September 2008

September 29, 2008

How to Compare Antivirus Software?

Author: Anu

There’s an influx of antivirus software in the internet these days. Antivirus software are everywhere in the internet. Article about them are also common. The problem with having too much of one thing is that you will have a hard time selecting the good from the bad. To come up with a list of possible choices one has to compare antivirus software. Comparing is not easy, considering the number of antivirus to compare. Many website are there to help with comparison but they only compare a few. They focus their comparison to selected antivirus that are already there for many years. How about those antivirus software that have just recently started but may also have the ability to perform well? They don’t have the chance to be tested and be proven competitive with the popular ones.

Popularity

There should be a means to compare antivirus software not based on popularity but with their ability to thwart virus attacks. I have read articles that compare antivirus software and they are impressive. They test antivirus software based on how they detect known virus. Many antivirus software fared very well. Others did not do well because they were not able to detect new virus. The problem is that they limit their comparison to a chosen few. What about those that are left out? How will they be given a chance?

Who says So?

There are also those who compare antivirus software based on what the company that made them has to say about their product. I don’t know if this is reliable enough. There are people who claim to have done something but if you ask them to do it they can’t. There are just too many people who tell lies this days. I don’t say that all of them are liars but who would know the difference between an honest company from a lying one. They all write pretty good things about their products. Who would say bad things about something they themselves made?

Who’s Initiative?

The initiative to compare antivirus software should come from people other that those who made it or have any vested interest about it. The objective of the comparison should be to help people in choosing the right antivirus and not to promote one. People would love to know the truth about antivirus. There are already so much antivirus out there. It’s already difficult to know all of them. Another product profile may turn buyers off. What people need is honest, comprehensive, fair and accurate comparison of antivirus software based on performance and ability to protect computers from virus attacks.

It may take a long time before anyone can compare antivirus software comprehensively. That would be very difficult to do considering that there are so much of these products in the market today. There are also many things to consider. A definite plan should be established first before the factual, realistic and unbiased way to compare antivirus software is realized.

For now to determine which antivirus software is right for you should visit http://www.antivirusreviews.ws for honest Antivirus Software Reviews

About the Author:
Keep your PC Safe from Viruses, Spyware, Adware by visiting http://www.AntiVirusReviews.ws to Compare Antivirus Software and determine the best Antivirus Software for your PC.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-compare-antivirus-software-654187.html

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September 24, 2008

How to Get the Right Computer Software

Author: ppsingh

Computer software is a vast term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that all perform tasks on a computer system. Computer software is the applications that we use on our computers such as office programmers and even windows it. Computer software is any programmer that we load onto and install on our computers.

Computer software is usually brought in CD format and is then installed onto our computers from this. Any new programs etc that you buy for your computer can be classed as a form of software. Without software you wouldn’t get very far with the use of your computer. For more details go to  .When software is placed or opened on your computer it is loaded into the RAM and executed through the central processing unit (CPU) it is then available for you to use.

Software comes in three main types, the first being system software. This helps to run your computer hardware as well as your computer system. The second is programming software. This provides tools to assist programmers in writing computer programs, such as text editors, compliers, interpreters and linkers. The last form of software is application software. This allows end users to accomplish one or more specific tasks. Typical applications include industrial, business, educational, medical databases and computer games; businesses being the biggest users of application software.

There are many avenues in which you go approach in order to buy computer software such as you can buy it new from retail stores; however many people find it difficult to find the exact software that they need from a retail store and often turn to buying software online.

The Internet in itself is a bigger competitive market. You have more chance of finding what you need by using the Internet. This applies to the purchasing of computer software. There are many Internet sites that primarily focus on the selling of computer software giving you more of a chance of finding what you want as well as giving you more choice of brands and the power of a software. It can also be cheaper if you buy it online as there are a number of good deals around that will enable that you get the most for your money.

