Monday 19 October 2015

Windows top 10 Tip


For those of you who have downloaded windows 10 and are having trouble finding the Control Panel

 

We have the answer

 

create a folder on your desktop and name it as shown below then press enter (copy and paste)

 

Admin.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

 

Make sure you type in the period and the braces this important to work

 


 

When you click on the icon a dialogue box will open similar to shown below (enjoy)

 

Handy Windows 10 tricks

Here's a selection of handy tricks and shortcuts for Windows 10. Try them on Windows 7 or 8, most of them work in the earlier versions.

Some of these shortcuts need you to press the Windows key and I am becoming rather concerned at the recent trend to describe the "Windows key" as the "Win key". To say these words without embarrassment, there must be a slight pause between "Win" and "key". Otherwise it comes out as "Winkey". This is not a word that you want to say in public.

Minimise all windows except the active one

Grab the title bar of the window that you want to remain open and move it back and forth quickly (shake it!!). After a couple of quick shakes, all other windows will minimise, leaving only the window you're shaking open.

Shortcut to open the properties menu

In the File Explorer, hold the ALT key and double-click a file, folder or application shortcut to open that object's Properties menu.

ALT key and double-click to open Properties

New Windows key keyboard shortcuts

Windows key + I opens the new Settings menu
Windows key + A launches the new Action centre
Windows key + X opens the Start menu

Pin the Recycle Bin to the Start menu

Do you want your Recycle Bin to be conveniently located in your Start menu? Right-click the desktop icon and click Pin to Start. It will appear on the right side of your Start menu.

Pin Recycle Bin to Start

Background scrolling

You can scroll any window. Even one that's not active (in front of the other windows). It's on by default, but if it's not working, go to Settings, Devices, Mouse & touchpad and toggle Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them to On. Then, simply place your mouse over an inactive window and use your scroll wheel to scroll.

Speed through the Start menu

In the All apps section of the Start menu, click the numbers or letters above each alphabetical section to open a "speed dial" jump list. Click a letter (or number) to jump to that section of the Start menu.

Jump list for the Start menu

Control your Taskbar with keyboard shortcuts

Windows key shortcuts
If you've pinned applications on the Taskbar, you can quickly open them with the keyboard shortcut Windows key + [Number key] (where the number key corresponds to the position on the Taskbar). To cycle through the apps on your Taskbar (both pinned and open windows), Windows key + T does the trick (tap "T" repeatedly to move through the apps). Otherwise known as "Winkey-Tee" 

Excel-Fill values down a column based on criteria

Here's an Excel conundrum. How can we fill column F with the text "Current" if the Deal entry in column E exactly matches the first instance of "Current" in column F?” In the illustration below, we need to only fill the cells indicated with the red borders.

Only fill the cells bordered in red

Fill Down based on Criteria

Unfortunately there is no conditional option on the Fill tool but it should be possible using a combination of Go To Special to find the blank cells in column F and an IF formula to make the entry.
  1. Select the cells in column F from the first row of your data to the bottom of your data, you just want the rows containing data.

  2. Click the Find & Select control in the Editing group on the extreme right of the Home tab and choose Go To Special from the drop down menu.

  3. Click Blanks and then OK. This will select all the blank cells in your data range in column F.

  4. Find the blank cells



  5. In the formula bar enter the following formula (assuming the first cell selected by Go To Special is cell F2, if not adjust the cell references as required): =IF(E3=E2,F2,"") Translating the formula into plain English, "IF the text in E3 is the same as the text in E3, then enter the current text from F2, otherwise enter blank text into the cell."



  6. Press CTRL+ENTER to enter the formula into the selected empty cells.

  7. Entering formulas into the blank cells



  8. Copy column F and Paste as Values to get rid of the formulas and replace with text if necessary.

Mac OS X Recovery Startup keys

About OS X Recovery

OS X Recovery includes a built in set of utilities as part of the Recovery System. You can use OS X Recovery to do the following:
  • Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.
  • Verify and repair connected drives using Disk Utility.
  • Check your Internet connection or get help online using Safari.
  • Install or reinstall OS X.
To start your computer from Recovery, restart your Mac and hold down the Command and R (+R) keys at startup.

Hold these keys until the Apple logo appears. After your computer finishes starting up, you should see a desktop with an OS X menu bar and an OS X Utilities window with the options listed above. If you see a login window or your own desktop instead of the Utilities window, it's possible that you didn't press Command-R early enough. Restart your computer and try again.

In order to reinstall OS X, you need to be connected to the Internet using Ethernet or Wi-Fi. If you're using a wireless Internet connection, click the Wi-Fi menu in the upper-right corner of the screen to select a nearby Wi-Fi network. Choose your preferred network name and enter a username and password to join the network if needed.

OS X Internet Recovery

Newer Macs include the ability to start up directly from an Internet-based version OS X Recovery. Your Mac automatically uses this feature when the Recovery System on the startup drive isn't available. For example, if your startup drive encounters an issue, or if your startup drive has been replaced or erased. Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's servers. Starting up from this system performs a quick test of your memory and hard drive to check for hardware issues.

Internet Recovery initially asks you to select a Wi-Fi network and enter a network password when needed. Next, Internet Recovery downloads and starts from a Recovery System image. From there, you are offered the same utilities and options as the Recovery System on a startup drive.

Startup key combinations for Mac

Some Mac features are available by holding down certain keys during startup.

