OpenOffice.org Calc: Autofit a Column to Only the Cells You Choos

The Autofit feature in Calc and other spreadsheet programs is an extremely helpful feature.

You can simply double-click on the right divider line in the column title, and the column will automatically expand to fit the longest piece of data.

Show AM or PM in Windows 7 Clock

Now, as a computer user you know that time flies pretty fast when you’re working on a project, browsing the web, playing a game, etc. In my case it sometimes feels like the computer is the time-keeper and I am its prisoner! Heck, I’ve been stuck at keys so long, I don’t even know if it’s AM or PM anymore!

Or do I?

Windows 7 users click Start, type intl.cpl in your Search Box (located above the Start button) and hit Enter. This will bring up the Regional and Language Options settings window. Here, you can change a bunch of things pertaining to how Windows feeds you information, like date and time formats.

What we’re going to do is hit the “Additional Settings…” button, though.

Make sure you’re on the Time tab and go down to the Long Time drop-down box. Here’s where you can set it so Windows shows you AM or PM next to your clock!

For example:

If you select H:mm:ss tt, it will look like 12:00 PM
If you select H:mm:ss, it will just be 12:00

Once you have found a format you like, hit Apply to check it out and OK to confim.

Experiment a bit and see which time format suits you best! Remember, you can always follow these steps again and change it back if you don’t like it!

Posted By Nishad S S

Android Animation Scale Setting

To begin, tap the All Apps icon in the Favorites Tray, and slide to Settings.


Or, swipe down from top of the home screen, and tap the Settings icon (displayed below with the date).

In Settings, scroll down to Developer options in the System section.

In the User Interface section of Developer options, there are two animation scales, Window animation scale, and Transition animation scale. To speed up transitions (and your phone’s reaction time), either turn off animations, or reduce the scale. Here, we’ll turn them off.

The default setting for Window animation scale displayed below is 1x. Tap Animation off to disable.

The same steps can be followed to turn off Transition Animation.
To see the full effect of these settings adjustments, try setting both to 10x and move between screens and menus. And, if you’re not as impatient as I am, you may prefer the eye candy offered by the slower animation transitions.

-- Nishad S S

How can I disable the “Security Warning” messages that constantly pop up when I am using Internet Explorer?

These are the messages that ask, “Do you want to view only secure material ….” Then you have to answer either yes or no. I am using Windows 7. (This doesn’t happen when I am using FireFox.)

If you are using Internet Explorer and you are on an HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) page that contains nonsecure HTTP content, you will face a security warning dialog box stating: “This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items”. You may choose “Yes” to get both type of contents and continue your web browsing session, but the story does not end here. You will have to face the same message box every time you visit those kind of web pages stated above, regardless of the number of times you hit “Yes” on that message box. This is because IE will not remember your choice to automatically bypass it.

It can be a bit irritating for you, doing it over and over again – but if you do not want to see the message box ever again here is how you can achieve it:

1. Go to Control Panel from the Start menu. Here you will need to select Internet Options to customize its settings.

There's more at Worldstart!

--Nishad S S

What is the DOS command to copy files to an existing folder, but ONLY copy newer files instead ?

Rather than using backup discs, I use external drives for faster access. Each external drive contains different, specific, files within folders. Cleaning my system means copying from C:\drive onto one of four external TB drives; some transfers take 60-minutes: “copy from” and “copy to …” I have added new files to copy into existing folders and I have no idea whether or not newer files were copied into any of many existing folders. The only verification is “manual” and I want to avoid adding more time doing manual (visual) verification. The long and short of it all: What is the DOS command to copy files to an existing folder, but ONLY copy newer files instead ?

It’s great to know there are some people still hooked on DOS. I too use it for tasks that would otherwise be a nightmare to accomplish using the Windows GUI.

Now, to answer your question, the DOS command that you are looking for is xcopy. Through this command, you can customize the copying of files in a number of ways. In your case, you need to copy new files into a folder. For this, the xcopy command has the /d option, which lets you specify the date. To access the Windows Command Prompt, where the following commands are entered, hold the Windows key and hit the R key (Win+R). This will open Run. There, you type cmd and then hit the Enter key, and the Command Prompt will open.

To understand how to use this xcopy with the /d option, let’s take an example. The following screen shot shows some files in my D drive. I want to copy the file created after 10/23/2010 into the babyphotos folder in my C drive.

As you can see from the screen shot, there are many files to copy. By using the xcopy command, you can achieve the task in one shot. The syntax for the xcopy command is:

xcopy /d:date

In this syntax, the argument means the source directory of the files you want to copy and the argument means the destination directory, i.e. the folder where you want to copy them to.

Now, let’s put the xcopy command to the test. The following screen shot shows the output of the command.

As you can see, five files were copied. These were created on or after 10/23/2010. If the files you are trying copy already exist in the destination folder, you will be prompted to overwrite the file in the source directory.

When you use this command, do remember that in the days of DOS, spaces in directory or folder names were not allowed. Therefore, the xcopy command does not support them. You will get an error as shown below:

The xcopy command has a number of other options that might be useful for you in the future. To learn more about them, access the DOS help by typing help xcopy.

~ Nishad

Adding Music to web pages

I’m making a few web pages. I’d like to add music. Have no clue how. Can you help?

Thanks, Nina

Music can really add something special to a webpage when it’s done right and fits the mood of the site. Music can be added fairly easy with HTML using the following code: (Tested on Firefox 14, IE 9 and Chrome 21) 

Replace MusicNameHere with name of the file, replace “address/path to the music.extension” with the path and file extension. Loop=True/False will select if the background audio loops. Remove hidden=True and add a width=”xx” and height=”xx” to enable audio controls on the page (replace xx with pixel size, usually 150 width by 60 height for audio.)

How can I tell if my computer is equipped with a wireless adapter?

To see if your computer has a wireless adapter the easiest thing to do is to check the Device Manager in Control Panel. In Windows 7/Vista you would click Start>Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click on Hardware and Sound then Device Manager.

Next, click the arrow next to network adapters. If you see any adapter listed that says WiFi, Wireless or 802.11, then you most likely have a wireless adapter. If you only see PCIe GBI or LAN or Wired Ethernet then you most likely only have a wired network adapter.

In Windows XP you would click on Start>Control Panel. Now click System then click on the Hardware tab and finally,Device Manager.

Next, click the arrow next to network adapters. If you see any adapter listed that says WiFi, Wireless or 802.11 then you most likely have a wireless adapter. If you only see PCIe GBI or LAN or Wired Ethernet then you most likely only have a wired network adapter.

~Nishad

The Revolving Internet

Okay, you know me well enough to know that every once in a while I have to sneak a little bit of fun somewhere in all of this productivity. So, without further adieu, I give you The Revolving Internet -  a fun little site that makes your browser page slowly spin clockwise while playing the song “Windmills of Your Mind”, known best as the soundtrack song fromThe Thomas Crown Affair.

It is useful? Not particularly. Is it a fun little trick to show people? You betcha.

Check the Revolving Internet out at http://therevolvinginternet.com/ It’ll start you off at a Google search. Just type in a search string (for example: “Worldstart”) and go from there!

Note: You will need Java installed.