Don Davidson Computer

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Keyboard shortcuts (Hot Keys)	Control (Resize) an open Window with the Keyboard.
Keyboard word processing (Hot keys)	Uninstall programs properly
Rename a file (3 ways)	Simplify file selection
Keyboard copy and paste	Change your wallpaper
Mouse copy and paste	Don't forget to back up your important data!
Windows keyboard hot keys	What is the web?
Want a picture of what you see on your screen?	E-Mail - attaching files
Open application switching	Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc)
When in doubt... Right Click!	Web browser help
Sort a list in Microsoft Word	Optimize Windows Explorer's Column Width
F5 key	Find That File!

ALT + F4 = To quickly close a program
CTRL + Z = Undo mistakes in most programs

CTRL + L or R ARROW key = Moves the cursor to the beginning of the word before or after.
CTRL + Up or Down ARROW key = Moves the cursor to the beginning of the paragraph before or after.
SHIFT + ARROW Key = Highlights text in the direction of the arrow of your choice.
HOME key = To go to the beginning of a line
END key = To go to the end of the line
CTRL + HOME key = To go to the beginning of a page
CTRL + END key = To go to the end of a page
CTRL + P key = To print a document
CTRL + S key = To save a document
SHIFT + TAB key = To undo a Tab

Spacing
To change from single to double spacing, select the text you wish to change and press Ctrl + 2.
To revert to single spacing, press Ctrl + 1.
Pressing Ctrl + 5 changes the selected text to 1.5 line spacing.

F8 Key (Microsoft Word)
Press F8 to select increasingly larger portions of a document.
One time to activate the Extend mode.
Two times to select the current word.
Three times to select the current sentence.
Four times to select the current paragraph.
Five times to select the entire document.

Cycle through font sizes in MS Word
A quicker way to cycle through font sizes in MS Word, is to use the brackets. (Highlight the text first)
Ctrl + [  to decrease font size and Ctrl + ]   to increase font size.

1. Click a file's icon to select it, click again on the icon's text portion, wait one second, and edit away.
2. Select an icon, press F2, and start editing.
3. Right-click an icon, select Rename from the menu, then edit the name.

Remember to leave the extension on the end of the name as is. Like Oldname.doc / Newname.doc

 To copy a line (or lines) of text: First you have to highlight it.
(There are many ways, here is the Keyboard way)

Your blinking cursor should be at the beginning of the line you wish to copy.

Hold down the SHIFT key and press the RIGHT ARROW key (repeatedly). This will highlight the desired text.
(Or hold the SHIFT key down and hit the END key. This will highlight the entire line.)
Let go of the SHIFT key and hit the CTRL + INSERT key. This copies the text (It is now stored in memory and can be pasted anywhere in this or another document)
Note: You can highlight an entire document by placing your cursor at the  beginning and using the SHIFT + CTRL + END keys. Or hit CTRL+A (for  all)

Now to paste it:
Move to the place, in your document, you wish to put your copied text (do this with your arrow keys or click there with your mouse) and press SHIFT + INSERT.

To bold a highlighted word or line of text:  CTRL + B

Note: To bold, underline, change the font or align,  you have to first highlight it.
(see above)

All or most of these steps above can be done with the mouse.

Highlight and copying: Hold down your LEFT mouse button and drag the pointer across the desired text, let go of the button. Click with the RIGHT mouse button on the highlighted text and a window will open with some choices, choose COPY with your LEFT mouse button.

To Paste: Click with your RIGHT mouse button where you want the text pasted, then a box will open, choose PASTE. That’s it.

Hit the PRINT SCRN Key on you keyboard (This copies what you see to memory).
Then open a graphics program, such as Paint or a word processor and paste it (hit edit then paste or Shift + Insert). Then you can manipulate the picture and print it.
(To copy just the active window: ALT + PRINT SCRN)

To flip from one application to another using only the keyboard
The old trick of using Alt+Tab works better than before. Now, instead of seeing one application’s icon at a time, you see them all, along with an outline box highlighting the one you are about to select. Keep your thumb on the Alt key while tabbing. To select an application, release the Alt key.

