1.           HowStuffWorks.Com

Are you the type of person who loves to know how things work? Well if you are then this site has everything you could possibly want. You can search directly for the topic of your choice or browse by categories. These include Computers, Food, Geography, Adventure etc. Each topic is explained simple on easy to read pages with simple diagrams where appropriate. The Site also contains quizzes, puzzles, videos and Top 5’s and much more.
 
 

2.        SuperCook.Com

Wondering what you could you make with the food left in your fridge? Add the food items and SuperCook will provide you with a list of recipes that match.
 
 

3.        TripIt.Com

This great site allows you to store all your travel plans in one place. Airline, Hotel etc. no matter where you book. You can easily share and access your travel plans and you will also get notifications of travel delays.

4.        Drop.IO

Want to easily move files from one computer to another or quickly give your friends a file? Create a drop and drag files here for users to download. That’s it – simple!
 
 

5.        Scribd.com

Scribd allows you to Upload, share and publish documents. The real beauty of this site is that you can find a huge collection of books uploaded here. If you are thinking of buying a book and would like to read some of it first then the chances are it is here.
 
 

6.        PopUrls.com

The top stories from the top news/info sites on the web. Twitter, Google News, Twitter, Flickr, Digg all in one place.

7.        Aneki.com

The source for World Rankings of countries. From the richest to the most unstable to the countries with the best airports. You can find it all here.

1. Use the Search Tool

Search is the most powerful FaceBook tool at your command. It can help you find anything on Facebook such as Applications, People, Groups etc.
A great feature of the search is that if you type in the word of an item you are connected to , such as a fan Page, then the search box will display that item.

2. Filter Your Updates

If you feel that you are inundated with updates from friends, pages etc. then you may want to filter your updates.  Clicking on ‘Photos’ for example will show only updates that involve Photos . ‘Links’ will show only status updates that involve links. To go back to seeing all updates click on ‘News Feed’.

3. Find Your Notifications

Have you ever wanted to look at all your recent Notifications but didn’t know how to do it? Well it is simple. Click on ‘Inbox’ and then ‘Notifications’ and all you will see a list of all your notifications ordered by date.
 

4. Protect Your Privacy

You can adjust your FaceBook privacy settings on many areas such as how your appear in searches or who can see information on your profile page. To change these settings simply click on “Settings” and then “Privacy Settings”. Then you can select one of four areas and from here use change the settings if necessary.

5. Become Invisible

Want to use FaceBook without other users seeing that you are online? Click on “Chat” on the bottom toolbar select ‘Options’ and then ‘Go Offline’ and you will be invisible to other users. To become visible again simply click “Chat”.

6. Remove Unwanted Comments

Have you ever wanted to remove a comment you or another user made on your wall? It couldn’t be easier! Place the cursor over the comment and the “Remove” button will appear. Click on the button and the comment will be removed.

7. View All Your Friends Phone Numbers

How would you like to get a quick list of all your Facebook friends phone numbers without going into each individual profile? Click ‘Friends’ and then ‘Phonebook’ and a list of your friends with their phone numbers will appear. Note: If your friends have not entered a phone number in their profile then they will not appear in the list.

• Access ANY photo with just a couple of mouse clicks?
• Stop feeling overwhelmed at the thought of sorting your photos?
• Reduce the time spend organising your photos to almost zero?
• Add hundreds of new photos to your collection and still retrieve any photo in seconds?
• Feel safe in the knowledge that if you computer crashes your photos are safe?

If you have answered “Yes!” to any of these questions then follow the ten simple tips below and take control of your photo collection today!

1. Choose a folder to place you photos

The default ‘Pictures’ folder in Vista is a great one to use. Alternatively create your own and give it a personalised label like c:\Your Name.
 

2. Create a simple logical folder layout and stick to it

Once you have selected a place for your photos, create a simple structure within that folder like the one in the diagram below and stick to it. Remember that your digital photo collection is only going to keep growing. Using this simple layout will enable you to add photos in an organised way.

Figure 1 Organised folder layout

3. Remove duplicates

You might have several copies of that perfect photo of you standing under the Eiffel Tower stored on your hard drive. But you only need to keep the original. If you can’t choose which to get rid of, keep the best and delete the rest.
 

4. Do not store photos on your desktop

While there is nothing actually wrong with storing photos on the desktop it is usually a sign of two problems. You may have actually created a duplicate of your photo without realising it. Or you may have stored your photos in lots of different places. If you wish to access your photos from the desktop, simply create a shortcut to your photo or to your picture folders.
 

