# Computer Tricks



## GB (Feb 16, 2005)

What are some of your favorite computer tricks?
Here is one of mine.

When typing a web address into the location bar are you sick of having to type the www. part and the .com part? Try this instead. Lets say you want to go to Discuss Cooking. Type discusscooking without the www. and without the .com. Once you type discusscooking hold down the ctrl key and hit enter. http://www. will automatically be added before whatever you typed and .com will automatically be added at the end of whatever you typed. Note this technique will only work with .com addresses (not .net or .edu or any others). There is a way to do this with non .com addresses, but I don't remember off the top of my head what it is. Give it a shot. You will never want to type www. again


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## PA Baker (Feb 16, 2005)

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is such a great trick!  Thanks, GB!


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## nicole (Feb 16, 2005)

GB how did you find that out?


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## In the Kitchen (Feb 16, 2005)

Thanks GB!  I do so appreciate any 'short cuts' no matter what they are.  Just the fact that you thought of us makes me feel so grateful.  Something one gets used to everyday but fails to consider others.  Like opening a door for someone else.  Every effort someone offers is appreciated.  I do thank you and will try to remember to just type the address, hit control and enter.  Have to repeat this several times in my mind in order to do it.


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## GB (Feb 16, 2005)

My pleasure guys!

Nicole, I am not sure how I found that one out. It might have been on a TV show, or perhaps online somewhere. I have been using that trick for years so I don't really remember exactly. I am lucky if I can remember what I did last week


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## nicole (Feb 16, 2005)

well, it's true. Your learn something new everyday. Thanks


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## thumpershere2 (Feb 16, 2005)

Now that is great GB thanks.


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## AllenOK (Feb 16, 2005)

Well, I'm using a laptop these days more than my desktop, so I'm really getting used to keyboard shortcuts.

When working with a word processor or image editing software, F12 will open the Save As dialog.  <Ctrl><S> will save the file into the root directory it came from.  <ctrl><left arrow> will advance the insertion point to the left, at the start of the word.  <ctrl><right arrow> does the same thing, in the opposite direction.  <Shift><arrow key> will highly text in the direction of the arrow key one character at a time.  <Ctrl><shift><arrow> highlights text a word at the time, in the direction of the arrow key used.

Whenever you upload an image to the internet, either through an image hosting service or a different BBS that offers photo hosting, when the upload dialog box comes up and you can "browse" through the files, start typing the name of the fileee, and all files matching the letters you type will popup, you can then use a down-arrow key or up-arrow key to select the one you want.

A similar thing happens with the address bar of a web browser.  Start typing a URL you recently typed in, and it should give you the URL you previously typed.  You can use the up- and down-arrow keys to select the right one.

If you take LOTS of pictures and store them on your computer, use the date the picture (yyyy/mm/dd format) was taken as the first part of the name of the image.  I.e., if I took a picture today of my son Logan, I would name it 20050216Logan.jpg.  Windows will automatically sort the files in descending order, so the older files are first.


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## subfuscpersona (Feb 16, 2005)

*my tricks - I'd rather switch than fight*

Not "tricks" but ...

Don't use IE (Internet Explorer) as your browser. Switch to the *free* browser from http://www.mozilla.org/  - more secure, more flexible. (BTW, it can import all your IE bookmarks). 

Don't use Microsoft's Office Suite (eg: Word, Excell, PowerPoint). Switch to the *free* office suite from http://www.openoffice.org/   - more secure, has an excellent word processor, spreadsheet and presentation manager and is more than ample for a home user. (BTW, can open files created using Microsoft's Office Suite).


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## -DEADLY SUSHI- (Feb 16, 2005)

Anyone else use Mozilla???


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## Dove (Feb 16, 2005)

Might be letting the cat out of the bag here but................

did you know that when you receive an e-mail from someone that was sent to a lot of people inc. you that you can go to a name, right click on it, click on proprieties and get their e-mail address???

That is why I cut and paste if I'm sending things on. I never touch a computer in my life until we bought one 21/2 years ago and I started with "wonder what this will do.."


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## subfuscpersona (Feb 16, 2005)

-DEADLY SUSHI- said:
			
		

> Anyone else use Mozilla???



...can't resist... Anyone else (besides me) use linux?


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## Lugaru (Feb 16, 2005)

-DEADLY SUSHI- said:
			
		

> Anyone else use Mozilla???



Yeah... a friend messed up my IE while "fixing" my computer so I had to download mozilla and it works like a dream. 

One day my computer was acting particularly slow and it was giving me dozens of pop-ups... I couldent figure out why. Turns out I had accidentally opened Internet explorer instead of mozilla.


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## GB (Feb 16, 2005)

-DEADLY SUSHI- said:
			
		

> Anyone else use Mozilla???


I use their Firefox browser and I love it.


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## AllenOK (Feb 16, 2005)

I use Opera's browser.  I've been playing around with downloading Mozilla, just to see how some webpages I've written will work with the Mozilla browser.  But then, I've got some computer-geek friends that help me by beta-testing my webpages, and I ask them to try all sorts of different browsers.

Something I forgot to mention before, is that <ctrl><n> will open a new browser window in both MS IE and Netscape, and will also open a new document in MS Word.


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## tweedee (Feb 16, 2005)

On my computer I don't have to type in anything so long as i'm going to a site that i've been on here before. All i have to do is go to the location bar and left click on the down arrow and a box opens up showing me a list of all the places i've ever been and i click on the site i want and it comes right in.


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