Free Tips

TIP 1: Overheating Laptop
TIP 2: Dynamic DNS
TIP 3: Line Numbers in word
TIP 4: Deleting Multiple Instances of a Word in Your Document
TIP 5: Logo Positioning in Word Document
TIP 6: Change Your Excel Chart's Number Formats
TIP 7: Text Balance in Word
TIP 8: Adding Animation Effects to Your Word Documents
TIP 9: 10 Things to Know When Changing IT Vendors
TIP 10: Automatically Wake a Hibernating Windows XP Machine
TIP 11: Scheduling Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP
TIP 12: Parents Love and Hate the Internet
TIP 13: Get Your Bandwidth Back

Are you having trouble with your laptop locking up or freezing? It may be overheating! Try propping up the back of your laptop with a small book or some drink coasters. Laptops have fewer vent holes than desktops and tend to overheat more easily. Especially if you have a desktop replacement model.

TIP 2: Dynamic DNS Have you ever wanted to run a website on one of your PCs at home, but don't know how to because your IP address assigned by your Internet Service Provider is Dynamic (DHCP) and keeps changing? Ever heard of a service called Dynamic DNS? Go to www.dyndns.org to signup for a FREE account. You get to pick out a domain name of your choice within their network. Download the latest client software to your PC and follow the onscreen instructions. After the installation is complete, enter the credentials you supplied to www.dyndns.com to download the domain names linked to your account. This software runs in the background on your system tray. Everytime your IP address changes, it automatically updates your domain's IP address so your website visitors can always find your site.

Microsoft Word allows you to place line numbers beside each line in your document. The line numbers appear in the left hand margin. Line numbers can be useful when you need to reference specific lines within your document.

You can add line number to your document in Word 2002 by following the steps listed below:

1. From the File menu, click the Page Setup option.
2. Select the Layout tab.
3. Use the drop down arrow under the Apply to section to specify what part of the document the line numbering should apply to.
4. Click the Line Numbers button.
5. Click the Add line Numbering option.
6. Select the line number options you want and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the Page Setup option.

If you have multiple instances of a character or a word in your document that you want to delete, you have one of two options. You can manually search through the document and delete each instance. However, if your document is large, this can take quite some time to do. There is also the chance that you may miss some of the instances.

Another option you have is to use the Find and Replace option. From the Edit menu, click the Find option. Select the Replace option from the Find and Replace dialog box. In the Find what field, type in the word or character that you want to delete. Leave the Replace with field blank. Click the Replace All button. Word will indicate how many replacements were made. Each instance of the character or word that you typed in to the Find what field will be deleted from your document.

Position a logo along the side of a page in Word Objects created in WordArt may be convenient, but you can't move them around like other images. Mary Ann Richardson shows you how to get around this default setting by making the logo a floating object.

WordArt objects are inline objects by default. As a result, you can't rotate them, drag them around a blank page, or wrap text around them as you would other picture objects. For example, suppose you want the company logo you create in WordArt to run along the side of the page in the left margin of your document. You first have to reformat your logo as a floating object. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open a blank document and create your logo in WordArt.
    (You can find WordArt on the drawing toolbar.)
2. Click the WordArt Object and choose the Text Wrapping button in the WordArt toolbar.
3. Click Square.

You can now click and drag the green handle to rotate the object vertically. With the logo selected, press the left and up arrows on the keyboard until the object is situated along the left margin. You can now type your text to the right of the logo.

When you use Excel's Chart Wizard to create a chart, by default the chart takes on the number formats used in the worksheet that includes the charted data. Mary Ann Richardson shows you a way to change the number formats in the chartÑwithout having to change the worksheet formats.

A number format may look fine on a worksheet, but the same values may look awkward in an Excel chart. By default, charts use the same number format as the worksheet's original data series. The good news is you do not have to change the worksheet's formats in order to change the number formats on the chart sheet.

For example, your sales figures are in general format, but you want them to be in currency format on the chart's value axis. To change the format, follow these steps:

1. Double-click any number in the axis.
2. Click the Number tab of the Format Axis dialog box.
3. Choose Currency in the Category list.
4. Click OK.

If, however, you want your chart's number formats to correspond to the worksheet format, follow these steps:

1. Double-click any part of the chart that contains a number.
2. Select the Linked To Source check box on the Number tab of the Format dialog box.
3. Click OK.

