Just inherited a computer from my Dad and it's very nice, except it has a generic WINPC computer name. I want to change it to something a bit more memorable. How can I easily change the name of my Windows 7 laptop PC?

Spreadsheets aren't just for accountants and business folk, they're actually quite useful for everyone, and with the free, web-based Google Docs spreadsheet tool, they're easy to create too. In this short video, tech expert Dave Taylor will show you some of the basics of adding columns and rows, rearranging content and customizing the appearance of your spreadsheet, all without downloading a single file. It's easy!

Keywords: spreadsheets, microsoft excel, apple numbers, google docs, google spreadsheets

I really like the set of social media buttons you have on the pages of your AskDaveTaylor site, Dave. What are they, and how did you add them to your site? In particular, a lot of the ones I've looked at have uninteresting sites like Delicious and Reddit, but don't yet support the new Google Plus "+1" button, so yours is really slick. What's the story?

Written by Contributing Editor Gary Moskoff...

My fifth visit to the Consumer Electronics Show was nothing short of epic!

This year was the busiest show since 2008 with 141,00+ people, from 80 countries descending on the Las Vegas Convention Center. The taxi lines were insane and making a cell phone call was next to impossible with so many gadget freaks in the same town!

If you find crowds intimidating, you simply did not want to attend this year's show.

However, if seeing the latest, greatest gadgets and understanding the trends in the consumer electronics market is more important than anything else you do over the course of your year, then you were there and I probably bumped into you at some point during the week!

I've been playing Words with Friends and am just starting a game with someone who I just realized is a gal I don't want to play games with. We have kind of a history. She's sly, though, not having a real name associated with her Words with Friends account, so it was only a mutual friend who told me. Now I want to resign the game. How do I do that on my iPhone?

I set up my YouTube account years ago and now that I am more serious about producing videos for my cooking classes, I'd really like to update the profile picture to be my company logo. How can I update my profile photo on YouTube, Dave?

Hello I have purchased an Apple laptop. It's offering me a choice of 6 WiFi networks to connect thru. I don't have a clue as to which one to use. Can you please point me in the right direction. Thank you!

I've recently joined Pinterest and it's super fun. I'm becoming a pinning fool. At least, that's what my husband says. Still, I really want to get my sister and my mom hooked up. When they go to Pinterest, however, there's no sign up or register button, just a "request an invite" link. How can I get them on Pinterest directly, without them having to wait for an invite?

My friend - female, 22 - was telling me that she went to a spot on Google and learned that it thought she was a 30 year old guy based on its profiling of her searches and use of the different Google tools. Creepy. Interesting. How can I find out what Google thinks about me?

The garage door opener in my house works perfectly well. It's a craftsman chain drive and it's a bit noisy but every time I push the button on the remote in my car, the door slowly moves upward and I can pull my car into the driveway. No worries, right?

One evening I pulled onto my street, however, and my garage door was sitting open for all to see, with bicycles, tools and an unlocked interior door that offered easy access into my house. It'd been that way for over six hours. Not good. But how do you know if you remembered to close your garage door every single morning? It only takes one forgetful departure to lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of household goods.

Enter the Sears Craftsman AssureLink communications system. It's a three piece solution that lets Craftsman sell Internet-aware garage door openers that can not only be accessed via the Web to confirm the door is properly closed, but that have a handy iPhone (or Android) app that lets you control the door too. Fabulous.

I really like my Kindle Fire and have found that I'm reading more now that it's so easy to carry even the longest book with me. Some of the books I read are okay, but there's an occasional ebook that's just terrific. When that happens, I'd like to loan it to my Dad so he can sample it and either read it -- he's a quick reader -- or buy it for himself. I remember reading that one of the features of the Kindle is that you can loan people ebooks, but I have no idea how to do it. Can you explain?

I wouldn't describe myself as a "gym rat", but I do go to the gym fairly frequently, and my routine doesn't vary much. Gym clothes on, sneakers tied, iPod Touch charged so I can continue listening to whatever audio book I'm in the middle of -- the current one is the Steve Jobs biography -- and my rather scroungy over-ear headphones so I can keep listening even as I move around and get into "the zone".

Keeping track of my time and performance on the various machines, monitoring my heart rate, and - hopefully! - seeing progress isn't something I've paid much attention to, so when the team at iHome offered to send me a pair of their new Fitness Evolved headphones (developed in cooperation with New Balance), I was intrigued. It'd track my performance and I'd even be able to graph things on my computer. Cool.

I know there are a zillion smartphone / cellphone applications that find food near you, but what if I only have a laptop and need to find something nearby? For example, what's the best way to find the closest pizza if I don't know my current address?

