Business Hacks

Getting in touch with an actual human person to dispute a bad charge or to get tech support for a computer that has burst into flames on your desktop can be pretty difficult. The old rule of thumb to just keep pressing zero only works some of the time. Thankfully, I’ve got a new weapon in the war against the (phone tree) machines.

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The most noticeable change to Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is the addition of Libraries — essentially, virtual folders that allow you to browse and search easily across any set of folders, hard drives, and other digital locations. Out of the box, Libraries are not much different than the old “My” folders; you need to actually take some action to make them useful. Watch this exclusive Business Hacks video tutorial to learn how.

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Based on my experiences so far, Windows 7 is a fairly trouble-free operating system. That said, problems are bound to arise.

Before you call tech support, however, Microsoft is hoping you’ll read What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support — a free e-book that introduces Windows 7’s built-in “troubleshooters” and explains some of the more common problems that can cause, well, problems.

This 12-page guide is available in XPS and PDF formats. It’s written with a refreshingly tongue-in-cheek style by Microsoft MVP Mitch Tulloch, author of the new book Windows 7 Resource Kit (which, FYI, is a decidedly IT-oriented tome).

If you’re new to Windows 7 (and aren’t we all at this point?), I definitely recommend giving this a read. Just one complaint, though: Why aren’t the screenshots in color, especially when the author refers to color-specific elements of those screenshots?

If your office has an  integrated scheduling system like Outlook with Exchange Server, you know the convenience of inviting people to a meeting and trusting they’ll show up as planned. For everyone else, finding a time slot that everyone can accommodate is somewhat more difficult.

There are plenty of Web services out there designed to ease the pain of group scheduling, but most have their own annoyances, such as requiring you to create a user account — or worse, forcing everyone else to log in, as well. I’ve found an alternative that’s painlessly simple.

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Ah, business cards. Those quaint bits of paper some people still use to identify themselves. They’re not only a waste of trees, but also a major pain to transcribe into your phone and/or contact manager.

Sure, business-card scanners have been around forever, but they’re pricey and inconveniently tethered to your PC.

Fortunately, there’s now an easy, inexpensive, and mobile way to convert business cards into contact data: DYMO CardScan Mobile. The catch: It’s currently a Windows Mobile solution only.

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When I find myself on an old XP or Vista computer, I miss the new taskbar and its Jump Lists dearly. But when I’m on Windows 7, I wish that Jump Lists were actually a little more flexible. I want to be able to click one icon to expand a list of related icons and folders, so I can organize my taskbar by project or work style rather than only seeing files related to specific apps. Thankfully, there’s a way to do that — and you can get it to work not just in Windows 7, but in XP and Vista as well.

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The Post Office is getting with the times. Late last week, our favorite branch of the federal government took a mobile version of its Web site live. Or, as the Post Office put it: “It’s a Post Office on your phone.”

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A while back I told you the truth about Google Voice, which boils down to this: It’s not for everybody. The major shortcoming for most users? The need to pick a new phone number when you sign up.

No more. As of last night, you can now use Google Voice with your existing number. Here’s a one-minute video that explains it all:

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You know how Excel remembers exactly where you left your cursor when you re-open a spreadsheet? You know how Word doesn’t? A couple of weeks ago, I was amazed to learn that Word really does bookmark your last cursor position, and simply pressing Shift+F5 takes you there. Unfortunately, it only works on .doc files, not the newer .docx.

Then reader drew.lindsay clued me in to a simple change you can make to Word so it always opens your documents — both .doc and .docx — to the last saved cursor position. Even better: There’s no need to press any shortcut keys. It works automatically, just like Excel.

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If the recent loss of Sidekick users’ cloud-stored data has you worrying about the safety of your cloud-stored Google Docs documents, fear not: You can synchronize your Google Docs data with your PC for offline access (and local backup).

Of course, that solution requires Google Gears, a wonky, unsupported browser tool.

If you’d rather just dump all your Google Docs documents to a Zip file for archiving on your PC, now you can.

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