Alpha Technical Solutions

Posts Tagged ‘Tip’

Within Microsoft Word it is possible to set a series descriptive properties. Using Word 2007 these can be access from the prepare option of the Office button on the top left of a Word Window.

The standard document properties are:

Author, Title, Subject, Keywords, Category, Status, and Comments

However if you take a look at the advanced properties then you will find a large number of additional options are available for you.

So what can you use document properties for?

The properties are information about the document. For example the comments field can be used in a review process to make notes about possible changes. Fields like keywords, subject and category can be used for making search and indexing more effective. You might wonder how this is going to help you. Well Windows Explorer can display document properties for you. In Windows Explorer select the details view  and right click on the column headings. You will see a short list of common properties and there is a ‘more option ‘ from which any property can be selected. You can now customise your view of the documents to contain properties like status, subject, and category. These can all be put into order. Suddenly your documents can be cross-referenced in a manner that means something to you.

Document properties lets you improve your knowledge of a document inside and outside of Word and this can make your life much easier.

It also works for any MS Office application, and most other files too.

Over the last few weeks much has been said regarding the safety of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web Browser, things got so heated that the governments of France and Germany recommended that you no longer use Internet Explorer and Microsoft itself rushed out a unscheduled security patch to help alleviate the situation. This has led to a lot of recommendations regarding browser security, and this can be boiled down in the simplest and most general terms to do not use Internet Explorer 6, and remember that Internet Explorer 8 is the better option.

Many people say do not use Internet Explorer.

You could do that. In fact I personally favour the Firefox and Chrome Browsers.

However if you stop using Internet Explorer you may actually not be stopping using Internet Explorer. Allow me to explain.

Microsoft uses Internet Explorer throughout Windows and the Office range of products. For example you will find that Outlook uses Internet Explorer to display emails. This means that if you display an email that contains a payload (such as some malware or a link to a web site containing malware) then you will be as exposed to the same risk as someone using Internet Explorer. A lot of people use the preview pane in Outlook to quickly look at whichever item of email you are pointing at. That is very convenient. It is however very easy to look at an email that you should not, and that can cause you big problems. So what to do about it?

My tip here is a very simple one. Turn off the preview pane and look at the senders name on every email you open and check the subject line on every email you open. You should then only open emails that look like things you should be opening. If the email is not opened, the security flaws in Internet Explorer cannot be accessed and you are in a safer position.

So turn off the preview pane, and think about what which emails you are opening. You will be safer.

Here’s the scenario and it is one that every computer user has faced at some time or another. You need some new software, but you have no idea what to get. I mean how can you be sure that what you are about to buy or download will be any good? This is where alternativeto.net comes in. At its simplest alternativeto simply collects user votes for their favourite software, in similar fashion to the way many shops offer customer reviews. However this is not the genius of Alternativeto. That part comes next. You see for every piece of software on the website there is a list of alternatives to it. This way you can see who has voted for what and you can see alternatives that may very well suit you better.

It’s a one stop software discovery shop.

Alternativeto covers software for WIndows, Mac, and Linux.  It also has a cloud computing section for web  based applications. Giving it coverage of all major software platforms (excluding smartphones).