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Keyboard Shortcuts and More

 

Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL-C:
When people first start to use computers, they may have little or no typing skills. This means that they are likely to make typos or type very slowly. If you highlight the needed text and use the ctrl-c (holding down the control key and pressing the c key) or the copy command from the edit menu, the selected text will be copied to the windows 'clipboard'.

CTRL-A:
Ctrl-a is the 'select all' command. It will select all text within the active text area (where the cursor is blinking). To make an area the active area, simply left click your mouse in the desired text area.

CTRL-V:
If you click in a text box (email, internet address, text editor...), ctrl-v (the 'paste' command) will paste the contents of the clipboard into the text area. The combination of ctrl-c and ctrl-v will make sure that you don't make any mistakes when entering text.

CTRL-X:
Ctrl-x will also copy the selected text to the windows clipboard but it will (where possible) remove the selected text from the text area.

CTRL-S:
Ctrl-s will, on most applications, save a document.

CTRL-R:
In most browsers, ctrl-r will reload or refresh the page.

CTRL-F:
In most browsers (and some other applications), ctrl-f will bring up the 'find' dialog box. This will allow you to search for words (topics) on long web pages. If the site uses frames, you will have to click inside the proper frame of the web page to set the 'focus' on that frame then you'd use ctrl-f as you'd do on a non-frames page.

CTRL-Z:
Ctrl-z will (in many programs) undo, the last action. If you delete something and decide that you didn't really want to delete it, ctrl-z will generally undo what you've done. Some programs only allow you to undo a single operation where others allow multiple undo operations. Read the owner's manual or help file of the software before you rely on ctrl-z to undo more than one operation.

CTRL-Y:
Ctrl-y operates much like ctrl-z but it redoes a command or operation that was undone. Sometimes it will redo a command multiple times but that function is even more rare than multiple undo. This command can vary from quite a bit in different software. Check the software's manual for more info.

Print Screen:
The 'PrtScn' button on your keyboard will take a snapshot of whatever is displayed on your monitor. This image will be placed on the Windows clipboard (it will be temporarily stored). If you use a program like Irfan View, you can paste the image and save it or crop (remove the unnecessary areas) it and save it onto your hard drive.

Alt Print Screen:
Alt-PrtScn does essentially the same thing as the previous shortcut but it only captures the top/active window. If you have several windows open, the top-most window will be captured.

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Netiquette

Netiqutte (internet etiquette) is something you should observe when visiting some sites. If you're posting a message to a respectful site, person or forum, you should use the proper etiquette. Of course, if you're on a site that resembles the wild west in manners, there's really no point, is there? Below is a list of the most common offenses.

Typing in CAPITAL Letters:
Some people (mostly newbies) have a tendency to type in all capital letters. On the net, using all capital letters is SHOUTING. Besides being hard to read, it is VERY annoying. If you're looking for help on the net and have to email or post a question, type the message with proper capitalization, grammar and spelling. If you're asking well educated people for help, they will appreciate the extra time you take to make the message easy to understand.

Newsgroups and Pictures:
Most newsgroups do not accept pictures. If you send an image to a newsgroup that doesn't have 'binaries' in its name, ask before posting the image. If you post an image to a non-binary newsgroup, your image may be deleted, your message may be deleted and/or you'll probably receive no help. This is considered to be a serious offense and is considered to be extremely rude. If you want to know what the newsgroup allows, read its charter. This is a link to a newsgroup charter search. Click here for other newsgroup resources.

Email Attachments:
An attachment is any file that's sent out with your email. Small sig files and other text files will generally be no problem for recipients. If you're going to send an image or other large file, ask the recipient if it's OK. Even if they don't tell you that it bothers them, most people will get ticked-off if you continue to send files that cause excessive download times. If you want to distribute images, upload the image to a server and send them a link to the image. It's very easy to do and it allows them to download the image at their leisure. Most people who have internet access, have server space allotted to them by their ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Subject Message:
When posting a message to a newsgroup or forum, include informative text in the subject text area. If you just say help something similarly vague, many otherwise helpful people will completely avoid the post. If they're going to help people, they don't want to have to read every post to determine which questions to which they'll try to respond.

