Ever wondered how to create a shortcut to today’s date in Excel or how to find enormous attachments in Outlook? Answers to these questions and five hundred and twenty-seven more can be found in PC Magazines article 529 Computing Tips

If you have ever wondered how to do something on your computer, your PDA or even Apple OS X, this is a good place to start your search.

If you have been forced out of your office due to flooding, getting your faxes can be an issue. While you can forward the fax line to another number such as your home telephone line, this requires that you have a fax machine their and also ties up that line for voice calls. A better solution would be to sign up for a 30 day free trial with one of the fax to mail services. Forward your existing fax line to that number given to you by the company and your incoming faxes will be delivered to your email inbox. MaxEmail (which I use for my former office fax number) offers a 30 day free trial that according to their website gives you the following:

During your free trial, there is no activation fee and you get 100 inbound fax pages and can send three 10 page faxes free to US destinations. They also offer plans starting at $24.00 per year and you can get a unique fax number in your area code. eFax is another provider similar to MaxEmail and their free trial can be found here.

While more expensive, services such as Fax2Mail from Premiere Global work the same as Maxemail and eFax, while offering additional benefits such as 800 numbers and Outlook plug-ins. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial of Fax2Mail here or take advantage of the State Bar of Wisconsin Fax2Mailmember benefit by signing up here. I use Fax2Mail in my role as Practice Management Advisor the 800 number and Outlook plug-in are nice features. Similar to Fax2Mail is RapidFax which also offers a 30 day free trial.

 If you plan to be back in your office within 30 days, the free trials may be sufficient and allow you to continue operations while forced out of your office. However, you may find these services so convenient that you elect to keep the one you sign up with and forward all incoming faxes to it so you get them via email. Since most of these services will send them in PDF, they are ready to be saved directly to your computer with your other client documents and files without the need to scan them in first. Remember to cancel the service within the terms of the free trial period if you no longer need the service to avoid unnecessary charges and remove the call forwarding on your fax line.

There was an old joke among horse cavalry troopers after long rides which was they had gone 40 miles in the saddle with Major Assburns. I feel the same way when I have to sit for long periods of time in a cheap desk chair or one that was built for looks rather than function. In my old office I used a Steelcase Managers chair and still have it in one of my home offices. I've talked to people that love their Herman Miller Aeron chairs, but  whenever I tried one, I couldn't seem to ever get comfortable. A good chair is important since you spend so much of your day sitting in it. Another truth about good task seating - it isn't cheap. Good qaulity seating for your desk will set you back hundreds of dollars (you can easily spend a $1,000.00 or more), but think about it: aren't you worth it? And if you've bought a mattress lately, what did you pay? And you may actually spend more time in your chair then your bed).

Here is an interesting post on Choosing a Home Office Task Chair from Apartment Therapy  describing the author's search for a new task chair for long period use. While the article is about the search for a home office chair, the underlying thoughts are just as applicable to the office as well. 

The bottom line to this is that if you are comfortable, you will get more work done and be less stressed at the end of the day compared to sitting in an uncomfortable chair. 

If you are looking for a USB flash drive, Office Max has the A-Data Classic 4 & 8GB flash drives on sale. A 4 GB drive is $24.99 and an 8GB drive is $47.99. WOW! They are available in store and on the OfficeMax website here and are enhanced for MS Windows Vista ReadyBoost use.

This is a great price, so don't miss it. 

Continuing with the theme that Christmas isn’t just about toys- it’s about tools to, here are some other great resources for unique tech gifts this holiday season.

First, check out this podcast from Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway Tech Toys for the Holidays for their picks this holiday season. Sharon and Jim share websites and specific items that have caught their fancy this year. Then take a peek at my friend Reid Trautz’s blog for his 2007 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers . Most of us will have someone that deserves the Sonic Alarm Grenade.

For more ideas, check out PCWorld’s 2008 PCWorld Holilday Gift Guide for guidance on MP3 players, digital camcorders, cell phones and more.