The Soft Side Of My PC

Title: Make perfect copies of all your disks

Word Count: 634

Summary: How to make a carbon copy of your DVD and CD disks? Read full review of the all-in-one solution that can copy any kind of disks, both CD and DVD, including DVD movies and audio CDs.

Keywords: clone dvd, copy dvd, copy cd, copy movies, dvd copier, dvd duplicator

Article Body: DVD and CD disks became a part of our lifestyle, most of us have a significant collection of movies, audio CDs, photos, games, office documents and other disks. And it's very often that you need to make a copy of that disks, for backup purposes or simply to make a couple of copies of your wedding video for your friends. There are many programs that can copy your DVD movies, but very few of those which can copy all your disks, both CD and DVD.

Here we'll test a program called Clone My DVD, which claims copying any kind of DVD and CD disks. "Clone My DVD - a universal DVD and CD copier" is what we see on product's website, and we'd like to check is it really can copy any kind of disk?

Installation takes several seconds, the program is designed as a classic step-by-step wizard, it looks slick and clear. Choose disk to copy, it's a DVD movie now, and press "Next" button to go further. We've got two DVD drives on our test computer so the program asks do we want to copy directly from drive to drive? Yes we do! Press "Next" again and it started to copy. By default it makes one copy, but you can set number of copies as you like.

Come again, now with an audio CD. Clone My DVD does the job perfectly, we've got exactly the same CD, no quality loss at all! We did the same with a couple of game CDs, CD with photos, MP3 music DVD, another DVD movie, and one more DVD movie. All attempts were successfull, no hassles.

Then we tested how it works with a single CD/DVD drive. First it copies from disk to computer, then asks to insert a blank disk and writes a copy. It takes additional time, but the result is also perfect.

What we also noticed is Clone My DVD doesn't reduce the quality of DVD movies and audio CDs, which is good. In fact, you get a true copy, exactly the same as original. Clone My DVD is really able to copy any CDs and DVDs, and it doesn't matter what disk is in your drive, you get a proper copy with Clone My DVD anyway. We succesfully copied over ten disks, both CD and DVD, which contained video, MP3 music, CD audio tracks, photos, documents, free software and other stuff. It successfully recognizes various CDR/RW, DVD+/-R/RW disks and double-layer DVD movies.

There is only one feature missed in Clone My DVD. Regrettably it cannot encode 9Gb double-layer DVD to the 4.7Gb single layer, so those who're looking for this feature will be frustrated. But anyway Clone My DVD is still one of the best copying software we ever seen.

Free trial version allows you to copy up to three whole disks, the only limitation is copying protected DVD movies, which is available only in full version. Free download from http://www.clonemydvdmovies.com/clonemydvd11.exe

Conclusion

Clone My DVD is awesome, it can make a copy of all DVD and CD disks, even those are region-protected. You just insert a disk, press couple of buttons and get a carbon copy. It can copy to blank disk, make multiple copies if you want, and it allows to copy directly from drive to drive. All these functions are wrapped into a very clear and simple nterface, not overloaded with too many buttons and menus. If you're looking for all-in-one disk copier try Clone My DVD, which is like a swiss knife - easy to handle and universal at the same time.

You can find more information on Clone My DVD and download free trial version at http://www.clonemydvdmovies.com Get full version without limitations at http://www.clonemydvdmovies.com/Order

Title: Lossless Way to Automatically Fix Red-Eye in a Batch of Digital Pictures

Word Count: 754

Summary: StopRedEye! automatically fixes the red-eye effect in a batch of images. Its lossless mode modifies only small parts of the JPEG images, and has no negative impact on the quality of the processed images.

Keywords: fix red eye, redeye, remove red eye, digital camera, flash red eye, correct redeye, stop red eye, red eye removal software, lossless red eye

Article Body: Shooting outdoors using available light is fun, which gives good results with compact digital cameras. But have you ever tried shooting in poorly-lit rooms indoors, and using the flash to light the people? If you have, you might have noticed something strange happening with the subject's eyes, which appear glowing red on many snapshots. The 'demonic' look of your friends and relatives can make your photographs appear ruined.

But wait! Don't trash your pictures just yet! You didn't go digital for no reason, and one of the benefits digital photography gives you as opposed to film is the ease of fixing minor issues like this. All is not lost, and this effect can be easily corrected if you have the right tools.

You might wonder why the red eyes, and what's the cause? This common effect is officially called red-eye, and is a well-known phenomenon in the world of photography. It happens because of the flash being too fast for someone's eye to close the pupil. The light emitted by the flash bounces off the back surface of the eye, and makes the subject's eyes appear to be glowing red on snapshots. The red-eye effect is especially pronounced in children and in people with grey or blue eyes.

Professional photographers fight red-eye by using dedicated, big and heavy flash units that bounce light off the ceilings or walls. With a compact digital camera that's simply not possible. After all, it does not make any sense to carry around a flash that is twice as big and heavy as your camera!

Modern cameras are equipped with red-eye reduction modes that fire the flash several times to allow pupils to close, but honestly this technology isn't even remotely effective on small snapshot-type cameras. You're generally much better off using dedicated software on your computer to correct pictures for the red-eye.

"Oh, no!" you might think. "Would I have to spend hours fixing dozens of snapshots? It's boring!"

You're absolutely right! We agree it's no fun fixing multiple shots. To save time and effort, we developed a unique product that fixes the red-eye in all of your digital pictures completely automatically, and requires absolutely no intervention on your part!

