Sudhir Diddee, the author of the book, was kind enough to do a giveaway of his book on our blog AND he has provided us one of the chapters in his book to give away for free to our readers!

The free chapter is the first chapter in the book and covers some great Windows 7 tips and tricks that you might not know existed — like Windows Snap, Aero Shake, Sticky Notes, Quick Launch, the Problem Steps Recorder and how to connect to a Projector with a keyboard shortcut.

Download your free book chapter today!

Enter to Win a Free Signed Copy of the Book!

There’s still time to enter to win a signed copy of Sudhir Diddee’s Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips. All you have to do is share your favorite Windows or Office shortcut, tip or trick in the comments section of this blog post before Monday, January 30^th.

Learn more and enter to win today!

Recently, I came across a great book that offers some very unique Windows 7 and Office 2010 tips that have proven to be huge time-savers for me.

The book, written by Sudhir Diddee who is a Microsoft employee, is titled Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips and lists 99 tips on Windows, OneNote, Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and more.

Each of the 99 tips is presented with a short scenario explaining the benefits of the tip and when and how to take advantage of it.

Increase Your Productivity with 99 Time-Saving Tips

If you’re wanting to be more productive — or you’d like to help someone else get more done — check out Sudhir’s book:

• Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips – Kindle Edition
• Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips – Nook Edition
• Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips – Paperback Black & White Edition
• Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips – Paperback Color Edition

Book Giveaway: Enter to Win Before January 30^th, 2012

Sudhir was kind enough to sign 3 copies of his new book (paperback color edition) and we will be giving them away on Tuesday, January 31^st 2012. Which means you have until then to submit your entry to win one of the books.

To enter to win all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your favorite Windows or Office shortcut, tip or trick — something you use on a daily basis that helps you save time and be more productive.

Please read the official contest rules at the end of this post and best of luck!

My Favorite “Priceless Computer Tip”

Now, let me tell you about my favorite new tip.

While reading Sudhir’s book I came across tip #19 on setting up rules in Outlook 2010. Of course, I knew about this popular Outlook feature but never truly understood the benefit until reading this scenario and seeing how different rules can help organize my inbox for me. I get so much email, having to manage multiple inboxes, that I truly feel overwhelmed and keeping my inboxes empty has become mission impossible.

Here’s how Sudhir explains the benefits of Outlook rules in his book:

“One of the biggest problems people face is e-mail overload. However, most of the e-mail can be easily managed by setting rules where e-mails from certain people or teams can go directly into a particular folder. For example, e-mails from your manager can be routed into a separate folder. E-mails sent to you where you are in the “cc line” can go to a different folder, or your e-mail stock alerts can go to your investing folder.”

This short description is followed by detailed steps and diagrams that show you how to create and edit rules in Outlook.

After spending approximately 30 minutes setting up my Outlook rules I now get to save at least 30 minutes each day not having to organize my emails by priority before tackling the responses. My New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to keep up with my emails and I’m confident that this quick tip will help stay on top of my mail.

So, that’s my favorite new tip. What’s yours?

Official Contest Rules:

Please read through all of the official stuff below before entering:

No purchase necessary to enter or win. By entering you agree to our use of your name in any TrainSignal literature.

Binding Agreement
In order to enter TrainSignal’s Priceless Computer Tips at Your Fingertips Book Giveaway (the “Contest”), you must agree to these Official Contest Rules (the “Rules”); please read this entire document prior to entry to ensure you understand and agree. You agree that submission of an entry in the Contest constitutes agreement to the Rules. The Rules form a binding legal agreement between you and TrainSignal, Inc with respect to the Contest.

Eligibility
The Contest is open to all individuals 18 years and older. Current TrainSignal employees are not eligible. Only one entry per person, per day. In order for your entry to be eligible it must meet all of the requirements as listed above. Entries that do not include all of the requirements are deemed ineligible.

How to Enter
To enter the contest you must submit a comment listing your favorite Windows or Office tip, trick or shortcut. Any comments submitted that do not include this will not be eligible to win. You must submit your comment before January 22nd, 2012. Any entries received after the contest deadline will be deemed invalid.

Prizes
All Prizes are not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded. By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her name and municipality of residence for promotion and advertising purposes as deemed appropriate by TrainSignal, Inc. Any potential winner who cannot be contacted by email within 14 days of the first attempted notification will forfeit his/her prize.

Privacy
Participants agree that personal data including name, mailing address, phone number and email address will be collected and used for purposes of administering the Contest. If a Participant does not provide the required data when requested, the Participant’s Entry will be ineligible for any prizes. All personal data collected will be maintained in accordance with Train Signal’s Privacy Policy which all Participants should read and understand.

Contest Sponsor
The Contest is sponsored by TrainSignal, Inc, 152 W. Center Court, Schaumburg, Illinois 60462.

With Windows 7 Libraries, you can save your files in multiple folders and then add those folders to your Library for easy access. So for example, your Picture Library can include multiple locations where you store your photos and other images.

In this video you’ll learn how Windows 7 Libraries work, how you can add multiple locations to your Libraries and view your files in different ways so that finding what you’re looking for is that much easier.

Learn more about the Microsoft Windows operating system with our Windows 7 Training courses.

See how you can increase your productivity by utilizing some simple hot keys on your Windows 7 computer.

Geeks pride themselves on performing all actions through keyboard, without using a mouse or other optical input devices. In fact, I have seen a few who discuss different combinations in depth as though it is an ambiguous theological topic.

I am a semi-keyboarder and a Microsoft user. I have used Microsoft products since inception and the keyboard shortcuts have pretty much stayed constant throughout. With the addition of new products, new ones were added and few were modified.

The new kid in town, Microsoft Office 2010 inherits most of the keyboard shortcuts from its predecessor, Office 2007, with some enhancements of its own.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common and most useful keyboard shortcuts, the available shortcuts in the new Ribbon interface, how to customize the Ribbon interface and modify your shortcuts all in Office 2010.

Basic Office 2010 Keyboard Shortcuts

These are pretty basic. If you are a newbie to desktop publishing tools, you might be interested in running through the following combinations.

CTRL + C – copy selection

CTRL + V – paste selection

CTRL + X – cut selection

CTRL + Z – undo action

CTRL + Y – repeat action

CTRL + B – bold text

CTRL + I – italicize text

CTRL + U – underline text

CTRL + HOME – navigate to beginning of the document/sheet

CTRL + END – navigate to end of the document/sheet

CTRL + F – find text

CTRL + H – find and replace text

CTRL + K – add hyperlink to selection

CTRL + P – print document/sheet

CTRL + S – save document/sheet

F12 – save as document/sheet

Office 2010 Ribbon Interface

Microsoft brought in a new interface called the ribbon with Microsoft 2007. It replaced the legendary icons and the menu bar. The ribbon interface in 2007 was rigid, meaning you couldn’t customize it as you would have liked, unless you dug deeper into the XML files.

