DigIT and I will be discussing how to use different views when trying to locate files or other items on a computer.

Editor: DigIT, can you explain why this topic recently caught your interest?

DigIT: My regular computer operator (my human friend) was recently complaining that she could not find a file on her computer. I asked her which one and when she told me, I was able to find it immediately. I could not understand why my friend had trouble. She attempted to explain it to me, but I found her reasons confusing; she mentioned a strange character named Waldo that seemed to always be missing.

E: Oh, you’re referring to the Where’s Waldo book series. Those are fun—what don’t you get?

D: Why do you humans like Where’s Waldo?  It seems pointless to me if you do not like looking for things.

E: Well, Where’s Waldo started out for younger children, most of whom would only be playing games or doing learning activities on a computer.  The adults, like your friend, would typically be working; trying to produce things for other people.

D: She told me that finding a file is like looking at a Where’s Waldo picture, without the fun; that finding one file among all the other files should be easier.

E: That’s probably because Where’s Waldo is a game, and finding files is typically thought of as work for us.  Maybe you need to understand that we humans see the two similar tasks as entirely different things.  Work for a human is something we have to do if we want to eat, have a place to live, or have a computer.  Something like Where’s Waldo is for entertainment, something we make a choice about doing, which has an entirely different value scale.

D: That explanation makes it somewhat clearer, although I doubt I will ever understand you humans completely.

E: It works both ways, believe me. So, were you able to offer any suggestions to make files easier to find?

D: I really do not find those Waldo pictures very challenging, and finding files is something I do without even thinking. I recommended that she try eliminating some of the files; even rearranging them might be beneficial.  We discussed displaying the files in a different order, such as sorted by size or date.

E: Oh, yes, the Details view in Windows Explorer can sort items that way. It can be very helpful. But what can you recommend for locating other types of items, like e-mail messages? I often have trouble finding specific messages in my Inbox.

D: In e-mail, there are many ways to arrange items to make it easier to find the one you want, such as sorting by columns. You can also filter out some of the items to give you a smaller group to look at. In Outlook, Search Folders provide an efficient method of filtering messages by using a specific set of criteria.

E: Search Folders are great, and so are the built-in views.

D: I could elaborate further on changing views, but the options depend on which program you are using.  My human friend said she was going to provide some tips for some of the most common software applications.

E: She did, and I’ll be sure to post those on the blog entry for this podcast. Any last words, DigIT?

D: Please try to remember the view options, and the other tools at your disposal, to assist you when searching for specific items. It is unfortunate that most of my family has not mastered the trick of talking to humans. If they could, it would probably make life for you humans much easier, but I am afraid it might also shock many of you.

By the way, here is a trick you can use for solving those Waldo pictures. Just look for the pattern in his shirt, then check for the hat and glasses to find the exact match. But I digress; I will stick to those bits and bytes.

E: Thank you for joining us this week, DigIT. We look forward to speaking with you again in the future to gain more insight on the computer world from your unique perspective.

Here are the tips for this week. You can find links for these in the blog entry for the podcast, at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

• Changing the view in a Windows Explorer folder
• Using different views in Outlook
• Using different views in Lotus Notes
• How to create your own view in Outlook
• How to use the Full Screen Reading view in Word
• Creating and using Custom Views in Excel
• Using the Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint
• Changing the Zoom level in PowerPoint
• Using different message views on a BlackBerry device
• Using different calendar views on a Windows Mobile device

Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you have any recommendations for future episodes, be sure to let us know by writing an iTunes review, or by droppping us a line on Twitter @productiveUcast.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

But it’s a little early to be thinking of summer, isn’t it? So why would I mention this in the middle of February?

Oddly enough, even in the dead of winter, with temperatures in the single digits and several feet of snow piled up around the house, I still love a good ice cream sundae. Especially if it has peanut butter ripples, frozen pieces of candy, or chunks of cookie dough.

Some things are just better when they’re frozen, but a computer is definitely not one of them.

When your computer decides to freeze up or hang, it usually does so at a crucial moment, like when you’ve just spent several hours editing a Word document and haven’t saved it yet.

That feeling of dread sets in. You begin to panic, and then you fear the worst: that all your hard work will be lost.

