Computer hints

[elliottsimpson]

Over the past few years I have been shown some short cuts, mainly in WORD, for which I've been grateful. So I thought I'd pass on some of them and see if anyone else has any useful dodges.

When you have more than one programme open at any one time, you can dodge between them by pressing <Alt> and <TAB> - a small box opens showing you which programme you'll access once you release the <Alt> key. You can do something similar using <Alt> & <Esc> but the sequence takes a few more steps.

Regardless of which programme you're running, you can get a facsimile of the screen by pressing the <Print Screen> key. If you then go into a WORD document (using <Alt> <TAB> etc for speed) you'll find the picture of your screen dump on the clip board.

You can copy any text, etc. which you has been highlighted onto the clip board using the icon on the tool bar, using Edit and Copy or by pressing <Ctrl> <V>. You can then paste it using the icon, Edit & Paste, <Ctrl> <C> or <Shift> <Insert>

:( - OOPS! Got 2 of these the wrong way round - see Derek's note below.

You can save a WORD document using <Ctrl><S> or <Alt><F> <Alt><S> (which takes longer). You can close it using <Alt><F> <Alt><C> and exit the programme with <Alt><X>

You can move rapidly from the top or bottom of a document using <Ctrl><Home> or <Ctrl><End> and if you’ve held down the <Shift> key at the same time, you can highlight the whole document this way.

If you highlight a piece of text in a document and then press <Shift> <F3> it will go through a cycle of "example", "Example", "EXAMPLE". This is particularly useful for the more dozy of us who type several lines before we notice we've left the <Caps Lock> key on.

OK that’s my starter – over to the rest of you.

Elliott

[DScollon]

Good tips Elliott which take a little getting used to but for the ones you use often, they are much much faster than doing the equivalent with the mouse.

Just one tiny error, Copy is Ctrl-C, Cut is Ctrl-X and Paste is Ctrl-V.

Here's a new one then. If you have a keyboard with a Windows key (the little Microsoft symbol, usually near Ctrl and Alt keys), hold down the Windows key and press M to shrink down all of your program windows and go back to the desktop. None of the programs are closed and can be expanded again by clicking their buttons in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

While in Internet Explorer, press F11 to take the toolbars away and allow you to browse in a full screen mode. Press F11 again to go back to normal. In full screen mode, you may or may not be left with a small toolbar strip along the top. If it disappears, hit the top of the screen with the pointer to make it appear. Right click on it to make settings changes to it.

[elliottsimpson]

OK - I've edited my first set to highlight your correction below.

Again in WORD, highlight the text.

<Ctrl><B> will give you bold (or remove the bold)
<Ctrl><I> will give you italics (or remove the italics)
<Ctrl><U> will give you underline (or remove the underline)


<Ctrl><R> will give you right justify the text
<Ctrl><L> will give you left justify the text
<Ctrl><E> will give you centre the text

<Ctrl><T> will indent the text (usually used along with the <Tab> key) and <Shift><Ctrl><T> will remove the indentation of the text

[Damien]

All that just to save maybe two seconds :lol . Just think of the day when everything is voice activated or...would voice activation take longer? Anyway, when you're 80 you'll be saying "I remember the day when we had to use a keyboard and this thing caled a mouse - it would take ages to highlight a document..." Is it just me or does new technology just make us lazy? But regarding the above, I think I will stick to ye olde mouse. I use one of those pressure pad thingys on a laptop and it is really good for quickness. I do use the copy and paste shortcuts a lot and I have loads of shortcuts for degree symbols and square root symbols etc.

Damien :evil

[relliott]

what do you mean WAIT for voice activated? You can already get programs online to run your computer by voice alone. There's also Via Voice, a good voice activated word processor available, but that's expensive

I've even got a groovy little program on my computer at the moment that can read text to me, so I can listen to my e-mail while I do something more interesting, like play dungeon keeper!!

[mikie]

windows key(next to ctrl) shortcuts:
win =start menu
win + r = run dialogue
win + f = find dialogue
win + e = explorer-if you like that sort of thing

also
force the "open with..." menu option by
1) select file with a left click
2) right click on file with the right shift button held down
outstandingly counter-intuitive

mikie

ps i'm waiting for a neural lace to be developed and i'll be 1st in line for v1.1
-unless its been brought out by willy g.

[DScollon]

Well, considering that the whole idea behind gates is to be obstructive.

By the way Mike, you already have a neural lace (v1.0 of course). You just need to use it more!

[elliottsimpson]

You don't have to wait until you're 80 before you can do the "I remember" thing.

Back in the late 60s and early 70s, photocopiers were hard to find - you sometimes needed written authoriation from your head of dept - that sort of thing. The boss had a secy who could type, but it'd better be important before you ask her to help.

So it was usually a case of editing using scissors and sellotape.

