The power goes out…
The program stops responding…
You entire system crashes…
Whatever the cause, you just had the program close unexpectedly and your work is gone… gone… gone…
Or maybe not.
If you’ve got the AutoRecover feature active, then you might be in for a pleasant surprise!
With the AutoRecover feature… Continue reading
Jim from Hernando Beach FL asks:
When printing, the box pops up for you to choose printer. In that box there is a little square to check that says “print to file”. How do you print to a file?
Why Print to File
Printing to a file is useful for documents… Continue reading
Are you curious to know what’s “hot” right now? Do you want to see what the web is “a-buzz” over? Yahoo! users already have a little box right on their front page that tells them what people are searching for, but once again, as always, Google had to go and one-up them!
It’s called Google Trends, and here’s how to access it:
First, browse… Continue reading
Welcome to the Folger Shakespeare Library, where you can discover a ton of information about Shakespeare and his works.
I suggest starting your journey in the Discover Shakespeare section. It is divided into more categories, they are:
Shakespeare’s Life – here you will learn… Continue reading
Surfing the internet, you’ll find quite a bit of talk that could be considered gibberish. Internet slang such as “noob,” words written in numbers instead of letters (“H3ll0!,”) and lots of acronyms that don’t make much sense on first viewing, if ever; lolz, wtf, rofl, smh, etc. While this type of “gibberish” could be researched for definitions/translations, there is another kind
We all know that the first rule of thumb when working on a computer is to save, save, save.
If a program (or heaven forbid, the entire computer system) should crash… or the power goes out… or a someone unplugs the wrong plug… whatever reason, if your file hasn’t been saved on a regular basis, then you’re going to lose all that work!
So… Continue reading
Vivien from Port Charlotte, FL asks:
Every time I receive an attachment in e-mail that requires Windows Media Player, I get a message that my computer is low on memory. I know for a fact that I have lots of memory! What could be wrong?
If I may, Vivien, I would like to start by clarifying… Continue reading
Firefox’s Private Browsing feature – the one that allows you to browse wherever you’d like without leaving a trail, sure comes in handy around the holidays, doesn’t it? It prevents curious kids and snooping grownups from seeing where you’ve been (and more importantly, what you’ve been purchasing).
Yet, I have a problem remembering to turn it on all the time. With my luck… Continue reading
There’s little more frustrating to a computer user, than finding your icons scrambled all over the desktop. In addition, if your desktop is full of icons, you can imagine how annoying it would be to arrange them manually.
This problem usually occurs when you change your computer’s resolution. Changing the resolution, either manually or when installing drivers for your video card, can sometimes change the order and… Continue reading
Do you use more than one feature of MS Outlook on a daily basis?
Maybe you like to have the Inbox right there for quick information but at the same time you need access to your calendar almost as often.
Tired of switching from one to the other?
I know that in the past, we’ve covered using the Ctrl key to… Continue reading
John from Pacific Grove, CA. asks:
I don’t know what happened but when I sat down at my computer this morning and opened my browser (Firefox), my History button was gone, my address bar was gone…all I have left are my tabs and the top bar that runs across the top of the screen! I am right-clicking everywhere and nothing will come back up! Can you help?
I use Gmail on a daily basis for both work and personal duties. Thing is, that looking at Gmail’s same old interface day after day is pretty boring. That’s why today we’re going to learn how to change its look.
It’s super easy!
First, go to Gmail.com and log into your account. Now click Settings in the upper right-hand corner of the… Continue reading
A recent article in the local paper discussed the benefits of standing while doing work that would normally be done sitting down. Apparently, many people have turned to standing at their desks, and this sparked debate among laymen and professionals alike about the benefits of standing at a desk. Some advocated standing over sitting, some believed the opposite. Ultimately, the only agreement that seemed to be reached was that constantly… Continue reading
Drama, Intrigue, War, and Marriage: am I talking about the latest hit at the box office? Nope! I’m talking about the Wars of the Roses from 15th Century England. The nobles from the House of Lancaster and the House of York fight a nasty battle for who will claim the throne of England, embroiling the country in a series… Continue reading
We’ve all done it – we’ve begun typing up a list of items and then realized too late that we should have put it into a table…
Using a table to organize and present our information is often an easy way to accomplish our task.
At any rate, back to that already typed list of information… what do we do?
Retype… Continue reading
Dean says:
I have a few basic commands that will open up Windows applications and I know there are more. I really would like more; do you have any kind of a list?
Hi Dean! Thanks for writing.
Do I have a list? Yes, sir, I do. And since you took the time to write to us, I sat down and… Continue reading
We recently ran a tip called Free Stuff, where I provided a partial list of the best free software installed in my computer, and readers were invited to suggest their own favorite freeware. You were not shy, and we received many good recommendations. Thank you. Several of the suggestions had already been covered in earlier tips, but some were new to me and worked… Continue reading
This site focuses on four myths: the Queen of Sheba, Shangri-la, King Arthur, and Jason of the Argonauts. I arrived here via the page on Jason, but you can select any of the four myths to start with.
After selecting a myth to explore, you’ll be taken to the main page for… Continue reading
Sue from Oklahoma City, OK. asks:
Yesterday I saw an article that said another way to access Firefox is to do it by “typing the command Firefox in the Run line”. What does this mean? What is the Run line? Where do I find it?
You know, Sue (by the way, thanks for writing!), there are so many boxes and lines and commands and menus… Continue reading
Sometimes I find myself in need of translation when I’m doing research on the Internet. This usually leads me to copying and pasting little bits of text into Google Translate or some other translation site so I can get the whole story in a language I understand.
However, I just found a nifty little feature in Internet Explorer 8 that uses Bing to translate a… Continue reading
Russ asks:
What is Chromium OS? Is it an operating system that can be used by an average computer user without knowledge of programming, just the average guy who uses Windows?
Russ, as an average (or perhaps below average) guy who uses Windows, what I can tell you is that the answer to this question has been difficult for me to understand… Continue reading
This is obviously from what I’m studying in college right now. I’m taking British Literature I this semester and I’ll take British Literature II next semester. The reason I’m sharing this is because I think it’s really cool. What you’re going to find here is audio readings of literature dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century… Continue reading
Serena, from North Carolina, asks:
I am looking to get rid of my computer, but I want to make sure that everything is off of my hard drive (banking info, etc.). How can I do this and be sure?
Serena, you are right to be cautious. Many people think that formatting a hard drive is the best thing to do in this situation. However, this still leaves behind… Continue reading
I don’t know about you but, when I’m using MS Excel, I’m always merging cells to make everything look “just right”.
The problem is that once cells are formatted that way, there are a lot of things you may try to do with your worksheet that will not work with cells merged.
So, now what?
Well, I usually find myself separating… Continue reading
If you’ve got a Yahoo! account and you’re looking to customize, then this tip is just for you! You know those sites (Mail, Finance, News, Calendar, etc.) that appear in the left column when you first log on? Well, a lot of people don’t know this, but you can actually customize which sites appear there!
Here’s how:
First, log into your Yahoo! account… Continue reading
This is an excellent site, filled to the brim with dog information. Whether you want to research breeds of dogs, find a responsible breeder, or get product reviews on stuff for your dogs, you’ve come to the right place. You can even get help naming your new dog here!
The main menu consists of the categories… Continue reading
DSLRs are coming down in price and more people are finding they can afford to upgrade. But should you get a Prime lens or a Zoom? It’s an important decision to get right, as lenses don’t come cheap and you don’t want to end up regretting your decision. So what’s the difference?
A prime lens has a fixed focal length- you can’t zoom… Continue reading
