HowToDoThings.com Recent Software Articles

How To Make Your PC Faster

giggles4222349 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:40:52 -0500

How To Display your AdSense Earnings on the Desktop of your PC

alexalexL — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:46:16 -0500

How To Speed Up a Windows System Start-Up

BinaryBuddy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:36:29 -0500

How To Use Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables

yen03 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:37:55 -0500

Pivot Table is a summary table of your original spreadsheet. Based on your field selections and how the data should be displayed, a pivot table can aggregate and show a different view of your data.

For example, create a pivot table for Canada and USA sales report per quarter and year.

Create a Table as data source (see the screenshot below)
Create a PivotTable.
• Click the first left data, in A1 cell, Year field (see black-rectangle in the screenshot above).
• Click Data menu, select PivotTable and PivotChart Report submenu.
In PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard window, "Where is the data that you want to analyze?", click Microsoft Office Excel list or database option (see yellow-rectangle in the screenshot above).
"What kind of report do you want to create?", click PivotTable option (see blue-rectangle in the screenshot above) then click Next button (see red-rectangle in the screenshot above).

"Where is the data that you want to analyze?" $A$1:$F$12 (the ranges data is automatically appear), click Next.
"Where do you want to put the PivotTable report?", click New Worksheet option, then click Finish button.
In PivotTable Field List window, select the fields then put them as you need on the Pivot Table area. For example:
Click Year field (see red-rectangle in the screenshot below), select Row Area (see blue rectangle in the screenshot below), click Add To button (see pink rectangle in the screenshot below).
- Click Quarter field, select Row Area, click Add To button.
- Click Employee field, select Row Area, click Add To button.
- Click Customer field, select Column Area, click Add To button.
- Click Country field, select Page Area, click Add To button.
- Click Sales field, select Data Area, click Add To button then see the Pivot Table in the screenshot.
To change the view report, for example, you want to move the Customer field into the row area. Just click Customer field (see red-rectangle in the screenshot below), select Row Area (see blue- rectangle in the screenshot below), click Add To button (see pink-rectangle in the screenshot below).
If the Pivot Table Field List window doesn’t show up, right click on the pivot table area (see red-rectangle in the screenshot below), then click Show Field list (see blue-rectangle in the screenshot below).
To see the Pivot Table Report based on the country, click arrow of the country (see the red-rectangle in the screenshot below). For example, select USA, click OK.
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How To Mount an ISO Image as a Virtual DVD Drive

alexalexL — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:28:34 -0500

How To Perform a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word

yen03 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:59:11 -0500

Mail Merge is used to send the same documents to different recipients. Here, we learn about how to perform a mail merge letter, envelope and email.

Creating a Table of Recipients in New Document.

Click Table menu, select Insert submenu, then click Table.

Number of columns: 7

Number of rows: 4

Click OK.

Enter the sample data as follows, then Save As, for example, data_recipients.doc

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How To Protect a PC Using Avast Antivirus

yen03 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:55:07 -0500

To protect a PC from trojans, you can use Avast! Antivirus home edition. When starting this program, the simple user interface help window will automatically display and you can uncheck "Don't show this window next time."

You can change the Avast! Antivirus Settings as you need:

Run Avast! Antivirus.

• Click Menu button (see red rectangle in the screenshot above), then click Settings (the menu only displays when the scan is off).

How To Save Money with Legal Forms

jasonkeeley — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:51:16 -0500

How To Edit MP3 File Tags

alexalexL — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:10:36 -0500

How To Convert Most Audio Files into Another Audio File

Aericron — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:16:28 -0500

Welcome to my How To Convert Audio Files walkthrough. Here, I will explain the easy steps of finding software and then converting your audio files into a different type for whatever reason. This will be walked through using Windows OS.

How To Burn Music to a CD

yen03 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:04:07 -0500

Here is my experience when burning my music to a CD. To burn music to a CD, you need the burning CD software (here, I use Nero StartSmart) and the CD-RW driver (I'm using 52x32x52x speed LG).

How To Use the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP Functions in Microsoft Excel

yen03 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:55:08 -0500

VLOOKUP is used to read the vertical table_array and HLOOKUP is used for the horizontal table.

Syntax:
=VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)
=HLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,row_index_num,range_lookup)

Look_up_value can be a value, a reference, or a text string and used to match between table array and data.

Col_index_num is the column index number of table_array. The only difference between HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP is HLOOKUP use row_index_num (row index number of table_array).

Range_lookup is a logical value that specifies whether you want VLOOKUP to find the exact match or approximate match.

