MS Office Tip: More File Options

If you hold down the Shift key while selecting the File menu in Word (or in Outlook when composing a message), the menu options change. You get handy options to Save All and Close All open files. In Excel, you get a Close All—but not a Save All—option.

Proverb of the Day: Clothes don't make the man.

Possible interpretation: Appearances can be deceptive.

General Info:

In computer jargon, the speed at which data is written to (or read from) an optical disc (like a CD or a DVD) is shown as a multiple of X. For example, writing to a DVD at 8X will take less time than writing to it at 4X.

Modern Compact Discs support a writing speed of 52X and higher, and some modern DVDs support writing at 16X or higher. It is important to notice that the speed of 1X in CD writing is NOT the same as the speed of 1X when writing to a DVD. When writing to a DVD at 1X, the data is transferred at a speed of approximately 1352 kilobytes per second; in contrast, writing to a CD at 1X speed results in a data transfer of 150 kilobytes per second. Thus, in brief, one X in DVD writing speeds is about 9 times more than one X in CD writing speeds. However, these speeds are not constant, and depend on the type of data written to the disc.

• Proverb of the Day: Buy the best and you only cry once.

Internet Explorer Tip: Save 15 Keystrokes - Use Ctrl+Enter to Complete URL

On modern browsers, such as IE7 and Firefox, hitting Ctrl + Enter will automatically fill in the www. and the .com part of the URL. Let's see an example:

Just type in howtogeek into the address bar in your browser:

Now hit Ctrl + Enter together:

You saved yourself 15 keystrokes!

More Keystroke combinations:

• Ctrl + Enter - Auto-complete *.com address
• Shift + Enter - Auto-complete *.net address
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter - Auto-complete *.org address

If you add Alt to any of those key combinations, it will auto-complete and open the new address in a new tab as well. Alt+Ctrl+Enter will auto-complete a *.com address in a new tab, for instance.

• Proverb of the Day: Better safe than sorry.

Meaning: It is better to take precautions when it’s possible that something can go amiss then to regret doing nothing later if something should indeed go wrong.

Internet Explorer Tip: Quick back and forward commands in Internet explorer

Here's a tip that can speed up your web surfing. When viewing a page in Internet Explorer, hold down SHIFT and use the mouse scroll wheel to quickly go forward or back through the pages you have viewed.

• Proverb of the Day: Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Note: This tip will not work on the Thin Clients.

Here's a good little tip for users who have trouble locating their mouse pointer on the screen. Windows XP has a nifty little 'mouse sonar' option available, which will cause your mouse pointer to pop-up a little concentric ring around itself to show you where it is.

Go to 'start\control panel\mouse' choose the 'pointer options' tab and check the 'show location of pointer when I press the control key' box.

• Proverb of the Day: Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his shoes.

1. Meaning: One should not criticize a person without understanding their situation.