You Don't Always Need to Pay Top Dollar

Have you shopped at Sears Outlet or JC Penney’s Outlet stores? Then you know there are good deals to be had. But what about computers? Checkout http://www.dell.com/outlet the Dell Outlet store. If you’re looking for a new system for home, check out the deals. If you see a great buy, add it to your shopping cart, because they do disappear fast (the shopping cart will keep an item reserved for you for up to 15 minutes).
Thanks to Bob Epp and Nick Greenup for this tip.

Finding Those Hotspots

Are you traveling soon and needing wireless access for your laptop or handheld device? Go to http://www.jiwire.com/ and in the left margin, indicate your search criterion (try Lahaina, Hawaii) and click the Find Hotspots button. Go down to any of the listed Hotspots. You’ll find 16 hotspots near the center of Lahaina including everything from McDonald’s to Barnes & Noble to Penny’s Place Bed and Breakfast on the list. If you're looking for local wireless Internet connectivity, just list Overland Park or Lenexa or whatever city you wish.

No Need to Worry About Obsolete Skills

While my usual practice is to list tips and techniques that help add to your "digital skill bank," there are some skills that you probably do not need to acquire. Just for fun, check out: http://obsoleteskills.com/Skills/Skills.

Scheduling Meetings in Outlook

There's an easier way to schedule a meeting besides sending multiple email messages to everyone and waiting (hoping) for a response. If all participants are using Outlook and the Outlook Calendar, you can:

1. Click Calendar.
2. On the Actions menu, click Plan a Meeting.
3. Click Add Others, and then click Add from Address Book.
4. Type the desired name(s) in the Search name field or scroll through the list of names and double-click to add to the Required list of attendees.
5. For each name entered, by default their attendance is Required, but you can change to Optional (The Required and Optional attendees appear in the To box of the meeting request).
6. Click a time when all invitees are available. You can use AutoPick Next to find the next available free time for all invitees. If you don't like the first AutoPick time, click AutoPick Next again, and again.
7. Click Make Meeting to actually schedule the meeting.
8. In the Subject box, type a description.
9. If you did not schedule a room, enter the location in the Location box.*
10. If you want to make the meeting recurring, click Recurrence, and then select the recurrence pattern.
11. Select any other options you want.
12. Click Send.

Each invited guest will then receive a meeting request in their email and can accept the invitation, tentatively accept, decline, or suggest a new meeting date and/or time.

*You can also attach the agenda for the meeting either as a separate file or in the text window at the bottom of the Meeting dialog box.

So why are you not using the Meeting Request feature of Outlook?

Warning, Forward to ALL Your Friends (Not Really!)

Have you ever received an email message about the following?

• The postcard/greeting card virus or
• Cell phone directory’s being made available to telemarketers or
• An email plea to help find Ashley Flores a missing child or
• A warning about bacteria on lemon wedges in restaurant water or
• The 809 Area Code Scam or
• The “Slow Dance” poem message (forward and the American Cancer Society will receive a donation) or
• The Microsoft/Bill Gates/AOL Giveaway or
• The ATM reverse PIN (summons police).

Only one is true and another partially true. You can check out http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ or http://www.snopes.com/, but your options for verifying whether an email message is a hoax or a scam are not limited to those two sites. Take a look at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBOtherHoaxPages.html which lists other Hoax/scam verifying sites...and have fun reading.

Remember, the most prolific SPAM generators are folks who forward untrue email messages warning their friends of impending dangers!

I Have an Account with Them?

If you receive email from a firm whose name you recognize (such as Smith Barney, PayPal, First Bank) but you've never done business with them, don't open it, don't be curious, just delete the message--especially if the message is part of a barrage of email messages purportedly from the company.

Disabling AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word 2004 - Mac Version

You can control how AutoCorrect affects you documents from the AutoCorrect dialog box. This is found under Tools, Autocorrect. (Fig. 1).





There are four tabs at the top of this dialog box, AutoCorrect, AutoFormat As You Type, Auto Text, and AutoFormat (Fig. 2). Selecting a tab reveals the available options in the form of check boxes. Check or uncheck a selection to enable or disable it . These changes will remain effective until the next time you change them.

For those who have found the AutoCorrect feature of Word frustrating, it is tempting to just turn everything off. You, of course, may do this, but you run the risk of “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. It is worth taking the time to examine each of these choices to see which options may actually increase productivity for the way you use Word.