One good site that appears on the Internet is called kelkoo. This site is a price comparison site specifically for computer parts and software. Again this demonstrates that by using the Internet you are more likely to get a good deal on the software that you purchase. Also the Internet can sometimes give you the option of online downloads meaning that you can purchase and download your product at any time and from anywhere in the world. For more information .  One thing that you need to be aware of however if you are hoping to use the Internet to purchase your software is fraud. In order to ensure that you are buying a genuine copy you should find out about the site that you are buying your software from or stick to retailers that you are aware of. This makes sure that you don’t spend money on something that could potentially harm your computer and that is also illegal.

About the Author:

www.100computertips.com

www.seo-prediction.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/how-to-get-the-right-computer-software-635096.html

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September 23, 2008

Free Your Office! OpenOffice.org 2.0 Rivals MS and Saves Arms and Legs.

Free Your Office! OpenOffice.org 2.0 Rivals Microsoft, Saves Arms and
Legs.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked aloud about the possibility of
Microsoft’s shifts in strategy to meet the demands of new challenges
to its hegemony in the world of PC software ("A New Culture At <br />
Microsoft? Only Time Will Tell” -
http://www.cafeid.com/art-newms.shtml). A threat I didn’t mention
looms on the horizon for Microsoft, however; and this one — the
OpenOffice.org community’s impending release of version 2 of its
office suite — seems destined to strike at the heart of Redmond’s
dominance in the business world, the captive audience of Office users
the world over who rely on Word, Excel and PowerPoint to make a
living. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is in beta testing, and it looks like a
formidable opponent indeed, and one that won’t cost you a cent to
deploy throughout your business (a move we heartily recommend).

A recent BBC News article (”The assault on software giant Microsoft” -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4508897.stm) takes a
look at the challenges facing Microsoft and leaves speculation about
Microsoft’s possible responses to those challenges for the second of
two reports, due out this week. The Beeb mentions threats from the <br />
GNU/Linux community, which continues to build a fantastic free
operating system to loosen Redmond's grip on the desktop. It states
that Microsoft’s biggest worry should be the excellent Firefox browser
from the Mozilla Organization, a free and worthy alternative to IE
(Bill Gates dismisses it as “…just another browser”). It mentions <br />
Apple’s excellence in innovation, especially with regard to multimedia
and even mentions Skype, the Luxembourg-based group that stands poised
to dominate (in a peace, love and understanding kind of way, it <br />
appears) Voice-over-IP (VoIP).

The article gives short shrift to OpenOffice.org, however; and we find
that surprising. You can safely bet that the suite is on Microsoft’s
radar, though. As for responses, there's little that Microsoft can do
about this one, short of taking its file formats and going home or
insisting that its $400 office suite is now “part of the OS". That
doesn’t exactly square with what I hope will be the adoption of a new <br />
culture of genuine competition at Microsoft, so it will be interesting
to see how Gates & Co. meet this particular challenge.

Does OpenOffice.org Have What It Takes?

OpenOffice.org grew out of Sun Microsystems’ (one of Microsoft’s most
bitter rivals) purchase of StarOffice in 1999 and subsequent release <br />
of much of that code to the Open Source Software community (the other
of the bitter rivals). The first release of OpenOffice.org in 2002 <br />
lacked polish and had some glaring shortcomings, but it was good
enough for such an ambitious project to warrant a good deal of <br />
positive press and, more importantly, interest and excitement from the
wider Open Source community of developers.

As a result, the most recent release of an OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta
version shows a remarkable amount of progress and the 2.0 release
promises to open up another full-on assault on Redmond in Microsoft’s
ongoing war against free software.

OpenOffice.org consists of six major components, all worthy
counterparts to the components of MS Office: Writer, Calc, Impress,
Draw, Base and Math. Writer is an excellent replacement for Word that
lacks few features the behemoth word-processing package has. Writer
opens Word and WordPerfect documents and has the ability to export PDF <br />
and HTML files directly. We find the PDF export feature invaluable
here at Cafe ID (http://www.cafeid.com) where we keep our Users Manual
in OpenOffice.org format.

