How to Easily Back Up and Migrate Your Browser Bookmarks

Most of our browser data isn’t too important – cookies expire and histories are cleared. However, bookmarks are different, which is why browsers allow you to import and export your bookmarks – ideal for creating backups and migrating between browsers.
All browsers can export your bookmarks to an HTML file. All browsers can also import these HTML files, so you can use this trick to move browsers between Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and any other browser.

Google Chrome

Click the Chrome menu icon at the top-right corner of your browser window, point to Bookmarks, and select Bookmark manager. (You can also quickly open the Bookmark manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+O.)



Click the Organize menu and select Export bookmarks to HTML file. (To import your bookmarks later, select the Import bookmarks from HTML file option.)



Chrome will give the HTML file a name containing the current date.

Mozilla Firefox

Click the Firefox menu, point to Bookmarks, and select Show All Bookmarks. (You can also press Ctrl+Shift+B to quickly open the bookmarks library window.)



Click the Import and Backup menu and select Export Bookmarks to HTML. (The Backup option will create a .json file, which other browsers can’t open.) Use the Import Bookmarks from HTML option here to import bookmarks in the future.



Firefox will give the backup file a name of “bookmarks.html” by default. You may want to change the file name and add more information, such as the date.

Internet Explorer

Click the star-shaped favorites icon, click the little arrow to the right of Add to favorites, and select Import and Export.



Select the Export to a file option and click Next.



Check the Favorites checkbox and click Next.



Select the favorites you want to export – to export all your favorites, select the favorites folder at the top. (It’s selected by default.)



Provide a name for the file. It’s named bookmark.htm by default, but you may want to name it something like bookmarks_date.html. Click Export and IE will create a backup file.

Opera

Click the Opera menu, point to Bookmarks, and select Manage Bookmarks. (You can also press Ctrl+Shit+B instead.)



Click the File menu and select Export as HTML. (The Export Opera Bookmarks option exports the bookmarks as a .adr file, which other browsers can’t open.)



Enter a name such as bookmarks_date.html, replacing date with the current date. Store the file some place safe if you are using it as a backup. While browsers have cloud-syncing solutions that synchronize your favorites between a computers, most browsers don’t have a “roll back” option. If you accidentally delete bookmarks on one computer or the sync service makes a mistake, you could lose your bookmarks. A backup HTML file will allow you to get them back.

Source    : http://www.howtogeek.com

How to Get Microsoft Word’s Auto-Complete and Spelling Correction Features Across All Windows Apps

Do you sometimes wish that you could use Microsoft Word’s more useful features, such as auto-complete, automatic spelling correction, and Autotext, in other programs in Windows?

PhraseExpress is a free program that allows you to do just that.
PhraseExpress allows you to organize text snippets into customizable categories for quick access and to use shortened phrases to insert these full text snippets. If you type the same phrases over and over, this reduces typing time and minimizes spelling mistakes. PhraseExpress will also start to learn what you type and offer to auto-complete frequently used phrases.

More than 8,200 common spelling corrections in six languages can be freely downloaded and automatically correct misspellings as you type. PhraseExpress can also learn from your own spelling mistakes.

To install PhraseExpress, double-click the .exe file you downloaded (see the link at the end of this article), if you downloaded the file using the CNet link. If you downloaded PhraseExpress using the alternative download link, extract the .zip file first and then run the .exe file.

Follow the instructions in the Setup Wizard. When the Select Additional Tasks screen displays, make sure there is NO check mark in the Do you want to use PhraseExpress in a network check box. If this is selected, you will be installing the trial version, rather than the version that is free for personal use.


Once you have installed PhraseExpress and run it, an icon is added to the system tray and the following balloon hint displays. Click on the balloon to open the main PhraseExpress window.


You can also right-click on the PhraseExpress system tray icon and select Edit phrases from the popup menu to access the main window.


NOTE: Before using PhraseExpress, you need to enable it. To do this, left-click on the system tray icon and select Direct access to settings and then select Enable PhraseExpress.


To add a custom phrase to the list, click New Phrase. On the right side of the window, enter a description for the phrase in the Description edit box. As an example, we added the phrase How-To Geek, so we entered “HTG” as our description.
In the Phrase content box, enter the full text you want inserted when you type a shortened phrase in any Windows program.

If you want to be able to insert the text using a hotkey, select the desired keys in the Hotkey section.
To enter a full phrase using an abbreviation, enter text in the Autotext edit box, and select an option indicating when to execute the command. For example, when we enter “htg” in any Windows program and press Space, Enter, or any punctuation mark (default delimiters), “How-To Geek” will replace “htg”.

