But now for the past week the only thing that turns me on is windows Vista... The features included with it are mind blowing. First you should know that Vista is multiple layered and all the features are not advertised. They are there as part of OS if you want you can use it. Vista comes in various versions like Started, Home Basic, Home Premium, Enterprise, Business and the best of the lot Ultimate. It also comes separately for 32bit and 64 bit processors.  All have the same basic functionality only the applications built with it differ.

Like with Home Premium features like Media centre are there whereas with Business encryption and backup are supported.

Basic Features

Windows Aero is a huge turn on for those where look matters. The 3D window format and the improved graphics are a treat for the eyes.

Windows Calendar is another application included. Now we need not spend additional 20-30USD on to do list. It has all the basic features with options like adding appointments, tasks, sending it through mail etc.

Handwriting Recognition is also included with Vista. An exercise should be completed before it is accustomed to our writing.

Speech Recognition is another feature where a tutorial should be completed. It can be accessed by Start->Control Panel->Speech Recognition. The software works well with word. Example if undo is said in the microphone the word is undone.

Back Up application is also available. It is a very handy tool which can do automatic backup, or a complete backup. Some options are also there for backup as disk image. It can be accessed from Start->All Programs->accessories->System Tools-> Back Up and Configuration.

Parental Control feature is also included on user basis. It is included in user accounts from the Control Panel. An administrator can see what all other users are doing. Like when Activity Reporting is chosen all the activities done by a user can be administered. Also Web Filter gives options to block certain websites.

From the outset it looks like it has the features like XP. But many upgraded features are included to make it a complete Operating System. Based on the version of Vista used the features are added. Also on purchase of a Boxed version of Vista complete customer support is given by Microsoft for 90 days.

Upgrade to Vista and get a true sense of Technology at its best.

Microsoft DreamSpark

In no way, shape, or form am I nor was I a huge Microsoft supporter. I just wanted to get their better stuff, because, after all, I am a programmer, and the Express Editions leave out a lot of helpful features. I did a search on the internet, and came up with Microsoft's DreamSpark program, designed to give student developers the tools they need to program like professionals. And, better yet, there are no strings attached.

To start, go to the DreamSpark homepage (dreamspark.com) and then sign in with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one, you can sign up for one there. You can see all the amazing software at your fingertips right there...however, you have to verify that you're a high school or college student first. The easiest way I've found is through JourneyEd (journeyed.com). Open that up in a browser tab, and then click on "Student Shop" near the top left corner.

In the search box at the top right corner, type in DreamSpark and click "Go." Only five items should appear; the last of them just says "Microsoft DreamSpark" and costs $0.00. Add it to the cart, and then click "No thanks" on the next page and check out.

Click the second option, "I have never ordered a product from JourneyEd that required Academic Proof or the last time I ordered was 12 months or more." On the next page, choose either of the top two options, depending on which you are, a college student or a high school student (both will work the same).

Enter your e-mail address, a new password, et cetera and go through the process until the order is confirmed. They won't ask for a credit card, and you literally won't pay a single cent. The license code will come through your inbox.

Verification

You will get a few e-mails in reply. The first is an order confirmation. Your license code for DreamSpark won't be in there; actually, it will be a few e-mails until that comes along.

The second is a halt in the process, stating that you need "academic proof" in order for the process to continue. Scan one of the following items (you only need one): this year's ID card, this year's class schedule, this year's tuition receipt, or this year's report card (high school only). Then click the first link in that e-mail, the one that is "journeyed.com/upload" and enter in your order details. Attach the image of the academic proof you scanned and click "Send Verification." You may need to wait a while.

The third e-mail should follow shortly. It will tell you that your academic proof has been received, and it will be looked into as soon as possible.

The fourth will arrive. It is another order confirmation of your order, and looks exactly like the first e-mail you received.

The fifth should come at the exact same time. This one has a title of "Download Instructions for Order ___________." Yep, that's right: it's time to get your key!

(Time elapsed between first order confirmation e-mail and the download instructions e-mail, in my case, was about four hours.)

Download

Use the link in the e-mail to get back to DreamSpark. Sign back in and this time you'll be given the green light to start downloading!

Just a quick note before you start your downloading: some of the files are monster-sized. Windows Server 2008 is nearly two gigabytes; Visual Studio Professional is more than three gigabytes. Downloads will take a little patience, but it'll all be worth it when you can start using your professional developer's tools!