In Windows Explorer:
When you move a file, right click and drag it to another folder (or drive, like drive A: the floppy).
This will give you a drop-down menu.
Copy Here,
Move Here
or Cancel.
This is handy for those accidental moves you can undo.

Right Clicking most anywhere will give you a menu of options.

If you have a list of names or numbers in Word and wish to sort them. Highlight the list and click on the word "Table" and "Sort". You can choose to sort the list ascending or descending.

A handy key. It will refresh almost any open window.
For example: If you want to look at the contents of many floppy disks (or any disk) hit F5 after you put in the next disk to see the refreshed contents of that disk (and so on).
The same goes with Internet Explorer to refresh a page or Outlook Express to see if you have new mail. 

Can't resize Window with mouse?
Can't see upper right corner of open window?

Sometimes my window opens up too wide so I can't see the right-hand scroll bar or the close button in the upper right corner of the window. No matter what I try, I can't reduce the window size nor shift it to the left. What can I do?

Even when the title bar or sizing frame is off-screen and not reachable by the mouse cursor, you can still move or resize a window. You just need to know the keyboard shortcuts. In this case, you would click on the visible part of the window and press Alt-Spacebar to bring up its system menu. Then press S (for Size), press the right arrow key to select the right-hand edge of the window, and press the left arrow key repeatedly. When the window is reduced to a manageable size, press Enter.

To move a window whose title bar is not visible, click the window or its corresponding taskbar button and again press Alt-Spacebar. Even if the window is entirely off-screen, not visible at all, the system menu will appear as close to it as possible, so you can use the menu's location as a pointer to the "lost" window. This time press M (for Move), use the arrow keys to bring the window back into view, and press Enter when you have it back under control.

The proper way to rid your computer of most files related to a program is to use the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Here's how to find it:

1. From your Start menu, choose Settings, then Control Panel.

2. Click on the Add/Remove Programs icon.

3. Choose the Install/Uninstall tab.

4. Now look for the, for example, XYZ program you want to dispose of, select it, and click the Add/Remove button.

If you couldn't find the program in the uninstall list, look for an un-install.exe in XYZ's program's folder. If no luck there, it is usually ok to delete the XYZ folder. (Don't empty your Recycle Bin till your sure there is no effect on your system.)

So, you've got some files you know is safe to delete in Windows Explorer...

You're probably familiar with the most common file selection shortcut,
Ctrl + A, which selects all files and folders in the current folder.
There's another file selection trick you may not know about: Invert Selection.
The Invert Selection command does just what its name implies: It inverts
the current selection, selecting files and folders currently not selected
and deselecting the ones that are selected.

For example, assume you need to delete all but four files out of a
hundred. Instead of spending time carefully selecting each file and avoiding
the four you want to keep, select the four files, choose Edit in the
folder's menu, and then choose Invert Selection. Windows inverts the selection
so that you now have all files selected except the four you want to
keep. Hit [Delete] or perform whatever other operation you intend (such as a
Move or Copy) on the selected files.

Right Click on a empty area of your desktop. Select "Properties", A menu will pop up, In the lower right portion you see an area called "Wallpaper" (in XP click the Desktop tab first), select the image you like. (You can also browse your hard drive for another picture).
You can use most graphic files, such as bitmaps (.bmp), GIFs (.gif), and JPEG (.jpeg) images as Wallpaper.
To cover your entire screen with a small wallpaper image, click Tile. To center a wallpaper image, click Center. (In Windows98/ME/2000/XP you can select "Stretch" to fill the screen with a smaller or larger image).

You can also find a picture in "My Pictures" or "Pictures". Right-Click it, Choose Set as Desktop Background. Instant Wallpaper!

It's not necessary to back up the programs you already have on disk. Only back up the data you have created from those programs.

To back up small files (files that are less than 1.44 meg):
1. Put a floppy disk in drive A (if you still have that legacy drive)
2. Open Windows Explorer
3. Find the file (like myfile.doc)
4. Right mouse click on it and hold down the mouse key. Drag it to drive A and let go.
A drop down window will appear, choose copy. That's it.

Note: Usually drive A is the 1.44  meg 3.5' floppy disk drive, Drive C is the first hard drive where you store your programs and files, Drive D is the CD-ROM drive for music and program CD's.
Some of the newer PCs do not have a 1.44mb floppy drive. (They don't hold much and are not that reliable!)

