Find important emails faster

Working with a client the other day reminded of this simple tip for “organizing” your email, and helping make those important ones easy and quick to go back to again.

Ready?

Change the Subject line.

Yes, that’s right. When viewing your emails in Outlook, or the other email clients (Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, etc.), simply (use the cursor to) “highlight” (turn blue) the unhelpful text the author put there, and type something helpful in its place — something that more relates to what you want to respond to, or something (aka “keywords”) to help the Search feature return the particular email you’re trying to find again.

For example, you might get an email on a Tuesday regarding a mandatory meeting scheduled for Friday, and the author had put, oh, say, “Tuesday’s reminders” as the Subject. What’s that got to do with Friday’s meeting?

Simply changing “Tuesday’s reminders” to “Friday’s meeting” might make it a bit easier to remember/see, and go back to quickly when you need to remind yourself of the meeting’s time.
Better, why not change the Subject to “Friday’s 10 am meeting“?

This is a real good habit to get into, IMHO.

Today’s quote: “That the birds of worry and care fly over you head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” ~ Chinese Proverb

Um….
Yeah.
Okay…

Today’s fun video (because it’s summer):

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Quick Tip: Digitally Document Your Possessions

Photographic Proof For Insurance (Included: a good “general tip”)

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say; but if you had a catastrophe and your insurance company refuted, or undervalued, your claim – a picture could be worth thousands of dollars.

If your house burned to the ground, and your insurance company disagreed with you about the contents of your home, or severely undervalued them, or both, how would you respond? I would open my email.

What did he say?

Step 1) (Takes an hour, or two, or so) Get a hold of a digital camera, or use your cell phone’s camera if you have no other option, and photograph all your rooms in a “panorama” type perspective. Also be sure to take good pictures of all your key (valuable) possessions – furniture, electronics, appliances, jewelry, artwork, vehicles, power tools, silverware, etc. Open your closets and snap some pics of their contents (your wardrobe); and also your cabinets with all your pots and pans and popcorn poppers. Create a “visual tour” of your home/garage/tool shed.

Step 2) Transfer the images to your PC into a folder you create named “Insurance” (or.. something similar). Then apply a “batch resizer” to the JPEGs (the pictures) you just took. Digital images from cameras usually are quite large (file size, I mean) and to complete the next step, you need to ‘shrink’ them down to a smaller (file) size — say, under 500 KB each. It is easy, don’t worry; scroll down for my reco on a “resizer” tool.

Step 3) Now import (or attach) the (smaller) images to an email and send the email to yourself.
This may be easiest if you use a “zip” utility (such as Windows’ Send to compressed folder).
Now, no matter what happens to your camera or computer, a copy of those photos will be stored on your email server – ready to show to your insurance claims adjuster should you ever need them. It may take more than one email to send yourself them all..
(And naturally, I hope we never do need them..!)

And let’s face it; if we had to sit down and write out a list from memory.. how many things would we forget without that visual reminder?

(Optional Step 4) “Burn” a copy of the original “Insurance” folder to a CD/DVD (the large size images) and put the disc in your safety deposit box (or give it to a friend to keep for you.)

Walking through with a video camera is a great thing to do too. But be sure to store the ‘tape’ somewhere else.

And YES, folks: you have to do this before the tornado (or hurricane, or earthquake, or..) strikes.

Today’s free download: Batch Image resizing made easy. Fotosizer is a free batch photo/image resizer tool. It lets you resize hundreds of photos in a matter of minutes in a quick and easy way.

(The tip here can be good to know just for “GP”. You never know when you might want to email a large number of photos..)

Related: Home Inventory: How to Document Your Personal Property (there is also a link to two videos at the bottom..)

Not directly related: Back to School 2011: ‘What to buy your kid for college’ guide

“Back to School 2011: College is an investment, not just for those who go, but for parents too. Give your kid a helping hand with these tech essentials.” Read more…

Today’s quote: “My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit.”  ~ Phyllis Diller

Yes. I'd say so.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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7 features to boost your productivity in Windows 7

Windows 7 has many new features that can speed up your work. Some are obvious, but others are more like ‘hidden jewels’. Tony Bradley’s article over on ComputerWorld is a great place for you to find out about 7 of these new efficiency-boosters and learn good advice for best using them.

Here is the direct link: Windows 7 efficiency tips “Master these features to boost your productivity in Windows 7.”

Or.. you can click on the sections of interest..