Before we start, here are a few terms you may need to know:

Mb/Gb: measures of storage; in this order, a megabyte (1,000 kilobytes) and a gigabyte (1,000 megabytes).
RAM: Random Access Memory. The temporary storage location for a computer.
Hard disk: the drive that stores your files.
Processor: the "heart" of the computer. Data that is pumped into it is routed to wherever in the computer it is needed. (Please note that I will not be recommending any AMD processors in my article, below; this is because, in my experience, they are unreliable.)
Ghz: measure of processor frequency; higher means faster (well, there is some debate on that, but it is generally accepted that a higher number is faster).

Also note that I may recommend values with a "~" in between them. For anything with that value, the lower end is better suited for your need and less costly; the higher value will work better and last longer, but will be more expensive.

Can you give me a basic rundown?

There are way too many factors for getting a new PC to just give a basic rundown. However, I can at least tell you this much about PC's: if you don't know much about PC's, go with a manufacturer's PC's. I recommend Gateway highest out of all of them; I have good experiences with their tech support and with the performances of their PC's. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is also a very reliable PC manufacturer. The worst choice would be Dell. Their computers are built sloppily and their tech support is more likely to not assist you in a moment of need.

However, if you're technically proficient, you should try to build your own PC. I'm going to cover that in a later article posted here. But the advantage to that is that your PC's performance is going to be much better due to the missing manufacturer crapware that negatively affects the performance.

Or, there's a third option, for those who want to do a little more work: contact a local PC builder. I'm one in my area; PC builders get parts from wholesalers, meaning that the parts are cheap. They don't install crapware on your PC. And most importantly, they won't overcharge you for a good PC.

What specifications do I need for a sturdy at-home PC?

I would recommend something that's not high in specifications, if you're not going to be using it for very intensive applications (running Internet Explorer or checking your e-mail, and maybe typing up word documents, for example; the occasional online game works as well in this package). Here's a sample build:

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core, 2.0~2.4ghz.
RAM: DDR2, 1~2gb.
Hard Disk: 80~100gb, any speed.
Graphics Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
Sound Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
CD/DVD Drive: just get a CD writer/DVD reader. You'll be able to make your own CD's and watch DVD movies on your PC.

How about a PC for business use?

I'd recommend to follow almost the exact specifications as above, but go with Windows Vista Business instead of Home Premium, and maybe to get a hard disk that is slightly larger (120~150gb) so that you can hold more files.

I need a PC that can handle home media. It's not quite a gaming PC.

This would be a good thing for those who use digital media quite a bit. To complete the package, I'd recommend (if you don't already have one) a TV that has a DVI (white; its shape is like a rounded parallelogram) or S-Video (black, round, small) on the back of it so that you can watch movies on your TV that are on your computer.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8~2.4ghz, or for better performance, Intel Core 2 Quad at 2.33ghz.
RAM: 2~4gb, PC6400 (if you don't know what that is, then don't worry).
Hard Disk: 120~200gb (more towards the 200 if you want to store movies on your PC), at a speed of 7200RPM.
Graphics Card: any card that has a DVI port or S-Video port in back so that you can use your PC and TV in conjunction.
Sound Card: you don't necessarily need a separate sound card, but for best sound quality, get a Turtle Beach Riviera (uses the PCI standard port), which can handle surround sound.
CD/DVD Drive: go with a CD writer/DVD reader for writing CD's and reading DVD's on your computer, or get a CD/DVD burner if you want to be able to make your own DVD's.

I need a low-level gaming PC...it doesn't have to handle multiple games at once.

You might need to learn your terms better. Gaming PC's require some special specifications for the equipment used. I can try to define them better, but in reality, you may want to use Wikipedia or a Google search to figure out better what you need.
The term I'll introduce here is latency. Latency is the time between when data is received and when it is written to the memory. Latency configurations usually look like this: X-X-X-XX (where each X is a number). Lower numbers are better when dealing with latency.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66~3.0ghz for standard performance, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.44~2.8ghz for improved performance, or Intel Core 2 Extreme (Dual or Quad) at 2.93ghz.
RAM: 4gb of PC6400 or above at a latency of 5-5-5-18 or better (lower).
Hard Disk: 250~500gb at a speed of 7200 or 10,000 RPM.
Graphics Card: an EVGA GeForce 9500 GT, which supports 512mb of onboard memory (so that your standard RAM isn't touched by the graphics card, for better performance) or better.
Sound Card: anything goes, unless you have a surround sound configuration, in which case I recommend a Turtle Beach Riviera (for good performance, up to 6 channels of sound) or a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE (for best performance; it supports up to 7.1 channels of surround sound, and is actually quite inexpensive). Do not, however, just go with whatever is built into your motherboard.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, hands down. Unless you want to watch Blu-Ray movies or play Blu-Ray games on your PC, in which case I'd recommend a Blu-Ray reader (which is very expensive, so watch out).

