How to download and save streaming videos

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How to download and save streaming videos

By Woody Leonhard

How many times have you wanted to download and store an online streaming video so you could play it back at a different time or on a different machine?

While the basics of downloading YouTube and other videos have been around for a long time, there are tricks to getting the video you want into a format you can use.

The tricks aren’t limited to YouTube. If you get the right software, you can download almost any streaming video and store it in many different formats. You can even download Flash games and play them when you’re offline.

Each video (and online game) site has different restrictions, so make sure your activities don’t violate any laws or user agreements. The YouTube terms of service (TOS), for example, are quite succinct:

“You agree not to distribute in any medium any part of the Service or the Content without YouTube’s prior written authorization. … You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Service itself, the Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate.”

As far as I can tell, YouTube’s TOS doesn’t cover cases where a product (such as an iPad) is incapable of playing a video because of format restrictions. More about that in a moment.

What the YouTube TOS says you can do might not coincide with local laws. Is it illegal to record something playing on your computer, so you can view it at a later time? If so, why does YouTube have hooks that allow programs to download files? (Netflix, for example, is almost impervious to similar approaches because of the technology it uses.) The legal situation is murky at best. Caveat downloader.

Why you might want to rip streaming video

I’ve bumped into the download problem twice in the past six weeks.

First, when Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green and Steve Sinofsky gave the Windows 8 demo at the All Things D conference. I had to download the video so I could watch it repeatedly on a flight. I caught a lot of nuances at 30,000 feet — without the complications of a video-stuttering Internet connection or exorbitant in-flight connection fees.

I accomplished the download, but it took some serious mojo.

Second — and more importantly — before heading out on vacation. I wanted to grab a handful of YouTube videos that my son could watch later. Believe me, a fussy toddler in the back of a stuffy taxi responds marvelously to a YouTube lullaby or a familiar sing-along on the ol’ iPad. Some of the places we go just don’t have Internet connections — and I’ll be skinned and steeped in cactus juice before I’ll spend $25 a day for a hotel’s connection to the World Wide Web.

Also, my friends have asked for tips on downloading videos — from YouTube and other sites with streaming content — for a multitude of reasons. Some of them have good Internet connections just at home, or only in a coffee shop, or when at the office, but tortuously slow speeds elsewhere. Downloading a video where there’s a fast connection and replaying it at leisure avoids the glips and glops of a bad line. Some have YouTube blocked by their corporate admins, so they have to smuggle videos of the Evian babies into work. One friend likes to record things so he can view them while camping on the weekend.

I like to record videos for all those reasons plus one more that stands out: I hate it when I can’t view a Flash video on my iPad. (As you will quickly discover, if you haven’t already, Apple’s iPads and iPhones don’t do Flash — at least, not without Herculean effort.) Fortunately for the users of those devices, most popular YouTube videos are available in Flash and H.264/MP4 formats; YouTube senses when your computer can’t play Flash and usually dishes up an MP4 instead. But some of the more obscure videos on YouTube — including many kids’ videos in a hundred languages — don’t get the dual-format treatment. Try to play them on your iPad or iPhone, and you might get an obscure, bogus error message about a server malfunction.

Server malfunction, my foot. YouTube just hasn’t taken the time or care to convert formats. So I have to do it myself.

That said, there’s one occasion where you don’t want to download a video. It makes no sense at all to rip a video off a major site such as YouTube and e-mail that video file to someone else. Save yourself a ton of bother, and save your correspondents megabytes of useless bits. E-mail a link to the YouTube site, not the video itself. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many e-mails I get with attached files that were scraped off YouTube.

Video download sites — the old-fashioned way

I think there are hundreds of websites that help you download YouTube videos. Some of them are almost as old as YouTube itself. The most popular ones work in several different modes.

