TipTalk: from Microsoft At Home & At Work : File Management

Tips to help you work less and relax more in 2009

ahawblog — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:26:00 GMT

Certainly, today's always-on-and-available-anywhere technology can lead to addictive work habits. We've all seen examples of that among friends and family.

But having a cheap, convenient, 24/7 global reach through technology can also efficiently enable you to live the life you've always wanted. The choice is yours.

Here are some affordable tools and ideas that harness technology's power to save you time and money.

Use Voice-over-Internet protocol phone service (VoIP) to create a virtual office.
To maintain a professional phone line and still travel, take time off or live abroad, VoIP telephone services are a terrific help. You've probably heard about such affordable services, which, basically, use the Internet to send and receive calls. Usually, you pay only for Internet access and not for calls, much the way e-mail works.

There are dozens of VoIP providers to choose among. Try a Web search if you don't know one.
Use online services for office communications and banking.
If you host your company computers on external servers, you can access all e-mail, files, and financial information or transactions from any Internet café. (Of course, you do want to have privacy safeguards in place when working this way.)
Leverage the power of a professional Web site.
Setting up a Web site, more than any other technological helpmate, will shave considerable time and effort from your workdays.

With a professional site, you can more efficiently conduct business, fulfill orders, organize contacts, share documents with employees or contractors, and market your wares or services, even when you're out of the office or on the road.

For more about launching a site, see the Microsoft Office Live Small Business offerings. Once your site is up, you can bolster its effectiveness by keeping customers, stakeholders, or media up-to-date with an online media kit.
Use your site features to stay in touch with customers.
With so many marketing channels and consumer options these days, increasingly, it's the business that quickly responds to customer needs that gains a competitive advantage. You can use your Web site to "listen" and react to what your customers request.

For example:

Set up an online forum so customers can register and post comments to you and to each other.
Set up a survey that customers can take online. This can be a focus group type of survey (say, about a new product) or a customer satisfaction survey.
Set up a special e-mail address and ask customers for specific feedback or advice whenever you launch a new product, service, or special promotion.

To get more tips, read the full article by by Joanna L. Krotz.

Getting a new PC? Protect and purge files now

ahawblog — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:18:00 GMT

When you stop and think about it, your home computer holds a lot of information about you—credit card numbers, bank account details, passwords, medical information, Web sites you've visited, and those deep, dark secrets you share with your best friend via e-mail.

There naturally comes a time when you're ready for an upgrade, whether it be a bigger hard drive or an entirely new PC. But what should you do with the old one? And what about the information on it? You need to remove this information whether you donate it, sell it, or trash it. The following tips will get you started:

Tip #1: Why "delete" isn't enough

Many people think that clearing their history, deleting files and cookies, and emptying their computer's recycle bin is enough. Not so, according to IT specialist Tony Lum. He says that's like removing the table of contents in a book. The chapters (or your files, in this case) are still there, they're just harder to find.

What you've actually done is remove a particular file from the disk's index. The file itself still exists on your hard disk. For the average person it's harder to recover, but an experienced programmer (or hacker) could easily locate the file. Previous or temporary versions of the file might also be saved under different names.

You need to go one step further and overwrite your data. Lum recommends you back up everything you want to keep on your hard drive and then run hard-drive wiping software, which will overwrite your information with random ones and zeros. He also recommends you use a program that overwrites your data more than once. The more it's overwritten, the harder it is to recover.

Tip #2: Select software to wipe your hard drive clean

Is it impossible to retrieve your information afterward? Not 100 percent, but Lum says that unless the CIA is after you, you should be in the clear after using one of these disk-erasing tools that are available for download online:

Active KillDisk: This free hard-drive eraser overwrites data using zeros. You can upgrade to the professional version that conforms to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) standards.
Softpedia/DP Wiper: IT consultant Daniel Gresser recommends freeware programs from Softpedia, like DP Wipter, which overwrites in from one to 35 passes and has DOD-compliant wiping.
WipeDrive: WipeDrive overwrites your data as many times as you like and runs a verification test.

"Always keep a record of where all important files are stored," says Gresser, who recommends deleting each file by dropping it into DP Wiper and selecting the type of wipe required.

Unless you take the hard drive out and keep it, to get a PC ready for sale, Gresser suggests that PC users delete the following using DP Wiper or a similar program:

Everything in My Documents folder.
All temporary Internet files.
All cookies.
All files relating to personal and financial matters that may have been stored in folders other than My Documents.
All e-mail: Outlook Express users need to search for and delete .dbx files and Outlook users need to search for and delete .pst files. This will send them to the recycle bin for secure deletion. Also, remember to remove all e-mail account settings and passwords.

