Internet Explorer
Is tabbed browsing cluttering up your life?
In the Tools menu, select Internet Options. In the General tab, under Tabs, click the Settings button. Uncheck the topmost checkbox, which is labelled Enable Tabbed Browsing (requires restarting Internet Explorer), and click OK. To enable the tabbed browsing function later, just go back and select this option, and save your preferences.
Find on the Web Page
If you want to search for a particular word or phrase on the web page you’re viewing and can’t be bothered to read through every paragraph just press Ctrl and F together and type the word or phrase you want.
Display the Address bar history
A handy short cut to display the address bar history on the Internet Explorer is to press F4.
Open the Organize Favourites Dialog Box
To open the Organize Favourites Dialog box, press Ctrl and B together.
Windows Vista
Search for a file in Windows Vista
One of the ways to search for a file on Windows is the Search box available in every folder. You can type in any word associated with the file you’re looking for; Windows will look for that word in the file names, file contents, and file properties of all the files in the current view. To filter your search, say by files modified on a particular date, you can type ‘modified:’ in the Search box. Similarly, to search only by file name, type ‘name: ’.
Now launch programs by searching for them
Starting up an application was never easier or quicker. No need to go through the Start menu and then several sub-menus. Just start typing the name of the program into the bar at the bottom and have Vista bring up the name of the program you need instantly!
A quicker way to launch your programs
Windows Vista assigns shortcuts to all the items in your Quick Launch toolbar, on its own, depending on the icons’ positions in the sequence. So if you want to open the program whose icon is the fourth in your Quick Launch bar, just press the Windows key + 4.
Clear up your Windows Sidebar
Is your Sidebar cluttering up your life? To get in a little breathing room, right-click gadgets that you don’t use frequently and change their opacity settings to 40 percent. These gadgets will now fade out of view when you are not using them.
Set a new theme for your PC
To change your Windows Vista theme, right-click your desktop and select Personalise. Next, click Themes; in the dropdown menu, choose the theme you want, and click Apply.
Clean up your temporary files
If you’ve recently been doing something with your computer that generates a lot of temporary files, you may want to make sure all those files are cleaned out of your system to free up precious space. To do this, just enter %TEMP% into your Start menu search box and press Enter. The temporary files folder will open, allowing you to delete files and prevent unnecessary clutter.
Speed up your system
Is your PC running slowly? Go to your Power Options control panel and look for the Power Saver setting that is set at 50 percent (default setting in Vista). Change this setting to High Performance and let your PC run faster.
Check for memory issues with your PC
Worried about memory defects in your PC? You can use Vista’s in-built tool to diagnose issues. Enter the word “memory” into your Start menu search box, and you will be taken to the Memory Diagnostics Tool. A dialog box will open and ask you whether you want to reboot your PC immediately or later. Vista will then run the Memory Diagnostic Tool while starting up.
Resize icons on the fly
If you want to resize the icons quickly in Windows Vista Explorer, press and hold the Ctrl key, and scroll up or down with the mouse wheel.
Faster shortcuts in Vista
Go to the Control Panel and search for the term “underline”. In your search results, you’ll get a link for Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys. Click this, and in the next screen, go to the checkbox for Make it easier to use keyboard shortcuts. Select this. Now, whenever you go to any menu, the access keys for each function will be underlined. Pressing Alt with this key would enable the function.
Outlook
Track when your messages are read
If you’ve sent out an important e-mail and want to ensure that the recipient has received and read it, you can set an option in Outlook to do so. Once you’ve composed the message in Outlook 2007, go to the Options tab and the Tracking group. To know that your message was delivered, click Request a Delivery Receipt. To know that the message was read, click Request a Read Receipt.
Add Contacts quickly in Outlook 2007
From an open email message, you can add the name and email address of the sender to your Contacts. Right-click the name of the sender in the message and click Add to Contacts in the menu that appears.
Use the Mini toolbar for speedy formatting
The Mini toolbar in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (2007) helps you to format selected text in these programs—you can work with fonts, alignment, bullets, and other features. The toolbar is semi-transparent when you select text in any of these programs. You can take your pointer to the toolbar and click the option that you want to use.