One of the oldest and best-known sites, KEEPVID (see Figure 1), lets you capture a streaming video in three different ways:

First, you can copy the URL of the page containing the video you want to download and paste it into the top box on the KEEPVID page. KEEPVID scans the page and sees what videos are available. In Figure 1, you can see that KEEPVID found six different video formats and one audio format for a popular music video. These are all native YouTube formats — YouTube stores the video in all six formats. Click on the link for the format you want, and KEEPVID downloads the chosen file in the usual way.

Figure 1. KEEPVID supports three different download modes.

Second, you can drag the button near the top of the page to your browser’s bookmark toolbar. With the bookmark toolbar showing, navigate to the page containing the video you want to download and click the KEEPVID icon on the bookmark toolbar. You get similar choices. (One problem, however: I had trouble getting the bookmarklet to work on several newer browsers.)

Third, you can pay for a standalone KEEPVID program that will do the downloading. Since there are many free alternatives, it’s hard to recommend shelling out cash for the standalone program.

KEEPVID works with YouTube, Dailymotion, eHow, Facebook, Vimeo, and others. It didn’t work for me on the Windows 8 demo page at All Things D.

If you want a Web-based downloader and KEEPVID doesn’t work for you, try one or more of these sites: savevid.com (caution: site contains pornographic material), Vixy, or Download YouTube Videos.

And if you find that you’ve downloaded Flash video (.flv) files and can’t play them, get a copy of the free VLC Media Player (download page).

An easier way — using browser plugins

Several products will hook into your browser and make it easy to download YouTube videos. RealPlayer (info page), for example, pops up a simple dropbox when you mouse over a YouTube video.

If you’re primarily interested in YouTube videos and Chrome is your browser of choice, check out the Chrome YouTube Downloader (download page), which puts a download button under each YouTube video.

When it comes to downloading streaming video, though, you can’t beat Firefox. My favorite is an add-on called Video DownloadHelper (page), which grabs a wide array of streaming video files and can translate and save those files to many different formats. When you install DownloadHelper, it appears as a small icon on your Firefox navigation bar, to the left of the address box (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Firefox add-in Video DownloadHelper works with hundreds of websites.

On video-content sites that support Video DownloadHelper (right-click the icon for a list), the icon starts whirling; click the down arrow to the right of the icon, and you see a list of available file formats. Choose the format you want, and Firefox downloads it. DownloadHelper will let you download a single file or all the files on a page. You can also change settings, such as the default download folder, by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Preferences.

There are dozens of download add-ons for Firefox, if DownloadHelper doesn’t do what you want. I’ve also had some luck with FlashGot (page), a ripper with a slightly different slant: it’s designed to be used with a standalone download manager — to optimize downloading all media on a page in one fell swoop.

What to do if none of the downloaders works

Sometimes downloading video just isn’t easy. Often you have to find a downloader that works best with specific sites. Pulling a video off YouTube is easy; Video DownloadHelper probably has you covered for less-common sites. But some streaming videos defy even the best downloader.

That’s what happened to me with the Windows 8 demo on the All Things D site. None of the rippers I tried could touch the video. I could not find any copies of the video on YouTube or other major sites, so even Video DownloadHelper couldn’t snag it.

Fortunately, there’s another way to skin this cat. Instead of trying to download the video, I recorded the video as it was being played, using a screen-recording utility that scraped the interview and turned it into a .wmv file suitable for playing on VLC Media Player or even Windows Media Player. If you’re stuck in a similar bind, try My Screen Recorder (download page) from DeskShare software.

This program isn’t free; there’s a free 30-day trial version, but it produces videos with a box at the bottom with text stating: “My Screen Recorder Trial Version / Please Purchase.” The registered version will set you back U.S. $49.95. In my experience it works well, in a last-resort kind of way. Take a few minutes and step through the setup — to get the audio working correctly, you might have to unhide a disabled audio source (using the included instructions) so My Screen Recorder can record sounds properly. Once it’s set up, the app works easily: F8 starts recording, F9 stops — piece o’ cake.

