30 TIPS FOR COMPUTERS

1. Arrange your icons by: type, name, size, auto arrange, and arrange by grid. All of these options can be found in any folder and on the desktop by right-clicking and choosing “arrange icons by”…

2. Add symbols in Word by using the Character Map. To access the Character Map, either choose InsertàSymbol in Microsoft Word or, in Windows, simply go to the Start button and click Run. Type charmap into the blank. Then, copy and paste the symbol you want into almost any program.

3. Use your Links Bar in Internet Explorer (or any Windows folder) to quickly bring up favorite Web sites or files on your computer with a single-click button. To enable the Links Bar, right-click on the toolbar in Internet Explorer or any folder and check-mark the word “Links.” Then, uncheck “Lock the Toolbars” (in Windows XP). Drag the word Links down below your Address Bar, and proceed to drag any Web site onto this bar. The same goes for any file that you want to access. Drag them onto this bar to create a “one-click link” button on the toolbar. Look for the little black vertical line before dropping things onto the Links Bar.

4. To open any program so that it is automatically maximized or minimized, create a shortcut to the program (or file). Then, right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Next to the word “Run,” click the drop-down arrow and switch “Normal Window” to Maximized and click OK. The same method can also be used to open a program minimized. If you choose “maximized,” the next time you click on this shortcut, it will open up in full screen, maximized.

5. Minimize all windows with one keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows Logo button and the D key (Windows+D) to send all of your open windows to the taskbar, leaving only the desktop. This is the same as clicking the “Show Desktop” icon on the taskbar/QuickLaunch bar.

6. In Internet Explorer, there is a keyboard shortcut for Back and Forward. This way you don’t have to keep clicking the toolbar button every time you want to return to a Web page. Use your Backspace key to go back, and your Enter key to go forward.

7. There are keyboard shortcuts for undo and redo. In Word, PowerPoint and Excel, as well as many non-Microsoft programs, use Ctrl + Z to undo, and Ctrl + Y to redo.

8. To quickly find out how much RAM (memory) you have in any version of Windows, as well as exactly which version of Windows is on your computer, use this keyboard combination: Windows Logo and the Pause/Break keys pressed at the same time. This brings up the “System Properties,” which you can also get to by right-clicking on “My Computer.”

9. To find out a lot of other information about your system, such as your processor speed, your sound and video drivers, what version of DirectX you have, and a test of your hardward, go to StartàRun. Type in dxdiag, and you will see a ton of info. about your system.

10. The Microsoft Configuration Utility is the best way to speed up how fast your computer boots up and reduce the number of programs that load when your computer starts up. Go to StartàRun. Type in msconfig, and choose “Selective Startup.” Then, click on the Startup tab. Take a good look at the command name and the location, and un-check anything that doesn’t appear to be necessary. Leave Anti-Virus program info. checked, and un-check “Load Power Profile,” “Microsoft Office,” “QTTask”, and other programs that run anyway when you click on them. You don’t need them loading by themselves.

11. Get rid of pop-up ads and conveniently add a Google shortcut to your Internet Explorer toolbar by downloading and installing the Google Toolbar. This is a great Web search tool, as well as a terrific pop-up blocker. Go to google.com and type “Google Toolbar” into the search field. Then, download & install it. You won’t regret it.

12. The quickest way to adjust your screen display size, screen saver, icon sizes and your desktop wallpaper is by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Properties. Now, all of the display properties are there at your fingertips.

13. PowerPoint is a good presentation tool, but you can also convert your presentations to .JPG pictures. Just open any slideshow from PowerPoint and go to FileàSave As and, next to “Save As Type,” choose “JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG)” which is long for “make a picture from your slide.” You can choose to convert the current slide or the entire slideshow into pictures.
*This can also be done in Print Shop by choosing FileàExport As and changing the “save as type” option to a picture format. This saves your PrintShop project as a picture.

14. Three tremendously important keyboard shortcuts found in Windows:
F1=Help F2=Rename F3=Find Files or Folders

15. Another great “Find” shortcut is Ctrl + F. Using this keyboard shortcut in Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, and many more applications, allows you to search the current page or document for a specific word or phrase. After it highlights the correct word you’re looking for, press the Enter key to “Find Next.”
*Note: If you use Ctrl + F in GroupWise, it allows you to do a customized search of your E-mail for a specific name, specific sender, specific Subject, or word inside the E-mail, and much more.

*One more E-mail Search Tip. GroupWise 7 now has added a Filter field in the top right corner of your Mailbox window. Type in a person's last name or a key word, and GroupWise will bring up all E-mails that include that word or name.

16. When you want to delete something in Windows, are you tired of it asking you if you are sure you want to delete it? Right-click on the Recycle Bin and un-check “Display delete confirmation dialog box.” But, only do this if you’re sure (haha).

17. To quickly close your open windows, use this keyboard shortcut: Alt + F4. Any open window that is selected will immediately close. When you run out of windows to close, it will ask if you want to shut down your computer. Press the Enter key to shut down.