In Office 2010, the software giant has given the control to the user, which, according to me is the right way forward. If you look at the previous MS Office products, it always let you set your own icons, at desired positions. It could very well be that Microsoft was toying around with a new ribbon interface and didn’t want to take a chance by launching all possible features at once. And, they needed yet another feather for their future release – 2010.

Ribbon interface is based on tabs. Each menu item is a tab, and when active, it displays a set of icons. The image shown above is the ribbon interface used in Microsoft Excel 2010.

Keyboard Shortcuts Within the Office 2010 Ribbon Interface

I mentioned earlier that using shortcuts require some memory power, but for those who find it difficult to remember, Microsoft has offered an olive branch – with cheat sheets. Associated shortcuts (christened as KeyTips) are displayed on the screen by pressing the Alt key. The image below illustrates it.

Initially, KeyTips for tabs are visible. Hitting the corresponding tab KeyTip opens up an array of KeyTips for the individual commands.

Let’s say I am using Microsoft Word 2010 and I am in the middle of an article, and I want to insert a table. I will start with the Alt key. Tables come under Insert tab – KeyTip N.

I can see the KeyTip T against the Table command. Hitting T displays some more KeyTips that are associated with tables. At this juncture, I want to insert a table, KeyTip I it is.

If you are familiar with tables within MS Word, a command to insert a table throws a dialog box open in which you need to choose the number of columns and rows, along with the other options – which are generally kept at default.

To move between the options in a dialog without using a mouse is simple enough. Hit the Tab key to shift from field to another – direction is from left to right and top to bottom. Once you land the cursor in a field, enter desired numbers or change the options around using the arrow keys (radio buttons). I moved top to bottom by hitting Tab, and to move one step back, Shift+Tab will do the trick – right to left and bottom to top.

Customizing the Office 2010 Ribbon Interface

Microsoft Office 2010 not only displays the shortcut keys but it lets you create your own ribbon and design it with the commands of your choice, including the KeyTips. The feature of putting up icons of your choice existed in MS Offices prior to 2007, and is now reintroduced in the form of ribbons.

To create your own tab (ribbon), do the following:

Step 1: Click on File -> Options

Step 2: On the sidebar, locate and click Customize Ribbons

Step 3: You will find two sets of commands. The one on the left is the available commands that you can readily use, and the one on the right are your existing ribbons. You can either modify an existing tab or create a new one. I am going to run you through the process to create a new tab and load it with the buttons of your choice.

Step 4: Beneath the right set of commands, New Tab button is used to create a new tab and each functional item under it is called as a group. You can add commands from the left window and drag it into your new tab->group.

Step 5: Let’s say I want to create a new tab called Abs and want to have basic commands such as copy, paste and cut in it. I click on New Tab, and a tab named New Tab and a group named New Group appears in the right window. Highlight the New Tab and click on Rename to key in the name Abs. Drag the commands Copy, Paste and Cut from the left window onto the New Group (groups can renamed in similar fashion as well) one after another. Hit OK to save the changes you have made. Voila! A new tab is created with the commands of your choice.

Step 6: You can export the new tabs you have created, and all other settings you make to the ribbons by using the Import/Export option available in the same window. The output is an Office UI file which can be used on any machine running Microsoft Office 2010.

How to Modify Shortcuts in Office 2010

Step 1: KeyTips for tabs are allocated automatically by the software, including for the customized tabs. There is no option to change them. As seen in the image below, the new tab Abs is assigned Y.

Step 2: To assign a shortcut key to a command, Click on File -> Options -> Customize Ribbons and hit Customize beneath the left pane.

Step 3: Find the command in the right window which you wish to assign a new shortcut. I think we use the Paste command more than Print, and hence Paste should have the shortcut Ctrl+P. I am going to change it in my system. You should too.

Step 4: Locate the Paste command under the Home tab. You can see the existing shortcuts under Current keys and a blank field – Press new shortcut key.

Step 5: Move the cursor to Press new shortcut key and hit Ctrl+P. The new shortcut key appears and it also lets you know that it is currently assigned to Print. Assign to assign the new shortcut key for Paste command. Remember to go back over to the Print command and assign a new shortcut for the newly orphaned command.

Step 6: The shortcuts you assign can be set across the application or just the document you are working on. Save changes in option located in the same window gives you the choices of Normal and the document that is open. Selecting Normal will change the shortcut in the application, and selecting the document will affect the document alone.

While huge improvements have been made since the first release of Microsoft Office, the truth is, there is no one configuration that works for everyone. We have seen customization options in the past, but it usually took quite a bit of trial and error before getting the right menu system without filling up your screen with toolbars.

In Office 2010, Microsoft has introduced the ribbon in all of its applications, including Outlook and OneNote.

The ribbon is basically a standardized bar that holds all of your tools and actions. What I like most about the Office ribbon is that it is always the same size; I always had trouble getting all of my tools to fit just right in past versions of Microsoft Office; with the ribbon, if you add too many tools to one tab, they are condensed into a drop-down style box.

Office 2010 Ribbon: Initial Thoughts

To be completely honest, I wasn’t very excited about the method Microsoft decided to use to customize the ribbon. The interface seems clunky and complicated, a huge contrast compared to the clean ribbon interface. However, it is manageable and does what it’s supposed to. Once you get the hang of the customization menu structure, it’s actually not that hard to manage.

Customizing the Office 2010 Ribbon: Getting Started

You can start customizing your ribbon by right clicking anywhere on the ribbon, and choosing “Customize the ribbon …” You can alternatively click on “File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon.” But I find the first method to be faster and easier to remember.

After clicking, you’ll be taken to a customization interface similar to this one. (There may be slight differences based on what product you are customizing for.)

This is where things start to look complicated, so let’s take a look at what’s shown here. On the left, you’ll see Microsoft Office’s general configuration tabs, since we’re only working on the ribbon, we don’t have to worry about any of these.

On the right, we have to sections. The section on the right is your current ribbon. The section on the left is where all of the possible commands, tools, and actions are stored. So the way customizing works so far, is you choose a tool on the left, click on “Add > >” in the center, and it will be added to your ribbon. To remove a tool, click on a tool already on your ribbon on the right, and click on “< < Remove” in the center.

From Menus to Ribbons

You might be thinking to yourself, “My ribbon is linear, this is a menu structure …” To better understand the menu structure, we’ll take a look at how they relate to the ribbon itself. The menu structure in the customization interface is 3 layers deep, the first layer is the tab, the second layer is the group, and the third layer is the tool.

If you take a look at this comparison, you’ll see how the menu structure relates to the ribbon. In red is the tab, in green is the group, and in blue is the tool. You can also add a deeper layer, turning a tool into a drop-down menu, as you can see with the “Paste” tool.

