WindowWalk Times December 2004

We are pleased to bring you this new monthly online issue of our print newsletter after a long hiatus. We hope you find this information interesting and useful. Many people who received our print version commented favourably on the wide range of topics we cover in each issue. At WindowWalk Computer Education we believe the more you know about your computer, the more useful your computer will be for you.

For the holidays, we are offering a 15% Off December Special on courses and our on-going Free Business Technology Assessment for Small Business Owners.

Visit on the web , send an email , or call 830-9336 to give us your comments and suggestions or to learn more about our effective software training.

We hope you enjoy the December issue and wish the warmest Season's Greetings to you and yours.

SURFIN' SAFARI

Some Useful and Interesting Web Sites

The Dilbert Zone	www.dilbert.com	Go to this site to have some laughs. There are comic archives, ecards, games, and lots of other fun things to do. Brighten up your day a little.
CNN Interactive	www.cnn.com	Mega news site with videos and soundclips. You can find news stories on many different topics and watch breaking news video while you surf.
MapQuest	www.mapquest.com	An interactive map site that makes it easy to find any address.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Quick Descriptions of Popular Software

MIGHTY FAX

Mighty Fax is a reliable, easy-to-use fax program that lets you send and receive faxes from your computer. All you need to use this program is a telephone line and a fax modem (which is usually already in your computer). Mighty Fax sets up a printer driver that can be accessed from any software you have installed. Simply select the Mighty Fax driver from the printer list in the Print dialog box and you are ready to go. Installing and setting up the program is easy, in most cases you can run the installation program and immediately start creating, sending, and receiving faxes. RKS Software offers this program as a free 30 day trial and it can be purchased for $20 USD which includes all future upgrades. For a free download visit www.rkssoftware.com.

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SAY WHAT!?

Sound Like a Computer Wizard

Boot	The term used to describe the computer's process of starting up and opening the Windows desktop. Reboot refers to turning a computer off and then on again.
PDA	Personal Digital Assistant. A small battery-powered computer intended to be caried by the user. All PDA's can be synchronized with a desktop to keep information current.
FAQ	Frequently Asked Questions. A quick way for users to get answers to common questions on a given topic. These are usually found on web sites.

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HARDWARE HELPER

THE REAL COST OF PRINTERS

The prices of personal printers look pretty enticing, especially those sub-$100 models. But keep in mind that the purchase price is just the start: the care and feeding of a printer can quickly exceed the original cost.

Ink and Toner

Inkjets are the least expensive printers available, with many models starting at less than $100. The catch? The consumables, such as replacement inks and specialty papers, can cost you an arm and a leg. Ink typically costs between $12 and $60 per cartridge and can last for 100 to 200 pages. More expensive printers, however, tend to be more economical to operate because they have higher capacity ink tanks and separate ink tanks for each colour. You can purchase a compatible ink-refill kit from a separate company, though you may not get the same reliability or print quality.

Laser toner cartidges vary greatly in price, yield, and print capabilities. Toner cartridges generally cost from $10 for a small cartridge for a personal laser printer to as much as $300 for a high capacity cartridge for a networked workgroup laser printer. A cartridge typically prints between 2,500 and 10,000 pages. Pay attention to the expiration dates, though, some cartridges (HP's in particular) will stop working at a set time, no matter how much ink is left. Also, consider paying a little more for a separate toner cartridge and drum kit, rather than the usual combination unit.

Paper

One thing we know is that better quality paper yields better quality printouts. For the best results, you really need to bite the bullet and buy the coated or specialty paper recommended by the manufacturer of your model. This is particularly true for inkjets, photo printers, and multi-function devices.

Other extras

The biggest gotcha with many printers is the printer cable. Incredibly, many manufacturers don't even include one because retailers want to sell you one separately for anywhere from $10 to $30. Before leaving the store, read the box to determine whether you will need to buy one separately.

To read the entire article and to see a chart on printer costs, click here.

