February 2002 - Volume 1, Issue 1

Tips To Succeed in Common Tasks

Using the F5 Key with Windows Explorer

When using Windows Explorer to create or relocate files and folders, as long as you keep Windows Explorer open and don't select a different directory, the program does not re-alphabetize the icons and descriptions for the affected files and folders. To refresh the view, you can either click View and select Refresh or press the F5 key. You can also refresh a Web page in IE by pressing F5. This provides a quick way to refresh a page that didn't load properly or to clear any information you enter on an online form.

Print Screen

As you may or may not know, the PRINT SCREEN key on the keyboard copies your current screen to the clipboard. Once copied to the clipboard, you can paste it into any graphic program, including the Paint program that comes with Windows. If you just want to take a picture of the active window and not the entire screen, press ALT-PRINT SCREEN. This works with Windows 95 and newer.

Windows 9x/Me:Organizing the Program menu

Your Programs menu can fill up in a hurry, and you should make an effort to keep it somewhat organized so you can quickly find and open your programs. The best way to do this is to right-click in the Programs menu and click Sort By Name in the pop-up menu to arrange the programs alphabetically. You can also move a program to a new location within the Programs menu. Click and hold the icon of the program you want to move and then move your mouse to the place where you want to park the program within the menu. Release the mouse button when you've moved the program to its new spot.

Windows 9x/Me: Quick copy

There are a lot of reasons you might need to make a quick copy of a file. So if you're in a folder and you want to alter a file's contents or name, here's a speedy way to create a backup copy. Select the folder, press CTRL-C (copy), and immediately press CTRL-V (paste). You'll see a Copy Of file appear in the same folder.

Renaming a file
Windows 9x/NT/Me

We'd guess that most people have, at one time or another, tried to rename a file only to accidentally launch it instead. There's only a subtle distinction between clicking the icon once and clicking the file name and double-clicking the icon. There is an easy way to avoid double-clicking the icon. Click the icon for the file you wish to rename. Then press F2 to highlight the file name. Now type the new file name and press ENTER.

Outlook 2000

Few options in Outlook so radically change the program's appearance as the View command in the Calendar function. When you access the View menu from the top toolbar, you are prompted with a number of options. Click Month and you'll see your scheduled events in a whole new way. If you need more room to navigate, from the View menu, click Preview Pane. If you are more worried about missing deadlines, click Active Appointments, which gives you the down and dirty details of upcoming calendar events.

Favorite Folder
Internet Explorer

All Web surfers need to occasionally clean up their Web page bookmarks in the Internet Explorer Favorites folder. You can do this the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is to click Favorites, Organize Favorites, one of the Web pages listed in your Favorites folder, and then click Delete. The easy way is to click Favorites, right-click the bookmark you want to delete, and click Delete from the pop-up menu. The Web page will disappear from your Favorites list.

Send secretly a copy of an e-mail message

Have you ever sent an e-mail message and wanted to secretly send a copy to someone else at the same time? This is possible using Microsoft Outlook 2000. Follow the usual steps to compose a message, but before you send it click View on the message window toolbar, and select Bcc Field. When the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field appears, type the appropriate e-mail address in that field. After sending the message, those who receive it at the Send To and carbon copy addresses will not be able to see that a copy of the message was also sent to the blind carbon copy address.

Windows XP: Switching between different users settings

WinXP lets you quickly switch back and forth among the personal settings of different users. However, it can be frustrating to go through the Start menu options every single time you want to switch settings. Here's a quicker way: Press Windows-L. This keyboard shortcut takes you straight to the logon screen, letting you bypass the multiple mouse clicks required by the Start menu method.

Keyboard HotKeys

In Windows, you can assign a key combination to instantly launch an application. Right-click a shortcut and select the Shortcut tab. Click the field next to Shortcut Key. Shortcut keys consist of three keys, using two from among the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT keys and any other character. If you press a character, CTRL and ALT will be selected by default. Enter the proper combination at any time to launch an application.

