Category Archives: Software Tips

Keep formatting in Excel when copying/pasting from web page

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Question from B.G.: Sorry to bother. How can I export and keep the integrity of the web page table columns? When I copy and paste to excel, it puts all data to 1 row. Answer:  Good question! Please find the steps below: Instructions In your web browser window showing the table/report, press CTRL+A (to select all) Then press CTRL+C (to copy) Switch to a blank spreadsheet in Excel, press CTRL+V (to paste) That should result in a nice separate set of

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Fatal Error! PIL._imaging.pyd [SOLVED]

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Question. I recently had the following popup unexpectedly on my Windows laptop: Fatal Error! PIL._imaging.pyd could not be extracted! I was surfing the internet on my laptop and I am worried that I might have a virus 🙁 Can you help me identify what caused that error? Thx! -Josh Silvija Answer. Hi Josh! Thank you for your question. Fortunately, that “fatal error” should not be an issue. Specifically, I have seen that error occur when Google Drive (now Google Backup and

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How to change the Font color in Foxit PDF reader [SOLVED]

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How to change the Font color of the typewriter type tool in Foxit: Select the “Comment” tab, Select the Typewriter tool and click on your text box Highlight your text (you may need to double-click it first) Select Font Color under the “Comment Format” tab and choose a color Voila, you can now adjust the “typewriter” tool font settings however you like! 🙂

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Prevent iTunes from opening when connecting iPhone

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It can be super annoying when iTunes keeps opening every time you connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC 🙁 Fortunately, there is a very easy solution 🙂 Stop iTunes opening every time you plug in your iPhone or iPad Start iTunes Open Preferences Click the Devices tab Check the box marked Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically Voila, after that you can connect iPhones, iPads or iPods with impunity and not have to worry

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What are .smi files?! [SOLVED]

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There are myriad file formats out there and recently I received the following question about a .smi file: What is a .smi file and how do I use it? It was a file with a movie and I am concerned it may be malicious or a virus. -Mae Bennett Good question Mae! The .smi file you encountered is most likely a Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange file or “SAMI” file. These files allow for captioning for video files and the basic format

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Fix bad sound on Lenovo ThinkPad [SOLVED]

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If you read my blog you probably know that I am a big ThinkPad fan. Lenovo has continued the classic IBM lineup and now there is a ThinkPad for almost any taste. My current favorite is the Lenovo ThinkPad T470. This 14″ beauty is nearly perfect for work and travel. However, from the factory it does suffer from a (fixable) issue that seems to plague many modern ThinkPads… terrible sound!  Specifically, the sound is extremely echo prone… After listening to

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[SOLVED] Lenovo BSOD on Windows 7, Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown

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One my clients uses a number of Lenovo mini PC systems. The systems perform very well for their intended purposes, however, some of the systems were sporadically shutting down (blue screen of death). Thankfully, disabling Bluetooth devices/adapters in Device Manager seems to have permanently resolve the issue. The client did not need the bluetooth capability in the first place, so now all is well 🙂 For reference, here is the error message and assorted diagnostic info: Problem signature: Problem Event Name:

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When closing TeamViewer it automatically locks my PC back to the logon screen?! [SOLVED]

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Recently I had a client dealing with a Windows PC always being locked when they logged into their machine via TeamViewer. They wanted to be able to login directly to the machine without a password prompt so they tried disabling automatic lock via Windows Power Settings, no luck. They tried auto logon via control userpasswords2, no luck. Thankfully, I was able to fix the issue by utilizing the following TeamViewer option: Actions -> Lock -> UNCHECK Lock on session end Screenshot:

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