Kev's Video Training

All future video content will be provided at www.getbusinessconfident.com

Every now and then Google has some technology in their labs that silently become very popular. Like google earth, picasa, google maps, etc. The Google Notebook is in my opinion one of those.

Have you ever come across some information on the web that you just wanted to excerpt or quote for research? May you want to track a list for prices or be able to quickly refer to a quick peice of technical/how-to instructions. Plus a million other uses.

You can have several notebooks, and divide each notebook up in to different sections. What makes this so interesting is that the images along with the text you snip appear in your notebook.

The downside? Well, if there is one, is that the information you snip and save from sites is not kept on your computer, but on googles servers. If that doesn't bother you, then come get googlefied!

For anyone who has ever held a post with administrative duties, you may very well know how important this can be.

Being able to perform a mail merge is the basic IT skill that any office environment can use. By using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, we are able to use a generic form letter, and personalize it with data from our Excel spreadsheet.

For example, lets say you run your own business selling lingerie. After awhile your product line will probably change, or you want to organize an event. This video will show you that if you have your customer list in a spreadsheet, you can produce one letter, but have it print off for each client ready to mail. What a smart way to be with your time!

These videos have proved to be very popular!

I wanted to give the test-type ones I have done thus far a chance to settle to see what will get the most demand. So, the next batch of training videos will go into a how to do a few different things. "Things" like getting adsense set up for search, using iTunes, and getting the most of your google account, as well as some information on removing virii, and making movies a la movie maker.

I will keep all of these videos to either standard XP Operating system components, or freeware.

This video is intended to display how to add or remove programs, or features of MS Windows XP. This is also a good place to look for any software that doesn't seem familiar. If you never heard of software listed in the windows shown through the video, (and if it has the words ad, removal, cash, assistant, marketing) there is a pretty good chance you have spy/adware on your system.

This would be the first place to look to remove unwanted software.

One of the lesser used customizations of Windows is the ability to change the sounds that play when you click around use a scroll bar. This video shows you how to change a sound that plays on your computer, such as the start up or shutdown sound. It also covers how to remove a sound completely, or add a new sound.

These various sound setups sometimes get changed when you install/remove software. After watching this video, you should be able to tweak any sounds on your computer to your liking. If there is something not mentioned in this tutorial that you still have questions about, leave a comment.

If you are the type who doesn't care for Start Menu clutter, or just want to learn how to better control your desktop, this video is for you. Here you will learn how to switch between the XP Start Menu, and what is called the "classic" Start Menu. Classic because it is the older start menu from windows 95/98/ME/2000.

I don't cover how to turn the start menu into autohide mode in detail, but it is there if you pay close attention. I used to be a fan of autohide, but then I found I spent more time scrolling my mouse down to make use of the task bar with it on. There are times when it is useful though (Movies, audio visualizations when you don't want to use Fullscreen mode).

I have found with a 17" monitor or better, I can increase the number of most often/recently used programs by at least 5. Give it a try. Is there something I don't cover in the video? Leave a comment and I will see what I can do!

This should probably be the second video in the series of removing startup programs. It is more technical as it edits the registry. Modifying the registry can be tricky business, so any changes you make you do so at your own risk! Don't say I didn't warn you (disclaimer: it's not my fault if you mess things up).

This will help you clear out those unwanted programs. It is also a place to look to clean out any virii (viruses?) that are loading up. Those will be addressed in another post. For the meantime, this is the place to look to prevent things like Quicktime, or useless printer software from starting up with your computer.

Chances are just after installing that shiny new photo printer that uses a usb connection, you got a bunch of extra software starting up when you turn on your computer. It's usally a very helpful toolbox you don't give a stuff about, or possibly a loader (loader?) for gamma rays or x rays and the like (bad joke).

If my jokes haven't put you off yet, and you can somehow digest the watered down resolution of google video, then here you are! Your first step to pepping that machine up after maintaining it is here!

Watch this video to learn how to remove basic programs from starting up with your computer.

For those of you coming across this page that are also pushing out information via video, there is a news group for you!

The Instructional Videos Google Group is a spot for anyone publishing video content on the net to get together and exhange ideas and hash out technical workarounds (Like getting iTunes to accept a google video!)

You just got your new XP computer and want to put that personal touch to it. The video here will show you how to do just that. The first thing most everyone does is change their desktop picture and/or theme colours.

Watch the video for a basic introduction on how to change the most commonly fiddled-with settings on a pc.

The best thing about these settings is you can't actually "break" your computer by changing them. In fact, for the most part, there are not many settings you can easily change that would make your computer unusable. Irritating perhapps, but still usable!

Whatever you do, don't install something silly that automatically changes your background. Chances are, the program you end up using will do at least one of the following: Slow your computer down, keep track of your browsing habits and report them back to the company, install adware that will pop up advertising windows, and just annoy you with pictures you don't like after a while. It may seem like a novel idea at first (and it is), but the risk you run opening up the security on your machine is not worth it.

So now that Google Video is starting to pick up pace, what has changed since christmas 2005?

One of the major pains until then was the fact that all video was streamed in such a way that downloading a movie was nearly impossible for the average bear. Certainly, there have been how-tos on the net explaining how to nab the needed url etcetera. All that doesn't matter now so long as you are fine using the Google Video Player

This is especially helpful for those of us on pseudo-broadband. You know, 256k, just over the dsl limit but still got subscribed. Besides that, who wants to restream a full-on 2 hour Movie?

Watch this video to find out how to best use the Google Video Player.

Computers affect all of us in some way. For those of us that use them, we have all had a computer "slow down" on us before. What gives? Well, a number of things. Usually however, following the above video along with being frugal over what software you install will almost always keep that pc of yours peppy and tidy!

By using two built-in utilities, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, you can ensure all un-needed files are tossed, and keep the files that sit in your computer well organised. This means less "junk" data for your computer to sift through, and keeping your files organised means faster performance (Even if it is only a little better).

If you have an old pc or small (less than 10GB) disk however, make sure you have at least 15% free space before defragmenting. Otherwise, the program will not have the space it needs to do its job the best it can.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2869021934408132056

If you are using Firefox or even Internet Explorer 7 Beta, you can subscribe to my RSS feed. Now anytime there is an update to this web page, you no longer need to visit my page for updates. Nice and Easy!

For now this is just a test really to see if I can make my Google Video content more easily accessible from here and tie-in iTunes podcasts.

Go ahead and pop on over to Google Video to see my latest additions.


Sorry about the tin sound and the ums. I need to invest in a quality mic and VMware. These are practices before starting better-quality (more thought out) in-depth videos. If you are looking for training on how to do something in Windows®, MS® Office, or a Windows® program, leave a comment!