You can also restrict PhraseExpress to work only in a specific program by checking the Execute only in specific program and selecting a program from the dialog box that displays.


When you have finished entering your custom phrase, it’s displayed in the list on the left with the hotkey, if one was applied.


When you want to quickly type a phrase you defined in PhraseExpress, enter the Autotext or press the hotkey you defined for the phrase.


A balloon hint displays on the system tray icon telling you how to finalize the replacement of the phrase.


When we typed a space after “htg”, the phrase “How-To Geek” was inserted into the program.


You can organize your custom phrases into folders. To do this, click New Folder.


Enter a name for the folder in the Description edit box on the right side of the screen.


To move a custom phrase into the new folder, drag and drop the phrase in the list on the left to the new folder.


The phrase is moved to the new folder.


PhraseExpress comes with a list of AutoCorrect words and phrases that will be automatically corrected when the specified incorrect word or phrase is typed. For example, if you type “abondon”, PhraseExpress will correct it to “abandon”.


You can add your own words and phrases to the AutoCorrect list by clicking New Phrase while the AutoCorrect_English list is selected. Enter a description for the word or phrase in the Description edit box and enter the correct spelling of that word in the Phrase content box. Enter possible misspellings in the Autotext edit box, each separated by a vertical bar.


PhraseExpress can also be run as a portable program. To do this, download the portable version from the webpage using the link at the end of this article. Extract the files and create a new shortcut to the phraseexpress.exe file. If you’re going to run PhraseExpress from a USB flash drive, you can save the shortcut in the same directory as the program, allowing you to copy the program folder to any drive and run it without installing it.


Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties from the popup menu.


Add a space and “-portable” to the end of the Target command, after phraseexpress.exe, and click OK.


When you run PhraseExpress using the new shortcut, the following warning displays, reminding you to exit PhraseExpress before you remove the USB flash drive.


The PhraseExpress website warns about a conflict with the MS Word AutoCorrect function:

“The PhraseExpress Autotext feature will interfere with the MS Office AutoCorrect function as both programs are triggered by your text input. You will recognize that abbreviations are expanded twice. We strongly recommend that you import the MS Word AutoCorrect entries into PhraseExpress and disable the function in MS Word (see Microsoft help).”

Download PhraseExpress from http://www.phraseexpress.com/download.php.

 Source         : http://www.howtogeek.com/

47 Keyboard Shortcuts That Work in All Web Browsers

Each major web browser shares a large number of keyboard shortcuts in common. Whether you’re using Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, or Opera – these keyboard shortcuts will work in your browser.
Each browser also has some of its own, browser-specific shortcuts, but learning the ones they have in common will serve you well as you switch between different browsers and computers. This list includes a few mouse actions, too.

Tabs

Ctrl+1-8 – Switch to the specified tab, counting from the left.
Ctrl+9 – Switch to the last tab.



Ctrl+Tab – Switch to the next tab – in other words, the tab on the right. (Ctrl+Page Up also works, but not in Internet Explorer.)
Ctrl+Shift+Tab – Switch to the previous tab – in other words, the tab on the left. (Ctrl+Page Down also works, but not in Internet Explorer.)
Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F4 – Close the current tab.
Ctrl+Shift+T – Reopen the last closed tab.



Ctrl+T – Open a new tab.
Ctrl+N – Open a new browser window.
Alt+F4 – Close the current window. (Works in all applications.)

Mouse Actions for Tabs

Middle Click a Tab – Close the tab.
Ctrl+Left Click, Middle Click – Open a link in a background tab.
Shift+Left Click – Open a link in a new browser window.
Ctrl+Shift+Left Click – Open a link in a foreground tab.

Navigation

Alt+Left Arrow, Backspace – Back.
Alt+Right Arrow, Shift+Backspace – Forward.
F5 – Reload.
Ctrl+F5 – Reload and skip the cache, re-downloading the entire website.
Escape – Stop.
Alt+Home – Open homepage.

Zooming

Ctrl and +, Ctrl+Mousewheel Up – Zoom in.
Ctrl and -, Ctrl+Mousewheel Down — Zoom out.
Ctrl+0 – Default zoom level.
F11 – Full-screen mode.

Scrolling

Space, Page Down – Scroll down a frame.
Shift+Space, Page Up – Scroll up a frame.
Home – Top of page.
End – Bottom of page.
Middle Click – Scroll with the mouse. (Windows only)

Address Bar

Ctrl+L, Alt+D, F6 – Focus the address bar so you can begin typing.
Ctrl+Enter – Prefix www. and append .com to the text in the address bar, and then load the website. For example, type howtogeek into the address bar and press Ctrl+Enter to open www.howtogeek.com.
Alt+Enter – Open the location in the address bar in a new tab.

