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Welcome to today's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, December 29, 2002
From All of Us at Sharper Training Solutions, we wish you a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Common Point Sizes -Keyboard Shortcuts
Special Feature: Freeing up Disk Space
Featured Webpage: Clean Up Your Hard Disk
Featured Computer Term: Paste
This Week's Topic: Adjusting Mouse Click Speed
Question: Available Hard Disk Space; Fixing Monitor Black Outs
Learning Series: Microsoft Word -Desktop Scraps: Saving a Selection
Featured Website: New Year's; Roller Coasters; America's Byways
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Using Links
A Link is a reference to a website. In this newsletter you will see links to many worthwhile, informative and fun websites. Here are the instructions on how to use links:
A link will be used one of two ways, depending on your email program.
If you see the link in blue, underlined text, all you have to do is click on it and a window with the Website in it will automatically appear on your screen.
If you see the link in plain text, you can copy and paste it into the address bar on your browser. Highlight the link with your mouse, click Edit up on the menu bar, and then click Copy from the menu that you just opened up. Open your browser (click the Start Button, point to Programs, click on Internet Explorer); click on the address bar. Click Edit up on the menu bar, and then click Paste from the menu that you just opened up. Press the Enter key on the keyboard and this will take you to the Website.
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Special Feature: Common Point Sizes -Keyboard Shortcuts
In your word processing program or any text-based application, when you use the Font Size pull-down list on the formatting toolbar, you can see a variety of common sizes, which you can use on your selected text.
If you prefer to use the keyboard instead of the toolbar, you can quickly step through these common sizes by using the following steps:
1. Select the text whose point size you want to affect.
2. Press Shift+Ctrl+> to advance to the next larger common point size.
3. Press Shift+Ctrl+< to advance to the next smaller common point size.
Every time you press Shift+Ctrl+> or Shift+Ctrl+<, the point size of the selection will decrease by one point.
If you want more precise control over the point size (for instance, making something 15 points), you must use the Font dialog box by choosing Font from the Format menu.
For more keyboard shortcuts, visit the Newsletter Archives on our website at:
http://stsico.com/html/kbshortcuts.html
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Special Feature: Freeing up Disk Space
This tip is for Windows XP users only.
In addition to cleaning out your temporary folder and your temporary Internet files, in Windows XP there is also another folder that you can clean out on occasion: the prefetch folder.
Windows XP knows what programs and files you use most frequently, and loads them in advance. That way, when you need the files, they are ready for you faster. The prefetch folder can get full of a lot of stuff, especially if you frequently install or un-install programs. To clean out the prefetch folder do the following:
Click on Start then My Computer.
Double click on your hard drive (usually this will be the C: drive) and then double click on the Windows folder.
Double click on the Prefetch folder, and select all the files in the folder. You can do this quite easily by clicking once on one of the files and then using the keyboard combination Ctrl + A.
Now, just hit the delete key on your keyboard to delete all the files in the folder.
For Windows 95, 98, ME and XP users, for more information on cleaning your hard drive, take a look below at the featured webpage section of this newsletter.
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Featured Webpage: Clean Up Your Hard Disk
Today's computers come with hard drives that have amazing amounts of disk space. But no matter how big, new programs, caches, and temporary files can use up this free space pretty quickly and cause clutter on the drive and computer slowdowns.
While you’ll see many programs out on the market offering to help you free up hard disk space, for a fee, there are several built-in tools in Windows for doing a thorough job of cleaning up the hard drive.
For instructions, with graphical explanations, of the Windows tools that you have on your computer, and can use to clean up your hard disk, take a look at our website: http://stsico.com/html/driveclean1.html
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Today's Computer Term: Paste
To copy an object from a buffer (or clipboard) to a file.
In word processing for example, blocks of text are moved from one place to another by cutting and pasting. When you cut a block of text, the word processor removes the block from your file and places it in a temporary holding area, a buffer, called Clipboard. You can then paste the material in the clipboard somewhere else
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Today's Topic: Adjusting Mouse Click Speed
If you’re having trouble double clicking, you can change the time intervals between clicks on your mouse from a very quick to a much slower double-click.
To do so, click the Start button, click Control Panel. Find the mouse icon and double click. Depending on your Windows version, look through the dialog box for the screen that says double click speed. There you will find a slide bar with which you can control your double click speed. Slide the bar to the left for slower and to the right for faster. Now, test it on the Jack-in-the-box or dolphin (depending on Windows version) and see if you like it.
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Question: Checking Available Hard Disk Space; Fixing Monitor Black Outs
Checking Available Hard Disk Space Question: I would like to know how much space is available on my hard drive and how much total space I have used. Is there a way to check for available disk space?
Answer:
Yes, there is a way to check your hard drive.
Double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. If you’re using Windows XP, click on the Start button and then My Computer.
Then, right click on your C: drive and left click on Properties in the resulting shortcut menu.
You will then see a pie chart showing you how much space on your drive is used and how much is free. You will also see numbers for of the total space on your drive, used space and free space.
Fixing Monitor Black Outs
Question: My screen saver comes on when there is no activity for 10 minutes, then goes dark after another 5 minutes. Lately I can't get the screen to come on again by moving the mouse or any other way. I have to turn the computer off and then back on, which causes the scan to run, which, from what I’ve been told, is not good if it happens all the time. Any suggestions?
Answer:
This can be caused by the energy saving features on your computer. You can turn them off to avoid this.
To do so, you need to open your display properties. Click on Start and Settings and then on Control Panel. Or, right click on the desktop, left click on Properties from the resulting menu.
Double click on the Display icon, and then click on the Screen Saver tab.
In the lower portion of the window, there will be a section for Energy saving features of monitor. Click the Settings button (or Power, depending on your version of Windows) in that section.
In the next window that appears, you will see settings for System standby, Turn off monitor, and Turn off hard disks. Change all three settings to Never and Click OK.
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Progressive Learning Series: Microsoft Word -Desktop Scraps: Saving a Selection
If you have a sentence, phrase, paragraph or several paragraphs in Microsoft Word that you use in different documents, you can save the block of text to make it easier to use in the future. All you have to do is select the text and then use the mouse to drag the selection to the desktop.
Microsoft calls the file created on your desktop a Document Scrap. When you need the scrap, you can simply drag it into a Word document.
If your desktop isn't readily accessible while you're working in Word, you can restore the Word window, size it to where you can see part of the desktop, then drag the text to the desktop. Or, you can select the text, then press Ctrl + C to copy it. Then, go to the desktop and press Ctrl + V to create your document scrap.
When you no longer need to use the scrap, drag it into the Recycle Bin to delete it.
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Today's Featured Websites:
New Year's
We've found so many fun and interesting New Year's websites. Instead of putting them all in this newsletter, we put them, along with our New Year's greeting to you, on our website at:
http://stsico.com/html/happynewyear.html A>
Roller Coasters
For a fun site full of info about a favorite amusement park ride: history of the roller coaster, favorite coasters, fastest wooden and steel coasters, and more, visit ultimaterollercoaster.com.
http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/
America's Byways
If you’re planning a vacation this winter, you can find out all about byways (scenic route for traveling, rustic back roads, less hectic than the interstates) at the America's Byways site. It features maps, detailed info about each byway, and photos. You can search through listings by state or by keywords. You can also send for a free map of 95 byways in America. Check out the site and plan a trip along a less-traveled route!
http://www.byways.org/ |
