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A couple of months ago we received our copy of Office 2010, so it must be about time we start blogging about it!  Sparklines is a new Excel feature which we’ve been impressed with. Basically they’re miniature charts that fit into a single Excel cell to allow the user to view individual trends at a glance.  A feature such as this is ideal when managing money, e.g. to assess how expenditure for different items has varied over a year.

Here’s how to create Sparklines:

1. Click on the ‘Insert’ tab and locate the ‘Sparklines’ box
   
2. Next you must select the type of Sparkline you wish to use by clicking on either Line, Column or Win/Loss
3. Finally in the ‘Create Sparklines Box’ you need to select your data range and location range
   

A neat feature I’m sure you’ll all agree

On the odd but very rare occasion you may have to turn off System Restore. System Restore is a component on Microsoft Windows operating systems which allows for the rolling back of system files, registry keys, installed programs, etc., to a previous state in the event of malfunctioning or failure. This tutorial will show you how to switch it on and off if you’re using Windows 7.

Turn Off System Restore in Windows 7

• Firstly, click the windows start orb and right-click on Computer. Then select ‘Properties’
  
• Select ‘System Protection’
  
• Click ‘Configure’
  
• Then select to turn-off system protection
  
• Finally Click OK, read the message and then click ‘Yes’ to continue
  

Turn System Restore On – Windows 7

• Firstly, click the windows start orb and right-click on Computer. Then select ‘Properties’
  
• Select ‘System Protection’
  
• Select ‘Restore system setting and previous versions of files’ and click OK
  

On the odd but very rare occasion you may have to turn off System Restore. System Restore is a component on Microsoft Windows operating systems which allows for the rolling back of system files, registry keys, installed programs, etc., to a previous state in the event of malfunctioning or failure. This tutorial will show you how to switch it on and off if you’re using Windows Vista.

Turn Off System Restore in Vista

• Firstly, click the windows start orb and right-click on Computer. Then select ‘Properties’
  
• Select ‘System Protection’
  
• Uncheck the drives and then to confirm click the “Turn System Restore Off” button.
  
  
• To finish click OK
  

Turn System Restore On – Vista

• Firstly, click the windows start orb and right-click on Computer. Then select ‘Properties
  
• Select ‘System Protection’
  
• Click in the box next to the drives to ensure it has a tick
  
• Click OK to confirm
  

On the odd but very rare occasion you may have to turn off System Restore. System Restore is a component on Microsoft Windows operating systems which allows for the rolling back of system files, registry keys, installed programs, etc., to a previous state in the event of malfunctioning or failure. This tutorial will show you how to switch it on and off if you’re using XP.

Turn Off System Restore in XP

• Click ‘Start’, then right-click ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Properties’
  
• Click the ‘System Restore’ tab. Then click in the box next to ‘Turn off System Restore’ so it does have a tick in it and click ‘OK’
  
• Read the message and click ‘Yes’ to continue
  

Turn System Restore On – XP

• Click ‘Start’, then right-click ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Properties’
• Click the ‘System Restore’ tab. Then click in the box next to ‘Turn off System Restore’ so it doesn’t have a tick in it and click ‘OK’
  

Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance application included in Microsoft Windows operating systems.  It’s designed to free up disk space on your computers hard drive.  Therefore, it’s worth performing a cleanup every so often.  The feature searches and reviews your hard drive for files which are no longer necessary.  It will then, after you’ve made some selections, remove any files that are not needed on your machine.

Here is how to run a Disk Cleanup on XP:

1. Firstly click ‘Start’ and select ‘All Programs’
   
2. Then Select ‘Accessories’, followed by ‘System Tools’ and finally ‘Disk Cleanup’ (Click on image to enlarge)
   
3. Your computer will now run a scan to locate files that could be removed or compressed.
   
4. Next you should make selections regarding which files you would like to be removed.  Simply click on the option, read the description and if you’d like this to be removed click in the box next to the option so it has a tick in it.   We recommend that you don’t select to compress files as it will slow down your computer considerably (Click on image to enlarge)
   
5. Your computer will now perform the Disk Cleanup.
   

Hopefully this tutorial has been helpful and will encourage you to run a Disk Cleanup.  It’s a free way to improve the speed of your computer!

We will post about Disk Cleanup on Vista next week!

