Tag Archives: How to

Display Properties Shortcut

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Those who regularly attend the BPCA SIG and General meeting, know that I am always changing something in the display properties to get the monitor and projector playing nicely with each other.

I have finally gotten smart and made a shortcut directly to the Display Properties of my various Windows based computers, instead of continually navigating from Start to Contol Panel, etc.

I created the shortcut by following these steps:

  • Left click the Start Button
  • Left click Control Panel
  • Right click Display
  • Select Create Shortcut
  • Click on Yes, when a dialog box comes up asking if you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop

For even easier access, move the shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar, if you are using that.

Now I have easy access to my display settings.

Manual Line Breaks

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This tip applies to MS Word 97 and above, it is possible it works in earlier editions but, I have no experience with them. This should also work in just about any word processor, but you will have to check for yourself.

When you get to the end of a line of text, you can start a new paragraph by pressing the Shift and Enter keys simultaneously. This will insert a manual line break.

The use of a manual line break comes in very handy when dealing with numbered lists. When you want to start a new paragraph in a numbered list without getting a new line number, use the manual break.

Another place to use the manual break, rather than start a new paragraph, is in any place set up as a “hanging” paragraph, such as cc: lines and references.

Try using the manual line break. Once you get used to it, you will find yourself using it frequently.

Let me know if there are any more applications of the manual break that help you in your word processing.

Screen Captures

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I have had a few people ask me what is the key that says Prt Scrn for? Well, in the olden days it used to be that you would press that key and whatever was on the screen would be printed.

Now it is used to capture a picture of the screen and sends it to the clipboard. There are two options for the capture:

  1. To capture everything on the screen, press the Prt Scrn key.
  2. To capture only the currently active window, press Alt and Prt Scrn keys at the same time.

You will have to save your capture to a graphics program to save it.

XP’s built in Paint or, if it is installed, Microsoft Photo Editor would be the cheapest means of accomplishing the save. You could also use any program capable of pasting your screen capture and saving it such as Paint Shop Pro, IrfanView, etc.

There are more capable screen capture programs available, both free and paid, with a lot more options.

For more information search Google for “screen capture software”.

I use Gadwin PrintScreen 2.6, the latest release, I believe it is 3.1, is available at gadwin.com and is a freeware product.