Stop spending hours in graphic editors! No need to open pictures one by one, and manually select and fix the eyes! No degrading your pictures quality by re-saving JPEGs! StopRedEye! will do the job for you automatically and in the best possible way. It'll only retouch those parts of the image that need correction and won't cause the quality loss that would inevitably happen should you open your picture in an editor and save it again in JPEG format.

To fix red eyes in your digital snapshots, simply select them and click "Start Correction" in StopRedEye! The program will handle the rest - automatically. It'll take a bunch of photos you've just selected, automatically detect human faces, discover and check the eyes, and fix the eyes by giving them back their natural color. And did I mention that it all happens automatically? You can sit and watch, or make and have some coffee in the process - without affecting the result!

Every time you open and save a JPEG digital picture in an editor its quality is decreased. That's inevitable with regular image editing tools due to the nature of the JPEG compression algorithm. But why degrade the entire image quality if you need to fix just a tiny part of it? StopRedEye! employs a unique algorithm that makes the red-eye correction lossless. It extracts and retouches only the small parts of an image that contain the eyes, and does not affect the rest of the picture. Thanks to this unique feature, your image quality will not be negatively affected by StopRedEye!

Do you want some numbers? We analyzed StopRedEye! performance on a sample of 1200 different pictures, and are happy to share the results with you. StopRedEye! can find and correct red eyes in 98% of our tested samples. This means if you have a bunch of 100 digital pictures, you'll only have to deal with an average of two, and the rest will be processed automatically. In 0.1% (that's one in a thousand!) of pictures it can miss here and there. Each digital picture takes 5 to 7 seconds on a modern PC. If you have a hundred shots, you'll be done in less than 10 minutes!

StopRedEye! is available as a free evaluation download at: http://www.stopredeye.com/. Don't take our word for it, check out the StopRedEye! performance on your own pictures!

Title: Learn Management With Desktop Wallpapers

Word Count: 278

Summary: Learning over the ages has undergone many changes. In recent years many rapid changes have taken place, from classroom teaching to online education.

Keywords:

Article Body: Learning over the ages has undergone many changes. In recent years many rapid changes have taken place, from classroom teaching to online education. Could you ever think that management could be taught with the help of Desktop wallpapers? Here is how it is being done now days.

Learning - Let us look at learning. How do we learn? By reading, reflecting and thinking and then remembering what we have been taught. Mere remembering will not be sufficient because unless we reflect and think, we don't get the meaning of the message.

How do we learn? How do we reflect? We reflect by thinking about something over a period of time. That is why students look at their textbooks from time to time. At this stage of learning, desktop wallpapers play a big role in teaching. Management sciences can be taught with small headings, quotes and messages. If you wish to learn management with the help of desktop wallpapers, download them on your desktop. The text will always be in front of you. As the text is on the right side of the wallpaper, it will not clutter your screen.

Desktop wallpapers and learning - As the text always remains on the screen, the eyes take the information both consciously and unconsciously. Our mind keeps pondering over what is written and i estimate that it should take about two days for an average student to learn the lesson. Download few desktop types of wallpaper and find out your own speed of learning. This learning has many benefits. It is free. It is effortless. You don't have to devote extra time to it. It is easy.

Title: Keyloggers: How they work and how to detect them

Word Count: 420

Summary: To detect key logger spyware, you need to know what it is and how it works. Key logger is an invisible software program that identity thieves Artful Dodger use to track your online act.

Keywords: spyware, virus , key logger ,machine , software , computer , xp

Article Body:

To detect key logger spyware, you need to know what it is and how it works. Key logger is an invisible software program that identity thieves Artful Dodger use to track your online act.

You won't even see your machine slow down or see anything unusual. It just silently watches every keystroke you type in ad eundem if the identity thieves were standing over your shoulder.



Attackers who use key logger spyware often sell the information to third parties who Artful Dodger funnel money out of Bank of England accounts or accountability up credit cards. Hackers who use keylogging to get into one computer at a company have the ableness to steal vital information from the entire organization.

It is about impossible to detect key logger on your computer and even if you're Scotch you'll never know if it is recording information such ad eundem Bank of England a reckoning of passwords and credit ID card numbers.

Several businesses use key logger software to monitor employee act and parents Artful Dodger use keylogging to check up on the web sites their children are visiting. But in the hands of a hacker wanting to steal your financial information, key loggers are extremely dangerous.

Attackers who use key logger spyware often sell the information to third parties who Artful Dodger funnel money out of Bank of England accounts or accountability up credit cards. Hackers who use keylogging to get into one computer at a company have the ableness to steal vital information from the entire organization.

The aristocracy rule of thumb is to assiduously monitor what you download on your computer and what sites you visit. The major sites of banks and retailers are usually relatively safe. But abide acquainted of downloading free software from an unfamiliar site that could leave you vulnerable to a potential hacker.

Here are a few tips to protect you about keylogging:

* Use a firewall to help prevent a unauthorized computer act.
* Do not click ok on pop-up windows without reading them first.
* Do not open e-mail attachments from someone you don't know.
* Never open spam e-mail.

* Run a weekly, full system adversary-virus computer scan.

Computer experts say the number of keylogging crimes is on the rise after all there are ways to protect yourself . Detecting key logger spyware and destroying it Artful Dodger abide done abeam installing spyware protection software.

Title: Introducing Shareware: Download And Enjoy!