5. Individually rename your photos.

Having a photo called DSC00633.jpg is not going to be very helpful for identification purposes. Give it a more meaningful name like JohnNewYork2007.jpg. If you’re pressed for time, Vista enables you to select all the files in a folder and rename them all at the same time. This gives your files names like JohnNewYork2007(1).jpg, JohnNewYork2007(2).jpg, which is not perfect but it is much better than having no name.
 

6. Give a meaningful name to a changed photo

If you are creating a different version of the same photo then rename the new version to something meaningful. Eg. JohnSydney.jpg to JohnSydneySmall.jpg or JohnSydneyCartoon.jpg.
 

7. Use a free application like Picasa or Windows Photo Viewer for managing your photos

If you are new to digital photos then Picasa is a great place to start. It will scan your drives and load all your photos. Then you can edit, upload, create Slideshows, Collages etc. with whatever photos you like.  Alternatively, you can use the Windows Photo Viewer in Vista, which is also very useful.
 

8. Use Tags to easily filter your photos.

With Picasa and Windows Photo Viewer you can add tags to photos. Tags are keywords that can be used to identify your photo. For example if you used the tag ‘sunset’ on certain photos, they will come up when you search for sunset-themed pictures. You can add multiple tags to one photo, or group photos with a similar theme under one tag.

Tags are not essential and you may never need them. However, if you reference your photos regularly then tags can be an extremely effective means of organising your photo collection.
 

9. Organise as you add new photos to your computer

The time to create folders, rename, add tags, etc. is when you are adding new photos to your collection. If you are pushed for time, store them in a folder with a logical name, so you can easily find them again.
 

10. Keep a backup your photos

Remember, hard drives can crash and are not always recoverable. You can store your photos to external hard disks, DVD’s and other external media. If you store your photos to a DVD it is a good idea to store this in a different physical location than your computer.

Another way of keeping backups of your photos is to  use a cheap online storage site. One of the best ones is ElephantDrive. You can safely backup you files here from as little as five dollars(about four euros) a month for unlimited storage. They also give a fifteen day free trial if you want to try them out before you buy.
 

Summary

While these steps may appear simplistic, following them to the letter will make sorting and finding your photos effortless. Get your photo collection sorted today and give yourself peace of mind for the future.

1. Use Simple Retrieval

Recent Items

If you want to retrieve a recently used file then you can find it in two places.

i. “Recent Items” – This option on your start menu stores a list of the last files you have used. Select the file you want from this list.

ii. Open the application that you used to create or edit the file. On the bottom of the file menu there is a list of recently used files.

So why is it that sometimes the file I am looking for is not in either of these places?

There are two possible reasons for this. First is that if you have opened a lot of files you may have pushed the file you require from the list. Second if you using a ‘Cleaning’ software application this may have emptied your lists.

Recent Items Expanded

Not many people know this but Windows Vista stores a more comprehensive list of recently accessed files. Open Windows Explorers and in the ‘Favorite Links’ click on ‘More’ and then ‘Recently Changed’. This will open a more another list of recent items. There are also folders with lists of recent emails, music etc. If your file is not in the above ‘Recent Items’ list then there is a good chance it is here.

Figure 1 The 'Recently Changed' Folder

2. Unleash the Search Tool

Basic Search

The Windows Explorer Search(see Figure 2 Search ) is an excellent way for you to find a file. Simply type part or all of the filename and click on the magnifying glass icon. Windows will then search the current folder and all its’ subfolders for all the files whose names contain the text you entered.

Figure 2 Search

Search Entire Computer

If you want to search your entire computer then click on Desktop and then enter your search text in the box. If you do not know the full name of the file just type in the part you know and a list of similar file names will be displayed.
 

Go to Folder of File

Sometime you may want to open the actual location of the  file that was found in your  search. This is easy. Just right click on the file name and select ‘Open file location’. This will open a new Windows Explorer displaying all files in that folder.
 

‘Recently Modified’ Trick

If you do not know the filename then try the following trick. Click on Desktop and then Click on the magnifying glass to search. This will bring up a list of all the files on your computer. If you click on the Date Modified column this will give you a list of the files you have changed ordered by date.
 

3. Make Your Life Easy

Why not make your life easier? Just follow the simple steps outlined and you will dramatically cut back on the time you spend looking for files.
 

Use logical folder layouts

Create a logical folder layout and when you create or receive new files store them here in their correct place. This will make it easy for you to navigate through your files and cut down on unnecessary searches.

