Tips!
Tips and tricks - a bakers dozen! (and one added 7/10/2008)
- To expand all directories in a tree select (click on) the top of the tree and press the * key on the numeric keypad, the minus to collapse again.
- In Firefox, instead of storing simple links on the toolbar, store directories with very short names and then store the links in them.
- To bookmark in Firefox simply drag the icon on the tab to the appropriate folder on the toolbar.
- Use a prog like keynote to auto store all your clipboard copies - then review and sort them out at the end of the day (or whenever there’s enough to warrant it).
- Put an exclamation mark in front of any name that you wish to appear at the top of an alpha list - folder, file, favourite etc., including mail folders on Outlook & Outlook Express. That way you can prioritise across two separate "league tables", whilst still keeping alpha filing. In fact you can do this as often as you like by putting two or even three !!! at the beginning - but then it can get a bit complicated and messy!
- Try adding a-z subfolders to your main outlook or oe folders and put the original subs under their letter, and misc straight into the letter - this can also be used in any "busy" folder to organise files.
- To take a screenshot of a whole webpage - not just the visible part of the screen - use the following; a)In FireFox use Screengrab! (0.95) http://www.screengrab.org/ [Excellent addon/plugin] b)In IE use IE Screenshot™ http://www.iescreenshot.com/ [adds rt click context menu] c)Desktop app: WebShot http://www.websitescreenshots.com/] (you enter the url)
- If you ever find yourself needing a character that’s not on your keyboard, like ©, or ½,, then you need AllChars, a handy liitle utility that you can load at start up and it sits in the tray awaiting a control key, eg for the half symbol you just press the control key (once and let go) followed by a 1 then a 2 - it does the rest! It also does accents, currency symbols etc etc. Brilliant!
- If you want to know what files you’ve got inside a complicated directory structure, use file finder to list all files within the main directory, then export the file list to csv with the paths - you can view it and sort it in excel or similar.
- Register your domain as a gmail address, eg "mydomain.com@gmail.com". That way you can often slip your domain name into areas where you can’t put the url, eg sometimes when you can’t leave a url on a forum post, you can put your email address, so you have at least got it there in one format. Also, type it in as "mydomain.com at gmail.com" to avoid it being scraped.
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts for common maneouvres, esp; select all = Ctrl A, save(usually) = Ctrl S, copy = Ctrl C, paste = Ctrl V, cut = Ctrl X and undo = Ctrl Z. Once they become automatic they really do add up to save a lot of time (and fiddling), as do extra mouse buttons if you have them - eg on a five button mouse you could have back, forward, scroll, zoom etc etc.
- In Firefox you can keep two (or more) windows open, each with multiple tabs - eg one for your own sites and another personal. Newly opened urls will open in the last used window, but if one opens in the wrong window you can drag it by the tab from there and drop it on the other.
- If you want to select a lot of text don’t click and drag - click at the beginning, scroll down to the bottom, hold down the shift key and click again (or vice versa if you are already at the bottom)
- If your Outlook Express Message Rules are not acting the way you expect, it may be because OE doesn’t really apply its rules sequentially - see this post!
