tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50985993978233868942012-02-03T07:27:46.763-08:00practical how-tos from a novice computer geekAbbienoreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-53534010342400532142010-04-09T11:43:00.000-07:002012-01-18T11:08:12.052-08:00

Have Office 2007 or 2010? Have friends or colleagues with Office 2003? You can't open Office 2007 or higher files in Office 2003 without downloading a compatibility pack, but there's a very easy solution. Just save your 2007 projects as 97-2003 files. Go to the Office button and click "Save as". See the example from Word 2007 below. It's as easy as that. The file will be saved with an extension (

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-76079378173472963502010-01-25T09:35:00.000-08:002010-01-25T09:37:17.180-08:00

A common problem that novice computer users face is losing track of where their email attachments went on their computer, how to save them to their documents, the difference between viewing and saving, etc. Here's an intuitive article that may help clear up some of your confusion:Saving and Retrieving Attachments

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-39475613215441828902009-09-10T20:25:00.000-07:002009-09-10T20:45:15.474-07:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted on this blog. Today I'm going to list a few freebie programs that I have installed on my own laptop and have found very useful.1. PrimoPDFThis is a great little program for creating PDFs from Microsoft Word or other word processing programs. It acts as a printer, but instead of printing to a physical device it outputs the file to a PDF. Of course, make

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-65462547020659446482009-03-19T00:15:00.000-07:002012-01-18T11:09:25.752-08:00

Do you feel like everything on your screen is too big? Too small? Do websites feel too crowded, or graphically messed up? It could be your resolution, and if so, there's an easy fix. In Vista: 1. Right click your desktop and click "Personalize." 2. Click "Display settings." 3. Adjust your resolution. The higher the resolution, the smaller or more distant everything on your screen will

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-30812047132818139172009-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:002009-02-04T13:58:10.436-08:00

Regular backups are important. But they must be reliable. This funny video drives home the point. Enjoy! :)

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-48495963074405924212009-01-20T13:00:00.001-08:002012-01-18T11:10:50.496-08:00

By default, neither telnet server nor client is installed in Vista. This is very easy to fix. 1. Go to start, Control Panel, and open Programs and Features. 2. Click on the "Turn Windows features on or off" hyperlink. 3. In the Windows Features dialog box that appears, check one or both of the Telnet boxes, depending on your needs.

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-56014330705451351382009-01-10T23:00:00.000-08:002012-01-18T11:11:31.934-08:00

Do you get tired of typing jumbled characters to post a comment? This feature is supposed to keep blogs from getting spammed with advertising comments, but in my experience, this doesn't typically happen unless the blog has been left dormant and without updates for quite some time. If you have a Blogspot blog and you'd like to disable this feature for your readers, it's easy. When on your

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-87779902513831665032008-12-08T08:59:00.000-08:002009-01-10T23:08:37.975-08:00

I was exasperated with Vista and how slow it was running. I kept reading that changing themes would help performance, but I didn't want to give up the cool Aero features (switch between windows, thumbnail previews on taskbar, cool graphics, etc).Today, I gave it a try. I changed from Windows Vista Aero theme to Windows Vista Classic theme. It isn't pretty--in fact, it reminds me of Windows 2000.

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-67141864532837039462008-10-18T21:00:00.000-07:002009-01-10T23:08:54.864-08:00

I've had Vista on my personal laptop for over a month now. After upgrading to Vista Business and tweaking a few preferences, I've found that I can tolerate the operating system enough to where I'm not tempted to take a baseball bat to my monitor every twenty minutes. In hopes of encouraging those who are also stuck with Vista, I thought I'd highlight a few of its advantages over XP.Taskbar

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-52010903710702845602008-10-03T23:17:00.000-07:002009-01-10T23:09:08.157-08:00

School has me super occupied right now, and posting on this blog hasn't been at the top of my priority list. So here are just a couple of random tips for your reading pleasure.Looking for quality screen capture software? The Jing Project is a free download that I have been consistently using for school assignments. Easily capture screen activity for the whole desktop or just a selected area or

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-14185391916807544122008-09-24T23:33:00.001-07:002009-01-10T23:09:33.847-08:00

Alright...well since you are all simply GLUED to this exciting, informative, and revolutionary blog, you've been waiting for over a week now to hear about creating a system restore point, right? (Yeah...in case you haven't caught on yet, that was a joke.) Well I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not going to write about the promised System Restore Point yet. It'll come eventually, I promise. But

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-76435447010312040412008-09-09T23:31:00.001-07:002008-09-25T09:16:37.566-07:00

Ever wished you could keep your laptop from going into standby mode when you close the lid? Well, you can. Here's how to control what shutting your laptop does, in Windows Vista.1. Click on the Start button, and click on "Control Panel" to open it.2. Click on the "Mobile PC" hyperlink.3. Click "Power Options."4. Click the "Choose what closing the lid does" hyperlink in the left sidebar.5. Choose

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-83074575340121638482008-09-05T22:37:00.000-07:002008-09-25T09:16:37.567-07:00

One of the major complaints about the Windows Vista operating system is against the constant dialog boxes that pop up asking if you want to continue. Unless you're unsure with the cursor and have a propensity for clicking the wrong buttons, this "helpful" little feature is irksome and slows people down. The average user probably doesn't realize how easy it is to disable this feature, which is

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-26702359455430528252008-09-03T17:08:00.000-07:002008-09-03T17:11:43.969-07:00

A fellow computer geek, classmate, and friend of mine has an interesting and informative blog that he updates regularly. He is great at bringing insight to a wide variety of techy topics. Check it out here!

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-85836338673346217222008-09-02T21:43:00.000-07:002008-09-25T09:16:37.568-07:00

This is for the non-techy...ever wanted to give your computer a unique name? Many users never experience times when computer name means anything, but it does pop up occasionally, such as when the computer is part of a local workgroup. In situations like this, it is fun, and sometimes helpful, to have a memorable and unique computer name. To change your computer's name in the Windows Vista

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-9577207133704938472008-08-29T21:25:00.000-07:002008-09-25T09:17:21.469-07:00

When I was about halfway through a project of making 47 patch cables by hand, a friend pointed out that patch cables can be bought for less than a dollar each on various web sites. This post, therefore, is probably not very useful anymore...but it may come in handy if you ever have a few stray network cables that need to be a different length, or an RJ-45 connector gets damaged.You will need the

Abbienoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-82368668280508402312008-08-23T14:55:00.000-07:002008-08-31T15:16:56.242-07:00

What is Sysprep?Sysprep is a utility included with the Windows XP operating system that prepares the computer so that when it is restarted, it will execute what is called mini-setup. Depending on the settings you choose during Sysprep (see instructions below), mini-setup will ask you various questions about the installation, allowing you to customize specifics such as computer name, administrator

Abbienoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5098599397823386894.post-17818730824759315792008-08-22T22:27:00.000-07:002008-08-31T15:20:03.168-07:00

Stay tuned for first installment.

Abbienoreply@blogger.com0