Use a single mailing list to send out two entirely different letters

• Date: August 26th, 2008
• Author: Mary Ann Richardson

Thanks to Word’s mail merge fields, you can automate the process of producing different letters based on criteria you specify. This example shows how it works.

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When you need to send two or more different letters to your clients based on a value in a field in the client database, you don’t need to compile two separate mailing lists. Using the If… Then…Else rule with the INCLUDETEXT field, you can process both letters at once. For example, say you have saved two documents, one containing the body of the letter for clients located in Missouri and a second containing the body of the letter for clients located in Illinois. To create one mailing that will send the appropriate letter to each client, follow these steps:

1. Open your mail merge document, which contains the merge fields and text common to both letters.

2. Click below the greeting, where you want to insert the body of your letter.

3. Click the drop-down arrow of the Insert Word Field button in the Mail Merge toolbar. (In Word 2007, click Rules in the Write & Insert Fields group of the Mailings tab.)

4. Click If…Then…Else.

5. Click the Field Name box drop-down arrow and select State (Figure A).

Figure A

6. Click in the Comparison box and select Equal To.

7. Click in the Compare To box and type MO.

8. Click in the Insert This Text box and type This is the text for MO.

9. In the Otherwise Insert This Text box, type This is the text for IL.

10. Click OK.

11. Right-click the field in the document and select Toggle Field Codes to display all the field codes (Figure B).

Figure B

12. Select the following text inside the quotes: This is the text for MO. (Do not select the quotes.)

13. Go to Insert | Field. (In Word 2007, click Quick Parts in the Text Group of the Insert tab.)

14. Click Field.

15. Under Field Names, select IncludeText (Figure C).

Figure C

16. Click in the Filename Or URL box and type the full pathname for the file containing the body of the letter for Missouri clients.

17. Click OK.

18. Right-click the field and select Toggle Field Codes.

19. Select the following text inside the quotes: This is the text for IL. (Again, do not select the quotes.)

20. Repeat steps 13 through 15.

21. Click in the Filename Or URL box and type the full pathname for the file containing the body of the letter for the Illinois clients.

22. Click OK.

When you right-click the field and toggle the field codes, your rule should look like the one in Figure D, substituting your filenames for each of the letters. When you run the mail merge, Word will print the letter that pertains to the value of the State field in each client record. (If you prefer to enter the field codes entirely from the keyboard, be sure to use Ctrl + F9 to enter the brackets.)

Figure D

Note that you can use the If …Then… Else rule with INCLUDETEXT to print out different letters for any number of values in the field. Simply create a different If…Then…Else rule for each value, with INCLUDETEXT as the first variable and blank (nothing between the quotes) for the second variable.

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

10 things you should do before, during, and after reinstalling Windows

• Date: October 15th, 2008
• Author: Alan Norton

There are some very good reasons why you might want to reinstall Microsoft Windows. Whether it is 2000, XP, or Vista, the registry can become corrupted or it can accumulate settings for programs long-since forgotten, leading to sluggish performance. Or you can find yourself with a stubborn Trojan Horse. The only way to be 100 percent sure that you have rid yourself of some particularly nasty viruses is to reload Windows.

I have wanted to document the steps needed to properly reinstall Windows for a long time now. I always end up missing something after the reload and find myself scrambling to find IDs, passwords, configuration settings, or favorite Web sites lost in the reinstall.

Be sure to set aside a large block of time to do the reinstall. Don’t do it before a term paper is due or your business presentation slide show. A weekend is a good time.

An OS reinstall is also a good time to decide to upgrade. If you want to upgrade to Vista, there are a lot of options available to you. For more information about these options and the pros and cons of Vista, please read Vista Confusion.

This article focuses on Vista but the concepts apply to all versions of Window. This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

When you run the Windows Vista set-up program, you will see a window with two options: Update and Custom (Advanced). The Update option is not available when reinstalling Windows Vista. Under the Custom option, you will be doing what is known as a Clean Install. Follow these 10 steps and you will, hopefully, not find yourself having to scramble for files or information that you need after the reinstall.

Please Note: I have gone to great care to test and retest this documentation. It is still possible that there are errors or missing information or that I have not covered your specific reinstallation configuration. Please provide feedback in the forum if you find any issues.

Before reinstallation

1. Document your login IDs, passwords, and settings.

If you are using your browser to store the passwords for Web sites, you will be in for a rude awakening after reinstalling Windows — they will be gone. Your browser is a poor place to keep your Web site IDs and passwords.

One possible option is to store your information in a spreadsheet. However, if you keep your IDs and passwords in a password-protected Excel or OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet, be aware that there are programs that can recover/discover the password for most .xls files. I suggest you use stronger encryption techniques to better protect Excel 2002, 2003, and 2007 spreadsheets.

If you do have Excel 2002 or later, secure your spreadsheet from hackers and then make sure you don’t lose your password! Next, add your IDs and passwords. Create a row in your spreadsheet for your ISP, e-mail, Web hosting company, personal Web sites, and any other password-protected logins. This file is also a good place to keep your e-mail POP3, SMTP, and newsserver name.

If you don’t have Excel you can keep the IDs and passwords on a piece of paper securely locked away in a safe place or you can choose one of the software alternatives available. RoboForm is a popular way to secure your browser login user name and password but is not freeware. GuardID Systems offers a product called ID Vault that is supposed to be a secure way to store your IDs and passwords — for a small price. Do not keep your IDs and passwords in a Notepad or Word document unsecured and “in the clear,” readable by anyone with access to your computer or to a hacker.

2. Export your e-mail and address book, bookmarks/favorites, and cookies.

You can export your e-mail and contacts from Outlook Express, Outlook, MS Mail, and most third-party e-mail programs. I have a folder called Mail Exports under my Archive folder where I export my e-mail. You can export from the various mailboxes. Select the Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, and Drafts. Unless you have a special reason otherwise, you can exclude the Deleted and Junk mail boxes.

I don’t bother exporting my contacts. If I need a contact, I pull it up from an archived e-mail. You might want to export your contacts though, especially if you have a large number.

I used to always forget about bookmarks for my favorite Web sites. I had to spend time searching for a favorite site after Windows was reinstalled. I made a promise that I would export my IE Favorites and Firefox Bookmarks the next time I did a Windows reinstall. You can also export feeds and cookies.

3. Download the latest applications and drivers.

There is a core set of applications that you know you will be using. One good way to identify these core apps is to take a look at your desktop and Start menu. You can save an image of your desktop to a non-system folder and use that as a guide to reinstalling your core apps. You can also look at your installed programs in Programs and Features located in the Control Panel.

I have a logical drive named Documents and on that drive a folder called Downloads. I keep all my apps and drivers downloaded from the Internet there. These add up in a hurry. To keep it organized, I have a lot of subfolders including one for Apps and one for Drivers.

Once you have a list of your core apps, download the latest versions from the Internet and save them to your \Downloads\Apps folder or a non-system folder of your choice.

Some of your core apps may be on DVD, CD, or even floppy. Pull out your media and set it in a stack ready for reinstallation later.

Download the latest version of your favorite anti-virus software. I like Alwil Software’s Avast! The free home version includes real-time protection for e-mail, instant message, Web browser, Outlook Exchange, and four other types of real-time protection. If you can, download a file containing the latest virus definitions.

