Making Your Computer Work for You Tips for Windows 7, Laptops, Internet Explorer, MS Office and Adobe Acrobat

Transcription

1 Making Your Computer Work for You Tips for Windows 7, Laptops, Internet Explorer, MS Office and Adobe Acrobat By Drew Kottke Bureau of Technical Services Division of Transportation Systems Development Wisconsin Department of Transportation May 10, 2013 This document: ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/bts/realestate/reads/pc tips.pdf

2 Table of Contents Windows 7 Performance 3 View Options 5 Sort 6 Search 7 Taskbar 8 Delete 10 Recent Files 11 Shortcuts 12 Printing 13 Laptops Closing the lid 15 Power Options 16 Conserve battery 17 Hibernate 18 Internet Explorer Zoom / Find 19 Toolbars /Links 20 Passwords 21 Office Outlook Calendar 22 Imagery in Word 23 Tables 24 Cropping 26 Drawing 27 Formatting 28 Grouping 30 Save as PDF 31 Electronic Records 32 Scanning 33 Adobe Acrobat Zoom / Print 34 Stamps 35 Sign 36 Reduce 39 Headers and Footers 41 Password Protect 42 Useful Software 43 2

3 Improve Windows Performance 1. Click Start > Control panel 2. Click View by Small icons 3. Click Performance Information and Tools 4. Click Adjust visual effects. The Performance Options dialog appears. 5. Click Adjust for best performance. This unchecks every option. 6. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and check the options as shown on page Click OK. 3

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5 View Options Setup Windows Explorer for improved file browsing. 1. Click Start > Control panel, click View by Small icons 2. Click Folder Options 3. Click the View tab. 4. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types. 5. Click Apply to All Folders. Answer Yes to the Question Set all folders on your computer? and click OK. 5

6 Sort With the Details view on, you can sort files and folders by clicking on one of the column headings (Name, Size, Type, Date Modified, etc.) in Explorer. This sorts the files by that attribute. Clicking once puts the files in ascending order. Clicking again puts them in descending order. This is especially useful if you are looking for the most recent file in a folder (sort by Date Modified) or perhaps a very large or very small file (sort by Size). To auto size columns to fit all text, double-click the line between column headings. 6

7 Search To search for a file in Windows Explorer press [F3]. Files with reads in the name are highlighted in yellow. Files with reads inside the file are also listed 7

8 Customize the Taskbar Right click the Taskbar and select Properties Change the Taskbar buttons as desired Always Combine Never Combine 8

9 Pin to Taskbar or Start Menu Right click on shortcuts to make them available on the start menu or taskbar Undo Most Windows programs also support the ability to undo multiple changes. Continuing to press CTRL + Z will undo one change at a time often back up to 12 or more changes. Redo Ctrl + Y will redo 9

10 Delete files faster By removing the "Are you sure you want to delete" Microsoft Windows confirmation box. Right click the Recycle Bin, click Properties and uncheck "Display delete confirmation dialog" 10

11 Recent files list 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button and then click Word Options 2. Click Advanced 3. Under Display, in the Show this number of Recent Documents list, click the number of files that you want to display 11

12 Create a Shortcut 1. Right click on the target file or folder and select copy from the pop up menu. 2. Right click on the desktop (or wherever you would like the shortcut) and select Paste Shortcut from the pop up menu. Do NOT select Paste. A copied file is on the left. A shortcut is on the right. Notice the blue arrow identifying a shortcut. 12

13 Set the Default Printer Click Start > Printers and Faxes The current default printer will have a circle with a check mark. To Change the default printer, Right click on the desired printer and click Set as Default Printer. 13

14 Selection print from Windows in Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, etc. Highlight portions of text you wish to print and click the Print icon or option in the File menu. In the printer dialog window choose the option Selection. 14

15 Laptops Change When I close the lid on a laptop 1. Click Start > Control panel 2. Click View by Small icons 3. Click Power Options 4. Click Change what closing the lid does 15

16 Set Power Options on a laptop 1. Click Start > Control panel, click View by Small icons 2. Click Power Options 3. Click Change when the computer sleeps 16

