The one office item my smartphone or tablet can’t put in my pocket is the printer – and it’s the one I miss the most. (Sometimes you need a hard copy.) Who will step up and make it easy for me to print while I am on the road?

Two categories of businesses haven’t done so yet, but would benefit from it. There is also PrinterOn, a service with a technical approach that fills the bill nicely.

You email the file you want printed directly to the printer, which is about as platform-independent as you can get.

First, office supply and package shipping chains, who could learn a thing or two from convenience stores. A convenience store chain in my area made an excellent marketing move to drive foot traffic into their stores by installing no surcharge ATMs in every store. People come in for cash. They leave with a cup of coffee, a doughnut, milk, bread, a bag of chips, a thicker waistline and a thinner wallet than if they had gone to their bank’s ATM to get their cash.

Office supply and package shipping chains both have print services in their locations. Part of the reason is to increase foot traffic. All have apps for various mobile platforms, but none of them appear to have made it easy to print from those devices to their print services.

A service called PrinterOn may be able to show them the way.

The PrinterOn approach leverages the ability of multi-function devices to hold a print job until a release code is entered. Their apps for various mobile platforms allow you to identify a printer near you. Each printer has an email address. You email the file you want printed directly to the printer, which is about as platform-independent as you can get. The printer emails the release code for your print job back to you. When you get to the printer location you simply enter your release code and pick up your paper.

PrinterOn locations tend to be in airport frequent flyer club lounges, hotels and other business traveler hubs. Why not in the print and copy center in your neighborhood office supply store?

The other business tool I frequently leave in the office is a highlighter. I suspect they would be willing to help me with that while I am in their store picking up my print job.

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Puckett is the one to ask if you ever have a software question. He has been researching and testing the iOS 5 operating system as part of his ongoing efforts to build new iPad training modules for PC Helps productivity consultants.

Click here for a video of Puckett describing what makes a good productivity consultant.

This week we offer another take on the tablet: The most common support questions from corporate iPad users.

Click to view a video of an iPad support call.

iPad usage in the enterprise continues to grow at a rapid pace, but quality support options for business users are limited. Companies deploying iPads have had to build support capabilities in-house, or direct their users to AppleCare standard support — the same support Apple consumers receive.

AppleCare support stops when a non-Apple-specific application, like Microsoft Outlook or PowerPoint, is introduced. When this situation occurs, to what resource or resources should the end-user be directed? And what types of questions can be anticipated?

Here are a few we have encountered from our customers:

Working with Microsoft Office Documents on the iPad

• Modifying a Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on the iPad
• Converting Microsoft Office documents to PDF files and annotating them (using downloaded Apps)
• Editing or working with Excel files on iPad using downloaded apps such as Numbers or Documents to Go
• Correcting formatting problems when converting Word or PowerPoint documents into Apps like Pages or Keynote
• Fixing formulas, formatting, and broken links in Excel spreadsheets on the iPad
• Viewing track changes markup or comments in Word documents using Documents to Go or Microsoft Office Web App
• Working with PowerPoint documents on iPad using Keynote app, and switching between PowerPoint and Keynote from laptop to iPad and back.

iPad Interface/Hardware

• Mastering Cut, Copy, Paste, and Replace features to avoid backspacing or retyping text
• Toggling and making effective use of spell checking, auto-correction and other keyboard features
• Configuring iPad for mobile device management solutions like MobileIron, and Good Technology
• Quitting Apps that are frozen or behaving erratically; restarting malfunctioning iPad
• Adjusting settings to conserve battery life when charger not readily available
• Recovering paid app that was accidently deleted
• Sharing files to a PC with Wi-Fi or USB connections
• Troubleshooting Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, and VPN connection problems

Read a more comprehensive list here (PDF), and view a video of an iPad business call here.

If your company is on board, you can hold off on opening that 13th Reply All till Monday.

To remind you (or show you for the first time if you are of a certain age) how productive life was without email, an ad-hoc holiday was created – No Email Day, which is today, Friday, November 11. It’s hardly a holiday; you still have to go to work, and chances are you still can use your email. But if your company is on board, you can hold off on opening that 13th Reply All till Monday.