See Also:
Defrag for XP
ScanDisk for XP

Just over 1 1/2 years ago we wrote a post titled ‘Quick Tip – Resize Multiple Images Quickly‘.  One of the programs we mentioned in the blog only worked for machines running XP.  However, a company called CodePlex have adapted the software so it can be used for Windows 7 and Vista machines!  Here is a tutorial for the software:

Downloading and Installing

1. Before you do anything you need to download the program.  The software can be downloaded from phototoysclone.codeplex.com.
2. Click ‘Download Now’ on the right
   
3. Click ‘Agree’ if you are willing to agree to the license.
4. Next save the file to your computer by clicking ‘Save File’ (Firefox Users, wording may vary between Web Browsers)
   
5. Now you need to open the downloaded file.  Internet Explorer users should click ‘Open’.  Firefox users should go to the downloads window and double-click on then file then click ‘OK’.
   
6. Click ‘Run’
7. Now follow through the installation process until the end.
8. Once the installation process is complete you’re ready to get resizing!

How to Resize One Image

1. Firstly ensure that you’ve downloaded and installed the software.
2. Secondly locate the image you wish to resize.  For example, most images on computers are stored in ‘my pictures’.
3. Once you’ve found the image you wish to resize right click on it and select ‘Resize Pictures’ (click to enlarge image)
   
4. If there is size option you’re happy with select it but clicking on it and then click OK.
   
   Alternatively, if you wish to choose specific dimensions click ‘advanced >>’.  This gives you the opportunity to create custom dimensions, ask the tool to make images smaller but not larger and also ask the tool to resize originals and not make copies.  When happy click ‘OK’
   
5. Your images will then appear resized (see example below for users who chose for copies to be made)
   

How to resize a selection of images in one folder

1. Firstly follow step 1 and 2 from the ‘How to resize one image’
2. Once you’ve located the images you wish to resize click on them all whilst holding down ‘Ctrl’ (Control) on your keyboard. If you would like to resize all press ‘ctrl + A’ (Click image to enlarge)
   
3. Next you need to Right Click on one of the images you have selected and then select ‘Resize Pictures’ (click to make the image bigger)
   
4. If there is size option you’re happy with select it but clicking on it and then click OK.
   
   Alternatively, if you wish to choose specific dimensions click ‘advanced >>’.  This gives you the opportunity to create custom dimensions, ask the tool to make images smaller but not larger and also ask the tool to resize originals and not make copies.  When happy click ‘OK’
   
5. Your images will then appear in the folder resized (click to make image bigger)
   

We’re impressed with this program!  Watch out for our review on it next week!

I think it is safe to admit that I am not the only one who has a wordpress blog, facebook account and a twitter profile, all of which get updated from time to time.  Some more regularly than others and some with the same info!

In fact I have three wordpress blogs! Brandstar, PCToolbox and a Personal Blog. I also have a personal and business twitter profile and I was thinking, there must be a way of linking all this! After a bit of digging I found, there is!

Basically I decided that I want to get information, updates and more off the WordPress and Facebook accounts and published on Twitter. It seems like the logical way round to me.

The key tool for doing this is TwitterFeed as it makes it nice and easy with just these steps

Register for a TwitterFeed account (you only have to do this once and you can then link lots of RSS feeds to twitter through your TwitterFeed account.)

• Link to your Twitter profile, (make sure twitter is open in another tab), then in TwitterFeed choose ‘Create New Feed’ and choose Connect your feed to your Twitter account
• Give the Feed a name
• Link to the RSS Feed of where the information is coming from!  (more info below)

Ok, so the last bit might be the hardest for some people I admit. On WordPress you just have to look for the icon that looks like the orange one to the right (some themes have varied the style and colour but should be recognisable) or you can go direct to the feed by typing /feed after the blog address … e.g. for PCToolbox it is www.pctoolbox.co.uk/feed and the brandstar.co.uk feed is www.brandstar.co.uk/wp/feed  (the wp is teh directory wordpress is installed in).

Facebook doesn’t make finding the feed that easy … so follow these instructions and you will be away

1. Log into Facebook
2. Click notifications in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
3. Press ‘See All’ when the notifications pop-up appears
4. Under all the tick boxes you will see ‘Your Notifications’, click that
5. You will then see a big list of ALL your notifications, this could be the feed you want, but if you just want YOUR status updates like I did then keep reading
6. The URL in the address bar at the very top will read something like “http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=123456789&viewer=1234567891&key=t4654562v&format=rss20″
7. You need to change the word ‘notifications’ that I have bold-ed above to read ‘status’ so the URL reads similar to this “http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=123456789&viewer=1234567891&key=t4654562v&format=rss20″
8. Hit ENTER and that will show you all your Status updates, copy that URL from the address bar and that is you FEED when you are setting up TwitterFeed to send info to Twitter!

I hope that helps, enjoy, have fun and stay connected!

Grae.