1. E-mail attachment limits
In an effort to cut down on the huge volume of viruses and spam, many Internet Service Providers are putting limits on the attachments you can send or receive. Generally, the restrictions relate to size of the attached file and the type of the attached file. I am seeing many restrictions at the 4 to 5 MB file size limit and almost all executable files are forbidden. This causes a problem when you want to send a large presentation file or PDF document. The only way around this is to cut the file into pieces and send multiple e-mails with one piece of the file per e-mail. When the receiver of the e-mails saves the file piece from each e-mail to the same directory, they can then assemble the pieces. The best way to do this is to use a program that is designed for this purpose. One of my clients imposed these restrictions recently and I looked long and hard for a good program and finally found one. It is called Splitter and I like it because it is very small, works very simply and best of all, it is free. You will need to send the program to the receiver of your e-mail so they can assemble the pieces, but since it is small, that is usually no problem (send the zipped file that you download, not the executable file or it will be blocked). I wrote detailed instructions for the client as to how to split the large file and what to send to the person receiving the e-mail. You can download the Splitter program from this link: http://download.com.com/3000-2248-10132821.html?tag=lst-0-13
2. Shortcut Keys
Because I am always trying to leverage my technology more and more, I am always looking for shortcut keys that will help me keep my hands on the keyboard and not always jumping between the mouse and keyboard. Some of my favorite shortcut keys are: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to cut and paste in almost every application, Ctrl+Y to repeat the previous formatting in Word, Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I for bold and italics in Word and Alt+[down arrow] to drop down a pick list of options in many Windows applications. There is a good article on more shortcut keys at: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,109712,00.asp
3. Useful Resource – Cheap Tweaks
If you are as cheap as I am, you are often looking for inexpensive ways to do things. We are often looking to increase the performance of our computers and I cam across this article from PC World magazine that offered some good advice on free or cheap ways to increase the performance of your PC. Worth a look at: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,109696,pg,1,00.asp