** Issue #20 June 1st, 2007 **
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#1- News, News, News
In This Issue...
#2 - Do you have a buck or two? - Contribute to further the site and newsletter. We're at 50%!
#3 - Site updates and announcements - Things keep getting better!
#4 - Parental Controls in MS Vista - Nick Zara gives us an overview of the controls available in Vista.
#5 -OpenOffice Writer - a first look - Carol gives us a look at OpenOffice.
#6 - My Recommended Software - Need software? Check this list first!
#7 - Ashampoo Burning Studio - Ron writes in to discuss a problem.
#8 - The Lighter Side - Some humor to lighten your load!
#9 - Useful web sites - Websites I've visited lately that you may find useful.
In the next issue...
If you have information, links, articles, or other such info you would like to see in the newsletter don't hesitate to send them along! I can't possibly respond to every email, but I try to get through them all and include relevant information in the newsletter.
Here is where I beg!
Please tell a friend, relative, coworker, or stranger about my site and newsletter. Use any means necessary to spread the word about Daves Computer Tips.
As always I appreciate your comments and suggestions about the site and newsletter. If you would like to share please contact me at dave @ davescomputertips.com.
Carol is our resident "Office Goddess". If you have Microsoft Office questions or suggestions for future Office articles shoot her an email at carol @ carolscorneroffice.com.
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#2 - Do you have a buck or two?
I'm asking those that have an extra dollar or two and appreciate the work I do to donate a few of dollars in support of the newsletter. The money will be used to purchase a new computer running Microsoft Vista. The new computer will allow me to begin adding relevant Vista content to the newsletter! There is no pressure to contribute. The only purpose of this request is the purchase of a new computer to further the efforts of my site and newsletter.
Total amount presently in the new computer fund is 50% of the cost, so the purchase is on hold for a while longer. Be assured the funds are tucked away and will be used for no other purposes, as I promised.
If you enjoy the Daves Computer Tips Newsletter and find it helpful please donate by clicking the PayPal button below. You may donate any amount you feel comfortable with. Every little bit helps and is appreciated!
#3 - Site updates and announcements!
By David Hartsock
I've noticed lately that many people are finding the newsletter through search engines such as Google. When these people find the newsletter there isn't an easy way for them to become part of our community, unless they happen to click the banner at the top to take them to the main site. I've added an easy way to subscribe to each issue to correct that problem. I'm also investigating an affective means for you to recommend the newsletter to a friend. If you find information in the newsletter you will be able to send an email directly from the newsletter to a friend who might find the information useful.
Oops! Looks like I found a way to do it in the last 9 hrs! Give it a try. Watch what happens when you click. It's pretty cool!
Carol is going to diversify her Office articles. Now each article will contain tricks and tips for MS Office, as well as how to perform the same function in OpenOffice. The first of these is below.
I'd like to introduce you to Nick Zara. Nick's website, http://www.windvis.com, is in the early stages of becoming an important Windows Vista resource. Nick publishes a bi-weekly newsletter and he continues to add Vista content on a daily basis. Nick has written an article on the Parental Controls built into Vista, which appears below. Hopefully we will see more of Nick here at Daves Computer Tips!
Nick is a young college grad from Canada. Computers and web design are his hobby/passion and he has several projects going on. Nick is currently looking for employment, so if you've got an opening let him know.
What do you think about the Daves Computer Tips improvements? Any suggestions?
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#4 - Parental Controls in MS Vista
By Nick Zara
Parental Controls is a new feature in Windows Vista that allows parents to better control how children use the computer. As a parent you can restrict you children to navigate on certain websites, play certain games, which program to run, how long to use the computer, etc...
How to enable and how to set up Parental Control
For Parental Control to work, you need to have at least 2 accounts: the Administrator account (the parent) and another account (for the child) – you could have more than one account, different for each child. If you don’t know how to create accounts read How to create user accounts in Vista.
To enable Parental Control follow the steps:
Click the Start Orb, go to Control Panel and click on “Set up parental controls for any user” bellow the “User Accounts and Family Safety”.
Choose the account you wish to enable Parental Control for and select “ON, enforce current settings”
The options here are pretty self explanatory:
- Windows Vista web filter - here you can control your child’s internet browsing and you can either specify the websites to block or the ones that you want to allow.