Those tasked with maintaining that kind of technical documentation <br />
intended for more than one medium will rejoice in the fact that the <br />
OpenOffice.org open file format can be unzipped to directly reveal its <br />
constituent XML and binary parts, opening up the possibility of
creating and using a wide-variety of third-party tools to work with <br />
the same data. The Navigator panel makes working with long documents
a breeze, and the Stylist panel makes applying font and page styles
work similarly to the way Cascading Style Sheets work, allowing you to
change the size of all your chapter headings with one small change,
for example.
<br />
Calc opens Excel files flawlessly and now features the ability to
create much larger spreadsheets than did the 1.1 release of <br />
OpenOffice.org. It also adheres very closely to the Excel model for
formulas, unlike Lotus 123 and other competitors. The Impress program
is analogous to PowerPoint, and both it and Draw, OpenOffice.org’s
vector graphics editor, can output Flash (.swf) files (offering
similar capability to Macromedia’s Breeze and CorelDRAW, respectively).
<br />
The newest component of OpenOffice.org is Base, a database program
meant to be an answer to Access. Base includes an SQL engine called
HSQL which also stores information in XML files, and it can also
access most popular databases (including the ever-popular MySQL)
directly and any industry-standard database through the ODBC and JDBC
drivers. Math is a full-featured mathematical equation editor that
can produce output for the other components.
<br />
The open file format and cross-platform code base (OpenOffice.org runs
on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and BSD) make OpenOffice.org even
more appealing in environments where a variety of platforms are in
use. The Native Language Confederation is working hard at getting <br />
OpenOffice.org localized in dozens of languages, and
internationalization is built-in to the components, including support
for bidirectional text, vertical text, and so on.

The biggest advantage OpenOffice.org enjoys over Office, of course, is
that the former is free for the downloading while the latter will cost
you. A lot. OpenOffice.org is released under the LGPL and the SISSL, <br />
two Open Source licenses that ensure that OpenOffice.org will always
be free.

Free doesn’t mean unsupported. The review mentioned above praised the
OpenOffice.org for its ad-hoc support network. There is a rapidly
growing body of online documentation, a wide variety of free community
support and even commercial support available through Sun and others. <br />
Third-party books abound.<br />

The United Kingdom-based PC Pro Magazine
(http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/64884/openoffice-112.html) endorsed
OpenOffice.org in December, 2004 “over and above Microsoft Office 2003
for both home and office use.” And that was version 1.1.4, the most
recent version considered stable while 2.0 is in the latter stages of <br />
beta testing. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is expected to be released sometime
later this month or next.

What’s the Catch?

There are a few “gotchas” for those making the effort to switch over
from Office to OpenOffice.org. For example, while Writer can be
programmed using macros, Word macros won’t work. Functions may be
located in slightly different places. Where Word has a Table menu,
for example, Writer’s excellent table-manipulation functions are <br />
located in a dialog that appears contextually when you insert or
access a table. Writer lacks a grammar checker; but it has been my
experience that Word's is scarcely useful. Impress is said to suffer
from a lack of supplied templates, though the community will no doubt
step forward to fill gaps such as this. Also, because the suite is <br />
based at least in part on Java, its performance isn’t quite on par
with that of native software, though it isn't bad at all.
<br />
There are other minor differences, annoyances and omissions; but for <br />
users who are more comfortable making the switch from such familiar
tools as Microsoft Office to something new, there simply isn't much
negative to say about OpenOffice.org, particularly about the upcoming
2.0 version.

The best thing is that it won’t cost you a cent to figure out whether
you like OpenOffice.org better than, or at least as well as MS Office.
It’s a free download, and while it’s a large download (over 100MB -
a few minutes even on a broadband connection) it installs easily and
cleanly. It does require Sun's Java, which is also a free download,
available at the Java website (http://java.sun.com) and 128MB of RAM <br />
on your machine.