HTML or Plain Text Messages:
If you're sending email or posting messages, send them in plain text unless you know that the group or person can or wants to receive HTML messages. A simple message like 'Hello, How are you doing?' will look like the following code to people and groups that aren't prepared to receive HTML posts. As you can see, without the highlighted text, it would be very difficult to understand the message. You should also realize that the total amount of data for the HTML version is more than 17 times the plain text version for this example (25 bytes vs 440 bytes). Posting in plain text, where possible, will reduce bandwidth usage and free up internet resources for everyone. This is especially important for usenet and mailing lists (where your message will be sent to tens of thousands of computers and servers).

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" COLOR="Green"><B>Hello,</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="AvantGarde Md BT" COLOR="Teal" SIZE="4"><I>How are you doing?</I><B></B></FONT></P>
</BODY>
</HTML>

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Miscellaneous

Extended ASCII Characters:
If you ever wondered how people produce some of those strange characters in their messages, well... Some of them are extended ASCII characters. They are produced by holding down the 'alt' key, typing a zero, then the appropriate 3 digit code and then releasing the alt key. Nothing will show up until the alt key is released. The following codes and characters are a partial list of the extended ASCII characters.

129 154 š 179 ³ 204 Ì 230 æ
130 155 180 ´ 205 Í 231 ç
131 ƒ 156 œ 181 µ 206 Î 232 è
132 157 182 207 Ï 233 é
133 158 183 · 208 Ð 234 ê
134 159 Ÿ 184 ¸ 209 Ñ 235 ë
135 160 185 ¹ 210 Ò 236 ì
136 ˆ 161 ¡ 186 º 211 Ó 237 í
137 162 ¢ 187 » 212 Ô 238 î
138 Š 163 £ 188 ¼ 213 Õ 239 ï
139 164 ¤ 189 ½ 214 Ö 240 ð
140 Œ 165 ¥ 190 ¾ 216 Ø 241 ñ
141 166 | 191   217 Ù 242 ò
142 167 § 192 À 218 Ú 243 ó
143 168 ¨ 193 Á 219 Û 244 ô
144 169 © 194 Â 220 Ü 245 õ
145 170 ª 195 Ã 221 Ý 246 ö
146 171 « 196 Ä 222 Þ 248 ø
147 172 ¬ 197 Å 223 ß 249 ù
148 173 ­ 198 Æ 224 à 250 ú
149 174 ® 199 Ç 225 á 251 û
150 175 ¯ 200 È 226 â 252 ü
151 176 ° 201 É 227 ã 253 ý
152 ˜ 177 ± 202 Ê 228 ä 254 þ
153 178 ² 203 Ë 229 å  

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Acronyms

LOL:
Laughing Out Loud

ROTFLMAO:
: Rolling On The Floor Laughing My @$$ Off (censored)

BRB:
Be Right Back (~I'll be right back)

BTW:
By The Way

IIRC:
If I Recall Correctly

TTFN:
Ta Ta For Now

AFAIK:
As Far As I Know

IMHO:
In My Humble Opinion

TIA:
Thanks In Advance

FWIW:
For What It's Worth

IOW:
In Other Words

FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions

FYI:
For Your Information

WYSIWYG:
What You see Is What You Get It refers to software packages that produce output that is precisely what you see on your monitor. Ex. Some web page design packages produce a final output that is the same as what's on your monitor. This is very different from the code generated by the software that's responsible for the WYSIWYG input.

<g>:
grin- generally indicates the message was cute or humorous

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Internet Terms

Flame:
If you ask a stupid question you will get 'flamed'. IOW, everyone will let you know that what you did or said was less than desirable.

Newbie:
Someone that's new to a group (newsgroup) or the like.

Troll:
Someone that purposely posts messages that will result in many flame type responses. IOW, someone trying to start trouble in a group.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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Perry Babin 2005
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