Change the Font size of your message list
Do you have to strain your eyes to read your email headers in Outlook 2003? Click on the View menu. Under Arrange by, select Current View, and then Customize Current View. Now click on Other Settings. Select Row Fonts and change the font to the one that you desire. Click OK.
E-mail signature in Outlook
Go to the Tools menu and select Options. Under Options, click on the Mail Format tab. Go to the Signatures tab. Click New and type in a name for the new email signature you are creating. Click on Next. Type in your desired email signature; choose the font style and sizes. Click OK.
Change meetings or events created in Outlook 2007
Once you’ve scheduled a meeting or event using Outlook 2007, you can change its subject, location or time if needed. This can be done for a standalone event, for a whole series of recurring events, or one event of a series of recurring events.
To change the time, location or subject of an individual event, you first need to open the event. Go to the Appointment tab and make the necessary changes. Click Save and Close.
Schedule a new meeting in Outlook 2007
In Outlook 2007, go to File, click New, and select New Meeting Request. Type appropriate descriptions in the Subject and Location boxes, and choose start and end times of the meeting using the Start Time and End Time lists. You can also type any information or attach files that you want to share with the recipients of the meeting request. For help with scheduling the best time for your meeting, go to the Meeting tab, and click Scheduling Assistant in the Show group. Then, click Add Others and select Add Others from Address Book. You can now search and select attendees and resources for the meeting, by going to the Select Attendees and Resources dialog box and entering the name of the person in the Search box. The results list will show the concerned people—you can click Required, Optional, or Resources and click OK. After this, the Suggested Times pane will show the best times for your meeting, that is, the times at which most attendees are available. You can also manually pick a time from the free/busy grid. Go to the Meeting tab and click Appointment in the Show group. Click Send.
Print your Contacts in Outlook 2007
Outlook 2007 gives you the option of printing out your list of Contacts in various styles—memo, visiting card, phone directory, small booklet or medium booklet. You can also customize these styles. You can print a single Contact, all your Contacts or some of them.
To print out all your Contacts, open the Contacts view, go to File and click Print. In the Print dialog box, select the style you want to print in using the Print Styles box. Click Define Styles to customize the printing style. Click OK to print, after setting the number of copies and other necessary options.
To print out some of your Contacts, open the Contacts view, go to the View menu, take your cursor to Current View and click Customize Current View. Click Filter and use the available options to narrow down the list of Contacts to only those that you want to print. Then, go to File, click Print and follow the same steps as above.
Redirect Incoming Email to your Mobile Phone
With Outlook 2007, you can redirect incoming email and calendar entries to your mobile phone, by configuring your Outlook Mobile Service account. To do this, you have to select the redirection conditions in Outlook Mobile Service. For this, go to Tools and click Options. On the Preferences tab, click Notifications under Mobile. Under Message Notifications, click the checkbox against Forward messages that meet all of the selected conditions. Select the conditions from those listed. In the Forward to mobile numbers box, type the mobile phone number(s) to which you want messages to be forwarded. Click OK.
Use Instant Search in Outlook 2007
You can quickly search for messages in Outlook. Click the folder you want to search in Mail. Type the text you want to search for in the Instant Search box. The Instant Search Results pane will display all messages that contain your search text.
Print an e-mail with attachment
Select the e-mail in the message list, but don’t open it. On the File menu, click Print. In Print options, click the Print attached files check box. Ensure that you don’t open the message when you want to print it, or the option to print the attachment will not be displayed.
Use Outlook 2007 to send a Word 2007 document for review
To e-mail a Word 2007 document for review, open and save the document and click Send for Review on the Quick Access Toolbar. A new e-mail message will open with the document attached; the default text in the message is "Please review the attached document". Make changes in the message if you want, type the addresses of the recipients in the To field of the message, and click Send.
Add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar
In Office 2007, you can customize the Quick Access Toolbar to contain your most frequently used commands. On the Ribbon, click the tab or group to display the command that you want. Right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
Is tabbed browsing cluttering up your life?
