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Do you know how to get the most out of Google Drive? As with a lot of technology, most of us don’t know all the ins and outs of it. That’s why we’ve come up with this list of five helpful tips that some Drive users are completely unaware of. Here’s how you can use […]

22 Mar, 2016 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Tips category

2016Mar22_GoogleApps_BDo you know how to get the most out of Google Drive? As with a lot of technology, most of us don’t know all the ins and outs of it. That’s why we’ve come up with this list of five helpful tips that some Drive users are completely unaware of. Here’s how you can use them to your maximum benefit.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are all the rage these days, and Google Drive is not immune to this phenomenon. Here are a few that are quite helpful.
  • n: rename a selected item
  • d: show or hide the details pane
  • /: search Drive
  • z: move selected item to a folder
  • Shift + s: add a new spreadsheet
  • Shift + p: add a new presentation
  • Shift + t: add a new document
For a complete list of all Google Drive shortcuts, check out the official Google page.

Utilize revisions

Perhaps you want to see the revisions a coworker made to one of your documents. Or perhaps you hate your latest draft and want to recover an older version of it. With Google Drive, it’s all possible. Simply open the desired document, click File>See revision history, and all your revisions will appear in a sidebar to the right of the document. Then click on the revision you wish to see. If you’d like to revert to an older version, instead of your current draft, click on Restore this revision in the right sidebar.

Benefit from Suggesting mode

If you’re collaborating with another person on a document, Suggesting mode allows you to make suggestions to it without actually changing the text. Your suggestions will be seen by the initial writer, and he or she can then either approve or disapprove of them, providing the author the option to choose whether or not to implement them in the final document. To switch to Suggesting mode, click on the pencil shaped icon in the upper right corner of a document. When the drop down menu appears, click on Suggesting (Edits become suggestions).

Share large files

There has likely been an occasion where you wanted to send a very large file to another colleague, friend or family member, and were unable to do so through a free service. Google Drive offers a workaround for this dilemma. To take advantage of it, create a shared folder and upload your file to that folder. Once complete, you can share the file with whomever you wish by right-clicking on it, selecting Share, and then entering the person’s email address of who you wish to share it with. They’ll receive an email with the link to the file, and can access it from there.

Try Google Drive add-ons

Add-ons have become quite popular these days with browsers. And so it is as well with Google Drive. To discover the wonderful world of Google Drive add-ons for yourself, click Add-ons in between Table and Help in the upper menu (above the tool bar). There are plenty of helpful add-ons to choose from, including tools such as writing aids, mind mapping, charts, music notation and more. Once you install an add-on, it will appear in your Add-ons drop down menu.

If you follow these five Google Drive tips, you are one step closer to getting the most out the service. If you’d like to learn how else you can leverage Google’s products to better your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experts.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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We all know the benefits of a quick phone. You can accomplish your tasks quicker, easily connect with friends, and stay connected to the world while on the go. A little over a month back, it was reported that the Facebook app was slowing down Android phones everywhere. Today, we’d like to share with you […]

16 Mar, 2016 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Tips category

2016Mar16_AndroidPhone_BWe all know the benefits of a quick phone. You can accomplish your tasks quicker, easily connect with friends, and stay connected to the world while on the go. A little over a month back, it was reported that the Facebook app was slowing down Android phones everywhere. Today, we’d like to share with you an app that does exactly the opposite: gives you more speed. Here are the details below.

Aptly titled Chromer, this free app is essentially a lightweight version of Chrome that was created for one sole purpose: to allow your Android device to easily take advantage of Chrome custom tabs. And what are Chrome custom tabs you ask? Simply put, they are a solution Google created to greatly reduce the amount of time required for apps to load web pages on Android.

How does Chromer speed up your Android?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it all comes down to internet browsing. With the help of Chrome custom tabs, Chromer provides a quick browsing experience.

Up until now, Chrome custom tabs needed to be implemented by third party app developers. Chromer has resolved this issue with an app that utilizes Chrome custom tabs and is available directly from the Google Play store. By installing this free app, your browser will gain an edge in a number of ways that include:

  • Faster loading web pages
  • Saved website logins so you won’t have to repeatedly type in your usernames and passwords
  • Form autofill capabilities
  • Secure browsing experience that uses the same security rendering engine as Chrome
Best of all, you will instantly speed up your Android internet browsing experience. To use Chromer, you will need Google Chrome 45 or greater installed on your Android device. You can download Chromer for free here. Once installed, set it as your default browser and you will finally be able to enjoy a quick browsing experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to optimize your Android phone or tablet, get in touch with our experts. We love our Android devices as much as you, and are happy to show you how to get the most out of them.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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To monitor your employees, or not to monitor, that is the topic of this blog post today. If you’ve ever considered monitoring your staff’s online activities, you may’ve been lost as to whether or not it’s the right decision. So we’ve listed the pros and cons of doing it, and some tips to make it […]

15 Mar, 2016 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Productivity, Security, Tips category

2016Mar15_Security_BTo monitor your employees, or not to monitor, that is the topic of this blog post today. If you’ve ever considered monitoring your staff’s online activities, you may’ve been lost as to whether or not it’s the right decision. So we’ve listed the pros and cons of doing it, and some tips to make it a success if you go through with it. Here’s what you need to know.