Sometimes, unfortunately, this is the case. But there are some steps you can take to ensure that your work will be recovered in the event that Word crashes.

If you enable the AutoRecover feature, which is available in several of the Office applications, it will periodically save a backup version of the file you’re working on. Then, if the program quits unexpectedly, it will prompt you with the recovered file the next time you open that program.

There is no guarantee offered with the AutoRecover feature, and at times it will fail to recover your work, so your best bet is still to save frequently when working in a file. You may find it much easier to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+S to save your work as you’re typing, without your fingers ever leaving the keyboard. If you can get into this habit, you might just find your left hand automatically reaching for those keys without you even realizing it!

When the Deep Freeze sets in, whether it’s Windows, an Office application, or a mobile device, we don’t want you to be left out in the cold. The tips for this week will provide you with a starting point for when it seems like all is lost.

• What’s Frozen? – How to determine whether it is Windows or an application that is frozen
• An Ounce of Prevention for File Loss – How to enable the AutoRecover feature for Microsoft Office applications
• Mittens for Your Computer – How to clear out temporary Internet files, cookies, and browsing history
• Save Your Fingers By Letting Your Fingers Save Your Work – Using a keyboard shortcut to save while working in a file

And since you can also experience crashes on mobile devices, here are a few tips that can help you with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile:

• Just In Case – How to back up your BlackBerry data
• How to Thaw a Frozen BlackBerry – Resetting a frozen BlackBerry device
• Frozen In Your Hand – Resetting a frozen Windows Mobile device

We hope you’re enjoying the podcast and all the tips. If there are any topics you’d like to see covered in a future episode, please let us know in an iTunes review, or leave us a message on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week. Try to stay warm even when your computer is freezing, and we’ll see you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

But when I got to college and needed some money, I found myself taking a job as a cold-calling telemarketer. As I dialed each number, I always envisioned a family trying to enjoy a peaceful dinner and being rudely interrupted. It’s happened to me countless times, too.

With a mobile phone as my primary line, I don’t hear from telemarketers much these days. But there’s a new annoyance in their place, one that plagues my Web surfing more and more with each mouse click: pop-up ads.

Much like the door-to-door salesman and the telemarketer, these ads are rarely a welcome intrusion, and they always seem to be advertising products or services that I neither want nor need.

Not all pop-up windows are ads, but those that are can sometimes be more than a harmless nuisance. Some of these pop-ups contain malicious code that can infect your computer with viruses or spyware. Usually, all it takes is one click, and that means anywhere on the window. This is why you should never attempt to close one of these windows by clicking on the “X” button in the top right corner. Instead, use the keyboard shortcut Alt+F4, which will safely close the active window.

The Internet is a dangerous place. Sometimes you set out to do a bit of care-free cyber surfing, but then a giant wave of harmful pop-up ads appear and suddenly you’re in over your head in shark-infested waters! And then there are the shrieking eels! Wait…I lost the analogy.

I think what I was trying to say is that most, if not all, of the major Web browsers come equipped with some very valuable tools to help keep you safe while you’re browsing the Internet. There is usually a pop-up blocker, and this can be customized to allow certain sites to display pop-ups while others get blocked.

Another great feature is the lock icon, which shows you whether you are on a secure Web site. This can help you avoid becoming a victim of phishing, an Internet scam that tries to lure you into giving personal information to a fraudulent Web site that has been designed to look like a banking site, for example. If you can recognize the common tricks of phishing sites, you’ll be on your way to safer surfing.

This week’s tips will show you where to find these features and how to use them. The tips include:

• It All “Ads” Up – how to use the pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer and Firefox
• Locked and Loaded – using the lock icon to tell if you are on a secure Web page
• Getting That “Non-secure” Feeling - deciphering a common Internet Explorer warning message
• Phishing: Don’t Take the Bait – learn all about phishing and how to avoid it

The links for these tips can be found on the blog entry for this week’s podcast at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

That’s all for this week. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast and the tips, be sure to head over to iTunes to write a review for us. And don’t forget to drop us a line on Twitter @productiveUcast.

Until next time, we hope these tips will help you recognize the Internet equivalent of walking down a dark alley at night. See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

One of the more thoughtful gifts I received recently was a GPS system. I am plagued by a complete lack of direction, so before acquiring this device, I had a keen ability to take two turns while driving and promptly find myself lost and very afraid.