It is important that you examine the options under each of the tabs as several are repeated under more than one tab. Disabling one of the many AutoCorrect features may require that you uncheck its box under more than one tab. For example, automatic bulleted lists is an option under both the AutoFormat As You Type and the AutoFormat tabs. If you want this feature disabled, you must uncheck it under both these tabs.

Thanks to Bob Epp for this tip.

Mini-definitions - Spyware, Adware, and Browser-Hijacking

Language can clarify or confuse. If you don't know the terminology, you're at a disadvantage. Over the past couple of years, there's been a lot of discussion of unwanted, intrusive software. Three terms commonly used are spyware, adware, and browser-hijacking software. Do you know the difference?

Here are mini-definitions of these three aggressive types of software.

• Adware displays (typically) pop-up ads while you're online. The software tracks and reports your Internet habits ostensibly to tailor ads to your personal needs based on your Internet browsing.
• Spyware reports information to a third party about your computer system without your knowledge.
• Browser-hijacking software literally hijacks your computer, slows down your Internet connection (because it is using the bandwidth and your computer's processing for its own purposes), redirects you to advertisers or specific web sites, and changes your browser settings, without your permission or knowledge.

Programs like Symantec Anti-virus, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Spy Sweeper are designed to try to protect your system from these types of threats.

Right Click What?

Want to open up Windows Explorer quickly? Right-click on Start Menu and select Explore.

Typing a letter in Microsoft Word and want to change the font for a word or phrase? Select the text, right-click on the text and select the Font option on the pop-up menu. Try a right-click here and there in any Windows application and explore the context sensitive pop-up menu that appears. You’ll have lots of options without moving your mouse to the Menu or Button Bar.

Expand Your Contacts

Are you getting email from someone you want to add to your Outlook Contacts (so you can find their email address easily)? Just do the following:

1. Open an email address from the person in Outlook.
2. Right click (not a left click) the From: field information in the message.
3. When a pop-up menu appears click Add to Outlook Contacts.
4. A New Contact form appears with the information derived from the email address. You can enter additional information.
5. Click the Save and Close button when finished. If you already have a contact form created for this person/business, Outlook will alert you and let you choose which data to save or enable you to update the old record.

This means that next time you want to email to that person, their contact information will be available in your Contacts.

Multiple Windows, Multiple Options

Unwanted pop-up windows can be a pest but you can use this capability (having multiple windows open) to your advantage too. In any version of Windows, you can open multiple occurrences of the same application or have multiple applications running simultaneously. I often see computer users close one application to open another and it's rarely necessary.

Just be aware that you can use the Alt+Tab key combination to jump easily from one open application or window to the next. If you have multiple applications open, hold down the Alt key and press Tab to cycle through those open applications. You'll see a little window appear in the middle of your screen with icons representing each open application. As each is highlighted (by pressing Tab again), you'll see a description of that application (such as "Memo.doc -Microsoft Word" or "Inbox - Microsoft Outlook"). Release the Alt and Tab keys when you highlight the application or window to which you want to jump.

You can also click on one of the tabs on the Task Bar (bottom of the screen) to jump quickly between applications. The tabs are labeled with the name (or an abbreviation) representing the "process" running in that window.

When would you want to run multiple occurrences of the same application? How about if you want to copy files from one location to another without scrolling upon and down a long list of folders? Simply open two occurrences of Microsoft Explorer--one pointed at the source folder and the other at the target folder.

Save the Trees, Use eDocuments

You know there's no such thing as a paperless meeting, but you can at least avoid printing 15 copies of a handout and then having only 8 people show up. Simply attach any documents (handouts, agenda, etc) to your Meeting Request using Outlook. Then if the participants plan to attend, invite them to bring their own copy. An even better solution is to use a SharePoint site, in which case you can place the document on the SharePoint site in the Shared Documents area and provide all attendees with a URL to the document. The latter method avoids creating digital duplicate copies of the same document (one attached to each message you send) which adds to the workload of the mail server.

Get Up to Speed Fast with Word 2007 Tutorial

JCCC will be moving to Office 2007 this Spring (dates yet to be announced) which includes Word 2007. If you’re already using Word 2007 at home, there’s a nice little tutorial demo that you might find helpful. Otherwise, bookmark it and use it later when you want to get up to speed on Word 2007’s basic features:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100484691033.aspx

Thanks to Tracy Newman for pointing out this online tutorial.

