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Last month’s poll asked our readers…’Which TWO Microsoft Office Applications do you use the most?’  The diagram to the right (click to enlarge) shows how our readers voted.  As you can see Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook were the three applications to receive the most votes, which to us isn’t surprising as the applications are commonly used worldwide due to the overall quality, simplicity and flexibilty of the software.

PowerPoint and Publisher again are commonly used pieces of software but it is rare that the ‘typical’ home user requires them for their general computer usage.  Whereas Access is a far more specialist application for those who need to create/manage a database system.

Office 2010 is set to be released in June (2010).  Many companies are doing a deal whereby you purchase Office 2007 and can download 2010 for free when it comes out so have a look around on the internet for such deals! For example…Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student from Amazon (PC)

Today we have a few simple but very nice features of Windows 7, starting with the show desktop…where is it…it is no longer part of the QuickLaunch that people are used to but now instead it is on the far right of the taskbar where there is a small rectangle…click this and it takes you to the desktop, or alternatively hover over it and it shows you the desktop until you move away and then it takes you back to the program you were using.  Very nice touch!

Wireless Networks – In Vista I always found the connect to a network icon down by the clock a bit annoying, sometimes it would bring things straight up, other times it wouldn’t.  In Windows 7 you click it and immediately get a list of available networks along with the one you may be connected to.  From here you can easily connect to another one.  Nothing revolutionary, just something that worked made to work better!

Icons – Again this nice and simple touch is related to the task bar, the little icons that appear you install so many applications these days are now grouped in one area.  All you have to do to view them is click the arrow and a box appears with them in, see the image on the right to see what I mean.

Tile Windows – If you’re anything like me then you will often want to have two windows open at one time and be able to see some or all of them.  Commonly I use this for transferring files from one folder to another.  Arranging the windows like shown in the picture below can take time and if you are not used to using the mouse to do this it could be a fiddly process.  Now all you do is drag the windows to the left and then the right respectively and they align themselves as shown in that picture..nice and easy!

And on a similar note, if you drag a window that is not fully maximised to the top of the screen and let go…it maximises it!

Windows 7 really has been designed to make mundane tasks so much easier, it’s great!

See Also:

Windows 7 Beta – First Glance

Acrobat.com is a brand spanking new site with some breakthrough and exciting features!  Acrobat.com is from Adobe and it provides a variety of online services such as; Word Processing, PDF Converting, File Sharing, Instant Messaging, Online Conferencing, File Managing and much more!  The five main features that Acrobat.com provides are:

• Buzzword
• Share
• ConnectNow
• Create PDF
• My Files

To use the website’s services you need to Create an Acrobat Account which is completely free!  To do this just go to the Acrobat Website then select the services you would like to use then click ‘Begin’ and then select ‘Sign Up’.

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Everyone likes a quick solution to something, so on Pc Toolbox we are going to start publishing a Quick Tip every Friday Morning. Something that just makes using our favourite applications easier and maybe even more enjoyable!

If you have got a tip you would like us to publish (with credit to you of course!) please drop us an email with your Tip, Name, Email and Website Address!

Happy New Year!