Other "Secret" Undocumented Tips and Tricks

The entry I just posted about using Control+Scroll Wheel to change your browser's text size reminded me of some other undocumented (or poorly documented) keyboard shortcuts and other tricks:

• Hold the Shift Key+Scroll Wheel to go forward and back in your browser's history.
• Here's the official list of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 Keyboard Shortcuts (most should also work for IE 6.0)
• For users of the Mozilla Firefox browser (like me), here's a Cheat Sheet of keyboard shortcuts and other tips and tricks
• Here's a particularly convoluted one, via digg.com, for users of Apple's iPhoto 6 software -- MacOSXHints.com found some "super-secret advanced editing modes":

  1. Enter edit mode for any image.
  2. Select the Retouch or Red Eye tool.
  3. Press Caps Lock, Control, and 9 at the same time, then release them.
  4. Press Tab. If you activated the Red Eye tool, the small cross hairs will be replaced with a large oval. If you were using the Retouch tool, your cursor is now a small dotted circle with "0.50 { }" below it.
  5. For either tool, press the "[" and "]" keys to alter the size of the area the brush covers.

  Caps Lock+Control+9. Simple, huh? Why is it so well hidden? I have no idea, though it's probably not finished, or may be unstable, etc.
• Another Mac tip via digg: Put your Mac to sleep quickly by hitting this key combo and holding for 2 seconds: Command+Option+Eject (from the Apple Pro Tip of the Week)

Most programs have features like this that lurk under the surface. Why?

Some might be alternate ways to do stuff that you can already do from multiple places.

Others may be features that are only useful for specialized situations, or appeal to a limited niche of users.

On the other hand, there's stuff that might be useful (like Ctrl+Scroll to change text size), that just may not have a home on the screen. There's a limit to what you can fit into menus and dialog boxes without making things incredibly complicated and hard to find.

Also, for some features, once you learn about them, you don't need to keep seeing reminders. So, they get left off the screen, but put in the documentation.

Unfortunately, we users have a tendency to not read the manuals, so these kinds of features stay "hidden."

Anyway, the way to finding these kinds of hidden features is pretty much a matter of mindset, which I will summarize thusly: "There's gotta be an easier way to do this!"

That statement implies a question, which you can answer by reading the documentation, poking around in power user forums, doing Web searches and asking questions of fellow users.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: undocumented features, tips and tricks

Changing Your Web Browser's Display Font Size

Hi folks -- so, the results for my earlier poll on what font size I should use in my Journal entries are in. They're a lot closer than I would have expected.

As of this particular moment, there are 57 votes: 28 for "Use a Bigger Font Size"; 1 for "Use a Smaller Font Size" (I didn't expect anyone to choose this, but I guess there's always someone); and 28 votes for "Don't Change the Font Size."

(One of the 28 votes for "Don't Change" is mine -- I had to cast a vote so I could see the results page to make sure that it displayed properly in the IFRAME.)

So, I will probably be bumping up my font size slightly for future entries. For example, this here entry is written at the AOL Journals default font face, but one bigger at font size 10.

There's good news for everyone, though, since as empowered Web users, you have control over how big the fonts display in the Web pages you read.

Changing the displayed text size is real easy in most modern Web browsers IF you have a scroll wheel on your mouse.

If you do have a scroll wheel on your mouse, just do this to change the displayed text size in Web pages:

1. Press and hold down the Control (ctrl) Key (on Macs, it's the Command Key)
2. While still pressing and holding the Control Key, scroll up or down with the scroll wheel on your mouse. As you do this, the font size should get bigger or smaller. Stop scrolling when you find a size that works.

It's just that simple.

Now, depending on your browser, there should also be keyboard shortcuts for this, as well as an option in the browser menus.

If you don't have a scroll wheel on your mouse, open a standalone Web browser (for my example, I will use Microsoft Internet Explorer), and in the "View" menu up top, go to "Text Size" and pick the text size you want:

For users of the AOL software's integrated Web browser (which is a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer), the scroll wheel thing will work, but there's no View menu. So, to change the font sizes:

1. Open up the standalone Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. On most Windows machines, click the Start button, then Programs, then Internet Explorer.
2. In the browser's View menu, go to Text Size and pick the size you want (as above)
3. You may need to close AOL and reopen it for the text size changes to show up in your AOL browser.

(Obviously, this is not very convenient -- the scroll wheel thing is much easier.)

Now, depending on your browser, specifying text size might not work everywhere. It definitely won't work on text that's done as graphics or Flash, and in certain cases, the Web page designer may be able to overrule the browser setting.

Also, note that a Web page may be designed in such a way that it will "break" if you change the font sizes.

