Announcements

Love To Travel?

If so, then you're gonna be as excited about this as I am. We have just received one of the best trip planning software titles available - Rand McNally's Route Planner! (And wait till you see the price - you're not going to believe it!)

First off, you're really going to love how simple this software makes planning your next trip. Just type in your starting point and destination. In a matter of seconds you have a detailed set of directions, complete with driving times and estimated costs! (Psst - the drive time estimates are so accurate it's scary.)

The estimated cost calculator is one of the coolest features I've ever seen with this type of software. Want to know how much it's going to cost in gas to get to your destination? Just tell the software your gas mileage and give it an estimated cost per gallon. In addition to gas costs, it can also figure in meals, hotels, and other expenses. If you tell it your budget, it can even tell if you have enough money for the trip! Incredibly handy!

Oh, and wait till you see the regional and local attractions features (these are soooo cool). Just look up the area you're traveling to and it will show you all the best attractions that location has to offer. Each attraction has excellent (several paragraph) descriptions included - most even include a snapshot of the location!

In fact, I was playing with this feature and in less than 5 minutes I had a couple of awesome day trips planned for my family (one of which we're taking next week)! I can't believe how much cool stuff is within 2 hours of my house - and I never would have found the majority of it without this software! I love this thing - its rescued my otherwise dull summer!

Look at what else this can do:

	Easily find your destinations with a fantastic search feature
	Print your trips and take 'em with you
	Compare different routes easily
	Customize the map so you see only what you're interested in
	Add stopovers along your route
	Audio instructions guide you through the process
	Choose between the quickest route, most scenic, or shortest distance

Your price? Ready for this? Just $9.97 and US shipping is FREE! Told you it was an awesome deal!

When you think of how expensive it can be to travel, isn't it worth a few bucks for a piece of software that can help you make the most of your experience? I think I blew more than $9.97 last year on a couple of hotdogs at an amusement park. Here's the link:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/route-planner-03.htm

PS - Remember, as an added bonus you get an incredibly cool patriotic radio free with your purchase (through July 6, 2003, void where prohibited). Check it out!

Also...

Happy Canada Day!

We also wanted to wish a "Happy Canada Day" to our friends in the Great White North!

MS Office 101

View Menu? Who Needs The View Menu?

Well... actually, for many things, we all do—but here's an idea that frees you from the menus, if only for a few seconds.

How many times have you gone to the View menu, Toolbars choice and then selected the toolbar you need to display? (Or for that matter, how many times have I referred to that process?)

In my opinion, too many times.

So here's a method to get around the menu that doesn't require you to memorize a bunch of key combinations.

Next time you need to display (or put away) a toolbar put your mouse pointer over any toolbar and right click.

Yep, that's it. Right click.

You should have a pop up menu of all toolbars—now use the mouse pointer to select or deselect the toolbar of your choice.

That's it—no menus needed this time!

Office Tip of the Day

Quicker Custom Toolbars

If you have MS Office 2000 you're in for a real toolbar treat!

Have you ever noticed the little down arrow at the end of displayed toolbars?

No?

Well then take a look... they're sitting right there—plain as day—and they can bring some customizations down to a couple of clicks.

Click on one of the arrows.

What do you see?

Add or Remove Buttons?

Yep—that's what I see too.

(If you also had arrows to the right then you may see more—the right arrows are letting you know that there are more buttons on the toolbar but not enough room to display all of them. So... along with the Add or Remove Buttons option you'll find the rest of the toolbar.)

Click the Add or Remove Buttons button. (Yeah, I know sounds ridiculous, but that's what they called it.)

Now you should be seeing a list of all possible buttons for the toolbar.

The items checked are already displayed (or are in the list from the right arrows) and any items not checked are available to be displayed.

Go through the list, selecting and de-selecting as you wish. When you finish, just click back into your file and the list will close.

What are you left with? Well, probably the fastest customized toolbar you've ever created, what else?

~ April