We urge you to give OpenOffice.org a spin. We’re confident you’ll be
as impressed as we are, and it’s one less reason to depend on <br />
Microsoft for the smooth and cost-efficient functioning of your
business. We still don’t think that's a good idea.

-----<br />

About the Author

Trevor Bauknight is a web designer and writer with over 15 years of experience on the Internet. He specializes in the creation and maintenance of business and personal identity online and can be reached at trevor@tryid.com. Stop by http://www.cafeid.com for a free tryout of the revolutionary SiteBuildingSystem and check out our Flash-based website and IMAP e-mail hosting solutions, complete with live support.

--
Trevor Bauknight
trevor@tryid.com

http://www.cafeid.com "Your Online IDentity Experts"

This article is free for republishing
Source: <a href=”http://www.articlealley.com/article_4502_11.html”>http://www.articlealley.com/article_4502_11.html

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Pc Satellite TV - Satellite TV for Pc 2007 Software Review

Author: Mark Sanders

I’m sure you’ve seen all the hub bub about being able to watch Satellite TV on your PC. It’s all over the Internet. But is it really possible?

Some of my co-workers and I decied to investigate how some people pay $90.00 a month while other people that purchase this ‘questionable’ software get it for free.

We tested several software applications that claim that they can get your PC to show thousands of Satellite TV channels…but its NOT true!

Out of the 12 software applications that we thoroughly tested, only 1 actually worked the way it was supposed to.

It’s called Satellite TV On My PC

Its the BEST!

Its also they only software that offer a free 3 day trial.

It makes you wonder why the other companies don’t offer a trial period? Maybe its beause they are trying to scam you!

Cheers!

M. Sanders

About the Author:

IT technical writer and published author.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/pc-satellite-tv-satellite-tv-for-pc-2007-software-review-124045.html

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September 10, 2008

The One-minute Computer Doctor

Author: <a title=”Peter Colby" href=”http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/peter-colby/32989.htm”>Peter Colby

Troubleshooting computer problems could be (at times) one of the most frustrating tasks in the world, and even expert computer support technicians could bear witness to this fact. For the larger majority of times, the most difficult computer troubleshooting tasks involve computer software. This is because at almost any given time, there are more than two dozen software applications or programs installed on the modern personal computer. These programs or applications, because they reside on the same hard disk and are executed within the same operating system such as Microsoft Windows XP, are bound to interact together in one way or the other, giving rise to the possibility of conflicts. In fact the basis of most computer software related-problems is such conflict. On an operating system like Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP, the situation is further complicated by the fact that programs and applications often share resources on the hard disk and in the computer memory.

A typical example is what is called Dynamic Link Library (DLL). As an average Microsoft Windows XP user, if you check inside a folder named System32 which resides inside the Windows folder on the hard disk partition where Microsoft Windows is installed (most often the C: drive), you would find at times as much as one hundred files or more with the .dll extension (i.e. user32.dll, shell32.dll). These are generally referred to as DLLs. A DLL provides resources and information to one or more programs and may thus be utilized at any given time by more than one program. That is one reason why the DLLs generally reside at a common and easily identified location for programs and applications. When a new program or application is just being installed on the computer, it carries along copies of some of these DLLs so that if they are absent on the computer, it can easily copy the DLLs to the computer at the common location for its use. If the DLLs are have already been copied to the computer by another program or application, the new program does not bother to replace them again with the copies it is carrying. However, some programs that do not adhere to best practices guidelines would not even check if a DLL is in the common location or not but would rather transfer its own copies there, overwriting some resident DLLs in the process. This can result into sometime serious problems. The reason for such is that DLLs always have versions because the people who develop them could improve on them and the version information is an indicator of how recent a DLL is, since the names always remain constant. Newer versions usually provide more information and resource indicators than older versions. As a result, if a vital DLL is overwritten by a program with a lower version of the DLL, other programs that are utilizing resources from the DLL may demand resources or information that is available in the newer version (which such programs expect is in the common location) but which is not available in the older version. This would result in some programs which have been functioning before to start behaving erratically, crash or not even work at all after the installation of a new program because of the DLL version conflict. The same situation may also occur when uninstalling a program that had previously been resident on the computer. Some programs do not adhere to best practices principles and would remove some DLLs that are supposed to be “shared” or used by more than one program, thereby creating problems for other programs that use those DLLs. This is just a typical example of one of the many software problems that could occur on a computer. Trying to trace the source or cause of some of these problems as simple as they may seem could take hours or days because in some scenarios, a lot of programs have been installed and uninstalled over time and considering the fact that a single program may use as much as a dozen “shared” DLLs or more, the situation could easily grow complex.<br />

