5 Computer Efficiency Tips

• Stop Computer Text Disappearing
• All About the Mouse
• Seek and Match with Vlookup
• Speed up with Office 2007
• Find Fast in Word or Excel

Stop Computer Text Disappearing

Sometimes when you need to go back and retype or correct some text, your text appears to ‘disappear’. To stop this happening, simply press the Insert Key, also labelled at the ‘Ins Key’, and now continue to type, and your text will no longer ‘disappear’.

All About the Mouse

Your computer mouse has a right-hand button and a left-hand button and a scroll wheel in the middle. The instruction to ‘Click’ means press and release your left mouse button once. ‘Double-Click’ means press and release your left mouse button twice in quick succession. ‘Right-Click’ means press and release your right mouse button once, (a pop-up menu will usually appear). ‘Drag’ means press your left mouse button and keeping it pressed down, move your mouse so that your ‘Cursor’ screen pointer, drags across the screen.

Dragging is used to select or highlight text or reshape and object. The wheel or ‘scroll’ when rolled simply moves up or down the information you are looking at. Laptops have a ‘built in’ mouse, called a ‘touchpad’. This too works on the same left and right principals of the mouse above. If you do not like working with the ‘touchpad’ you can disable it usually by pressing the 'Function Key' (key with Fn on it) and the 'F7' key together. You can then plug in a ‘real’ mouse. Young people and those who have problems with movement in their hands often find the touchpad easier to use.

To minimise stress on your arms and shoulders when using a keyboard, using a wrist support helps.

Seek and Match with Vlookup

Say you have a file with 5,000 names and phone numbers. You have another file with say 200 names and phone numbers. These 200 names are included randomly in the 5,000 name list, but the phone numbers have changed.

With the ‘Vlookup’ formula in Excel you can run the routine on the 5,000 name list to find the name and correct number in the 200 list for those numbers that have changed. In Excel press key F1 for help, and type in ‘Vlookup’ for instructions on using this formula. I find the Vlookup formula is extremely useful and can saves hours of time matching and correcting.

Speed up with Office 2007

Going back and forth to your mouse from your keyboard takes time. Add up all the milliseconds over the year and you can probably count the hours. If you have Office 2007, Press the 'Alt Key' to bring up all the shortcut letters across the ribbon across the top of your screen. Then press the number or letter for the function you need.

Find Fast in Word or Excel

Click near the top of a document. Then press the 'Ctrl key' and 'F' at the same time. Type in the word or number you are looking for and press enter. The result will show you all the locations of the found item. You can just click on each of the found locations listed to see if that is what you are looking for. The replace tab will allow you to replace all the found words with a replacement word.

Our aim is to keep computers and people working productively together. Should you or your business need some one to one help on using your computers more efficiently, do give us a call at 2849715.