Tech Tips

Many of us spend hours upon hours on computers every day yet I still see plenty of users who are unaware of some of the most essential basics of computer usage. Let’s take a minute to give you a quick refresher (or first time education) on some powerful shortcuts and tricks for every day use.

First, here are some keyboard essentials. If you look at your program menus, you’ll quite often see some text way over to the right side of the drop-down menu. For example, the Edit menu will show Undo, and far off to the right is CTRL+Z. That text indicates that if you press and hold the modifier key (in this case, the Control key) and then press the Z key, the computer will recognize it as the Undo command. Let’s take a look at some of the common commands used by almost every program. If you’re using a Mac, simply substitute CTRL for Command (the clover / apple key).

• Close Window – CTRL+W
• Open – CTRL+O
• Print – CTRL+P
• Refresh – CTRL+R
• Select All – CTRL+A
• Save – CTRL+S
• Find – CTRL+F
• Undo – CTRL+Z
• Cut – CTRL+X
• Copy – CTRL+C
• Paste – CTRL+V

As noted, these shortcuts apply to almost every program (including the Windows operating system itself), but not all. There are also many other commands which work on a wide variety of programs, where supported. A couple of examples…

• Bold – CTRL+B
• Underline – CTRL+U
• Italic – CTRL+I

There are a few key Windows commands you should have in your arsenal (sorry Mac!). I bet you’ve never used that “Start” key (the one that looks like the Windows symbol, typically found between the ALT and CTRL keys on the left side of the spacebar) for anything other than opening the Start menu itself. Did you know it can also be used for various Windows functions?

• Start+E – Open the Windows file explorer
• Start+R – Open the “Run” command window
• Start+D – Show the Desktop (press again to toggle back)
• Start+F – Find files / folders
• Start+M – Minimize all open windows
• Start+Break (or Pause) – System Properties window

I don’t want to overload you, so I’ll give you one last trick – my favourite keyboard shortcut of all, and this one does work with both Mac and Windows, just with a different command for each:

• Windows: ALT+Tab
• Mac: Command (or clover)+Tab

As with most of these commands, you’re holding the modifier key and then pressing the secondary key. If you keep holding the ALT (or Command), you’ll see a pop-up window of all the currently running applications. The presentation of these items varies based on the operating system you’re using (XP simply shows the application icon whereas Vista and Windows 7 show a thumbnail of the program window), but you can press Tab again and again to cycle through the available programs. Want to cycle backwards? Hold the shift key too and when you press Tab, the selection will move in reverse. A cool trick also available for Windows 7 and Mac users; press ALT+Tab or Command+Tab once, keep holding the modifier so the programs are shown, then mouse over the icons – you can click on them to go to them!

Hope this helps speed up your computer usage and gives you an option to copy and paste when you simply can’t select it from the edit menu!

Your feedback is always welcome in the comments below.

Happy computing!

The lack of importance placed on personal and business security never ceases to amaze me, especially when it comes to passwords. Most people are using a simple password, something an outsider could guess at with a few tries and they often use the same password for every website. Not only should you be using a password with at least eight (8) characters, but it should contain a combination of mixed-case letters, numbers and symbols.
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Did you know November 23rd was Inernational Backup Day? It’s a day to encourage and remind people that they should have a backup of their data. No, this day wasn’t started by hard drive manufacturers to sell more units, it’s good practice and common sense as all drives will fail. Let me type that out again so it’s clear — ALL DRIVES WILL FAIL. The ‘when’ is a huge variable; I’ve seen units 3 days old crap out whereas drives over 10 years old are still spinning.
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No, that’s not a typo. Phishing is when people try to lure you in to providing personal information online by using falsified emails and websites which pretend to be “the real thing”.

Click here to take a test to find out just how smart you really are.

For the record, I scored 100% without cheating. I hope you do too.