Tech Tips - Tips you have learned or wish to share with fellow members.
Hardware
Software
Hardware
- Peripheral: When connecting a usb external video card for the first time, install the drivers first. Then connect the device to the usb port. This tip is the same for Mac, Win., Linux.
- Printer: When installing drivers for a LAN/WLAN printer, do so with a cable. Many wireless printer drivers (vs. connected printer drivers) for the wireless function will not install properly and work correctly unless installation for the wireless drivers is done with the printer connected to the computer installing that driver. Access to a direct connect computer (that is left on all the time) is no longer necessary once a usb-ethernet adapter/module is connected to the printer.
Software
- CardIris: When using CardIris and any sheet feed scanner, these are two very important limits to know.
1. a PDF document has a limit of 1000 pages. A page can be an image or text of varying size. For example: 500 business cards scanned on both sides is 1000 images/OCR text = 1000 pages.
2. CardIris can OCR only 250 card surfaces at one time = 125 cards scanned on both sides. The moral of this warning is: don't scan more than 100 (to be safe) business cards at a time before exporting the results to either Address Book or another database. - Mac OS: When using the SLEEP command from your menu bar, check to make sure that the applications you have open are not sensitive to operating in the sleep mode. For example, if you put your notebook in sleep mode to move it 30 miles down the road, the time between using the computer may cause the processor to shut down. If your application is sensitive to that action, it may corrupt any document you have open. The warning is to make sure that the processor does not shut down in sleep mode, only the display.
- Lynda has an extensive library of tutorials for most Apple applications. You can investigate further at: www.lynda.com/
- Youtube has a marvelous collection of how-to tutorials. Pick something you want to learn and see whether there are Youtube videos on that subject. Videojug, eHow, and Instructables also have great videos on how to do or make things.
- If you consider yourself an inventor or creative guru, check out Make Magazine's website. Not only are there instructional videos, but there are also pages of how-to instructions, lots of links to fellow inventors and a web store that sells kits for some of the projects described in the magazine.
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