Computer Tips and Tricks
December 16, 2001 - Sending web pages to your friends
2002 quick tips/lessons from Jeff Levy - the computer guy on KFI - Talk Radio - Sundays
1. Defrag your computer -
why do I need to defrag - all the small1 pieces on your hard drive will be reorganized so that each file from each particular program is stored sequentially. This will increase the speed of your computer system dramatically.. here is how you do it on your computer at school. go to your desktop, right click on "my computer" then right click on the C:/ drive, then click on "properties", and "tools, and then "defrag" - while you are at it do a scan disk, or optimization of the drive also.
here is information about computer help. http://www.thetechguys.com/computer_questions_and_answers.htm
2. Clean the Cookies and History from your computer: go to your c: drive, then to winnt, and profiles, go to your profile (whis is same as your username), click on cookies, and delete all of the cookies, then go to history, and clean and delete all of the files in history.
3. Multiple programs open at the same time: many times faculty and staff are working on a document, with word, or excel, and have multiple copies of the same program open at the same time. This happens by not using just one application or program at a time. So, go to the bottom of the computer screen, to the tray (this is the bar at the bottom of your windows, and click with the right button on each program, and close all of the applications except the one you are working on. Then click on the control key, lower left of the keyboard, and the letter "S" on the keyboard at the same time, and that saves your document. Do this regularly to avoid losing your file.
4. Finding Information - have you ever been lost on a web page of text, and cannot find what you are looking for? well
here is a little trick. on any webpage, or even document page, just hold down the control key (lower left of your
keyboard), at the same time as the "f" key ("f" for find), and a dialogue box opens, type in a word or words - the one
you cannot seem to find, and voila, the computer finds that word
5. Wordpad - did you know there is a fast, simple word processor you can use for copying text, etc. it is wordpad, click
on start (lower left corner) windows 95/98, then programs, accessories and wordpad. it opens up this simple word processor which you can use.
6. Cut and Paste - you need to copy something from a webage, and email it to a friend. so go to top of your computer
page, click on edit, then select all, then edit/copy - that copies it to cybermemory (about 6" behind your computer and
to the left - joke), then go to your message box in your email, and click on edit and paste, and voila, text is copied
into your email message box ready to send. If you do not want to select all of the text, then place the pointer of mouse
over the text you wish to copy, click on left button of mouse, move the mouse over the text you wish to highlight, then
click on edit/copy, or you can click on right mouse button, then click on copy, or you can hold down control key, and hit
"c" key at the same time to "copy" the highlighted text. enjoy
7. Renaming Icons on your desktop you have a lot of desktop icons. want to rename one (to shorten the text under the
icon), place your pointer on top of the icon, click on the right mouse button, then click on rename and rename the icon
(some programs will not allow you to do that, but usually it will advise you that you cannot rename the program)
8. Visit your previous files - tired of clicking on "back/back/back" in your browser to visit previous files, etc. here is a trick, in IE browser,
click on top, view, then GO to, and it will show you the last 506 files, programs, etc. you visited, and then just click
on the file you want to visit, much easier than back/back/back. in Netscape, you click on Go, and visit your previous
links/files/programs
9. Windows Explorer program - this is a great program to check out and manipulate files and folders on your hard drive. click on
start/programs/windows explorer.you can move one file from one folder to another by clicking on the right hand side of
the folders, select the file, and then click using your left button on the mouse, place the mouse pointer on the file to
be moved, and now drag it to the new folder location. this is called drag and drop. remember to keep the left button of
the mouse depressed while you are dragging and dropping the file. ifyou only want to copy a file to another location,
then put the mouse over the file to be copied, click on the right button of the mouse, click on copy, then go to the new
folder, place the mouse pointer over the folder, click on the right button of the mouse, an paste, and it will paste the
file to the new folder.
10. Opening another browser window - sometimes I need to open up a new browser window, since I want to do some
other search, and go back to the original browser window, without clicking, back/back, etcn. so to open another window
both in netscape or in internet explorer, I type control/"n" (for new), so I hold down the control key, the lower left
key on the keyboard, and at the same time I hit the "N" key and my browser opens up another browser window so can do a
search with that one, and then just click on the lower tray to go back to the original browser location
11. History Button - did you know that if you click on the button to the right of the address this will give you a list of
some of the recent visited websites. this helps you to return to some of your previously visited webistes if you forget
the website addresses. also another way to monitor where your kids are surfing, or a previous user of your computer, just
hold down the control key, lower left of keyboard, while hitting the "H" key for history. this works also the same for
netscape browsers. it will not give you a list of the visited websites from most recent to earliest. this is a great way
I check up on students after they leave class to see if they were surfing on other sites other than the ones we were
working on. I tell the students about this feature so they know in advance I can check after they leave any class to see
if they had remained on task while we were using the internet.
12. Location of Links - did you know that each link you place your pointer on, will reveal its actual location, or address
at the bottom of your browser, in internet explorer it shows the address right next to the white box with the explorer
symbol in it, in netscape, also you can rest your pointer over the link, and it will reveal the webiste address at the
bottom of your browser on the left side. this is nice sometimes to see the exact address
13. Opening new folders - - almost every program you use, Ms word, and excel, allows you to open up a new folder directly
when saving a new file. thus if you want to set up a new folder, click on save as, then click on the folder on the save
as dialogue box, the second folder to the next and it says folder, new, open up the new folder, and save you new file in
it. this allows you to organize all of your new files into new folders, and keep your files organized. happy organizing
14.What is the official time - The Official U.S. Time Log on to this site and check your computer's time (in the lower right
corner of your screen for Windows users) against the Official U.S. Time in any time zone. Cooperatively provided by the
two time agencies of United States: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its military counterpart, the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO), the readings at this site maintained by both agencies should never differ by more than 0.000 0001 seconds from UTC (Universal
Time Coordinated). http://www.time.gov/
15. How to Bookmark webpages or useful links: Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator Saving Web Page Addresses A great way to return a visit to a web site is to
book mark the page. A bookmark is used to save the URL of a web page that you visit often. Bookmarks are also referred to
as favorites in some browsers. When a web page s "bookmarked" the browser saves the web page's address. Then all that is
needed to return to the site is a click on the browser's bookmark. Here are some examples of how to describe bookmarking
your web site: