Windows 95 Tips #18



*1. ALT-ESC TO SELECT OPEN WINDOW          
     
In a previous tip, we pointed out that a quick way to switch among open
applications is to use Alt-Tab: Hold down Alt as you continuously press Tab
to rotate through all open windows, and when the one you want appears
highlighted, let go. 

Prefer to stick with the Taskbar you know and love (still without having to
use the mouse)? Try Alt-Esc instead. Hold down the Alt key as you press Esc
continuously. Each time you press Esc, another Taskbar item appears
highlighted and the corresponding window takes its place on top of the open
window pile. When the window you had in mind appears, let go. 

(Note: Even windows that don't appear on the Taskbar, such as the Display
Properties dialog box, are included in the rotation.)


*2. "ROPE IN" ICONS         
     
Do you need to select a number of contiguous items in a window or on the
desktop? If you already have your mouse in hand, try lassoing them in.
Click once next to the first item you want to select, then while still
holding down the mouse pointer, drag to create a box around all the icons
you want to select. Let go, and every icon inside the selected area will
appear highlighted.  

(Note: If you miss an icon, you can always grab it holding down Ctrl as you
click it. Just don't forget the Ctrl key, or you'll lose the
whole selection.)


*3. CREATE FIND INDEX IN WINDOWS 95 HELP         
     
When you select Start, Help, and click the Index tab, you'll find that
Windows 95's Help offers a fairly extensive index of topics. But
occasionally, you may be looking for a topic that doesn't appear in the
index. In many cases, you simply won't find the topic in Help at all, but
sometimes the topic is buried under another name. As a last resort, try
searching through Help by keyword, using a feature called Find. Windows can
track down all topics that have that word in it. 

Open Help, as described above, but this time, click the Find tab. Select
one of the three setup options (such as Minimized Database), click Next,
and wait as Windows sets up the new index. (Don't worry--you'll have to
wait only through the setup the first time you use this feature.) When it
finishes, just follow the three steps Find gives you and with any luck,
you'll find the topic you're looking for.


*4. GET TO THE POINTER          
          
July 27th, 1999          
          
In the past, we've provided tips for making your mouse pointer easier to
see--using pointer trails, using a larger pointer, and so on. But sometimes
it's not the POINTER that's hard to spot; it's the I-bar--that "I"-shaped
pointer that your word-processing programs and some other applications use.
How can you make THAT easier to spot? 

Well, you MAY have a feature on your computer called Mouse Sonar, which
finds your mouse pointer for you whenever you can't: 

1. Click the Start button and choose Settings + Control Panel. 
2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Mouse icon. 
3. If you have one, click the Visibility tab. (If you don't have a
	Visibility tab, sorry--you don't have this feature. Just click OK;
	you're done for today.) 
4. Under Sonar, select Show Location of Pointer When You Press the
	Ctrl Key. Then click OK. 

-From now on, whenever you want to find the pointer, just press Ctrl;
Windows displays concentric circles that "zero in" on your pointer. Even if
you DON'T have trouble finding the pointer, you may just want to activate
Sonar and watch the show.


*5. OPEN FILE IN APPLICATION OF CHOICE         
     
If you've spent a lot of time using Windows 95, you know that
double-clicking a file of a particular type (with a certain extension)
opens that file in a particular application. For example, double-clicking
a text file opens that file in Notepad. But what you may not know is that
you can open a file in any application you want--without first opening
that application.  

Click once on the file you want to open to select it, then hold down the
Shift key as you right-click that file. In the resulting menu, you'll see a
brand new menu command, Open With. (Now why couldn't Microsoft have placed
that command in the regular right-mouse menu?) Select this new command, and
up pops the Open With dialog box. Select the application you'd like to use
to open the file and click OK. 

(Tip-in-a-tip: Make sure the option Always Use This Program To Open This
Type Of File is NOT selected before clicking OK. Otherwise, you'll change
that file association permanently. Just the opposite, if you would like to
change an association--for example, you'd like to open all *.txt files with
WordPad--follow the steps above, selecting WordPad in the Open With dialog
box; but before clicking OK, select Always Use This Program To Open This
Type Of File.)


*6. FULLY EXPAND EXPLORER FOLDER         
     
The next time you need to expand every branch of a folder in a double-paned
Explorer window, don't waste time clicking all those plus signs
individually. There's a much easier way. Select the folder, then press the
asterisk key on your numeric keypad. Every folder inside the top folder
(and every folder inside those folders, and so on) will expand
before your eyes. 


*7. COLLAPSE FULLY EXPANDED EXPLORER FOLDER         
     
In our last tip, we showed you how to expand every branch of a double-paned
Explorer window: Select the folder, then press the asterisk key on your
numeric keypad. When you're finished, and you'd like all those folders to
fall in again, your first instinct might be to click the minus sign next to
the top folder. Doing so will seem to collapse the branch, but the next
time you click that plus sign, it will appear fully expanded again. To put
all those branches back where they belong, permanently, click the minus
sign next to the top branch, then press F5.


*8. SELECT SINGLE- OR DOUBLE-PANED WINDOW VIEW         
     
When you double-click a folder on your desktop (or inside another window),
by default, that folder opens in a single-paned view. But if you prefer,
you can open any folder in a double-paned Explorer view. Just right-click
the folder and select Explore. 

If you've already opened a single-paned window, but would prefer a
double-paned Explorer view, right-click the icon in the window's upper-left
corner and select Explore.


*19. HIDE OR MOVE WORDPAD TOOLBARS         
     
Are WordPad's toolbars getting in your way? (For a simple word processor,
this thing sure has a lot of commands and buttons taking up valuable
workspace.) You can hide or move them at will. 

To hide a toolbar completely, pull down the View menu and select (or
deselect, really) Toolbar, Format Bar, Ruler or Status Bar. (A check mark
means the bar is showing on screen.) Repeat these steps to display
the bar again. 

If you want access to your toolbars, but need as much vertical workspace
as possible, try changing the Toolbar or the Format Bar into a floating
palette. Then, you can position it anywhere you want. Click a blank area
around the edge of the Toolbar of the Format Bar, then drag it to any
location on screen--even outside the WordPad window. To return the bar to
its original location, drag the palette back to the toolbar area, and when
the dotted outline changes to a solid line, let go.

*10. PRINTING FROM YOUR DESKTOP         
     
Need to print a file--fast? There are two ways to do this without manually
opening the application in which it was created. 

The easiest route is to right-click a document icon and select Print.
Windows 95 opens the file's native application and prints the file. 

If you prefer, you can place a printer shortcut on your desktop. (Open My
Computer, double-click the Printers folder, right-click and drag your
printer icon to the desktop, release the mouse button, and select Create
Shortcut(s) Here.) To print a document, simply drag and drop its icon on
the printer icon. (Again, Windows will open the file's native
application for you.)
