Things to make traveling the web easier:

CTRL+F: you can do a search on any page with text. This will let you see if a keyword you are looking for is located on any given document. You will only find things on the web page, pdf document, word document, spreadsheet or other file you have open and in the forefront. (You can't do a search on all of the web pages you have open at once, you'll have to search each page separately.) If you are looking for key shortcuts you can see a list of Windows shortcuts or Mac (substitue the command or apple key for the ctrl key) shortcuts.
Other great tools include:
Ctrl + C : Copy
Ctrl + V : Paste
Ctrl + X : Cut
Ctrl + T : New Tab

Search terms: When searching either on google, or on a web page, or through a set of specs you need to consider your keywords. Do an initial search on what you would think the term would be. If you get back to many answers you want to be more specific in your terms. If you don't get enough answers, shorten your term. If you would like to search an entire website for a term you can use google to do this with the site: command. (Searching the whole of the Selby Area CDC site would look like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:selbyareacdc.org)

For example:
You want to know if there is any bituminous to be milled at 3 inches on this project. You may search with "Bituminous mill 3 inches" (Quotes can be used to say I want these exact words in this exact order) and get no results. If you cut out the "inches" part that's usually shown as " you may get more terms. If you still aren't getting results you could cut down your terms more a search for "Bituminous mill" or even "bit mill" would likely get you many more results. If you started out with just "bit" or just "mill" and received a hundred results then you would want to add more of the specifics back in.
Generally searching for paint is better than painting. Don't use unnecessary prefixes or suffixes. If you have more questions about search terms and how to use them most definitely you can read up here.

Contractor Keywords can be found here.

Web Safety: The web is just as dangerous of a place for your money and your information as is anywhere else. You wouldn't go around shouting your credit card information in a crowded mall or on the bus or to a person who called you on the phone saying they were your long lost cousin right? So don't do it online. Never click a link from an e-mail that is asking for personal information. If you think it's an e-mail from your bank, go to your web browser and type in your bank's web address and put in the information that way. If you get an e-mail from the IRS don't click it. Go to the IRS web site. If you get an e-mail from anyone and you weren't expecting it and it says it needs your personal information? Don't click it. Go to the web site you know. Don't click through to get to ebay.com open a new browser and type in ebay.com. Clicking an e-mail link and typing in personal information is the same as shouting your SSN on a bus. There are however a lot of extremely useful tools on the web to make your job easier and your business more profitable, online banking, getting your credit report online, filing taxes online, submitting bids online can all save you considerable time. Just make sure you go to them, don't let them come to you. And when you get the call from the nice guy from the bank saying you've got a bank error in your favor you just need to give him your social security number and bank account? Don't do it!

If you are confused by many of the abbreviations used check here for a list of Minnesota and MnDOT specific explanations.

I just want to talk to a person! If you are at a web site and you really would just like to fine a person to talk to look for a "Contact", "Contact Us", "Who we are", or "Information" link. Or look at the bottom of the page where there will often be a phone number.

Software:
Many bids can be downloaded if you have the free Adobe Reader to look at them. This program is widely used in computing to allow people to view a document across platforms.

If you need to respond you may need a word processor or spreadsheet program. If you are looking for a free alternatives:
Open Office is an open source project and is free to use and works just like Microsoft's Office program.
Google's Docs is also a free product. You can sign up and use the tools which work like MS Office only these are all online you can access them from any computer with web access.

When using a computer you need to remember that they break. Things go wrong. They die for no reason, or for good reason. And when this happens (because it will, it is just a matter of when) you need to be ready. Backups make you ready. You have a lot of vital information stored on your computer that you will want access to. There are 2 main ways to make backups.

Physical: This requires you to go out and buy an external hard drive (which you can get for relatively cheap) and back up your computer on site. You’ll need to plug this into your computer and set up a program (many hard drives come with programs like Western Digital ) to run to back up your computer. This is a good solution if you have a lot of photos/music/video that you want to back up.

Virtual: This allows you to store off site in a virtual storage location. You can get up to 2 Gigs of space for free, which is enough to store most business information. Two options are Mozy and Dropbox. Both of these will let you set up the back up and every time you are connected to the internet will automatically back up your files. This is useful if you need to access your files from a different computer often and if you just have documents, spreadsheets, and other information to back up.

You can do both, backing up your documents, spreadsheets and like business information in multiple places.

Buying a new computer:

For most businesses in the contracting fields what you are looking for is a computer that can do some basic functions, well, and fast. You aren’t looking for a high powered machine. You don’t need the latest graphics card. And it won’t matter what kind of threading you’ve got. I recommend buying a mid level machine (400-800) every 2-3 years. If you have money to invest invest in a big monitor (best purchased separately from a computer) when it is on sale. A large monitor (or if you prefer 2) can really help make it easier to see what is going on and what you are working on.

If you need a high level of portability you can buy a smaller laptop or netbook and hook it into a full sized monitor and keyboard when you are at your office.

Passwords:
The computer world is full of demands for passwords, regulations on how secure it must be, what it can and can not include, and stern reminders to not give it out. How and what passwords to use can be really confusing. Now some of this information will not be endorsed by security experts but hopefully this will manage to keep you secure but able to remember your passwords.

Do not use any of the following passwords: “123456” (any variation that is a string of numbers is bad), “qwerty” (any keyboard string of letters is bad), “password”, “princess”, or any common names, these are the most common passwords out there and your account can be hacked by simple guessing if these are your passwords.

Do have a ‘throwaway’ password: Use this for sites that aren’t don’t have highly personal information, sites like your local newspaper. Ideally this shouldn’t be just one word and go ahead and throw in easy to remember numbers. Ex: G33kfun

Do have a series of “midlevel” passwords: You can use for this a few words and include information for the site to keep it unique. Substitute numbers for letters in some places. Ex: FBG33k2010 (FB (for facebook), G33k (a standard part you form your passwords around), and 2010 the year to help you remember to update it) or GMG33k2010 (Google Mail, G33k, 2010).

Do have a “high security” password: Numbers, letter, not based on a dictionary word is ideal here. Use this for places where your money is accessible. PBtr1an2010clazz (the memory trick for this would be what it says is ProBid (PB) train (misspelled so as to not be dictionary and with a 1 for i) 2010 (year) clazz (class with z’s swapped for s’s). ProBid Train 2010 Class.

Finally if you do trust the people in your home/desk/office go ahead and write it down. Yes most professionals will tell you to never do this but it is a better idea to write down a strong password than it is to use “123456” as a password.

If this information was helpful let us know! E-mail me.