I have received emails over the past weeks about which browser should the average user use, what browser do I use, which is fastest, etc?  I don’t know where all of this sudden interest in browsers came from but maybe it has something to do with the new Windows 7 operating system release.  Although, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that is about all I can come up with.

Many of the questions concern Google Chrome’s quickness.  I realized when gathering facts for this column that Google Chrome has been out a little over a year so maybe that generated some interest.

I have checked on several reputable websites that gather statistical information.  I found that basically the most well-liked browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (65%), Firefox (25%), Safari (3.7%), Google Chrome (3.2%), Opera (1.5%) and last place to all the others with less than 1%.  The percentages vary per “reputable” website but the order is pretty standard.  I have sort of blended many of the percentages since most of them disagreed slightly.

Since the column this week is mostly about Google Chrome I will say that I found its percentage varied from four to seven percent.  It doesn’t sound very accurate; however, I think it indicates a fair ranking order.

I believe that GC is fast, very fast starting up and then opening websites. However, that speed comes with one caveat.  GC doesn’t have as many extra features as MSIE and Firefox.  Those two are slower to respond but they do many things and work with some sites better than GC.  I can’t comment on Safari and Opera since I gave up on them long ago but I am sure they have fans that truly love them.

Chrome’s layout with the tabs at the very top of the window is very nice, I’m not sure why but it just works well. Also, it is a clean browser, very uncluttered, and similar to the Google search screen.

An unseen feature — each tab is engineered to act as a separate browser window.  This is a neat feature which doesn’t allow a crashed site you are viewing to affect all the other tabs.  Only the “bad” tab shuts down unlike other browsers who totally collapse.

For something different with Chrome try “Create application shortcut…“  This makes a website look like a windows application.  I use it with Pandora.com which is a free music site — I suggest you review it on your own.

They are all free so my suggestion is to use the one you like best.  Download all and try them out.  Go to your favorite sites, do your favorite “things” online and find out which browser you are most comfortable with.  That is the browser that I think you should use.

As the excitement builds around the Microsoft’s new operating system, "Windows 7" rollout this week I thought I would mention another good product provided by Microsoft.  By-the-way, you will be hearing way too much (in my opinion) about Windows 7 in the upcoming days.   Not because it isn’t a good product but just because it is such a good product.  I have been using it very successfully for quite a while now and it is excellent; however, I have decided to let some of the uproar die down before I write about it much.

Today I would like to suggest you try out one of Microsoft’s ventures into the cloud.  I have written about Live Mesh previously, also a great application, but today, I’ll discuss "Office Live Workspace". 

First off you will need a Microsoft Office Live account (Live ID) which is free.  As unbelievable as it sounds to me, it doesn’t even have to be a Microsoft email account (i.e., hotmail.com or live.com).  I opened mine a couple of years ago with my Gmail email address.  However, you do have to have a verifiable email address somewhere so that they can make sure you are a real person.

At this time you get 5 GB of online storage with a maximum individual document size of 25 MB.  This allows you to store and access your documents from any internet connection.  MS says that you can store Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Rich Text Format, Adobe PDF and HTML files.  However, I have found a few others that work well also.  I guess the list keeps growing faster than they can document.

Also, you do not need to have Microsoft Office installed on your computer to use this site.  However, if you do have Office you can install the "Office Live Add-in" which allows you to open, edit and/or save documents to or from your "Live" online account.  I use this often.  For instance, when I saved the final version of this column I used, "Save to Office Live" in Word which is added to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  This file is now on my local computer and in the Live Office workspace as backup.  The "Office Live Add-in" installation also places, "Open from Office Live" in those programs. This allows you to open docs from the cloud from within Office.

Now, all of you Google-freaks out there (just like me) can write that "Google Docs" does pretty much the same things.  You would be mostly correct but I write about all of the major places’ best apps and I mentioned Google Docs several months ago.  Both MS and Google have some first-rate applications…in time we will see who wins out or will they continue to play happily together, in the clouds?

Tags: add-ins, google, google docs, microsoft, office, office live

I have decided to tackle an advanced Excel question this week.  People want to know how to keep others from making changes in some cells of a spreadsheet.  They also wish to know how to allow edits of other cells.  This is a two step process.  I will be using Excel 2007 for this explanation.

