If you want to backup your DVD’s many times the data on the disc goes over the 4.7GB mark. The most reliable software solution I use is DVD Shrink. This free application allows you to compress various parts of the DVD you want to backup. You can get rid of titles, long credit endings, and completely backup and entire DVD to your Hard Drive. You can also compress audio, delete extra languages, in fact you can completely re-author an entire DVD! When used with DVD burning software such as Nero it is a breeze to backup your DVD collection.
So you’ve got MySQL on your web server, but it’s only opened to local ports by default for security reasons. If you want to access your database from a client tool like the MySQL Query Browser, normally you’d have to open up access from your local IP address… but that’s not nearly as secure.
After a dozen times of accidentally sending a Word 2007 document to co-workers still stuck on Office 2003, I’ve decided to make Word save in the Word 2003 format by default. (you can do the same thing in Excel)
When I need to perform a repetitive task such as checking my email or switching to an open IM window, the quickest option is to assign a hotkey directly to the window, so I can toggle the window minimized/restored with nothing more than a single keystroke.
With all the hype about the Ribbon, one of the more overlooked new features in Office 2007 is the Quick Access toolbar, which can be tremendously useful if you just take the time to customize it.
If you are like me, you’ve just gotten the news about the new Google Desktop client for Linux, and you are removing the current Beagle search for Ubuntu so you can replace it with Google instead.
If you’ve been using the default movie player in Ubuntu to play videos, you might have noticed that there’s no way in the application to clear the recent history of watched movies. This could cause issues if you happened to open a video that you don’t want other people to see in your list.
The new taskbar previews in Windows Vista are pretty slick, but they seem to stop working for me after a while. This isn’t a permanent fix, but it does solve the problem on a temporary basis.
The new Explorer window in Windows 7 and Vista doesn’t have an Up button, which drives me completely batty. Thankfully I found a keyboard shortcut replacement.
Whenever you enter user credentials into Internet Explorer, map a drive to a remote server, or connect to a Windows domain, you are given the opportunity to save your password. What you may not realize is that you can backup or restore the list of those credentials using a mostly hidden control panel utility.
Windows is well-known for having driver and .dll conflicts, as well as all sorts of software that causes problems with your computer. Luckily there’s a System restore feature that can return your computer back to a known working configuration, as long as you’ve created a restore point.
One of the more frustrating tasks in Word has is trying to continue a numbered list when it gets broken. In Word 2007 you can use the smart tags to easily continue the numbered list.
If you have large and long workbooks or Excel spreadsheets, being able to see the column or row labels is extremely important. Here is a quick way to freeze the labels in place for fast and easy viewing of your data.
I am the IT Administrator at an electric cooperative. Being that we geeks work with electronic components constantly it would be a shame if I didn’t cover the compact fluorescent bulb (CFL’s). CFL’s are those crazy spiral bulbs you are seeing more and more of everyday. These bulbs are highly efficient compared to the old standard light bulb.
When I switched to Vista, one of the biggest annoyances was that Trillian started opening links in Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, even though Firefox is set as my default browser and works everywhere else.
The Keyboard Ninja uses shortcut keys to accomplish tasks in less time than using the mouse. He uses the keyboard to launch applications, switch between windows or tabs, or change settings on his computer.
If you frequently use Microsoft Word and want to achieve Keyboard Ninja status, you need to learn how to add tables to your Word document without touching the mouse.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the mouse was probably the greatest innovation in computing since the silicon chip, but for a power user it’s really the slowest form of input. Taking your hands off the keyboard to reach for your mouse takes easily 500 ms of time, if you’re fast. Add to that the time to actually find the cursor (no small feat on high resolution screens), and the time to find and click on that one tiny icon you need, and you’re talking some serious productivity cramping. Of course, you could always be one of those *nix rebels who refuse to use any graphical environment, but what’s the fun of using bash, VI and command-line compilers for the rest of your days?
Instead of using the standard white background with Word documents, here is how to add some background color to spice up your documents.
By Default Excel does not print out gridlines with your Excel data. Here is how to make Excel print out the gridlines for easier document readability.
Like everything in Excel, you can customize the way your worksheet looks by changing the color of the gridlines to something festive.
If you’ve installed a new driver that is causing problems on your computer, you can easily roll back to the prior version of the driver with a few simple steps.
Of course I am always trying new ones as they come out and if I ever get time would like to create my own.
When your documents include pictures, charts, or other graphics it’s nice to add a caption to describe more to the reader.
So you are using the killer Amarok music application under Ubuntu, but when you try to “Burn this Album”, the menu item is grayed out and otherwise disabled. The reason for this is because Amarok is a KDE application designed to work with K3b, the cd burning application for KDE, but it’s not installed by default in Ubuntu. (For that matter, neither is Amarok)