Eventually, I would find a road that would lead me to something familiar, but having a GPS guiding me along is like knowing secret shortcuts to every destination. What was once a three hour journey along the scenic route is now a twenty minute trip in the express lane.

I’ve always been fond of shortcuts. There are levels in Super Mario World that I can’t even describe because I always used the Warp Zones to skip them. Life is short! I’ve got places to go and naps to take once I get there! Show me the shortcut and then get out of my way!

I guess I’m just a true product of our impatient society. We like our oatmeal instant, our photos developed in under an hour, and our computer files close at hand. Just look at a typical Windows Desktop: it’s a beautiful mosaic of icons that open programs and network folders. Without them, we’d be digging around in the Start Menu to launch an application, or spelunking in the darkest depths of a network server to reach a folder that’s buried ten levels deep.

So for this week’s tips, we offer you quicker ways of getting there. The tips include:

• Man, He’s Quick – Using the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows
• Favorites Folders Faster – Creating shortcuts for the Office applications’ Open and Save dialogs
• Short and Sweet – Creating shortcuts in Windows
• Files in Files – Embedding a file as an object in a Word document
• Ready for Action – Linking to a file with Action Buttons in a PowerPoint presentation

You can find links for these tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. If you’ve got any feedback, comments, or suggestions, let us know in an iTunes review, and write a review of our podcast while you’re there. You can also find us on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week’s edition. Until next time, get lost—and let modern technology swiftly guide you home.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Welcome back to the podcast!

This week’s edition…

“Out with the Old and in with the New”: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Office

I’m a bit of a digital packrat. I keep everything. Not only do I keep stuff, I also have multiple back-ups of the documents I have saved.

I suspect I am not unique, either. Recently, I was talking with a colleague and she admitted that she keeps everything too – but she never goes back to use it again. She said she makes backups so she has “just-in-case” copies, but readily admits that she creates the same documents over and over again from scratch.

When I hear her complaining about how she cannot remember how she worked around a particular glitch, I ask her the same question: “Why didn’t you just copy the old one and change it?” Her reply: “It’s too much work.”

It may seem like too much work, but repurposing content is an age-old practice. For example:

Did they cancel “Bewitched” when the first Darren didn’t work out? No, they just found another Darren

And then there’s Shakespeare. Why create new content when you can just replacê Romeo and Juliet with Maria and Tony and call it “West Side Story”?

Make your life easier; use Find and Replacê.

Almost every Microsoft Office program enables you to Find and Replacê, even the basic text editor Notepad.

In this week’s podcast, we offer Find and Replacê tips for a gaggle of Office apps. Among them:

• Change is Not Always Hard: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Excel
• Presto-Chango: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Word
• Go Green with PowerPoint: Recycle slides using Find and Replacê in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Adding can be Maddening: Using paste special to alter numbers in a worksheet
• Up to Date: Using update queries in Microsoft Access to update values in a table

That’s it for this week’s podcast. Until next week, and keep this in mind: It’s OK to reuse files, but not OK to reuse tissues.

You can find all of our tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. Hate us? Love us? Have a suggestion? Tell us in an iTunes review. We would love to hear what you have to say.

See you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Sounds kinda Twilight Zone-y, doesn’t it?

“You’re traveling through another dimension—a dimension where there is no screen less than a light-year wide. On this journey into the unforgiving abyss of your imagination, maximum resolution spans multiple infinities. You’ve just entered…the Widescreen Zone.”

Not everyone has a monitor that requires a yardstick to measure, but a lot of people enjoy multi-monitor setups for their computers. Having two or three monitors at your disposal can be just as useful, especially when you need to have several windows open at one time.

Whether using multiple monitors or a high screen resolution, the problem you occasionally run into is one of increased distance. It was once only a stone’s throw from the bottom of your screen to the Formatting toolbar at the top of a Microsoft Word document; now it feels like your mouse cursor is trekking across the Sahara. I think I see the Bold button! Nope, it was just a mirage.