Woody Leonhard is a Windows Secrets senior editor and a senior contributing editor at InfoWorld. His books on Windows and Office include the award-winning Windows 7 All-In-One For Dummies. His many writings cast a critical eye on the latest industry shenanigans.

Fine points of software purchasing mastered here

By Kathleen Atkins

Not only do Lounge members know how to fix their machines, they know the best ways to get their gear.

That means they can advise on the arcana of license agreements and any other variables of purchases — including freeware alternatives. So when Lounge member Ron M came asking about OneNote for multiple machines, he got a survey of the possibilities in short order.

See what Ron M decided to do. More»

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several new questions to which you might be able to provide responses:

Possessed by a supernatural … vacuum?

By Tracey Capen It’s the fear of every TV-show producer — a product commercial that proves more creative and more interesting than the show it’s intended to support. Think of the many VW Beetle commercials of the past. (Look ’em up on YouTube if you’re too young to have seen them.) Typically, one would have a hard time imagining a commercial that combines a vacuum cleaner and a classic horror movie such as The Exorcist, but one clever ad-maker pulls it off to great applause. Play the video

Digging deeper into Win7-XP networking

By Fred Langa Win7’s “Network Level Authentication” is built in and enabled by default, but in XP it’s an add-on you have to specifically install and enable. And that’s just one of several major obstacles that can impede smooth networking between these two Windows versions.

Adding Network Level Authentication to XP

Like many of us, Tom Linton ran into snags trying to get his Win7 and XP systems networked successfully.

• “Your May 12 article, ‘Win7 network stuck in “Public” mode,’ touched on a pet peeve of mine: networking my three PCs (a Win7 laptop and two XP desktops, all updated regularly) so they can see each other and share files. I have searched the Microsoft site many times and the Internet in general for answers. I have gone through many sets of instructions on setting up a Windows homegroup. No good.

  “I went back to the instructions for classic networking and had some partial success, but none of the recommendations resolved my problem.

  “Totally frustrated!”

When homegroups work, they’re great. There’s no faster, easier, newbie-friendly, click-and-forget way to set up a basic peer network among Win7 PCs. (See Microsoft’s Help & How-to article, “HomeGroup from start to finish,” for more setup info.)

But all bets are off with a complex, mixed network — such as when you include XP systems. Compared to Win7, XP is a different beast from a simpler networking era.

For example, XP uses a lower-level encryption for peer connections than does Win7 (56-bit versus Win7’s 128-bit).

Another example: The Network Level Authentication intrinsic to Win7 was a last-minute, bolt-on addition to XP via the Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP) included in XP SP3. CredSSP isn’t available at all in earlier versions of XP; even in XP SP3, it’s turned off by default. There can be other issues, too.

Fortunately, you usually can work around the gotchas. For example, MS Support article 951608 tells you how to enable CredSSP in XP SP3 and even includes a one-click Fix it button.

Microsoft’s article, “Networking home computers running different versions of Windows,” contains a ton of possible fixes. But your note suggests you’ve probably tried them, Tom.

Here’s what I do to get my Win7 and XP boxes talking to each other properly: I disable homegroups entirely, use XP’s lower encryption standard on all systems, and set up the local network by hand in the classic manner. These steps are covered in the October 14, 2010, Top Story, “Simple change in settings pumps up Win7 networks.”

But all these steps and options are workarounds and not a true fix. Windows 7’s tighter networking security wasn’t an arbitrary change but one made necessary by increasingly sophisticated hacking. For example, 56-bit encryption was first cracked in 1997. (A CNET article details that milestone.) XP’s 56-bit encryption is still OK for casual, noncritical applications but is no longer effective against determined hacking.

The plain fact is that XP is rapidly becoming technologically obsolete. (Don’t shoot the messenger!) The preceding workarounds can help keep XP alive and working in a much-changed networking world, but they only forestall the inevitable.

