Simple tutorial articles from

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS in MS WORD

Are you having problems with your mouse? Eating & drinking & leaving crumbs everywhere? Or is it just that it won’t do what you want when you want it. The best advice is to ignore bad mouse behaviour by using some simple keyboard shortcuts when working on your computer.

Just hold down the Ctrl key and the letter at the same time to switch a function on & repeat the process to switch it off.

FUNCTION SHORTCUT KEYS

Select all text in a document Ctrl + A

Copy Ctrl + C

Paste Ctrl + V

Cut Ctrl + X

Undo Ctrl + Z

Bold Ctrl + B

Italics Ctrl + I

Underline Ctrl + U

The above are normal shortcuts and common to most programs.

More cheese & wine called for, I think …

MAKING YOUR OWN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Spring is here and your mouse should be out taking exercise – so develop more shortcuts and set your mouse free to enjoy life.

To make your own keyboard shortcuts, go to Tools on the main menu and down to Customize. Click on the Keyboard button in the window that has opened. Customize a keyboard window opens – select the Category you want (e.g. Tables) by clicking on it, then select the Command you want, (e.g. Centre align). If there is already a keyboard shortcut, it will show in the Current keys panel. However, if it is blank, type in your own keyboard shortcut in the Press new shortcut key panel. Then click Assign and close the window. Your new keyboard shortcut will now work.

If you don't like the changes you make, you can return to the default shortcut key settings at any time.

You can print a list of the shortcut keys you have changed by clicking Print on the File menu. In the Print what list, click Key assignments.

Margaret from The Full Poodle Computer Repair & Training

TURNING OFF AUTOMATIC FUNCTIONS IN WORD

No, I don’t mean the ability to stand up and chew gum at the same time! Or just breathing …. Back to the heady world of computers and the annoying way they insist on putting in a capital letter after each full stop, e.G. Here for example. OK, you can go back and put it right each time – or you can sort it out for good.

Go to Tools and then down to AutoCorrect Options. A new window should open titled AutoCorrect: English (UK). On the AutoCorrect tab there are several functions you can turn on or off by clicking the appropriate box. Rather than turn off automatic capitalisation, click on Exceptions and add your own exception to the rule.

MORE MOUSE TIPS

I meet a lot of cats when I’m training who show a lively interest in computers by running over the keyboard to produce some interesting results – but perhaps they should concentrate more on controlling mice …

Left button or right button or the whizzy wheel in the middle – what are they all for except to confuse the average cat?

The whizzy wheel is an easy way to scroll up & down in programs and invaluable when you are used to it – but, possibly the most underused mouse tool is the RIGHT HAND button – click this button in almost any program or anywhere on a computer screen to bring up a mini-menu of possible options.

Go on – try it. Right click anywhere in the main part of your *desktop but not on an icon to bring up a mini-menu – hover your mouse over any options that haveto see even more appear.

If you are using Windows XP and your photos are saved onto your computer, you can have a random selection of your pictures as your screen saver. So, from your desktop mini-menu, move down to Properties and left click to open the Display Properties window, then look at the tabs; left click on the Screen Saver tab and then left click on “My Pictures Slideshow”. You can change the frequency/delay by clicking on ‘Settings’. ‘Preview’ allows you to see the effect.

From the Display Properties window you can also select a different desktop background and overall colour scheme by clicking on the appropriate tabs & choosing whatever appeals.

It’s a great way to see your photos – and should keep your cat amused.

(*Computer jargon? The desktop is your main computer screen with various programs/icons on it)

RESIZING PHOTOS for EMAIL (using Windows XP)

How not to upset your friends and relations by clogging up the highways

Yes, it is a truly stunning picture of Rob’s bicycle – to say nothing of the artistic integrity involved – and everyone in my email Address Book should have the opportunity to admire his photography.

However, not everyone is on Broadband and downloading photos on a slow dial-up connection will clog up Aunty Ethel’s email, so she isn’t getting regular updates from the Training Competition Hamsters Society – and then I’m in trouble. Avoid disturbing the whole hamster communication network but still share your prolific photographic prowess

1. Go to your photos (i.e. My Pictures folder). Best view is ‘Thumbnails’ so you can see your photos. View - Thumbnails

2. Select the photograph you wish to email.

3. Right click on your photo & go down to Properties to view the size of your photo (e.g. 4.36MB)

4. Right click on your photo again and go down to Send to and across to Mail Recipient. A “Send Pictures via Email” window opens asking if you wish to resize your pictures. Click on Show more options … to expand the window and offer three options: Small, Medium or Large. Select one of these and click OK

a. Small brings the size of our example 4.36MB photo down to 89.6KB

b. Medium reduces the size to 135KB

c. Large reduces the size to 213KB

5. Your email window opens with the photo attached. Continue with your email as normal & send. The email will go to your Outbox & be sent when you are on-line. If you are on Broadband with a router, then your photo will be sent immediately.

