How to Edit URLs and Activate Hyperlinks in Excel

Wednesday, February 2, 2011


Excel is a superb data management tool. It lets you to store and organize the information you need to deal with on a daily basis. But when you work online, usually this information contains multiple URLs linking to web sources. In this article you will find some tips on extracting and activating multiple hyperlinks in Excel with ease.
excel urls

Extract URLs

ASAP Utilities is a great tool that lets you easily extract hyperlinks from the whole list of linked cells. You can download it from here. This addin offers step-by-step prompts, so you won’t face any problem. First the addin is going to work, navigate: File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings.
There:
You must enable the macros (in “Macro Settings”).
The addins shouldn’t be disabled (in “Add-ins”).

excel urls
Once installed, you will get a new submenu with a “Web” section. Click on it to work with content you copy-paste from the web. Once you have copied and pasted the whole linked words from the web and you want to see the full URLs then:
  • Navigate: ASAP Utilities -> Web -> Extract Hyperlinks
  • Select where the full URLs should be extracted.

Activate Hyperlinks

You can go through the list and double click each cell and this will activate each link. But it will take much time, especially with long lists of URLs. Well you can use ASAP Utilities to do that wit a single click. You just need to select the column with your plain text URLs, go ASAP Utilities -> Web -> Activate hyperlinks and select the format and type of the hyperlinks.
excel urls
excel urls
So these are the simple tips and tricks for editing and extracting URLs in Excel. If you know any other simple procedure then let us know about it. Till then stay tuned and share your ideas in the comment section below.

How to Backup your Online Accounts


Sometimes it may happen that your email may get hacked or all data might get deleted by mistake. This way you will lose your data, and it would be a tedious process to get back all your important data. Well you can backup all your precious data with the help of just one app called “backupify”. In this article I’ll let you know how to backup your Twitter and Google accounts online.
backupify
Follow the below steps to backup your Twitter account:
1) Click here to register for free account.
create backupify account
2) Once registered, you will be redirected to a dashboard. There you can select from a list services which you need to back up.
3) Click on “manage” option which is located just next to “twitter” icon in order to back up all your tweets and direct messages.
adding twitter account
4) After clicking on “manage” option, you will be asked for “twitter authentication”.
5) Click on it and enter your username and password of your twitter account.
twitter authentification
6) After entering correct set of username and password, a new window will open showing that your twitter account has been successfully backed up.
7) Once you have done, it will take 48 hours to back up your account information.
So these are the simple steps to backup your Twitter account, likewise you can do that for Gmail, Google docs, flickr, picassa etc.

How to Transfer Emails from one Gmail Account to Other


Improffice is an impressive online tool that transfers email between two mail accounts very efficiently. You can easily transfer all your messages between Google Apps or Gmail accounts. The sad part about this tool is that it’s completely free. The trial version lets you transfer only 10 messages. But if you find this app worth, then you can go for the full version which is 18$.
Improoffice
How to use it:
  1. First it will ask for the authorization to access the Gmail or Google Apps message. Make sure that no password is required to revoke the authorization at any point of time.
  2. Now the process will be initiated with a full transfer from one Gmail account to the other Gmail account.
  3. If there are large number of mails to be transferred, then the process will take some time.
  4. From the status page you can track the transfer progress.
  5. Improffice is an online tool and you don’t need to download any software.
Improffice online tool gives you fast and easy transfer of emails from one Gmail account to other. You can also transfer emails from special folders, labels and also the starred content is transferred. This tool is SSL encrypted and has IMAP connection to Google’s server for security purpose. This tool is most useful for enterprise people who has many important mails and information.

How to Disable Auto-Refresh Function in Web Browsers


Isn’t an annoying situation, while your are reading a web page or playing a flash game and the page refreshes automatically? It’s really irritating to start the page again. This situation arises as some sites update their content frequently. In order to provide users the most updated content, the webmaster add the auto-refresh function. However, you can disable the auto-refresh function in your browser. In this article I have mentioned some easy methods to disable auto-refresh function in Firefox and Internet Explorer.  
stop autorefresh main

Disable Auto Refresh in Firefox

Minefield Preferences
In Firefox, go to Preferences -> Advanced. check the box “Warn me when the web sites try to redirect or reload the page”, in the General tab.