Word Count: 520

Summary: Attractive images and delicious descriptions are not to be taken for good as not all of them are matters of honor.

If you trust entirely product descriptions and users’ comments you can buy software assuming the risk of disappointment, because not every truth might be expressed in words, although words are able to express everything! Words jongleurs know that “like a veil before my eyes” sounds very romantic but not applicable when talking about investments. Sadly but tru...

Keywords: antivirus software, shareware download

Article Body: Attractive images and delicious descriptions are not to be taken for good as not all of them are matters of honor.

If you trust entirely product descriptions and users’ comments you can buy software assuming the risk of disappointment, because not every truth might be expressed in words, although words are able to express everything! Words jongleurs know that “like a veil before my eyes” sounds very romantic but not applicable when talking about investments. Sadly but truly: there is information which seeks to misinform! This is why even regarding the most unimportant issues you should keep your right to be posted.

Now we are talking! One of the most equitable ways to respect you time, money and well feeling is the solution offered by the shareware concept. Thus, before buying a software product, you are given the chance to try it, to test its usefulness and to evaluate its full powers. You have enough time to acknowledge every feature of the software program you are ready to acquire.

How does it work? Simple! First you download it from an internet site that allows shareware solutions, and then you use it for your pleasure. Don’t be shy, you’ll have to pay for it only if you get addicted and want to keep it forever!

Practice vs. theory

The best surprise attending your research is that theoretical description proves its value in practice. On the other hand, even the most detailed prospect is not able to give you a full picture of how a program works. Before giving money, you should know if you really need it and it fits all your requirements.

Actually, shareware is an ethical solution for both vendor and buyer; the buyer is not constrained to believe product’s presentation. What he gets is the software program instead of its brilliant description and even more: he can try out all the different products of a certain kind and find which one he likes best. The vendor enjoys the direct contact with users and opportunities to develop continuously his ideas, projects and plans considering customers feedback (shareware makes the feedback control simple).

No tricks, no cheating! If you consider buying a software product, you should test it first. Thus, it is in your computer, in your own system, ready to be used and explored as long as the testing period lasts: means long enough to get aware of its entire scale of features. It speaks for itself, and there is no better way to convince you that it works. It is completely functional with all available features included within the download.

Interested in software products? At CoreDownload.com you are free to test them out before you buy and if you decide that you would like to keep them beyond the 30 day trial period, you can order or "register" the program on our web site. After ordering you will receive a registration code that you can type into your trial version to turn it into the full version. You can see now, the expression that describes best shareware phenomenon is “nothing to lose, lots to acquire!”

Title: Information Rights management (IRM) Company, ERM Solutions provider

Word Count: 359

Summary: Seclore is an Information Rights Management (IRM) company that provides Information Security Management Solutions for persistent end-to-end Information Protection for Secure outsourcing, distributed document usage control and information security.

Keywords: Information Rights Management, irm, rights management, erm solutions, enterprise rights management

Article Body: Seclore: Information Rights management (IRM) Company, ERM Solutions provider

Seclore Information rights management provides information security for securing and tracking usage of sensitive information stored in distributed documents or shared with vendors for outsourced processing. Seclore controls usage of your data, wherever it is. Seclore recognizes the importance of securing intellectual property and provides effective solutions to address all information rights management needs of an enterprise.

Seclore has expertise in following areas

1. Information usage control 2. Information rights management 3. Enterprise DRM

It protects data that is contained in files, folders or provided to a vendor for outsourced processes.

Seclore offers IRM solutions namely:-

1. Seclore InfoSource

Seclore InfoSource helps to protect sensitive information outsourced to business partners for further processing. Seclore InfoSource protects the data to be shared with the service provider upon its creation, by encrypting it and applying pre-defined usage policies. The usage policies ensure that that the information is used only for the specific purpose defined at the service provider's location by a specific application on a specific set of computers within a specific time period.

2. Seclore FileSecure

Seclore FileSecure empowers individual users to be in full control of the documents' usage for documents owned by them. After creating the document, the owner can set specific usage rights for specific users and distribute the document with full confidence that the usage rights will be applied on the document every time it is accessed, regardless of where the document or its copy is physically present.

3. Seclore WebProtect

Sensitive information is available on the web, which if downloaded or distributed outside a closed group could result in huge losses. Seclore WebProtect addresses this by providing end-to-end protection for web content.

Seclore Information Rights Management uses encryption to widen the information management beyond the boundaries to every document of an organization containing sensitive information which is stored and accessed everywhere - on end user desktops and laptops or outsourced business partner.

Seclore Information Rights Management enables enterprises to be in full control of usage of its sensitive information regardless of how it is shared / distributed and where it physically exists. For further information you can log on to http://www.seclore.com

Title: How to design ebook covers?

Word Count: 468

Summary: Are you paying a lot for your ebook covers? Have you been searching for a cheaper way to achive your goal?

Keywords: software box creator, ecover generator, adolix ecover engineer, ebook cover, CD cover, DVD cover, cover creator

Article Body: Ebook covers and software box covers are the first thing visitors see on your website. If you create a beautiful cover design, your possibilities of attracting more users are a lot higher than the case you have a poor cover for your product.

The scenario of creating/getting a beautiful design is a lot better than jumping to a bad design in haste, which might cost you all your hard work and serious efforts in promoting your product. A bad design might not succeed in attracting potential customers to give your product a change. They will move on with their search.