You need to understand that all cells in Excel are “locked” by default.

Locked means once you “protect” the sheet (second step) you will not be able to edit the cells.  So you will not be able to write anything in them.  In a locked cell any existing formulas will recalculate if necessary; however, you cannot edit it…once the sheet is protected.

In cell A1, type “Protected Sheet” and press enter.  This will be our title for the spreadsheet.

Next, you need to “unlock” any cells that you want people to be able to edit after you have protected it.  For this example, I will say that I only want a person to be able to type in cell A5. Start by selecting A5.  Now, from the Home tab and the Cells group click on Format and look down the list near the bottom.  You will notice an icon of a lock labeled, “Lock cell“.  Here the lock will look “pushed in” or highlighted.  That look indicates that the cell is now locked.  Click the “Lock cell” link and the cell will be unlocked.  Make the above choices again and you will see that the lock now looks like the other icons.

If you try to type in cell A5 now it will work just as it always has; you may type in it to your heart’s content.  To make the locking/protection feature active you now must protect the sheet.

Go back to the same menu item in Excel; Home tab and the Cells group click on Format and look down the list near the bottom this time for “Protect sheet“.  Once that item is clicked you will have a couple of options.  First, most everything in the locked cells will be halted other than recalculating values in those cells.  If you look down the list of unchecked items you will see features that you can allow to take place in the locked cells.  I would leave them set as is until you experiment some.

If you enter a password make sure you don’t forget it or you will have one heck of a time making any future changes to the spreadsheet.  You will be asked to repeat the password to make sure you did not make a typo.  If you are just trying this out skip the password and try protecting the sheet.

I feel I should mention a couple of things about passwords.  They can be a maximum of 255 characters including spaces and symbols.  They are case sensitive; meaning “dog”, “Dog” and “dOG” are different passwords.  This is also called “protection” not “security”.  If you have top-secret government information in your spreadsheet, do not depend on this procedure.  Excel passwords can be broken so this is just to keep the nosy person in line.

After protection, if you try to type in any cell that you did not “unlock” you will get a warning indicating that you don’t have permission for this.

To reverse the locking/protection turn around the procedures above.

Tags: cell, excel, lock, microsoft, protection, spreadsheet, unlock

I stumbled onto a small but very useful utility application a few weeks ago that I am recommending to my readers today.  It is called, "Desk Drive" from Blue Onion Software.  If  you are interested you can get your free copy from their site.

"Desk Drive" does only one thing; however, it does it extremely well and easily.  This app will only benefit users who plug other drives into their computers.  Say you’ve saved a file on your thumb drive and plug it into your desktop computer.  After you plug in this drive you will sometimes get the pop up window that asks what you want to do next.  Then in a few clicks of your mouse you get there.  You could also go the slow way by opening "My Computer" and then drill down to the proper drive letter.  Both of these ways work but DD makes it much simpler.

After you install this program and insert any type of external drive an icon for that drive appears on your desktop.  All you do then is open it just like it is any other icon on your desktop — which it is.

Another neat element is that you can open the program and check the box next to "show positional effect".  This feature is helpful if your desktop contains too many icons, I am fairly sure yours does.  This will cause the newly appearing icon to have blinking concentric circles around it for a few seconds.  This makes it very easy to spot the icon’s location.

I have tried it with my external hard drive, a couple of thumb drives, CDs, DVDs and even my iPod.  "Desk Drive" worked without a flaw with all of them.  When you are finished with the drive you can right click the icon and choose, "Eject".  Then you can remove the drive.  Another neat thing is that when you remove the external storage device the "Desk Drive" icon just disappears. 

The program is free but there is a donation button on the options page.  I might even use that to help the developer out and suggest you do too if you continue using the application.

If you use any external storage device on a regular, or maybe not so regular, basis you should head over to Blue Onion Software and give it a try.  I am running it on my Netbook as I write this column and it takes an insignificant amount of memory.  That basically means that it will not be slowing down your system in any way.

As we approach, October 22nd, I will be covering some Microsoft products in the next few weeks.  If you don’t know what that date is you must not be much of a geek.  That Thursday the newest Windows operating system, "Windows 7" hits the market.