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April 4, 2012

Online Instruction Manuals

Do you wish you wish you had a manual for the used treadmill you recently purchased?  Are you still looking for the manual for that dishwasher you purchased 8 years ago?  Well you may be in luck.  


There are a few ways that you can get that manual online. For starters you need to know the brand and model number of the product you want a manual for. Further you can save it on your hard drive. An advantage of saving it on your hard drive is that you can download manuals for items you own and save them on your hard drive. You can save on storage space since the manual that came with your purchase can probably be discarded.


Many companies on their website (usually a customer support section) have a way to download the instruction manuals from their website to your hard drive. Two good websites are Manualsonline or Safemanuals. By creating a free account on Manualsonline you can have an online "Virtual Filing Cabinet" where you can store your downloaded manuals from their site. Further you can participate in discussion groups and receive personalized updates. The only downside to this virtual filing cabinet is should you lose internet service you will need till it is restored before being able to access your online virtual filing cabinet. The workaround for this is to also save a copy on your hard drive.


If these fail, you can always do a search on Google. Start by typing in the model number and manual, instruction or instruction manual.  Ex: Omit quotes. I am using a model ABC123 as an example. "ABC123 manual"  "ABC123 instruction" "ABC123 instruction manual".


You may find that manual for that old TV that you were looking for in your home and was unable to locate.


Computer Concierge NY LLC, provides expert computer services in the Bayside, NY area, Including Queens, Albertson, Bayside Hills, Bay Terrace, Bellrose, College Point, Douglaston, Floral Park,  Flushing, Forest Hills, Great Neck, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens, Kings Point, Lake Success, Manhasset, Mineola, Munsey Park,  New Hyde Park, North Hills, North Shore Towers, Oakland Gardens, Plandome, Rego Park, Roslyn, The Bay Club, Thomaston, University Gardens, Williston Park, Whitestone and Other Areas in the Bayside vicinity.  

GCF Learn Free

For those wanting to learn a new subject or brush up on a new one, GCFLearnFree.org is a good site to start.  With courses on subjects like computer software (particularly Microsoft Office), everyday life, money, and career this is a good place to go to for free courses. You can study at your own pace and there are accompanying videos that aid in your grasping the subject and greatly support the content taught. You also can register for courses given online that are graded by instructors. These instructors also will also provide help and feedback as well. You can finish these courses in a few days or up to 4 weeks. Upon completion for these you are awarded a certificate of completion.  You are not awarded a certificate for completing the self paced courses. There are also some good GCF videos on YouTube as well.  See link:  http://www.youtube.com/user/gcflearnfree

Some of these courses are very basic like "Cash Back".  Others like the ones for the various editions of Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Access are more involved.  By creating an account you are able to see what courses you have taken or are in the process of taking.  Courses that are more involved have various sections and a challenge at the end of each section. What I like about the Microsoft Office courses are that they are not only offered for the current version but for several previous versions. It is not necessary to be using the current version to get instruction that is meaningful for you. For those who are beginners with regards to computers, their Computer Basics course is useful and informative.  Most of their courses are computer related. Their Facebook page notes that  they provide "innovative online learning opportunities to anyone who wants to improve their technology, literacy, and math skills."

You may wonder how are they able to do this for free. GCFLearnFree.org is supported by the Goodwill Community Foundation. GCFLearnFree.org serves to support the educational mission of the Goodwill Community Foundation which is "to create and provide education, employment, and life enrichment opportunities for people who desire to improve the quality of their lives" as per the GCFLearnFree.org site. It certainly is a good site to go to for your lifelong education.


Computer Concierge NY LLC, provides expert computer services in the Bayside, NY area, Including Queens, Albertson, Bayside Hills, Bay Terrace, Bellrose, College Point, Douglaston, Floral Park,  Flushing, Forest Hills, Great Neck, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens, Kings Point, Lake Success, Manhasset, Mineola, Munsey Park,  New Hyde Park, North Hills, North Shore Towers, Oakland Gardens, Plandome, Rego Park, Roslyn, The Bay Club, Thomaston, University Gardens, Williston Park, Whitestone and Other Areas in the Bayside vicinity.  

Google Search Tips to Search More Effectively

Google is the #1 search engine going. Almost 75% of internet volume of searches as noted in http://www.hitwise.com/us/datacenter/main/dashboard-10133.html for the 4 weeks ended May 29 are made through Google. That said, this blog are ways to make your internet searching easier using Google. The underline phases are the verbatim ways to enter the search terms in Google:

• Crossing delancey – the words crossing and delancey

• “Crossing delancey” – the exact phrase Crossing delancey

• Crossing –delancey - the word crossing but NOT the word delancey

• define:crossing/definition:crossing – definitions of the word crossing. Both define: and definition: are acceptable when searching in Google for definitions.

• phonebook: Joseph Torre NY – phone listings of all those named Joseph Torre in New York.

• stocks:pfe – find Pfizer’s current stock price.

• movie: the blind side 11360 – show show times in or near zip code 11360 for the blind side

• weather:11360 – weather and forecast for zip code 11360

• Site:cnn.com obama – search cnn.com for all information on obama. This can be done for all websites. “Site: “ only searches on the website or domain indicated in the search parameter.

• Crossing#or#delancey – the words crossing or delancey

• Crossing#and#delancey – the words crossing and delancey – this is another way to search for the words crossing and delancey. Using “#and#” in your search is great for searching where you are more than one phrase, term, etc. For example “Tom Seaver”#and#”world series”. Google will search for where the terms “Tom Seaver” and “world series” occur. It is not case sensitive.

Did you know you can do arithmetic calculations using the Google search bar?

Using + - / * keys, you can do basic adding, subtraction, division or multiplication functions. In the search bar put in “2*3+5” and your search will return the correct value of 11.

You can also use Google to convert units in measurements. For example typing “3 tbsp to cup” and hitting the enter key gives a result of 0.1875 cups.

Google is a very good search engine and by following some of the suggestions noted can speed up what you truly are searching for.



Computer Concierge NY LLC, provides expert computer services in the Bayside, NY area, Including Queens, Albertson, Bayside Hills, Bay Terrace, Bellrose, College Point, Douglaston, Floral Park,  Flushing, Forest Hills, Great Neck, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens, Kings Point, Lake Success, Manhasset, Mineola, Munsey Park,  New Hyde Park, North Hills, North Shore Towers, Oakland Gardens, Plandome, Rego Park, Roslyn, The Bay Club, Thomaston, University Gardens, Williston Park, Whitestone and Other Areas in the Bayside vicinity.