- Office
- Tired
of closing your documents, one at a time?
This tip works in both Word and Excel- If
you like me, have lots of documents open at one time, then you should
love this trick:
In either Word or Excel (Shift+File | Close All)
A. Hold down the Shift-key (keep the Shift key down until the menu is opened)
B. Select the File menu
C. Choose the command "Close all"
Voila!!
Note: You will be prompted to save any documents that you have worked on. As long as you answer "yes" or "no", the documents will all be closed when you finish answering the dialogue boxes. You can back out of the Close all at anytime by clicking on "Cancel" in a dialogue box.
- If
you like me, have lots of documents open at one time, then you should
love this trick:
- Shortcuts
101 (Almost Universal)
- If
you use shortcuts, you will save time and become more efficient.
You can use the shortcuts below in almost every program you use.
They should be easy to remember because the letter of each shortcut (except for the Ctrl-Z undo command) is the first letter of the command it performs. You can print the list below or write the items on a post-it. Then tape the list to your computer monitor or laptop for easy reference until you have memorized them and the commands become internalized. I'll add more shortcuts in later tips.Command Keystroke New Ctrl-N Open Ctrl-O Save Ctrl-S Print Ctrl-P Undo Ctrl-Z Select All Ctrl-A Find Ctrl-F Bold Ctrl-B Italic Ctrl-I Underline Ctrl-U Left Justify Ctrl-L Right Justify Ctrl-R (not for Excel) Justify Fully Ctrl-J
- If
you use shortcuts, you will save time and become more efficient.
You can use the shortcuts below in almost every program you use.
- Word
- Save
those keystrokes!!
- Many
of you know that we can use autocorrect to correct spelling
mistakes that we make. The classic example is if you type “teh”,
when you hit the enter key or space bar, your misspelled word
magically changes to “the.” Try
it with “adn” which turns into
“and". You can look at the myriad
of autocorrect entries that Microsoft has made on your behalf.
Did you know that you can create your own autocorrect entries? Did you know that you can also use this feature to help you save keystrokes for phrases you use regularly? Let’s say that you often type the phrase, “as soon as possible.” You can save yourself a lot of typing by creating an autocorrect entry so that when you type an abbreviation such as “asap” Word immediately expands that abbreviation to the complete phrase, “as soon as possible.” - (No pun intended!!)
Here are the steps:
1. Click on Tools. AutoCorrect Options
2. Type in “asap” in the “replace” text box. Let’s call the “replace” text an abbreviation.
3. Type in “as soon as possible” in the “with” text box. Text in the “with” box is the expansion.
4. Click on “Add” to add the entry to the list.
5. Click on OK.
Now try out your new entry by typing the abbreviation, "asap" and see it immediately expand to “as soon as possible”.Something to think about: Choose your abbreviation text carefully. For example, if you ever want to leave “asap” in the document, you will not want to use that as your “abbreviation. If you use your initials as the abbreviation to expand to your name, every time you type your initials, they will turn into your name. If you think you will ever want to use the abbreviation (ie., your intials) in your document, then do not use that particular combination of letters.
Do you know the difference between autocorrect and autotext?
- Many
of you know that we can use autocorrect to correct spelling
mistakes that we make. The classic example is if you type “teh”,
when you hit the enter key or space bar, your misspelled word
magically changes to “the.” Try
it with “adn” which turns into
“and". You can look at the myriad
of autocorrect entries that Microsoft has made on your behalf.
- Shortcuts
101 (these are the same ones that are under Office because they
are so important!!)
- If
you use shortcuts, you will save time and become more efficient.
You can use the shortcuts below in almost every program you
use.
They should be easy to remember because the letter of each shortcut (except for the Ctrl-Z undo command) is the first letter of the command it performs. You can print the list below or write the items on a post-it. Then tape the list to your computer monitor or laptop for easy reference until you have memorized them and the commands become internalized. I'll add more shortcuts in later tips.Command Keystroke New Ctrl-N Open Ctrl-O Save Ctrl-S Print Ctrl-P Undo Ctrl-Z Select All Ctrl-A Find Ctrl-F Bold Ctrl-B Italic Ctrl-I Underline Ctrl-U Left Justify Ctrl-L Right Justify Ctrl-R (not for Excel) Justify Fully Ctrl-J
- If
you use shortcuts, you will save time and become more efficient.
You can use the shortcuts below in almost every program you
use.
- Change
font size quickly - (Ctrl-] )
and (Ctrl - [ )!!
- Select
the text you want to enlarge or shrink.
To increase the font size one point at a time, hold down the Control key and tap the right bracket ] key.
To decrease the font size one point at a time, hold down the Control key and tap the left bracket [ key.
You can hold the bracket key down to whiz through the sizes; simply release the bracket key when you think you've got the right size. Then adjust the size up or down by tapping the appropriate bracket key.
- Select
the text you want to enlarge or shrink.
