Tag Archives: tech_friday

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Tech Friday: Keyboard Shortcuts you should know.

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This might be a obvious list of information for some of you, but for others it will be new and helpful for years to come. I don’t know how much time it will save you over the course of your life, but I become quite impatient when I’m helping someone on the computer and they are clicking around the menus to copy and paste things instead of using the shortcuts.

Constantly switching your fingers from the mouse to the keyboard takes time you certainly don’t have. In order to help you in your task let me help you with a few shortcuts you should start using today.
(Before I begin the symbol “+” is used to imply you HOLD down the first key mentioned [which is usually “Ctrl” in the bottom left corner of your keyboard] and then press the second key [which does not have to be a capital letter it can also be lowercase] while keeping the first one pressed).

Copy Highlighted: Ctrl+C
Cut Highlighted: Ctrl+X
Paste from Clipboard: Ctrl+V
Undo: Ctrl+Z
Save: Ctrl+S
Close: Ctrl+W
Select All: Ctrl+A

And then there are a few specifically for Firefox:

Open a New Tab: Ctrl+T
Move Cursor to Address Bar: Ctrl+L
Reload Page: Ctrl+R
Find on Page: Ctrl+F

I use almost every one of these constantly. Once you train that left pink to find the Ctrl Key on it’s own the possibilities are endless.

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Tech Friday: Using Google Maps as Yellow Pages (Firefox only)

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Probably one of my most used Firefox bookmarks is a google maps search. I use it constantly. Where’s the nearest bowling alley? Is there an REI near by? How do you get to ____?

Anytime, I have one of those questions I ctrl+T to a new tab on firefox and then I type “yp ____” and immediately a google maps search with my location as the starting point shows up.

Here’s how to do it (Sorry this is a bit more complicated then I’d like). The Code Below is what you want to edit to create your bookmark. First just add a new bookmark to Firefox (you can bookmark this page). Then go to that bookmark and right click and choose properties. Now you can name it what ever you want. Then your going to paste in the code below (after you’ve edited all the sections: STREETNUMBER, STREETNAME, etc.) into the “Location” box. Finally your going to pick your keyword (mine is yp), and then click okay.

That’s it. Now anytime you want to look something up you just go up to the address bar (easiest is to hit ctrl+t to open a new tab) and type “yp pizza” or “yp bike shop” and your search is done.