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Express yourself with Microsoft Works 9 templates

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Everyone has a unique personality, but we don’t always have the time or the know-how to express ourselves, particularly through computer applications. Here are some ideas on how to use the templates offered in Microsoft Works 9 and Microsoft Office Word to express your creativity on the PC.

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If you are looking for help using and finding Microsoft Office templates, read our article, “4 ways to simplify your life and show your style with templates.”
Party templates

Customize the occasion

Most of us look for any excuse to celebrate, and with special occasions around every corner you may frequently resort to generic greeting cards to express your sentiments. Creating a personalized card instead can really show how much you care. Surprisingly, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time or innate artistic ability. Try using a template in Microsoft Works 9. There are more than 40 ready-to-use templates for several occasions, such as birthdays and holidays, as well as blank templates that can be customized without sacrificing the polished look of store-bought cards. You can also download Works greeting card templates. Once you have crafted your masterpiece, you can print it out from your own home. Microsoft Works 9 also includes a calendar, so you can set reminders of upcoming events like birthdays and anniversaries.
Microsoft Works birthday card templates

The wide variety of card templates makes it easy to create a custom card.
Example of birthday card using a Microsoft Works Cupcake card template

Make something special for your loved ones with birthday card templates in Microsoft Works.
Turn photos into memories to share

Do you snap enough vacation photos to put the paparazzi to shame? If so, you probably don’t want those memories cooped up in a dusty album along with your baby pictures. If you use a digital camera, it’s easy to get creative and turn those vacation photos into unique memories you’d like to share. Consider using Windows Live Spaces or Shutterfly to prepare a personalized online photo album. Or, try Photosynth, a tool that enables you to turn photos into an interactive 3-D experience with the cinematic quality of a movie and the control of a video game, and then share them on the Web. These services are free of charge, and they enable you to share memorable shots with your friends and they allow your loved ones to keep an eye on you from across the globe.
Photosynth of a creek

Turn your family or vacation photos into a unique interactive collage with Photosynth.
Take charge of your career

In business, they say you’re only as good as your next idea. So why not differentiate yourself from the rest of those trying to climb the corporate ladder and make your work stand out? For those looking to emerge as the next corporate hot shot, Microsoft Office Word offers a number of templates for personal correspondence, marketing plans, sales presentations, legal forms, and more. For more information or to download these types of templates, visit Office Online and read our article, “4 ways to simplify your life and show your style with templates.”

When looking for a new job, it’s important to put your best foot forward to make an impression on perspective employers. One great way to do this is through your resume and cover letter. Microsoft Office Word offers a number of customizable templates for job seekers looking to outshine the competition. This includes templates for résumés, cover letters, and job search letters that you can adjust to express your creativity and keep your résumé out of the recycle bin.

Office Online resume templates

You might not be a painter, a poet, or an actor, but don’t let that keep you from being creative. With a template as your guide, it’s easy to express your individual style.

9 tips: How to photograph holidays and special occasions

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The problem with most photos taken during the holidays or other special celebrations is that they don’t capture the special feeling of the season or event. That’s why most holiday, anniversary, birthday, and graduation pictures an seem so average.

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Why settle for ho-hum photos? With preparation and just a few simple tips on photography techniques and photo effects, you can turn your digital photographs into unique works of art that you and your family and friends will enjoy looking at for years.
1. Plan ahead for special occasion mailings

The classic problem with holiday photos that you want to use for cards, your annual family letter, or other special mailings is that they have to be taken weeks in advance. Some decorations, like Christmas trees, might not be available, or you might not want to take your menorah or other once-a-year holiday decorations out of storage so far in advance. Or maybe there’s no snow on the ground.

It’s never too early to think about the perfect image to accompany your special mailings.

One solution is to find a clip-art image or photo that says “New Year” or “Graduation” or one that evokes your special occasion. For ideas, check out the photos and other clip art images available from Microsoft Office. The quality and variety of choices will surprise you. Browse the Seasons, Special Occasions, or Religion categories. Or do a search for snow, palm tree, or graduation, for example, or for Christmas, Chanukah, Eid al-Adha, or poinsettia. Choose a photo or other clip-art image that you can use in your mailing. And don’t forget to check the site for backgrounds and borders that you can add to these images or to the photos you take.

Another great way to plan ahead for special mailings is to find an old photograph in one of your albums or memory boxes—a photo that evokes the celebration—and to scan that photo into your computer. After the photo is scanned, you can edit and use the image as you would any other digital photograph.
Scan a photograph

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

If you’re taking your own photos for a holiday card or other special mailing, following a few photographers’ tips can help you get the photos you want. Here are a few photography techniques for how to take great special occasion photos with your digital camera and how to edit your images for even greater effect.
2. Keep it simple

Family photos are great, but you may want to save them for your family. If you want to mail a special occasion card to business clients, neighbors, or community members, consider using a simple and straightforward yet evocative image. For example, freshly fallen snow on ornate stone buildings and oak trees suggests the beauty of a northern winter. Orange trees lush with fruit suggest the beauty of warmer climates and seasons. If you don’t have fresh snow or blooming flowers on hand, gargoyles on buildings, iron gates, and other architectural elements can be compelling, too.
Picture of a cardinal sitting on a bare branch in a tree surrounded by snow.

This cardinal offers a pretty way to evoke the holiday season for non-family cards or mailings, and by using your camera’s Magnify feature, you get something beyond the typical nature landscape.

