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| TOP TEN WINDOWS TIPS |
May 31st, 1998
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1.The number one tip of any computer system is to NEVER keep just one copy of
anything! Especially data files you have created with an application program such as a word processor, spreadsheet,
etc. If that one copy is lost, all of your work is lost.
2.There are three buttons at the top of every window in the Title Bar:
On the extreme left is a small button with a line in it. This is the Control Button. Double clicking on the Control
Button will close any application as well as close Windows. If your application has unsaved data, you will be prompted
to save your work.
On the extreme right of any Title Bar are two other buttons. The first is a downward pointing triangle, which is
the Minimize button. This button will minimize any application to an icon at the bottom of your screen and leave
it running for quick accessibility.
The third button is an upward pointing triangle, which is the Maximize button. The Maximize button will make any
window zoom to full screen hiding all other windows. Once it is in the maximized state, the button will appear
with two triangles on top one another pointing both up and down. Clicking on this button will return the window
to its previous size.
3.Double click on the Windows background or "wallpaper" and the Task List
will pop up. The Task List gives you a list of all open applications and will allow you to "Switch to",
"End Task", "Cascade" or "Tile" windows, "Arrange Icons" or just simply
"Cancel" the request.
4.Learn the universal Editing Keyboard shortcuts. In virtually all Windows applications,
CTRL+C will copy selected text or graphic to the "Clipboard". The Clipboard is a special buffer that
will hold whatever is copied into it until you copy something new into it. Now you can go to another location in
the same application or to an entirely different application and press CTRL+V to paste the contents of the Clipboard
into its new location. If you wish to move the selected item, press CTRL+X which will cut it from the original
location and then you can paste it to its new location.
5.A quick way to view the PROPERTIES of an application is to double click on it's
icon while holding down the ALT key. The usual method is to select the application icon by clicking once on it,
then choosing the FILE command from the Program Manager menu, then select Properties.
6.A quick way to view the PROPERTIES of an program group is to double click on it's
icon "name" while holding down the ALT key. The usual method is to select the program group icon by clicking
once on it, then choosing the FILE command from the Program Manager menu, then select Properties
7.A quick way to access other open applications without minimizing the one you are
in is by holding down the ALT key and pressing TAB. Each time you press TAB, it will cycle you through each open
application until you get to the one you want.
8.Virtually any Windows application including MS Windows itself can be exited and
closed down by holding down the ALT key and pressing the F4 function key.
9.If a program locks up on you where ALT+F4 does not work and the cursor no longer
can access the menu, press CTRL+ALT then press the DEL key. In a few seconds the screen should turn blue and give
you a message. Press the ENTER key and wait at least one minute for MS Windows to clear the error. If it does not,
then press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice to restart your computer but doing so will lose any data you has not saved.
10.To ensure that your desktop comes up the same way each time you start MS Windows
V.3.x, use the following trick. Turn off, "SAVE DESKTOP ON EXIT" under the OPTIONS command in the Program
Manager menu. Arrange the desktop the way you wish to save it. Click on the FILE command, then while holding down
the SHIFT key, click on EXIT. These wills save your desktop exactly as you have it and prevent it from being saved
when you exit windows. This trick also works in FILE MANAGER to save layouts of drive windows.
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| May 17th, 1998 |
Multiple File Registrations
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Those folks who work with file formats that can be edited by more than one application have been grumbling
about the absence of multiple file registrations in Windows 95. Fact is, you can have multiple file registrations
quite easily. From Explorer's menu select View|Options|File Types and find the type of file you want to work with
and double click it. In the Edit dialog that opens you will see a box marked Actions. This is where Win95 stores
the actions to be taken when you double click on a file, drag it to a printer, and so on. You can have more than
one Open so long as each action is a unique character string. For example, you could edit the BMP file type registration
so that you have one entry named Open (MS Paint) and another named Open (Paint Shop Pro). For each entry edit the
actions needed to open the file with the appropriate application. Highlight one of the entries and click the Set
Default button. That will be the application used when you double click on a file of that type. If, however, you
right click the file, all of the entries you placed into the Actions box will appear on the context menu making
it easy to open the file with the application of your choice.
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| Printing to Files |
May 10th, 1998
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Desktop Publishers and other Windows users often print jobs to files. To print the file, you simply copy
it to PRN. If you create a file named COPYTOPRN.BAT in the Windows folder that contains the single line: COPY %1
PRN /b You can place a shortcut to this batch file in your Windows\SendTo folder, so that all you have to do to
print a disk file is to right click the file and choose Send To in the context Menu.
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| May 3rd, 1998 |
clearing the Other Folder
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Here is a tip for clearing the Other Folder Shortcut when using the Any Folder Powertool app: If you want to
clear the list of directories in the Any Folder...Other Folder shortcut go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER:
\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\OtherFolder and delete all the keys except (default). The
directories are sorted in the list box by the MRUList (Most Recently Used) key.
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