Creating a cover design for your products can be a really painful job, especially when you are not sure what layout is the best for you. I looked around for a cheaper solution and I found cover creator software. It can be used to make your own funky design in minutes without any hard work at all.

This type of software is far better than spending hundreds of dollars on a professional design, and at the end of the day you are still not happy with it.

With a cover creator software you can now design a wide variety of covers, like ebook cover, cd covers, dvd covers, software boxes and even covers for magazines.

Using this type of software is pretty easy. The application interface shows you a cool 3D look with great camera focus, where you can rotate and watch the object movement in any direction by a click and move of the mouse. The camera position can be further adjusted using the X, Y, Z axes and the light color effects. Pictures like BMP, GIF, JPEG and even PSD files can be imported and used to enhance the overall look.

I checked a lot of products, and all of them have a smooth GUI, and I learned very fast how to work with them. Some of them have resizing options, which allows a user to specify length, width, height of the cover he/she intends to design. This way user can create custom boxes, from pizza box cover to drinks box covers. The shadow effect is very good feature and it gave a professional look to my cover design. Almost all products offer demos of their abilities, and even samples and templates available free of charge on the product website. All of them can be downloaded and installed very easy.

Multi language support is available for languages like English, German and French giving an extra amount of boost to the internet users around the globe.

I found that ebook cover software are a cheap way to give my products a professional look. Easy to use, I can build nice looking covers for software boxes, ebooks, CDs or DVDs, without paying for each of them.

Title: How to create Screensaver from Flash movie?

Word Count: 378

Summary: Have you ever thought your Flash movie would make a great screen saver? This tutorial will show you what you should do to create a colorful full-featured SCR screen saver from any SWF project.

Keywords: Flash, SWF, SCR, Screensaver, Flash-to-Screensaver, SWF-to-SCR

Article Body: Have you ever thought your Flash movie would make a great screen saver? This tutorial will show you what you should do to create a colorful full-featured SCR screen saver with great visual effects from any SWF project.

Complete the following steps to create a screensaver: 1. Open SWF Maestro SCR. If you do not have it, you can download it at http://tools.allflashtools.com/SWF_Maestro_SCR-review-140.html 2. Click New to create a new project. 3. Open "General Screensaver name" settings and specify the name for your screensaver. 4. Open "General Version info" settings and specify version, company and copyright info. 5. Open "Files Files for compilation" settings and specify a SWF file you'd like to turn into the screensaver. You can also specify a directory if your SWF project loads data from other files (XML, JPG, MP3, FLV, etc.) 6. If you want to set your own icon for the screensaver, specify it in the "Files Screensaver icon" settings. 7. Open "Files SWF Player" settings and specify the Flash player requirements. 8. Open "Files Final screensaver" settings and specify where the screensaver should be saved. 9. If you want to add a 'settings' menu for your screensaver, specify it in the "Screensaver Settings menu". 10. If you want to create an "interactive" screensaver that will terminate on ESC key or other key combination, use the "Screensaver Termination conditions" settings. 11. You can also setup the context menu for "interactive" screensavers using the "Screensaver Context menu" settings. 12. Use the "Screensaver Installer" settings if you want to generate an installer for your screensaver. An installer is the user-friendly and comfortable way to distribute the screensaver. Once started, it will automatically install the screensaver on the user's computer and enable it. If the user would suddenly like to remove the screensaver, he can easily do it using the uninstaller coming together with the screensaver. 13. Click Save to save the project. 14. Click Preview to preview the screensaver. 15. Close the Preview window and click Compile to compile the screensaver.

To install a screensaver in the system, just copy the compiled SCR file (including the DAT file if you choose to pack files separately) to the System32 subdirectory of the directory where the Windows operating system is installed. If you want to create an installer for your screensaver, complete the step 12.

Title: How to create a self running slideshow

Word Count: 481

Summary: Using the free Inzomia image viewer you can create a stand alone slideshow program with your images. This article gives basic step by step instructions to have you self running slideshow ready and running in a couple of minues.

Keywords: slideshow, image viewer, image viewer

Article Body: If you want to share a few photos with friends and family creating a self running slideshow can be a fun and different way to do it. I will show you step by step how you can create a self running full-screen slideshow that does not require any installation and that does not infect your computer with strange add-ware or other unwanted software.

Selecting photos First of all you need a couple of images to use for your slideshow. Use your favourite image program and make a copy of your selected image. Photos taken with a normal digital camera are larger than what can be displayed on a normal computer screen. Having larger images does nothing for the quality it only make the files larger and they take a longer time to load. Resize your images to 1024x768 which is what most people has set as resolution for their desktop. If you want to make a slideshow from a movie you can download Fast video indexer, and use it to capture movie frames.

Building the slideshow. When you have selected the images start Inzomia image viewer and add the images to the empty playlist. You can reorder images in the playlist by dragging. The slideshow will display the images in the playlist order.

Next, open the preferences on go to the slideshow tab do set how many seconds each image should be displayed. On the transitions tab you can select if the slideshow should have transitions and you can alter the transition type. If you check the “show transitions in navigation” you can try the settings by clicking on different images in the playlist.

When you have completed you settings click on the Save button. From the file format dropdown list select “Self running exe slideshow”, select a filename for your slideshow and click Save. You will be prompted with a dialog asking if you want a help dialog displayed before the slideshow starts, click “yes” and you are ready.

