Increase / Decrease Font Size for Text in MS Word Document

To increase or decrease the font size for text in a Microsoft Word Document, select the text and press Control (Ctrl) plus the key   ‘ ] ‘ to increase, or Control (Ctrl) plus the key ‘ [ ‘ to decrease the font size.

When you select text with multiple font sizes, all sizes are altered by the same amount.

Change Text From Lower To Upper Case and More

(MS Word And Open Office Writer And Calc)

The shift key and the Caps Lock keys on the key board allow the changing of case of text as a document is being typed.

On an already typed piece of text there are other options.

MS Word – In an MS Word document a quick way to change text from lower case to capitals or first letter capital is to use the combination SHIFT and F3. With a word or words or a block of text on a page highlighted, each time you hit the SHIFT followed by the F3 key, the text formation will cycle through Lowercase, Capitals and then First Letter Capital. There is also a way to make changes under Format > Change Case which opens a Change Case Window with options there with radio buttons for – Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case, and tOGGLE cASE.

Open Office – Open Office has a capability through Format > Change Case. Here the options are – Sentence Case, lower case, UPPER CASE, Capitalize every word, tOGGLE cASE. If Open Office is ‘Enabled for Asian Languages’ there will be additional options available.

Icons for changes to Uppercase and Lowercase can be added to visible buttons on the Formatting tool bar to be used on highlighted text. This can be used both in Open Office Writer and Calc documents.

Help Files Full of Useful Information

The help files provided by Windows and the various software packages used contain a wealth of information.

The Start Menu of the various versions of Windows all contain a Help and Support or similarly named items about the programme itself.

Each programme installed on the computer will have the word ‘Help’ in the menu list generally at the right hand end of the list at the top of a page of an opened programme. Click on the word Help and a drop down list will have words there to click on to see contents of the Help file for the particular programme.

This page may allow choice of searching through tabs such as ‘Contents’ ‘Index’ ‘Find’ and in Open Office, provision for ‘Bookmarks’.(For information on using Bookmarks right click on the word Bookmark and press the F1 Key).

If the first attempt does not bring the exact subject help is needed on, try using a different word or two to cover what you are searching for.

If the help within the programme does not give the information required then the Internet will have more than enough help by doing a search by using one of the search engines available – Google – being a particular favourite or use others such as Yahoo, Amazon, Answers, Wikipedia etc.

Currently there are many sites which will offer YouTube videos to show step by step actions. When using the search engine of your choice look around and search for ‘Videos’ if you like to follow screen shots of ‘how to’. Remember that the first video you watch may not be the easiest to follow so look at further videos. Check also on how long ago the video was made as this may be relevant to the version of the programme being used.

Trouble finding your Mouse Cursor?

By enabling an option in your mouse settings, every time you press the Ctrl key
(left or right Ctrl) on your keyboard, your mouse cursor will be highlighted with circles
so you can easily find it.

This feature works whether you are on a Web page, desktop or a document etc.

To enable this feature (it is built into Windows) follow these simple  directions:
> Open “Start Menu”
> Control Panel
> Mouse
> opens Mouse Properties window
> Pointer Options tab – tick – Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key.
Click OK at bottom of window.

Now whenever you press the Ctrl key (left or right) the round circles should surround
your mouse pointer indicating where it is located.

Line Spacing other than 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0

In Open Office Writer and MS Word documents it is possible to change the line spacing from the regular 1, 1.5 or 2 line spacing.  This can be applied to the whole of the document or to a few lines in the document by highlighting the lines to be adjusted.

Open Office – Go to > Format > Paragraph >and from the Paragraph Window go to the Indents and Spacing tab > Line Spacing and from the drop down choose > Fixed.  In the box opposite that use the up and down arrows to go to the spacing required or more directly type in the spacing required > Click OK and on return to your document and the spacing will have been applied to any previously highlighted text, or will apply to any text you insert in the document.   To return to the regular 1, 1.5 or 2 line spacing do the adjustments again > Format > Paragraph etc

MS Word – Go to > Format > Paragraph > and on the Indents and Spacing tab the Line spacing drop down gives different choices – use exactly.  The opposite box gives point size. 10 point is l line, 15 point is 1.5 lines etc.  MS Word Help gives more detailed information on Line spacing by typing in “line_space” in the keywords box after opening the MS Word Help.

Print Screen Key and Its Use

The Print Screen Key may appear differently depending on the manufacturer of the keyboard.  (Prt Sc / Print Screen) The standard position is at the upper right hand corner of the keyboard. When pressed, the key sends the current screen image to the computer clipboard.(the invisible holding area for content that is copied). Open a programme (Word pad, MS Word document, Open Office Writer, E mail, graphics programme etc) and place the cursor where the copy is to appear. Use the keyboard, Ctrl + V (or Edit > Paste) to paste the screenshot into your open document.

If required, do another Print Screen and paste that also into the document. This action can be completed as many times as necessary to record all actions taken. Generally only one Print Screen can be held on the Clip Board at the one time. It is possible to print from the document if not required for future use. Save (Ctrl + S) (or File > Save) the document if required for future reference. It is possible to copy the print screen document to a flash drive to bring it to a Club Meeting to help explain some action that is taking place on your computer at home, and seek help or an explanation with a problem.