How do you know what drivers you will need? There are two basic types of drivers. I separate them here because updating them is usually handled differently:

Motherboard Specific Drivers - Auto Update

• System and Chipset (usually Intel)
• Onboard Sound
• Onboard Video (some motherboards)
• Onboard LAN

Many motherboard manufactures and computer vendors have an application that will check all the motherboard-related drivers to see if they are current. If your manufacturer or vendor provides this type of application, go to their Web site and download the latest version now.

If you don’t have access to an update utility, you have to manually identify the motherboard-related drivers that you will need:

Other drivers - Manual Update

• Sound Card (if your computer has a sound card)
• Video Card (if your computer has a video card)
• Modem
• RAID (Intel Matrix RAID, JMicron RAID, or other if you have a RAID-controller card)
• Other Unique Devices

If you do not already know the type of video card, sound card, modem, RAID, or other unique devices in your system, you can identify them by opening the Device Manager (Figure A).

Figure A

The expanded items in the Device Manager show the devices installed on my computer requiring a manual driver download and install.

If you aren’t running RAID, you should not need to identify any Storage controllers. If you are running RAID, you will need to have the driver file available on a floppy disk or CD if installing XP or previous versions of Windows. You also need to know the exact driver/controller name — Intel 82801 GR/GH SATA RAID for my system. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista recognizes your hard drives during setup and you can get your RAID drivers from there.

I don’t have a sound card in my system, but if you do, expand the Sound, video and game controllers item to determine the sound card installed in your computer.

Mike Smith has put together a handy Windows Reinstall Checklist (PDF) that you might want to print and use.

After identifying the drivers you need to install, download them and save them to a non-system logical drive. Do not pull them from old floppies or CDs unless you are sure that new drivers are not available.

4. Housecleaning and backing up your data.

Now is the time to clean up your hard drive by deleting unneeded or unwanted files. Cleaning up years of accumulated files that you no longer need or want is no fun. If you want to make it less of a chore, you can start a week or more in advance of the reinstall. Spend one or two hours each day deleting the files you are sure that you want to send to the great bit-bucket in the sky.

This is also an excellent time to do a thorough anti-virus scan of all your drives. You don’t want to back up infected files.

Then do a full backup, which is easy for me to say, right? You can spend hours doing a full backup, but this is a good investment of your time. Back up anything that you don’t want to lose. It is especially important if you are one of the unfortunate ones without a Windows OEM disc or a vendor reinstall disc. Many computer vendors put the Windows setup and installation files on a separate partition or folder on the hard drive. If you have a vendor built computer, Windows Reinstall - OEM Computers is a must-read.

If you will be reinstalling Vista on a different partition, you will need almost 15GB of free space minimum on a logical drive/partition to load Vista. I like to create a partition of 30-40GB for the 32-bit version of Vista and 40-50GB for the 64 bit version. Do a full format of the logical drive/partition that will be your new system partition so that you will have a clean Vista-ready partition.

Warning! If you will be dual booting using XP and Vista, do not use XP to create the partition that you will install Vista on. For a very helpful guide to issues dual booting XP and Vista please read Dual Booting Windows Vista & Windows XP by Bert Kinney.

5. Service packs

As of October 2008, the latest service packs are SP3 for XP and SP1 for Vista. There are five ways to retrieve and install the latest service packs. Some of these methods reduce or eliminate your risk to security vulnerabilities. Some are alternative methods you can use if you are having problems installing the service pack from Windows Update. If you are not concerned about either of these two issues, you can skip this section entirely and move on to item 6.

There are five ways to get the latest Windows service pack:

• Download it via Windows Update
• Download it from the Microsoft Web site
• Order it on CD/DVD disc
• Order the latest copy of Windows that includes the latest service pack (should be noted in the product description)
• Install Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or the System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) if available and if the computer is networked on a local Intranet

The update is much smaller when done through the Update utility found in the Control Panel. I planned to recommend that it is best to download the latest service pack and install it manually. Doing this would install important security updates in the service pack before connecting to the Internet. After a request for information from Microsoft I received the following response as to why that is not recommended:

“Microsoft strongly recommends using Windows Update to download and install Windows Vista SP1 on single PCs.

If a customer prefers to install Windows Vista SP1 from a DVD and has Internet access, they should first visit Windows Update and install all recommended and optional drivers and updates (the SP1 DVDs will have this advice on their packaging). To order Windows Vista SP1 on DVD, which costs $3.50 for shipping and handling, customers may visit the SP1 order page.

Customers should know that the install program on the DVD does not include the same logic that Windows Update uses to check for device drivers prior to SP1 installation. To make this change, the installer would need to be substantially modified, which would take a significant amount of time. Additionally, one of the benefits of Windows Update is that it can dynamically add or remove filtered devices over time, as is necessary. If the DVD were to ship with the set of filters included, they could not be added or modified as the driver landscape changed over time.

We also want customers to know that if they have any problems during or after installing SP1, they can call Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) free of charge with questions or for help.”

Note the emphasis added. Both options require connecting to the Internet before installing SP1.

I spoke with a Microsoft technician specializing in Windows Update. He informed me that there are two primary reasons why you might want to manually install SP1. I added reason three as my reason for a manual install.

1. You cannot download SP1 from Windows Update or it will not install properly.
2. During high demand times SP1 may not be available to some users for up to a week or possibly longer due to a limitation placed on the number of downloads.
3. You want the security updates included in SP1 installed before connecting to the Internet.

The technical representative understood why I might want to install SP1 so that my system would be more secure before connecting to the Internet. He said it was possible to do this. However, SP1 does not include all the security patches since its release, even if you download it today. You will still have to start Windows Update to get these security updates.

In case you were wondering, SP1 installs 23 important security updates and 551 hot fixes, and some of those security updates are cumulative. If you want a closer look at the details, you can review Hotfixes and Security Updates Included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

The service packs for Vista are large — 434.5 MB for the 32-bit version and 726.5 MB for the 64-bit version. If you are still using dial-up you might be able to download the 32-bit version, but it would be easier to have a friend with broadband download the 64-bit version for you. Read the knowledge base article KB936330 carefully before installing the service pack.

I downloaded the Vista 64 bit SP1, and it took approximately 42 hours over four days. Oh the sacrifices I make for you, my patient reader! Use a download manager if you want to download the Vista service pack. I don’t recommend you do this over dial-up. At $3.50, just order the SP1 CD or DVD.

During reinstallation

6. Load Windows.

Tip: When installing Vista in Windows, the installer takes over the entire screen. But you can still have access to Windows and features like Disk Manager by clicking on the [Windows] key. I have not had problems doing this when stuck and needed information or wanted to delete files on the target partition or format the target partition, but it might be dangerous to do while the installer is busy.

Don’t forget to have your product key handy. If you have a RAID setup you will need to load the RAID drivers (be sure to get the right driver — 32 bit or 64 bit) and know the RAID controller name. For more information about installing Windows on a RAID system see Want Speed and Data Safety? Consider RAID. Rarely, you may have to have drivers for a device where Windows will be installed. As an example, some older motherboards require that you load SATA drivers in order to recognize SATA drives.

Perhaps the best way to reinstall Windows is the simple and straightforward “insert Windows disc into optical drive, format target partition and install to target partition” method. You should, if you can, start with a nice clean partition to install Windows on.

You can reinstall Vista from within your current Vista installation in addition to the traditional CD/DVD bootup install. If reinstalling from within Windows, connect to the Internet so the installer can check online for the latest installer updates.

You can replace your existing installation, even from within the existing installation, or you can load Windows onto a different partition that you prepared in item four. If you do reinstall Windows in a different partition, the original installation must be removed per the EULA. You cannot format the target partition if it is the same as the one with the current Windows installation.