It’s really time to start upgrading those XP machines, my friends!

Slow, intrusive, and confusing thumbnails

Terry Thomas absolutely hates Win7’s thumbnail images of photos.

• “I am a professional photographer and recently built a computer to run 64-bit Windows 7.

  “I often take hundreds of photographs when on an assignment. It may be a party, wedding, sports competition, or some other large event.

  “I create a folder and copy all the images from my compact flash cards to that folder. Then I rename them, from the Nikon camera’s file name to a numbering system I designed.

  “Unlike XP (installed on my previous computer), Windows 7 does several annoying things. It first displays sharp thumbnail images of the photographs and then softens them — then, one by one, it resharpens the images! Huh? While this is going on, a green bar moves across the top of the file manager.

  “Why are the images presented as soft-looking? What is the meaning of the green bar? What happens to my photographs if I close the window before the green bar finishes moving and some of my images are still soft-looking? This is very scary for a professional photographer!

  “Hey, I thought Microsoft people ate their own dog food! Well, evidently none of the dogs are photographers. This design of Windows 7 has killed my productivity. I am seriously thinking of going back to XP.”

I can see where it would alarm you, Terry. It can indeed look as though Win7 is processing your photos in some unknown way. But it’s a false alarm. Win7 isn’t altering your originals at all.

Here’s what’s going on: Win7 generates thumbnails of stored images in four different sizes for easy previewing and sorting of the images. The softening/sharpening effect is because the thumbnails are generated, in multiple passes, as progressive (interlaced) .jpgs. Although the thumbnails are derived from the original image, the original isn’t changed in any way by the thumbnail-generating process.

The more photos you have in a folder, and the larger (higher-resolution) they are, the longer it takes to generate the thumbnails. The green progress indicator bar shows you how far along Windows is in completing the process.

Because you have so many photos (and I bet they’re very high-res), you’d probably fare better by disabling the thumbnail generation altogether. Just turn it off and use whatever pro-quality image-previewing tool you prefer. The Windows-generated thumbnails are entirely optional — a convenience, nothing more.

To disable thumbnail generation in Win7 (and Vista), simply type folder options into the Start menu’s Search programs and files box. When the Folder Options dialog box opens, select the View tab and enable the Always show icons, never thumbnails option. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Win7’s Folder Options gives you a one-click option to turn off thumbnail generation entirely.

For more information on setting and using all the Win7 Folder Options, see the Microsoft Help & How-to article, “Change folder options.”

With thumbnails disabled, you’ll never be bothered by fuzzy interim representations or slow thumbnail-progress bars again.

Reader wants direct link to WS security info

Wilbert Cedeno is looking for a fast way to zero in on some past Windows Secrets content.

• “Is there an easy way to access the most current security information from the Windows Secrets website?”

You bet, Wilbert.

From time to time, Windows Secrets publishes updated security-related Special Issues and Security Baselines. The two most recent additions were:

• Windows Secrets PC Security Baseline: February 17 issue
• Windows Secrets personal security baseline March 3 issue

You’ll be glad to note that there’s another security-related Special Issue in the works — soon!

But to answer your question directly: you can craft your own permanent, custom links to instantly search Windows Secrets for information on security or any other topic, in any browser.

For example, let’s say you wanted to find all available Security Baseline information. You’d go to your favorite search engine and enter this phrase into the search box:

“security baseline” site:windowssecrets.com

Next, save that search as a Favorite or bookmark and you’ll always have it just a click away!

Of course, you can replace the words in quotes (“security baseline”) with any other word or phrase and find whatever Windows Secrets has published on any topic.

Firefox plugin Nevercookie combats ‘evercookies’

Remember evercookies? They’re permanent cookies that evade classic cookie-management tools by hiding in up to eight different places; and they can self-regenerate when you delete them. (See the article, “A new security threat arrives: Evercookies,” in the February 17, Windows Secrets.)

