Computer (Il)Literate? - [website] Published: 18th of Mar 2011 by: (c) Staff Training Reporter
For those of us who spend most of our working hours on our computers, not knowing the quickest way to do things can see us wasting hours on the same tasks over a period of time.
For example, if you send multiple emails to the same few people everyday the smartest, most time-efficient thing to do would be to create a desktop shortcut for each individual. This makes quick communications so much easier and also eliminates the chances of accidentally sending emails to recipients with similarly spelled names.
An even smarter thing to do would be to download a programme like Skype, which would enable you to send instant, albeit short, messages to those with whom you most frequently communicate. Obviously this is not ideal in every situation but in instances where you require support or need to liase with someone in the same company, Instant Messengers can be a valuable time saving tool.
But the things we can do to make our days more productive while sitting in front of our computers range from the seemingly simple, like instituting an instant messenger for inter-company relations, to the far more complex.
The trouble is that we fail to improve on what we know, especially as we get older and our habits become more ingrained.
We know what we know and we know it well, but that isn’t helping us do any better than last week or the week before, and it certainly isn’t making us do things any quicker.
So if you’ve ever wished you knew your way around a computer a little bit better, take note of the following hints and tips that’ll help get what you want just that little bit faster.
Keyboard shortcuts*. This is one of the most fundamental ways in which we can save time while taking care of our everyday tasks. From quickly saving documents (ctrl + s) to switching through windows (alt + tab) and renaming files (F2), keyboard shortcuts, if you know them, can greatly reduce the amount of time you spend looking for the right option.
And the same goes for browsing the Internet. Browser shortcuts** can make things like opening a new tab (ctrl + t), switching through open tabs (ctrl + tab), opening a link in a new tab (middle mouse button/wheel) and searching the page for specific text (F3) a breeze, yet we tend to take the long way around because … well because it’s all we know.
Learning your keyboard and browser shortcuts and getting into the habit of using them means that you’ll be able spend more time doing what’s important, and less time fidgeting with the mouse’s right clicker looking for how to copy a file (ctrl + c) or undo the last command (ctrl + z).
In addition to these useful shortcuts, programmes like Word (which I’m sure most of us use on a daily basis) usually have their own little tricks that once you’ve got the hang of make using the programme as easy as pie.
Word can be one of the most frustrating programmes to work with; you find formats change on their own, the documents you print look very different to how you’d designed them and your tables and borders are all over the place.
Apart from hellishly frustrating, having your documents presented in a scruffy way can be detrimental to your business, and not knowing how to use Word isn’t a very good excuse when it comes down to it.
To avoid this, go to print preview when creating your document. Normally you cannot edit while in this view, but by unclicking the magnifier icon in the top left corner you can disable this function. Now you’re free to edit away and you know that what you see is what you’ll get when it comes time to start printing.
Click here for a great website that’ll help you get the hang of all the things you know you should be able to do with Word but just can’t seem to figure out.
For more information on time efficiency and time management check out Staff Training.
*The list of keyboard shortcuts is for the Windows operating system.
** The list of browser shortcuts is for Mozilla Firefox.
