I.T. & Business Solutions
WordPress 2.5 has now been officially released. There have been many new features and improvements made to what was already a fantastic product.
Why not head over to the WordPress Blog to see what all the hype is about are and how easy it is to upgrade your version.
Adobe has ventured into online photo editing and storage with the release of Photoshop Express.
Photoshop Express is a free public beta which allows you to edit your photos online and store up to 2Gb of your favorite photos on their servers.
Whilst this is a beta product, it is feature rich with many popular image editing options in a simple to use interface.
It works on Windows or Mac and requires Flash Player to be installed.
Most internet users have likely had to unzip files that they have downloaded either from a website or in an email attachment. Also many of us zip files prior to sending them via email to save transmission time and space.
Although Windows XP and Vista both have built in file compression utilities, most people still prefer to use Winzip. Wizip is easy to use and compresses files very well, but it’s not a free product.
How about trying an open source free product named 7-Zip.
7-Zip is a very small download (at time of writing 840k version 4.57) and like its more widely known counterpart Winzip, just as easy to use.
The 7-Zip website states that, “You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don’t need to register or pay for 7-Zip”.
Not only is 7-Zip small in file size and easy to use, but you can also use the newer 7z file compression format. The 7-Zip site states, “Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.”
Why not download 7-Zip and try using it for on zip files and also to compress files in 7z format.
Bill Jelen (AKA MrExcel) from MrExcel.com, is offering all users of Microsoft Excel a FREE ebook to download.
This fantastic offer from Bill is his latest book titled “Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel.”
Bill’s goal is to give away 5 million copies of this ebook.
Grab your copy today.
http://www.mrexcel.com/techguy.html
The MrExcel.com website is full of tips and solutions to help you learn and use all versions of Microsoft Excel.
Backup, backup, backup.
When did you last backup your files, pictures or other data?
How often have you thought about backing up our data, but not done it?
Have you lost some or all of your valuable, irreplaceable data because you didn’t have a current backup?
There are numerous reasons why people and even businesses don’t backup their crucial data. But now with mozy.com you can automatically backup all or your personal or company files.
No cd’s, dvd’s, usb memory sticks or tapes to misplace. Mozy.com provides various levels of simple, automatic and secure offsite backup for your personal or business use.
Mozy.com currently offers 2Gb of free online backup. If you need more than 2Gb there is the MozyHome plan with unlimited storage priced at US$4.95 per month or the MozyPro plan for business.
“How does it work?” I hear you ask. A simple three step process is all that is involved.
The software now handles the rest. Your data is encrypted prior to uploading, so there is no risk of anyone intercepting it.
When you sign up for your account use our referral code DBHWA3 for even more space in your account.
To be able to install Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) you first need to uninstall any pre-release version of SP1.
But how? I’ve tried going to Uninstall Programs but it isn’t listed.
Here’s the answer.
Easy task to complete, but somewhat difficult to locate.
Microsoft has today released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) for download via Windows Update or from the Microsoft download center.
If you don’t want to download and install it yourself, it will automatically be installed using Windows Update in the coming days / weeks.
Important to note. If you have installed a pre-release version of SP1 you need to uninstall it before installing Vista SP1.
To read more, please visit the Windows Vista Team Blog.
Here is the list of security updates that Microsoft released in March 2008.
Please ensure to patch your software as required.
Here are the new security updates:
Go to the Microsoft site for further information.
Problem: When I print an email from Windows Mail (Vista) or Outlook Express the letters along the left margin get cut off.
Cause: The margin settings for Windows Mail and Outlook Express are inherited from Internet Explorer.
Solution: To adjust or set the margins try this.
Now go back to Windows Mail or Outlook Express and try your print job again.
Wouldn’t it be handy to create blog posts offline whilst you aren’t connected to the web? If you agree then Microsoft Windows Live Writer may be what you need.
Windows Live Writer is a free desktop software application from Microsoft which allows you to create posts at anytime, even when you aren’t connected to the internet, and then easily upload them to your blog.
"Why not just use the default WordPress dashboard to create posts?" I hear you ask. Well, if your circumstances mean that you aren’t connected to the web, you can’t be logged in to the WordPress dashboard. That’s where Windows Live Writer comes in.
For example, if you’re travelling by plane, car, train or some other form of transport you have plenty of time to sit and type your posts, but you typically aren’t connected to the web. What if you only have web access at the office, but prefer to write your posts when in the quiet surroundings of your home. The answer, Windows Live Writer.
When you install Windows Live Writer for the first time, it will ask you if you already have a blog. For this article we will assume you do. So you go ahead and select that you already have a blog. You are then prompted for your blogs web address, username and password. Once you have filled in those items, Windows Live Writer connects to your blog, and voila, you are ready to write.
The editing window is a breeze to use with all the usual handy formatting options and the ability to insert hyperlinks, pictures, tables, videos, etc. If you can use the default WordPress dashboard, you will find this very simple.
You then save the posts locally to your computer, ready for upload when you connect to the web.
Publishing your posts couldn’t be easier. You only need to click one button.