Disable Auto Refresh in Internet Explorer

Internet Option
In Internet Explorer and 8, go to “Tools -> Internet Options -> Security“, then click on the Custom Level button. Scrolldown the list and you will see the entry “Allow META REFRESH”. Select “Disable”.
Security Setting
So these are the simple steps that you can implement to disable the auto-refresh function in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Try out these methods on your browser and let us know how it works for you. Till then stay tuned with us and keep buzzing your comments.

Windows XP: Simple Tricks to Speed-up Your PC


PCs are like people. They get sluggish with age. The new laptop that booted up in thirty seconds a year ago, now takes more than three minutes. Is the problem worn-out hardware or viruses that sneak past the anti-malware software and chew up resources? Neither of these is the likely problem.
The two most common causes of sluggish PC performance relate to the way data is stored on the hard drive and the number of programs running. The problems and how to solve them are explained below. Before embarking on any of the suggested solutions in this article, it is recommended that you first back up your system.
Win XP

The Problems

Unwanted User-Installed Programs
Most people install many more applications than they ever use. They then forget about them. That’s a problem for two reasons. These programs take up disk space – sometimes a considerable amount and many of them also use the system’s resources without the user’s knowledge.
Unnecessary Start-up Programs
Not surprisingly, start-up programs are the primary reason PCs are slow to start. Users wonder why this is so, since the computer started like a rocket when it was new. Numerous mini-applications run when Windows starts. Many use the Internet connection to check for upgrades. Users are aware of some of these activities, such as security updates and anti-malware software, which download the latest virus signatures. Yet, the ones users are aware of are often just the tip of the iceberg.
Slow Hard Drive
Over time, the hard drive takes longer to access data. That’s not because the drive’s internal components are wearing-out and so, move more slowly. They don’t. It’s because the way the data is stored is inefficient. In the beginning, when the drive was new and nearly empty, files were stored sequentially. That way, they were saved quickly and retrieved quickly.
Over time, as the user adds and deletes files, the disk begins to fill up. The drive is no longer able to allocate a single continuous space to each new file. So it breaks the file into parts and saves them each on different locations of the disk. This problem is called fragmentation. The more the hard disk is fragmented, the slower saving and accessing any data becomes. The solution is to defragment the drive. Before doing that, it’s a very good idea to get rid of any unwanted programs and files.

The Solutions

Getting Rid of Unwanted Programs
To find a list of all the installed programs, go to the Start menu and select Control Panel. In the Control Panel select Add or Remove Programs. The window that appears shows all currently installed programs.
To uninstall a program, select it, click Remove and follow the instructions. If you don’t recognise a program, don’t delete it. When all the unwanted programs are deleted, restart the computer.
Disabling Unwanted Start-Up Applications
To find out what software automatically loads up when you start Windows, go to the Start Menu and select Run. In the dialog box that appears type msconfig. Click OK. The System Configuration Utility opens. Do not alter anything in the System Configuration area, unless you are sure of what it is. Click the tab labelled Startup. A list of all the routines that run at Windows start-up is displayed. Most of these are necessary, but by examining them closely, you will see that some are not. Uncheck the box beside the ones you are certain are not vital and you don’t need. When you’ve finished, click Apply and OK.
Restart Windows so that these changes take effect.
Defragmenting the Hard Disk
In Windows XP, defragmenting a disk is simple. Here’s how you do it. Click Start, then All Programs. Choose the program group Accessories, select System Tools and then Disk Defragmenter. From there on, the procedure is intuitive and straightforward. If the hard disk is large, defragmentation can take a long time. Ideally, do it when you won’t need to use your computer for a few hours. But check progress regularly as the utility may present a message that requires your input. The system displays a useful real-time graphic that indicates progress.
With these straightforward routines, quite a noticeable increase in speed can be achieved. Like servicing a car, they should be performed regularly. Just how regularly depends on how much you use your PC and whether you notice that it’s slowing down.