Key board shortcuts - A way to save money, if you think time is money !

Over the weekend, even though at home my wife was hooked to her laptop for putting together a write-up that she and her friend had thought of for a good cause. After a while with a frustrated look on her face, my wife handed over her laptop to me and asked me to format a word document. It had ran into 40-odd pages. She was at it formatting right since lunch time till my afternoon tea and had finally given up. It was Sunday and I couldn’t say “no”, sighting some work! Well, I got on with it and to her amazement I did it in about 45 minutes or so. Well though there is nothing much to boast about it or feel proud of, it had enough spice in it for my wife and her friends to munch for the coming week! But one point that I made there was that with some computer typing skills and smartness one can save on time and frustration. And who knows, probably be a “star” for a while with your spouse’s friends !

So how did I manage to do that? Simple. Used Keyboard short-cuts! Yes there are so many keyboard shortcuts that you can virtually do away with a mouse. Though each shortcut performs different operations on different application, they do exists. And it really helps if you know few as it certainly saves you on typing effort and saves time. And if you think time is indeed money, then I can very well say that you eventually save on time, won't you! Keeping that in mind I thought of sharing with you few of the commonly used and not-so commonly used computer keyboard shortcuts. Let’s start with “Not-So” commonly used followed by few commonly used ones.

Not-So Commonly Used Computer Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows key + Pressing Pause
System Properties

Window + 1, Window + 2......Window + Any number key
Quick Launch icons - Number 1 launches the first icon, Win+2 launches the second, all the way to Win+0, which launches the 10th

Win key->tap the right-arrow key three times-> Press R.
To restart Vista without a mouse


Win+Alt+Enter
To launch Media Center

Win + Spacebar
Vista Sidebar

F6
Brings the cursor in the address line and highlights all text (web browser).

Ctrl + Enter in the address bar
Prefix the word in the address bar with “http://www.” ....and... postfix it with “.com” (web browser).

Win + R
Run Command

Ctrl + N
Opens a new instance of the current window. If its browser, then opens a new browser, if it's a Word doc, opens a new word doc

Ctrl + D
The Internet Explorer, prompts you to add the current page to favourites.

Ctrl + Q
Displays all the tabs in the current Internet Explorer browser as large icons on your screen, clicking one one takes you to that tab.

Ctrl + T
Opens a new Tab, in the current Internet explorer

Ctrl + I
Launches the Favorites from the left hand side of the screen of IE.

Ctrl + T
Indents a the select lines in Ms Word

Select file/folder then press either Left Click or F2
Renaming a file/folder in the windows explorer

Now some Commonly used computer keyboard shortcuts

Windows + E
Opens Windows Explorer.

Windows + F
Search for windows files and folders.

Windows + L
Locks computer

Win + D
Minimizes all windows. Pushing Windows + D again restores all windows which were open.

Win + R
Opens Run dialog box.

Alt + Tab
Switch between open programs.

Shift + Delete
Delete files permanently, so that you don’t have to clean up your recycle bin, every now and then.

Alt + F4
Closes opened application.

PrtScrn
Takes a screenshot.

Alt + PrtScrn
Takes a screen shot of the active window.

Ctrl + Alt + Del
Opens Windows task manager.

Ctrl + C
Copy.

Ctrl + V
Paste.

Ctrl + X
Cut.

Ctrl + F
Find (for most applications).

Ctrl + A
Highlights all text/ selects all items (files/folders/etc).

Ctrl + Tab
Switch tabs (web browser).

F11
Removes all toolbars (web browser).

Try it out. For mouse-savvy computer operators, it will take some time for you to get used to the keyboard way, but once you get it, I am sure you will appreciate the fact that time is indeed money!

Happy typing!

Insurance Softwares - things to watch out

I couldn't believe my eyes, the first day I walked into an office of this big and reputed insurance company in the UK. I couldn't believe for the fact that in today's paperless world, there were piles of paper(or should I say sprinkled papers!) over virtually every table I could see. It was hard for me to believe the fact that the antic CPU monitors was too heavy to lift for a normal size, 5.9-ish, fairly built man like me. Couldn't believe the existence of the wooden office furniture in today's commercial world.

I was there as a software consultant representing my company who was helping this insurance major to review it's lost glory due to some major devastating events in the client's past few years like the 9/11 claims, where this client was co-insurer in many cases. I had come from my company's office in Mumbai, which had a plush building and interiors to boost of. And wasn't expecting any different in the UK, my colonial Master, who taught us what is civilization! But to my utter amazement, the above is what I saw! Goshh!!! As I settled down and started getting busy with my daily routine, my disbelief started giving way to realism. During the course of my requirement gathering for the software to be developed, I came across several individuals and facts which led me to believe in what I saw on that first day. I learnt that mine was not the first consulting company, to built software for our client. In fact we were just the knowledge transferee of that legacy to carry forward. It was not long before I met an employee who has been "adorning" the same seat for last 29 years and had been part of computer systems which spanned one big room! And then I was told that the legacy software systems had been there for at least a generation. Bang! I hit the ground. Now I knew where those antic pieces and gadgets came from. I might have had plush interiors and offices back home, but my client here in the UK probably had them long before even a computer was known in my country.

And as I went on to design the software (and eliminate the horrors associated with it!), I realised that it is going to take a minimum of 5 years for any company, leave alone my company which was one of the top five consulting companies in the world, to fully understand the legacy systems and develop an umbrella software to replace those, in an effort to bring all bits under one piece of software to achieve more robustness and scalability. Well the matter doesn't stop there. Since my consultant had a 8-year revival deal with the client, it had plans of injecting new software into the mix as a part adding fast-paced growth to the already strong technology base. Now here is the problem.

By the time this so-called umbrella has been setup and stabilised, almost a three quarters of a decade would have been passed. With the technological changes taking place virtually every day, since the time the restructuring started till the time it actually happened, there would be a day light between what the insurance company had in place as opposed to what it's competitors might be working on. While the client started in on a cutting-edge technology back then, those software have now given birth to another set of legacy software, with the company still coming to terms with them! The competitors, in the meanwhile would be working on the newer technologies and reaping benefits thereof. Also in all these years you tend to lose key individuals, especially the one who maintain the software, as these personnel are mostly based out of the developing countries like India, China, Brazil and alike where the employee turnover in the software industry is very high.

This makes it important for an insurance company to constantly keep an eye on the emerging technological advancements. No matter how sound and streamlined the business processes are, in today's highly competitive market you as a leading insurer need to be on your toes and embrace the technological changes to fit into your solutions to avoid long gestation periods of IT makeovers. IT immaturity is what some of the leading and more importantly the growing insurers need to watch out for. Cost cutting to the extent of neglecting and bypassing technological breakthroughs have a cascading effects throughout the lifetime of a company. If you as a company feel that certain investment needs to be done in your IT base, then make sure you go for it, even if that means giving up of few incubation and diversification plans. Because once you have a set business process backed by a latest and well designed software technology, then diversification is less cumbersome and more promising.

So coming back to my civilized colonial Master, though the irony of what I saw on the first day was the fact that though this insurance company has been through the commercialization of it's offices, as opposed to my newly built office back in India, the insurance comapny has failed to cash on the important software technological advancements over the years, resulting in far less robust and rigid IT support.