In the course of researching a recent reader-submitted question, I ran across Nevercookie, a free Firefox plugin that “protects against the evercookie API. The plugin extends Firefox’s private browsing mode by preventing Evercookies from identifying and tracking users.”

That caught my attention, and — given the high interest in the original evercookie article — I thought many of you would want to know, too!

The software was developed by Anonymizer Labs and is available — again, free! — at its info/download page.

Fred Langa is a senior editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was formerly editor of Byte Magazine (1987–91), editorial director of CMP Media (1991–97), and editor of the LangaList e-mail newsletter from its origin in 1997 until its merger with Windows Secrets in November 2006.

Can Google+ seriously challenge Facebook?

By Chris Murray In Google+, the search-engine juggernaut hopes it has a contender. Is it good enough to compete with the likes of Facebook, which has amassed over 750 million users, or is it doomed to be just another short-lived Google service?

Google overcoming its self-made adversity

When Google announced it was once again throwing its hat into the social-networking ring, I was reluctant to believe it could fare any better than it had in its previous attempts. Both Google Buzz and Google Wave emerged as socially awkward failures; it seemed likely to me that Google’s third go, Google+, would also fall flat on its face.

But it appears that the data giant has learned from its mistakes. One sign of better judgment was that the company released Google+ as a closed beta so that only a limited number of people could use the service. Clearly, Google learned from Buzz: if it ain’t ready for prime time, don’t show it to everybody!

Google also recognized the need to focus its creative energies — too much spread too thin just wasn’t going to cut it. Google concentrated on four primary features:

The +1 button. Before releasing Google+, Google introduced the +1 button next to its search results. Clicking +1 generates a link to your Google profile and lets others know what sites you recommend. The +1 button is Google’s way of beginning a long re-reintroduction of itself to the social-networking fray.

Combined with Google+, the +1 acts much like Facebook’s Like button — you use it to mark favored sites and to signal your approval of others’ comments and posts. Approved comments and posts appear on your home page; +1 tagged websites are listed on your profile page under the +1 tab.

Circles is the heart of the Google+ platform. Using Circles, you can say what you want to those you want to see it. If you want to share news with only your closest friends and family, type your message and allow only those in your BFF and Family Circles to see it. Have something for everybody? No problem — simply pick the Public option to share your news with the world. All circles are customizable; it’s really simple to create circles for Work, Friday Night Friends, and so on. Simply drag and drop those you want to add into whatever circle you want them to be in.

Hangouts is all about real-time communication. Using Hangouts, users can share audio and video experiences with as many as 10 people at a time — all streaming their video and microphone feeds simultaneously. They can use a type-based chat service, collectively watch YouTube videos, and invite others to join the party. Sound hectic and chaotic? Google manages this with an artful solution: whoever is currently speaking the loudest into their microphone is placed into a larger frame called Center Stage, while others remain in a film strip–style layout underneath.

Sparks is a search tool for all those things that fascinate you, with each interest bulleted in the Sparks section on the left side of your Home page. Your Sparks are never public, although Google has made them easily shareable. Simply click the Share link, write a quick message, choose the circles you wish to have see it, and click Share.

Now that you’ve glimpsed the primary features of Google+, let’s see what works and what doesn’t. Social networking is not an easy game to play. Although there are plenty of competitors, Facebook set the pace back in 2004 and has dominated the sport ever since.

The good: here’s what’s easy to like

The Google toolbar, present at the top of all Google’s sites, makes interservice navigation really simple. Google+ adds even more features to this element. Not only does the toolbar continuously keep you up-to-date with your Google+ community, but you can use it to interact with your community directly as well. For instance, if you happen to be in Gmail and a friend comments on a post you made earlier that morning, Google+’s trusty toolbar springs to life and notifies you. Without switching back to Google+, you can then click the notification and reply to it.