Making the Office 2010 Ribbon Yours

Now that I’ve explained how the customization interface works, let’s get into the customizations themselves. I find it easiest to take one tab at a time. It’s important to note that you cannot modify pre-existing tabs, so the best thing to do would be to disable the first tab, and create your own to replace it.

You can rename a tab by clicking on the item and then clicking the “Rename” button below. Alternatively you can right click on the item and then click “Rename” from the drop down menu. Once you have your tab and group named, you can start dragging your favorite (most used) tools and actions into the group. Note that while you can drag tools into the ribbon menu to add a tool, you cannot drag them out to remove them. You must click on the “Remove” button in between the menus.

Types of Tools in Office 2010

You may notice that some tools contain small icons to the right of their names. These icons note special functions that the tool includes. (Shown below in green.)

There are four types of tools you’ll run across. The first is a tool with no icon; this type of tool is one that requires no other action, such as the “Bold” or “Italic” tools. The next is a tool with an arrow as an icon; these tools contain a drop down menu with special options, such as the “Breaks” tool. The next type of tool has the same arrow, but this time with a small line before it; this type of tool contains multiple levels of options available. The final tool type contains an icon with a typing curser and a down arrow; this type of tool will have a user editable drop down menu, for example, the “Font Size” tool allows for both drop down options, and user input.

Working Across Computers

After reading through, you’ll probably realize that customizing is a lot of work. It would be really inconvenient to have to make these same modifications on multiple computers you own, or even just on your personal and work machines. Luckily, on the bottom right hand side of the customization page, you’ll notice an “Import/Export” function. You can use this to not only export from one machine and import on another, but you can also use exported ribbons as a backup method just in case you lose your current settings.

Conclusion

While I do think that the customization interface chosen for Microsoft Office 2010 is a bit crowded, it does the job quite well. If you set aside some time to customize your ribbon, you’ll save loads of time searching for tools in the future.

When it comes to productivity and getting things done quickly, all of the shortcuts and hotkeys in the world won’t help if your computer’s performance isn’t as quick as you are. So the first tip is one to help reduce bottlenecking by ensuring there are no unnecessary processes and services using up valuable CPU, memory, and Hard Drive resources.

Windows 7 Resource Manager

The Windows 7 Resource Manager is your window to every thread, process, and service running on your machine. Even services and processes that do not show up in Windows Task Manager show up in the Resource Manager with a wealth of extra information available to help you decide what you need, and what you don’t.

Upon opening the Resource Monitor, the first thing you’ll notice is the overview page which includes a summary for the current CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory usage.

By visiting the different individual tabs, you can find which items are using the most resources, a quick Google search for the item name will usually let you know if it needs to be running or not. In most cases, even under new Windows installs, this can greatly increase the available resources on your PC.

Windows 7 Advanced Control Panel aka “God Mode”

During the beta stages of Windows 7, an advanced Control Panel was available for a short amount of time before finally being scrapped in the final release of Windows 7.

Being called various names across the internet including “God Mode,” “Control Panel Plus,” “Super Control Panel,” among many others, this control panel offered up over 250 tools that, while all available in other areas of Windows 7, are not all available in one organized area, which is what this Advanced Control Panel offers.

Luckily, this extra feature is still a part of the Windows 7 install, and with a bit of code, you can give yourself quick, desktop access to the panel.

Create a new folder on your desktop and rename it to:

Advanced Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

(Note, you can change “Advanced Control Panel” to anything you would like to call it.)

The icon should change to a Control Panel style icon. Double click and you’ll have access to over 250 organized tools to help customize your computer to your needs, making you more productive and comfortable.

Customizing User Account Control in Windows 7

User Account Control, or UAC, is a bitter-sweet feature that made waves for users of Windows Vista and prompted a wave of complaints about calling too many alerts.

Windows 7 lowers the amount of alerts, which is both a good and bad thing. UAC is made to help protect the end user from malicious and potentially dangerous programs; disabling it removes a layer of security, while keeping it on can slow down your productivity.

So where is the comfort zone? Luckily, it’s all up to you. Windows 7 lets you customize your UAC experience and fine tune what prompts an alert, and what doesn’t. Ensuring you are not only safe, but productive as well.

You can find UAC settings by going into your control panel, or advanced control panel, and clicking Change User Account Control Settings.

Quick-Searching the Internet in Windows 7

Have you ever opened your laptop to quickly search for something on the Internet? So have I. While it doesn’t seem like much, having to open up your browser and search engine is an extra unnecessary step that Windows 7 can help you with.

A quick edit to your Local Group Policy will enable an extra option in the Windows 7 Search box in your Start menu. When you want to search for something, simply type in the search term into your Start menu search box, just as you would to find an application, and click on Search the Internet. Windows 7 will then automatically open up your default browser and search for the term in your default search engine.

Here’s how to enable the Search the Internet function.

1. Open the “Local Group Policy Editor” by typing Group Policy in Windows search
2. Click on User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar.

 



3. Double Click on “Add Search Internet link to Start Menu”
4. On the left, click on “Enabled” and click OK.

 

To remove it, do the same, this time clicking “Disabled.”

Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder

So there is something wrong with your computer, and you would really like some help from a friend, tech, or even manufacturer, but can’t seem to explain the problem to them.

This is where the Problem Steps Recorder comes in. Just run the application, click Record, and do whatever it is that causes the issue. Every time you click, a screenshot is taken. When you are done, the screenshots and comments are placed in an archive (zip folder) on your desktop.

Send this to the person helping you, and they will have a clear picture (or ten) to help visually describe the exact problem you are experiencing. This saves both you, and the tech, a ton of time in explaining and will help get to right to the next step, actually fixing the problem.

To launch the Steps Recorder, simply start tying Problem Steps Recorder in your Windows search.

Fixing Windows 7 Problems

So you sent the file over, and they still can’t figure out what’s wrong with your Windows 7 computer. Rather than wait around wasting valuable time, try some of Windows 7’s built in Troubleshooters.

“Find and fix problems” is a great tool that not only helps troubleshoot common problems, but also offers up extras that might help you with other tasks, like configuring devices and making your computer run a bit faster.

For problems with networking, check out this article on Windows 7 network troubleshooting tips.

That’s all for now!

I hope this article helped you learn a few more ways to be a more productive, as well as how to speed up Windows 7 and keep it running efficiently. Stay tuned for more of my articles on Windows 7 features, programs, tips, and tricks!

In order to assist those new to Ubuntu I’ve compiled a list of tools that will enhance your productivity:

  •   Application/Task Launchers
  •   Keyboard Shortcuts
  •   Clipboard Management
  •   and much more!

Check them out and let me know what your best tip for Linux productivity is.

1. Save Time With Aliases

One of the most powerful features of Bash (the free shell written for the GNU Project) is the use of aliases. Think of aliases as shortcuts — they use shorter commands to execute a longer or series of longer commands. And anything that saves typing time, is always welcome.

