Top 10 Internet tips and tricks

With the advancement in technology nowadays 8-80's everybody uses the net.So here goes some tips for using the net.

Take advantage of tabbed browsing

Take full advantage of tabbed browsing on all Internet browsers. While reading an article or browsing a website, you may come across a link that interests you. Any link to another page can be opened in a new tab so it does not interrupt your reading. To perform this action, hold down the Ctrl key and left-click the link. If you have a mouse with a wheel, click the link by depressing the wheel instead of rolling it. Either of the methods opens a link in a new window.

Tip: To open an new blank tab, press Ctrl + T at the same time.

You don't need the http:// portion of a web page

When entering an Internet address you do not need to type http:// or even www. in the address. For example, if you wanted to visit Computer Hope you could just type computerhope.com and press enter. To make things even quicker, if you are visiting a .com address you can type computerhope and then press Ctrl + Enter to type out the full http://www.computerhope.com address.

Quickly move between the fields of a web page

If you are filling out an online form, e-mail, or other text field you can quickly move between each of the fields by pressing the Tab key or Shift + Tab to move back a field. For example, in the example form below you can click in the "First Name" field type anything and press tab to switch to the next field.

Example Form

First Name: 
Last Name: 
E-mail: 

Tip: This tip also applies to buttons, if you press tab the buttons can also be highlighted. Once a button is highlighted press the space bar or enter to push the button.

Tip: With a drop-down box that lists dozens of options you can press the first letter to scroll down to that letter. For example, click the drop down box below and then press "u" to quickly scroll to Utah.

             State...             None             -- UNITED STATES --             Alabama             Alaska             Arizona             Arkansas             California             Colorado             Connecticut             Delaware             Florida             Georgia             Hawaii             Idaho             Illinois             Indiana             Iowa             Kansas             Kentucky             Louisiana             Maine             Maryland             Massachusetts             Michigan             Minnesota             Mississippi             Missouri             Montana             Nebraska             Nevada             New Hampshire             New Jersey             New Mexico             New York             North Carolina             North Dakota             Ohio             Oklahoma             Oregon             Pennsylvania             Rhode Island             South Carolina             South Dakota             Tennessee             Texas             Utah             Vermont             Virginia             Washington             West Virginia             Wisconsin             Wyoming             -- CANADA --             Alberta             British Columbia             Manitoba             New Brunswick             Newfoundland and Labrador             Northwest Territories             Nova Scotia             Nunavut             Ontario             Prince Edward Island             Quebec             Saskatchewan             Yukon Territory             -- AUSTRALIA --             Australian Capital Territory             New South Wales             Northern Territory             Queensland             South Australia             Tasmania             Victoria             Western Australia           

Bonus Tip: You can also use the autofill feature to fill in common form fields.

Know your Internet browser shortcuts

There are dozens of different shortcut keys that can be used with Internet browsers. Below are a few of our top suggested Internet browser shortcuts.

• Press Alt + D or Ctrl + L to move the cursor into the address bar.
• Hold down the Ctrl key and press the + or -to increase and decrease the size of text. Ctrl + 0 will reset the text.
• Press the backspace key or press Alt key + left arrow to go back a page.
• Press F5 or Ctrl + R to refresh or reload a web page.
• Press F11 to make the Internet browser screen full screen. Press F11 again to return to the normal view.
• Press Ctrl + B to open your Internet bookmarks.
• Press Ctrl + F to open the find box to search for text within the web page you are reading.

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Protect yourself and avoid bad websites

Use Internet search engines to their full potential

Get the most out of every search result. If you are not finding what you want try surrounding the text in quotes. For example, searching for 'computer help' without quotes returns results with "computer" and "help" anywhere on the page. However, if you search for "computer help" with the quotes it only return pages with "computer" and "help" next to each other.

Tip: In every search box you can press enter instead of using the mouse to click the Search button.

Try alternative browsers

Most computer users use the default browser that comes included with the computer, with Microsoft Windows this is Internet Explorer. There are many great alternative browsers that are all free to download and use and may have features your current browser does not include. Below are a few of our favorites, try one or try them all.

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera

Install plugins and add-ons

All of the above alternative browsers also have a large community of volunteers who develop add-ons and plugins that can be added into the browser. Each of these browsers has hundreds of add-ons that can do such things like the current weather in your browser window, changing its color, and adding additional functionality.

• Make sure your browser and its plugins are up-to-date

An Internet browser can have many plugins that give it additional functionality. For example, Adobe Flash is a great way to bring movies and other animated content to the Internet. Keeping these plugins up-to-date is vital for your computer stability and also security. Using the below tool you can quickly verify if your plugins are up-to-date and get links to where to download the latest updates.

