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Technology
Info, Tips, FAQs Quick Tips - Quick Computer Tips
X Tip -- Keep It Locked Up In Mac OS 9, you can encrypt your files and folders so no one can sneak a peek without knowing your password. To encrypt a file, click once on the file to highlight it, the go to the File menu and choose Encrypt. You'll be asked to provide a password. Lock it, keep it, mail it, archive it. The only thing you don't need to do is worry that someone will see it without your permission. ~~~~~
Highlighting When you right-click something and then scroll down the resulting menu, each command appears highlighted in dark blue. (That is, assuming you're using the Windows Standard scheme.) The same thing happens when you select icons in a window or an e-mail in your mail program, and so on. They appear blue. By changing the colour of the Selected Items desktop component, you can change the colour of all highlighting. Follow the steps above to access the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box, then click the down arrow under Item and choose Selected Items. To the right of this option, click the down arrow under Colour and click your highlighter colour of choice. How about fuschia? Click Apply or OK. ~~~~~
System Restore In Windows Me, System
Restore is a method that can be used to put the To create a checkpoint,
Click 'Start' then go to Programs, Accessories, Now, select 'Create a Restore Point' and click next. Type in any name for this checkpoint and click Next, then OK. ~~~~~ WINDOWS 95 QUICK TIP: If you are not using DoubleSpace or DriveSpace, delete drvspace.bin and dblspace.bin from both the C:\ and C:\Windows directories. This will free additional DOS memory and speed your system startup. ~~~~~
Just Your Style (Sheets) When you use style sheets, you can make changes to your Web page(s) in one centralized location. This prevents you from having to change each tag on your Web page(s) individually and helps maintain a consistent appearance for your Web page(s). For example, you can change the font, size, and colour of every heading that uses the H1 tag in your Web pages at once. ~~~~~
Going Backwards in a PowerPoint Slide Show Have you considered how handy it would be to use the left mouse button to move forward one slide and use the right mouse button to move backward one slide. To do this, run PowerPoint and open a slide show. Now, choose Tools | Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Deselect the check box labelled "Popup menu on right mouse click" and click OK to close the dialog box and apply your selection. Press F5 to run the slide show and you'll find that a left click moves to the next slide, and a right click moves it back one slide. ~~~~~
One function for many options -- Part 2 In a previous tip we talked about using a single function to perform multiple tasks by passing values to it. Here is one way to achieve this - each button passes a value to the function telling it the button number. An IF test in the function checks which button it is and responds appropriately. To test it yourself, place these statements in the body of the document inside a set of form tags: <input type =
button value = "Photos"onclick = changepage(0)> Now place this code inside a set of script tags in the document head: function changepage(buttonnum)
{ Test the result by clicking the buttons. ~~~~~
One function for many options -- Part 3 In the previous tip we looked at one way you could use a single function for more than one task. In that case the calling statement passed the button number to the function where it was dealt with. Here's an alternative to that code. In this case the calling statement passes a URL to the function, making the code reusable for multiple buttons without any alteration. To see it at work, place this code inside a set of script tags in the head of your document: function changepage(page)
{ Now place this code for two buttons into the body of the page, inside a set of form tags (you'll need to join the first two and the last two lines together to form just two lines): <input type =
button value = "Photos" onclick = changepage("photos.htm")> ~~~~~
Shortcut to Expansion If you press the Ctrl button while you click the Maximize button in the upper-right corner of a folder or Explorer window, the window expands to full screen and the Taskbar disappears. When you have opened a window in full-screen mode, pressing Ctrl+Esc or the Windows key still displays the Start menu. ~~~~~
Re-searching Note: This tip works with Word 2002, but it may work in other versions of Word with very little alteration. Give it a try! Word 2002 remembers the last bit of text you searched for. It appears selected (highlighted) the next time you summon the Find and Replace dialog box. That's handy if you want to find the same bit of text again -- or you can edit that text, modifying it slightly to find something else. If you cast your eyes to the right side of the Find what text box, you see a drop-down arrow gizmo. Clicking that gizmo displays a scrolling list of text you've previously searched for. To re-search for a bit of text you've already searched for, click the drop-down arrow and click on the text you want to find again. Click the Find Next button and you're off on your way. ~~~~~
