ZeroPlus2's Tips and Tricks

ZeroPlus2's Tips & Tricks

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Tips & Tricks Index

Go To Tip #1	Tired of those boring toolbar buttons in Microsoft Office 97?
Go To Tip #2	Want a easy way to get to your Control Panel?
Go To Tip #3	Minimize, Maximize, Restore Keyboard shortcuts.
Go To Tip #4	A quick way to get to the Properties menu.
Go To Tip #5	How to look at a folder in Explorer View.
Go To Tip #6	How to close many windows at once.
Go To Tip #7	How to open a data file with an application other than the one associated with it.
Go To Tip #8	How to permanently delete a file.
Go To Tip #9	How to Change the default behavior of folders.
Go To Tip #10	HTML to Notepad quick
Go To Tip #11	Want a easy way to get to your Desktop, Recycle Bin and More?
Go To Tip #12	Clean up your Hard drive.
Go To Tip #13	A quick way to see a graphical display of diskspace
Go To Tip #14	A quick way to open the Windows folder, without a shortcut
Go To Tip #15	Clean up "Hidden" Internet Explorer files.

Tired of those boring toolbar buttons in Microsoft Office 97?

You can spruce up those toolbar buttons in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access with new images or colors.

Here's how:

In any of the above applications, from the menu bar select View then Toolbars then Customize. Choose the button you want to change on any visible toolbar and right click on it. This will give you a drop down menu with several options on it. To change a buttons icon choose, "Change Button Image" and pick a new icon from the list. To keep the original button and change the colors choose "Edit Button Image" from the list. You can then re-color the icon to your taste.

Microsoft was kind enough to provide a way out in case you decide you do not like your new creations, use the "Reset Button Image" option to return them to standard buttons. You also have the option to create your own new buttons and images for them.

Want a easy way to get to your Control Panel?

Here's How:

Right click on a blank area of your Task Bar, this will give you a drop down menu. Choose Properties from the list. Choose the Start Menu Programs tab. Click on the Advanced Button, This will bring up an explorer like window. Click on File in the Menu bar and choose New then Folder. You will see a new folder on the right hand pane named "New Folder". The Text "New Folder" should be highlighted, if it is not select it and press F2 on your keyboard, and name the folder exactly this: -- Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

The easy way is to Copy the name from here (in bold green text), include the brackets

This will also work for the Printers Folder and Dial up Network Folder. Follow the same steps but use the names below for the folders.

Dial Up Network ---- Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

Printers ---- Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

History --- History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

Minimize, Maximize, Restore Keyboard shortcuts

To Minimize a window, press the ALT key and the Spacebar and press "N".

To Maximize a window, press the ALT key and the Spacebar and press "X".

To Restore a window, press the ALT key and then Spacebar and press "R".

One more point about using this shortcut, you need to be very quick, press the ALT key and spacebar and the other key at almost the same time. Try to avoid holding the Spacebar down too long.

A quick way to get to the Properties menu.

To quickly access the Properties information for any object, hold the Alt key while double-clicking it, as opposed to digging through the dropdown menu.

How to look at a folder in Explorer View

Want to Explore a folder instead of it's icon view? You would normally open Explorer and click here and there. Then finally get to where you want to go. A better way is to hold down the shift key and double click on the folder or drive. This will bring up an Explorer window of that folder. This allows you to combine My Computer and Explorer.

How to close many windows at once

If you've opened a whole bunch of windows under My Computer (especially if you are set up for Separate Window Browse under View/Options), you can quickly close all of them by holding the Shift key while clicking the close-window box on the topmost window.

How to open a data file with an application other than the one associated with its extension.

Select a file or a group of files, hold down the Shift key, then right-click. The shortcut menu will include an extra choice, Open With. Click on that menu item to pop up a list of available applications, then choose the one you prefer.

How to permanently delete a file.

