Tabs

• CTRL+B open new tab
• CTRL+TAB cycle through tabs
• CTRL+SHIFT+TAB cycle through tabs backwards
• CTRL+<number> go to Nth tab
• CTRL+W close the current tab
• CTRL+SHIFT+T open the tab you just closed

Font Size / Image Size

• CTRL+ make everything bigger
• CTRL- make everything smaller
• CTRL+0 reset size

Navigation

• ALT+LEFTARROW Previous page in history
• ALT+RIGHTARROW Next page in history
• ALT+HOME go to home page

Goodies

• CTRL+K instant search
• CTRL+ENTER appends .com to a URL
• F6 places focus in address bar, ready for new address
• F11 toggles full screen mode

By Annie

Thanksgiving is a terribly busy day, and let’s face it, you could use all the help you can get.  Whether this is your first time hosting Thanksgiving, or you’re a seasoned veteran who is also in charge of keeping the kids under control and entertaining your lovely (but demanding) mother-in-law, it never hurts to use a couple of shortcuts when making dinner.

Photo: AP/Boris Grdanoski

For great tips on how to make your Thanksgiving dinner just a little bit easier, view my entire article here.

It’s been a while since we’ve looked at tips and tricks for using OneNote more efficiently- so it’s awesome that the Nota Bena blog has given us some great time savers today. Rock on Michael Oldenburg!

Enjoy!

_______________________________________________

If you’ve used any Windows program for a while, you’re likely to have figured out some of its keyboard shortcuts by now. Keyboard shortcuts are the combinations of special keystrokes that can give you much quicker access to commands than if you were to click through the long trail of menus, toolbars, and other parts of the user interface. Many of the basic shortcut key combinations work consistently across all Windows programs, which means you won’t have to learn different ones when switching from one program to the next and performing the same task.

What’s in it for you?

Computers were supposed to save us time, right? Keyboard shortcuts can be incredible time-savers, so taking the short amount of time it takes to learn them is time well spent. Surprisingly, not everyone gives keyboard shortcuts their due attention. Hardly a month goes by when I don’t hear somebody say that they’re “too busy” to learn a time saver or two. The irony of that probably isn’t lost on anyone.

The truth is, we’ll always claim to be “too busy” for a lot of things that could really help us. For many, it’s simply an excuse to stick with what they know, or to slog through a task just to get it done, even if it’s the hard way. But imagine learning just a half-dozen keystrokes that could shave away more and more wasted time from all of the repetitive tasks that you perform every day. Over the span of a week or a month, the time you save can add up very quickly!

Discover keyboard shortcuts in OneNote menus

The easiest way to learn the most common keyboard shortcuts in OneNote 2007 is to look them up in the menus. For example, simply opening the Edit menu will show you its available keyboard shortcuts (outlined in red below) right next to each menu command:

Some menu commands (such as the Snap to Grid command shown here) do not have keyboard shortcuts available. In most cases, this is because the commands in question are designed to be used infrequently.

Discover keyboard shortcuts in OneNote ScreenTips

You can also choose to display available keyboard shortcuts in the ScreenTips that appear when you mouse over buttons on the toolbar. Note that this is an optional setting, which means that you must first tell OneNote that you want to see keyboard shortcuts in your ScreenTips.

Here’s what ScreenTips on the toolbar look like before and after you enable their keyboard shortcut display:

To turn on keyboard shortcuts in ScreenTips, follow these steps:

1. In OneNote 2007, move the mouse pointer over any toolbar button and then right-click it to display the shortcut menu:

   

2. On the shortcut menu, click the Customize command.
3. In the Customize dialog box that opens, make sure that the Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips box is checked:

   

   You must also have the Show ScreenTips on toolbars box checked, as shown here.

How to use keyboard shortcuts

I’ve seen many people immediately give up on trying out keyboard shortcuts because “they didn’t seem to work right.” This can happen when there’s no immediate, visible result to using the shortcut command (for example, when copying a selection of text, the command won’t seem to do anything until you actually paste the selection somewhere else). In this case, think through the completion of the greater task and then see if you get the result you expected. If not, try it with a different selection or on a different page in your notebook and start over.