Tip #3: Reinstall your operating system to overwrite files

Your operating system's installation CD should allow you to simultaneously reinstall and clear your hard drive. Lum says this should be enough to prevent the average person from obtaining personal information from your hard drive. However, he says he's managed to salvage data from computers using third-party software even after an operating system was reinstalled.

Read the full article by Alyson Munroe for more tips.

Open, edit, and save Office 2007 documents: Download the Office Compatibility Pack

ahawblog — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:03:00 GMT

I get a lot of comments (angry comments) from friends, family, and colleagues saying that they can’t open Office 2007 documents they get from me or other people using the latest version of Office.

There are a couple of ways to avoid this issue.

If you’re using Office 2007, you can save your documents as previous versions and can be set as default to save files as a 2003 version.
If you don’t have Office 2007, download the Office Compatibility Pack. It allows you to open, edit and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used with Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats.

Here are so more helpful links if you’re having compatibility issues with Office 2007.

--Jason Kozleski

Find files faster: Save your searches in Windows Vista

ahawblog — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:55:00 GMT

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the differences between Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP (or Google Desktop Search) and the desktop search and organization capabilities in Windows Vista. There are many features that are different, but in particular, one feature, called Search Folders, stands out.

Search Folders are saved searches that free you from having to live in a world of strictly hierarchical folders.

You can design a Search Folder that organizes your files in virtually any way. You can create them to find files or types of files that you often need. For example, you can design one that lets you view all of your files by a particular author, on that lets you see only files that are attachments, or even one that shows you all files from a particular team project. They are simple queries, and the sky is the limit when it comes to designing them. Once you’ve created them, you can use them whenever you need to search for that group of files.

Here’s how to crate a Search Folder:

Go to the Search Explorer in Windows Vista by clicking Start and then clicking Search.
Design a search by typing your queary in the search box. As you type, files from a variety of locations on your computer will appear that match your text. Your search will find files based on text within files on your computer, tags, and other properties attached to the file. Find tips on how to design better searches.
Once the search is completed, on the toolbar click Save Search.
On the File name box, type a name for the search, and then click Save. The search will be saved in the Searches folders, which you can open by clicking the Searches link in the Navigation pane. If you create a search that you use frequently, consider adding it to the Favorite links section in the Navigation pane. To do this, in the Navigation pane, click Searches, and then drag the saved search to the position in the Navigation pane where you want it to appear.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

--Jason Kozleski

Download an e-mail checklist

ahawblog — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:38:00 GMT

Regardless of why you send e-mail—be it to kick off a big project or to ask party guests to RSPV—you want people to read and act on your message. But in the rush of getting everything done at work and at home, it’s easy to leave out important details in the message. The result: We don’t always get the exact responses we want. It’s pretty deflating (and a waste of time) to get more questions than responses to your e-mail.

I downloaded an e-mail checklist a couple of months ago and keep it by my desk. It reminds me of some key elements to check before I send important e-mail. I look at it a couple times and week and I’ve found it to be really helpful. Try it and see what you think.

Download the e-mail checklist

Additional articles about composing good e-mail messages

--Jason Kozleski

5 steps to clean up your computer files

ahawblog — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:39:00 GMT

When we started the At Home and At Work Web sites, we thought that most of the reader questions we'd get would be about complex Excel formulas, editing digital photographs, or how to build a PC from spare parts. In fact, your questions tend to be a bit more practical.

One of the most common requests we get is for help cleaning up the files on your computer. As many people get new computers around this time of the year, and this often entails a move from an older computer, the topic of cleaning up and moving files seems particularly timely.

In this article, I'll go over the basics for sorting through and organizing your computer files, making a backup of them, and deleting those you don't need. I'm only addressing those files that you actively have a hand in creating. If you want to remove software from your computer, read Do a clean sweep of your computer: How to safely remove software and files from your PC.

If you're moving from one computer to another, be sure to review the New PC? Start here page before you start, as it can help save you some time and effort.

To understand how to go about cleaning up your computer you first need to understand how your computer deals with information. When you use software applications, everything you do on your computer ends up creating or using files. Some files contain text, some contain images, and some contain music. But no matter what they contain, the Windows file system treats them all as files.

Note: If you are a novice user, there are files on your system you might not normally see. A good rule of thumb is not to delete anything if you're not sure what it is. For example, Windows and its components and your software applications are also made up of files. Lastly, when you work with your computer, it sometimes creates temporary files that it uses to keep track of what it's doing. These are often automatically deleted when they're no longer needed, but in some cases the operating system or your software keeps them around for possible future use.

