Check out Our New Blog Site for All New Weekly Posts

In an effort to have better controls over topic groups, a faster interface and a more modern look, we have moved to a new blog site. Our new site utilizes the speed and features that are native to the publishing platform Ghost.

All posts before 2019 are best viewed here on Blogger. All posts from 2019 or later are best viewed on our new blog site. All blogs can also be accessed on our technology index page, which is organized by more than 10 different categories and can be searched by any topic. This index also includes links to videos that have been made to accompany our posts. 

You can also subscribe to our weekly blog posts by entering your email after clicking the Subscribe button from any page on our new site.

As always, thank you for reading our posts!

Scanning to Email versus Scanning to a Folder

Multi-function printers typically include scanning capability and provide many more features than a simple printer. One of the most time-saving features of a multi-function printer is the ability to scan to email and scan to a folder on a computer on the same network. These scan functions operate much the same way, yet have distinct differences. It is important to understand these differences when deciding which option is better for your unique environment. It is also possible that you will use both ways under different circumstances.

This post covers the main differences between scanning to email versus scanning to a folder on a computer on the same network as the printer.

Scanning to Email versus Scanning to a Folder

First, it is important to note the exact steps required for configuring either type of scanning varies slightly by printer manufacturers and printer models. However, the underlying functionality and requirements for each type of scanning are essentially the same. Second, the best way to find the exact steps to follow for either type of scanning is to visit the website for the printer manufacturer, go to their support or drivers page, type in the exact model of printer and follow the steps in their documentation. Lastly, the steps below help illustrate what it takes for both functions, how they differ and what needs they best meet.

Security Round Up: Amazon, Facebook & Ransomware

If you are interested or looking for them you can find near daily news articles discussing some form of risk to the security of our private data. This can come in many forms including, but not limited to:

• Company data breaches
• Ransomware attacks
• Phishing schemes
• Malware
• Companies storing files in plain text
• Servers that did not receive critical updates
• Social engineering and more

The point of this list is to show all the ways we need to be vigilant. While we do not want to waste all our time worrying about our data, the more present we are while online and the more cautious we are when sharing information, the better protected we will be. There will always be examples of issues out of our hands, for instance when a company gets hacked, but if we protect ourselves by not reusing user id's and passwords we can control how badly we are affected.

How to Share an App Link with Someone to Download

Downloading new apps because of a feature you need or because someone mentioned one that piqued your interest is a common occurrence for most people. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to be sure the app listed in search results is indeed the app you intended to get. This becomes increasingly complicated when the app is named something slightly different than the company name or if the company has multiple apps with similar names.

Luckily, there is a way to share a link to download an app with someone so they can get the correct app every time. 

How to Share an App Link with Someone to Download

If you would like to share an app with someone and want to ensure they download the correct app, the best way is to send them a link to download the exact app. This can be especially helpful when providing tech support, or when the person downloading the app does not consider themselves tech savvy.

To share an iOS app

• Open the App Store.
• Search for the app you intend to share.
  

How to Manage Links Created in Acrobat: Zoom, Docs & More

Adobe pdf files are a great way to share documents because anyone can download Reader for free which allows them to open pdf files. There are additional benefits, as covered in our post "The Best App for Merging and Modifying Files". This post covers some of the specific settings you can control when creating a link in an Acrobat document.

Hyperlinks are simply text that has been programmed to link to another place. The link can be to a website, like the one used above, to another place inside the same document, or even to open an additional file. Depending upon where the hyperlink points to, the customizations available vary. This post covers some of these customizations, how they work and how you can control what they do.

How to Manage Links Created in Acrobat: Zoom, Docs & More

Different types of links provide different customizations. Zoom control is allowed for links that redirect to another location within the same document. The zoom feature allows you to change the focus of the destination page, showing more data than the rest of the document by zooming out, or focusing on important detail by zooming in. Links can also point to external documents which is useful for organizations housing shared documents. Lastly, hyperlinks can point to external locations such as websites for additional information.

To create a link in Acrobat:

• Highlight the text to link.
• Right-click the highlighted text and select "Create Link".
  

How Formulas Help Excel do the Calculations for You

To see this process in action, watch the video that accompanies this post.

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that can be used to process simple computations as well as advanced functions. Most people can use Excel for basic calculations like:

• Sum - adds the numbers in the cells in a selected range
• Average - finds the average of the numbers in cells in a selected range
• Count - counts the number of cells in a selected range with numbers in them
• Countif - counts the number of cells in a selected range that meet the criteria you set

There are hundreds of formulas in Excel, but creating simple functions to start with does not take long and is fairly simple. To show how versatile some simple formulas are, consider how they can be used to track:

• Attendance and absences for a group
• Average spending or income
• Supplies for a business or event
• Inventory for insurance or a business

These are a few examples of how Excel formulas can be useful by automatically processing repetitive calculations. 

How to Add Standard & Custom Watermarks to Documents

To see this process in action, watch the video that accompanies this post.

Most people have seen a document with a watermark. Confidential, Draft and Do Not Copy are commonly used watermarks. The purpose of a watermark is to visually alert the reader of a particular status related to this document. Attaching text like confidential or draft into the background of the document ensures the mark stays with the document even if copies are made. By contrast, having this information in an email or on the outside of an envelope does not protect the documents inside once they are removed from the email or envelope.

Another benefit of watermarks is that they can be added quickly and cause minimal distraction to the document context.

How to Add Standard & Custom Watermarks to Documents

There are two main types of watermarks to add to documents:  standard and custom. Custom watermarks allow you to use an image as the watermark as well as customizing the format of standard watermarks.

Adding standard watermarks

Standard watermarks consist of the following text choices:

• Confidential
• Do not Copy
• Draft
• Sample
• ASAP
• Urgent