Column-formatted text looks more professional with the text balanced across the columns. You don't have to manually set column breaks and move text around on a page to make your columns evenÑlet Word do the work for you. Follow these steps:

1. Click at the end of the columns you want to balance.
2. Go to Insert | Break.
3. Select Continuous and click OK.

Word inserts a continuous section break that automatically balances the text equally among the columns.

If you want to start a new page after the balanced columns, click after the continuous section break, and then insert a manual page break by pressing [Ctrl][Enter].

Another way that you can add some pizzazz to your Word documents is by using animation effects. For example, you can add a shimmering effect to a heading or add blinking lights around a block of text to grab your readers' attention. Word includes a list of different animation effects as you will see in the steps that are outlined below.

To apply animation to text:

1. Select the text that you want to apply the animation effects to.
2. From the Format menu along the toolbar, click Font.
3. Select the Text Effects tab. You will see a list of available animations.
4. Click an animation to see a preview at the bottom of the dialog box.
5. Select the animation that you want to use.
6. Click OK.

Whether you're hiring a new employee or switching to a new outsourced vendor, changing your current Information Technology solution can be risky business. Why? Perhaps more than in any other department, knowing what it takes to keep your technology systems running is knowledge seldom shared and rarely documented. Here are the ten things you need to know before making an IT change.

1. What You Have Start with an inventory of your hardware and software. Or, better yet, get your current IT person or firm to document it all for you, from your network devices to operating systems and software programs.
2. Who's Who? It would be surprising if you knew all your IT service providers; navigating a change is not when you want to be surprised. That's why you need a contact list of all your providers: telephone, data access, security, web site and email hosts, and any managed services. Be sure that you also have copies of all your current service agreements, as well as a clear understanding of what level of service they provide - for example, how long should it take for a response after you call.
3. How You Back-up Because data back-ups are among the most critical tasks your current IT person or firm handles, you could easily ask 10 questions about this area alone. How is the network backed-up? How often? What software is used, along with what hardware? Who does back-up verification? How often? Where are the back-ups stored? Who can retrieve back-ups? How are laptops included? Is there a plan for data restore? When was the system last tested?
4. The Passwords For many companies, the only person who knows the passwords is the now-former employee who just left. That's why you need to know every password as well, for hardware and software. But more than that, you also need to know who has access to the passwords and where a record of the passwords is kept. Once you change your support solution, change your passwords, too.
5. Disks and Docs All documentation, configuration and installation disks for both software and hardware need to be collected, cataloged and contained in one area. You also need to have the product license keys and purchase information (date and place of purchase, price paid) for every copy of software that's running on your network. These things are needed not only for troubleshooting the network, but the kind of trouble your company could face if its IT systems are ever audited by the Business Software Alliance. Without this information, your company might have to pay fines and replacement costs.
6. Maintenance Schedules Like regular oil changes to keep your car running well, IT systems need regular maintenance to keep them from breaking. In that case, you need to know what maintenance tasks are being performed, when and by whom. Daily, weekly and monthly checklists are a good idea no matter what, but are essential during the transition.
7. Expert Inspections When was the last time a "second set of eyes" looked at your network? Having an independent expert, whether it's a firm or a person, scour your computing infrastructure will ensure that your investment is protected and it may spot troubles before they start. For as little as a few hundred dollars, you could save far more in lawsuits, downtime, and data recovery.
8. Are You Secure? When people talk about security these days, the buzz is mostly about viruses and spam and hackers. But external threats are really only half of the equation. Your IT systems are much more likely to be breeched internally. To ensure your company's protection inside and out, have a written record of the security products and procedures, including rules of use for employees.

And, finally, you need the answers to two big questions:

9. Is your system compliant with current industry regulations?
10. Where is your key data (financial, customer, legal, product) stored and who knows how to access it?

TIP 10: Automatically Wake a Hibernating Windows XP Machine

Put your computer on a schedule! In this Windows XP tip, Greg Shultz describes how to use the Hibernation feature to schedule your desktop's wake up time.

If you use the Windows XP's Hibernation feature on your laptop or desktop to put your system to sleep at the end of the day rather turning it off, you can schedule your system to "wake up" in the morning. When you do so, your machine is ready and waiting for you just as if you left it on all night. Here's how to set up this schedule:

1. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks.
2. Launch the Scheduled Task Wizard by double-clicking Add Scheduled Task.
3. Click Next and select the program that you want to start when your system wakes up. Click Next.
4. In the following three screens, select the Daily option, the time that you want your system to wake up, and then type a username and password with Administrative privileges.
5. On the last page, select the Open Advanced Properties check box and click Finish.
6. When you see the Properties dialog box for the scheduled task, choose the Setting tab and select the Wake The Computer To Run This Task check box.
7. Click OK.