If none of the keyboard shortcuts seem to work, make sure you only type the keys that are part of the command. For example, when you see “CTRL+C” documented as the shortcut for the Copy command, note that the “+” sign isn’t actually typed as part of the keystroke sequence. The “+” symbol merely indicates that you should press the surrounding keys simultaneously. So, “CTRL+C” means holding down the CTRL key and then pressing the C key on your keyboard. When you let go of both keys, the command is executed in the same way as if you clicked the Copy command on the Edit menu.

Some keyboard shortcuts consist of more than two key sequences. For example, to insert a new column to the left in a table, the keyboard shortcut sequence is CTRL+ALT+E. Here again, neither “+” symbol is to be used. Hold down the CTRL key, then hold down the ALT key, and then press E. When you let go of all three keys, the command is executed.

Don’t be afraid to experiment!

If you make a mistake while trying out keyboard shortcuts, you can always use the Undo command (on the Edit menu) to go back to the way things were before the last thing you tried. This is useful whenever you try out a keyboard shortcut that did not give you the result you expected.

The Undo command has its own keyboard shortcut! You can press CTRL+Z to undo the last action, whatever it was. Try practicing this until you get used to it: On any page in your OneNote notebook, type some random text anywhere, and then press CTRL+Z. The text you just typed will disappear as if you never typed it. Note that you can step backwards multiple times, if needed, by using the Undo command repeatedly. If you go back too far, using the Redo command (CTRL+Y) will let you step forward again.

Look up all of the keyboard shortcuts in OneNote

Not all keyboard shortcuts are discoverable in the user interface. On the Office Online Web site, where my fellow tech writers and editors publish all of the free “Help & How-to” content for each Microsoft Office program, you can look up all of the keyboard shortcuts available for the various Office 2007 programs that you use, including OneNote.
(Click here to view the full OneNote keyboard shortcuts reference article on Office Online.)
The information in this reference article is organized by several categories — from the standard Office-wide features, whose shortcuts are the same across all Office programs, to the specific features areas whose keyboard shortcuts apply specifically to the OneNote 2007 interface.

As you scroll through the main category headings (shown in orange), you can click the “+” symbol next to each sub-category whose list of shortcuts you want to view:

Clicking the “+” symbol next to a sub-category expands the full table of shortcuts for that section.

If you know (or guess) that a specific keyboard shortcut exists for a particular OneNote feature, you can use your Web browser’s “Find on Page” feature to quickly look up a particular keyboard shortcut in the reference charts. To do this, you must first expand all of the subcategories in the reference article you are looking at. Don’t worry; you won’t have to click dozens of these one-by-one. There’s an easier way.

Near the top of the article, click the “Show All” link to expand all sections at once:

Once all of the reference sections in the article have been expanded, press CTRL+F in your Web browser to bring up the “Find on Page” search box, which is built into Windows Internet Explorer and Firefox (check your Web browser’s documentation for details):

Now just type a word or phrase describing a OneNote feature or user interface element that you want to find (for example, “side note”), and then press ENTER. If one or more matches are found, scroll through the highlighted results in the text by clicking Next. This is an easy way to discover all of the keyboard shortcuts associated with your particular search term.

If you’re not having any luck with your search right away, try again by entering a different word or phrase.

Quick access to the keyboard shortcuts in OneNote

If you forget to bookmark the keyboard shortcuts reference for OneNote, you can easily recall it from the Help menu, which is located at the far right of the menu bar in the OneNote 2007 program window:

 

Check out Michael’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/michael_oldenburg/

Have you ever gotten tired of going into Edit every time you want to copy or paste or undo?  I know I have.  The following are some short cuts that I think can help you to increase your productivity, whether it is working in word, editing a photo, or even organizing your files.

