Tips from your TIS

Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a fabulous break. I have three things for you today, a keyboard shortcut, a website and a Firefox add-on.

When you are working on a PC there are many times that you might have a number of windows open. With all those windows open sometimes taking your hands off your keys, finding the mouse, and then finding the window takes time. One way to switch between windows is to use the “Alt” key and then hit “Tab” to cycle through the open windows. Each time you hit tab, it will switch to the next open window.

Now for the website, if you have ever wanted to take a video off of YouTube or wanted to convert a file from one format to another, here’s a free online option for you. Let me introduce you to Zamzar. With Zamzar you can convert images, video, audio and regular document files. It’s not instantaneous, and you’ll have to wait until you receive an email to go back and download it, but I’ve had great success with the files that I have converted. Just to be clear, there are many things/sites that it won’t convert so be patient and do some experimenting.

The final item for this post is for Firefox users. Mozilla Firefox is an alternative browser to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. While there are some sites that you must use Explorer (including some of the district applications), if you’re interested in using Firefox you can ask your CRS to install it for you. Visit the website for more information. However, Firefox is not the tip here; once you have it installed there is an add-on called Auto-Copy. This copies any text that you highlight in your browser to the clipboard ready to be pasted. This can be used for URL’s, or other text that you want to copy alleviating the keyboard shortcut or Edit –> Copy mouse commands when surfing the web.

Again, welcome back and have a great second semester.

We’ve had some requests for additional keyboard shortcuts. Some of you may not know it, but there are many shortcuts that can be done using the “Windows logo key” by the “alt” key on your keyboard. Here are some of the things you can do with it.

– Windows Key — Using this key alone displays the Start Menu.
– Windows Key + E — opens a new Explorer Window to navigate amongst the many folders on your computer.
– Windows Key + D — Minimizes all windows and shows the Desktop, do it again and it will restore your previous windows and takes you right back to where you were.
– Windows Key + F — Displays the Find all files dialog box to allow you to search your computer for those “missing” files.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To use these shortcuts, hold down CTRL first, then tap the second key.

CTRL-A — Selects all items in the active window
CTRL-C — Copies selected items to your clipboard
CTRL-V — Pastes contents of clipboard
CTRL-X — Cuts selected items and places a copy of them onto your clipboard
CTRL-S — Displays the Save As dialog box or saves document
CTRL-Z — Undoes last action (very useful — works in most applications)
CTRL-P — Displays Print menu
CTRL-O — Displays the Open dialog box

If this isn’t news to you and you’d like something more interesting than keyboard shortcuts… here’s an interesting site for you.

www.musicovery.com

Musicovery is an interactive webradio accessible on the Web for you to enjoy, free! Studies show classical music helps promote thinking and reasoning skills, so, feel free to use this in your classroom, as well as at home. This music is not available to download, but anywhere you have an internet connection, you can enjoy! Pick the genre you prefer, (along with the decade) and get ready to hear some songs you know, as well as some you don’t.