Archive for March, 2009

Six cute new IE8 features

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

I’ve been exploring the new Internet Explorer 8. While I’m not giving up Firefox anytime soon, IE8 does have some potentially useful new features. Here are six that you might find useful, or at the very least cute.

1. Color coded tabs. When you click a link or initiate a search from a tab, the tabs are color coded so that you can see which tabs are associated.

2. IE8 now has “caret browsing”. You toggle it on/off using F7. This feature puts a visible text cursor into the web page so that you can see where you are in the page.

3. When you select text, a button appears containing “accelerators” that can do something with the selected text. My favorite is Search with Google, since this saves me several steps.

4. IE8 can now open the last browser session—whenever you want, not just after a crash.

5. If you accidentally close a tab, IE8 can reopen it. Just right-click any existing tab.

6. You can give IE8 amnesia about your surfing. Look back at the picture for #4—second option from the top. If you press Ctrl+Shift+P (or choose InPrivate Browsing from the menu), IE8 turns off the tape recorder and starts a new copy of IE8. It will cache and remember for the InPrivate session. But, when you close the InPrivate session, IE8 will suddenly be saying “Numbered Swiss Account? What numbered Swiss account?” Any trace that you ever did what we know you didn’t do will be gone.

Where can you get the new IE8? Hmmm Here… let me Google that for you:

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=download+internet+explorer+8

lmgtfy is the ultimate in helpful arrogance. I’m still waiting for an occasion to use it, but I’m afraid of hurting anyone’s feelings.

Posted in Computing | 2 Comments »

Windows Sidebar Clock Can Steal CPU Cycles!

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Last night, I noticed that programs were taking a while to start, and my computer was being sluggish in general. I right-clicked Windows Vista’s Taskbar and started the Task Manager to see if I could figure out why. In the Processes tab, I clicked CPU to reverse sort by CPU consumption.

In this picture, both instances of sidebar.exe were showing 0%. Last night, however, one of the sidebar.exe instances was showing 50% CPU usage! Note that there might be two instances of sidebar.exe running. I’m given to understand that the second process is used for managing Sidebar gadgets that do not come with Vista.

In any case, the question for me was WHY?

I closed Sidebar, and CPU usage for it dropped to 0% (although the two processes did not close). I restarted Sidebar, and the 50% problem returned after a short while, although not immediately.

Long story short… I traced the problem to the analog clock that comes with Vista’s Sidebar. I tried closing the gadgets one at a time, thinking that the problem would be with WeatherBug or one of the other add-on Gadgets. But, the problem went <POOF> (that’s techspeak for disappeared) when I right-clicked the clock and chose Close Gadget.

I checked on my laptop computer and the problem does not exist there, so I don’t know how widespread the issue is. However, if you’re noticing that the computer seems to be churning when you aren’t aware of any big programs running… do what I did—check the Processes list in the Task Manager. And, prepare for the unexpected!

In any case, my computer is running a good deal faster this morning. I temporarily replaced the clock that comes with Vista with something called Digital Dutch Clock. But, it exhibited the same problem as Vista’s built-in one. When I get around to installing Windows 7, I’ll have to see if it has the same clock issue. But, for now, I’ve placed an old wooden clock where I can see it.

Posted in Computing, Vista | No Comments »

Google Toolbar Option’s Unexpected Consequence

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Yesterday, I installed Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Along with it, I installed a new version of the Google Toolbar (beta). Mind you, I normally use Firefox rather than IE8. Its logic better fits my way of thinking, and it has some features I deem essential. But, I’m a new-version-aholic, so when something new appears, I have to try it, and since I’m a big fan of the Google toolbar in Firefox, I figured I’d try it as well.

Within a few minutes of installing, however I discovered that the new Google Toolbar had hijacked Ctrl+Space to make its own quick search box work. I use Ctrl+Space in Word and many other applications to clear character formatting. So, having it suddenly made unavailable was unwelcome. That first time I pressed Ctrl+Space, instead of seeing the character formatting reset to normal, I saw this:

Cute, perhaps, but unwelcome, since I already use Ctrl+Space for something else. Unfortunately, I don’t see any way to change this assignment to something less invasive and more useful. Fortunately, you can turn it off—and that’s what I did. Right click the Google toolbar in IE and choose Google Toolbar Options. In the Search Tab, turn off Enable quick search box to search outside the browser, and you get Ctrl+Space back.

If it were just in Word that I use Ctrl+Space, I could reassign the function to a different key combination. But, this handy shortcut works in a variety of programs—most of which do not permit key reassignment. So, instead, I’m saying No to Google’s offer.

Posted in Word 2007 | No Comments »

Making Excel speak cells when you press Enter

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Yesterday, I found myself transferring numbers from a graphical PDF to Excel—manually. I was making a lot of mistakes. I tried using OCR, but the resulting file was so error-filled and formatted so poorly that it would have taken longer to fix the formatting, find the errors, and fix them than to type the data manually.

I was thinking about how great it would be if Excel 2007/Vista would simply tell me what I’d just typed each time I pressed Enter. That would be a good way to verify as I typed. All of a sudden, a little bell went off somewhere in the back of my mind, as I remembered that this wasn’t just a pipe dream. Rather than chalking it up to creeping senility (the usual reason for my hearing things that aren’t really there), I pressed F1 and typed “speak cells”. Bingo! A few clicks later, my Quick Access Toolbar was sporting a new tool, and Excel was doing exactly what I’d hoped for a minute earlier.

Here’s how

Right-click the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. In the Customize window, set Choose commands from: to Commands Not in the Ribbon. Click in the list of commands and tap the S key to go to the commands that begin with S. Scroll down to the Speak commands. The one I was after was Speak Cells on Enter. Don’t panic when you see my QAT list of commands. I use the QAT extensively, so it has a lot of stuff on it. I also place mine below the ribbon for more ergonomic usage.

It’s a toggle, so you don’t need a Stop command, too. Click on the desired Speak command, and click the Add button. If you don’t want it at the end of your QAT, click on the command immediately above where you want the new command to reside before clicking Add. Click OK, and you’re done! Click on it to turn it on; click on it again to turn it off.

Posted in Office 2007 | No Comments »