Computer Solutions in the greater brisbane area.
Hints and Tips
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Seeding your Managed Backup
Now that Shift Computer Solutions is taking care of your backups, we just need to build what we call a “seed” backup, which will be sent to our data centre. This backup will be loaded on our servers, so that your entire backup doesn’t need to be pushed there over the internet, because that would take far too long, and leave you vulnerable for a lot longer.
This video will walk you through the process of getting the Seed done. As you will see, it’s very easy!
How to caption a picture in Word 2010
Quite often after inserting a picture or image into a word document you will want to caption it. Captions make your document much more readable, and you also don’t have to be stuck with the boring old “figure 1.” as you can have the caption read whatever you want. Here’s how you do it.
1. Click the graphic.
The graphic become selected.
2. From the References tab’s Captions group, click the Insert Caption button.
A caption frame is placed below the graphic, and the Captions dialog box appears.
3. In the Caption text box, type the figure caption text.
You can remove any text that’s already there.
4. Select a position for the caption from the Position drop-down list.
The caption position is relative to the figure.
5. Click the OK button.
The dialog box closes, and the caption is applied to the figure.
6. If you want to change the caption, simply click the mouse in the caption text box and type a new caption.
Click anywhere outside the text box when you’re done.
7. To remove a caption, click the caption text box once to select it, and then press the Delete key.
The caption disappears.
Remember: The caption itself is a special type of text box, which is like a graphic image but contains text. It’s not grouped with the image, so if you move or resize the image, you have to move or resize the caption box, as well
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Why you would benefit from a network audit
A SHIFT analysis of your small business will be quick and painless and provide you with valuable information.
Here are our top 5 reasons why your business would benefit from a technology analysis:
1.Examination of current technology – If you’re thinking of replacing your computer, a SHIFT analysis may reveal that upgrading specific components, such as memory, would give you a significant performance boost. It could also highlight incorrect system settings or poor security configurations that could easily be fixed. once we determine what technology you have, it will be easy to find some quick, inexpensive areas for improvement.
2. Long term assessment of your system requirements – A SHIFT analysis may reveal components that are out dated and should be replaced with newer, faster components. It could also highlight storage capacity issues on your system and where there is more space to be found. You can then plan and budget to address these areas in the future, without any costly interuption to your business
3. Know what software is in your system – A SHIFT analysis of the software in your system will reveal if your computers have illegal file sharing software, other programs that may be harmful to the system or just taking up valuble space. Remember if your employees are able to install software onto your computers, do you know what they have been installing?
4. Determine you have the correct software licenses – In some cases, a software manufacturer has the right to randomly check your business for the correct license number and the right kind of license for their software. If you’ve taken on more staff, or you’ve had employees installing software on your system, a SHIFT analysis can reveal where your software licensing might need to be updated.
5. Complete IT asset register – Your business will have certain assets listed for accounting purposes. If a theft or natural disaster hit your business, SHIFT can store a copy of your SHIFT analysis results, including a detailed list of your system assets, off site in case you need to refer to that list to make an insurance claim.
The outcomes of your SHIFT analysis will be a comprehensive list of your I.T. assets and recommendations for improvements (both short and long term) that fit in with your budget and your business plans.
iPhone Setup for Office 365
We’ve produced this short video to show you how to configure your iPhone or iPad with your new Office 365 login details. We shot the video using an iPad but the setup is exactly the same on the iPhone.
Clearing your web history
A lot of clients ask how to go about clearing their web browsing history from their computer. We’ve made this quick video to show you how its done. Starting with Internet Explorer, then Google Chrome and finally showing you how its done in Firefox.
Got more questions, please ask them in the comments!
Clearing Browser History from Mathew Taylor on Vimeo.
Always consider total cost of ownership
Today I saw an advisory issued by a Queensland group (I won’t name them) that told its members that the group was organising to provide IT services to its members. The particular area of concern for me was where they suggested they would periodically arrange “group buying” of new computers which they assured their members would “save them money”.
The reality is that this type of buying never saves anyone any money. You want to make sure that your equipment is provided by a local, honest vendor who is prepared to give you the support and assistance required to ensure the lowest possible “cost of ownership”.
Firstly, bulk deals will always land you cheap hardware. If your vendor is struggling to come up with the lowest possible price, they are going to provide you the cheapest, lowest quality parts. You should make sure you aren’t being ripped off, but you should never buy solely on price alone. You get what you pay for.
Secondly, the types of vendors likely to bid for a bulk deal like this (as it’s a statewide group) are going to simply deliver a bunch of boxes to the buyer, as they aren’t local to the businesses in question. So there’s no support, no installation and no help. Buying from a vendor like Shift Computer Solutions gives you not only great equipment, but that equipment is delivered, installed and working 100% without ANY intervention on your part. Your time is valuable, and if you are wasting it setting up computers, that needs to be added to the cost, as it forms part of the total cost of ownership of that computer.
Warranty is also a big issue. Most vendors are going to offer 3rd party warranties, which means the vendor isn’t responsible for fixing any problems, a 3rd party is. The problem here is that the 3rd party is paid a flat, up front fee for carrying the warranty, and thus they actually lose money if they do any work for you. This makes them look for ways to avoid assisting you, and can waste valuable time and cost your business valuable money.
Finally, the biggest cost of ownership issue is support. If you are buying your equipment from your IT support vendor, you are getting a team of technicians who know all your systems and equipment, so issues that crop up are dealt with quickly. By putting in cheap hardware from a 3rd vendor, you increase the number of vendors responsible for your site, make it harder to get problems fixed and increase your overall costs.