I heard from a friend that Google's going to be shutting down Picasa because of Google Plus and I'm kind of freaking out: I have hundreds of photos on the site and no idea how to save them from vanishing when they pull the plug. Help!

Thanks for your earlier tutorial on how to upload images to Pinterest [ see: tutorial on how to upload Pinterest pictures or photos ] but I'm confused because some of my friends seem to be able to add photos and images to their Pinterest boards that actually click through to their sites, but I can't find the "link to" information when I'm uploading. What's the secret?

Another question about the built-in Mac spell dictionary. (I did read the previous question How can I forget or edit a learned word in the Mac spelling dictionary?)

Under User>Library>Spelling> I have both LocalDictionary and en.

What is the relationship between these two? Adding a great number of specialized, technical words one at a time as they appear in my writing is taking a lot of time. Is there a way to add a great number of (specialized) words to one of these?

I'm a big fan of Pinterest [ I am too, you can find AskDaveTaylor on Pinterest as d1taylor -- Ed ] and recently noticed that some of my friends are having their Pinterest activities show up on their Facebook timeline. Nice. I want. How do I hook up Pinterest to Facebook and vice versa?

Every time I go to Amazon.com I see that the Kindle version of a book I want to buy is less expensive than the print edition. Coupled with it being more environmentally friendly (no shipping, no printing, no hassle with it taking up space on my shelf) I'd like to switch over. But I don't want to buy an actual Kindle device. Is there a way to read Kindle ebooks on my Mac or PC system?

I've started using the Voice Memos app on my new Apple iPhone 4s and it's simple and darn useful. But if I want to share it with a friend or save it on my computer, how do I copy the voice memo recording from the cell phone?

Hello Dave. I need a Bash shell script that creates a directories with the group names automatically when user logs in to the system, in their home directory.

For example, user "sandy" might have the following set of groups from the 'id' command:

uid=10002(sandy) gid=119(rtkit) groups=119(rtkit),10001(admin),10003(pr007drdl)

and the directories "rtkit", "admin" and "pr007drdl" should then be created. How do I do it?

I take a lot of photos. So many that Aperture is starting to bog down. I was talking with a fellow photographer and he said that he splits his Aperture library every six months. Sounds like a good idea. How do I create a new Aperture library or, better, move a project into a new library?

Last week marked the fifteenth time I've attended the always-amazing Consumer Electronics Show. With 158,000 attendees and 3,100 vendors exhibiting, it's a trade show like no other I've ever seen, and "massive" doesn't begin to describe it. In fact, this year I had a pedometer in my pocket and on the day I walked the most, I took 17,000+ steps, around nine miles. One day. Walking.

There are lots and lots of companies showing their wares in reasonably modest booths, 15x15 feet, 20x20 feet, and then there are the real consumer electronics powerhouses, companies like Samsung, Sony, Intel and Sharp, they have spaces that are larger than your local store. The Sony booth itself was 30,000 square feet and took a year to design and create.

So what was worth seeing?

I have a Kindle DX that I really like and use to read books. I also have an Apple iPad and occasionally want to pick up my book and continue it on the larger iPad screen. Problem is, when I buy a book at Amazon, it asks which device I want it to appear on and when I pick my Kindle, it doesn't show up on the iPad. How do I have it appear on both or transfer it from the Kindle DX (or Kindle Fire, when I get one) to my iPad's Kindle app?

My son has been doing really well with his new cell phone, but recently he's hooked up with a girl who seems to never sleep and I have more than once found him late at night texting away. Not good. I have talked with him, but I'd also like to work with AT&T Wireless to establish blackout hours on his phone service during which time he cannot send or receive texts. Is that possible?

When I plug in my Apple iPhone 4s into my Dell Windows 7 laptop, it automatically imports all the photos and videos into Windows Live Photo Gallery. It's driving me crazy! I don't want to use this particular program for managing my photos! How can I change it or, better, have Win7 simply ask me what to do when I hook up my iPhone?

My daughter got overenthusiastic and preordered a bunch of upcoming music CDs from the Apple iTunes Store. Not so good. Once they all ship, I'm looking at over $100 in music purchases, way more than I can afford. Is there some way to cancel these pre-orders before they're charged to my iTunes account?

When I put a music or audio CD into my Microsoft Windows PC, it launches Zune Player. Very weird. How do I change it to either launch iTunes, which I use to manage the music on my iPod, or Windows Media Player, which I use for music on the computer itself? I'm running Windows 7, btw.

Now that I have a Kindle Fire, I'm excited to copy some of the PDFs that are on my computer and read them on the slick little color device. Problem is, I can't figure out how to copy PDF files onto my Kindle and then read them on the device itself!

I know how to install and change themes in Windows XP, but I haven't figured out the same in Windows 7 yet. Can you step me through the process of downloading and applying a new Windows 7 theme, Dave?