Different ways to shut down your computer or laptop..

Before shutting down your computer, it is always a good idea and beneficial for the life of your computer, to close all applications you have running, such as your email, multiple websites/tabbed browsing, word, excel, power point, game or other application programs.

·         This can be done by Left clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner of each program page (often in a red box)

OR

·         Using your task bar at the bottom of your monitor, Right click on each open program and then left click on “close group:.  If you have open applications such as Word, Excel and the like, you may be promoted to confirm whether or not you want to save any changes made to those documents, spreadsheets or power point presentations.. 

Using keyboard shortcuts

·         Press and hold the following three keyboard keys at the same time: "Control, ALT and Delete (CTRL + ALT + DEL)" keys on your keyboard

·         This will open the “"Shutdown" menu

·         Using your navigation arrows on the keyboard, press the downward (or upward) arrow to highlight the "Shut Down" option.

·         Once “Shut Down” is highlighted, simply press the "Enter" key on the keyboard and the computer will shut down and power off 

Using your mouse

·         Simply left click on your “Start” Button

·         When the Start Menu Appears, note that the right bottom side of the start menu list, you the “Turn off computer” button

·         Left click on this button or arrow

·         The “ShutDown” action box will appear and depending on the version of Windows you are using, you will have the choice of choosing “Standby”. “Restart” or “Shut Down”

·         Left click on whichever option you choose and that is the action that will occur

On an apple Mac:

·         Click on "Finder" at the top of your computer screen to access a drop-down menu (usually next to the Apple icon).

·         Highlight the "Shut Down" option from the drop-down menu.

Allow your computer the time it needs to completely shut down before you close the lid on your laptop or remove the power supply from your computer

How to easily enlarge what you are looking at in a document

If you zoom in and out of your documents quite a bit, you may get tired of using the pull-down zoom control on the toolbar or ribbon.

If you have a mouse that has the wheel between the two buttons, you can do a neat trick. All you need to do is hold down the Ctrl key as you turn the small wheel.

Each click of the wheel, up or down, increases or decreases the zoom factor by 10%.

Remember the zoom does not impact/change the actual font size - it simply changes the magnification of what you are zooming up and or down on...This is true anywhere in any application or browser software (word, excel, PowerPoint, etc) that you use on your computer...

What is tabbed internet browsing?

What is tabbed Internet browsing that I keep hearing about?

Most Internet Browsers use TABS so you can open one connection to he Internet and then open multiple tabs vs. having to open your browser several times…

First of all if you aren’t sure what is an Internet Browser is – a Browser is the free software that allows us to search the Internet – the major ones are: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox – Safari for Apple Computers an Opera for hand held devices… Most of us have 3 or 4 browsers on our computers so different users have their choice of which to use..

Take full advantage of tabbed browsing on your Internet Browsers. While reading any web page if you come across a link you may be interested in open that link in a new tab so it can be viewed later. A new tab can be opened any of these (3) different ways:

• Going to the new tab and left clicking on it to open a new tab & type in the web address



• Hold down the Ctrl key and left click on the web address hyperlink (my favorite way t do it)



• If you have a mouse with a wheel click the link with the middle mouse button

Tips to use your mouse effectively

USING YOUR MOUSE CORRECTLY

• Left Click – Makes something happen “gives the computer a command”

• Right Click – Will always show you an action menu list of commands to choose from, based on whatever your mouse/cursor is on…

MOUSE SELECTION “HIGHLIGHTING” SHORTCUTS

TO SELECT A LINE OF TEXT: Place the mouse pointer in the left gutter area (the mouse will turn into a right facing arrow). Now left click the left mouse button once.

TO SELECT A BLOCK OF TEXT: Place the insertion point at the beginning of the block of text you want to select, Hold down the SHIFT Key, Place the I-beam at the end of the block of text and left click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT: Left click Edit on the menu bar and Choose Select All, OR Hold CTRL Key + A

TO DE-SELECT (or unselect) ANYTHING HIGHLIGHTED/SELECTED: Left click anywhere in the white space of your document.

INTERNET – EVERYTHING IS SO SMALL..

