Month: August 2022

When and How to Use Mail Merge

It’s 4pm. It’s Friday. You’ve got the weekend on your mind and all you can think about is finishing off your work and hitting Shut Down. But just when you get ready to switch off, you’re asked to get 200 personal mail outs to every employee. Unlike you, the internal post left the building 30 minutes earlier. What are you going to do? Well, how about sending everyone a personal email using Mail Merge?

Using Mail Merge allows you to create one document for every addressee. And by adding placeholders for information that has to be unique to an individual piece of mail, Microsoft Word 2007 is just the program for the job. Sit back and let Word put the care into carefree.

There are some basic elements required in any Mail Merge: the document you need to send; and the details of the addressee the information will be sent to. The main document, for example a letter or an email, could contain information which you are sending to everyone – a blanket letter. The unique information could be the recipient’s address and the name that needs to appear after the greeting script.

Recipient information is usually stored in a central data source. A data source could be your Microsoft Office Outlook contacts’ list, or a Word table, or an Excel worksheet. This information is generally listed in columns and rows. The data source information needs to be structured in a way that makes it possible to link specific information with the placeholders – or points where the unique information has to be inserted – in the main document.

In a mass mailing, the fields you use are called merge fields, and they are the placeholders for the unique information that comes directly from a recipient list.

Now, using Start Merge in the Mailings tab on the Ribbon, you can follow a step-by-step guide through your Mail Merge including how to set up the main document. To connect to the recipient list, in this example, it’s easy to select the information from the specific Contacts’ Folder in your Microsoft Office Outlook program. Mail Merge offers further options such as selecting specific recipients – all of which are also easy to follow.

After arranging the main document, which should include information that will be the same for each letter or email, along with the unique information (personal details such as name and address), you can preview how the merged information will look. Again the wizard will help guide you through each step with prompts and opportunities to edit or amend any of the information and recipient lists. Now, after a final review, you can get ready to print or send your email electronically. If your task is not urgent, you can save the data, including the information the main document is linked to for the mail out, for another time.

To really get to grips with those last minute mail out requests, find out much more about using Microsoft Word 2007 Mail Merge and spend some time on enrolling on a recognised training course.…

Windows XP Freezing – What to Do About It

One of the most annoying problems is that Windows Xp freezes from time to time. Sure you can pay a computer repair guy or women and the problem will be fixed. The downside of this is that you don’t know what’s going on; and the next time you just pay him again for the same problem. Let me show you how to stop windows XP from freezing in a few steps.

Errors in Windows Registry The most common reason of pc freezes is that there are errors in the Microsoft Windows Registry. It is not recommended to try to fix it on your own. Working on and with the registry requires at least that you are a computer surgeon. Ironically enough window Xp registry errors are the most common windows does not come with an internal tool to fix these problems. There are a lot of registry cleaners to choose from, some excellent and some poor. Keep in mind that the windows registry is growing and growing. I bet your computer works slower since you have bought it? Keep in mind that a registry tool can do the same thing as a repair specialist but it is cheaper and you can use the software over and over again.

Windows updates Installing windows updates is not a guarantee that your computer will stop freezing but it is certainly an improvement. Normally security updates are delivered on the second Tuesday of each month.

Running to many programmes at once Often times programmes can use a lot of RAM and overload our system’s resources. You can run fewer programmes at a time or even better you can increase your Random access memory.

In order to fully get rid of a freezing computer you need to remove all spyware, adware, malware, trojan horses and viruses as well. Also check hardware errors or conflicts with the driver as well.…

Why Do We Call Software “Software”?

The word “software” has actually been in use for decades before the invention of the computer – it was actually coined in 1851 in the cotton and wool mills of North West England to describe clothing and cloth which had a superior finish – it was quite literally soft wear.

The modern source of the term, “software”, dates back to 1960 and was used to describe the programs which were run on a computer, itself termed “hardware”.

