Info Advantage Blog

Not all Internet search tools are created equal. For example, sometimes you may use a website’s search feature, only to discover that it doesn’t provide the quality of results you’re used to getting from a major search engine like Google Search. When finding yourself in such a predicament, you’ve got a few options to help narrow down your search.

To give you a better idea of the problem we’re referring to, let’s shine a light on an all-too-common example; website search features that don’t support quotation marks. With a more robust search tool like Google Search, users have the ability to search for exact phrases by adding quotation marks before and after the phrase. Without this quotation mark feature, a search tool will provide results pertaining to every word in the phrase, making the results potentially worthless.

Make Use of Ctrl+F
For websites lacking this search feature, you can combine the in-site search with your browser’s search tool to narrow down what you’re looking for. To do this, simply enter your query into the website's search form like you normally would, then hit Enter to display the results.

If the results provided aren’t to your liking, you can narrow the results down by selecting Ctrl+F. This will cause a drop down menu to appear where you can enter a second word relating to what you’re looking for. Upon doing this, every corresponding word that’s specifically displayed on the web page will be highlighted. You can then cycle through these highlighted words to better find what you need.

Use Google to Specifically Search a Website
Another way to accurately search the content of a website is to bypass the website’s search feature altogether by using Google Search. With the website selected that you want to search, enter its URL into Google Search, minus the “http://” and “www.” Before the URL, you will add “site:” to end up with an entry looking like this: site:website.com.

Next, enter whatever it is you want to search for, following the site:website.com. You will then select Enter to display search results pulled only from the website with the matching URL.

Add Quotation Marks to Google’s In-Site Search
Whereas some websites’ search features don’t utilize quotation marks, Google Search does and you can add a phrase in quotation marks following site:website.com to make use of quotes this way. This will essentially achieve what we were showing you with the first tip, but you’ll still want to remember how to combine an in-site search with Ctrl+F because not every website allows Google to crawl all of its content, like websites containing scholarly research, for example.

Using these tips correctly can open up a whole new world of online searching. Did you find these tips to be helpful? Do you have any additional tips to add that will help narrow down online searches even further? Let us know in the comments.

Smartphones have become an inseparable part of the workplace, to the point where they’re almost necessary in order to maintain efficiency. Yet, sometimes it can feel like a hassle to switch to another device, even if it’s for something as mundane as making a phone call. Did you know that it’s super simple to add a second phone number to your smartphone?

There are plenty of reasons why you may want to do this. Perhaps you’d like a second phone number that you can use to sign up for promotions, just to keep your primary phone number off of the lists of annoying telemarketers. Maybe you want to take calls from your business phone on your personal smartphone. Regardless, the technology you need to do so is very accessible and easy to set up.

Call Transfer
This technology has been around for far longer than smartphones, and comes with most phone plans. If your current phone system supports it, you’ll be able to set up forwarding for calls to your personal cell phone. This can allow you to accept business calls, even while you’re out of the office.

Granted, this feature does have a catch. It might be great for receiving phone calls, but it doesn’t necessarily allow you to make calls from your device using the transferred phone number. There are plenty of business phone solutions that are designed specifically for this situation, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Solutions like these are dynamic and responsive enough to make it easy to manage a second phone number.

Second Phone Number Apps
If you just want a second phone number for personal use, there are plenty of great options that can give you similar functionality. Here are a few of the most popular options:

• Google Voice and Hangouts: You can use your Google account to set up a second Google Voice phone number, which you can then use through Google Hangouts to make and receive phone calls. This is a great option for those who are already fully using their Google accounts, and it’s free.
• Sideline: Sideline might only provide the basics, but it gives you a second phone number. You can make and receive calls, and have a voicemail, but that’s about all it can do. It’s $3/month, so it’s an inexpensive option… that is, if you can get around the advertisements.
• Line 2: Line 2 offers more features than the previous examples, which make it a better solution if you’re willing to shell out some extra cash for it. Line 2 has two plans: a $10/month plan, which provides a personal number, and $15/month, which provides a business line. Many smartphone users may find the mobile app and online dashboard desirable.
• Skype Number: Skype has made it quite easy to get a second phone number, and if you’re already using it for video chat, you may as well use it for your second phone number solution. An online Skype number offers a robust set of features at $6/month, which makes it both affordable and convenient.

If you want to put a second phone number on your smartphone, as you can see, you have several options to consider. However, if your business wants the most dynamic phone solution that can benefit your entire infrastructure, there’s only one option. Info Advantage suggests implementing a Voice over Internet Protocol solution for your communication needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (585) 254-8710.

Storing physical files has been an important part of the office infrastructure for a very long time, and for good reason: every organization has some information they have to store. Traditionally, files were stuffed into folders and catalogued in a file cabinet for “easy” access. This is how many offices still look like, but when it was time to move files, it took a lot of work. Now, since many files are stored electronically, there are many shortcuts that you can take to improve the way you move your files.

Click and Drag
If you have your files placed in one location, like on your desktop, you can click and drag your mouse to create an boxed area of effect. Any files within this box can be moved through a simple click and drag function. Select the files you want to move, then drag any one of them to the location to move all that are selected.

Select the Checkboxes
In Windows 10, you have little checkboxes that you can click to select the individual file. If you have several files that you need to move you can click the checkboxes for all of them, then move just one to move them all. This can save you considerable time and effort.

The Click-Shift
You can select files that are horizontal and adjacent to each other by using the Click-Shift method. Basically, you select the file that you want to move, and then hold down the Shift key while selecting the last one you want to move. Anything in between will be selected. All you have to do is click and drag the files to their new location.

Hold Ctrl
When you hold down the Ctrl key, you can click on files that you want to move. Once they’re selected, all you have to do is move them to the appropriate folder.

Select All Files
If you decide that your desktop is much too cluttered, and you need to move everything on it to a new location, the same Select All keyboard shortcut that works in most word processors can be used to select all of your files at once. Just hit Ctrl+A to select all files in your current window, or desktop. Just click and drag them, and you’re all set.

Just remember that some of these keyboard shortcuts also work with Mac OS X. All you have to do is substitute the Ctrl key for the Command key, and they should work in generally the same way.

Fun Fact: You know how Windows is bundled with Solitaire? No, we aren’t assuming that you are playing it at work. Microsoft decided to bundle their OS with Solitaire as a way to get users more accustomed to dragging and double clicking objects with their mouse.

For more great tips and tricks, subscribe to Info Advantage’s blog.

Like many mobile devices, iPhones don’t have a slot for an external memory card, which means the device can easily become too full to use. When this happens, pictures can’t be taken and some apps just won’t work. If you’re experiencing this issue with your iPhone, just rent a movie. It works. Seriously.