Not long ago, as I was working with some RSS feeds, I was dismayed to discover that suddenly, Firefox wouldn’t display them. Instead I was being prompted to save or open the file using another program. What a pain!

Turns out that with the release of Firefox 64, Mozilla dropped support for feeds and live bookmarks.

Luckily I found a solution without much hassle. There are several add-ons that will restore this functionality to Firefox. I picked one called Feed Preview that had good reviews. So far, so good; feeds are displayed cleanly and elegantly. Here’s what the Slaw Tips …

I recently made a couple of small purchases that made a big difference: new charge cables for my phone and tablet. And as soon as I started using them, I was kicking myself for not having bought them sooner.

My old cables had been on their very last legs: they still worked, but one was starting to become loose at a connection point, and the other had actually lost a piece of casing. They weren’t charging as quickly as they once had. Plus, their lengths weren’t ideal either–both had always been just a bit too short for the locations I …

While scrolling through my Twitter feed the other day, I learned a fantastic little trick for creating new files in Google Drive. Do you know this one?

You can start a new Google document, form, spreadsheet, site, or presentation simply by typing one of the following shortcuts into your browser’s address bar and hitting enter.

• Docs: doc.new, docs.new, document.new
• Forms: form.new, forms.new
• Sheets: sheet.new, sheets.new, spreadsheet.new
• Sites: site.new, sites.new, website.new
• Slides: slides.new, deck.new, presentation.new

Pretty slick, eh?

(h/t qz.com)…

Lexbox was designed to make your legal research faster and easier. To help you use Lexbox to the best of its ability, we are sharing Lexbox tips with you from time to time.  Here’s one if you are using Lexbox on the CanLII website.

Today’s tip is about saving a specific paragraph from a decision on Lexbox, so that you can include it in your research record, and revisit it anytime.

1. If you are not already logged in, login or create

You know what really grinds my gears? When I open a PDF file containing what appears to be digitally-formatted text and find that it is non-copyable and non-searchable. The ability to search, copy and paste text are essential functions of digital communications – so the idea that a text is born digitally and therefore ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) encoded, and that somebody wittingly or unwittingly should remove that functionality – it leads to much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part.

Well just last week I was sent a large PDF document with more …

In certain situations, I need to type something I’ve typed dozens or hundreds of times before. Rather than type it out, I prefer to type three to four letters. My Mac recognizes those letters and offers me the option of the full text I’ve typed in the past.

Here are two examples:

• my name and phone number, for calendar invitations to schedule phone calls
• a message I send people who I don’t know when they want to connect with me on LinkedIn

Name and phone number shortcut

Each time I schedule phone calls with people, I put my name and …

Are you reading this post on a computer that has slowed down significantly? To the point that you want to replace it?

Before you whip out your credit card, try a few simple things on your computer. You might make it more useable without spending a dime.

I’ve already posted two ways you can improve your computer’s performance.

• Computer-savvy types get rid of bloatware before they even use a new machine, but it’s never too late to do so.
• You can also simplify your desktop.

Here’s a third tip – finding energy hogs on your computer.

The problem

Your …

It’s common for people to replace their computers every three or four years. They seem to believe performance degrades so much that they need new machines to gain speed increases.

Sometimes that’s true. Hard disk drives,for instance, can wear over time. Inexpensive machines aren’t usually built to be upgraded.

But if you want to keep working with your current computer, there are a number of things you can do to keep it moving quickly.

I covered one tip in a 2016 blog post. (Here’s something I forgot to mention in that post: Even though I claimed useless utilities are a Mac issue, Windows …

Is your computer slow right now? Maybe there’s something you can do about that – right now.

The problem

Generally, the more apps you run at the same time, the more your computer slows down.

The solution

Find out how many programs you have open at any given time. You can quit programs you don’t need at the moment.

You can browse the dock (Mac) or toolbar (Windows) to do this, but I prefer a keyboard shortcut that both computer platforms offer.

On a Mac, hold down the Cmd key (Windows – Crtl), then press Tab. Icons pop up in …

I like exploring ways to improve my Inbox Zero habit. This habit enables me to effectively handle everything that comes at me via email. I do this by:

• putting the information in the right places
• deleting or filing the original email

The email inbox is never the right place for contacts, calendar appointments, tasks or other things I need to act on. That’s why my inbox contains NO emails at the end of a day.

Making Inbox Zero easier

It’s easier to keep the inbox empty if I prevent unwanted emails from arriving in the first place. …