• When saving a document for the first time, stop and look at where you're saving the document. Usually the location is indicated in a pop-up menu at the top (Mac and newer versions of Windows) or the bottom (older versions of Windows) of the Save dialog box. If in doubt, choose "Save As..." from the File menu and save a copy of the file where you can find it again later.
• Similarly, when you print a document, look at the top of the Print dialog box to see where the item is going to be printed. The previous user may have chosen to print on a different network printer than the one you're expecting, so check and verify your document is going to the printer you want. If it's not going to the one you want, click the pop-up menu at the top of the Print dialog box and select your desired printer.
  
• Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Often users complain that their hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put many many gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)
• You can open the Start menu by tapping the key with the Windows logo on it.
• When you're not using an application program, it's usually best to quit or exit it all together, rather than letting it run in the background. All programs that are running take resources to keep them going, so if you're not using a program but it's running in the background, it's slowing down your computer for no reason--sort of like leaving your refrigerator door open. How can you tell if a program is running in the background? On a Mac, look at the Dock for any icon with a dot or triangle below it. Click on that icon and then choose Quit from the File menu. In Windows, look for tabs in the Task Bar you're not currently using and Exit them.
• Most program choices have command-key shortcuts, i.e., typically but not exclusively the combination of the command-key (on a Mac) or the control-key (on Windows) with one other key. This saves a lot of time and effort as compared with using the mouse to select an option from a pull-down menu. You don't need to memorize all of them. Just look for the shortcut choices on the right-hand side of each menu. (See several of the most useful ones below.)
• Closing the last window of a program automatically Exits a program in Windows. On a Mac, closing the last open window generally doesn't Quit the program. You have to do that manually from the File menu (also see previous tip).
  
• Hitting the Enter key is the same as moving your mouse to click the "OK," "Open," or "Print" button in most dialog boxes.
• You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).
• You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.
• On your keyboard, there’s a difference between the Backspace and Del keys. Press Backspace to delete the typed character to the left of the blinking insertion-point cursor, as usual. Pressing Del, however, removes the character to its right.
• In Microsoft Word, when you paste in text from another document—say, a Web site — you may not want all the boldface, colors, fonts and other formatting from the original source. Instead of using the regular Paste command, in that case, open the Edit menu and click Paste Special. Click Unformatted Text. You’ll get just the text, without the fanciness.
• The Esc key (top left of the keyboard) means, “close this” or “cancel this.” It can close a menu or a dialog box, for example.
• You can duplicate a file icon (instead of moving it) if you press the Alt key as you drag it out of its window.
• You can switch among open programs by pressing Alt+Tab (or Command-Tab on the Mac). On the Mac, the much less known Command-tilde (the ~ key, upper left corner) switches among windows in a single program.
• You can hide all windows, revealing only what’s on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: hit the Windows key and “D” simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). That’s great when you want examine or delete something you’ve just downloaded to the desktop, for example. Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.
• You can adjust the size and position of any window on your computer. Drag the top strip to move it; drag the lower-right corner (Mac) or any edge (Windows) to resize it.
• If you can’t find some obvious command, like Delete in a photo program, try clicking using the right-side mouse button. (On Macs with a one-button mouse, you can Control-click instead.) The resulting menu, called the contextual menu, will display several of the most relevant program options available to you at that point. Note that the contents of the contextual menu changes depending on what tasks you're doing. It changes because the context in which your clicking changes the available options, hence the name "contextual menu."
• It's important that you choose a good password to protect your private digital resources. Use these tools to create a stronger password: Microsoft's Password Checker or Password Meter.
  
• Did you know you can select multiple items at one time on your computer? Just hold the control key (or the command / apple key on a Mac) on the keyboard when you are selecting items with your mouse. For example, in iTunes when creating a playlist, you can add multiple songs at once. If you have multiple items selected and you accidentally select one you don't want, you can un-select an item by clicking on the already selected item while still holding the control key (or command / apple key on a Mac).
  
• Come up with an automated backup system for your computer. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when your computer will fail. There’s no misery quite like the sick feeling of having lost chunks of your life because you didn’t have a safe and up-to-date backup copy. A convenient and safe place to backup your files is your AugNet web folder. Outside of Augsburg, use a cloud-based file storage folder such as dropbox.com, Google Docs, or Amazon Cloud Drive for safe, always-accessible, off-site backups.
• Especially if you’re a beginner (or even if you're an expert), it’s frequently useful to capture the image of what’s on the screen when you're trying to troubleshoot a problem or explain what you're seeing on your screen — an error message or diagram, for example:

• In Windows, PrintScreen key copies the whole screen image, as a graphic, onto your invisible Clipboard, so you can paste into an e-mail message or any other program (“This is what I’m seeing! What do I do now?!”). If you add the Alt key, you copy only the front window.
• On the Mac, press Command-Shift-3. (Command is the key with the propeller on it, next to the Space bar.) You hear a snapshot sound, and you get a graphics file on your desktop—a picture of the entire screen image.
• If you press Command-Shift-4 instead, you get a crosshair cursor; you can draw across just one portion of the screen. Or, if you now tap the Space bar, you turn the cursor into a little camera icon. You can now click on just one window or toolbar that you want to copy.
• In both cases, you can hold down the Control key to copy the image to the Clipboard instead of leaving a file on the hard drive.

