Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Computer Tips [ Ingenious Download Recovers Lost Files + Simple Way To Find What You Need + The Keystroke That Clears The Desktop + Copy And Paste Tricks ] 03/19/2009

Computer Tipswww.worldstart.com No, this isn't Steve. You can tell because Steve never wears a suit :-)

Quick Tips

Win-D, a.k.a Windows D

So, say you're like me and have a billion and a half windows open all at once. Now, say you would like to access your desktop to open yet another program, but don't want to bother minimizing each and every window one at a time. You could click the "Show Desktop" icon, sure, but that would require moving your mouse, wouldn't it? I say forget that! Let keyboard shortcuts rule the day!

Take the work out of minimization by using the "Win-D" method. Simply hold the Windows key (the one with the little Windows logo) on your keyboard in conjunction with the letter D and *poof!* you're Samantha Stevens from Bewitched! Want them to come back? use the same key combo and everything is back where it once was!

Now that's some pretty neat stuff right there!

~Andrew

Like this tip? Hate it? Tell us by rating it here:
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Don't stop the knowledge train yet, people! Stay tuned down the line for the story on "copy and paste", April's awesome Office tip, and how to find just about anything! Plus, you will attain peace and tranquility within the walls of the beautiful Japanese Garden, only to lose it again when you see Gary's download of the week. It might very well blow your mind! I know I'm still gluing mine back together!

Announcements

 

Your Photos Will Look Absolutely AMAZING!

Easiest Photo Software You'll EVER Use!

Photo Editing And Enhancing Your Photos Has NEVER Been This Easy!

PLUS: Create Outstanding Calendars, Greeting Cards, Albums & More!

Ingenious Print & E-mail Options Save Time & Money!

BONUS! Even Create CD Photo Shows That Play In ANY DVD Player! WOW!

OK, you have this amazing new digital camera - and I'll bet you use it all the time. It's just that, well, what are you doing with all those great pictures you've been taking?  Are they just sitting on your hard drive or memory card? Do you keep telling yourself you've gotta DO something with them one of these days? Quite a project, ya know?  Or is it?

Think about it. Do you:

Wish there was an easy way to edit and make your photos look amazing? 

Wish you had a way to easily do special effects? 

Wish you could do some cool frames and borders? 

Wish you could create calendars, cards, albums, slide shows, and panoramas? 

Wish you print multiple photos on one page to save money on paper?

Wish you could easily e-mail photos that were the right size to family and friends?

Well, save you wishes for something else! We just got PhotoStudio Expressions 2.0 and it's the easy to use, powerhouse photo program you've been waiting for!

This software does EVERYTHING - and then it does a little more! Heck, there are features included (like DVD slide shows, panoramas, greeting card creation) that people spend $50 for a stand-alone program to do! All included! Photo editing deal of the decade if you ask me!

First off, just wait till you try the exciting - and amazingly easy to use - photo editing features! You can crop (to specific print sizes or just go freehand), adjust contrast for extra "pop", make a photo darker or lighter, sharpen like crazy, tweak the color (and fix bad color), and more! 

Here I am adding some contrast to my moose - just use the little slider and hit Apply:

Oh, and just wait till you see the "Auto Enhance" feature! WOW - this is totally gonna BLOW-YOU-AWAY! One click and the program creates 9 different versions of your shot - then YOU pick the keeper! Just pick the one that looks best and all the work is done automatically! Put it this way - if you DON'T want to spend hour after hair pulling, frustrating hour working on a photo, THIS is the software you want in your corner!

Here I am using AutoEnhance on a deer photo I took this fall. 9 versions - You just pick the one you like:

After you've done the basic adjustments, you may be feeling a little creative. Well, if you do, I have some GREAT news! The geniuses who wrote this program created just a TON of fun effects for you to play with! You can paint, erase, add text, add clipart to your own photos, and more!