Running your slideshow Now close Inzomia image viewer, if the program is running the slideshow will not start. Find the exe slideshow on your computer and double click it to run the program. When you want to share the slideshow with friends the best is if you have a web server where you can upload the program or if you pack the exe file in a zip file. Many mailservers and firewalls do not allow exe files as attachments. This is to prevent users to accidentally install harmful software on their computer. The slideshow you created with Inzomia image viewer does not contain any addware or other harmful code.

Creating a self running exe slideshow with Inzomia image viewer is so simply anyone can do it. Sharing you photo as a slideshow is fun and different and the one you give the slideshow does not have to have the program installed.

Title: How to Create A Microsoft Excel Database

Word Count: 974

Summary: The term Microsoft Excel Database has never really sat very well with me since my primary role in the IT world has been in developing database and what is used by the spreadsheeting fraternity is what I consider an over glorified list. However, for the sake of peace, I want to outline some of the principles you must follow in building what is known as the Microsoft Excel Database.

Keywords: Create Excel Database, Excel Database, tips on microsoft excel, excel shortcuts

Article Body: The term Microsoft Excel Database has never really sat very well with me since my primary role in the IT world has been in developing database and what is used by the spreadsheeting fraternity is what I consider an over glorified list. However, for the sake of peace, I want to outline some of the principles you must follow in building what is known as the Microsoft Excel Database.

Let us review …

A database in essence is what is considered a collection of information that is related in some manner. For example if you were running a company and selling a product you may have a database that simply lists all of the sales you have made over a period of time. Storing this data in a database would make sense as the company information and the selling of a product is related and as such would be appropriate for the database.

There are many different types of databases available such as Microsoft Access Databases, Oracle Databases, MySQL databases and so on but Microsoft Excel also has a form of a database known as a database list. The form of the list is virtually the same as the other databases as the data is under column headings in rows, but after that common point, the Excel database goes in its own direction. See, to look for specific data within a Microsoft Excel Database or Excel List we do not use the common database language of SQL, we actually use specially written functions. These functions are custom written by you and are known as criteria.

So how do we create an excel database…

Well first off, there is one rule we must always follow and that is one excel database per worksheet. Anymore and you just get yourself into lots of trouble. In fact if you need to have multiple excel databases within your workbook simply put each excel database onto a separate worksheet.

The next thing you must follow is that your database lists first row must contain the heading of the list. That is the first row contains your field names. Plus each of the field names must be 100% unique. You cannot have two field names with the same name or again you will have a list that will not work.

The next issue you need to be concerned with is identifying the field names. Excel databases have a simple rule, the field names or column names must be unique. Now the way you identify them is easy, all you have to do is to ensure the field names are many different data types, format, pattern etc to the rest of the database in your list. Generally what I do is to format my field names in bold to satisfy this requirement.

One of the most important rules you must remember when you create an excel database is that around the row and columns of the fields and data there must be a blank row and column. What this means is that you can still have a heading at the top of the fields, but there must be a blank row between the heading and the fields as well as along the last column as well. The blank row rule also applies to the bottom of the list as well.

When you are entering data into your list, every cell in every record must contain some value even if it is simply blank (a blank value is still considered a value) and each record must contain the same number of fields. If there is no specific data for a field you simply leave it blank and move to the next field.

Ensure that when you are entering data into a field that you don't have spaces before the text or at the end of the text in the field. If you do have spaces, then what will happen is that sorting and search for data in the list will be compromised and you will get unexpected results.

Upper case and low case characters in the field do not affect the searches or sort orders unless you specifically tell the Microsoft Excel application it is an issue. You can also use formulas in a cell if required. Formulas can refer to cells within the Excel Database List or outside of the Excel Database.

Note also that you can edit and format the cells just like any other spreadsheet however the issue you must consider as a priority is that the field names must have a different format to the rest of the data in the database list. It is highly recommended that there be no other formatting in the list except for the field headings. This ensures that there are no miscalculations by the application as to what is a field heading in the excel database and what is not.

Now that you have setup your list in this way following these rules, you are now ready to interrogate the list by applying criteria. The easiest way that you can do this is by using the Form dialog box. To get into the Excel Database form you simply choose the Data menu and then choose Form from the drop down menu.

From the Excel Database Form you can simply choose the Criteria button, type the criteria you have for your data and choose the Find Next button and it will take you to the first record that satisfies the criteria you are searching. Excel Databases are particularly useful for summary data that is where the volume of records you have in your database doesn't exceed 65,536 rows.

If you follow these rules to create an excel database you will find that the functions associated with the excel database list will work in an effective and efficient manner.

Title: How to build great software

Word Count: 723

Summary: In this article I'm going to explain the top 10 software development fallacies my company avoids. By avoiding these myths and concentrating on excellence, we are able to make great quality software.

Keywords: software, myths, great, fallacies, development

Article Body: In this article I'm going to explain the top 10 software development fallacies my company avoids. By avoiding these myths and concentrating on excellence, we are able to make great quality software.

Myth 1) Software must be designed in detail before development starts, so that a clear plan can be out-layed.

The truth) The more complex a design, the more like software the design itself is. By perfecting a design, then writing the software to that design, you're effectively writing the work twice. Instead, by doing just some simple design sketches and data modelling rather than a book-like design, a good development team can create a shell for the software and efficiently refine it towards the finished product. This process of refinement creates natural prototypes, allows easy adaptation when issues that would be unforseen by a design arise (or brought up as fresh concerns by a client), and the total process takes significantly less time. To pull this off requires a close team, skill, and experience, but it is by far the best option for the majority of situations.