Here's what I mean: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) lets designers specify exact heights and widths of page elements, like boxes that contain text. Designers like this, because they can have total control over how the page looks.

However, if a designer locks the size of text box, and a user makes the display font bigger -- this is like trying to put 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound bag: The text box is locked, so it can't "grow", so that means some text (including clickable links) either overflows into another area, or worse, it gets hidden, which effectively breaks that part of the page.

Just one of the perils of designing Web pages. If you suspect this is happening to you, see if changing the font sizes (even temporarily) reveals some previously hidden text.

Thanks to AOL's own Joe in Member Services (Happenings) for reminding me about the Control+Scroll Wheel font size tip.

Also, thanks to Journaler Lori of Lori's Laurels for reporting a browser display problem that inspired the second half of this entry.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: aol journals, browser font size

Remembering the 7/7 Attacks

Hi folks; as most of you know, today is the first anniversary of the suicide bombings on the London train and bus system that killed 52 people and injured scores more.

For current remembrances, I looked over the pond to the BBC News 7 July: One Year On package.

Likewise, AOL UK News has a series of articles about the anniversary, including a look at how bloggers and people with camera phones influenced news coverage with their citizen journalism.

AOL has something of a personal connection to the attacks, as AOL UK employee Paul Dadge was one of the iconic faces from news coverage of the bombing.

(You might also recall that I got the chance to meet Paul on his visit to the US last November; I blogged about it, though it was quickly overshadowed by the furor over the Journals ad banners.)

Looking back, here is my own entry from 7/7/05.

People in the UK observed two minutes of silence at noon to mark the anniversary, so I think it's only fitting that we in the US also remember the victims of the attacks.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: 7 July, Paul Dadge, Citizen Journalism

Blogger John Invades Boston!

Hi folks -- sorry, my blogging today got sidelined due to other work. I am catching up as quick as I can.

In the meantime, I just published the promo on the AOL Journals main page for blogger John's latest Weekend Assignment about Boston.

Normally, for the accompanying photo in the promo, I take the image that John uses to illustrate his entry.

However, in this case, I didn't think that very many folks would be able to identify that section of the Boston skyline by itself (especially in the version that I do for the People Connection main page promotion, which will be live on Friday). So I jazzed it up a bit:

Naturally, the PC Main version's headline is "Newsflash: Blogger Invades Boston!"

Oh, and a piece of unsolicited advice for John: According to the Urban Dictionary entry  for "beantown", only tourists, TV reporters and sportswriters call it Beantown (I guess it's like "Frisco.")

[Content Note: UrbanDictionary is all about user-submitted and user-voted definitions for slang; many of them are profane, vulgar, or even obscene. It's still a useful reference, though.]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Urban Dictionary, John Scalzi, beantown, AOL Journals, weekend assignment

Magic Smoke Poll: Font Size for Entries?

Hi folks -- here's a quick poll -- ever since I started this blog, I've
stayed with the AOL Journals default font for my
entries.

So, the
poll question is simply this: Should I change the font I use
in my Journal entries? (I'm thinking about font size,
primarily -- if you tell me to switch to Comic Sans MS, I will have to override
you on that):

As I was preparing this entry, I figured I would
investigate changing the default font size for the AOL in-client Web
browser (which is just a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer),
though I will do that in a follow-up entry I have lined up for
tomorrow.

( If you don't want to wait, I will
basically be expanding on this
AOL Help entry).

Thanks --
Joe

Tags: aol
journals, embedded polls
beta, magic smoke
poll

A Few Fourth Fireworks Fotos

Okay, so you know that entry I posted last week with a link to tips on photographing fireworks with your digital camera?

Well, when the time came, I have to admit I didn't use a one of them.

I just braced my camera against a lamppost and hoped for the best (though I did have the flash turned off -- it doesn't help in situations like this):

July 4th Fireworks in Leesburg

You ever notice how pictures can look really good on the little 2-inch screen on your camera, then when you download them and view them on your computers, they look like crud?

Fireworks Fountain on the Patio

I think I used the long shutter setting for this one -- it's just a fireworks fountain before the main event.

Anyway, originally, I wanted to make this an entry about comparing a few free programs for editing your digital photos, but it's kind of hard to really tell the difference with fireworks photos (at least with mine), so I will have to use some other photos as examples in a later post.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: photo tips, fireworks, independence day, fourth of july 

Hello, July

Hi folks -- hope you all had a nice Fourth of July Holiday. I'm still getting caught up on stuff; in the meantime, it's time for another turn of the Hello Kitty calendar that hangs on my cube wall:

(You can see the previous versions here: Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June)

More stuff on the way. Some of it may actually be useful, or interesting. No guarantees, though.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: hello kitty