Here I am turning my jeep into a cool sketch:

And I've got to tell ya about the frames & borders - WOW - TONS of really cool stuff! Wait till you see all the amazing "edge" treatments you can give your photos! There's 42 different effects and they are REALLY going to "jazz up" your photos! Friends and family are going to be asking how the heck you did it! Little will they know it was JUST a single mouse click!

Here I am adding a cool border to a macro shot I took last spring:

Oh, and just wait till you see the AMAZING filter set this comes with! WOW! You can make you photo look like, well, anything! Lots of fun stuff for distortions (try 'em on faces for hours of fun), tons of cool Make-Your-Photo-Look-Like-A-Painting effects, loads of textures that really create some cool looks, some stunning B&W effects, and more! My favorite is the "old time photo" filter - in a click of the mouse, my photo looks like it was pulled right out of Grandpa's photo album! Very cool!

OK, after you have your photo perfected, then what? Well, you could jump to the printing section and make a make print, OR you can create some amazing projects! This has some really great templates for creating amazing greeting cards, calendars, photobooks and more! All included!

Here I am creating a calendar after I was done with the moose above:

PLUS - this can do a DVD slide show you can play on TV!

Imagine, you can create a Video CD or DVD that you can put into ANY standard DVD player and show off your pictures on TV - it's the new (and vastly improved) family slide show!! Just select the photos you want in your slide show, make any adjustments you like, and create the Video CD or DVD! Also, since this can do Video CDs, all you need is a CD Burner - NO DVD Burner is required! Again, as long as you have a CD burner, you're good to go with this! We've sold software in the past that ONLY did this - and it wasn't cheap! This is INCLUDED!! Absolutely AMAZING!!

Oh, and panoramas! Just take 2 or more shots, one right next to the other with about a 1/3rd overlap. Then, put them into this software and it will stitch them together as an amazing pano shot! If you've never done panoramics - get ready for a treat! You'll love it and this already has all the "expensive" software you need to pull it off - and automatically!

Plus, you've just gotta see the printing features - this is really exciting! This actually allows you to place multiple images of multiple sizes onto a single page! It automatically arranges them so you the maximum number of prints on a page - no more wasted paper! Oh, and another thing - it automatically resizes for printing too! You don't have to manually adjust each and every photo to the size you want - just tell it you want 4x6s (or 5x7s, or whatever) and you're good to go! You'll LOVE it! Printing is actually going to be FUN!!

Here I am getting ready to print a sheet of photos:

By the way, have you ever needed to send a photo via e-mail? Exactly what size should that be? Heck, even if you know the answer, you'd still have to go in and resize your photo, save with a different name, and send it off. Well, this takes ALL the hassle out of it! Just select the usage (on screen viewing - ideal for e-mail, small print, full size) and hit Send! That's it!

Whew, OK, this program can actually do a LOT more than I've listed but I'm guessing you get the idea (and besides, my fingers are getting tired from all this typing)! It's a remarkable program - it makes it incredibly easy for ANYONE of ANY skill level to enhance their photos - and do cool stuff with 'em! 

Your price? We're talking just $12.97 for this photo-editing nirvana! You spent a lot of money for your digital camera - why not make the most of the pictures? For this price, you just can't go wrong! Give it a try - you'll be amazed at all you get for less than the price of lunch out!!

http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=4463

PS - This is a limited quantity deal, so you MUST MUST MUST get to the site as soon as you can! Please, don't miss this one - it's the easiest to use photo editing package we've ever come across! Nothing packs this much power and is soooooo easy to use!






The SMARTEST Way To Plug In Your USB Keyboard & Mouse!USB to PS/2 Adapter - Single

Gain Up To 2 Extra USB Ports With This Cool Little Adapter!

Perfect For Desktop Computers!

Everyone With A USB Keyboard or Mouse Has Gotta Try This!

