THE KEYBOARD .... YOUR KEYS
TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM OF SPEED!
Although the mouse is a great invention and
is very intuitive and easy to use, the speed at which you can get things done
is hampered by continually taking your hand off the keys to move the cursor to the
appropriate place on the screen.
When the computer was first
developed, everything (and yes, I do mean EVERYTHING) was done with a key
or combination of key commands. There was no mouse and no touchpad.
There are a few that are self explanatory
that you can know just by reading your keyboard:
ENTER does what?
Right...enters words or numbers (data) onto your computer's long term memory (hard drive
or disk)
DELETE does what?
Right ... deletes individual letters or numbers one at a time from a line of text. Or it
can remove entire lines of selected data (text and numbers). Or, depending upon the
program, it can delete entire files or folders. You definitely want to be
careful with this one.
But there are unusual things you can do
with the keys on your keyboard. Things the gurus know but may not tell you.
For instance, when you are filling out a form online, isn't it annoying to type a word and
then click, type a word then click--- to get from one box to the next? Of course it
is.
Next time, try using the TAB key
when you are finished typing in the information in the box. you will automatically
go to the next box (called an "input field" or "text box" in geek
speak). You know what else is really neat? If you ever lose the ability to use
your mouse, you can get to all of your icons and tabs and folders and files simply by
using a combination of the TAB key and the directional arrows.
Yes they really can be used for something besides playing games without a joystick !
;-}
I am sure that your computer has always
behaved perfectly. It has always performed the programs like it is supposed to
. But I can tell you from personal experience, sometimes the computer will
stare at you more blankly than you are staring at it -- and it isn't doing ANYTHING!
I hate that. :-(
Of course what you do is the three
fingered salute. It has nothing to do with scouting. You press the CTRL key
(hold it down). Press the ALT key (hold it down). Then press the DELETE
key (DEL on some computers) at the same time. Now release all three
keys. You should see a pop up menu that lists programs that are running (sometimes you
don't even know they are running). Chances are you will see the phrase
"(not responding)" next to one of those programs. If you do, just
single click the left button and drag the mouse over the program to select it. Then
left click the button that says end task. With luck the computer will tell the
unresponsive program to stop and your computer will start to perform normally. There
may be another box that pops up telling you that the program is waiting for a signal
from you. Just left click "End Task" .
If your computer does not snap to attention,
you will have to do the same thing again -- only do the three fingered salute twice
in a row.... Uh oh.... your screen went blank and whole bunches of numbers and stuff
are coming up. It's ok. You just shook your computer awake --- just enough to
get rid of its cobwebs. It will start up (geeks say "boot") and your
operating system will kick in and everything will be fine. You have just done what
tech support calls a "warm boot" by restarting your computer without turning it
off. Can you guess what a "cold boot" is? Right....... starting your
computer after it has been without power for at least ten seconds or so. (and you thought
this would be hard...!)
Learning what are called keyboard shortcuts
is the key (pun intended) to gaining a lot of speed in all of your computing efforts.
We'll cover more of them in future tips. But if you want a head start, check
out the e book "KEYBOARD
MAGIC". Just click (or TAB through and ENTER) our "Offers You Can
Use" page and take a look.
That's it for this week. See you next
week.---- Chris
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