Mac Specials

• Anything you can print, you can turn into a Portable Document Format (PDF) document. A PDF is a type of universal document readable on nearly every computer while retaining its original formatting. Choose the Print command — but instead of choosing Print, click the PDF pop-up menu and choose Save as PDF.
• It’s often very useful to have a document, Web page or e-mail message read aloud to you — to “proof-listen” to it, for example, or just to listen to an article while you’re getting dressed in the morning. In the Speech pane of System Preferences, turn on “Speak selected text.” Click Set Key to choose a key combination. Pressing it makes the Mac read anything on the screen, at the rate, and in the character voice you’ve specified.
• To properly put away a storage volume like a removable flash drive or network volume (like your AugNet folder), drag the icon of the drive to the trash. This permits the Mac to properly put away any changes you made to the disk. After the disk icon disappears from the desktop, you may then safely remove your flash drive.
  
• To eject a removable DVD or CD, click the Eject Key (the key in the upper right corner of the keyboard with the up arrow, usually just to the right of the F12 key).
• To switch between windows within an application, select Command + ~ (the tilde key, just to the left of the 1 key)
• In order to duplicate a file (move it but leave a copy in its original location), select its icon and drag it to another window while holding down the option key
• Use Quicklook to quickly see the contents of a file without actually opening the file--just select the icon and press the spacebar.
  

Web Browsing

• You don’t have to type “http://www.something.com/” into your Web browser. Just type the domain name: “nytimes” or “dilbert,” for example. (Of course, this only works with sites that end with “.com.”)
• When you’re filling in the boxes on a Web page (like City, State, Zip), you can press the Tab key to jump from box to box, rather than clicking. Add the Shift key to jump through the boxes backwards.
• You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it’s the Command key and plus or minus.
• You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.
• You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.
• When you’re searching for something on the Web using, say, Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example, if you put quotes around “electric curtains,” Google won’t waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word “electric” and another set containing the word “curtains.”
• You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter. On a computer, * means “times” and / means “divided by.”
• Google is also a units-of-measurement and currency converter. Type “teaspoons in 1.3 gallons,” for example, or “euros in 17 dollars.” Click Search to see the answer.
• Don’t reach for the mouse to go back to the previous Web page. Just tap the Backspace [delete key on a Mac] key. (Alt+left-arrow key also works for Back, and Alt+right-arrow for Forward. If you have a Mac, substitute the Option key for Alt.)
• After you type a word or phrase into a Search box, don’t click the Search button. Just press the Enter key.
• The Enter key also works to click “Go” after you’ve typed an address, or a highlighted button, like “O.K.” or “Print,” in most dialog boxes.
• On brand-name Web sites (eBay, Facebook, Amazon and so on), click the upper-left logo to return to the site’s home page.
• At translate.google.com, you can choose languages you want to translate from and to. Then you paste in some copied text (or the address of a Web site). In a flash, the text is translated — roughly, to be sure, but at no charge.
• Who needs a dictionary? In the Google search box, type “define schadenfreude” (or whatever the word is). Press Enter.

E-mail

• If you get a message from your bank or eBay about a problem with your account, it’s probably a “phishing” scam. It’s a fake, designed to lure you into typing your name and password so the bad guys can have it. Delete it. If you’re concerned, visit the institution’s Web site in your browser by typing in its address (like Citibank.com) — not by clicking the link in e-mail.
• Nobody, but nobody, is going to give you half of $80 million to help them liberate the funds of a deceased millionaire…from Nigeria or anywhere else.
• Before you pass on any amazing item you get by e-mail—Obama’s a Muslim, the bubble boy wants greeting cards, the Nieman-Marcus $400 cookie recipe — first check it out at Snopes.com, the world clearinghouse for Internet scams and rumors.
• If a blue underlined link shows up in an e-mail message, you can mouse over it without clicking to see what Web site it plans to open.
• If you get a message from someone you know that relates a horror story about being mugged in England (and needing you to wire money immediately), delete it. It’s a popular scam — even if it’s the correct e-mail address of someone you know.
• File too big to send by e-mail? Then use a cloud-based service such as dropbox.com, yousendit.com or transferbigfiles.com to create a publically accessible web folder. Then just send an email with your folder's web address to whomever you want to share your file. This circumvents the too-big file limit.

