FalckLand

If you have a template in PowerPoint that you would like to be used as the default template, which means, that will be used every time you create a new presentation, you just have to:

• Open PowerPoint and load the presentation that you would like to set as default
• In PowerPoint 2007 click on the Office logo and select Save As, or click on File -> Save As if using other versions of PowerPoint
• On the Save as type combo box, select the PowerPoint Template (*.potx or *.pot)
• On the file name, type Blank.pot(x)

And that's it! Every time you open a new presentation it will load the template you've defined as default. If you want to undo this, just delete the blank.pot(x) file and everything will get back to what it was - if you can find the file, it should be in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Templates" if you are using Windows XP or in "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates" in Windows Vista.

Cheers!

There are different ways to lock your computer session such as pressing Windows+L, CTRL+ALT+DEL and click on lock button or even click on the shutdown button and select Lock computer option. But there is also the option to create an icon in the desktop that when you click it it will lock your computer (easier? I think so...). To do so you:

1. Right click on your desktop and select New, Shortcut
2. Paste this text in - rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
3. Click next and type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Lock)
4. Click finish
5. You can right click on your new shortcut and change the icon (there is a lock icon as part of the collection in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll)
6. Now drag the icon to your taskbar

After a LOT of issues between Microsoft and Submarino (the Brazilian online store where I bought my 360 back in Sep/06) I've finally solved my problem with my Xbox 360 as my console will be replaced in Feb/08!! After 8 painful months I'll finally be able to play Halo 3, PGR 4 and all the new stuff that has been released in this period!

Until then I'll have to survive with some recently acquired games for my PC - the amazing BioShock (graphics and story are very impressive. A must for gamers) and Crysis (best game of 2007) and the existing Oblivion and Civilization IV (with all its updates). I guess I'll have plenty of fun till Feb!

Cheers!

When we are using the computer there are many services running in the background that sometimes the only thing they do is to slow down things. The reason for this post is to give you some handy access to the services console so you can start/stop them easily.

The most common way to access the services of is to click on Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. This process consumes a lot of mouse clicks so I´d rather go to something more direct. And no, creating a shortcut of the Services part in the desktop is not an option to me! So, to make it fast, just press:

• Windows key + R (Run)
• Type Services.msc and press OK.

You can also start/stop a service from the command prompt by using the command NET in the command prompt. In the following example, I'll stop/start the DHCP Client service:

• Open a command prompt window - Windows key + R (Run) and then type cmd and OK
• Now type net stop dhcp to stop the service. To start it, net start dhcp.

The only problem with this approach is that you have to know the internal name of the service. For example, I have the Cisco VPN Client installed in my notebook and if I want to have it stopped I have to type net stop cvpnd. How did I know that the Cisco VPN service was internally called as cvpnd? Registry... I'll talk about it in another post.

Cheers!

To add the official holidays of one or more countries in the Outlook Calendar just follow these steps:

• In the Outlook main screen, click on Tools and select Options
• In the preferences tab, click on the Calendar Options button
• Click on the  Add Holidays button
• Select the country that you want to add the holidays (can be more than one) by clicking on the box. If a box is already marked means that the holidays of this country are already included in Outlook.
• Click Ok

Now you should see the holidays added in the calendar of Outlook. These holidays are marked as free, all day events with no reminder applied and with the category set as Holidays.

Cheers!

If you have Google Earth installed, there is a nice feature that will make it even funnier to play around with it.

If you press the sequence CTRL + A with the it will start a flight simulator where you can fly over the layers of Google Earth with a F16 or a SR22. To learn about the commands to control de airplane, just press CTRL+H.

Have fun! :)

PS: I haven't tried it with more than one version of Google Earth, so I am assuming that it will work only with the latest release.

Cheers!

As you may have noticed, I've been away from this blog for some time. During this period I've been involved in some other projects that took most of my time and therefore I just could not add posts to this space. The good side of this is that one of the projects that I was involved on was an internal corporate blog where I was posting almost the same content as I am posting here so during this week I'll add the relevant posts to this space.

If you have any opinions, suggestions or questions, please send them to mcfalck@hotmail.com or post comments here. It will surely help me to provide information that is relevant to you!

And finally, I'll try to keep up with this blog from now on! :)

Cheers!

Do you normally use keyboard shortcuts in Office like CTRL + C (copy) or CTRL + S (save)? Well, now there are additional shortcuts in Office 2007 that enables you to do almost everything in the ribbon without the mouse!

I'll use Word 2007 in the example below but this is applicable in all other Office 2007 programs (with some exceptions to Outlook 2007).

Anytime you press (and release) the ALT button, you will see that there will be some letters on top of the ribbon as you can see in the picture below:

If you press one of these keys (H - Home - for example), you will see that there are new letters over the buttons of the ribbon.

So, if you want to change the font of a selected Text using a shortcut, all you need to do is:

• Press (and release) ALT + H + FF + Type the font name (i.e: Arial).

NOTE 1: If you are in the middle of a key sequence and you want to cancel it, press SPACE or ALT

NOTE 2: If you want to go back one level while in the middle of a key sequence - you've pressed ALT + H but then you found out that you want to go to the Insert section instead of Home - just press ESC

If in some occasions you like to use keyboard shortcuts instead of using your mouse, this two links can be very helpful.

For a list of keyboard shortcuts in Windows XP, click here. And for Windows Vista, click here.

I'd like to add one to this list (if not in the list already! ) that I use frequently:

CTRL + SHIFT + ESC - Opens the task manager

Cheers,

Mauricio