Hardware was a term borrowed from the tools, plant and machinery vendors who referred to their goods as “hardware”, as in the hardware store – a popular term used widely in society those perhaps less today. In the pre-computer era, hardware was more likely to be used to refer to a hammer or circular saw than an electronic gadget.

The first use of hardware as it applies to computers and peripherals is thought to have originated from the NASA rocket development teams who designed, built and tested the rockets and systems which would one day take men to the moon. Software was used a natural distinguishing term to separate the essential differences between the tangible, physical electronics and the programs and applications designed to operate upon them.

The term “software engineer” was instituted at NASA as well, and this designation spread throughout the military and scientific community in North America and from there to the rest of the world. The term software was also used to impose a feeling of inferiority upon programmers – it was not a badge of honor or respect when it was initially used. At this time in the fast but very new development of the computer, the hardware was considered to be much more important and far more valuable than the programs which would run on them.

Companies such as IBM built themselves into huge conglomerates based solely on the value they saw in the hardware they were manufacturing. It took a visionary geek, who had dropped out of Harvard. to see the error in this way of thinking, and he along with some of his close friends managed the deal of the millennium – his name is Bill Gates.

Microsoft was founded as a software house and the big break for the company came when IBM negotiated to use Microsoft’s Disk Operating System (DOS) on its machines. During the meeting which sealed the deal, Gates asked if his company could retain ownership of the software, and IBM readily agreed – they saw no value in it, indeed, at this time you couldn’t even obtain a patent for software of any description (the US Supreme Court did not rule that software could be patented until 1981).

Microsoft went on to market DOS worldwide, including to IBM clone manufacturers who undercut “Big Blue” with cheaper, but equally well performing machines. Possessing ownership of the operating system gave Microsoft a worldwide advantage over any other software application developer because to run well on a machine powered by DOS; if the application software would not run well with DOS, it didn’t sell.

Today, Microsoft is larger than IBM – software has triumphed over hardware.…

What Does Hosted Exchange Mean to Small Businesses?

Once again, I heard a colleague complaining about having issues accessing his e-mail while he was doing extra work from home. He couldn’t call his IT person as it was late in the night and most of the input he required was in his Outlook software – on his faulty computer. Have you ever encountered such issue?

As a business decision maker in a small business, you want your employees to have the necessary IT tools to allow them to perform well. My advice to this unlucky colleague was to ask for his company to move to Hosted Exchange 2010 – with a Hosted solution, he would have been able to finish his project that night simply by using another computer.

Challenges a business owner may face when using an in-house Exchange solution

From the small business owner’s point of view, installing and managing his own exchange server can be expensive: he has to hire an IT person (or assign the IT-related task to someone else, thereby lowering the quality of service that will be provided) and then he has to budget for acquiring software licenses as well as buying high-end servers. As if that wasn’t enough, after approximately three years he’ll have to upgrade everything and reinvest again. Moreover, as technology is evolving, users (the sales team for example) would require access to their collaboration tools from other devices such as their smartphones or other computers. While that would help attaining best sales results, the small business owner would have to hire a specialized service provider for implementing that feature, this means additional cost to bear.

What does Hosted Exchange mean to you?

What if, as a small business owner, you could find a solution where all the techie things would be done for you, while keeping your budget requirements low and foreseeable? As a bonus, you can even get your employees to access your collaboration tools from anywhere and everywhere and from any device – forget about that failing computer that prevented you from finishing a late-night catch-up project. Wouldn’t it make your business efficiency higher? You can have a Hosted Exchange 2010 solution that deploys all the features that you need without the technical headache. Do you remember that project that my colleague couldn’t finish late at night? With a Hosted Exchange solution, my colleague could have used another computer, resumed his work and if it was an issue with his mailbox, he could have called an excellent support team to get the problem fixed asap. He’d be back on track in a matter of time. Finally, your employees can have secure access to the Exchange’s collaboration tools even when they are traveling, or visiting clients – they can even do it from any device: their laptop, a smartphone or a tablet- all with no additional cost.…