I'm a gamer that needs it all. I mean, ALL. What are the specs I need?

Despite being a geek, I'm no gamer. Well, maybe on occasionally, but no WoW or any of that. I really wouldn't know. But I can put together a PC with all the best parts. Note that this will be, hands down, EXPENSIVE. So if the regular gaming PC I've specified above cuts it, take that. If not, then read on.

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate.
Processor: for great performance, a Core 2 Extreme Quad at 3.2ghz or for ultimate performance, a Core i7 or Core i7 Extreme Edition at 2.66~3.2ghz.
RAM: 8gb of DDR3, between PC12800 and PC15000, with latencies close to or lower than 7-7-7-24.
Hard Disk: 1tb (that's a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes), at a speed of 10,00RPM.
Graphics Card: actually, you'll want a two-pack of cards for best performance. My recommendation would be the PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX, which has 1 GB of GDDR3 memory between two cards. It can be found at TigerDirect.
Sound Card: see what I said in the last computer category for sound cards.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, Blu-Ray reader.

Final thoughts.

Finding a computer with these exact specs is a hard job. You'll need to call around to a lot of manufacturers and ask each for a custom PC; many of them can't customize to exactly what you need. Especially when we're talking about gaming PC's (unless you call Alienware, but they'll charge you thousands for a PC as good as the last one I describe).

For gamers, you'd more than likely want to build your own computer, both for cheapness and so that you get EXACTLY what you need from a PC. Not to mention that processors in manufactured PC's won't overclock (getting your processor to operate at a higher frequency than the default, which also helps gamers a lot).

In the near future, I'll be writing a guide to building your own PC. It's a lot simpler than you'd expect, actually. But for now, enjoy your new PC. I hope it works the way you want.

Computer Specs

Intel core 2 quad Q9400 CPU @ 2.67 GHZ
4GB DDR3 RAM
Asus 4870 wth 512MB DDR5 memory
500GB HDD
windows 7 6956 / Vista Dual boot    32 BIT!!

Have XP on another laptop to compare with
I used my friends mac to test mac OSX speeds

First, looks

When I first got in and activated windows 7 it came up with a more polished and a refined look that far surpassed the look of vista. With the addition of the new super bar and the new revised gadgets it became easier to navigate through and actually looked quite beautiful. From the New boot screen to the new window transitions I found it look a hell of alot better than vista, But how does it perform?

Performance

I remember how vista was originally extremely slow and with the addition of service pack one it's still not up to par in speed and performance as XP or Mac leopard. So how does windows 7 improve on those issues?. As soon as I started to boot up windows 7 I already noticed the huge speed up times. On vista it originally would take me about a minute to boot the computer, now with windows 7 I get approximately 30 seconds. That's half the times of vista! As soon as windows 7 loads the desktop, I could notice that the transitions have been smoothed to perfection. The OS feels so much faster and the load times when opening programs have decreased drastically. Windows 7 just feels alot better than vista does when changing between programs.

Features

One of the new really amazing things in windows 7 is the super bar, which is very similar to the dock on the Mac OSX. It uses a special docking feature that you can pin almost every program to. Another great feature for it is aero peek which utilizes the desktop preview function, when you hover your mouse over the desktop preview of a window it automatically appears and when you move it away it goes back to your previous window. This makes it very easy to multitask. Another amazing way to multitask is to the use the aerosnap feature in which you move windows to each corner of the screen and it will snap to it; making it possible to say, work on two documents at the same time. Or say your writing and essay, you could snap the information to one side, and open your document on the other. Windows 7 now features jump lists which are an easier way to access a program or find a folder. By right clicking on one of your icons in the taskbar up comes the list, with your options for your program that you selected. I't was also great that I found that all my Drivers, Programs and games were all compatible with windows 7! And this was just the beta!

Final Words

Words can't explain how amazing this new OS really is. Just give it a try, I guarantee you will be amazed.

