FACUG Conference and MySpace

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At the FACUG Spring 2007 Conference, the new President James Thompson requested that everyone create a MySpace account and include himself and others on the friends list, to make it easy for everyone to communicate regarding issues pertaining to the operation of computer user groups.

To that end I have created bpca_steve, as my account and added him and several others to my friends list. (Account no longer active)

James has numerous blog entries regarding FACUG and its operation on his site http://www.myspace.com/cocoabeachsunset.

The only problem I have with using MySpace is that access is blocked through the proxy at work, so I can only really use it from home. I do like the ability to IM (Instant Message) right from within my account and have communicated with James a few times already with some ideas and comments.

I do recommend that others set up their own MySpace accounts and use them to make FACUG better, as well as enhancing the operation of their own group.

MS Word – Adjusting a Form Template

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Just got back to having computer access and received a call from my wife. A form I had made up for her, using Microsoft Word 2003, needed adjusting for some new product and she had ten orders to type up and run on the dot matrix printer with the new information.

The problem was that she knows very little about how to use Microsoft Word and needed it done right away to keep from having to do everything by hand.

Luckily, I was able to walk her through sending me a copy of the DOT (Word Document Template (Microsoft)) file, via email. Once I saved that DOT file to my hard drive, I was able to open it, adjust it and email it back to her.

To make the adjustments in MS Word 2003, I did the following:

  • Right clicked on the DOT file.
  • Selected Open from the drop down menu. (If you just double-click a DOT file to open it, you will get a new blank document instead of opening the DOT itself.)
  • Made the Forms Toolbar visible:
  • View on the MS Word menu bar
  • Select Toolbars
  • Click on Forms
  • Clicked on the Protect Forms icon, it looks like a little padlock, to unlock the form.
  • Replaced three text items with Text Form Fields, with the same formatting as the replaced text; also changed text in another area, but straight text not a Text Form Field.
  • Clicked on the Protect Forms icon again to lock the form again.
  • Hid the Forms Toolbar again.
  • View on the MS Word menu bar
  • Select Toolbars
  • Click on Forms
  • Saved the DOT file with a new name, reflecting today’s date and the new function.

Once the form was adjusted, I emailed her the new DOT file and walked her through how to save it in a folder in My Documents containing forms of the same type and then walked her through creating a shortcut for this one to the desktop.

The whole process took about a half hour and saved a lot of work on her part. Now she just needs to double-click on the shortcut item, fill in the information that changes, print the multi-part form on the dot matrix printer, sign it and move on to the next order of business.

She has some other forms, that are not multi-part, but those I have done for her in PDF (Acrobat Portable Document Format) and have to do those differently as you must have the complete Acrobat application to create or adjust them.

If you have special forms or interested in forms, leave a comment and let me know how you handle problems.

As Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, there will be no posting. I will be spending time with my family, as we all should, and will post Friday this week instead.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

XP – My Computer Speed Up

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Our office moved to a new building, and in the process of getting all the computers setup for the network and various printers, co-workers noticed that when I open up the My Computer folder on my machine it loads very quickly compared to theirs.

Once our IT people had left, after getting everybody connected to the appropriate network modules and printers, I showed those interested how I had gotten mine to speed
up; here is how I did it.

  • Open Windows Explorer.
  • Select My Computer.
  • Click on Tools, in the menu bar.
  • Select Folder Options from the drop down menu.
  • Select the View tab.
  • Uncheck the box in front of “Automatically search for network folders and printers”.
  • Click OK.

Now the My Computer folders should display more quickly.