Change your Facebook password immediately.
News out this week that authority tokens used by facebook apps to access peoples facebook profiles have leaked onto the internet hasn’t got a lot of mainstream coverage. While Facebook has fixed the security loophole, the problem remains that those authority tokens do not expire, and once leaked, are out there forever.
The good news is that changing your Facebook password resets ALL the authority tokens, making the ones that have already leaked out void and useless to potential hackers.
We are advising all our clients to immediately change their Facebook password to make sure full security of their account is maintained.
Computer Solutions
We called our business Shift Computer Solutions because we wanted to tell people right from the start that we do a whole lot more than just fix problems.
Providing solutions means listening to you to understand exactly what you need. Too often people are left with poor quality fixes to poorly understood problems. We look at your problems, but also your needs and the things you want to get done, and we supply a fully prepared solution.
Working with a solutions paradigm means you get much better value. Often issues you didn’t even realise might be a problem are resolved or avoided by the implementation of a quality computer solution. In the long run, this means lower support costs, less downtime and much improved productivity.
Contact mathew@shiftsolutions.com.au for more information on the solutions we can provide your business.
30 Days Free Technical Support
At the bottom of nearly every proposal we give to our clients, we mention that we include 30 days of free technical support. We thought we should explain exactly what that means, and why it is such a great benefit to our clients.
Post Installation Phone Support
We know, because we’ve been doing this for 15 years, that every client will have questions after they get new equipment installed. This is why we offer completely free phone support for 30 days after we install your new computer, laptop or other equipment. We take away the stress of not knowing those little differences that come with a new system. Just give our office a call, and one of our technicians (usually the same one who installed your equipment) will sort it out for you.
System Monitoring
We monitor your new computer, laptop or server for 30 days after installation to ensure everything runs smoothly. Plenty of our clients have “bought a lemon” elsewhere before coming to us, and so we take extra care to ensure your new equipment is flawless. If we detect any adjustments are necessary, we make them, so your new computer is perfectly tailored to suit your needs.
Security Updates
During the 30 days, we check and make sure your computer is properly secured and updated against all current threats. You avoid having to worry that your new computer wasn’t fully and completely configured when you got it. If you’re security conscious, talk to your technician about how you extend this protection to a full year.
Marketing your business through Twitter
In old school marketing, the idea was that the more you broadcast a marketing message, the more your sales grew. It simply means that the more you get your message out to the public, the more chance you will have on getting costumers or people to buy your product. In our age today, social media has become the number one trend in our society. Almost everyone has a social networking site that they log-in to. There is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and so many more. If you are a business owner, it would make sense to use social networking sites as a marketing tool for your business. This is due to the number of subscribers that use social networking sites. As I stated before, the more you broadcast a marketing message, the more your sales will grow. To give a concrete example, statistics from Facebook states that they have over 500 million active users worldwide and 50% if it log-in to Facebook in any given day. At the same time, twitter statistics states that they have 200 million plus registered users with 460 thousand new sign-ups daily. The huge number of these users is what makes social networking sites a powerful marketing tool for your business.
Now let’s focus more on Twitter. Twitter is different from Facebook in the sense that its environment is much more open compared to Facebook. With Twitter you do not have to make a request to be added as a friend to get notifications from that person, you simply have to follow. This type of setting makes Twitter more powerful because of the time it can spread information out, depending on the number of followers a person or a business have. Businesses a can easily introduce new products or services with a simple tweet that their followers will receive likewise followers can spread the same information they received by sharing it to their respective followers as well. The spread of information is sort of exponential in pattern. To maximize the capability of a tweet, users usually use links to direct followers to their main site, blogs, or articles. Inserting links to your tweets is essential because a tweet consists of only 140 characters. To get the full detail of the information you want to share to your followers, you can simply include a link on your tweet. According to an article, 80% of engagement in twitter is done by clicking a link. Information is sent out faster when you include a link than waiting for replies or re-tweets.
Twitter itself has made efforts to help their subscribers maximize the 140 character limit of a tweet. Twitter has introduced its own URL shortening service that automatically shortens links that are included in a tweet. Twitter currently uses http://t.co as a link service to shorten URL’s on the tweets. Previous popular URL shorteners used by subscribers where Bit.ly (https://bitly.com/) and tinyURL (http://tinyurl.com). There are also a number of tools that you can use along with Twitter that can make your twitter experience suitable for your specification just like Hootsuite.com. It also has its own URL shortener service http://ow.ly. Hootsuite also gives you the capability to manage multiple Twitter accounts, add multiple editors of the same account, pre-schedule your tweets, and measure traffic with its analytics. If you are looking for a tool to help you stay productive throughout your day and not be held hostage by the time-suck police, Hootsuite is where you should turn.
For those people that do not have a Twitter account, I encourage you to try it out. Signing-in is easy and can be done in a few minutes. All you have to do is have an existing e-mail account and then go to twitters main page www.twitter.com, enter your name, e-mail and create a password and then click on sign-up. For people who already have twitter accounts, you can try hootsuite instead. You can visit their site www.hootsuite.com and click on sign-up. You can either choose two types of service, their free service and their paid service which cost 5.99US dollars a month. For their free service, you will be required to enter your e-mail address, full name, you will be required to create a password and your time zone. Once your account is created, you can now start using hootsuite. All you have to do is link your twitter account by clicking on “add a social network”, choose twitter, log-in and your done. You will then see your twiiter account on the upper left side of the page. Lastly, Twitter and Hootsuite are free, and if used properly, it can be a very helpful marketing tool for you. So try it now.
