Basic Internet and Computer Hints

It recently occurred to me how many web and computer things that I automatically do now because I learned them "the hard way." I thought that I'd save you some problems by sharing a few of these hints with you.

Do you find some computer terminology confusing?
See our Glossary of  Internet Terms.

Use Ctrl+N to open a new browser window.
Often, when browsing the Internet, it can be helpful to have more than one window open with different sites or pages in each window. With either Internet Explorer or Netscape, simply press the Control key (Ctrl) plus the N key to create a new browser window. Move back and forth between your open windows by using the buttons on the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen.

Create a new browser window by pressing Ctrl N

Use the taskbar to navigate between open windows:

Place bookmarks on your desktop.
No doubt, you have a few favourite web sites which you visit quite often. Besides the usual method of 'bookmarking' these sites by placing links to them in your Favorites folder, you can also place links right on your computer desktop so that you're only one click away from your favourite sites. While at your favourite site, right click anywhere on the page (other than on a link). From the menu that pops up, select 'Create Shortcut'. A message will appear informing you that a shortcut to the current page has been placed on your desktop. Click 'OK'. Next time you want to visit that site, simply click the new icon that was created on your desktop.

Right-click on page and select 'Create Shortcut'

Click 'OK'

An icon like this will be on your desktop

Use your word processor for writing emails.
When writing long or especially important e-mail messages, compose your letter in your word processor. Programs like Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect have many more editing features such as spell checking, thesaurus, formatting, etc. than do e-mail message boxes. Then, when you are done, select (highlight), copy and then paste the long message into your e-mail message box for sending.

Your Word Processor has many more helpful features than your email program.

Use Bcc when sending emails to a group.
We've all had those emails which include a huge list of email addresses of all the other people who are receiving the same message. Next thing we know, we're receiving emails from those people, too, with even more names and email addresses included. You can avoid disclosing the names and addresses of your group mail recipients by using the Bcc (blind carbon copy) feature in your email program. In Outlook or Outlook Express, select View from the menu at the top of your New Message window. Then choose 'All Headers'. A new Bcc input field will appear. Addresses in the Bcc field will not appear on the messages when they are received.

Select 'View', then choose 'All Headers' to allow sending Blind Carbon Copies.

That's all for this week.   Next week, we'll be sending out another edition of our newsletter with more tips, tricks and advice for our clients and friends. Feel free to forward a link to this page, http://www.showyourlistings.com/news1.html, along your friends and colleagues who may not be on our mailing list.

Visit our Real Estate Division Home Page to see what web services Jelve Design has to offer Real Estate Professionals.