OK, I have a question for you! Do you have a USB keyboard? Mouse? OK, now do you have a pair of PS/2 ports or two on the back of your computer (they're round, one purple, one green - next to each other). OK, if you're answering yes, then riddle me this Batman: Why on earth are you wasting USB ports on a keyboard, mouse or both?????

Wouldn't it be great to get those two USB ports back so you can use them for other things? Well, let me introduce you to this little adapter! It's a USB to PS/2 Adapter that you plug into the PS/2 ports on the back of your computer so you can actually USE those PS/2 ports with your USB keyboard or mouse! Now, performance is exactly the same, so it's not like your keyboard isn't going to keep up or your mouse is going to sputter along, so you have every reason to try this little upgrade!

Think about it - you can never have too many USB ports, and yet we end up plugging our keyboards and mice into them! Plug your mouse and keyboard in where nature intended - the PS/2 ports! Use this little adapter and reclaim those two USB ports!

Your price? Just 4.97 each! Each one does one PS/2 port, so grab as many as you need! Can't go wrong for the price! Time to take those USB ports back from your keyboard, mouse, or both! Grab yours today:

http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=4949

PS - The price WILL increase to $8.97 tomorrow! Get 'em while they're cheap!

Computers 101

Q:
People are always telling me to "copy and paste" this or that. I hate to admit it, but I don't know how to copy and paste. Can you help?

A:
First off, you'll be glad to learn copying and pasting is easy. You can copy and paste just about anything your little heart desires: text, web pages, files, pictures, you name it. The idea behind the process is to take information from one place and deposit it into another.

For an example, let's pretend you're working in a word processor and need to copy and paste a section of your document into an e-mail. Here's how:

1. First, you'll need to select the text you wish to copy. You do this by putting your mouse cursor at the first character you want to copy and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the last character you need copied. As you drag, you'll notice everything gets highlighted (selected).

2. Next, right-click the selected area. Choose Copy from the menu that pops up (or you can use CTRL-C if you like keyboard shortcuts).

3. Finally, right-click the area in your e-mail document where you would like to insert the word processor text. Click Paste from the menu that pops up (For this, CTRL-V is your keyboard shortcut).

That's it. The steps are basically the same for any copy & paste procedure you need to do.

Here's another example. In the image below, we'll take a line of text, copy it, and paste the copy below the original line:

If you want to get a little more fancy, place your cursor at the first character you want selected and, while holding down the SHIFT key, click next to the last character you want selected. It's sometimes easier to follow this procedure than to make selections by dragging, especially when your wrestling with a lengthy document. I can't remember the number of times the area I wanted to stop selecting at zipped right by me on a document!

Another fun way to use the SHIFT key is adding to an existing selection.
Let's say you select an area of text and you came up short of what you really needed. Rather than trying to re-select the whole thing, just hit the SHIFT key and click your mouse where you would like the selection to end. (You can also shorten a selection by doing this too.)

After you have used the SHIFT key to get your text selected, follow the pervious steps to copy / paste.

~ Steve

Whew! That was a good one! No? Okay, then tell us by rating it here:
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MS Office

Open, Close, Open, Close … Not For Me If I Can Help It!

Here's yet another little feature of MS Office 2007 that some of you might find useful.

When you're formatting objects such as SmartArt, ClipArt, Pictures, etc. using the Format dialog window you don't have to close the dialog window to go back to your file and switch between objects or even edit your text/data.

That is to say… if you have an object such as a SmartArt selected and you open this dialog window to do some formatting

and you'd then like to do some of the same formatting on a ClipArt you do NOT have to hit the Close button… you won't get the usual blinking dialog window that lets you know it must be closed before moving on.

Instead, all you have to do is to click on the ClipArt (or other object) and the dialog window will change to offer the appropriate options.

While this doesn't work with every dialog window you'll find in the Office 2007 Suite it sure is nice to see the blinking dialog window a little less frequently.

~ April

Like this tip? Don't like it? let us know by rating it here:
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5445

More Cool Stuff

The Best Backup Program EVER!