Starting with Vista, the system boot files and boot manager are located in a folder called Boot. Gone is boot.ini, and replacing it is something called a Boot Configuration Data store(BCD). If you are running a dual-boot system the Boot folder may not be located on logical drive C:\. The boot files are system files and will be hidden unless you have unchecked Hide protected operating system files when configuring Explorer. If you want to load Windows onto a different logical drive, be careful that you do not delete the Boot folder when removing the original Windows installation. You also do not want to format the logical drive where the Boot folder is located.

Tip: Microsoft includes a comprehensive help file called Installing Windows. It is a good idea to read this before reinstalling Windows.

After reinstallation

7. Reconfigure personal settings.

I have a routine that I follow — one that I developed over the years. Personal settings are, well personal. I have a list of my personal settings that I like to make immediately upon Windows startup. I offer these changes as suggestions and not recommendations.

Read How to Personalize Windows Vista for a step-by-step how-to guide or click on the specific topic below:

• Gadgets
• Display resolution
• Desktop background
• Power settings
• Explorer settings
• Cookies handling
• Defrag schedule
• Indexing options
• Desktop shortcuts

For those of you who are Vista experts, you might notice that there is something conspicuously missing from my list. I do not recommend changing the default settings that leave User Account Control (UAC) turned on, but this is how to turn it off if you must.

If the Windows personalization aren’t enough for you, there is a freeware version of TweakVI for Vista. You can easily spend the better part of a day going through all the tweaks available, and some of them are even useful. If you have kids and they have a computer, there are some tweaks that are useful for hiding administrative tools that you don’t want them to access. Lo and behold, you can even get your Vista product key plus lots of other detailed information about your system.

You no doubt have a list of your own, many of which have long-since been forgotten that you suddenly remember after reloading Windows. You might want to keep a list of these personalized setting so that you will have it the next time you have to reinstall Windows.

8. Enable previous versions and create a “clean install” restore point.

You will need to enable Previous Versions if you are using this feature in Vista Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise for a specific logical drive or folder. If you aren’t using Previous Versions, you should be, especially if you are a programmer. For information about how to turn this feature on in Vista, see Previous Versions in Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise in the #2 Give examples section.

I always like to immediately create a restore point once Windows is installed and personalized. You can create a restore point in the same Window that Previous Versions is enabled.

Warning! If you are dual booting XP or Server 2003 and Vista or Server 2008, XP / Server 2003 will delete the Vista / Server 2008 restore points. If Previous Versions is enabled, the shadow copies of your files will also be gone. There is no simple solution for this. Be sure that Vista is installed properly before booting into XP in case you need to use a system restore point.

XP users with SP1 or greater and Server 2003 users need not feel left out. They have a similar feature called Shadow Copies.

9. Configure network, install service packs, patches, and security updates.

There are other security updates and patches that may be required. For example, I had a Micron Millenium PC that had an atapi.sys patch that had to be installed immediately after installing Windows.

Install all security updates, patches, and fixes before connecting to the Internet.

How you install SP1, your modem drivers, anti-virus, malware, firewall etc. (items 9.a - 9.e below) depends on which method you choose. Please use the instructions column of Table A to get the right order for the method you have chosen. If you skipped item 5, use the instructions for method one.

Table A — The Five Vista SP1 Installation Methods

Method	Instructions	Notes
Method One Windows Update	9.a Install anti-virus, anti-virus definitions, malware 9.b Install modem drivers and set up network connection 9.c Run Windows Update 9.e Create Restore Point	The Windows Update installer will have to download files to update itself, and then it will have to restart.
Method Two Firewall Application Blocking Windows Update	9.a Install anti-virus, anti-virus definitions, malware, and firewall9.b Install modem drivers and set up network connection 9.c Run Windows Update 9.e Create Restore Point	Comodo Firewall ProThe Windows Update installer will have to download files to update itself, and then it will have to restart.
Method Three Windows Update Manual Install	9.a Install anti-virus, anti-virus definitions, malware9.b Install modem drivers and set up network connection 9.c Run Windows Update 9.d Install SP1 manually 9.e Create Restore Point	The Windows Update installer will have to download files to update itself, and then it will have to restart.
Method Four Manual Install Windows Update	9.d Install SP1 manually9.e Create Restore Point 9.a Install anti-virus, anti-virus definitions, malware 9.b Install modem drivers and set up network connection 9.c Run Windows Update
Method Five (Stand-alone) Manual Install	9.d Install SP1 manually9.e Create Restore Point

9.a Install anti-virus, malware, and firewall (optional)

Install your anti-virus, spyware, and adware. Restart the computer if prompted before connecting to the Internet. Don’t forget to configure the anti-virus app to set the scan sensitivity. Set it to High or maximum for a thorough scan and set the real-time protection to High. If you have a file containing virus definitions, load these now.

If you have a third-party firewall you want to use instead of Windows Firewall, install it now.

9.b Setup and configure network connection.

Install your modem/network drivers. Create and configure your network connection(s).

9.c Run Window Update to scan for new drivers and updates.

Next, connect to the Internet and use Windows Update to scan for drivers and updates. Use Windows Server Update Services or the System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) if available and if the computer is networked on a local Intranet. The discussion below is centered on those using Windows Update.

It had been so long since I started Windows Update manually that I had completely forgotten about its strange behavior. The Windows Update Window will show that it is looking for updates, and then it will close. It took me awhile to remember that although it appears that Windows Update has died a look at the notification icons on the taskbar shows that Windows Update is busy downloading updates (Figure B).

Figure B

Task Manager shows Windows Update process wuaudt.exe running.

When I ran Windows Update after installing SP1, there were 28 important updates (Figure C) and thirteen of those were security updates (Figure D). I asked if there was a way to get the security updates created after SP1 in a downloadable cumulative security update file and was told that they are available only via Windows Update.

Figure C

Windows Update Window shows 28 important updates, totaling 159.4 MB after manually installing Vista SP1.

Figure D

Clicking View Available Updates reveals the 28 important updates since the release of SP1 — already marked for update.

9.d Install SP1 manually (optional).

Install the service pack from either a disc or a file. A manual install of Vista SP1 (Figure E) requires about 7GB of free space for the 32-bit version and 13GB for the 64-bit version.

Figure E

These updates are installed after manually installing Vista SP1.

9.e Create a new Restore Point.

After SP1 is successfully loaded, I immediately create another restore point manually and call it Clean Install with SP1 or a similar identifiable name. I do this before installing any drivers and apps. I know I will be installing a lot of drivers and apps and some of those, like video card drivers and apps, may be problematic. If I begin to have problems after loading numerous apps and drivers, it is nice to be able to go back to the Clean Install with SP1 point and restart loading the apps and drivers.

Please read Remove All Remnants of the Windows Vista SP1 Installation by Greg Shultz for instructions about how you can recover disk space gobbled up by the SP1 installer.

10. Reload your drivers and apps.

One thing is almost certain now that Windows has been reinstalled — some of the generic drivers that Windows has installed are not optimal. If you are lucky enough to have an auto-update utility from your motherboard manufacturer, install the latest version that you downloaded earlier, connect to the Internet, and fire up the update app.

Do NOT update the BIOS. This option may be available in your motherboard update app and it may be called a BIOS update, but it is more commonly known as a BIOS flash. A BIOS flash is not a driver update. You also want to avoid any option labeled Update All.

Next, pull out your list of drivers requiring manual installation and install them now.