Well, let go of that mouse and rest a while at the oasis, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s a shortcut. In fact, there are hundreds of shortcuts, right at your fingertips. They’re called keyboard shortcuts, and once you get comfortable using them, you might just want to bury your mouse in the sand.

That Bold button that you wish could be just a little closer? You don’t need it. Just hold down the Ctrl key and the B key together to toggle Bold on and off. Ctrl+I for italics, Ctrl+U for underline. Looking for more advanced formatting options? Use Ctrl+D to open Word’s Font dialog, chock-full of all the wonderful checkboxes you need to add Strikethrough, Small caps, and Shadow effects to your text. I know what you’re thinking:

“Checkboxes, eh? Sounds like something I’ll need to click on. I’ll just reach for my mouse…”

Not so fast! Even within the Font dialog box, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and still apply any of the options you see before you. In fact, you can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through any menu. While you’re still in the Font dialog box, take a look at the underlined letters for each option. Those are little cheat sheets for keyboard shortcuts that work in conjunction with the Alt key. Hold in the Alt key and press K, and you’ve got Strikethrough.

These keyboard shortcuts work in every Microsoft Office application, and some extend to other programs, too. There are links in this week’s blog entry to some great tips on using keyboard shortcuts. This week’s tips are:

• Showing Off Your Keys - displaying keyboard shortcuts in menus and ScreenTips
• Feeling Bold? – using keyboard shortcuts to apply text formatting
• Ctrl+D, Alt+K – navigating through menus and dialog boxes with the keyboard
• Text Downsizing – increasing and decreasing font size with the keyboard
• One Touch Formatting – applying number formats in Excel with keyboard shortcuts
• Hands-On Control – learning the keyboard shortcuts for Office applications

Thanks for joining us for week’s podcast. Armed with these keyboard shortcuts, hopefully you’ll find that the Widescreen Zone isn’t so scary after all.

Until next time, be sure to stop by www.productiveupodcast.com to leave us your comments. Also, follow us on Twitter @productiveUcast and visit our podcast on iTunes, where you can write a 5-star review for us!

See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s edition: “A Sign of the Times (New Roman): Exploring the World of Fonts.”

On my commute into the office this morning, I had a striking revelation: we are surrounded by more words than we sometimes realize. This revelation came to me as I slammed on my brakes to avoid striking the Mercedes in front of me; at that point, I was close enough to be able to read its bumper sticker. That just proves that there are so many opportunities to observe this, no matter where you are.

Take a moment right now to examine your own surroundings. How many instances of text do you see? Obviously you see the computer screen right in front of you, but if you can pry your eyes away from this compelling box of light for just a few seconds—no, really, just look away from the computer. I know you can do it. Okay, good. Now—what do you notice? You probably see at least a few examples of text. If you are in an office right now, you might see memos, printed e-mail messages, maybe motivational posters around the office, or even a calendar on the wall. If you drive to work as I do, you probably saw street signs, billboards, advertisements printed on the sides of buses or cars, or even graffiti. If you take public transportation, you no doubt saw some text on advertisements posted inside of the bus, on the walls of the train station, or on magazines and newspapers being sold in the train station concourse.

Now take a closer look at some of that text and observe the different fonts that are being used. The style, color, and even size of the fonts may vary depending on the purpose and message of the text. This is because, in different situations, certain fonts are usually more appropriate than others. For example, when you create a new document in Microsoft Word, you can choose any font that is installed on your computer; but for professional documents, you wouldn’t want to choose a fancy font that’s difficult to read. But there may be other situations where such a font is entirely appropriate, such as in an advertisement where there is not as much text to be read, or on a formal invitation, where flowing calligraphic fonts are often used.

So what happens when you open Word and don’t choose a different font? By default, you’ll get a font called Times New Roman. It’s been the default font for Word in versions 97 through 2003, so it should come as no surprise if you notice it on the majority of documents you’ve dealt with in the past 10 years or so. It’s much older than that, though; Times New Roman was created in 1931 by font designer Stanley Morison after he criticized British newspaper The Times for their current font choice, Times Old Roman. After that, The Times used the new font for 40 years, and its popularity grew. (Read all about the history of Times New Roman here.)

