What’s New at Linda’s Computer Stop

First, let me introduce our newest Fleet member.  Steve Mills has joined us to offer you his reviews of some great shareware/freeware (and perhaps an occasional retail program if he really feels it's worth it).  Please check out Steve's Ravin' Reviews and his bio.  And, join me in welcoming him to The Fleet.  I know you are going to LOVE what he has to offer!

And, for those of you who have a favorite Fleet member, I have created an archive of all the articles, organized by Fleet member, so you can go to one place and read all the articles written by your favorite author.  Check it out.  And, bookmark it so you won't forget where it is, tho you can always access it from ABC's homepage, where there is a link to it in the left frame.

Also, some up-to-date counts on the stuff I offer:

My Homepage just went over the 100,000 VISITORS mark in December, and my Windows page is getting hit even harder than that.  This makes me VERY happy and I am glad to see that my site is popular.  Also, ABC now has over 1700 subscribers and my Microsoft Office email support group has over 620 members.  Welcome to all of you who are new to any of my services.  Please drop by my guest book and say Hi.

Next, I just wanted to mention that I have once again changed the look of my website and ABC.  I finally listened to those who felt my background made it tough to read, so I changed it.  Also, if you are using IE, version 5.5 or later, you will see I've added colored scroll bars, which I think are so cool. What do you think of my new look?

Also, I added a couple new links to my favorite Internet sites, so go here and look for the revolving N's.

Oh....and one other thing:  There seems to be a new craze going around.  Everyone is concerned about "Web Bugs" which are tiny graphics inserted in web pages to gather information about those that visit the pages.  The stats for my pages are monitored by HitBox (WebSideStory) and therefore show up as "Web Bugs" with certain software.  I assure you I am not monitoring your surfing habits and HitBox does NOT collect IPs.  Click here for full details.  The reason I use HitBox is so I can get a count of how many people visit each of my pages, how long they stay, and how they navigate thru my site.  I gather this information, NOT to spy on you, but, instead, to see which of my pages are the most used, so I can continue to offer information that is relevant to your needs.  

If you have any suggestions for stuff you would like to see included at my site or in ABC, send an email to linda@personal-computer-tutor.com. All suggestions are welcomed!

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Subcribers' Exclusive Tip of the Month:
Removing Items From Your Most Recently Used Files List in MS Word:

This is a tip I offered a while back at The Newbie Club (It seems my Newbie Club tips may be a thing of the past.  More info on that, as I know more.)

Did you notice, in any of the Office programs, that at the bottom of your File menu you have a list of the Most Recently Used files?  Did you know you can control how many you put there?  Just go into the Tools menu in any of the programs and select "Options".  In the Options dialog box, click on the tab at the top that says "General".  In there you will see where you can tell Word or Excel or PowerPoint how many of these recently used files you want displayed, or you can uncheck it and turn this feature off all together.

But, what if you don't want to turn it off altogether, but you just want to remove one entry from the list?  Either  because you deleted the file and it's still showing up there or you don't want the next person using this program to see THAT file.

Here's a very slick tip, but, unfortunately, it only works in Word:

With MS Word open, hold down your Ctrl and Alt keys and press the hyphen key (above the P, not the minus sign on the number pad).  You will see your cursor now looks like a minus sign.  Click on the File menu and click on the file you want to remove. 

And....BINGO....it disappears!

How's that for cool?

Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book II: Table Wizardry, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and her newest series of MSOffice eBook Tutorials and CD