Makes Keeping Your Computer Backed Up SIMPLE!

Incredibly Easy To Use!

Automatically Takes Care Of Everything!

Ya know, we hear it from people all the time, "I'm so upset - my computer crashed and I lost all of my stuff! My photos are gone! My work documents are history! Everything is trashed - I wish I would have backed up!"

Here in the digital age, backing up isn't just important - it's absolutely CRITICAL! Truth is, most of us just don't do it enough - And sadly, I include myself in that category. It's just such a hassle to remember to backup, ya know?

Well, I found a gem of a little program for you! It's called PC Backup and you're absolutely gonna LOVE this! It makes backing up effortless! Really! Just set it up and let it work in the background!

How's it work? Couldn't be easier! Just tell it what files or folders you want to backup. For most people, just having it backup your My Documents folder is probably all you need, but you can add whatever you like! Keep just one file backed up, keep selected files backed up, or keep every file on your system backed up! It's easy, only takes a minute!

Next, tell it where to backup to. I personally use an external hard drive, but a large memory card, flash drive, or even a separate internal hard drive will work. All depends on how much data you have to backup.

Finally, have it do the first backup. That's it! You're already an expert! Nothin' to it!

Oh, and talk about automatic backups! WOW! THAT'S the reason I LOVE this software! For your future backups, you can have it set to run when Windows starts and then run an automatic backup every so often. I have mine set for every hour, but you can have it do backups every minute, every 3 hours, once a day, once a week - Whatever!

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking- Having it backup all the time would make the poor computer work constantly, but it doesn't! Why? This can do Incremental Backups! That means that when it goes to do a backup, it ONLY backs up new or changed files! Saves IMMENSE amounts of time! My favorite feature!!!!!

Here's an example! Say you have 100 files in a folder and between backups you change one file and add another. Rather than recopying ALL the files, it simply adds the new file and updates the changed ones - two files written, 99 left alone! Smart eh? Instead of several minutes (or hours, depending on your file sizes / numbers), this is done in seconds! See why I love this one?

PLUS this backups up the full files - it doesn't "hide" them in some kind of weird compressed archive that you HAVE to use the program to open - all your files are completely usable in your backup location! Why is this important? Think about this - What happens if your computer crashes and you can't find the disk for your backup software to reinstall it?? With software that uses a special "only-works-with-our-backup-software" kind of file, you MUST use that backup software to retrieve your files! Yikes! With this, you'll still have your files - all 100% usable and ready to go!

I tell ya, this is the way backup programs SHOULD be! Easy to use, working in the background, and not taking up any resources! PERFECT! I don't know why this hasn't been done before! It's just GREAT!!!!

Your cost? Just $10.97 and US shipping is FREE! Spectacular deal on what's possibly the easiest, most elegant backup solution I've come across! Take a look:

http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=4302

PS - It's not a matter of IF you're going to need a backup, it's WHEN (and we both know that's true!) This is an affordable, easy to use program that does the job without the hassle! Set it up once, and compute in blissful confidence that YOU are one of the few who are backing up! Isn't it worth $10.97 to make sure your files are safe? (Trust me, it will be worth 20X that amount to you if you don't backup and your data is lost !!!)





Special Note - We were finally able to get these in stock. Last time we had them, we sold over 300 in less than a day! Check this out - see for yourself why everyone loves Cookin' With Betty Crocker!

WOW!! Amazing Betty Crocker CD ROM Cookbook!

Special - Just $10.97 Today Only! (03-18-2009)

Over 1100 Fantastic Recipes!

Oh, You Gotta Grab This!

We just got an absolutely amazing deal on Cookin' With Betty Crocker - and let me tell ya - this is going to BLOW - YOU - AWAY!!!!

This has got to be, hands down, the best deal we've ever seen on a CD ROM cookbook! 

