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RCW's useful tips cartoon

Here you'll find a number of tips we've found useful when browsing or undertaking other computer tasks. These tips often involve buttons or keystrokes available on commonly used programs, but that are so easily overlooked. If you know of a useful tip that is not here then please do let us know and we'll add it for the benefit of others.

Limiting your search

When using a search engine you can easily limit your search to a phrase by surrounding it with double quotes. For example, searching for "high wycombe" will only return pages where these two words appear together, rather than the thousands of additional pages that contain the words 'high' and/or 'wycombe'.

Opening a new browser window

In Internet Explorer, if you hold down the Shift key when clicking on a link, it will open the page in a new window. This is handy when you are on a page of links and you don't want to keep using your Back button to return to your starting page.

List of visited pages

In Internet Explorer, just to the right of the Back button, there's a tiny downwards pointing arrow that's so easy to miss. Click on this and it will give you the complete list of pages visited during the current browser session, making it easy to go back many pages with a single click.

List of visited sites and pages

In Internet Explorer, at the right hand end of the address bar there's yet another downwards pointing arrow. Click on this for a more detailed view of recently visited sites and pages.

Finding text on a page

If you are looking for specific text on a longish page click on Edit / Find (on This Page)... or press the Ctrl+F keys. This brings up a simple Find dialogue to help you quickly locate what you are looking for.

Forcing a page to refresh

Sometimes a page stubbornly refuses to refresh no matter how many times you click the Refresh button. To force a refresh, hold down the Shift key whilst clicking on the Refresh button. This should definitely do the trick.

Adjust column widths

It's annoying when using Windows Explorer, 'Find Files or Folders' or Outlook if the columns are not wide enough to fully display all the information required. Fix this by double-clicking on the bars that separate the column headings. The column width then automatically resizes to properly display the longest item.

Sorting contents of columns

In Windows Explorer, 'Find Files or Folders' or Outlook you can double click on any of the column headings. These will then sort the contents of that column in ascending order. Click again to sort in descending order.

Navigating with keys instead of mouse

When your mouse hand is tired during long periods of surfing you can use the keyboard alternatives to move around pages just as well. The 'Home' key takes you straight to the top of a page, the End key to the bottom. The 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys scroll the page one screenful at a time, whilst the up and down arrows can be used to move in smaller steps.

Switching between running programs

If you have several programs running at once you can easily switch between them by holding down the Alt key whilst pressing the Tab key. Once you have highlighted the program you want to use simply release both keys.

Quickly cascade, tile or minimise all open windows

Right-click in a blank area of your task bar to quickly cascade, tile or minimise all open windows.

Shrinking text in Microsoft Word

If you are using MS Word and you've written a letter that doesn't quite fit on a single page, click on 'File / Print Preview' then click on the 'Shrink to Fit' button. The text will be reduced in size so that everything now neatly fits onto just one page.

Saving several Word documents at once

When you have several documents open in Word you can save all of them at once by holding down the Shift key whilst clicking on the File menu. You will now see a menu option to 'Save All' as well as 'Close All'.

Never 'unsubscribe' from junk e-mail lists

I'm sure you will have received masses of junk e-mail that seems utterly pointless. Well, there's nothing these junk e-mailers want more than for you to unsubscribe! Much junk e-mail is sent to randomly generated e-mail addresses. As soon as you 'unsubscribe' the junk e-mailer knows they have an active address and they will then usually sell it to hundreds of their friends.

Please see our special junk e-mail tips page for further information on how we deal with this problem.

Ignore chain letters

You will often encounter e-mail chain letters. The idea is that you send $1 to the name at the top of the list, remove the top name, add your own name at the bottom, then copy the message to ten people you know. You then sit back and await the arrival of cash beyond the dreams of avarice. In many cases the list has been fixed and every address leads back to the same person, and your own cash never arrives. A variation of the scam includes sending electronic 'reports' as a means of getting round laws against chain letters. For more information on the latest e-mail scam's and hoaxes try entering 'e-mail chain letter scam' as keywords in a Google search.

Handy browsing and general computer tips

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