____________________________________ Maurer Publications Computing Tips ____________________________________ Publisher: Steve Maurer,owner Maurer Publications http://www.steve.maurer.net Date: 5:17 PM 9/19/01 ____________________________________ In Today's Issue: Note from the editor: 1. Article: Trim the Fat 2. Today's Quick Tip: Update your virus program 3. Quote of the Day 4. Website News 5. Subscription information: You are subscribed to our newsletter as [name] using the email address [email] ____________________________________ A Note from the Editor: Hi there, [name]! Well it certainly been a difficult week here in the United States. The recent attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania have been on the minds of everyone here and world wide. I have been absolutely amazed at the reactions from the Net. Links to help site and donation sites have popped up everywhere. Unfortunately some have been frauds, but the legitimate ones far outweigh the fakes. Just be careful to check the credentials of any site before you make a donation! I've even posted a link to American Liberty Partnerships on my site where you can make a donation to various organizations. I certainly don't want to take away from the importance of the tragedy in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, but I would ask you to do this one thing. Now that our senses have been heightened and our hearts opened because of this tragedy, look around you and find the needs close at home. We can't all go to New York to participate in the rescue and recovery effort, but we all can find the hurting, the suffering, and the need in our own neighborhood and reach out with a hand of compassion and understanding. There are personal tragedies around us eveyday, and while they may not tug at the heart strings of a nation, they very much affect the lives of those living around us. Reach out and touch a life close to you...today. Steve ____________________________________ 1. Article: Trimming the fat from Microsoft Office documents This article is more of a quick tip than a full article, but it is a worthwhile topic if you use Microsoft Office products, such as Word or PowerPoint. There is an option in Office products called the "fast save". For example, in Word97, the fast save option is located under the 'Tools' menu, by clicking on 'Options'. You get the option dialog box, where you can set various options such as default file locations, spelling and grammar options and a host of others. Click on the 'Save' tab and you will see a series of check boxes for options. Notice the one that says "Allow fast saves". If this is checked, Word does a 'fast save' which is an option that saves only the changes made to the document, not the entire document. Each set of changes is added to the file, which can add greatly to the size, but does make it faster to work on the document. These changes are part of what allows the "Undo" feature in the document. When you have finished working on the document, you should clear the "allow fast saves" check box to do a full save of the document. This will cut down the size of the file, sometimes as much as 50%, because all the changes that are not needed are removed. Only the final product is saved. After unchecking the "fast saves" option, save the document one final time and it will trim off the excess. One other way I have done this with out unchecking the 'fast saves' option, in fact this is normally the way I finish up a Word document or PowerPoint Presentation file, is to use the "Save as..." option in the 'File' menu. I still save the file with the same name, but it seems to overwrite the original working document with the trimmed finished document. Try opening a document then use the 'save as...' option. Note the file size before and after saving. I used this one time to save a document someone wanted me to touch up. They needed to copy the document to various computers, but the size was way to large to fit on a floppy disk. It had pictures in it also, which needed to be resized and optimized, but when all was said and done, I had pared the original 10Mb document down to about 1.2 meg, which could then fit on a floppy with no problem. One final note on this. Look again at the Word save options. The check box above "Allow fast saves" is "Always create backup copy". What this option does is keep the previously saved version of your document as a backup, using the same file name, but changing the extension to .bak, the usual extension for a backup. It also saves it to the same folder. Thus if you lose your working document, you can always go back to the previously saved document, losing only your recent changes. But note here that "Always create backup" and "Allow fast saves" are mutually exclusive. You can only use one or the other. See what happens when you try to check both boxes. Checking one will uncheck the other. The reason this happens is that the backup option only works with a full save, not with the fast save option. Be sure to check out the other "save" options. And put your documents on a diet! See you next time! _________ Article By: Steve Maurer Maurer Publications http://www.steve.maurer.net/ ____________________________________ - - Advertisement - - Check out the eBooks at Bizymoms.com! You'll find everything there from cake decorating for fun and profit, to running a profitable word processing business. Books, classes and more available. Chat sessions with the authors are available daily! Visit Bizymoms.com at http://www.bizymoms.com/main/?10537 - - End Advertisement - - ____________________________________ 2. Today's Quick Tip: In light of all the new viruses going around lately, and some of them real nasties, I would just like to remind all of you to keep your virus program updated. For most programs, there are updates and upgrades and it's easy to get them confused. Upgrades actually upgrade the virus scan engine or program. This usually has a time perioud on most retail virus scanners and can be extended with a service or maintenance contract. I use McAfee and can upgrade the engine a year at a time with a maintenance contract. Updates, however, are the actual virus definitions. Most retail scanners will have lifetime updates, although eventually you will probably have to do an engine upgrade to handle the more advanced viruses. Check with you virus software company for details. It's important to keep your virus scanning software up to date, I update mine weekly. There are over 200 new viruses discovered each week, so keep up with your virus software! ____________________________________ 3. Quote of the Day: Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Cicero ____________________________________ 4. Website News I have placed a banner on my site so that you can donate to various organizations online. Of course, the Red Cross is there, as well as other sites related to the World Trade Center disaster. Clicking on the banner or text link will take you to the American Liberty Partnerships organization, a page with links to various help organizations, and is sponsored by folks like Amazon.com, Microsoft, and EBay. * * * * * * I have a new article on the site about eBooks. I am also featuring a book by a close "Net friend" of mine, Barbara Brabec. Barbara has written various print books for the craft industry for about 30 years. This is her first venture into electronic publishing on the internet. Follow the link to Bizymoms.com and check out Barb's book on tax strategies for home-based businesses. I have my copy and have found a lot of useful information in it. Check out my review of the book on the Bizymoms.com site. It's a great place to shop for eBooks! Look for Barbara's book, "Money Saving Tax Strategies for Home Based Entrepreneurs" at: http://www.bizymoms.com/main/?10537 ____________________________________ Stop sending "Dear Customer" Emails. Get WorldMerge, and send personalized email to your targeted contact list in minutes! Download your free copy today: http://www.coloradosoft.com/associate-jump.cgi?ID=2581 ____________________________________ 5. Subscription information: This newsletter is sent ONLY to the subscriber who requested it. If you received this newsletter as a forward, we invite you to subscribe! You can subscribe at our website (the best waay to subscribe). To subscribe by email... To unsubscribe, email... To submit an article for consideration, use our article and tip submission form on our website Please pass this to a friend who may be interested!