Useful Stuff

(incorporating "How to Make Life Easier for the Webmaster")

This section will eventually contain lots of useful bits and pieces of information to do with computers and the Internet. I know that many of you are fairly new to computers and I well remember when I didn't know what a folder was and when I thought that "right-click" was the opposite of a wrong click - and at that time, I usually didn't know the question I needed the answer to!

If you have any useful tips, please send them in to rick@globalteam.co.uk and I will include them here.

It doesn't matter if you think it's blindingly obvious now you've found it - if you had trouble and now know the answer, someone else needs to know! To give you an example - I spent 6 months using Frontpage to build websites and could never find out how to create a line break, rather than a paragraph break. I was then on a course and someone casually mentioned that you need to press SHIFT and Enter together (try and find THAT in the Help files!!) That was the most useful thing I learned that day - and 2 weeks later, was able to tell someone else who was having the same problem!

So it may seem daft, but send it in!

Whether this will end up being a vast repository of all human knowledge, or simply a list of half-a-dozen things I have found very useful, is unknown as yet (somewhere between the two is highly likely!). However, some of these hints and tips may be just the thing you need....

Anti-Virus Software

If you do not have anti-virus software, you are asking for trouble. One of the best available is FREE for personal use, and you get regular FREE automatic updates. Click here*to download AVG6.0 (make sure when you get there that you do click on the FREE version)

Sending photos via e-mail

See the Contributions section or click here for information

Windows

Perhaps the most important thing to remember here is that Microsoft have provided a very extensive Help facility (Click on Start then Help) although it can sometimes be difficult to find the right question to ask! My own tendency is to search for one word in the Help file (e.g toolbar) and then see if any of the options apply to the problem I am trying to solve. But there'll still be times you want to put a brick through the screen....

Taskbar (that's the one with the Start button on it)

Q. Help! My Taskbar has suddenly moved to a different edge of the screen and I don't like it there.

A. Left click in an empty gray area of the Taskbar; keep the button down and drag the Taskbar back where you want it. IF THIS DOESN'T WORK, TRY A DIFFERENT PART OF THE TASKBAR - it depends on your own computer settings as to which part is responsive.

Useful hint: If you right click on an empty area of your Taskbar, a menu pops up; select Toolbars and a sub-menu appears. If you select Desktop, a Toolbar button will appear on your Taskbar, and you can see the contents of your Desktop at any time you like without having to close windows, simply by clicking on the >> part of the button. Neat huh? I only just discovered that while writing this, and I'm now in my 8th year of using Windows!

Q. My Taskbar has completely disappeared.

A. Run your mouse pointer slowly to the edge where your Taskbar was and you'll see the pointer change to a double ended arrow. When it does, left click and drag inwards and your Taskbar will reappear.

Route finding in UK & Europe