Typing Tip

Have you noticed the small ridges toward the bottom of “F” and “J” keys with almost all keyboards? Your index fingers can locate them by touch and you are sure you are on the 'home' row and ready to type without looking.

Keyboard Cleaners

Clear tape, the kind you find in the office or use to wrap presents is an ideal choice, since it is thin and easy to manipulate. Sticky notes work too.

Cleaning your keyboard with tape is fairly simple. Tear off an inch of tape and fold it in half so that the non-sticky sides are facing together and the sticky sides are facing outward. Slip the tape underneath the edges of the keys and rub back and forth a few times. Pull the piece of tape out and prepare to be disgusted at the amount of grunge. Repeat until all of your keys are clean.

Keyboard Alt Codes

Sometimes we need to add a few symbols to a document and spend too much time looking for a picture, when a key code sequence will work just as well, if you are using Windows. These use the numeric keypad on the keyboard, not the numbers across the top. For instance, if you need to put a copyright symbol next to a company name, push the num lock key to use the number pad, then hold down the ALT key and type 0169, release and you see © , Alt 0153 works for trademark ™, Alt 0174 works for the trademark registered symbol ®. (Some keyboards require holding the shift and alt keys while typing numbers or the FN key and alt).  The symbols show up when you release the ALT key.

To try them yourself, go through the numbers from 1 thru 127 then 0128 thru 0255, such as ALT 1 ☺, ALT 2 ☻, ALT 3 ♥, ALT 0128 €, ALT 0165 ¥, ALT 0189 ½, etc., to find some happy surprises. Incidentally, these work in Word documents as well as email, etc,. Facebook has its own set. You can also use Windows. Type in character map in the search box and it will show the full list.