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Whichever way you approach your tax filing, WindowWalk Computer Education can help. We specialize in QuickBooks and Simply Accounting training to help make your and your tax preparer's task easier (and cheaper!). Take advantage of our instructor's 20+ years of small business and personal accounting experience.

Accountants: Do you have any clients whose computer files are not in the best shape? We can help. Our training is customized for each client's needs and we work directly with you to make sure the books are maintained to your requirements.

We want everyone to have a more comfortable tax time. Call us today for a free consultation.

WindowWalk Computer Education offers on-site courses and hourly training ranging from the basics to advanced "power user" features. We pride ourselves in making your computer education a fully personalized, comfortable, and convenient experience.

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

SURFIN' SAFARI

Some Useful and Interesting Web Sites

WHAT DOES IT DO?

iPod

The iPod is a brand of portable digital media player designed and marketed by Apple Computer. Devices in the iPod family provide a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel (with the exception of the iPod shuffle). The standard iPod model stores media on a built-in hard drive, while the smaller iPod shuffle and iPod nano use flash memory. Like most digital audio players, an iPod can serve as an external data storage device when connected to a computer.

Discontinued versions of the iPod include two generations of the popular iPod mini and four generations of the full-sized iPod, all of which had monochrome screens except for the fourth-generation iPod with color screen (previously sold as iPod photo before it replaced the monochrome iPod in the top line). As of January 2006, the lineup consists of the fifth-generation iPod, which has video playback capabilities, the iPod nano which has a color screen, and the iPod shuffle; all three versions were released in 2005. The iPod is currently the world's best-selling digital audio player. The bundled software used for uploading music, photos, and videos to the iPod is called iTunes. A music jukebox application, iTunes stores a comprehensive library of the user's music on their computer, and can play and rip music from a CD. The most recent incarnations of iPod and iTunes have video playing and organization features.

SAY WHAT!?

Sound Like a Computer Wizard

HARDWARE HELPER

TOP 5 INKJET PRINTERS

Class-leading black-and-white printing; extremely flexible paper handling; long-lived prints. The Epson Stylus Photo R2400 printer's excellent monochrome printing further solidifies company's hegemony of the enthusiast and professional photo printer markets.

Duplex printing; extended color gamut; easy to operate; relatively fast; Mac compatible. A relatively fast photo printer that produces excellent photo and graphics output.

Epson Stylus Photo R800

Excellent print quality; relatively fast photo printing; flexible printer driver; no need to swap Matte Black and Photo Black cartridges. This excellent printer cedes its Editors' Choice crown to the Canon iP8500 but remains a great choice for photo enthusiasts despite some finicky printhead behavior.

Extremely impressive color and black-and-white prints; fast; supports paper sizes up to 13x19; can clean nozzles for subset of colors. As long as its limited paper options don't matter to you, the Canon i9900 is a very good medium-format photo printer.

Economical and fast when using the default settings; robust standalone operation; multiple connectivity options; Mac and Windows compatible. Speed and economy make the HP Photosmart 8250 a reasonable choice for family photo printing.

SOFTWARE SEARCH

Corel Paint Shop Pro X

From its inception, Paint Shop Pro was designed to be a feature-rich image-editing program at a price that Adobe Photoshop users would envy. We've always liked the program - it has features not found in Photoshop and is easier to use. With version X, Corel morphed it into an even friendlier app aimed squarely at digital camera users. The old tools are still present along with a few new ones, but the most obvious change in version X is the helpful, task-oriented user interface.

The program ships with a photo organizer, Photo Album 6.0; a utility for editing and converting raw-format images, Pixmatec Raw Shooter Essentials; and a two-hour training video on CD. As always, Paint Shop Pro is a pretty good deal. It's far easier to master than Photoshop, and for a great price, you get a sophisticated image editor that can handle anything you throw at it, plus a nice photo organizer and raw camera support.

CNET Rating: 7.8 Very Good

Read the full review at Cnet.com.

WEB WARY

Viruses, Hoaxes, and Scams

Keylogger Programs

On February 27, Tom Zeller wrote an excellent article in the New York Times called "Cyberthieves Silently Copy as You Type." Tom started this article by saying that there is evidence that among global cybercriminals, phishing scams may already be passe. The newer threat in some countries, like Brazil, is keylogger programs.

Keylogger programs can be hidden in software and silently monitor the keystrokes users type on their keyboards. This info is then transmitted to the scammer, giving access to user names, passwords, PIN numbers and other confidential information.

Keylogger programs have gotten a LOT more sophisticated -- and a lot more common -- recently. These programs are hidden in other programs, and rely on infection (like viruses) rather than deception (like phishing).

Keylogger programs are generally very selective. They wait for certain websites to be visited (such as banking sites, PayPal or credit card sites), or they wait for certain keywords (like SSN) to be entered in order to become active. This means that the keylogger program only transmits a small amount of data back to the scammers, perhaps making it more difficult to detect.

In February, Brazilian police arrested 55 people who stole $4.7 million from 200 different accounts. A Russian fraud ring was also broken up last month -- they stole $1.1 million from French personal bank accounts.

How do you protect yourself? Never use public computers for transactions that involve private information. Keep your anti spyware software up to date. Keeping your passwords in an encrypted file so you don't have to type them in (so you can just copy and paste) can also help. And be careful when visiting unknown sites, and when downloading software, music, and other files.

To read more about viruses and scams, click here.

ASK TIZZIE

From the Email Files of our Resident Computer Monster

Question:

I hear so much about email not being safe because of viruses and other bad stuff. Is there any way that I can enjoy using email without feeling like I am under attack?

Tizzie's Answer:

This is one of my most frequently asked questions and I am happy to tell you that, yes, you can enjoy your email in safety. I have listed below some very good tips on email safety:

1. Don’t open attachments that seem strange or suspicious.
2. Use a firewall. A firewall will block most of the bad stuff from getting into your computer.
3. Use your anti-virus software regularly. If you don’t have an anti-virus program, get one.
4. Take advantage of Microsoft Windows Update feature to make sure that you have the latest security patches.
5. Use anti-spyware software regularly. This “badware” stuff seems to be constantly on the move into our computers - cleaning it out daily is a good idea.
6. Don’t use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express unless you have no choice. Alternative email programs are Thunderbird, Eudora, or Pegasus Mail.
7. Never share your passwords or use Password Manager programs.
8. Never respond to unsolicited emails (spam). Deal with spam like you do with the junk mail that comes to your home - throw it away.

There are more tips on email safety that you can read about at www.scambusters.com .

TIPS AND TRICKS

Create a New Toolbar in Word

You can easily create a customized toolbar to access the commands that you use most often in Word. On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Customize. Click the Toolbars tab, and then click New. In the Toolbar Name box, type a name for your new custom toolbar. In the Make toolbar available to box, click the template or open document where you want to store the toolbar. Choose the Normal template to have the toolbar available in all new documents you create. Click OK.

The Customize dialog box appears. Click the Commands tab. Click the category that you want to select your button from. Under Commands, drag the buttons that you want to the new toolbar. Click Close.