In the Tools menu, select Internet Options. In the General tab, under Tabs, click the Settings button. Uncheck the topmost checkbox, which is labelled Enable Tabbed Browsing (requires restarting Internet Explorer), and click OK. To enable the tabbed browsing function later, just go back and select this option, and save your preferences.
Find on the Web Page
If you want to search for a particular word or phrase on the web page you’re viewing and can’t be bothered to read through every paragraph just press Ctrl and F together and type the word or phrase you want.
Display the Address bar history
A handy short cut to display the address bar history on the Internet Explorer is to press F4.
Open the Organize Favourites Dialog Box
To open the Organize Favourites Dialog box, press Ctrl and B together.
Windows Vista
Search for a file in Windows Vista
One of the ways to search for a file on Windows is the Search box available in every folder. You can type in any word associated with the file you’re looking for; Windows will look for that word in the file names, file contents, and file properties of all the files in the current view. To filter your search, say by files modified on a particular date, you can type ‘modified:
Now launch programs by searching for them
Starting up an application was never easier or quicker. No need to go through the Start menu and then several sub-menus. Just start typing the name of the program into the bar at the bottom and have Vista bring up the name of the program you need instantly!
A quicker way to launch your programs
Windows Vista assigns shortcuts to all the items in your Quick Launch toolbar, on its own, depending on the icons’ positions in the sequence. So if you want to open the program whose icon is the fourth in your Quick Launch bar, just press the Windows key + 4.
Clear up your Windows Sidebar
Is your Sidebar cluttering up your life? To get in a little breathing room, right-click gadgets that you don’t use frequently and change their opacity settings to 40 percent. These gadgets will now fade out of view when you are not using them.
Set a new theme for your PC
To change your Windows Vista theme, right-click your desktop and select Personalise. Next, click Themes; in the dropdown menu, choose the theme you want, and click Apply.
Clean up your temporary files
If you’ve recently been doing something with your computer that generates a lot of temporary files, you may want to make sure all those files are cleaned out of your system to free up precious space. To do this, just enter %TEMP% into your Start menu search box and press Enter. The temporary files folder will open, allowing you to delete files and prevent unnecessary clutter.
Speed up your system
Is your PC running slowly? Go to your Power Options control panel and look for the Power Saver setting that is set at 50 percent (default setting in Vista). Change this setting to High Performance and let your PC run faster.
Check for memory issues with your PC
Worried about memory defects in your PC? You can use Vista’s in-built tool to diagnose issues. Enter the word “memory” into your Start menu search box, and you will be taken to the Memory Diagnostics Tool. A dialog box will open and ask you whether you want to reboot your PC immediately or later. Vista will then run the Memory Diagnostic Tool while starting up.
Resize icons on the fly
If you want to resize the icons quickly in Windows Vista Explorer, press and hold the Ctrl key, and scroll up or down with the mouse wheel.
Faster shortcuts in Vista
Go to the Control Panel and search for the term “underline”. In your search results, you’ll get a link for Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys. Click this, and in the next screen, go to the checkbox for Make it easier to use keyboard shortcuts. Select this. Now, whenever you go to any menu, the access keys for each function will be underlined. Pressing Alt with this key would enable the function.
Outlook
Track when your messages are read
If you’ve sent out an important e-mail and want to ensure that the recipient has received and read it, you can set an option in Outlook to do so. Once you’ve composed the message in Outlook 2007, go to the Options tab and the Tracking group. To know that your message was delivered, click Request a Delivery Receipt. To know that the message was read, click Request a Read Receipt.
Add Contacts quickly in Outlook 2007
From an open email message, you can add the name and email address of the sender to your Contacts. Right-click the name of the sender in the message and click Add to Contacts in the menu that appears.
Use the Mini toolbar for speedy formatting
The Mini toolbar in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (2007) helps you to format selected text in these programs—you can work with fonts, alignment, bullets, and other features. The toolbar is semi-transparent when you select text in any of these programs. You can take your pointer to the toolbar and click the option that you want to use.