If you run out of things to do today, read the No Email Day manifesto, or visit the No Email Day Facebook page. Even better, figure out a way to organize your Outlook or Lotus Notes mail with our tech tips.

Enter Siri, the coolest thing I have ever set my eyes upon.

The iPhone 4s has been out just a week, and, as expected, the buzz is still strong. The press about Siri, a virtual assistant that lets you use your voice to send messages, make call and set reminders, is particularly robust.

I’ve tried Siri, and I can confirm that it is neat as heck. I’ve used it to order Chinese food, send text messages, create calendar appointments, and set a reminder to organize my files.

Here’s what the tech press is saying:

It’s a Catfight

Time magazine’s Matt Peckham writes about Iris (“Siri” spelled backwards), Android’s quickly released Siri competitor. In the piece, Peckham points to A.L.I.C.E. as the inspiration for both. (Alice, which stands for Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity, was developed at Lehigh University in the 1990s.) Peckham’s piece is a great place to start if you want to find out more about natural language chatbots. (See: ELIZA, et. al.) Read Peckham’s Techland article here.

Siri How-To, Part 1

Also in Time’s Techland, Jared Newman offers a gaggle of Siri tips and tricks. Have a few contacts with hard-to-pronounce names? Newman has a tip for that. He also provides tips for using Siri to post to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, plus a section on using Remember the Milk to create foolproof Siri reminders. Read the full article here.

Siri How-To, Part Two

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) offers an exhaustive list of Siri commands. Read it and watch your productivity skyrocket.

Teaching Siri

Joe Tomasone of iSource has used his experience with Nuance’s Dragon dictation software to come up with a useful collection of tips for Siri and iPhone 4S dictation. Clip and save.

Two articles stood out among the rest this week.

Bernard Golden looks beyond the buzzword to what BYOD will mean for the workplace.

The first, on CIO.com, reports on a recent study that found that employees who were permitted to surf the web were more productive than those who weren’t.

The study, conducted by the National University of Singapore, included 98 participants with an average age of 21, who were divided into three control groups. Each group either surfed the web for 10 minutes, did whatever they wanted during the time period except look at web pages, or performed the task of bundling sticks into groups of five.

After the 10-minute time period, each group was given another 10 minutes to highlight with a marker the letter “A” where it appeared in a 2,000-word text. After the tests, the participants answered a questionnaire to help determine their levels of boredom, mental exhaustion, and psychological engagement.

From the results, researchers concluded that web surfing offers workers “immediate gratification” and helps them “restore resources that are drained as a result of work.”

Who doesn’t love this kind of study? It’s the kind of thing you want to clip, save, and even send along to a C-suite distribution list.

Read the full article here.

The second piece, also on CIO.com, delves into what consumerization really means to CIOs. Author Bernard Golden looks beyond the buzzword to what BYOD will mean for the workplace. It’s a must-read, especially if you are lobbying to use your iPad in the office.

Here’s an excerpt: “Consumerization of IT is usually contrasted with ‘enterprise IT, ‘ which carries connotations of interminable rollouts, bewildering interfaces, obscure functionality and high prices. The poster child ordinarily cited for ‘enterprise IT’ is SAP, which seems to raise particular ire in commentators.

“Consumerization of IT, on the other hand, is associated with ease-of-use, attractive interfaces, intuitive functionality and low prices. Apple is ordinarily referenced as the exemplar of this type of computing.”

Read the full piece here.

Last week we offered tips for keeping email inboxes tidy. This week, we look at ways to keep the operating system clean.

At work, keeping a tidy space is just as important, and keeping a clean computer is even more so. Here are some cleanup tips compiled by our techs that will no doubt improve your computer’s performance, and possibly even your own.

Clearing Temporary Internet Files

Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8

We often get calls from people who want to know how to get rid of temporary Internet files, which accumulate as you browse the Internet to help pages load faster. From time to time they can cause problems, and deleting them usually solves the issue. Here’s how:

Internet Explorer 6 and older:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete Files” button.
3. Click the checkbox to “Delete all offline content” if you will not be viewing pages offline.
4. Click OK.
5. Click OK again.