Clicking the Alt Key and the Print Screen Key together will copy only the current active window from the screen. As previously, paste copy to a document.
Computers without an additional programme installed will only keep the last copied item on the clipboard. Paste the copy to clear the clipboard before doing the next Print Screen or copy.

There are programmes available (generally at a cost) that will print directly to a printer after using the print screen key.

Windows 7 and Vista Users – Snipping Tool

If you use Windows 7 or Vista there is another way to grab screenshots by using the Snipping Tool.  The Snipping Tool can capture the whole Windows Desktop or specific windows. It can also capture particular areas of the display.

To launch the Snipping Tool click the start button, point to all Programmes followed by Accessories and then click Snipping Tool.  Click the down-pointing arrow next to the new button to see the snip types.  There is Free-form, Rectangular, Window (the equivalent of the Alt and Print Screen) and the Full Screen (the equivalent to pressing the Print Screen)  If you select the Rectangular Snip the screen will fade.  Now click and hold down the left mouse button and drag in any direction to select a rectangular area which will be highlighted by a red border.  Release the mouse button to make the capture.

The selected area will be displayed in the Snipping Tool window, where various options are available.  Click the ‘Save Snip’ icon (next to the New  icon) and follow the prompts to save as an HTML, JPEG, GIF, or PNG image file.  Alternately copy the screen shot to the Windows Clipboard by clicking the Copy button (or pick Copy from the Edit menu)

The last two buttons on the Snipping Tool’s toolbar are a pen, a highlighter and an eraser.

If you have occasion to use the Snipping Tool frequently it may be pinned to the Start Menu and be readily available.

There are also programmes available, some free and some not free, which can be downloaded and do a similar task as the snipping tool.

A telephone revolution is taking place. You can potentially save thousands of dollars in personal or business phone calls per year by making them over the Internet.

These calls can be made for free over the Internet if the person at the other end is using the same telephone computer software, or a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) hardware device.

Yes, that’s correct, free phone calls anywhere in the world! Well, not quite, you need an Internet connected computer. The sound quality isn’t always prefect, but its getting there. There are a number of ways of doing this.

Method One: (A no cost way to try it.)

You will need an Internet connected computer, preferably connected via a high speed broadband connection, to get the best results. Then you will need to download and install one of the free VOIP software packages. Skye is probably the best known at present.

It can be downloaded from, http://www.skype.com

Skype has Linux, Windows, and Apple Mac versions  available. Then you will need to have a microphone head set. You can use a desktop mic, and your computer speakers but this tends to create echo problems down the line.

Method Two: (You’re committed)

You will need to buy a VOIP hardware device. ( Some broadband modems have a VOIP device already built in.) Call quality can be an issue if your broadband service is not that fast, or there is a lot of traffic on the Internet.

The advantages of these devices over the software Skype method above is that the computer doesn’t need to be on. You simply plug another phone, or cordless phone into the VOIP hardware device, and connect it to your broadband router or modem.

(Skype does  provide a Skype phone that works the same as any stand alone VOIP box. Because Skype is an international service, calls to ordinary phones are international, therefore there are call charges, except for Skype to Skype calls which are free.)

As long as the modem / router is connected, you can make and receive calls. Plus, the hardware VOIP systems are more compatible with other VOIP systems, which means you can make free calls to friends and businesses that have these devices. You will need to know their VOIP device phone number, or ID to do this.

Yes, there are fees to phone someone’s normal phone, or mobile. Costs vary between the different systems, so shop around, and do some research before committing to any of them.

Method Three: (Naked VOIP, calls all through broadband phone.)

All phone calls in, and out are made through your Naked VOIP broadband system! Naked VOIP services are new and are now becoming  available as broadband speeds increase.   Naked VOIP services are only available on Broadband 2, or faster broadband services. These Naked VOIP services can allow free local, or national phone calls through the VOIP system to normal phones.

(Be aware that not all Naked VOIP services  may allow free local, or national phone calls through their Naked VOIP system, mine does.)

Naked VOIP also allows you to ditch the phone rental charges, because there is no need for a normal phone connection anymore. This means extra savings.  There are still charges for Naked VOIP calls to International, and Mobile phones  through Naked VOIP.

Naked VOIP system set up can mean your phone system will be down for a few days while they put the new equipment in the exchange and get it up, and working. You may also have compatibility issues using older broadband modems, and VOIP hardware with the new Naked VOIP system.  This could mean a few more days of trouble shooting until it all works. Make sure you have some alternate way of communicating with the Naked VOIP service provider to get technical help if you have set up issues, or you will be stuck with not phone for an extended period of time!

Tell friends, and relatives that the system may be down for a while. You should at least be able to get emails, even if the VOIP phone is not working quite right for a while.

International call rates, and mobile calls through these systems to an ordinary phone vary from country to country. VOIP service companies provide call rate lists on their web sites.

Because I was  able to ditch my  phone line rental, and can now get free local and national calls I have probably saved approximately AU $1000 in the first year. This has value added my ADSL  broadband system we already pay for.

If you don’t have a broadband Internet connection, and only make a few dollars worth of calls a month on an ordinary phone, it’s not much point setting up one of these systems!

© Peter Daley 2010