ITunes WiFi Music Store

The iTunes WiFi Music Store allows iPod touch and iPhone users to browse, preview and then purchase music, movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store .The purchased items will be downloaded directly to the wireless device- iPod touch or iPhone . Previously, iTunes Store purchases had to be made using the iTunes software on computers, but now, the downloaded item is available to be played instantaneously on the device. And, the next time the device is connected to the computer, the songs purchased wirelessly will get synced to the computer's iTunes library. Awesome!


Furthermore, the iTunes' ringtone feature, allows users to buy songs and convert them into ringtones immediately, on the go, without the computer. Cool!

What are the requirements for the iTunes WiFi Music Store?
All you need is:

• An iPhone or iPod touch running firmware 1.1.1
• A WiFi connection
• An iTunes Store account

And of course, some money! :)

 To buy music from the iTunes WiFi Music Store all you have to do is to follow these simple steps:  

1. Connect to a WiFi Network - You will be able to access the WiFi Music Store only when connected to a WiFi network.
2. Access the Store and Browse for Content - Just tap the purple arrow icon in the bottom right corner of the iPhone or iPod touch’s home screen to access the store. At the store, you will be able to browse for certain featured music ,view the various Top Ten lists or search the store by tapping the icons at the bottom of the screen.
3.    Preview the Music -. Tap the name of a song to hear a preview. Tap it again to stop the preview.
4. Buy the Music - To buy a song or album, tap the price next to it. A button that reads “Buy Now” will appear. To dismiss the button, tap anywhere on the screen other than on the button. To make the purchase, tap that button. 
5. Download the Music - Most songs download in about 10 seconds. You can watch the progress of your download in the Downloads section, accessed through the button on the bottom right of the screen.
6. Listen to Your Music - Once the download is complete, a “Purchased” button will show at the top-right corner of the Downloads screen. Tap that button to go to your list of music purchased from the iTunes WiFi Music Store and happily listen away to your music.

 How to add music bought from the iTunes WiFi Music Store to iTunes?
Easy – just connect your iPhone or iPod touch to the computer and any purchases from the WiFi Music Store will be automatically added to your iTunes library, along with a new playlist called ‘Purchased’ .Now wasn’t that easy and cool? Enjoy!


Copyright © 2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved Read more Entry>>

Back-up Blogger Blog Completely with Posts + Comments + Gadgets

It is always wise to save and back up your blog. We hear of instances where a blog just vanishes! You would not want to be left in the lurch wondering how you can ever replace all the posts and your comments. Or maybe, you would like to transfer your blog to another domain or whatever! I will show you a simple and a very easy method where you can back up your blog, along with your posts, comments and gadgets!

• Log in to your blogger account and go to Dashboard.

• Choose the blog you want to back up and go to Settings.

• From the Settings page, select Basic.

• Under Basic, you will see Blog Tools and click on the Export blog option.

• An Export your blog box will open up and click on DOWNLOAD BLOG button .

• You will be prompted to choose the location on your hard drive where you can save your blog.

That’s it! Your blog will be downloaded to that location!Your done! Good! :)

An important note:

The blog which you have Exported will be in an .xml document. It's size will be small but then, it does contain all your posts, comments and gadgets If you open the file, you will not be able to read the file but when you upload it to a blog , you will be able to view your blog along with all the posts, comments and gadgets .Thus you can save your blog completely into your hard drive and use it when required!
To save only your Template and Post check out here.
To save just your Widgets or Page elements check out here.
Hope this was useful to you. Please do give me your feed back, so that I can improve the way I explain! :)
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Back up or Save your Blogger Template

Would you like to back up your blogger template along with your posts? Well, it is a good idea to back up your template especially when you need to customize your template, so that, even when something does go wrong, you will have a - back up!Backing up your template with your posts is really a cake walk!

All that you do, is to:

Go to Dashboard > Layout > Edit HTML .

Click on the Download Full Template under Backup/Restore section.

You will prompted to choose a location in your hard drive for the download .

Your blogger template will be downloaded in that location in your hard drive.

Done! Wasn’t this so very simple?

Read more Entry>>

How to Save or Back up Widgets in Blogger

There are many methods to back up blogger widgets, but I am going to show you just the easiest one, which does not require you to play around with css codes and edit html templates.
Before you start, I would suggest that you take a screenshot of your blog with the widgets or maybe even the Page Elements page, so that you know exactly where the widgets or page elements are placed in your old template.

