Meryl K. Evans

I manage three Web sites for three different PTA groups. All use a calendar tool and while building the latest Web site, I found Trumba. It was easier to use and had more powerful features than WebCalendar.
So I started a new account for the other two PTA Web sites and finally entered most of the […]

Roy Peter Clark talks about neologisms — new words. In the article, he tells a story about a child who referred to something as “ginormous” because “It was bigger than gigantic. It was huger than enormous.” The child didn’t create the word as Clark points to the Urban Dictionary — so it’s not impossible for […]

I’m already ready for more and hope that Hipsoft, the company behind this brilliant addition to the tycoon genre, works on a sequel (could be same topic or something different with a similar concept). No one thing makes Build-a-Lot special — it just has the right amount of challenge, an easy to figure out interface, […]

We all know someone who, like Oklahoma’s Ado Annie, just “cain’t say no.” These folks accept every project. Every volunteer job. While everyone around them loves and appreciates them (or not), they’re often tired and do little for themselves. Some people who fall into this group may not even realize they’re on automated mode when […]

Once I got out of automated mode, I woke up and realized that I often use Paste Special with unformatted text when working in MS Word. It became a habit like CTRL+V, CTRL+X, and CTRL+C. To do Paste Special without formatting, I clicked CTRL+V to paste, selected the Paste Special icon (smart tag) and selected […]

The toolbars can move around Outlook, dock or float. You can also change the shape of a floating toolbar and change the size of a docked toolbar. Move any toolbar by selecting the move handle (four dots on the far left side of a toolbar) and moving the toolbar to its new location. For docked […]

Escape from Paradise with an island adventure includes five games to take a break from the beach grind. Beach and grind in the same sentences? When your people spend most of their time cutting trees (sorry, Al Gore and environmental activists — these aren’t real trees, y’know?), building huts and catching food, you’d call it […]

We know Gnomies wouldn’t steal other people’s ideas, but it’s good to arm yourself with information about plagiarism as it affects many areas of our lives. Plagiarism has become a hot topic in recently years thanks to NY Times writer Jayson Blair plagiarizing. Then A Million Pieces writer James Frey who said the work was […]

It’s no surprise the Donald has found his way into a computer game. The Apprentice: Los Angeles might not be what you expect. The game combines four Diner Dash style games taking place in different locations and a boardroom memory style game. Those not familiar with the TV show can learn more about The Apprentice […]

Whenever someone has a baby, I always ask how they came up with the baby’s name. Stories have ranged from fascinating to “just ’cause” (we liked the name). Amazing how English words coming from 26 letters of the alphabet have led to unforgettable plays, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, songs, movies, and muscials. Even a simple letter, […]

When I had to re-install everything on my computer, I opted not to install a few programs including the one I used to manage spam. It wasn’t bad, but I felt it wasn’t as effective as it could be. I rarely hear about a 100 percent effective spam solution, but I had enough of the […]

We’ve got old computers, laptops, and monitors sitting the garage collecting dust. Most of them don’t work anymore and we can’t just throw them out because they have parts that could potentially lead to environmental hazards. This eHow article provides steps, tips, and warnings for safely disposing computers.
The Dallas Morning News printed a story that […]

Thank goodness this doesn’t come with smells like the upcoming My Name Is Earl smell-o-vision episode then it would be impossible to play without craving chocolate. You may want to play Chocolatier on a full stomach with the graphics clearly showing every delicious ingredient in the 60 different kinds of bars, squares, infusions and truffles.
The […]

Sticking notes all around your monitor and desk? Clear the clutter and use Outlook’s Notes feature. Using Outlook’s Notes instead of sticky notes protects your information since it’s stored on your computer instead of out in the open for all to see. You can even categorize, print and organize these electronic notes.
Open the notes from […]

Bridge Is Cool teaches you how to play mini bridge and regular bridge. Paul and I learned to play bridge with our parents when we were first married and had more time on our hands. Since then, we’ve gotten busy with out children and other things plus our friends don’t know anything about playing bridge. […]

If I could, I’d take at least one class at all times. By now, I’d have two masters degrees and maybe even a PhD. Well, maybe not that. It’s a shame that online degrees didn’t exist when I was in college or was mostly by correspondence (snail mail). I took my first non-class course in […]

I’m editing an eBook that requires special formatting for every story. Naturally this was a good fit for a macro. The first macro did all the steps, but fumbled on the call outs. Better idea: create two macros with the second one covering the call outs. This worked like a charm… until I closed Word […]

The Mailbox Cleanup tool shows the size of your folders, archives older items and empties the Deleted Items folder. It doesn’t compact the folder. View Mailbox Cleanup by selecting Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools menu. The tool can do the following:

Display the size of your mailbox and folders.
Find items by age or size.
Run AutoArchive […]

Not having played Mysteryville, Mysteryville 2 instantly reminded me of Magic Academy in the game play style and interface — Nevosoft is behind both games. The developer does a first-rate job in telling a strong story in its hidden object games and continues the tradition with its latest entry.
Journalist Laura Winner returns to the little […]

I received an .odt file for posting on an organization’s Web site. OpenOffice’s word processor uses this file format. I didn’t want to download and install OpenOffice even though it cost nothing. And going back to the sender wasn’t a good idea because she would either not know how to convert it or she wasn’t […]