How To Get Free Cable TV

Mikey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:51:45 -0500

Cable television has more channels offering more content than ever before. However, quantity is not necessarily a quality of its own. The content it offers is becoming increasingly less entertaining. Even so, the price just continues to go up almost every month. A great new digital product offered online can allow you to view over 3000 cable channels and best of all, it’s totally legal. Almost any method you try in order to get free cable could land you in jail. It’s just not worth it. But with one free and easy-to-install program, you'll never have to pay another monthly fee for your cable television again.

How To Get Zune on Linux

Mikey — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:00:58 -0500

For Linux users who own Microsoft Zune MP3 players, compatibility has always been a problem. With a little work however, it is possible for you to sync your Zune to your computer, even if you happen to be using the Linux operating system. What you’ll need to do is use VMware, a program that allows you to run another operating system within your standard operating system. Don’t worry, this isn’t complicated at all, but you may need to spend some money as VMware is not a free program. You will need a USB 1.1 hub as well, but the good news is that they aren’t expensive.

How To Make Your Computer Start-Up Faster

vinnyct88 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:35:02 -0500

OK, so this is supposed to help those who are having a bad time starting up their computers. You know the feeling--you turn it on and it takes a lifetime for you to actually do something on it. Argh!

How To Install Video Wallpaper on Your Desktop

alexalexL — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:40:27 -0500

Set up video as wallpaper on your desktop? Nice idea I think -- it is definitely the new thing. A few months ago, this option on PC was available only for Windows Vista Ultimate users. They are still able to add Windows DreamScene components via free Windows Update service. But now you can have video wallpaper on any version of Windows!

The free VLC media player helps you to get this effect.

How To Reset a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password

jamsam — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:36:27 -0500

We’ve all forgotten Windows passwords. When it happens, it can really cause a panic, but don’t worry – there is still a way to get out of this. So you are locked out from your PC and can’t access it. You can’t call the locksmith, because the locksmiths can only unlock your car’s and home’s doors, not PC Windows doors. In this article I’ll show you the way to reset the Windows password.

How To Recover Your Data

jasonkeeley — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:44:20 -0500

Losing your valuable data, either by damage to your computer or accidental deletion, is an upsetting situation. Whether the lost files contain sensitive personal information, treasured photographs, or data for your small business, the loss can be devastating. Your data doesn't have to stay lost, however. Data recovery services specialize in restoring files that most people wouldn't think would be recoverable. Keep reading to learn how data recovery services work.

Why Data Recovery is Possible

The files stored on your computer are all written onto the hard drive, which consists of thin, round platters coated with a shiny magnetic data storage medium, much like the shiny coating on the thin ribbons contained inside VHS and cassette tapes. Just like in a VCR or a tape player, a head inside your computer's hard drive reads and reads and writes the data onto the magnetic storage medium.

How To Connect 2 PCs Directly

alexalexL — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:50:31 -0500

Sometimes people need to connect two PCs. When and why?

Imagine this situation. You come to your friend's house with your laptop to show him the video about your last vacation in Brazil. He wants to have this video, too, and he wants to have it now. What can you do? Use your 2GB USB flash card? No, the size of the video file is much larger. Burn the video on DVD? No, that would take several hours.

Here's another situation. Your elder son found a new PC strategy game. It's so cool, and he wants to play network game with you next weekend. You have a laptop and home computer, but how do you connect them for this network game?

So many different situations...

What you need in order to connect 2 PCs:

How To Create a Screenshot in Windows

alexalexL — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:58:59 -0500

Pictures of windows, dialogs or toolbars usually help illustrate any documentation related with IT. Technical support services also use screenshots; using screenshots is the easiest way for a user to explain a problem to support people, and the easiest way for such services to answer users and help them to solve their problem. Screenshots clarify any explanation. It looks like they make a photograph of the screen. How can you do that?

You do not need any special software. In fact you can create screenshots just using standard Windows tools. Here's how to make a screenshot:

How To Increase the Speed of Your Windows Vista

sillyticker — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:31:24 -0500

A computer is more fun to use when it rarely hits a high speed bump or crashes into a guard rail. When spending more money on a PC, either new or old, is not an option, a more practical approach is necessary to achieve that increase in speed. Here are some tips.

How To Encrypt Data

aunraza77 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:29:06 -0600

Currently, almost every computer is connected to the Internet, some more securely than others. With the rapid growth of the Internet, and it becoming an essential part of our life, we tend to use it to store personal information. For example, text files with phone numbers, e-mail addresses, sometimes even passwords or PINs, thinking that as long as the computer has anti-virus software installed, and can not be logged into without a password, the data is safe. That is a fallacy. Anyone with malicious intent can find numerous ways to access your personal data.

GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) is a free implementation of the OpenPGP (PGP = Pretty Good Privacy) standard, and that is what we will be using to encrypt and secure your data. These instructions are specific to the Microsoft Windows Operating System, however, GPG can be used on any Unix variant, like Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, etc.