Now, to back-up all the widgets, do as follows:

• Log into your blogger account.
• Go to Dashboard .
• Click on Layout. The Add and Arrange Page Element window will open up.
  

• You will see an Edit option on each of the widget's right-bottom corner.
• Click Edit.
  

A pop-up window will open and you will find some codes there. Copy the code and save them to a notepad file. Name each block of codes with the title of that particular widget. This is because, when you reinstall the widgets, it will be easier for you to realize which code belongs to a particular widget.

Back-up all the gadgets, in this similar manner and save them all in a notepad file.

You do not need to back-up the following widget codes as they are the default gadgets to your blog and will be automatically uploaded to your new template.

• About Me gadget
• Followers gadget
• Archives gadget
• Label gadget

Yes, thats it! Done! Your widgets have been saved.

To install the widgets, go to the Add a Page Element page, click on Add a gadget and copy the codes. Done!Your widgets are back in the new template! Cool! :) Hope this was useful to you! Read more Entry>>

How to Install Blogger XML Template

Are you sick and tired of the usual templates supplied by blogger? Well, you can always go in for those wonderful, amazing customized XML templates available on the internet! Switching over to those xml templates from your current template is really a breeze! You can have it, all up and running in a matter of minutes!

Choose and download the template of you choice to your computer. If the template is in a zip file, then, unzip it and extract it. Next, if you have loads of widgets in your present template you can Save the Widgets before installing the Xml template or if you not care about losing those widgets, just move on to the following steps.

• Log in to your Blogger dashboard and go to Template> Edit Html.

• Back up your template by clicking on the "Download Full Template" and save it in your hard drive.(In case something goes wrong ,you will always be able to upload your original template.)

• To “Upload a template from a file on your hard drive" :Click the Browse button and enter the location of your xml template file.
  

• Click Upload .The Html of your new template will now appear in the box below.

If you are using the new template for the first time ,you can click on the Save Template button. But then, if you have some widgets in the old template you will get a message like this:

Let's say that you do not want the existing widgets, then go ahead and click on the “Confirm and Save” button . But, on the other hand, if you want all those widgets or Page Elements then follow this tutorial.

That’s it! Your new template has been uploaded successfully! Have fun changing your templates!:) Read more Entry>>

Add HTML Codes in Blogger Post

Do you want to write some Html codes in your blog post? If so, first you would have to make a few simple changes to your blogger template so that it is able to resist any codes in the post. If you do not make the changes in the template, the Html code in your blog post will merge with the codes in the basic blogger template and you would not be able to view any codes in your post.

Hence, to make some changes in your blogger template , you would have to add a few CSS codes to your template.

Step1 :

Go to Dashboard> Layout >Edit Html.

Step 2:
Click on "Edit HTML " Tab and it will open up a new window .
Step 3:

Now Search for this Code: ]]></b:skin>
(Check out here to locate a code easily in the Template)

Add the following Code just above the ]]></b:skin> code.

pre
{
background:#efefef;
border:1px solid #A6B0BF;
font-size:120%;
line-height:100%;
overflow:auto;
padding:10px;
color:#000000 }
pre:hover {
border:1px solid #efefef;
}
code {
font-size:120%;
text-align:left;
margin:0;padding:0;
color: #000000;}
.clear { clear:both;
overflow:hidden;
}

Step 5:

Save Your Template.

Done! Now, your blog is ready to show HTML codes in every blog post. Awesome, isn’t it? Also,it is so very easy.

There is still one more step you would have to follow, to show Html codes in blog post.
While writing your post , go to Edit Html section of your post and add <pre>before and </pre>after the codes.

Like this: <pre>Your Codes Here</pre>

That’s it! Your Html codes will show in your Blog post! :) Read more Entry>>

Add 'Read More' Expandable Post Link in Blogger

'Read More' Expandable Post Link or the Expandable Post Summaries are post teasers which shows just the first paragraph of the post instead of the entire post on the front page of your blog!And the reader can click on the ‘Read More’ link to see the full post. These allow the reader to get a small introduction to each post on the main page.

This hack is very useful if there are long articles on one page. Blogger blog does not have this feature available directly from the dashboard, so, you have to follow the 3 basic steps order to implement the expandable post summaries in the new layout blogger template.

Note – Before you start to tweak your template, you will first have to:

1. Enable post pages .

Go to Settings >Archiving and Enable post pages to Yes.

2. Add a Class Tag in your default post template:

Go to Settings > Formatting and scroll all the way down to the bottom. In the last option Post Template paste in the following code:

Keep some space between the tags and Save .

