One of the frequent questions I get is whether to upgrade a PC or buy a new one. With new PCs in the $400 range and cheap laptops under $600, it gets tougher to answer this question.
First lets get the Nick rant out of the way - unless it came with your PC NEVER upgrade to Windows Vista. Your PC is probably not ready for Vista - it requires a high power PC with lots of memory (>2GB).
Next memory is always a good and generally inexpensive upgrade. Windows XP has a maximum recognition of 3GB. I haven't seen much benefit of more then 2GB when using XP. Now Vista is a different story. It supposedly can handle 4GB maximum. I've never seen it actually recognize more then 3.5GB. Many PCs only have 2 memory slots so if you are maxed out you need to remove a memory chip to put a new one in.
Hard Drives are a double whammy to upgrade. The drive itself is not very expensive. The time to load Windows and all your programs and files is more expensive. Minimum cost to upgrade is $175. Now a faster hard drive is nice, don't get me wrong. Its just a bit expensive compared to cost of a new PC.
Graphics cards are mainly added for home use (read that kids want to play games). Since PCSS doesn't do much in that area we'll let it alone.
Adding a DVD burner if you don't have one costs less then $50 and is a good upgrade.
The only way we know to upgrade your monitor is to get a new one. Ditto on printers. Did we mention that printer prices are so low that getting a new one is almost always a great idea (HP Color LaserJet for less then $250.00!!!)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
#139 Customizing Word #2
Here are some other tips on making Word do what you want:
On the Tools menu click on Customize. The Toolbar tab lets you select what toolbars are displayed when Word Opens. The Standard, Formatting and Menu bar are default. If you use another tool bar frequently (like the Drawing tool bar) you can check it in this list and it be displayed when you open Word.
The Options tab should have both the following items checked: Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows and Always show full menus. I have never understood why Word does not have these checked as default If you don't have the first checked then all your menus are crammed together and unless you have a wide screen you can't see them all. The minimized menus are confusing (where did all the commands go). Head scratcher by Microsoft on this one. The remaining OTHER items are up to you to customize.
On the Tools menu click on Options and you have lots of tabs to play with. Other then changing the Default File location in the File Location tab we don't change much here. You can change how Word looks with the View Tab. The General Tab lets you change miscellaneous items like changing the background or measurement. The Save Tab allows you to create a backup document every time you save a file. It also sets the time for automatically saving your file. The User Information Tab lets you change your address and user info. The Spelling & Grammar Tab lets you control Spell check and Grammar check functions. We generally don't visit any of the other tabs, but explore at your own risk!
Did you know Word has a Thesaurus built in? Click on Tools then Language and point to Thesaurus (Wow is that complicated). You can also press the Shift and F7 keys. Now type in the word you want choices for and Viola Thesaurus at work.
Word 2003 and above also has speech recognition built in (it really isn't very good). Make sure you have a microphone plugged in then click on Tools and then Speech. Follow the wizard to set it up.
Enjoy your new Word!
On the Tools menu click on Customize. The Toolbar tab lets you select what toolbars are displayed when Word Opens. The Standard, Formatting and Menu bar are default. If you use another tool bar frequently (like the Drawing tool bar) you can check it in this list and it be displayed when you open Word.
The Options tab should have both the following items checked: Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows and Always show full menus. I have never understood why Word does not have these checked as default If you don't have the first checked then all your menus are crammed together and unless you have a wide screen you can't see them all. The minimized menus are confusing (where did all the commands go). Head scratcher by Microsoft on this one. The remaining OTHER items are up to you to customize.
On the Tools menu click on Options and you have lots of tabs to play with. Other then changing the Default File location in the File Location tab we don't change much here. You can change how Word looks with the View Tab. The General Tab lets you change miscellaneous items like changing the background or measurement. The Save Tab allows you to create a backup document every time you save a file. It also sets the time for automatically saving your file. The User Information Tab lets you change your address and user info. The Spelling & Grammar Tab lets you control Spell check and Grammar check functions. We generally don't visit any of the other tabs, but explore at your own risk!