For example, if you prefer to use the command line to update and upgrade Ubuntu versus synaptic, you would open a terminal window and type: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade. That’s quite a bit of typing. Say you only wanted to type the word update to perform the same function. You would edit your ~/.bashrc file and add this line:

alias update=’sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade’

Are there other repetitive tasks that your perform daily, weekly? Give aliases a try. As always, I recommend you make a backup of your .bashrc file before editing.

2. Use Application/Task Launchers

• GNOME Do

To call GNOME Do (also known as Do) a launcher does not fully explain the capabilities of this tool. Through the use of keyboard shortcuts, it can help you perform many common tasks. Do can help you launch an application, search for a file, manage your music player and a host of other things.

Want to open firefox? Simply type “f”. Want to send an email to your favorite editor? Type editor, hit tab, then type email.

Install via synaptic package manager or from the command line:
sudo apt-get install gnome-do

• Launchy

Do isn’t the only tool in the launcher space. Launchy is another option, initially a Windows product, it now has a Linux version.

Launchy, like Do, wants to make your application menu obsolete. It launches apps, documents and bookmarks using keyboard combinations. Start Launchy by holding the alt key and hitting the space bar, then typing a few keystrokes.

3. Take Advantage of Docking Systems

• Cairo-Dock

Are you a fan of the Mac Operating system dock? Then you’ll be happy to know that Linux has their own versions. Cairo-Dock is a Mac-like application launcher for the Linux desktop. Populate the launch bar with your favorite apps and applets, then launch them with one mouse-click.

Cairo-dock is available in the Ubuntu repositories.

• Awn

Avant Window Navigator (AWN) is another option, and the one that I use. Like Cairo, it sits at the bottom of your screen and can be used to lauch applications and applets and has extensive plugins to enhance functionality.

Awn is also available in the repositories, just be sure to install all three of these packages:

• avant-window-navigator-trunk
• awn-manager-trunk
• awn-extras-applets-trunk

4. Do More with Clipboard Management

• Klipper

GNOME is the default graphical environment for Ubuntu Linux, but there are other options like KDE. Klipper (hence the K) is an advanced clipboard utility that runs under KDE. It turns basic clipboard functionality on its ear, storing clipboard history, and allowing you to link clipboard contents to application actions.

5. Save Time with On-The-Fly Encryption

TrueCrypt is an open source disk encryption software. Here’s a feature snapshot:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Real-time Encryption of entire hard disk partition or storage device like USB flash drive.
• SHA-512 hash algorithm (replacing SHA-1, which is no longer available when creating new volumes)

TrueCrypt is not available in the repositories. You can download it here.

6. Top Linux Keyboad Shortcuts

• Switch to the Next/Previous Workspace

If you’re like me and use workspaces to segment your wok — 1 for writing, 1 for web work, yet another for email and social networking — listen up. You can easily switch between workspaces by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right Arrow keys. As you may have guessed, the Left key takes you to the previous workspace while the Right key brings you to the next adjacent.

• Show the Desktop

Ctrl + Alt + D allows you to quickly minimize all windows and bring focus back to your desktop. When all windows are minimized, it works in the reverse, maximizing all windows to their previous state.

• Show Hidden Files

By default, system or hidden files in your home folder aren’t visible, probably to protect us from accidentally deleting them. But occasionally we need to access these files and you can do so by pressing Ctrl + H in the Nautilus file manager.

• Application Specific Shortcuts

A real time saver for me, application shortcuts are plainly visible in the pull-down menus at the top of the application’s screen. For example in Open Office Writer, click on File, and you’ll see that next to Open, the shortcut combination, Ctrl + O

• Launch an Application

Alt + F2 will launch a box where you can type in an application name to launch it.

• Access the Applications Menu

Alt + F1

Check out this page for additional keyboard shortcuts.

7. Switch to the Desktop Post-it Note

• Tomboy Notes

I’m trying to shed the habit of having physical sticky notes plastered on my desk. To help wean me off those addictive yellow pads, I’ve adopted Tomboy. This is a desktop version of the Post-it Note, albeit on steroids. Tomboy allows for highlighting, spell checking, linking, font styles and lists. It comes as a part of the default Ubuntu install.

• Scribes

I have yet to try Scribes, but have read many reviews touting its benefits over Tomboy. Its actually a full text editor, that works with Gnome and offers templates, tabbed input and numbered lines.

8. Resize and Rotate Images in Nautilus

For those that spend quite a bit of time working with images and needing to make quick edits without firing up Gimp or Photoshop, this tool is a must-have. After installation, and rebooting, you will be able to right-click on an image and you’ll see two new image items: resize and rotate.

Install from the command line:

sudo aptitude install nautilus-image-converter

9. Increase Productivity with Project Tracking

Not your typical project management application, Freemind is more of a productivity tool that can help you track projects. Where this tool shines is in its ability to map Internet search links for easy reference. Its also an excellent brainstorming tool.

Other Tips and Tricks

This is just a snapshot of the available tips and tricks. A quick Google search will probably yield even more information. The Ubuntu support website is an excellent resource.

If you are a fan of any of these tools or tricks, chime in. If there are others you’d like to share with the community, I invite you to do so in the comments.

What’s Your Linux Productivity Tip?

Leave a comment with your favorite tip for Linux productivity. What helps you get more done? What’s a great tool that you wouldn’t want to be without?

Most are simple and straightforward — new programs, features, and user interface changes. However, there are some features that aren’t necessarily as obvious, such as new keyboard shortcuts, Windows Flip, Jump Lists, etc.

Today, I’ll go over a few of these new features to help you be more productive when using Windows 7.

Windows 7 Aero Peek

For those multi-taskers out there like myself, sometimes you just need to take a quick look at your desktop.

Aero Peek does just that.

You have two options when using Aero Peek. Simply hover over the small Show Desktop box in the bottom-right hand corner of your screen, and your windows will become completely transparent, giving you a nice view of your desktop.

To minimize all windows, click that same box and they will be minimized to your taskbar.

To bring them back up, just click it again and your windows will be restored to their original positions and sizes.

Windows 7 Jump Lists

Jump lists are also new to Windows 7.

Jump lists are a great way to quickly control and manipulate your programs without leaving your current window.

When you right click on an icon in the taskbar, some programs will offer up a jump list — a list of functions for that application.

For example, in Windows Media Player, you may see your most frequently listened to music, play and pause buttons, among other features.

In Internet Explorer, you will see your most frequently visited websites. Each program can be built with different controls and functions, each of which helps you to be more productive in your day to day use.

Windows Flip (and Windows Flip 3D)

Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D are functions which help to give you a more comprehensive look at your open applications and windows.

Windows Flip 3D is the new alternative to task switching in older generations of Windows operating systems and Windows Flip in Windows 7. Simply press Windows Key to bring up Windows Flip 3D. You will see all of your windows, opened or closed, as thumbnails organized in 3D across your screen.

