Google Buzz

I'm a big fan of Google, but they committed a major goof when they tried to nudge all Gmail users into signing up for "Buzz," their most recent attempt to establish a presence in the exploding world of social networking.

Google apparently assumed that all folks with a Gmail account would be glad to have everyone in their contact list get acquainted with all other Gmail users, by means of everyone seeing everyone else's email addresses - which is the exact opposite philosophy of using BCCs (blind carbon copies) so that receivers of bulk mail don't see anyone's email address but their own.

Google did provide an option for not signing up with Buzz - but it was hard to find - so many folks signed up unwittingly. Well, the backlash was so massive and immediate that Google quickly back-pedaled and made the Opt-Out option much more noticeable.

Social Networking Sites

Regarding social networking, I already have accounts with Facebook and Twitter, which I rarely use. So having a Buzz account is of no interest to me - at least for now.

Please don't misunderstand, however - I think social sites can be quite wonderful for those who use them with caution and common sense.

As a matter of fact, back in the late 1990s I was involved in a social networking site that didn't even know it was a social networking site (long before MySpace and Facebook existed). I met a number of wonderful people, several of whom radically changed my life. But that's a whole other story (which I may tell if anyone is interested).

Creating a "Signature" in Your Email

A reader asked how to create a "signature" that would appear at the end of each mail he sends. Not all email programs have this feature, but in Outlook Express click on Tools>Options>Signatures to create such a message.
In AIM Mail click on Settings>Compose> Signature.
In Gmail click on Settings>General>Signature. You can also add your picture to a Gmail Signature.

Auto-Response Message in Email

Edwin Ash asked how to create an auto-response email that would say he was gone on vacation or out of the office. Again, not all email services have such an option, but Gmail does. Click on Settings>General>Vacation Responder. Type in your auto-response message, and indicate whether you want it sent only to people in your Contact List or to everyone who writes.
In AIM Mail click on General>Mail Away Message.

Keep in mind, however, that having the wrong people see that you're not at home can be very hazardous. The same is true for posting such information on Facebook or other social sites.

Unwanted "Carriage Returns"

Eva Leger wrote that she has a lengthy document in which each line of text was ended with a "carriage return" (i.e. pressing Enter) and asked if there is an easy way to get rid of these line breaks so that normal word-wrapping can prevail.

Yes, Stripmail is a free program that does this beautifully, and it's available from our site at www.pcdon.com along with instructions on how to use the program. It also gets rid of all those annoying >>> symbols that often show up in an email.

Convert PDF documents to MSWord

Tim Kerr asked if there is a free service that will convert a PDF document to a Word document.

Yes, PDFtoWord.com lets you upload a PDF, whereupon it will be converted to a Word file and sent to your email address as an attachment. I tested this with a large PDF document that had as much image material as it did text, and it came back in less than five minutes as a perfectly formatted Word file that looked nearly identical to the original PDF - all for free.

Backing Up Personal Files

Martin Walters asked how to make a backup disk of all the personal files on his computer. Well, some folks like to burn their files to CDs or DVDs, but I prefer using USB-connected external hard drives, which are now available with a full terabyte of space for under $120. We buy ours from Amazon.com.

Insert a Checkmark (ü) into a Document

A reader asked how to make a checkmark symbol in MSWord. Click on Insert>Symbol to see many non-keyboard characters in different fonts. Checkmarks are in the Wingdings font.

Symbols can also be found in WinXP under Start>Run, where typing charmap (character map) will display all of the above. In Vista and Win7 type charmap into the Search box.

© 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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