Myth 2) There are programmers, designers, analysts, and users.

The truth) By structuring development so that all developers get some exposure to each part of the development process, skills may be shared and greater insight may be gained. If developers are encouraged to actually use the software then they can use that expertise to think of improvements that otherwise would not come to light.

Myth 3) A happy team is a productive team.

The truth) A team of people with a wide variety of natural skills, experience and concern, that criticises each other and argues vehemently over the smallest details, will bring up and resolve issues that otherwise would never be tackled. A furnace of relentless argument is the best way to forge understanding and reach perfection.

Myth 4) It's important we understand our direction and don't compromise with it.

The truth) Life is compromise, and compromise is not a weakness. There will always be issues (such as efficiency, budget, ease-of-use, power, scope, and the need for easy internationalisation) that cannot be simultaneously met without such compromise.

Myth 5) We know what the client wants, we know what the issues are.

The truth) Without constant re-evaluation, it is easy to lose track of the objective. Developers are often faced with problems to solve that they consider the issues, when those are in fact separated from the actual market goals and can become totally irrelevant. Developers must always understand the market goals and be able to adapt when other things change, or even the goals themselves change.

Myth 6) Bigger is better. Features are cool.

The truth) Features can easily confuse users, and their actual value should always be considered against the cost of confusion. In some cases it is sensible to actually remove working features due to such concerns.

Myth 7a) The customer is always right.

The truth) Most customers try hard not to look ignorant in front of software developers, and hence phrase their suggestions in a technical way. The effect is that often suggestions aren't really appropriate, because they're not founded on a solid understanding of technical issues.

Myth 7b) The customer is often wrong.

The truth) Although customers needs are often not best met by doing literally what they say, they always know what they want and why they want it - and usually for very good reason. Understand them and adapt what they say, discuss with them, but never ignore them.

Myth 8) Comment your code a lot.

The truth) Good code needs hardly any commenting, because sensible uses of naming and white-space are better alternatives. Comments should only ever explain the non-obvious, or provide standard API documentation.

Myth 9) Such and such is needed, such and such is great.

The truth) A bad workman blames his tools. Whilst some development tools aid development substantially, a good developer can do great results in most things served to them. There are a few exceptions, like Microsoft Access, or assembly language, but generally speaking the difference in quality results is much more due to the skills of the developers than the quality of their tools.

Myth 10) The customer will understand if there's an efficient and easy-to-use interface.

The truth) The interface doesn't just need to be easy-to-use, it needs to be navigatable without an overall systems understanding. Screens need to be self-describing.

Title: How To Build A Mortgage Calculator For Free in Microsoft Excel

Word Count: 678

Summary: One of the really cool parts aspects of Microsoft Excel is the functions Microsoft has created for you to use. This means that rather than have to develop a function from scratch you can use pre-built ones to do a plethora of tasks like Building your own Mortgage Calculator. The Mortgage Calculator or PMT function is just one of many Financial Functions available.

Keywords: excel mortgage calculation, excel mortgage calculator, mortgage calculator, free mortgage calculator

Article Body: One of the really cool parts aspects of Microsoft Excel is the functions Microsoft has created for you to use. This means that rather than have to develop a function from scratch you can use pre-built ones to do a plethora of tasks like Building your own Mortgage Calculator. The Mortgage Calculator or PMT function is just one of many Financial Functions available.

Okay, so how to build a mortgage calculator…

The first thing we have to do is to start by setting up a few basic headings. So lets begin by starting a new workbook and clicking in the first cell A1. Enter into cell address A1 the heading - Monthly Loan Repayments. Next off, enter into cell address A2 - Amount of Loan, cell address A3 - Interest Rate, cell address A4 - Length of Loan and then in A6 - Monthly Repayment.

In example mortgage calculator, we will take the Loan Amount, Interest Rate and Length of Loan and calculate your Monthly Repayment. Okay so in the corresponding field B1 enter the value of $200,000 and make sure you format the field as a currency. In cell B2 enter a value of 9.25% and format the field as a percentage and then finally enter in a value for the Length of the Loan as 25. The value you enter into the Length of the Loan field is in years.

Now its time to create the formula that will do your calculation for the Monthly Repayment. The function we will use for this calculation is called the PMT function. The PMT function always returns a negative number so one of the things we will need to do is to convert it into a positive number, but a little on that later.

There are three arguments we will use for this formula and they are -

= PMT(Monthly Interest Rate, Number of Payments, Amount Borrowed)

So to work out the Monthly Interest Rate we simply take the value in B3 and divide it by 12 - B3/12. The PMT function works on the basic of the number of payments you are going to make, so if we are going to make monthly payments on our mortgage we simply take the number of years in cell B4 and multiply it by 12 - B4 *12.

This means that to calculate the Monthly Repayment for our mortgage we need to enter the following formula -

= PMT(B3/12, B4*12, B2)

Now as I said before, the PMT function always returns a negative value, so to turn this into a positive value we simply type the PMT function with the Absolute Function encapsulating it as shown below -

= ABS(PMT(B3/12,B4*12,B2))

Simply type the formula above into the cell B6 and press the enter key. You must now format the cell address B6 as a currency and you can do that by simply pressing the Dollar Symbol on the Formatting Toolbar. As soon as you enter the formula and press enter you should get a result of $1712.76. If you do not get this answer, simply go back and make sure that you have entered the formula correctly.

