Tech Tips II
Part I (see
Newsletter archives on
www.ConsultLevy.com) was so popular that I am including some additional ideas that might prove useful. Many were recently published in The New York Times.
* When you get an e-mail message from eBay or your bank, claiming that you have an account problem or a question from a buyer, it's probably a "phishing scam" intended to trick you into typing your password. Don't click the link in the message. If in doubt, go into your browser and type "www.ebay.com" (or your bank's name) manually.
* You can adjust the size and position of any window on your computer by dragging the blue top of a window (the title bar) to move it or any edge to resize it.
* If you can't find some obvious command, like Delete, right click your mouse to get a little menu of commands.
* You can open the Start menu by tapping the key with the Windows logo on it.
* Make sure you have an automated backup system for your computer. There is no misery quite like the sick feeling of having lost data simply because you didn't have a backup. (See my
previous article.)
* The Windows default for the Recycle Bin is 10% of the local drive. With modern hard drives reaching enormous sizes, do you really need 10% as the Recycle Bin? It is easy to modify using Recycle Bin's properties.
* Files can be moved from one folder to another by dragging the file icon over the icon of the destination folder and then releasing the mouse.
* Try Undo (Ctrl-Z) even when you think it might not work. You can recover files, deleted text, closed tabs, etc.
* Ctrl+Left/Right while editing text - jumps to the beginning of the previous word or to the beginning of the next word. Reduces the number of Left/Right button presses drastically.
* Alt+D takes you to the address bar of most browsers. This way you can easily type in the next address you want to jump to instead of using the mouse to highlight it.
* Double-clicking the title bar will maximize the window, or return it to its former size if it's already maximized.
* When typing an email address, it doesn't make a difference if you type in CAPS or lowercase.
* When navigating around a huge spreadsheet, an easy way to get to the last row with data in it is to hold down "End" and press the Down arrow. You can easily get back to cell A1 with Ctrl+Home from wherever you are in the spreadsheet.
* You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page. Triple clicking will highlight the paragraph.
* In Microsoft Word, Shift+F3 makes a word change from all uppercase to all lowercase to just the first letter upper case.
* Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete simultaneously to bring up the Windows Task Manager to close something that is Not responding and clicking on End Task.
* You can select multiple files that are in a row by highlighting the first, holding down on the Shift key, and then highlighting the last one. All of those in between will be selected. You can also individually select multiple files not in order by highlighting the first, holding down on the Ctrl key, and clicking each additional file.
* Some useful short cuts
- Ctrl+A - select all
- Shift+Left/Right - selects one letter at a time.
- Ctrl+Shift+Left/right - selects one word at a time.
- Shift+Up/Down - selects one line at a time
- To save a document - Ctrl-S
- To close a program - Alt+F4 - like hitting the X in the top right hand corner.
- Home/End goes to the top/bottom of the page in a web browser. In a word processor, it's the beginning/end of a line. Add Ctrl to go to the top/bottom of the document.
_________________________________________________
