Or, if you prefer, Technical Articles.
You will find here about 40 sets of web pages (not 40 web pages, but 40 SETS), each set describing something I’ve learned about desktop computing.
In most cases the set of pages is a detailed document describing the steps I took to achieve what I did.
As an example, since this site is developed on the WordPress platform, you might want to read Creating a Word Press Blog
2-Up Printing
You print draft copies of documents to read on the way home. You would like to cut down on paper. Double-sided printing (automatic or manual) halves the paper you carry home. 2-Up printing halves it again, by printing two pages in reduced size on one sheet of paper.
9 Times Out Of 10
Be honest. How often do you click on the Edit menu on the wrong application? With the keyboard, it’s hard to miss the big keys, and Ctrl-C always, always, always applies to your currently active window. No mistakes. No fussing. No going-back-and-doing-it-properly after undoing-what-I-just-did.
Back All
A collection of DOS batch files capable of backing up all your networked machines to one or more external backup drives. Includes User Guide and Installation manual.
Backups
We had finished the training session and Bernie had unplugged his fairly new DELL computer when I asked him “Do you backup your computer?”. No, he didn’t. There wasn’t much of value on it. “A few emails, a Gilbert And Sullivan Society brochure or two. Some of Corinne’s teacher stuff, that sort of thing”. Uh Huh. My comment caught him by surprise: “Here’s a thousand dollars. Go buy yourselves each a brand new netbook, and I’ll keep this computer”. No way, not without he “first gets to copy some stuff” off his DELL. No, I insisted. The deal is right now. One thousand dollars and you walk out of here.
Best Fit Algorithm
Best-fit is a generalized means of making best use of resources. Best-fit is employed in my best-fit-toolbars macro, that re-arranges your displayed toolbars to make the best use of available space. All of the commands of BestFit may be accessed directly through the toolbar.
Build An Excel Library
To build a library of macros we draw on a library of functions. Remember that a macro is a subroutine with no parameters. Developers like us, but not end-users, can call functions from functions and macros. The macros you write will need functions; you’ll write those functions too, but you’ll store the functions in a function library.
Document Conversion
15 years experience with Document Conversion And Cleansing * Consistent Styles * Templates that Work * Happy Users! Now! Consistent documents right across your organization. Ease of use Feed the results into any Document Management System. Get a FREE CONSULTATION and DEMONSTRATION when you Contact Me
eMmailer
If bandwidth is a challenge to your system or device – The Solution is Here! If you are overwhelmed by the volume of emails – The Solution is Here! These courses arrive as small (typically 20K bytes) text-only messages – we never send images or attachments – to your hand-held device or desktop computer system. I plagiarized these Conditions from Canada News Wire . And best of all YOU set the frequency of issue to suit YOUR schedule.
Embedded Images
The task was to build an application (developer) that could be driven by a text file, build a second application that could be used (end-user) to generate documents with embedded images. The challenge was to manage the image-handling so that the user couldn’t corrupt the source images. That constraint meant that the images (defined by name in each text file) could not be stored on a hard drive; they had to be stored within the end-user application.
Excel Styles
Styled formatting in Excel is a powerful means of producing consistently-formatted worksheets at less cost than the traditional method of formatting. Save money, improve delivery schedules, look better. We embark on a trip of discovery. These notes were developed using Microsoft Excel 2000; what you see here will be applicable to Excel versions 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010. You should find that the general principles are applicable to other main-stream Windows-based spreadsheet processors such as Lotus, QuattroPro, and so on.
Excel Tips
* Use Excel like a professional * Focus on your business * Control your computer, don’t let it control you
Feed Burner
In these pages I will take you, in detail, through the entire process of using Google FeedBurner to set up an electronic newsletter.
Google Site Map
In these pages I will take you, in detail, through the entire process of creating a Google Site Map to enahnce your chances in the Great Search Engine lottery. No, you don’t need to trot off to Google and set up an account.
GUI Undo
I had reason to provide a client with an equivalent of the Word document “Edit Undo”, but this time on a GUI form. The accompanying code demonstrates a way of achieving this.
Hardware Problems
* What to do before calling the technician. * Establish better communication with technicians. * Focus on your business * Control your computer, don’t let it control you
Infor
This application provides valuable information, in display form and typed right into your current document.
Interesting Words
The Interesting Words Engine started as the core of an indexing tool I wrote while engaged in developing courseware for Louis Florence at Vision Computer Associates in Toronto. It should be possible to implement a set of half a dozen TYPES of rule and see interesting Words coming out the end.
Introduction To Spreadsheets
This course will give you a head-start in developing spreadsheets in any regular desktop office suite. The lessons are illustrated with examples from Microsoft Excel 2000, but you will find the basic techniques presented here function in your desktop suite, be it Lotus, QuattroPro etc. We assume that you have never built a spreadsheet. Ever.
Introduction To VBA Access
This course will give you a head-start in developing macros and applications in VBA under ACCESS. We assume that you have used Access in your daily work; we aren’t going to teach you about Tables, Queries or Reports. We assume that you have never written VBA code. By the end of the course you will be comfortably equipped to modify Access forms that serve as a user interface for your applications.
Introduction To VBA Word
This course will give you a head-start in developing macros and applications in VBA under WORD. We assume that you have used Word in your daily work; we aren’t going to teach you about documents, paragraphs, typing or formatting. We assume that you have never recorded a macro. By the end of the course you will be comfortably equipped to record and modify user macros that are associated with toolbar menus and buttons, and you will be equipped to develop GUI forms to serve as a user interface for your applications.
Invitations
For a variety of reasons I want to snapshot the name and address of occasional contacts and send them a classy invitation to lunch. I have a source of quality cream-colored cards and envelopes, and would like to automate the process, so that a click of a Microsoft Access button will dump the address into a Word document, and another click of a Microsoft Word button will use the text to create a correctly laid-out invitation card and envelope.