Then we got a computer! Along with that came a teleprinter - capital letters only, (was it as much as 60 characters a second?), and it produced punched tape. So a colleague (Mike, now in Jo'burg, South Africa and Tracy's boss (see members list)) and I started writing up method sheets (we were setting up a toxicology service in the labs in Dundee - the first method for paracetamol included "grind up 2 x 500mg tablets in mortar & pestal, dissolve in 1 litre warm water") and stored them on the rolls of punched tape.

When changes were needed, you ran the punch tape through to the cahnge making a new tape as you went along - type in the additions, switch off the tape punch to make deletions, etc. Then you took the previous tape home for the kids to use to make Christmas decorations.

Hey, it was our first entry to the world of word-processing, although it took about 15 years before I got my first PC with a "text editor" and another few years before anyone actually used the term word processor.

See, Damien, you don't have to wait until you're 80!

Elliott

[Damien]

Did I say wait until voice activation?

Don't you think that some advances in technology are for the worse. I remember one of our old TV's which was SO easy to tune. You had these small dials and all you done was turn them until the picture appeared. I recently tuned in our new TV and it took me ages to decipher the instructions and even then I had to use menus and everything to get the right channels. And tuning in the video was a different story! But not all of the new stuff is that complicated - the TV I bought at christmas only took a few minutes to tune in and the video I bought with it was okay too BUT it resets its memory if it is turned off for more than 30 minutes - arrgghhhh!

Damien :evil

[relliott]

Ah, but you see damien, you are no longer 4 years old and therefore do not automatically know how to operate TVs and videos:lol

[DScollon]

Ruth, you might be interested to know that Mike and I have found a way round that problem. You don't need to be aged 4, you only need a mental age of 4.

[DScollon]

(So Mike assures me anyway:D)

[elliottsimpson]

If you are being hassled about the cost of the phone bill, you can open all the unread pages at your favourite web-site (NextGen, of course) in rapid succession. Then disconnect from the internet and use the <History> button to let you back into those pages and read them at your leisure. Again, it'll reduce the chances of your being caught on-line by another NextGener who might send you a Private Message, but that's another plus.

[Damien]

That sounds like a great idea - I never thought of that one. Sometimes I would save a big page then read it later. My internet time is free after six o'clock so that will allow me to sneak on before then ;)

Damien :evil

[Real D]

I thought that Elliott was showing his age just then but either Damien is much older that he seems or he can remember being two years old very vividly!!! When was the last time that you saw a TV with a dial for tunning - well okay that is unless your in my parents kitchen!!!!!!

:lol

[elliottsimpson]

That one's been replaced by a colour one - wow! The old B&W portable in now in ward 7 at Monklands perched in the top of a cabinet being watch by some poor patient who's bored out of his mind, even as we speak!

[DScollon]

Am I missing something? I thought it was prostate glands that they bored in ward 7!

[elliottsimpson]

No-one seems to have been to this thread for about 3 weeks, so must be time to add something.

If you are looking for anything - yes; anything, try www.dogpile.com. It'll send your enquiry to about 16 different search engines and display the first 10 from each - you have the option of trying more if you like, but usually the answer you're looking for is in the first 10.
I tried searching my name - 7 search engines found nothing, GoTo.com found 10, SearchHippo.com found 100 and AltaVista found 34,706 - no, I didn't check them all out.
SearchHippo.com - now I wonder if that's a clue to something mentioned about relliott in the "one tonne polar bear" thread in the "general Chat" section.

www.streetmap.co.uk is great for getting maps of the UK (www.streetmap.com will do the same for the USA) You can enter the town, village, etc. or (even more useful) the post code and you've a choice of three scales of maps (a road map, the OS maps or a street map) and there's even an arrow pointing to your street with that post code. For major cities, you can get an aerial photograph - try G31 2Er (Glasgow Royal Infirmary dept of Surgery and have a look at the traffic on the M8 - glad I work at Monklands). If you can't find the place you're looking for, you can try "Ask Jeeves" and that sometimes helps.

www.amazon.co.uk is good for finding books - I ordered some one Friday evening and they were in the lab by Monday morning.

Anyone else got a useful web-address?

Elliott

[mikie]

lots of freeware/utilities at
http://www.tucows.com/

goodies for games at
http://www.fileplanet.com/

check out willy g's competition at
http://www.gnu.org/

a more secure browser at
http://www.mozilla.org/

and a faster browser at
http://www.opera.com/

lots of useful hardware info at
http://www.tomshardware.com/

latest virii threats at
http://www.sarc.com/

watch the internet grind to a halt at http://www.internettrafficreport.com/

and of course always remember to use google as part of a multiple-bot search

mikie :)

ps for those of you with a yen to check out linux then if u have a broadband connection u can download cdrom images of the different linux distributions from various ftp sites.
i found the data came quickly from
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/

[Adam Gilmour]

Heres some more useful sites I've found that might be of some interest.



