Hints for Computer Use and Maintenance
from the
librarian
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Internet Use If you want to copy an Internet picture, right click the picture, choose “Copy” and then go to WordPad (usually Start/Programs/Accessories/WordPad), open “Edit,” and choose “Paste.” Now you can resize the picture before saving and using elsewhere. Just be sure you size diagonally to keep the picture in proportion. If “copy” doesn’t work, try again with the right click, only this time choose “Save picture as” and save as a file. A good place to save pictures is in My Documents/My Pictures from the desktop. If you have a choice of file type, use JPEG. Saving as Bitmap takes too much memory. If you are going to send a picture by e-mail, most computers will open JPEG files, but many don’t have enough memory to open bitmap files. If you use a scanner or digital camera, again save as JPEG for easier access from most programs. Too many links in your Internet “Favorites”? Open your Internet browser, click “favorites” button and choose “Organize Favorites.” The next window allows you to “create a folder” which you can then name as a category. Then you can move the favorites related to that category to that folder so you don’t have to read through long lists to find something you want. If you want a favorite more easily available because you use it frequently, move it to the folder called “Links” when you reorganize favorites. This will place it on your Internet browser screen at the top with other “Links” on that bar. You can delete any of those links you don’t use by using the “right click/delete” method. You can rearrange the links by the “click and hold/move to new location on the bar” method—you’ll see an enlarged cursor as a location before you let up on the button. If you wish to print only part of some text at an Internet site, rather than highlight/copy/paste to WORD or WordPad, just highlight and then go to File/Print/Selection. Only the highlighted portion will be printed, but if you fail to change the print instructions from “all” to “selection,” the entire file (could be 40+ pages!) will print. It’s a good idea to use File/Print Preview before printing so you can see what will print and how many pages it will be, whether you choose “selection” or you want to print the entire article/document. This also works when using WORD or other word processing programs. If what you are printing is too wide for 8½x11 paper, go to File/Page Setup and choose “Landscape” to turn the paper a quarter turn on the screen so the document will be printed as the wider version. This is another reason for Print Previewing. *If the material is opened in PDF (using Acrobat Reader), you cannot always highlight/copy/paste or highlight/print. Instead you must choose Print and then list the page numbers separated by commas and with no spaces. (Page numbers are given in the lower margin along with total number of pages) When moving from one fill-in area to another (such as your ID and password to login at a site), press the “Tab” key to move to the next area rather than aiming the mouse cursor at the box to be filled in—you won’t have to take your hands off the keyboard. E-Mail Tips If you don’t want that long list of names to appear at the top of an e-mail you send, don’t put the names of recipients in the “to” section. Instead, choose BC section (blind copies) and those receiving the e-mail will just see a statement in the “to” section such as “unspecified recipients.” If you regularly send e-mails to a particular group of people (a committee, club members, friends with similar interests), make a “Group” in your address book and eliminate all that clicking of names. Of course, when creating a group, you’ll have to type in the addresses that first time only. Before forwarding an e-mail, clean it up. Once
you’ve clicked “forward,” you can highlight and delete all
those names at the top of the message, especially if it has been forwarded
many times. If you make a mistake, close the “forward” and
start again with the original message or use Edit/Undo until you remove the
mistake. Don’t forward “true stories” or questionable pictures (pictures that seem possible but could be fake) until you check them out with a search in Truth or Fiction (www.truthorfiction.com) or Snopes (www.snopes.com). These are directly accessible from the General Information for the Community page way down near the bottom of the page: http://www.jcfumc.org/library/links/geninfo.html For e-mailed documents or pictures, copy and paste into
the message rather than attaching whenever possible. Anything
you attach usually won’t open unless the receiver has the same program
version as the original file. If you paste into the e-mail message,
the receiver can see/read it without that problem interfering. To insert pictures from your own files rather than attach them, place the cursor where the picture is to appear, then click INSERT (in the task bar at the top of the screen), choose PICTURE, then From File. Find the folder the picture is in, click the name of the desired picture file, and then click the INSERT button at the bottom of the window. Within the e-mail message you can click the picture and then drag a corner to enlarge or make the picture smaller. *Name picture files when you originally save them so you know what they are without opening them later. You can always right click and RENAME the picture file if it is NOT open at the time. Most e-mail programs have an option to prioritize a message (high, normal, low). For ASAP messages, choose “high priority” or for unrushed messages, choose “low priority” so the receiver can judge whether to read a message right away or leave it for later reading. Most messages are sent “normal priority” which is the default. When you receive messages, they will have a special marking if not sent “normal.” Some programs use symbols, some change the subject font to red for “high priority.” Do some experimenting by sending yourself some test messages—yes, you can send a message from yourself to yourself at the same address! I sometimes send a message and add myself in the BC (blind copy) so I know the message went out and how it appeared to those who received it. General Tips To highlight quickly without holding down that mouse button, click the mouse at the beginning of what you want to highlight, hold down the “Shift” key and click the mouse at the end of what you want to highlight. *Be especially careful not to touch any other keys or you’ll delete the highlighted section. Of course, you may use this method to delete something also. To maximize a window, double click the title bar of the window. This is easier than finding that little box to click in the upper right corner, missing it, and accidentally closing the window. To change Display Settings for the look of your desktop screen, right click a blank space in the desktop and then click “Properties.” This is shorter than going to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Display. Did you know there are many cute mouse pointer choices? Some will drive you nutty, but give them a try. Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Mouse and experiment. [My “mouse” pointer eats a hunk of cheese while a program is “working” and wiggles his tail while a file is opening—if the tail is stiff, the program has frozen and I don’t sit there and wonder! This does take some getting used to, though.] Lost & Found Can’t remember where to find a saved file? Do
