Author Archives: Lance Whitney
Try These Top Add-Ins for Microsoft Word
You can beef up Microsoft Word with the right add-ins. Microsoft Word packs a lot of features and functionality into one single application. But there’s always room for more. Perhaps you wish Word included a built-in dictation feature that converted your speech into text. Or maybe you’d like a Word feature that reads your documents aloud to you. Or perhaps you’d like a built-in translator that can translate your text from one language to another. Well, Word may not include these items, but you can tap into them by installing an add-in. Add-ins provide greater functionality and flexibility to an Office application so you can do so much more with the program. You’ll find an array of Word add-ins through Microsoft’s online Office Store, but I’m going to highlight what I think are some of the top and most interesting add-ins to give you a head start. We’ll look at Dictate, an add-in that lets you dictate your documents directly into Word; TextAloud, an add-in that reads your text aloud to you; Read My Document; another add-in that reads your text to you; Translator, an add-in that can translate text in your document between different languages; Collins Dictionary; an add-in … Read More
How to Recover Deleted Files in Windows
Is that file you permanently deleted gone for good? Not if you have the right software to bring it back to life. You’ve deleted a document or other file in Windows — only to realize you need that file. What can you do to get it back? Naturally, the first place to look is the Windows Recycle Bin. To check for the file, double-click on the Recycle Bin icon, which should be nestled on your desktop. You’ll see all the deleted files in the Recycle Bin folder. If you spot the file you want to recover, great. Just right-click on it and click Restore from the popup menu. The file is restored to its original location. The same holds true for a folder. Right-click it and click Restore, and the folder is returned to its original locale. This article is part of our premium content. Join Now.Already a paid subscriber? Click here to login.
How to Set Up and Use the Windows 10 Mail App
Though you may already use a program like Microsoft Outlook, the Windows 10 Mail app can prove useful. The Windows 10 Mail app may seem lightweight, but it’s still useful. You can use it to access your Web-based mail (such as Gmail or Yahoo), an email account through your Internet provider, or an Office 365 email account. The app itself may lack the bells and whistles of a Microsoft Outlook, but it’s easy to access and can smoothly juggle more than one email account. Sometimes, no-frills is just what you need. Let’s go through the steps for setting up and using the Windows 10 Mail app. First, open the Mail app by clicking on its icon on the taskbar or clicking on the Start button, scrolling down the Apps list, and clicking on the shortcut for Mail. The first time you launch it, the app prompts you to set up an account. Click on the link to Add account. This article is part of our premium content. Join Now.Already a paid subscriber? Click here to login.
How to Add and Modify User Accounts in Windows 7
In Windows 7, you can create and customize accounts all from Control Panel. Adding user accounts in Windows 10 is a relatively straightforward process. You can add and manage accounts from the Accounts screen under Settings. In Windows 7, the process isn’t difficult but it is different. You create and modify accounts from the good, old-fashioned Control Panel. You can add new accounts, change their names, change their passwords, change the account type between a standard user and an administrator, and create a password reset disk for your own account. For those of you still running Windows 7, let’s go through the steps for creating and tweaking user accounts. Creating multiple user accounts is a convenient option if you’re sharing a single PC among different people. Those of you in the same household or small office can sign in with your individual account and create your own individual desktop, wallpaper, color scheme, and other settings. Windows 7 supports three types of accounts: Administrator, Standard, and Guest. With an administrator account, you can create and modify other accounts and change virtually all system settings in Windows. With a standard account, you can modify your own settings but you can’t create or … Read More
How to Use the Windows 7 Media Center
Still running Windows 7 but have never used the Media Center? Here’s how it works and what you can do with it. Microsoft put the kibosh on Windows Media Center as a built-in application in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. But those of you running Windows 7 can still tap into the Media Center program. With Media Center, you can access your videos, music, photos, and more. You can play DVDs and view slide shows. You can even watch live TV and record TV shows. So, how can you get Media Center up and running to view your multimedia content? Let’s check it out. First, if you’re running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, then Media Center is automatically baked in and accessible. If you’re running Windows 8.1, you could access Media Center by purchasing an add-on program called the Windows 8.1 Pro Pack. Microsoft stopped selling the Pro Pack back in 2015. But you may still be able to find the program from third-party resellers via Amazon. And what about those of you running Windows 10? Are you out of luck as far as Windows Media Center? Officially, yes. Unofficially, no. Microsoft doesn’t make a version of Media … Read More
How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 10
You can set up a dual-boot scenario to run both versions on the same machine. Do you want to check out Windows 10 but continue to run Windows 7? Or maybe you’re already using Windows 10 but want to be able to still use Windows 7? You can juggle both flavors of Windows by setting up a dual-boot system. Assuming you’re already running Windows 7, you can steal a chunk of its partition space and use it to create a new partition to house Windows 10. Alternatively, if you’re running Windows 10, you can snip off a portion of it to add a new partition for Windows 7. Once both operating systems are up and running, you can choose which one you wish to use each time you fire up your computer. All you need is a healthy amount of hard disk space to make it all work. How do you prep your PC to run both versions of Windows? Let’s check it out. This article is part of our premium content. Join Now.Already a paid subscriber? Click here to login.