While still holding down Windows Key, just click on the window you wish to open or scroll through them with your mouse wheel and continue about your work.

Windows Flip, as mentioned above, is an upgraded version of task switching in older generations of Windows. The usage remains mostly the same but adds a few new functions.

Hold ALT + TAB and you will see a list of applications just as you did before, but instead of showing an icon for the program, you’ll see live thumbnails of the contents of those open windows.

As an added function, if you continue to hold ALT + TAB and hover your mouse over one of the windows, you will be able to view a full sized preview of the window without having to bring it to the foreground. To keep the window up front, just click on the window.

New Windows 7 Shortcuts

Windows 7 adds a ton of new shortcuts that help to make you more productive when using your computer. I’ll go over my favorite new Windows 7 shortcuts, and explain why they help me be more productive in my work day.

  •   Dragging Windows

I would have to say one of my favorite shortcuts in productivity would be the new window drag methods. When working on multiple documents, you can simply drag your window to its desired location. For example, when working on a research paper, you may need to have both a browser, and a document open.

Just drag your document all the way to the left edge of the screen, and your browser to the right edge. Windows 7 will automatically maximize each window to exactly 50% width, and 100% height so you can see the full content of each window at the same time.

Dragging a window to the top edge of the screen will maximize the window to 100% of your screen automatically. As an added feature, when you drag a window away from its maximized/modified position, your window will return to its original size.

  •   Windows + T

Another fun shortcut to help increase productivity that I use on a regular basis is the Windows + T shortcut, which allows you to focus on the taskbar and lets you use the arrow keys to navigate applications. This is especially useful considering some applications contain so many focus points, that the “TAB” function can sometimes be cumbersome to use productively.

  •   Windows + P

The next shortcut is great for those who do presentations on a regular basis. The Windows + P shortcut brings up a nice Windows Flip-like dialog which lets you choose what mode you would like to use your projector with.

This includes Computer Only, Projector Only, Duplicate Desktop, and Extend Desktop. Using this shortcut is a lot easier than going into your control panel options every time you connect your projector.

  •   Windows + R

Next is a new shortcut that was almost in older generations of Windows. By pressing the Windows + R keys together, you will open the Run … dialog.

While this was not a shortcut in older generations of Windows, you could still press the Windows Key to bring up the Start menu, and then the R key to start the Run dialog box. This shortcut simply makes getting to it a bit faster.

Anyone who uses Windows Services like msconfig, Services.msc, etc. will appreciate this new shortcut.

For an exhaustive list of new Windows 7 shortcuts, you can visit LifeHacker’s article: The Master List of New Windows 7 Shortcuts.

Get More Productive with Windows 7

As you can see, there are lots of great new productivity tools and shortcuts in Windows 7.

While this article doesn’t cover all of them, I hope that these simple productivity tips will help to make your life a bit easier. Keep an eye out for more new tips and make sure to share them in the comments below.

In this short video, I’ll show you how to minimize multiple windows quickly using Aero Shake and a keyboard shortcut to bring them all back — the Aero Shake way is much more fun, but both features are pretty useful.

See how the new Aero Shake feature can help you increase productivity and efficiency when dealing with multiple open windows.

As a small business owner, writer and consultant, I spend a lot of time inside Microsoft Word. Depending upon the client, I may never set foot on site, may spend a great deal of time on-site, or may switch on and off between working at the client location and working at home, and recently, work both on-site at multiple locations. Either way, I need to be able to access my documents anywhere, anytime, and so do most of my clients.

While there are several ways to accomplish such accessibility, one method that has been gaining traction lately is storing those documents out on the Internet somewhere. This is often referred to as “the cloud.” Windows Live Workspace is one of the cloud based solutions. Unlike other cloud based solutions, however, this one ties right into the applications you already use.

At first glance, it appears that Office Live Workspace is nothing more than yet another way to store and share your documents online. That is true, unless you download and install the Office Live add-in. Then, things change dramatically. The Office Live add-in is a free extension for your Microsoft Office suite that you have installed on your computer. What it does, is integrate the Office Live Workspace into your MS Office software. For example, on my desktop computer, I have Office 2007 Professional installed.

How To Use Office Live Workspaces

The workspaces themselves start out as nothing more than a list of files that you have stored on the servers at Microsoft. From there, you can share documents on your workspace, or access documents that others have shared to you on their workspaces. To add documents, you just click the Add Documents button. Sharing documents is done by, of course, clicking the Share button. Nothing revolutionary here.

What makes this so much more useful than other similar services you may have seen is that it is seamless to your Office apps. To create a new document that you want to have on your Live Workspace, you have two choices. First, you can click on New inside the workspace that you have open in your browser.

If you choose Word Document, Excel Spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation, it will automatically launch your installed copy of that program. For example, choosing New → Word Document opens Microsoft Word.

The second way to create a new document for your Office Live Workspace is to just open Microsoft Word on your computer like you always do. Start typing. Don’t worry, you won’t have to manually upload the document when you are done. Instead, you can just go to the Office Button (or File in pre-2007 Office) in your Word application just like if you were planning to save it to your C drive. Notice the new option to Save to Live Workspace. That is pretty nice.

Even better, you don’t have to keep doing “Save As” to get changes on the workspace document. It works just like any other drive, so whenever you hit the disk icon or choose Save, it saves to the workspace.

The great thing is that there is no lagging or slowness of any kind, because the program you are running is the one on your hard drive, so there is no bandwidth concern no matter how crazy you go with fonts and formats and graphics and so on.

It integrates pretty much the same with Excel and PowerPoint, as well.

Why Use Live Workspace Instead of Synchronizing

Eventually, you or one of your clients will wonder how this is any better than synchronizing your files between multiple computers. Depending on the circumstances, synchronizing might be the way to go, but there are many instances where the workspace concept will come in very handy. The most common one is when given access to a temporary or shared computer.

For example, many companies will not allow you to attach your laptop to their internal network. Instead, you’ll get a workstation to use while you are on-site. Installing your synchronization software on that workstation probably isn’t good business practice, even if you could get around any permission issues or firewall blocks in place. But, that computer probably already has Microsoft Word installed, and it is much more likely that the company will be amenable to installing a Microsoft supplied add-in than other software. Even if not, you can always do a manual upload from the Live Workspace, and then take advantage of the integration on your other computers.

Sharing Documents with Office Live Workspace

Sharing documents is one way that Live Workspace really shines. For starters, sharing a document is done explicitly. That is, you must choose both to share a document and define with whom to share it. This prevents any “accidental” sharing that comes from the myriad of services that make you change things to private instead of the other way around. Also, sharing comes in the form of an explicit user as defined by their Live.com account information. So, there is no need to worry about someone passing on a password or “hidden” folder name and your documents being compromised.

Once a document is shared, it can be reviewed online without the aid of any installed Office applications, which is great for those times when you are using a computer at a library, coffee shop, or hotel business center.

