January 9, 2019 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Password Protection

Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes…

Last week I tried to log onto my 2 laptops and kept getting the “Invalid password” message. I type that password twice every morning. Pre-coffee! Of course, I knew what it was. I tried rebooting. I tried CAPS ON and caps off. Finally I called my IT support who was going to come with his reset software.

I finally quieted down enough to try the password on auto-pilot as I usually do. Oh… yeah… there are 2 more digits to it.

Later in the week, my sister wiped her iPhone because she got confused about her phone password. She never turns off the phone therefore she never uses that password.

I use a password protector software but I had left my Windows password out of it. My sister uses a password storage software but it doesn’t have online access, only phone access.

Confession over. Let’s talk about how you can prevent either of these scenarios happening to you.

You ABSOLUTELY can not use the same password for multiple accounts! This is a serious problem. Please! It’s worth the effort to make your data safer. A data breach at Dropbox was just to gather passwords, not for info in files. The hackers take the passwords, try them at banks, PayPal, Google, etc. to get access to your personal data.

Option 1 – I strongly recommend this!

Use LastPass.com to record and input passwords. LastPass will fill in the user name and password for you on website logins. You can see the list from your computer, your tablet, your phone. You can access it online. You can store other info like social security numbers, spouse’s auto license plate number. I will help you set it up if you need some assistance. Basic service is free. Premium is only $24 a year. Using LastPass on your tablet or phone does make it easier to access sites from those small screens. And if the phone is locked up, you can access the password list from your computer.

Option 2

Create a series you can remember but changes with each account. Should be at least 8 characters including a capital letter and a special character.

Example: Series is 125cHaracters34$% (3rd character is always capitalized)

Then for your Google account the password is 12goOgl34$%

for Southwest Airlines the password is 12soUth34$%

for Yelp the password is 12yeLp34$%

You can remember the series. Each password is different so that if a hacker gets the Google password they can’t access Yelp.

This is IMPORTANT! Call me if you have questions or need help getting set up.

Post update on 05/03/18.

May 24, 2018 By yclmanager5 1 Comment

Changes To Google Maps

Many of you use Google Maps on your website. You may receive a scary sounding email about the new Google Maps Platform and fees.

Do not panic! Google is charging for all maps services now. However, each account gets a $200 credit each month to cover the first 25,000 clicks on the map. So far none of my clients are hitting the 25,000 click level so the $200 credit will cover your fee.

If you want the details, here is the Google announcement.

March 6, 2017 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Move Between Different Open
Microsoft Office Files

When you have multiple spreadsheets open, it can take many clicks shifting between different files. In addition, you never want to end up entering information into the wrong file. Use Ctrl + Tab to shift between different files easily. The great part of this tip is that it also works in other programs as well like Firefox and Chrome while using Windows 7. You can easily shift between any open tabs!

January 18, 2017 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Viewing Images in Gmail

When you using Gmail, you have to tell it to display the images in your emails. Note below where there is a link under the email header asking to display. Once you display images from a particular sender, the images will show up in their future emails to you.

If you don’t display images, your emails can be pretty goofy looking since the spacing messing up.

A really good email marketer will put text with the images to tell you what the image is. That helps your viewer tell where the missing images are.

One reason Gmail doesn’t display images is to make messages load faster. If you send large image files, the email opens much slower.

So resize your photos before you use them in emails and use Alt Text to tell your viewers there are images to see!!

August 29, 2016 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Pinning Most Used Documents

There are certain documents that all of us use more than others, so wouldn’t it be nice if there was a quick and easy way to get to those documents, and still have them nicely organized in their correct file? Here is how you can do that using the Microsoft Office Suite. First, click on the File tab and then in the list on the left hand side click Recent. This will show you a recent list of your opened documents, now to the right of each document there is a little push pin. If you click the push pin, it will keep that document at the top of that list forever, or until you un-click the push pin.

December 9, 2015 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

2 SmartApps to Improve Productivity

I’ve found 2 apps for your smartphone that can improve productivity in regard to phone calls and protect your sanity!

YouMail.com

This app has free, premium ($5/mon) and business ($10/mon) levels of service.

What does it do?

Answers calls and greets the caller by name if they are in your contact list.
Can auto reply by text or email
Can transcribe voice mails and email the message to you.
Caller ID
Block Caller

Whitepages.com

What does it do?

Identifies incoming calls as suspected spam or known spam numbers.
Lets you block callers

DIY method

Create a contact with the name Do Not Answer
Add spam phone numbers to the contact as you identify them. (A contact can have a lot of phone numbers!)
When the call rings in from an identified number, you will see Do Not Answer in the Caller ID.

Thanks to Terisa Fullmoon for the DIY method! She is my favorite driver from The Driver Provider.

September 30, 2015 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

What’s Your Priority

Here is some good advice about today’s information overload. I really agree with the ending paragraph about being part of the solution. If you want some more practical ideas, read “The Hamster Revolution” by Mike Song. His methods cut email time by 25% for a test group at Chase Bank. Or call me for some one on one conversation! I’d love to help.

July 22, 2015 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

How to Battle Your SmartPhone Addiction

While this article talks more about the younger generation, I have seen some of my clients and friends with the same addiction. You know who you are! I encourage you to use this suggested method to break your addiction!

I completely believe we check email too often and put pressure on ourselves to respond instantly. An excellent book on better email processes is “The Hamster Revolution” by Mike Song. Good, practical processes to spend less time on email and more time on the important things.

June 10, 2015 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Managing To-Do Lists- Lynda.com

“Discover top techniques for tracking to-dos on paper as well as apps for effectively managing your digital to-do lists. Organization expert Suzanna Kaye explains how to approach to-do lists and prioritize items using various proven techniques. She then explores the top five apps for digital to-do list management, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and functionality.”

 </p> <p><a href="http://www.lynda.com/home/otl.aspx?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=ldc_affiliate&utm_content=29&utm_campaign=CD4219&bid=29&aid=CD4219&opt="><img src="http://affiliates.lynda.com/42/4219/29/" alt="lynda.com" border="0" /></a></p> <p>

September 30, 2013 By yclmanager5 Leave a Comment

Mobile presents a huge opportunity for small businesses marketing

This is an article from Constant Contact blogs that talks about this great opportunity.

http://blogs.constantcontact.com/fresh-insights/mobile-marketing/

Your Computer Lady