I had a subscription to PCWorld until I decided I just didn’t have the free time to sit and read it. The other day, they sent me a couple cards in the mail and one of them had these shortcuts. Some I knew and a couple I didn’t, so I thought I’d share them with you, along with a few of my own.
Shortcuts for most Windows programs CTRL+S – Save the current document CTRL+O – Open a new document CTRL+Z or ALT+BACKSPACE – Undo your last action CTRL+Y – Re-do the action you just undid CTRL+A – Select everything in the document, on the page, or in a text area on a web page. CTRL+X – Cut – Deletes the selected text or item, copying to the clipboard. CTRL+C – Copy to the clipboard CTRL+V – Paste from the clipboard CTRL+P – Open the Print dialog box (in DOS, this opened the print buffer directly, live-printing whatever hit the screen) CTRL+I – Toggle Italics or Italicize the selected text CTRL+B – Toggle Bold or Bold the selected text CTRL+U – Toggle Underline or Underline the selected text CTRL+F – Start the Search tool or dialog CTRL+Q or ALT+F4 – Quit the current program CTRL+W – Close the current window CTRL+HOME – Move to the start of the current document CTRL+END – Move to the end of the current document ALT+TAB – Switch to the next open program CTRL+TAB – Switch to the next open document in the current program SHIFT+ALT+TAB – Switch to the previous open program SHIFT+CTRL+TAB – Switch to the previous open document in the current program WIN+TAB – Switch to the next open program in 3D view (Vista only) WIN+SHIFT+TAB – Switch to the previous open program in 3D view (Vista only) WIN+F – Find files and folders WIN+D – Minimize all programs to show the desktop WIN+E – Open the File Explorer WIN+L – Quickly lock the PC F1 – Help F3 – Find the next search result in the document SHIFT+F3 – Find the previous search result in the document F5 – Refresh (works in more than just the browser)
It’s worth noting that quite often the reverse effect of a shortcut key combination can be obtained by adding SHIFT into the mix as seen above with document and program toggling.
If you want easy reference to this list, just print out this mini guide and keep it next to your computer.
If you are familiar with PicLens, then you’re probably familiar with CoolIris. If you’ve never heard of either one, you’re in for a real treat. When one of my employees showed me PicLens some time ago, it was one of the coolest improvements to my browsing experience that I’d see in a while. With the name change to CoolIris, comes more features, cool shopping search, and a much appreciated iPhone version.
Let’s drool over CoolIris for a minute
Before pagination (click for the next page of whatever) was invented, you’d have to sit there on your 2400 baud modem, waiting three hours for a page full of images to load up. Then, as faster modems were challenged by larger images, pagination was introduced, allowing us to load up ten or twenty images per page, but you couldn’t get a quick glimpse of everything anymore. Then came CoolIris (then PicLens).
If you have the plugin installed and the site you’re viewing supports the technology (most of the big ones do), you’ll see a new little watermark in the corner of each image you hold your mouse cursor over. Click that watermark to launch CoolIris and you get a full-screen image gallery like the one shown above. If you click anywhere and drag, you’ll be dragging the whole gallery to see more images.
Click on any image and you get a closer view like below, which you can double-click to view full screen:
Search, shop, and share easily One of the features I’ve always been fond of from day one is the search. As a web developer, I’m constantly looking for images for use or just for comparison. Traditionally, I would head to Google and search, but Google’s image search is very clumsy when it comes to getting at the actual image. With this, I just search, scroll, and double-click.
I don’t recall seeing shopping in the early versions. Frankly, I’m not sure how much I’ll really use it, but there are times when you want an item and the appearance is critical. Sometimes you know it’s a watch, but not the brand or model number and a gallery of men’s watches would be perfect for finding it. How about Laptops and accessories? I searched for “laptops” for my example below, and CoolIris dug through its shopping sources and handed me a ton of laptop and laptop-related images. If you mouse over any item in the search results, you get a peek at the price. If you choose a “Store” from the top left, you can then sort by price (high-to-low or low-to-high) or by whatever that other search option is. I’m stumped.