Another great new toolbar feature is the Share field, which allows you to share something directly to your Stream (more on this below). It can handle links, photos, videos, and geolocation — and it still gives you the power to decide who gets to see your post. With Google+’s new toolbar, sharing and interaction are never more than a click away.

Google+’s Stream is like Facebook’s News Feed, giving you up-to-the-minute updates on all your friends and family. But Stream also has a few more perks. For one, it’s incredibly easy to select whether you want to see your entire stream or the stream from only one circle at a time. If you comment on a post that becomes popular, you can spare yourself impending overnotification by muting the original post in the stream. Another cool feature is that the stream accepts markup language (definition), which allows comments to contain text that’s bold, italic, or strikethrough.

Photos on Google+ is another great feature. Because the service is powered by Picasa, whenever photos are uploaded to either service — Google+’s Photos or Picasa Web Albums — the two are synched. So it’s easy for Google+ to share your photos with individuals, circles, and so on. Google+ members can upload an unlimited number of pictures and videos — under 15 minutes in length — to their Picasa/Google+ pages (see Figure 1). Viewing, tagging, and commenting on pictures is fluid and easy. Your individual images appear on an aesthetically pleasing, dark background (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. A public view of a Google+ photo album

Figure 2. Individual photos are handsomely framed.

The Hangouts feature seems to do well in just about everything it sets out to do. The amazing thing about Hangouts is its robust nature; being able to stream up to 10 different video and audio feeds simultaneously isn’t a simple matter, but Hangouts can handle it. It makes having group conversations on the Web a viable communication option. I particularly like its Center Stage feature and its ability to have text-based chats. Collectively watching YouTube videos and continuously inviting others into the conversation are great additions as well.

As Google is well aware, the battle for the Web isn’t based just on desktops and laptops anymore. For this reason, Google has extended its Google+ effort into the mobile world with a dedicated application for Android devices plus basic-Web and mobile-Web interactive environments for other platforms. We can hope the other platforms will see dedicated applications down the road.

The two big gains from having a dedicated mobile app for Google+ lie with the use of the Huddle and Instant Upload features. Huddle, a group-chat environment, is a great solution to the often-troublesome question, “What are we doing tonight?” Everyone whose opinion you want can weigh in. Instant Upload does just what you’d expect: it uploads your pictures to Google+ as soon as you snap the shutter.

Of all Google+’s features, the heavyweight is Circles. It allows you to sort your contacts effortlessly into groups, make comments, and share content with only those with whom you want to share. Then it makes sure that any subsequent interaction is with those you shared it with in the first place. With this kind of protected sharing feature in place, Google+’s Circles offers the most peace of mind of any social-networking site available.

True, Facebook lets you create multiple Friends lists, but it does not offer a way to post to a specific list. Where Google+ is built completely around its Circles concept, Facebook’s Friends lists feature seems more like an afterthought.

The bad: awkward, ugly, or buggy stuff

Currently, Google+ doesn’t offer any way to send private messages. The closest Google+ comes is by sharing something with only one person. But the message you meant to be private will be displayed on your Profile page and Stream. Note, however, that no one else can see these messages other than you and the recipient. Still, it comes off as clunky.

The chat system in Google+ is still rough around the edges as well. For instance, you can’t see a list of who’s online and who isn’t. You’re required to type the name of the person you’re seeking into the Search field, which makes it very easy to accidentally invite someone to chat — oops! Also, only acquaintances with Gmail accounts can use the Chat feature.

As great as the toolbar is, it sometimes falls victim to bugginess. As mentioned before, the toolbar offers exceptional power to the users of any Google service; whether it’s Gmail, Calendar, Web, or any other Google page, you have the ability to manage your Google+ experience directly through the toolbar.

Unfortunately, Google+ and the Google toolbar don’t always communicate well. I originally put a ton of people into my Acquaintances circle. When they added me to their circles, I changed some of them to my Friends circle. If I did this in the toolbar’s notification area, it frequently forgot to tell Google+ that I’d swapped people around. I had to go back through my circles page and redo the whole process to get everyone into the correct circles. Any circumstance that forces users to repeat a task is annoying.

