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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition is Finding your way using Windows 7 GPS.
When you go about your day on auto pilot, rarely do you need to change the direction you take to reach your destination. But on occasions when you are forced to take detours—like I have been recently while going to work—you might just find that there are all sorts of ways to reach your destination that you never knew existed.
The other day, I was taking a new detour that the signs said to follow, just to find myself at a closed road with new detour signs pointing me back the way I came. Anyone else ever have a problem with this?
So, geek that I am, I whipped out my handy GPS, typed in the destination, and found my way by turning off-course while the “lady in the box” (as my son calls it) repeats “You are off route! You please turn at the next street and change directions.” Of course, the only way this is going to work is to constantly click the re-route button or veer off the beaten path enough that the “lady in the box” finds a new way to go so that you can hear the glorious phrase, “You have reached your destination.”
Well, you may experience this same kind of frustration when you arrive at a new PC or laptop computer and find a new version of Windows. You now have to navigate to familiar places in a very unfamiliar Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate or even Starter Edition on a netbook.
Don’t despair! We can narrow down your detours by helping to explain a couple simple routing options that you can use in any of these versions of Windows.
Let’s start with the simplest method first. The search bar. If you happen to know what you’re looking for by name, like Joe’s Pizza, The Museum of Natural History, My proposal for the boss, my new resume, etc…you get the idea! Then all you need to do is press the start button.
Wait! Wait! Stop right there! You might be saying, “What’s that? No start button?”
Oh, that’s right! It’s the large circular button with the Windows logo located in the lower left corner of your screen where the start button used to be. Once you push this magical button (I like that fact that it glows when you hover over it. To me, that’s magic!) you will see a rectangular box that says search. Simply type in part of the name that you are looking for and presto! It will likely show on the list. Now if that isn’t magic then I’m not David Blaine!
If you’re not sure what to look for by name, but keep saying to yourself “I can’t remember…But I will know it when I see it,” then you may wish to explore the Windows Explorer way of searching. Let’s say we were searching for a recipe on Gingerbread Houses or something similar because you might be feeling a need to revisit the fairy tales of your youth. You start by checking in your documents. No good. Then you try your videos. No good either. You start picking through your local C: drive, following the path but never finding it easy to just back up a little and try the alternate path. In the past you might have done this by using your back button or by using the up one level button, over, over, and over again until you couldn’t remember where you started. Why not whip out your magic wand and teleport to a specific place along the path? In Windows 7, your wand is a mouse pointer and your teleporting map is the address bar located at the top of the window you are in. Take two seconds and look at how it has changed. Instead of slashes you now see little arrows. If you click on the word or drive in the address bar it will take you to that folder right away. If you are not sure what lies ahead, click on the arrow to see a quick list of all the folders down that path—like peeking ahead in a choose your own adventure game so that you can control the ending.
Whether you are looking for help from the “lady in the box” or need to follow the bread crumbs, you will be able to jump for joy (or maybe scare your co-workers and family) and repeatedly voice “I have reached my destination!”
Until next time, don’t forget to stop by the blog and check out other useful tips at www.productiveUpodcast.com.
See ya next time!
