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{mosimage}This once again derives inspiration from Vaithiyanathan's "Laws of Workplace" - "A machinery can't be mastered until it is harnessed to the maximum extent". We are regularly using many useful softwares but we don't know much about them. These few tips are for most of the novice users, who can find it useful in day to day usage. This time the topics are about securing your files with Winzip, Minimising the Windows at a click, Printer friendly mail pages and Line breaks in Excel.

Winzip:- We all know that we use "Winzip" on day-to-day basis to compress the set of files to save the space anf for easier distribution. For your kind information, Winzip compression works most for MS Office files, while least on music and images. OK! We can use "Winzip" for safe backup of files also by secure encryption. How to do this? First Create a "Zip" archive. After that open the "*.zip", and along the toolbars, you find a button called "Encrypt". If you click it, you'll get a prompt warning about the encryption. Press "OK" and enter the password & confirm the same. Now your "Zip" archive is safe. Even though the contents can be viewed, it can't be extracted without the password.

Wizip EXE file creatingWhen you mail / send your "Zip" Archive to others, you are not sure whether the recipient is having "Winzip" or not. In such cases you can create a self extracting "EXE" file which doesn't need a Winzip installed on the recipient's PC. To do this, after creating a "Winzip" archive, go to "Actions" and choose the "Make .Exe file" option. You'll get an ".EXE" file which opens just on a double click. It will give the option to choose where to "Unzip" the archive. Click on the thumbnails to view the larger images.

Minimise all Windows in a click:-
Show Desktop IconThis is one of the problematic things when using a public computer. There might be many windows & documents open at a time, while your colleague needs the PC / some file urgently for a moment. Most of us I had seen, click manually each window to minimize. There is an easy way to do in a single click. In the "Quicklauch" menu bar, which is in the lower part of your monitor, there is an icon called "Show Desktop". Just press it, you'll find your desktop. Now from that you can branch into any place.

Alternately you can achieve this (If Quicklaunch tool bar is off at that moment) by pressing "Windows" button and "D" simultaneously.

To "switch ON" the Quicklaunch menu bar, right click anywhere in the "menubar", then choose "Toolbars" --> "Quicklaunch"

Creating Line Breaks in Excel worksheet:-
This is the most answered question by me in my previous office. "Mahesh, In the excell "cell" if I press "Enter" to go to next line inside the same cell, it moves to next cell. How to get a "line break" in the Excel? Simple, press "Alt + Enter", you'll get a line break in the same cell.

Increase / Decrease the font size in MS Word.
Choose the concerned text, press "Ctrl" + " ]" to increase the font size and "Ctrl" + "[" to decrease the size.

Emails: Most of the people struggle and fight with the computer while taking the print outs. There is a simple way to do that, and it is available with most of the mail service providers. You can find the "Printable View" in the corner of your mail. Click it, you'll get the "Printer Friendly Version" - just message alone without any advertisements / menus. Just print it. If you want to have a soft copy of your mail, save the "Printer Friendly Version". Only it can be saved, not the regular mail format. Just try the "conventional format", and see for yourself what had been saved.

Multitab Browsing:- I love Mozilla Firefox basically for its tabbed browsing. For me the security and faster loading are added advantages. What is tabbed browing? Instead of opening so many windows at a time, you can create many tabs (Just like many excel worksheets) in a single window. To do that click "Ctrl + T", you'll get blank tab. Now seeing its popularity, IE7 is also shipped with "Multitab" browsing.