The Golden Rules Of Windows

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Friday, February 05, 2010

All of Life is Spent Doing Two Things

ALL of life, not just at the computer.

All of life is spent doing one of two things: we are either "Keying In", or "Doing Something With It".

My parents spent nine months keying me in, and twenty-one years trying to do something with me.

At the computer we are either keying in text and data, or else we are copying it, formatting it, printing it ... the list goes on.

When we are keying in, we tap the letter "F" if we want that letter to appear in our document or spreadsheet. When we want the letter "E", we tap the letter "E", and so on. Want to see the letter "H" in your document? Tap the letter "H". Blindingly obvious, isn't it? Everybody knows this stuff.

But when we are NOT keying in, when we want to Do Something with hat we have keyed in, we want to do the Other thing, the Alternate thing, and that's why we use the ALT key to do things.

Alt-F pulls up the file menu, Alt-E pulls up the edit menu, Alt-H pulls up the help menu - in any application!

What power we have, what versatility!

If you want to DO SOMETHING with what you have keyed in, chances are strong that it is in the menu.

Explore the menu system and get a quick overview of any Windows application by using Alt-F (for that is usually at the extreme left hand end of all menu systems) and then tap the RIGHT-ARROW key over and over again.

Want to know what version of a program you are using? It's ALWAYS Alt-H then the letter "A".

Want to save with a different name? It's ALWAYS Alt-F and the letter "A".

Want to copy? Alt-E and the letter "C"; and yes, there are faster ways to copy.

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Friday, February 05, 2010 6:35 AM