Configure multifunctional homepage

Chrome 4.x onwards

In Chrome, the automatically generated
selection for new tabs is really
practical. Still, you can customize the
homepage in the browser for quick
selection and other functions. A free
Chrome extension called Incredible
Startpage helps you confi gure your
Chrome homepage.

Incredible Startpage allows you to customize the

Google Chrome homepage.

You can customize Chrome to your
liking with the free Incredible Startpage
extension, which you can easily fi nd
online. Once you reach the extensions
page, confirm the installation and allow

access to personal data by clicking
‘Install’. Now open a new tab. To the left,
you will see a list of the last closed tabs
as well as the bookmarks. To the right,
the large fi eld off ers a quick selection for
a specifi c folder of bookmarks. To change
the displayed contents, navigate to the
desired bookmark folder, and click ‘Show
as main’ button at the base of the dialog.
Other bookmarks can also be added to
the right via drag-and-drop.

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Customize the Office Menu to your liking.

Office 2010

The Offi ce Menu 2010 off ers many

features, but often not where you want

it. However, you can customize the

menu to your style of working.

 

From version 2010 onwards,
you can set up the menu in all Offi ce
applications individually. To do so, open
‘File | Options’ and click on ‘Customize
Ribbon’ from the options displayed on
the left.
You can even customize the standard
commands to a certain extent. To do so,
select ‘All Tabs’ in both the combo-box
sets. The section ‘Main Tab’ defi nes the
available tabs. Individual commands
are organized into groups and to display

You can add, remove and rearrange menu items in

the Office ribbon with ease.

them, click on the plus sign in front of
the relevant tabs. You can then move the
selected group by a simple drag-and anddrop
action. But before that, you will have
to create a new group, as you cannot
add a command to the existing groups.
Creating a new group is fairly simple; all
you have to do is right-click at the desired
place and then click on ‘New Group’. You
can even rename the group that you have created. For example, in Excel, the
group ‘Macros’ is in the tab ‘View’. For
immediate access, you can move this to
the ‘Start’ tab.

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Define specific cells as per the maximum value

Microsoft Excel
You want to display the content of one
result cell in another which is to the
left of the relevant maximum value of
a specifi c data fi eld in the table sheet.



This task can be carried out using
a combination of three simple functions.
The functions are used in one single
formula. Just imagine: The fi elds “B1” to
“B4” contain four numbers. If the largest
number is in “B3”, the result cell should
return the value from “A3”. For this, enter
the formula given here:
=INDEX(A1:A4,
MATCH(MAX(B1:B4),B1:B4,0),1)
“MAX(B1:B4) fi rst identifi es the largest
value from the data set. This value serves
as a search criterion for the comparison
that is extended to the search matrix
“B1:B4”. With the comparison type “0”,
the function identifi es the position of the
fi rst value from the search matrix that is
identical to the search criteria.
The matrix variant of the “INDEX”
function then uses the searched value
from the value matrix “A1:A4” that is
located in the fi rst column of the row
defi ned by the comparison.

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Display hidden data on the server

Filezilla

An FTP client normally shows no

hidden fi les on the connected server

whose name starts with a leading

point. However, if you need to access a

file with the name ‘. htaccess’, the FTP

client Filezilla can be forced to display

the hidden files on the server.

One simple option can gives you access to hidden

files in Filezilla.

If you want to see the hidden files
on the connected server, you can easily
do so by a simple click. If you are using
version 3.x, select ‘Server’ from the menu
bar, click the option ‘Force show hidden
fi les’. If you are using version 2.x instead,
go to ‘View’. Here you will fi nd the option
to show hidden files.

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Create e-mail signatures with text and images

Thunderbird

Instead of a signature that just
contains the sender details, it’s
possible to create a sophisticated
signature with an image or logo.

Signatures with logos lend your emails a more

professional feel.