When what you are looking at on the Internet is too small – simply change the size… not just the text size.. but by “zooming” you can enlarge or reduce everything you see on the monitor including the text, photos, icons etc…

There are several different ways you can do this quickly and easily, including keyboard shortcuts:

• TO ENLARGE: Hold the CTRL button (bottom left & right corner of your keyboard) and tap the plus “+” sign (far right of the keyboard row with the numbers)
• TO REDUCE: Hold the CTRL button (bottom left & right corner of your keyboard) and tap the minus “-“ sign (far right of the keyboard row with the numbers)

OR

• TO ENLARGE AND REDUCE: Hold the CTRL button (bottom left & right corner of your keyboard) and roll the wheel on your mouse up to enlarge and down to reduce

OR

For those who use Internet Explorer:

• Use your status bar – bottom right corner of your screen, is the zoom list – which allows you to choose or customize screen – OR
• On your I.E. command toolbar, choose Page, and when the drop down list of actions appear – choose Zoom – then choose or customize the size you want.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR MONITOR AND KEYBOARD CLEAN

First-turn the computer off before cleaning the monitor or keyboard…

Monitor ~ The new LCD flat screen monitors/TV should be cleaned with a micro-fiber cloth and water or solution designed for them-Most manufacturers recommend never using products that contain ANY alcohol, ammonia, or other strong solvents on LCD & Plasma screens.

Keyboard ~ First, turn the keyboard upside down and tap it gently to release any crumbs, dust, pet hair; Then versus paying for a can of compressed air, I use the cool setting on a hair dryer after I’ve tapped the keyboard ~ Be careful what you use to wipe it down. Electronic items usually come coated with a very fine film of glossy finish and this material can be damaged by harsh cleaners, especially ones that contain ammonia compounds or alcohol

Mouse & Phones ~ Especially this time of year (winter) I use alcohol wipes on my mouse and all phones at the office, at home and my cell phone; especially if and when the grandkids are around….

Join us this afternoon 1pm-2:30pm at the 1000 Southern Artery Auditorium in the South Wing for our special computer Question & Answer session - it's free and our panel of computer instructors and technical support staff will be there to answer your questions and presenting helpful information such as this..

Change the style, size & color of your Cursor/Pointer

Quite often I hear “I can’t find the cursor” – So for those of us who may from time to time “lose the cursor” on our desktop and other screens when we are moving the mouse around – the best thing to do is to make the cursor larger or change the color from white to black – there are numerous choices…you decide.

To change the cursor/pointer appearance & other “hardware” settings follow these simple steps by going to the various settings available in your "control panel"

• Left Click on your Start Button
• Left Click on Control Panel
• Left Click on "Hardware & Sound"
• Now choose & Left Click on "Mouse", then "Change Pointer Appearance"
• You will see is a drop down list of choices under "Schemes"
• Once you decide which you would like, highlight it and click "Apply"
• A good choice is: Window Standard (extra large) system scheme

If you aren't happy with your choice, No Problem - Just repeat the process until you find a style, color & size that you are happy with

These steps may vary slightly based on the level of your operating system (Windows 98, XP, Vista or 7) but remember, they are basically the same for all..

Using a Mouse-Left or Right Click??

The "mouse" allows you to do many things - when you watch your monitor, the mouse control you will see is called the "cursor"...

By default (standard setting) "Mice" are set up assuming the person using it is "right handed" - you can change that default setting by going to: start, control panel, mouse - and changing the setting from right hand to left hand...

In all cases - these will affect whatever your mouse/cursor is on, on the monitor. It can open an application software program for you to use or when you are on the internet it will take you to another website; it can move an icon from one side of the screen to another, or when you right click you will have a list of various actions that you can have occur to whatever is under your mouse/cursor... Key is to know where your mouse/cursor is on the monitor before using your mouse keys...

When you are learning to use the mouse or speaking to a tech support or other person who is explaining something about your computer - the terms they will use for actions of the mouse and what they mean are:

• Pointing: Position the mouse over an item on your monitor
• Clicking: Pressing and releasing the mouse button
• Double-clicking: Press and release the mouse button twice rapidly - usually the left button
  Click n'Drag (or dragging) : Holding the left mouse button down while dragging it, will move or carry w whatever was under the cursor on the monitor
• Left-click: Press and release the “left” mouse button (Makes something happen) to whatever your mouse/cursor is on
• Right-click: Press and release the “right” mouse button (Get an action menu for whatever your mouse/cursor is on)
  

MOUSE SELECTION SHORTCUTS

When you "select or highlight" a word, sentence, phrase, page etc. you are telling the computer that is what you want to work with...

TO SELECT ONE WORD: Place the insertion point in the middle of the word. Double click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A SENTENCE: Place the insertion point anywhere in the sentence.
Hold down the Ctrl Key and click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A PARAGRAPH: Place the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph. Triple click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT A LINE OF TEXT: Place the mouse pointer in the left gutter area (the mouse will turn into a right facing arrow). Click the left mouse button once.

TO SELECT A BLOCK OF TEXT: Place the insertion point at the beginning of the block of text you want to select. Hold down the SHIFT Key. Place the I-beam at the end of the block of text and click the left mouse button.

TO SELECT THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT: Click Edit on the menu bar then choose Select All (or simply hold the CTRL + A keys).

TO DESELECT A SELECTION: Click anywhere in the white space of your document.