Of course, the real use for sharing documents is the ability to edit them with your own changes. Editing shared documents is done the same way as with your own documents, just in the Shared folder instead of the Documents folder. The useful part for professionals is that not only are changes tracked, but versions can be as well. Selecting “Add new version” allows one to make all the changes they want to a document while preserving the original. Additionally, the sidebar of the workspace tracks and lists all the “Activity” so you can see at a glance who has and has not accessed or changed the documents that are shared.

Be More Productive!

Eventually, the release of the Office Web applications may make the need for installed applications disappear. But, even if that day comes, the Live Workspace will be how those documents are stored, and shared.

Using it now, is a great productivity booster, and will also put you out in front of the curve when the next wave of online Office applications comes calling.

The problem is, that no one really seems to understand exactly what it is that is available now, what is coming soon, and what has been announced, but is not coming in the immediate future.

So, let’s start from the beginning.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is the collection of applications that have been around for years. To the vast majority of people, both business owners and not, the Office suite is composed of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

These applications are sold as Microsoft Office Home and Student. (OneNote is now included as well, but remains relatively unknown.)

I have landed many a consulting gig just by walking a business owner through how they could save money by buying a non-professional version, even though they are a business, because they don’t utilize any of the "business" applications.

For those of us in the industry, we know that the Professional edition of Microsoft Office also includes Access, Publisher, and most importantly, Outlook. It also includes Accounting Express now, but that is another story.

Outlook is the application that most people are surprised to find out comes with Office, because it doesn’t necessarily really fit, and because many businesses consider Outlook to be an "Exchange Client," not a piece of Office software.

Microsoft Office Online

To understand the naming conventions of today, it is important to go back in time a few years. Not that long ago, Google’s only application was searching, and there was no way to build any kind of web-based application for something like word processing. The power and bandwidth simply weren’t there.

It was during this time, that Microsoft began making available templates, add-ins, plug-ins, and other technologies for Microsoft Office applications by putting them on a website. Not surprisingly, it was named Microsoft Office Online.

Fast forward to today, and you can start to see the confusion coming. Microsoft Office Online continues to be the place where you get templates and other things for the fully installed Microsoft Office Applications on your hard drive, not where online versions of Office applications are hosted.

Since the name Microsoft Office Online is already taken, other monikers were required.

Microsoft Live Workspace

Microsoft’s first strategy, or at least the first one it talked publicly about, to blunt the growing threat posed by Google’s online computing moves was to develop a new wave of technologies and services collectively branded under the "Live" name.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is currently available to anyone with a Windows Live account. The service is in open beta which means that although not officially supported, it can be used by anyone without needing to be signed up for any sort of beta program.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace offers a way for businesses or individuals to store and access their documents electronically in such a way that they can be accessed from anywhere.

On its own, Microsoft Office Live Workspace is no different than dozens of other file sharing and storing websites out there. But, when coupled with the Office Live add-in, Office Live Workspace becomes an online extension of the Office applications installed on your hard drive.

Documents can be created, edited, and saved all from inside of the Office applications without the need to interact specifically with the online browser or workspace. However, this only works with the "Usual 3" of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and not the "business applications".

It is this tight integration with existing installations of the Office Suite that makes the Office Live Workspace such a powerful tool for business, students, and other individuals. But, it is also the part that is confusing so many people.

Office Live Workspace is an online desktop and file system, it is NOT online versions of the applications themselves. Without an installed copy of Office, the Office Live Workspace will only allow a user to create a "note" or "list".

These are rich formatted text files, not Word documents. In other words, without MS Word installed on your hard drive, Office Live Workspace is useless to you to create Word documents. But, once the Office Live add-in has been installed, the integration with the desktop applications makes it appear that you can indeed create Word documents, and others, from the Live Workspace.

As this picture shows, there is a "New Word Document" choice, but only because I have Word installed on my hard drive.

It seems that a lot of people are missing this nuance.

Microsoft Office Web Applications

Finally, we have Microsoft Office Web Applications. This is what all of the people asking me about online Office products have in mind.

Office Web Apps have been announced by Microsoft, but they are not available yet. The Office Web Applications will be, according to Microsoft, a "stripped down" version of the familiar Microsoft Office products that you install on your computer.

With these applications you could create a new Word document even if Word was not installed on your PC. Screenshots released by Microsoft show the familiar Office 2007 interface, but give little insight into what exactly will be included when the applications are ready.

Furthermore, unlike the other online services, the online versions of Office may not be free. So far, Microsoft has only said that they plan to offer Office Web through Office Live Workspace which comes in both pay and ad-supported options.

So, while there will be the benefit of accessing not only your documents, but your programs as well from any computer with a compatible browser (so far that includes IE, Firefox, and Safari), it won’t necessarily be a way to get out of having to purchase MS Office.

For now, I can only advise the people I talk with to continue to purchase the Office suite to install on their computers. Then, if they find the need for either collaboration or accessing documents from multiple computers, they might find that Office Live Workspace is a nice addition to their Office needs, but certainly not a replacement.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check them out. There may be great uses for you or your organization in the current spectrum of online offerings.

Even if not, you can rest assured that your customers, whether executives at your company, or clients, will be hearing about these new Microsoft services and will want to know what they can do for them.

The codename for the new version is "Gran Paradiso" and it’s been called the browser that has it all.

There’s even a worldwide effort to put Firefox 3 in the Guinness World Records by setting a record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

But what makes this open source browser better than all the rest?
Can a new Firefox make a noticeable difference in your daily browsing?
Can it help you be more productive?

Welcome to Your Paradise on the Web …

Firefox 3 has improved performance, beefed up security, dozens new features and more ways to customize your browser to fit your unique needs.

There’s malware protection, a site identity button, a new download status bar and search option, a built-in spell checker, one click bookmarking and over 5,000 different add-ons.

But by far the best thing Fx3 has to offer is the smart location bar. This new feature is a great time saver and will definitely help you be more productive and efficient when working on the web.

The smart location bar is just the browser’s address bar — but it works like magic. It makes finding sites and pages you’ve visited before quick and easy.

All you have to do is start typing and the address bar automatically displays the relevant sites and pages from your history.

So the next time you need to find that TST article that you forgot the title of, just start typing train in your address bar and Firefox 3 will pull all of the pages you’ve visited that started with train.

If you remember just a few of the words from the title, just start typing those in and you’ll see all of the pages that are relevant to what you typed in. Pretty cool huh?

The smart location bar will also adapt and learn from your actions, so the pages that you visit more often will be listed first.

It also makes it easy to bookmark and tag your favorite sites and pages so that all of your resources are organized and easy to find.

Want to see how the smart location bar works?

This short video from Mozilla goes over the smart location bar, the site identity button, malware protection, downloading, and add-ons.

Firefox 3 is scheduled for its final release in mid June. If you want to be one of the first people to test it out signup on Download Day and take part in a world record.