Search

Ctrl+K, Ctrl+E – Focus the browser’s built-in search box or focus the address bar if the browser doesn’t have a dedicated search box. (Ctrl+K doesn’t work in IE, Ctrl+E does.)
Alt+Enter – Perform a search from the search box in a new tab.
Ctrl+F, F3 – Open the in-page search box to search on the current page.
Ctrl+G, F3 – Find the next match of the searched text on the page.
Ctrl+Shift+G, Shift+F3 – Find the previous match of the searched text on the page.

History & Bookmarks

Ctrl+H – Open the browsing history.
Ctrl+J – Open the download history.
Ctrl+D – Bookmark the current website.
Ctrl+Shift+Del – Open the Clear Browsing History window.

Other Functions

Ctrl+P – Print the current page.
Ctrl+S – Save the current page to your computer.
Ctrl+O – Open a file from your computer.
Ctrl+U – Open the current page’s source code. (Not in IE.)
F12 – Open Developer Tools. (Requires Firebug extension for Firefox.)

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Source    :  http://www.howtogeek.com/

How To Run Windows Software on Ubuntu with Wine

Linux is a great operating system, but its software catalog can be lacking. If there’s a Windows game or other app you just can’t do without, you can use Wine to run it right on your Ubuntu desktop.
Wine is a work in progress, so it won’t run every application perfectly — in fact, some applications may not run at all — but it’s improving all the time. This beginner’s guide will get you up and running with Wine.

Wine Application Database

The process of finding out whether an application will work with Wine and tweaking it to work can be tedious, so the Wine project hosts an application database known as the Wine AppDB. Search the database for an application to see ratings, comments, tips, guides and tweaks left by other users.



Platinum-rated applications run perfectly, with no tweaks required, while garbage-rated applications don’t run at all.



For many apps, particularly popular ones, you’ll find a full guide to installing your application in Wine, as well as tweaks to fix any annoying issues.

Installing Wine

You’ll find Wine available in the Ubuntu Software Center. Both stable and beta versions are available — here, version 1.2 is stable and version 1.3 is beta. The stable version is more tested — sometimes, a regression in the beta version can cause an application to stop working, but some applications will only work with the newer, beta version. An application’s entry in the Wine application database sometimes contains information about the necessary version of Wine you’ll need.

Running an Application

Once you’ve got Wine installed, you can download an application’s EXE or MSI (Microsoft Installer) file and double-click it — just like you would if you were using Windows — to run it with Wine.



This isn’t always the best way to run an application. If you’re encountering a problem, you can run the application from the terminal to see detailed error messages that can help you troubleshoot the problem. Just use the following command:

wine /path/to/application.exe

If you have an MSI file instead, use the following command to install it:

wine msiexec /i /path/to/installer.msi

Bear in mind that many of the error messages don’t matter. For example, the fixme message here indicates that Wine doesn’t contain support for a specific function yet, but the application runs fine without this function.

If the application requires installation, install it as if you were using Windows.



Once it’s installed, you’ll find its shortcuts in your applications menu, and possibly on your desktop.

Wine’s Utilities

The Wine package comes with a few utilities, which you can access from the applications menu. Just type Wine in the application menu to search for them.



Wine’s configuration dialog contains a variety of options, some of which you may need to get applications working. You can set the Windows version Wine behaves as, or set specific Windows versions for each individual applicaiton. Other options include graphics, audio and theming settings.



The Uninstall Wine Software utility lists your installed software and allows you to remove programs.



The package also includes Winetricks, a helper script that automates some tasks. Winetracks can guide you through installing certain popular applications and games — you won’t find every supported application here, though.

The Registry & File System

Many applications require registry tweaks to work properly. You’ll often find information about which registry entries to modify on the application database. Execute the regedit command from a terminal to access Wine’s registry editor.



Wine uses a virtual Windows file system, which is stored in the hidden .wine folder in your home folder. Use the View -> Show Hidden Files option in the file manager to reveal it. Once you have, you’ll find a folder named drive_c in the .wine folder — this folder contains the contents of Wine’s C: drive.

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Fun, geeky fact: Wine stands for “Wine is not a Windows emulator.” It doesn’t emulate Windows; it’s an implementation of the Windows API for Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and the BSD family of operating systems.

Source  : http://www.howtogeek.com