Tips,Tricks & Shortcuts

NE SABES Presentation September 8th, 2004

Windows

Navigate Windows Help Print Help Topics Open the Start menu Select all text in a pane Context Menu Copy Image of Selected Window to clipboard Go to the Desktop/Minimize & Restore open windows Switch among applications

Windows Help

Display Windows Help: Windows (key)-F1 Move through the list of help topics, articles, and other items showing: Tab or Shift-Tab Move back or forward to a previously viewed topic: Alt<Right Arrow> to move forward; Alt<Left Arrow> to move back This shortcut is equivalent to the Back and Forward icons on the toolbar. These also work in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, My Computer, and other windows with Back and Forward icons

Print Help Topics

Print the current help topic or current selection: Tab or Ctrl-Tab to go to the right pane; Ctrl-P to call up the Print dialog box and print If you want to print just a portion of the Help information, select that portion before choosing Ctrl-P, and then in the Print dialog box, under Page Range, choose Selection

Open Start Menu

Ctrl-Esc or Windows (key) Either shortcut will open the Start menu Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move through the menu, and the Enter key to choose an item The two shortcuts vary slightly depending on your version of Windows. Ctrl-Esc, Esc leaves the Start button selected but not pressed In Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0 (but not Windows 2000 and Me), Windows, Esc will return you to the window or desktop selection you were working with previously

Windows & Most Apps

Select all the text in a pane: Ctrl-A This shortcut selects all the text in the current pane of the Help screen and all the text in a Notepad, WordPad, or Word document It works in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, also Useful when you need to copy information to another window or application

Context Menu

The context-menu is what most people think of as the right-click menuthe list of options relevant to the selected object Using the Application key is equivalent to but easier thanusing Shift-F10 This shortcut is particularly useful within programs You can bring up the context menu for words in Word or cells in Excel without having to reach for the mouse

Alt-<PrintScr>

Copy an image of the currently selected Window to the Clipboard: Alt-<PrintScr> You can then paste the image into a document Using Alt-<PrintScr> confines the capture to the currently selected window or dialog box, as opposed to <PrintScr>, which captures the entire screen If no dialogs are open, Alt-<PrintScr> gives you a picture of the current app

Windows-E, Windows-D
In versions prior to Win XP, Windows-E opens Windows Explorer, but the general idea behind this shortcut is that it lets you explore and manage your files easily Windows-D brings you to the desktop

Minimize & Restore Windows

Minimize all open Windows and reveal the desktop: Windows-M or Windows-D. Mnemonics: This one's easy to remember; M for Minimize all and D for desktop. Note that Windows-D doesn't work under Windows 95, but Windows-M does Restore all Windows you previously minimized with Windows-M or Windows-D: ShiftWindows-M or repeat Windows-D: ShiftWindows-M or repeat Windows-D

Switch among applications: Windows-Tab or Alt-Tab

Cycles through the taskbar buttons When the program you want is selected, hit Enter to switch to that window If more than one program is running, Alt-Tab brings up the taskswitching window Immediately releasing the keys switches you to the previous application To jump to one of the other running programs instead, release Tab, but keep Alt held down. Each succeeding press of Tab moves the program selection box to the next application Releasing the Alt key switches you to the selected program. If only two applications are running, Alt-tab toggles between them

MS Word
Close All Backstroke Change Case

MS Word Close All

When you're done for the day, don't bother closing and saving all your files individually. Press the Shift key as you open the File menu You've just changed the Save command to say Save All, and the Close command to say Close All.

Doing the Backstroke

Instead of using the mouse to highlight the text and delete it with a single keystroke, some people tap the backspace key approximately a thousand times Instead of wearing out your backspace key, hold down the CTRL key, and then hit it a few times You'll take out one whole word at a time versus a single character Text selection is another area that doesn't necessarily require the mouse to accomplish quickly Holding down the shift key and using the arrows allows you to select text, but the CTRL key once again changes this from a single character to an entire word at a time

Change Case

If you are using Word, you can easily change the case of a word by highlighting it, clicking the Format menu and selecting Change Case Select the case you want to use and click OK. However an even faster way of doing this is to highlight the word, and press Shift + F3 until you get the right case

Word Art
You can insert decorative text by using Insert WordArt on the Drawing toolbar You can create shadowed, skewed, rotated, and stretched text, as well as text that has been fitted to predefined shapes. Because a special text effect is a drawing object, you can also use other buttons on the Drawing toolbar to change the effect for example, to fill a text effect with a picture.

On the Drawing toolbar, click Insert WordArt

Edit WordArt Text dialog box, type the text you want to format, select any other options you want, and then click OK

To add or change effects to the text, use the buttons on the WordArt and Drawing toolbars. The WordArt toolbar appears when you click the WordArt special text.

The Rescue Buttons

IE Explorer Most Common

CONTROL-D: Immediately add the current page to your favorites CONTROL-E: Open the search bar CONTROL-H: Open the history bar CONTROL-I: Open the favorites bar CONTROL-P: Print a web page CONTROL-W: Close the current browser window

IE Shortcuts

ALT-D: Select the address bar ALT-Left Arrow: Go back ALT-Right Arrow: Go forward ALT-F4: Close Internet Explorer

IE Shortcuts

Ctrl-Enter: this will add 'http://www. ' and '.com' to a URL. For example, type pcmag and press 'Ctrl-Enter': IE changes it to http://www.pcmag.com and takes you to the site

Backspace is the same as choosing the Back button. Shift-Backspace is the same as clicking the Forward button. The F5 key will refresh the screen. Use F11 to toggle between a full screen and normal view.

Open Second Window

Often, it's helpful to open a link in a new, second browser window Ctrl-N Move down the list of search results in Google or Yahoo Each time you check out a link, a new window opens If it doesn't contain the info you were looking for, a quick Alt+F4 (Windows), Command-W (Mac) or closes it and takes you back to your search-results window. The trick to opening a second browser window in this way is to press Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or Command (Mac) as you click any link

Scroll Without the Mouse

If a whole Web page doesn't fit in a single window, life's too short to use the scroll bar, even the mouse's wheel, if it has one, requires some time-consuming precision Instead, press the Space bar to see the next screenful (when your insertion-point cursor isn't in a text box, of course). Press Shift with the Space bar to scroll up again. (The Page Up and Page Down keys work, too, but the Space bar is a bigger target.)

Find Text on a Web Page

Quickly find anything on the current page or frame by pressing CTRL + F

Save Pictures
Save a Internet picture Right click on image, Save Picture As Quickly save a picture as your wallpaper by right clicking on an image and choosing set as wallpaper

Just Plain Strange

Microsoft Word Next time you need some dummy text--to test a font or a layout, for example, type "=rand(8,10)" into your document (without the quotes) Word instantly fills the screen with "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," over and over again. The first number specifies the number of paragraphs, and the second tells Word how many sentences to put in each paragraph

On-Screen Keyboard
Click on the 'Start' button. Choose the 'Run' feature and type 'osk' in the text field. The keyboard opens on your desktop and it features three separate typing modes that can be used to type data. Clicking mode - click the onscreen keys Scanning mode - press a hot key or use a switch input device to type highlighted characters Hovering mode - use a mouse or joystick to point to a key, which is then typed

Create KB Shortcut
Rightclick the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut. Type osk, click Next. Type a name for the shortcut, and then click Finish. The shortcut to the onscreen keyboard utility is right on your desktop for quick access.

Thank You