Did you know Word has a Thesaurus built in? Click on Tools then Language and point to Thesaurus (Wow is that complicated). You can also press the Shift and F7 keys. Now type in the word you want choices for and Viola Thesaurus at work.
Word 2003 and above also has speech recognition built in (it really isn't very good). Make sure you have a microphone plugged in then click on Tools and then Speech. Follow the wizard to set it up.
Enjoy your new Word!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
#138 - Customizing Word #1
I thought today we would go through some Word customization tricks. These apply to Word 2002 & 2003. All bets are off in Word 2007 (almost as useful as Vista!).
If you type the same long phrase over and over you can have Word type it in for you. For example I do the minutes for the Highlands Community Bank board. That means typing Highlands Community Bank many times. In word you can set up an AutoCorrect item so that when you type in HCB it will automatically put Highlands Community Bank in all your Word documents. To do this click on Tools then AutoCorrect options. Type in the letters or keys in the REPLACE: box then type in the complete phrase in the WITH: box. Now make sure you haven't made a mistake (you can edit it later) and click on OK. Now when you type in your short cut and then press the space bar your complete phrase will appear in Word.
Would you like to add a command to your Word toolbars? It is fairly easy. For example we use the Envelope command alot. To add this command to the formatting toolbar we follow these steps. Click on Tools and then Customise. Make sure that the Commands tab is selected. Then find the menu item you want to look at in the left Categories: box. For the Envelopes command we go to the Tools in the Categories: box and then scroll down in the Commands: box. We find the Envelopes and Labels item. We now drag that item into the Formatting toolbar at the top of Word and Viola the icon for Envelopes and Labels is now on our toolbar. We can take it off by just dragging it off the toolbar. This works with hundreds of Word Commands.
Would you like Word to open up a different folder then My Documents for your Word files? We have a Word subfolder in My Documents that we keep all our word files and use that when we click on Open or Save/Save As. To set up a different folder click on the Tools menu then Options. Click on the File Locations tab, then click on the word Documents and then Modify. You can navigate your PC for any directory. I know some customer that save all their files on an External Hard Drive and use this system to open a folder on that drive.
More on customizing Word next Blog!
If you type the same long phrase over and over you can have Word type it in for you. For example I do the minutes for the Highlands Community Bank board. That means typing Highlands Community Bank many times. In word you can set up an AutoCorrect item so that when you type in HCB it will automatically put Highlands Community Bank in all your Word documents. To do this click on Tools then AutoCorrect options. Type in the letters or keys in the REPLACE: box then type in the complete phrase in the WITH: box. Now make sure you haven't made a mistake (you can edit it later) and click on OK. Now when you type in your short cut and then press the space bar your complete phrase will appear in Word.
Would you like to add a command to your Word toolbars? It is fairly easy. For example we use the Envelope command alot. To add this command to the formatting toolbar we follow these steps. Click on Tools and then Customise. Make sure that the Commands tab is selected. Then find the menu item you want to look at in the left Categories: box. For the Envelopes command we go to the Tools in the Categories: box and then scroll down in the Commands: box. We find the Envelopes and Labels item. We now drag that item into the Formatting toolbar at the top of Word and Viola the icon for Envelopes and Labels is now on our toolbar. We can take it off by just dragging it off the toolbar. This works with hundreds of Word Commands.
Would you like Word to open up a different folder then My Documents for your Word files? We have a Word subfolder in My Documents that we keep all our word files and use that when we click on Open or Save/Save As. To set up a different folder click on the Tools menu then Options. Click on the File Locations tab, then click on the word Documents and then Modify. You can navigate your PC for any directory. I know some customer that save all their files on an External Hard Drive and use this system to open a folder on that drive.
More on customizing Word next Blog!
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