September 2005 Newsletter

Hello. I hope you’ve had a good month. In this issue you’ll find more about keyboard shortcuts, about adobe pdfs and how to save money if you’re buying a PC from Dell.

I also want to quickly tell you about one of my books: Computer Jargon into Plain English. It’s a pocket sized dictionary that’s handy in the computer shop and at home. I’m offering a special discount to my newsletter subscriber – click here: www.osaat.co.uk/dictionaryoffer.htm

Right, on to the good stuff.

Mini-Article — Keyboard shortcuts
Last month I mentioned a couple of keyboard shortcuts that save you time (Ctrl + S for save and Alt + f4 to close a window). I had a few requests for more, so here you go:

F1 In most programs pressing f1 brings up the help menu
F2 Rename a selected file (for example in my documents)
F5 Refresh the view (for example in My Documents or in Outlook Express)

Shortcuts using the Windows key (between ctrl and Alt at the bottom left of the keyboard):
Windows + F Search for a file
Windows + E Opens Windows Explorer (or My Computer)
Windows + D Shows the desktop (useful if you have lots of programs open)

Some other shortcuts that a lot of programs have:
Ctrl + P Print
Ctrl + O Open a file
Ctrl + N Create a new file
Ctrl + F Find (within a document or web page)

Reader’s Question
What are pdfs and how do I use them?
Pdf stands for “Portable Document Format” and it’s a file format that’s particularly good for passing files from computer to computer. To view a pdf file, just double click on it. If you have the “reader” program installed, it’ll start up and you can view the pdf and print it. If it’s more than one page you can use the mouse to move through it and the magnifying glass buttons at the top to zoom in/out.

If you don’t have adobe reader, you can download it for free from www.adobe.com by clicking the “Get Adobe reader” button on the left.

Tip of the Month
If you work for yourself home and need to buy a computer (or other computer extras such as a printer) register with Dell as a small business before you buy — don’t just buy as if you were buying it for “leisure”. It’s easy to do (via their website www.dell.co.uk ) and you’ll save money compared to if you bought it as a home PC.

Download of the Month
This month I’ve found a place where you can download greetings cards to print out.

http://www.creativity-portal.com/printables/greeting.cards.html 
Scroll down to near the bottom of the page to see the selection they have.
There’s quite a range. They download as pdf files so you need Adobe reader to view and print them. (See above)
Legal Disclaimer: Neither Adobe reader or the greetings cards were created by me and I have no connection with either company/product in any way (apart from I’ve used them myself).

That’s the lot for now. As usual, you can email me suggestions or feedback by replyin to this email. If you want to unsubscribe, reply to this email with unsubscribe as the email subject.

Until next month,

Tim Wakeling