Work faster

Posted on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:19

16. Invent your own keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are hugely useful. But you can also assign your own favoured keyboard shortcuts to applications, so they're launched in a jiffy. Right-click on the icon of the program you want to add (it doesn't need to be the .exe itself), and click Properties, select the Shortcut Tab and replace the "None" entered alongside the Shortcut Key field with the letter or number of your choice. Windows will add to the beginning of the shortcut. Click OK and three key-presses will spring applications to life.

17. Use the Favorite Links pane

Vista takes XP's Places bar and integrates it into the Explorer. At the upper left of every Explorer window you'll find a section headed Favorite Links. By default, these are shortcuts to your Documents, Pictures or Music folders, but you can add instant links to this pane by dragging them in. It's a great timesaver and even works with remote and removable resources. If the pane's too small to hold all the links, drag its bottom down to expand it, or click on More for a menu containing the overspill.

18. Move your personal data folders to a second drive

Your personal files reside on the same drive as your system files. If you have two drives, though, it's sensible to move personal data to a different disk. This makes backups simpler and can improve performance, letting you work with documents without interference from Windows constantly accessing system files. Moving your entire profile is complicated (see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 236621), but in XP you can move personal folders such as My Documents easily, using the downloadable TweakUI PowerToy. In Vista, it's easier: simply right-click on Documents (or other personal folders), select Properties and go to the Location tab. Type a new address for the folder, or hit Move... to send it to a new home.

19. Bring back classic menus

Switching to Vista can be a little disorientating at first, and the lack of menus in Explorer often trips people up. To bring back classic menus under Vista, open an Explorer window and click Organize | Layout | Menu Bar.You can also show them temporarily by pressing Alt. A second press of Alt will hide them again.

20. Create your own "SendTo..." links

When you double-click on a document, Windows opens it with its default application. But if you regularly use more than one program to open the same type of file, the SendTo folder can make life easier. In XP, this folder is located by default at \Documents and Settings\\SendTo; in Vista, it's hidden away at \Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo. Open it up and copy into ita shortcut to each of your commonly used applications. You'll then be ableto right-click on a document in Explorer and pick your target application from the SendTo submenu.

21. Extend your screen

Buying a 19in screen now costs less than £100, but it can radically speed up your working day. In the PC Pro office, the favoured route is to put Outlook on the smaller screen (if you use a laptop, use its display) and then use the larger display as the main working area. It's simple to set up: right-click on the desktop, choose Properties and, under XP, select the Settings tab. If you have an extra monitor connected, you'll be able to click on the second monitor and check the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" box. In Vista, choose Personalization and then click Display Properties before checking "Extend the desktop onto this monitor".