Figure 3 Folder Layout

Know Where You Are Saving A File

The ideal place for you to save a file is in a logical folder layout like the one above. At the very least know the location where you saved it. In the ‘Save As’ dialog click on the down arrow to see the full location(Figure 3 Save As Dialog). If this is not a good location then select one that will make it easier for you to find the file in the future.

Figure 4 'Save As' Dialog

Create A Shortcut

If you access a folder or file regularly then create shortcut to it. You create a shortcut on your Windows Desktop by right clicking and selecting New->Shortcut. Then add the folder you wish to have as a shortcut and click finish. When you click on this folder it will open it up in Windows Explorer.
 

Create A Link

You can create a link in Windows Explorer under Favorite Links in the top left panel. Navigate to the folder you wish to have a Link to. Drag this folder into ‘Favorite Links’. Anytime you click on this link it will bring you instantly to that folder.
 

In A Nutshell

Use Recent Items to retrieve files you have been using recently.
Use Search to find a file if you do not know where you have stored it.
Use logical folder layouts to make retrieving your files easier.
Use shortcuts to access files and folders that you regularly access.

Imagine you have a special room for storing your stuff. In this room everything is stored in folders. For example you have folders for your photos, music, documents etc. In each of the main folders you can have other folders to make things easy to find.

For example the ‘Photos’ folder could contain a folder called ‘Travel’ which contains you travel photos. This folder could contain the folders ‘Australia 2009’, ‘New York 2006’ etc.

What is a computer file?

A file is a collection of data that may be used for a specific purpose by a computer application.  A digital photo is an example of a file. If you open a photo file with an application like ‘Photo Viewer’ it will read the data from the file and display it as a photo.

What are other examples of files?

You can have files of photos, music, word documents, spreadsheets, videos, or electronic books.

How can I tell which file does what?

The last three letters of a file name(known as the file extension) identify the type. Examples include jpg (photo), mp3(music), avi(video), doc(word document), xls(spreadsheet), pdf(E-Books). When you use Windows Explorer a description of the file type is normally given in a column next to the file name. If you double click on a file Windows will open an appropriate application for that file.

What Is My Hard Disk?

Your hard disk(also called hard drive) is where all of your files and folders are stored.

Where else can I store Files and Folders?

Other media storage types are memory sticks, external hard drives, memory cards, CD’s, DVD’s etc.  Windows Explorer identifies each storage device with a letter. Your main hard drive is normally represented by C:

What Are Folders?

Folders are used to hold files so that they can be stored in a organised manner. Folders can also contain other folders. A folder in another folder is called a subfolder. An example would be C:\Photos\Travel\Greece. Here you Photos folder would contain a Travel folder which contains a Greece folder which would contain all your photos relating to Greece.

What is Windows Explorer?

This is the free Windows application that is used to view and manage your drives, folders and files.

There are lots of Icons on my Desktop. Are these files or folders?

Most of the icons you see here are actually what are known as Shortcuts. A Shortcut Icon has a small arrow in the bottom left. Files and Folders can be stored on the desktop but it is not recommended.

What are Shortcuts?

Shortcuts are a quicker way to access applications, files or folders. For example if you have a Icon on your desktop for the Microsoft Word application this actually represents a shortcut to the application. If there was no shortcut then each time you wished to run word you would have to go to the file location of the executable file and click on it.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Winword.exe.

Clicking on a Shortcut will perform the same result as clicking on the actual file or folder that the Shortcut represents.

What are shortcuts to Applications?

Application Shortcut  are either preinstalled in Windows or added by an application that you install. This shortcut can be created by the user on the desktop. They are found on your Start Menu, Start Bar, and Desktop. They are a simple way of quickly launching an application.

What are shortcuts to Files?

File Shortcuts will open a file in the default application the same as if you had clicked on the actual file in Windows Explorer. This shortcut can be created by the user on the Desktop. The Start Menu contains a menu called Recent Items. This is a list of Shortcuts to the most recent files you have used.

What are shortcuts to Folders?

These will open a folder the same as if you clicked on the actual folder in Windows Explorer. This shortcut can be created by the user on the Desktop. In Windows Explorer you may see ‘Documents’ or ‘My Documents’ which has a different appearance to a normal folder. These are shortcuts to folders – in this case the actual folder is normally C:\users\Username\Documents where Username is the user who is currently logged on.

In a Nutshell

Folders are used to hold files on a storage medium such as the hard drive.

Shortcuts are quick ways to open files/folders/Applications.

Windows Explorer is the application used for managing files.