Windows 95 Tips #16



*1. THE OL' LANGUAGE SWITCHEROO, PART 2 OF 2         
     
In our last tip, we showed you how to install a new keyboard language and
layout: Open the Control Panel, double-click Keyboard, click the Language
tab, click Add, select a language, and click OK twice. To switch to any
of the installed languages, click the dark blue symbol in the tray of
your taskbar and select a language. 

Don't want this icon taking up valuable taskbar real estate? Then hide
it. You can still switch among installed languages using the keyboard. 

Open Control Panel, double-click Keyboard, and click the Language tab.
Deselect Enable Indicator On Taskbar, then select one of the two
keyboard combos under Switch Languages. Click OK, and watch as the
symbol disappears from your taskbar. To switch from one installed
language to the next, simply press the appropriate keyboard combo.


*2. LAST-DITCH EFFORT

If Win95 crashes and Ctrl+Alt+Del fails to bring up the Close Program
dialog, try hitting Ctrl+Esc. The Start menu may come up, letting you
perform a graceful and safe reboot.


*3. TAKE YOUR KEYBOARD INTERNATIONAL, PART 1 OF 3         
     
Do you frequently type documents that require foreign characters (of
multiple languages)? Forget all that tedious searching through the
Character Map. Change your keyboard layout to United
States-International, and you can type these characters right from your
keyboard. (Note: This tip assumes your default language is set to English
[United States].) 

Open Control Panel, double-click Keyboard, and click the Language tab.
With English (United States) selected under Language, click the
Properties button, then click the down arrow and select United
States-International. Click OK twice, and insert the Windows 95
installation CD when asked. 

The international layout adds one or two characters to certain keys on
your keyboard. Hold down your keyboard's right Alt key (referred to as
the Alternate Character, or AltChar, key) as you press each key on your
keyboard. Now do the same pressing Shift-AltChar in combination
with each key. 

As you go through the keys, make a mental note of the keyboard combos
necessary to type the characters you use. For example, to type an
uppercase E with an accent that goes up and to the right, you'd press
Shift-AltChar-E. 

Pretty neat, eh? In our next tip, more on this worldly keyboard layout...


*4. TAKE YOUR KEYBOARD INTERNATIONAL, PART 2 OF 3         
     
In our last tip, we showed you how to switch your keyboard to the
U.S.-International layout, which adds up to two characters to certain
keys on your keyboard: In Control Panel, double-click Keyboard, click
the Language tab, click Properties, select United States-International,
and click OK twice. To use the new characters, press a key in
combination with the AltChar key (the right Alt key on your keyboard) or
Shift-AltChar. (Note: This tip assumes your default language is set to
English [United States].) 

Now let's look at another component of this international
layout--assistance keys. There are five keys on your keyboard--the
apostrophe ('), the back quote (`), the circumflex (^), the double-quote
("), and the tilde (~)--that now act as assistants in making,
respectively, an acute accent, a grave accent, a hat over a vowel, an
umlaut, and the squiggle over the N in the Spanish word senor. 

For example, to type an E with an umlaut (the two dots) over it, press
the double-quote ("), then press the letter E. Or to type an O with a hat
over it, press the circumflex (^), then press the letter O. 

In our next tip, one more assistance key trick...


*5. TAKE YOUR KEYBOARD INTERNATIONAL, PART 3 OF 3         
     
In the first tip in this series, we showed you how to switch your keyboard
to the U.S.-International layout, which adds up to two characters to
certain keys on your keyboard: In Control Panel, double-click Keyboard,
click the Language tab, click Properties, select United
States-International, and click OK twice. To use the new characters, press
a key in combination with the AltChar key (the right Alt key on your
keyboard) or Shift-AltChar. 

(Note: This tip assumes your default language is set to English
[United States].) 

Then, in our last tip, we told you that there are five "assistance"
keys--the apostrophe ('), the back quote (`), the circumflex (^), the
double-quote ("), and the tilde (~)--that, when pressed in combination with
another key, make an acute accent, a grave accent, a hat over a vowel, an
umlaut, and a squiggle (as over the N in the Spanish word senor),
respectively. 