3. Get up close

Don’t be afraid to get up close. Most people see a beautiful nature scene, say “Wow!” and snap a shot of the whole landscape. Or they stand far back from the family gathering or the graduate to “get it all in.” Don’t settle for canned landscape shots; zoom in on the details that matter. Almost every digital camera has a Magnify or Macro button that lets you get close and create a much more interesting photo.
4. Get candid

There’s nothing wrong with pictures that are posed, but you can create variety by taking candid shots at family and social gatherings. Capture people while they’re engaged in conversation or as they’re opening a gift. Keep your camera batteries charged up and your camera nearby so you can catch spontaneous moments. Most digital cameras have a Motion or Sports setting that allows you to capture people in motion without blur in the photo. If your camera has shutter priority mode, you can use a higher shutter speed (1/100 to 1/400 seconds) to reduce motion blur.
5. Light the way

In ideal situations, use available light to eliminate problems like flares and the dreaded “red eye.” To prevent red eye, ask your subjects not to look directly at the camera. If you do get red eye in your photos, you can use Windows Live Photo Gallery to remove it.

To avoid distracting light flares, keep mirrors, glass, or other reflective surfaces that can cause flares away from your subject. Also, don’t take photos in front of windows or other back lights; the foreground will come out too dark unless you use fill flash.

If the scene is too dark, light it from several different directions. Don’t point bright lights right at people’s eyes. Light the space around them and diffuse the light if possible

6. Find a new angle

This is something I learned from my days as a reporter: Looking at rows of people staring at the camera and smiling at you head-on is a bit boring. If you want to take a photo of your family or friends, simply changing the angle and looking at a familiar scene from a new perspective can liven it up considerably. For example, get up on a ladder and look down; or get down on the floor and look up.

Another option is to fill the frame for dramatic effect. By tilting the camera down about one-third of a frame, you can create a much different effect. Look carefully at the picture you’re framing before you click the button. Experiment by moving the camera up and down or side to side. Tilt the camera to various angles and see what it shows you. Fill the frame with the object that interests you most. If your digital camera has an LCD screen, you can use it to improve your sensitivity to the scene and to help you find an interesting viewpoint.

7. Edit your images

Even the pros don’t get it right the first time. Professional photographers know that the best way to get the perfect image is to take several hundred that are imperfect. Some of the best photos emerge only after careful editing.

Windows Live Photo Gallery, a part of Windows Live Essentials, is a convenient and powerful tool for editing images. You can download Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Essentials for free. Our article Simple fixes for your digital photos gives some good tips.

You can use photo-editing programs, like Windows Live Photo Gallery, not only to remove red eye but also to crop photos, combine black-and-white and color in one image, adjust the color and light exposure of images, and apply other cool photo effects. With many of today’s digital imaging software packages, like Adobe Photoshop Elements and others, you can apply amazing effects to your photos that used to be available only to professional photographers.

Hint: Before you start editing, make a working copy of your original image by saving it with a new file name. You can do this by opening the image and typing, for example, bw (for “black and white”) at the end of the file name when you save it to differentiate the working image from the original. For example, if the image file name is “Leaf,” save the image as “Leafbw.” When you do all of your editing on your working copy of the image, you can always start over with a fresh copy of the original if you don’t like the results. Windows Live Photo Gallery has a convenient Revert to original button that you can use if you don’t want to save any of your editing changes after previewing them, but it’s still a good idea to save a copy of the original.

One dramatic effect, for example, that you can create using your favorite image-editing program is to convert color photos to black and white. With some camera models you can even do this in the camera—even before downloading the image to your computer. After the image is on your computer, you can use your image-editing program to adjust contrast and brightness to create a photograph that’s reminiscent of an Ansel Adams print.

Hint: Silhouettes look terrific in black and white, as do old buildings. The effect adds drama. But be sure to reserve this technique for landscapes or buildings. Photos of family members in black and white may not be as warm as you want them to be.

You can improve group portraits by editing them, too. How many times have you said, “If I could only combine this shot where my daughter is smiling and that one where the rest of the family is smiling, I’d have the perfect group portrait”? Photo Fuse in Windows Live Photo Gallery makes this possible. It combines the best parts of two or more photos to give you the image you want.
Edit photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Transfer photos from your digital camera to your computer

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

8. Don’t forget presentation

Anyone who’s ever wrapped (or unwrapped) a present knows how important presentation is. Imagine this: Your holiday greeting or special invitation arrives in your friends’ and family’s Inboxes and features a multimedia summary of your activities and special occasions from the year.

With Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can quickly turn your photos into a slide show with captions, transitions, and music. If you use Windows XP, you can download Microsoft Photo Story 3 to create a multimedia slide show. If you download Windows Live Movie Maker, either alone or as part of Windows Live Essentials, you can even turn your photos into a movie.

Another cool way to present your holiday photos is to use Microsoft Photosynth, which transforms regular digital photos into three-dimensional, 360-degree experiences. This service changes the way you experience and share photos. Please note that you have to download Photosynth and sign in with a Windows Live ID account to use or view photos within the Photosynth experience.

You can also use Microsoft PowerPoint to present a holiday greeting or party invitation that includes festive images and sound clips of your family or friends singing their favorite songs. If you have Windows 7 and PowerPoint 2010, you can even embed video of your family or friends on that great trip to the beach or clips of birthday parties. For the ultimate holiday or celebration mailing, save your file as a video. That’s a presentation your friends and family won’t soon forget.
9. Share your special moments

You’ve collected your best picks of candle-lighting, singing, and present opening. Now what do you do with them all? You could set up an online blog. Our article, “Share your vacation in real time,” can help you learn the basics.

Or create a collage. Photo collages celebrate important events and themes in our lives. Pick a folder, press a button, and, in a few minutes, Microsoft Research AutoCollage presents you with a unique memento to print or to email to your family and friends.