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SOFTWARE SEARCH

DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING 7.0

Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0 may not be a new choice in the speech recognition market, but it's one of the best in the biz. This new version took the field by scoring a 97% to 98% accuracy rate when taking dictation. Dragon Naturally Speaking is easy to install and configure. You can be up and running within about 15 minutes, a span that includes a quick training session. Microphone setup is a snap. A wizard walks you through configuring the mike's volume and tests the quality of the overall audio (an Emkay microphone headset is included in the box).

Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0 offers improved accuracy and several new productivity tools designed to ease the chores of dictation and control. One such tool is an autopunctuation feature that automatically inserts commas and periods. Unfortunately, it's a little unreliable. Once Naturally Speaking is active, you can dictate text into most Windows-based applications. The accuracy of this program is amazing. We dictated more than 100 words for a business letter, and the program churned out the document with only three typos. In addition to dictating text, you can control menus and dialog boxes with your voice.

CNET Rating: 8 out of 10

The Good	Dictation accuracy rates as high as 98%; minimal training time; plain English commands control wide range of Windows applications.
The Bad	New autopunctuation feature unreliable; works only with Internet Explorer; supports only Outlook Express, no support for Outlook.
The Bottom Line	With near-perfect accuracy and expanded software support, Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0 takes the prize as the best personal speech recognition software.
See the full review at www.cnet.com/reviews.

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WEB WARY

Viruses, Hoaxes, and Scams on the Internet

VIRUSES, WORMS, TROJAN HORSES, OH MY!

Most of the urgent emails you get about "deadly viruses" are just hoaxes. But there are a lot of very serious real ones out there as well. Computer viruses aren't the only threat, there are also worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, and scumware.

Computer viruses are designed to spread from one computer to another quickly. A virus is "a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. Even a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems." Some computer viruses don't do anything malicious -- others can wipe out everything on your hard drive.

Worms are self-propagating computer viruses. A worm is "a program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer network and usually performs malicious actions, such as using up the computer's resources and possibly shutting the system down." Their impact is similar to computer viruses.

Trojan Horses are closely related to computer viruses, but they differ in that they do not attempt to replicate themselves. More specifically, a Trojan Horse performs some undesired -- yet intended -- action while, or in addition to, pretending to do something else. A common example is a fake login program, which collects account information and passwords by asking for this info just like a normal login program does. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.

For more information on viruses, hoaxes, and scams online, visit www.scambusters.com.

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ASK TIZZIE

From the Email Files of our Resident Computer Monster

I've just bought a Sony Vaio which has Windows XP. I'd like to change the start up and log off music, but I can't figure out how to do it. Can you help, please?

You can change the start up and log off sounds in Windows XP very easily. Click the Start button, click the Control Panel and then click Sounds and Audio Devices. A small window will open with tabs at the top. Click the Sounds tab. There is a list in the middle of the window with the events to which you can assign sounds. Scroll through the list (under Windows) until you see Start Windows (just under that is Windows Logoff and Windows Logon). Click Start Windows and the box below will light up with the name of the sound. Scroll through the list until you find the sound you want, click it, and click Apply. You can also preview the sounds before you close the window.

Windows XP has very few sounds available for you, you may have to collect (or make) some sounds of your own. These sounds are stored in the Media folder under Windows on your local hard drive.

Send Tizzie YOUR Question!

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TIPS AND TRICKS

Use the Format Painter in Word

The Format Painter icon on the standard toolbar in Microsoft Word and Excel can be used to copy character or paragraph formatting from one portion of text to another. Click the paragraph (or word) that is formatted the way you want, then click the Format Painter icon. Click the word you want to copy the formatting to, or for multiple words, drag to select the portion of text. To copy the formatting multiple times, select the text with the formatting to be copied, double-click on the Format Painter icon, and copy the formatting as many times as you want. When you are finished, click the Format Painter icon one more time to de-select it.

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