• Whatever technology you buy today will be obsolete soon, so wait as long as you are able to avoid contstant "buyer's remorse." Also, you can avoid some heartache by learning the cycles. New iPods come out every September. New digital cameras come out in February and October.
• The number of megapixels does not determine a camera’s picture quality; that’s a marketing myth. The sensor size is far more important. (Use Google to find it. For example, search for “sensor size Nikon D90.”)
• Forcing the camera’s flash to activate prevents silhouetted, too-dark faces when you’re outdoors. Turning it off outdoors when your subject is far away avoids too-bright foreground/too-dark background pictures (e.g., turn-off your flash when you're taking Joe Mauer's picture at Target Field if you're sitting in the stands. Otherwise you'll get very clear pictures of the people's heads in front of you and nearly nothing of Joe.)
• You generally can’t send someone more than a couple of full-size digital photos as an e-mail attachment; those files are too big, and they’ll bounce back to you. (Instead, use iPhoto or Picasa–photo-organizing programs that can automatically scale down photos in the process of e-mailing them.)

iPhone

• On the iPhone, hit the Space bar twice at the end of a sentence. You get a period, a space, and a capitalized letter at the beginning of the next word.
• You can magnify the iPhone’s screen, for ease in reading tiny type, by double-tapping with three fingers. Then pan around by dragging with three fingers. Of course, you first have to turn this feature on. Do that by tapping Settings, then General, then Accessibility. (On the same screen, you’ll find an option to make the text bigger in the built-in iPhone programs, which is handy in its own way.)
• Another option for enlarging and shrinking text: On an iPhone and iPad, in order to make text larger, use two fingers to touch the screen and draw your fingers apart. To do the opposite (make text smaller) place your fingers apart on the screen and pinch your fingers together. This is called "pinch and zoom."
• Has your iPhone screen image suddenly become mysteriously enlarged? There’s nothing quite as alarming as seeing jumbo text and graphics, and nothing restores the phone to the way it’s supposed to be. Many people trek off to the Apple Store to get their “broken” iPhones fixed. Of course, the real problem is that you’ve accidentally turned on screen zooming (described in the previous tip). Double-tap with three fingers to restore the screen magnification.
• Press the home key twice quickly (aka double tap) and see a list of apps still in memory. You can then click-hold on the icons that appear on the bottom of the screen to fully close them (it won't delete them).  This saves battery power and processor cycles on the device, and apps open just as fast.

Other Cellphones

• When your phone starts ringing, you can silence it quickly by pressing any key on the sides. (It’s still ringing — you can either answer it or let it go to voicemail — but at least you’ve cut the sound.) That’s good to remember when you’re someplace where phone silence is golden: for example, at a concert, in surgery or in church.
• On most cellphones, press the Send key to open up a list of recent calls. Instead of manually dialing, you can return a call by highlighting one of these calls and pressing Send again.
  

• moodle course interfaces are very customizable and will vary from course to course, depending on the layout, activities and resources required by your instructors, but a few basic elements are generally found in every course moodle. A short tip sheet has been prepared that reviews the 5 most basic operations found in nearly every moodle. Download it here.
• There is no 'Help' section in moodle by default. Instead, help files are distributed across the site in a number of different areas. Each individual file is located on the page or activity with which you might need help at any given time. Wherever you see a Help icon , you can click on it for more information about the page or activity that you're on at the time. In addition certain pages have a link at the bottom, "Moodle Docs for this page," which connects to the main international moodle Wiki for further documentation. 
• You can forward your Augsburg email to any other email account so you only have to check one email account to see all of your email. When you set up forwarding, all new incoming mail sent to your Augsburg e-mail address will be redirected to another e-mail address. The new messages ONLY go to your alternate address; the system does not keep a copy in your Augsburg INBOX. Any messages that were already in your account before you set up forwarding will remain in your Augsburg INBOX. Click here to learn how.
• Access to your Augsburg email is not limited to webmail. You can access it on your own PC using your favorite email program or on your smartphone. Click here to learn how.
  
• There are multiple ways to access your AugNet NetStorage space, but the best way is to have your AugNet folder available on your computer just like any other item on your computer. On the Mac, a compatible technology is already installed, just follow these steps to get started. In Windows this is enabled via a technology called WebDav - step-by-step instructions are available here.
  

• Augsburg College Information Technology and Student Technology Services maintains help resources--both online and in person. Their homepage is at: http://www.augsburg.edu/techdesk/. Their online database of the most common technology questions and issues is available at: https://support.augsburg.edu/support/. You can also stop by the Student Technology help desk on the second floor of the Lindell Library anytime the library's open. Or you may call 612-330-1400. 
• AtomicLearning.com has many movies that are helpful for learning and troubleshooting in moodle, AugNet, and just about any other tech tool you can imagine. If you're on-campus, all of the movies are available free-of-charge. If you're off-campus, you'll need a username and password to access all of the movies. Speak with your instructor to obtain these.

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