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Tag Archives: Windows

Computer Basics: Determining What Software Reads a Data File

Do you have a data file that you can't read? Occasionally, you may run across a file that you don't know what software program created it. Perhaps you found an old unknown file on your hard drive or you inherited the file from another user who left your company or passed away. To access the data, you need to do some detective work to figure out what software can read it.

Here are some tips for finding out which program can read your unknown file.

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Computer Basics: Fixing Lost File Associations

Every file in Windows has a file type, also called a file extension. If you double-click directly on a file name in Windows Explorer, Windows uses that file type to decide what program to launch to read that file. The program associated with the file type is the file type association.

For example, the file type JPG is usually associated with your graphics editing software. So clicking on the name of a JPG file should launch your graphics software with that file already opened.

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Computer Basics: Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

You can access many functions in Windows from your keyboard. Here is a "cheat sheet" of general Windows keyboard shortcuts and their results. These functions work in most Windows programs that use the standard Windows interface. Exact functionality varies from one application to another as needs differ.

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PK Tip: Avoiding Changing a Data File

When browsing a Personal Knowbase data file — opening and closing articles while checking or looking for something — you can easily make changes accidentally.

If you realize you've made a change to an article that you didn't want to change, you can immediately return the article to its last saved state. While the article window is still open, select the Undo Article Changes command from the Edit menu.

But if you know that you don't want to make changes to a file before you open it, it's safer to open the file in Read-Only mode to start with. In Read-Only mode, you have no risk of making unwanted changes. You will not be able to modify existing articles or create new ones.

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Computer Basics: Setting a Default Printer in Windows

You can tell Windows to use a default printer for all Windows applications. You may need to change this setting if you connect a new printer. Also, unfortunately, sometimes programs interfere with this setting and change it without verifying the change with the end user, requiring you to reset it.

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PK Tip: Changing the Date Formats

Dates and times are used in several places in Personal Knowbase. Most important is the Article Date which is (optionally) shown in the Article Window and Index Window's Titles column.

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Computer Basics: How to Create a Shortcut on Your Desktop

If you have a file or program that you access constantly, you may find it useful to have a shortcut to it right on your Windows desktop.

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PK Tip: Selecting Multiple Items in a List

Personal Knowbase, like most standard Windows applications, allows you to highlight multiple items in any list box.

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Converting from Cardfile to Personal Knowbase

Recent versions of Windows (starting with Windows 7) don't include distribution of the Windows Cardfile utility. Since Microsoft stopped support for Win XP, more and more people are looking for new ways to access their old Cardfile files.

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Computer Basics: How to Create a Screen Shot

When you contact any software customer support about a problem with their program, you can often make it easier to pinpoint the problem if you send a screen shot.

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