17 Conserve Battery If you are running low on battery power and you need to keep working, dim the display. The display uses most of the power. If you do not need Internet access, turn off the WiFi radio. Fn key + F8 dims the display on this laptop Fn key + F5 toggles the Wireless radio on and off This is the Wireless radio (WiFi) indicator. If it s lit, it s on. 17

18 Hibernate rather than shut down a laptop Turns on and off faster Sleep is a power saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player the computer immediately stops what it s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working. Hibernation is a power saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer. Of all the power saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won't use your laptop for an extended period and won't have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time. 18

19 Internet Explorer Definitions Intranet: Accessible only by employees Extranet: Accessible by business partners. Internet: Accessible by anyone. Zoom If you have a wheel mouse, you can use the wheel to alter the size of the text on most Web sites and in MS office Applications. Hold down the [CTRL] key as you spin the wheel up and down. Ctrl + Enter To open enter google and press Ctrl + Enter. The and the.com part of the URL are added automatically. + Ctrl Enter = Ctrl + F Find occurrences of text on a web page or document 19

20 Toolbars The Internet Explorer Toolbars may be locked. Click View > Toolbars and uncheck Lock the Toolbars. Now you will see vertical dots at the left edge of each toolbar. You can click and drag on the Toolbar name and rearrange the toolbars. Links Toolbar You can add, remove and rename items on the Internet Explorer Links Toolbar. This is a great place to save your commonly used Favorites. To add Links 1. Click Favorites > Add to Favorites 2. In the Create in field, highlight Links before clicking OK. Links Toolbar To delete or rename links, right click on the link and select delete or rename. 20

21 Open link in new Window or Tab Open a link in a new browser Window or Tab by holding down the Shift key on the keyboard and clicking on the link. Password system Come up with a short phrase that is easy to remember but hard to guess. For example: The Statewide Real Estate Meeting Was Awesome. Use the first letter of each word in the phrase to make your base password. In this case: tswremwa. Add an UPPERCASE prefix to this base password depending on the website. Append a number with a special character in this example 99! to the base password. See the examples below Website Amazon Netflix Office Depot PayPal Snapfish Password Atswremwa99! NFtswremwa99! ODtswremwa99! PPtswremwa99! SFtswremwa99! Now you have a different strong password for each site (a good thing) and can still remember almost every one of your passwords. Never share your passwords! 21

22 Drag Outlook to the Calendar This lets you associate an with a pop up reminder. Set the time and make sure the Reminder box is checked. Click Save and Close. You may now move or delete the if you wish. It is saved in your calendar. 22

23 Inserting Imagery in Word 23

24 Tables in Word Use tables to help control the location of the imagery. Decide the numbers of table rows and columns based on how many images you want to include. Position the cursor in the Word document where the images will go. 1. Click Table > Insert > Table 2. Specify the number of columns and rows and click OK 24

25 Make Word Table Borders Invisible This is not necessary but may provide a better looking document. 1. Click in the table 2. Click Table > Table Properties 3. On the Table tab, click Borders and Shading 4. Under Apply to: select Table 5. Under Setting: select None 6. Click OK, click OK. 25

26 Crop Images in Word When you add pictures to your Office documents you might need to crop them to remove unwanted areas The Picture Tools ribbon should be active. If not, click on the image. Click Crop Click and drag inward any of the four corners to crop from any one side. Notice you can still see the area to be cropped out is show in translucent gray. Press and hold the CTRL key while you drag a corner cropping handle inward to crop equally on all four sides. To accept the current dimensions and crop the photo, press escape or click anywhere outside the cropping area. 26

27 Drawing in MS Office 27

28 Draw a square or circle Hold down the shift key when placing or modifying a square or circle to retain the square or circle shape Note: If your circles aren t round, you can right click on your desktop, select screen resolution and correct your display settings. Moving To move objects a little bit at a time, select the object and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. 28

29 Reorder PowerPoint Slides with the Slide Sorter To reorder PowerPoint slides 1. Click View > Slide Sorter 2. Change the Zoom level to 100 so you can see what you re doing. 3. Click and drag slides to a new location. A gray line appears indicating the new location. 29

30 Grouping 30

31 To Save a Document as a PDF using MS Word With the document open in MS Word 2007, click the Office button, then Save As, then PDF or XPS 2. Specify the Save in folder and the file name (It s OK to leave the Optimize for and Options Settings as is) 3. Click Publish 31