- Time limits – specify the time your children are not allowed to use the computer.
- Games – control which games your children are allowed to play. You can block games that don’t have a certain rating or you can manually restrict any game (even though it’s not rated).
- Allow and block specific programs – controls which programs your children are allowed to run.
Besides restricting your children to have access to certain website and applications, monitoring their activity is also an important factor in keeping your computer safe for children. To find out what are your kids doing on your computer, click on the “View activity reports” link.
By viewing this report, you can see what applications your children used (and for how long), what websites they visited, a list with emails they sent/received, instant messaging activities and many more.
Nick Zara maintains a bi-weekly newsletter. To read more from Nick visit his Windows Vista help, tutorial and tricks website.
What do you think of Nick's article?
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#5 - OpenOffice Writer - a first look
by Carol A. Bratt
Early on when I started writing articles for Daves Computer Tips newsletter, one of the readers asked me if I had ever considered writing articles about OpenOffice. My reply was that yes, I certainly had considered it and after more careful consideration I have decided to write some articles on this very robust piece of software.
I downloaded OpenOffice and was surprised to find that it looks and acts very much like MS Word. The biggest difference that I could see was that OpenOffice is free. That's right folks, absolutely FREE!
You can find OpenOffice here.
So now my first ever OpenOffice Writer article is about to unfold for you!
The very first thing I did when I opened Writer was activate the Tips feature. When the Tips feature is activated and your cursor is placed over an icon, the name of the icon will appear on your screen, which if helpful at times.
To activate the Tips feature, follow the steps below:
- Click on Tools | Options.
If there is a plus sign ( + ) before the OpenOffice.org, click on it. A menu will appear directly below the words OpenOffice.org
- Click General.
The Options - OpenOffice.org - General window will appear. Choose either of the two options below.
- If there is no check mark before the word Tips, click on the word Tips to place a check mark there.
- Click the OK button.
The window will close and the cursor goes back to the document.
The Tips feature is now activated.
- If there is a check mark before the word Tips, click the OK button. The window will close and the cursor goes back to the document and the Tips feature is now activated.
Okay, now that you have the Tips feature activated, open a new text document. To accomplish that click on File | New | Text Document.
Let's start with the basics. Look at the screen in front of you and I will identify the toolbars for you.
Notice that at the top of your screen is a blue bar with white letters. That is the name of the new text document that you have just opened.
The next bar down that starts with the word File is called the Menu Bar. Clicking a word on the Menu Bar will show a list of choices.
The third bar down is the Standard Toolbar. The Standard toolbar contains specific functions that can be used in your document.
The fourth bar down is the Formatting Toolbar. This toolbar contains icons that will help you to format your documents.
Next, you will notice that a Horizontal Ruler appears on the top and the left side of the frame. If the Ruler doesn't appear, simply click on the View icon and click on Ruler.
To the left of the frame, you will see a Vertical Ruler. The numbers on this ruler indicate where text is located on the page front he top of the page. The numbers on the Horizontal Ruler indicate the location of the text from the left or right sides of the page and your indents and tab position.
If you right-click on either the Horizontal or the Vertical Ruler, you will see that you have choices for your units of measurement. Those choices are Millimeter, Centimeter, Inch, Point and Pica.
At the bottom of the frame you will see the Horizontal Scrollbar, which allows you to navigate your document left and right by clicking and dragging.
Just below the Horizontal Scrollbar is the Status Bar, The Status bar displays information about the instant document, such as the number of pages, style, zoom settings, etc.
If you take a look at the Horizontal Ruler, you will note that there are six inches available on your document for text, assuming that you are using the paper size 8 1/2 X 11. The space on either side of those six inches denotes your margins. All text that is typed into your document will stay within those margins.
You can change the margins to suite your document by dragging the the margin markers or by using the method below:
- On the Menu Bar click Format | Page.
- Click the Page tab.
- Use the drop down arrow to select your margin or highlight the number in the left or right dialog box and type in your desired margin.
- Click the OK button.
The Ruler is also used to change the indentation of selected paragraphs.
To change the left or right paragraph indent:
Highlight the text that you want to be indented.