Thunderbird supports text-based
signatures, but if you need images to
go with your signature, you will have to
code it as an HTML fi le. You can use the
Word editor to arrange your image and
text settings. Save the fi le as a webpage.
Next, open Thunderbird, ‘Tools | Account
Settings’. Next, select the e-mail account
to add the signature. Now, select the
‘attach the signature from a fi le instead’
and select the created HTML fi le. For this
to work, make sure that the messages
are being sent in HTML format. To enable,
click on ‘Composition & Addressing’ on
the left. Enable the ‘write messages in
HTML format’ option and click OK.If your image is not showing up in the
signature, you will have to convert the
image to base64 strings. The process
converts the image into its original
base code that can be incorporated
into an HTML fi le. To convert the image,
go to http://webcodertools.com/
imagetobase64converter. Load the
image, and replace the image in the
HTML fi le with the contents appearing
in the Image tag text box, and save the
fi le. The image will then appear in your
selected signature.

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Install new fonts and manage them centrally

Windows 7 has a wide range of fonts
but they are still not enough for some
users. Unfortunately, a command for
installing more fonts is not available in
the font folder at first glance.

Simplify font management with Windows' own

built-in tools.

In order to configure fonts, click
‘Appearance and Personalization’ in the
Control Panel and then ‘Fonts’. In this
view, every entry already has a mini
preview of the relevant font.
There are several options for installing
new font types. It is usually enough to
copy the new font fi le into the folder ‘C:\
Windows\Fonts’. The disadvantage of
this method is that only the fi le name
and not the font name is later displayed
in applications. It is thus better to select
one of the following procedures: Open
the folder with the desired font fi le in
Windows Explorer. Right click the fi le
entry and select the context command
‘Install’. Even the preview window of the
font type which opens on double clicking
has an ‘Install’ button. A click on it
integrates the font into the system.
The other option is to open the Fonts
folder and press [Alt]. Windows then
displays the menu bar. Click ‘New Font’
in the ‘File’ menu, navigate to where the
new font is saved and open the fi le.
You can also uninstall fonts via the ‘Fonts’ folder, for example, using
the context menu command ‘Delete’.
System-relevant ones are an exception.
Today’s computers are so potent that
system performance is not aff ected even
if a lot of fonts are installed.
If you just want to reduce the number
fonts displayed in the selection lists,
you can simply deactivate the unused
ones. These then continue to be in the
system but cannot be used. For this, right
click the entry and select the context
command ‘Hide’. You can reactivate the
font at a later time using the context
command ‘Show’. But unfortunately,
not all programs respect this option.
Microsoft Offi ce 2010 continues to display
all fonts.

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Display the month or day for a specific date

Excel 2003, 2007, 2010

You want to define the month or the

day for a specific date automatically in

a work sheet.

The “TEXT()” formula converts dates and times in

Excel cells into different text outputs.

Use the Excel function “TEXT()”.
It converts numeric values into text
outputs. Excel internally saves a date as
a numeric value. You can infl uence the
text output using the formatting sign and
can for instance determine the week day
for a particular date. The function has
two parameters: the numeric value to be
converted and the formatting sign with
inverted commas on both sides.

An example explains the process:
the “A1” cell has a date. You now want to display the week day for this date
in the adjoining cell “B1”. For this, enter
the following formula in the “B1” cell: -
TEXT(A1, “tttt”)
The formatting sign “tttt” coverts the
specifi ed date into a week day. If you only
require an abbreviation of the week day,
you can use the “ttt” format, for instance.
The time can be displayed in the 12-hour
format with an identifi er for mornings
(am) and afternoons (pm). For this, add
the desired identifi er “AM/PM”, “am/
pm”, “A/P” or “a/p” after the time format,
separated by a space.
These diff erent formatting signs
can also be combined. If, for instance,
you want to display the exact time
without the seconds, you can use
=TEXT(A1,“hh:mm”).
If the time is in the 24-hour format,
and Excel needs to display it in a 12-hour
format, then you can use =TEXT(A1, "hh.
mm am/pm"). The table (above) lists
the possible formatting signs and their
functions for date and time output.
Pay attention to the upper and lower
cases here.

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