General IT Tips for a Teacher Audience?

[Gongalong]

Hi Folks,

 

One of our SLT wants to run an EdTech 12 days of Christmas with various IT tips e.g. snipping tool, keyboard shortcuts, how to snap windows etc.

 

I’ve been wrung out of tips since sending out dozens over lockdown.

 

What’s an indispensable IT tip you’ve discovered that’s perhaps a little more unusual, but still suitable for a teacher audience?

 

Thanks

[TechMonkey]

Turn it off and back on again. It's a stereotype for a reason.

Depends on what you covered in Lockdown. Keyboard shortcuts are always popular. Ctrl-click and Shift-click. some basic useful Excel formulas?

[Gongalong]

Lockdown tended to be more advanced stuff e.g. using Teams, Stream etc. These are the 5 tips I've come up with so far, including some keyboard shortcuts and Ctrl+click etc. Snipping Tool has also been added to the list.

 

1. If you triple click a piece of text it will select the whole paragraph (single click selects where the cursor is, and double click selects the word under the cursor).

2. Learning the shortcuts for copy, cut, and paste, can speed things up. They are universal across windows, so Ctrl+C for copy, Ctrl+X for cut, and Ctrl+V for paste.

3. Ctrl+A is another good shortcut to learn, and again is universal in Windows. If you press this it will “select all” in whatever app you’re in. For example in Word it will select the whole document, in Excel it will select the whole spreadsheet, and in File Explorer it will select all files and folders in the window you currently have selected.

4. Shift and Ctrl clicking is another useful thing to master. Again it can be used in all Windows apps where it’s supported. If you want to select 10 files in the midst of some other files within File Explorer you click on the first one, then hold down shift and click on the last one. That will select all files from the first to last. It will do similar in Word, so if you click once at the start of a piece of text you want to select, then hold down Shift and click at the end of the piece of text, everything between the two clicks should be selected. Ctrl clicking gives you more granular control. In File Explorer if you want to select five files in a list that are all separate from each other, keep Ctrl held down and then click on each file you want to select. Click on a file a second time if you have picked it by mistake. In Word the behaviour is similar, so if you want to select multiple pieces of text you can Ctrl+click each piece of text. If you want to select multiple different cells in Excel you use the same technique.

5. Window snapping. Do you sometimes find you want to compare information between two windows, so would like one window snapped on one side, and the other window snapped on the other. To do this click on the first window to select it, then hold down the Windows key and press left or right arrow. The window will now snap to the side you selected, and fill half the screen. When you let go of the Windows key it will then prompt for the second window. If it doesn’t prompt, or you miss the prompt, you can always select the second window and use the same technique to put it on the other side. If you hover the mouse exactly where the divide is between the two windows, then click and drag, you should be able to adjust where the separation point is between the two windows.

[FN-GM]

I’m still surprised people don’t know you can use CTRL + ALT + DEL to reset a password. Might be one to use?

[Koldov]

Some of these were good and I admit I didn't know some of them (still using the good old screenshot button and paste into MS Paint - but usually get staff to use the snipping tool when requesting screenshots of error messages)...

 

https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/

[Garacesh]

For the love of $diety, if they don't already know, make sure you beat into their heads 'gently encourage' the use of Win+L

Shortcuts in general, really, I see C, X, V and A have been mentioned already.

 

Another big one would be control-clicking, or shift-arrows, for managing multiple objects.

 

Email management might be a good one to go over, too, if you use a centralised email setup. Outlook folders, or GMail Labels for example.

[DaveTheTech]

Middle clicking links to open, works in the taskbar as well. I'd add pinning to the taskbar as well.

You can print up to 10 (?) of the same type of doucment in Windows Explorer using right click and print.

Win+E for Windows Explorer.

You can pin actions at the top left of Word, by the auto-save slider. THese are then numbered whilst pressing ALT.

ALT+I,P,F for insert picture from file. Then alt+5 to repeat the action. Want to crop that picure? Select a picture, alt+4 for example

right click the start button gives you extra options.

hostname | clip - will copy the hostname to the clipboard.

Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V - you can use Win+V to bring up clipboard history.

aka.ms/setupmfa and aka.ms/sspr for MFA and Self Service Password Reset

[Andrew_C]

Switch it off and on again? Really needs to be 5th day if you can make is scan.

[Oaktech]

Win+P

 

For the love of $Deity

[Oaktech]

Oh,

 

Change of address for 365 Quarantine:

 

Was protection.office.com/quarantine now https://security.microsoft.com/quarantine

 

You can check your own quarantine, you don't have to wait for the digest and then moan you've missed an email.

[simpsonj]

Windows key, shift and S to take a screen snap shot is pretty useful

Windows key and Tab instead of alt and tab to display what is open on the desktop

[EssentialRug]

Enable 'Undo Send' in Outlook and set a delay of up to 10 seconds on outgoing mail. Perfect for those users who hit the send button and then immediately realise it's supposed to go to someone else. Will hopefully save a data breach.

 

Side note- If anyone knows how to enable this in OWA for my entire organisation I'd be forever grateful.

[Garacesh]

Windows key, shift and S to take a screen snap shot is pretty useful

As much as it probably sounds a bit rude to say, IME you get two buttons and that's your limit.

You put a third in the mix and everyone starts getting confused

[Oaktech]

Word is not Publisher. Publisher is not Word. Powerpoint is neither of them. Spend some time getting to know the limitations and strengths of each.

[tmoon-mint]

1. Windows key + V to bring up the clipboard. The amount of minds I have blown showing them that.

2. Windows key + L to lock when you're away from the computer

3. Windows key + 1, 2, 3 etc to open the apps pinned to the taskbar in order. E.g. on mine Outlook would be Windows key + 4

[LeMarchand]

Word is not Publisher. Publisher is not Word. Powerpoint is neither of them. Spend some time getting to know the limitations and strengths of each.

 

Word is not a good choice for spreadsheets or tables either.

[Garacesh]

Word is not a good choice for spreadsheets or tables either.

 

And Excel is not a database!

Hides the current asset register

[simpsonj]

1. Windows key + V to bring up the clipboard. The amount of minds I have blown showing them that.

2. Windows key + L to lock when you're away from the computer

3. Windows key + 1, 2, 3 etc to open the apps pinned to the taskbar in order. E.g. on mine Outlook would be Windows key + 4

 

Definitely sending out that first one, very useful!

[JATSO]

Switching between default sound and the current source for sound.

Don't unplug anything that your not familiar with and leave it unplugged.

Ensure your signed into drive for your G Drive

That File Explorer is not Internet Explorer

Show them the extended desktop.

[foofighterjim]

Alt + Print Screen to just capture the active window, may be redundant if they are familiar with the Snipping tool though.

 

Ctrl + Scroll to Zoom and Ctrl + 0 to set it back again.

[Dos_Box]

When sending pictures they want others to use in Outlook, they should attach them instead of inserting them as Outlook will resize and compress images inserted unless you have this setting applied - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-picture-compression-81a6b603-0266-4451-b08e-fc1bf58da658

[Norphy]

Word is not a good choice for spreadsheets or tables either.

 

One thing that wound me up as a front line tech:

 

Word is not an image editor

 

Please don't paste a million images into Word then attach them to an email and/or print them out.

[ecuatorial]

Use presenter view on PowerPoint so you can see what's coming up next

[Duranis]

Word is not an image editor

 

I had someone the other day complaining because they were trying to print a word document directly on the photocopier using a flash drive and it was taking a really long time. The file was over 600mb and the USB drive was both old and cheap.....

 

Back on topic...

 

Ctrl+Shift+V = Paste as plain text/without formatting

Ctrl+Shift+T = Reopens last closed tab in your internet browser. Useful if you accidentally close something.

Windows Key + up or down arrows = Minimise/maximise windows

F11 = Fulllscreen mode

Holding left click on the top bar of a window and shaking it will minimise all other windows.

Windows Key+home also minimises all but the active window.

Ctrl+Y = Redo

[jthompson]

Pressing 'B' during a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation will blank the screen so that you can make a point without any visual disctraction for the audience. Press it again to resume.

 

'W' also works, but showing a white screen rather than black.