Tip of the day
Alphabetize Your Programs
After you’ve had your computer for a while, you’ll see that the All Programs section of your Start menu gets jumbled, and it becomes harder and harder to find the program you want.
Defrags Save Data
As time passes, the data on your hard drive slowly becomes fragmented, a problem that causes slower overall PC speeds. You should use the Windows XP's Disk Defragmenter tool every month or two to keep your computer working efficiently.
Hyperlink Cells In Excel
It can be neat to have Excel 2003 automatically turn Web addresses in a spreadsheet into hyperlinks, but this makes it harder later on to click those cells to select them without Internet Explorer launching to follow the links.
Fax A PDF With Outlook
Instead of printing a PDF and faxing it, you can consolidate your steps with Outlook. The catch: You must be using Microsoft Outlook 2003 and your fax service provider must support PDF documents.
Freezing & Splitting Rows
Freezing or splitting areas of an Excel worksheet is an effective way to manage a cumbersome document. When you split panes, you can scroll in both areas of the worksheet while rows and columns in the non-scrolled area remain stationary and visible.
Add Carefully
It's possible that third-party macros for Microsoft Office 2003 (Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Publisher, and Project) contain nasty viruses that will wreak havoc on your PC. To add an extra layer of projection, you can prevent Office 2003 fro...
Web Page Previews
Web pages are often notoriously difficult to print in Internet Explorer, because depending on the site's graphics, you might wind up with only half of the page on your printout.
Office Suggestion Box
Microsoft’s Office Online provides comprehensive tutorials for using Office to accomplish a variety of tasks, but Microsoft is also receptive to suggestions for more content.
Sharper PowerPoint Presos
If you’re having trouble dazzling the boss with your PowerPoint presentations, a few subtle changes might be in order. First, use a design template that looks professional and visually-engaging but not flashy. Choose font and background colors tha...
Email Text
Some email recipients appreciate the fact that the messages you send them are in plain or rich text, not HTML. While HTML allows embedded content such as logos and photos, some people worry about objectionable material or possible malware hiding i...
Word Count In Word
In most recent versions of Microsoft Word, you can get a count of every word in a document by clicking Tools and Word Count.
WinXP Management Panel
Windows XP’s Computer Management panel offers lots of useful tools, such as the Event Viewer for tracking down errors and Disk Management for formatting hard drive partitions.
Monitors Must Breathe
Never cover a monitor’s ventilation holes. Doilies, sticky notes, cats, and miniature horse blankets from your trip to New Mexico may be part of your work area, but don’t let them keep your CRT or LCD display from getting rid of excess heat.
Be Plain
While none of us are immune to occasional computer problems, you can take precautionary steps to better protect yourself. One way to protect yourself is to read your email in plain text. Sure, messages aren't quite as interesting this way, but at ...
Outlook 2003 Contacts
You just finished a power lunch with a new client when you realize the cocktail napkin containing her contact information isn’t exactly the most ideal storage method. With Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, you can create contacts in a more permanent ...
Word's Right Brain
While it's a far cry from Adobe Photoshop or even Microsoft Paint, Microsoft Word lets you get in touch with your creative side and add WordArt, shapes, and drawings to spice up a document.
Outlook 2003 AutoArchive
For most professionals, Microsoft Office Outlook is a crucial tool that can help manage the myriad emails that land in the inbox over the course of the day. But even important intraoffice emails have a habit of piling up. Archiving your old email ...
Worksheet Quick Tips
In addition to naming each of your Excel worksheet tabs, you can further differentiate them with different colors. To give your tabs a more colorful veneer than traditional white, select the sheet(s) you want to color.
Outlook vs. Outlook Express
While it may not be apparent from the name, Microsoft Outlook Express isn’t simply a faster version of Microsoft Outlook.
Master Your Excel Worksheets
When you open a new Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, there should be three worksheets available by default, labeled Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3. As your Excel spreadsheets become more complicated, it’s probably helpful to rename each worksheet to appro...