If you really want to wow them, you can make a wearable souvenir to send everyone by transferring a digital photo to a T-shirt. Here’s how to do it using Windows Vista.
Learn more about how to take professional photos, edit your images, and organize, print, and share them

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

Get even more creative! For more tips from professional photographers, read the inspiring and informative articles on the Microsoft Photo Community blog.

6 smart ways to keep in touch online

Posted on by Posted in CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Microsoft, Tech, Windows

We now have more ways to stay connected online than we ever imagined when email first entered our lives. With the right tools and know-how, you can stay tuned in to your friends, family, and colleagues—no matter how different your time zones, schedules, and pace of life.


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1. Instant message and chat online

Instant messaging (IM) is essentially a private chat on the internet, which makes it the perfect medium for check-ins with friends, coworkers, and family, or if you need a question answered quickly. Video chat takes IM’ing one step further, so that you can actually converse face-to-face, albeit over computers connected to the internet.

Windows Live Messenger is the perfect program to use for both IM and video chat (as well as for playing games, making voice calls over the web, and sharing photos online). It is available for free as a part of Windows Live Essentials, which is free. If you don’t yet have it installed, go for it! To get tips on installation and basic how-to instructions for both IM and video chat, read our article Use instant messaging and video chat to stay in touch.
Friend not online? Leave a Video Message

A new feature that allows you to leave a 30-second video message for your friend even if they aren’t currently online. This feature is available in the current Instant Messenger. Here’s how to leave a video message.
2. Publish your calendar

One of the best ways to stay in touch is to publish your calendar on the Internet (using a secure Microsoft site like Office Online) and then invite individuals to view and use it. That way, the important people in your life can know what you’re doing and when, and they can schedule themselves into your life without playing phone tag, waiting for email replies, or searching the house or office for the “master” calendar. A bonus: Because the calendar is electronic, you only have to enter your annual appointments and events once—never miss a birthday or anniversary again!

Below we describe how to share your Outlook calendar online. Another option, and one that allows you to merge multiple calendars into one, is to use Windows Live Calendar. Read this article to learn how to keep your family in sync using Windows Live Calendar.

Publish a shared calendar online
Outlook 2010
Outlook 2007
3. Share your photos online

Still emailing photos? There are much more effective and interesting ways of sharing photos to keep in touch—ways that don’t limit the photo file size or require you to write a new message every time you want to share your photos—and that give you more tools to be creative with your photos, too.

Windows Live Photo Gallery is a free application and part of Windows Live Essentials. If you haven’t yet downloaded Windows Live Essentials, now’s the time! You can upload photos, albums, or slide shows for anyone to view or for just those people you want to share them with. You can post photos for others to comment on, tag photos, edit and organize your photos, and even create group albums or slide shows that you can publish to the Internet. Our article Create an online photo album is a great place to get tips and how-to instructions on setting up an online album.

Windows Live Mesh is another excellent way to share photos between computer and mobile devices—even across thousands of miles. Watch this short informative video and read our instructions to find out how to use it.

Photosynth. Sharing personalized albums and slides shows online is a wonderful way to keep in touch. But wouldn’t it be great if you could turn a set of photos into an interactive three-dimensional (3-D) experience with the cinematic quality of a movie and the control of a video game—and then share that experience on the web?

Photosynth helps you do just that. You upload overlapping images, and Photosynth stitches them into a dynamic 3-D image that viewers can “tour” or explore on their own. When you create a synth, you can specify whether you want it to be public or unlisted (available for viewing only by those addresses you specify). You can also geotag your synth, which links it to a map showing viewers the exact location where the photos were taken. It’s a great way to give family and friends a sense of the house or neighborhood where you live, your favorite activity, an art project you’ve finished, or anything special you want to share.
Photosynth of a tree-filled park and bridge
Photosynth of toys on a table

Turn family or vacation photos or photos of your favorite places and spaces into a unique interactive collage with Photosynth.
4. Create a family or event website

A website is a great way to communicate broadly with others and to share information with family and friends. A family website is particularly useful for chronicling life-changing events, such as marriages, births, and family or class reunions, and for posting pictures of your home and neighborhood to faraway relatives to give them a window into your family’s day-to-day life. You can update pictures and content regularly.

There are lots of online services you can use to create a site without having to have any technology background. For example, you can use WordPress.com to start a blog where you can post pictures and share your thoughts. You can have your site up and running—with pictures—in less than 10 minutes. If you’re more advanced, you can create a site using Microsoft Expression Web 4.
5. Blog your heart out

These days, almost everyone has a blog, and it’s easy to see why. The hosts of these online journals made up of links and postings presented in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first) often allow readers to add comments and discuss the posts, which makes blogs a great way to share day-to-day information, communicate ideas, and encourage discussions between the blogger and the readers or even between the readers themselves.

One easy way to craft blog posts is with the help of Windows Live Writer, which enables you to share pictures and posts on almost any blog service. Windows Live recommends using WordPress.com to set up your own free blog. It’s simple to set up and easy to use.
6. Use online groups and collaborative workspaces

Online groups are a great way to keep in touch with people that share your passions, hobbies, or interests. They’re also a good way for people in similar situations (for example, single parents, people with the same medical condition, or people whose children attend the same school) to get and provide support for one another. Many schools and other organizations have online groups you can join.