How To Transfer Files from a Desktop to a Laptop

rik — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:46:46 -0600

More and more people must rely on using a laptop/portable PC in their ever-busy lives to keep up with their workload, and then find they have different copies of the same file on this PC and their desktop. The easiest solution is having all machines networked and storing all working files on the network's file server(s). However, if you need to work at home and other locations using multiple computers, this may not be possible.

How To Format a USB Flash Drive with the NTFS File System

alexalexL — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:22:45 -0600

By default, Windows users are able to format a USB flash drive with FAT or FAT32 file systems only, but not with NTFS. It confuses some of them. NTFS (New Technology File System) is the standard file system Microsoft uses for their Operating Systems starting from Windows NT 3.1 till Vista. But when you try to format a USB flash drive with this standard file system, you don't have this option available.

Why do users want to set up the NTFS file system on flash drives? What advantages could it bring them?

Advantages
With NTFS, you can save more files on the flash drive (from 5 to 40% of disk space). You can create permissions to access files and/or folders on the flash drive. You get all other security file management options you have on Windows.

How To Give Someone a Beard in Photoshop

pedro_eson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:05:30 -0600

I'm going to teach you in a very easy way how to put a beard on someone's face using Adobe Photoshop. You don't even need to be an expert on Photoshop; just know the basics. Ok, let's get started.

How To Download a Great Anti-Virus System

Matt Lamar — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:38:39 -0600

First, go to http://free.grisoft.com.
After the site loads, click on the orange Download button under the Free basic protection.
A product comparison page will load, scroll down and click the orange download button under the AVG Anti-Virus Free column.
A Welcome to AVG Downloads page will load, click on the orange text at the bottom that says "Continue to download Anti-Virus protection only."
Another site will load and again click the orange download button.
Another site will load and then click the blue Download Now button.

read more

How To Make a Link

shand0 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:09:27 -0600

Links are the most effective way to get your website noticed by search engines. Without links to your website, it will not survive. The best way to get a good ranking with all major search engines is by getting high quality links to your website. Search engines like websites that have a high link popularity. In the following tips, I will explain issues related to link creation, like how to make a link to your website in other websites, how to make a link to an inner web page within your website and how to make a link to another website from your own website.

Places where you can add your link. First, I suppose that you want to know where you can make a link to your website. There are many places that accept a link to your website. The first and the best place to add your links is blog comments. You can search for the highest quality posts that have a good Google page rank and add a comment there, including a link to your website.

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How To Run Chkdsk on Your Computer

Matt Lamar — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:11:56 -0600

This is how to run chkdsk on your computer.

How To Find Free 3D Software

marcosriso — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:26:06 -0600

If you search the web, you will find a lot of software programs available for download. I performed a search and found five interesting 3D software programs. Let's comment on each one of them:

How To Share iPod Music with Another Computer

MarkSeydel — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:35:07 -0600

For quite some time I hoped for a way to share my iPod music with friends on other computers than my own.

I came across an interesting article that went into great detail about how to use your iPod as a storage device or other drive. This turned out to be disastrous.

I knew the concept was a good one, so I searched for a program that would do it all for me.

I came across the 100% free program - SharePod.

Before beginning this tutorial, there are a few things you need to know:

How To Design a Website with Dreamweaver

shand0 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:17:26 -0600

First, you should know that the designing process with Dreamweaver software is very easy and you can build your first website in approximately ten minutes. Yes, in just ten minutes you can design a simple web page that will do well with search engines. You should know that search engines love simple designs more than the complicated designs that have flash and other graphical layers. Follow the tips here to build your simple and professional website right now!

How To Create a Bootable XP CD That Pre-Installs Additional Programs

bhattner1 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:23:11 -0600

To create a bootable XP CD that pre-installs additional programs, first install WUCC. You need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed.

How To Create a Windows XP Installation CD

bhattner1 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:39:49 -0600

There are many operating systems available today. Most recently, Microsoft has launched the new Windows Vista operating system. However, it’s going to be a long time before Vista overtakes XP as the most popular operating system. Users are much more comfortable with the Windows XP operating system and continue to use it.

However, the installation process can be tedious. During the normal installation of the Windows XP operating system, you need to customize various things like name, serial number, network, etc. And after the installation of Windows XP, you have to install various drivers like sound, graphics and other hardware drivers, which can take a lot of time.

You can save a lot of time by making a Windows XP installation CD in which all the required drivers are pre-installed.

How To Add Photoshop Fonts

Lance — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:42:18 -0600

You want to use a lot of new fonts at Photoshop but don't know how?