For all of the following if you are a Mac User instead of CTRL you press Command (The Apple Button)

To Copy Either: Right Click selection and hit copy or press Ctrl+c

To Paste: Right Click Selection and hit paste or press Ctrl+v

To Cut: Right Click Selection and hit cut or press Ctrl+x

To Undo: press Ctrl+z

To Redo: press Ctrl+y

Now the difference between Cut and Copy is that Copy makes another copy of whatever it is you are copying.  The original still exists.  When you cut something it is used to paste it somewhere else, to move it so the original is gone.  In word editing you would use this to move a paragraph around.  In My Computer you would use this to move a file around.  Here are some more short cuts for inside a Word Processing program.

To Bold: press Ctrl+b

To Italicize: press Ctrl+i

To Underline:  press Ctrl+u

Finally, two more that you may want to use -

To Pring: Ctrl+p

To Save: Ctrl+s

Most of these are rather intuitive and you will get to learn them the more you use them.  The key is to incorporate it into your computer use.  Save regularly when working on files, and try and get used to using shortcuts to speed up your computer use.

Most of you may or may not know about this cool little function in Google Chrome that lets you create shortcuts to websites and places them on your desktop, start menu & taskbar. I will show you how to use this function in  Windows 7 using the superbar and Launchy.

First fire up Google Chrome and navigate to the site you wish to create a shortcut for. On the top right corner of the Chrome browser click on the icon next to the little spanner.

Now  click on “Create application shortcuts..” and you will see this:

Chrome gives you the option to create this shortcut on your Desktop, Start menu & Taskbar. Make sure you check start menu, and taskbar. If the icon dosent appear in the taskbar repeat the steps and pick desktop, drag and drop the icon/s onto the task bar. As you can see I’ve decided to create shortcuts for Gmail, Twitter and WordPress.

Here is where the new taskbar features come in. Lets say I am working on Word and I want to open up my twitter webpage and check my mail. Do i open up Chrome, navigate to gmail, open a new tab and sign into twitter? Nope i can hit the Windows key + 3 and Windows key + 4 to open up Twitter and Gmail. For those of you don’t know you can fire up the applications on your taskbar by hitting the Windows key + 1,2 3… depending on their position starting from the left.

Ok so thats one way. For those of you that read my previous post about GnomeDo and Launchy there is another way.

Bring up Launchy by hitting alt+space bar, now right click on Launchy and select rebuild catalog:

Give Launchy a few moments to index the newly created shortcuts and then away you go. Type in gmail and you should see this:

Same can be done to bring up any other shortcuts you’ve made, but make sure the catalog is rebuilt after adding new shortcuts.

So thats it. You now have two new ways of opening your favorite sites with ease.

One thing you cant do, unfortunately, is to convert the Chrome windows into tabs or pull up the address bar and navigate to other sites unless you follow links on the webpage you are currently viewing. Apart from that this little feature is extremely useful!

Happy browsing everybody

After writing my first two articles on this subject i saw the popularity on the topic.
So i decided to digg around and have a look at whats out there on other sites to.

Below are the best references i found
References:

1. The Curious Schemer
2. Shortcut list from Eclipse
3. Nice Technical Stuff
4. Sciology = Science + Technology
5. Semi Geek
6. Original blog post

A few shortcuts for working within attachments and general functions:

Overview

When viewing an attachment, to scroll vertically, roll the trackwheel. To scroll horizontally, press the Alt key and roll the trackwheel. Use the following shortcuts to navigate within attachments on the BlackBerry device.

When Viewing a Document

When Viewing a Spreadsheet

Confirm email message delivery to a Blackberry smartphone

1. Compose an email message and type <confirm> at the start of the subject line.
2. Send the email message.
3. If the email message has been delivered to the Blackberry smartphone, an email message appears in your inbox with the subject line BlackBerry Delivery Confirmation.

BlackBerry smartphone shortcuts

• To display your personal information number (PIN), type mypin and press the space key in any text field.
• To display your phone number, type mynumber and press the space key in any text field.
• To display the version of BlackBerry® Device Software that you are running, type myver and press the space key in any text field.
• To display your signal strength as a numeric value, on the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone press and hold the Alt key and type nmll. For BlackBerry smartphones using SureType® technology, type nnmll.

Perform a soft reset on a BlackBerry smartphone

• Press ALT+CAPS LOCK+DELETE.