Internet Explorer 7:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete files” button.
3. Click Yes.
4. Click Close.
5. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 8:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete” button.
3. Check Temporary Internet files; uncheck the other categories if you do not want to delete them at the same time, and then click delete.
4. Click OK.

Clear Internet Cookies

Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8

Cookies are small files which contain information about preference on a particular site. They can track passwords or whether you are signed on to a site. In general they are not harmful, but it is a good idea to clean them out routinely.

Internet Explorer 6 and older

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete Cookies” button.
3. Click OK.
4. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 7

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete” button.
3. Click the “Delete cookies” button.
4. Click Yes.
5. Click Close.
6. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 8

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Internet Options.
2. Click the “Delete” button.
3. Check Cookies; if you do not want to clear other categories at the same time, clear any other checks, and then click Delete.
4. Click OK.

Shortening History in Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer (6, 7, 8 )

You can save disk space by reducing the number of days Internet Explorer saves pages in your history list. The fewer days you specify, the less space your system uses.

Internet Explorer 6 and older:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Reduce the number in “Days to keep pages in history.”
3. To immediately recover space and clear all history, click Clear History.
4. Click Yes to the prompt.
5. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 7:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Click the Settings button in the Browsing history area.
3. Reduce the number in “Days to keep pages in history.”
4. Click OK.
5. To immediately recover space and clear all history, click Delete.
6. Click the Delete history button.
7. Click Yes.
8. Click Close.
9. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 8:

1. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Click the Settings button in the Browsing history area.
3. Reduce the number in “Days to keep pages in history.”
4. Click OK.
5. To immediately recover space and clear all history, click Delete.
6. Check History; uncheck other categories if you do not want to delete them at the same time, and then click Delete.
7. Click OK.

How to Delete a File and Bypass the Recycle Bin

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7

One of the convenient features that Microsoft has put in Windows is the ability to use the Recycle Bin to hold deleted files, allowing you to restore a deleted file if needed. But there may be times when you want to delete a file and not recover it. You could always delete the file, then go into the Recycle Bin and delete it from there again, or even empty the Recycle Bin altogether.

There is a quicker solution. If you are deleting files and are sure that you will not want to recover them, you can delete them without sending them to the Recycle Bin by holding down the Shift key as you delete the files. When deleted, the selected files will not go to the Recycle Bin and thus cannot be recovered except by a restore from external backup media.

You can also accomplish the same result by holding down the Shift key and dragging and dropping the files onto the Recycle Bin.

Disk Cleanup

Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7

The Disk Cleanup feature allows you to free up hard drive space by deleting unnecessary files.

1. Close all open programs.
2. Double-click My Computer, right-click on the hard drive (C is the typical main hard drive for computers) you want to clean up, and then choose Properties. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. You can also access this feature by clicking the Start button, choosing All Programs, selecting Accessories, choosing System Tools, clicking Disk Cleanup, then selecting the desired drive.
3. The computer will calculate how much space is available to free up. This may take a few minutes.
4. Check any boxes for the areas that you would like to clear out. Placing a check mark in the boxes next to each name means you want to get rid of files in this directory. We recommend putting a check in the following:

Downloaded Program Files
Temporary Internet Files
Offline Webpages
Microsoft Error Reporting Temporary Files
Recycle Bin
Temporary Remote Desktop files
Temporary files
WebClient/Publisher Temporary Files
Temporary Offline Files

5.  Clear the checkbox for Office Setup Files; these are important to keep.
6.  Several directories have options to view files, which will show you exactly what is located in each directory. You can do this if you are curious, but it is not necessary.
7.  Click OK. The program will now delete the files from your computer.

Run Hard Drive Defrag

Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7

Disk Defragmenter, or disk defrag for short, examines all fragmented data and program files, and reorganizes them into continuous storage places on the hard drive. The reason to run disk defrag is to optimize the time it takes to read and write files to and from your hard drive by maximizing the transfer rate, and using better data sectors than what you have currently. It is looking for fragmented data sectors and converting those into usable space.

