Product Review: Xobni (MS Outlook Plug-In)

I am going to start a new series of blog entries in which I will review new or lesser known technologies and software I think people will find useful. This week the software is Xobni. Xobni is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook and it loads to the right of your inbox in the Outlook window. Xobni tracks and indexes your email communications and provides some interesting information about each email. For instance, when you highlight an email message in your inbox, Xobni will show you the following about that email:

• Rankings, graphs, and statistics detailing how you and your contacts use email
• A list of every other email the person has sent you sorted by conversation thread
• A list of every attachment the person has sent you
• Phone numbers that exist in the emails
• The top people the sender of the email also sends to
• Plus more…

The plug-in also provides a pretty quick full-text email search which is helpful. Some of the features are trivial but interesting nonetheless. The product's website says the plug-in is currently in beta but I have not had any trouble with it. Oh and by the way, at least for now, the plug-in is free. In my opinion, it's worth checking out. You can find the download here.

Happy teching,

Ryan Williams

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Copying and Pasting

This week's tech tip is on copying and pasting. I am going to go out on a limb and assume everyone already knows what copying and pasting is. So I am going to address what I consider one of the most annoying aspects of copying and pasting in Windows which is text formatting. As I'm sure you have noticed at one time or another, when you copy and paste text between two programs, the pasted text usually keeps the formatting of the copy source rather than matching the formatting of the paste destination. This can be quite annoying at times because you usually have to spend time reformatting the pasted text to match the formatting of the place in which it was pasted. There are two simple solutions to this problem.

If you are working in Microsoft Word 2007, there is an option for how to handle copy and pastes located in the Word Options menu and then the Advanced section.

Click here to see where MS Word 2007 Options are located.

Click here to see where the Advanced section is located.

My favorite solution, however, is a little more old school. I prefer this solution because it works in all scenarios, not just in MS Word. This solution is to open Notepad which is the free text application that comes with MS Windows. To launch Notepad follow these two steps:

Click on the start menu and then the Run option.
Click here for an example image.

Type "notepad" in the Run window and press OK.
Click here for an example image.

(You can also find a shortcut to Notepad by clicking on the start menu, then programs, then accessories.)

If you paste anything into the Notepad program window, Notepad will clear all formatting and keep just the text. Then you can copy from the Notepad window and paste anywhere you like with no formatting. This is especially helpful when copying text from Web Pages where you may encounter embedded images and links in the text. Using this simple technique will strip away everything except the text and allow you to paste the text anywhere formatting free.

I hope you find the tech tip useful.

Happy Teching,


Ryan Williams

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What every company should be doing to protect their network and data.

Backup files regularly.
This should be automated to happen every day, not once per week or less. I have seen companies go out of business because they lost their accounting data and didn't even know who owed them money.

Test restoring from backup.
It is important to occasionally test your backups to make sure they are working properly. I have seen companies have backups that complete successfully every day, however, when a restore was attempted, the business realized they had been backing up the wrong folder.

Keep a copy of your backups offsite.
This step is too easy and too important to ignore. Natural disasters, fire, theft, and malicious employees are just a few examples of times when an offsite backup may come in handy. With automated offsite backup solutions, this process does not even require effort.

Keep your anti-virus software turned on and the virus definition updates current.
This goes for every computer on your network.

Have a professional install and setup your firewall.
Just having a firewall on your network does not solve anything. It must be configured properly.

Install a web content filter on your network.
This will help guard against employees browsing the internet and accidentally clicking on internet links they should not and being tricked into installing spyware and viruses. It happens all the time, and no virus or spyware protection is 100% fail proof.

If you have wireless in your building, make sure it is secured with the latest encryption.
Most people would be surprised at how many wireless access points within businesses are completely unsecured and open to the public. Make sure your wireless is secure.

Keep all your software current with updates and security patches.
This includes Microsoft Windows, Office and other Microsoft products as well as your specialized business software solutions. In general, it is a bad idea to fall behind on the major updates to your software. Pay maintenance on your software and keep it current.

I hope you find this tech tip helpful.

Happy teching,

Ryan Williams

Ask Me A Tech Question
http://www.techbetter.com/question.aspx

View & Subscribe To My Tech Tips
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About Me & TechBetter
http://www.techbetter.com/aboutme.aspx