Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Microsoft Quick Reference Guides

Posted on by

Thanks to the TechCheatSheets RSS feed today, I found some good quick references for Microsoft software, in PDF format. They are available at CustomGuide.

The one in the feed was for Word 2007 specifically and appeared 07jul09 as

Custom Guide’s Word 2007 Quick Reference

The following is from the TechCheatSheets.com About page:

About TechCheatSheets.com

Tech Cheat Sheets is a collection of the best cheat sheets and quick reference guides on the web. Arranged by tags, you can subscribe to a feed for only the tags you want to monitor. Visitors can also give the listings 1-5 star ratings.

I also got the Quick Reference Card for Publisher 2007, which I use for my newsletters.

There are also Quick Reference guides for Mac and Adobe software available at CustomGuide.

Check out both of these resources, very helpful in my opinion.

DSL Problems

Posted on by

I have not been able to access the internet since July 1st, until late this afternoon.

I tried rebooting the DSL modem, router, and computer, numerous times. I tried connecting directly to the DSL modem from the computer itself. I contacted Earthlink numerous times. Nothing solved the problem.

Finally, I decided to try replacing cables, starting with the phone connection. Lo and behold, that was the problem, once I connected a new phone connection, everything worked fine.

This has been a good lesson for me, to practice what I preach. I have always told others check all the simple things first, such as making sure everything is plugged in correctly, and swap out cables first. If I had followed my own advice, I would have saved days of aggravation.

If something like this happens to you, remember check the simple things first.

Laptop Touchpad Tip

Posted on by

We had a training class Tuesday at work; the class was hands on using some Dell laptops. A few of us were constantly putting information in the wrong places, because we did not realize the touchpad was active, even though a mouse was attached.

This situation is very aggravating, so we asked the instructor how to disable the touchpad, but he did not know. One of the others said she was having the same problem with her personal laptop, and did not know how to disable it.

Today I saw an article in my RSS feed from PCMech, which is one of the feeds that is a high priority read for me, as I find information that is relevant to my PC usage there all the time.

The following is a quote from PCMech’s About page:

PCMech (formerly called PC Mechanic) is about computers and technology. We define “PC” a little more broadly. Yes, PC stands for personal computer. Much of our content is about personal computers. But, since we first launched, technology has evolved and now there is so much more to talk about than just computers. So, we cover technology. We cover the internet. We cover – yes – computers, hardware, software, etc.

Our job is to cover the fast-changing world of tech and help you apply it to improving your life. Technology shouldn’t be limited to the uber-geeks who follow this stuff 24/7. At PCMech, we’ll do that so you don’t have to.

The article is: Disable The Touchpad When A Mouse Is Plugged In.

My comment regarding the touchpad and mouse on my notebook is as follows:

My HP Pavilion TX1410us Entertainment Notebook PC also has a button right at the top of the touchpad, to disable/enable.

There is a Synaptics driver that controls both the touchpad and the mouse, but no way to configure to disable the pad when the mouse is plugged in, at least that I can see.