I keep my apps on a separate logical drive labeled Vista x64 Apps. It is a good idea to now go to the logical drive/folder where you keep your app files and wipe it clean. This is the fastest way to clean out the deadwood files that you will never use again. If you have all your apps on one logical drive and nothing else is stored there, it is best to format the logical drive before reloading your apps. Some programs like your newsreader usually store information like group messages on this logical drive. Export this information to your \Archive folder if you don’t want to lose it before formatting the logical drive.

If you are running Intel’s Matrix RAID, install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

It is finally time to reload all your applications. Take a peek at the desktop JPEG you created earlier or use a list of your core apps to determine what apps you want to install. Install to a fully formatted non-system logical drive.

There are two basic strategies when reloading your apps. You can reload the apps you use the most and load additional apps when needed or load a full list of apps up front. I prefer to load the core apps and load additional apps only when needed.

Take it from experience — it is not a good idea to load a lot of apps requiring a system restart and postpone the restart. Install a few at a time, restart the computer, and see if all is still well. If you do find a problem, you can return to the last known good restore point or uninstall the offending app. If you find no problems, consider manually creating a new restore point.

Don’t forget to reload your e-mail messages, e-mail contacts, browser favorites, and other data that you exported earlier back into your newly reloaded apps.

The final word

Even a casual glance at this list reveals that loading Windows is the easy part of your reinstall project. The prep work and configuration will occupy most of your time; plan the actual date and time of the install accordingly.

There is one more final bit of housekeeping to do. If you reinstalled Windows in a folder with an existing installation of Windows, you should decide what to do with the Windows.old folder. You will not find this folder if there was insufficient space on your system partition during the Windows setup.

If you are reinstalling Vista, the Windows.old folder will be too large for a single-layer DVD but may fit on a dual-layer DVD. You can archive it to a backup drive, or if you have followed the steps carefully in this article and are satisfied that you have all your Windows-specific data, simply zap it into oblivion.

Congratulations! By completing the 10 steps outlined here, you have prepared your computer for years of maintenance-free service. You have also protected yourself from data loss due to a hard drive failure.

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

10 quick tips to make Linux networking easier

• Author: Jack Wallen

Linux makes networking simple and secure — if you know a few tricks. Jack Wallen shares some pointers to help admins knock out various Linux networking tasks with a minimum of effort.

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Networking is a must-have on all levels of computing. Be it home or corporate, networking is the one aspect of computing that is, without a shadow of a doubt, a deal breaker. And with some help, the Linux operating system can be the king of networking, in both ease of use and security. But that doesn’t mean the average (and sometimes even the above-average) user can’t use some help. These tips should help make Linux networking go a little more smoothly.

#1: Make use of your /etc/hosts file

The hosts file is used for static host names and offers a quick way to create networking shortcuts. One of the first things I do on a Linux machine is add various machines to the /etc/hosts file. This saves me from having to type a lot of IP addresses. The format of an address for this file is:

IP_ADDRESS NICKNAME

For example, if I use one machine for a backup location at IP address 192.168.1.101, I could enter:

192.168.1.101 backups

Now if I have to connect to that machine, say with secure shell, I can just type ssh -v -l username backups to make the connection.

#2: Keep out unwanted users with /etc/hosts.deny

Yet another helpful “hosts” file is the hosts.deny file. This file allows you to create access control based on client or server names. This is helpful in many ways. You can block blacklist domains from gaining access to your network or you can block certain users from gaining access to certain machines. But no matter how you use it, the format is the same.

Let’s say you want to block the domain bad.domain.name from gaining access to a machine. To do this, open up the /etc/hosts.deny file (you will need either root or sudo privileges) and add this to the bottom of the file:

ALL: bad.domain.name

Save it and you’re good to go.

#3: Let WICD handle your wireless woes

I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself banging my head against a server rack. For the longest time Linux and wireless networking were simply not good bedfellows. But that is quickly becoming a thing of the past. With modern distributions, wireless card detection has become a no-brainer. The issue now is encryption.

Many of the Linux wireless tools have trouble when any encryption is involved. But the WICD tool takes care of this. Now, connecting to WPA or WPA2 encrypted wireless networks is simple. Add to that the amazingly easy GUI employed by WICD and you can check one nasty headache off your list.

#4: Download and install a front end for iptables

You can’t assume that just because you are using Linux, you are secure. You still need some security. And the best security you can have with Linux is iptables. The only problem with iptables is that it can be challenging (especially for the new user). Fortunately, there are outstanding graphical front ends for iptables. One of the best is Firestarter. This front end makes employing iptables a simple process, so you won’t keep bypassing security out of fear of the learning curve.

#5: Get to know the command-line tools

Let’s face it: If you’re running Linux, there might be an instance where you will need to restart your network and you won’t have access to the GUI. In this particular case, knowing that /etc/rc.d/network restart will do the trick will solve your problem. Of course, that’s not the only networking command-line tool. You’ll also want to know tools like dhclient, traceroute, samba, ping, and netstat.

#6: Hard-code your DNS server addresses

I don’t know how many times I have had networking problems that pointed directly at missing DNS server addresses. To this end, I have made it habit to hard-code my DNS servers into the /etc/resolv.conf file. The format of the entries is:

nameserver IP_ADDRESS

where IP_ADDRESS is the actual address of your name server. You can have as many name servers listed as you need.

#7: Install ClamAV

If you run a mail server, an antivirus is essential. Even though you are running Linux and you know your mail server is immune to 99.9999999% of the viruses in the wild, that doesn’t mean all those clients that download mail from your server are immune. With this in mind, you will make your administrating life far easier if you install an antivirus like ClamAV onto your Linux mail server. It will give you peace of mind and enough security to ensure that your users most likely won’t come knocking at your office door demanding retribution.

#8: Know how to configure an IP address manually

Yes, there are GUI tools for this. And yes, they all work very well. But as you will eventually find if you administer any operating system long enough, it’s never bad to have backup tools to help you do your job. And one of the best backup tools for Linux networking is the ifconfig command. Not only will this command return to you (with no arguments) your network card information, it will also allow you to configure your network card manually. This is done like so:

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255

Of course, you will want to plug in your particular information as it applies to the above.

#9: Get to know your /etc/interfaces (Ubuntu) or /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts (Red Hat/Fedora) file(s)

This file (or files) is where the information for each network interface is stored. The format for this file is:

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1

iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth2

iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0

iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

As you can see above, all of my interfaces are set up for dhcp. This is my laptop, which goes with me everywhere, so dhcp is a necessity. But what if I use the wired interface in only one location? For that, I can hard-code the information here under the eth0 interface like so (for Ubuntu):

iface eth0 inet static

       address 192.168.1.10

       netmask 255.255.255.0

       broadcast 192.168.1.255

       network 192.168.1.104

       gateway 192.168.1.1

Or like so (For Red Hat/Fedora):

DEVICE=eth0

BOOTPROTO=static

BROADCAST=192.168.1.255

IPADDR=192.168.1.10

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

NETWORK=192.168.1.104.0

ONBOOT=yes

Again, you would plug in all the information suited to your network and your device.

#10: Don’t forget smbpasswd when setting up Samba

Nearly every time clients come to me with Samba issues, the problem is that they haven’t added the user and a password with smbpasswd. Without doing this, the user will not be able to authenticate to the Samba server. And when using smbpasswd to add a new user, you have to add the “-a” switch like so:

smbpasswd -a USERNAME

After you hit Enter, you will be asked for the users’ password (twice). NOTE: You must have root access (or sudo) to pull this off.