9/10

When you call up and implement the (insert: Parent, Wallet, Credit Card, etc.) to actually go out and buy the parts that you want you should make sure you check out all the latest deals from various manufacturers. (AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, etc.) This is the part of construction that is the sweetest for me. You have the authority to transform the shell sitting on your shelf (if you haven’t already got the casing) into an incredible Gaming Rig, or a simple office pc that will never see the battlefields of the far future splayed across its monitor. Choose wisely! For a Gaming Rig get plenty of Ram, a decent graphics/video card and a dual core processor which will do you plenty of favors. If you love gaming (as I do), do yourself a massive favor and do not get Vista. Skip it. Vista drains your computer’s memory and processing power setting back much of what you bought to make your computer’s performance great. There are just so many things you do not need. The best places to get the parts are online at auction sites where they practically give away incredible stuff that would cost a bomb in a shop. If you do all of the above, you can several thousand dollars. (give or take your country’s currency that is!)

When assembling your pc you might groan and tremble at the thought. Halt! All is not lost! If you really cannot do it yourself you can probably pay someone at a computer shop to do it for a moderate fee. But it really isn’t that difficult at all! Today, assembling a pc is not that bad as most motherboard jumper settings will be preset when you purchase it. In prehistoric times, there were so many settings you would have to spend ages with the motherboard manual to set it up properly. BUT today, just slip the processor in the motherboard’s processor socket, slap in some RAM and the peripheral cards and voila! You have your very own pc. Don’t you feel so proud? Now you can boast to all your pals about what a pro you are at computers. Doesn’t it feel terrific? Just don’t forget to add in the DVD drive, etc., otherwise you won’t be doing much with it.

Good Hunting/Assembling!

Windows Vista has many new features. It even has an updated graphical user interface called Windows Aero. It has live icons, live thumbnails, beautiful wallpapers and screen savers.

Here are some of the new features of Windows Vista :

Transparency Effect : This gives Vista a nice and clean look. Laptop users have however complained that this transparency feature shortens battery life.

Windows Sidebar : This is a transparent panel anchored to the side of the screen. Users can place Desktop Gadgets (small applets which have a specif use -  ex:displaying the temperature. {look at the screen shot above})on this sidebar.

Windows Mail : This is a replacement for Outlook Express that includes a new mail store that improves stability. There are also additional features such as integrated Instant Search. It has the Phishing Filter like IE7 and Junk mail filtering. This is enhanced through regular updates via Windows Update.

Windows Calendar : A  calendar and task application.

Windows Media Player 11 : the latest and best version of Windows Media Player. Has the ability to share music libraries over a network with other Vista machines. There is also X box integration and many other new features.

Back Up and Restore Center : Has the ability to back up the entire compute into a hard disk or DVD.

IE 7  : Microsoft's latest browser.

          (For more info in browsers click here...)

Here is a screen shot of a Vista desktop :

Windows Vista comes in four major editions.

Home Basic

A very simple version of Vista. I do not recommend this as it has reported to slow down many systems. This version of Vista is more secure than XP and faster in finding things compared to XP. Also has an easy networking feature.

You may purchase this edition of Vista for around $200.

Home Premium

This is the much better version of Vista for home users. This is preferred by most people as it is the only alternative for Vista Ultimate although this lacks some features. This version has the elegant Vista Aero style. There is also the media-center function. Good choice for laptops.

Easy backing up of data is possible. Networking and movie-making is much better than previous Windows versions.

You may purchase this edition of Vista for around $260.

Business

This version includes a secure Windows, the Aero experience, the ability to share documents, protection against hardware, the ability to scan and fax from your system and to remotely access your business resources. This has been identified as a very good business OS.

You may purchase this edition of Vista for around $300.

Ultimate

Vista Ultimate has it all. This includes a secure Windows, an Aero experience, a media-center functionality, protection against hardware failure, backing-up files, easier network connectivity and the ability to create high-definition movies.

This is also the only version of Vista which has better protection for data loss.

You may purchase this edition of Vista for around $320.

There are more versions of Vista such as Starter and Enterprise. These are not major editions of Windows Vista.

I hope you take into consideration the feature and the price. Use your money wisely.

Good Luck!

Vista, overall, with all the hating and bashing of Microsoft going on, is completely and underrated. While the new interface takes a little bit of getting used to, things are much easier to access once you know your way around, and while some people aren't a fan of Aero, the visual appeal is just another thing that makes this operating system useful, effective, and flashy.

