Go Classic in Vista
Have you recently started using Windows Vista? If so, are you having a little trouble navigating your way through the new setup of the operating system? At first, it can be quite confusing. Everything you were familiar with in Windows XP has been changed or moved to another location and that makes it really hard to get your work done, doesn't it? Well, lucky for all of us, there are a few things you can do to change everything back to the way it used to be. Read on for all the details!
As I'm sure you already know, along with Vista came a whole new Start menu. And I'm guessing some of you don't care too much for it. If that's the case, you can switch it back to the way it looked in XP. To do so, just right click on the Start button and choose Properties. Make sure you're under the Start Menu tab and check the option for Classic Start menu. Click OK and then check out your new Start menu. Now, doesn't that feel better?!
Once you switch back to the old Start menu, you can also customize it. Hit the Customize button and you'll see all the choices you have. You can add or remove items from your Start menu list, you can sort your items and so on and so forth. There's even a checklist of different options you can choose from. For example, you can choose to display your favorites, display the Run command, expand the Control Panel, use the personalized menus, etc. There are so many choices. When you're done, click OK twice and you'll be all set!
EMAIL ETIQUETTE
· Do not send messages without a subject line
· Do not send a 2nd email to complain "the first" was not answered quick enough; keep in mind some people are not on their computers every day
· Do not click reply to an old message and talk about something completely different from the subject line
· When responding to a message leave the original message intact
· Do not include oversized attachments in email; try to keep them below 500 kb, or send an email to the recipient and warn them you have a large file ready to be sent
· Do not send exe files in email; many email services will block the email
· Never pass on warnings or other alerts by email that say "send to all your friends". The vast majority of them are hoaxes.
· Do not use "Spam Challenge" emails and expect people to prove themselves, especially to a company since most companies would not be able to do this. And, spammers could send these same mails and fool people into "proving" they exist for nefarious reasons.
· Do not use "vacation responders". Your close friends will know if you are gone; everyone else can wait until you get home. If you really need to access email use a web mail account like Gmail you can access from anywhere
· Do not use or expect others to allow "read receipts". If someone wants you to know your mail has been read, they will respond to you .
· Don't send mails with cc's of all your friends; be sure you use bcc.
· Don't assume because you have a high-speed connection that everyone else does too. There are still many people using dial-up. Nothing is more irritating to those folks than receiving an embedded video they can't watch, or a huge embedded image that takes them fifteen or twenty minutes to download.
Title Bars
Widows all versions
Sometimes those program window controls, at the top right of almost every window, you know the minus sign, the rectangle(s) and the plus sign - can be difficult to work with.
Did you know that you don't need them anyway? Just double-click the title bar. In case you don't know, the title bar is the strip along the very top of the window which contains the program's name or "title". Double-clicking the title bar does the same thing as clicking the maximize button. To restore the Windows to its original size (if original size is not "maximum") just double-click the title bar again. If you want to see the window's context menu, right-click the title bar or hit the "Alt" key plus the spacebar key. You'll get choices to minimize, restore, or close the Window. And if the window has been maximized at some point in the current session, you'll see "maximize" there too.
And, speaking of maximizing, did you know that if you want to minimize all open windows at once just press the Windows key plus the "M" key; press the Windows key plus the M key again and all the windows are restored.
Twitter II - More things you need to know about Twitter
All computer users - all browsers - all operating systems
Many of you are confused by Twitter, what it's for, why it's there, and how to use it. Twitter asks one simple question: "What are you doing?". From that one simple question one of the Web's most popular phenomenon grew. Twitter is today's "Google".
If you're thinking it's just another Facebook or MySpace or NotOverTheHill, you're wrong. It's nothing like Facebook or MySpace or NotOverTheHill. It's more an infinite, constantly updating, instant source of information. Yes, some of the chatter is trite - "I'm having strawberry pancakes for breakfast this morning. It's such a lovely day here in Southern Florida." "I'm making my favorite vegetable soup right now." Certainly there is a lot of that going on. But, if you have a free Twitter account and you follow the right people, you can find out things that are going on around the world before you hear about them on CNN or other news networks.
For instance: http://twitter.com/cnn/ or http://twitter.com/nytimes/
The crash of the Turkish airliner a few hours before this was written, was "tweeted" on Twitter before it was ever reported on the news. Reaction to President Obama's speech to the U.S. Congress was posted on Twitter as the speech was being made. Twitter users knew about the four-hour Google outage on 24 Feb 2009 as it happened.
John McCain has a Twitter account; Barack Obama has one; George Stephanopoulos has one --as do many of the news anchors you watch on TV. Many senators and representatives have Twitter accounts. If you're into TV and Hollywood stars, many of them have a Twitter account. Many singers, photographers, writers and novelists have Twitter accounts. If you have a Twitter account, you can follow anyone you want and read everything they post. You can follow as few or as many people as you want and you'll get all of their "tweets" as they write them.
If Your laptop monitor stops
If your laptop monitor stops working, did you know you can hook an LCD monitor up to your laptop. Plugging it in is only half the battle. To make it work you need to do one more thing. After you've plugged your LCD monitor into your laptop you'll need to hold down the Function Key (normally the key with the blue fn on it) and tap the CRT/LCD key on the top row of keys (normally the F5 or F8 key). The key will either say CRT/LCD or have a picture of a monitor screen on it. You might have tap that key a couple of times before the monitor comes to life.
Sites for seniors
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Seniors.shtml
http://www.seniornet.org/php/default.php
http://web.pdx.edu/~psu01435/startup.html
http://www.seniorlinkonline.com/
http://www.seniorlinkonline.com/
Three Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Know
You know that Windows key on your keyboard? Most people overlook it, but that's a mistake. One press is the same as clicking the Start button with your mouse. And pressing it in concert with other keys can save you from having to reach for the mouse at all. Here are three Windows-key shortcuts you should memorize immediately:
- Windows-D: Minimizes all open windows so you can see the desktop. A second tap restores them.
- Windows-E: Opens Windows Explorer (the file-management tool, not the browser). This is much quicker than right-clicking the Start button and then Explore, or trying to find Explorer in the Start menu.
- Windows-F: Launches Windows' search tool (remember "F" for "find").
No comments:
Post a Comment