Use online services

There are hundreds of free online services that can help make using your computer easier, more productive, and more enjoyable.

Change browser download settings for .PDF, .DOC, or other file

Below are the steps, in each of the major Internet browsers, to change how they behave when opening a .PDF, .DOC, or another external file.

Tip: All browsers allow for the ability to right-click any PDF file link and choose the option to Save or Save as to save the .PDF file.

Internet Explorer users

Be default, Internet Explorer opens PDF files in the Internet Explorer browser window. To disable this and have PDF files open in your PDF reader program (Adobe Reader or other), follow the steps below.

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click the Internet Explorer Tools  button and select Manage add-ons.
3. For the Toolbars and Extentions option, click in the Show drop-down list and selectAll add-ons.
4. Look for the Adobe PDF Reader in the extensions list. If you have a PDF reader program other than Adobe Reader, you may need to look for that program's name in the list instead.
5. Select the extension found in step 4 above and click the Disable button in the bottom left of the Manage Add-ons window.

Note: If you do not see the Adobe PDF Reader extension listed and are running Windows 7 64-bit, there is a known bug where that extension is not listed. One suggested fix for this is to register the AcroPDF.dll file, but this has not been confirmed, so try at your own risk.

To enable the ability for Internet Explorer to open and display PDF files in the Internet Explorer browser window, follow the steps above and in step 5. Enable the Adobe PDF Reader plug-in (or the extension for your PDF Reader, if you have something other than Adobe Reader installed).

Google Chrome users

Be default, Chrome opens PDF files in the Chrome browser window. To disable this and have PDF files open in your PDF reader program (Adobe Reader or other), follow the steps below.

1. Open Google Chrome
2. In the Chrome address bar, type about:plugins or chrome://plugins and press Enter.
3. Disable the Chrome PDF Viewer plug-in by clicking the Disable link for that plug-in.

To enable the ability for Chrome to open and display PDF files in the Chrome browser window, follow the steps above and in step 3, enable the Chrome PDF Viewer plug-in instead. If you do not see this plug-in listed, you need to download and install it.

Mozilla Firefox users

By default, Firefox opens PDF files in the Firefox browser window. To disable this and have PDF files open in your PDF reader program (Adobe Reader or other), follow the steps below.

Tip: If you have a PDF reader other than Adobe Reader installed on your computer, the steps below will still apply, but your PDF reader program name should be listed instead of "Adobe Reader" or "Adobe Acrobat".

1. Open Mozilla Firefox
2. Click the Firefox menu  button and select Options. Or you can select Tools in the Firefox menu bar and select Options If you do not see the menu bar, press the Altkey.
3. Within the Options window, click Applications
4. Select the Content type you want to adjust. For example, if you want to change how a PDF file opens in Firefox, select Adobe Acrobat Document.
5. In the Action section, change the action for how you want to open the file. If you want to download the PDF files instead of opening them, select Save file. If you want the PDF to open in Adobe Reader instead of in the Firefox browser window, select Use Adobe Reader.

To enable the ability for Firefox to open and display PDF files in the Firefox browser window, follow the steps above and in step 5, select Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)instead.

Opera users

By default, Opera opens PDF files in the Opera browser window. To disable this and have PDF files open in your PDF reader program (Adobe Reader or other), follow the steps below.

1. Open Opera
2. Click the Opera menu  button in the upper left corner, click More tools and select Show developer menu. Open the menu again, click Developer and selectPlug-ins.
3. Disable any plug-ins that refer to PDF viewing or opening, such as Adobe Reader orChrome PDF Viewer (plug-in list may vary for your computer).

To enable the ability for Opera to open and display PDF files in the Opera browser window, enable the appropriate plug-in using the steps above. If no plug-in is available in the plug-in list, you need to download the appropriate plug-in for viewing PDFs in the Opera browser.

What to do when a program stops responding

Its common in our daily life that computer suddenly stops responding while executing a program or file.During this time we have only one way to recover i.e.RESTART but sometimes restart can be bad for pc so here goes some of the basic ways to recover while your pc doesn't respond.

To recover, press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys on your keyboard to open the "Close Program" or "Task Manager" window. Once open, highlight the program that is not responding and click the "End Task" button to terminate the program. If another window opens, click the "End Task" button again to confirm stopping that program.

Note: It is important to realize that when a program stops responding, any work that has not been saved will be lost when end tasking a program.

After the program has been end tasked and no longer shows up in the Task Manager, you can try opening the program again to see if it works properly. If you continue to experience issues with that program, restart your computer and then open the program again to see if the issue is now resolved.

If after restarting your computer, the program continues to stop responding, the best option is to uninstall that program, restart the computer, then re-install the program. Re-installing a program can help fix any corrupted or missing files.