You can do lots of interesting things when you give social media tools permission to connect with each other and with other third-party apps. But beware, in doing this you also giving up your privacy.

I think it is safe to say that many of you don’t put much thought into clicking “Yes” when those little permission pop-up messages appear on your screens during an app installation (usually at the end when the app is already installed or starting up for the fist time). And further, I’m sure most of you don’t fully realize how many permissions you have granted or how much privacy you have given up in doing so.

When was the last time you reviewed the permissions you have granted in the various social media tools you use? Last month? Last year? Never?

Nothing like the start of a New Year to give us all a friendly nudge on making improvements.

MyPermissions (mypermissions.org) is a great tool that will help you systematically review the permissions you have granted in the various social media tools you use. And the simplicity of MyPermissions is brilliant – it doesn’t require any access to your accounts. It’s basically a collection of bookmarks that directly link you to the permissions pages for Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr. If you are logged into one of these sites, clicking on the relevant link on the MyPermissions homepage will take you right to the permissions page for that site.

I encourage you to take the time to review the permissions you have given in the various social media tools you use. I think many of you will be surprised at the permissions you have granted. Revoke the ones you don’t think are necessary or appropriate.

And don’t wait until January 2013 to revisit your permissions again. Put a reminder on your to do list or calendar; to review your permissions once a quarter, every few months or even monthly – remember that checking your permissions helps protect you privacy.

A hat-tip to LifeHacker for this tip on My Permissions.

Some of you were lucky enough to have Santa leave a new computer or laptop under your Christmas tree. That’s great news. Now for the bad news: Unfortunately, most new computers come preloaded with a tons of junk software you don’t really want or need. These can be trial versions of various programs, including mainstream ones like Microsoft Office Online, one of the popular security suites, toolbars, utilities, games and other programs you have never heard of (and will probably never use).

Nice to have a chance to try some of these programs out, but in the long run you just don’t want them on your machine. Why? Your computer will take longer to boot-up and run more slowly. These programs will bug you with annoying pop-ups, they can use significant amounts of space on your hard drive and they may slow down your access to the internet. You want them off your machine ASAP.

You can manually remove the programs you don’t want, but there is an easier way. The PC Decrapifier is an easy to use tool will help you remove all the crap you don’t want on your machine! It also does a great job of helping you disable unnecessary startup items that can slow down your computer when it boots up. It takes you step by step through the process, giving you recommendations on what to remove, many of which can be removed unattended. PC Decrapifier works with all versions of Windows 7, Windows XP and Vista and is free for personal use (a commercial version is very inexpensive).

The PC Decrapifier also does a good job of cleaning crap software from an older computer. You will likely see a noticeable performance improvement after running it on an older computer.

A small word of caution: You need to be a bit careful about what you remove. PC Decrapifier will help you make some of the decisions. A Google search can help you with programs you don’t recognize or are unsure of. If in doubt, don’t delete a program or delete it only after you have created a Restore point so you can easily revert back to a previous configuration.

Download PC Decrapifier here. Here is a list of the top 50 applications removed by actual PC Decrapifier users: (more…)

Do you want to quickly see two windows side-by-side on your desktop? Yes, you can manually resize them by dragging and dropping the edges of each window, but there is a much faster way.

In Windows 7, you can easily arrange two windows next to each other by dragging them to the left or right side of your screen. Left-click on the taskbar (the bar across the top of each window) and drag and drop the window to the left or right side. Release when the entire window is highlighted.

In Windows XP or Vista, hold the Ctrl key down and click on the taskbar of each of the windows, then right-click the taskbar in one of those windows and select Tile Vertically. In XP and Vista you can use trick to arrange more than two windows.

Nice to see multiple windows at once. And if you want to take it to the next level, get yourself two monitors.

Once or twice a month I hear from people who are struggling to open docx files. Read on for the reasons why this happens, and what to do about it.

Office 2007 introduced new file formats – docx for Word, xlsx for Excel and pptx for PowerPoint (formally known as the Office Open XML format). Unfortunately, people using Office 2003 or earlier versions of Office (and there are still a bunch of them) will find they can’t open files in these new formats.

The solution is simple. If you are using Office 2003, or one of the earlier versions of Office, you need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. It will allow older versions of Office to open files that are in these new file formats. The Compatibility Pack will convert these files and allow you edit and save them in either the old or new file format for each of the prospective Office programs. The Compatibility Pack will work with Office 2000, XP and 2003.