How To Make a Moving Signature for Forums

Buballoo — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:27:24 -0600

Well, to make a moving signature, we should insert a HTML command called "marquee" in it. The code is the following:

How To Install Adobe Photoshop CS2

erinhu — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:26:40 -0600

Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Creative Suite 2) is a software that works with graphic design for the web and allows you to retouch or optimize an image. It was developed and published by Adobe Systems and is ideal for: Professional photographers, Serious amateur photographers, Graphic designers, and Web designers.

How To Be Faster Using Photoshop

Edireusjr — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:58:28 -0600

Everybody knows that the Photoshop is the favorite software for graphic designers. But this software can be a little slow when you're trying to perform simple tasks, like choosing a tool. So, I’m going to show you some tips that will help you speed up the creation process in photoshop.

How To Convert a Video File to DVD Format

Lance — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:38:57 -0600

This is a tutorial teaching how to convert a video file to the DVD format using the "Super DVD Creator".

How To Burn the Game Gears of War on Two DVDs

aleoO — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:26:00 -0600

The amazing action game, Gears of War, has a size more than 7GB. If you don't want to burn it on a DVD8, here is the solution to split it on two DVD5s.

How To Correctly Crop an Image in Photoshop

sbiddy — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:20:12 -0600

So you have your latest version of Adobe Photoshop and have been busy cropping photos – getting rid of all the nonessential parts of the photo. What you don’t know is that cropping can also delete data from your photograph and can compromise the image quality. Here are some steps that will help you crop your photographs in Adobe Photoshop without losing data and quality.

How To Create an ISO Image Using DVD Decrypter

vicfalmac — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:15:02 -0600

"An ISO image (.iso) is a disk image of an ISO 9660 file system. ISO 9660 is an international standard originally devised for storing data on CD-ROM". -Wikipedia

This means that you can create an exact copy of your CD/DVD-ROM in your hard disk. With this image you can burn your files to another CD/DVD easily. It can be even easier when you use DVD Decrypter.

DVD Decrypter is a freeware that can create ISO images from your CD/DVD or burn ISO images to your CD/DVD. You can download it at: http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/.

How To Convert AVI to WMV

aleoO — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:15:28 -0600

You have lots of AVI files and want to turn them into WMV files? I'll show how to do this using freeware software in a few easy steps.

How To Get a Free Office Suite

radioactive73 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:09:50 -0600

Ever wanted to open or edit an Office document but soon realized you needed to fork out $200 on a Microsoft Office suite? Thanks to the wonderful world of Open Source, you no longer have to! Sure it's not as fancy, but that only means better performance.

How To Speed Up Windows XP

TechieGuy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:55:47 -0600

We all don't like waiting for a task to be completed, and it's no different when we use our computers. There are many different settings that we can change within Windows XP that will increase the speed of your computer.

To increase the speed of Windows XP, use the following steps:

How To Bluetooth MP3s to Your Phone

sbiddy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:48:03 -0600

This will not work if you do not have Bluetooth capabilities on both your phone and your computer. I would also recommend that you use audio software to minimize your MP3 so that it is between 5-40 seconds long – putting the entire song on your phone will take up a lot of space. Also, be sure to do a save, as when saving the MP3, so you do not save over the original MP3 file. Now, let’s get started.

How To Make a Statue in Photoshop

Betty_Botter — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:07:51 -0600

In this tutorial we are producing a statue using a picture of a woman, a marble texture, and Photoshop with its layers options.

How To Speed Up Windows XP Installed on Your Personal Computer

pmzlabis — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:15:58 -0600

Before we begin, you must understand that adjusting your Windows settings is a risk on your part. Your PC's hardware maybe be damaged due to incorrect software settings! So knowing that a risk exists, this article lets you know only those settings that are safe for your Windows XP operating system. Follow the instruction below to modify your current settings:

How To Do Web Design Using Web Page Maker

pmzlabis — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:49:24 -0500

There is a lot of web design software out there on the market. But, in this instance, I highly recommend that you use Web Page Maker v 2.5 because it's free and so far it has the most user friendly graphical interface.

How To Install PowerPoint

Waheedaleko — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:19:24 -0500

Today we will learn how to install PowerPoint application software on your PC. PowerPoint is a very powerful software product offered by Microsoft for presentation proposes. MS PowerPoint has almost all the required tools you will need to prepare quick and professional presentations in no time. So let's get started. But before we do, I would like to remind you that this article assumes that you are already somewhat familiar with the Microsoft Operating system environment and that you have a licensed Microsoft Office CD and a well functioning CD drive on your computer!

How To Approach OpenBSD With A Few Tips

system81 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:15:16 -0500

BSD systems stand often on an unnoticed island, while Linux can be seen almost everywhere without people's knowledge of other alternatives. In version 4.1 of OpenBSD, users have a native port of OpenOffice.org and many other utilities that help to cope with problems that users face with open source software.