I once knew a guy at a previous job who came in to work at 6am every morning. The rest of the office strolled in, coffee in hand, around 9am. One morning, this guy, who was in his fifties, asked me for some computer help. He was having trouble attaching a file to an email.
As I stared at his monitor trying to keep my lower jaw in contact with my upper jaw, it struck me: the two dozen post-it notes framing his monitor were his Address Book. He came in at 6am every morning to give himself enough time to key in all 200+ email addresses that were scrawled on the post-it notes.
At first, I was sick to my stomach. Then I was furious. In today's computer-driven office, how are there still people who don't know how to attach files to emails or copy-paste an address list, or create a distribution list of contacts? As politely as I could, and in as soft a voice as I could muster, I showed him the light.
Please, don't be a Stone Age office worker in Internet Age America. Take a computer class or hire a teenager to be your tutor. There are few better examples of the potential productivity gains from just a little learning than in using a computer.
In that spirit, here are a few tips from the NYTimes's tech columnist recent blog post. Read his post to make sure you're not a techno-dinosaur.
As I stared at his monitor trying to keep my lower jaw in contact with my upper jaw, it struck me: the two dozen post-it notes framing his monitor were his Address Book. He came in at 6am every morning to give himself enough time to key in all 200+ email addresses that were scrawled on the post-it notes.
At first, I was sick to my stomach. Then I was furious. In today's computer-driven office, how are there still people who don't know how to attach files to emails or copy-paste an address list, or create a distribution list of contacts? As politely as I could, and in as soft a voice as I could muster, I showed him the light.
Please, don't be a Stone Age office worker in Internet Age America. Take a computer class or hire a teenager to be your tutor. There are few better examples of the potential productivity gains from just a little learning than in using a computer.
In that spirit, here are a few tips from the NYTimes's tech columnist recent blog post. Read his post to make sure you're not a techno-dinosaur.
- You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.
- When you get an e-mail message from eBay or your bank, claiming that you have an account problem or a question from a buyer, it's probably a "phishing scam" intended to trick you into typing your password. Don't click the link in the message. If in doubt, go into your browser and type "www.ebay.com" (or whatever) manually.
- You can hide all windows, revealing only what's on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: hit the Windows key and "D" simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). That's great when you want examine or delete something you've just downloaded to the desktop, for example. Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.
- You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it's the Command key and plus or minus.
- When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don't. At least not until you've first confirmed its truth at snopes.com, the Internet's authority on e-mailed myths. This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and–especially lately–nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.
- You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.
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