Guys do you use the Run feature in WINDOWS XP? For most, this feature remains unused (or rarely used). Why is that? Well, First off nearly all of the Run Commands Correspond to a particular Control Panel Item or a Utility, Tool or Task that can be accessed through WINDOWS. There are, however, tools and utilities that I bet you never knew you had that can be accessed through the Run feature. The main reason most people don’t use the Run feature is because they don’t know the Commands. So, to solve that problem, I decided to put together the following listing, which lists 101 Run Commands and what they correspond too…

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Sometimes, you want to print out some Web page you’ve found, so you can recommend the site to a friend later. But if the Web address (URL) is a long one, it’s likely to be truncated in the footer of the printed page. That’s because IE, by default, uses a large font and cuts off any of the URL that doesn’t fit on the same line as today’s date.

You can make URLs print in full almost every time by clicking Tools->Internet Options. On the General tab, click the Fonts button and then select a Web page font that’s more compact than Times New Roman, such as Vista’s Cordia New. (This font, which is similar to Arial, also becomes the default font for Web pages that don’t specify a font.) If that doesn’t print the entire Web address, give URLs a separate line. To do so, pull down the Printer toolbar and select Page Setup. Enter &b&u in the Header field to devote the full header to the URL (aligned to the right). Then enter &d&b&p in the Footer field to print the date on the left and the page number on the right at the bottom of each page. (This procedure eliminates printing each page’s title, represented by &w. A Web page’s title takes up space that’s best devoted to printing the full URL,in our view.)

In previous Internet Explorer versions, it was difficult to delete various data related to Web browsing, such as temporary Internet files, cookies, web history, saved form data, or saved passwords. In Internet Explorer 7, this information can all be deleted from a single dialog, either individually or all at once.

Word used to have a Calculate function on the Tools menu. Select numbers anywhere in the text, and, with a click, Word could add, divide, and more. Press <Shift>- <Insert>, and the result was pasted into your document. Word could even resolve expressions such as ‘(5+5)*(3+3)’. This feature remains part of Word; it’s just hidden. To make it resurface, select Tools->Customize, and choose the Command tab and then Tools in the Categories panel on the left. Over in the right panel, locate Tools Calculate, grab it, and drag it over to a Word toolbar. To use the feature, highlight numbers in your document and click the new Tools Calculate button on your toolbar. The results appear in the status bar in Word’s lower-left corner.

Word can secure your documents to a moderate degree. Choose Tools->Options, and then click the Security tab. To prevent unauthorized edits, type a password in the ‘Password to
modify’ box; to disallow unauthorized viewing, type a password in the ‘Password to open’ box. To permit editing (to fill in a form, for example, or to use tracked changes), click the Protect Document button and make your choices. But Word’s lockbox is easily picked. Try creating a watermarked PDF of your document with Docudesk’s deskPDF Professional. The tool can generate tamper-proof PDFs using 128-bit security that restricts viewing, copying, pasting, and printing.

Smart searching requires documents stuffed with metadata—descriptive keywords that Word can search for. First tell Word to prompt you for the Properties dialog box. Select Tools•Options, click the Save tab, and check the Prompt for document properties box. When you try to save a new document, the Properties box will ask for input. (To add this data to an existing document, open it and select File->Properties.) On the Summary tab, enter the basic information—Title, Subject, keywords (for example, “restructuring,” “goals for 2007”), Comments, and so on. Need more? Click the Custom tab and enter additional properties—Client, Department, and so on. You can even create custom fields: Enter a name in the Name box, choose its type, enter a value that you defi ne, and click the Add button.

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When Word crashes, it often trashes your document. But when Word restarts, the Microsoft Office Application Recovery feature may offer you a replacement document. If it does, check the file carefully and save it under a different name. If it doesn’t, use Windows Explorer to make a backup copy of the damaged file; then switch to Word and open the original damaged document, but click the Open button’s drop-down arrow and select Open and Repair. Word will try to fi x the file. No good? If you’ve set up Word to make backup copies, look for your fi le with a .wbk extension tacked on; most of your data may still be there. If not, open the damaged document with WordPad and collect as much usable material as you can.

Sometimes I think Microsoft intentionally configures Word to run slowly. Click Tools->Options and make the following changes to improve Word’s speed and attitude: On the View tab, uncheck the Animated text box. If you use Word in Normal view, check Wrap to window. On the General tab, un -check Provide feedback with animation. If you work with many documents, bump the ‘Recently used file list’ entries to 9 (the highest setting). If you use simple Auto - Shapes, uncheck Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting Auto Shapes. On the Spelling & Grammar tab, uncheck Check grammar as you type and Check grammar with spelling. Really need speed? Turn off the on-the-fly spelling checker too, by un selecting Check spelling as you type. On the Print tab, turn off Background printing; most printers and networks spool print jobs plenty fast. Click OK.

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