Tame your computer – jump to it

Back in 2009 I wrote a tip on how to close a window without clicking in the upper-right corner … simply press CTRL + W.

Ever since then,  it’s been one of my favourite shortcuts, but I’ve noticed I’m sometimes a bit trigger-happy and end up closing browser tabs I didn’t mean to close.

So today’s tip is another great shortcut to reopen the last closed tab – and jump to it.

Here’s how:

1.       Press CTRL + SHIFT + T

If you don’t like keyboard shortcuts or prefer to use your mouse, simply right-click one of the remaining tabs and select Reopen closed tab (Chrome) or Reopen closed window (Internet Explorer) or Undo Close Tab (Firefox).

Related tips:

Tip # 264: Find websites you visited in the past

Tip # 265: Switching between multiple browser tabs

Tip # 272: Close a window without clicking in the upper-right corner

Tip # 339: Different ways to close your browser tabs

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Tame your computer – deal with dates

When you enter a date such as 4/3 in Excel,  the default date format is 04-Mar. You can quickly reformat it using the drop-down button in the Number group on the Home tab and select Short Date or Long Date, but what if you also want to display the day? For example, Tuesday 14 March 2017? Some people use the Text Function to in a separate column (=TEXT(A1,”ddd”) but there is a way to format dates to include the day of the week.

Here’s how:

1. Right-click the cell containing the date(s) or the whole column.
2. Select Format Cells from the menu.
3. If necessary (probably not) display the Number tab.
4. Select the Custom option in the Category box.
5. In the Type box, double-click on the word General and type the custom format of your choice. (Mine is ddd dd mmmm yyyy.)
6. Press ENTER or click OK

Herewith some other options you might like to try out in step 5  … to get Tuesday 12 December 2017 when you type 12/12, set the Custom format as dddd dd mmmm yyyy. Or if you prefer to see it as Tue 12/12/17 try out ddd dd/mm/yy. The underlying date you typed won’t change and can be checked by looking in the Formula Bar.

Related tips:
Display your numbers with leading zeros : http://roem.co.uk/tip_193.html
Convince Excel you want to type July 2010 : http://roem.co.uk/tip_313.php
Save time entering dates : http://roem.co.uk/tip_442.php

Tame your computer – pick out your pointer

If you want to add some text in, say, a Word document or an Outlook email message, you must move the insertion point to the location where the change is to be made. The pointer usually appears as a vertical bar, but what if you struggle to spot it? If so, you’re not alone… Many users don’t like the standard mouse pointer. So why not change it?

Here’s how:

1. Press the Windows (WIN) key and type pointer. (No need to first click in the Search box; your cursor is already there – even though you might not spot it.)
2. Click on Change how the mouse pointer looks.
3. Use your down and up arrows to flick through the various schemes and select the one of your choice. (Mine is Windows Black (extra large).)
4. Press ENTER.

Your cursor will now be easier to find when “at rest”. You can also change how the mouse pointer looks when it’s moving, but let’s leave that for another tip.

Related tips:
Tip # 287: Hide the arrow pointer during a slide show

Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.