How to: Print or print just a selection

April 27th, 2009 Val

Most of the time, when you’re doing a project and get ready to print, you want the whole thing. You can either use the Printer Icon (if there is one), Ctrl+P (frequently the shortcut to print), or the File/Print… menu option. The icon, in most programs will send whatever file is active directly to the printer using the default print settings. The shortcut, depending on the program may send the file directly to the printer or it may bring up the Print dialog. The File -> Print… menu option (notice the three dots after Print) brings up the Print dialog where you have several options about how you want the file to print. In some programs, you don’t get the three dots. In that case, you’ll need to use Print Setup… to set your options, and they won’t be very document specific. Fortunately, those programs are rare, or you’ll see that once you’re already inside a Print Preview dialog. Remember that those three dots after any Windows menu item always mean that there are more options – either a sub menu or dialog box – if you click that item.

The options you have for printing will vary a LOT from program to program, window to window, so we won’t go into that here.

Sometimes, though, you only want to print just a bit of some larger document like part of a blog or a snippet of an email. In most Windows programs that deal with text, you have the option to print just the selected portion. The print dialog will differ from program to program, but generally, if you look closely, there is a Print Range set of options in the Print dialog (so long as you actually use the File/Print… menu rather than just clicking on the print icon to start printing with the default options.) In that Print Range find the option for Selected and click it. Of course, this pre-supposes that you’ve already selected your section that you want to print.

What brought this tip to my mind was a tweet from the good folks at Office Watch and Office for Mere Mortals. Here’s the link to their article on printing selections from the various Office programs. The article goes into some good detail about what does and does NOT work:

http://office-watch.com/?844

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Windows | No Comments »

Don’t forget to register for FREE Windows classes at LVS!

April 25th, 2009 Val

It’s time to register for the new May session at LVS Online “Where learning is fun!”

LVS has lots of great courses for very reasonable prices – $25US for instructor led and $11.25 for self study courses. However, you won’t get a better bargain than the Introduction to Windows and Introduction to Vista courses which are absolutely FREE with no strings attached. You just have to sign up as a student at LVS – a free and painless process that won’t generate Spam. We value your inbox as we value our own! Simply register to take the Windows class of your choice and start learning.

These classes are written for the absolute beginner computer user, including how to turn on and off the machine, so you can recommend them to your great aunt Sally. They’re also great if you’ve just gotten a new machine and need a refresher or just upgraded to Vista. Long time Windows users are sure to find a gem or three they never knew!

Check us out here:

Introduction to Windows 98/XP

Introduction to Vista

Both classes come with free access to a message board where you may ask the instructor questions! As a registered student at LVS, you may also qualify for student discounts on your favorite software. (Some limitations apply.) Check out the Discounts for LVS Students!

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Vista, Windows | No Comments »

Copy and Paste: It’s not just for word processing!

March 17th, 2009 Val

Most folks who have used Windows for any length of time know that you can copy a bit of text from a text document and paste it back in anywhere else in that document or into another document. A LOT of folks use either the copy and paste icons or the Edit menu or a few bright folks even use the right click menu. I champion the use of keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C for copy and Ctrl+V for paste along with the Ctrl+X for cut.

There’s more to cut/copy/paste than just text documents, though. It’s amazing how many folks don’t know you can click in the address bar of their internet browser and copy the URL to paste into something else. If you set up a little password protected text document (remember the password!) and put in all that personal information you have to fill into a zillion forms, you can simply copy and paste right into most of those forms.

Do you have a file you want to move or copy from one place to another? Open Windows Explorer to see the file in its original folder, select it and Ctrl+C to copy it. Open the destination folder, click inside it, and Ctrl+V to paste a copy of that file right in there. The size of the file doesn’t matter. Windows does some slight of hand and just puts the path of the file to be copied into the clipboard, then does the transfer upon pasting it in.