Visit Windows Live Groups to organize your own team, club, or family group, and invite people to participate. It’s far simpler and faster than you imagine. Your online group can create its own webpage where everyone can view the group’s activities and can take advantage of a shared calendar and a space for sharing photos and engaging in discussions. It works with Windows Live Messenger, so you can use instant messaging with your whole group and chat together in real time, from your desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

Collaborative workspaces let you save, access, and share documents and files. Some workspaces are downloaded directly to your desktop, like Microsoft SharePoint Workspace in Office Professional Plus. Others, such as Microsoft Office Live Workspace, are located online so you can access them from anywhere. They’re not as complicated to use as you might think—the whole program sets up in minutes. And these spaces aren’t just for office work. Extended families, for example, often like using the discussion, calendar, and chat options. Quite a few other options are available, such as the ability to display pictures, use drawing tools, report and manage issues, and more.

Shared workspaces located online. If you use Microsoft Office, you’ll want to try Office Live Workspace or Office 2010 Web Apps. These programs are like having an addition to Microsoft Office that lets you store, access, and edit documents from a single online location, regardless of your physical location. Both work with programs that you already use (such as Word, Outlook, or PowerPoint, among others) and are designed for anyone who needs a place to save and share documents. Office 2010 Web Apps give you even more saving, editing, and sharing options. With Office Web Apps, you can save your documents directly to the web, in your Windows Live SkyDrive folder, and open them and edit them simultaneously with others. Documents stored on Windows Live can be viewed and edited with either the Office Web Apps or with the Office client applications on your desktop. And you can also work together on a single document online with anyone through a web browser—even in real time when using Excel. Learn about using Office Web Apps in Windows Live.

Office 2010 makes sharing documents with online groups and individuals even easier with Backstage view, a convenient all-access pass to almost everything you want to do. On the Ribbon, on the File tab, click Share, and then click one of the many options. Click Send e-mail to attach the document to an email message, send an email message with a link to the document, or send it as a PDF, XPS document, or fax. You can also send documents directly to Windows Live SkyDrive so others can immediately see and work on them, or to a blog.
Backstage View in Office 2010 with the Share option selected

Backstage view in Office 2010 can simplify and accelerate sharing files with others.

Keeping in touch with the people in your life, whether you communicate with them daily or only occasionally, is one of the keys to a successful and fulfilling life. By using the information presented in this article, you can take advantage of communications technology to establish, maintain, and develop relationships that are long-lasting and rewarding.

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6 useful Windows tricks

Posted on by Posted in Career, CCIE, CCNA, CCNP, Cisco, Jobs, Microsoft, Tech, Windows

You know that feeling you get when your friends or family see you do something on your computer that they’ve never seen before? If you’ve had this experience, you know that “world’s coolest power-user” feeling. But if you haven’t, start here. Knowledge is power!

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Read these six tips for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP that will keep you schoolin’ your friends and family.
1. Don’t just maximize your windows—go full screen

When you need a really big window for viewing photos and videos, don’t just maximize it: go full screen! This tip works great for viewing photos and videos at maximum size in Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player, utilizing screen space usually occupied by the header at the top of the screen and the taskbar at the bottom. Here’s how:

Open any photo in Windows Explorer, or open a photo or video clip in Windows Media Player. Do one of the following:

In Windows 7 and Windows XP, click the F11 key at the top of your keyboard.

The photo or video image enlarges to its maximum size and the title bar and taskbar are hidden.
Viewing a photo in Windows Explorer standard view

Viewing a photo in Windows Explorer standard view

To undue full-screen mode and restore the window to its normal view, press the Esc (Escape) key at the top of your keyboard
2. Customize the Navigation pane

You can use the navigation pane (the left pane) to find files and folders and display links to frequently used folders and other items. You can also move or copy items to a destination in the navigation pane.

If you don’t see the navigation pane on the left side of an open folder window, click Organize, point to Layout, and then click Navigation pane to display it.
To customize the navigation pane in Windows 7

In an open folder or library window, click Organize, and then click Folder and search options.

In the Folder Options dialog box, click the General tab, and then do one or both of the following:

To show all the folders on your computer in the navigation pane, including your personal folder, select the Show all folders check box, click Apply to see the change, and then click OK.

To automatically expand the navigation pane to the folder that’s selected in the folder window, select the Automatically expand to current folder check box, and then click OK.

Customizing the navigation pane in Windows 7

Customizing the navigation pane in Windows 7
More ways to customize your favorites in Windows 7

To add a folder, a saved search, a library, or even a drive as a favorite, drag it to the Favorites section in the navigation pane. Note: You can’t add individual file to Favorites, but you can add them to any folder in Favorites.

To change the order of favorites, drag a favorite to a new position in the list.

To restore the default favorites in the navigation pane, right-click Favorites, and then click Restore Favorite Links.

To view the folder where your favorites are stored, click Favorites in the navigation pane. Favorites are stored as shortcuts.

To remove a favorite, right-click the favorite, and then click Remove. This removes the favorite from the navigation pane—it doesn’t delete the files or folders that the shortcut points to.

The Favorites area of the navigation pane in Windows 7

The Favorites area of the navigation pane in Windows 7
Add folders and files in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, you can add folders to Favorite Links in the navigation pane so that you can open them from any folder window at any time. To do this, first open the folder that contains the subfolder you want to add. Then simply drag its icon from the original folder to where you want it in the navigation pane. You can also click Folders at the bottom of the pane and drag a folder from the folder list up into the Favorite Links section of the pane. Note: You can’t add individual files to Favorite Links, but you can add them to any folder in Favorite Links.
Pictures folder in Windows

Pictures folder in Windows
3. Pin a program or items to the Windows 7 taskbar

You know what would make a great taskbar? One where you could pin your favorite applications or files so that you could open them quickly from any window at any time. Guess what? You can.

