The Official Woopid Blog
Video of the Day
Windows: Disk Space Analyzer
Feb 9th
A free, simple program, “Free Disk Analyzer” allows you to easily find the largest files and folders in any given directory. Extremely helpful for identifying where your hard drive space is going. Check out how to use it here. Sometimes the results are very surprising…
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Chax: Growl for iChat, and More.
Jan 26th
Growl is a great system wide notification system for OS X, and while some IM clients support Growl natively, others need a little help. iChat is one of those applications – once you start using Growl with iChat, it’s hard to stop. Instead of having to stop what you’re doing to see what your buddy is saying, the messages appear as Growl notifications. By installing a free program called “Chax”, you can enable various types of iChat Growl notifications, among various other helpful features. Check it out here.
The Watch Window in Excel
Jan 25th
Today I was working on an Excel workbook in which I had to ensure two columns of numbers always equaled each other. For a while I kept taking breaks, creating a quick SUM formula to see if they add up, and if they didn’t, go in and try to find where I messed up. All of a sudden it hit me, why had I forgotten a simple, yet great feature of Excel, the “Watch Window”? Simply put, the Watch Window is a little window that appears on top of your workbook, and displays cells you’ve selected.
In my situation, I set up a formula which always added up all the numbers in my two columns, and then set up a Watch Window. Now, as I input data, I can constantly make sure that each column is equal. Watch it here.
Security in Mind: Firefox Master Password
Jan 23rd
If you use Firefox, you probably have it set to remember passwords for sites you frequent, but do you know how easy it is for anyone to see all your saved passwords? Setting a master password will make it so anyone who tries to view your saved passwords can’t, unless they know the master password.
Enable the Explorer File Menu
Dec 26th
This is a simple tip that may be really helpful for some. In all previous versions of Windows, in every Windows Explorer window (the window where you view your files and folders), there was a file menu, allowing you to access the File, Edit, View, Tools and Help menus. This isn’t shown by default in Vista anymore – but you can change that. You can temporarily show this menu bar as needed, or permanently enable it. Check out this video to see how.
Click on the image below to watch the video.
iTunes 8 Basics: Manually add album artwork
Dec 23rd
This one is for both PC and Mac – Whenever you buy music from the iTunes store, it comes with album artwork. The album artwork is then displayed in iTunes, depending on what view you’re currently using, as well as on your iPhone, iPod, Front Row (Mac only), or Apple TV. What if you’ve acquired music through another service that doesn’t provide album artwork, and you’ve tried having iTunes automatically search for your artwork, but to no avail? You can apply it yourself! Check out the simple video below to see how to do it.
Click on the image below to watch the video.
Mac Stacks Explained
Dec 22nd
A new feature in Mac OS X Leopard is the ability to use Stacks in the dock. This has been a feature of some debate – is it useful, or merely eye candy? If you ask me, Stacks are useful. Click on the Stacks image to watch a video which explains:
- Create Stacks
- Stacks options
- How they’re sorted
- How they’re displayed
- How to view the content within Stacks
- Removing Stacks.
Word 2007 & Pages ‘08: AutoCorrect Trick
Dec 21st
As you’ve probably noticed while writing in Word 2007 or Pages ‘08, when you make certain common misspellings, Word and Pages automatically corrects those mistakes. While this is helpful, you can do more than use it for the occasional misspelling. Do you have a word or phrase that you use often, maybe a name, or technical term? Or maybe you’re working on a project which requires the use of the same word or phrase over and over again. Using AutoCorrect (in Word) and Auto Correction (Pages), you can set up short abbreviations which when typed, will automatically turn into the word or phrase you setup. Watch how to do this in the videos below
Click on the image below to watch the video for Word 2007
Click on the image below to watch the video for Pages ‘08
Viewing Hidden Files and Folders
Dec 18th
There may be times when it would be beneficial for you to view hidden files and folders on your computer. Perhaps you need to edit a hidden file, or maybe you’ve hidden a file yourself, and now want to view it. Once hidden files are folders are viewable, they’re changeable, and deletable, just like any other file or folder…but that doesn’t mean you should change/delete them! Be careful when dealing with hidden files, as they were hidden for a reason! Take a look at how to view these files, and how to know you’re looking at a hidden file when you see it (how do you know a hidden file is a “hidden” file if its viewable?).
Click on the video below to watch.
Change the Office 2007 Color Scheme
Dec 17th
You can change the color scheme used in each Office 2007 application. Watch this video to see how to change the scheme – this particular video features Word 2007, but the process is the same for the other applications.