These 10 quick tips should help make various aspects of Linux networking easier. You never know when you’ll wind up having to rely on the command line or you’ll need to enlist the help of a graphical front end for iptables. Now, if you do, you should be good to go.

By:

Amresh Anjan

Create a title style in Word to save time and mouse clicks

• Author: Mary Ann Richardson

It’s easy to define a custom style for your document titles — and it will greatly simplify the task of formatting title text. Mary Ann Richardson explains how to do it.

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Are you finding that after you type and format a title or heading and press Enter, you need to manually change the paragraph text back to the Normal style? You can save a lot of time by creating a custom heading or title style that does all the work for you. Follow these steps to create a custom Title style:

1. Open a blank document and type Title.
2. Select Title and click the Bold and Center buttons on the Formatting toolbar or Home tab.
3. Change the font to 22 points.
4. Click anywhere in your title text.
5. Go to View | Task Pane, click the arrow in the New Document box, and select Styles And Formatting. In Word 2007, click the Styles dialog launcher in the Styles group of the Home tab.
6. Click the New Style button in the Task Pane. Figure A shows the New Styles button in Word.)

Figure A

7. Click in the Name box and enter My Title.
8. Select Normal from the Style For Following Paragraph drop-down list.
9. If you want this style available to all documents you work with, select the Add To Template check box. In Word 2007, click the New Documents Based On This Template button (Figure B).

Figure B

10. Click OK.

The My Title style should appear in your Task Pane. Now when you type your title text, click My Title in the Styles Task pane. Word automatically formats the title text for you. When you press Enter to begin typing the next paragraph, Word will automatically switch back to the Normal style. You can use the same procedure for creating custom headings that save keystrokes.

By:

Amresh Anjan

Import and convert Web text to columns in an Excel worksheet

• Author: Mary Ann Richardson

options, you can bring Web table data into a worksheet in a format you can use. This example walks through the process.

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Excel makes it easy to extract table data from a Web page — but to be of use in a worksheet, you will need to convert the text tables into columns. For example, say you need to chart U.S. GDP data from 2002 through 2006. First, you would use a Web query to import the data from the Web. Then, you’d extract the data into two separate columns. Follow these steps:

1. Open a blank worksheet.
2. Go to Data | Import External Data and then click New Web Query. In Excel 2007, click the Data tab, click Get External Data, and then click From Web.
3. Enter the Web page URL http://forecasts.org/data/index.htm (Figure A).

Figure A

4. Scroll to Gross Domestic Product.
5. Click the arrow next to the Gross National Product Table. (If there are no arrows next to tables on the page, click Show Icons twice at the top of the dialog box to display them.)
6. Click the Import button (Figure B).

Figure B

7. Click Existing Worksheet, if necessary.
8. Click the cell on the worksheet where you want the upper-left corner of the Web data to appear and click OK.
9. Select the data cells containing the text you want to convert.
10. Go to Data | Text To Columns. (In Excel 2007, click Text To Column in the Data Tools Group on the Data tab.)
11. Select Delimited (Figure C).

Figure C

11. Click Next.
12. Click to select the Space check box under Delimiters (Figure D).

Figure D

13. Click Next.
14. Click Finish.

The data from the Web is now ready to chart (Figure E).

Figure E

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By:

Amre Anjan

10+ legal terms you should know if your company is involved in a lawsuit

• Author: Calvin Sun

If your company gets caught up in a lawsuit, you’ll probably need to work with lawyers — even if the matter doesn’t involve something IT did or failed to do. Here are 10 legal concepts that are likely to come into play.

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Let’s face it: We live in a society that loves to sue. Because much evidence is created or stored on computers, lawsuits involving companies invariably require work by its IT staff. I understand that most of you are IT pros, not lawyers. However, if your company becomes involved in a lawsuit, chances are you will have to work with lawyers, even if the matter doesn’t involve something you personally did or failed to do. Below are 10 terms that you might encounter during that process, along with their meanings.

To help put these terms in the proper context, let’s say that as part of a “reduction in force” initiative at your company, Stan, a manager there, laid off John, one of his employees. Convinced that his layoff was unlawful, John now has retained an attorney and has filed a suit against the company.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Discovery (electronic discovery, e-discovery)

Discovery is the process by which parties to a lawsuit (i.e., the sides in conflict) show each other the evidence they have and identify the witnesses they’re going to call. You know how, when playing poker, everyone lays down their cards after they’re all finished with their bets? The same principle applies with discovery, except it occurs at the beginning rather than at the end. In other words, that stuff you see in the movies or on television about the “surprise witness” is a total myth.

In our example, John might be seeking copies of his performance reviews, e-mail messages between managers in your company (including Stan) that discussed him, and other information. Because much of this information exists in electronic form, the discovery process is also called “electronic discovery” or “e-discovery.”

#2: Litigation hold

Most companies have a policy regarding retention and destruction of documents. Their IT departments have policies and practices regarding how often they back up computer data and the amount of time before backup tapes are reused, thus destroying data already on that tape.

A litigation hold is a notice to the company that these normal policies should be suspended because litigation is reasonably expected. Continuing our earlier example, suppose a backup tape contained an e-mail from Stan to the director of human resources, and it discussed John’s firing. Suppose that the tape was scheduled to be recycled, thereby erasing that e-mail. The attorney for your company might issue a litigation hold specifying that that particular tape be set aside and kept separate from the normal backup cycle.

A major objective of a litigation hold is to prevent spoliation (see below).

#3: Spoliation

What did we say when we were in grade school about why we didn’t have our homework? “The dog ate it.”

Spoliation refers to the loss of or damage to information that was requested via discovery or that was subject to a hold. Suppose John has asked for particular electronic document. However, for whatever reason, that document can’t be produced, even though everyone knows it existed at one time. As you can imagine, the judge and John will be upset if you tell them that spoliation has occurred. If the spoliation was done in bad faith (that is, a party destroyed evidence despite knowing it wasn’t supposed to), a judge could take even more severe measures, such as imposing sanctions (see below).

#4: Sanction

A sanction is an action that a judge takes (such as imposition of a fine) to punish a side that fails to comply with that judge’s orders. During the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Judge Lance Ito issued a sanction against prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, and immediately afterward, both of them were seen opening their checkbooks and writing checks payable to the court.

Another sanction is the “adverse inference instruction,” which a judge can give to a jury in certain cases where spoliation has occurred. In such an instruction, the judge tells the jury that it may infer that that evidence did exist, and that it can make decisions based on such an inference. This type of instruction is adverse to one side because it goes against that side’s interests.

Suppose that in the earlier example, Stan kept a diary as a Word document, and it contained an entry that said, “Great! I can use the reduction in force as an excuse to get rid of John next week. I know it’s illegal to do so, but I want to fire John because I don’t like his kind.” Stan then learns of the litigation hold but successfully deletes the diary before John’s attorney can get it. Suppose further that there are no backups and no way to recover the diary electronically — in other words, there’s no “smoking gun.”

Even under these circumstances, John might be able to establish the existence of the diary, using legal rules and principles. For example, John’s former co-worker or a peer of Stan’s could testify that he or she saw the diary entry (and such testimony is admissible because the diary itself is no longer in existence). They could also testify that Stan talked to them about this diary entry. Because such a statement is an “admission by a party-opponent,” it is considered by definition to be “not hearsay” — an important factor because hearsay generally is inadmissible.

