one hour for four weeks each year. Since DST rules have been relatively stable in these countries for many years, people have come to rely upon automated adjustments in time in connection with their information technology.

Q3. What are the new dates for the Daylight Saving Time schedule in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda?
A3. Starting in 2007, Daylight Saving Time for the U.S., Canada and Bermuda will be extended by four weeks, starting three weeks earlier on the second Sunday in March and ending one week later on the first Sunday in November. In 2007, DST will start on Sunday, 11 March and will end on Sunday, 4 November.

Q4. Who is affected?
A4. Daylight Saving Time rules changes could affect any computers, applications and electronic devices that have built-in DST rules for date and time processing. This is not a vendor specific issue.

Q5. What is affected by the DST changes?
A5. Computers and applications in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda with date and time processing functions will be affected. Computers and applications in other countries that are not implementing the DST changes also could be impacted if they support users, transactions or applications in the countries that are changing DST. Computers and applications that interact with the U.S., Canada or Bermuda on a time sensitive basis should be updated.

Q6. I understand that in various parts of the world DST rules have changed many times in the past. Why is this change different?
A6. This has been a concern in the past. For example, Australian clients had to take action when their DST rules were changed to accommodate the Commonwealth Games in early 2006. This U.S. Energy Act change is likely to impact a high proportion of users because of the economic size of the countries involved in changing DST rules and the number of systems that may have time-sensitive interactions with these countries. In addition, as time goes on, more systems are supporting users in multiple countries. These factors combine to make this a good time to understand this issue, assess the impact on your computers and applications (if any), and plan appropriate action.

Q7. My system time is kept up to date by an external time service. Do I need to do anything?
A7. External time services normally only update your system clock and do not change DST rules kept in other parts of your computer or applications. The DST rules need to be changed in all of the places where the rules may be currently kept.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:33 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks
 
Faster Browsing with Open DNS

Your Domain Name Server (DNS) is the service that allows your computer to communicate with other computers on the internet. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) usually determines your default DNS, and chances are it’s slower than others that are readily available. To speed up your internet access, try using Open DNS.

OpenDNS makes your Internet connection blazing fast, blocks phishing sites, and corrects your typos on the fly. You choose only the features you want and it requires no software to install. And best of all, it's free.

Posted by Arland Whitfield At 12:40 PM Location Glendale | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Tips and Tricks

Hassle-free printing

If you frequently have to reset the Properties when you print, there’s a way to create a printer profile, a “virtual printer” that will save your settings for a specific kind of job. Go to the Control Panel and click on Printers and Faxes. Select Add a printer, and you’ll activate the Add Printer Wizard. Select the printer you wish to use, and in the right pane click on Select printer properties. Give your virtual printer a relevant name, such as Letterhead Draft or Top Quality Envelope. Click Printing Preferences | Advanced and set the properties you want to save for that particular printer. The next time you print, you’ll see the icon for a “Printer” with the appropriate name in the drop-down menu. Select this as your printer, and it will print according to your settings.

Posted by Brent Whitfield At 9:42 PM Location La Canada | Permalink | Comments (0)