Much Ado about Undo The Undo command on the Edit menu changes in response to whatever action you just took. Because it keeps changing after each action, if you forget to strike when the iron is hot, so to speak -- by using the Undo feature to restore the worksheet to its previous state before you choose another command -- you then need to consult the pop-up menu on the Undo button on the Standard toolbar to select the specific action that you want undone. To open this menu, you click the drop-down button that appears to the right of the Undo icon (the curved arrow pointing to the left). After the Undo drop-down menu is open, click the action on this menu that you want undone. Excel will then undo this action and all actions that precede it in the list (which are automatically selected). ~~~~~
General -- Feel The Power Often overlooked but easy to do is using the power key to bring up the dialog box to shutdown, restart, or send your Mac to sleep. Just press the power key to invoke this dialog box. ~~~~~
Change File Association Want all your .TXT files to open in Word instead of the default program, Notepad? Change their association. Inside any Explorer window, select Tools, Folder Options. Click the File Types tab and under "Registered file types," select the file type for which you'd like to change the association — in this case, TXT Files. Click Change, select your program of choice — in this case, Microsoft Word--click OK then click Close. ~~~~~
More Free Messengers AOL Instant Messenger isn't the only free messenger on the block! Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger -- to name just a couple -- are also worth a test drive. Here's the scoop: * Yahoo! Messenger 5.0 http://messenger.yahoo.com is available in Windows, Mac, UNIX, Palm, and mobile phone versions to help you keep in touch with virtually any Internet device. Check out their unique IMVironments -- themed backgrounds where a cartoon character representing you interacts with friends' characters. * MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.com/download/download.asp also offers multiple platform-specific versions for Windows (including Windows XP), the Mac, PocketPC, and even Microsoft TV. If you've got a sound card and microphone, try out the voice capability -- it's like getting free long-distance phone service! ~~~~~
Obtaining Internet Image Properties If you're curious about the height, width, and file size of some of the pictures you encounter on visited web pages, you can get Netscape 6 to acquire that information for you. All you have to do is right-click the image you're interested in and choose Properties. This procedure works in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and Opera 6 as well. ~~~~~
Automatically Formatting Word Documents If you need to adhere to a standard format on many of your Word documents, you can use the AutoFormat feature. To do this, run Word and open a document. Choose Format|AutoFormat. When the AutoFormat dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Document list box and select the type of format to use. Click OK to apply the formatting. If you don't like the formatting you applied to your document, you can press Ctrl + Z to undo the changes. ~~~~~
General -- Keyboard Tricks Volume I Mouse Down on startup will eject removable media items Command-Option-Shift-Delete will bypass the internal drive at boot time R at startup will force PowerBooks to reset their screen D will make the Mac use the internal hard drive to be the boot device Command-Option-O-F will boot into Open Firmware -- Scary!! Command in OS 9 will disable virtual memory at boot time ~~~~~
Change Icon Used For File Type Bored with the icons Windows XP uses for files? You can change the icon used for almost any file type to your icon of choice. Inside any Explorer window, select Tools, Folder Options. Click the File Types tab and under "Registered file types," select the file type you want to edit. Click Advanced, then click Change Icon. Select a new icon, then click OK (or click Browse, navigate your way to another icon file, such as c:\Windows\System32\Pifmgr.dll or c:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll, click Open, select an icon and click OK). Click OK, click Close, and from now on, files of that type will display the icon you selected. (Note: If you've customized a file type, you'll see a Restore button instead of an Advanced button. Click Restore to restore the file type to its default, follow the steps above to change the icon, then go back and set the customization. The new icon won't show up on the File Types tab, but it will appear on your desktop.) ~~~~~
Adding A Web Image To Your Desktop In I.E. 6 If you run across an image that you like while browsing, you can add that image to your desktop. To do this, right-click the image and choose Set as Desktop Item. A dialog box will ask if you want to do this. Click Yes to continue. To remove an item from your desktop, move the mouse near the top of the image. When the title bar opens, click the Close box (the X in the right corner of the title bar). ~~~~~
Click here -- advertising banners Even if you're not
a member of a banner exchange, you can easily add a small banner ad
to a FrontPage Web site that will display a set of rotating images.
To do this, choose Insert, Web Component, Dynamic Effects and choose
the Banner Ad Manager effect and click Finish. In the Banner Ad Manager
properties dialog, set the height and width of the ad and choose a Transition
effect. You can then use the Add button to select the images to display
in rotation. Set the URL that the images are to link to and click Ok
to finish. Be aware that this series of images can only be linked to
a single Web site.
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