How to Move Your Windows Personal Files to a Different Drive
Have a second hard drive and want to move your personal Windows files and content there? Here’s how. You have a PC with two hard drives. And you want to move your personal files and certain content from your C drive to your D drive to keep them separate from your Windows system files. Yep, that’s doable, though it does involve a few steps. You have to redirect each folder to its new location so Windows knows where you’ve put it. And you have to tell your various applications, such as Microsoft Office, that your documents and files will be housed in different default folders. But if you follow the right steps, your personal files will rest soundly in their new location, and Windows and your applications will know just where to find them. Windows creates a Users folder to store subfolders for anyone who has an account on a PC. The folder for your account is home to an array of files and other data, including your contacts, your desktop icons, your favorite webpages, your downloads, your documents, your music, your pictures, your videos, and more. By default, your Users folder is created on your C drive right off … Read More
How to Fix Search Problems in Microsoft Outlook
No results coming up when you run a search in Microsoft Outlook? Here are several ways you can troubleshoot and hopefully fix such a problem. Are you coming up empty when you search for messages in Microsoft Outlook? The search feature does have a way of going on the fritz every now and then. The issue sometimes lies within the Windows search indexing, which sometimes stops working properly. But other factors can impact Outlook searches. The problem becomes obvious when you run a search for messages that you know are in your mailbox, but Outlook says it couldn’t find anything. You may not be able to find the specific cause of the glitch, but there are several ways you can try to resolve it. You can remove Outlook from the search index and then add it back. You can rebuild the search index. You can scan your PST file for errors. And if all else fails, you can create a new PST file. I recently bumped into search problems in Outlook. When typing the name of a person or subject or other criteria in the Search Current Mailbox field, I’d get nada in return. And I knew I should be … Read More
How to Boost Your Productivity in Microsoft Word
Here are some tips and tricks to help you Microsoft Word users get your work done more quickly. If you use Microsoft Word as your core application for creating and editing documents, you may find that performing certain tasks takes too long or is too awkward. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to enhance Word to make it faster, more powerful, and more efficient. You can save time creating a new document by starting with one of Word’s built-in templates. You can record a good, old macro to automate different actions. You can customize the Ribbon to add commands and features you frequently use. You can tweak the Quick Access toolbar to also add often-used commands and features. You can create and apply styles and themes to content in a Word document to quickly format it the way you want. And you can use the “Tell me what you want to do” feature in Word so the program can help you find and run specific commands. For this article, I’m using Word 2016, but the steps here apply to Word 2013 and Word 2010 as well. So, let’s dive right in. Use a Template This article is part of our premium content. … Read More
How to Share and Collaborate on Documents Using Microsoft Office
You can share and collaborate on your Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with other people. Microsoft Office 2016 offers an array of applications and features. But perhaps one of the most helpful benefits is the ability to share and collaborate on your documents and presentations with other people. By storing your files on your OneDrive online space, you can share them with other users. And you can collaborate on the same documents and presentations in real-time with others. How can you share and collaborate on your Office files? Let’s take a look. Some of the steps I discuss here work with previous versions of Office, such as Office 2013. But I’m using Office 2016 as my test bed. The steps also work whether you’re running the packaged version of Office 2016 or the subscription version of Office 365. It’s the same product, just sold differently. You’ll need a OneDrive account to store your files online so other people can access them. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for it at the OneDrive website. And to use OneDrive, you’ll need a Microsoft account, which you register for through Microsoft’s “Sign up for a Microsoft account” webpage. To start, … Read More