Our lives are incomplete without computers and all the tech that we use today. A few decades back, computers were mostly limited to offices and labs. However, with the entry of personal computers into our houses, we are surrounded by them. If you want your life to be hassle-free, it helps to understand how to use a computer efficiently. If you learn these top 25 computer tricks, we are sure that your productivity will boost exponentially.
Top 25 Computer Tricks That Will Boost Your Productivity and Efficiency
Google Chrome Tips
- If your Chrome ever freezes, quickly open the built-in task manager: Shift + Esc.
If you are looking forward to removing specific suggestions, select the portion and press Shift + Delete. This will save you from embarrassing search suggestions.
If you have multiple tabs in one window and want to shift them to a new one: Press Ctrl + Click on the tabs to move them. You can also move multiple tabs on the same window with the same trick.
If you are trying to scroll horizontally: Press Shift + Scroll to do that.
Tips for Other Browsers
- If you want to open the address bar quickly: Press F6/ Ctrl + L.
Now, do you want a free web proxy? Then: Open Google Translate, paste the URL in the box, pick another language for the source language. Then the destination language of the translation should be what the web page’s default language is. Press on the Translate. You get to access blocked web pages with this trick.
Middle Click on a tab to close it.
You can watch multiple pages or articles in the slideshow-style: Press Print / Ctrl + P.
Middle-click on the bookmarks folder to open all the web pages from it.
To get back to the default window size of the browser: Press Ctrl + 0
For highlighting a textual portion in the web page, go to the starting point and press Shift + Click when the part ends. You don’t have to do the lengthy mouse dragging from now on. 12. If you want to add more bookmarks, remove all text. Only icons will be visible. 13. If you’re going to undo send your mail from Gmail, you can use these instructions. 14. Want some savvy online shopping? Type [product name] vs. rival product, for comparison.
Tips for Windows
Open Task Manager directly by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
If you want to minimize the rest of the windows except the one you are on, Shake the current window. You can maximize the windows with the same trick.
If you want to freeze the Task Manager: Hold down the Ctrl button. You can use it for observing various processes.
Well, another nice feature by Microsoft is Problem Steps Recorder. You can use it to record steps to any solution correctly. Search psr to open the recorder.
Say you want to take a screenshot of the active window, press Alt + Print Screen. Got the screenshot?
Press Ctrl + Backspace for deleting one word at a time.
If you want to open applications on the taskbar, press the Windows key + Sequence number of the application you wish to open. You can use the same trick to minimize/maximize the applications.- For pasting the text without formatting it: Press Ctrl + Shift + V. 23. Suppose you want to rename a file: Press F2. The same method works if you’re going to rename multiple files. 24. You can do much more with your Calculator, like calculating your mortgage payment and fuel economy. Just open the Calculator and click on View.
Bonus Tips For Computer – Wi-Fi
- If you are not receiving the Wi-Fi signal properly, you can boost it by using a Virtual Router to make your PC into a Wi-Fi hotspot. It’s suitable for extending the reach of your Wi-Fi.
- You can make a QR code for generating access to your Wi-Fi, you can print it, and others can scan it to access it.
Wikipedia
- If you are fond of surfing through Wikipedia, you can use this trick to find interesting articles to read. Access Wikipedia Nearby that fetches items based on your location. It can be helpful if you are traveling.
- Another one is Wikipedia Random. It can get you excellent but random articles to read.
YouTube
Now is the time for our favorite destination to spend time – YouTube.
- If you want to pause a video, press K.
You can skip the video forward or backward by 10 seconds by pressing L and J, respectively.
You can find only specific user’s videos by typing @ before the search term.- To speed up and slow down any video you are watching, just press > and < and save time while watching.
- Want to know all the keyboard shortcuts? Press ?.
Microsoft Office and Other Tips
You can use the mouse as a laser pointer in PowerPoint: by holding Ctrl + Left click. You can look fantastic with the laser pointer.- If you want to open your file into presentation mode, select the file and right-click on it, and choose Show.
- You can shrink the file size of an Excel file by saving it as .xslb.
You can now check how to use VLC Media Player smartly.
- If your audio is out-of-sync with video, press J and K to sync it manually by moving it back and forth.
- Just like YouTube, you can speed up or slow down videos in VLC. Press ] and [ to speed up or slow down the content you watch.
- Now, you are shopping online and want some juicy discounts? Well, do this if you want them to reach out to you with offers: when shopping for something, go to the checkout page and leave the site. Within a couple of days, they will contact you with suggestions.
- Opening New Google Doc in a Single Step: While opening a new Google isn’t something that will sweat you, but you can make it a one-step job. You can type “docs.new” or “doc.new” into the browser’s search bar, and it will quickly load up a new, blank page. The same technique can be used for opening other contents like “sheet. new” for a new Google Sheet or “slide. new” for a new Google Slide.
- Inserting a Handwritten Signature in the Doc: Open a Google Doc from the toolbar, pick “Insert” and scroll down from the drop-down menu to “Drawing,” and hit the “New” option. Then click the icon of “Line” from the menu, and go down to pick the “Scribble” option. A blank box appears to scribble or draw a signature in it. Now, that won’t be a good-looking signature if you made it using a trackpad or mouse instead of a touchscreen. But that’s less time consuming than scanning the original signature. You can also use the feature to insert images and edit them with text and shapes.
- Word Count in Display in Your Doc: If you are tired of constantly checking your word count in the doc, you can make it visible as a widget. How to do that? Well, open the Tools option from the toolbar and click on “Display word count while typing.” Once the word count box appears, check the box asking you to show the word count widget. Once you check that, it will show you the word count on the page’s bottom-left side. It will always be there. If that’s too much for you, press “Ctrl+Shift+C” or Command+Shift+C
- A Keyboard Shortcut to Paste Any Text Without Formatting it: Using a keyboard shortcut to paste any text portion without formatting it is easy. Just use “Control+Shift+V” (“Command+Shift+V” for Mac users). This trick saves you the embarrassment that arises from using copied fonts that are inappropriate.
- Assigning Document Edits to Specific Individuals: There’s a pencil icon that you see in the top right corner of Google Doc. If you click on it, a drop-down menu of three options appears Editing, suggesting, and viewing. If you want to write suggestions, you can activate that mode, and everything you type will become edits. You also get a comment box on the right side of the doc. You get to accept, reject and reply options in the document. You can collaborate with multiple users by assigning edits to a specific user by typing “+” in the reply box and inserting an email address. It automatically sends an email to them suggesting they have to make edits.
- Getting Back to the Older Version of Your Google Doc: Google has one best feature that’s not less than a savior for the users. It saves the doc as you are writing and editing it in real-time. It maintains the record of the changes that’s been made to the content. If you want to check those last changes to the doc, click on the “File” option then “Version History” and click on “See version history.” It shows you all the changes that users made, and you can also highlight specific edits.
Final Word
Now that you have received more than the top 25 computer tricks, we expect you to master the computer’s handling without any hassle. These advanced tricks will not only save you a lot of time, but they will also make you highly efficient than others who don’t know them. We will keep adding more tricks and tips in our future articles. Comment below the article to let us know what you feel. Keep following us for more exciting content.