Traveling? 10 Tips to Protect your Laptop from Theft

These days, it seems that just about everybody uses a laptop or notebook computer to get work done away from the office or on the road. Unfortunately, the pervasiveness of laptop computing has made portable systems an easy target for theft. If your laptop computer is stolen, or if someone gains access to your files while your back is turned, your company information—not to mention your personal and financial data—can be exposed.

Click here to continue reading this article at Microsoft at Work.

HouseTalk Show - Marketing Support

For the past 3 years, Your Computer Lady provided marketing support for The HouseTalk Show, a weekly radio program Saturday mornings on KKNT.

• Schedule guests
• Weekly email to listeners promoting the upcoming show
• Site updates with Vault of Knowledge articles and audio files of each week’s show

Microsoft Excel 2007 - Wrapping Your Text

You know that you can widen a column to display all the text, that may not always work for your needs. Did you know that you can wrap the text within the cell, so that the cell height is increased to display all the text. Follow these steps:

1. Select the cells.
2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. This displays the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Click on the Alignment tab. 
4.  Make sure the Wrap Text check box is selected.
5. Click on OK.

Lights Up Arizona Email Marketing

Lights Up Arizona continues its email marketing program with above average Open Rates and Click-through Rates. Their monthly newsletters keep clients and prospects up to date on new lighting products and industry trends. Lights Up Arizona works diligently to use the newsletter to educate its readers with valuable information. For a visual product like lighting to a visual target market like architects, email marketing is a critical piece of Lights Up Arizona’s marketing plan.

May 2012 Newsletter
March 2012 Newsletter
January 2012 Newsletter

Arizona Pediatrics New Web Site

It was a pleasure to work with Arizona Pediatrics to create their first web site. It was Your Computer Lady's first bi-lingual site which was an exciting challenge also.

Microsoft Word 2007 - Creating and Saving Templates

1. Click the File tab, and then click New.
2. Click Blank document, and then click Create.
3. Make the changes that you want to the margin settings, page size and orientation, styles, and other formats.  You can also add content controls such as a date picker, instructional text, and graphics that you want to appear in all new documents that you base on the template.
4. Click the File tab, and then click Save As.
5. In the Save As dialog box, do one of the following:
   
   • On a computer that is running Windows 7, scroll to the top of the folder list, and under Microsoft Word click Templates.
   • On a computer that is running Windows Vista, under Favorite Links, click Templates.
   • On a computer that is running Windows XP, under Save in, click Trusted Templates.
6. Give the new template a file name, select Word Template in the Save as type list, and then click Save.
7. Close the template.

Garden of Glass Web Site Update

A proprietary software increased the difficulty level but Your Computer Lady was able to update the Garden of Glass site. The company didn’t want to take on the workload or expense of creating a brand new site. The update was an interim measure to improve the design and page content.

Your Computer Lady always encourages clients to use software that is widely used instead of proprietary software. A web host may offer you a “great price” for using their software but it ties you to their hosting, it increases the cost of editing your site and limits the options you have to expand the site when you need to.

How to Add Polish to your PowerPoint Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a terrific medium because it allows you to reinforce your message with visual prompts. But too often, the power of PowerPoint is lost because the speaker doesn't use it to help viewers focus on the message. Instead, PowerPoint itself becomes the focus.

Click here to continue reading this article at Microsoft at Work.

It's All About Attitude

A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat: "I'm the greatest batter in the world," he announced. Then, he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed. "Strike One!" he yelled.

Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said again, "I'm the greatest hitter in the world!" He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down he swung again and missed. "Strike two!" he cried.

The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, "I'm the greatest batter in the world!" Again he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. "Strike Three!"

"Wow!" he exclaimed. "I'm the greatest pitcher in the world, too!"

Using Twitter to Build Your Company

Here is an interesting article describing how a woman has used Twitter to build her company.

 

“How Twitter Changed My Life” by Melinda F. Emerson.

Microsoft Word 2007 - Remove Extra Space Between Paragraphs

Have you noticed that in Word 2007, Word will add a space between paragraphs by default. This space cannot be removed by using the backspace key.

If you don’t want Word to add the extra space, you can turn it off. However, you will need to turn it every time you open a new document unless you alter the Normal.dot template.

To turn off the space between paragraphs, follow these steps:

1. On the Home ribbon, find the Paragraph section.
2. In the bottom right corner of the section, click the button to show the Paragraph dialog box.
3. Select “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”.
4. Click OK

Eco Bay Home Database Creation

Using a mixture of lists from industry magazines and the Internet, Your Computer Lady built a database of wineries for Eco Bay Home to use marketing their new products.

Microsoft Excel - Changing Gridline Color

Gridlines help you track information on the screen easier and to locate cells quickly. Normally the gridlines are shown in black, but you may want to make them some other color. If you want to change the gridline color, follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button and then click Excel Options.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Scroll through the options until you see the Show Gridlines check box; select it.
4. Click the Gridline Color control and choose a color you want to use for the gridlines.
5. Click on OK.

Phoenix Deposition Services - LinkedIn Profiles

Your Computer Lady assisted Phoenix Deposition Services by creating a personal profile for President, Mark Miller and a company page spotlighting the firm’s services.

Carpet & FabriCare Institute - Web Site Expansion

In order to offer new services to members, the Carpet9.org web site needed some WordPress plug-ins added. The Your Computer Lady programmer was able to set up the plug-ins and do a little site clean up. We saved the organization some money recommending a different plug-in that was available for free!

Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint - Using Paste Special

If you routinely cut and paste from different documents, web sites, or PDF files you will notice  that when you paste the copied text it brings along the formatting of the previous document.

The best way to get rid of this “stuff” is to use the Paste Special command. Once you copy your text from the document source using the copy command or Control-C on the keyboard, use the paste special command to paste unformatted text into Word, Excel or PowerPoint.  This will “clean-up” the text for you.

Blue Thumb Services - Form Creation

Blue Thumb needed assistance with some new forms they wanted to develop for their service providers. Your Computer Lady worked with staff to create the forms then published them on the web site for easy downloads.