Save Time with Templates

Q.  How can I create my own Microsoft Office templates?

A.  If you like documents to have the same look and feel, templates can save you a great deal of time and energy. To make your own custom template, start by opening an Office document (Word, Excel, etc.) and format it the way you want it to look as far as font size and style, color, anything you normally include.

When you’re done, click File > Save As. In the Save In location select My Documents. In the File Name field, give your new template a name, and in the Save as Type field, choose the Template option. Click Save to confirm your selection and close the dialog box.

From this point forward, whenever you want to use that template, simply go to your My Documents folder and double-click the template you created.

Q.  What’s the difference between kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes?  I can never keep them straight.

A.  A bit is the smallest bit (har-har) of data recognized by a computer, with the possible exception of wayward snack crumbs under the keyboard. Eight bits equal one byte, and a byte is a character, such as the letter A or B. 

Data is quantified in units of one thousand bytes, so just as a kilometer is a measure of 1000 meters, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes are larger quantities of bytes. A kilobyte (KB), for example, technically equals 1024 bytes; a megabyte (MB) is 1024 kilobytes, and a gigabyte (GB) is 1024 megabytes, but most people round 1024 off to an even 1000. Geekily inclined individuals are generally appalled by such rounding, but do we care? Of course not. It’s simply easier to remember that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes; a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes, a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes. 

Most users are familiar with the terms kilobyte, megabyte, and gigabyte, but beyond that, you can impress your friends and annoy your neighbors with the knowledge that 1000 gigabytes is a terabyte; 1000 terabytes is a petabyte, 1000 petabytes is an exabyte, 1000 exabytes is a zettabyte, and 1000 zettabytes is a yottabyte, which rhymes with “lotta bytes,” which indeed, it is.

Mr. Modem’s Sites of the Week:
Artcyclopedia
One of the best guides to locating and viewing fine art on the Internet. The site features an extensive index of more than 180,000 museum-quality works of art, more than 8,000 artists, and links to more than 2,000 art sites. Search the Artcyclopedia database by entering an artist’s name or medium, subject, or nationality. 
www.artcyclopedia.com

CoffeeGeek.com
Whether you prefer a fancy-shmancy CappaFrappaSpresso, or just a good, old-fashioned cup of joe, this is the ultimate site for coffee lovers. Help yourself to a piping hot carafe of news, articles and opinions for the discerning coffee drinker. Browse the various sections to find consumer and Coffee Geek reviews, how-to guides, as well as freshly brewed articles about the worldwide coffee and espresso industry. You can even commit the  Barista Code of Conduct to memory, if you’re so inclined. You never know when you’ll need it in the event of a coffee crisis.
http://coffeegeek.com

Macrame Owls
Bill Davenport’s Gallery of Macrame Owls contains more than 70 different styles of, well, Macrame owls. This site won’t transform your life, but as a display of one man’s hobby, it’s a bit of an eclectic hoot that begs the question, “Why?”
http://tinyurl.com/jtdov

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