You can use shortcut keys to view and explore Web pages, use the Address bar, work with favourites, and edit.These shotcuts are very useful in daily use.

Viewing and exploring Web pages

F1
Display the Internet Explorer Help, or when in a dialog box, display context help on an item

F11
Toggle between Full Screen and regular view of the browser window

TAB
Move forward through the items on a Web page, the Address bar, and the Links bar

SHIFT+TAB
Move back through the items on a Web page, the Address bar, and the Links bar

ALT+HOME
Go to your Home page

ALT+RIGHT ARROW
Go to the next page

ALT+LEFT ARROW or
BACKSPACE
Go to the previous page

SHIFT+F10
Display a shortcut menu for a link

CTRL+TAB or
F6
Move forward between frames

SHIFT+CTRL+TAB
Move back between frames

UP ARROW
Scroll toward the beginning of a document

DOWN ARROW
Scroll toward the end of a document

PAGE UP
Scroll toward the beginning of a document in larger increments

PAGE DOWN
Scroll toward the end of a document in larger increments

HOME
Move to the beginning of a document

END
Move to the end of a document

CTRL+F
Find on this page

F5 or
CTRL+R
Refresh the current Web page only if the time stamp for the Web version and your locally stored version are different

CTRL+F5
Refresh the current Web page, even if the time stamp for the Web version and your locally stored version are the same

ESC
Stop downloading a page

CTRL+N
Open a new window

CTRL+W
Close the current window

CTRL+S
Save the current page

CTRL+P
Print the current page or active frame

ENTER
Activate a selected link

CTRL+E
Open Search in Explorer bar

CTRL+I
Open Favourites in Explorer bar

CTRL+H
Open History in Explorer bar

CTRL+click
In History or Favourites bars, open multiple folders

ALT

Open tool bar in IE7

Using the Address bar

ALT+D
Select the text in the Address bar

F4
Display the Address bar history

CTRL+LEFT ARROW
When in the Address bar, move the cursor left to the next logical break (. or /)

CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
When in the Address bar, move the cursor right to the next logical break (. or /)

CTRL+ENTER
Add “www.” to the beginning and “.com” to the end of the text typed in the Address bar

UP ARROW
Move forward through the list of AutoComplete matches

DOWN ARROW
Move back through the list of AutoComplete matches

Working with favourites

CTRL+D
Add the current page to your favourites

CTRL+B
Open the Organize Favourites dialog box

ALT+UP ARROW
Move selected item up in the Favourites list in the Organize Favourites dialog box

ALT+DOWN ARROW
Move selected item down in the Favourites list in the Organize Favourites dialog box

Editing

CTRL+X
Remove the selected items and copy them to the Clipboard

CTRL+C
Copy the selected items to the Clipboard

CTRL+V
Insert the contents of the Clipboard at the selected location

CTRL+A
Select all items on the current Web page

Technorati : Shortcuts, Windows
Del.icio.us : Shortcuts, Windows
Zooomr : Shortcuts, Windows
Flickr : Shortcuts, Windows

One of the things that distinguishes a power Excel user from a novice (or even intermediate) user, is the ability to get things done without using the mouse. There are a bunch of sites and blogs which show you all of the available keyboard shortcuts in your chosen version of Excel, but becoming a better Excel user is not simply a matter of memorising all the keyboard shortcuts — it’s as much about knowing which shortcuts are the most valuable (in terms of time-saving, efficiency, design and accuracy), and when to use them.

Once you know how certain keyboard actions behave you’ll actually start to design your spreadsheets in a way that lets you take advantage of them. For example, you may know that holding down Ctrl and then hitting an arrow key on the keyboard will jump to the next “block” in the selected direction. This is demonstrated below. When you hold Ctrl and hit the down arrow key the selection moves to the end of the current block or the start of the next block — a block being a group of non-blank contiguous cells.

