Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Microsoft Office is a pretty big chunk of change for a word formatting and spreadsheet right? It’s $149 at my local computer store.
Or would you rather have a generic version for free? It also saves as “word 97-2003” so you can always make sure your friends and colleagues get a version you send that does open.
Open Office offers word documenting , spreadsheet, presentation, draw, database and a math program. You can also open other “Word documents” in Open Office Writer and save back and forth.
-Free-Looks and feels like Microsoft Word
-Opens Microsoft Word documents
-Creates PDF’s without a writer
-Compatible on XP and Vista
It’s a fairly easy installation, of course…call or ask me any questions!
Have a great Tuesday!
Lisa
Yes folks, you have to clean inside your computer (not if you have a laptop, but we’ll touch on that later).
Clean inside my computer????
Yes, I said it! Do you know what the inside of your computer looks like? It’s a metal box with parts all over it connected by a huge board called “the motherboard” or (fatherboard as the ladies like to call it).
If you are interested in seeing what’s going on and how many dust balls are in that box, let’s take off the cover or “shell” as geeks call it and find out! (reminder…if you have pets, expect A LOT of dust and fur!)
1.) Unplug all cords! This machine must not be connected to any power.
The cover will come off easy if you have a Dell.
The cover will be probably harder if you have another model.
Usually there are clips on the Dells that snap and you slide off half the case, it’s not just as simple as opening a box, but it will slide open.
For other models, you may have to unscrew some of the exterior screws. Sometimes half the cover comes off, other times the whole thing will come off and there you will be seeing your computer naked!
Most people I have seen clean out their computer, just get a vacuum and suck all the dust balls out. (even I do that usually…) But…there are some concerns with that. Electric static can zap your computer and fry some of the pieces. So for you “Average Jane”…I just recommend just hand grabbing all the big pieces. Then after you have them picked out, just grab a paper towel and start wiping the rest out. You will especially want to get the back area where the power fan is, and where you plug in your internet cords, monitor, etc. Those are very dusty! (as they are so close to the fur and dust in your house).
After you find it all clean and good to go, put the cover back on and plug it all back in. Your computer will not run faster or better, but I have seen some really scary fur balls in one of my computers and I feared fur fire LOL. Never know….it was a huge furball.
LAPTOP USERS
Nope, you can’t just take it all apart and dust it out…but you can clean the keyboard and I do recommend that. Why? Because the keyboard is a part of the “machine” unlike a regular computer that has it detached. Keeping your keyboard clean will help keep your laptop working especially after warranty. Just get a can of dust air and give it a good “spraying down” and then check for huge crumbs and what not. A cookie crumb can cause a key to stick and give you hours of drama….so just check that out on occasion and you’ll be in great shape!
If you have any questions about this or want Call That Girl to do a regular computer cleaning and show you how to dust out your computer, call 612-865-4475 for an appt.
Enjoy your Wed!
Lisa
So many of you out there have told me shyly…”nope, I never back up my data”
Well, it’s pretty easy these days, not that it was ever that hard, but it can be confusing. What do you back up? What is that important that if your computer crashed, you will be crying for days over it being lost?
Pictures? Family, friends, travels??? Yep, those are VERY important! Most people never back up those pictures.
Music? Yeah, all those hours of downloading your cd’s to the computer would be gone too.
Word, Excel, Quicken and your email? Your emails may be the most important, but anything you have saved in Word, Excel, would be gone.
How do you back this up easily?
First thing I would do is purchase an external hard drive. I bought a 250 gig hard drive for $85. You probably don’t need 250 gig, but you may…it can depend on how many pictures and music you have on your hard drive.
But for safety sake, I can say that 250 gig is all you may need. I can assist you on figuring out if you need more.
Second thing you do, is install the hard drive. It’s usually as easy as just plugging in the cord to the computer, but each hard drive has a set of instructions.
