So it’s the end of February and tax day is looming by six weeks! Might as well be tomorrow, right? If you’re like a lot of the other people around you, you’ve got a W-2 (or two or three) and possibly a tuition statement (if you get financial aid including loans, make sure you get this form from your school - it can help you get money back…ching ching!).

If you’ve got a 1099, I feel your pain. They are a bother and a hassle, but e-filing makes it a snap. No more waiting at the post office to get your forms in at the deadline. All you’ll need is 1) all your tax forms, 2) a computer with steady Internet connection and 3) patience (just cause it’s easy doesn’t mean it doesn’t take more than 2 seconds).

There are a number of different sites that will beckon to you “File Here!”, but the key is to look for the free ones. My favorite is Turbo Tax (they offer the Freedom File which is a great option for students and others who don’t earn much in a year), though there certainly are some others (see the IRS website for a listing) that can get the job done as well. You’ll need to create a login and remember this from year to year (keep the emails they send or email yourself your login and password and put a subject that clearly labels the email as your tax login). Even if your email address changes, you can change it in the account settings after you login - beware though, you may still need to login with that old email address (many times that email is your login ID) so don’t just scrap that email!

E-filing is similar to paper filing in that you can start and stop on the form whenever you want. Five minutes a day if you want. It’s different in that answers to your questions are much easier to locate (sorry, IRS, your site is very confusing to navigate) as the program you use has their own help file that includes common sense answers and IRS answers. Every question on the tax form can have it’s own help file which is great. E-filing is also different in that it will automatically show you the forms you need based on the information you tell it you have. Say you have that 1099 I mentioned earlier - it will tell you what types of filing are available to you and show you the forms that are necessary to fill it out. It will walk you through each form as you need to fill it out. If you mess up an answer, all you have to do is go backwards (use the button within the program, not within your browser) and correct it. No more trouble if you stink filling out forms.

The other thing about e-filing is that no longer do you have trouble finding forms for multiple states if you worked several places. The last several years I have lived in one state, but worked in another (or both states). I always file my state form (free money!) and the state I worked in. Sometimes the second state form will cost you, depending on your state’s participation in the free filing program. Usually even if they don’t, you can get the form done for 6 or 7 dollars. If the program you are using says it will charge you an arm and a leg to do the form, you do not have to file your state return with them. You can “shop around” for the best deal on the net and file just your state form there. No need in paying a ton unless you just prefer the convenience.

Perhaps the best thing about e-filing is that you can sign up to have your refund money automatically deposited into your bank account. This usually occurs much faster than if you were to request the government send you a check. Who doesn’t want their money faster?

So leave those environmentally unfriendly stacks of paper alone at the library and the post office - try e-filing this year and who knows? You might like it.

There are a few shortcuts that you can use to make it a little easier to write your posts in WordPress’ compose box.

To make these shortcuts work, you must choose “Code” NOT “Visual” in your compose screen. This will show the raw HTML, instead of the “pretty” text. You can switch back and forth between Code and Visual to see the coding and formating at work.

• Bold: Alt+SHIFT+b
• Italics: Alt+SHIFT+i
• Link: Alt+SHIFT+a
• Blockquote: Alt+SHIFT+q
• Code: Alt+SHIFT+c
• Read More: Alt+SHIFT+t
• Unordered List (ul): Alt+SHIFT+u
• Ordered List (ol): Alt+SHIFT+o
• List Item (li): Alt+SHIFT+l

Last week, I walked you through how to edit the about:config in your Firefox browser to remove some elements and have a more tidy looking toolbar.

This week, I want to show you a couple of easy ways to save more screen real estate by using one nifty plugin and editing Firefox’s toolbars.

First, install the Tiny Menu plugin. This plugin will compress your menu from File, Edit, View, etc. to a simple drop down Menu, which saves valuable screen real estate. See a view of the Tiny Menu in action to the right.

(Don’t forget to restart your browser!)

Second, right click on a blank space on your toolbar and select “Toolbar Properties”. Make sure “Icons only” and “Small icons” are selected. These two options save the most space on your Firefox toolbars.

Now, you want to edit your toolbars by right clicking on the toolbar and dragging and dropping icons wherever you’d like. Some people like to have lots of icons, but I like to keep it simple with bookmarks, print and addons. I removed the Activity Indicator because each tab shows me its loading progress, so why duplicate the function?!?!

Don’t forget to deselect the toolbars that you have now emptied. If you have removed everything from the Bookmarks Toolbar, deselect it by right clicking on a blank space on the toolbar area and clicking on the name of the toolbar that is now empty. This stops empty toolbars from being displayed - so you can really appreciate your hard work!

You will always have one toolbar that you cannot remove - and if you need to, you can always reset the toolbars back to their original format.

Additionally, if you don’t want or need the forward/back or other navigation buttons because you know the Firefox keyboard shortcuts, or you want to learn the shortcuts, feel free to remove those icons, too!

The best thing about tweaking the toolbars is that you can always reset everything back to its original settings and try again, or continue to add, move and remove buttons until you get the right combination for yourself.

Here’s a shot of the second half of a toolbar that has been modified. See that the bookmarks have been condensed? That’s a simple trick that you can use by navigating to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks. Depending on how well you organize your bookmarks, you will see “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder” and your bookmarks saved underneath this drop down.

1. Create a new folder called “Bookmarks” and drag and drop all of your existing bookmarks and bookmark folders into this folder.
2. Navigate to Edit > Set as Bookmarks Toolbar Folder. Once you click on it, your bookmarks toolbar will automatically update.

If you have a lot of folders and just a few loose URLs, like the screenshot above, you will see a major difference in how much space your bookmarks take up on your screen!

It is possible to tweak your toolbars down to just one bar across the top of your screen - which gives you maximum viewing area - perfect for people with smaller screens or just like the minimalist features that come from tweaking your Firefox toolbars!