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11 best Windows 10 tricks

The original article is at https://www.cnet.com/how-to/11-best-hidden-windows-10-tricks-to-know-now-that-youve-upgraded-from-windows-7/

See the source image

Minimize all the Windows except the active one

Click the titlebar of the window you want to stay open. Then hold the mouse button down and move the mouse left and right quickly. After a couple of quick shakes the OTHER windows will all minimize.

Open the “secret” start menu

Press Windows key + X…. or you can RIGHT-click the WIndows icon [aka the Start menu].

Take a screenshot

There are at least EIGHT different ways to take a screenshot in windows 10.

One of the easiest methods is to hit Windows key + Print SCreen [it might be labelled PrntScrn}. This will take a shot of the whole screen and save it in your Pictures –> SCreenshots folder.

But what if you only want a PART of the screen? Hit the Windows key + shift + S. This opens up the Snip & Sketch tool, which allows you to click and drag a rectangle to select part of the screen. Once you release the mouse buttn, your screenshot is stored in the clipboard.

Open items on your taskbar with Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’ve pinned programs at the bottom of the screen, in the Taskbar, you can open them up by hitting the windows key plus a number key. Windows + 2 will open the second item on the taskbar, for instance.

Figure out how much space apps are taking up

Your storage is limited, no matter how big is is. TO see how much of that space an app takes up, navigate to Settings –> System –> Storage. Click on the drive you’d like the search, [most likely is “This PC”], then click Apps & Games to see if any apps are being space hogs.

Get rid of Ads on your Start Menu

This is not a problem at school, but elsewhere you may see what Microsoft calls “Suggestions” pop up to the right of the Start menu. These are ads for WIndows Store apps you can buy. To get rid of them, go to Settings –> Personalization –> Start. Turn “Show Suggestions occasionally in Start” OFF!

Shut down background apps

These are apps running the background, doing things like staying updated, sending notifications, etc. They can be handy, but they can also drain your laptop battery and slow your machine down a bit. To keep them from, running in the background,call up Settings –> Privacy –> Background Apps.

You can turn them ALL off, or just a select few.

Use Background Scrolling

Now you can scroll windows that AREN”T the one you are working on. This is handy if you have a word processor document open AND a web browser window open. You can type away, and then move your mouse over and scroll the page without losing teh window focus of the word process – so it’s a faster way to keep typing.

It should be on by default, but if it isn’t, go to Settings –> Devices –> Mouse. Turn Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them to ON.

Show File Extensions in File Explorer.

This is turned off by default, but it is really handy to be able to see what file extension a file has, especially when troubleshooting. TO see them, in FIle Eplorer

  • In the Search Bar at the bottom of the screen, type in File Explorer Options, and hit return.
  • In the window that pops up, select View Tab
  • UNCHECK the box for Hide extensions for known file types. Click the Apply button, and then OK.

Use Focus Assist to keep from getting distracted

Turning FOcus Assist on means fewer notifications and distractions, which can really help you focus and get your work done. Set it up by going to Settings –> System –> Focus Assist. Choose from OFF ( no notifications, none nada, zero,. zilch], Priority [you pick from a list of apps and what you want to see from them}, Alarms Only [hides all notifications except for alarms].

Faculty/Staff, Google, Students

20 more Google Docs tips

The ORIGINAL ARTICLE – below are the “headlines”.

  1. Search Google Docs and Gmail together

  2. Search Google Docs more effectively

  3. Quickly back up all your documents offline

  4. Max out your editing space

  5. Share docs with non-Google Docs users

  6. Star multiple documents at once

  7. View a video’s technical details

  8. Explore the templates

  9. Automatically correct common typos

  10. Click and drag images into docs

  11. Fix pictures in position

  12. Insert links in a snap

  13. Use Bookmarks to navigate long documents

  14. Use the word processor to create Web pages

  15. Work with multiple currencies in a spreadsheet

  16. Use Rules to color code spreadsheets

  17. Gather spreadsheet data using forms

  18. See Google Docs previews in Gmail

  19. Create drawings within presentations

  20. Save drawings in scalable form

Google Docs continues to improve practically every month as new features arise. A good way of keeping up with the additions is to monitor the Google Docs Blog, which the team behind Docs writes.

Faculty/Staff, Google, Students

Google Docs – 8 more tips

The article with the details can be found HERE.

Here’s the summary:

  1. Show all keyboard shortcuts:
    • On Mac, press ⌘ + /
    • On Windows, press Ctrl + /
  2. Use Gmail keyboard shortcuts in List View
    • J  Navigate to the next item in the list
    • K  Navigate to the previous item in the list
    • X  Select/unselect an item
    • S  Star/unstar an item
  3. Less distracting –> Edit Fullscreen [View menu–> Fullscreen. Hit the ESC key to exit.]
  4. Hack the Header styles to quickly add formatting:   To create a new header style, simply format your text how you’d like and highlight it. Then go to the Title menu, click one of the right facing arrows next to a header, and select Update ‘heading X’ to match with X being the header number.
  5. Use the Google Templates to get started:   directory of templates
  6. Let Docs create the Table of contents – only works if you’ve used the header levels in the Title menu. Insert menu –> Table of Contents
  7. Use Conditional Formatting to change the color of a spreadsheet cell based on the contents. For example, you can have the cell color automatically change to red if the test score is less than a 75.
    To do this, hover over the column header and click the arrow icon that appears to bring up a menu. Then click the Conditional formatting… option towards the bottom.
  8. Extrapolate sets of related terms. You’ll just have to read the original for this – but it IS pretty cool – useful is another question altogether, though!