<br />

The computer is essentially a tool and when some programs refuse to run on it or are behaving erratically, whichever way we may want to look at it, it constitutes a problem. Software is the driver for computer hardware. It is what ties everything together and allow us to achieve our ends and purposes with the various parts of the computer (including peripherals and external equipment like printers and scanners) working in synchrony. A problem with a single but vital piece of software may have rippling effects that could present much larger problems in the overall analysis. To further complicate the situation are a category of software referred to as bad software and these include viruses and spyware. These bad software such as viruses or spyware may overwrite, delete or alter critical or important files on the computer and even when the viruses or spyware are removed by antivirus or anti-spyware programs as the case may be, the antivirus or anti-spyware programs may not completely reversed the effects of the viruses, such as the altered, deleted or overwritten files which are much likely than not to create further problems on the computer.

Considering all the above, it is evident that the job of a computer support technician at times is not an enviable one at all. A computer support technician is at times like a doctor of the computer. However, the computer is unable to speak or tell the doctor appropriately what it is experiencing and the user of the computer at most times is unhelpful with accurate information on what he or she had done on the computer prior to experiencing problems or whether some minor problems have been experienced over time that later escalated into the current situation. As a result, the employment of trial and error detection tactics could hardly be completely ruled out, resulting in longer times to resolve problems. In an environment where the computer is not being used as a recreational tool, its unavailability (i.e. under repairs or troubleshooting) for any reasonable length of time constitutes a direct or indirect loss of revenue to the owner or user.

RecoveryMagic is an innovative and revolutionary software that has been developed to solve practically all software related computer problems and reduce computer downtime due to troubleshooting. Software problems constitute more than 80% of all computer problems commonly experienced and RecoveryMagic surprisingly is capable of solving any of these problems irregardless of the difficulty of the problem, within a matter of seconds or minutes! Yes. You read it right. The problems would be resolved in a matter of seconds or minutes.

RecoveryMagic works using the concept of “rollback” or “restore”. That means it is able to undo all software problems on a computer much like you undo errors and typed text in Microsoft Word.<br />

When your computer is in a good condition which you have also certified is virus and spyware-free and all components are working fine (i.e. it can print to your printer and scan from your scanner), you can install RecoveryMagic. The RecoveryMagic installation takes just a couple of minutes. After installation, RecoveryMagic performs a system health check and stores the state of everything on the computer as at that time. This is referred to as the “baseline state". Every time you start the computer, RecoveryMagic sits on the computer system tray, monitoring the changes to the computer. In the event that you have a computer problem, for example a corrupt print spooler, which prevents you from printing, all you have to do is to right-click on RecoveryMagic and select the option to take your computer back to the “baseline state" when everything was working fine. And voila! RecoveryMagic would do just that in a matter of seconds: as long as it takes to reboot your computer!

RecoveryMagic allows you to select partitions to protect in addition to the root partition (i.e. C: drive), thus allowing you to save your important data to an unprotected partition, while it restores everything on the protected partition. Because RecoveryMagic takes you easily back to a pre-problem state, it is capable of solving practically all software problems on the computer. In fact when the host Microsoft Windows operating system is corrupt and cannot load, RecoveryMagic is capable of restoring it back to the working state because it loads before Microsoft Windows does!<br />

With RecoveryMagic, you have a “one minute computer doctor” that can solve practically all your software support problems without the need for a computer technician or technical knowledge!

