| PROGRAM OVERLOAD When you access "PROGRAMS" on your "START" menu, does your screen fill with layers of items that you rarely/never use such as readme and help files along with the applications exe file.? Since these items are generally shortcuts, they not only result in screen clutter but also take up hard drive space. You can delete these items through "Start/Settings/Taskbar/Start Menu Programs/Remove", but that is the long way around and you can only delete one item at a time. For faster access to the delete/add function, just open the Windows/ Start Menu folder in Windows Explorer and open the "PROGRAMS" folder. |
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| ADOPT A FILE: Often when you install or use a new program, it creates its own file types with extensions unassociated with any program. For example, depending on the version, possibly 6 new file types are created when you use Quicken. These new types show no association with Quicken. Windows will just show the generic windows icon. When you click on one of these files they will not open. To make these files open the program that created them and to give them the icon which denotes the "exe" file, click on "VIEW" on the MENU bar in Windows Explorer and select "OPTIONS". Select the "FILES TYPE" tab and the "New Type" option. When the "Add New File Type" dialogue box appears, fill in the "Description of Type" box with the applicable program name such as Quicken Data File. In the "Associated Extension" box fill in the three letter extension. For this Quicken example, use "qdt" [without quotes]. Now select "New" under the "Actions" category. This will open the "New Action" dialogue box. |
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| In the "ACTION" box of the "New Action" dialogue box, type in the word "Open" [without quotes]. In the "Application use to perform action" box, select "Browse" and find the path of the application's exe file which, for Quicken, is often C:\Quickenw\Qw.exe. Click on OK. Then close the "Add New File Type" and "Option" dialogue boxes. |
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| COMPRESS THE CLUTTER Is your desktop overrun with icons? Not an empty spot to be found? Some icons have even fallen off the right edge of the screen. If you can't bear to part with them, then squeeze them down to fit your little screen. Open the Control Panel and select DISPLAY. Click on the Appearance Tab and from the ITEM line scroll to ICON. In the relevant SIZE box shrink the current size to a lower value until you get a good fit of the icons on your desktop. You can also decrease the size of the font that is used in the Icon's Title. Additional desktop free space can be reclaimed by decreasing the spacing between icons. Re-access the Appearance Tab as before and from the ITEM line scroll in turn to Icon Spacing [Vertical and Horiziontal]. Decrease the size to move the icons closer together. |
| 3 E-MAIL ERASURES: Have you ever received e-mail which seems to have been cutoff in mid sentence? Or have you sent e-mail which the recipient can't read? The e-mail may have contained HTML tags which are not supported. AOL E-mail does not recognize HTML tags when there is a valid HTML command between the pipes. A common spreadsheet "trick" can overcome this shortcoming; you can insert an apostrophe just before the command like this: <'BR>. Then your tag will be visible because the command has been disabled and reverted to plain text. To test how your E-mail handles HTML tags, compose an E-mail to yourself, then save it and re-open or send it and read it. And don't forget to do a friend a favour; if your e-mail supports "live-links",when you send a web address, use them in your e-mail along with the URL. |
| 4 MORE MAIL: If your E-mail provider goes "down" when your really need it or you are travelling without access to your regular provider, get some free e-mail accounts with someone else. There are several providers such as Geocities, Hotmail, USA.net, Rocketmail, etc. If your web server gets knocked off the air and you can't access it, try Juno e-mail. It has its own e-mail servers. Not only are the extra e-mail accounts a good back-up but also you can create multiple screen-names/accounts for different purposes. |
| hh WINDOW WIGGLES: There are many keyboard shortcuts, but few of us learn them all.
One handy keyboard shortcut that can keep you from reaching for your mouse
when you want to maximize /minimize /restore /close a WINDOW is to use the following
commands: If there are additional open windows running inside the application, just press Alt+SpaceBar-RightArrow to access each Window's top left icon. |
| + > PLUS the RIGHT ARROW: Another use of the Right Arrow is to quickly reveal or "explode" a folder in Windows Explorer that holds subfolders. When in the left pane of Windows Explorer, to reveal the sub-folders, just select the "+folder" and hit the Right Arrow. The use of the Right Arrow to open the "+ items" is especially useful when in Safe Mode as you navigate Device Manager with the default cursor. |
| $OFTWARE UPGRADE? : Companies that issue software generally come out with an "upgrade" to their old standards every so often; that doesn't mean you need to buy it. Try a demo if available - many of these "upgrades" are filled with a lot of zingy new graphics but little in the way of new content. When an upgrade goes from 16-bit to 32-bit it won't necessarily be any faster because several megabytes may have been added. Often your old stripped down version will be just as fast or faster without all the cute little pictures and added "features". |
| HTML JUST AIN'T FOR WEB SITES: If you have sort of a "Plain Jane" E-mail program that supports attachments, write your friends an HTML file with graphics of your choice. Just zip up the HTML file with the associated "gifs" and attach it to your E-Mail. If you haven't created your own web-page yet, it's a good way to practice the skills you will need. |
| CAN YOU SCAN?: If you have scanning capabilities, there are many uses you can put it to such as receipts for large items especially computer hardware/software with the date of purchase and serial number. Often receipts fade in time, are partially unreadable or are missing salient information. After you scan, open the item in a graphics program and add the missing or unreadable information. It's much easier to find a scanned item on a disk than looking through a pile of papers for an elusive receipt. The scanner is also ideal for saving tax information especially those w-2's and 1099's that have to be dealt with by April 15th. If you are making or collecting monthly payments based on an amortization schedule, scan that schedule into your computer. Save it as a graphic or a word processing document if you have an OCR program. Each month, mark off each payment with the date and check number. |
| ORGANIZE THE SCAN: If you have a lot of scanned documents, make a folder named "Scanned Docs" and organize them into sub-folders by type such as Taxes, Insurance, Computer, Monthly Payments, Utilities, Correspondence, Appliances, etc. Don't forget to convert those large byte scanned documents to smaller "gif" files and toss the originals. If you use a portable drive, put the Scanned Docs folder onto a separate disk along with your scanning software, OCR program, form-filling applications, and any other software which involves scanning. Now make a new folder on the portable disk named "Scanning" and put all you scanning-related folders in it. For your "Scanned Docs" folder [or for the individual sub-folders if they are extensive], Scanning software, OCR program, form-filling applications, etc. make shortcuts and paste them into the "Scanning" folder. Make a shortcut to the "Scanning" folder and paste it on your desktop and/or into your Windows/Start Menu folder. Now when you have scanning to do or want to retrieve a scanned document, all the relevant tools are available from your master shortcut. |