Since disk defrag evaluates every sector of a hard drive, the time it will take to run is dependent on the size of your hard drive and the level of fragmentation. It could take 20 minutes, or it could take an hour to complete. In some cases, it could even take half a dozen hours. It is best to run defrag during a time when you are going to be away from your computer. If you are running it overnight, set up a password-protected screensaver.

Prior to running, you should always scan your disk for errors. This will prevent any errors from being skipped over in the defrag process. Close all files and programs prior to starting to defragment your computer.

Windows XP, Vista, 7

1. Right-click on the drive (“C” drive) you wish to defrag and choose Properties.
2. Click on the Tools tab and choose Defragment Now.
3. Click Analyze.
4. When the analysis is complete you will be informed whether your drive needs to be defragmented. Click Defragment.
5. The Stop button will be available if you need to use your computer before the process is complete. Always stop the defragmentation before opening programs or files.
6. Close the window and reboot when the process is complete.

This feature can also be accessed from the Start Menu.

1. Click the Start button (in Vista and 7 the Windows Button), choose All Programs, select Accessories, choose System Tools, and click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Choose the drive you wish to defrag and click Defragment. Continue with step 3 above.

Tips were compiled by PC Helps staff. Check our eTips library for more, and share any we missed in comments.

With a waning recession, the notion of increased productivity isn’t so frightful — especially not if it means getting your mitts on a neat new iPad.

But today, with a waning recession, the notion of increased productivity isn’t so frightful — especially not if it means getting your mitts on a neat new iPad and the accompanying apps.

With the growing acceptance of tablets in the workplace, some industry folks like Gigaom’s Darrell Etherington see the same happening with apps.

In a recent article, Etherington makes the case for BYOA, or bring-your-own-apps.

“Why is BYOA a good thing for businesses? Because it cuts down on training time, helps employees feel invested in the technical side of doing business, and will eventually save money for businesses by replacing costly licensing fees with cheaper apps.”

Etherington acknowledges that a free-for-all of apps in the workplace may be “a bit too chaotic for traditional businesses,” but he offers this advice for more forward-thinking enterprises: If you do business on the web, and if you rely upon remote employees, you should welcome this trend and make it work to your company’s advantage.

He continues: “That doesn’t mean asking IT to watch what’s being used and then mandating it across all user devices. It does mean encouraging workers to share software tool recommendations and notes about usage of tools in a way that rewards app exploration and discovery, without feeling like an unnecessary and ungrounded imposition.”

In that spirit, here’s a collection of links to top iPad productivity apps and tools:

• “5 Awesome iPad Productivity Tools for Under $5,” CIO.com
• “iPad Productivity Tools: 3 Must-Haves,” CIO.com
• “Tackle project management on your iPad with these apps,” TechRepublic.com
• “Top (Brand New) iPad Productivity Apps,” TCgeeks.com

Got any favorites of your own? Tell us about them in comments.

How-To: Quick Launch, Shortcuts, Save As and Jump Lists.

1. Adding Items to the Quick Launch Toolbar
Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7)

This feature gives users one-click access to favorite applications without cluttering the desktop. And because it is always visible at the bottom of the screen, it saves them the hassle of having to close every open window to find an application shortcut.

To turn on the Quick Launch bar:

• Click anywhere on a blank area of the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
• Hover over Toolbars to see all the toolbars available and choose Quick Launch.

To create a shortcut in your Quick Launch bar:

• The easiest way is to drag and drop shortcuts into the Quick Launch area, which is located to the right of the Start button.
• Another way is to navigate to the Quick Launch folder and add items there. To find the folder, right-click in the Quick Launch area, being careful to not click on any application icons that are there, and choose Open Folder. You can add items to the opened folder.
• You can also create a shortcut on your desktop (see steps above), then click and drag the shortcut onto the Quick Launch bar. If Windows does not allow you to drag and drop it, the bar may be locked. Right-click anywhere on a blank area of the Taskbar and uncheck Lock the Taskbar.