In Windows 7, you can also pin shortcuts for favorite or frequently used files, folders, and websites to the Jump Lists for each of those programs to the taskbar. Learn more about Jump Lists.

Pin a program to the taskbar

To pin a program shortcut to the taskbar, do one of the following:

If the program is already running, right-click the program’s button on the taskbar (or drag the button toward the desktop) to open the program’s Jump List, and then click Pin this program to taskbar.

Or if the program isn’t running, click Start, find the program’s icon, right-click the icon, and then click Pin to Taskbar.

You can also pin a program by dragging the program’s shortcut from the desktop or Start menu to the taskbar.

Pinning a program to the taskbar

Pinning a program to the taskbar
Using Jump Lists in Windows 7
4. Customize the Quick Launch Bar in Windows XP

In Windows XP, the customizable Quick Launch Bar also gives you convenient shortcuts to your favorite programs, folders, and files. The Quick Launch Bar remains accessible from most windows, so it’s a handy way to open the applications and files you use frequently.

If the Quick Launch Bar isn’t already visible to the right of the Start button Start button, you’ll need to turn it on. To do that, right-click an open area of the taskbar. Hover your mouse pointer over Toolbars, then click Quick Launch. The Quick Launch Bar appears on your taskbar.
The Quick Launch Bar on the Windows XP taskbar

The Quick Launch Bar on the Windows XP taskbar

To add a program shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, click the Start buttonStart button, click All Programs, then click and drag the application you want to the Quick Launch Bar. Release the mouse button and the application’s icon appears in the Quick Launch Bar.

To add a folder or file shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder, subfolder, or individual file you want, click and drag the folder or file you want to the Quick Launch Bar. Release the mouse button and the icon for the folder or file appears in the Quick Launch Bar.

To remove a shortcut from the Quick Launch Bar, right-click on the icon in the Quick Launch Bar of the application, folder, or file you want to remove and right-click it, click Delete, and then click Yes when asked if you’re sure you want to delete the shortcut. Note: Although the shortcut is removed from the Quick Launch Bar, the actual application, folder, or file has not been deleted from your computer.
5. Arrange windows on your desktop

In Windows, you can arrange windows side by side, which can be especially helpful when comparing two documents or when moving files from one place to another. Note: If you’re using a nonstandard setup (such as dual monitors), the tricks below may not work as expected.
Windows 7

Drag the title bar of a window to the left or right side of the screen until an outline of the expanded window appears.

Release the mouse to expand the window.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 with another window to arrange the windows side by side.

To return a window to its original size click the Maximize button in the window’s title bar and the window expands to full size.
The Maximize button

The Maximize button

Learn more about managing multiple windows in Windows 7.

Tip: To snap an active window to the side of the desktop by using the keyboard, press Windows logo key Windows logo key +Left Arrow or Windows logo key Windows logo key +Right Arrow.
Viewing windows side by side in Windows

Viewing windows side by side in Windows
Windows Vista and Windows XP

In Windows Vista and Windows XP, it’s easy to display any two (or more) windows side by side on the desktop, all equally sized. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click two or more of the window buttons on the taskbar that you want to open. Release the Ctrl key, right-click, and then do one of the following:

Windows Vista users, click Show Windows Side by Side.

Windows Vista, Show Windows Side by Side command.

Windows Vista, Show Windows Side by Side command.
Windows XP, Tile Vertically command.

Windows XP, Tile Vertically command.
6. Organize your files into groups

Windows offers a variety of options for organizing folders and files in the ways that work best for you.
Windows 7

The easiest and most effective way to organize your stuff in Windows 7 is to use file arrangements in your libraries.

You can arrange files in the Documents library by author, for example, or you can arrange the Music library by artist if you’re looking for an album or song by a particular band.

To arrange a library

In the taskbar, click the Windows Explorer button Windows Explorer button.

In the navigation pane (the left pane), click a library (such as Music).

In the library pane (above the file list), click the Arrange by menu, and then choose a property. For example, in the Music library, you can choose Artist to quickly arrange your music collection by artist.
The ‘Arrange by’ menu

The “Arrange by” menu

When you arrange your files, Windows doesn’t just put your files in a different order. Instead, they are presented in a completely different way. The arrangements work differently depending on which one you choose. For example, arranging your pictures by month puts your pictures into stacks, like this:
Files arranged in ‘stacks’

Files arranged in “stacks”

Arranging by day puts them into groups, like this:
Files arranged in ‘groups’

Files arranged in “groups”

There are four default libraries in Windows 7, each with its own specific arrangements. You can also create new libraries and choose which arrangements are available for them.

For more information about libraries, see Working with libraries.

Windows Vista

Open a folder that contains several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Group By, and then click your grouping choice.
Windows Vista Group by command.

Windows Vista Group by command.
Windows XP

Open a folder that contains several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and then click Show in Groups. To arrange the window’s contents, right-click again in any empty space on the window’s contents pane, point to Arrange Icons By, and click Name, Size, Type, or Modified (the choices may vary depending on the contents).
Windows XP Arrange icons by command.

Windows XP Arrange icons by command.

Some of these tips are from the book, Windows XP Killer Tips by Kleber Stephenson, ISBN 073571357X. Published here with the permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

Amazon, Apple Battle Over App Store Trademark Claims

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Amazon has fired back at Apple over the rights to trademark “app store,” as Amazon’s Appstore for Android positions to
Amazon.com has filed a counterclaim to Apple’s lawsuit over the term “app store,” which the online retailer argues is a term too generic for trademarking.