The cool part about this Mortgage Calculator is that you can go back and change any one of the values in B2, B3 and B4 which are the Loan Amount, Interest Rate and Length of Loan to work out what your monthly mortgage repayments will be.

The cool part about this simple tool is that it tells you really quickly whether borrowing massive amounts from the bank is worth it and whether you can really afford that mortgage. Why not check out what your repayments will be if your interest rate went up by 2 or 3%, it can be really interesting to see the impact on your budget.

Simple tools like this can save you thousands of dollars and can also help you see what changes interest rates will have on your own budget. It is certainly worthwhile building yourself a Budgeting Spreadsheet and the mortgage calculator to work out just what you really can afford especially in these uncertain times.

Title: Find out how MP3 renaming and organizing can be fast and easy.

Word Count: 462

Summary: MP3 Sorter is the ideal software program for sorting and renaming the MP3 files stored in our computer. It's fast and easy, making song selection for our personal MP3 players something that could be done regularly when our MP3 files are stored logically in a well organized MP3 music library

Keywords: mp3 renaming, mp3 renamer, rename mp3, mp3 music organizer, organizing mp3 music

Article Body: Today is the heyday of MP3’s , we have moved far beyond a small collection of a ripped song or two grabbed from the internet to an age where most of us have hundreds or even thousands of MP3’s saved in our computers. In a matter of a few short years we have gone from popping a few music files into a folder in our documents to needing a well cataloged and easily searchable MP3 music library.

Unfortunately our collections of MP3 music files have become a bit of a mess in our computers. Finding our favorites musics or sound clips to upload to our MP3 players or IPods’ is frustrating and time consuming, and that is IF we can actually find the sound we are looking for. cataloging MP3 files stored in our computers could take days of tedious searching and sorting. Certainly this is the job for an automated MP3 file organizing software.

Thankfully software developers have caught up and are on top of the job of sorting this problem out by bringing us fantastic programs like MP3 Sorter to assist in the renaming and sorting of our MP3 music files. We are finally able to quickly find our desired musics or MP3 sound clips and have them right where we want them when we want them.

MP3 Sorter is a powerful MP3 renaming tool and organizer that certainly make life easy again when dealing with our MP3 files by rapidly sorting and renaming our MP3 files. MP3 Sorter finds the MP3 files stored in our computer and organizes them into a logical filing system. An example of the order of which your files will be organized and renamed for storage is “Artist/ Album+ year” or any other combination that you select from a variety of options.

MP3 Sorter does not dictate to you how your files should be organized; neither does it keep you guessing while the process is taking place. Before the re-arranging or renaming of our MP3 music files takes place you are able to preview the structure of the suggested order. MP3 sorter will even check for duplicate file names to avoid accidental overwriting of files. If you don’t like the results simply push a button to roll back the process.

MP3 Sorter is not only good for us by giving us back our valuable time it is also great for our computers. MP3 sorter will clean up our hard drive by deleting source files that are no longer required. With MP3 Sorter MP3 cataloging is certainly not a chore, why change the music selection on our MP3 players ever once in a while when we have time, now that we can change our music selection in moment on the way out the door.

Title: Equipment Maintenance Management Software

Word Count: 284

Summary: The strategic goal of any production and utilities department is to maximize production. Machinery and equipment is run continuously, or in batches. The equipment can be complex, as in nuclear reactors, or as simple as lathe machines. The goal to maximize production is determined by the availability of the equipment and its condition.

Keywords: Equipment Maintenance Management Software, Facility Maintenance Management Software, Fleet Maintenance Management Software, Foundation Maintenance Management Software

Article Body: The strategic goal of any production and utilities department is to maximize production. Machinery and equipment is run continuously, or in batches. The equipment can be complex, as in nuclear reactors, or as simple as lathe machines. The goal to maximize production is determined by the availability of the equipment and its condition.

The strategic goal of the maintenance department servicing production and utilities departments is to ensure the reliability and availability of the machines. The operational goals of the maintenance department require availability and scheduling of employees for work orders, maintaining inventories for the parts, and the analysis of maintenance-related problems.

Equipment maintenance management software helps achieve the strategic and operational goals of a maintenance organization. These software packages are available as stand-alone applications customized for specific requirements, or integrated end-to-end solutions.

At the strategic level, equipment MMS helps top management to make decisions about the purchase of equipment by providing data and analysis of the cost of managing the assets, and by providing data about the vendor and analysis of the equipment provided by various vendors.

At the operations level, equipment MMS helps manage the maintenance schedule of the equipment. The software helps in the preventive and predictive maintenance by analyzing the historic data of the previous maintenance work orders. It also helps decide the availability of the equipment and the duration of the work. An integrated solution helps in optimizing the inventories by determining the parts usage and reorder time.

Equipment MMS is ideally suited for small and medium-sized enterprises for which the entire integrated solutions may be very expensive. The decision to install equipment MMS should be guided by the requirements of the organizations and the features of the software.

Title: Enterprise Resource Planning And Enterprise Content Management

Word Count: 565

Summary: The word Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP conveys a sense of planning the use of enterprise-wide resources to achieve enterprise objectives in the best possible manner. However, ERP has come to mean something much less ambitious. It simply means integrating two or more separate applications.

Keywords: Document Management,Document Management Software,Document Management System,Paper Capture,Automated Workflow,Retention Policies,Document Versioning,Content Central,Browser Based,Web Based

Article Body: The word Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP conveys a sense of planning the use of enterprise-wide resources to achieve enterprise objectives in the best possible manner. However, ERP has come to mean something much less ambitious. It simply means integrating two or more separate applications.

