Monday, October 15, 2001		Article

Press Alt to use virtual keys
Sarabjeet Singh Kanwal

WINDOWS provide a lot of utilities that we remain unaware of just because there is no one to tell us on how to get started on these. We become aware of most of the utilities and short cuts either through hit-and-trial or just by 'accident'. Here are a few tips that may make Windows a better experience.

In Windows Explorer, we can open a file into its related application by double-clicking the file name or icon. The file type is determined by its extension. For example, when we double click a file with extension .txt, it opens in NotePad.

Suppose you want to open .txt file in MS Word or WordPad instead of NotePad. Here is a simple procedure to do so by associating multiple applications with a single file extension:

Open the Window Explorer. From menu, select View > Folder Options > File Types. In the "Registered file types" box, find and select "Text Document" entry. Click on Edit button and then on New button. In the Action box, type: Open in MS Word. In the "Application used to perform action" box, type "C:\ Program Files\ Microsoft Office\ Office\ Winword.exe" "%1" and click OK and then Close button. If Winword.exe file is present in some other folder, type its correct path.

Now onwards, whenever you click Right mouse button on any .txt file, you will find entry "Open in MS Word". Click on it to open the file in MS Word.

To associate a third application (say WordPad) to .txt files, following the same procedure, type "%2" instead of "%1". Similarly keep on increasing the number while associating more and more applications.

Most of the software provides an easy way to give menu commands using virtual key concept. You can see an underlined letter with every command and menu item. For example, File, Save etc. The underlined letter is called a virtual key. For example: To use "save" command, first of all we activate menu bar by pressing Alt key once. To open the File menu, we press virtual key F. To select "Save" command, we press virtual key S. Similarly, to use "Save As…" command from File menu, press Alt and release it. Then press F and then A.

In Internet Explorer (IE), use Shift + click mouse to open a link in new window. Use F5 key to refresh a page and F11 key for full screen view in IE. Press Alt + Right Arrow in place of Forward button and Alt + Left Arrow in place of Back button. Ctrl + S is used to shrink or un-shrink volume control window. Alt + Enter is used to shrink or un-shrink MS-DOS window. To delete a file without sending it to Recycle bin, use Shift + Del. To copy the contents of entire screen to clipboard, press Print Screen key. You can paste these contents to any image editor using Ctrl + V. Different softwares have their own shortcut keys. When you open a menu, you will find shortcut keys written in the front of each command. For example: Ctrl + O is written in front of open command. Similarly you can look for other keys too.

THE US government's nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said last week it was vetting its Website with an eye to power plant security following the September 11 attacks.

"We're looking at the data that is up on the Website with a careful eye as to what information might potentially be of value to terrorists," NRC spokesman Victor Dricks told Reuters by telephone from the commission's headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

Information believed advantageous to anyone considering an attack on a US nuclear power plant has already been pulled from the site, Dricks said.

He also said detailed and specific design information about the construction of each of the nuclear power plants has been taken off the Website.

The NRC oversees the operations of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants.

Included in the Website review, being done by an NRC panel, is the NRC's plant status report that gives a daily chronicle of the morning operating status of each of the nuclear plants in the USA.

The NRC's Website, at www.nrc.gov, was not available due to technical reasons.