What has kept this font so popular through the years? Well, as I already mentioned, it’s the default font in most versions of Word. Some people might not care enough, or might not even know it’s possible, to change Word’s default font. Other people have just become so familiar with it that they prefer to use it over other fonts. In Word 2007, the new default font is called Calibri—arguably easier to read than Times New Roman, but if you’re one who doesn’t welcome change, you can easily choose a new default.

At this point, you might ask what makes some fonts easier to read than others. It might help here to know a bit of French and Dutch. Calibri falls into a category of fonts known as sans-serif fonts; “sans” coming from the French word for “without” and “serif” coming from the Dutch noun “schreef,” which translates to something like “stroke of the pen.” This category of fonts lacks the ornamental details that appear on some characters in a serif font such as Times New Roman. You’ll see these if you look at the bottom of a lowercase “n.” In a serif font such as Times New Roman or Georgia, this character will have little “feet” that do not appear on sans-serif fonts such as Calibri, Verdana, or Arial.

In Word 2007, you can easily test this out with a new feature called Live Preview. Type some text in a document, select it, and then click the Font drop-down list on the Home tab of the Ribbon. As you hover your mouse over different fonts, you can preview how your text will look in that font without actually committing to the change.

Anyway, some people argue that these “feet” in serif fonts help move your eyes along the text, making it easier to read; other people say the serifs can be distracting. Some say “po-TAY-to,” while still others say “po-TAH-to.” And around and around we go.

The bottom line is this: you should strive to find a font that suits your text. For large blocks of text, such as a formal document, you will want to avoid any fonts that are too fancy, flowy, or curly (or Moe, or Larry, or even Shemp, for that matter). While we’re on the point, try to stick with a color that is easily readable. Black text on a white background is always a safe bet. Blue text on a pink background? Your readers might go into seizures before the end of the first paragraph.

But that’s not to say that you should always stick with the defaults, either. There is a wide world of font formatting options and text effects available in Word that you can use to help your text stand out, and these are particularly useful for heading styles. If used in moderation, you should be able to create some eye-catching text that maintains professionalism. The tips in this week’s blog entry will show you where to find these options and how to apply them to your fonts. You can get the links for these tips at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

The tips for this week are:

• Strike Out – exploring the text effects available in Word
• Fix Your Fonts – adjusting the character spacing for text
• The Space Between – adjusting the font kerning
• Start Fresh – clear the formatting from selected text
• Making Normal Your Own – changing Word’s defaults for font, paragraph, and page setup styles (Word 2003 and earlier, Word 2007)
• Using Live Preview with Fonts in Word 2007
• Installing Fonts in Windows

For all you Mac users out there, we haven’t forgotten about you! Here are a couple of tips you can use for managing your fonts:

• Changing fonts in applications
• Enabling/disabling and installing/uninstalling fonts in Font Book

That’s all for this week. As always, if you found these tips useful or have some questions you would like to see covered in a future episode, you can leave us a quick note on Twitter by following @productiveUcast. Or, if you want to spread the love, write a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Until next time, remember: actions may speak louder than words, but when words are all you have, be sure to make them look good!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

It’s like a shammy, it’s like a towel, it’s DiskWOW!

eSupport here for DiskWOW!

Did you know that over 80% of all computer users suffer from drive space issues? Not to worry, we have a great tip for you!

How would you like it if you could see how full your hard drive is getting? Would you be confused on what you should pitch to free up space? This crisis befuddles most of us; but be befuddled no more! Try our patented DiskWOW!

How much would you pay to clean up that old drive and breathe new life back into your computer? Would you pay $5, $10, $19.95 plus shipping and handling? Why pay at all?

Here’s how you can take advantage of DiskWOW for the low, low cost of FREE. Available for a permanent time only! Here’s how it works.

First, you need to find out if you’re running out of space. To do this, just open up the “My Computer” icon on your desktop or Start Menu, right-click on the “C” drive and Bang! Presto! POW! A menu pops up and you can select “Properties.” And like DiskWOW, you now own a slice of the pie! Pie graph, that is, displaying how much free space you have available on your drive. The blue slice indicates the space that is already being used up, while the purple slice shows how much free space is available.