The latest version also provides a slick way to share images and other media with friends and colleagues. Create a CoolIris account (just so it has your name and email address) and log in when you start CoolIris. At any time while logged in, just click the little right-arrow-in-a-circle icon at the bottom and the sharing panel will appear. In that panel, you can type in the address you want to send to as well as a message. Below that is a space for you to drag images and videos. Drag them in and send. Mine showed up lightning fast.
Tips and shortcuts
- You can navigate the gallery and slideshow with your arrow keys
- Use the ENTER key to zoom in on an image
- Hit the space bar to start the slide show
- You can send multiple items at once. Just drag more items into the little sharing box.
- Just like your browser, CoolIris remembers where you were. Use the little left and right arrows at the top left to get back to previous searches.
Wish List
- The ability to ALT+TAB from CoolIris to another application and back. 90% of the time, I have to force FireFox to quit because it becomes unresponsive.
- I would love to search multiple sites at once. I know that can be tricky development, but I’d love it.
- You know everyone wants to save images directly from the CoolIris interface. My suggestion: Allow us to set up a default download directory and then add a watermark in the bottom right corner (maybe a little floppy disk icon?) that, when clicked, drops the full-size version of that image in my download folder.
Finally, CoolIris for my iPhone?
CoolIris finally came out with an iPhone application bearing their name and, well, coolness.
The basics work pretty much like it’s big brother. You can browse or search images, scroll with a thumb-flick, and email the ones you like to a friend or just visit the image’s page directly. The iPhone version has a few glaring empty spots where you might expect to search YouTube or shop like you can with its desktop counterpart, but it’s still the coolest way to find images on your iPhone. If you have any doubts, search for that perfect iPhone wallpaper with it.
This morning, I posted a review of the green laser that WarnLaser sent me. In that review, I promised to give it away.
Entering is easy. Just do ANY of the following to enter:
- Comment on the above photo at Flickr (1 entry)
- Favorite any of my photos on Flickr (1 entry each)
- Tweet one of my posts or this contest (2 entries each)
- Stumble this post (2 entries)
- Comment on this post or the laser review (1 entry each)
You can do as many or few as you want. I’ll choose the winner on October 28, 2008 at 7:00 PM, Arizona time. All entries until noon on that day will be counted.
Back in march I did a review of a green laser from TechLasers. Just like after my review of the NJOY e-cigarette, similar companies from all over emailed me in the months following, asking me to review their products. My policy is to not review a product without being able to actually try it. Most companies, e-cigarette and laser alike, wouldn’t put up the product for review. WarnLaser took up the challenge after I agreed to throw in some free advertising. I figure If I give the laser away, that should be a fair trade. So I agreed, and today, my package arrived.
The package had to go through U.S. Customs and Homeland Security who, it seems, rifled through it looking for bombs and other nasty things. So I wonder… Did they take the AAA batteries, or did WarnLaser just not send it with any? We may never know. The package did include one green laser and one instructional (and warning) paper.
I threw some brand new batteries in the laser and started playing. Unfortunately, this laser doesn’t turn on every time I tried, but it worked about 95% of the time.
First I started with some visual tests, some of which can be seen in the video below. I pointed it into the (aircraft-free) sky and as expected, it was bright as far as I could see. I pointed it at my outdoor lights and it looked pretty cool. Then I tried it in running water, which looked even cooler.
What I really wanted to know, though is if this laser had the same power as the one’s they show in their videos. I put this thing through a couple tests. I still don’t have any black balloons, but this time, I did happen to have some black construction paper. I tried burning it, but there was no love. I tried burning a leaf, which did make a tiny mark on it and lighting a candle, which did not light. Finally, I pointed it at a stick of incense and got a little bit of smoke, but nothing solid. I shot some video, but it was incredibly boring, so I’m sparing you. To be fair, this is not the same 300mW laser they show in the videos. Until some company sends me a 300+mW laser, you probably won’t see me popping balloons or lighting things on fire with it. However, these things are a lot of fun for the price.
Now about the fate of this laser. As I mentioned above, I’ve decided to give the laser away. So watch later today for details on how you can win my laser.
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