Tag Archives: Useful shortcuts

How to take a screen capture and send it by email

This tutorial is about taking a shot of your computer screen and sending it – very useful when asking for technical support by email. This assumes you are using a PC and a local email client such as Outlook.

  1. Get whatever it is you’d like to get a screen capture of up on your screen
  2. Press the ‘PRTSC’ button. This is short for ‘Print Screen’ and will take a snapshot of your computer screen before sending it. Note: if you’re sending a screen capture of a website, you can press F11 to go full screen before taking the capture (press F11 again to exit full screen mode)

    PRTSC - press to take a screen capture

    PRTSC – press to take a screen capture

  3. Open your email client and open a new email
  4. With the cursor in the body of the email at the appropriate place, press and hold ‘CTRL’ then press ‘v’ once. This will paste the screen capture from your clipboard into the email.

    Insert screen capture into your email

    Insert screen capture into your email

Short-cut to easily clear formatting from text in a Word document

Clearing formatting from a Word document

Clearing formatting from a Word document

Here is a really simple and easy way to clear formatting from text in a Microsoft Word document, for example, when you’ve cut and pasted from a website or another document

Very simply highlight the text, press and hold CTRL then press the ‘space bar’

Highlighting the text can be done easily in one of three ways:

  1. Press CTRL + A to select all
  2. place the cursor just before the text you’d like to highlight, press and hold the left-mouse button and drag the hightlighted area over the text you’d like to highlight
  3. Place the cursor at the start of the text you’d like to highlight, press and hold the ‘SHIFT’ button and use the arrow keys to move the highlighted area to the right place
Please note, if you’d like to select non-adjoining areas of text at the same time, press and hold the ‘CTRL’ key while you’re selecting text

My 3 favourite Chrome extensions (plug-ins)

Here is a list of my 3 favourite Chrome Plug-ins

  1. Hover Zoom – no need to click on that thumbnail to view it large. Simply install Hover Zoom then all you have to do is hover over the picture and you get a large version. Great for Reddit. Click here: https://bit.ly/ks6NXj

    Hover Zoom
    Hover Zoom
  2. Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate – allows you to capture either the visible area of your screen or the full webpage. You can then annotate it. Very useful for describing  what you can see on your screen to someone else like tech support. Download it from here: https://bit.ly/jqIWEd

    Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate
    Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate

    3. Delicious Tools – sure makes adding a bookmark to Delicious a whole lot easier and quicker. Simply click the button and add the tags. Download it from here: https://bit.ly/kPPFdx

    Delicious Tools

    Delicious Tools

     

Convert text to lower-case, upper-case or capitalised the easy way!

CAPS-LOCK

CAPS-LOCK = SHOUTING

This tutorial is specifically for Microsoft Word and Outlook, however, as with many keyboard shortcuts, they’ll often be supported by many other applications

Ever accidentally hit the CAPS LOCK button and written a whole paragraph in capitals? Or how about got one of those shouty emails all in caps that are difficult to read?

Good news – there is an ultra-simple way to swap between capitals and lowercase! It’ll even capitalise the starts of paragraphs for you!

Simply, highlight the offending text, hold down ‘SHIFT’ and press ‘F3’. That’s it!

In Outlook, you’ll have to click reply or forward first to make the text area editable but it still works!

Very handy!

Windows keyboard short-cuts everyone should know!

There are hundreds of short-cut keyboard combinations and when you start to learn them , they can really help you save a lot of time!

Many of them are also transferable meaning, for example, some that work with MS Word may also work with Photoshop.

CTRL+C and CTRL+V are very common and widely supported short-cuts for copy and paste, but most people know these already. below, however, are a lot short-cuts you probably didn’t know!

  • CTRL+TAB – Move forward through tabs.
  • CTRL+SHIFT+TAB – Move backward through tabs.
  • TAB – Move forward through options.
  • SHIFT+TAB – Move backward through options.
  • ALT+Underlined letter – Carry out the corresponding command or select
    the corresponding option.
  • ENTER – Carry out the command for the active option or button.
  • SPACEBAR – Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check
    box.
  • Arrow keys – Select a button if the active option is a group of option
    buttons.
  • F1 – Display Help.
  • F4 – Display the items in the active list.
  • BACKSPACE – Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the
    Save As or Open dialog box.
  • CTRL+C – Copy.
  • CTRL+X – Cut.
  • CTRL+V – Paste.
  • CTRL+Z – Undo.
  • CTRL+Y – Redo
  • DELETE – Delete.
  • SHIFT+DELETE – Delete selected item permanently without placing the item
    in the Recycle Bin.
  • CTRL while dragging an item – Copy selected item.
  • CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item – Create shortcut to selected item.
  • F2 – Rename selected item.
  • CTRL+RIGHT ARROW – Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next
    word.
  • CTRL+LEFT ARROW – Move the insertion point to the beginning of the
    previous word.
  • CTRL+DOWN ARROW – Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next
    paragraph.
  • CTRL+UP ARROW – Move the insertion point to the beginning of the
    previous paragraph.
  • CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys – Highlight a block of text.
  • SHIFT with any of the arrow keys – Select more than one item in a window
    or on the desktop, or select text within a document.
  • CTRL+A – Select all.
  • F3 – Search for a file or folder.
  • ALT+ENTER – View properties for the selected item.
  • ALT+F4 – Close the active item, or quit the active program.
  • ALT+Enter – Displays the properties of the selected object.
  • ALT+SPACEBAR – Opens the shortcut menu for the active window.
  • CTRL+F4 – Close the active document in programs that allow you to have
    multiple documents open simultaneously.
  • ALT+TAB – Switch between open items.
  • ALT+ESC – Cycle through items in the order they were opened.
  • F6 – Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop.
  • F4 – Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
  • SHIFT+F10 – Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.
  • ALT+SPACEBAR – Display the System menu for the active window.
  • CTRL+ESC – Display the Start menu.
  • ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name – Display the corresponding menu.
  • Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu – Carry out the
    corresponding command.
  • F10 – Activate the menu bar in the active program.
  • RIGHT ARROW – Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu.
  • LEFT ARROW – Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu.
  • F5 – Refresh the active window.
  • BACKSPACE – View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows
    Explorer.
  • ESC – Cancel the current task.
  • SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive – Prevent the CD from
    automatically playing.
  • Windows Key – Display or hide the Start menu. Windows Key +BREAK –
    Display the System Properties dialog box.
  • Windows Key +D – Show the desktop.
  • Windows Key +M – Minimize all windows.
  • Windows Key +Shift+M – Restores minimized windows.
  • Windows Key +E – Open My Computer.
  • Windows Key +F – Search for a file or folder.
  • CTRL+ Windows Key +F – Search for computers.
  • Windows Key +F1 – Display Windows Help.
  • Windows Key + L – Lock your computer if you are connected to a network
    domain, or switch users if you are not connected to a network domain.
  • Windows Key +R – Open the Run dialog box.
  • Windows Key +U – Open Utility Manager.