h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

Sorry about messing up the thread title. Anyone know how to get rid of it!

Just want to see what anyone might have to say about this really.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A663527

All comments are welcome. Total slatings, OTT eulogies, grammatical gripes and stylistic suggestions Too long? Too short?. It's all grist to the mill. Do your worst!

Also, anything that I've missed out completely or not explained clearly.

Spiff

ok, I just 'yikesed' myself for the duff title thing. Anything else I can do?

Yikesing yourself won't help in that respect (as the Mods are serving different purposes than keeping the site contents consistent). You'd have to wait for a Scout to notice the double thread and flag it to the Towers (that's what just happened ).

But... there will be a new h2g2 (internal) software version soon, which will make sure that there's one and *only* one review thread per entry, regardless of which review forum it is attached to at any given time.

Off to read the piece...

First of all, it's great!

First person:
'Personally, I try to avoid it where possible',
'I have, and I want to share',
'I have talked to people in the past about the merits of using these shortcuts instead of the mouse.',
etc...

Some of these you can convert to 'this researcher', others could be left out completely. Like:
'When intervied about ther merits of using these shortcuts instead of the mouse, some have embraced them...' or somesuch.

typos:
'...move the mouse even very slightly. The ---' ??? something missing?
'those wierd-looking' -> weird


My favourite shortkeys are:
Ctrl-F4 - close current window/document
Alt-F4 - close current application
Ctrl-Esc - open 'start' menu
Shift-Ins - copy highlighted text to clipboard
Ctrl-Ins - paste text from clipboard
Alt-left/right arrow - back/forward one instance in browser history
Alt-F(ile)-s(ave) - save current file (this one happens to be pressed every 2 minutes under control of some lower layer of my brain since my computer developed a habit of crashing every now and then)


One nuisance particularly with in localised German MS software is that the pre-defined shortcuts keep changing from version to version, and across applications from the same house. Ctrl-F(ett) used to be the shortcut for boldface ('fett'= German for 'bold' or 'fat'). Then it changed to Ctrl-F(ind). Then it changed back to 'F(ett) and so on. Alt-D-s is equivalent to Datei-Speichern (file/save) in WinWord, but equates to Datei-Schliessen (file/close) in MS Works. In the current versions, that is. Next time it'll be the other way round, I'm sure


It may take some time to get used to it, but - how about using your *left* hand for the mouse? It frees up the right hand for such important things as the right Shift key, Return, the Cursor keys and that important block of six keys between letters and the Num-pad. Copy and paste of a link in a browser goes like this:
- Mouse over link, right-click, click on 'copy link address' (link in clipboard - all left hand)
- click into navigation bar of another window (current contents are highlighted - left hand)
- Shift-Insert, Enter (new link in adress bar, and surfing to it - right hand)
- bingo, link opened in second window.


Once again, I like it!

Thanks for that, Boss!

Yeah, I knew I had left in quite a bit of first person stuff. Figured I could get rid of it if I wanted to put it into PR.

I only really wrote it coz I use the keyboard for lots of stuff that many non-typists *assume* is easier with the mouse. My dad still instists on lining up the mouse arrow over the right-hand scroll bar and left clicking! How pointless is that?

Thanks for your comments. I'm glad I got them so quickly () coz I'm off out now and I was curious to see what you had to say. It's more or less the first time I've been at the sharp end of any of these threads. I like it!

As I say, I've got to so I won't make any changes probably before tom AM. I'm not just ignoring you!

Seeya
Spiff

Just take your time but hey, that's just 'Bossel' -- I realised too late that it carried allusions to 'boss'.

Also, windows key and d minimizes the current window. quite useful for closing the guide window when your boss comes in!

Errm, windows key and tab, change between windows.

Shift and tab, to go back through fields. F5 to refresh in IE, or opera browser. Don't know about Netscape.

Ctrl-R refreshes the page in all the browsers that I know

Perhaps another point for the entry: yesterday I suffered from losing my Windoze registry, the screen was set to 640x480 and the mouse wasn't recognised. I had to do the *whole* repair work via keyboard input

Sounds nasty. I would have been tempted to do a clean install, but I suppose you would have lost loads of data. Lucky you are so profficient in the registry. I wouldn't have clue!

Actually I didn't touch the registry (apart from removing some entries which belonged to programs which have been de-installed long time ago). The main trick was to get around Windows' mechanisms which are intended to keep you (and nasty programs) from fiddling around with it.

Sounds fairly above my head! Glad you got it sorted though Bossel.

Another shortcut. In Office 2000 programs F12 is save as. Very handy.

Sounds fairly above my head! Glad you got it sorted though Bossel.

Another shortcut. In Office 2000 programs F12 is save as. Very handy.

hi all

I missed out F5 *and* F12?thread="smiley - yikes" title="yikes" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_yikes.gif"/>

Seeya
Spiff

hmm, if I hadn't enough ideas for future entries, I could think of 'How to deal with your Windows registry, and how not' as another one...

It's a very thorough article, and very personable. Just a couple comments:

- There are still some sections written in the first person. While I personally don't mind it, if you want to get it into the Edited Guide, the editors won't like it. It's possible to still keep the chatty tone of it without using the first person; I could give you some specific examples if you like.

- Same for the smileys, I'm afraid.

- There seems to be one chunk that is cut off: the last "the" before "Keeping Tabs of Your Windows".

I'd like to add Ctrl-Alt-E as another important shortcut (although I don't know of any 'long-cut'). At least in the German version of WinME this brings up the € sign

Hiya

Sorry Nireena, your post passed me by first time round. Thanks, glad you liked it. I will look at the unfinished sentence soon.

Hi there Bossel, , great addition. I'll be using that asap!

Seeya
Spiff

My favourites are "Print" and "Alt-Print" which copy the current window or the screen contents into the clipboard. You can then insert them into a Word document.

I haven't read the entry yet - will do so now. Is the title accurate or do the examples all apply to Windows or do you state in each case where you can use the shortcuts? (TC - how about reading it and finding out for yourself)

**

This entry is great!

Can I ask that these be added (though I probably should write an entry on WinKey shortcuts, I like this article's intro):

WinKey + D - Minimize everything; view Desktop
WinKey + E - Start Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer)
WinKey + R - Open the "Run..." dialog
WinKey + F - Open the Find/Search dialog
WinKey + B - Seems to deactivate all windows...don't know what the use of it would be
WinKey + M - Appears to be the same as WinKey + D
WinKey + I - Open "Favo(u)rites" when in Internet Explorer


WINDOWS XP ONLY
WinKey + L - Switch Users via Fast User Switching
WinKey + Q - Switch Users via Super Fast User Switching (if PowerToys for Windows XP is installed)
WinKey + U - Start the (Accessability) Utility Manager and start the Narrator utility (if installed)

Hi,

for the Winkey shortcuts - definitely need to go in. I haven't got round to incorporating some other suggestions but I will make sure I get these in too.

Thanks again,
Seeya
Spiff