To permanently delete a file instead of sending it to the recycle bin, hold down the SHIFT key and press the DELETE key, or you can right mouse click then hold down the shift key before selecting DELETE from the menu. Warning: This file can not be recovered.

How to Change the default behavior of folders.

When you double-click a folder it will open showing the contents inside in a separate window, unless you use Tip #5 above. Would you like Folders to open in an Explorer view instead all the time, complete with the directory structure in the left pane?

Heres How:

Open Explorer, select View/Options/File Types from the menu and scroll down in the Registered File Types window to "Folder". Highlight it and click Edit. In the Actions window, 'open' is boldfaced, designating it as the default action. Highlight 'explore' and click Set Default. From now on all your Folders will open in Explorer view with a double-click. If you decide later on you want folders to open normally, go back through Explorer and choose "Open"

HTML to Notepad quick.

I work on my web pages in Notepad, most of the time. It is a real pain to open Notepad and drag and drop the HTML file onto it. Add Notepad to your Send To menu and you cna open it with a right click.

Heres How:

Open My Computer and navigate to your C:/Windows directory. Click on View in the menu bar and select Arrange Icons/by Name. Scroll through until you find Notepad.exe, then Right click on it and choose Create Shortcut. Drag the shortcut to your desktop and rename it "Notepad" rather than Shortcut to Notepad (select it and press F2 then type). Now scroll back in the C:\Windows directory until you see the Send To folder and drag the shortcut into it. When you want to send a HTML file to Notepad just right click on the HTML file and choose SendTo and then Notepad.

Want a easy way to get to your Desk Top, Recycle Bin and More?

Also see TIP #2

Here's How:

Right click on a blank area of your Task Bar, this will give you a drop down menu. Choose Properties from the list. Choose the Start Menu Programs tab. Click on the Advanced Button, This will bring up an explorer like window. Click on File in the Menu bar and choose New then Folder. You will see a new folder on the right hand pane named "New Folder". The Text "New Folder" should be highlighted, if it is not select it and press F2 on your keyboard, and name the folder exactly this: -- Desktop.{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

The easy way is to Copy the name from here (in bold green text), include the brackets

This will also work for the Printers Folder and Dial up Network Folder(SEE Tip #2) and for Desktop, the Network Folder, Recycle Bin, Briefcase, and the Fonts folder. Follow the same steps but use the names below for the folders.

Recycle Bin ---- Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Network Neighborhood
Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Briefcase --- Briefcase.{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Fonts --- Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534}

Clean up that hard drive

Here's How:

Windows stores many files on your hard drive that are totally useless. These include .tmp, temporary files created by many programs and when you load new programs, and .gid files, files created every time you use Help in any application. To clean up these files I recommend you open My Computer and highlight the "C" drive. Then click on File/Find in the menu, this will bring up your "Find: All Files" window. In the "Named" box type in *.tmp (Shift+8 for the *), and click on the Find Now button. This will search the entire "C" drive for .tmp files. After the search is finished select all the .tmp files and delete them, being careful not to delete any folders. If you find folders in your search look at them to insure they contain only .tmp files before you delete them or just leave them. Repeat this process for .gid files and on your other drives. I have seen machines recover 70 Mg using this method. You may also want to delete your temporary Internet files and Internet history files. How to do this depends on what browser you use. With Internet Explorer 4.0 you can go to the control panel, choose Internet and on the General tab press the Delete Files and Clear History buttons. You can also do this from within Internet Explorer by choosing View/Internet options from the menu. This can gain several Mg of space also.

A quick way to see a graphical display of diskspace

Here's How:

Open My Computer and select the drive you want, hold down the ALT key and double clik on the drive. This will open the Proprities window and show you a graph of your disk space.

A quick way to open the Windows folder, without creating a shortcut.

Here's How:

Click the Start button, choose Run, then type: ".." (without the quotes) -- it should open up your Windows folder in a flash!

More Tips and Tricks coming soon

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