Number 248 - January 2004

Tips 'N Tricks
Compiled by CharlotteSemple, LACS President Dec 2003 User Friendly, Journal of Los Angeles Computer Society
An Empty Recycle Bin Equals Space (Win98)    You will be surprised with how much space Disk Cleanup saves by emptying your computer's Recycle Bin. Windows allocates up to 10 percent of each drive for the Recycle Bin. This method made sense when drives were measured in megabytes. But these days with drives measuring in gigabytes, you can set the amount as low as 1 percent for a large drive by right-clicking on Recycle Bin, choosing Properties, setting the new percentage, and clicking on OK. Windows Shortcut Keys (Win98)    Sometimes when you make a configuration change your window seems to stray outside the visible desktop area. You can bring it back to where you want it by using your keyboard. Pressing Alt-Spacebar opens the window's System menu, which typically appears in the upper-left-hand corner, but with your off-screen window, the menu appears as close as possible to it. Press M for Move and use the Arrow keys to bring the errant window back into view. Click Help from the Start menu and search the Index for more helpful shortcut keys. Internet Explorer Windows (WinXP)    You may find that Internet Explorer (IE) opens at a peculiar size; too small, too large, too narrow. When you open a link in a new window, that window's size may also be wrong. To control the size of primary and secondary IE windows, start by closing all IE windows. Then launch IE, right-click on any link, and choose Open in New Window. Size the secondary window the way you want all such windows to be. Now close it by clicking on the X icon at the top-right corner while holding down the Shift key. Repeat this for the primary window that remains. You may have to repeat the process from time to time. Basic Calculations In Word (WinXP)    Word may not be a spreadsheet, but it can perform basic calculations in Tables. Click on Tables and choose the number of columns and rows you need. To sum the numbers in a row, enter numbers in all cells	except the right-hand cell, click in the right-hand cell, choose Table / Formula, and accept Word's suggestion of =SUM (LEFT) .To sum the numbers in a column, go to the bottom cell and accept Word's suggestion of =SUM(ABOVE). You can also enter basic spreadsheet-style calculations such as =A1*B2. Although the row and column headings aren't visible, the letters in cell references correspond to the columns and the numbers to the rows, just as they do in Excel. To update a calculation, select the cell with the sum and press F9. Or to update all the calculations in a table, select the table (or document) and press F9. Cool And Customized (MS-WORD)    Word comes with a number of unusual fonts. (These fonts usually end with "MT.") You can use these fonts to create cool bulleted lists that give your document a distinctive edge. Here's how: Create a document that uses Word's automatic bulleted list feature. With your mouse, select the entire bulleted list. Right-click the list and choose Bullets and Numbering from the shortcut menu. In the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, click the Customize button. Choose a custom bullet. You can click the Bullet button to pull in additional funky bullets from other Word fonts like Wingdings, Almanac MT, and others. Click OK. The bulleted list is reformatted with the new bullet style. Solving The Mystery Format (MS-WORD)    You're scanning through your latest masterpiece when you notice--right there, mocking you--a paragraph that doesn't seem to fit. Something's amiss with the formatting, but what? A nifty trick to pull on any mystery part of your document is to press the Shift+ F1 key combination. The mouse pointer changes to look like an arrow-question mark. Now, click any character in any word in any paragraph. Word describes exactly what the heck is going on with the formatting in the Reveal formatting task pane. (Press Shift+Fl again to deactivate this feature.)
Number 248 - January 2004