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June 30th, 2009

June 2009 Links

Links for the month of June.

May 1st, 2009

April 2009 Links

Links for the month of April.

April 11th, 2009

Back to Basics with my 12″ PowerBook

Who needs a netbook? I got this old clunker.

January 31st, 2009

January 2009 Links

Links for the month of January.

January 29th, 2009

In Defense of Microsoft Word

It does the whole job.

July 10th, 2008

Why I Downgraded to Word 2004

I said I’d never upgrade to 2008 and I lied. Then I paid for it.

February 1st, 2008

Buy Excel 2007 Books for 50% Off

Buy my Excel 2007 books at 50% off retail price.

January 7th, 2008

On the Edge, Looking In

One geek’s look at Macworld Expo and the state of the Mac.

January 5th, 2008

January 7, 2008 Links

Links for the Week ending January 6, 2008.

December 15th, 2007

Removing Words from Word’s Custom Dictionary

It’s a bit involved, but doable.

December 5th, 2007

ecto, Revisited

An offline blogging tool that makes my life so much easier.

December 2nd, 2007

Shortcut Keys, Part II: Starting Up

A list of shortcut keys you can use at startup.

November 16th, 2007

Site Topics Available as RSS Feeds and E-Mail Subscriptions

Get content delivered to your RSS reader or e-mail box.

November 13th, 2007

A Computer without Word?

I try an experiment to see if I can stay productive without Microsoft Word.

Last week, in an effort to get my old 12″ PowerBook to run more efficiently, I decided to wipe the hard disk clean and reinstall Tiger with a clean install. After installing it, I got a little crazy and decided to upgrade

Continue reading A Computer without Word?

October 10th, 2007

Save $10 on Quicken 2008: The Official Guide

Buy the book at a deep discount from McGraw-Hill.

Are you using Quicken 2008 for Windows? The tenth edition of my bestselling guide for Quicken, Quicken 2008: The Official Guide is in stores. But if you’ve been holding off on buying, now’s your chance to buy and save. McGraw-Hill is offering the book for $10 off

Continue reading Save $10 on Quicken 2008: The Official Guide

October 9th, 2007

Ping to Keep Your Connection Alive

A quick tip for folks who use a cell phone to connect to the Internet while on the road.

One of the reasons I bought my Treo back in May was because I wanted a phone that I could use with my laptop to connect to the Internet when I was away from WiFi access. The

Continue reading Ping to Keep Your Connection Alive

September 20th, 2007

Mac Basics Questions Wanted

You ask, I’ll answer.

As I work on the tenth edition of my Mac OS Visual QuickStart for Peachpit Press, I’ve been thinking back to the introduction to Mac courses I taught for various training organizations and my own observations of beginners using Mac OS. My goal, in writing these books, is to answer the questions

Continue reading Mac Basics Questions Wanted

August 14th, 2007

Boot Camp and Partitioned Disks

“This startup disk is not supported.”

I just learned that Boot Camp cannot be installed on a Mac with a partitioned hard disk.

The error message I got was:

I wasted close to an hour trying to troubleshoot this problem before I found the answer hidden away in the documentation. (Duh-uh.)

From the Troubleshooting section at the end of

Continue reading Boot Camp and Partitioned Disks

August 6th, 2007

Mail Stop Working? Here’s a Fix.

What to do if your ISP blocks Port 25.

A few months ago, I was suddenly unable to send e-mail from my computer. And I hadn’t changed a thing.

The problem wasn’t just my desktop computer. It was also my laptop and my husband’s laptop. The computers could receive e-mail. And they could access the Web. They

Continue reading Mail Stop Working? Here’s a Fix.

June 28th, 2007

Random Number Generator for Excel

A quick little project.

I just happened to visit a Web site that used another Web site to generate random numbers for contest giveaways. To me, an Excel user, that seemed like a silly place to go to get a random number when you could easily generate one on the fly within Excel.

So I whipped

Continue reading Random Number Generator for Excel

June 23rd, 2007

Making eBooks

I try some software to add formatted hypertext documents to my Treo.

I’m one of these people who can’t spend more than a few minutes without some kind of mental stimulation. I have puzzle books under the seat in my helicopter, so if I’m stuck on the ground waiting for a passenger, I can do a

Continue reading Making eBooks

May 31st, 2007

iPod Won’t Talk to Your Rental Car? Try an MP3 CD!

A possible solution for vacationers needing music on the road.

Last week, Mike and I went to the Los Angeles area for a business/pleasure trip. Mike rented a Mustang convertible for the week.

The current model Ford Mustang has two features that make it easy to play your own music on the road:

A line-in jack for

Continue reading iPod Won’t Talk to Your Rental Car? Try an MP3 CD!

May 16th, 2007

Microsoft Releases a Word 2007 Conversion Tool for Mac Users

Oh. Gee. Thanks.

I got an e-mail message from my editor, Cliff, today. He wanted me to send him a Word 2007 file to test a converter on his Mac.

I don’t use Word 2007 regularly. That’s a Windows program. I’m primarily a Mac user. I still use Word 2004 on my Mac. But I do have

Continue reading Microsoft Releases a Word 2007 Conversion Tool for Mac Users

May 16th, 2007

Gila Monster

My first Final Cut Express video project.

After spending three days going through a tutorial to learn Final Cut Express HD, I was ready to create my first video project. I’m sharing it with blog readers so you can see how much effort a person can expend on 25 seconds of video.

About the Project

This particular

Continue reading Gila Monster

May 10th, 2007

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.5 Update Now Available

Information from the Microsoft Web site.

This update contains several improvements to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. In addition, this update includes all the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates.

System requirements

To install this update,

Continue reading Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.5 Update Now Available