List Numbering
This set of web pages documents my travels through Microsoft Word’s Wonder-space of List Numbering. It is a Work In Progress. Please Contact Me with any suggestions or comments.
Mail Chimp
In these pages I will take you, in detail, through the entire process of using MailChimp to set up an electronic newsletter.
Mail Merge
You’d think by now I knew how to do a mail-merge of 264 contacts from a database, huh? I just finished a nightmare 4 days of ineptitude – all mine – and drew up this checklist of what-went-wrong. Some of you may identify with some of the steps. I hate to think that anyone will identify with ALL of the steps; the world can’t have gone that mad, can it? There’s more to mail-merge than “Tools, Mail Me[u]r[/u]ge”
MRUse
The code presented here was developed for Word 2000. It should function perfectly in any later version of Word, and can be adapted easily to other Microsoft office products, for example Excel 2000. I was dis-satisfied with Microsoft’s approach to the Most-Recently Used file list, at the foot of the File menu, so wrote my own. My experience with that caused to me to examine other aspects of Microsoft’s file-saving, and led me to develop further tools. All those tools and techniques are brought together in a single package, right here, and I am going to lead you through the development of that package in small steps.
Obfuscation
One can lock or password-protect projects in languages such as VBA, but one cannot thwart the criminal element who think it fun to break into the source code. You can compile your code into a DLL if you have a copy of Visual Basic or similar, and if you are prepared to cope with the problem of installing updates on your client’s machines.
Password Generation
Passwords can be the bane of life. We need them everywhere. We know we shouldn’t use the name of our pet (“Fluffy”) or our mother’s maiden name (“Higginsbottom”) but we know too that “they “ will ask us for our mother’s maiden name. And we need so many of them, passwords, I mean. We need so many that we need a document to hold all our passwords so that we don’t forget them; or at least, so we can forget them but recall them from the document. Passwords have to be at least yeah-long, start with an alphabetic, preferably hold a mixture of letters, digits and punctuation, … Here’s a solution to password generation.
Proje
There’s never been anything like it. Although it is written in Word VBA, it operates on Word, Excel AND PowerPoint files.
Proper Case
End-users of Microsoft Word are familiar with the use of the Format, Change Case menu item that permits us to change the text in a document to Proper case. The Microsoft method has some flaws, and so the developer writes a macro to overcome limitations of Microsoft’s implementation. These notes discuss what can be done to assist the end-user. Additionaly the developer wants a function to Proper-case any given string – not just the text selected in a Word document. For example, the developer might want to proper-case street addresses in an Access database field. The early version of the function strProperCase serves both the end-user and the developer.
Prospecting Tools
We need a methodical approach to harvesting new prospects for our business. We need it to be easy to run, and most importantly, we need it to be beneficial to our prospects. When we cold-call a new prospect we must have something of immediate benefit to them in that first sentence. The easiest gift is that of information, and the best information (for the prospect) is that this call has been made because we have singled them out most sincerely as a good match between their industry and the benefits we provide. We do not guarantee a “sale”, whatever that is. In most cases a sale will be a promise to meet on schedule at a certain date/time in a certain place. For most consultants, once we get our foot in the door it is easy to satisfy a client. It is getting that foot in the door that is the hurdle, and prior to that, establishing a relationship that is based on enough knowledge to entrust us with 30 minutes time from a group of three executives. Think about that.
Prospector
“The Prospector” is a service based on my WVain (“Weather Vain”) engine. Weather Vain is capable of going to a web site to obtain critical data in a rules-based sense, and harvest valuable data from pages linked from the original web page.
RAM Disk
What is it and Why bother? A Random Access memory (“RAM”) disk is a disk drive, like the disk drives on your computer, but it is made out of RAM memory instead of metal plates coared with oxides. You save your work to your hard drive disk, because if you did not, your work would be lost from volatile RAM memory when your computer is powered off. So if you store data in a RAM disk, you lose it all when you power off the computer. Doesn’t sound so smart, does it? But suppose you WANTED to lose that data each time you powered off the computer? Why would you store data on something that is guaranteed to lose that data? Well, you’d store the sort of data that you wanted to lose when you powered off the computer.
Security
From time to time I get asked about security, especially on what we might call a small scale. As an example, you might be the CFO of a mid-sized form charged with maintaining documents about salary reviews, shares issues, bonuses and the like. This involves you with a half dozen word processing documents, a couple of spreadsheet workbooks, and a mission-critical presentation. In the next few pages I’ll give you an overview of the options as I see them, always with the view that “I help senior executives see and obtain the rewards from existing resources by smart application of current technologies.” There’s no bleeding-edge technology here; you already have licensed copies all the software you need, or else it is available legally as a free download from the world wide web.
Speedup
“I need some advice on what to do with my old laptop which is running pretty slow. Should I try to clean it up so I can use it or just buy a new one? I still have the software discs that came with it 5 yrs ago.”
The Golden Rules Of Windows
I developed these maxims between 1992 and 1994 while teaching desktop applications from the introductory to the advanced levels. I believe that they encompass over 90% of the hurdles and time wasted by desktop computer users. Master these rules and techniques, and you will fly like the prodfessional you ought to be.
I may work this up into a full Technical Paper like MailChimp emailer or Word Press Blogging . Or there again I may not. In the meantime, if you Tweet, try this:
WinTips
* Use Windows like a professional * Focus on your business * Control your computer, don’t let it control you
WordPress
In these pages I will take you, in detail, through the entire process of installing Word Press and creating TWO blogs. Why two? Because there are steps you perform only once in your lifetime, and there are steps you perform each time you add a blog, and I’d like you to see the difference.