About the Author:

Peter Colby is a PC Maintenance Expert with over 7 years experience.
RecoveryMagic is an innovative and revolutionary data recovery and PC maintenance solution that<br />
greatly reduces the cost of technical support for organizations and individuals by providing
functionalities that help them solve more than 80% of their PC problems within a matter of
minutes. For more information and free evaluation of RecoveryMagic, please visit http://www.recoverymagic.net

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/the-oneminute-computer-doctor-216993.html

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September 4, 2008

Software Windows Xp Vista, Ipod, Palm

Author: Wolfgang Schmuck

When it comes to buying software it can be hard to know if you are getting the best deal that is out there. It is also hard to know if there are ways you can get the same software for free, and if so whether you are doing so in a way that is legal or not. When it comes to buying software, it is usually the case that it is much cheaper buying it online rather than offline. The main reason for this is cost. When an offline retailer wants to sell a product they have far more cost-centers to absorb. These include retail outlets, the need for more staff and the problems they encounter through being limited to who they can sell to. An online retailer has a global audience to which they market. Whether you are looking to buy software for your ipod, or palm, or even the new Windows XP Vista you can be sure to get the best deal if you are willing to dedicate time to comparing sources and taking advantage of deals.

Choose The Product You Want

When it comes to choosing the product that you want, you may be surprised to learn that it becomes less attractive when you become aware of the alternatives. That’s why you should firstly look at what’s available, and read reviews in order to get an idea if it provides all the functionality that you are after. You may also find that there are alternatives available that have the same functionality at a much reduced cost.

Find Retailers Offering The Product

Once you have decided on the product that you want to buy you should find retailers that offer the product. Some ways to do this involve using search engines, such as Google, or to use a comparison shopping engine such as shopping.com for example. Once you have identified retailers, you should then check to see what shipping options and payments options that offer. If they don’t ship to where you live, or they charge too much, then you should choose another option. When it comes to computer software for the ipod, palm and Windows XP Vista you should also ensure that the retailer has an appropriate policy for returns in the instance where the software is not compatible or does not function correctly.

Find Coupons

Now you have decided on the software you want to buy, and possible sources from which to buy from, now you should find out if any of those retailers have coupon codes that mean you can gain discounts on those products. You can visit a coupon website or alternatively do a search for a phrase such as ipod software coupons, Palm software coupons or Windows XP Vista coupons into Google or alternatively into a coupon specific website. From there you will be able to calculate the retail price, less the coupon discount, and work out which is going to be the cheapest way to pick up your software online.

About the Author:

Wolfgang Schmuck, a proficient writer, writes articles for appcraft.org. The author writes articles about software utility, mp3 converter and video converter are accessible on the internet.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/software-windows-xp-vista-ipod-palm-206013.html

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September 3, 2008

How To Learn Your Keyboard Shortcuts!

Knowing your shortcut keystrokes should be the number one priority when you start learning to use your computer but unfortunately with the advent of the mouse, learning your shortcut keystrokes seems to be less of a priority and more of a luxury. The really bizarre thing about knowing your shortcuts is that you can be up to 5 times more efficient than somebody that does not know them.

The real question is how can you learn them effectively and efficiently?

Well, the bottom line is practice &

Practice, practice, practice and more practice.

However, there are some basic principles you can follow which will help you master your shortcuts. The first thing you must do is to identify the shortcuts that are available in the application you are using. Let us take for instance Microsoft Office, actually let us be a little more specific, Microsoft Word 2003. In Microsoft Word 2003 there are literally over 200 plus keyboard shortcuts but the down side with Microsoft Word is that not all of them are easy to locate or identify.