WinZip is a very handy file compression program to help you make that big file fit on one floppy disk. It will also span multiple disks! Get it on my links page! (A Zip utility is not necessary in Windows XP or Vista, it's built in)

Other Back up devices that are more reliable and hold more data.

CD-R or DVD-R drive: Burn your own CD/DVD for backup (Holds on an average of  650mb to 700mb+ and 4.5gb to 9gb for DVD) this is the most reliable media for the average user and  no parts to fail.

External USB/Firewire Hard Drive: Average 80 to 500 Gig +. These drives hold the most data, but are not the most durable. (Don't drop an external hard drive!)

Go here for more backup help and programs

Keep your back ups away from your computer
(Because of fire and theft).

To answer that question, we'll have to digress a little.

The Internet is an international network (computers connected together) that was started by the U.S Government for university researchers to share info. The Internet, a.k.a. the Net, is separate from other networks like Earthlink, MSN, AOL, Prodigy or CompuServe, which are separate, privately owned networks. They can access the Internet and Web information, but they are not the Internet.

The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet. It is simply Internet files that are formatted in a certain way so that they can be displayed graphically on a computer screen. It was invented in 1990 by The European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland.

A browser is simply software that you use to view these special text files so that they look like magazine-like pages, displaying pictures, text in special formats, with headlines, etc. If you access the Web now, you have a browser. There are tons of these browsers, the most popular being Internet Explorer and Netscape.

You can send digital photographs, documents and program files with your mail messages as attachments.

Here are some of the ways to attach files to outbound e-mail messages.

If you use Outlook Express to compose and send e-mail, click on Compose New Message (or Create Mail). When you are ready to attach a file, click on the Attachment Icon (the paperclip) on the toolbar. Browse and scroll to find the right file, then click on Attach. When you send the message, the file you selected will go out with it as an attachment.

Most e-mail programs have a system that lets you attach files to outgoing e-mail. Click on Help in the e-mail program you use and then type ATTACHMENTS to find the Attachments help screen.

An easier way to attach files is to use Windows Explorer.
When you are ready to attach a file to the e-mail message you are composing, resize Outlook Express and make the window smaller. Now just right-click on My Computer and select Explore. Go to My Documents or any folder that contains the file you wish to attach. Click on the file to be attached and while holding down the left Mouse button, drag the file to the window in which you are composing the e-mail. Release the Mouse button and that file will be "attached" to the e-mail.
Click Here for a visual

Email multiple pictures in Windows

Open the folder that contains your pictures (In My Documents or Use Windows Explorer to find where you put them).

To select a list of pictures in order, for example, Picture #1 to #10:
Click on the first picture (#1), hold down the Shift Key, and then click on the last picture (#10).
They will all highlight. Let go of Shift key. Right-click any highlighted picture, you will get a drop-down menu, choose Send To, Choose Mail Recipient. Your Email Program will open, then send email as usual.

If you don't want to send the pictures in order:
Click on the first picture, hold down the CTRL Key, and then click on each individual picture (Like: #1, #3, #7 and #9).
Selected pictures will highlight. Let go of CTRL key. Right-click any highlighted picture, you will get a drop-down menu, choose Send To, Choose Mail Recipient. Your Email Program (Like Outlook Express) will open, send email as usual.

Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc)

Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc)

 If you are going to send out emails to a mailing list or even just a few people, you should take great pains to 
hide the email addresses from everyone on the list. 

Usually when someone sends an email to say, four people, they will just list them in the "to:" (or "cc:") 
field. The problem with this practice is simple: everyone who receives the email also receives all of the email 
addresses. This is wonderful for spammers, but most of us would rather our email addresses were at least 
somewhat protected.

You can protect your friends email addresses by using the Blind Carbon Copy field. This works just like the 
Carbon Copy (cc:) field, except that the email addresses are not forwarded to each recipient.

Put one email address (perhaps your own) in the "To:" field, (You must always put at least one email address into the "To:" field) and the rest in the "Bcc:" field. When your recipients receive the email, they will see your email address in the "To:" field and their own in the "Bcc:" 
field. The identity of your other recipients is hidden and they are protected from spammers.