How Do You Pronounce That?

Are you not part of the “Hooked on Phonics” generation and sometimes unsure of the correct pronunciation of specific words? Try utilizing http://www.merriam-webster.com/. As an example:

1. Type (in the Merriam-Webster Online Search text box at the top of the screen): Nevada
2. Press Enter or click the Search button.
3. When the word and its definition appears, click the speaker icon that follows the word. Nevada has two icons, meaning there are two acceptable pronunciations, except in Nevada.
4. Be sure to turn on your speakers.
5. Click one of the speaker icons and a pop-up window appears. You’ll hear one of the acceptable pronunciations of the word spoken.
6. Next, click the other speaker icon to hear an alternative pronunciation.

While you’re exploring, select the Medical radio button and type a medical term…for a definition. You’ll also see additional links to related resources.

What Did You Change?

Have you ever received a document from someone and needed to suggest a few changes but were not sure how to highlight the changes for them? In Microsoft Word, you can select the Tools --> Track Changes command (Ctrl+Shift+E). That command works like a toggle. If Track Changes is turned on (Office 2003), you'll see TRK on the status bar at the bottom of the Word window.

Once you've turned on this feature, any changes made to the document are highlighted in a different color (by default red for the first reviewer, blue for the second). So changes you send to others are obvious. Or changes they send to you, if they turn on the Track Revisions feature, are equally obvious.

Know Your "Subject" Line

When you receive a piece of mail at home, you can usually make some basic assumptions in the blink of an eye about its value and importance. Based on past experience, you can tell if it’s a piece of junk mail or a personal note; a solicitation for yet another credit card or an important bill.

People make those same assumptions when they open their email box and scan all the new arrivals. That’s why, if you want your message to be read, you should effectively use the subject line to clearly identify the topic. Your subject line should be informative and should not be left blank. In fact, if you send or receive a message without a subject line, it’s a prime candidate for deletion. It's always best to make your subject line descriptive of the content of your message.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If there are actions you perform repeatedly in one of the Microsoft Office applications or in Microsoft Windows, you can often save considerable time by using a keyboard shortcut, rather than re-positioning the mouse pointer and clicking. Microsoft offers a nice web site with all of the shortcuts listed. Check out: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/compshortcuts.mspx.

Some of the more common and helpful short cuts include:

• Ctrl+C to copy selected text
• Ctrl+X to cut selected text
• Ctrl+V to paste selected text
• Ctrl+S to save

Mac users can substitute the Command (Open Apple) key for Ctrl.

Accessing a Visual Dictionary

Need to find the right word but don't know where to begin? Try the Visual Dictionary.

http://visual.merriam-webster.com

"The Visual Dictionary is designed to help you find the right word at a glance. Filled with stunning illustrations labeled with accurate terminology in up to six languages, it is the ideal language-learning and vocabulary dictionary for use at school, at home or at work. When you know what something looks like but not what it’s called, or when you know the word but can’t picture the object, The Visual Dictionary has the answer. In a quick look, you can match the word to the image."

Thanks to Nick Greenup for this tip.

Transfering Files From One Mac to Another Using Firewire

It is easy to transfer information between 2 Macintosh computers using only a firewire connection/cable. To start the connection, boot the first computer (with information you want to transfer or access) by holding down the T key. This boots the computer into firewire transfer mode and flashes a firewire symbol on its screen (to indicate the system is ready to operate in firewire transfer mode). Connect this Macintosh computer using a firewire cable to a second Mac computer. The first Mac computer’s hard drive (e.g., the one in T mode) will show up on the desktop of the second Mac just like any connected drive. Now you can drag and drop files from one Mac to the other. You can also use this procedure to restore a hard drive using a previously saved backup disk image.

Thanks to Bob Epp for this tip.

Creating Quizzes & Tests or Educational Games

You don't have to be a Blackboard user to benefit from Respondus (a quiz/test generator) or StudyMate (an educational game generator). JCCC has a campus license for both applications, so the software is available for JCCC faculty & staff use.

If you want to find out more about Respondus and StudyMate, try the following site--maintained by the application developers:
http://www.respondus.com/update/archives.shtml