Tag: howto

The Path

Here is a handy shortcut that I just found out about:

Under Windows 7, if you need to copy the path to a file, you just hold the Shift key, then right mouse click on the file. The menu that opens now has a new menu item in the middle called “Copy as path”. You can then use Paste to put the full path where ever you like.

Gmail: Going Label Crazy

Marion: [laughs] What is this stuff, Rene?
Belloq: [laughing as well] I grew up on this. It’s my family label.  
This morning I noticed that you can apply custom colors to labels in Gmail. I have used labels in the past, but the labels didn’t really stand out which reduced their usefulness.  With custom labels you can easily differentiate all the emails in your Inbox (work emails in one color, mailing list emails in another color, etc.)
Here’s how to use the custom colors. First, create labels and filers.
  1. Create a label. See instructions from Google Help.
  2. Create a filter to apply the label. See instructions from Google Help.

Now we need to apply custom colors to the labels. Click the little arrow next to the label that you want to change:

 When you click the arrow, you get a popup window like this one:
The color choices were a little too dark for my taste.  When I tried them, it was hard to see the text next to them because of the contrast.  You can click on Add custom color and choose a background and text color.
Now all your labels look just the way that you want them.
Happy labeling 🙂

Selecting a Text Block

I just came across the shortcut of the year for MS Word over at TechRepublic.  Normally, when selecting text, you select it in a continuous line.  You can expand the selection forwards or backwards.
But, did you know that you can select a text block?  This is one of the powerful features of Vim for those of you who have used Unix computers.
Just hold the ALT key while you click.

For example, if I have the following text:

REM First  line
REM Second line

REM Third  line

You can hold the ALT key and then select the first three letters of each sentence:
REM First  line
REM Second line

REM Third  line

You can also cut and paste a block of text. In the above example, one could cut the selection and then paste it in the middle of the first line, resulting in:

 First REM line
 SecondREM line

 Third REM line

Note that selection of text blocks does not work inside of tables.

[Source TechRepublic]

Too Much Style

Police Officer: You in the red Corvette! Pull over immediately.
Xander Cage: Yeah, yeah. These monkeys are following me because I just took this car. Obviously the car doesn’t belong to me, it’s not my style…
If you are overwhelmed by the number of styles in Word 2007, you can configure Word to show only the styles that are currently being used in the document:
  1. Alt + Ctrl + Shift + s  (opens the style box)
  2. Click on Options on the bottom right
  3. Under Select styles to show choose In use

Now, in the panel on the right you only see what is currently being used in the document.  The ribbon at the top still gives you access to all the styles.  If you apply a style that is not currently being used, then it gets added to the panel on right.

You can also use Ctrl + Shift + s to pop up a window where you can type in a style name. This window has auto complete, so just start typing and the closest match to the style name will fill in.

Back From the Future

Lou: You gonna order something, kid?
Marty McFly: Ah, yeah… Give me – Give me a Tab.
Lou: Tab? I can’t give you a tab unless you order something.
Marty McFly: All right, give me a Pepsi Free.
Lou: You want a Pepsi, PAL, you’re gonna pay for it.  
Here is a simple tip that can save a lot of time. If you click on a link in a PDF file, how to you go back to where you started?
The answer: Alt + Left arrow
Example: If you are on page 2  and you click a link that takes you to page 155, Alt + left arrow takes you back to page 2.
If you want to go back to the future, uh, I mean back to the page that you went to before, then use Alt + Right arrow.

Preventing Emails with Blank Subject Lines in Outlook

Here is a nice fix to prevent Outlook from sending emails without anything in the subject:
Save yourself the annoyance by following the next steps.
  1. Open the Visual Basic Editor (in Outlook, press ALT+F11).
  2. On the left-hand side of the screen, expand the ‘Project1′ (go into ‘Microsoft Office Outlook Objects’ -> ‘ThisOutlookSession’).
  3. Double click on ‘ThisOutlookSession’
  4. Paste the following lines of code in the right-hand pane of the screen:
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
    If Item.Subject = “” Then
    Cancel = MsgBox(“This message does not have a subject.” & vbNewLine & “Do you wish to continue sending anyway?”, vbYesNo + vbExclamation, “No Subject”) = vbNo
    End If
End Sub

Save the project (‘File’ -> ‘Save’) and return to Outlook. From now on, the code will be called every time you press the send-button after you composed an email. Outlook will pop up a warning when you try sending an email with an empty subject line.