Check Out Our White Papers and Downloads

If you haven’t browsed our website recently, I would like to invite you to do so. We have a wealth of information on many important and interesting topics. All of our papers are free. For just a few top papers you may have to share your email address with us and that will subscribe you to our monthly e-newsletter. But never fear, we never spam you and we do have great articles in our newsletter and you can easily unsubscribe anytime.

So, without further ado, here’s the link to our download and white paper section. Below is a list of some of our topics to whet your appetite.

Twitter Demystified for Business Users
Twitter 101
How to Use LinkedIn for Successful Social Networking
The Tangible Benefits of Blogging White Paper
AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search Compared White Paper
Advanced Digital Photography
Computer Network Set Up For High Speed Internet Access
Domain Name Spoofing, Our Candid Experience
Google Sitemap Instructions
Hawaiian Screen Saver–Free Download
How to Turn Your Vinyl Albums into CDs
Networking Basics
Washington DC Screen Saver — Free Download
Yellowstone National Park Screen Saver — Free Download
And more…

I usually do one big white paper a year and this last year my white papers were on Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have a topic that you would like to learn more about, just click comments below and I’ll consider it for my next white paper.

Creating a File Shortcut in Office Applications

windows-tipI think that you will love this neat little shortcut that I have been using, if you don’t know about it already. Follow the instructions below to add a shortcut link on the system file menu screen for any Microsoft Office Applications. Now, I just wish Microsoft would allow me to create these handy shortcuts from any Windows and systems application.

I’ve inserted an image from one of my file menus just to the right so you can see exactly what I am talking about. As I do not save my files in the My Documents folder, it is helpful for me to have shortcuts to file locations that I use frequently on the file menu bar. Here’s how to do it so you can save time too.

  1. Open the office application of your choice (Word, Excel etc.). Microsoft calls this file menu the “My Places” bar. Navigate to and select, but do not open the folder that you want to add to the menu.
  2. Click Tools and then Add to My Places. Your selected folder will now appear at the bottom of the My Places menu bar. If you don’t see it, right click on the bar and select small icons as it may be hidden for the moment or resize the dialog box so you can see your new folder.
  3. To move your new folder up to the top of the menu on the My Spaces bar, right click on the item you want to move and click move up or move down as needed.

I find the addition of my most frequently used files to be very helpful and only wish that I could do this in all my computer applications. I think that once you try it, you’ll be doing custom file additions to your My Places bar too!

PayPal Seriously Screws With AdWords Conversions

If you use PayPal to process credit card transactions and you are using Google AdWords to push sales on these products, a recent change PayPal has made will be seriously screwing with your ability to record conversions in Google AdWords.

I’ve just spent over one hour on this and was very discouraged about the change. Here is my letter to PayPal that I am posting on my blog as well detailing the problem.

*****

Sent to PayPal using their online Feedback interface

PayPal has recently made a change in the order confirmation page. It used to be at the end of the transaction the buyer (if the PayPal account owner had set this up) was automatically sent to the desired thank you page on the selling website.

Now PayPal has globally, for all customers, defeated this. Instead of being automatically returned to the selling site, a new screen is shown within PayPal with an order confirmation number and an orange button that says return to merchant name’s site.

In my case (I manage many AdWords clients) this means that if and only if the client clicks the orange return to website button will a Google AdWords conversion will be recorded.

If the buyer chooses to just close that tab and surf elsewhere, no Google AdWords conversion is recorded.  This is a very big problem for any client who is using PayPal and then marketing these services on Google AdWords.

As a Professional Account Google AdWords Account Manager I will not be recommending that clients use PayPal if they are promoting their items on AdWords. The recording of conversions is one of our biggest tools to understand if spending on AdWords is an investment or an expense.

I will hope that PayPal will reverse this action. You can contact me, Nancy McCord at 301-705-7303 or nancy@mccordweb.com

Please pass my comments up the chain as PayPal may not have considered this when they have made this very important change.

Fix Mail Stuck in Your Out Box in Outlook 2007 and Vista

If this has happened to you, as it has to me, then you know that there is literally no information on the Web about how to fix this thorny and aggravating issue – mail is stuck in your out box that cannot be deleted.

It appears that when this happens that actually Outlook has sent the mail, but has forgotten to move it to the sent folder. When you try to delete the mail or move it to another folder, you get the message that “this action cannot be completed as Outlook is in the process of transmitting this message”. ARGH!

For me, this is how I fixed it. First I renamed my .pst file to Outlook-old.pst and change the Personal Folder name to Old Personal Folders. Then I closed Outlook. On reopening Outlook, the application made a new Outlook.pst file. I went into File – Data File Management, and set my new .pst file as the default. My old PST appeared in the folder tree under the file name I had previously given it of Old Personal Folders. From there I copied or dragged and dropped in the mail that I wanted to save from the old Personal Folder files. That so far is pretty straight forward, but the next step is new.

When I opened my address book and calender there were no entries. In Vista you do not have access to these files so how do you migrate your calendar and address book? This is what I did.

Go to contacts – view – current view – Outlook Data Files. Highlight all the entries, using control key + A, then while they are highlighted drag them from the window to the top left to the Contact File that represents your new Outlook.pst file. You will know which one it is as when you click it, it is empty.

Do the same with calendar, go to calendar – view – current view – Outlook Data Files. Highlight all the entries, using control key + A, then while they are highlighted drag them from the window to the top left to the Calendar File that represents your new Outlook.pst file. You will know which one it is as when you click it, it is empty.

Now you can get rid of your old Outlook.pst file. Go to File – Data File Management. Find your old .pst file and delete it. Now you have all your information, a new out box and all your contacts and calendar.

Microsoft Clip Art Gallery and Free Images

This is a hidden tool for some people something they simply did not know about, but Microsoft does allow commercial (not logo use) of there clip art and photo images. If you have Office, then you have this tool – the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery.

Access the Gallery from Start> Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Clip Art Gallery. Then go online and load up your Gallery with new neat free images and sounds at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx. You’ll love the selection. Just add the items to your basket and then click download and run to load them onto your disk.

We use these free images for blogs, websites, and newsletter content. The EULA states that you can use them for commercial web use, but not for logos or things that are proprietary to your business. But that means you can use them for website images, brochures, and so much more.

Updated as of 7-14-18: Microsoft no longer supports the Clip Art Gallery. There may be other free images resources available online. One to consider may be PikWizard.

Outlook 2003 Missing Holidays?

I have Outlook 2003 on several of my computers and found that on one there was no entry for Memorial Day this year which is on the 26th of May. Funny, isn’t it, maybe you have the same problem. I found that Office 2003 may not be showing the holidays past 2007.

I found a fix at Microsoft. In my case, I was not able to just install the update. I have to change the outlook.hol file to outlook.old, remove all of my loaded holidays from within Outlook, download the update for holidays to 2012, and then re-enable holidays in Outlook all over again.

It sounds complicated, but is not really. Just click my post title to read the instructions, get the download link, and follow step by step instructions.

If you are not sure if you have a problem, go to July 4th in your calendar. If you don’t see the Fourth of July holiday listed you have the same problem as I did. In my case even having Office service pack three did not resolve the problem. My computer was up to date, but the holidays had simply not loaded and reverted back to the old holiday file. Microsoft addresses this specific issue in the link and exactly how to fix it.