Oh, and not only are you getting all these amazing recipes - you're getting a seriously powerful digital cooking assistant! This is just LOADED with great features and it's really going to make your kitchen life much easier!

First off, don't you hate it when you have a recipe that serves five and you only have two to feed? Heck, you spend half your time just trying to divide up fractions! YUCK! Well, this can easily scale the recipes for however many people you're trying to feed! Need to feed just two? It can do that! Need the same recipe to feed 10? Yup, just a click of the mouse! To me this one feature ALONE is worth the price of the cookbook!

Then it gets even better! Say you're on a diet and you really need nutritional information for the food that you're making. Wouldn't it be great if you could analyze a recipe and find out how much fat, cholesterol, how many calories etc. you were taking in? Well, with this you can! It can easily do a health analysis and in second you'll know the nutritional values for ANY recipe!


What if you have a bunch of recipes that you want to add? No problem! Add as many as you like! Now, adding recipes is easy, but this takes it a step further! When you add a recipe, you get all the features mentioned above right at your fingertips! Need to scale your recipe for more or less people - it can still do it! Want nutritional values? YES! This can analyze YOUR recipes and give that to you as well!

Oh, and you'll love this! What if you're not sure how to cook something? Maybe there's a technique that a recipe describes but you're not familiar with it - Sure wouldn't take much for that to happen to me! Well, this has tons of fantastic instructional videos! Yup, just pull up the video section then watch and learn! HA! Who needs the cooking channel? :-)

Want more! Sure ya do! This can also create a shopping list for a recipe (print or send to a palm), e-mail recipes to friends and family, create weekly menus (and make those shopping lists from those menus), search recipes by keywords OR ingredients, and to top it all off, the interface is just fantastic!

Whew, this is one amazing cookbook! Want one too? I don't blame ya! These are just great! Your cost is only $10.97 and US shipping is FREE! The paper version of this has an $85 retail! Plus the fact that it's all on your computer makes it so much more useful / powerful than those old paper cookbooks! Go on, give this a try - I know you'll love it too!

http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=4634

PS - WARNING! This was a VERY limited quantity deal. PLEASE hurry to the site and grab yours while you can! Right now, we can't get any more and these are bound to be extremely popular today. See ya at the site!

BIOS... What's that?

I had a Worldstart fan call in the other day and ask me what a BIOS was, to which I replied: "something not to be trifled with." This, I'm know, was not a very accurate description, and I felt bad afterwards for not offering more info. I figured that the only way I could make it up to the caller was to post something up on the WS site that gives a little more detail to one of the most essential parts of the PC kingdom. So click on over and get the 4-1-1 on the BIOS.

Herbal Gardens

I make no apologies for being excited for Spring season. In fact, I'm going to continue on with my green ideas by putting a fantastic little page up on the Worldstart site that encompasses everything herbal! Recipes, gardening tips, crafts and even a a great article on seed buying are all at your disposal. Pick up your roots and drop by today and check it out!

Here's the link you need: http://www.worldstart.com/ Enjoy!

Tip of the Day

Find Stuff!

Say you're looking for something on a long web page with Internet Explorer or Firefox. You think it's there, but you're faced with seemingly insurmountable number of paragraphs, sentences, and words to hunt though.

Well, next time this happens to you, hit the Edit menu, Find (or CTRL-F for you shortcut lovers). You'll get a handy little "find" box that lets you type in a specific word. After you type in your search term, hit the Find Next button and Explorer will look for that word on the page. If it's successful, you'll be zapped right to it.




As if that wasn't cool enough, you can also use a variation of this tip in Windows Explorer. Next time you're looking for a file in Explorer, hit CRTL-F and you'll get a Find or Search box (depending on what flavor of Windows you're using).

If you are already in the area of your hard drive where you think the file is (say, My Documents), hit CTRL-F and your search will be set to look in the My Documents sfolder.

Cool huh?