32 Electronic Records Law Wisconsin Statutes Legal recognition of electronic records, electronic signatures, and electronic contracts. (3) If a law requires a record to be in writing, an electronic record satisfies that requirement in that law. (4) If a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies that requirement in that law. Wisconsin Statutes Uniform real property electronic recording act. (2) VALIDITY OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS. (a) If a law requires, as a condition for recording, that a document be an original, be on paper or another tangible medium, or be in writing, the requirement is satisfied by an electronic document satisfying this section. (b) If a law requires, as a condition for recording, that a document be signed, the requirement is satisfied by an electronic signature. 32

33 Scanning Scanning should be the last resort for getting an electronic copy of a file. An electronic original is always preferable when available. An electronic original is higher quality, uses less disk space and may include searchable text. 33

34 Adobe Acrobat Turn on Marquee Zoom PDF print a zoomed view 1. Click on 'marquee zoom tool' icon from toolbar and select area to zoom in on 2. Right click anywhere on zoomed view and select 'print' 3. In print dialog box, under 'Print range', select 'Current view' 4. Click 'OK' 34

35 Add a custom stamp in Adobe Acrobat Pro X First create the stamp as an image or PDF. Ideally, signatures should have a transparent background. 1. In Acrobat X, click Comment > Custom Stamps > Create Custom Stamp 2. Click Browse 3. Change the Files of type dropdown to match the format of the stamp that you created 4. Browse to the stamp and double click on it 5. Type custom in the Category field 6. Give the stamp a meaningful name 7. Uncheck Down sample stamp 8. Click OK The stamp is now available from the Stamps menu on this computer. 35

36 To Place a Signature Stamp and Date in Adobe Acrobat Pro X Once your stamp is created in Acrobat: 1. Open and zoom into the area of the PDF where you wish to apply your signature 2. Click Comment > custom and click on the desired stamp 3. Place the stamp near where you want it. Do not worry about its size or position at this point. 4. Click once on the stamp so that you see Handles at the corners. 5. Now resize and position the stamp as desired. 36

37 Resize by using the double arrow on a corner. Move by using the 4 way arrow somewhere on the stamp itself. 6. To add a date, press Ctrl E to display the Properties Bar 7. Click Comment > Drawing Markups > Add text box 8. Click once in the area where the date will go (A blinking cursor appears) 9. Enter the date. Do not worry about its size or position at this point. 37

38 10. To change the border and fill color, right click on the text box and select Properties. On the Appearance tab, set Style to No Border and Fill Color to No Color 11. To change the text box font the text must be highlighted as shown below. Then use the Properties Bar (Ctrl E) to change the font color, size, etc. 12. Once you have set the text box border, fill color, font color and font size, right click on the text box and select Make Current Properties Default 38

39 Reduce the File Size of a Scanned PDF if you must scan 1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. 2. Click File > Save As > Reduced Size PDF 3. In the Reduce File Size dialog leave Make compatible with set to Acrobat 6.0 and click OK 4. In the Save As dialog box, select a folder and give the file a name. Click OK. 39

40 5. Wait a minute or 2 for Acrobat to save a new copy. Acrobat can significantly reduce the file size without reducing the quality. 40

41 Add Headers and Footers 41

42 Password Protect a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro X 1. With the PDF open in Acrobat, click Tools > Protection > Encrypt > Encrypt with Password 2. Click Yes on the Are you sure popup 3. Click the Require a password to open the document checkbox and specify a password OR, click Restrict editing and printing checkbox (allow printing if desired) and specify a password 4. Click OK OR 5. Renter the password in the popup 6. Click OK in the popup 7. Save the PDF 42

43 Useful Software and Web Services Dropbox: Free. dropbox.com. Synchronize files between multiple computers and make them available online from anywhere Picasa: Free. picasa.google.com. Excellent photo editor. Easy red eye removal, face matching algorithm, integration/storage online Carbonite: $60/PC/Yr. carbonite.com. Automated online backup/restore Crap Cleaner: Free. ccleaner.com. Easily removes temp files, history, cookies from all major browsers, Windows, the registry and third party applications 43

44 Save early, save often. Never let a computer know you're in a hurry. 44