Make Your Computer Easier to Use - 
Hot Tips

few users take advantage of the power at their fingertips - usually because they don't know how to make use of it

part 1 - control panel: basic definitions 

part 2 - monitor resolution: proper settings can make a difference 

part 3 - hot tips: users don't get enough training

part 4 - shortcuts: keyboard shortcuts for common tasks

part 5 - splits: using Windows Explorer for faster file transfer

part 6 - right click for power: Microsoft Powertoys 

Years ago, when the personal computer was relatively new, there were lots of user groups and newsletters available to help people learn how to use their new toys. Beyond that, many "normal" magazines included computer tips for their readers.

These sources of information were extremely useful, even essential. Instruction manuals have never been easy to use, but they were even worse in the good old days. Cryptic at best, they seemed to have little relationship to the programs.

At the time, computers were command line driven, i.e., you had to tell them everything you wanted them to do. There were no cute little icons for "start word processor", "open file", or "print". Copying files was done by typing in simple, obvious, and intuitive commands like "copy \system\filename.txt d:\filename.txt". Word processors didn't show you what your document would look like when printed, and embedded commands were used to change fonts, margins, and other settings.

Since then, the graphic user interface, or GUI (pronounced "gooey") has made many operations easy for even the newest user. Despite the fact that there are too #$%#@^% many icons to remember, you can quickly open, save, and print files, and perform a variety of other operations with ease. Although programs are only now becoming truly "user friendly" or "intuitive", they are far easier to use than they were even five years ago.

All of these bells and whistles come at a price, though. The minimum platform required to support true color graphics, large monitors, automatic functions, and three or more programs running at once was inconceivable when MSDOS was the hot new operating system. Today's computers are hundreds of times faster than the early PCs, with hundreds of times the capacity, but in many respects they are no faster than their predecessors.

Even after all of the increases in speed and capacity, the average computer user today does little that wasn't possible fifteen years ago. It's definitely easier, and sometimes faster, but few users take advantage of the power at their fingertips - usually because they don't know how to make use of it.

In the next couple of articles we'll look at different ways to perform common functions, some of which may be easier for the kind work you do. If you have some tried-and-true hot tips to pass along, e-mail them to me.

© 2000 Sheldon Wolfe, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA, swolfe@bwbr.com 
on the web at www.CSI-MSP.org 
February 2000

Material from CSI Chapter newsletters used with permission.