Oklahoma Bar Association


Search

Computer Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
By Jim Calloway, Director
OBA Management Assistance Program

This month we are going to focus on some "basic" computer tips and shortcuts. We know that many of our readers will already know some of these tips. Learning how to save a few keystrokes (or mouse clicks) in a process that is done several times a day is something that can make all of us more efficient computer users. Hopefully these tips will be of benefit in your office.

Some of these tips were presented at the "Technology Potpourri" programs for the county bars during the previous year or at our OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference this summer. Other tips I have done at the ABA TECHSHOW™ program "60 Tips in 60 Minutes." Some of these may have even been published in the OBJ before and not all of these have been "road tested" with Windows XP.

We want to make sure these tips are widely distributed within the legal profession. You are encouraged to make photocopies of this article and give to others in your office or to take home to the computer users in your family.

When keystrokes are mentioned with a plus sign (e.g. Alt + Tab) it means that both keys should be pressed simultaneously.

When actions are separated by a dash (e.g. Click File - Print) it means that they should be done in sequence.
We will divide our tips into some groups for organizational purposes, but first we want to start with the two most important tips.

1) Secrets of The Right Mouse Button - A click of the right mouse button always offers a menu of some of the most likely things you might want to do right then. Try it in various places in your word processor, your web browser and some other applications. You may find that some things you have been doing with pull-down menus or three or four mouse clicks can be done with one right click and one left one.

2) The Toggle Shortcut - There's one keystroke combination that most of us use many times a day. That shortcut is alt + tab. Most of us tend to keep many applications open during the day - word processor, e-mail, web browser, and case management software, to name a few. Hitting the alt + tab combination takes you back to the previous application that you were using. Hold down the alt + tab and you get a display of all open applications. Then holding down the alt key while hitting the tab key repeatedly moves you between all of the open applications.

Quick Printing - Here's a good right mouse button tip. If you need to print a document quickly, instead of opening it in the word processor, waiting for it to load, then selecting print, just locate the file in the list of file names (or the icons) in Windows Explorer or My Computer. Then do a quick right click - print.

In a document that is already open, the shortcut control + P can be used to print the document. But you probably knew that, too.

Selecting text - Sometimes we need to select a word, sentence or paragraph for copying, deleting or spell-checking. The "traditional" way to do this is to click at the beginning of the text, hold down the mouse button, move the cursor to the end of the text and release. The problem is that you sometimes accidentally select more or less text than you intended by using this method and have to try again.

To select a word, double-click it.
To select a sentence, triple-click it.
To select a single line, click once directly to the left of the line, in the left margin.
To select an entire paragraph, quadruple-click it (which is faster than it sounds) or double-click directly to the left of the paragraph in the margin.
To select all of the text in a document (e.g., to paste the entire document into another document or an e-mail) use the Control + A key combination.

Let me just type, please - For those who want to jump around in a document or select text without touching the mouse, here are a few keyboard shortcuts.

Control + left or right arrow to jump one whole word.
Control + up/down arrows to jump a paragraph at a time.
Control + Shift + right or left arrow to both select and jump one whole word at a time.
Control + Shift + up/down arrows to both select and jump a paragraph at a time.

Dragging and dropping text within a document - If you want to move a paragraph (or any block of text) to another location within a document, you can first select it and then cut it out (either Control + X or right click - Cut.) Then you move the cursor to the new location and paste it there (either Control + V or right click - Paste.) But with practice there's an even faster way. After selecting the text, just "drag and drop it" to the new location. Click on the selected text block and hold down the mouse button while moving to the new location. When your cursor is in the right place, release the mouse button and the text is moved there.

Undo - If the first time you try dragging and dropping text it doesn't work perfectly, don't forget the little blue undo arrow icon in your toolbar to reverse a mistake. I cannot tell you how many times that one has saved me.

Avoiding the "ransom note" effect when copying and pasting - Sometimes when you assemble a document by pasting in various parts of other documents you may end up with a document with many different fonts and font sizes, resembling a ransom note assembled from cut-up newspapers. When you try to copy text from the web to a document, like a few paragraphs from a court opinion on Oklahoma Supreme Court Network being inserted into a brief, you may end up with lots of blue text and underlining that you did not want.

You can use the paste special feature to avoid this. Copy the text to the clipboard and indicate with the cursor where you want it to go in the document. Then click on Edit, located on the top menu bar between File and View in both Word and WordPerfect. Select Paste Special, then unformatted text. The text is pasted in the document without colors, underlining or a different font.

Paste special with a mouse click - You can also use the right mouse button to do the same thing noted above. Follow the steps above and then right click and select Paste without Font/Attribute.

Use Document scraps for "quick and dirty" document assembly - When editing a document, have you ever come across a sentence, quote or paragraph that you wanted to save for future use? You could save the sentence as a different form document. Instead, save the desired text as a "document scrap" using a feature available on both WordPerfect and Word.

Document scraps are easy to create and save: Highlight the text you want to save, then drag it to your Windows Desktop using the right-hand mouse key. (You have to click on the button between the minus sign and the X in the upper right hand corner of the screen to reveal a part of the Desktop.) The document scrap now appears as an icon on your desktop screen. Whenever you want to use this scrap, drag and drop the icon into any other document and the text will be inserted. After you create them on the Desktop using this method you can move them to a new "scraps" file folder on your Desktop for storage.

