Archive | April, 2015

Tame your computer – simple spellcheck

25 Apr

Have you ever written an email message and spotted a spelling mistake as soon as you clicked on “Send”? Perhaps you didn’t allow yourself the time to reread the message. Or perhaps you have a touch of dyslexia.

Well, why not configure Outlook so that it automatically checks for spelling mistakes? And no, it won’t always prompt you… if there are no mistakes, it sends the message immediately.

Here’s how:

  1. Click on the File tab and select Options.
  2. Click on the Mail category. (The second one.)
  3. Select the Always check spelling before sending check box.
  4. Select the Ignore original message text in reply or forward check box. (You obviously do not want to correct somebody else’s spelling mistakes.)
  5. Click OK.

Next time you send a message, Outlook automatically checks for spelling mistakes and prompts you if there are any. If you want to stop the spelling check, simply press the Esc key on your keyboard (or click on the Cancel button if you prefer) and decide whether you want to tweak the message a bit more or send it with spelling mistakes. (And now I’m obviously really worried I might have spelling mistakes in this message!)

With thanks to Andrea for the tip inspiration!

Tags: , ,

Tame your computer – jump to it!

19 Apr

Anybody who ever attended one of my courses (or is an astute reader of my regular tips) knows I absolutely love keyboard shortcuts and I’m always on the lookout for new ones, especially if they are intuitive. Well, thanks to Ramón I can share a new way of jumping to a specific application on your taskbar and flicking through its open windows, if any. (Thanks, Ramón!)

Here’s how:  

1.       Press WIN + the number of the application you want to jump to.

2.       Press WIN + the number again to flick through its open windows.

For example, press WIN+3 if the application you want to jump to is the third icon from the Start button. Press WIN+3 again (and again, and again…) to flick through the open windows of the running application.

By the way, WIN+0 will open the 10th application on the taskbar. And no, there isn’t a way to open the 11th.

And before anybody asks…yes, I do know about WIN+TAB, see Tip number 419 here.

Tags: , ,