Windows XP: Quick setup of the Start Menu

WinXP users can quickly set up the Start Menu so their favorite applications are always quickly accessible. Right-click the application from the Start Menu and select Pin To Start Menu. The application will now appear at the top of the Start Menu and remain readily accessible. Right-click the application and select Unpin From Desktop to make room for new applications.

Windows Me/2000: Program Menu

One feature of Windows Me/2000 OSes (operating systems) that sets them apart from previous Windows OSes is that they will display only your most recently used programs in the Programs menu. Some users will no doubt want to see all of their programs when they open the Programs menu. You can disable this feature, called Personalized Menus, and display all of your programs rather than just those you've used recently. Click Start, Settings, and Taskbar And Start Menu. Click the Use Personalized Menus checkbox to remove the check mark and disable Personalized Menus. Click the checkbox again to enable this feature.

Every time you insert a CD-ROM or audio CD into your drive, Win98 launches the installation program for the CD-ROM or begins playing audio tracks, instead, you want to access these functions on your own rather than allowing them to be automatic.

Like Win95, Win98 detects when you put something into your CD-ROM drive and then initializes the disc, depending on what format it is in. This is called AutoPlay. The effect is particularly annoying when you insert the Win98 CD-ROM because you have to wait until the splash screen launches before you can get to any files.

Thankfully, this automatic function is easy to change. Right-Click My Computer and select Properties. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Device Manager tab and look for the CD-ROM entry. Click the plus sign (+) to expand the sub menu, then select your CD-ROM drive and click Properties. Go to the Settings tab and uncheck the Auto Insert Notification box. Reboot and you're done-at least for CD-ROMs.

To prevent audio CDs from automatically playing, open a folder on your PC (it doesn't matter which one), and select Folder Options from the View menu. Choose the File Types tab and find an entry in the list labeled AudioCD. Select it by clicking it and then click Edit. You should see the word "Play" in bold letters within the Actions field. Click Set Default, and the word changes to plain text, telling you that audio CDs won't play until you tell them to.

You don't have to permanently disable AutoPlay, however, to prevent your discs from being automatically read. Instead, you can hold down your SHIFT key as you insert a disc into the CD-ROM drive. If you hold down the key for a few seconds, Win98 will ignore the disc. If you find that double-clicking the CD-ROM drive to access the disc's contents is causing the Auto Play feature to "kick in" again, just right-click the CD-ROM icon and select Open or Explore from the pop-up menu.

Once upon a time, you had properly rendered icons, but some of them were suddenly replaced with ugly Windows icons.

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, Win98 will mess with your icons. To reset them, open C:\ WINDOWS and find a file listed as ShelllconCache. Delete it, either from Windows or MS-DOS, then reset your computer. Consequently your icons should reappear.

When using ALXethiopian font in Microsoft Word some Ethiopic words you type changes into hyperlink.

You can click the undo button immediately after the change to get the word you have typed. To prevent this to happen Disable the option Internet and network paths with hyperlinks. To disable it choose Auto Correct from the Tools menu, and select the Autoformat as you type tab.

You have so many applications loaded on your PC that the program list on the Start menu expands beyond the screen. You want to organize the list so that the programs you use the most are easily accessible.

When you install a program, Win98 usually adds an entry to the Start menu's Programs list; each program entry can also contain its own entries in a submenu. By default, Win98 lists all new programs in alphabetical order; entries that do not need an entire folder are shoved to the bottom of the pile in their own separate alphabetical list.

Many users launch only few programs from the Programs list, so it is best to keep those entries at the center of the list, where you can easily see and access them. To do this, simply click the icon of the program or folder you want to move, then drag it to a spot on the list that is easily accessible. That way, you can put your ACCESSORIES folder next to your favorite word processing application, where you conveniently decide to place next to the Microsoft Power Point and Lotus Freelance Graphics entries.

Also remember that when you have the Programs list displayed on-screen, you can press a letter on the keyboard and the selector will jump to the first folder or entry that starts with that letter. For example, this is great for skipping directly to the Quicken entry