this: Click
“Start” and choose “Search”
in the lower right column. Follow the
steps, beginning with where to search (documents, photos, etc.) In the search box, type the name of the file
if you know it, or a unique word or phrase that would appear within the text
of the document. If you want to know
what folder a file in the resulting list is in, right click on the file and click “Open Containing Folder” at the top of the new
window. [For older versions of Windows, right click the “Start” button and click “Find…” You may also type a unique word or phrase in the “find text” box. Then follow the steps. Start by searching in C:\Windows…, but if you have no luck, then search again in the entire hard drive ( C:\) When viewing the result of “Find…,” right click a file’s name and choose “Quick View” to see the contents without loading the file.] If you’ve sent something to the Recycle Bin and discovered you need it, open the Recycle icon on the desktop, right click the name of the “lost” file or folder, and click “restore (to original location).” If the “Start” button isn’t showing
at the bottom of the screen, press CTRL + If the “Start” button is missing and
you need to shut down the computer, press If the “Start” bar is not visible but it appears when you pass the mouse pointer over the area where it is usually located, go to Start/Settings/TaskBar…/Taskbar Options and uncheck “Auto Hide.” If the Task Bar is missing at the top of the screen, try clicking the area where it was—it may reappear. It may have been the victim of “Auto Hide.” If the Task Bar has mysteriously moved (grand kids playing or someone accidentally moved it), left click and hold down the mouse button in an open area inside the task bar and move the bar to a new location. You may have to move around the outside edges of the screen display. If you can’t see the Title Bar (above the
screen somehow?), try scrolling down with the bar at the right of the
screen. If that doesn’t work, click any part of the window and
hold down Many programs, such as WORD, will retrieve something you just deleted or lost…click “Edit” and then “Undo.” If the screen freezes (mouse pointer won’t
move), try pressing CTRL + CTRL + Z will undo just about anything you just did (before you make another move or keystroke). Hints for Word Processing If you type up a document or report and find that it is just a couple lines over into another page, try decreasing the margins and/or the font size. Sometimes the choice of font style also makes a difference. Use the Ariel font whenever possible since it is the easiest to read for those with visual difficulties. In WORD, if you try to take out an indention with no luck, place the cursor at the end of the previous line, press “Enter” and see if that will allow you to work with the next line. *If you then press “Enter” and no space appears between the lines as would normally happen, you know you’ve been successful! To temporarily eliminate outline indentions or numbering, press CTRL + X at the point first unwanted in a document. Always save before printing a document, just in case something freezes. Save before doing a print preview also—it’s too easy to click the wrong thing and lose a document. It never hurts to save every few minutes with the Save AS/Overwrite method. [If you use Save, you may not know where the document is saved—make it a habit to always “Save As”) If something goes wrong or you change something and want to go back to the original, you’ll have a good version as backup and you’ll know what folder it is saved in. Don’t keep important documents on your hard (C:) drive only—if the computer crashes, the
documents are lost. Save twice, once to the hard drive (probably a
category folder in My Documents) and once on a flash drive or writable CD-ROM
disc. Label all CDs for general contents or specific files. *Flash drives are often called Scan Disks
and fit into a Hints for Working with Files and Folders In working with files, you may want to delete or copy several files but not all that appear on the screen. In this case, click one to be included, hold down the “CTRL” key and click the random files to be included. When finished, delete the selected files by opening “File” and clicking “Delete.” To copy the highlighted files instead, open “Edit” and click “Copy.” To copy, go to the folder or screen you want to copy to and then open “Edit” and click “Paste.” If you want to copy or delete all the files in a folder viewed in Windows Explore or My Computer, click one file to highlight and then open “Edit” and click “Select All” to highlight all. Then proceed to copy or delete. If you want to copy or delete all but one file in a folder viewed in Windows Explore or My Computer, click the file NOT to be included, open “Edit” and click “Invert Selection” to highlight all but the one you originally highlighted. Then proceed to copy or delete. To create a Group Folder on the desktop, right click in a blank area of the desktop and choose “New” and then “Folder.” Type a folder name where “new folder” is highlighted. If you happen to click “New Folder” and can’t rename, right click on the folder and then click “Rename.” If you want to change the icon, right click the folder and choose “Properties” and then “Change Icon.” *Use this same routine to organize saved documents in “My Documents.” To move a file, open the folder to which you want to move the file. Click and drag the file to the opened folder. To move a folder, click and drag to the new location such as the desktop. Later versions of Windows will show such choices at the left of the open window when you highlight a file or folder. Click your choice and then choose the destination for the move, copy etc. |
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