Change the Font size of your message list
Do you have to strain your eyes to read your email headers in Outlook 2003? Click on the View menu. Under Arrange by, select Current View, and then Customize Current View. Now click on Other Settings. Select Row Fonts and change the font to the one that you desire. Click OK.
E-mail signature in Outlook
Go to the Tools menu and select Options. Under Options, click on the Mail Format tab. Go to the Signatures tab. Click New and type in a name for the new email signature you are creating. Click on Next. Type in your desired email signature; choose the font style and sizes. Click OK.
Change meetings or events created in Outlook 2007
Once you’ve scheduled a meeting or event using Outlook 2007, you can change its subject, location or time if needed. This can be done for a standalone event, for a whole series of recurring events, or one event of a series of recurring events.
To change the time, location or subject of an individual event, you first need to open the event. Go to the Appointment tab and make the necessary changes. Click Save and Close.
Schedule a new meeting in Outlook 2007
In Outlook 2007, go to File, click New, and select New Meeting Request. Type appropriate descriptions in the Subject and Location boxes, and choose start and end times of the meeting using the Start Time and End Time lists. You can also type any information or attach files that you want to share with the recipients of the meeting request. For help with scheduling the best time for your meeting, go to the Meeting tab, and click Scheduling Assistant in the Show group. Then, click Add Others and select Add Others from Address Book. You can now search and select attendees and resources for the meeting, by going to the Select Attendees and Resources dialog box and entering the name of the person in the Search box. The results list will show the concerned people—you can click Required, Optional, or Resources and click OK. After this, the Suggested Times pane will show the best times for your meeting, that is, the times at which most attendees are available. You can also manually pick a time from the free/busy grid. Go to the Meeting tab and click Appointment in the Show group. Click Send.
Print your Contacts in Outlook 2007
Outlook 2007 gives you the option of printing out your list of Contacts in various styles—memo, visiting card, phone directory, small booklet or medium booklet. You can also customize these styles. You can print a single Contact, all your Contacts or some of them.
To print out all your Contacts, open the Contacts view, go to File and click Print. In the Print dialog box, select the style you want to print in using the Print Styles box. Click Define Styles to customize the printing style. Click OK to print, after setting the number of copies and other necessary options.
To print out some of your Contacts, open the Contacts view, go to the View menu, take your cursor to Current View and click Customize Current View. Click Filter and use the available options to narrow down the list of Contacts to only those that you want to print. Then, go to File, click Print and follow the same steps as above.
Redirect Incoming Email to your Mobile Phone
With Outlook 2007, you can redirect incoming email and calendar entries to your mobile phone, by configuring your Outlook Mobile Service account. To do this, you have to select the redirection conditions in Outlook Mobile Service. For this, go to Tools and click Options. On the Preferences tab, click Notifications under Mobile. Under Message Notifications, click the checkbox against Forward messages that meet all of the selected conditions. Select the conditions from those listed. In the Forward to mobile numbers box, type the mobile phone number(s) to which you want messages to be forwarded. Click OK.
Use Instant Search in Outlook 2007
You can quickly search for messages in Outlook. Click the folder you want to search in Mail. Type the text you want to search for in the Instant Search box. The Instant Search Results pane will display all messages that contain your search text.
Print an e-mail with attachment
Select the e-mail in the message list, but don’t open it. On the File menu, click Print. In Print options, click the Print attached files check box. Ensure that you don’t open the message when you want to print it, or the option to print the attachment will not be displayed.
Use Outlook 2007 to send a Word 2007 document for review
To e-mail a Word 2007 document for review, open and save the document and click Send for Review on the Quick Access Toolbar. A new e-mail message will open with the document attached; the default text in the message is "Please review the attached document". Make changes in the message if you want, type the addresses of the recipients in the To field of the message, and click Send.
Add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar
In Office 2007, you can customize the Quick Access Toolbar to contain your most frequently used commands. On the Ribbon, click the tab or group to display the command that you want. Right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
