Tech Tips

General Tips

General Tips

CTRL + SHIFT + V: Paste without formatting

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May be especially useful if pasting from one program to another (e.g. from a bulleted list in Word to an email or from a website to a spreadsheet cell).

Bonus:  Ctrl + V pastes with formatting

General Tips

CTRL + SHIFT + T

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Don't redo your search or try to remember what page you had open -- just bring back the tabs from whatever page they were on when you closed them.

General Tips

CTRL + F - Find on Page | CTRL + H - Find & Replace

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General Tips

WINDOWS + SHIFT + S: Default Windows Screenshot

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Default Windows Snipping Tool: WINDOWS + SHIFT + S

Useful for:

General Tips

Windows Key + L

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Windows Key + L : Quickly locks your computer screen.

Make it a habit to do this every time you leave your computer as one part of making our campus more cybersecure.

(The windows key is usually between Ctrl and Alt to the left of the spacebar.)

General Tips

CTRL + Scroll (up or down)

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Useful for enlarging print in documents or seeing details in photos -- and then returning to your normal text size.

General Tips

Format Painter

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Use the format painter (the icon that looks like a paint roller in your word processor or spreadsheet toolbar) to quickly copy the formatting from one cell or paragraph to another. 
Example: You've worked hard to format a spreadsheet cell just how you want it -- bold, colored text, highlighted, borders -- and you don't want to have to make all those changes to another cell to make it look the same. Use the format painter to apply all of those properties at once. Click the cell you like, then the format painter, and then the cell(s) you want to look the same.
General Tips

CTRL + Z and CTRL + Y

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Use to go back to earlier versions of a document, and then to revert to the newer one when you decide that was better after all.

General Tips

Double-click and Triple-click

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This can be quicker than dragging to highlight. Just double- or triple-click somewhere in your word or paragraph, and your whole selection will be highlighted.

General Tips

CTRL + HOME: Jump to the beginning of a document or worksheet

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Useful when you're in the middle of a long document or spreadsheet and want to get back to the beginning quickly.

 

General Tips

CTRL + END: Jump to the end of a document or worksheet

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Useful when you want to get to the end of a document quickly.

General Tips

Cut, Copy, & Paste Shortcuts

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Keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste may speed up your work.

General Tips

Emojis List

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General Tips

Alt + Tab

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Use Alt-Tab to quickly cycle between open windows.

If you have several windows open, hold down the ALT key, then tap TAB repeatedly to move through the various windows.

General Tips

CamelCase

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General Tips

Fill out online forms faster

Fill out online forms faster by minimizing the use of your mouse or trackpad.
General Tips

Open Multiple Windows Side-by-Side

Drag a tab or window to an outer corner or side of your screen. When it snaps to the location you want, select another open window to place beside it. They will line up nicely without manual adjustment. You can then adjust the relative size of the windows by dragging the gray bar between them.

Instead of dragging, you can also use keyboard shortcuts: WINDOWS + arrow (left, right, up, down) to snap the windows into place.

Here's a short screen recording of how it works:

Update: There's another (maybe even easier) way to accomplish this.

Hover over the resize button (next to the X in the upper right corner of your browser) and select the layout you want


General Tips

Pin to Taskbar | Pin Tabs

If you have a program or website that you use frequently, "pinning" it can make it easier to access.

Programs: If there's a program or Windows tool that you use frequently -- like Excel, the calculator, or File Explorer -- you can pin it to the taskbar at the bottom of your screen so it's never more than a click away. When the program or app is open, right-click on it in the taskbar and select Pin to Taskbar. Now it will be easily accessible in the future.

Tabs: If you go to the same websites over and over during your day -- maybe Gmail, Portal, and Google Calendar -- you can pin those tabs to your browser. This moves them to the left end of the open tabs and reduces the size of the tab. To pin any open tab, right-click on it and select Pin tab.

Both of these can be reversed by right-clicking and choosing the Unpin option.

General Tips

CTRL + S : Save

Use the CTRL + S shortcut to save your file. This works in most programs (Word, Excel, etc.) that don't automatically save your work.  

General Tips

Bold, Italics, Underline

Keyboard shortcuts:

 

General Tips

Jump through words with keyboard

Use Ctrl + arrow key to jump through words one at a time in a document.

General Tips

Windows + A

Windows + A opens the “Action Center,” where you can, among other things, adjust sound and display settings.

General Tips

Ctrl + A: Select All

Ctrl + A highlights your entire document or spreadsheet. Then you can make changes – font size, bold, italics – or copy it to paste somewhere else.

Google Tips

Google Tips

How to tab in Gmail

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Useful when working with bulleted lists or wanting to indent text and then return to normal left alignment.

Google Tips

Snooze Gmail messages until later

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Use cases:  Snooze meeting confirmations until the day of the meeting; snooze reminders until closer to their deadline; snooze other non-urgent messages until a less busy day.  

Google Tips

Gmail Schedule Send

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Schedule emails to be sent later: Click the arrow on the side of the "send" button, and click "Schedule send."

Useful for:

 

Google Tips

More Tips and Tricks

Google Tips

Use .new to Create New Google Files

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When you need to create a new Google Doc or Google Sheet on your computer, simply type "docs.new" or "sheets.new" or similar into your Chrome address bar when you're logged in to Google.  A new file will be created in your Google Drive.

Google Tips

Change Gmail "Undo Send" Time

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Useful if you've ever clicked send and then realized you shouldn't have sent it yet -- gives you additional time to comprehend and click the "undo send" button.

Google Tips

Gmail Templates

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Google Tips

Edit vs Copy

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Google Tips

Google Calendar Appointment Schedules

Do you find yourself in a flurry of too many emails when you need to set up meetings or appointments? These tools can make the process easier.

Cal.com is another similar tool. Choose the one that works for you to streamline your scheduling process.

Google Tips

Google Drive Workspaces

Set up workspaces in Google Drive to organize your frequently-used files. You can have up to eight workspaces with at-a-glance access to five files in each, plus additional files when you click to open the workspace. Learn more about workspaces and other Google Drive organizational tools.

 

Google Tips

Turn on notifications in Google Docs

Turn on notifications in Google Docs so you don’t miss changes to shared documents. This can be useful for meeting reports that may be updated after the link is sent or when people are editing a shared document. To turn on notifications, go to Tools→Notification Settings, and click the button in the Edits section for Added or Removed Content. You’ll then get an email each time the document is changed.

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