Running With Quills: WE ARE ALL IN THIS ONE BUT NOT ALL TOGETHER!

Welcome to Running With Quills, your online newsletter designed to keep you up to date with what your favorite authors (that would be us) are doing throughout the year. Here you will find the release dates of our new books and get information about our backlists. We'll preview our cover art here long before the books hit the stores and we'll keep you informed about works-in-progress and special projects. You'll also receive advance notice of signings and appearances. From time to time we'll give you a peek at our worlds, tell you what we're reading, and introduce you to some new authors.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

WE ARE ALL IN THIS ONE BUT NOT ALL TOGETHER!

Happy Monday, my friends.

We are going to be up, up, up, regardless of the apparent fact that we've probably got plenty of reasons to be down, down, down. Why should we worry about the economy? By my calculations we'll all be living in cardboard boxes--under bridges--fairly soon, so we'll just pick the same big bridge and rendezvouz there to share our instant noodles.

Just joking!

Now to the real topic for today:

*We all use computers.

*Some of us are real techies and know all the tricks.

*Some of us are technologically challenged, but we still have at least one nifty trick up our sleeves.

IT'S SHOW AND TELL TIME!

I'll jump in and give you the (very few) shortcuts I know.

You'll jump in next (I just know ALL of you know ALL of them) with the fabulous tips you're aching to share with the less fortunate.

STELLA'S HELPFUL HINTS:

1. Forget about http//www. when using the web. stellacameron.com will get you to the same place as http//www.stellacameron.com.

2. Don't be afraid of all those little arrows you probably see around the edges of your window, particularly in the corners. Give 'em a whirl. Nothing will blow up and you'll likely discover you can jump back or forward a page, move all the way from the left to the right (and back again) of your page and you may even find some other little goodies, like moving the distance of a paragraph only.

3. When you want to highlight a word--just double click on the word. No need to drag the cursor along the whole thing.

4. Tapping the Space bar once will scroll down one screenful on a Web page. You can use the Shift key and tap the space bar to scroll back up.

5. You need to "empty" your Trash in addition to just sending items to Trash. If you only send them there, that's where they remain and they continue to take up space on your drive. Every few weeks, or as often as makes you happy, empty your Trash.

Now it's your turn. Remember, NOTHING is too simple a move for some of us (read, me) so feel free to send along anything that comes to mind. Maybe we can figure out a way to compile all the tips into one list?

All the best,

Stella

41 Comments:

DFender said...: G'morning Stella!
I don't have any tips...LOL. I'm pretty sure that everyone knows the minimum that I know. Since I've seen this question asked before, though, I can say that to type in bold or italics in most HTML acceptable sites is amazingly simple.

Example: to type in bold print < b > (without the spaces) at the beginning of a word/phrase and < /b > (without the spaces) at the end of a word/phrase. Use an "i" for italics.
Have a wonderful day!
Deb; 3:17 AM
Marisa O'Neill said...: LOL, the big tip I have is make sure you back up at least once a week. This I've learned from experience. I have an ancient computer and I have to be very gentle with it.

My only other hint concerns the appointment feature in outlook.I'm a big fan of sending appointments on my calendar through email. So when you make an appointment on your calendar you can hit "invite attendees" and put in their email address and send them a calendar appointment. It is very useful when there are several people working on the same deadlines.; 3:26 AM
Lori Foster said...: Oh Stella, I'm not sure I have any good tips at all! Or at least none that are fun and special. LOL.

Let's see... I can "ape" some html. If you see a photo floating (meaning text runs around it) and you want to try that, you can copy the code used, change out the destination or url, and voila! You can float.
You might need to adjust the photo because it will be set to the size of the one you copied.

To add to Deb's tip about italics and bold, you can make text bounce back and forth by using the marquee setting. It doesn't work in blogger, but just put (without spaces) < marquee > at the beginning of what you want to move, and then < /marquee > at the end to stop it. Text will go back and forth to be more eye catching.
Same thing works with making text "big" or "huge."

Whenver you have a long url that you want to send to someone, you can go to tinyurl.com and it'll change your long url into a tiny one. LOL. Just as the name says!

Photobucket.com is a life saver! You can do just about everything there, including getting code for a photo in images, urls, and direct link.

And slide.com is great if you want to save your photos into a special fun item like a slide show, a cube, whatever.
Free - and super easy to use!

Gotta run! I'm sending out invites for the 09 June event and I'm busy-busy!
Hugs to all!

Lori; 5:57 AM
Anonymous said...: My best tip? Marry the computer guy.