- Save
those keystrokes!!
- Excel
(coming soon)
- Tip1
- My favorite shortcuts
- Tip2 -See Shortcuts 101 above
- Tip1
- Graphics (coming soon)
- Tired
of closing your documents, one at a time?
- Internet
- Save
your fingers and that WWW key
- When
you are browsing using Internet Explorer, let the software type
in some of the web address (URL). For example, instead of typing
http://www.activecomp.com, just type activecomp
and then hit Ctrl-Enter. You'll save a lot of keystrokes and won't
have to replace the W key on your keyboard!
Note: This tip works with sites that begin with http://www and end in .com.
- When
you are browsing using Internet Explorer, let the software type
in some of the web address (URL). For example, instead of typing
http://www.activecomp.com, just type activecomp
and then hit Ctrl-Enter. You'll save a lot of keystrokes and won't
have to replace the W key on your keyboard!
- Save
that site
- Have
you ever tried to return to a fantastic site that took you oodles
of clicks to get to the first time? And now you can’t find
it!! Don’t let that super site elude you – Make it easy
to find the next time by marking the page as a favorite. Here‘s
how:
Method 1: In Internet Explorer or Netscape: press Ctrl-D. In AOL, press Ctrl-+.
The site will be last on the list in the Favorites (IE and AOL) or Bookmarks (Netscape).
- Have
you ever tried to return to a fantastic site that took you oodles
of clicks to get to the first time? And now you can’t find
it!! Don’t let that super site elude you – Make it easy
to find the next time by marking the page as a favorite. Here‘s
how:
- Take
me back (Internet Explorer)
- To see the drop-down list of addresses of sites and folders you've recently visited, press the F4 key. You can click on any entry in this list and Internet Explorer will immediately take you there.
- Save
your fingers and that WWW key
- Windows (coming soon)
- Act!
New
Tips!!
- Contacts
- Insert
a New Contact with Insert
- To add blank contact to into ACT!, just hit the INSERT key on your keyboard.
- Insert
a New Contact with Insert
- Calendar
-
>
- From anywhere in ACT!, you can quickly bring up the Daily Calendar by clicking SHIFT + F5, the Weekly Calendar with F3 or the Monthly Calendar with F5.
-
>
- When you're in the daily or weekly calendar view, press SHIFT to bring up the Schedule Activity dialog box.
-
>
- Contacts
- Quicken (coming soon)
- Hardware
- new!! - Digital Cameras!!!
- Digital
cameras
- Research before
you buy.
- If you buy a basic camera, it may not provide you with all of the features that you require! Make a list of the features you want and the price you are willing to spend. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with purchasing a basic digital camera, and upgrading as your needs grow as long as you are aware that you may be looking at another purchase sooner than later.
- Know
your camera's limits.
- Read the manual. Know the features and capabilities of your camera but learn the basics of your camera first. Don't try to learn everything at once. After you become familiar with the basics, experiment. Read the manual again. Read the pertinent areas of the manual to build on what you already know.
- Always carry
extra batteries and memory.
- You never know how many pictures you're going to take, and when you have to get that perfect shot, only to find that you're out of power or storage space.
- Avoid
digital zooming!
- Optical zooms enlarge the subjects
optically, using the camera's lens.
Digital zooming, on the other hand, simply samples whatever the camera is focused on, and enlarges it. Image quality is lowered drastically when this occurs.
Therefore, avoid digital zooming unless absolutely necessary!
- Optical zooms enlarge the subjects
optically, using the camera's lens.
- Exposure
compensation.
- Most consumer grade digital cameras do not allow setting exposure time. However, you may have an exposure compensation feature, which allows you to over or underexpose your photos. This could be handy for taking some pictures under low lighting, or bright lighting conditions.
- Use
cropping to eliminate unwanted areas from your photograph.
- Edit your picture by cropping it to bring your subject closer to the foreground, if you can't zoom enough!
- Take
lots of pictures!
- Unlike conventional photography, digital photography has no costs associated with film, developing, etc... Take oodles of pictures.
- Delete
bad pictures immediately!
- Most cameras have a delete feature built in to the camera so you can delete a bad picture right from the camera without downloading it first.
- Pre-focus.
- One significant drawback of digital cameras, is that there is a bit of lag time between depressing the shutter, and the time that the picture is actually taken. If you pre-focus by partially pressing the shutter button, it will decrease the time between when the shutter is fully depressed and the picture is actually taken.
- Watch
your lighting.
- Digital cameras typically do not function as well in low light conditions as their counterparts.
- Use
a tripod.
- A good rule to follow for either digital or conventional photography. A tripod holds the camera steady so you can concentrate on getting the perfect shot!
- Research before
you buy.
- Desktops
(coming soon!)
- Macs
- PCs
- Laptops (coming soon!)
- Handhelds
(coming soon!)
- HP
- Palm
- Sony
- Printers (coming soon!)
- Digital
cameras