John also could introduce e-mail or other documents that referred to this diary — for example, an e-mail from the human resources director to Stan that said, “Don’t delete that diary entry in which you wrote you were going to fire John.” Under these circumstances, if the judge believed the testimony and evidence, and if the judge also believed the spoliation of the diary occurred in bad faith, he or she could give the jury an instruction such as the following:

Even though you never saw the diary, you can infer that it did exist, and you can infer that it said that Stan knew that firing John was unlawful.

Having the jury receive an adverse inference instruction like this one would be the proverbial kiss of death for the company. In this case, the company often will simply settle, rather than have the jury actually proceed to deliberations with such an instruction. To use an analogy from sports: if I commit goaltending while playing basketball, the referee will call it and give the other side the points they would have scored had I not been goaltending.

#5: Attorney-client privilege

Under certain conditions, communications between an attorney and the attorney’s client are privileged. Those conditions are the following: There actually must be communications, the communications must be made for purpose of giving or receiving legal advice, and the communications must have been intended to be confidential and must in fact have been kept confidential. If those conditions exist with regard to the communication, a court can’t compel its disclosure, meaning that the opposing party is not entitled to see it.

Suppose that prior to writing his diary entry, Stan sent an e-mail to the company attorney (and no one else) to ask whether this entry was a good idea. Suppose the attorney responded to Stan that this diary entry, from a legal standpoint, was a horrible idea. Under these conditions, the two e-mails are probably privileged.

If you are responding to a discovery request, be sure to consult with the attorneys for your company as you are doing so. The last thing you want to do is send privileged material to the other side.

#6: Clawback

Sometimes, privileged communications do unintentionally get sent to the other side. One way of addressing this issue is for the parties and their attorneys to enter into a clawback agreement. The parties agree that if one discloses information inadvertently, the other will return or destroy the information and provide verification of the latter. In addition, the receiving party agrees that the disclosure does not constitute a waiver of attorney client privilege.

Consider the e-mail example from the previous section, in which Stan and the company attorney exchange messages regarding the diary. Suppose that even though these two e-mails are privileged, the company inadvertently sent those e-mails to John as part of his discovery request. If a clawback agreement existed between John and the company, John would need to return the e-mails.

Even though you might have such an agreement, you still need to be careful about what you send to the other side. In other words, don’t say to yourself, “Well, if we mess up, it’s no big deal, because we can just use the clawback to get it back.” A judge might rule that because you were careless in what you sent, the clawback doesn’t apply.

#7: Electronically stored information (ESI)

Electronically stored information (ESI) exists within a computer or on storage media associated with a computer (e.g., a CD, DVD or a jump drive). It is distinguished from hardcopy information, that is, information that appears on paper.

Be aware that ESI can exist in at least two forms: native format and image format. The key difference lies in the underlying information about the document, known as “metadata” (see below).

#8: Metadata

Metadata are “data about data,” such as details about when a file was created, who created it, and when the last modification was made. In the case of an Excel spreadsheet, for example, the underlying formula of a cell would constitute metadata. When reviewing files with Windows Explorer, the file properties are also metadata.

#9: Native format

Suppose John has requested a report, as ESI, that was created using Microsoft Word. This document, in native format, would probably be a file with a “.doc” extension, that is, one that a person could modify using Word.

Be careful when sending native format documents to the other side or to the court. Those documents could contain more information than you realize, such as earlier revisions and corrections to a document. Suppose Stan sent a softcopy Word document to the company lawyer regarding the layoff, and the lawyer inserted a comment: “This argument is really weak, but our judge is so stupid he might just believe it.” If the lawyer then sent that document in native format to the judge, and the judge (or his clerk) knew how to view comments and actually saw that comment, it might hurt the company’s case.

#10. Image format

The other alternative for this document would be image format, such as a PDF or TIFF. In this format, the document still could be stored on a computer. However, changes to such a file would be significantly harder to make. In addition, documents in image format generally contain less metadata than documents in native format.

But even in image format, metadata may still exist. As with native format documents, you should be aware of what else you might be sending to the other side. Also, the other side might be dissatisfied with getting files in image format. For example, if you sent them a PDF of a spreadsheet, chances are they would see only the actual numbers, rather than any underlying formulas. They might argue that in this case, you should give them native format rather than image format.

#11: FRCP 34 and the “usual course of business” requirement

Suppose that John’s company used spreadsheets to keep track of employees, and Stan used such a spreadsheet to determine which employees to lay off. Let’s say that this spreadsheet had, for each employee, information about salary, years of service, performance rating, and other data. Furthermore, this spreadsheet contained certain formulas that used this information to produce a ranking of employees. Do you think John would want to see this spreadsheet? Of course. John would want to review the formulas to see whether they made sense and whether they really did justify his layoff.

On the other hand, the company probably would prefer that John not be able to see the formulas. What if the company converted the spreadsheet file to a TIFF file and sent that TIFF instead? Or what if the company printed out the spreadsheet and sent the information as hardcopy? If the company tried either of these methods, John would object, and most likely the court would agree.

Trials in federal courts are governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). One particular rule, Rule 34, governs how ESI is to be “produced” in response to a discovery request. Under this rule, ESI generally must be produced “as they are kept in the usual course of business.” John would cite this rule, arguing that because it’s unlikely the company keeps spreadsheets as hardcopy and TIFF files, he should not have to receive the information that way. Rather, he should be receiving the files in native format.

Understanding these concepts and working closely with your own attorneys is essential when dealing with electronic discovery.

Quickly copy a column and row in Word table

• Blogger: Susan Harkins

Word tables are great tools for listing and comparing values. I use them a lot because they’re so easy to create and manipulate. In addition, I’m always learning new tricks to use with them. For instance, I recently learned that you can copy an entire row or column to create a new row or column, already filled with values. Now, you’ll seldom want to reproduce an entire column or row, but occasionally the data is so similar that it’s quicker to copy all of the values from a row or column and then change a few. Here’s how to copy a column or row in a table:

1. Quickly select the column or row you want to copy. To select a column, move the insertion point to the column’s top border. When it turns into a thick arrow pointing down (to the column), click to select the entire column. To select a row, click in the margin, just to the left of the first cell in the row.
2. Press and hold down the Ctrl key.
3. Click anywhere inside the selected column or row until the insertion point appears.
4. Continue to hold down the Ctrl key and drag the column or row to where you want to insert the new column or row. Usually, that will be just before the existing value in the first cell of the row or column.
5. Release the mouse button.

This technique won’t write over existing data. Instead, it inserts data to create a new column or row.

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

How to keep others from printing an Excel worksheet

Blogger: Susan Harkins

It’s common to share a worksheet with others, but for many reasons you might not want them to print it. Perhaps you’re concerned about data theft or security. Maybe the data is confidential and you don’t want to risk a worksheet lying around on someone’s desk. Whatever your reason, Excel doesn’t offer a built-in feature that inhibits a print request.

The simplest way to inhibit printing of a worksheet is to cancel the print job before it starts using the following macro:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforePrint(Cancel As Boolean)

  Cancel = True

  MsgBox "You can't print this worksheet", vbOKOnly, "Error"

End Sub

If someone tries to print the worksheet by any means, this macro automatically cancels the request. All print options are still visible and available, they just appear not to work. That might be a bit confusing, hence the MsgBox function. A message isn’t strictly necessary, but it certainly is helpful.

To create the macro:

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE).
2. Display the Project Explorer (if necessary) by pressing Ctrl + R.
3. Select This Workbook to launch the worksheet’s module.
4. Enter the macro as shown above.

