LANcom Technology Blog

Want to speed things up when you’re working in Excel? Microsoft has created 3 handy PDF reference sheets to help you learn all the shortcuts you can use in Excel 2010. There’s one for the Function keys, one for the Ctrl button shortcuts, and also a third Miscellaneous guide. To download any of these just click on the links.

If you’d just like to know a few of the main ones, here’s a quick guide:

1. CTRL+PgUp - Switches between worksheet tabs, from left-to-right.
2. CTRL+PgDn - Switches between worksheet tabs, from right-to-left.
3. CTRL+SHIFT+& - Applies the outline border to the selected cells.
4. CTRL+SHIFT+~ - Applies the General number format.
5. CTRL+SHIFT+$ - Applies the Currency format with two decimal places
6. CTRL+SHIFT+% - Applies the Percentage format with no decimal places.
7. CTRL+SHIFT+# - Applies the Date format with the day, month, and year.
8. CTRL+SHIFT+: - Enters the current time.
9. CTRL+; - Enters the current date.

Want to choose different colours that go well together for your document or presentation? Here’s an excellent video by Bruce Gabrielle, author of Speaking PowerPoint, which shows you how you can take one colour and quickly find other colours that will work with it.

Basically all you need to do is change the hue, while keeping the saturation and luminosity the same.

Here’s the video if you would like to take a look.

This video also does a great job of explaining hue, saturation, and luminosity if you are unsure of what each one means.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

Want to speed up opening a folder or application that you regularly use? Did you know in Windows you can create a keyboard shortcut that will instantly open your favourite folder or application, no matter what you are doing?

Here’s how:

1. First create a desktop shortcut by right clicking on your chosen folder or application, go to Send To, and select Desktop. (If you already have a desktop shortcut icon to this folder or application you can skip this step).
2. Now go to the shortcut icon for your folder or application on your desktop, right click on it, and select Properties.
3. Go to the box that says Shortcut key and enter your keyboard shortcut, e.g. Ctrl +Alt +1, and click OK.

From now on whenever you want to quickly open that folder/application all you need to do is enter your keyboard shortcut.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

If you’ve thought about upgrading your iPhone, you’ve probably also thought about selling or giving away your old one. If you’re concerned about privacy and want to make sure your personal information is protected, performing a complete wipe of you iPhone is an important step to take before you hand it over.

Clearing your information from an iPhone or iPad is actually really easy to do. You can use the Restore option through iTunes, or on your device you can go to Settings, General, Reset, Erase All Content and Settings (Note: if you are wiping an iPad make sure it is plugged into a power source first).

Want to know how you can wipe an Android phone instead? Check out this article on Lifehacker.

Do you find the fonts on some websites difficult to read or just plain annoying? FontFonter is a free online tool that allows you to quickly change the font of a website to one that you prefer.

To use FontFonter, just paste the link to the website you want to view into the box on the FontFonter homepage. FontFonter will then show you your website with an additional bar at the top of your screen that allows you to change the font.

Here’s an example of how the LANcom blog can look when using FontFonter to change the font.

FontFonter has around 30 fonts you can choose from, and works best when you are using the Firefox or Chrome browsers. If you would like to try out FontFonter, click here.

Note: If you would just like to increase your text size while browsing the internet, you can do this using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl +. To decrease the size again use Ctrl -.

Last week we covered how you can speed up opening links in new browser tabs, but what should you do if you accidentally close a tab that you weren’t quite finished with? You could go to your history and reopen the tab, or you could use this really easy shortcut.

All you need to do is hold down Ctrl+Shift+T and the tab that you have most recently closed will reopen.

This shortcut works in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and can be used multiple times to reopen multiple tabs that you have closed.

Looking for some tips on how you should format diagrams in you presentation? Below is a Slideshare presentation with some excellent guidelines for creating diagrams that are easy for the audience to read and understand. It was created by Enrique Garcia Cota, and covers things like lines, font size, shapes, and colour.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post.

While browsing the internet, do you like to open the links that interest you in separate tabs to read later? Most people know that they can right click on a link and select Open in New Tab, but did you know that there’s an even faster way to do this?

If you are using a recent version of Internet Explorer or Firefox you can simply click on a link with your middle mouse button or wheel. This will automatically open that link in a new tab.

Note: If you are using a laptop and you are looking for a faster way to do this than the right-click option, you can instead hold down the Ctrl key when clicking a link.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

Want to become an expert Googler? Google’s new Inside Search website has lots of easy to follow tips that range from the basics to advanced tricks.

For example, did you know there is an easy shortcut that allows you to search for a particular file type? To do this you just need to add to your search filetype: followed by the 3 letter file extension.

To visit the Inside Search site and check out these tips, click here.

Note: This website may not display correctly when using some versions of Internet Explorer. If you are having trouble reading these tips, try using a different browser like Mozilla Firefox.

Need to schedule a conference call or web conference that’s convenient for attendees in several different time zones? WorldTime Buddy is a free online tool that makes this really easy.

With WorldTime buddy you can enter the locations of all your attendees and then see a handy diagram showing you how these time zones match up. You can then select a time and receive a URL to a page showing the time for your meeting in each location, which you could then share with others.

To visit the WorldTime Buddy website and try it out for yourself, click here.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post