In most graphics programs, you can do this same sort of copy and paste routine to plunk a copy of a graphics file into your current graphics document. Some will give you a dialog box with options and some will just stick it into the document in that program’s default position. If you copy a file from Windows Explorer, then open your graphics program, you can generally get a better set of choices by looking at the Edit menu.

Oh, and if you’ve got a little graphic you’d like inserted into a line of text, some programs will let you paste it right in and it will resize it down to the hight of the line automatically. Others will move your text around to make room for the graphic as needed.

Copy and paste is also great to write your blog offline, then paste it into your blog editor. ;)

How do you like to use Copy and Paste? We’d love to hear from you.

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Vista, Windows, XP | 1 Comment »

Windows Shortcuts

February 28th, 2009 Val

An interesting MS Knowledge Base article came across my desk recently that I thought might be useful to many folks. Here is a list of all the official keyboard shortcuts:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

I was just discussing this subject with my DH last night. I’m not really a keyboard shortcut sort of person. So what shortcuts do I use? Here is my much abbreviated list of shortcuts I think EVERYONE ought to know.

  • CTRL+C: Copy
  • CTRL+X: Cut
  • CTRL+V: Paste
  • CTRL+Z: Undo
  • CTRL+A: Select all the items in the current window
  • F1: Help (for the currently active window, if it’s available. Windows help is from the desktop.)
  • ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
  • SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature

    Dialog box keyboard commands

  • TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box
  • SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box
  • SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button. If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current control is an option, this selects the option.
  • ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)
  • ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button
  • ALT+underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item

Don’t forget, Introduction to Windows and Introduction to Vista are both FREE classes at LVS, “Where learning is fun!”

Posted in General LVS info, LVS Online, Vista, Windows | 2 Comments »

Learn Windows XP or Vista FREE!

February 16th, 2009 Val

It’s time to sign up for classes at LVS Online, but you can always sign up for the free Introduction to Windows or Introduction to Vista courses. Both of these courses are absolutely free. You just sign up for a student account at LVS at the same time you sign up for the class- a process that is completely painless even for new computer users. You won’t get a lot of spam (unwanted emails) from LVS either.

Both of these courses are written for the absolute complete beginner student, but even old hands at the computer are almost guaranteed to learn something new. There’s even a message board included with the class where you can ask the instructor questions! You don’t need a video camera, microphone, or anything except your computer and an internet connection.

The Windows 98/XP course is a bit out of date, mentioning peripherals like 31/4 floppy drives, but it’s still a sound course.

Of course, if you’ve got those classes already under your belt, check out the other great classes available from LVS online. They aren’t free, but they’re some of the best values on the internet for $25US or less. ($20US for returning students, $11.25 for Self Study courses!)

I know hundreds of people have taken these Windows courses. If you’ve taken LVS courses, particularly either of the Windows courses, I’d love to hear from you!

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in LVS Online, Vista, Windows, XP | 2 Comments »

Vista SP1 is finally working on my machine!

October 24th, 2008 Val

OK, after many starts and stops, and finally just leaving it alone for a few hours, Vista SP1 finally successfully installed on my primary machine. Whew! So far, everything seems to be continuing to work normally.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Vista, Windows | No Comments »

Windows Service Packs

October 24th, 2008 Val

Well, so far, I’ve managed to update three different machines with the Windows XP SP3. In all three cases the installation went off without a hitch.

I wish I could say the same for the Vista SP1 service pack. So far it has failed twice and I’ve canceled it a few more times just because I ran out of time to finish. Expect this SP update to take HOURS not minutes. Just starting the automatic upload then going for lunch isn’t going to cut it – at least in my experience. Plan to start it and let it run all night. At least that’s my next plan of action. I’ll let you know how it goes. If you’re on dial-up, see if you can get the DVD version from Microsoft or from your computer manufacturer. Either that, or plan on a very long weekend.

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Vista, Windows, XP | No Comments »

Register now for FREE Windows Classes!

