Free Programs

Carol Alexander wrote ask if the links to free programs listed on our site www.pcdon.com have been vetted for being safe to download. Well, many of them have been there for several years with no reports of any problems - and we use many of them on our own computers.

However, if you're looking for free software via a Google search, it's easy to click on misleading links. For instance, I wanted to install the VLC Media Player on a new netbook, and typed VLC into Google. Well, I was surprised to see three "Sponsored Links" along with all the non-sponsored links. This struck me as strange, since providers of free software don't normally pay to advertise what they are giving away at no cost.

Nonetheless, I decided to click on the first link, which was "http://vlc-media-player.us." Well, guess what - my Microsoft Security Essentials software immediately kicked in with a message that I was about to download some kind of malware. So, I cancelled out of the download and clicked on the second "sponsored link" - and the same warning popped up.

So I went to old reliable Download.com and got the VLC Media Player there - with no malware warning. However, even there you have to be careful because Download.com often tries to nudge you into downloading other software along with the program you actually want. You have to watch each click very carefully.

Free Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Program

Speaking of Microsoft Security Essentials, since this free software became available a few months ago, several readers have asked about how well it works. Well, if you are normally careful to avoid suspicious links and unrequested email attachments in the first place, how can you tell if it's your online behavior or your anti-virus program that's responsible for your not having any malware?

Therefore, seeing Microsoft Security Essentials kick in, as described above, gives me confidence that it's working well. (MSE is free from Microsoft.com.)

Creating a Desktop Icon

Bill Morgan called to say he has a letterhead stored in his Documents folder and that he wants a Desktop Shortcut icon that will open it when he decides to add typing to it.

This can be done by opening the Documents folder, right-clicking "Bill's Letterhead," and choosing "Send To: Desktop (Create Icon)." This simple procedure applies to any file in any folder to which you would like a Desktop icon.

Writing One's Memoirs

Benny Broussard is writing his life story for his grandchildren and asked whether there is an easy way to mark places in the document to which he would like to return easily, without having to scroll through the dozens of pages he's created.

There are many ways of doing this, but the easiest is just to insert a character that would not be otherwise used in the document, such as, say, the pound symbol (#) or the equals sign (=). Then whenever you want to return to one of these inserts, simply press Ctrl+F to display a "Find" box into which you would type the target symbol.

This method can be improved by typing one symbol into the first place you might eventually want to find, two symbols into the next likely place, and so on.

This would make it easier to find the symbols in, say, the first, second, third, or fourth quarter of the manuscript.

Another thing to consider when writing for young people is that our grandchildren are part of a "communication" generation that didn't exist when we were young. Nowadays, typing "y r u going 2 class 2day – ill c u l8er" instead of "Why are you going to class today? I'll see you later." is considered perfectly acceptable.

I'm not suggesting that traditional syntax, grammar and punctuation be ignored, but I do know that short paragraphs are more likely to be read than long, rambling ones. Nonetheless, it's the colorful use of adjectives and adverbs that makes a story interesting and meaningful, rather than it just being a collection of names, dates, and places.

When writing a manuscript with several chapters, you can treat each as an independent work with its own file name, or you can continue writing from one chapter to the next, where they would all be part of a single file. Or you can do both, since word processing tools make all of these things so easy to do.

Doing Incremental Saves

One thing that is critically important, however, is to save your work frequently with incrementally updated names, such as MyStory-01, MyStory-02, etc. This means if you accidentally delete or overwrite, say, MyStory-12, the only thing lost would be whatever had been written since saving MyStory-11. Of course, it's also prudent to save your backups to media other than the PC on which they are created.

Most manuscripts are written with Microsoft Word, since it's the world's most-used word processer. However, many publishers will only accept PDF files. Word 2007 has built-in PDF conversion, and many free converters can be found via a Google search.

© Donald Ray Edrington – All Rights Reserved

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Don Edrington - Computer Columnist for The Californian and San Diego's North County Times

Senior Computer Tutor
Don Edrington

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