Press and hold the keys immediately after you turn on your Mac and hear the startup sound. Keep holding until the described behavior occurs. These combinations work with Intel-based Mac computers.

Hold during startupDescription
Shift ⇧Start up in Safe Mode
Option ⌥Start up to Startup Manager
CStart up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media)
DStart up to either Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics, depending on which Mac you're using.
Option-DStart up to either Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics over the Internet.
NStart up from a compatible NetBoot server.
Option-NStart up from a NetBoot server using the default boot image.
Command (⌘)-RStart up from OS X Recovery
Command-Option-R Start up from OS X Recovery over the Internet.
Command-Option-P-R Reset NVRAM. Release the keys after you hear the startup sound again.
Command-S Start up in single-user mode.
T Start up in target disk mode.
X Start up from an OS X startup volume when the Mac would otherwise start up from a non-OS X startup volume.
Command-V Start up in verbose mode.
Eject (⏏), F12, mouse button or trackpad button Eject removable media, such as an optical disc.

Visio Advanced Tips

Text Block Tool

Just as you can move and rotate a shape relative to the page or to a group, you can move a text block relative to a shape! The text block is the conceptual rectangle that holds a shape’s text. It can be moved and rotated independently of the shape. Sitting at the top of the Standard toolbar, just below the big black A is the the Text Block Tool. You have to click the little drop-down triangle to get at it, like this:

Viso Text Block Tool
If you have a copy of Visio with the ribbon, you will find the Text Block Tool in the Tools group on the Home tab. Note: some shapes have protection and guarding that prevents you from doing this, so practice on simple shapes that you yourself have drawn until you get familiar with the tool. Shapesheet junkies will want to know that changes you make with the Text Block tool are reflected in the Text Transform section of the Shapesheet.

F2 Enters Text-edit Mode

It’s easy to select most Visio shapes and simply start typing. But sometimes you want to edit text that is already there, and double-clicking doesn’t always get you into text-edit mode. For these cases, F2 is the shortcut that will get you into text-editing mode. Just select a shape and press F2, and your shape’s text will become highlighted–ready and waiting for you to edit it. Pressing ESC will get you out of text-edit mode.

Setting Double-click to Edit Text

When you draw a simple rectangle or circle, the default double-click behavior is to enter text-edit mode. But if you draw a group, then double-clicking will probably just select one of the group’s sub-shapes. If you have text-heavy drawings with lots of text-containing shapes, you might want to set all shapes so that double-clicking enters text edit mode.

This is really easy to set up if you have an older version of Visio. All you need to do is:
  1. Select some shapes 
  2. Right-click and choose Format, Behavior, Double-click tab 
  3. Check the option button: Edit shape’s text
If you have a copy of Visio with the ribbon then you will have to firstly turn on the Developer tab to locate the Behavior control. Click the File tab and click Options. Under the Customize Ribbon heading, click the Developer tab checkbox to enable your developer tab. Now all you have to do is:

  1. Select some shapes
  2. Click the Developer tab and the Shape Design group
  3. Click the Behavior control
  4. Click the Double-click tab
  5. Check the option button: Edit shape’s text

In the Shapesheet, an event cell will receive a new formula. It looks like this:

EventDblClick = OPENTEXTWIN()

So if you’re making automation tools that set this behavior automatically, just set the EventDblClick cell!

Process Lists With LOOKUP and INDEX

When you want to work with lists of values on a Visio ShapeSheet use the LOOKUP and INDEX functions to help you out. You often need to know where an item is in a list, or retrieve a specific item from a list. LOOKUP tells you where an item is in a list.

LOOKUP(“three”,”one;two;three;four”) returns 2, as the list positions are zero-based. If the first argument isn’t in the list, the function returns -1. Notice that you can use LOOKUP to do text comparisons too, if you are into code obfuscation.

INDEX returns you the nth item in a list. Again, where n is a zero-based value. So INDEX(1,”one;two;three;four”) returns “two”. By default, the semi-colon is the ShapeSheet’s list-separator of choice, but both functions have optional arguments that let you specify a custom list-separator.

We can demonstrate both functions in a text-translation example. We have two lists of numbers: one in English, one in German. Using LOOKUP and INDEX, we can return the German value from the corresponding English value.

User.numsEN = “zero;one;two;three;four;five;six;seven;eight;nine”
User.numsDE = “null;eins;zwei;drei;vier;fünf;sechs;sieben;acht;neun”
User.valEN = “five” …this could come from ShapeText, or a Shape Data field, for example.

And now we create the calculation formula:
User.valDE = INDEX(LOOKUP(User.valEn, User.numsEN), User.numsDE)

As long as the lists match up, this will work. We get a number that indicates where User.valEN is in the list of English numbers. This index value is then used to return the German equivalent. So: “five” gives us an index of  4, which then points to “fünf”

Resize Font With Shape

ShapeSheeters often ask how to get their text to resize with the shape. Normally, font-size is independent of shape size, but sometimes text should behave less like information and more like graphics. In short, “How do you get font size to change with shape size?”

The easiest way to do this is to create a relationship between the current height of the shape and the original height of the shape, and multiply that by the original font size. The formula can live in the Char.Size cell and might look something like this:

Char.Size = 12pt * Height / 0.75 in 

Here, 12pt is the original font size, and 0.75 in is the original height of the shape. The expression will increase or decrease with the current Height of the shape, and the font size will correspondingly grow or shrink. You might want your text to react with the Width of the shape, or some combination of Height and Width.