J/K

Lynne Thomas; 7:03 AM
Kristi said...: I wrote a blog post with tips for handling foreign languages in your writing. I talk about adding accent marks and upside down punctuation, plus how to make MS Word spell-check your French and Spanish, and more. Feel free to check it out, and pass it along!

Here's the blog post link (off of my newbie-writer blog Skim Decaf Mocha With Whip)
http://skimdecafmochawithwhip.blogspot.com/2008/08/voulez-vous-crire-avec-moi-ce-soir.html; 7:16 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: I followed Lynne Thomas's words of wisdom: I married a computer guy.

--Jayne; 9:40 AM
AgTigress said...: To add to Kristi's useful hints about accent shortcuts: if you keep a shortcut to dear old simple Character Map on your desktop, then you can easily type 'café' or 'Köln' even when you are not using Word.

I only wish there were a handy hint for telling Word to just go into the Greek alphabet till one tells it to go back into the Roman one, instead of having to insert each character one. at. a. time.

Backups: with certain documents now backed up on (1) home computer, (2) work computer, (3) separate hard drive, (4) USB flash drive and (5) another USB flash drive, I can only tell you that it gets really difficult to remember whether I have the latest version on all of them!

:-); 10:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I just learned when getting rid of a computer, neither erasing nor formatting the drive will remove all the data. The hard drive must also be "sanitized". Now I'm trying to get details of what/how to sanitize a computer.

~TerryS; 10:17 AM
Stella said...: Terry: There are programs you can use to sanitize a drive. We've got exactly the same situation as you here, though and we've decided to take the hard drive out and destroy it because we don't trust outselves not to mess something up on another computer while in the process of cleaning.

Stella; 11:32 AM
Stella said...: AGtigress: Thanks so much for the chracter map tip. I'll get in there and see if I can rouse it.

Stella; 11:34 AM
Stella said...: Jayne: People like you risk life and limb with remarkable aplomb!
Stella; 11:34 AM
Stella said...: Kristi: Thank you very much. Your site will prove most useful.

Stella; 11:35 AM
Stella said...: Lynne: How smug you and Jayne are. Does that mean neither of you has learned one teensy shortcut you could share with the less fortunate? Stella; 11:36 AM
Stella said...: slide.com sounds useful, Lori. I'll give it a whirl. The rest of what you write hardly sounds simple, my girl:) Stella; 11:38 AM
AgTigress said...: I expect everyone else already knows this, but it was from Jayne's lovely husband that I learned, years ago, that 'ctrl + a' instantly highlights the WHOLE of a Word document for copying and pasting. That was when I was still feeling my way with Word, having used WordPerfect and yet other, long-forgotten WP programmes, before that. Some of which worked a lot more intuitively than Word. For example, in Locoscript (no, none of you will have known it, I'm sure), you could, with one keystroke combination, go into the Greek alphabet, and stay there till you wanted out again. Happy days.; 12:11 PM
Anonymous said...: I had to laugh at your comment about destroying the hard drive. I just finished reading an article from MIT recommending after erasing, formatting, and sanitizing ---- to take a sledgehammer to it if you want to make absolutely sure it can't still be read! Computer science really is an evolving science, isn't it?

~Terry; 1:42 PM
AgTigress said...: What I find baffling is that apparently nothing short of total physical destruction with hard, heavy implements will make it impossible to retrieve information from a hard drive - EXCEPT if you actually want to retrieve 'deleted' information from it, in which case, it just can't be done...; 2:06 PM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Hm, words of wisdom from moi when it comes to computers, Stella? lolololol That's an oxymoron for sure. But I do compulsively "back-up" since I lost a chunk of a book some years past.

My computer is programmed for auto back-up should the electricity go off, etc. I have back-up disks in my office, my car, off-site. I have one of those little thing-a-ma-bobs that stores something like 400 books on a key chain.

I am also a tad paranoid, so I write on a separate computer in a separate office from the internet computer. My writing computer is not hooked up to anything but the electricity. :-)
~EG; 2:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Most School Districts have adult classes for about everything on earth.
My DW and I are currently working our way thru Word 2003.

Our computer took a crash earlier this year...able to recover all the important stuff. Now have a new computer with "Vista".

Certainly has a few different characteristics about it.

Louis; 2:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Here's a few more:

ctrl "c" is copy
ctrl "x" is cut
ctrl "v" is paste
So you don't have to look for those little icons on the toolbar...

