Thursday, December 20, 2007

Tips to get the most from Microsoft Word's AutoCorrect Feature

How often do you misspell the same word over and over and over and have to go back and correct the spelling error? For example, do you forget the rule "i before e except after c" (English language)? Do you try to spell "receive" as "recieve" frequently? Or maybe you remember the rule and then misspell "weird". Weird rule!

Microsoft Word does anticipate common spelling mistakes and replaces the errors automatically with its AutoCorrect feature. After you finish typing "recieve" it magically changes to "receive" without you batting an eye or backspacing on your keyboard.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Things We Love: Spell Check in Firefox 2

Firefox 2 has a built in spell checker that works in any multiline field you edit. Although this feature has been around for a while, it's worth repeating for those of us who haven't tried the free browser since version 2 was released.

This feature is extremely useful when submitting comments online and you don't want to copy and paste from Firefox into Microsoft Word to do a quick spell check. This is also great if you create content online (think web based e-mail, wikis or blogs).

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Using Adblock Plus in Firefox

One of our favorite add-ons for the Firefox web browser is Adblock Plus.

This utility allows you to get rid of ads and banners on websites. Besides allowing you to subscribe to filter lists for commonly encountered ads, it also allows you to quickly block specific images and banners on a page. This prevents the ads from being downloaded and displayed again.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Creating Archivable PDF/A Files using Solid PDF Creator

One of the features in the new version of Solid PDF Creator is the ability to create PDF/A compliant documents.

What is a PDF/A file? Why does this matter to me?

Many, if not the majority of, businesses are sold on the benefits of storing their documents digitally. However, most digital storage and management systems have one major flaw: long-term reproducibility is not guaranteed.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Disable Video Ads in Windows Live Messenger

Do you use Windows Live Messenger? You may have noticed that the application displays videos at the bottom of its main window:



Although some people find value in video ads, other people find them distracting.