Tag Archives: Tip

Google – Exact Phrase Searching

Posted on by

You have moved to a new area and want to find a computer user group nearby. You go to Google.com and search for: computer user group,(results: about 366,000,000).

To search for the exact phrase in Google just enclose the same phrase in double quotation marks like this: “computer user group”, (results: about 123,000).

It should be a lot easier to narrow down when you use an exact phrase search. As you can see by the very broad example above, you would have to dig through over 300 million results of sites without the exact phrase, but only a little over 100 thousand with the exact phrase.

If I search within the 100 thousand for CT (Connecticut) it is narrowed down to 587, for MD (Maryland) 810, etc.

Coming up with a good search phrase and searching for that exact phrase, should keep you from getting frustrated.

Open XML Spreadsheet in Excel

Posted on by

I was at my Business Agent’s office the other day and she was emailed a file, which she could not open after saving to her desktop.

The file in question contained spreadsheet information so she was double clicking on the file, thinking it would open up in Microsoft Excel but, it would not open.

She was on the phone with the sender, trying to resolve the problem.

I happened to see that the file had an .xml extension and when she hovered over the file name, the file properties showed it as being an “XML Spreadsheet”. These clues told me that the file had been sent in an XML (EXtensible Markup Language) format, not Microsoft Excel.

I told her to:

  • Open her Excel applications.
  • Go to the File menu.
  • Select Open from the drop down menu.
  • Navigate to the file on her desktop that needed to be opened.
  • Select the file (Change the File Type to All Files, if necessary).
  • Click Open.

This opened the file in Excel and she was able to access the information. I say that she was able to access the information because the XML file only contains the information with minimal set up; she ended up having to go in and setting up the header, footer, repeating row, etc. to manipulate the information.

This worked because she had Excel 2003. From what I have found Microsoft Office 2003 and above includes XML reading capabilities. OpenOffice is also capable of reading XML files.

XML is a much more involved subject than can be handled in a blog like this. Also, I am just now reading about XML and doing a little experimentation on utilizing it.

From what little I have read about XML and its implementation, XML will be more prevelant in the very near future, as the information needs to be written only once and then can be presented in many different ways very easily. For an overview of XML check out this information at the Wikipedia site: Extensible Markup Language.

Plain Text Paste

Posted on by

I have been getting a lot of complaints regarding my admonition to copy and paste text from the web to keep it for reference.

It seems that many of those who have tried doing this do not realize that if you do a straight copy and paste to a word processor, the formatting is also pasted.

This is my fault, as I tend to think everyone works the same as I do.

To paste the text with no formatting, in most applications, select Paste Special from the Edit or Insert menu, depending upon the application and then select either Plain text or Unformatted text, again depending upon the application.

If you somehow have a word processor which does not enable you to do a Paste Special, another way around this is to use a text only editor such as Windows Notepad as the place you safe the text.

I have just been so used to using Paste Special with Word, Publisher, email, etc., that I thought everyone knew to do it that way.

Remember, if you do not understand something in one of my posts or things do not work the way I describe, just let me know and I will research it and get back with you. It is probably me not being clear in the way I did the posting.

Happy 4th!!!!