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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 12/02/2009 Useful features in Windows 7 ... I
upgraded my Vista computer to Windows 7 recently, and am learning some of the
new productivity features it claims to have. One of
the biggest changes in Windows 7 is the taskbar – a better taskbar with
bigger icons and easily arrange-able too. You can put any programs you want
on the taskbar which is viewable at all times – instead of on the Start
Menu or your Desktop, which isn’t. You can pin
programs to the taskbar, like Word and Excel, and even move the icons around
easily, if you decide you like Excel first and Word second.. The productivity gain of this new
feature is that if you touch the word icon on the taskbar you’ll see
all the related documents you have open currently so you can go right into
the one you want, or easily switch between documents, and if you right click
on the icon you’ll see what they call a Jumplist of all recently opened
documents, so you can quickly open the one you want. This
saves you the time of clicking on the program icon either on your desktop or
on the start menu, and then having to click on Open and see recent
documents. So this new task
bar/jump list feature will truly save you some time and increase your
productivity. Another
feature I like in Windows 7 is Sticky notes – the computer equivalent
of those tiny little yellow notepads that people jot down things to do and
notes on. Oddly enough there was a company back in the 80’s that came
out with a product similar to this, and it crashed and burnt. But now
the concept has been resurrected in Windows 7 and I have sticky notes pinned
to my taskbar too. If I’m working along in Word – like I am right
now writing this show - and an idea of something I’m supposed to do
comes into my mind, I can click on the sticky notes icon on the taskbar which
is always viewable – and a blank yellow sticky note pops up in my Word
screen. I can jot
down a note to myself to do something and then click back into Word. When I
close Word or switch to my desktop or click on my taskbar sticky notes icon I can see
the sticky note I created to remind me to do a task. You can create multiple
sticky notes, and then delete them as you get them done. So this is a
productivity feature and it might save you a little in paper costs, or save
you from writing on your hand or putting strings around your finger. And again
I want to stress the importance and productivity gains of the new Windows 7
Search feature – where you can type in a key word from a document you
know you’ve created - but you can’t find it in the labyrinth of
folders and files you’ve created yourself on your computer - and in an
instant you’ll see all the files on your computer – word –
outlook – adobe or whatever – that this word appears in, and then
open and view the document. Truly a great feature. Windows 7
also some great pretty pictures froo-froo – spectacular desktop
backgrounds of landscapes or nature or scenes of the United States –
which you can choose and have change hourly or daily or even in a continuous
slideshow – and even change the color of your sticky notes - but
Windows 7 does have useful productivity features, and most of all –
greater stability than Vista. So after
3 weeks now of using Windows 7,
he likes it … Mikey likes it ….. |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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