MTC Support

File & Folder Management in Windows.

Any computer user should have the necessary basic skills to deal with files and folders using Windows. You would want to: copy, move, or delete files and folders on your hard drive from time to time - also copying files to a backup source as a means of extra safe storage. All the above actions on files: like copy, move, and delete requires the same manipulation as that of "Basic text manipulation" Clicking on a file or folder once - selects it. You would require to know how to use the windows explorer (not the internet explorer) to assist you with file and folder manipulation. [did you know: your mouse has a right button] Here is a few basics: Directory Opus makes life much easier! When it comes to filemanagement in Windows - XP or Vista!

Open the Windows explorer Preview Image of the Explorer.
To copy one or more file/folder from one location to another: click on a file or a folder to select it - clicking once selects, to select more than one file or folder: hold down the ctrl-key [don't release] whilst clicking on the various files or folders you want to copy, move, or delete. Be careful, moving a file deletes it permanently from the source to the target.
To copy the selected file(s) or folder(s), either right-click the mouse and left-click to copy - point to the target - right-click again and left-click on paste - the file(s) and/or folders(s) will be copied to the [destination]

Keyboard Shortcuts. You can also use these keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy and paste, whether you are dealing with text of file(s) or folder(s)

ctrl+c copies whatever you've selected
crtl+x cuts [remove] whatever you've selected
ctrl+v pastes what you may have copied, or may have cut - from target to destination

Basic text manipulation.

Using shortcuts/key strokes when you are editing, revising or creating a new document and/or an email message goes a long way when you are in a hurry to make a few quick changes to your text.

Jumping the Cursor - Pressing the:

end key, jumps the cursor to the end of a word or line of text.
home key, jumps the cursor to the beginning of a word or line of text.
ctrl + the right-arrow key (intermittently) jumps the cursor to the right one word at a time - used with the left-arrow key moves the cursor to the left one word at a time.
ctrl + the end key - jumps the cursor to the end of your document, end of a line of text, or page.
ctrl + the home key - jumps the cursor to the top of your document, beginning of a line of text or page.

Select, Cut, Copy & Paste text:

selecting text is easy - using your mouse by double-clicking a word will select that word. Place the cursor in front or at the end of a word, line, or paragraph - then hold the left mouse button whilst dragging the mouse pointer to the left or right selects the word, sentence, or paragraph. Use your keyboard - move the cursor to the beginning of a word, line of text, or paragraph - press and hold the shift-key whilst moving the left or right arrow key will cause said word, line of text or paragraph to become selected. Similarly, if you place the cursor at the top or bottom of your page, or document - press and hold the shift+page-down/page up key select the whole document from top to bottom or bottom to top.

You're now ready to cut, copy, and paste text.

after selection: ctrl+c copies a word, line, or paragraph.
after selection: ctrl+x cuts/deletes a word, line, or paragraph.
ctrl+v pastes said word, line, or paragraph to a new position in your document.
using your mouse to right-click, also allows for copy, cut, and pasting (left-button).
whatever you cut, or copy, can be pasted into another document in a different program, also from a word processor to your new email message. You can also copy (no cutting) from a web page to your documents. The above action also apply to pictures, when you view a picture in any application - right-click on a picture produces a popup menu allowing you to do various actions with that picture.

Backing up your valuable Data.

Backing up to external drives.

There are no excuses for not having any form of any backup procedure for your data, hardware options for storing data are endless. (I'm not referring to online data storage) Depending on the total size of your data consumes in megabyte or gigabyte...I recommend you get yourself an External USB Drive to backup to - storing all documents, pictures, music, email, etc.

MONEY DOWN THE DRIAN!
Seagate had me believing that only "Seagate" as a company can fix (get back my data) the unit and that nobody else can!

Very sly Seagate! I'm sitting in South Africa, and you only have major repair points in Australia, Europe and America.

The costs involved would have been phenominal! And I would have had to wait months for my drive to return, with no assurance! Intuition had me breaking open the unit, scarcely one one week old after puchase, with the unit open I found only an ordinarily 500Gig Seagate Hard drive inside. I got my data back and I'm now using the drive in a USB housing I can trust.

Flash sticks are also helpful for backing up data, available in various sizes - starting at 1gig. I recommend: An external hard drive enclosed in an external USB housing. A separate USB hard drive housing allows you to change your external hard drive if you find you need more data space.

Don't trust solid sealed hard drives (see sidebar) - they are trouble - I purchased a FreeAgent 500gig solid Seagate product (supposedly) external hard drive for R1250.00 - very chuffed with my new drive I quickly backed all my data and the next day my warranty had gone void because I had to break the unit open to have a look inside to save my entire (trusted by Seagate) data backup from the hard drive. It was the USB connection, connecting the hard drive through the unit to my computer that failed, luckily the 500gig drive is fine, now I have the drive sitting snug in an external USB housing. I recommend you do the same, separate hard drive, with external USB housing - obviously if things will go wrong, they will, but this method is safest..

