Answers to problems may be found in the pages listed in the menu on the left. If you can't find an answer you may send an email with your question to Bob Pretty Questions for which answers are already in this website will be referred back to this site. Please ensure you have researched your answer before making a request. Questions will only be answered for current members of our own SeniorNet branch Porirua SeniorNet Inc.

Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet	These are de facto standards
Automatic Email Replies	The best way to attract Spam
Deleting Emails	Essential to know
Deleted Items Folder	Managing Deleted items folder
Anti-Virus Protection	What's the best anti-virus protection program
What Does Compacting Folders Do	How does compacting a folder affect my email

Keyboard Shortcuts: With the following keystrokes if the keystroke is listed as Ctrl + S. You Do Not press the plus sign key at all. This is the way that the keystroke is explained. It means Hold down the Ctrl and the S key together. The easiest way to do this is to hold down the Ctrl key then type the other key. If two control keys are involved (Ctrl + Shift) then hold down both these keys and type the other key once. Remember once you have learned the ones useful to you and you use them instead of the mouse pointer they will work in many other applications.
Keystrokes to move the insertion point around text, or select text
Keystrokes to move the insertion point around text, or select text
Press SHIFT+ any of the following keystrokes to select text:
LEFT ARROW	Left one character at a time
RIGHT ARROW	Right one character at a time
DOWN ARROW	Down one line at a time
UP ARROW	Up one line at a time
CTRL+ LEFT ARROW	Left one word at a time
CTRL+ RIGHT ARROW	Right one word at a time
HOME	To the beginning of the current line of text
END	To the end of the current line of text
CTRL+HOME	To the beginning of the document
CTRL+END	To the end of the document
PAGE UP	Up one full screen
PAGE DOWN	Down one full screen
CTRL+PAGE UP	To the beginning of the previous page
CTRL+PAGE DOWN	To the beginning of the next page
Common shortcuts
Common shortcuts means that they work with all of Microsoft's Office applications. They also work with many non Microsoft Applications I.E. Word Perfect Office and OpenOffice.org
CTRL+O	Open
CTRL+Z	Undo
CTRL+Y	Redo. In some programs, if there is nothing to redo, this repeats the last action.
CTRL+S	Save
CTRL+P	Print
ALT+F4	Close the active window
CTRL+B	Bold. Note: If text is highlighted then that text is formatted Bold. Else text after keystrokes are bold. If text is already bold and highlighted then this keystroke will format text as normal
CTRL+I	Italic
CTRL+U	Underline
CTRL+R	Align right
CTRL+E	Align center
CTRL+L	Align left
CTRL+C	Copy
CTRL+X	Cut
CTRL+V	Paste
CTRL+C+CTRL+C	Open the clipboard
CTRL+F	Find
CTRL+H	Replace
CTRL+A	Select whole document
F7	Spell checker
SHIFT+F7	Thesaurus
CTRL+SHIFT+S	Style box
CTRL+SHIFT+F	Font
CTRL+SHIFT+N	Change font to Normal style

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Auto Replies:

I'm asked at Email classes if Automatic and Out Of The Office replies to Emails are useful, especially when people are away on holiday say to Australia or Europe. My reply is of course they're useful but not to the holder of the email inbox. I've heard them called all sorts of odd names at different times.

They are useful to the following people:
Any sender of spam - they now know your address is a valid one.
Would be burglars, house breakers, squatters and vandals etc. They immediately know your not in the house. Other people may find uses for them that I haven't thought of or listed. One place I worked at only allowed these replies to be sent internally. So my advice is always the same - "Is any email you receive that important that the sender needs to know you're away on holiday or out of town? If they are close friends or family they will usually know anyway, if email is that important to you set up a Gmail or Hotmail box and let close friends and relatives know it. You can then use any Internet cafe to view and answer it. All Post offices in Australia can be used as a drop box. So if you know you are going to Dubbo mail can be sent to Your name, c/o Post Office, Dubbo. NSW.
To collect it go to the PO identify your self and ask if there is any mail for you.

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Deleted Item Folder:

It is necessary to manage the Deleted Items folder the same as any other folder. Many people don't realise that this folder is not a bottomless pit and it will eventually get filled with unwanted mail messages. Therefore it is necessary to clear it in much the same way as you expect to clean your dustbin at home. This should be done at least once a month.
After it has been emptied you should also compact it. If you don't know how to do these fundamental operations then I suggest you sign up for the next email course available. Don't delay until it's too late check out from the Home Menu, Courses, Applications print out the application and enroll, there's no time like the present

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What's The Best Anti Virus Protection?

A question I'm asked by new users of computers and the Internet is, "What is the best anti virus protection I can use?"
The simple answer to the question would be never use the Internet and never use CDs, Flash drives or any other type of outside content on your computer" - but this of course, is a ridiculous state of affairs.
Get yourself a good anti virus piece of software because a virus can do all sorts of damage to your system. Once you have the software it must be kept up-to-date. Anti virus software does not necessitate buying commercial products such as McAfee or Norton's. Some of this type of software comes with a new computer but it will not be any use unless the license is paid each year after about a year from your computer purchase. My argument always is why pay for something that can be obtained free from the Internet? The computers at our SeniorNet classroom are protected by AVG, free to download from the Internet. I personally use Avast purely because downloads were faster a few years ago when I was on dial up Internet. Both programs are free to the home user (that doesn't mean your own business) and both update automatically. You should only ever run one anti virus program at one time. As most are started automatically with windows then only one anti virus program should be installed. If and when you change an anti virus program you should un-install the present one that is installed.

So, the answer to the question is whatever you prefer of the two main free ones, both of these give more options if you purchase them. I don't know about AVG but Avast does require you to license it each year this is free of change and is for their records only.

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What Does Compacting A Folder Do?

In the Microsoft Express email program in the File, Folder menu there are two options Compact Folder and Compact All Folders. What are these two options for and what does compacting a folder accomplish?
If you use Outlook Express or any other email program such as Thunderbird that has this option and you don't know what it is for or what it does - you need a course in Email. Sign up for the next available course now. See Home Page menu, Applications. It isn't necessary to wait for the end of term to apply for a course. Not all courses are run every term.

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