The items listed here are not rocket science, simply good tips to save you time and angst while at your computer.
1) Change display settings
To make changes to your PC desktop, wallpaper, screensaver or the appearance of your pop up menus: On a PC: Right click anywhere on a clear patch of the desktop. Select Properties. Use the tabs to make changes to your display settings. On a Mac: Go to Control Panels, Appearance and select from there.
2) Create a default browser home page
Your default home page is the page that launches into your browser window when you connect to the Internet. To set a default home page: Click on Start > Settings > Control panel > Internet options. Under the General Tab go to the Homepage window. Enter the address of the site that you want to make your default home page. On a Mac: (IE) Go to Edit > Preferences. Scroll to Web browser and in browser window type in address of your preferred homepage.
3) Change Internet browser font size
To make browsing easier on the eye, change your browser font size by: Netscape: Select Edit/Preferences. Click on Appearance. Then click Fonts. Internet Explorer 5: Select View Menu/Text Size.
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6) Find Downloads
If you’ve downloaded a file from the Internet and now you’re not sure where to find it: Go to your desktop and click on My Computer, then the C: drive (or the letter that designates the hard drive that your operating system resides on) Look for a folder called “Temporary Internet folder”. Your downloaded Internet files have been stored there. On a Mac, the default download area is the desktop – so that’s easy!
7) Cut and paste between Web pages and Word
To copy text or graphics from Web pages to a word processing application: Highlight the parts of a Web page you want to copy. Select Edit/Copy from your browser tool menu (or Ctrl +C together). Open or click on the already open Word document. Select Edit/Paste (or Control +V together).
8) Check the padlock
If you are buying something on the Web, check the bottom right hand corner of your browser window (left-hand if you’re facing it!). If the site is secure, there will be a locked padlock icon. If the site is not secure, the padlock will be unlocked. An unsecured site means that your credit card transaction runs the risk of being intercepted.
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10) Secure surf
Prevent your computer details being hacked while you are online by installing a personal firewall (free from www.zonealarm.com or pay for Norton’s Personal Firewall from www.symantec.com)
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12) Organise favourites in IE
To add, delete or set up folders under the Favourites Web site list in Internet Explorer, select Favourites/Organise, then go for it.
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14) Move files and folders onto the desktop
Some applications are so frequently used it’s handy to have them on the desktop. To do this: Highlight the file or folder you want on the desktop. Right click and select “Send to”. Select “desktop as shortcut”. On a Mac it’s called creating an “alias”, Click (not double click) on the application you would like a shortcut for on the desktop. Hit Edit, Make Alias (or Ctrl +M). Drag the alias to the desktop where you can also rename it if you wish.
15) Swap mouse buttons for lefties
If leftie Paul McCartney can adapt a right-hand guitar, you can adapt a right-hand mouse: On A PC, click on the My Computer icon. Select Control Panel > Mouse > Buttons Change over the left and right key functions. On a Mac, you don’t need to do this because you can’t right and left click!
16) Speed your mouse up
Create a “Mighty Mouse” by: Click on My Computer Select Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Option Set the slider at your desired pointer speed. On a Mac, go to the Apple Menu > Control Panels > Mouse and click on the desired pointer speed.
17) Customise mouse pointer
Bored with the arrow? Tired of the hourglass? You can make your mouse pointer icon much more interesting with free software from sites like www.cometsystems.com and www.dolphinuk.co.uk/techsupport/pointers.html
18) Restoring programs from the recycle bin
As long as you have not emptied the recycle bin, you can restore deleted programs from there by: Clicking on the Recycle Bin icon Highlight the programs and click File/Restore.
19) Check available space on hard drive
To find out how much space you have left on your hard drive: Click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Highlight your C: Drive and use the right button of your mouse to open up an action box. Go down to the last item called Properties and click on it. It will display the pie chart with disk usage figures. On a Mac, Apple Menu Items > About This Computer
20) Make space on your hard drive
To free up hard drive space: Click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Internet Options Use the options to clear temporary Internet files that have been saved into the windows temp directory. You can also delete all files from the Recycle Bin or Trash Can (Mac) to free up space.
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27) Placing the volume control icon on your taskbar
Placing a volume control icon on your taskbar can be helpful when playing audio CDs and so on. To do this: Click Start > Settings > Control panel. Double-click the multimedia icon. Click the audio tab. Under the playback option, check the show volume control on the taskbar box. Click OK.
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Netscape: Open Netscape Navigator From the Options menu click Network Preferences Then click the Cache Tab Now, all you need to do is distribute more kilobytes of hard disk space and your browsing should run a little faster. Click OK to save your settings.
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34) Making a picture from the Internet your wallpaper
If you see a picture you like on the Internet, you can transfer it to your desktop as wallpaper. In Netscape and Microsoft Explorer, simply: Right click on the picture and select Set as Wallpaper from the menu. The program will automatically set this picture as the wallpaper. To choose between tiling and centering your wallpaper settings, right-click the desktop and click the Background tab. Check the option you prefer. On a Mac: Save the picture you want onto your desktop. Go to Apple menu Items > Control Panels > Appearance > Desktop. Your current desktop pic will be in the box. Click “Remove Picture” to delete it. Click “Place Picture”. Go to Desktop, find your pic and click “Choose”. Click “Set As Desktop”.
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Why Gone!? Because when we rechecked this old page in 2013, many of the suggestions were long gone or outdated.