I’ve found pinning a very helpful way to find quickly what I use often.

• Windows 7 allows me to pin programs to the taskbar so I can readily open Outlook, Excel, Mozilla Firefox, TntMPD, and other programs I use daily.  (Read how…)
• I especially like pinning files in the “recent document list” in Word 2007, Excel 2007, or Powerpoint 2007.  (Read how…)
• You can also pin specific web pages to the taskbar with Internet Explorer 9. (Read how…)
• If I prefer not to have a lot of icons in my taskbar, I can pin programs in the Start Menu.  (Read how…)

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The lowly computer mouse has changed over the years. You may not have all the features I’ll mention or you may have more.

Cleaning

If you have an older mouse with a tracking ball to roll around your mouse pad, you know how frustrating it can be when the cursor doesn’t move freely across your screen because lint and dust have built up inside your mouse. It’s easy to fix. Wait until your computer is off before taking these steps:

1. Unscrew the plastic circle that holds the ball inside the mouse.
2. After the ball drops out, notice the delicate roller bars inside.  Chances are lint is glued on to these bars, like little felt pads.
3. Moisten a Q-Tip swab with rubbing alcohol and gently dab at the dirty bars to moisten and loosen the lint.
4. The lint will come off like a little piece of dark felt.
5. Screw the ball back in.

Types of Computer Mice

If you want a more convenient mouse (and are tired of cleaning your old one), you might want to upgrade to an optical mouse or a wireless mouse.

Most mice are optical now.Â...

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Here I am, as promised, so you can start working on getting Easter cards (or other holiday cards) in the mail to your donors.

If you do not have birthday and/or anniversary information for your donors, co-workers, or friends, you could send Valentines, Easter, Thanksgiving, and/or Christmas cards. The easiest thing to do, is to divide your mailing list into these four groups, then everyone would at least receive one card.

Managing the Groups Using TntMPD

Again, my recommendation for managing names and addresses is to download TntMPD.  (Read more)

You will need to take a little bit of time to set up your groups. Here’s a simple way to get started:

• Find all the people who have donated in the past two years.  (Start at Step 5 in this TntMPD tutorial) Now “Contacts” contains only this subset of names.
• Click on the Groups button just under the Contacts button.
• Follow these directions to make a new group.  Your donors will be in the fourth panel.
• Use “Add All” and make a group category of Greeting Cards an...

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TntMPD is a free software that helps you manage your relationships with your donors.  I highly recommend TntMPD to manage your names, addresses, email addresses, birthdays and anniversaries.   For those of you not keeping track of ministry partners, TntMPD is still a great contact management tool.

Just to give you that little nudge to start using TntMPD, I’ll try to think of everything I use it for.  I used other software for over 15 years, but I would not go back.  TntMPD does all that the other (pricey) software did and actually does more.  It’s easy to manage my database of almost 700 names!

• keep a task list of who needs a phone call, letter, etc.
• receive automatic tasks for thank you notes when new gifts come in or if I have not written a thank you for over a year
• track fund appeal efforts
• keep a history of appointments, phone calls, emails, etc.
• receive address changes from Campus Crusade’s Donor Services
• merge information into Word and Excel (also CSV files) for personalized letters and envel...

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TntMPD is a free software that helps you manage your relationships with your donors.  I highly recommend TntMPD to manage your names, addresses, email addresses, birthdays and anniversaries.   For those of you not keeping track of ministry partners, TntMPD is still a great contact management tool.

Just to give you that little nudge to start using TntMPD, I’ll try to think of everything I use it for.  I used other software for over 15 years, but I would not go back.  TntMPD does all that the other (pricey) software did and actually does more.  It’s easy to manage my database of almost 700 names!

• keep a task list of who needs a phone call, letter, etc.
• receive automatic tasks for thank you notes when new gifts come in or if I have not written a thank you for over a year
• track fund appeal efforts
• keep a history of appointments, phone calls, emails, etc.
• receive address changes from Campus Crusade’s Donor Services
• merge information into Word and Excel (also CSV files) for personalized letters and envel...

More »

Leave a Comment