Drag the bottom left or the bottom right triangle on the Horizontal Ruler to a new location.
To change the first line indent of a selected paragraph, drag the top left triangle on the Horizontal Ruler to a new location.
You can adjusts the indents by double-clicking anywhere on the Horizontal Ruler and changing the indent settings in the Paragraph dialog box.
Now that you have been introduced to OpenOffice and I have shown you how to format your document, I can start showing you how to use both MS Office AND OpenOffice to accomplish the same task.
I hope you found this interesting!
Carol writes the monthly Word Bytes Newsletter with more tips and tricks each issue. Visit Carol's website for more great Microsoft Office tips and tricks! Visit Carol's site at www.carolscorneroffice.com
Did you find Carol's Article helpful?
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#6- My Recommended Software
Anti-spyware and Anti-malware Software
Webroot SpySweeper - Daves Computer Tips Seal of Approval Winner! See the test results HERE. Spysweeper provides the best protection of the seven anti-spyware programs tested! Great detection and removal rates with a small real-time protection memory footprint. This is the one you want! SpySweeper includes the ASK toolbar. Be sure to uncheck this option during installation. Free 14 day trial.
CounterSpy - Runner-up in my Anti-Spyware test. Not only does CounterSpy scan and remove spyware, it also uses real time protection. Real-time protection prevents spyware infection. Free 15 day trial. Winner of Computer Shopper Magazine's Best Buy Award!
Antivirus and Firewall Software
ESET Smart Security - New from the maker's of NOD32. Antivirus, Antispyware, Antispam, and Firewall all wrapped into one effective, swift, and low resource package. It is what I use to protect each of my computers!
Kaspersky Antivirus - Kaspersky is my second choice for antivirus software. A good program that is very close in performance to NOD32. Free trial.
Online Armor Firewall - You shouldn't be on the internet without a software firewall that offers inbound and outbound protection. Online Armor is the Best of the Best. Online Armor uses an interface that is easier to navigate than most other firewalls and the protection level can't be beat! Online Armor is available in both a free and reasonably priced paid version, which offers even more protection!
Audio and Video Software
Acoustica Audio Converter Pro - This program converts audio formats and bitrates. Perfect for those with portable audio players or large music collections. 30 day trial.
Adobe Premier Elements - Elements is the consumer version of Adobe Premiere. It costs 1/6th the price, but is very capable of making videos that will impress everyone.
DVDFab is my favorite DVD software. I tried over 30 different programs before settling on DVDFab. It offers every function of the other programs and more! Copy, burn, shrink, convert for mobile devices, or convert for streaming. Almost all of the other programs I've tried did not function as advertised, were extremely slow, or did not have features that worked as advertised. DVDFab works, and works as advertised! It's easy to use, has a pleasant user interface, and it updated often.
Computer Hardware
Crucial Memory - Memory (RAM) is the upgrade that gives any computer the best bang for the buck. If you want to speed things up with more memory, why not purchase it from the leading source of quality RAM memory. Great selection, good prices, excellent support, and a lifetime warranty! A real winner!
CyberGuys - The place to get those hard to find cables and accessories for your computer!
HP Computers
- My current pick for new laptops and desktops. In the current market I don't think you can beat HP's combination of price and performance. Their laptop line is very cost effective and the design is absolutely beautiful!
Newegg - Newegg.com is known for great service and awesome pricing on computers, upgrades, and electronics. If you're looking for computers, computer parts, or electronics you owe it to yourself to start here! Great Products. Great Prices. Great Customer Service!
Computer Maintenance Software
Diskeeper 2008 - My current favorite defrag program. As files are written and erased from the hard drive they begin to leave "spaces" behind. When the drive is written to again files are broken up to fill in these spaces. This causes the drive to go to several different locations to read an entire file, which slows performance greatly. Diskeeper has several advanced features such as; automatic defrag, scheduled defrag, and the ability to defrag the MFT (Master File Table) and paging file. 30 day trial.
Registry Mechanic - A very thorough and efficient registry cleaner and defragmenter. A definite must to maintain peak performance and stabile operation. 30 day trial.