And while those messages asking you to confirm just about every action are annoying, they do make Vista more secure than XP, making it worth it any day. In my experience, Vista is a great Operating System to have, and despite some flaws, which presumably will be resolved in the next Windows OS, Windows 7, it is quick, effective, and allows you to get things done easier.

All those people complaining of performance decreases from XP are completely over exaggerating those drops in speed, which are barely noticeable, and will not affect your daily life at all. A fast computer will still be fast, and a slow computer will still be slow, whether you have Vista or not. Such is life, and you can't do anything about those things.

Those of us who are power users may complain that Vista reduces the amount of control put into the hands of the user, but that is hardly true at all. You can customize Vista to the same extent as you can in XP, only you have to navigate a slightly different interface to do so. The average person who doesn't know that much about computers would be better suited to these more welcoming interfaces, and it is simply a move in the direction of the better good.

So, lay off Microsoft. They're only doing their job as best they can, and sippin' on the haterade isn't going to change anything. What we can do is state our opinions, and in a free market, they simply must comply with the will of the people to stay afloat.

A few of us were around long enough for the last big leap in Windows Operating Systems. With the release of Windows NT, Windows ditched the 16-bit environment in favor of a fully 32-bit operating system. We may very well see the same thing with the release of Windows 7, which is slated to be fully 64-bit. With the recent plummet in price of RAM, it is now possible for the average computer user to be able to afford 4 GB or RAM, or more. However, this extra RAM is no use on a 32-bit operating system, as it does not have the bits to read more than about 3 GB or RAM. This glass ceiling of memory usage is now an impasse to further increases in performance, and to be able to read more RAM requires a 64-bit operating system. However, with the current software market, there are multiple obstacles to effectively using a 64-bit operating system, since most commercial software is written for 32-bit operating systems only. The market will not develop 64-bit software unless they are required to, which requires a full migration to the 64-bit architecture by OS manufacturers such as Microsoft.

And that is exactly what they are going to do, with the advent of Windows 7. With Microsoft putting pressure on the market, software companies will be forced to shift along with the new market to maintain their customer base. Unlike Vista, it is intended to be an incremental update, improving backwards compatibility with devices, and improving performance. Visually, it will look largely the same as Vista, but will have a leaner kernel, with features added by the user a la carte.

With the leap to 64-bit computing, we may well see new developments that were never possible before, with performance taking another great leap, with the glass ceiling of RAM usage shattered.

I think I installed most of the popular "flavours" of Linux at the times, such as SUSE, Mandrake (now mandriva), Red Hat, Knoppix, debian, freeBSD and others

However, recently after a year or two of not trying any Linux distributions and having only the super insecure Windows XP on my laptop, I decided that with the many constant frustrations, including the bloated feel of Windows, to test out a version of Linux.

Deciding which one to try came down to SUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Puppy Linux, Knoppix, Mint, PCcentos.

OpenSUSE 11.0 desktop.

I was considering Puppy Linux as I have read it to have good hardware support, but I decided against it because I want a fully fledged operating system, not one that is designed for portability.

I decided against Mint or PCcentos because I didn't like the default MS Windows desktops styles, which I know they can be fully customised, but I was feeling shallow like that. However, I am considering trying out one of these, if they have Live-CD's.

Linux Mint 5.0

My final decision came down to either Ubuntu with the gnome desktop environment or it's KDE brother Kubuntu. In the past I had always been a fan of KDE due to it's customisability and general feel, and on the one occasion I tried gnome out, I didn't like it. But for some reason, at the last minute I decided to download the Live-CD and try out Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.10

On loading Ubuntu from the live-CD, I was impressed with the slickness and feel of the desktop, and programs such as the nautilus file manager amongst other things. Also, researching things, I was impressed by the support and community for Ubuntu on the Internet.

After, playing around I decided to install Ubuntu. Initially, I had some problems trying to resize my Windows dominance of the hard-drive, and had to download and use a freeware partition tool in Windows. But this worked, and I partitioned my hard-drive giving the majority of space to Ubuntu. I decided to keep Windows XP, just in case of problems.

Installation was great and easy. The only problems being with my ATI Radeon graphics card and the lack of support from ATI, which means the proprietary driver doesn't work as good as it can, but I can still play 3D games in Linux, maybe it's a mixture of my laptop being a few years old and also the ATI driver.