18. Another seldom-used keyboard shortcut is the “Task Manager” which allows you to toggle between open files or between two different programs within seconds. To see how it works, press the Alt + Tab keys at the same time and then let go. It jumps back and forth between programs you have open. Very convenient.

19. The keyboard shortcut for Print is Ctrl + P. This brings up the Print dialog box. In most programs, you can bypass the Print dialog box by pressing the Print button at the top on the toolbar.

20. Two Office XP annoyances can be fixed quickly. First, to turn the Task Pane off (the split-screen window at the right in every Office XP application), you can un-check the little box in the bottom right corner that says “Show at startup.” You can also toggle the Task Pane on and off by going to ViewàTask Pane. However, the Task Pane option is hidden by default in the annoying half-menu, which started with Office 2000. If you always want to show full menus, go to ToolsàCustomize and check the box that says “Always show full menus.”

21. Another Office XP annoyance has to do with toolbars. By default, only the buttons you use most on your toolbar are displayed. What if you want more toolbar buttons? Go to ToolsàCustomize and click the Options tab. Check the box that says “Show Standard & Formatting toolbars on two rows.” This gives you more room for buttons. To add more toolbars, right-click on any toolbar and check the name of the additional toolbars you want added.

22. Now for some Word 2002 tips: How many of you are sick of the big square box that pops up by default when you try to add a text box or ClipArt/Picture? You can turn this off by going to ToolsàOptions and click the General tab. Un-check the box that says “Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes.” While you’re there, get rid of another annoyance, Click the Edit tab and change the Insert/Paste pictures as option. Change it from “In line with text” to “Square.” Now, when you insert a picture or ClipArt image, you can move the picture more easily, and not have to immediately go into Text Wrap mode to move objects around. This is a much better default setting if you insert a lot of images.

23. What if you could expand any Web page’s size and quickly get rid of all toolbars in Internet Explorer with the click of one key. Well, there is a full-screen mode in Internet Explorer. Go to a good Web site that you want to see more of, and press the F11 key on the top of your keyboard. Press it again to bring back your toolbars.

24. Desktop Shortcuts are a good idea if you use certain programs & files repeatedly. For example, if you use Microsoft Word a lot, you can create a shortcut to it by going to StartàProgramsàMicrosoft Word. Before you open the program, right-click on the Microsoft Word icon and choose Send ToàDesktop (create shortcut). This creates a shortcut to Microsoft Word on the desktop. If it says “shortcut to Microsoft Word,” you can get rid of the words “shortcut to” by right-clicking on the icon and deleting those words from its title.

25. Maybe you already knew tip #24, and you’re ready for something more advanced. Let’s take it a step further. Let’s make a keyboard hotkey to Word. Right-click on the Microsoft Word icon, and choose Properties. Next to where it says “Shortcut key,” click your mouse cursor in that box and press the Ctrl and Alt keys on your keyboard and then add a third key, such as the W key (which will stand for Word). You should now see Ctrl + Alt + W in the “shortcut key” box. Click OK and now try it out. Press Ctrl + Alt + W, and Microsoft Word should open from now on. You can do this with any desktop shortcut.

26. The quickest way to send an Email attachment in Groupwise 6, 6.5, or 7, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, is to right-click on the attachment you want to send, and choose Send ToàGroupwise Recipient (or Mail Recipient in Outlook Express). This opens your E-mail and attaches the file automatically to the message. Just put in the Email address of who you want to send it to, and press Send.

27. When you connect a Laptop computer to an LCD Projector, it’s pretty easy to get a picture on a movie screen, but your laptop monitor is often left blank. However, a quick keyboard shortcut will allow you to view both the screen display on the laptop as well as the movie screen. On most laptops, the shortcut is Fn + F5. Look for the little monitor icon on one of the function keys at the top of your laptop keyboard. This tells you which key to use in combination with the Fn key.
*Note: On some laptops the key combination is Fn + F4 and, instead of a picture of a monitor, it might say CRT/LCD instead.

28. You can change your Zangle password more easily than you might think. Log in with your old password. Then, before selecting anything from the "Please Make a Selection" list, immediately click FileàChange Password.

29. To change your Groupwise Email password, the best way is to do it online. Go to www.phasd.us and click the “Email (staff only)” button. Log in with your current password. You will see the Options link in the top right corner of the screen. Click on “Options” and then click on the Password tab.
*If you want to change some more options, you can click on the "Signature" tab to set up a signature to be added to the bottom of all of your e-mails, and there are other settings that can also be changed here. Check out each tab for more information.

30. To change your Novell and GroupWise passwords at the same time, in Windows XP, the best way is to do the following: Press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys at the same time, and click on the “Change Windows Password” button. Then, select PHASD_TREE (which has a green tree icon next to it). To the right of that, type in the old password and the new password you want to change it to.