The case for monitoring

There are a number of reasons why monitoring your employees is a good idea. Doing so can help you:
  • Protect your organization from data theft or harm - because some disgruntled employees may try to steal from you or corrupt your data.
  • Ensure you have a harassment free workplace - because cyber harassment (sexual or otherwise) happens among employees.
  • Ensure staff are complying with policies - not downloading illegal programs or spending time on websites with illegal or hostile content.
  • Provide evidence in case of a lawsuit - heaven forbid this happens, but if an employee participates in illegal activities on your business’s computers, monitoring can provide evidence of it.
The sad fact of the matter is that many businesses who monitor end up discovering that employees are doing things they’re not happy about. Research by Nancy Flynn, the executive director of the ePolicy Institute in Columbus, Ohio, revealed that two thirds of companies monitor their employees, and half of them have fired employees due to their behavior on email and the web.

Cons

Of course there are some potential downsides to monitoring that you should be aware of as well. These include:
  • Productivity loss - monitoring can kill employee morale, and therefore you may see a hit in their productivity if they feel you distrust them.
  • TMI and lawsuits - you’ll likely learn about the personal lives of your employees that you would’ve never known about had you not monitored. You may discover their political or religious views, sexual orientation or medical problems. This could potentially open up your business to privacy or discrimination issues if you or your management team act negatively on this information.

Monitoring guidelines to follow

If you decide to monitor your employees, here are a few tips you should follow.

1. Create written policies

When you decide to monitor, ask yourself, are you doing it for security purposes? Is it to ensure your employees are not wasting large amounts of time on Social media? Whatever the reasons, it’s smart to balance your policies with the expectations of your employees. If you’re too strict with your monitoring, you could create that atmosphere of distrust we mentioned above. So set guidelines for acceptable use of email, social media, web surfing, instant messaging, and downloading software and apps. Also, in your policy, include how monitoring will be carried out and how data will be secured or destroyed.

2. Tell your employees

It’s important to inform your employees about your monitoring. If they find out you’re doing it without their knowledge, you could create resentment among them or even face legal issues. And just by letting staff know, you may actually see a boost in productivity as it could deter them from wasting time on the web.

When you tell your employees, explain why you’re doing it and the risks your business faces from misuse of digital assets. Reassure them you’re not doing it to spy on their personal life, but only attempting to create a compliant and law abiding workplace. Because their activities will now be less private, encourage your staff to keep their personal communication to their smartphones. Also, provide a copy of your written policy to employees to read over and sign.

3. Get the right technology tools

While there are many technology tools to monitor your employees, bear in mind, you don’t need to follow their every move. In fact, you shouldn’t as it will not only waste your time, but also cause you to find out more information than necessary. So look for technology that will alert you to potential problems, so you can focus on more important things. Lastly, you may also want to consider technology that can block certain content, like porn or hate websites, as employee access to this content could create larger problems.

Whether or not to monitor your employees can be a tricky decision but, if implemented correctly, could benefit your business in making it more secure and even more productive. For more information about security and other IT support tools, get in touch. We’ll make our best effort to help however we can.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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If you’ve finally made the upgrade to Windows 10, you may be disappointed that it’s running slower than expected. You may wonder, what’s the cause of this? Well, thankfully there are a few typical culprits, and solutions to fix them. Here are four steps you can take to significantly speed up your Windows 10 OS. […]

03 Mar, 2016 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Tips, Windows category

2016Mar3_MicrosoftWindowsNewsAndTips_BIf you’ve finally made the upgrade to Windows 10, you may be disappointed that it’s running slower than expected. You may wonder, what’s the cause of this? Well, thankfully there are a few typical culprits, and solutions to fix them. Here are four steps you can take to significantly speed up your Windows 10 OS.

Prevent programs from launching at startup

Windows loads several programs at startup so they’re quickly available. While Microsoft likely has good intentions for doing this, the auto-launch can also slow down the speed of your computer. To fix this issue, you’ll need to make some manual adjustments in the settings.

To see what programs are launching during startup, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Next, click on the startup tab of the Task Manager window, where you can easily disable any programs you don’t want launching at startup. However, there will likely be a few programs you’re unsure about. For those, it’s best to play it safe and keep them enabled.

Get rid of useless applications

Having a large amount of programs on your computer takes up valuable memory and hard disk space. In other words, it slows your computer down and makes it work harder than necessary. To quickly clean out your unused programs, follow these steps:
  1. Type Change or remove a program into the taskbar search box (this will show you all the apps stored on your computer)
  2. Select the program/s you no longer want, and click Uninstall.
Once you do this, you’ll then be guided through a number of steps to complete the uninstallation process.

Tidy up your disks

While most people like to clean out their houses come Spring, why not do so with your computer sometime this month? Thankfully, Microsoft’s Disk Cleaner tool makes it easy to do so.

To find Disk Cleaner, right-click any drive in File Explorer and select Properties and Disk Cleanup under the General tab. Once open, it will automatically find files that may be taking up unnecessary space, such as temporary Internet and system memory dump files, and presents them to you for your review. Once you’ve looked them over, you can easily erase them by simply clicking OK.

Turn off apps running in the background

Much to your surprise, there are likely some programs running in the background of your Windows 10 OS that you’re completely unaware of. Microsoft has enabled their native universal apps to do this so you can quickly access their features. However, it also will cause some slow down to your CPU, so you might want to disable them.

To find out what programs are running in the background, navigate to Start Menu>Settings>Privacy>Background apps. Then, switch off the programs you don’t want running at all times.

By following these four steps, you are sure to see a noticeable difference in the speed of your PC. If you’d like to learn more about how to optimize your Windows system or need assistance with your other Microsoft products, feel free to give us a call.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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