The big question is, how do you use one of the assistance keys as it's
supposed to be used? For example, let's suppose you wanted to type the
letter E within single quotes: 'E'. With the international layout turned
on, typing a single quote and then E would result in an E with an accent
over it. And typing the second quote would do absolutely nothing (that
assistance key is waiting for a key to assist). 

The solution? Any time you want to type an assistance key as it was meant
to be used, enter a space after it. So in the example above, you'd type a
single quote, press Spacebar, type E, then a single quote,
and press Spacebar.


*6. WAVE GOOD-BYE TO THE TEMPS         
     
J. Trick writes, "I have a directory called C:\Windows\Temporary Internet
Files. It is filled with hundreds of files, some of which, when
double-clicked, will start Internet Explorer and bring up Web sites or
parts of Web pages. What is it? Can the files in it be deleted?" 

This folder (called a cache) stores information from all the Web pages
you've opened recently. The idea is that if you attempt to open the same
pages again, they'll open more quickly because you already have the
information on your local hard drive. 

To empty this folder, open a browser window from Internet Explorer and
select Tools, Internet Options (or right-click the IE icon on your desktop
and select Properties). On the General tab, click the Delete Files button,
then click OK to confirm.


*7. WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE PRINT SCREEN KEY?         
     
Reader C. writes, "My Print Screen key on my keyboard doesn't seem to get
any response at all. Any suggestions?" 

Pressing the Print Screen key sends the current screen to the Clipboard
(not to the printer, as one would expect). To print the contents of the
Clipboard, you'll need to use a separate application, such as Paint. 

Open Paint--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint--select Edit, Paste,
and if you see a message stating that the image is larger than the current
bitmap, click Yes to confirm that you'd like it to enlarge the bitmap. The
image on the Clipboard now appears on screen. From there, you can use
Paint's Print command to print the screen. 

(Tip-in-a-tip: If you're printing an entire screen, switch to Landscape
mode first--select File, Page Setup, select Landscape, and click OK--so the
image will fit on a standard letter-size page.) 

(Another tip-in-a-tip: Hold down Alt as you press Print Screen to send only
the currently active window to the Clipboard.)


*8. SIZE COLUMNS IN DETAILS VIEW         
     
Do you frequently view open folder windows in Details mode (select View,
Details)? Tired of having to enlarge these windows to see all the
information you're after--for example, the far-right Modified column? You
can size down any column to make more room for the rest. 

Hold the cursor over the vertical line at the right edge of the column's
title, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag left.
(Everything to the right of the column you're resizing will scoot over,
too.) When everything you want to see fits in the window, let go. 

(Tip-in-a-tip: Just the opposite, if you find a column too narrow, so that
you can't read its contents, you can size that column to fit its widest
entry. Hold the cursor over the line to the left of that column, and when
it changes to a double-pointed arrow, double-click.)


*9. HIDE COLUMN IN DETAILS VIEW         
     
In our last tip, we showed you how to shrink any column in Details view (in
an open window, select View, Details), to make room for the rest: Hold your
mouse pointer over the vertical line at the right edge of the column's
title, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag left
until the column is the right size. 

Now, let's take this tip to the extreme. Want to remove the column from
view altogether? Follow the steps above, but drag the mouse pointer as far
left as possible (to the next column or to the left edge of the window).
Poof! The column disappears.  

Gone for good? No such luck. When you want your column back, click just to
the right of where you left it, and when a double-pointed arrow with two
black lines appears, drag to the right.


*10. WHAT'S THIS BUTTON TO OPEN HELP         
     
The next time you're tooling around a dialog box and don't understand a
particular button or option, remember that help is just a click or two away
(and no, not clicking Start, selecting Help, and so on). Right-click the
button or option, and if you see a gray What's This? button, click it. (If
no button appears, you're on your own--there's no Help topic associated
with that option.) Alternatively, click the question mark caption button in
the dialog box's upper-right corner, then click the option or button with
which you'd like some help.