And you never know - I might get Aunty Ethel to drive her car less and use her bicycle more, so that both of us are improving traffic flow!

RESIZING PHOTOS for WEBMAIL

If you use a web mail service (e.g. Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo) then the previous article’s method of resizing your photos for email WON’T have worked – Aunty Ethel might be quite relieved, as you’ve promised not to clog up her PC by sending large photos and her hamsters are now winning competitions. However, I’m sure she would appreciate Uplyme in the Snow (aaah, the artistic integrity …) which we can successfully resize for her slow old dial-up connection. So, let’s start again:

1. Go to your photos (i.e. My Pictures folder). Best view is ‘Thumbnails’ so you can see your photos. View - Thumbnails

2. Select the photograph you wish to email.

3. Right click on your photo & go down to Properties to view the size of your photo (e.g. 1.22Mb)

4. Right click on your photo again and go down to the Open with option and across to Microsoft Photo Editor. . Your photo should now open in that program.

5. The next step is to protect the original photo, so in the File menu choose the Save As option. Change the file name to something easily recognisable, e.g. insert ‘email’ after the photo name. Now save the file. Good, you are no longer working on the original photo.

6. From the Image menu select Resize. An input box will appear.

7. From the dropdown menu under Units select Pixels. Now change the top figure, marked Width to 800. You can place whatever value you wish here, but 800 is a good starting point. You will notice the Height figure change automatically to maintain the photo proportions. Click OK. The photo will shrink on the screen.

8. Close the photo, saving your changes.

9. Now go to your web mail and attach your new resized photo – see the reduced size of the photo (e.g. 147Kb)

Do you think I should tell Aunty Ethel, that hamsters are small, furry, nocturnal creatures that don’t grunt? No, she’s happy in her pignorance.

TEACH YOUR COMPUTER TO SPEAK DEVON

Annoyed by all those wavy red lines insisting you have mis-spelt a word when you know you haven’t. For example, it isn’t honorable to spell color without a ‘u’. Aaarrrgghhh! Your computer is speaking with an American accent. Rather than turn off the Spell Check, return your PC to a proper Devon burr.

Go to Tools, then down to Language, and across to Set Language. Find English (UK) from the list and click on it to highlight it. Click on Default. A little box appears asking “Do you want to change the default language to English (UK)?” Click Yes.

However, your computer still isn’t genuine Devon as it underlines Uplyme, Harcombe and Rocombe. And probably your surname – but contrary to popular belief, computers have old fashioned manners and require a formal introduction before recognising you, or any new word. Right-click with your mouse on the word you want to add (e.g. Uplyme). A mini-menu comes up with Add to Dictionary as one of the options. Click on this, the word is added and the annoying red line disappears.

Next time, how to change Automatic Functions and stop those irritating capitals.

STOPPING YOUR COMPUTER’S IRRITATING FUNCTIONS

(and I don’t mean its noisy late night parties for all its friends)

If you read the last article, your computer should now be speaking English, rather than having a Texan drawl and beginning to develop a more amenable personality. However, according to which version of Windows you have and how your computer was originally set up, it might still be trying to assert its authority by insisting on some irritating automatic functions, such as including unasked-for capital letters and American style dates.

TURNING OFF AUTOMATIC FUNCTIONS (e.g. capitalisation of letters)

From the main menu in Word: Tools – click on AutoCorrect options to open the AutoCorrect English (UK) window – click on AutoCorrect tab – check/uncheck as required. Only change these default settings if they really annoy you, as they can often be quite useful. Furthermore, if you have Windows XP, when an automatic function occurs, you will notice a blue line under the amended text. If you hover over this, a ‘lightning’ type symbol  appears with a black arrow  – click to get a sub-menu which gives you the option of accepting/amending/refusing the automatic change.

STOPPING AUTOMATIC HYPHENATION

From the main menu in Word: Tools – down to Language – across to and click on Hyphenation – check/uncheck options as required and/or click on Manual for manual hyphenation option.

TO CHANGE DATE SETTINGS

From ‘Start’, go to & click on Control Panel – (Classic view, not Category view) – click on the Regional & Language Options icon – select the Regional Options tab – if English (United States) is showing, click on the little black arrow  & select English (United Kingdom) – click OK.

Margaret Wiscombe from The Full Poodle Computer Repair & Training