After entering the macro, return to the worksheet and try to print it. Excel will display the following message:

Depending on your needs, you might also refer the user to a particular person by providing an in-house phone number or e-mail address if they need help. Of course, this won’t stop the truly savvy user from printing the worksheet. Anyone who knows just a little about Excel will know how to bypass a macro, so this isn’t a powerful security measure.

Colorize your Outlook messages to identify e-mail from specific senders

• Author: Susan Harkins

A simple but highly useful way to stay on top of important e-mail is to have Outlook display messages from different people in different colors. Here’s a quick rundown of how to set this up.

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Expecting important mail? Identify it as soon as it comes in by displaying it in a distinctive color. Start by select an existing message from the sender in question, if you have one. If you don’t, that’s okay; you can enter the sender’s name manually in a minute. Now follow these steps:

1. In Mail, choose Organize from the Tools menu.
2. In the Ways To Organize Inbox pane, click Using Colors on the left side (Figure A).

Figure A

3. In the first condition statement (we won’t use the second), choose From in the first drop-down list (Figure B).

Figure B

4. If you chose a message before starting, the sender’s name will appear in the text box to the right. If it’s the wrong name, enter the right name or the person’s e-mail address.
5. Choose a color from the second drop-down list (Figure C).

Figure C

5. Click Apply Color and close the pane.

Afterward, Outlook will display all messages, existing and new, from the person you specified in the color you selected.

Seven keyboard shortcuts to help make your PowerPoint slide shows glitch-free

• Author: Jody Gilbert

You don’t need to get distracted by the mechanics of presenting a slide show. Learn just a few shortcuts and you can focus on your audience and your message instead.

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Remembering keyboard shortcuts is tough enough when you’re working on some no-pressure project at your desk. Get in front of an audience, and your mind may go totally blank. Your focus needs to be on the material you’re presenting and how you’re connecting with your audience — not on ” How do I back up to the previous slide?” That’s why it’s a good idea to pick a handful of the most useful shortcuts and make them second nature. When you find yourself delivering a presentation via the keyboard, these shortcuts will see you through.

Action	Shortcut
Start a presentation from the first slide	F5
Run the next animation or advance to the next slide	Enter or Spacebar
Return to the previous slide	Backspace
End a slide show	Esc or - (hyphen)
Jump to the first (or last) slide	Home (or End)
Jump to a particular slide	Type the slide number and press Enter
Go to a black (or white) screen or resume the slide show from a black (or white) screen	B (or W)

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Create a custom Flags toolbar in Outlook 2003

• Author: Susan Harkins

Outlook 2003’s Quick Flags feature is a handy tool — if you can develop a logical system for using it. One solution: A custom toolbar that makes it easy to flag and organize messages.

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Quick Flags help you categorize your messages, usually by some level of importance or by task. For instance, you might use a red flag to mark messages that need a quick response and a blue flag to mark messages on which you’ve acted and are waiting for a response.The problem with Quick Flags is that there’s no way to customize their descriptions. Outlook identifies them only by color. You can’t change the name of Red Flag to Critical. Remembering what each color represents can become burdensome.

An easy way to remember what each flag represents is to create a custom toolbar that displays each flag with text that means something to you. Fortunately, the process is easy:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. On the Toolbars tab, click New (Figure A).

Figure A

3. Name the new toolbar appropriately — for instance, you might name it Flags, as shown in Figure B — and click OK.

Figure B

4. Still in the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
5. Select Actions from the Categories list box (Figure C).

Figure C

6. Scroll down through the Commands list box to find the flag entries. Then, drag the appropriate flag color buttons onto your custom toolbar. (If you can’t find the toolbar, look behind the dialog box.)
7. After adding all the flags you want, change the text for each flag button. Right-click a flag button on the toolbar and replace the Name setting, e.g., &Red Flag (Figure D), with something more helpful, such as Critical. Select the Image And Text option so that Outlook will display the button’s name on the toolbar (Figure E).

Figure D

Figure E

8. Complete steps 6 and 7 for each flag button in your new toolbar.

Figure F shows an example of the finished toolbar.

Figure F

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Build related tables with the Access 2007 Lookup Wizard

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

The Access 2007 Lookup Wizard makes it easy to create a related table. This walk-through demonstrates how it works.

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You’ve just created an Employee Records table for your Employees database that lists personal information (such as Address, Phone Number, and Birth date) for each employee. Now you need to create a second table that lists each employee’s work location and job title. This new table will use the Employee ID field in the Employee Records table as its foreign key field, a field that refers to the primary key field in another table. Follow these steps to create the related table:

1. Click the Create tab and then click the Table Design button in the Tables group.
2. Enter the Location and Job Title fields as text fields with a Field Size of 20.
3. Switch to Datasheet View.
4. Click Yes.
5. Enter Job Assignments as the table name and click OK.
6. Click No to create a primary key.
7. Display Tables in the Navigation pane.
8. Click the Datasheet tab under Table tools and click the Add Existing Tools button from the Fields & Columns group.

Figure A

9. Click + to display the field names for the Employees table in the Field List.
10. Click and drag the Employee ID field to the left of the Location field in Datasheet View.

Figure B

Figure C

11. Click Next
12. Click Next twice moreand then click Finish.

To add a record, the user selects the Employee ID number from the list and then enters his or her location and job title.

Figure D

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

When Excel’s AVERAGE function doesn’t give true results, try AVERAGEA

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

If your data includes text values, Excel’s AVERAGE function won’t give you an accurate picture. See how AVERAGEA can solve this problem.

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Sometimes, the AVERAGE function does not give a true picture of your data. AVERAGE can only find the average of a range of numerical values; it skips any text values. For example, the results of a monthly mailer for donations to a nonprofit organization are listed below. If you want to know the amount of the average donation that came in, you would use the AVERAGE function, as shown in B20. The results would not include those who received the mailing but did not send a donation.

If you want a better picture of how your donors responded to the mailing, you would use the AVERAGEA function, as shown in B21. AVERAGEA evaluates the text value None as 0 and includes that value in its calculation.

Figure A

Thus, of those who responded to the mailing, the average donation was $145.45. However, if we are to count those who gave $0, the overall average response to the mailing was $106.67.

Figure B

Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Remove your name from the Start menu in Windows XP

Takeaway: You know who you are—and so does your Windows XP system. But if you're the only person using the computer, it's easy to remove your name from the Start menu. In this Windows XP tip, Greg Shultz tells how to use Group Policy to remove your name when you're a group of one.

Windows XP places the name for the person currently logged on to the system at the top of the Start menu. The reason for this is to make it easier to tell which user is logged on to a Windows XP system set up with multiple users. However, if you're the only person using the computer, you don't really need to have your name at the top of the Start menu. You can remove it using the Group Policy console (the Microsoft Management Console snap-in used to edit Group Policy objects).

1. Launch the Group Policy console (Gpedit.msc).
2. Go to User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Start Menu And Taskbar.
3. Locate and double-click the Remove User Name From Start Menu setting.
4. Select the Enabled option button and click OK.
5. Exit the Group Policy console. The change will take place immediately.

Note: This tip applies only to Windows XP Professional.

Handle Windows Vista like a pro with these tricks

• Date: June 4th, 2008
• Author: Greg Shultz

As I’ve been using Microsoft Windows Vista, I’ve discovered a handful of useful tricks that I use every day to make things a bit easier. In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I thought that I would pass on some of these tricks.

Keep track of multiple Time Zones

If you’re like most folks in this day and age, chances are good that you regularly communicate with people or businesses in cities in other time zones. As such, you’re always wondering what time it is where these people or businesses are, so that you know when to call or expect an e-mail response.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could tell at a glance what time it is in those other time zones? Well, that’s the whole idea behind Windows Vista’s Additional Clocks feature, which can display up to three clocks: one for the local time, and two for other time zones.

