Web browsers often save files you download in to their default directories without prompting you for information

If this happens to you, or if you just forget where you downloaded a particular file to, try using "Find Files or Folders..." option from your "Start Menu." Rather than looking for a name, look for any file that was saved ("Date Modified" tab) within the amount of time it took you to complete the download.

To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail

right click on an open area of the desktop; Select New/ Shortcut; for the Command Line, enter mailto: for the title enter something like New E-Mail. When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form.

Navigation Tips

You can make the cursor move faster. If you hold an arrow key down (try the left arrow key or the right arrow key first), the cursor will keep moving quickly.Now, if you hold the Ctrl key down on your keyboard and then 'hit' the right arrow key or the left arrow key, the cursor will jump to the next word (or sentence, etc.) instead of the next letter. Each time you hit the arrow key once, with the Ctrl key held down, it will jump to the next space

Formatting

Ever feel overwhelmed by all the formatting you've applied to your MS Word document? Want to strip the text of all the special formatting and start completely over so you can create consistent formatting throughout the document? Here's how to start afresh this New Year: First, open the Task Pane to Styles and Formatting if it's not already displayed. (Format menu, Styles and Formatting choice). Now, select the entire document (Ctrl + A). With the text selected, choose Clear Formatting from the Task Pane.

Explorer Tips

To quickly have Explorer expand all subfolders for a selected drive or folder, simply press the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad.

Spell Check

Spell check in Excel has a host of different options: If you have the formula bar selected, start the spell check (Tools menu, Spelling choice or F7). Excel will only check the contents of the formula bar, leaving the rest of the worksheet untouched. If spell check is started with a range of cells selected, only the cells in the selected range will be checked. To check an entire worksheet, select any cell and start the spell check. Finally, to check multiple worksheets, first select the sheet tabs for all of the worksheets. (Use the Shift key or Ctrl key with the mouse to select all the sheets). Now, start the spell check.

If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this

Hit the Print Screen key. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the Windows clipboard.- Start up a graphics editor (like Ms Paint) and paste it in.

Have trouble editing hyperlinks with the mouse in your MS Excel worksheets?

The easiest way is: click and hold the mouse button down on the cell with the link. After a couple of seconds, you'll notice the cursor change into a plus sign and then you're free to release the mouse button. You'll find that the cell has been selected without activating the link. Then use the F2 key or the Formula bar to edit the text.

Find Files

If you need to find a file, click on the taskbar, an Explorer folder, or the desktop, and tap the F3 key. The "Find Files/Folders" dialog will instantly appear.

Programs

Go to Start/Run and you'll see a box. If a program is in the Window's folder or System32, you can launch it by typing in the name.

Notepad anyone? Type in "notepad". Explorer? Type in "explorer". How about Paint? That's a little trickier: type in "MSpaint". And for calculator, type in "calc". For an on-screen keyboard type "osk".

MS Excel

In Ms Excel, to break up a long cell entry into separate lines, position the cursor where you want a new line to start and press Alt+Enter.
Excel will expand the row to accommodate wrapping lines of text. Press Enter to complete the entry.

Navigation

You may know that pressing ALT-TAB switches between the current and last-used program or file, and holding it down lets you switch to any running program or file. Another useful method you can use is using ALT-ESCAPE.

MS Excel

Here are some quick highlighting tips for Ms Excel:
Hit Ctrl + Spacebar to select the entire column. Use Shift + Spacebar to select entire the row.

MS Excel

You can color-code sheet tabs in MsExcel for easier identification or grouping of related sheets. Here's how: Select the sheets you want to color by Press the CTRL key and click the tab(s) to select the sheets you want to color. Right-click the sheet tab and then click Tab Color. Select the color you want, and then click OK

Windows

To speed up your machine (Win98/2000/ME), but dull down its looks, right click the desktop, choose "Properties." Click the "Effects" button on the Appearance tab and uncheck items you can do without.