Then, you better take the following 2 precautions:

1. Copy and paste your existing code onto a notepad or any text editor.

2. Create a backup of your template just in case something goes wrong.

Now for the template tweak for Read More link:

Step 1- Style your CSS. This changes how posts display on different pages.

* Login to your account.
* Go to 'Template'
* Click 'Edit HTML'
* Check 'Expand Widget'

Scroll down just above </head> and add in this code:

<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>


You will see a tag ]]></b:skin> just above the </head> tag.
The above code should be placed between these two tags. We have defined a class called 'fullpost'.




Step 2 - Add Read More links which will appear after the paragraph summaries.

* Scroll down the code and locate this code- .

Add the code below immediately after the above code :

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != &quot;item&quot;'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more Entry&gt;&gt;</a>
</b:if>


When done,save the template . You should see that the Read More Entry>> appearing on your blog. To locate a code in the template follow this easy method.

Step 3- Create a New Post

Everything is set. Now test it out. When you click on the New Post tab, you will see that the post text area has a <span class="fullpost"> and </span> tags. If not, then redo step2.
Write your new post and anything you put above the <span class="fullpost"> tag will be the teaser text. At the end of the post put in the </span>tag.

Yes, your 'Read more' link is all set and working!:) Go for it!

I prefer not using the 'Read More' link in this blog as I read somewhere that when you have loads of screenshots,it is better to have full posts since it is better for Google SEO.(Psst..I'm still not familiar with SEO!:)) Anyways its up to you, to use Read More link or not!

Copyright © 2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved
Read more Entry>>

How to locate a code in the Template

Isn’t scanning long lines of codes in the template a real pain? There is a real cool shortcut to find a code in the template .Just press ctrl+F and a Find [ ] will appear at the left of bottom of the browser. Type all or part of the code you are looking for in the Find box. The scrollbar will scroll down to the part where the code is located and highlight it. Like this:



That’s it! Now you can do whatever editing and preview. If everything seems OK, click Save Template and View Blog to check out that everything is OK!

Read more Entry>>

How to view your IP address

Would you like to know your public IP address? Well, there are many ways to determine your IP address. Here are a couple of methods:

By using IPCONFIG command

1. Click Start and select Run

2. In box that appears type cmd and click OK

3. The Dos box will appear. Type in it ipconfig and press enter.

4. Your IP will be shown.

Good!Now for another method!

By Network Connections status

1. Click Start and go to the Control panel.

2. Click on Internet Connections.

4. Select your connection icon, and click on it .

5. Click on Details tab, and you will see your IP address.


Sometimes depending on your network configuration or if you are behind a firewall or router, you will not be able to see your public IP.In that case, you can see your public IP address in www.see-my-ip.com or download and a free utility called BySoft Network Monitor and you will be able to see your IP address and other information about your connection as well! Read more Entry>>

How To remove unwanted StartUp Applications

Does your computer take ages to start up? Do you feel that you can whip up a meal before your windows start? Well, maybe there are many unwanted programs running on Windows StartUp. Some programs do not even offer the option “do not start with windows”. Is there a way to disable the unwanted applications when windows start? Of course, it is possible to disable programs that you do not want at the startup, by using “System Configuration Utility”

Follow this simple method to Disable StartUp applications:

1. Click Start then select Run.

2. Type msconfig and click OK. System Configuration Utility will start.

3. Select the Startup tab. You will see the list of all startup programs with their location.

4. Uncheck programs that you do not want to start with Windows. Be cautious and do not uncheck items that you are not familiar with.

5. Click OK.

6. You will need to restart your computer

Yes, that’s it! The next time your system starts, there will be a notification “You have used the System Configuration utility to make changes to the way Windows start”. You have successfully removed unwanted programs running at windows start up!

Read more Entry>>

Hide your mail address in email forwards

Do you belong to the category ‘forward emails’? Well, I mean, are you one of those who keeps forwarding emails, to and fro, just to share all the fun emails? So? Do you realize that the emails you send are forwarded to all their friends , exposing your email and all of your friends email addresses?

So, maintain caution ,play safe ,protect your id from falling into the hands of spammers!

Just follow these two simple tips:

1. Use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to type in the multiple recipients email addresses that you plan to forward . By this, none of the email addresses will show in the forwarded emails.
2. This is also a politeness to the people you are forwarding to, as they do not have to scroll through pages of email addresses to get to the joke that you thought was so very funny ,so as to forward it

That’s it! So very simple!