How to use the Quick Launch bar:

• It is easy; click once on any icon on the Quick Launch bar to open the program, file, or folder.

2. Using the Shortcut Wizard
Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7)

The placement of files and folders is rarely a choice we get to make. Whether it is a network drive or even files on your local computer, they can be a pain to access. By using the Shortcut Wizard to create icons on the desktop (or any other convenient location), productivity can be increased and frustration decreased.

To begin, start by right-clicking any blank space in a folder or on the desktop where you would like the shortcut placed. Point to New and choose Shortcut, which is typically the second item in the list. The Shortcut Wizard will then appear and offer a box to type in the location of the item, as well as a Browse button to allow you to search for the item. You can select any item — a file, folder, or program. Once you have chosen the item, hit the Next button to specify a name for the shortcut. Press Finish to complete the process.

3. How to Open Files from Jump Lists
Microsoft Windows 7

Windows 7’s Jump Lists save you time and frustration by keeping the things you use the most right at your fingertips and eliminating the need to remember where they are stored. Whether you are looking for files, common commands, or a favorite URL, the Jump List is the place to look first.

Jump Lists show 10 items by default. To adjust the number of items, right-click on the Start menu, select Properties, click on the Start menu tab, click the Customize button, and adjust the number of items to display in Jump Lists or the number of recent programs to show on the Start menu.

Open files with Jump Lists:

• Right-click on a program icon on the Taskbar.
• Select a file and click on it to open the file.
• Or click on an action to perform a common task in the application.
• The Start menu also acts as a Jump List for applications retaining the last 10 things you opened.

4. Accessing Folders Faster within the Open and Save As Dialogs
Microsoft Office (2003, 2007, 2010)

If you tend to save files deep within a set of folders, you may quickly tire of navigating through many nested layers to find the one you need. You can add shortcuts to frequently accessed folders in the Save As and Open dialogs to save you from clicking through folders to get to the one you want.

Office 2003 and earlier:

• Click the File menu and choose Open.
• Navigate to the folder you want to create a shortcut for and open it.
• Go to the Tools menu in the top-right corner and click Add to My Places (Office 2000: click Add to My Favorites).
• This will add that folder to the shortcuts on the left hand side of both the Save As and Open dialogs.

Note: You only have to do this in one Office program for it to be available in all Office programs. Also, you cannot delete default shortcuts from the Save As or Open dialogs, but you can reorder the icons and remove any you may have added. Right-click on the icon you want to reposition and choose Move Up or Move Down.

Office 2007:

• Click the Office button and choose Open.
• Navigate to the folder you want to create a shortcut for and open it.
• Right-click in the blank space on the left-hand side of the Save As or Open dialog and choose Add ‘<name of folder>.’
• This will add that folder to the shortcuts on the left-hand side of both the Save As and Open dialogs.

Note: You only have to do this in one Office program for it to be available in all Office programs. Also, you cannot delete default shortcuts from the Save As or Open dialogs, but you can reorder the icons and remove any you may have added. Right-click on the icon you want to reposition and choose Move Up or Move Down.

Office 2010:

• Click the File tab and choose Recent.
• Review the list of Recent Places on the right half of the screen.
• Click the Pin icon to the right of the name to keep it in the list as long as you want.
• If the folder is not listed, open a file directly in the folder and repeat steps above.
• This will add that folder to the top of the Recent Places list. Recent Places is available in the Favorite group in the Save As and Open dialogs.

Note: The pinned folders are unique to each application.

It was a 20-slide beast of pasted-in Word tables, slapdash formatting, and more than a dozen randomly customized slide masters. She was frustrated.

“If you get an alarmist virus warning message, don’t click anywhere. Seriously, DON’T CLICK ANYWHERE AT ALL. Instead, hit Control+Alt+Delete on your keyboard, select the Task Manager, Applications tab, and force quit the Internet Explorer or Firefox browser application. Restart your computer, tap F8 repeatedly when you see the Windows splash screen, choose System Restore, and select Last Known Good Configuration. If you’re lucky it will work.”

