IT Tips - July 2013

It Tips – July 2013

 

From steady rain to sweltering heat, Berkshire County is keeping things interesting. Take refuge from the heat and have a gander at this month’s tip!

 

What’s Inside:

Tech Section

·         Quickly Find an File

Kudos

·         Thanks, Mary!

 

Quickly Find a File

My duties as your pulchritudinous (yes, I used a thesaurus for that word) IT Technician have given me the opportunity to work on all of your computers. This work has allowed me to see many different methods of “organization” and some impressively cluttered desktops.

Finding the time to organize your desktop can be a challenge. Many times you’ll need to grit your teeth and work through the jumble of icons. Fortunately, there is a handy way to sift through the clutter: if you know the first letter of the file (or folder) that you’re looking for, this tip will help you find it fast.

What are you talking about? Why do I need to know the first letter of the file?

Hey, one question at a time.

The shortcut for locating a file on a crowded desktop (or any other folder) requires you to press the first letter of the filename on your keyboard. So, obviously, you will need to know which letter to press.

The process is simple: click on the desktop (or folder) and start tapping the first letter of the filename you’re looking for. The computer will cycle through all of the files on your desktop (or whichever messy folder you’re in) whose name starts with the letter you’re pressing.

The video below demonstrates this shortcut in action. In the video, I’m looking for the CRM 2011 shortcut on my desktop. First, I click on a random icon, and then I start tapping the “C” key.

 

As you can see, I clicked on a random file and then tapped the “C” key on my keyboard until the “CRM 2011” shortcut was highlighted.

This functionality extends to virtually all Windows Explorer sessions. Translated: you can use this trick to look for almost any file on your computer (not just the desktop).

In the next demonstration, I’m looking in my “Projects” folder for another folder called “IT Tips” which contains yet another folder called “July 2013”. Rather than scroll around and scan through all of these folders with my eyes, I’ll just click in the window and tap some letters.

 

 

This time, I clicked a random file and pressed the “I” key until the “IT Tips” folder was highlighted. I then pressed the “J” key six times to find the “July 2013” folder. That was much easier and manually scanning through my messy folders.

 

Do I have to click something before I start tapping the keyboard?

It may not always be necessary to click something first, but it’s a good habit. Clicking a file in the folder that you wish to search changes the ‘focus’ of your computer. If the computer isn’t ‘focused’ on the folder you’re searching, it won’t know what to do when you press a letter.

 

Kudos

Thanks Mary!

A couple weeks ago, I called Mary Bufis to notify her of a file I had dropped on her desktop. She was having some difficulty finding it so I suggested she press the first letter of the filename on her keyboard. She immediately found the file and liked the shortcut so much that she suggested I write a tip on it! Thank you, Mary!

 

 

Have a great month, everyone!

-Keith

Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have a something that you think will make a good tip. You’ll get credit on the blog for your contribution and I might give you a high-five