So how do we find out our keyboard shortcuts &

The first and the simplest way to find out what shortcut keystrokes do what is by looking at the drop down menus. If you look at the File menu in Microsoft Word 2003 you will notice that as you scan up and down the menu you will see a combination of letters next to each command. For example next to the Save command is the text - [Ctrl] + [S]. What this is, is a keyboard shortcut and when used it will do the same function as selecting the Save command on the menu.

What you will also notice is that not all of the commands in the menu actually have shortcut keystrokes. Do not allow that to mislead you though. In fact every command in the File menu has a shortcut keystroke. For example the shortcut keystroke for Save As is in fact [F12]. Using the function key [F12] will open the Save as dialog box and allow you to give the file you are working on a new name.

Some other examples of shortcut keystrokes that are available in that menu but are not well documented are the Close command. The Close command has no text next to it but you can most certainly close a document without using the mouse, you simply use the shortcut keystroke [Ctrl] + [W].

Finding out these shortcuts can be a little tricky. One spot that you can go to that will help you identify some of the shortcut keystrokes available in Microsoft Word 2003 is in the help system. Generally, you simply type in a question into the help system and it will return the right command and the documented shortcut keystroke. To get into help in Microsoft Word simply go to the Help menu and choose Microsoft Office Word Help from the drop down menu or if you know the shortcut keystroke use it. Just as a hint, the help keyboard shortcut is [F1]. One of the things I have noticed is that quite often the shortcut isn’t provided in help, in particular for commands located on toolbars, however in the case of Microsoft Word, Microsoft has provided us with a nifty tool that when turned on, will tell you the keyboard shortcut just by moving your mouse pointer over the toolbar icon.

The first thing you need to do is to select the Tools menu and then choose the Customize command from the drop down menu. In the Customize dialog box you will need to choose the Options tab. You will notice towards the bottom of the dialog box a command that says Show Shortcut keys in Screen Tips. If you select the check box ensure there is a tick in it, as this will activate this function and then choose the OK button. You will find that as you move your mouse pointer now over any of the toolbar icons it will tell you the associated shortcut keystroke to use that command. For example if you move you mouse pointer over the Format Painter icon on the Standard Toolbar it will tell you the shortcut keystroke is [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[C] but what you will also notice is that some of the icons on the toolbar do not have shortcuts. This does not mean that there are no keyboard shortcuts for that command; it simply is a situation where Microsoft has chosen not to show the command.

For example if you move your mouse pointer over the Print Preview command you will notice that there is no shortcut next to the toolbar icon even though you can activate the Print Preview command using shortcut keystrokes. Why not try this out - [Alt] + [Ctrl] + [I] which toggles you into Print Preview mode and out. Now to find out shortcuts like this the only real way is to go back to Microsoft’s Website and search through their Microsoft Office Online help system which can be a laborious task.

Alternatively, there are lots of guides and cheat sheets available on the web to help you identify all the shortcut keystrokes you need to use your applications. If the application you are using is not a common application then certainly talk to the company that developed the application and find out if they have a cheat sheet.

Once you have identified all the shortcut keystrokes you need, then the next task is to STOP using your mouse. My recommendation is that you put your mouse behind your computer screen and try out just how far you get without touching it. It does take a while but once you have mastered the keyboard shortcuts what you will find is that you will be able to use the computer 5 times more effectively and people will be amazed at your computer usability, speed and agility.

Learning your keyboard shortcuts is really important and those people that do invest the time in learning them find that they will be more employable and more effective and efficient in the workplace. That is why many of the certification programs like the Microsoft Office Specialist programs require that the person sitting the certification exams know their keyboard shortcuts and I can assure you I have sat all of the exams and you can not pass the exam without knowing your keyboard shortcuts.

Chris Le Roy has a number of tools available to help you in being more effective in using the Microsoft Office suite. He has a range of Microsoft Office cheat sheets to help you learn your Microsoft Office shortcuts more effectively. You can find a Microsoft Word Short cuts cheat sheet, a Microsoft Microsoft Excel Shortcuts cheat sheet and MS PowerPoint Shortcuts cheat sheet on his website.

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