It’s a little verbose, but I’ve had to repeat it so often I’m seriously considering it.

When I read a recent piece on Gigaom about Google’s new Teach Parents Tech site, the idea made complete sense to me.

The service allows you to send videos that demonstrate how to complete more common computer tasks. Among the clips offered: How to change your wallpaper, change the computer time, share photos, set up an e-mail auto responder, etc.

Instead of having to drive over to Mom’s to show her how to resize large photos to send via e-mail, I simply can send her an instructional video*. It saves me time and gas, and, more importantly, it enables Mom — or Aunt Mary or whomever — to resolve her computer quandaries on her own and get to the more important things. (Like mass-mailing 500 pictures of your cousin’s new baby.)

When I am not writing, I work as a tech support consultant. Reading this piece brought to mind a call I had this week. The caller had a PowerPoint presentation dumped upon her after a colleague quit. It was a 20-slide beast of pasted-in Word tables, slapdash formatting, and more than a dozen randomly customized slide masters. She was frustrated.

“I work in finance. Creating tables in PowerPoint is not my strength,” she explained. “Fixing this presentation on my own will take me days, and possibly longer.”

But the simple fact was: It was her problem now, and she had to find a way to fix it quickly.

Google’s service wouldn’t be the answer for her, but the fact that her company offers tech support (through us, of course) definitely saved her a little a sanity — and her company some money in terms of less downtime and lost productivity.

Here are a few BlackBerry and iPhone tips from PC Helps staff to help you get more done in this notoriously unproductive time of year.

How to Attach vCards to Messages

If you meet someone while on the road, you may want to give them your contact information. In the not-so-distant past, you would simply exchange business cards. Today, however, you can easily swap contact information electronically.

BlackBerry

While composing an e-mail message:

• Press the menu button, select Attach, and choose Contact.
• Select the contact.

From within Contacts/Address Book:

• Select the contact and press the menu button.
• Choose Send Contact Card, then the method of sending it (as an e-mail attachment or as a PIN message). A new message opens up, with the contact already inserted.

iPhone

• Open your Contacts folder by tapping Contacts (or tapping Phone and choosing Contacts in the bottom tabs).
• Tap the contact that you want to send.
• Tap the Share Contact button.
• Choose Email to send the contact via e-mail, or MMS to send it via a text message. A new mail or text message will open up. Address the message and click Send.

How to Make a Voice Recording

When you are out and about, having a device that can record sound can be more efficient than pen and paper. Here’s how:

BlackBerry

• Click the Media icon on the home screen, and then click the Voice Notes Recorder icon.
• Click the Record button at the bottom of the screen to begin recording.
• Click the Pause button at the bottom to pause the recording; once paused, you can continue, stop, or play back the recording. You can also choose to send the recording via Bluetooth, SMS, e-mail, or messenger, or delete it.
• Click the Stop Recording option when you are done.
• To view, edit, or rename existing recordings, open the Voice Notes Recorder, press the Menu button, and choose View Voice Notes.

iPhone (3.0, 4.0)

• Tap the Voice Memos app on the home screen.
• To begin recording, tap the bottom left button (the red and silver dot). While recording, you will see a status bar at the top that shows the elapsed time. The Record button will change to a Pause button that you can tap to pause and resume recording.
• When you are done recording, tap the Stop button at the bottom right of the screen.
• When not recording, the Stop button becomes the List button; tap this to view a list of recorded memos.
• Tap any memo to play it back; you can use the slider at the bottom to move forward and backward within the memo, and tap a memo while it is playing to pause it.
• Tap the Speaker button at the top left to listen to a recording over the iPhone’s speakers.
• Tap the Delete button in the bottom right to delete the selected memo.
• To share a memo, select it and tap the Share button. You can choose to send the memo via e-mail or MMS.
• To return to the voice recorder from the memo list, tap Done.

Got any tips? Share them with us. For a full list of PC Helps’ tips, visit our eTips Library.