All PC Tips

What is Java?.

A search on ‘What is Java’ in google returns roughly about 329,000,000 pages. That is the popularity of Java on the web. If you haven’t read the history of Java please read it first here. Java was just meant to be a portable, platform independent programming language. But over the years it has transformed into a complex platform for computing portable software across different devices and systems.

Read more about it here

So what if you don’t have Microsoft Excel? There are many alternative applications to Excel. Here is a list of those alternate programs to Excel.

1. Google Spreadsheets: Google spreadsheets is  part of Google Docs. You can create spreadsheets or even open an excel file from here. If you already have a gmail account, you maybe already using it. Just click on http://docs.google.com to reach google spreadsheets
2. Zoho Sheets: It is also similar to google spreadsheets and is available at http://sheet.zoho.com. You can even edit and share the same file with your friends or colleagues just as google docs enables you.
3. EditGrid: This is an online spreadsheet service. This has all the features of Excel. Available at http://www.editgrid.com
4. NumSum: Available at http://numsum.com this application also enables online creation, sharing of spreadsheets.
5. Simple Spreadsheet: You can get it from http://www.simplegroupware.de/cms/Spreadsheet/Home .
6. Wikicalc: Get this application from  http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/wikicalc
7. Zcubes Calci: This is also another spreadsheet application available online.

As you can see all the above applications are available online in internet and there is no need to install any application on your computer. If on the other hand if you would prefer to install as an application on your desktop and use it, without internet connection, then you can use the following applications which are available as desktop applications.

1. Open Office Calc: This is part of the Open Office suite of applications.
2. IBM Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets: Available at http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/product_sse
3. Abykus: Available at http://www.abykus.com
4. Gnumeric: This is part of the Gnome desktop
5. Spread32: Available at http://www.xtort.net/officeandproductivity/floppyoffice/

Here is a list of shortcut keys in Microsoft Excel.

1. F1: Opens a help task pane
2. F1 + Ctrl: Opens or closes the help window
3. F2: To edit the text in the active cell
4. F2 + Shift: To write a comment in the active cell
5. F2 + Alt: Opens the save as dialog box
6. F3 + Shift: opens the insert dialog box
7. F3 + Ctrl: Opens the define name dialog box
8. F3 + Shift + Ctrl:  Opens the create name dialog box
9. F4:  To redo the last command
10. F4 + Ctrl: To close the workbook window
11. F4 + Alt: To close the excel program
12. F5: Opens the Goto dialog box
13. F5 + Ctrl: brings back to the first level of workbook
14. F6: To shift between help taskbar and the excel window
15. F6 + Shift: To goto the previous square in the open worksheet
16. F6 + Ctrl: If more than one workbook is open to switch between them
17. F7: To open spelling correction window
18. F7 + Ctrl: When workbook window is not maximised it will move the window
19. F8: To activate / deactivate extended mode
20. F9: Will calculate all the worksheets in all open workbooks
21. F9 + Shift: Will calculate the active worksheet
22. F9 + Ctrl: To Minimise the workbook window
23. F10: Will select the menu bar
24. F10 + Ctrl: To open minimised window
25. F11: Will create a chart using the current range
26. F11 + Shift: To select a new worksheet
27. F11 + Alt: To switch between visual basic editor and the worksheet
28. F11 + Alt + Shift: Opens microsoft script editor
29. F12: Opens save as dialog box
30. F12 + Shift: Saves the active workbook
31. F12 + Ctrl: To open the Open dialog box
32. F12 + Ctrl + Shift: Opens the print dialog box

Open Office is an open source software that resembles Microsoft Office in terms of features. As it is open source, tons of volunteer programmers worldwide improve and add features to it continuously. Some of the new features in Open Office are:

1. Ribbon Style Interface: When Microsoft introduced ribbon style interface in its Office suite of applications, it was a bit difficult to get adjusted to it. However, it has proved to be easy to use and has improved user experience. Hence, the same interface type is now available in Open Office as well. This is called Ribbon Style Interface 3.3
2. Thesaurus on right click:  Open Office now includes a context menu that gives useful utilities on right click such as Thesaurus.
3. Find Bar:  A Find bar has been included which enables easy searching especially in a large document.
4. Calc Sheet Tabs in different colors: This may seem as a simple feature. But when you implement this and use this in a calc spreadsheet you will know the real use.
5. Some of the other features are distributed SCM, SVG, Importer, Flash Animation, More fonts, templates, Clip arts, builders and much more.

While working with computer files we take copies of them and use them. But most of the times we forget to delete duplicate copies. Sometimes we save the file in the desktop or temp folders and backup folders. So multiple copies of the same file exists in the hard disk. This takes up hard disk space.

Only when we reach the hard disk space limit we realize this. But it will be too late to find the duplicate files. Fortunately there are some utilities available that can find duplicate files automatically and remove them. “Easy Duplicate Finder” is one such useful utility available from the internet.

You can find the file to download at http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com. This program does not affect system files and folders. Then it will show you a list of duplicate files and let you decide which ones to delete.

For those who have been working on a desktop computer for a long time and switched to laptops, the major problem is getting adjusted with the smaller keyboard. Another problem is when typing on the laptop keyboard, the thumb sometimes touches the keypad and the cursor moves to another space.

This problem usually goes away with experience. More experienced laptop users do not face this issue, as they get adjusted to the new keyboard layout over time.

However, TouchFreeze is a free utility that can be used to freeze and activate touch pad automatically. If TouchFreeze is installed, it automatically freezes the touchpad and when you stop typing, it will automatically enable the touch pad again. To download TouchFreeze goto  http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/downloads/list

Ctrl+Shift+O: To select all the cells with comments. If there are no cells with contents then you will get ‘No cells found’ message.

Ctrl+[ : To show which are the related cells in the selected formula.

Ctrl+] : To show the related formulas of the selected cell.

Shift+Arrow key : The selection will be extended to one more adjacent cell.

Ctrl+Shift+Arrow key : The selection will be extended to the last cell with data either horizontally or vertically based on your current selection.

Shift+Home : The selection will  be extended to the first cell horizontally.

Ctrl+Shift+Home : Selection will be extended to the first cell in the worksheet.

Ctrl+Shift+End: Selection will be extended until the last cell in the worksheet/.

Enter: Cursor will be moved to the next cell below the current cell.

Have you ever wondered how to cut and and extract a portion of the video from a large video file, CD, DVD and other video formats. Video Cutter software allows you to do just that.

Free Video Cutter is a free video utility to help you to cut and split your video files into small size you can use it as a "video cutter", "video splitter" or "video clipper". Program can work with most video formats, such as MPEG 1/2, MPEG4, DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, Quicktime MOV, Flash video and more, the output video can have a good video quality.

You dont have to have any professional IT stills, knowledge about all kinds of video formats, it is so easy to use.

Media files both audio and video files are available in the internet. The problem with these files is that there are many different file formats. VLC is a program that can convert video and audio files that are suitable for your IPod and IPod Touch and IPhone. VLC can also convert and split CD and DVDs into smaller files. You can download from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

VLC is capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

It has been a few weeks since, Office 2010 beta version is available for download. Microsoft is collecting feedback from these early beta version users to fix bugs and enhance various features. If you are interested in trying out the new Office 2010 beta version you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx 

The download size is around 684MB (32 bit) and 750MB(64bit) version. If you would like to download and try it then it is advisible to try in a computer that is not your primary computer. It is better to try in a computer that does not store important data.