This technique can be used to give you a better way to navigate through a complex model. For example, if you have a model with rows in sections, sub-sections and sub-sub-sections, you might want to set up your row labels in various columns, rather than just having these in just one column. That way you can more easily navigate to the next section or sub-section. The example below demonstrates this. In the example on the left we’ve put all the row labels in column A, wheras in the example on the right we’ve split out the structure of our rows across columns A, B and C. You can see that starting at the Income Statement row it takes 6 steps to get to the Balance Sheet row (left), whereas it takes just 1 step to get there if our model is structured as per the right.

This is a very simple example, but if you’ve worked with large complex models before you’ll recognise how this could help you navigate up and down through the rows in a much easier way.

Some of my other favourite keyboard shortcuts (for actually getting things done) include:

• Shift arrows and Ctrl Shift arrows  … to select multiple cells.
• Ctrl [  … to select the dependent cells of the active cell, then tab to toggle between them, and “F5 Enter” to return to where you came from.
• Ctrl ˜  … to toggle between normal view and formula view.
• F4  … to repeat the last action – especially helpful for repetitive formatting.
• F5  … goto and to access the goto special menu.
• Alt F11  … to access the VBA editor.
• Ctrl R and Ctrl D  … to fill right and fill down the active cell – often much better than copy and paste.
• Ctrl . (Ctrl dot) … to toggle to the corners of a selected block of cells – click and drag to select a range of cells and then try this.

This list just scratches the surface, but for me they probably represent the most useful keyboard shortcuts, purely in terms of time-saving and efficiency. If you can master navigating around your worksheet using just the keyboard, you’re well on your way to becoming a power user.

What are your favourite keyboard shortcuts? We’d love to know.

Since the holidays are right around the corner (yippee!), I know many of us will be doing a great deal of baking.  Here are some quick tricks in the kitchen that can save preciuos time.

Prep on your own schedule. Most types of cookie dough will keep in the freezer for four to six weeks if you double-wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.  Thaw before baking.

Grease your measuring cups before measuring syrupy ingredients like molasses– a little nonstick cooking spray helps thick liquids pour easily.

Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.  Cookies won’t stick, so cleanup will be speedy.

Cut up butter so it will reach room temperature faster.  A whole stick may require 45 minutes, small cubes will just take 15 minutes or so.

Take your oven’s temperature. Oven heating is surprisingly variable.  Check yours with an oven thermometer to make sure it reaches the temperature needed for your cookies and cakes.

ENJOY!!

PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT MY GIVE BACK PROGRAM, WHERE I MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO AN ANIMAL SHELTER IN YOUR NAME UPON CLOSING!!!

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Listen to my blog at http://podcasts.odiogo.com/kristins-blog/podcasts-xml.php

Se Habla Espanol!

kjohnston@remax.net , kjjj1234@gmail.com , 414-254-6647 www.activerain.com/kristinjohnston www.LinkedIn.com www.kristinjohnston.com www.ecademy.com www.realtor.com , www.naymz.com www.zoominfo.com www.facebook.com www.plaxo.com www.trulia.com www.myspace.com www.postlets.com , www.perfectnetworker.com www.loopnet.com www.konnects.com www.twitter.com www.wordpress.com www.congoo.com www.xing.com corporate website , and more.

And, as always, if you need real estate assistance in Waukesha County, Milwaukee County, or anywhere in SE Wisconsin, please don’t hesitate to contact me, Kristin Johnston , at kjohnston@remax.net .  Please make sure to visit my personal website as well at http://www.kristinjohnston.com and find everything from online markets , Buyer and Seller information, property searches , testimonials , calculators , my blog and more.

I am proud to be a full time real estate professional and Waukesha County Realtor. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the purchase or sale of your next home!  Contact me today!

Contact Kristin Johnston, Remax Realty Center, Realtor, Waukesha, WI (Waukesha and Milwaukee Counties and All Of SE Wisconsin!).

Waukesha Realtor, Realtor in Waukesha, Waukesha County Realtor, Waukesha County Real Estate, Buy a Home, Buyer Specialist,Buyer Agency,Sell a Home, Waukesha County, Waukesha, WI, ABR, Kristin Johnston, Kris Johnston

In the history of Windows, the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination has been used for different purposes, from instantly rebooting a system to logging into NT; in one incarnation it brought up the System Monitor, then later a logout screen with options (like the System Monitor).