 

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Apple originally filed a lawsuit against Amazon March 18, claiming the rights to “app store” in the wake of the online retailer’s launch of an Appstore for Android. That storefront exists independently from Android Marketplace, the cloud-based bazaar that offers hundreds of thousands of apps for Android-based smartphones and tablets.

Amazon isn’t the first company to lock horns with the Cupertino, Calif., tech giant over “app store.” Microsoft and Apple are already locked in battle over the latter’s idea to trademark the term, with Microsoft arguing in a filing before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trial and Appeal Board that “app store” is “generic for retail store services featuring apps and unregisterable for ancillary services such as searching for and downloading apps from such stores.”

Now, Amazon is making similar claims that “app store” is a term too generic for one company to trademark.

“Defendants admit that Amazon has not received a license or authorization from Apple to use the term ‘app store,'” reads Amazon’s response, “and contend that no such license or authorization is required because ‘app store’ is a generic term, and Amazon’s use of the term causes no likelihood of confusion, dilution, or unfair competition.”

Amazon then launched a counterclaim against Apple, asking the court to dismiss the latter’s trademark claims to the term “app store.” The online retailer also asked that Apple pay attorney’s fees and expenses, along with “any such other and further relief as the court deems appropriate.”

The counterclaim boils everything down to linguistics:

“Based on their common meaning, the words ‘app store’ together denote a store for apps, such as the app stores operated by Amazon and Apple,” the filing continues. “The American Dialect Society, a leading group of U.S. linguists, recently voted ‘app’ as the ‘Word of the Year’ for 2010, noting that although the word ‘has been around for ages,’ it ‘really exploded in the last 12 months.'”

Indeed, it adds, “the words ‘app store’ are commonly used among many businesses competing in the app store market.”

Both Amazon and Microsoft face something of an uphill battle against Apple’s App Store, which contains the most apps by volume. Apple has already started expanding the app store franchise beyond mobile devices to its Mac line of PCs, with a Mac App Store that offers full-screen apps. The storefront operates in a similar manner to Apple’s App Store for iOS, allowing users to purchase and download apps in one click. The Mac App Store will prove an integral part of the company’s upcoming Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion.”

Microsoft argued in its own case that the term “app store” is commonly used “in the trade, by the general press, by consumers, by Apple’s competitors and even by Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs, as the generic name for online stores featuring apps.” In light of that, the counsel argued, Apple should be denied a lock on the name.

Apple begged to differ.

“Microsoft, missing the forest for the trees, does not base its motion on a comprehensive evaluation of how the relevant public understands the term APP STORE as a whole,” reads a Feb. 28 filing by Apple with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “What it offers instead are out-of-context and misleading snippets of material printed by its outside counsel from the Internet and allegations regarding how the public allegedly interprets the constituent parts of the term APP STORE, i.e., ‘app’ and ‘store.'”

If nothing else, these cases stand to give everyone an exhaustive lesson in linguistics.

Google Celebrates Earth Day With Nature Doodle, Wind Investment

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Google turned its homepage logo into a nature scene doodle Friday in honor of Earth Day.

The image features a moving waterfall, penguins jumping on an iceberg, pandas nibbling on bamboo, and a lion curled up under a tree.

This year’s Earth Day theme is “A Billion Acts of Green.” The Earth Day Network said the goal is to generate one billion acts of environmental service and advocacy before the June 2012 Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

 


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Earth Day dates back to 1970, when Sen. Gaylord Nelson, disheartened by a massive 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara and inspired by the anti-war movement, moved to fuse activism and environmentalism, according to the Earth Day Network. Google Earth Day doodle

He announced a “national teach-in on the environment” and pulled in colleagues from both sides of the aisle. On April 22 that year, 20 million Americans gathered on the streets and in parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a more environmentally friendly existence. By 1990, Earth Day went global, helping pave the way for 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Three years later, President Bill Clinton awarded Sen. Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in founding Earth Day.

In a Thursday blog post, Yahoo said searches on its network suggest that the recent nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted consumers to start looking into alternative energy sources. This month, searches on Yahoo Green for “solar energy” are up 208 percent while inquiries for “wind power” are up 1,307 percent.

“Interestingly, more men are showing more interest, as 3-out-of-5 searches this month for both ‘wind power’ and ‘solar energy’ are by males, especially in Illinois, Ohio, Texas and New Jersey,” Yahoo said.

Yahoo also has a list of top Earth Day 2011 deals, including free Starbucks coffee for those who bring in a reusable mug.

Google, meanwhile, has made a number of investments in clean and solar energy lately. On Thursday, the search giant announced its second power purchase agreement for wind energy in Oklahoma. Google will apply the power to its Mayes County data center, which is expected to be fully operational later this year. Google will purchase its energy from NextEra Energy Resources’ Minco II wind facility for the next 20 years via Google Energy. The facility is being built thanks to Google’s funding commitments and will be operational by year’s end.

“We’ve made the commitment to be a carbon neutral company, and this purchase is part of our effort to minimize our impact on the environment. We’ve managed to reduce our energy consumption by over 50 percent by building highly energy-efficient facilities, but we know that efficiency alone isn’t enough to eliminate our carbon footprint,” Google said in a blog post. “We’ve been exploring ways, such as this PPA, to reduce emissions further by increasing the amount of renewable energy we use to power our operations; we purchase high-quality carbon offsets for any remaining emissions.”

Earlier this month, Google also invested $168 million to a solar energy power plant in California’s Mojave Desert and $5 million in a solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Germany. In May, it put $38.8 million into two North Dakota wind farms, the company’s first direct investment in a utility-scale renewable energy project. In October, Google also announced plans to invest in a wind farm initiative that will fund 350 miles worth of wind farms off the East Coast.