Still feeling “blue” over the amount of space being used? Try out the not-so-hidden feature of the DiskWOW “disk cleanup button.” This Microsoft patented technology now availble to our listeners at no additional cost will search your hard drive and find many useless files like the following:

• Downloaded Program Files
• Temporary Internet Files
• Microsoft Office Temporary Files
• and Items in your Recycle Bin

Many of these get you nothing, but in return take up very valuable space!

You might also come across Office Setup Files. Treat these like a bonus! Keep them; you might just need them to repair your copy of Office later should a problem arise.

Still feeling the squeeze? Checking the option to “Compress old files” will zap those old files back into shape, shrinking them down to a more space-saving size. Heck, it’s like having your own version of Microsoft SlimFast!

Once you’ve chosen your options, you can feel like Ron Popeil and “Set it,” click OK, and “Forget it”! Come back a little later and it’ll done!

If you’re ready to take the DiskWOW plunge and want to share it with your family and friends, just mention that you got your DiskWOW instructions at www.productiveUpodcast.com and they too can enjoy the DiskWOW tips and more for the low, low cost of free.

Many of our customers have been writing in to share their experiences with our products. Let’s reach into the mailbag and share a few.

John from Smithsville, Iowa writes:

“Dear eSupport, your tips on clearing out the trash in my PC has been a life-changing event; so much so that I’ve even decided to clear out the floorboard of my car! My wife can’t thank you enough!”

Bill from Redmond, Washington writes:

“Hey eMoney! I thought the Internet was finally coming to a grinding halt! I did a Google search and ran across your DiskWOW miracle cure. Turns out the Internet wasn’t slowing down, I just needed to clear out my temporary Internet files. Couldn’t have done it without you! Oh yeah, my wife loves the iPhone tips!”

Millie from Paris, Illinois writes:

“There was a time I thought Fidel Castro had invaded my computer. I had so many files that started with tildes, I thought they must be the Spanish language pack I had heard so much about online. Much to my surprise, they were just Microsoft Office Temporary files. Your new and improved DiskWOW removed my Geekinese language barrier and now I’m talkin’ tech with all my friends! Thanks so much.”

Thanks to all our listeners for their feedback.

Well, if you would like to share your feedback, feel free to send it to us on Twitter at @productiveUcast or write a review of our podcast on iTunes. We aim to please, so if two isn’t enough, I’ll thow in one more. You can also submit your comments on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com and while you’re there, check out the written and visual tips on DiskWOW and many more!

Until next week, remember: if your hard drive is spinning out of control, use DiskWOW!

This week tips visually:

• Disk Cleanup video
• Check available space video

It’s absolutely amazing how being limited to 140 or 160 characters can really change our spelling and sentence structure. For instance, if I wanted to invite my friend out for drinks at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio, I might send a text message like, “U Wan2 meet up @ HOB L8R?” WOW! This reminds me of a game I used to play as a kid on road trips where I would try to figure out what someone’s license plate might mean if it were a sentence or phrase.

Some say people have been forced to adopt this message convention to meet the character limits; others think it is code invented by teens so their parents don’t understand them (so much so you can find all kinds of lists on the Internet for translation). Heck, when we were kids we just used double-talk or really poor pig Latin. Whatever happened to the need to actually learn useful foreign languages? I can see it now, next year’s high school language offerings; Spanish, French, Esperanto, German, BFF Jill.

Well, we geeks were the original speakers of language very few understood. We spoke of “If this, Else that,” Goto, Megabyte, Terabyte, etc… In fact, if you listen closely enough, you can find the Geek in his native habitat, WoW (or, to average mortals, the World of Warcraft), speaking Geekinese.

Listen closely to the male Geek attempting to attract a mate…

“Since these are not the droids you are looking for, how about we blow this place together and battle the Sith?”

“Are you also in search of the Allspark? If you want, I can give you a lift… Autobots Transform!”

As it turns out, Microsoft has a long-forgotten language, too. It’s called keyboard shortcuts. With the invention of the mouse and a more visual interface, these shortcuts are usually overlooked by most. I have found that getting to know these can considerably speed up your workday. Here are a few of my favorites. If you learn the pattern, it is easy to remember them.

Let’s start off with controlling windows. Since I am controlling Windows itself with my shortcuts, these all use the Windows Key (usually located between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the left side of most keyboards) in conjunction with another.