1. Get the most out of Jump Lists
2. Beef up context menus
3. Enable AHCI
4. Navigate with the Aero interface
5. Organize your files with libraries
6. Use keyboard shortcuts
7. Windows search trumps all

Raise your Geek Quotient, click a link or two!

Related: And for those of you who aren’t interested in these – because you are still using Windows XP – see, It is time to face facts and finally dump Windows XP

“I have been saying this for a while now; but, sometimes people want to know what other professionals are saying..“

Unrelated: (But hopefully fun) I have been meaning to mention this for some time now, and perhaps it is no longer relevant, but I have been hearing from many, many places that it has been hot and humid and insufferable. Quite different from here, where we have had days that did not break 70° (though today is nice and warm) and I thought I was going to get jobbed out of summer…

Today’s quote: “If it weren’t for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn’t get any exercise at all.”  ~ Joey Adams

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Tip: Change Office’s AutoRecover Location

Make Document AutoRecovery More Functional

The AutoRecover feature in Microsoft Office can truly be a lifesaver when you are working on a document and the program (or system) crashes. However, by default, the AutoRecover files are always saved to a difficult – to – find folder. By telling Office to Save those files to a location of your choosing, you will know right where to find them should the worst happen, and you need them.
(Also, it’s a good idea to ‘tweak’ the frequency it makes its ‘snapshots’ of your work in progress.)

The default locations are:

• Vista/Win 7 = c:\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\
• Windows XP = c:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Microsoft\

Here’s the How To:

The first thing we need to do is create (or choose) a location. I create a “recovery” folder inside my “Documents” folder. (I recommend creating the location, to avoid cluttering up existing places with autosaves.)

• Click the Start button, and then Documents
• In a blank (white) area of the Documents window, right – click, and choose New and then Folder
• A new folder will appear, and the cursor will be blinking in the name rectangle. Change it to (aka “name it”) OfficeRecovery (or something similar)

Now we need to set Office’s AutoRecovery behavior:

1) Open any Office program — Word, Excel, PowerPoint…

2) Click on File, and then go down the list and click Options.

3) In the left-hand column, click on Save.

4) In the new window that opens:

● Change the “Save AutoRecover information every ____ minutes” from the default 10 to something a little more helpful. I prefer 3 minutes, but one or two minutes (if you’re a fast typer) may be a good choice too.

● Change the “AutoRecover file location:” to point to the folder we just created.

1. Click the Browse button
2. In the left column, click Documents, and then in the right pane, locate and double-click on your recovery folder
3. Click OK

● Click OK

That’s it. You’re done. Now, in the event of a power failure, computer crash, or whatnot, you actually may be able to easily recover your lost work. But please note: AutoRecover or AutoSave does not replace the Save command. You should use the Save command to save your document at regular intervals and when you finish working on it.

Today’s quote: “Sometimes the best way to learn from your mistakes is to carry them with you.”

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Reader Question: My Pick(s) For Best Antivirus

I wish I had a nickle for every time I am asked this question…

Q: “Paul,
I want to thank you for all the good information on your website and I am hoping you can give me some advice. The McAfee on my new computer is due to expire and it is asking me to buy a subscription or I won’t be protected. Should I pay or should I get something else? I will be using this computer a lot and want the best protection. Thank you.
~ TB

A: TB,
In this day and age of Internet Insecurity, it is absolutely vital (IMHO) that any device that connects to the World Wide Web has antivirus: and, an “expired” antivirus is next to no antivirus. I have written much about Internet/PC security (and answered this question before). But the competition between the various vendors means that the answer to “who’s the best?” changes year to year… and I suspect you want my short answer. (And, currently, McAfee is not it.)

So, for April/May 2011 my General recommendations are:

• Paid Internet Security: Norton Internet Security 2011 (comprehensive. Any user experience level.)
• Free Antivirus: Avast! (Any user experience level.)

• For Netbooks: see, Best Antivirus For Netbooks?
• For Smartphones: Smartphone security is new to me, and I can only (at this time) say that I think that, at the very least, you want Lookout.

* You may be interested to know, PC World magazine also has those first two as their top reco’s: see, Free vs. Fee: Free and Paid Antivirus Programs Compared

“Can free antivirus software protect you? Or is it worth paying for a full-blown A/V app? We look at the benefits–and pitfalls–of free and paid antivirus products.“

Additionally: (Internet security is much more complex than bullet point answers!)