Computer Utility Software
Acronis True Image 11 - Do you value the data on your computer? Do you value your time? How much time will you spend recovering data and returning your computer to its original state after a hardware failure or software glitch? True Image is my #1 choice in backup tools. Whether you choose file or image based backups (you should use both!) True Image will perform better than any other application I've used. Disk images created with True Image are generally 10-20% smaller than those from comparable programs. If your time and files are as important to you as mine are to me this is a must have.
Acronis Disk Director - My favorite tool to partition, format, and resize hard drives.
Roboform - This program is the next best thing since sliced bread in my book! This program integrates into Internet Explorer and firefox. It generates very secure passwords at the click of a button. How do I remember these complex passwords? Roboform allows you to save passwords and personal data in an encrypted format. A master password (yes only one password to remember!) allows access. Roboform in IE and FireFox works like a super powered bookmark. You click the site you want to go to and Roboform opens the site, enters your username and password for the site (if required) and as if by magic clicks the submit button. If you shop online Roboform can enter your personal information and credit card information, which is also stored in a secure encrypted file, in one click. A real time saver with great security thrown in to boot! 30 day trial.
WinRar - What is commonly called a zip utility, similar to the more widely known WinZip. WinRar is faster and works with more formats for about 1/2 the price of WinZip. 30 day trial.
Desktop Utility Software
LogonStudio - Change the screen that appears when you boot Windows (the one with the moving bar graph). Hundreds of free skins available online. It's free.
Cursor XP Plus - Change the cursors on your computer. Hundreds of cursor packs are available online for free.
Icon Packager - Change the icons on your computer. Icon Packager puts you in control to change every icon with the click of a button. Tired of the plain icons built into Windows? There are hundreds of Icon Packs available online for free, which will add a truly personal feel to your computer.
WindowBlinds 6 - This is the icing on the proverbial cake. WindowBlinds changes the look and feel of Windows. By changing the appearance of the task bar, start menu, and any other window or program you open. It adds transparency, shadows, alpha blending, and animations. Hundreds of themes are available online for free.
Internet and Email
1&1 hosting - If you want to start your own website, blog, photo gallery, or have a personalized email address then 1&1 is for you. 1&1 can not be beat for reliability, features, support, and price. 90 day guarantee.
Google Gmail - The best internet based email (webmail) available. Each mailbox has a 6.5GB limit. The interface is superb, and the spam filter is top notch. You will never need to delete an email again! It has a great search function and a feature called thread view, which makes finding emails easy. A webmail account offers several advantages including not being required to change your email address if you change service providers. Gmail requires an invitation from a current member. If you are interested shoot me an email and I'll send you an invite.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 - Outlook is the current email client of choice for corporate America. I get well over 200 emails a day. Outlook has a few features I really need such as a plug in for automatic backups, office sounds which offers me some audible feedback, and the ability to change headers. I've used Mozilla Thunderbird and liked it a lot. With the amount of mail I go through I really need the features of Outlook. If you aren't a heavy user, or don't need the features I do then Thunderbird is a great alternative.
- An amazing, free, web browser. If you aren't using it you should be! Highly customizable through addins called extensions. There are thousands of extensions which can allow FireFox to do just about anything you can imagine. More importantly, Firefox is not subject to ActiveX, which is a large part of Internet Explorer, AOL, and MSN. No ActiveX means much less chance of getting spyware! Firefox also conforms to web standards more closely than Internet Explorer, which means you will see what the authors intended, not Microsoft.
Mozilla Thunderbird - A great free email client, from the same folks that brought us FireFox. Easy to use and highly customizable through extensions.
Photo and Picture Software
Adobe Photoshop Elements - Photoshop Elements is a consumer version of Adobe Photoshop. If you are serious about digital photos you will find Photoshop Elements a great program to have at your disposal. Elements provides all the functionality most will need at 1/6th the price.
Picasa - A great (FREE) way to organize, edit, and share your digital photos.
Comment on Dave's recommended software!
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#7- Ashampoo Burning Studio
By David Hartsock
I've recommended Ashampoo's Burning Studio software for CD and DVD burning software and used it personally for quite some time. Ron sent me an email this week, which may have brought my recommendation into question:
Hi Dave!
First, nice review/tutorial on one of my favorites, Roboform.