Some email programs do not have the BCC listed, in that case, look for link or button that says ADD BCC.

Good..play safe!:) Read more Entry>>

Use Notepad as Personal Diary

Did you know that Notepad has a feature that allows you to use it as a personal diary?

Well, it is simple and easy!

• Open a blank Notepad
  

• Type in .LOG (in upper case)
  

• Press enter
  

• Save and close the file.

Next ,open the notepad file again.
You will see that the current date and time has been added! How cool is that!


Type in whatever notes you want and close it. Each time you open the file the current date and time is added thus making your Notepad work as a diary for you!

Though this is so very cool,unfortunately,Notepad has memory limitations to how much text your file can contain!Enjoy and keep track of your activities with your diary!:) Read more Entry>>

Assign Keystrokes to Symbols for MS Word

While working in MS Word, if you want to use a particular symbol frequently, you can assign a shortcut key to that symbol so that you can insert the symbol into your document by just using the keystroke and avoid the Symbol dialog box.

To assign a keystroke to a symbol:

• Go to Insert Menu

• Click the Symbol

• The Symbol dialog box will appear.

• Highlight the symbol you propose to use.

• Then click the Shortcut Key button.

The Customize Keyboard dialog box will appear.

In the Press new shortcut key box, type in the key combination you want to use, like, press ALT+ the desired key.

Click Assign.



After entering a keystroke and you need to change it, hit the backspace key and enter a new keystroke for the symbol.

After entering a keystroke and you need to change it, hit the backspace key and enter a new keystroke for the symbol.

You can save the shortcut key for the symbol either with the Normal template (the default document template) or with the current document.
If you choose the current document, the shortcut key will only insert the symbol when you are editing only the current document.

To make your selection:
Click on the drop down box beside Save changes in and highlight your choice.


Click Assign and Close.

When the Symbol dialog box reappears, click Close or Cancel.

Your Shortcut key is ready for use and your symbol so very handyand easy to access!

Copyright © 2008-2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved. Read more Entry>>

Inserting Special Characters in MS Word

What are Special characters? They are certain symbols that are not on the Windows keyboard. Like for instance the currency sign for a different country or the copyright or trademark symbols.

To get these and other symbols:
• Go to Insert menu
• Select and click symbol


When the symbol dialog box appears, select the symbol you would like from the display.


• Double click the special character
• Click the Insert button at the bottom of the box

If you do not see the symbol you would like to insert

Click the Special Characters

• Choose and click the special character you want
• Then click the Insert button at the bottom of the box.

• Click Close to return to the document.

The special character that you chose will be inserted in the document at the cursor’s location.

To access some other sets:

Click on the drop-down box beside the Font label.

Scroll down and after several font sets you come to Wingdings.
Find the symbol you would like to insert into your document

That's it!You have whatever character symbols you wish to insert!:)

Copyright © 2008-2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

Read more Entry>>

Hiding Text in MS Word

Lets say that you have loads of text on a Word document and that you want to print just a portion of that word document or maybe print two different versions of the document. Well its simple and can be done! Oh no, you do not have to have two documents! One document will do ..all that you need to do is just hide the portion that you do not want to print or would not want others to see it! You can always view your hidden text!

To Hide the Text:

1. Highlight the portion you wish to hide

2. Right-click and select Font

3. In the Effects section, select Hidden
4. Click OK
Your text has been hidden!

Now, if you want to view your hidden text...

All that you have to do is to:

1. Click Tools

2. Select Options

3. Open the View tab

4. Under Formatting marks, select or deselect Hidden



5. Click OK

That’s it! You can hide or display and view your text! :) Read more Entry>>

Microsoft Word's Hidden Calculater

Do you work off line ever so often in MS Word? Have you ever felt the need of a calculator while working offline in Word? Well, Word has a hidden calculator as well! Of course, your computer has a calculator, but then.. while working in Word, it will be easy to use the hidden calculator in Word!

How to find the hidden Calculator in Word:

Since Microsoft has sort of hidden the calculator so very thoroughly, you will have to do a bit of digging to unearth it! When you find it, you will have to drag it to your toolbar!

For Word XP/2003:

1. Open Word
2. Click on the Tool menu and choose Customize.
3. Click the Commands tab in the Customize dialog.


4. In the Categories list click Tools and in the Commands list scroll to Tools Calculate.
5. Click and drag the Tools Calculate command onto wherever in your Toolbar.