Also today, CTIA, the wireless industry trade group, launched a “go wireless, go green” Web site with tips for going green in a connected era.

Cisco Starts VOIP Certification

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It’s a strong sign that implementing VOIP, or any other form of telephony, isn’t getting any easier for the enterprise. Or maybe that work for all those unemployed Dot Com sysadmins lies just around the corner. In any case, Cisco Systems announced last week that it was adding the Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP) to it’s list of professional certifications.

Cisco says the new certification was created in response to a need for “knowledgeable network professionals who can install, configure, operate and support complex Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems.”

 

 


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The CCVP overlaps with Cisco’s existing IP Telephony Qualified Specialist certifications. Along with an active associate level CCNA certification (Cisco Certified Network Associate) the CCVP requires five additional exams. The list includes:

642-642 QOS–Quality of Service

642-432 CVOICE–Cisco Voice Over IP

642-425 IPTT–IP Telephony Troubleshooting

642-444 CIPT–Cisco IP Telephony

642-452 GW/GK–Gateway/Gatekeeper (available by July 2005)

Cisco promises that “Individuals who earn a CCVP certification can help create a telephony solution that is transparent, scalable and manageable.”

The CCVP focuses on Cisco’s CallManger systems, QoS (quality of service), gateways, gatewkeepers, IP phones and “voice applications and utilities on Cisco routers and Cisco Catalyst(R) switches.”

Apple TV Q&A: Can It Be Hacked? Is Hulu Plus Coming?

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After posting the first Apple TV review online yesterday, we are now moving on to general questions about the device you guys have written us with. Let the Q&A session begin!

Q: Can Apple TV be hacked?

A: Early reports seem to indicate: yes. A tool called SHAtter is reportedly the key to success, but keep the following things in mind, my adventurous friends:

-Apple has yet to release the iOS 4.2 update that allows streaming from OS devices like your iPhone 4 to your Apple TV. That comes out in November. When you download it, I’d assume it would undo all your hacking handiwork, despite boasts that the SHAtter tool allows for updates without losing your hacks.

-It seems possible to hack the system to stream apps and, perhaps, games, to your Apple TV, but there’s no way to change the resolution of these mobile apps. In other words: they are going to look pixilated on your large television, if you manage to successfully get them there.

-Some hackers seem to be focusing on the micro-USB connection on the rear panel. Apple reps told me this was basically a connection for emergency use—say, if you desperately need to restore factory settings. But your Apple TV will regularly update via Wi-Fi, and it’s possible to restore factory settings via Wi-Fi, as well. Regardless, the micro-USB appears to be active, so it will definitely receive attention from hackers.

 

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Q: Can I adjust parental controls for Netflix content on Apple TV like I can for iTunes content?

A: Yes, and there are two ways to do this. Online, go to Netflix and sign in, go to “Your Account & Help”, scroll down to “Preferences”, click on “Change parental control settings” and block or allow movies based on their rating. This will affect both your DVD Queue and your Watch Instantly Queue—and whatever you change here will change on your Apple TV’s Netflix menu, as well. Or, you can go to Apple TV’s settings menu and, under Parental Controls, create a passcode for Netflix, as well as YouTube, Internet Radio, Internet Photos, and Podcasts. You can choose to hide these menu options from your kids, or require the passcode be entered in order to access them. So, this second method is more of a complete block of content of Netflix, and the first is more of a filter.

Q: I heard Apple TV streams full 1080p HD—is this true? And what about surround sound?

A: No. The highest resolution for video streaming with the new Apple TV is 720p, which looks great, but is not, obviously, as great as 1080p. That said, most movies and TV shows now also stream with full 5.1 Dolby surround sound when available, which is impressive. I checked to make sure I was getting full surround when watching a variety of shows yesterday, and, indeed, an episode of “Lie to Me” had unique audio content in each channel. In time, 1080p HD streaming should become available, but right now, I’m assuming Apple is more concerned about getting the content loaded and buffered quickly so you’re not waiting forever. TV shows seemed to take less than 10 seconds to begin playing after rental yesterday, and movies less than, say, 45 seconds. Not bad.

Q: I have an older TV—will the Apple TV work with it?

A: Apple TV has only one video output—HDMI. If you don’t have an HDMI input on your television, you will need to buy an HDMI-to-whatever-your-input-is converter, either for composite, component, or S-Video. Keep in mind, all video content on iTunes is now in widescreen, 16:9 format, so viewing it on a really old television is not going to be a very rewarding experience. As long as your TV is simply an older model lacking HDMI, but is widescreen, the content should retain aspect ratio, just not resolution.

Q: What operating system is Apple TV running?

A: Apple won’t say. I have noticed that you can rearrange the order of your TV rentals by making an icon wiggle and sliding it to whatever position you please—similar to the process for arranging icons on iPod touches, iPads, and the iPhone. But Apple has gone out of its way to clarify that the Apple TV is not considered an iOS device. Sure, it can stream (or will be able to soon) from iOS devices, but it would seem that the OS is some sort of hybrid of iOS 4.1, and not iOS 4.1 itself. As of now, the OS has no name, and Apple doesn’t seem interested in elaborating.

Q: Now that Roku and TiVo have Hulu Plus, will Apple follow suit and add it to the Internet menu on Apple TV?

