A Handful of Computer Tips

These tips are generally about the Windows operating-system, or common conventions that many pieces of software use.

This is just the outline of a workshop I give. Eventually I will re-write it into a standalone webpage.

Underlined letter in a menu tells you the keyboard shortcut to select that menu item
Menu’s usually tell you the keyboard shortcut to perform that action without a mouse
Utilize multiple desktops/workspaces. (hit win+tab on windows and click ’new desktop’; on mac, enter mission control with ctrl+up and click the + icon to create a new ‘space’)
oops you hit the ‘insert’ key
Software launchers! windows key or cmd+space, then just start typing.
Opening and Navigating a file explorer (without using the mouse) will help you organize your files
Moving a cursor of text around: arrows, ctrl, shift, home, end, page up/down
Many number entry boxes let you perform simple arithmetic operations (+,-,*,/) in them.
Quickly switch between windows with alt+tab or cmd+tab
Launch software quickly with Win+ or Cmd+Space launchers (alt+space with powertoys)
Windows: Open the windows “Quick” menu with Win+X. Don’t try the following: “Win+X, U, U” will quickly shut down your computer.
Speaking of shortcuts not to try right now, Win+L will lock your computer.
Lets practice navigating explorer or finder window from a keyboard (open: win+e. mac: alt-tab to finder is the selected software, then cmd+n)
Lets take a look at properties and details of the file menu.
Win+P to open external connected display options on windows
View your file system visually, using software like WinDirStat, TreeSize, GrandPerspective, DaisyDisk, or others. I have been using WinDirStat for 15 years and won’t switch now, even though WizTree is way faster.
Ctrl+Shift+V or Cmd+Shift+V will paste text without all the formatting, usually.
Ctrl+L (Cmd+l) will select and highlight an address bar or search bar in most software (like web browsers and file explorers)
Windows users, check out the software ‘Everything’ by Voidtools