Articles for the ‘Office Efficiency’ Category
Backups – how and why you should do it!
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| Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Would you be able to replace all your data quickly if your PC was stolen, damaged by fire or the hard disk unexpectedly crashed ? Any one of these scenarios can spell disaster unless you have an up to date backup of your PC’s data.
Performing regular backups is your insurance again theft, fire and major hardware failures.
We are often asked about backups and these are our recommendations for a simple and effective backup system:
- Purchase two identical external disk drives to ensure a copy of your data is always stored off site. Swap the two disks over every day. That way if there is a fire, break in or hard disk crash you have a backup that is only one day old and you know that you can be back in business in less than 24 hours.
- Use Microsoft’s “ntbackup.exe” program as your backup software. This is included with Windows XP.
If you use Windows XP Professional, the Windows Backup utility (Ntbackup.exe) should be ready for use. If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you’ll need to follow these steps to install the utility: [Download complete Backup Document]
What disks should I keep with my new pc?
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| Thursday, January 28th, 2010In the excitement of purchasing and installing a new PC, the diskettes or CD-ROM’s that come with it are often cast aside. New PC packages often include several disks or CD-ROM’s containing hardware configurations or software such as:
a) Drivers (eg network card, sound card, video card)
b) Operating system (eg Windows v7 or XP)
c) Other software (eg MYOB, MS Office)
These disks often get misplaced before they are suddenly needed again in the future. You are unlikely to need them until the PC is about two years old when you may need to upgrade software or hardware such as a new monitor, mouse or keyboard.
We recommend putting a sticker on a new PC so that you can easily link any stored diskette to the PC.
Keeping all disks associated with a PC in a readily accessible place means that your PC can easily be rebuilt if it has a hardware problem or if you sell it to another person. This can mean an instant return on your initial investment. For example, a second-hand five year old XP machine could be worth $300 to a buyer versus negligible value without the diskettes.
Remotely Accessing your PC
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009Going on holiday and want to access your PC ?
Have you ever wanted to access your computer from somewhere else? Ever been on holiday and wished you could see a file on your computer back home? Do you sometimes want to check what’s happening in the office when you are not there? Wouldn’t it be easy if your accountant could log into your computer to see your accounts instead of asking you questions? Would you like to see what’s on someone’s computer to give them some support? At work, would it be useful to access the IT systems (eg the accounting, scheduling, marketing, warehousing, planning systems) which are located in a different office?
If you’ve asked any of these questions yourself then wonder no further because help is at hand. LogMeIn is a free software program that allows you to access your pc or Mac computer from anywhere in this country or around the world. All you need is an Internet connection and LogMeIn gives you fast, easy remote access to another pc. You can gain remote control access and desktop viewing from any browser or wireless PDA. You don’t need to be concerned about security as the program uses all the usual end-to-end encryption, SSL/TLS intrusion detection, multi-level permission based access and IP address lockout. You need no firewall, router or proxy configuration and no remote PC admin rights are required.
We use LogMeIn all the time to provide remote-access support and have found it so easy to use and so useful that we think you should know about it. Next time you go on holiday though, don’t blame us for checking in at the office!
For more information, a comprehensive guide can be downloaded from https://secure.logmein.com/documentation/Pro/Free_Pro_GettingStartedGuide.pdf
and it’s all you need to get you started.
To download the free LogMeIn software, go to the https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/ website and click on the “Download PC Version” button (or the Download Now button on the left hand side).
You’ll need to create an account by providing an email address and password. When the account is first created, it looks like you need to pay for the “Pro” edition (US$60) but you don’t. You only need the free edition to access you PC. When you first register with LogMeIn you automatically receive a free trial of LogMeIn Pro. This is done by going to the LogMeIn Pro and selecting the Get Free Trial option. This will allow you the following: 30 days trial of LogMeIn Pro Or 2 hours of remote control using the trial version (whichever is the sooner).
Once your trial expires, you will be given the option of subscribing to the LogMeIn Pro version, or your subscription will revert to a LogMeIn Free subscription automatically with no action required from you. You will, of course, lose all the above features if you choose not to continue with your LogMeIn Pro subscription.
What’s even better than LogMeIn ?
Some people report that the login process with LogMeIn is a little convoluted. This can be simplified by using XP Professional or Vista to allow users to remotely access a PC. To allow your remote users to have a simple but secure way to connect to the office, you need to ensure port forwarding is set up on your office router.
Microsoft Server 2007 also allows multiple users to access office systems. Budget between $500 and $1000 per user connection depending on whether you require MS Office or not.
Another solution is to use XPUnlimited. Cost here is $1000 for the PC, $1000 set up, $400 for 10 users, $1000 for unlimited users. Note if MS Office is installed on this PC you are legally required to have a separate MS Office licence for each user. An alternative is to use Open Office software instead which is free. (link to open office web site).
If you need further information on logging in remotely with the free LogMeIn or one of the other remote access options, please call us on (07) 3374 1361. We can let you know which option is the best for your requirements.
Trouble with DOCX ?
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009Trouble with “ .DOCX” documents ?
We often get asked the question about how to open “.DOCX” document. Someone has sent you what you expect to be a standard Word document, yet it’s got a funny ‘.docx’ extension and your version of Word doesn’t recognise it.
Error messages displayed opening a DOCX file
These types of documents are created from Microsoft Word 2007 and have been saved as a new “Open XML” format so if you have an earlier version of Word then this is why your system doesn’t recognise it.
All you need to do is install a Microsoft Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel & PowerPoint 2007 file formats which you can download from here.
1. Click on the Download button.
2. Click on Save File.
Resizing Images
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| Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Resizing images
Did you know how easy it is to resize your images ? Resizing (or standardising the size) is often useful before sending images by email or before adding them to a website such as an online shop. The best way of doing this is to use Microsoft’s Image Resizier. This can be downloaded free from here.
The Image Resizer tool is listed on the right hand side column. Click on the ImageResizer.exe link to download the tool. Then install the tool on your PC.
How to use the Image Resizer
- Copy the full size images you want to resize into a separate folder.
- Select all the images.
- Right mouse click and choose the “Resize Pictures” option.
Example:
Image Resizer Tool
4. The following window will display. I recommend selecting either Medium or Large for the image size. Press Okay and the Image Resizer will create copies of all your images that are a fraction of the size.
Resize Options
5. The resulting new images are smaller than the originals and are now ready to attach to an email or upload to your website.
Creating PDF documents is easy!
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| Friday, April 3rd, 2009Have you ever wondered how to convert a Word document into a professional looking PDF file ? Now it’s free and easy to do using CutePDF Writer. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a “printer subsystem”. This enables virtually any Windows applications which are capable of being printed to create professional quality PDF documents on the fly with just a push of a button! CutePDF is totally FREE for commercial and non-commercial use and it creates no watermarks and no popup web ads!
CutePDF can be downloaded from www.cutepdf.com.
Steps to create PDF documents from Word documents:
- Download “CutePDF” from www.cutepdf.com.
- Install “CutePDF” on your PC with the standard setup.
- Once it is installed you simply print your document to the “CutePDF” printer to create your PDF document.
An example:
- Open up the Word document you wish to convert.
- Select print, select CutePDF from the list of printers and press the OK button.
Creating a PDF document using CutePDF
3. Wait a few seconds and the following dialog box should appear:-
The .PDF document can then be sent as en email which can be read by anyone.
4. Give your new .PDF filename a good name and note where you save it to.
CutePDF is so useful and so easy to use, we recommend it!
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