Now, you're computer will be ready and waiting for you each morning.
*Note: This tip applies to both Home and Professional editions.

TIP 11: Scheduling Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP

You can't schedule a defrag using Task Scheduler, but you can do it from a batch file. Greg Shultz explains how to schedule Windows XP's Disk Defragmenter.

The Microsoft Management Console houses the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter, which makes it impossible to schedule a regular defragmenting session via Task Scheduler. However, there's also a command line version of this utility, called Defrag.exe, that you can schedule. To do so, create a batch file that runs Defrag.exe along with the appropriate parameters, and then create a schedule to run your batch file.

To run Defrag from the batch file, use the following command line:

Defrag x: [/parameter]

In this command, x is the drive letter of the hard disk you want to defragment, and parameter is one of three optional settings that you can use to configure Defrag:

• /a: Analyzes the volume and displays a summary of the analysis report.
• /v: Displays the complete analysis and defragmentation reports. Can be used in combination with /a to display only the analysis report.
• /f: Forces defragmentation of the volume regardless of whether it needs to be defragmented.

Here's how to schedule the Disk Defragmenter:

1. Launch Notepad.
2. Type the appropriate Defrag command line.
3. Save the file as Defragger.bat.
4. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks.
5. Launch the Scheduled Task Wizard by double-clicking Add Scheduled Task.
6. Click Next and select Defragger.bat.
7. In the following three screens, select the Weekly or Monthly option, the time that you want to defragment your hard disk, and then type a username and password with Administrative privileges.
8. Click Finish.

Now, your computer will regularly run a defragmentation operation to keep your Windows XP system in tip-top shape!

OR;

There is also a utility Free and also scheduled... www.dirms.com has a newer version. I have the older version found on Download.com. I created a .bat file with the following text:

CMD /K C:\DIRMS\dirms.exe c DEFRAG
Which is sceduled everynight with task manager.
And you have GOT to give the guy credit for the name. It stands for "Do It Right MicroSoft"!

Windows Built-in Defragmentation program has limitations.

• Cannot perform On-the-Fly or scheduled defragmentation.
• Does not do a good job defragmenting drives that are very full or have very large files.
• Does not do partial file defragmentation.

For a more comprehensive defragmentation solution, please consider Diskeeper.

TIP 12: Parents Love and Hate the Internet

A recent survey posted by eMarketer reports that 85% of parents say the Internet poses the greatest risk to their children among all forms of media. As our kids remind us daily, they are more tech savvy than we are. That may be the case, but they aren't hip to real-world threats, such as online predators. Here are some tips for you to keep them safe.

Best regards,
Petronella Computer Consultants, Inc.
Safety Tips for Kids on the Net

1. Keep your computer in a common area in your home, like the living room or family room. If computers aren't in the bedroom, you're more likely to "check in" on their online activities and they are less likely to get into trouble on the Internet.
2. Talk to your children about appropriate behaviors on the Internet. It's important to stress that they simply don't know who could be on the other side of a chat session so they should never agree to meet someone in person.
3. If your kids use social sites like myspace.com , encourage them to use a nickname rather than their full name. They should NEVER give out personal information like a phone number or address.
4. Nothing can take the place of parents that play an active role in their children's online activities. However, parental control software adds a layer of defense that gives parents more control and further peace of mind. There are many programs on the market that make it easy to protect your kids on the Internet. Anonymizer recommends Net Nanny to keep your loved ones protected.

Net Nanny

Net Nanny 5.1, the world's leading parental control software, provides you with the broadest set of Internet safety tools available today. Net Nanny gives you control over what comes into and goes out of your home through your Internet connection, including access to Web sites, content such as Internet-based games, blocks file sharing of music, images and videos, and monitors a user's Internet activity. Net Nanny is easier to install and configure than any similar product available today.

TIP 13: Get Your Bandwidth Back

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for its own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc.)

Here's how to get it back:

1. Click Start / Run
2. Type: gpedit.msc
3. This opens the group policy editor.
4. Then go to: Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Network / QOS Packet Scheduler / Limit Reservable Bandwidth
5. Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab:

"By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."

So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.