. Make sure you have installed the latest Office updates before you install the Compatibility Pack.

Do you dread moving to a new computer because you have reinstall all your software? If so, you need to know about Nitite. This amazing free service automatically downloads and installs more than 90 popular no-fee apps. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Skype, Google Talk, iTunes, Hulu, Spotify, QuickTime, Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, Dropbox, Evernote, Mozy, Google Earth to name a few. Am betting most of these apps are on your computer.

Ninite fully automates the installers to run offscreen. No Clicking Next, Next, Next… It also automatically says “No” to toolbars and other junk. The Ninite installer always installs an app’s latest version – and it does updates too – just run your Ninite installer again and it will update the apps to their latest versions. No account, signup, or client needed. Wow!

Ninite is a must for anyone lucky enough to get a computer from Santa this year. It will save you hours of tedious installations.

Collecting a network of contacts is the very essence of LI. Here are some tips for building a good collection of LI contacts.

Do consider the quality, not the quantity, of your LI contacts: We all want to be popular but ultimately, the quality of your contacts is more important than the quantity. While a high number of LI contacts may look impressive at first, potential clients will dig deeper and judge you by the details in your profile and the quality of the people in your network.

Do make it easy for people to connect with you: LI allows you to limit invitations to connect to people in a contact list or people that already know your email address (Settings > Email Preferences). Don’t make it hard for people to connect with you. Configure LI so that anyone can send you an invitation to connect.

Don’t accept LI connection requests from people you don’t like or respect: Politely say “no thanks” or just ignore the invite. This can be awkward, especially when people are pesky and keep extending invites to you. Protect your reputation by making sure you like and respect the people you connect with.

Do be careful about conflicts of interest: If you are a litigator, be careful about connecting with the judges, experts or opposing counsel that might be involved with matters you are handling. While you may know them well, and even be good friends with them, consider how having them listed as a LI contact might look to your client or the party on the other side of a matter. Ethics opinions say it is not proper for lawyers to become friends with someone to dig up information about them for use in a litigation matter.

Do send personalized contact requests: Generic connection requests are cold and impersonal. Few things (except a box of chocolates) will make a stronger first impression than a personalized invitation to connect. This is especially helpful if the invitee may not be sure of or recall their connection to you.

Do use the People You May Know feature: Look for this box in the top right of your LI homepage. Click “See more” to see a list of people LI thinks you might know. It generates this list by using keywords and by looking at the contacts of your contacts. It does a good job of finding people that you will know.

Do right-click to open a new tab when extending LI connection invites: I know I will hear from at least a few of you that this is the best tip in this column. After you extend an invite to a new contact, LI gives you a list of other people you may know (it is the “People You May Know” list). What I find really annoying is that clicking on “Connect” to add a new contact causes the list of suggested contacts to disappear or reset to the top. If you right-click on “Connect” and select “Open” in new tab, the invite will appear on a new tab and you still have the list of suggested contacts to work from.

Do mine the contacts lists of people you know: Once you connect with someone in LI, you can see their list of contacts. As many of us work and socialize with the same smallish group of people, looking at the friends of your friends will help you find other people you know. The “Invite accepted” email is a great reminder to do this.

Do use lists of other groups of people you know: I have had great success adding contacts by reviewing lists of names from some of the organizations I participate in (e.g. members of my bar association). This works well, as many LI users do not list the different groups they belong to or the activities they participate in.

Do use the Search feature to find other contacts: Enter the names of companies, law associations or other entities where you know people to add people to your contacts list.

Do remember to invite people you are connecting with in other social media channels to LI: While you will not want to add everyone you connect with in other social media tools, this will get you a few extra contacts.

Do cross-market your LI presence: Let people know you are on LI by adding the LI logo or your LI URL to your business cards, email signature, firm website (make it a link), promotional materials, article bylines, PowerPoints and anywhere else it will be visible to existing or potential clients.

For even more LinkedIn tips, see my Essential Do’s and Don’ts for LinkedIn Users article which appeared in the November/December issue of ABA LPM section’s Law Practice magazine.

Box.net recently announced that it is giving away 50 GB of free storage to anyone who uses a free Box Personal account on an iOS device. This promotion only runs for 50 days (Starting October 12).

To get your free space in the cloud, follow these steps:

1. Visit the App Store and download the Box app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
2. Log in to your account or register for a new one directly from the app.
3. Start sharing and collaborating in the cloud.

