How create a one click shutdown and one click reboot in XP
Firstly, open notepad (START | RUN | NOTEPAD), then type the following, exactly as you see in the two screen shots below – one notepad for each utility.
Fig 1. Reboot
Fig2. Shutdown
My first call is to iXus
01656 750 800
How do you do your backups?
So, you have you nice new shiny server, with a backup tape drive, or external hard drive, or perhaps an account with an online backup storage facility (contact us if you want advice on this). So, how do you go about maintaining a safe backup regime without reinventing the wheel? Well, that’s easier than you might think.
There are three main backup systems that have served the IT community for decades. These are:
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How to create a drop cap in Word 2007
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Drop caps are great in some documents and Word provides you with a quick and easy way to create them.
So, what are they?A drop cap is the first letter of a paragraph that’s of a much bigger size than the rest that follow.
Why should you use drop caps? Well, they add an air of professionalism to your documents, they are easy on the eye and they highlight important paragraphs. |
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How to email a document straight from Word 2007
How to email a document straight from Word 2007
Let’s say you have a document and you want to email it. In the normal course of events you would save the document, then open your email client, create an email and attach the document.
You can skip a few of these steps by using the Send facility in Word 2007. Click on the button in the top left hand corner and the fly-out menu will appear. Click on Send, then select from the options. You can send as a Word document, although I prefer to send as a PDF attachment, because not everyone has Word 2007, but anyone can download Adobe Reader or Sumatra – I use the latter because it is both lightweight and quick compared to Adobe Reader X.
XPS documents are Microsoft’s attempt at emulating Adobe’s portable document format and while they have some advantages over the Adobe format, they are not as universal, so Linux and OSX users will not be able to open an XPS document.
If you click on any of the first three options, you will be presented with an email form like the one below and here you can fill in the details your correspondent needs. As a matter of etiquette, is always advisable to create a subject line in the email. In this instance, Word will attempt to do this for you. If you have already saved the document, it will offer the title of the saved document, if it hasn’t been saved; it will put the first few words of the first sentence in the subject line.
Then it’s simply a matter of filling in the email address and a note to tell the recipient what the email is all about and you’re done. Just click send and the email client will take of the rest.
How to add quick horizontal lines in Word 2007
Quick lines in Word
Word 2007 + offers you lots of hidden facilities – one of them is to create horizontal lines across the page with just a few key strokes.
A simple line can be made by typing three dashes — on a new line and then pressing enter. You will get this line:
If you want a dotted line, all you need do is type three asterisks *** on a new line and press enter, like this:
To get a heavier line use the underscore key, just type ___ on a new line, then press enter and you will get a line like this:
A double line can be created by typing three equals === signs and pressing enter – you will get a line like this:
Three hash or pound signs will give you a heavy double line. So type ### on a new line and press enter, then you will get this:
Three tilde signs ~~~ and enter will give you a wavy single line. Like this:
Fixit with Microsoft
Microsoft now has a FIXIT website, where you can solve some common problems by clicking on a button on the page.
The website is here: http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/Portal/
But if you want to try out Fixit, just click on the Fixit image above. This will download an application FixitCenter_Run.exe – now we all know that you shouldn’t run executables from websites with which you are not familiar, so if you want to try it out and you don’t know us – then go to the Microsoft site. If you do know us, then give it a try.
Email address “autofill” / “autocomplete” facility in Outlook
When you move to a new computer, it is easy to transfer your Outlook emails and address book, but what about those useful little autocomplete addresses that populate the To: field in an email as you start typing…?
It looks a bit like this:
You notice that I typed the letter “S” and a whole load of suggestions have popped up in the drop down menu. (I’ve blurred the actual addresses for security reasons). These are addresses that I have previously sent emails to, so they get recorded by Outlook.
How to stop Windows update from rebooting automatically
Ever had that irritating little “Restart your computer to finish installing important updates” dialogue popping up?
This one:
Me too. I’ve also carried on typing while looking at my second screen, only to find that nothing has happened because the focus has moved to the reboot dialogue window. Worse still, I’ve found everything closing down because I’ve typed the letter “n” and it has caused the “Restart now” button to be pressed. Grrrrr doesn’t do it justice.
Well you don’t have to put up with it anymore. Throw those curtains wide, open the windows and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Or…
Using keystrokes in Windows XP
Start a program using a keyboard shortcut
The Start menu is great for finding programs, but its multiple levels of folders can be time consuming to navigate. If there is a program you start frequently, you should set a keyboard shortcut for it so that you can start the program without taking your hands off the keyboard.
How to rid yourself of fake or rogue spyware
Fake anti-spyware infections on the rise
There is an increasing number of what are known as Rogue Anti-Spyware attacks. The source of these is varied, but in the main they come from three sources:
1) Emails and personal messages on social networking sites such as Facebook with clickable links. These links lead to infected attack websites where the rogue software is downloaded and installed on your PC
2) Instant messenger applications such as Yahoo Chat and MSN chat – in these cases, a new “friend” invites you to view pictures of them, or visit a funny site and send you a link. Again the link leads to an attack site.
3) Browsing sites that have been compromised. There are thousands of these sites and they attempt to infect you by getting you to download an application or javascript that loads the rogue.