6. To display a calculator icon, right-click the Tools Calculate button on the toolbar, select Change Button Image and choose the calculator icon.Right-click the Tools Calculate button once again and click Close.

That’s it! Your hidden calculator has been unearthed and sitting on your Word tool bar!


For Word 2007:

1. Open word.
2. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar
3. Select For All Documents in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop-down box.
4. In the Choose Commands From drop-down box, select Commands Not In The Ribbon.
5. Locate Calculate in the list and double-click it to add it to the list of Quick Access commands, then click OK.

Done! Your hidden calculator has been brought to light!

How to use the Calculator:

Your Word calculator can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, exponentiation and roots.

Addition: +

Subtraction: - or place the number to be subtracted in parentheses, ( )

Multiplication: *

Division: /

Percentages: %

Exponentiation and roots: ^

The result is usually displayed, for a brief moment, in Word's status bar. The result is also stored on the clipboard and you can press Ctrl+V to either paste it into your Word document, or copy it to another program.

For instance.. Type 235+235 in your word document and highlight it and click your calculator and viola …your answer is in Words status bar! Do remember that it is there for a brief moment but then ,it will also be stored in your clip board.

I’m sure you got the picture now and you can calculate likewise with other options as well!

The Word Calculator works in Paragraphs

The calculator works in paragraphs as well. In certain paras the numbers intervenes with text. In such paras too the calculater works .
Thus , if you use the calculator on the following sentence:

At the conference there were 16 professors, 9 researchers, 44 scientists and 345 students and 45 guests.



The total number at the conference will be calculated.The answer 459 is in the status bar.


In the same manner,the calculator recognizes only Digits.. A sentence like "There were three women and 18 men in the room " will add up to 18 and not 21.

Uninstall / Remove

You cannot uninstall the Word calculator as it is embedded in the program.However,
the toolbar buttons can be removed from the toolbar, just like any other toolbar icon.

In Word 2003 :

Open the Customize dialog .
Go to the toolbar and drag the icon off the toolbar. (Just like how you added the icon by dragging it from the Customize dialog to the toolbar , to remove ,drag the icon away from the toolbar while the Customize dialog is still open.

In Word 2007:

Go to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
On the right there is a list of buttons on the QAT.
Click on the one you want to remove and click the Remove button .


Well..this is awesome! Work away in Word without moving away from Word!

Copyright © 2008-2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved. Read more Entry>>

Print Song Lists /CD Jewel Case Insert In ITunes

Is your CD case looking plain, clear, dull and boring? Have you just done with burning a CD in Itunes and would like to make a play list? Well, you don’t have to write down your list! ITunes allows you to print out a list or create a jewel case in a few easy steps.

Burn CD in Itunes - step by step instruction is here.

You just need:
• ITunes
• Paper
• A color printer.
• Scissors, to trim the jewel case print


Open ITunes.
Go to FILE menu. Choose PRINT.

Print 'Music' window pops open.
There are 3 options.


The options are:

1.CD Jewel case insert: This prints on colored background,the selected songs in your playlist or library.
2. Song listing: This prints name, length, artist and album from the selected playlist or library. Adjust the page setup in your printer for this option.
3.Album listing: This prints albums from your selected playlist of library, which includes album name, artist name, and song titles and lengths.

Choose an Option and press Print.

Its done!Your song list or Jewel case insert has been printed.Trim jewel case insert to fit your CD case.That's it! :) Read more Entry>>

Convert your Images and Photos to PDF files

Surely you must be having loads of Image files or Photos in your computer? Would you like to convert it to PDF files? Well.. the process is actually very simple. All that you need are two free soft wares.. one for making the PDF files and the other one is for viewing the PDF files.Moreover,
the Images or Photos should be, preferably, of same format like Jpeg , Bmp , Gif or whatever format.

The free software for converting the Images to PDF files is - FastStone Image Viewer.
The free software to view the PDF files is either the Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader.

Download FastStone Image Viewer
Instal it and open it.

Go to Create Menu and click Multi-Page File Builder.


Click Add
The Open dialog box will open.Browse for Images in whichever directory you have saved it.

Open the images and it will appear in the Multipage File Builder.



Click PDF format from the drop down menu.

Press Create.




Your file has been created successfully.


Click Ok.
Your Images or Photos have been converted to PDF files! In the same manner you can make 'Tiff' file and 'Animated Gif' file .
Done!Now you can double click on your converted PDF file and view your images in either Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader! :)

Copyright © 2008-2009 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved. Read more Entry>>