Tips for Buying a Printer

Remember when buying a printer meant choosing between a putty-colored dot-matrix clunker and its counterpart in gunmetal grey? Nowadays, The Matrix is a movie starring Keanu Reeves and printers come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes with varying print quality, output speeds, and price tags.

Fortunately, there are ways to weed out models that don't fit your needs. Consider these factors when shopping around for a new printer.

Model type— There are two main printer categories: inkjet and laser. An inkjet printer holds ink cartridges while a laser printer relies on electrostatic charges to transfer toner to paper.

Print quality— An inkjet printer's resolution is determined by the number of dots of ink it can spray on a square inch of paper. As a general rule, high resolution is important for sharp graphics and text.

Speed— Don't be swayed by manufacturers' promises of printing at breakneck speed. Ultimately, a printer's speed hinges on the output quality you require.

Price— Don't bank on saving dollars by sacrificing color for a monochrome printer. These days, a high-quality inkjet printer can be purchased for as little as $100.

Are you getting annoying e-mail from someone? If you are, you can block the sender's e-mail address so that you won't see their messages. When you block an e-mail address, any mail received from that address is automatically placed in your Deleted Items folder. You don't ever have to see it.

To block a sender, click their e-mail message, click the Message menu, and then click Block Sender. This instantly adds the sender's e-mail address to your Blocked Senders List.

To remove someone from the list, follow these steps:

Click the Tools menu, click Message Rules, and then click Blocked Senders List.

Click the e-mail address, and then click the Remove button.

Archive Your Photos in Just Minutes

Capturing pictures with your digital camera is so easy that you're sure to collect hundreds—if not thousands—of photos in a very short time, all stored on your computer.

After you print pictures or send them via e-mail to family and friends, you need a way to preserve them for the future. That's why remembering to archive your digital photos to CD is so critical. After all, "memories lost" is not a phrase that you want to describe the state of your digital photos.

If you take just a few minutes each month you can easily archive your photos. You'll rest easy knowing that you always have backup copies safely stored away.

Read the entire article to find out what you will need and to learn how to archive your photos in just minutes.

Tip: If you really want to preserve these memories, make sure you store them somewhere secure, such as in your family's lockbox or a fireproof safe. (Many people do this   with their film negatives, so why shouldn't you do it with     your CDs?) The peace of mind you'll have knowing your photographic history is carefully preserved is more than worth the minimal effort.