Other evidence of Google+’s growing pains includes the notification area’s transitions. Sometimes they are seamless and pleasant; other times they show a moment of old-and-new-text overlap, producing a two-layered garble. Remember that Google+ isn’t even two weeks old — these glitches will undoubtedly be sorted out in the weeks to come.

Ubiquitous in much the same way as Facebook’s Like button, the +1 button is a strong part of the Google+ experience. As mentioned, users can tag another user’s post or comment, or they can tag a webpage. Tagged posts or comments stay in the stream, whereas websites that users approve are added to the +1 tab under the user’s profile. Unfortunately, this placement means you can’t share your webpage approvals with others. I’d prefer that the +1 profile tab appear in the stream as well. Why? Users could then easily see the sites their various circles like, giving the +1 tag a much more powerful role in the sharing experience of Google+.

Now for my least-favorite feature: Sparks. Sparks is supposed to be a collection of continuous feeds that give you interesting things to read and view. Unfortunately, Sparks is more like an inept, mini–search engine. Interested in cycling? Great! Type that it in, and what do you get? Random, unsortable results. They aren’t even sortable by date! It seems illogical that Google has an amazing RSS/podcast service with Google Reader, but Sparks is barely functional. It would make more sense if all your subscribed feeds were available right in Sparks — they are, after all, things you’ve already shown an interest in. You are more likely to want to share those things instead of rolling the dice by looking at random search results in Sparks.

Can’t confidently predict the Google+ future

Google+ does many things well, but it needs some serious attention in a few key areas. How Google develops this product in the next few months will decide its fate. As it stands now, Google+ is definitely shy of Facebook-killer status. That being said, Google+ does show great potential and, for a very young product, is off to a wonderful start. If you like Facebook but would like to try something new, I highly recommend giving Google+ a go once it’s available to everyone.

With a similar look and feel to Facebook, Google+ is easy to pick up, and with features such as +1, Circles, Hangouts, and Sparks, it’s even easier to securely share your interests with those around you.

Chris Murray, an enthusiast of new platforms and devices, reviewed Windows Phone 7 in a previous issue of Windows Secrets. He is also a musician and middle-school band director in Zionsville, Indiana.

Making Microsoft Word 2010 easier to use

By Lincoln Spector I liked Microsoft Office 2010 when I first tried it out last year, but it didn’t seem like a huge improvement over the previous version. I was wrong — especially about Word, the Office application I use the most.

Microsoft makes a vastly superior word processor

When I started using Word 2010 regularly this spring (the result of upgrading to a new computer), I realized that I had a much better tool than I was accustomed to. The new Word is more configurable and better for navigating a large document. (It also has some excellent new formatting and graphic tools, but I’m not covering them here.)

The first part of this article discusses my favorite new feature, the navigation pane. The second part tells you how to configure the Ribbon — which wasn’t possible in 2007. Word is a huge, feature-rich, and complex application. You might as well get the most out of it.

The navigation pane means less navigation pain

Remember Word 2007’s thumbnails pane? Microsoft has turned it into an exceptional outlining and search tool.

Open up Word 2010 and take a look. Do you see a pane titled Navigation on the left side of the window? If not, click the Ribbon’s View tab and check Navigation Pane. Or you can simply press Ctrl-F to start a search. I explain below why starting a search brings you to the navigation pane.

Headings tab: Word for Windows has always had a pretty good outlining feature, based on the heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on). But if you wanted to see the full outline, or alter it, you had to collapse everything, causing you to lose your place in the text.

The navigation pane’s left-most tab fixes this by hierarchically displaying your headings (defined as any paragraph in a heading style). This effectively gives you your outline in one pane and your document in another, so you can write and navigate at the same time. You can click on a heading in the pane to go to its location in the document, and you can drag a heading to move it and thus reorganize your document.

