Usefull computer/internet tricks

[nilly71]

After replying to a recent post on here for tomatoes and using a little trick to narrow the search, I thought I would start a thread on usefull computer/internet tricks.

I use "" all the time, for example if you wanted to look for this site and searched for allotments 4 all   Google comes up with 1,620,000 results, if you use "allotment 4 all" then there are only 6,770 results.

Another thing to use is the word forums after your "",  that way you won't get all the sites trying to sell the product. "allotments 4 all" forums 5,490 results

If you like using eBay and get fed-up with the search results showing stuff that has nothing to do with what you are interested in, use -() , not all items are under their correct headings so it can be usefull to use.

for example, if you want to search for a tiller inc item heading a description, 1800 items were shown.
By Using:
tiller -(marine) =1,529 items
tiller -(marine,scooter) =1,246 items
tiller -(marine,scooter,boats) =1,171 items
Make sure a space is left before -()
You can keep going and narrow your search down, this is very handy for seeds so you can leave out all the ones you don't want.


What other tricks do you use that might be usefull to others?

Neil

[Squash64]

This is a question rather than a tip -

How do I delete lots (but not all) of emails in Outlook Express without having to click individually on them?  I'm sure I have done it in the past but I have forgotten which keys to hold down.

[nilly71]

I'm not sure if this will work, I know it does in Excel.

If you just want to delete a few emails:
Hold down the Ctrl and select the ones you want to delete, if you click on the wrong one the just click it again to de-select.

If you only want to keep a few emails:
Press Ctrl and A together, this should select all of them, then do the above to de-select the ones you want to keep.

If Ctrl does not work try the Shift key, it's been a long while since i have used it.

Neil

[asbean]

Hold the shift key down to select a block of messages - click on the first one then the last one and all the messages inbetween will get selected; holding down ctrl you need to click on each one individually (click again to de-select).  Very useful tool.

Also ctrl+A does "select all" - useful in any program.  I did that to my inbox once, thinking it was deleted items. Doh! 

[Le-y]

i found out yesterday that if your workplace has banned certain pages like facebook etc then you can get aroud it by going through a proxy server (which i had no idea what that meant) like www.hidemyass.com

I've had to use it to access my proboard forum because there is a problem with sky broadband.

[BarriedaleNick]

i found out yesterday that if your workplace has banned certain pages like facebook etc then you can get aroud it by going through a proxy server (which i had no idea what that meant) like www.hidemyass.com

I've had to use it to access my proboard forum because there is a problem with sky broadband.

Any decent filtering system should also block anon proxy sites as well.  Mine does!
Be carefull when using sites like that at work as you will probably find in many cases it is cause for dismisal.

[cocopops]

Another way for sorting out emails for easy selection is to put them into alphabetical order as it is likely that many you want to delete are forwarded by the same person (jokes etc.).

To do this click on the top email then the "from" bar above, this will put then in to alphabetical order from that point.  They can then be block selected as above.  To resume to normal just click on the "received" bar, if it is posting the newest mails at the bottom click it again.

This is also useful when looking for mails off specific people or around a certain time (just do the same on the "received" bar).

[nilly71]

Great tricks

Another thing i use a lot is Ctrl + F it's used for finding text in nearly all programmes including the internet.

You know what it's like when you do a search for something on the internet and you click on a website only to find thousands of words, then you have to read through it all.
Click on Ctrl+F and either a box will apear in the centre of your screen or the top near your address bar, type in the word you was originaly looking for and it will be highlighted, press Enter/Return to find the same word again in another part of the document.

Neil

[Squash64]

Hold the shift key down to select a block of messages - click on the first one then the last one and all the messages inbetween will get selected;

Thanks asbean, that's the one!