How To

Tools and techniques for printing folder contents

There aren't many of us left who remember using PCs before Windows arrived. While I don't pine for the good old days of DOS, I was comfortable operating those old machines from the command line.

Back then, I frequently had to print a list of the files in a folder. Doing so was as easy as copying the list to a text file that I opened in my text editor and printed from there. This trick still works via the command prompt built into Windows.

Instructions for using commands to print the contents of a folder--including various command … Read more

How To: Clean malware from your PC

There's little out there that can cause a rage seizure like a malware infection. Yet as annoying and dangerous to your privacy as they are, malware infections can be removed from your computer. We've written up a FAQ to help guide you to safety, and in the How To video above, we'll show you some concrete steps first for making sure that you actually have been infected, and then for how to eradicate the infection.

Help! My PC is infected with malware (FAQ)

Has your computer been acting funny, crashing, running slow, or displaying unusual error messages? Have you been promiscuously clicking on Web links and opening up attachments from strangers? You could have a malware infection.

I get questions all the time from readers and friends asking what to do when they think their computers are infected. Here's a primer that should help. It's focused on Windows-based PCs because that's where most of the malware is targeted.

What are the warning signs of an infection? An infection may cause the computer to run more slowly than normal, stop responding, … Read more

MS Word Building Blocks outshine AutoText

Microsoft Word's AutoText feature got a serious face-lift with the debut of Building Blocks in Word 2007 and 2010. (The Microsoft Office Support site offers a basic primer on creating and using Word 2003's AutoText feature.)

In a nutshell, you create AutoText entries by selecting the material you want to reuse and clicking Insert > AutoText > New (or simply press Alt-F3). You then enter a name for the entry that's between 4 and 32 characters long and press Enter. This adds the entry to the Normal.dot template and makes it available to all documents. To … Read more

The fast, free way to clean up text in MS Word

There's nothing easy about reformatting text in a Microsoft Word document. You can use the Format Painter to apply the formatting of one paragraph to others with a single click, and Word's Find and Replace features let you remove unwanted characters (or strings of characters), but these tools make their changes one at a time and often require additional cleanup.

I wish I had discovered Greg Maxey's free Clean Up Text add-on for Word years ago. The retired U.S. Navy submarine ordnance officer and former Microsoft Word MVP has created a Word DOT template that removes … Read more

Transferring MS Word AutoCorrect entries

Back in May 2008, I described a macro that made it easy to copy custom AutoCorrect entries from a version of Microsoft Word on one PC to a Word installation on another machine. Unfortunately, the macro, written by Microsoft MVP Dave Rado, is no longer available.

I take no pleasure in criticizing Microsoft's inability to meet the needs of its customers, but some of us have been using Word for close to 20 years. Shouldn't we be able to transfer our handcrafted AutoCorrect entries and other customizations between PCs without having to drag system files between folders that … Read more

How to find and fix missing art in iTunes

In this video, CNET Editor Donald Bell shows you how to find and fix album art in iTunes.

Return 'print on one page' to Word 2010

A reader named Teresa C. contacted me yesterday to ask what happened to the "shrink to fit on one page" option in Microsoft Word 2010's Print Preview window. This useful feature is one of several that Microsoft chose to hide in an attempt to "simplify" the Word 2010 interface.

You can get fast access to Word 2010's option to fit a document on a single printed page (or at least attempt to) by adding this function to the Quick Access Toolbar. Click File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar to open the Customize the … Read more

How to create free ringtones with iTunes 10

In this video, Brian Tong shows you how to use iTunes 10 to make free ringtines.