Combining techniques to produce a mini-law library - Many of our readers already subscribe to commercial legal research services. For those who don't, here is a great example of how combining several of these shortcut techniques can work together.

You can save a case from OSCN as a document on your computer in seconds. This could be used to store a case on your laptop for use during trial (or when you do not have Internet access) or to print out a very readable copy for client.

Save the document (Control + S) naming it with the case name and/or public domain citation.

Organize Start Menus For Programs and Favorites Alphabetically - When you click on Start, you have the option to open one of several start menus. If you are like most people, the Start menus Programs and Favorites are probably a bit disorganized. The original applications that were installed are listed beginning at the top in alphabetical order, then subsequent additions follow more or less in the order you installed them in Programs or added them as a Favorite. If you find yourself spending time trying to locate just what you want here, perhaps alphabetizing the entire list would speed things up for you. It is as simple as opening the menu, right clicking and selecting "Sort by Name."

Make your Windows Desktop truly your Desktop - Is your Desktop crowded with icons for applications you do not use? We understand that you are concerned about deleting something that you might use later. So toss them in the closet. Right click on a blank space on your Desktop and create a new folder called Closet. Drag all those unused icons over to the closet and drop them there, out of sight. Then put things you really need and use on your Desktop, like shortcuts to your new client information sheet or attorney fee contracts. You can send any icon to the Desktop as a shortcut by right clicking on it and then selecting Send to - Desktop (as Shortcut.)

Grabbing a group of files - As you probably know, you can use the [Shift] key to simultaneously select several adjacent files in either My Computer view or Windows Explorer. To do so, you simply click on the first file in the group, then hold down the [Shift] key as you click on the last file name. Windows Explorer will select those two files and all the ones in between. But, did you know that you can do the same thing faster without touching your keyboard? Just select a group of adjacent files by clicking and dragging a box around them with your mouse. When you release your mouse button, all files within the box are selected. To make this work, place the mouse pointer where one corner of the box is to be located. Now press and hold the left mouse button down as you drag the pointer to where the opposite corner of the box would be located. You will see the dotted line showing the box appear as you drag the mouse. When you release the button, all of the files within the box will be selected.

Using Two Applications at Once - Sometimes you need two windows open on your screen at exactly the same time, such as keeping an application open while simultaneously having the Help screen for the application open. It's easy to do this. Just minimize all of the other open windows besides the two, right click on a blank area of the Windows taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen) and choose either Tile Windows Vertically or Tile Windows Horizontally. If this is still a bit confusing, then with the Help Screens, I suggest just printing them out by using Options - Print Topic.

Quicker URL's - In Internet Explorer, rather than typing an entire web address (or URL) simply type in the name of the site, press CTRL + ENTER, and the software will automatically fill in the www and .com parts of the address for you.

Multiple Browser Windows When You Need Them - You have probably experienced multiple web browsers opening involuntarily for advertising. But sometimes you may want to have more than one browser window open. In Internet Explorer, you may want to keep a web page open for later reference while you move to a new web page. There are two tricks to use here. 1) You can use Control + N to open a new browser page so that two will be open. Then you use one to move on to the next web page with the other continues to display the original page for later reference. 2) You can right click on a link and select "Open in New Window" to make a new page open for the new site while leaving your present browser window open and untouched.

Browser Options - Although Internet Explorer dominates market share, there are still many dedicated Netscape users. But what version of Netscape are you using? It might be time to go to www.netscape.com and download version 7.0 of the web browser or order it on CD-ROM. If you have a slower dial up Internet connection, it's probably better to order the almost free CD-ROM version. You pay only a reasonable $2.99 shipping and handling charge. But there's also another browser available that gets very good reviews. You can download and try Opera 6.05. Opera is a free download, but the free version includes advertising. So you might want to pay for the registered ad-free version if you try Opera and like it. The Opera site is www.opera.com. Interestingly, the purchase price is currently $29.95 from the Opera website while it is $39.95 elsewhere online.

Web Mail - Many Internet service providers now have a web mail function for e-mail service. This allows you to read and send e-mail from any Internet-connected computer by going to a web page and typing in a password. This can be very handy if you are away from the office with no laptop and need to access your e-mail or receive a file. You can go to a hotel computer center, a cyber cafe or borrow a computer in another lawyer's office. OBA-NET now provides a free web mail service. You can have an e-mail address of your.name@lawoklahoma.com. Available fee-based premium services allow even more powerful e-mail tools. If you don't want the web mail you can use this address as a forwarder to receive e-mail sent to that address in your regular inbox.

New Useful Files for Download - The law seems to be always changing. For example, effective November 1st, divorce became dissolution of marriage. Divorce decrees involving visitation or custody now require special relocation language and a new automatic temporary injunction is required when divorce cases are filed. Drafting all this new language can be a time consuming task. Well, the OBA Family Law Section drafted suggested language and forms for all of these law changes. The section distributed the forms to its member electronically. But they also allowed us to post the new forms on OBA-NET for any lawyer to download. So if you have not joined OBA-NET yet, there is another new reason to go to www.oba-net.org and sign up. You must have your e-mail address on file with the bar. So if we do not have your current e-mail address, fax us a signed letter on your letterhead giving us your e-mail. Make this letter ATTENTION MEMBERSHIP and then allow 24 hours before trying to join OBA-NET. There are many other forms available for download on OBA-NET and for $100 per year you can have access to many OBA CLE manuals as well.

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal November 9, 2002 - Vol. 73; No.33