Third thing, figure out where all your stuff is on your computer. Many people just keep it all in the “my documents” folder. I tend to be a bit more scattered and have my own way of managing files, but either way…you know where your stuff is right?
Go find that stuff, right click on it and make a copy.
Then go to the new external hard drive in the “my computer” window and right click “paste”
It’s really that easy. If you need more assistance, please feel free to call me for a consultation. Backing up your stuff can be easy and you should do it!
So you get the “blue screen” or “blue screen of death”…what do you do now?
If you call someone, you may get this answer, “It’s your hard drive”
Or is it…
I’ve troubleshooted many of these errors. Sometimes simple troubleshooting is all you need to do.
First I would start by turning off your computer.
Then unplug all your cords including monitor
Let the computer sit for 20 minutes
After 20 minutes, only plug in the ac/dc for the computer and monitor and turn it back on.
If it turns on and goes to the Windows start up screen, you may have a bad keyboard, mouse or USB external port issue.
Once it comes back on, if all seems ok…turn it back off.
Plug back in the keyboard and mouse. Turn it on again.
If it blue screens, it’s more than likely your mouse or USB port. If the end of your mouse has a circular end, it’s probably not the issue. If it has a 1/2″ thin metal end, it’s a USB mouse and could be the issue. Try another mouse if you have one.
If your computer turns on fine again, then test your USB plug-ins. (camera, webcam, printer, etc)
If then all seems ok, go in and back up your information/data right away.
Again….if anything at this point fails, it could be a hard drive issue. I don’t always think it’s a bad drive if it blue screens. Sometimes your computer just has a bump in the road and needs to be “reset”. The troubleshooting tricks above often help figure out what may be causing the issue.
USB ports can fail if you plug in a camera or another “external device” meaning…printers, cameras, webcams, etc.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. 612-865-4475
Many of my clients will call and say “I defragged, but it isn’t faster”…
Defragmenting a computer or “defragging” will not speed up your computer. I think it’s an old wives tale that comes from years ago when it probably did help the computer. But in these days, a computer running slow can be from many other issues.
What does “defrag” mean?
Simply put…
It means to clean up the fragmented parts of the hard drive (fragment means scattered bits that need to be put back into place that have been moved caused by uninstallation of programs or just Windows installation issues).
If you defrag, your computer will run more efficiently, but not necessarily faster.
*For a faster machine, you can have a computer cleaning done by Call That Girl. Charges run about an hour for this service.
*You may also need to add more memory. Especially if you are running alot of programs at once.
*As well…your hard drive may be getting close to full. With music and game downloading so popular now, it’s not hard to get your hard drive to max capacity.
Buying an external hard drive for the music is a great idea! (and you can back up your data there too!)
For a consultation about your hard drive, computer cleaning or anything else in regards to defragging, please contact me at info@callthatgirl.biz.
Thanks for Bloggin with That Girl!
🙂
Women working out of their homes on their own home based business, is BIG business! Many of my clients are just that…owners of home based businesses.
Are you taking full advantage of the technical needs to help your work day be much more at ease? Do you have an IT person to rely on for your technical questions?
Yes, even as a home based business, you do need to have an IT budget. You do use a computer and will have technical needs at some point. IT support is essential to keeping your business running smoothly.
Call That Girl offers a bit more “assistance” to the home based business owners than just technical support. I can also assist you with technical gadgets…
Do you have a smartphone? (Treo or Blackberry)
Do you have a business contact manager program? (Outlook?)
Are you Linkedin? (www.linkedin.com)
Do you use email marketing? (Icontact or constant contact)
How many databases do you use for keeping track of your clients and contacts?
Now you may ask…why would I need a smartphone? Do you travel to clients homes and need address/contacts/email with you on the go? Did you know you can download the map to a clients house and view it on your smartphone? I use those tools everyday when I have a home visit. It’s great to know that I have the info as close as my phone and do not need to boot up my laptop or constantly print all the information out.
Call That Girl today for a free phone consultation and let me help you get more out of your business day.
612-865-4475
