The “binary chop” (or “binary search”) is a very useful computing technique Suppose that you use Google Chrome as your internet browser and suppose that it has been playing up recently – perhaps appearing very slow at times or freezing altogether. If you try googling for a potential solution, you may see suggestions that you …
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Category:Technical
Posts concerned with the technical side of computers and their products. This mainly means the nitty gritty of actually using the products.
Pounds (£) and Hashes (#)
Why does my pound sign (£) mysteriously change to a hash (#)? Pounds (£) and hashes (#) didn’t used to cause problems. In the olden days (!), we used to type letters on something called a “typewriter”. The lever you thumped was embossed at the other end with the character that appeared on the paper. …
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Outlook Search – Where Did it Find the Results?
Outlook Search may be good at finding things – but it’s not so good at telling you WHERE it found them Simple search in Outlook To begin with, a bit of clarification about “Outlook” This article is about the version of Outlook that is part of Microsoft 365 (or Microsoft Office, as it used to …
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Create your own simple Password Manager
All you need to create a DIY password manager is Word, Excel or similar A lot of my IT support clients complain that they just can’t keep track of multiple passwords – so they re-use the same ones. The best solution is to use a password manager such as Dashlane or BitWarden. However, this seems …
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Sort on two or more columns in Outlook and Explorer
Sorting on one column in Outlook and Explorer In Outlook, you can sort the display of emails on any column simply by clicking on the column name – eg clicking on “Subject” above the column of the email subject headings will sort on that column. Clicking on it again will sort in the opposite direction …
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Pinning Documents to Start Menus
Although it’s not obvious how to do it, pinning documents to Windows Start Menus is possible This blog post was written for Windows 10 (as reflected in the illustrations below). However, pinning documents to Start Menus also works in Windows 11 (post updated 09/11/2023 and 15/12/2024). If you have documents that you need to access …
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Adding Folder Shortcuts to the Windows Taskbar
Windows doesn’t readily allow you to add folder shortcuts to the taskbar – but it can be done It is useful to be able to drag desktop shortcuts onto the taskbar so that they are easily found whether or not the desktop is being displayed. If, however, you have desktop shortcuts that are shortcuts to …
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Windows Character Map
The Windows Character Map gives you access to all those odd letters, numbers, and squiggles that aren’t on the keyboard I wrote this blog post in 2011. There’s something reassuring about reading through it in April 2024 and finding that it still works now for Windows 10 and 11 exactly as it did in the …
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