Posts Tagged "Nexxtep"

Business App of the Week

Yellow Pages Mobile

yellow pages mobile Business App of the WeekYellow pages mobile is a great way to find phone numbers, directions and nearby places of interest.  You can even save business contacts to your phonebook for easy access later on.  Check it out from your mobile device (available on iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Palm and Android).  Look up “Yellow Pages” in your phone’s app store, or visit m.yp.com from your phone.

5 Ways to Keep Your Laptop Running- Without Plugging It In

On the road, in the airport, at a client’s site, or simply at home on the couch. These are places you can’t – or don’t want to – plug your laptop in. Want to keep your laptop running as long as possible without searching for an outlet? Here are 5 tips to help:

1) Keep your screen dim. A laptop’s backlight requires a lot of power. Reducing the brightness conserves battery life.

2) Turn off unused hardware. Your Bluetooth and your Wi-FI receiver can both be turned off if not in use. Unplug your external mouse or other device. And mute the PC’s sound system. Not only will it save power, it avoids annoying everyone else around you.

3) Don’t multitask. Run as few programs as you can get away with. Stick to one application (word processor, browser, or whatever) if possible. (If online keep your antivirus and firewall on in the background.)

4) Avoid multimedia. Save your photo editing and video watching for when have AC power. These tasks suck up immense battery life. To listen to music, use your iPod (or similar device).

5) Sleep, standby or hibernate. Sleep mode (a.k.a. “standby” in XP) keeps your PC on. It still uses power, just less than normal. Hibernate uses no power initially, but a lot of battery life to start back up.

How to Create a Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word

Spell check is one of the best features of Microsoft Word.  It frees us from the worry of typos and the inconvenience of thumbing through the dictionary on a regular basis.  But the dictionary does have its downsides.  If it doesn’t recognize a word, it underlines it in red.  This can be very distracting if you use a lot of words that aren’t in the official Word dictionary. Believe me, when you work at a company called Nexxtep and have the last name Shenton, it happens a lot.

One way to get the red out is to create a “custom dictionary” in Word.  You can add words to the dictionary that aren’t already there.  You can also add proper nouns or technical terminology.  For example, if you work in a medical office and use a lot of technical terms and abbreviations, you can add them to your dictionary.

Here’s how:

1. Click the Office button and select Word Options

2. Select the Proofing options

3. Click Custom Dictionaries

4. Click New

5. Enter a name for you dictionary and click Save

Your new dictionary will appear in the dictionary list.

Adding terms to your dictionary is also easy:

6. Highlight your dictionary

7. Click Edit Word List

8. Type a word in the Word box

9. Click Add after you check the spelling of the word

10. Repeat for all the words you’d like to add

11. You can delete a word by highlighting it and clicking Delete

12. When you’re done, click OK

Have a question about Microsoft Office that you’d like us to answer?  Leave a comment or contact us here.

Keeping Your Child Safe Online

For the most part, the internet is a great tool for kids and teens, but there are big risks that come along with using it.  Your child might innocently accept or share files that could expose your computer to viruses and spyware.  Or worse, he or she could be exposed to disturbing images and even child predators.  The first step you should take in monitoring your child’s activity is to lay down some clear ground rules.  Tell your child up front that you will be monitoring their behavior, frequently.   Here are some other suggestions:

  1. Don’t allow your child to email personal information without your permission.
  2. Keep the family computer(s) in a location where you can easily see what your child is doing online.
  3. Ask your child to be up front about the people he or she meets on the internet, and don’t allow him/her to meet someone they met online without your supervision.

For more resources on keeping your child safe online, visit safetynet.aap.org.

Scan Your Facebook Privacy Settings

The privacy settings and controls on Facebook can be confusing and difficult to navigate, which is why the social networking site has been the source of major controversy in the news recently.  If you want to check how secure your account actually is, you can use a tool from reclaimprivacy.org.
Bookmark the link on the site’s homepage, then log in to your Facebook account.
After you log in to Facebook, visit your privacy settings page.  Then click on the bookmark from reclaimprivacy.org.  The tool will scan your account’s privacy settings.  You will find out how secure your settings are, and what you might want to adjust.  I tried it myself and found that my information could be accessed by third-party websites.  I never gave Facebook my permission to give out my information, which is pretty unsettling.

Free Webinar: Marketing Your Business with Web 2.0

It’s your last chance to sign up for Thursday’s webinar, “Marketing Your Business with Web 2.0.”

Details:
Date: May 27, 2010
Time: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET
Cost: FREE!

You’ll Learn:
-How to take advantage of social media tools like blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn.

-How internet marketing has changed in the last decade.

-Ways to drive traffic to your website and make it more attractive to your customers.

Register for this free business webinar here