A: One’s gut reaction might be: why add competition for iTunes onto an Apple product? But Apple’s inclusion of Netflix certainly did that. Yesterday, for instance, I recorded a video in which I rented Let The Right One In for $4.99—and one viewer hilariously pointed out I could have instead streamed it from Netflix, on Apple TV, for free. Woops. The point is, however, that Apple isn’t opposed to providing portholes for potential competition, but my guess is their criteria for allowing this goes something like: “Is this competitor so established, much like iTunes, that we’d be better off recognizing our own customers use the service and making their lives easier?” In the case of Netflix, the clear answer was yes, and the occasional rental Apple loses in favor of a stream from Netflix on the same device will probably be negated by sales of Apple TV units because it has Netflix loaded.

In the case of Hulu Plus, I don’t think we have a competitor that people are truly paying for and addicted to on a level that Apple will feel the need to add it. Furthermore, Apple desperately wants more networks to get on the 99-cent rental bandwagon (currently, only Fox, ABC/Disney, and BBC are available), and streams of potential rentals on the same box would seem to undermine this goal. So, my guess is: no.

Send us more questions—either via email or in the comments below—and we’ll round them up again soon.

Android Offline Google Maps

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There is no limit to how many miles you have travelled on Google Maps Navigation. Recently Google announced that Google Maps Navigation on Android has guided 1 Billion+ miles in America alone, over the last year.

Evidently, people love Google Maps more than other Mapping services like Bing maps, OpenstreetMap.

I travel around 70 miles to work and use Google maps extensively for finding out best traffic conditions for my journey. Apart from that when I travel in the capital region, its hard to find routes, as I’m new to the city. Obviously, my data plan was going way above the limits, and I was ending up paying high royality.

I started to look out for Google Maps Offline for Android, and finally settled with RMaps, that work with a charm. Other Alternatives: AndNav, Maverick, TrekBuddy.

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Google Maps Offline on Android

Pre-requisites:

* RMaps (from Android Market, free)
* Mobile Atlas Creator
* sqlite_jni.dll

How To get Offline Maps on Android

Step 1. Go to Android Market and Install RMaps.

Step2. Install/Unzip Mobile Atlas Creator and keep the dll file in the same directory

Step 3. Open the Mobile Atlas creator and Choose map source as “Google Maps”, and use following controls to select a desired areas:

* Right click to Drag
* Scroll to zoom In/Out
* Left click to select downloadable area

android-google-maps-offline

Step 4. Once the area is selected, you need to specify the zoom level. I personally prefer Zoom level of 18 since its detailed enough and not as detailed as Zoom level 19.

Note: zoom level 18 is the highest available for most non-US cities.

Step 5. Once you are satisfied, go ahead and select “add selection” with a name mentioned. Then select “BigPlanet SQLite” from “Atlas Settings”.

Note: If you plan to use another Application for Android Offline maps, say Maverick, AndNav, the default settings would be “Maverick atlas format” and “AndNav atlas format” respectively and maps source can be any.

Step 6. Go ahead and click “Create atlas” and the downloading would start. The duration of download is directly proportional to the area you selected in step 3.

Step 7. Once done, open the download folder mount SD card and copy the “BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb”  to  /sdcard/rmaps/maps and disconnect USB.

Step 8. Open RMaps and Menu > More > Settings > User defined maps > BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb  > Enabled Maps. return to main maps screen and then Menu > Maps > BigPlanet_maps.sqlitedb.

The downloaded maps will now become active.

Now on, you can navigate around the downloaded area with GPS alone, without a need for data connection 😀

Note: However, for directions, it will fetch data from Google, but the data usage is trivial.

Windows 7 Exam:Installing and Configuring Windows 7

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When we first started offering the Windows 7 Exam questions and answers and exam simulator, we never dreamed we would be making the claims that we do now in the form of our unbelievable guarantee. www.actualkey.com GUARANTEES that you will pass your 70-680 exam on your first attempt after using one of our 70-680 training products. That’s right, with the 100% pass rate, the exam tools that we have created for you are so good – we can’t help but guarantee your results.

Known also as the Microsoft TS: Windows 7, Configuring (70-680), this exam plays an integral role in obtaining your certification. All Microsoft certification exams are extremely detailed and cover many different technological areas. We designed the 70-680 questions and answers for this very purpose, to prepare you for the unexpected. Beyond the testing center, the skills you learn and the knowledge you confirm using the 70-680 practice exams and exam simulators will translate directly into your daily work environment.

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70-680 Exam is the new Microsoft MCTS exam for Configuring Windows 7 that builds towards the MCITP accreditations.

I’ve been thinking of taking this exam for a little while and now there is what’s shaping up to be an excellent series of training videos available from MCTS exam. Hes an IT Admin and has started putting these videos together in his spare time to help out anyone looking at this exam so‘nuff respect for that.

I’ve watched the 1st 2 videos that are available and they’re really good. Well presented, clear and I’ve definitely picked up a thing or two, which is what it’s all about isn’t it?! I’m not sure how many will be in the series but I’m confident that once you’ve seen them all, you’ll be in a position to pretty much go and take the exam straight away.

The first training course for the first certification offering for Microsoft’s Windows 7 is now available.

Microsoft announced that Microsoft Official Course 6292, Installing and Configuring Windows 7, is ready for you to take (after paying, of course!)

It’s a three-day, instructor-led course. Topics include upgrading to Windows 7; installation and migration issues; configuration parameters and more. The goal is to help you prep for Exam 70-680, TS: Windows 7, Configuring.

With fewer than two weeks until Windows 7 is out, interest in the operating system is spiking. Given how poorly Windows Vista was received, I expect quick and broad adoption of Windows 7 free Microsoft practice tests. Getting certified ASAP makes a lot of sense, and this training can serve as a springboard.