Geeky Tips and Tricks: August 2008

20080819

Software: Kallout Easier Searching

Kallout: Make Searching Much Easier and Better

Kallout, a Windows application, is a great way to enhance your searching experience in the internet. You and most of people would go to search engines and type the phrase you look for in a search box. However, have you ever thought a way to search for a phrase you accidentally found on a page, without having to open a new Google or Yahoo page? Kallout is the answer.

If you highlight any text in many programs (including Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and Notepad) there will be an icon that will show up on the top right of the highlighted text

. When you hover your mouse over that icon, it gives you a menu to look up the selected text in many popular services like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, eBay and many more.

Watch this video to understand better.

Tips: The page will float on top of the page you are reading, so you don'thave to direct to a new, different page.

To download this useful software, you can click here.

Some screenshots..

Hope this helps.

20080812

Vista: Resizing Desktop Icons

Resizing Desktop Icons with your Mouse Wheel

In my previous post, I have discussed about the use of mouse wheel in resizing fonts when you are surfing the internet. Apparently, as discussed in the Digital Information, the power of mouse wheel doesn't stop there. You can actually now resize your desktop icons.

This video will tell you even more.

So, to do this is simple.

Ctrl + Right/Left Click + Scroll your mouse wheel.

Tips (or Warning rather): XP users, I am sorry that this feature only works on Vista. When I tried using my roomie's laptop (XP), this doesn't work.

Some screen shots..

Hope this helps.

20080809

Speed Up Windows Vista

How to Speed Up your Vista? Here is What Microsoft Suggests

Many people have written or asked me questions about problems that Vista has, especially in terms of speed. Slow computer system is indeed what computer users find really annoying. However, this is what I found when I was surfing to kill my free time last week: WINDOWS VISTA PERFORMANCE AND TUNING.

This is a final advice Microsoft has to help Vista users understand better some ways to speed up the performance of Windows Vista. This 14-page pdf document, will highlight some important issues like:

Power Settings on Mobile Computers
Disable Visual Effects
Adjust Search Settings
Windows ReadyBoost
Sleep Option
Disable Unwanted Startup Programs
Disable Background Programs or Services
Remove Unused Programs
Disable Unwanted Services
Improving Performance on User Account Control
Clean Things up with Disk Cleanup
Schedule Disk Cleanup
Defragment Your Disk
Windows Vista Experience Index
Performance with Task Manager
etc..

To download this pdf, here is the link.

Windows Vista Performnce and Tuning

Here are some shots..

I have not finished reading and experimenting all the tips though (my apology, I am a busy undergraduate ;p). However, i can assure you these tips are absolutely useful! I see some improvements since I applied some of the advice.

Hope this helps.

20080806

Google News: Find Quotation

Find Quotations in Google News

I like how Google put it in a review of Google News: Words Matter. As part of Google's mission to organize the world's information, Google provides quotations in news articles easy to search and browse in the Google News. It is now very easy for you to keep track of what your favorite politician, actor or sports star is saying.

This is a video to kick start.

This is the simple step-by-step method:

Open your Google News
Type the person's name whose speech or quotations you are looking for
You will see a quote from the person above the search result. Clicking on the name will bring you to more quotations from the person

Tips: you can even search within their quotes for specific topics.

Hope this helps.

20080802

Word 2007: Colored Background

How to Set Colored Background in MS Word 2007

Bored of the plain white background in MS Word? Using MS Word 2007, you can set the background to be colored with your own favorite color.

To show you a little bit of preview, you can watch this video.

So, if you already have MS Word in your computer, these are the simple steps you need to follow:

Go to Page Layout
Then Page Color (refer to image below)
Then choose the color (tips: try to hover your cursor to see the preview of the background)

Hope this helps.

20080801

Firefox: Definition Addon Answer.com

Find a Definition using Firefox AddOn: Answer.com

Are you still using conventional way of finding a definition of a word by flipping your thick dictionary? Or, do you still go to an online dictionary to find it? With this add on, you don't have to take you dictionary out of you shelf or open new tab to go to the online dictionary.

1-Click Answers TM will save you even more time with AnswerTips that instantly deliver the information you are looking for. Just point at any word, hold the Alt key (Ctrl in Linux) and a click. Upon letting go, an AnswerTip in the form of a pop-up.

These are the steps to get this great add on:

To download it, you can click here (tips: or, from you Firefox, go to Tools -- Add-ons -- Get Extensions on the bottom right -- then search for "Answers").
Once downloaded, open Tools -- Add-on, look for the Answers and click Options to customize it.
To use this add-on, bring your cursor to the word you want to find the definition, then press Alt together with a right click (if you choose to right click in you options).

This add-on, to me, is a must-have feature in Firefox. There are others alternative for this (Wikilook is one to name), yet I found this as my favorite to date.

Hope this helps.