The integration is done by the use of a common database and multiple software and hardware components. Thus an ERP system can include Manufacturing, Financials, Sales & Distribution, and HR functionalities in separate modules.

Integration of a number of systems results in:

• Creation of a unified database that results in greater reporting capabilities,
• Elimination of external interfaces between different applications that were needed earlier to exchange information between them, and
• Standardization and lower maintenance costs as a single system replaces the earlier multiple systems.

ERP System Modules

Manufacturing: This module facilitates manufacturing and related operations such as plant engineering, production scheduling, materials requirements lists, workflow and process management, quality control and cost control.

Supply Chain Management: Inventory control and purchasing functions, including supply chain planning, and supplier performance monitoring, are the major functions facilitated by this module.

Customer Relationship Management: Sales and Distribution, Commissions and Customer Support are covered by this module.

Financials: This module covers the traditional accounting and cash flow management functions, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, cash flow control, and general ledger.

Other typical modules include Human Resources (including payroll), Project Management and Data Warehouse. ERP systems also provide direct interfaces for external entities like customers and suppliers, and internally for employees.

The separation of modules in this manner has resulted in some large organizations selecting different modules from different ERP vendors. Some functionality might be better with one vendor's module while other vendors’ modules better manage other functionalities. This would, however, involve building interfaces between modules from different vendors, which might have to be done by in-house staff. It follows that the staff should have the required skill level.

Implementing ERP in Organizations

Implementing ERP typically involves significant changes in working practices. Necessary skills might also not be available in-house. Either the ERP vendor or a third-party consultant usually helps implement ERP in an organization.

The ERP implementation needs to be aligned with the organization's business processes, which usually need to be re-engineered.

New user interfaces and even some processing might have to be coded where the ERP system does not meet certain work practices in the organization. The ERP system should ideally accommodate such customization.

Implementation will also involve training to the organization's personnel to work with the ERP system, and continuing support to keep the system running with minimal additional costs.

Why ERP?

In the absence of ERP, the different applications in use might not be able to exchange information. Such information exchange can become very critical for efficient operations and competitiveness. Organizations that have implemented ERP properly will be able to operate in a lean manner, leading to lower costs and customer prices, giving them an advantage in the marketplace.

ERP and Enterprise Content Management Systems

Enterprise Content Management systems seek to create a knowledgebase consisting of both structured and unstructured content generated all over the enterprise. Enterprise Resource Planning systems facilitate this goal by combining applications and using a common database.

Title: Enterprise Content Management Systems Cross Departmental And Functional Boundaries

Word Count: 561

Summary: What is content? What does content management involve? And what is special about enterprise content management? This introductory article will seek to answer these questions.

Keywords: Document Management,Document Management Software,Document Management System,Paper Capture,Automated Workflow,Retention Policies,Document Versioning,Content Central,Browser Based,Web Based

Article Body: What is content? What does content management involve? And what is special about enterprise content management? This introductory article will seek to answer these questions.

In today's context, content means digital information. This information typically resides in text documents, audio or video files and other kinds of digital files. Digital information is easier to manage compared to paper-based information (even though it is vulnerable to its own special kinds of risks).

Content management involves managing the different stages in the lifecycle of content. The lifecycle stages of content are Creation, Updating, Publication, Translation, Archiving and Destruction.

Capturing data in an electronic form creates content. This could be through direct entry of relevant details at the time of a transaction or through transcription from original paper-based transaction documents into data entry forms.

In some cases, such as contracts, the paper documents are converted directly into a digital form through electronic scanning, and then made into an editable text-document with the help of Optical Character Recognition - OCR - technology.

The major management task in creation of content is ensuring that only authorized persons can do it, and they can do it in a convenient manner, with a minimum of cost to the organization.

Created information often needs to be edited or updated in the course of the business. This is the second lifecycle stage. Managing this stage involves restricting access and edit rights to authorized persons, and making the tasks of retrieval of the original document, its updating, and saving the updated version, convenient and easy.

The third stage of publication could mean different things. It could mean that supervisory persons review the suggested content and authorize it for final transfer to the content repository. It could also mean granting access rights to individuals and groups. Finally, it could mean making the content available to others (including the world at large).

The publication stage needs to be managed carefully to ensure that only properly authorized information is published, and published in an authorized manner.

Translation and localization might become necessary to make the content available to intended target groups. Managing this stage mainly involves finding competent persons to do the tasks of translation and localization.

When the content has been replaced by new content, or has become old or obsolete, it is archived and put beyond current access. Some information needs to be retained for specific periods, but might not be used for current operations. Such content is best archived.

When content is not needed either for operational use or for complying with legal requirements, destroying it is the best option. Clear policies need to be formulated regarding which content is archived/destroyed, and how the archiving/destruction process is carried out.

The brief description above defines content management. Content management was traditionally exercised at departmental or functional levels with the help of standalone software.

Enterprise content management crosses departmental and functional boundaries and seeks to manage all content generated by an enterprise--wherever it is generated. Modern large enterprises are global in their reach and operations, and content might be generated on the other side of the globe.

Modern enterprise content management systems provide access to this content for those who need it for decision support or other authorized purposes. Internet technologies are typically used for such enterprise-wide content management systems.

Separate articles will describe specific issues involved in enterprise content management systems.