Managing Computer Hardware

• 1). Identify and mark each of the plugs for your electrical devices, so that you know before you pull that you have the right cable. A new product called ID Pilot Labels have equipment components printed on them. The labels attach to the end of the plug that goes in the wall or surge strip socket. There are labels with pictures of fax machines, printers, scanners, calculators and shredders.
  
  
• 2). Schedule automatic hard drive backups. Although hard drive technology is well over 20 years old, hard drives are still plagued with the inane ability to crash. When (not if) a hard drive crash occurs, it can devastate a project or an entire office. There are effective scheduling programs that will back up daily, weekly or whatever time frame the user designates.
  These programs are inexpensive, easy to install and set up and work entirely in the background. One such program called SyncBack can schedule regular backups to an external hard disk or network hard drive. Two new services allow you to back up to a remote server offsite over the Internet. Carbonite and Mozy Home allow you to back up your hard drive files to their servers.
  
  
• 3). Use your camera phone as digital memory. Did you buy one of those phones with the photo and video camera tucked snugly in amongst all of the other high tech features? There are many more uses for that camera than you may have thought of in the past. Make your camera phone work for you by using it to take pictures of where you parked your car when parking in a crowded multi-level parking deck or when attending one of your favorite sports or musical events. You can also use it to take pictures of products you find in a store that you send to someone who is trying to buy you a gift. Or, take pictures of product price tags so that you can look the item up on the Internet for better pricing options. You can also use your phone to take a picture of notes displayed on a white board or overhead at a training event.
  
  

Managing email, passwords and mice

• 1). Manage email with forwarding and folders. Electronic mail can take hours to go through each day. Nonetheless, doing so daily, every other day or weekly, will keep the time down. Forwarding your email to a PDA or BlackBerry can help reduce the office time spent on going through email. Creating folders under the inbox and then dragging emails to the associated folder can help you organize and prioritize email. You can create folders by topic such as family emails, business emails, client emails or by priority such as urgent, later and sometime soon.
  
  
• 2). Never forget your passwords again. A fairly new and free product available for download is KeePass Password Safe, which helps you manage and remember all of the different passwords you have assigned to various websites. It is highly recommended that you use a different password for every website that you sign up at or sign in to. With KeePass, your passwords are all entered into one database which is locked with one master key. The only password you have to remember is the one that opens the database. See the Resources list below for a link to more information about KeePass.
  
  
• 3). Work better without an external mouse. Mice have come a long way over the years. Computer mice have gotten bigger and smaller, they come in different shapes to fit different hands, they have roller balls on top, laser eyes on the bottom and that dreaded cord or dongle that gives them directions. And, you always have to find surface space to run the mouse. A good workaround for always having to drag a mouse around with your laptop is to learn a few of the most standard and most used keyboard shortcuts. Commands such as <Ctrl> S will save in any program, <Crtl> C will copy text, <Crtl> X will cut and <Crtl> V will paste. To print from any program, you can use <Crtl> P. The F1 through F12 keys also provide shortcuts to commands, such as F7 for spell and grammar check. You don't have to regress to the old days of command and function keys, but learning and using a few of the standard keyboard shortcuts will provide a workable alternative to dragging that mouse along with you everywhere.