by Tom Lassiter
Remember the old joke about the blonde who was so dumb she couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time? Can YOU walk and chew gum at the same time? Yes? Haven’t tried it lately? Tried it and gum fell out of your mouth, you stepped on it, shoe stuck to it, you tripped and fell on your #*%&. If you did not find yourself in the latter response then you are capable of using Windows and multitasking.
When is the last time you had more than one window open on your screen? And no, those multiple ones that pop up during your boot and startup process don’t count. I’m talking about ones you did on purpose to work more effectively and efficiently. How long ago was it? Six weeks? Six months? Six years? (Yes, Windows has been around that long.)
When you download files from the internet do you wait until one finishes before clicking and starting the next download? Why? With the power of the PCs most of you are running these days you can have four or five files downloading simultaneously from one or more websites at the same time you are typing your new resume (ALWAYS have a current one), recalculating that massive spreadsheet of your year-to-date capital gains from the stock market, and sundry other activities.
If you are NOT doing such multitasking then why did you spend the money for all that computing power. (Oh, that’s right – I forgot about Solitaire!) OK, OK. Maybe I am laying it on a bit thick. But grow with your PC system as you upgrade. Use it, and yourself, to the fullest potential. You’ll be glad you did and your PC will feel proud to show off its full throttle capabilities.
Note: No Microsoft or Win 98 bashing or jokes this month – all the computer magazine articles seem to be doing quite enough of that; so I’ll spare you mine.
Add these Win95 tricks to your goodie bag, but save enough room for tricks and treats from Halloween this month:
Quantify Free Disk Space
Want to know how much free space you have left on a particular drive? From your desktop just DOUBLE-CLICK on MY COMPUTER, RIGHT-CLICK on the icon of the drive for which you seek the free space, and CLICK on PROPERTIES. You will get both text and graphical displays of the free space.
To see this information from Windows Explorer look at the bottom of your Explorer window and see the free space in parentheses.
Will They Fit on a Floppy?
Do you ever want to copy multiple files to a floppy and don’t know if they will all fit the 1.44 MB limit? Find your files in Windows Explorer details view. Select them from the list using either the SHIFT and CLICK for a group of contiguous files (CLICK on the first of the contiguous files then press SHIFT and the CLICK the last in the series), or the CTRL and CLICK for non-contiguous files (Hold down the CTRL key and CLICK each file desired). The total size of the selected files will appear at the bottom of the Explorer window. Or once the files are selected you may RIGHT-CLICK on any of them then CLICK on PROPERTIES and see the cumulative space required by all. If within limits a RIGHT-CLICK on any of the selected files and a CLICK on SEND TO and FLOPPY A:\ will copy them to the floppy all at once.
Printing Screen Captures
The original functionality of the Print Screen key got lost as we moved into Windows. However, it was not totally lost. In olden times you pressed the Print Screen key and it actually printed a copy of whatever was on your screen (text in those days). Now, with the graphical environment, pressing the Print Screen key actually shoots a copy of your screen image but places it on your Clipboard (The same interim storage where text and/or objects are held during Cut, or Copy, and Paste operations.)
Since the screen capture is an image, you have to open your Microsoft Paint program from START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, PAINT and then EDIT, PASTE. There is your screen capture which may be edited or printed insofar as allowed by the Paint program. More sophisticated programs to print all or part of your screen images are available, e.g. – Print Screen Deluxe, Snag-It, etc. These actions a very handy if you are trying to include screen images in instructional materials (Yes students, school has started and the teachers are ready!)
Reversing a File Move
If you move a file then change your mind, don’t bother to repeat the process to move the file back where it was. Just CLICK on EDIT and UNDO and you are back to square one. Remember boys and girls – “Undo is our friend”.
Open File with Other than Associated Program
All files types (.txt, .doc, .jpg, etc.) have a program associated with them and when we RIGHT-CLICK on them in My Computer or Windows Explorer they use that program to OPEN the file. But we often have multiple programs that will also open that file type.
Should you wish to open a file with a program other than the one associated with its type, just hold down the SHIFT key and when you RIGHT-CLICK on the file the popup dialog box with contain an OPEN WITH option. CLICK on it and select the program you want to open it with on this occasion.
That’s a wrap. Start dreaming of roast turkey and cornbread dressing with cranberry sauce and I’ll see you in November.
Tom Lassiter is a member of the HAL-PC Board of Directors. He may be contacted at jamesl@hal-pc.org.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.