Efficiency Tips (including MS Outlook & Word) of the Month

Speakeasy Solutions Newsletter Today’s Speakeasy Solutions Newsletter Topic:

General Computer Support & Tips.

Re-position your cursor quickly, maximize the use of the < tab > key, set up & use multiple signatures in MS Outlook, and set your default saving location in MS Word.

Keyboard Shortcut of the Month

< Ctrl + Home > & < Ctrl + End >

This keystroke sequence will re-position the cursor to the top & bottom of the text field in focus.

Sometimes you need to move the cursor to the very top or bottom of a document, or to the beginning or end of a text region in an application (i.e. EMR, website etc.). Most people grab their mouse, hover and then left click (sometimes not even positioning the cursor where desired).

It’s much faster to simply press the < Ctrl + Home > keys to position the cursor to the top or the < Ctrl + End > keys to position the cursor to the bottom.

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Pinning Items to Your Start Menu for Increased Efficiency

SeS Icon Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter With the Windows 7 operating system there is a choice to “fix” (that is, position), known as “pin” applications (as well as items) to the Start Menu and/or Taskbar. This feature allows you to access these applications with one or two mouse clicks, rather than navigating through the program folder and subfolder menus under the start menu.

As a matter of efficiency, daily used applications are best pinned to the Taskbar (the bar at the bottom of your screen where the time is cited on the far right), and frequently used applications are best pinned to the Start Menu (beneath the Windows button on the far bottom left). Such applications might include:

  • WordPad
  • Calculator
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • And even regularly used system tools such as Disk Defragmenter.

The reason this topic has arisen is because when I work with clients, I speak to them about much more than harnessing the power of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but also how to take advantage of certain facets of computer use. For those who perform their own maintenance, disk defragmentation is highly suggested once per month and for some clients, this process is not always best automated as the computer is not always reliably on at the same time every month.

Rather than digging through the Start Menu for the Disk Defragmenter, I often place a shortcut to this useful process by pinning it to the Start Menu. This enables clients to see it regularly, serve as a reminder that this task should be performed, and of course give them ease of access to this feature.

Please find below instructions to this effect, with some additional information.

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Conflicting Issues between Amicus Attorney & Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Professional, Legal)

SeS Icon Dragon & Amicus Attorney One of the recent versions of Amicus Attorney, 2011 Small Firm, has been noted to have conflicting issues with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional version 11.  Other variants of Amicus Attorney may likewise possess this conflict.

Not everyone may encounter these issues, but for those who do, they may wish to read below:

Amicus Attorney may un-register Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s compatibility module for Microsoft Outlook. In such instances, the computer and/or Dragon will freeze, Outlook may be inoperable etc.

A potential remedy is to reregister the compatibility module for Microsoft Outlook. This is by no means a permanent fix, and Nuance is aware of the issue. They’re working steadfastly towards a resolution, and hopefully there will be one soon. In the meantime, instructions for reregistering the compatibility module are as follows:

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Setting Your Preferred Audio Output/Playback

SeS Icon Dragon Sound Settings If you have multiple audio devices connected to your computer (i.e. speakers, USB headset, handheld microphone, digital voice recorder etc.), you may feel that Microsoft Windows seems to randomly allocate the audio output.

And more often than not, the sound output is not in accordance with the device that you prefer.

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Newsletter Tips for General Computer Use: Dec 8-2012

Speakeasy Solutions Newsletter Today’s Speakeasy Solutions Newsletter Topic:

Support & Tips for General Computer Use

This particular newsletter topic is released once per month (every second Thursday of the month).

In This Issue

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Email Phishing Scams from “Linkedin”

Linkedin I have received two phishing emails from “Linkedin” this morning and it’s not even 8:00 AM yet. Once upon a time one would receive a plethora of phishing email from “ebay”, and we’ve all received email from our respective banks and even financial institutions that we do not even conduct business with! We grow desensitized to such email and what isn’t filtered out by our sundry security systems, we just report and delete.

However, the rise in Linkedin phishing emails bears some concern and I’d like to take this opportunity to warn my fellow Linkedin users of this rising issue.

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Should Dragon Medical be Set Up Before or After EMR Implementation?

SeS Icon Dragon Medical More often than not, physicians contact us after they have established their EMR (Electronic Medical Record) of choice, searching for a more efficient means to enter their patient encounters than via hand typing. Doctors or their support staff eventually learn that Dragon Medical Practice Edition speech recognition is a tremendous time-saver and also improves the quality of patient care by way of more thorough notes.

However, every so often Speakeasy Solutions receives a phone call from a medical office who is also looking into EMRs with the question: Should Dragon Medical be set up before or after EMR implementation? The answer may vary a little in the details of Dragon’s execution, but the overall conclusion is often agreed:

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