Step 1: Find your files
In Windows XP, My Documents is your personal folder. It contains two specialized personal folders, My Pictures and My Music. You can make your personal folders available to everyone, or you can make them private so that only you can access the files within them.

Windows creates personal folders for every user on the computer. When there is more than one person using the computer, each personal folder is identified by the user's name. For example, if John and Jane use the same computer, there will be two sets of personal folders: John's Documents, Music, and Pictures, and Jane's Documents, Music, and Pictures. When John is logged on to the computer, his personal folders appear as My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music, and Jane's appear as Jane's Documents, Jane's Pictures, and Jane's Music.

Windows also provides a Shared Documents folder for files you want to share with other users. Like My Documents, the Shared Documents folder contains a Shared Pictures and Shared Music folder. These folders are for pictures and music you want to share with other people who use your computer.

You can use Windows Explorer to access your personal folders or the Shared Documents, Music, and Pictures folders. To open Windows Explorer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.

When you do, you'll find all the files you've created on your computer provided you store your files within your "My Documents" folder. (If you store your files in other locations, you can use Windows Explorer to go through the different file locations on your system until you find your files.)

If you're new to using Windows Explorer, I encourage you to take time now to get comfortable using this essential tool. Learning how to manage the files on your computer may not sound exciting, but being able to quickly find the file you need (and making sure you don't accidentally lose an important file) is a skill that will make all of the other things you do with your computer that much more productive and enjoyable. Before you start working with your own files, why not do some practice exercises? Create some files and folders you don't care about then move them around. (You can easily create new files by copying old ones and renaming them. Use the Help provided with Windows Explorer if you're not familiar with how to copy and rename files and folders.)

Step 2: Organize your files
Depending on how long you've been using your computer, you may have quite a few files stored in My Documents. And, depending on how you handle saving files from your applications, they may all be dropped into the My Documents folder, or in different folders you've set up along the way.

Let's assume that you've stored your files in a virtual heap under the My Documents folder. Once you've got them sorted into categories, either by date, type, or some other system that makes sense to you; it should be a lot easier to tell which files you need and which you don't. I wrote an earlier TipTalk item called Super simple sorting: Organize your files that describes how to sort your files using some of the features built into Windows Explorer.

How you organize your files is a personal choice based a lot on what you use your computer to do. There are several common methods for sorting your files. One method is to have different file folders for time periods: everything you create during a month, for example, would go into a single folder. For each new month, you'd create a new folder. This approach might work well if you create a number of documents of just one or two types.

If, on the other hand, you create lots of different types of documents, perhaps addressing many topics, then a more complex system of filing them by type and or topic might work. For example, I've got a file folder of all the PowerPoint presentations I've ever done for executives. On the other hand, I've got my site reports stored in separate folders by year. These articles can help you get other ideas for ways to set up your filing system: Filing frenzy: Organize your documents on your PC and 7 tips to manage your files better.

Whatever method of setting up your folders makes the most sense to you is the one you'll likely be able to stick with and use consistently. And it's getting in the habit of always storing your files in their designated spot that makes finding them again so much easier. (I know, I know, it's just like our mom's always told us: Put things back where you found them.)

Step 3: Back up your files
Simply put, backing up your files means copying them onto a disk or other device that you can remove from your computer. For permanent backups, say of your financial records, you'll probably want to burn a CD and store it someplace safe. In my case, I'm generally just working on documents and spreadsheets that don't take much room, so I'll often just use a USB drive and use it to transfer files from one computer to another. Be sure to test your backup to make sure it works before you go on to the next step. In other words, try to use one of the files you've saved to the CD, ideally on a different computer. You don't want to start deleting your original files until you're sure you have a good backup copy.

Step 4: Delete what you don't need
Once you have all your files safely copied to a disk, you can start deleting those you don't think you'll need again. You can use Windows Explorer to select the files you don't want, right-click on them and then press Delete. Unless a file is very large, this will move the files you delete into your Recycle Bin (which is a safeguard Windows provides in case you accidentally delete a file). Files you've deleted will show up in the Recycle Bin (and continue to take space on your hard drive) until you empty the Recycle Bin. I generally leave deleted files in the Recycle Bin for a while just in case I change my mind.

Step 5: Back up your files (again)
After you've got your file system organized and have removed all the files you don't need, it is the ideal time to create another backup. That way, if you should need to restore files or move them to another computer you'll have a nice orderly set of only the files you need.

—Robbin Young