• Windows Key = When pressed by itself, opens the Start menu.
• Windows Key + D = Think D for Desktop. Pressing this combination takes me directly to the Desktop, minimizing all my applications.
• Windows Key + M = Similar to the D, minimizes all open applications. If you add the Shift key to the mix (Windows Key + Shift + M), you are doing the reverse and restoring all your Windows that were minimized.
• Windows Key + F = Think F for Find. This pair activates the Find All Files window, useful for searching.
• Window Key + E = E for Explorer, meaning it opens a Windows Explorer window.
• This last one for me is a real time saver.
• Windows Key + R = This activates the Windows Run command.

In order to get the most out of it, you need to know the following words:

• EXCEL is for Microsoft Excel
• OUTLOOK is for Microsoft Outlook
• WINWORD is for Microsoft Word
• POWERPNT is for Microsoft PowerPoint
• and MSPUB is for Microsoft Publisher

So to quickly start Microsoft Excel, you simply press Windows Key + R, then type EXCEL, press the ENTER KEY, and Excel fires up like magic.
These are only a few of my favorites, but I posted some links to more useful shortcuts that work in almost any application in the blog posting for this edition of the podcast at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

This week’s tips include:

Save Your Fingers By Letting Your Fingers Save Your Work
If you have not learned the hard way already, save yourself the heartburn by heeding this bit of advice: AutoRecover and AutoSave, while handy for recovering work after crashes and other computer failures, should not be substituted for manually saving your work at frequent intervals.

Cut… Paste… That’s a Wrap!
We usually think of Cut, Copy, and Paste all together, but we usually use them in pairs. Most often, we use Copy and Paste. This tip talks about the lesser-known Cut. For moving text rather than just copying it, the Cut command is a champion when combined with Paste.

Take It Back
Most of us are pretty good friends with the magical Undo button that resides on the toolbar of most Office applications. Have you ever accidentally deleted an entire paragraph from a Word document? Ever hastily made a change to a complex formula that now causes an error in an Excel worksheet? We all have; and the always-forgiving Undo button has been there to comfort us by restoring our lost work. What could be better?

Seek and You Shall Find
We are busy people. We often do not have time to read through entire documents, web pages, or spreadsheets. Sometimes we need to locate just one piece of information so that we can go on our merry way. Perhaps the most time-saving tool that is near-univeral is the magical key combination of Ctrl+F.

The Fast and the Furious
When working in various programs, we often find ourselves doing a lot of repetitive actions. Certain functions in programs are assigned to keyboard combinations called shortcuts. Many programs have similar functions and fortunately, they often assign the same keyboard shortcuts. Using these shortcuts can considerably speed up your daily productivity.

Well, that’s all for this week’s edition. But before we go, I would like to say a special thanks to Doug Mosiondz, my silent grammar guy (I’m a geek, but I never said I had good sentence structure), and David Clayton of Clayton and Fulcrum for the excellent beats behind my podcast.

See you next week for another exciting episode of “Pigs in Space” (just kidding!).

When my great-great-grandmother was young (only about 20 years ago), there weren’t very many external things plugged into a computer. Life was simpler; people typed away and we electronic beings did our jobs.

My son, Chip, complains most about the external rats – known to you humans as a mouse. He says they don’t always allow him to work as fast as he can. I keep telling him show off those keyboard shortcuts. They have worked since the early days of computers, they save time, and there is no problem understanding them. But he is young and stubborn.

So, humans, oh humans… Take a look at your menus or ribbons, your dialog boxes and tool tips, and look for those keyboard shortcuts. Many of them start with Ctrl+ and have a letter or number to press. They really are easy, and some can even make sense to you humans, such as Ctrl+S for Save and Ctrl+P for Print.

You might ask how much time you would save by using keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse for some tasks. Well, one of my favorite humans did a test. She uses the computer all the time for her job, so I asked her to not use shortcuts for a few days and she found this quite difficult. We figured that she used her mouse a couple thousand times a day, and just the time it took to move her hand took 2-3 seconds per touch. Well, that adds up to a couple hours a day. No, you probably can’t save all of it, but the tips in this newsletter will probably help you save a quarter of it if you learn them. So keep your hands on the keyboard and save the mouse for those pointing tasks.