Westfield High School Library: Cyberspace Branch

TIPS FOR COMPUTER USERS


These sites are not part of the Spring ISD on the Web, and Spring ISD has no control over their content or availability.

RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON

If you haven’t discovered the use of the right mouse button, begin to experiment with it. Point your mouse anywhere on your desktop, press the right mouse button (rmb) and see what you get. There will usually be a "properties" option on the appearing shortcut menu.
 Remember always to try the rmb in different places in Windows and your programs. Often you will get surprising results and options.
 For example, to copy and paste do the following: highlight text to be copied; click rmb; select copy or cut; select destination for file or folder; press rmb; select paste.
 To drag and drop, the rmb is also helpful. If you drag and drop while holding the rmb, you will get a menu with several options: copy here, move here, create shortcut here.

DRAG AND DROP

 Open Windows Explorer, revealing a two-panel screen. The left screen shows all the files and programs on the drive. The right panel shows the folders in each file. Scroll through folders and select any you want to move. Click on the folder and drag it to the left panel file you want it to go in.

START MENU ITEMS

 In order to quickly access frequently-used programs from the Start Menu when other applications are open, place these programs on your Start button menu.
 1.Click Start; click the right mouse button.
 2.Click Open; click Programs;
 3.Browse Programs; select any you want to move to the Start Menu.
 4. Using the right mouse button, drag any Program icon over and drop it onto the Start button; it becomes an item on the Start menu and is readily accessible during any other application. Some items I have added to my Start menu are Netscape, Wordpad, My Computer, Desktop, Office, Freecell (game), and Windows Explorer.

ADD SHORTCUTS TO THE DESKTOP

 For folders that you access often, put a shortcut to that folder on your desktop. From then on, double click on the desktop shortcut instead of browsing through My Computer or Internet Explorer or Start/Programs to find it.
 1.Right click on Start; select Explore. Browse until you find the folder in either pane.
 2.Select and drag the folder with the right mouse button to an open space on your desktop; release mouse button.
 3.Choose Create Shortcut Here from the resulting menu. Close all windows and you can now start the program by double clicking on the shortcut on the desktop.

RETURN TO THE DESKTOP (2 methods)
1. Put Desktop on your Start menu (see "Start Menu items" on Page 1)
2. Minimize all open windows (WinKey + D)

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

WinKey (Btwn. CTRL & ALT) Displays taskbar & Start menu
WinKey + E Opens Explorer
WinKey + F Opens Find
WinKey + R Opens Run
WinKey + D Maximize, minimize all windows
WinKey + M Minimize all windows
WinKey + Tab Flip between open applications on taskbar
Control + z Undo
Control + a Select all
Control + x  Cut selected text
Control + c Copy selected text
Control + v Paste selected text
Control + p Print text
Control + ESC Brings up Start menu
Control + B Bold
Control + I Italics
Control + U Underline

PRINT SCREEN

 When you want to print an entire screen with all buttons and links, use the Print Screen button on the keyboard. The current screen is sent to the Windows Clipboard, not the printer. To print the contents of the clipboard, you must use a separate application. Open Word, Wordpad, Notepad, or Paint, and Edit/paste the image there.
 1.Select Word, wordpad, notepad, or paint; paste the image (Edit/Paste).
 2.Resize the image if needed. If you are printing an entire screen, switch to Landscape mode first (file/page setup/landscape/ok) and the image will fit on a standard letter-size page.

THE TASK BAR

 It is not necessary to close one Windows application before opening another. You may have Netscape running, along with a couple of Word documents, a game, and a CD application such as PrintShop. This can get confusing, but Windows has the task bar to help you organize your work. The task bar, at the bottom of the page, shows which applications are open.
 You simply click on the one you want to work in, and Windows switches to that application. You can select to work in full screen or window form by toggling the middle button in the upper right hand corner. The left button ("the dash") minimizes the application and sends it as a label to the task bar; the "X", of course, closes the application.

CHANGING CASES  Often you can type several sentences without ever looking at the screen. If you accidentally typed with the Caps Lock turned on, all the characters will be in the wrong case. Don’t delete them and start over again. Instead:
1. Select the text
2. Choose format/change case
3. Choose Toggle case/ok
*For a more permanent "fix," choose Tools/AutoCorrect/Correct Accidental Usage of Caps Lock Key/ok.

PREVENT LOSS OF WORK

The AutoRecover feature saves your file automatically at set intervals so that you don’t lose your work if the computer crashes. It has to be turned on to work:
 1.Open Tools/Options
 2.Click Save tab
 3.Place check mark beside Save AutoRecover Info Every option
 4.Adjust the time save interval; ten to fifteen minutes is about right unless you are in heavy work. Click OK.

SELECTING MULTIPLE FILES FOR COPYING, MOVING, DELETING

NETSCAPE  E-MAIL SIGNATURE FILE
 To create a signature file which is always attached to any email you send using Netscape:
1. Open Notepad or wordpad (Start/Programs/Accessories).
2. Write your signature exactly as you want it to appear at the bottom of your email.
3. Save it to your Netscape user folder (usually Program Files/Netscape/users/[your name] as signature.txt.)
4. Go to Edit/Preferences/Mail & Groups/Identity/Choose.
5. Find your signature.txt file in your user folder; click open. OK. Thereafter your signature will appear when you compose email. (Delete the signature if you do not want it on a particular message.)
 **To send a Netscape page to a friend, click File/Send page. A message box automatically drops down with the URL of the page as a hyperlink in the message. Address the message, add a note if desired, and send.