~ Andrew

Find what you're looking for? Still lost? Tell us by rating this tip here:
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/584

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http://www.worldstart.com/referafriend.htm

 

Today's Feature

Recuva to the Rescue!

Have you ever deleted a file that you wish you would have kept? Have you ever lost a file? I know I have. It seems like I get questions about this a lot. Is it possible to recover a deleted file? Well, the answer is yes and I have a free download for you called Recuva that will do the job.

This program is SIMPLE to use. Just download and install, then tell Recuva what you are looking for and it will take over from there! Just to show you how well it works, I told it to find all the files that I have deleted from my recycle bin. This is what it gave me!


recuva
I can't even fit all the results on the Page! This program is great and will do its best to find your lost files. Give it a try!
http://www.recuva.com/

~Gary


Like this tip? I know I sure did! Tell us by rating it here:
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5443

Amanda's Coolsite

The Japanese Garden

Tranquil and serene are the words that come into my mind when I think about a Japanese garden. Here at this site you can learn all about Japanese gardens. From the elements that make up the composition to the styles of a certain period of time.

You can navigate through the site either through the sidebar, which will take you on a journey through individual gardens, or through the menu at the top of the page, which goes through the overview of the site, origins, elements, and glossary of the gardens and the site it’s self.

I like the layout of this site, as it invokes to me both the things I look for in a site. Ease of navigation and a wonderful color scheme that is both beautiful as well as easy on the eyes.

My favorite part of this site is the garden menu. Once you choose a garden you can look at highlights of it, or you choose to tour the garden and go through different elements of the garden with really nice photographs, you can also learn some of the history of the particular garden that you are in.

My favorite gardens are Murin-an, Ryogen-in, Tenryu-ji, and Chishaku- in. I like them because they are very soothing to look at—I felt as though I was sitting there contemplating those gardens and never be bored by them.

Which garden do you like?

http://academic.bowdoin.edu/zen/

Did you find your peace? Not so much? Tell us by rating this Cool Site here:
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/206

Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Send it to Amanda at
amanda@worldstart.com

New Titles and Offers

 

Monthly Wallpaper

March Wallpaper!

Here's this month's free calendar wallpaper! As always, it's 100% free, so head on over and grab one!

Yellowstone Rainbow

This was taken in my favorite park right as a storm blew past. I was driving along and couldn't believe the intensity of the light and this rainbow.

Yellow Flower

This was last spring in the Smoky Mtns. The light was soft and just right,so I spent an hour or so shooting flowers just like this one.

Antelope Canyon Light Beam

This is from the famous Antelope Slot Canyon in AZ. In summer, these fantastic light beams shine down from above, and I loved the look of this one.

All can be found here:

http://www.worldstart.com/wallpaper/index.php

Enjoy!

 

 

 

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Copyright, Disclaimer, and Removal

ISSN: 1529-336X
Copyright 2005, WorldStart. All unauthorized reproduction strictly prohibited.

You are welcome to reproduce this newsletter (i.e. print it, store it) for your own personal use. You are also welcome to forward it, in its entirety, to friends and family.

If you would like to reproduce this publication, or any part of it, in any other publication, be it web based or otherwise, you must contact us for permission. Any unauthorized re-distribution will be considered a copyright infringement and grounds for a lawsuit.

Finally, you agree to try any advice contained or suggested in this newsletter at your own risk.

Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation (duh!)


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Personal & Educational Use Only This blog consists mainly of FREE newsletters from computer web gurus that I receive. I thought you might like to see them all in one place than try to discover them on your own. A moderate amount of editing may be done to eliminate unrelated repetitious ads or unnecessary text which bloat the post. However I have given the authors full credit and will not remove their site links because you deserve to see where it comes from and they deserve to get credit for what they have written. Your use of this site is simply for educational purposes. For more computer-related help go to: CPEDLEY.COM for free software, advice and tips on low cost products which are very helpful. If you want to contact the editor, please go CPEDLEY.COM and check the Contact page for email address.