 To use Blind Carbon Copy in Outlook Express, choose "All headers" from the "View" menu. This will cause the 
"Bcc:" field to be displayed from this moment on.

To set up Blind Carbon Copy in Outlook, select "Bcc Field" from the "View" menu. This will cause the "Bcc:" 
field to be displayed from this moment on. 

Internet Browser Shortcuts & Tips

As you probably know, when you use the Details view to perform file management operations in Windows Explorer, you can manually adjust the width of the Name, Size, Type, and Modified columns with your mouse. Position your mouse pointer over the column divider, and when the pointer turns into a doubled-headed arrow, simply click and drag the pointer to enlarge or shrink the column (or double-click the column divider and it will adjust to the proper width automatically).

However, there's an easier way to set individual column widths. When the mouse pointer turns into a doubled-headed arrow, double-click the column divider. This will set the column width to a size large enough, or small enough, to display all the data in the column.

This trick also works in My Computer, My Network Places, and the Search Results window.

Find That File!

Searching on your computer
The easiest and fastest way to find a file on your hard disk is to let your computer do it for you! We'll show you how your computer's powerful search tools can make it a snap to find that elusive file.

A Handy Shortcut
First, there is one exception to the "let the computer do it" rule.

Most software programs will try to save new files in the same place that they saved an older one. So if you lost a file that you were just working on a few minutes or hours ago, here's a quick way to find out where it is.
Open a new file in whichever program you were using. Choose Save As from the File menu.
Don't click OK! Instead, take note of exactly where the new file is about to be saved.
Go to that folder on your hard disk. Your lost file might be there!

Note: The same trick works for downloads, but instead of using a program to save a new file, go back to the download page and click the same link you clicked the last time. Note the location it's about to download to, then go there to find your file!

Computer searches
Except for the above situation, the fastest way to search for a file is by having your computer search by "file name." So one way to avoid losing files is to name them in a way that you'll remember (e.g., recipes.doc will be easy to remember, but 273372.doc won't). The Windows search tools allow you to search by file name (my_recipes.doc), partial file name (recipe, or even rec), content within the file, and more. 

With searching by file names, if you don't remember what you called it, then bear in mind that partial names yield more results: "recip" will turn up files and folders containing both "recipe" and "recipes" in their names. In contrast, if you search the more complete "recipes" it won't turn up the singular "recipe." Similarly, with alternate spellings or misspellings, if you don't remember whether you named a file "theaters" or "theatres" then you'll turn up both by searching "theat."

Searching by content within the file means that you can search for a word, or words, inside the document itself (this won't work with pictures or audio files). For example, if you don't remember anything about the file name, but you do remember that it was a recipe for ribs, you can have your computer search every file for the word "ribs."

Note: Searching by content is much slower than searching by file name. Even if you're not sure what the file name is, it's worth guessing a few times before resorting to searching by content. 

Windows 98 or 2000
To search by file name or content:
Click the Start button, choose Search (or Find), then click For File or Folders. The Search Results window will appear (in Windows 98 it's the Find screen).
In the Named box, type the name, or partial name of the file. (To search by content, type a word or words in the Containing text box.)
Click the Search Now (or Find Now) button. The Search Results window will present you with a list of files that match your search criteria.
Look within the list to find your lost recipe file! Note the folder that your file is in, or double-click it to open it.

To search using other criteria:
To search for your file based on the date it was last modified, click the Search Options link (in Windows 98, click the Date tab) in the Search Results window and fill in the dates you want.

To search based on the size (in kilobytes) or type of file (like a document, or audio file), click the Search Options link (in Window 98, click the Advanced tab) in the Search Results window and make your choices.

To search by the file extension name, type an asterisk, then the extension (e.g., *.jpg or *.doc). Your computer will find every file that ends with that extension.

Windows XP
To search for a file:
Click the Start button, then click Search. The Search Results window will appear.
From the What do you want to search for list, choose the type of file you're looking for (if you're not sure, choose All files and folders).
Type the criteria info in the boxes on the screen. You can search by file name, date, and more.
Click the Search button. The Search Results window will present you with a list of files that match your search criteria.
Look within the list to find your lost recipe file! Note the folder that your file is in, or double-click it to open it.