Advantages:
1. Security, the lack of Linux viruses means I don't need a virus scanner, and also even though I have installed a firewall (Firestarter) it's not really needed, especially with a hardware firewall.
2. Speed, I find that booting up, and especially loading the desktop is sooo much faster, the Windows XP was taking extremely long to load the desktop and all the items in the taskbar, even after I had changed many settings and tried to improve performance. I have improved the performance of Ubuntu even further by changing the booting options, such as removing bluetooth support (my laptop doesn't have it) and changing the start-up programs. The open-office software did initialy take a few more seconds too load than I wanted, but after changing the softwares memory and java options, it loads in a matter of a few seconds.

Also, loading programs like Firefox is extremely quicker.
3. Support, the ubuntuforums are very helpful and friendly and there are also many other websites I have visited for news, tips, help and ideas.
4. Choice of software. Ubuntu comes with many default programs installed for every type of activity, but thousands of more programs are available from the Ubuntu repositories.
5. Cost, Ubuntu and the software is free and open source.
6. Customisability, unlike Windows, which gives you one desktop environment, where the only customisation that can be realistically done, is change a few colours. Ubuntu and Linux operation systems allow you to change ANYTHING about it. There are many website that offer various items to change gnome, from the login screen to the panels (like the star bar in Windows) to how gnome works. Don't like the gnome desktop? why not remove it and install another one like KDE or one of the other ones designed for speed.
7. Ease of use, Ubuntu has been designed to be user friendly, for example searching and installing new programs is as easy as running a program (Synaptic Package Manager) which lists thousands of programs available, and choosing which one, the the software will automatically install it for you as well as any other needed files to run it. Very easy.

For me, a semi-power-user, the only disadvantages for me personally, are the lack of video/audio chat for MSN messenger, as I use MSN messenger in Windows to talk family back home in the UK, but this is really the fault of Microsoft and not Ubuntu or Linux, so maybe I will try out Skype. Also, the lack of dvd, mp3 and video playback could be considered a disadvantage, but this was fixed in a matter of a few short minutes, by quickly opening up the package manager and selecting install restricted drivers.

There are so many features in Microsoft Word 2007 that it would take forever to list them all, but I’ll go through 10 of them that you probably didn’t know about.

Cover Page Feature

Submitting a school project or assignment, but realize that you forgot to include a cover page? No problem! On the Insert tab, click “Cover Page” to insert a fully-formatted cover page with a title, author, date and other information.

Bookmark Feature

If you have a 10+ page document and don’t want your readers using CTRL+F to try and find what they’re looking for, bookmarks are the way to go. On the Insert tab, click on “Bookmark.” You can then assign a name to a specific part of your document. After that, create a Hyperlink to jump directly to a bookmarked location.

Hyperlink Feature

Speaking of Hyperlinks, Microsoft Word automatically parses most URLs, but for those it doesn’t, you can do so by clicking the Insert tab and selecting the “Hyperlink” button. This lets you create a link to a Web page, a picture, an email address, or another program.

SmartArt Feature

Need a Flow Chart? No problem! On the Insert tab, click on the “SmartArt” button. SmartArt graphics allow you to visually communicate information. They range from graphical lists and process diagrams to more complicated things such as Venn diagrams and organizational charts.

ClipArt Feature

Once again on the Insert tab, the “ClipArt” button lets you insert drawings, movies, sounds or even stock photography into your document to illustrate a specific concept.

Balloons Feature

When reviewing a document for spelling and grammatical errors, the Balloons feature comes in handy. On the Review tab, click “Balloons” to activate the feature. When you make a revision to the document, it will show as a balloon, either in the margins of the document or within the document itself.

DropCap Feature

Ever wonder how they make it in books and novels so that the first letter of the paragraph is larger than the rest of the letters?  Well, the DropCap feature makes this a breeze to do. Sure, you can simply enlarge the font size of the first letter in your paragraph, but this way it’s much more fun. Just go to the Insert tab and click on the “Drop Cap” button.

WordArt Feature

With this nifty feature, you can insert decorative text into your document. Just click on the “WordArt” button in the Insert tab.

Header and Footer Feature

Also located on the Insert tab are the “Header” and “Footer” buttons. With these, you can force specific text to appear on the top and bottom of your pages when you print them out. This is really useful for titles and page numbers.

Watermark Feature

And we’ve saved the best feature for last! Placing a water mark on your page ensures that someone else cannot just steal your work, photocopy it, and claim it as their own. For instance, you can place your name as your Watermark, and it will be displayed in lighter font behind the text in your document. You can also select a picture to use as a Watermark. On the Page Layout tab, click “Watermark” and then click “Custom Watermark.”