Now as to Burning Studio...I had BS 2007 on one of my boxes for a while without ever using it. I've been working with Nero so long, I can burn in my sleep with it. Recently, I took the same set of .wav files that I'd run through Cool Edit Pro and burned two audio disks. One was with Burning Studio, the other with Nero. Curiously, the BS disk played back at a slightly lower volume and somewhat diminished frequency response than the Nero disk. This occurred in three different physical players, car and home. Without going into great detail, I confirmed the impression by playing the disks in Adobe Audition which verified a slight difference. No real distortion was noted on either disk, just a difference in output/response. YMMV
The verdict: I uninstalled Burning Studio. I agree it has a small footprint and is easy on the CPU cycles, but I have plenty to spare.
I'll keep using Nero for the sake of consistency.
Test setup:
P4 2.53 Gb CPU
1.5 Gb RAM
XP Pro SP2
Nero 6.6.1.15
Ashampoo Burning Studio 2007
Taiyo Yuden 650 Mb media
Keep up the good work!
Ron
I'm not very familiar with audio software myself, but I attempted to reproduce what Ron had experienced. I used one mp3 and created one CD each with both Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 and Nero 7. I then ripped each CD to a wav file using Acoustica Audio Converter Pro. Using one file and one program to rip back to wav file format should leave the burning program and the encoder used in each as the only variable.
I wasn't having much luck with Adobe Audition, as it's a very powerful program. I contacted Ron and asked if he had any screen shots showing what he had observed:
Hi Dave!
I'm having a little trouble reproducing the same effects I first noticed. Audition is a handful, to be sure! I usually stay with the older Cool Edit Pro 2.1 or GoldWave or Audacity for those kinds of comparisons. Tried a couple of screen shots, but they don't show much.
In retrospect, it's not really a failing on the part of the Ashampoo program to produce slightly different outputs from other programs. After all, it does a nice job with DVD's as I recall; hard to argue with that. I only brought it up because I admire the work you put into the newsletter and thought you might be interested in the observation.
Thanks for the follow up. Sorry I'm not much help.
With kind regards,
Ron
After tinkering around with Audition for quite a while I came up with the following:
(click for full size)
What you are looking at is a waveform representing approximately 1/10 of one second of a song. The waveform on the top is from the Ashampoo file and the bottom is the Nero file. The Nero file appears to be slightly (1 or 2 db) and the peak indicated by the arrow. It also appears that the ashampoo file may be slightly longer (time added). I would attribute this to the encoder used in the program. I wrote Ron back to show him my results:
Yup, that looks about right. Between the levels and the encoder (good catch! that makes sense.), the differences show a little better. TBH, most users would be fine with ABS. I'm just thoroughly used to Nero. I will admit Roxio's current Easy Media Creator 9 is pretty slick, but compared to Nero, the footprint resembles a 300-lb. gorilla's! The code's a little messy, but it works as well as other Roxio products.
I know audio (just not audio software). The average human finds a 3db difference barely noticeable. Based on what I've observed I'm going to retain my recommendation for Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 for most users as it's a small, simple to use program. Nero is a great program also, but it may seem a bit complicated for the novice user. If you consider yourself an above average user then I would recommend Nero.
I'd like to thank Ron for taking the time to originally share his discovery, and continuing the discussion through several emails. Thanks Ron!
What's your opinion about Ashampoo Burning Studio?
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#8- The lighter side
After spending countless hours surfing the web in search of various funny or interesting things to share with you here are a few of my finds to lighten your day! I go through a lot to please my readers!
TV in your bedroom? - All my wife said was, "NO!".
MushyGushy - I'm not a big fan of e-cards, but this is neat! You upload a picture and add a head (yours maybe) to the character. Take a look at some of their samples!
Warning Forever - A free game which may help you relieve some stress!
Astro Battle - This one looks VERY interesting. Build your own spaceship, then engage in online battle with your friends!
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#9- A few websites you may find useful
Windvis - Nick has a great site going here. If you're using Vista, or planning of it, you should check it out.
Pink Flamingo's resource page - Kate's site is full of useful links. Teaching, web design, digital photography, and more!
Media Player plug-in for Firefox - A Microsoft plug-in for Firefox... Who would have thought! This plug-in adds the ability to play Windows Media files within Firefox.
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