● I prefer to fine-tune my answers to the User: everybody is different, after all. To get your own “fine-tuned” recommendation, try Gizmo’s Freeware Security Wizard.

“This Wizard has been designed to help you select the best free security software for your PC based on the version of Windows that you use, your technical computer skills and your general level of security risk (read more…).”

● In my Blogroll, you will see direct links to trustworthy Product Comparison reviews.

● I recommend supplementing your antivirus with Anti-Spyware, and I frequently recommend SAS (SUPERAntiSpyware) here. It is a great additional “layer of defense”. It is available here. (It is also one of the few titles I actually reco upgrading to the paid version. Hint: look for the “Lifetime” price.)

● I suspect someone will write in and ask, so.. (For Infection Removal): MalwareBytes Anti-Malware

Today’s reading reco(s):

* Off Topic: White House Releases Birth Certificate

“In all my years of being a citizen of the United States, I have never been more embarrassed… I was brought up to respect whomever was the President; whether it be Democrat or Republican. Today.. ” Read more

* Restoring Your Contacts List or Address Book In Gmail

“Google’s Gmail has been a very popular online (web) email client for years; and, rightfully so. It continues to improve and offer features that you would typically find in email software that you would install on your PC.” Read more

* Yesterday, I mentioned iPhone tracking only part of Apple’s security and privacy shortcomings…

“The revelation by a pair of researchers that iPhones store location data for the life of the device is making waves. How much does it really matter? Chad Perrin suggests the problem goes deeper.” Read more

But Android users should (also) be aware.. Android phones keep location cache, too, but it’s harder to access

“After this week’s disturbing revelation that iPhones and 3G iPads keep a log of location data based on cell tower and WiFi base station triangulation, developer Magnus Eriksson set out to demonstrate that Android smartphones store the exact same type of data for its location services. While the data is harder to access for the average user, it’s as trivial to access for a knowledgeable hacker or forensics expert.” Read more

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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A Quick Reco.. Some Email Etiquette

Folks, today I simply want to point you to an article by friend and fellow tech blogger, Rick Robinette: Tip: Bcc Protects Private Email Addresses

“Did you know that if you use the Bcc field in your email client to address and send an email to multiple users, the recipients will not see whom you sent the email to?

… The benefits of using the Bcc field is simply this. You are protecting the privacy of other people.”

This is basic e-mail etiquette that everyone should know and practice. (Especially if you ever “forward” on those funny/cute animal picture FWD’s you get.) Click the link, and read more. (And then, maybe, forward the article to certain folks you know..)

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** Software License Giveaway Drawing Ends Tonight **

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The folks at SPAMFighter have generously donated 10 licenses for SLOW-PCFighter to me, to award to my readers.

SLOW-PCFighter is a Registry repair program which “uses the most advanced technologies available” to analyze PC errors and – as the name suggests – speed up a PC which has become slow.
For contest details (and to enter), click here.

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Using Vista? Quick Tip

Today’s Quick Tip is for those of you who have Vista, and would like to turn off that pesky pop-open prompt for “Continue?” (aka the “UAC”) yet still have the UAC protection.

It is a well-known ‘fact’ that neither the consumer, nor business, took to Microsoft’s Windows Vista. (In fact, it can be said that many, if not most, avoided Vista.) Microsoft learned from this ‘fact’ and made changes to it’s latest version of Windows – Windows 7 – which have proven to be the right moves.

One such change is the UAC in Windows 7 is much quieter, hardly ever popping open to ask you to ‘confirm’ your actions. Vista users can get this same “quiet mode” by downloading and using TweakUAC from WINABILTY. It is a free utility, which the developer says works on both 32 and 64 bit versions.

I have not mentioned Vista’s UAC here, as I did not want you, Dear Reader, turning it off. Yes. It’s annoying, but it is there to protect you. And you want it. Really. But “quiet mode” is fine with me, as it is the best of both worlds.. so to speak.
(So if you are one of those who did turn off the UAC.. may I suggest this approach instead?)

Note: one thing to be aware of: using this will make Vista think the UAC is off (which it isn’t) and it will give a ‘red shield’ Security Center warning. To stop the “red shield” icon from bothering you, right-click on the icon and choose “Open Security Center” from the menu. When it opens, click on the “Change the way Security Center alerts me” link, in the left panel. There choose one of the “Do not notify me” options.

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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