Using the right Tools.

Never lose your emails, photos, MP3s, documents, etc.

Download SyncNow! — Sync Now! is a high performance file sync product helps you to keep your files in sync between local and network drives & folders - SyncNow! is not free, but come highly recommended — I'm using it full time for my data backup! Read more: Sync Now! combines bulletproof reliability with an extremely easy to use interface to compare, synchronize, and backup your emails, contacts, photos, iTunes, MP3s, and other important files to local directory/USB disk/Network drive/laptops...etc Buy SyncNow!

Don't Kid yourself, backing up your data is an important process! It only takes a moment of your time — with SyncNow! you set it up and forget about it!

Outlook Express Address Book.

Exporting: To export your address book is a very simple process. You'll need a backup/export source, like another drive, a diskette in a: drive, or a flash stick.

A Google approach to email.
Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun. After all, Gmail has: Less spam: Keep unwanted messages out of your inbox with Google's innovative technology. Mobile access, read gMail on your mobile phone. Lots of space: Over 7337.714799 megabytes (and counting) of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message. Signup for your gMail Account

Open Outlook Express if it's not open.
Open your email address book - and click on the file menu. move the mouse pointer to the export entry on the menu. Find and click on export address book. (WAB)
Follow the prompt and direct the program to the export source you want to backup your address book to - and give it a name. ie. myAddressbook and click on save. Once the saving/export procedure is done you'll be prompted that your address book was successfully exported to the source you've indicated. That is it, you are done.

Importing your Outlook Address Book.

Importing: Is very similar to exporting in that you reverse the procedure, very simple.

Open Outlook Express if it's not open.
Open your email address book - and click on the file menu. move the mouse pointer to the import entry on the menu. Find and click on import address book. (WAB)
Follow the prompt and direct the program to the address book source you want to import - click (note, you can also double click a file) the filename to import and click open. At this point your address book is being restored - you are done.

Online eMail with gMail and others.

gMail is for users with an ADSL &/or Broadband

What is the difference between adsl and broadband?

connection at home or the office, frequent commuters, by road, or plane can sign up with gMail — go here: gMail Signup Page Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And not to mention the Google Calendar service plus a heep of other very useful features offered by Google!

WARNING: Do not loose your username and/or password when using gMail!!! — You will loose all your mail forever! — Write your username and password down, save into a file on computer, use a password manager if you must have serveral passwords. Try this Free Open Source password Manager Download KeePass from FileHippo.com

You can also use another email client to download all your gmail messages to your local hard drive as a backup should you have online problems - similar features at Windows Live Mail you can access your multiple e-mail accounts in one place. Combine your Hotmail accounts — even Gmail and Yahoo!* accounts—in one view ...

Backing up an MS Outlook .PST file.

Unlike outlook express, outlook stores everything your profile holds from email messages, contacts, calendar entries, etc in one file known as "outlook.pst" - this pst file can and will grow to a very large size as you continue using outlook - making a regular backup is important. For extensive help on outlook go here.

Having problems sending large pictures over the Internet?

Everybody sends pictures to their family, friends and colleagues. The problem with jpg's ["the" pictures from your camera] is that they can be very large, some up to 1.4MB. Various applications are available to shrink the size of said jpg (picture file) making the file's storage space smaller with little or no quality loss in pixels. Allowing for quicker and smoother eMail transfers.

JEPG Resizer 2.1 is just the application you can use — it's completely free! download JEPG Resizer here also download JEPG Resizer here: no installation is required.

Gmail Data Security, E-Mail Tips

December 18th, 2008

How ever did we communicate before e-mail? Web-based services like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail have brought convenience like never before--plus electronic junk mail and privacy concerns. This week Answer Line writer Lincoln Spector examines just how secure Gmail's servers are, and Hassle-Free PC blogger explains how to create a safe e-mail system for children, plus how to use Gmail's spam-fighting features for other e-mail accounts. Read on for those links, plus recent news.

Top Story - "How Safe Is My Gmail?": Is the information in your Gmail messages and other Google apps safe from data disasters? Is the information in your Gmail messages and other Google apps safe from data disasters? Maybe it is maybe not - though you can use an application such as "Mozilla (makers of FireFox) Thunderbird eMail application" to backup all your mail from your gmail account to your computer for save storage on your external hard drive! Download Thunderbird ver 2 Thunderbird is very easy to setup to use with your gmail account.

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