Computer Tips 101

kach22i · Oct 23, 2009

Computer Tips 101

I was sitting in a free class at the local community college last week when one of the students shouted from the back row to the instructor that she could increase the size of the text display (which no one could read) on the computer projection on the board if she pressed the Ctrl button key and scroll wheel on her mouse at the same time.

I have a mouse with a little button on the left (thumb) which allows me to create a locked size zoom window (does not increase resolution) so I though that I would never use this computer tip. However on small text the Ctrl/scroll does seem to increase the readability of the text over the button alone.

Try it on this website:
http://www.stereotimes.com/acc083109.shtml

I'm still not sure how to return to my normal screen size. I've been closing the window or site and restarting Firefox for now.

Your old eyes will thank me for this tip.

What is your computer tip?

Gordon Gray · Oct 23, 2009

Wow George!

What a cool tip.

It definitely works.

I can return to the "original default" size by scrolling back.

Thank you.

GG

Burke · Oct 23, 2009

I never knew about the ctrl-scroll wheel, But Ctrl + and Ctrl - also increase / decrease font size.

Ctrl 0 will reset to normal.

kach22i · Oct 23, 2009

Burke said:
Ctrl 0 will reset to normal.

Thank you, you get the silver keyboard award, as the only guy in four forums who could tell me this.

You the man.:bowdown:

ralflar · Oct 24, 2009

Here are a few more keyboard shortcuts for ya.

F11: fullscreen browser - great with Ctrl-Wheel - hit it again to go back to window mode (Esc works as well)

Ctrl-T: new tab in browser
Ctrl-W: close tab in browser
Ctrl-Tab: next tab in browser
Ctrl-Shift-Tab: prev. tab in browser

Esc: close most dialog windows, works like Cancel button

Win-D: show desktop, hit it again to restore windows
Win-E: open new Explorer window
Win-L: lock screen
Win-R: open Run dialog. Then type something like d: or m:\flac to open an Explorer window which shows the content of that folder.

Shift-Del: (in Explorer and many other progs) permanently delete selected file/email/picture i.e. don't move into trash can just wipe it

Ctrl-Shift-Esc: bring up task manager

Been Ctrl-Wheeling since Opera 4! Back then the other browsers did not have this feature. Now they all do and some other progs do, too, e.g. Thunderbird or Notepad++.