This is a very good site for any hardware/ upgrades at low prices

http://www.novatech.co.uk/

Heres another site for a bit of musical stress relief (very much like napster)

http://www.audiogalaxy.com/

[jojo]

Have to agree with Damien technology is definately gettin harder to understand.I had to set up a dvd in French today and i didnt have a clue for one thing i do spanish!! and for another who actually wants to watch "MEN IN BLACK"in French it just ruins the story line.Mind you i cant even work this computer think ill have to stick to the mouse ive just learned how to use it properly!!Mot Kidding trust me technology and i are a bad combination.:evil :evil :evil

[mikie]

there's some fairly creative/aggressive programmes being distributed within peer2peer(napster-ish) freeware.
Spyware is the least harmful and there's much worse with others.

all thanks to bill g and his company's total disregard for security issues

remember,remember

if you're accessing the internet then you MUST have an antivirus(AV) package + a decent software firewall to protect yourself
-wherever you are surfing
http://www.zonelabs.com/ makes a good(free) firewall but you'll have to buy an AV programme to get the vital updates to the virus definitions.

http://www.macafee.com/
or
http://www.symantec.com/
or
http://www.sophos.com/
are the accepted market learders in AV software and all make good products

of course, surfing the seedier side of the 'net is incredibly dangerous


-especially beware "warez" sites

however for the good citizens of this forum board a good firewall + AV will give you almost total protection, assuming that you update your AV virii definitions regularly(~twice weekly in these troubled times)

-you can never be too careful with your data

mikie ;)

[DScollon]

M'Lord, M'Lord, I must object on a point of order. Doesn't "viri" only have two i's?

[mikie]

programmes like "webwhacker" and the like can download a whole website at a time thus allowing a series of quick raids on specific sites for offline reading
or u can just go broadband for £25 a month with no connection or time based charges curtesy of ntl/telewest
-20 times the speed for 2 times the so called small monthly fee of freeserve

i had adsl put in 2 months ago and i would never go back. in future all house buying decisions will be based on being within a 59dB drop distance of the local main telephone exchange :lol

mikie

[mikie]

here's a passage from my current reading
-Viruses Revealed by david harley, robert slade and urs e gattiker

virii and octopii
if one program is a virus, what are two of them called? Given that the term is still in the realm of slang, this debate has been the longest, silliest, and most bitter debate in the whole field of computer virus research. Various linguistic "experts" have called for virae, vira, viri, viren, and virides. The correct plural in biology for virus has always been viruses, and that is, in fact, the most common usage among computer virus researchers. Virus authors, distributors, and collectors tend to prefer virii, though there is no etymological basis for that particular plural form. Although the word virus was normally used in the singular in Latin (as a mass noun meaning poison), the plural viri seems to have been used occasionally, though inviting confusion with the plural of vir (man). We are not aware that this usage has ever been found in biology. Viren is probably imported from the german. Robert Slade's personal favourite, however, is the suggestion that it is one virus, two virii, three viriii, four viriv...

mikie :)

[DScollon]

:lol :lol :lol

[relliott]

just though I'd add in if anyone enjoys the wonderful world of file sharing, especially of the image, video and mp3 type, then www.musiccity.com has a great, free and perfectly legal napster-like program for all your download desires. It's called Morpheus, and there is practically nothing you can't find. Just make sure your own security is up to scratch, coz I did manage to wander into someone elses My Documents folder and I could have downloaded a few of the files if I had a mind to.

[Adam]

I noticed that none of these shortcuts are for mac!!!

K- u can programme the function keys to open any application or folder. Mine open appleworks, AOL, a game, CD player etc.

command-b bold
command-n new folder (if in appleworks this wil ceate a new page and u can set this to be a drwing or spreadssheet or database or word processing or painting beforehand)
command-i italics
command-u underline
command-t normal text (not bold or italics or underline)
command-w close window
command-z undo
command-q quit
command-s save
up-command-s save as
command-o open
command-p print
command-c copy
command-v paste
command-a select all

u can switch from any application open to another using the finder in the top left corner. This also flashes with letter when u have mail (and are online) or a AIM (if u receive one). Its quitye good if ur working in wor processing and have ur computer online at the same time, bcos although u dont see the internet creen, if u get an email, a small letter flashes in the top corner.

i activated the voice activation thingy on my imac (its there if u have an imac, u just need to open it up!!!). It was quite good. u say close all windows and it did etc. If u said "tell me a joke" it goes "knock knock" u say "whos there?" it says "isabelle (or something else depending on th joke it chooses)" us ay "isabelle who??" it says "isabelle neccesary on a bike?"

The only problem i found was that, idleave the room with the TV and the computer on and come back and my computer would be buggered!! It would do things from snippets it picked up from the TV!!

adam

[relliott]

also watch out for the remore control's inherent ability to be able to switch off certain types of mac. That's a dangerous one if you didn't save everything