My Desktop

Another techie post, sorry folks, no crazy-vampire Nigerian stories today.  Why?  Because I'm excited about my desktop and want to share my excitement!  :-P

There's some little shortcut goodies and fun gadgets buried in here, fyi. ;)

You know how Windows allows you to have up to 5 different user accounts on one computer?  Well, for me, that's just perfect.  I have my own, with the cute little yellow rubber duckie.  Then, I have an account for each of my four imaginary alligators, Jack, Sally, Lee and Bob.

I don't like having lots of icons on my desktop, or lots of little buttons in my system tray, but I do like having the things I need to use most easily accessible.  I noticed that the things I want accessible at work and the things I want accessible at home are (usually) different.  Since I don't want all the icons for both home and work all over my desktop, I decided to convert one of my alligators' accounts to a "work system." 

Introducing the Lee (Remi) account

Remi is my Yoruba name, so I thought it would be a good one to use for work.  I couldn't just take away Lee's account though; that wouldn't be very nice, so we're sharing.  I think I chose to share with Lee because I like the little rubber froggie second best, after the duckie.  I added a password, changed the account type to administrator and went to work designing my work account.  (The other accounts are not password protected and can thus be used by guests, if they ask the alligators nicely to share.)

You can see here what my desktop looks like with everything closed. 

System Tray

In the system tray, there's Media Monkey for my music, AVG, my kick-vampire free anti-virus, and my drop box is usually up there too, backing up all my hard work to the cloud (and Mr. Trizzle's computer, hee hee).

Icons

Then I have shortcuts on the desktop for only the things I use the most: Word, OneNote, SyncToy (one of the greatest inventions ever!), my Work Files folder, Chrome and one other folder of IP documents I might need often.  As you can see, unlike some people, I have no qualms about mixing proprietary software with open source, or using both Microsoft and Google applications.  I use what works best for me, and that's generally Microsoft on the computer and Google in the cloud.

Background

I had chosen the blue mountain background because it was simple and not distracting, exactly what I need for work.  But one day I got bored with it and changed it.  Now, I have the same problem as munchkinhead, "I need to find a new background that I wont stare at for hours."  Oh well, at least I can't see it when I'm actually working... I'm just really tempted to hit Windows Logo Key+D a lot.

This is what my screen looks like when I'm working - everything right there in front of me, exactly where I need it:

  Word

If you look carefully, you'll notice that my Word program is split into 3 frames.  Two of them are attached.  In the red circle, I have easy access to my styles.  This allows me to quickly format my text without  having to switch back to the Home Tab.  The green circle is my main document, and in the blue circle, my comments.  I use comments (Ctrl+Alt+M) to easily mark areas of my document that I want to edit later.  Having the reviewing pane open on the bottom instead of having the comments in balloons on the document allows me to easily find the areas I want to edit without wasting a lot of screen space.

One Note

I had tried using One Note last semester for taking notes in class  and decided it sucks for that purpose - for me.  I'm better off with a pen and a notebook.  But I've discovered One Note is amazing for compiling research.  The program makes organization easy, and more important, makes it extremely simple to search for things.  In this screen shot, I was working on a paper for work.  Behind my Word document of the paper is my One Note research info.  I can flip through the notebook to find the information I need, and then continue to look at it while typing in my Word doc.

I also have a Side Note Window open (Ctrl+Shift+M).  It's like a sticky tab on my screen, and it's set to always stay on top.  It has my outline for my paper so that I can organize my paper well without cluttering up my Word Doc, and I can always see where I'm headed next in the paper.

 

 

My Music

Sometimes, I like to listen to music while working.  And being me, I want to mark my music.  Media Monkey has this nifty feature called Mini Player.  It puts a little translucent playlist on the screen.  The playlist shows me the past five songs and the upcoming six or so.  It also allows me to see all the information about the songs and gives me access to the volume, properties, and play controls.  Like the Side Note, it stays on top of the other windows.  Since it's translucent (like Wendy!), I can still see any important information that might be on the Word doc behind the media player.  I can adjust the size of the playlist box to whatever suits my fancy, too.

Internet

Usually I don't keep my taskbar on top, but in the picture it's on top because I hit the Windows Logo Key to take the screen shot. (Windows Logo Key+S).  However, I do have my windows arranged so that they only partly cover the task bar.  That's so I can easily see if I have new messages in my email - when there's internet.  New mail is just a click or Alt+Tab away!  I know it's more productive to not check the email every time a new message comes, but I don't get that many, and they usually perk me up a bit.  I get excited.  In fact, I get so excited, I actually tired opening the window in the picture to check that one message!  And I know there's no internet on right now!

So that's my work desktop.  It's spiffy!