Announcements

Wanna Build Your Own Computer?

It's actually not all that hard. I remember my first time. I built a 150Mhz "monster" machine with 32 meg of RAM and a 2Gig (wow) hard drive. Took me about three hours to put together.

And it was a ton of fun!

Well, if you would like to learn how to do the same, or maybe just learn to upgrade your computer yourself, you're in luck.

When I did my first one, there wasn't too much in the way of guidelines out there. Now, there's an awesome CD ROM that makes it easy for anyone with basic computer knowledge to put their own PC together!

It's called, appropriately enough, "How To Build Your Own PC 2003" and we have it for only $14.97 (and US Shipping is FREE!).

Jonathon does the bulk of our tech support and says he wishes he would have had this at his disposal when he was going to school. Just a few hours with this would have replaced a ton of classroom time. I'm with him - I wish I would have had this when I was learning the basics and putting my first computer together.

It takes you step by step through the process using video and multimedia to make it easy to understand. Just click and watch, it couldn't be easier. This is also an excellent way to see how to do hardware upgrades - and that's something we all need to do at one time or another.

Sections include installing the motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, sound card, modem, hard drive, CD / DVD drive, floppy drive, and more. Of course, it shows you how to put all of it together (you know, making sure the right wires are in the right place). It even shows you how to format your hard drive and install an operating system (like Windows 95/98/me/2000/XP).

In addition, it has a (printable) checklist of parts you'll need. There's a lot that goes into a computer, and with this you'll know exactly what you need - and what you don't.

We featured the previous version of this software last summer and it was an incredible seller (we set a record with it). This new version is even better, and covers all the current computer parts and install procedures.

If you're ready to take this next step in computing, this will be a tremendous help. Besides, it's really cool when your friends ask where you got such an awesome computer and you reply, "Oh, that's a custom job I threw together myself."

Of course, you may end up building them a computer too!

Anyhow, here's the link with more info:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/build-your-own-pc.htm

PS - Don't miss out. Even if you don't want to build your own computer, the hardware upgrade "how tos" in this program make it a must have! Besides, we still have a few months of bad weather, so it's the perfect time to put together a new machine.

MS Office 101

Double-Click = Best Fit

As many MS Excel users are aware you can highlight a column and through the Format menu, Column sub-menu you can choose the AutoFit Selection choice. What this does is make the column just wide enough to fit the longest piece of data in the selection.

It's a great thing—no guessing necessary to make the data fit.

However, we all like a faster way and for this little trick there is a two-click shortcut.

Simply double-click.

The trick is all in where to double-click.

What you need to do is to move your mouse pointer over the column heading to the right-side border. (The little vertical line between the letters.)

(Your pointer will become a double-sided arrow.)

Now double-click. (Double-clicking on the circled line above best fits column C.)

That's it!

The column should have be resized right before your eyes!

(This trick also works with multiple columns. Simply highlight the columns to change and double-click on the right side of a selected column header.)

Got to love it when this stuff works in multiple ways :-)

Office Tip of the Day

Show Me The… Formulas?

I don't know about you but when I'm trying to proofread a document I usually need to go through a hard copy. For some reason seeing things in printed form will usually help with that whole process.

So, what do you do when you're trying to proof an MS Excel worksheet?

You can print it out, but let's face it. What you get in the printout is the results of the calculations.

How do you proof formulas when you aren't seeing them?

You could go through the file on the monitor, cell by cell, continually jumping back and forth visually between the worksheet and the formula bar.

Yep—you could do that but it may take a while. (Not to mention the headache it gives you for your trouble.) And what about the people who proof better from a hard copy?

Are they just out of luck?

Well, let's hope not! I mean, the program wouldn't be very versatile if it was a situation of just "too bad, so sad for you".

So, if we can print the formulas, not the values, then how?

The answer is all in your options.

Options?

Yes - options - as in, Tools menu, Options choice.

Now go to the View tab.

In the Windows options section (at the bottom) you're looking for the Formulas choice.

Check the box.

Then click OK.

Instantly you should be returned to your worksheet where everything is now displayed as a formula, not a value. (Unless the data entered was a number - not a formula - those would still be numbers, of course.)

If you print now you'll get a printout with the formulas instead of the values.

By the way, this setting will stay until you go back to the Options window and uncheck the Formulas choice. So... you'll need to repeat the process to return to the calculated numbers.

When proofing, I sometimes find myself printing important files twice—especially if I know I have a mistake somewhere but can't find it—once with formulas and once with the results. I find that being able to see both pieces of information simultaneously helps with the editing process.

Cheers to finding yet one more way to have what you want when you want it! We all need a few more of those options in our lives.

~ April