Tag: 169 tech tips
Tech Tip #105: Create Shortkeys for any Windows Tool
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: I love the Windows snipping tool, but it takes too long to get to. Is there a shortkey for it?
A: Oddly, there isn’t, which is why I’ve never used it. I want a screen capture that’s instantaneous. Jing is even too slow for me (though I tolerate it because of all its very cool annotations.
Then I discovered how to create a shortkey for it:
- Go to Start–accessories
- Right click on ‘snipping tool’
- Select ‘properties’
- Click in ‘shortcut’ (I never knew that field was there. Maybe they added it with Win 7)
- Push the key combination you want to use to invoke the snipping tool. In my case, I used Ctrl+Alt+S
- Save
Now all I have to do is remember the shortkey!
BTW, this works for any tool.
Tech Tip #104: Need a File on Your iPad? Here’s an Easy Way
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: I have a video on my classroom computer I want to use on my iPad. How do I do that?
A: There are ways to do that–email it to your iPad, open through DropBox–but those have issues:
- emailing requires extra steps and time you may not have
- many email accounts limit you to <10MB. What if a video file is larger?
- DropBox has limited space
- like email, you must put materials in DropBox to access them from there (In know–Duh, but that requires planning. What if your inquiry-driven class popped onto this topic on the fly?)
If you’re like me, anything to make your worker faster, easier, less steps is a good thing.
Tech Tip #30: Menu Command is Greyed Out
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: I pushed the menu command I wanted to use (in MS Office 2003). I got the drop-down list, but the command I needed was greyed out. When I pushed it, nothing happened. What do I do?
A: Rest assured, your software program isn’t broken or corrupted. Here’s the solution: Push escape four times. That’ll get you out of whatever you’re in that is preventing you from moving on.
This trick always works. Can’t say that about much else in my techie life.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
Tech Tip #19: How to Activate an MS Word Link
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q:I see a blue phrase on my page. It’s underlined. I’m told that’s a link to a website. How do I make it work?
A: Activating a link in MS Word or most of the MS Office products is simple.
- hover over the word or phrase
- Push Ctrl+click to activate