If you’ve tried Firefox 3, let us know what your favorite features are in the comments.

The same holds true when using Microsoft Outlook. With just a few simple changes you can increase your productivity in Outlook like you never thought was possible.

Do you work in a big office where you’re part of a large mail group? Does it always seem that you’re getting emails that don’t pertain to you?

Well I’m going to show you how to prioritize those emails so that you only get the emails that are meant for you.

The next improvement that I’ll talk about involves a workaround to allow Outlook to accept certain file types as safe. This is handy for coworkers who need to pass a certain file type back and forth over Outlook.

It basically makes sure that you get all of the attachments that your coworkers are sending to you and that your coworkers are getting the ones you send them.

This article is in the spirit of taking a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and cleaning your house from top to bottom after a long winter. It takes you until you‘re done to realize how out of place and unorganized things were.

That’s why today I want you to get out your virtual mop and bucket to do a little spring cleaning with your Microsoft Outlook.

Get Emails Meant for You … And Forget About that Other Stuff

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You sign onto your work computer and open up your email only to see 60 messages, of which only 20 are directed specifically to you and need to be handled right away. The other 40 are directed to your email group.

Going through each email one by one to find the emails you need to answer right now can be time consuming and tedious. You need something that will show you which emails are meant for you (and only you) and which ones are sent to everyone in the group.

Well break out your Crayolas because we are going to color code your emails!

To set this up: Open up Outlook and go to Tools, then click Organize

Click the Using Colors tab and click Turn On

Now, the default color is blue and from what I hear blue is a fairly pensive color. So, if you’re looking for a nice calming color then stick with the default.

Otherwise there are a variety of colors to choose from. My choice would have been Burnt Siena, but that color, unfortunately, didn’t make the cut.

Another nifty thing you can do (apparently I’m channeling Wally and the Beav; who says nifty anymore, honestly?) on that same tool is color coding messages you receive from a particular sender.

On the Using Colors tab type the email address that you want to color code next to the Color Messages From tab. The default color on this is Red. You can have a different color for each email address or you can group email addresses under the same color according to order of importance.

There is also a drop down box that allows you to change the Color Messages From tab to Color Messages Sent To, which in this case would color code the messages you are sending to a particular email address.

In either case, make sure you click the Apply Color button before you exit this screen.

Take advantage of this simple feature that will help you sort through the mass emails and let you get down to business.

Don’t Let Outlook Do Your Thinking for You

If you’re like me, then you collaborate with colleagues several times a day through email. Sometimes the only way to get things done in a timely manner is to email a file back and forth so that multiple people can work on it and get it ready for what you need to do.

The problem with this is that sometimes Outlook doesn’t like the file type or doesn’t know what it is and just decides to remove your attachment. You’ve seen the dialog box telling you that your attachment poses a potential security risk and asks you if you want to download the file.

So, you click yes and move on. But, sometimes you don’t even get the attachment and you end up sending a message back to your coworkers telling them you didn’t get it.

What happened to the attachment? Well, the short answer is that Outlook "frisked" your email on the way through "security" and "confiscated" some "contraband".

Outlook is more thorough than the Puerto Vallarta, Mexico airport, where I was once searched head-to-toe 4 times in a 30 minute span. Which by the way, after the 4th time they dumped out my bag and asked me if I had anything in there that shouldn’t be in there … I was thinking, "Well maybe I do." Are pants illegal? Take my pants; whatever gets me on the flight home.

The more involved answer is that Outlook has three "risk levels" that it can apply to attached files, that will determine what happens to the attachment. You may get a message that warns you about downloading attachments.

A lot of times Outlook does what it can so that you don’t get the attachment at all, and every now and then you actually get the attachment without any fanfare, which is pretty rare. For me this happens only during a lunar eclipse, on a leap year.

So when you and your coworkers are sending a particular type of file back and forth, it would be nice to make sure you get it 100% of the time. There are two ways to accomplish this.

For all of you tech savvy veterans, I’ll show you a way to modify your registry to allow certain file types to be passed through Outlook. And for all of you novices, or even you veterans that don’t feel like messing with the registry (it can be dangerous so don’t feel like you don’t have options), I’ll show you a free product you can download that will help you accomplish this using a GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Warning: Registry Changes Are Not For the Meek

To add certain file types to Outlook’s "low risk" watch list we need to start out by opening up the Registry Editor.

Before you do this I want to stress that changes to the registry are very serious and should not be done unless you know exactly what you are doing. Also, and this is the most important thing, back up your registry before you make any changes. Even if something is done incorrectly you can always get things back to the way they were.

Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way, go ahead and go to your Windows Start Menu and Click Run. Type regedit and click OK

This will open your Registry Editor.

- Click the Plus Sign next to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder (if it’s not already clicked)
- Click the Plus Sign next to the Software folder
- Click the Plus Sign next to the Microsoft folder

- Click the Plus Sign next to the Windows folder
- Click the Plus Sign next to the CurrentVersion folder
- Right click the Policies folder

- Move your cursor over New and select Key from the menu and name this key Associations
- Right click the Associations folder and move your cursor over New and select String Value
- Name the String Value LowRiskFileTypes

- Double click the LowRiskFileTypes string and enter the file types that are frequently attached in Outlook. For example .exe;.flv

This will include all executable files and Flash player files, although, I wouldn’t recommend adding executable files to the list.

Registry Editing is Not My Thing

If you’re like most people, you’re not going to want to make changes to your registry through your registry editor.

In an effort to make things easier, there is a free program called OutlookTools that will allow you to make the registry changes you need to make without the hassle of going into the registry itself.

To start out, click this link and once you reach this page you will see screen shots of each tab in the OutlookTools program. Under the screenshots is a brief description of what each tab does.

- Scroll about half way down the page and click Download
- Once you have OutlookTools downloaded and installed, open it, and the main screen will default to the General tab

- Navigate to the last tab called Blocked Attachments
- Each check box you check will allow that type of attachment to be unblocked, so you can attach those file types in Outlook emails
- Click Save

Now, I know this seems incredibly easy compared to manually editing the registry, but I don’t ever want to give you the quick fix without first explaining why it works.

What you do in OutlookTools is changing your registry, just like you did manually within the Registry Editor. It’s always good to know what’s behind the GUI, and it’s always good to take some of the hassle out of using Outlook.

Learn How To Accomplish More With Your Email With Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. We’ll show you how to:

- Install and setup your profile
- Personalize the Outlook 2007 Interface
- Effectively organize your information
- Use resources to help you be more productive
- Manage calendars, meetings, tasks, contacts, and more!

Take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer — get Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos today!

Consider this scenario: You’re creating invitations for a wedding or another big event, and you think it’s no big deal; it’s only a few hundred labels and you can knock that out in a couple of hours right? Type them up in Word, print them out and you’re done!

