Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

Archive for category office utilities

“Check” It Out

Apr 10

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in business services, desktop publishing, office utilities | Comments off

I have to order new bank checks. Have you noticed your bank increasing the price of printing bank checks, or is it just me? I forked over $50 for two boxes of printed bank checks a few months ago! Yow. That bit the budget big time. I used to get checks through some mail-order service, but after switching to another bank, I had to re-order through the bank first (to get the routing number printed, etc). Those checks are just about used up, so now I can get my own style. :) And is it just me, or do the mail-order check printing companies look a little scammy? There are so many scams out there… I’m too nervous to order from them. I really don’t like my financial information circulating across the globe, even if it is a small sweatshop in China or India. :-p

Well, now that I am in the market for ordering new checks, something just dawned on me when I went to visit the site– VistaPrint checks! I love VistaPrint! I order through VistaPrint for my business cards and customized gift cards… I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of getting checks through them until now, duh! Isn’t this design lovely?

The fonts are customizable, and they have dozens and dozens of check designs. They even have three-to-a-page checks and computer checks in sheets for the business. And you can do everything online, instantly– and special monograms are only 99 cents extra! The checks are a fraction of what I was paying my bank. I love VistaPrint!

I highly, personally recommend VistaPrint. I’ve been doing business with them for years. They are a reliable company– they’ve grown tremendously over the past few years– and they consider customers to be their most important asset. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all their products. And they have a ton of products! T-shirts, magnets, calendars, invitations, holiday cards, and tons more, for both business and personal use. VERY cool. “Check” out VistaPrint, I know you will like them!

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Word Count Website

Dec 22

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Blogger, conversion programs, office utilities | Comments off

I do a ton of writing, and some of the articles I write require a certain amount of words in the content. I love the Wordpress software for this– it has an automatic word count feature. I think this Wordpress added this feature in this year, because people used to have to use a plugin for it. It is one of my favorite features for Wordpress.

But for my Blogger blogs, I’m out cold. No word count feature there. I used to just copy & paste my articles into a special Notepad program, or sometimes Microsoft Word. But whenever I adjusted the text in those programs and re-pasted the article into my Blogger publishing window, the text would have all these line breaks and etc. Grr. It was extremely laborious to have to backspace white lines, fix all the text, etc.

I’m taking the long way around, just to tell you about a cool (and FREE) little online tool that will count your words. It’s easy and very fast, so I use it all the time, all day long. It’s the Cut & Paste Word Count tool. I love it! The only thing negative I can think of is that the author inserted instructional text in the box already, and you have to get rid of it in order to copy & paste your own content. It’s a tiny, but extra step that I’d like to see disappear.

Anyway, the site is good, it’s free, and it’s very convenient.

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A Cool Site For Us Forgetful Folks

Nov 18

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in email programs, free stuff, office utilities | Comments off

I found a really neat website called ReSnooze. It looks pretty neat for those of us who are, um, forgetful, sometimes. I have a big problem with forgetting things. And NO it’s not OLD AGE! I have so much stuff crammed in my little ol’ head that it sometimes goes irretrievably spilling out! lol. My kids love to send me IMs, and they sometimes send them with important news, like “remember to schedule that orthodontic appointment!!!” or “You need to buy a playstation 3 game for cousin’s birthday!” Well, needless to say, I rarely remember these IM messages. “EMAIL ME, kids!” I say. They’re getting pretty good at it.

I do sometimes email myself with important messages. But the problem is that the email is usually sent right away, and is received into my Inbox, where I sometimes, uh, FORGET that it’s there. So I find ReSnooze appealing.

It’s a free little online application. You enter in your email address, your message, and how often you want to be reminded. ReSnooze’s policy says they don’t share your email address with anyone. And it looks like the program is free to use (although I think there is a paid version coming up). There’s an informative viral video about ReSnooze:

It’s another very convenient way to get reminders. Check it out if you are inclined.

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Sticky Note Software Programs

Sep 25

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in desktop publishing, desktop utilities, free programs, office utilities | 1 Comment

If you are like me, you forget EVERYTHING unless it is written down. But my desk is literally littered with notes, papers, scribblings, and a mass of sticky notes. Wow, to think I used to be organized! And now, I do everything from my laptop. But I can’t go sticking sticky notes to my laptop screen. Whoever invented the “virtual” sticky note for computers is a genius, I tell you! I use mine all the time. Here are some neato (and free) sticky note computer programs. They all have varying degrees of features (like changing colors or not, choosing fonts or not, etc). Here’s a list of some of the most popular and functional sticky note programs.

Post-It Software Notes This software was made by the company that makes the real Post-It sticky notes. It’s cute and looks and works a lot like a “real” sticky.

Sticky Notes 2.1.3 Nice and simple. One of the top-rated at C|Net. It’s free!

Free Sticky Notes 2.0 Not extremely pretty, but it works. It’s a no-frills program and uses little of your computer’s resources.

Sticky Notes 2 Another no-frills package, but it works out of your system tray so it’s convenient.

Sticky Notes Free 4 This is pretty and you can make certain notes with higher priority than others (so the most important ones will always be on top). But the limit is 10 notes at a time on your desktop.

NoteZilla OK, this is not free (it’s 30!) but it’s the best sticky note program out there. So if you are looking for the premeir sticky note, check it out. It’s a verrry nice program.

So there you have it. Never forget your appointment or forget to buy fence installation parts! I know I won’t again. :|

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The Essential PIM for Management

Sep 11

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in desktop utilities, free programs, office utilities | Comments off

I’d downloaded Essential PIM years ago, but never really used it. It was a bigger program than what I needed at the time. That was then, this is now. Back then, I did very little organizing on the computer– I didn’t even sign on every day! Today, my laptop has become my most favored accessory. And I just can’t carry and keep track of all the differrent notebooks, sticky-notes, and other pieces of paper. So I downloaded Essential PIM again, and WOW I love it! C|Net offers the download and information here.

At first glance, it seems complicated. There are a lot of various views, and choices. It seemed overwhelming to me. But after I deleted the “sample” entries, it looked better.

This is basically a scheduling calendar, appointment notebook, to do list, contact/address book, and quick notebook, all rolled into one.

It’s FREE (my favorite price!), so there’s nothing to lose. I think whoever built this did a great job putting it together. It also saves your data automatically and will minimize to the system tray in case you need to access it quickly. I’m pretty floored by the program. It’s been working great for me. So I recommend it.

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