Pages tab: The middle tab replicates Word 2007’s thumbnails pane, providing a little picture of each page in the document. It’s useful only with heavily formatted documents, as you can see in Figure 1 — because in thumbnail form, one page of plain text looks pretty much like another.

Figure 1. You can now navigate and write at the same time, keeping your place in a document via thumbnails on the left.

Search tab: As mentioned earlier, starting a search brings you to the navigation pane. In fact, the Search field is at the top of the pane, above the tabs. (Search and Replace, on the other hand, uses the old, familiar dialog box.) If you’re on the right-most tab when you do a search, the pane lists all instances of the found text in the document. It displays them in context, showing other text around them. Clicking on any one of them takes you to the appropriate place in the document, as you can see in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Find all instances of a term you’re searching for on the left, and see each in context on the right.

But search results aren’t limited to the search tab. The other tabs also display search results in their own way. For instance, the thumbnail tab displays only thumbnails of pages that contain the search text.

Customizing the Ribbon: put your features first

Remember when Word had menus? They were customizable — with a little knowledge and effort, you could add and remove options. Then in Office 2007, Microsoft replaced the menus with the Ribbon, forcing you to learn a whole new user interface. You were also stuck with the Ribbon as Microsoft designed it. The only part of the user interface you could change was the Quick Access Bar. (See Fred Langa’s February 10 story, “Unlock the power of the Quick Access Toolbar,” for more on this feature.)

But in all the Office 2010 applications, including Word, you can customize the Ribbon.

What can you do? You can create new tabs and also new groups (which Word calls custom groups) in both new and existing tabs. You can add to, remove, and reorder the commands in these custom groups. (If you’re wondering what I mean by groups and commands, click the Home tab on the Ribbon. Note that it’s divided into sections called Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, and so on. These are groups. The clickable icons and pull-down menus within these groups are commands.)

You can’t add to, remove, or reorder commands within the existing groups that Microsoft built into the program. But you can remove the existing groups. (Later on, I’ll describe an efficient way to replace your unalterable existing groups.)

To change the Ribbon, right-click it and select Customize the Ribbon. Two long lists dominate the resulting dialog box. The left list shows commands. The pull-down menu at the top lets you narrow the choice of commands that are displayed (Popular Commands, All Commands, Macros, and so on). The right list displays the Ribbon tabs with their groups and commands, as you can see in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Choosing Ribbon commands

Before you make any changes, use the dialog box’s Import/Export button to back up your current customizations.

After you’re backed up, you can reorder the tabs or the groups within a tab by dragging them. You can even drag a group from one tab to another.

To create a new group, select the group you want it next to and click the New Group button below the right list. Then click the Rename button to change its name and optionally add an icon.

To add commands to your new group (and remember, you can add them only to a group you created), find and select the command you want on the left and the self-created group you want on the right. Then click the Add button in between the two lists.

Reorganize an existing group by replacing it

Now I can tell you how to change an existing group. It’s a hassle, but it works.

First, on the right list, select the group you want to alter. Then click the New Group button to create another group below it. When you rename this new group, give it the same name as the existing group you want to change, or a similar name (you might call it My Font rather than Font).

Expand the old group so you can see its contents. Look through those contents. If you want to keep a command, find it on the left list and add it to your new custom group. If you don’t want a command, skip it.

When you’re finished, select the old group and click the Remove button. Now you’ve replaced Microsoft’s unchangeable group with your own configurable one.

Between the navigation pane and your customized Ribbon, you can make Microsoft Word a much friendlier program. After you’re on good terms with your program, you should have the freedom to concentrate on your prose.

Lincoln Spector writes about computers, home theater, and film and maintains two blogs: Answer Line at PCWorld.com and Bayflicks.net. His articles have appeared in CNET, InfoWorld, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.