Published by Simon on 24 Jul 2009
As mentioned in a previous post, Microsoft Word is now, by default, saving files with a .docx extention. The problem is that anyone with older versions of Word - and that’s a lot of people - can’t read these files without downloading a patch.
If this is causing you a problem you can easily change the default setting in Word so that it saves all documents in the original .doc format. See this link for how to do it.
Published by Simon on 19 Jul 2009
How do we keep running the web site when we’re on holiday? There are some areas, such as e-mail, the blog and the forum, that I can access over the Internet but for anything else this could be a real problem.
The trouble is that, even with access to someone else’s computer, it won’t have all of the files and programs that we use. OK, so we could load everything on to a laptop and lug that around, but there’s an easier, free, solution that allows us to actually use the computer at home from any other computer, even if we’re abroad - as long as it’s switched on and connected to the Internet.
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Published by Simon on 18 Jul 2009
On more than one occasion I have been asked about how best to produce a web site for somebody’s club. Here’s one solution.
The aim of this article is to show you how to make a web site for your organisation for free using Google Sites. It will demand minimal expertise, not much more than basic word processing, and more than one person can have access to add content to the site.The information could all be obtained through Google, but this will give you a step-by-step guide to building a site without having to trawl through lots of help pages.
Download the full article in pdf format to print out (2.4 Mb). It’s 18 pages long, but the majority is made up of screen shots so that you can see what to do.
I have produced an example web site to go with the article. This also contains some further advice, such as how to optimise photographs and how to convert documents to pdf format.
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Published by Simon on 17 May 2009
“Quick, pass this on to everyone you know!” - How to decide if you should.
Most of us have had e-mails that start off along these lines. The message then goes on to warn you of some dire virus that anti-virus programs are powerless to defend you against, or that you will go into a draw to win some marvellous prize if you pass the mail on to at least 8 more people, or that you must never open an e-mail from Joe Bloggs because that will enable him to take over your computer - and possibly even the world!
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Published by Simon on 12 Oct 2008
Just a quick post prompted by yet another person telling me that the ‘Print Screen’ button on the keyboard is not working.
The ‘Print Screen’ button is located just to the right of the Function buttons on a full sized keyboard (F1, F2 etc.) It has ‘Prt Scr’ written above ‘SysRq’. Now, you might reasonably assume that pressing this button would cause a snapshot of the screen to appear from your printer. But no! What actually happens is that a snapshot of the screen is saved on the ‘clipboard’.
After pressing the ‘Prt Scr’ button you simply have to paste the contents of the clipboard into another program, such as Word. So, ‘Prt Scr’ to capture an image of the screen, open the program you want to use and then paste into a new document (right click on mouse and select paste) - now you can print it out!
Tip: If you have several windows showing on the screen and you only want to print one of them - click in the window you require, hold down the ‘Alt’ button (bottom left of keyboard) and whilst holding down the ‘Alt’ button press ‘Prt Scr’. Only the window you require will be copied to the clipboard.
Published by Simon on 30 Jan 2008
How come other computers can do £’s and mine can’t? All I get is #
It must be really annoying if your computer doesn’t do £ signs and you live in the UK. And it’s also frustrating when the @ symbol is in the wrong place.
If you’re having this problem it’s because the language settings on your computer are set to ‘English-US’ rather than ‘English-UK’. This is easily fixed.
There must be a lot of you out there because, from our web statistics, I can see that over 80% of our visitors come from the UK, but less than 10% of our visitors have ‘English-UK’ configured as the preferred language!
Here’s how to change the language setting.
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Published by Simon on 26 Jan 2008
OK, so you need to be able to create and read Microsoft Word, Excel or Power Point files. Why? Because in the real world that’s what nearly everyone else can do - and it’s handy if other people can read and print out that book you wrote and sent on disk! Equally handy if you can read what they sent you, and useful if you want to transport files between home and work or school.
Problem is how to do this without shelling out even more cash for Microsoft Office? In fact how can you do it for free?
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Published by Simon on 10 Jan 2008
Have you noticed that your computer seems to be slowing down as time goes on?
There can be a number of reasons for this, one of them being failure to keep on top of some basic housekeeping. If the terms ‘Disk Cleanup’ and ‘Defrag’ (defragment) don’t mean anything to you then the following should help you to speed things up on a Windows operating system.
Published by Simon on 04 Jan 2008
Eyes not what they used to be? Hate to admit it, but neither are mine - and I’m forever losing my glasses.
Well, over the past few years most web designers have put an awful lot of work into making their web sites easier to read. Trouble is, I find that most people don’t know how to take advantage of this fact.
How many of you know how to make everything on your computer easier to read? Maybe your hands aren’t as steady as they used to be and using the mouse is a pain, that can be sorted out quite easily too.
If you, or somebody you know, might benefit then read on…
Published by Simon on 30 Dec 2007
Feel safe because you’re using the Windows firewall? Don’t - it’s not very good. Firewall? What’s a firewall? Using the anti-virus program that came with your computer? Are you sure it’s up to date, and have you got anti-spyware software?
This posting tells you how to keep your data as secure as possible when connected to the Internet. And how you can do it for free! Oh! - and it’s easy.
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