A couple of months later, you’ve got another job ahead of you. The thank you cards. Hopefully you saved the Word doc that you slaved over last time … formatting it and making it look just right.

But even if you did save your doc, you’ve still got plenty of work ahead of you, going through all of the names one by one, checking them off, making changes; it takes some time.

Word Mail Merge

The solution? An Excel spreadsheet that allows you to very easily sort the list, make any necessary changes quickly and have your labels ready in no time.

Working with an Excel spreadsheet makes the whole process of creating address labels — as well as other documents, such as personalized letters, thank you cards, etc. — less time consuming and very easy.

Knowing how to merge Excel and Word documents can come in very handy in many situations. So today I’m going to show you a very easy but very useful time saver — how to create address labels in Word 2007 using the Mail Merge function in Word and an Excel spreadsheet.

Here’s what a simple Excel spreadsheet will look like:

Save this baby to your hard drive, call it something obvious like AddressList and all you need to do now is a quick merge between Excel and Word and your address labels are done in less than 10 minutes.

Here’s a step-by-step that shows you how easy it is to create address labels in Word 2007!

Creating Address Labels in Word 2007

1. Before you start make sure you have your Excel spreadsheet ready. Now open up Microsoft Word 2007 and click on the Merge tab.

2. Next, click on the Start Mail Merge button and select Labels.

3. Now it’s time for you to select the Label Vendor. In my case I am going to use Avery US Letter.

4. I have the 8662 labels so I am going to scroll down and select that. You should find the label number that’s appropriate for your labels, it’s usually on the box.

When you find your label number, select it and click OK.

5. You might get the following message. What this means is that if you typed something in this document and you did not save it, it will be lost. If you do not want that, hit Cancel, save the document and then repeat the steps from 1-5.

If you have a blank screen behind this message then go ahead and click OK to continue.

6. Next, click on the Select Recipients button on the ribbon and select Use Existing List.

7. Browse to the location where your Address List file is and select it. I have mine on the Desktop. I will click on it once, and then select Open.

8. In this window, select the sheet you have your list on. Mine is on the first sheet as this is all I have there. If you didn’t do anything special in Excel, your address list should be on the first sheet as well.

Also notice the check box next to First row of data contains column headers. You should have that checked if your columns have headers such as: First name, Last name, Address, etc.

If you don’t have the column headers, I would recommend going back to the excel file and adding them in. It’s going to make your life a lot easier while going through the merge. When ready, click the OK button.

9. Once you click OK you will see the following document. It may look a bit scary but don’t worry, all is good.

10. Since you are creating address labels, you will have two choices here. The first choice is to click on the Address Block button on the ribbon.

This option will automatically select all your columns and create an address for you.

The address looks good, but notice that we are missing the state. It’s not listed here but when we check back in our Excel document, it’s there.

Well this is ok, we can fix it. Go ahead and click on the Match Fields button.

11. Now in the left column find State and in that row click on the arrow pointing down, then select your header name for the State column. Mine is called State, so I will select that and click OK.

12. Now we see that the state is showing and the address looks good. Go ahead and click the OK button.

13. You will notice that in our first address label spot we have something called << AddressBlock >>.

If you decide to print your labels now, you will only get that first address in the first label. You need to make sure that the << AddressBlock >> appears on each label following the << NextRecord >> code. To do that you need to click on Update Labels option on the ribbon.

14. Once you click on that button, all labels will update.

And you are almost done! Now you have to click on the Finish & Merge button and select Edit Individual Documents to see what your labels will look like.

15. Make sure All is selected and click OK.

16. TA DA!!! Now all you need to do is print your labels.

Another Way to Merge with Word and Excel 2007

1. Another way to do the merge is to pick the fields manually. To do that you will need to select the Insert Merge Field option on the ribbon and select one field at a time.

2. To start out, insert First Name, hit the space bar and then insert Last Name. After that, hit the enter key and insert Address.

Hit the enter key again, insert City, hit the comma key, and the space bar, insert State, hit the space bar again, and insert Zip Code.

This way all of your spacing and punctuation will be correct and your first label should look something like this.

3. You can also format the first label any way you want it. For example, you can change the font, you can center the text, make it bold, etc.

4. Once you are done making edits to the text and formatting, don’t forget to go back to your Mailings tab on your ribbon and select the Update Labels button. This will make sure that all your formatting and changes that you made to the first label are copied over to all the other labels.

5. Now you’re ready to view and print your labels. Click on the Finish & Merge option on your ribbon and select Edit Individual Documents.

Now isn’t this much easier than typing the names and addresses on the labels, over and over, and over again? And merging works just as well with letters, invitations, thank you notes, or anything else you do in Word. Try it out!

And don’t forget, there are lots of other cool things you can do in Word and Excel. Check out our Office YouTube Channel for more helpful tips and tutorials on Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and more.

Are you constantly looking for more efficient ways of doing things?

Time is precious. That’s why I love anything that can help me save a few minutes each day. And one technology in particular has proven to save time and help me be more efficient and productive.

What I’m talking about is RSS, and although I’ve only been using it for a year, I don’t think I could ever do without it.

If you’re not using RSS you should be … here’s why:

• RSS Saves You Time
  
  Instead of bookmarking your favorite sites and then coming back to them to check for new content, the content is send directly to you as soon as it becomes available. All you have to do is subscribe to the site’s RSS feed.
  
  You’re also eliminating the time you would spend going to a site that doesn’t update on a regular basis by seeing the same information multiple times.
  
  With RSS, you get to tell your favorite sites to send you their updates as soon as they’re available and you get to read the ones you choose at your own convenience.
• RSS Helps You Increase Your Information Consumption
  
  While you’re saving time you’re also increasing your information consumption because you get notified every time the site is updated.
  
  This way you’re on top of all of the latest news, and you don’t even have to go out to look for it. All you have to do is read it at your own convenience and you never miss a thing.
• RSS Eliminates Spam
  
  With RSS you’re not giving your email address to anyone. So the website you’re subscribing to doesn’t have access to your email address — they can’t send you anything you don’t want and can’t give your email address to anyone.
  
  This means no more spam. All you get is clean content from your favorite sites!
• RSS is Easy!
  
  It really is. Subscribing — and unsubscribing — is as easy as a click of the button. You don’t have to contact anyone to be put on or taken off a list, all you do is click.

Today is RSS awareness day … a day to spread the word about the benefits of RSS. Now that you know what they are, go ahead, try it! And see for yourself.

If you’re not sure what RSS is or how it works, watch this short video from Common Craft, visit RSS.org or check out my article on how to integrate RSS feeds in Outlook 2007.

After doing some reading, I found it can be done but requires a registry edit for different items. Some people may not feel comfortable doing that so Intelliadmin.com has come out with a utility that will make the modifcations for you.

It allows you to modify the 3 major toolbars at the top of the browser, and it’s easy to use. If you are interested in trying it out then I suggest you check out the IE7 Tweak Utility