JDtech

Windows 7 allows you to use the keyboard in some pretty imaginative ways. For instance, to quickly dock the current application to the left or right side of your screen, hold down the Windows key and tap the left or right arrow keys. to quickly maximise the current window, hold down the Windows key and tap the up arrow key. To return the application to its former size, hold down the Windows key and tap the down arrow key. To minimise all open applications except the one in the foreground, hold down the Windows key and tap the Home key. The same key combination returns all applications to the state they were in before you pressed Windows key-Home.

The Windows key in combination with the numbers along the top of your keyboard can be used to activate minmised applications as they are represented in your Windows taskbar. Windows key+1 restores the first application icons on the taskbar. Windows key+2 restores the second application, and so on. For instance, if Internet Explorer is the first icon on your taskbar, pressing Windows key+1 will bring Internet Explorer to the foreground. Press Windows key+1 again, and Explorer is minimised again to the taskbar.

If you have multiple instances of Windows Explorer--or another application --minimized to the taskbar, keep pressing Windows key and the appropriate number to cycle through the instances of the running application.

Know any other nifty Win7 keyboard tricks?

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jcjacob

Those are really good Keyboard tips.

Some others I've found useful are:

• Windows Key + E

Open up a new Explorer window and show Libraries Folders

• Alt + P

When in Windows Explorer, this opens up a preview pane to view the file you select. It doesn't matter if the file is a Word doc, Excel spreadsheet, image, sound or video. It's really useful for previewing images in your photos folder.

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-John

JDtech

Smart file renaming

The fastest way to rename a file in Windows is to highlight it and press F2. When you do, the file name becomes editable, and all you need to do is start typing.

In Windows 7, this type of file renaming gets even smarter because pressing F2 will make just the file name itself--and not the file extension--editable. Normally, you don't want to rename a file extension because, if you do, the file will no longer be recognized by the program that is associated with that file type in Windows.

In previous versions of Windows, pressing F2 with a highlighted file caused the entire file name to be editable, which means you had to be careful not to change the extension.

Zooming

Windows 7 comes with a little-known desktop magnification feature that's great for those times when you need to zoom in on an element on screen in order to see it better. At any time, just hold down the Windows key and tap the plus key (+), and Windows 7 will magnify the contents of the entire screen by 200 per cent. A magnifying glass icon also appears on the screen. With it, you can adjust the level of magnification. Move your cursor to the edge of the screen to move the magnified area around. Press the Windows key and the minus key (-) to zoom back out.

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