September 29th, 2008 Val

You can actually register at any time for the LVS Free Windows classes for versions 98, ME, and XP and Windows Vista. These classes are geared toward the absolute beginner with their very first computer, but also contain some very helpful information for those who are upgrading and for those who have only used their computers for email and Solitaire and want to take it one step farther. I can promise that even experienced computer users will learn something in the first two lessons or your money back! ;)

There is no homework for these classes. There’s a quiz at the end of each lesson, but that’s just for your own benefit and you don’t need to post the answers. However, there is a discussion board and I’ll be available to answer any questions you have. This is a great way to get your feet wet in online learning!

While you’re there, don’t forget to check out all the other great classes at LVS. The Windows courses are a prerequisite for almost all of them. (It helps to be able to use files and folders to get your homework up on line where the instructors can see it.)

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Using Windows for FTP

September 16th, 2008 Val

Many folks use third party software like CuteFTP or SmartFTP to upload their web pages to the internet. In many cases, you won’t need that. You can use Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer built right into Windows. Here’s how in Vista. I have not tried this whole procedure in Windows XP. The first step works just fine in Windows XP for many sites, but may not in others.

In Internet Explorer, type the ftp address in the address bar. It should probably look something like this:

ftp://ftp.myserver.com/

Note that you put in ftp:// instead of the normal html://

If a password is needed, you will get a dialog, at least the first time, to input your User name and Password.

ID and Password screen

ID and Password screen

If you put in the correct ID and password, you should get the folder(Directory) structure of your site. (Do NOT check the Log on anonymously unless your server allows that.)

From there, you’ll get a new option on the toolbar, where your favorites, printer, and Tools menus are, called Page. (Where this toolbar appears will depend on your setup. On my machine it’s on the same line as my tabs. Look for the word “Page”.)

Click on Page, then on Open FTP site in Windows Explorer.

IF you did not get the dialog box and your site did not appear at first, but the Page menu did, try holding the Alt key down and click on Page.

In Vista, you’ll get the “A website wants to open web content using this program on your computer” warning dialog. Name should say “Windows Explorer” and Publisher is “Microsoft Windows”. If you get anything else, don’t allow. If that’s what you get, click allow since that’s what we told it to do in the first place.

YOu’ll now have your FTP site open in a Windows Explorer window. To save it as a shortcut for later use, right click on the folder in the Folders pane and drag it over to your desktop and drop it. Choose Create shortcut here when you drop. From there, you can put that shortcut anywhere you want by dragging and dropping. When you double click on the shortcut, it’ll open your site directly without having to put in your ID and password, so you probably DON’T want to leave it on your desktop unless you are the only one who ever uses your computer. I have a folder in Documents called FTP. You can call yours whatever you want or store each link in a folder related to the content.

Anyway, you should still have the FTP folders open in Windows Explorer. Navigate to the sub-folder if needed or create a subfolder the same way you would for any other folder in Windows. Now open another Windows Explorer window with the files you wish to upload. Make sure you can see both the files on your computer and the folder from the net. Now you can simply drag and drop or copy and paste the files from one Explorer window to the other.

You may need to upload HTML files then upload image files in a second drag and drop. If so, you’ll probably get a warning message in the preview pane of the explorer window with your original files on it if you try to drag both at the same time.

Have fun!

Val P.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Windows XP and Vista classes are now FREE at LVS!

August 6th, 2008 Val

You won’t get more information in one place for less! These are six full lessons just for your version of Microsoft Windows. Instructor support is included, so you can ask questions on the class forum. All you need to do is to sign up for a free student account at LVS where learning is fun!

These lessons are written for the absolute beginner computer user, but if you’ve been using Windows all your life, we guarantee you’ll learn something or your money back! :)

For information about the Intro to Windows XP class or to sign up, click here.

For information about the Intro to Vista class or to sign up, click here.

While you’re there, be sure to check out all the other great classes LVS has to offer. The rest aren’t free, but they’re very inexpensive. :)

Have fun! I hope to “see” YOU in class soon.

Val P.

Posted in LVS Online, Windows | No Comments »

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