In Ubuntu, that key combo is generally not in use, so you can assign it to whatever you want. While you could use it to logout or reboot, a good use for this combo is to assign it to Ubuntu’s System Monitor, so you can force misbehaving apps to quit, as well as check out RAM and CPU usage.

The simplest way to do this is go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts, and add a new one. First, you may want to check that Logout (under the Desktop category) doesn’t already have that combo assigned to it (on some earlier versions of Ubuntu, that may be the case). Once you’re ready to proceed, click on one of the category names (I recommend Custom at the bottom) and click the +Add button. Then for Name put System Monitor, and for Command put gnome-system-monitor.

That’s it! The System Monitor should now open with that combo. If not, you may still be running an earlier incarnation of Ubuntu, so check out this forum post for info on using Configuration Editor and/or the terminal (you’ll find my solution near the bottom).

Für das webOS von Palm für das Palm Pre wurde die neue Firmaware Version 1.3.1 bereit gestellt. vorerst nur für die CDMA-Variante, jedoch soll bis Ende November auch eine Variante für den deutschen Markt bereitgestellt werden.

Palm Pre webOS 1.3.1 Firmware Update

Palm webOS 1.3.1 Yahoo-Kompatibel

Wesentliches Feature dieses Updates ist die Einbindung von Yahoo in das Syngergy-Kontakt-Management-System des Palm webOS. Wie bei der Google-Integration können nun alle Daten wie Kalender-Einträge, Termine,  Kontake aus Yahoo-Mail und dem Yahoo-Messenger auf dem Palm Pre verarbeitet und genutzt werden. Woher diese Aktion rührt ist fraglich, da entsprechende Entwicklungskosten im Vergleich zur Bereitstellung einer Schnittstelle mit Facebook, Google und Outlook im Hinblick auf den Marktanteil bezogen eher hoch ist.

Palm webOS 1.3.1 nicht mehr mit i-Tunes kompatibel

das Update auf webOS 1.3.1 ist nicht mehr mit i-Tunes kompatibel. Wurde das Palm Pre bisher von Apple als iPod erkannt, so ist dies nun weggefallen. in den USA wurde dies durch die Bereitstellung der Zwischenstufe webOS 1.2 gecovert, allerdings wird dies nicht in Europa angeboten.

Shortcuts auf dem Palm Pre mit webOS 1.3.1

Eine sehr interessante neuerung stellen ebenfalls die Shortcuts dar, die nun nach dem Update im Mail-Client des Palm Pre funktionieren. Als wesentliche Funktionen seien hier das Markieren von Nachrichten als Ungelesen, das Weiterleiten von Nachrichten, das Weiterleiten von Instantmessages aus den diversen Messenger-Systemen auf dem Palm Pre genannt sowie die diese ebenfalls zu kopieren.

Stay tuned!

A list of shortcuts and symbols that i tend to forget. Thought i’ve write them down to boost my learning process.

Symbols:

• Diameter: Shift+Option+O (letter)
• Degree: Shift+Option+8
• Plus/Minus: Shift=Option+=

Printscreen:

• Entire screen: ⌘ + Shift + 3
• Rectangle: ⌘ + Shift + 4
• Window: ⌘ + Shift r+ 4, followed by spacebar

Here are some useful commands to take snapshots of the screen in a mac:

• Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

In Leopard, the following keys can be held down while selecting an area (via Command-Shift-4 or Command-Control-Shift-4):

• Space, to lock the size of the selected region and instead move it when the mouse moves
• Shift, to resize only one edge of the selected region
• Option, to resize the selected region with its center as the anchor point

Now that almost everyone had the chance to  install the Windows 7 Release Candidate and spend a few weeks exploring the OS

The time has come to get serious and learn some keyboard shortcuts. Windows 7 adds some new ones to the mix, all of them based on the Windows key. Here are seven of my favorites:

Win + Home: Minimize all windows except the one that’s currently active. Hit it again to restore the windows.

Win + Up Arrow: Maximizes the active window.

Win + Space: Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop.