This blog post is also available in the PDF format as a TechRepublic Download.

Fortunately, using and configuring Vista’s Additional Clocks feature is easy; just right-click the time display in the notification area and select the Adjust Date and Time command from the context menu. When you see the Date and Time dialog box, select the Additional Clocks tab. You can then select the Show This Clock check box, choose a time zone, and enter a name that you want to associate with the additional clock, as shown in Figure A. To activate your new clocks, just click OK.

Figure A

You can keep track of other time zones if you enable additional clocks.

Now, when you want to see what time it is in the other locations, you can just hover your mouse pointer over the time display in the notification area and you’ll see a pop up showing the time in the other time zones. If you click the time display, you’ll see a larger pop up showing you the clocks along with the calendar. Both of these pop ups are shown in Figure B.

Figure B

There are two displays that you can use to view other time zones.

Instantly access Task Manager

As you know, in Windows XP, you can press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] and instantly get to Task Manager. In Windows Vista, that same keystroke combination will blank your display and display a full screen menu from which you can launch Task Manager.

In order to get directly to Task Manager in Windows Vista, you need to press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Esc].

Toggle Aero off and on

As you know, Aero is the fancy visual interface in Windows Vista that features the transparent glass design with cool window colors and neat animations. However, there are times when you may want to disable Aero to improve system responsiveness. For example, some games or other graphics intensive application may perform better with Aero disabled. Fortunately, you can easily do so with a shortcut.

To begin, right-click anywhere on the desktop and select the New | Shortcut command from the context menu. When the Create Shortcut wizard appears, type:

Rundll32 dwmApi #104

in the text box, as shown in Figure C, and click Next. Then, name the shortcut Turn Aero Off and click Finish.

Figure C

Create this shortcut to turn Aero off.

You can then create a second shortcut to re-enable Aero. To do so, launch the Create Shortcut wizard again and this time type:

Rundll32 dwmApi #102

in the text box. Name this shortcut Turn Aero On and click Finish.

Keep in mind that when you turn Aero off, the process will happen without any fanfare. However, when you turn Aero back on, the screen will blink momentarily as Windows readjusts the screen display.

Using Shell command shortcuts

While you can use Explorer, the Control Panel, or the Start menu to access key features in Windows Vista, sometimes a shortcut can be more useful. Hidden underneath the Windows Vista architecture are a whole host of special shortcuts known as Shell commands. To use a Shell command, all you need to is press [Windows]+R to access the Run dialog box and the word shell followed by a colon (:) and then the command as in:

Shell:command

As you can see there are no spaces between the word Shell and the colon and the command — it is essentially one word.

While there are close to 100 Shell commands, not all of them are very useful. As such, I won’t actually list them all. I’ll just list the ones that I find most useful in everyday situations first and then list the other ones that I find occasionally useful.

Keep in mind that not all of these Shell commands will work in all versions of Windows Vista.

Most useful Shell commands

• shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder - opens the Programs and Features (Add/Remove Programs) window.
• shell:Sendto - opens the SendTo folder so that you can easily add more locations to the Send To list.
• shell:Common Administrative Tools - opens the Administrative Tools menu as a folder
• shell:Desktop - opens the Desktop as a folder.
• shell:Downloads - opens your Downloads folder.
• shell:Quick Launch - opens the Quick Launch folder.
• shell:Searches - opens the Search folder showing all your saved searches.

The other useful Shell commands

• shell:AppUpdatesFolder - opens the Installed Windows Updates location in Program and Files.
• shell:Cache - opens Internet Explorer’s temporary internet files folder.
• shell:CD Burning - opens the folder where Windows Vista temporarily stores files to be burned to a CD.
• shell:Common Desktop - opens the Public Users Desktop folder.
• shell:Common Documents - opens the Public Users Documents folder.
• shell:Common Programs - opens the Start menu shortcuts folder.
• shell:Common Start Menu - opens the Start Menu as a folder.
• shell:Common Startup - opens the Startup folder.
• shell:Common Templates - opens the Templates folder.
• shell:CommonDownloads - opens the Public Users Downloads folder.
• shell:CommonMusic - opens the Public Users Music folder.
• shell:CommonPictures - opens the Public Users Pictures folder.
• shell:CommonVideo - opens the Public Users Video folder.
• shell:ConflictFolder - opens the Sync Center Conflicts folder.
• shell:ConnectionsFolder - opens the Network Connections folder.
• shell:Contacts - opens your Contacts folder.
• shell:ControlPanelFolder - opens the Control Panel.
• shell:Cookies - opens the cookies folder
• shell:Favorites - opens your Favorites folder.
• shell:Fonts - opens Vista’s Fonts folder.
• shell:Gadgets - opens your Windows Sidebar Gadgets folder.
• shell:History - opens the Internet Explorer history folder.
• shell:InternetFolder - opens Internet Explorer.
• shell:Links - opens your Links folder location.
• shell:MyMusic - opens your Music folder.
• shell:MyPictures - opens your Pictures folder.
• shell:MyVideo - opens your Video folder.
• shell:MyComputerFolder - opens Computer window.
• shell:NetHood - opens Network Shortcuts folder.
• shell:NetworkPlacesFolder - opens the Network Places location.
• shell:Original Images - opens Windows Photo Gallery Original Images folder.
• shell:Personal - opens your Documents folder.
• shell:PhotoAlbums - opens your Slide Show folder.
• shell:Playlists - opens your Playlists folder.
• shell:PrintersFolder - opens Printers in the Control Panel.
• shell:Profile - opens your main folder.
• shell:ProgramFiles - opens the Program Files folder.
• shell:Public - opens the Public User folder.
• shell:Recent - opens the Recent Items folder.
• shell:RecycleBinFolder - opens the Recycle Bin folder.
• shell:Start Menu - opens Start Menu folder.
• shell:Startup - opens the Startup folder
• shell:System - opens the System32 folder location.
• shell:Templates - opens the Templates folder location.
• shell:UserProfiles - opens the Users folder.
• shell:UsersFilesFolder - opens your main folder.
• shell:Windows - opens the Windows folder.

By:
Amresh Anjan

Automatically generate and assign strong passwords in Windows XP

• Date: May 21st, 2008
• Author: Greg Shultz

Computer users consistently use very simplistic logic when creating passwords. For example, many of us choose meaningful words, personal dates, or a word commonly found in the dictionary because it makes the password easy to remember. These common practices cause us to sacrifice the security that passwords are intended to provide.

If you’re really at a loss when it comes to thinking of a strong password, you can let Windows XP create and assign a random password to your account. To let Windows XP generate your password, follow these steps. (Warning: Before you follow these steps, please be sure that you are paying careful attention and are ready to actually use a password that might not be as memorable as you’re accustomed to! Also, you cannot use this tip on a Windows Server domain.)

1. Open a Command Prompt window and type:

   net user username /random (username is your login account name)

2. Press [Enter]. Windows XP will randomly generate a secure password, as well as assign that strong password to your account. Windows XP will also display the strong password so you can remember it.

At your discretion, you may want to create a Password Reset Disk at this point. This disk will allow you to gain access to your computer in the event you forget your password. Here’s how to create the disk:

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts tool.
2. Click your account icon.
3. Select Prevent A Forgotten Password under Related Tasks.
4. Follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional systems in either a standalone or peer-to-peer workgroup configuration.

By:

Amresh Anjan