And another bonus: Your account will have an increased file size upload limit of 100MB instead of the usual 25MB.

And note, your 50 GB of storage isn’t just limited to your mobile device – you can get at it anywhere you use your Box account, like on your laptop at home or your desktop at the office.

Now, it is true that “life” in this case means either your life or the company’s life, whichever is shorter. Box.net is a well established company, so your free storage may actually be around for a bit.

Always good to have a backup of the data and info on your iPhone or iPad. Remember to be careful to protect the confidentiality of sensitive client information if you are storing client data in the cloud.

A hat tip to my good friend and practice management advisor Jim Calloway for this tip.

Most of us have many screens of apps on our iPads and iPhones. Sliding multiple screens of icons back and forth is really easy, but it can be a pain finding a particular app if you’ve downloaded tons of apps. For faster access to your apps, create application groups. They are collections of apps within a single icon.

Creating an application or app group is dead easy. Touch and hold your finger on an app icon. After a few seconds, all the app icons on the screen should start shaking. Simply drag one app over top of another and an application group will get created with those two apps in it. To add more apps to a app group simply drag other app icons over and into it. Press the Home button when you’ve finished to stop the shaking.

The icons for application groups have mini icons on a dark background. They are easily distinguished from app icons as they have a silver border. If you look closely, you can actually see miniature versions (up to 9) of the actual icons in that group.

Tap on an app group icon to open it. Group like apps together and give your app groups names that will make it easy to figure out which group has the app you are looking for (e.g., social media, games, utilities, etc.). You can change an app group icon name by editing the text in the white area within an open app group.

You can create multiple app groups on the same screen. You can’t create an application group within another application group.

To remove an app from a group, open a group icon by tapping it as normal. Then press and hold an app icon within the group until all the icons start vibrating, then drag the icon onto the “see-through” desktop above.

Application groups are available as of IOS 4.2. You can also create application groups within iTunes using the device’s apps tab. Some people may find it is easier to move apps around and create groups on the computer. Any changes you make must be synched to get them onto your iPad or iPhone.

Thanks to my youngest son Christopher who showed me this tip last night.

You’re reading something on a website that’s longer than your browser window — perhaps a judgment, or the latest posts on Slaw. How do you scroll down the page? If you’ve got a scroll wheel on your mouse, you may be adept at rolling along with that, or you may have set the wheel to advance a screen at a time with a click. But you’d be surprised how many people I’ve seen who still fuss to get the cursor into the scroll bar at the right and to make sure it stays in the empty zone between the two arrows so a click there moves them ahead — or worse, who repeatedly stab at the down arrow, crawling along at one line at a time.

The simplest of all techniques for many is to use the space bar. Just tap it each time you want to jump ahead by exactly one window’s (i.e. screen’s) worth. There’s no dexterity or judgment required, leaving you free to focus on what you’re reading.

Ever seen someone get up to do a PowerPoint with no clue about how to advance (or reverse) the slides. Ouch!!! Here are four neat tricks for navigating through your PowerPoint slides.

First, remember to use the space bar to advance to the next slide – one tap on the space bar will jump you one slide ahead. Of course, you can use PageDown or the right or down cursor keys to do the same thing, but the space bar is a much larger and easier to hit target if you are nervous or your hands are shaking.

And please remember – PageUp or the up or left cursor keys will back you up one slide.

Next up, here’s a great tip for jumping to a specific slide: If you press the Alt key, plus the one, two or three digits that represent the number of the slide you want to jump to, followed by Enter, you will jump to the specified slide. This shortcut is handy if you get to a point in your presentation where there are questions and you need to jump back to a key slide to give an answer. Jumping directly to that slide looks so much better than having to Page Up or Page Down through multiple slides. Make sure you memorize the numbers of the key slides in your presentation or having an outline or a list in front of you.

Lastly, remember the power of a “right click” on your mouse. A right click on the screen while you are in presentation mode pops up a menu with several options. If you select “Go” and then By title, there is a listing of both slide numbers and titles for every slide your presentation. Click on a particular slide in the list and you will jump directly to it.

With the above tips you will be able to navigate your PowerPoint deck like a pro.

• Nicholas on Software Tools for Editing
• Jamie on Software Tools for Editing
• Steve Coughlan on ‘I Hope This E-Mail Finds You Well’
• Lyn on Womxn
• Celia Chandler on Gross Negligence

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