Also, if you have more than one window open and you need to move back and forth between them, you can quickly toggle from one window to another by holding down the "alt" key and tapping the "tab" key. Great shortcut for multitaskers :)

Great blog idea Stella. Thanks everyone for sharing your tips!!; 2:55 PM
susan andersen said...: I use a Mac, so I'm not sure if this translates, but to make the screen fonts larger, which these aging eyes needs to do often, his Command (Control on PC) +. I LOVE this. Liked the space bar to scroll a page, Stella. I never knew that one.

And I'm with Lynn and Jayne--wish I'd married th computer guy--and the guy I did marry does often get me out of trouble.; 3:14 PM
Maura Anderson said...: agtigress - do you mean to use a greek keyboard map until you turn it back off? If you do mean that and you use Windows, there is a way to set it up and then use a shortcut key combination to toggle it on and off. Let me know if that's your situation and which version of Windows and I can write up instructions for you.

My tips are probably lame but:

Alt+Tab to switch between open windows.

Right click on images and use the context menu to "Save As" to save most of them.

In my family, both Mr. Maura and I are computer people :); 6:36 PM
Maura Anderson said...: Oh - here's a couple more that I just found myself using.

In Word:

Ctrl+End takes you to the bottom of the document.

Ctrl+Home takes you to the top of the document.

Ctrl+Down Arrow skips down the document a paragraph at a time.

Ctrl+Up Arrow skips up the document a paragraph at a time.

Ctrl+Right Arrow skips forward a word at a time.

Ctrl+Left Arrow skips back a word at a time.; 7:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Okay,okay, Stella! I recently had to set up my Mac to also run Windows XP for a job that had a website and programs that would not run on Mac. Well, guess what girls and boys, I got those programs to run just fine by using a program called Parallels. There are actually several very good programs out there that let you run two or more operating systems concurrently on the Mac. I chose Parallels because it had been around the longest. I don't know that it is better. I will tell you that now I can get my Mac to run in Windows and do Outlook mail and pick up viruses right and left just like a PC. Oh, if you do this to your Mac, you will need to get a virus protection plan, because of the open architecture of Windows. And I can just click on the desktop menu bar and immediately use my Mac apps while using a Windows app.

Now, let me know if you need tips on using an Iphone. I am a master of that little puppy!

Love you guys!

Lynne Thomas; 7:45 PM
Erin said...: Alt + the left or right arrow keys will let you go "back" or "forward" in a internet browser.

For example is you went to yahoo.com and then searched for "running with quills" and then went to this blog and then clicked Stella's site link, you would've really gone to 4 internet pages.
1. yahoo
2. yahoo search results
3. running with quills blog
4. stella's site

you can quickly go back and forth between this "history" by using the Alt key and the left (for back) or right (for forward) arrow.

Oh, if you need to see the "specs" on your computer. (ie. How much RAM do I have?) right click the "My computer" icon from your desktop, and hit "Properties." the info is on the "General" tab. If you need to see info on more specific hardware (ie. what kind of video card do I have?), you can click the "Hardware" tab and click "Device Manager."

If your mouse is ever on the fritz, don't despair! you can still get around using your keyboard. You can access the menu commands (the menus at the top of a program window, ie. File, Edit, View, etc) by hitting the Alt key. You can either use the Alt key and then use the arrow keys to navigate, or you can use the Alt key and then press the letter that's underlined in the Menu word. For example, when I press the Alt key on my internet explorer window, the F in File is underlined, so I can hit Alt + F and the File menu would open.

My mom always calls me about anything remotely tech-y. Haha. =); 9:10 PM
kris b said...: well this has been an interesting blog! LOL I don't do anything on the computer except send a few emails and surf the net and put a few chats and blogs up nothing serious and nothing difficult. however I can fix just about anthing on here if I have too and if I can't then the hubby can. though, a good virus protection is never out of question. I dont really use any html tags or anything else but it has been interesting learning some things I never knew about moving around pages and about macs because I will probably never have one sigh.. it was interesting! thankyou so much!; 3:33 AM
AgTigress said...: Maura said, 'agtigress - do you mean to use a greek keyboard map until you turn it back off?'

Yes. It is not that I have to (or even could) write whole texts or even paragraphs in Greek: it is simply that if one has to type, say, a name or inscription of a few words in Classical Greek (all in caps, no accents - basically quite simple stuff), it is a major bore to have to go to 'insert symbol' (even though I have a shortcut for that on my taskbar) and then have to click and insert each letter in turn ('find epsilon, click, insert; find upsilon, click, insert; find theta, click, insert; find eta, click, insert - argh, I haven't even finished the word yet!), rather than just being able to type them on the keyboard. Too much mousing when writing slows one down - as is revealed by all those handy keyboard short-cuts we have all been listing.

