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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, September 24, 2006
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Website Desktop Shortcut
Tips & Tricks: Keyboard Shortcut: Context Menu
This Week's Topic: Email Website Links
Question: Keyboard Shortcut: The Menu Bar
Websites of Interest: Embassies of the World; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Merriam-Webster Word of the Day; Consumer Search
Beware of fraudulent security warnings!
When you are on the Internet, sometimes windows will open in the middle of the screen claiming to be a warning from Windows. Do not click! This is just a pop up ad trying to lure you to a website. Just close the window and go back to what you were doing.
Any security updates from Microsoft will appear at your system tray – that is at the bottom, right of the screen, by the clock.
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Special Feature: Website Desktop Shortcut
Do you have a website or two that you visit all the time? Maybe to read the news or check the weather. If you do, you may find it convenient to create a desktop shortcut – an icon – that you can just double click on, and Internet Explorer will open with the website right there.
Here are the steps:
Open Internet Explorer and go to the website you want the icon for. Look at the address bar on the top. There will be a little icon, probably the IE e, to the left of the http in the address. You are going to drag that right to the desktop. Once you release the mouse button, you will have a shortcut to that website on your desktop.
Alternate method: Open Internet Explorer and go to the website you want the icon for. Right click on a blank spot somewhere on the website. In the menu you now see, left click on Create Shortcut. A small window will open telling you that a shortcut to the current website will be placed on your desktop. Click the OK button.
Now, just double click on that icon, and you will be right at your website.
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Tips & Tricks: Keyboard Shortcut: Context Menu
Hold down the Shift key and press the F10 key. You will see that it does the same thing as a right mouse click – it opens the context menu. Use the up or down arrow key to go to the item you want and then press the Enter key.
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Today's Topic: Email Website Links
Question: What do I do when I come across a link in an email that I can not click?
Answer:
When you receive an email that contains links, and those links are not in blue, underlined text, you will not be able to just click on it and go to the website. In that case, you have to copy and paste the link into your web browser to go to the website. Here is how you do that:
Highlight the text in the website address. Point the mouse pointer to the first character of the link, hold down the left mouse button, and, while you continue to hold the button down, move the mouse to the last character in the address (this is a mouse action that may take some practice to gain control of). When the entire link is highlighted, release the left mouse button. Being careful not to click elsewhere and un-highlight the link, click Edit on the menu and then Copy.
Open Internet Explorer and click in the address bar. Remove the current address. If you are using American Online, click in the address bar and remove the current address. Click Edit on the menu and then Paste. You will now see the address you just copied appear in the address bar. Press the Enter key on the keyboard and you will open the website.
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Question: Keyboard Shortcut: The Menu Bar
Question: In many programs I noticed that certain letters in the menu words are underlined. The F in File is underlined and so is the E in Edit; each word has one letter underlined. Why?
Answer:
These are keyboard short cuts using the Alt key. If you would prefer to use your keyboard instead of the mouse to give commands, hold down the Alt and the press the f key. That will open the File menu. To open any of the menus, hold down the Alt key and press the letter that is underlined.
Once the menu is open, you can continue to use the Alt key in combination with a letter, to select any of the choices listed with an underlined letter. Or, you can use the up or down arrows to move to your choice and then select it by pressing the enter key.
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Websites of Interest:
Embassies of the World
At embassyworld.com, world travelers can find embassies from just about any country, wherever they are.
http://www.embassyworld.com/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC site is a great starting point for information on diseases, allergies, injuries, vaccines, and more, with easy-to-understand answers.
http://www.cdc.gov/
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day. This website uses the word in a sentence and gives a little history of the word.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
Consumer Search
At this website, you will find product reviews on items in hundreds of product categories. Take a look here before you buy.
http://www.consumersearch.com/ |
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