Win + Left/Right Arrow: Docks the active window to the left or ride side of the screen.

Win + (+/-): Enables the magnifier and zooms in/out.

Win + P: Opens Windows’ presentation settings so you can quickly adjust display settings to include a second monitor or a projector.

Alt + P: In explorer, show/hide the preview pane.

And some pretty unusefull but cool stuff, if you want to clear your desktop just try the following.

Click and hold the title bar of the window you want to keep while you shake the mouse. Repeat to restore the minimized windows.

Disclaimer: This post contains some politically incorrect content. I am both embarrassed and ashamed to even relate the information contained herein. However, in my defense, I was so amused by some of these gems, that I would have been remiss not to share.

If you text, Twitter, IM, Skype or engage in almost any form of micro-chatter, you’re familiar with “text-speak.” “Text-speak” are those acronyms which, despite their primary utility as abbreviated words that are easier to type, convey a common meaning, and are now used in regular conversation.

I am not talking about all texting shortcuts, like ROTFL (Rolling On The Floor Laughing) or LMAO (Laughing My Ass Off) or even WTF (What The F*ck), each of which is widely used and well known, because in spite their ubiquity, they haven’t been adopted as part of our everyday speech.

I text, therefore I am.

I’m referring to those texting shortcuts, that have made the transition from the screen to our mouths. BFF, for example, is perhaps the most widely recognized text-speak in common use today. BFF (for those of you still dragging your knuckles across gravel or perhaps without BFFs) stands for ‘Best Friends Forever.’

OMG is another acronym that has become part of our uber-forward text-savvy vernacular, and stands for ‘Oh My God’ (or goodness, if you’re not trying to take the Lord’s name in vain).

TMI is a third. TMI, which stands for ‘Too Much Information,’ is a virtual mainstay in this tell-all society we live in. I would have loved to tell Oprah TMI yesterday, when she had the chimp lady on. I didn’t need to know or SEE all that.

Yeah, I watch Oprah, so what?

There are countless others that have made the leap, like ‘addy’ (address), DIY (Do It Yourself), or IM (Instant Message, as in “IM me”). But recently, a friend of mine hipped me to a few that weren’t so familiar, but are (apparently) in widespread use and clearly have their place.

Take ABC for example. Do you know your ABCs? Most of us would automatically answer ‘yes’ (unless, of course, they were illiterate, and in that case wouldn’t be capable of reading this page to form an answer). And they’d be right, but not for the reason they assumed.

In text-speak, ABC refers to ‘Angry Black Chics.’ Two points for whoever knew that before arriving at this point. Listen closely, and you’ll probably hear the term ABC off the lips of a few brothers discussing women woes (“Man I can’t handle no mo’ ABCs, I needs me a white girl!”)

I know you know what AA is. C’mon, stop playing. It’s not Alcoholics Anonymous (although I’d imagine that there are some AA members that text ‘Im going 2 my AA mtg. C u there’, but that’s besides the point).

AA refers to ‘African Americans.’ When texting, or talking, referring to Black people as AAs will help avoid some awkward situations. For example, when discussing your outrage over Tyrone’s promotion to the first junior assistant to the night shift loading dock shift manager position, mask your hostility towards members of the darker nation by saying, “Those AAs get all the jobs,” leaving Tyrone (and the rest of the darkies) none the wiser.

The pièce de résistance of our post today, is definitely 5397. Not familiar with 5397? No, these are not the Lost doomsday numbers (which are 4 8 15 16 23 42 dummy). Nor are they last night’s Pick 4 winners.

5-3-9-7 on the alpha-numeric buttons of a phone, spell J-E-W-S. Yes, take it all in. Hey Skinhead! Sick and tired of Jews? Now you can state publicly that “5397s are taking over the world,” and fear no recrimination of being labeled antisemitic.

I hope you learned a lot today, and ‘Big up!’ to Carmen for her etymological assistances.

If you know of any words that have made the transition from text to speech, please feel free to share them with me. Who knows, you may be sitting on a texting DITR (Diamond In The Rough – I just made that one up).

For more text acronyms, visit Netlingo.