Mapping a USB Drive to a Folder

When you plug in a USB pen drive Windows automatically assigns the next available drive letter. This can become a little confusing when you are dealing with multiple devices. The following are instructions on how to map a USB device to a folder:

1. Create a subfolder under “My Documents” called USB;
2. Under the USB folder create a folder for each USB device you will be mapping;
3. Attached the USB device to your workstation;
4. Run diskmgmt.msc (Press Windows+R and type diskmgmt.msc);
5. Right click on the USB device;
6. Select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”;
7. Click “Add”;
8. Browse to the folder you created in step 2;

How to Use a Bookmarked Text in the Footer of a Document

1. Select the text you wish to be displayed in the footer;
2. Click the “insert” tab;
3. Click the “Bookmark” icon;

4. Enter the name for the bookmark and click add;

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Holiday Mixture – Remix

Last year for the holidays I rallied the troops at my office to see if we could come up with tips and trick that you can use every day when using technology and we came up with quite a number of suggestions.

Once again our staff gave generously and here is this year’s list for you to unwrap:

1. Always be skeptical of an email’s origin, regardless of whether or not it’s from a known sender. In particular, do not open attachments that end in .ZIP or .EXE unless you are sure of what these files are and from whom they came.
2. If you inadvertently delete a file, chances are you’ll be able to find it in the Recycle Bin.
3. Speed up your computer by “defragmentation”.  You can find this by double-clicking “My Computer” and then right-clicking on the disk drive, opening the “Tools” tab, and choosing “Properties”.
4. Make sure your laptop data is backed up in case you damage or lose it. You’d be surprised at the tales of woe I hear all the time. One thing to consider is a small business server, where several people’s files are centralized and backed up. You can synchronize your laptop with the server which means any changes you make on the laptop will be done on the server. This may be cheaper and easier than you think.
5. When creating PowerPoint presentations, remember “Lucky number 7”. Put no more than seven words per bullet, and seven bullets per slide.


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A Dozen Web Sites to Add to your Summer Reading Program

As we enter these dog days of summer, why don’t you take a break and visit some of
these interesting web sites to see if there are utilities you would like to use to
make your life a little easier.

I thank the folks at Nicom IT Solutions, particularly Barry Milne, for sharing these
with us. (The sentences in quotations following the web addresses are how the companies
describe themselves.)

www.xobni.com – “Drowning in Email? Find People,
Email & Attachments Instantly.” Xobni  is “inbox” spelled backward. This
is a clever little utility you can download and plug into Outlook to help you manage
your email traffic.  It keeps track of email conversations and organizes them
by person and topic. It identifies with whom you converse the most and what’s the
best time of day to find them at their computer.

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Managing Your Desktop or Laptop Computer

A few months back I wrote an article about keeping computer networks safe and secure. Now it’s time to write about desktop computers. That shiny new piece of gear you just got for Christmas will be a source of frustration if you come to depend on it and it fails you. So here are some things you should do to keep your system running smoothly.

Get familiar with Windows Help and the Control Panel. Most of what I discuss in this article can be found via the Control Panel. Or you can click Help and Support from the Start button and search for the feature.

Back up your data files frequently. Windows comes with backup and restore programs you can use for this purpose. At the very least, do frequent manual copies of critical data files from your hard drive to an external backup device.

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