Tag Archives: Information

Microsoft Quick Reference Guides

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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.

Laptop Touchpad Tip

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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.

Freeware – Foxit Reader 2.0

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I ended up with a problem while I was away. I did not take my laptop, only my 1 GB USB Drive loaded with portable versions of Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org.

The problem was that the computers available in the business center wher I was staying did not have Adobe Reader, in any version, installed. I was therefore unable to open any PDF files.

I went looking around and found Foxit Reader 2.0 for Windows from Foxit Software http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm.

I downloaded it to my USB drive, double clicked on the FoxitReader.exe file and was able to access PDF files to my heart’s content and even fill in interactive forms, without having to install anything. On top of that it is much faster loading than Adobe Reader, in my experience.

Note: The paid version with enhanced capabilities does have an installer and writes to the registry, at least that is my understanding.

The free version does not have all the capabilities of Adobe Reader, but for the price and my uses, it is very adequate. I must say that I also have the full Adobe Acrobat 7 application on my main computer, with which I can generate PDFs and manipulate them, as well as just read or fill in interactive PDFs.

If I keep having no problems opening and reading PDF files in the next few weeks, Foxit Reader will become my default PDF reader.

Give this a try and you might be using it as your default PDF reader as well.