MS Excel

Ever have to create a column of formulas that are very similar? When you completed a copy/paste, were you upset to find that the cell references were changed during the paste? The ability to force Excel to perform an exact copy of the contents from the cell above your current location might just come in handy: To get an exact copy (no cell reference changes at all) of the cell directly above, simply use Ctrl + '. Select a cell, hit Ctrl + ' and poof, the contents of the cell above are duplicated immediately!

Fonts

If you’re picky about your fonts and want to know which look similar, go to Start, Settings/Control Panel, then double-click the Fonts icon. Click the View menu and choose List Fonts By Similarity. Select the font of interest in the window to see which others bear a likeness.

Web Form

When you're filling out a form that asks for your name, address, etc., you can use the Tab key to go from one line to the next. For example, if you're done filling in your name, hit the Tab key and your mouse cursor will automatically go down to the next line, which is probably where your address goes. You can do that throughout the whole form.

Navigation Tips

If you hold the Ctrl key down on your keyboard and then "punch" the right arrow key or the left arrow key, the cursor will jump to the next word (or sentence, etc.) instead of the next letter. If you hold the Ctrl key down and then hold down the right arrow key or the left Arrow key, the cursor will jump quickly from word to word. This is even faster than holding an arrow key down without the Ctrl key.

Windows Tips

Most commonly used file types such as text, bitmap, icon, document, etc., are associated with certain programs by default. If you want to use a program other than the currently associated one to open a particular file, hold SHIFT key and right click on the file. Select "Open With...". Select the program you want to use to open the current file Click on "OK".

Calculator

Did you know that you could paste equations and math symbols in the Windows 95 calculator? If you paste 5*4*3*2*1= into your calculator, it will give you the result - 5 factorial, or 120. This may be useful if you need to document your written math formulas in a Notepad or Word document - you only have to type in your formulas once.

MS Excel

Want to use the Find/Replace function in a multiple worksheet MS Excel file? Use either the Ctrl key or the Shift key in conjunction with the Sheet Tabs to select all the worksheets that need to be searched. Then start the Find /Replace feature (Ctrl + F or the Edit menu, Find choice).

MS Excel

To add an Ms Excel chart, select a cell in the data and hit F11. Double click to make any changes. If items are missing, right click over the area to be changed.

Scroll

For either the horizontal or vertical scroll bar, click a scroll arrow (at the end of the scroll bar) to move one row or column. To move one window up or down one screen height or width, just click outside the scroll box on the scroll bar. If you click below the scroll box on the vertical scroll bar, the window will shift down. If you click to the right of the scroll box on the horizontal scroll bar, it will shift right.

MS Excel

Do you want to change the number of decimal places displayed in one of your MS Excel cells? Use the two buttons located on the Formatting toolbar or in Excel 2007, they're on the Home ribbon, Number section. The button on the left will add decimal places to numbers in highlighted cells and the one on the right will reduce them. (As decimal places are reduced, the value displayed in the cell is rounded. The formula bar will have the exact value stored

MS Excel

A quick way to see all the formulae on your Ms Excel worksheet is to Touch CTRL+~ (tilde ~ character – upper left of keyboard). This is an ON/OFF toggle – touch CTRL/~ again and it brings the results back and hides the formulas. Another method is to select the Tools menu, select Formula Auditing and choose the Formula Auditing Mode.

MS Word

When a change occurs that you want to reverse (put back to the way you typed it) in MS Word as a result of the AutoCorrect feature, just put the mouse pointer over the changed item. A blue box will then appear again. Move the mouse pointer down over the box. The AutoCorrect symbol with a down arrow will appear. Click on the down arrow. Make your choice from the shortlist and the AutoCorrect changes can be reversed.

Task Manager

Want to get to the Task Manager without any key combinations? Double click any open spot on your task bar at the bottom of the desktop. Ta-da! An instant view of what your system is doing.

Copy

You could use CTRL + C to copy and CTRL + V to paste it in the new location. You can also just hold the CTRL key and click-drag the item to copy it to a new location.

Web Page Tips

Do you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page? Well, you shouldn't! Instead, use the End key.Hit it once and you'll be whisked away to the bottom of any Web page, any document, any file, etc. Also, if you're working with some shorter text, the End key sometimes takes you the end of a line, which is also helpful and a much faster way of doing things.