 To create an automatic signature for GROUPWISE: From the main menu, select Tools/Options and double click Environment. Click the Signature tab, place a check mark beside Signature; type your desired signature in the space provided as you want it to appear each time you send a message. Next, choose either "automatically add" or "prompt me before adding"; OK/Close.

GARBAGE CLEANUP ON E-MAIL

Often you receive e-mail with lots of headings from former forwardings. You would like to send the body of the message on to someone else without all the "garbage."
1. Highlight the part of the message you want to forward.
2. Click Edit/Copy or Control-C
3. Click on "new message"; enter your recipient’s address and subject info.
4. Type any personal message to the recipient.
5. Click Edit/Paste or Control-V to copy what you selected.
6. Complete and send the message. You have saved a good deal of bandwidth by editing all the headers from the top.

BLIND CARBON COPIES

Often you want to send e-mail to multiple recipients but you do not necessarily want all of them to see your mailing list. The easiest way to do this is to send the message to yourself as the "to" recipient and use "bcc" or blind carbon copy for the other recipients. They will receive the mail but will not see any recipients but yourself.
1. Click on "new message"; enter your address in the "to" box.
2. Pull down address book; hold Control key down and select all desired recipients from your address book; click "bcc"; click Ok.
3. (Or) Click on "To", choose "bcc", type each e-mail address separated by a comma. Click Ok.
4. Compose message; sign; click Send.

BOOKMARK CONTROL

 When you click on Bookmarks/Add bookmarks, you add the current page to your "favorites" list. In the future, a simple click on that item on the dropdown bookmarks list will take you back to the selected site.
    As the bookmark list grows, it becomes unwieldy and needs to be organized. Click on Bookmarks/Edit bookmarks. Consider the resulting list and develop some main categories. For each category, create a new folder by clicking File/New folder. Name each folder (category) and click OK. After creating your folders, drag and drop each bookmark in your file into the appropriate folder. (Created folders might include Shopping, Curriculum sites, personal, misc., humor, technology, etc.)
  If your bookmark file becomes so large that you lose track of what it contains, you can easily find a misplaced bookmark. Open the bookmark file and press Control-F to bring up the Find Bookmark box. Enter a catch phrase to identify the file in the Find Field and click OK. Communicator will highlight matching bookmarks.
  Often there are several bookmarks automatically listed by Netscape, as well as some you added but no longer use. These are easy to delete. Select Bookmarks/Edit bookmarks. Click on any bookmark to highlight it; then press Delete.
  After your bookmarks are organized into folders, adding a new site to a particular folder is efficient. While on the new site, click Bookmarks/File bookmark. Click the desired folder the site fits into, and your new bookmark is filed right where you want it.
  Utilize Communicator’s Personal Toolbar to display your favorite bookmarks for quick access. Go to the desired site/Click on the icon to the left of the netsite address/Drag and drop the icon to the toolbar directly below the location. Click on the toolbar favorite whenever you want to go directly to that site. You may also add a website to your Start menu by dragging the netsite icon to the start button and dropping it (for instance, type www.spring.isd.tenet.edu/whs/lib in the location box; then drag the netsite icon to either the personal toolbar [located on the line under the bookmarks button] or to the Start button for immediate access to my library Web page in the future).

WORD TIPS
 

  • You can select (highlight) a single word in a Word document by double-clicking the word.
  • You can triple-click anywhere in a paragraph to select the entire paragraph.


    • MAINTENANCE TIPS

     CLEAR CACHE
     If you surf a lot, it is a good idea to clear the cache (where images are stored) periodically. Select Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Cache. Click clear memory cache/Ok. Click clear disk cache/Ok/Ok.

     SCANDISK
     Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System tools/Scandisk. Select C drive, standard fix, and automatically fix errors/Start.
    This tool fixes errors on the disk drive and should be utilized about once a week. Always run Scandisk immediately after a system crash, lock up, power failure or other system problem. Turn off other applications while performing this operation.

     DISK DEFRAGMENTER
     To keep the hard disk running at its best, run defrag after you run scandisk. RUN DEFRAG TWO TIMES whenever you run it. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System tools/Disk defragmenter. Select Drive (C); click Ok. When the first defrag is complete, instruct the computer to run it again on the same drive, even if it tells you it is unnecessary.

    PROPER COMPUTER SHUTDOWN

     UNFREEZING THE COMPUTER (Things to try—in this order)


    CONSERVING INK IN PRINTER CARTRIDGES

     The printer default for printing is usually set at normal or best. Most things you print would be acceptable in draft quality and in black and white instead of color.
     When you click on "print", a print dialog box will appear. Click on the Properties box. Select print in Greyscale and Econofast. This will save both your color ink and your black ink.

    NETSCAPE NEWBIES TIPS