These are everyday useful tips & tricks, along with "good to know" information tidbits from commonly used programs like Windows XP, MS Office, etc. Some of the information you may already know, and some of it may be new to you, but.... so many different levels of knowledge exist, and not knowing who will want to use this information, we've decided to include the most frequent inquiries to make sure that everyone takes away a small or large piece of knowledge they can use.

Here is a list by category of tips and tricks you may find useful. If you would like to see something that isnt on our list, send us an email so we can add it for you.

Internet Safety

Giving out your personal information to sites on the internet is a touchy subject. My suggestion would be to only give out information to sites that you trust. If you don't trust a particular site, don't give out your personal information. I'm not too worried about giving out my information to most business sites, but I'm not going to give it to someone who just would like to have it in order to see where their visitors are coming from.

Note that most good, reputable sites will have some sort of privacy policy that tells you exactly how the information you give them will be used. If you're at all unsure, it may be worth reading the privacy policy for the site in question. If you can't find one, any paranoia you have regarding that site is probably justified.

Most sites that ask for your personal information are doing so because you're signing up for something or making some type of purchase. After all, how can you buy something online if you won't give out your address and credit card information? When this is the case, I carefully look through the site to make sure it looks OK (I check for stuff like contact info, addresses, etc.) before I give out my any of my information.

If a site is asking for a credit card number, they will only get it if I'm actually making a purchase. If it's for any other reason, forget it. If they are trying to get my social security number, they don't have a chance unless I see good reason for them to have it (applying for a loan, joining an affiliate program, etc.)

Oh, one more thing since we mentioned credit cards. I get a lot of people who are worried about sending their credit card information to a company via the internet. As long as the site is secure (you should see a little "lock" in the Status Bar of your browser - lower left hand corner), you should be safe.

Of course, you have to trust the company you're dealing with. If you give your card to a site that's shady (illegal items, etc), then you shouldn't be too surprised if you run into problems.

On the other hand, if you're dealing with a good, legit site, then you shouldn't have any problems. However, remember, not all companies are the same - before you give any site your credit card info, be sure they have stuff like contact information, a privacy policy, and you may want to check their return policy, too (assuming it applies). Doesn't hurt to do a little homework.

For the most part, it seems like credit card theft on the internet is more likely the result of having a dishonest employee (and that's not just an internet problem), than the transmission getting intercepted.
 
I guess the best advice is to be careful. If you don't have a good reason to give out your info, then don't. If you don't feel comfortable with a site or don't completely understand why they need your information, then, don't give it out.






Date & Time On Demand

Do you find yourself constantly entering the date and / or time in MS Excel? Wish you had a quick key combination to get the job done for you - fast and easy? Yes?

This is how its done...

Next time you're in a cell and need to insert the current date, try this combination:

Ctrl + ; (semicolon)

And if you need the time? No problem, Use:

Ctrl + Shift + : (colon)

I love simple tips that work






Watermark Your Document - Draft, Confidential, and more You Decide …

Maybe we do or maybe we don’t yet all know about watermarks in your documents? Those light pictures or text placed behind our text on printed documents. They can mark a document as a draft, confidential, or they could be used to enhance the appearance of a document (we’ll let you decide),

With older versions of MS Word you had to do quite a bit of work to get that watermark just perfect.

Good news! With the newer versions of Word, starting with Word XP, this process is much easier, with Word doing all of the tedious work for you.

While the document is open, go to the Format menu, Background submenu, Printed Watermark choice. The Printed Watermark window will open presenting you with 3 choices.

You could leave the choice at No Watermark, but you might use it to remove a watermark previously inserted.

The second option is a Picture watermark. Choose this option to make it active. Click the Select Picture button to locate the graphic you want used as your watermark.

You can use the Scale field to dictate the watermark's size or leave it at Auto to have Word center it on your page.

The Washout choice makes the picture lighter in color, so I'd leave that one alone. It's difficult to read text that over a brightly colored picture.

The third choice in the Printed Watermark window is to have one made of Text.

You can select text to use from the drop-down list, or you can enter your own word or phrase in the Text field. Below that, you can choose a font, size and color. Again, I suggest that you leave the semitransparent option checked, so you can read the text that's placed over it.

At the bottom you'll need to choose the orientation of the text. If you want to "give it a try" without closing the window, click the Apply button. The document will be updated with the watermark without closing the Printed Watermark window. This allows you to make additional changes easily.

When you've got a watermark you like, simply click the OK button.

As easy as that, Word inserts your chosen watermark in the center of each page.






Keeping Your Email Contacts a Secret

Have you ever gotten an email forwarded to you with hundreds of e-mail addresses in the top header? Every address on that email may be getting unintentionally passed all over the internet. When you forward it to everyone in your address book you risk making every address on that email vulnerable to "spammers".

So do your friends a favor and avoid exposing their addresses to everyone in cyberspace, send mass mailings as Blind Carbon Copies (BCC). E-mail privacy is just a few clicks away. Here's what you can do...

When you create or forward an e-mail in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express you usually click on "To:->" and make selections from your address book. If you look down, you'll see other options: "Cc:->" and "Bcc->". Simply highlight the addresses you want to send to and click "Bcc:->".

When you finish your selections, click OK and you will return to the New Message window where you can type your e-mail.

Most other web based email clients have a BCC option somewhere.

Put your own address, or a fake one, in the "To->" field and everyone who receives the email will only see that address, and not the other 200 people you sent the message to.






Let XP Resize Pictures for Your Email

One of the Send To options listed is "Mail Recipient" which allows you to send a document or picture to someone via email (using MS Outlook).

If you choose this option for a picture you will be given the option to "Make all my pictures smaller". This is a great feature, saving you the time of resizing it in your imaging software.

Now, let's look at this a bit slower...

Find a picture that you want to email and right click.

Choose "Send to" and select "Mail Recipient"

A window will pop up with the option "Make my pictures smaller"

Click OK. You should see an email with the picture as an attachment.
Now, with smaller files under 50k you won't see much change, but with large files you will. I had a 115k picture and it was reduced to 12k!
This certainly makes pictures easier to email.