:-); 4:31 AM
Maura Anderson said...: agtigress - Here's what you do. Apologies in advance to Stella because this is long. These are Vista instructions, let me know if you need XP ones as they are slightly different.

First you set up a new Keyboard:

For Vista-
1) Click on the Start Button
2) Click on Control Panel
3) In Classic view, click on Regional and Language setttings
In the friendlier view, click on Clock, Language and Region, then Change keyboards or other input languages.
4) Click on the Keyboards and Languages tab.
5) Click on the Change Keyboard button.
6) In the bottom half of the displayed panel, there's a section called Installed Services. Click on the Add button on the right side of that.
7) Look down the list for the language you want. Be aware that many of these have subsets - you might have to look up exactly which one. This is the MAP your keyboard will have when you switch modes. If you choose one that natively has different keys, you might need to print a map to refer to when you switch.
8) Click on the language you want to select it and then click OK.
9) The order on the list shown is the order the languages will toggle through with the hot key combo. You can move languages up and down the list by selecting them, then clicking Move Up or Move Down.

Now you need to set up the way you switch.
1) Click on the Advanced Key Settings tab.
2) You will see a default in the Hot Keys for input languages. By default it's Left Alt+Shift, but you can change it be whatever is handy for you. I've always left it at the default because it's not something I use for another purpose.

Now you can set up the Language Bar:
1) Click on the Language Bar tab.
2) At the top, I recommend you have the Language Bar selected to be Docked in the taskbar. This will put a tiny keyboard looking icon in the taskbar that you can click on to change languages or see which one you are using. It's handy in a pinch.

Click Apply and you're good to go. The other thing to remember is that the language change is per window instance. So if you are in Word and change to Greek, if you click on IE, you're back in your default language and it doesn't persist if you restart the window or such.

Make sense? Drop me an email if it doesn't. I use this all the time because I type with a Dvorak keyboard layout, not QWERTY.; 7:24 AM
Maura Anderson said...: I forgot to add that once this is set up and you want to type in your other language, you press and hold the CTRL key and tap the Left Shift (not right) and you'll toggle into the next language on your list. Same sequence to toggle out (with only 2) or to the next language on the list (if more than 2).; 7:26 AM
AgTigress said...: Maura - thank you. I should have mentioned that I use XP...
I may be able to work it out in XP from that, though. I'll play around a bit and see if I can.; 8:58 AM
Stella said...: Deb: Thank you for the bolding tip. good one. Stella; 2:45 PM
Stella said...: Marissa: Well I didn't know about the appointment feature.

I am a crazy backer-upper--there can't be enough copies for me.

Stella; 2:47 PM
Stella said...: Agtigress and Maura: My eyes look like those of a cartoon character who just got belted in the head. Circles spinning around in them. You two are obvious speaking a different "language!" Stella; 2:48 PM
Stella said...: Erin: That is all such good stuff. Thank you. Stella; 2:50 PM
Stella said...: Lynne: Thanks for the stuff on Parallels. Can you tell me if it's easy to transfer stuff done on Windows to a Mac? And how difficult would it be for a dufus (a nameless dufus) to switch to using a Mac?

Stella; 2:52 PM
Stella said...: Maura: You have a zillion good ideas. Stella; 2:54 PM
Stella said...: Thank you, Anonymous! Stella; 2:56 PM
Stella said...: Ms EG--Didn't you see my comments about what a technological dud I am? Oh, but you just had to rub it in, didn't you? Grrrrrrrrr!

Stella; 2:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey Stella, if you want I can email you at your site so you will have my email address. The answer is a qualified "yes". It depends on a few things, mostly to do with what you can live with or without as to how difficult it would be.

Lynne Thomas; 4:31 PM
Ranurgis said...: I haven't read all the tips yet but I certainly will use some of them. It's amazing to see that I used some but have completely forgotten them, e.g. the "ctrl" ones.

I'm still paying for not remembering where and when I backed up a certain file. In my main backup, I reversed the process putting the old file on the one I wanted to back up and forgot that I had a security backup. It's now 2 years later and I still haven't got the mess cleared up.

My tip: Don't buy a computer if it doesn't come with directions on what all the keys do. More than a year after I bought it, I still don't know what some of the keys on my laptop are for--and I'm too scared to experiment.LOL; 9:12 PM
elizabeth said...: Lynne and Jayne have the right idea.

Unfortunately, I'm happily married to another author...

*sneaking in before sneaking out for several weeks*; 11:06 AM

Previous Posts

Saturday, October 04, 2008

WE ARE ALL IN THIS ONE BUT NOT ALL TOGETHER!

41 Comments: