Month: July 2014

Tips & Tricks

Although we’re in the business of helping organisations make the most of technology, we recognise that you may sometimes encounter issues which you’d like to deal with yourself, if only you could find useful documentation to guide you.

Documentation on almost everything exists on the internet, the problem is finding what you want; searching can be effective but what we hope to provide here is easy access to guidance to achieve useful tasks.

We are keen to expand this by adding information that is useful to our clients. Sometimes we write a howto, other times we provide links to good sources.

If you don’t find help on a particular issue that concerns you, by all means drop us an email and we’ll try to point you in the right direction.

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Windows 8 Safe Mode

maggie

To access Safe Mode in Windows 8, you need to do so via the Advanced Startup options menu. To restart your computer into the Advanced startup options menu, go to the Windows 8 Start Screen and type Advanced. When the search results appear click on the Settings category.

Now click on the option labeled Advanced startup options and you will see the General PC Settings screen. Scroll down to the bottom until you see an option labeled Advanced startup.

Click on the Restart now button and Windows 8 will restart your computer and go directly into the Advanced Startup options menu.

Then click on the Troubleshoot button and then the Advanced options button. This will take you to the Advanced options screen where you should click on the Startup settings option.

At the Startup Settings screen, click on the Restart button. Your computer will be restarted and brought into the Startup Settings menu as shown below.

You can start Safe Mode in Windows 8 from this screen. There are 3 possible Safe Modes options that you can choose from.

Choose Enable Safe Mode with Networking

Printing an A5 brochure in LibreOffice Writer

maggie

You can print a LibreOffice Writer document as a brochure or a booklet. That is, Writer prints two pages on each side of the paper, so that when you fold the paper, you can read the document as a book.

When you create a document that you want to print as a brochure, write your document in ordinery A4 pages, using portrait orientation for the pages. Writer will apply the brochure layout when you print the document.

To Print a Brochure

Choose File – Print.
In the Print dialog, click Properties.
In the properties dialog for your printer, set the paper orientation to landscape.

If your printer prints duplex, and because brochures always print in landscape mode, you should use the “duplex – short edge” setting in your printer setup dialog.

Return to Print dialog, and click the Page Layout tab page.
Select Brochure.
For a printer that automatically prints on both sides of a page, specify to include “All pages”.

Click OK.

If you print a document in portrait on a landscape page, two opposing sides in a brochure will be printed next to each other. If you have a printer with double-sided printing capability, you can create an entire brochure from your document without having to collate the pages later. If you have a printer that only has single-sided printing capability, you can achieve this effect by first printing the front pages with the “Front sides / right pages /odd pages” option marked, then re-inserting the entire paper stack in your printer and printing all the back pages with the “Back pages / left pages / even pages” option marked.
Note: If LibreOffice prints the pages in the wrong order, open the Options tab page, select Print in reverse page order, and then print the document again.