June Jaunts

Of freaky phones and deviant devices.

Every noon and every night I trawl and tunnel the Internet looking for inventive thinking and radical intellect. From the ends of cyber Earth to the posteriors of the silicon world, I travel ensconced firmly in the saddle of my mouse, poking and prying for persuasive silicon microcosms that are either potent or peculiar.

I know I wrote about cell phones a month ago. But what-to-do, some of my rodentary jaunts this June have revealed some really adhbhut mobile handsets that I just have to share with you right here right now.

Retro GSM Rotary Phone
Can’t believe your eyes, can you dude? Slip your regular SIM card into it and the contraption actually works as a fully functional GSM cell phone. That rotary dial of the days of yore functions as it should—as a dialer. Tones and tunes? No Mika Singh setting sawan(t) afire here; it’s only the original metallic trintrin. And yeah, you can lug this Portable Rotary Phone from Spark Fun Electronics around where ever you want, just like any other mobile phone.

But hello, mai baap I wonder is mein SMS karna ho to kaisa hoga?
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=287

Samsung and B&O Serene
A slick, stylish futuristic-looking clamshell phone that almost comes across as a minimalist work of art. The minimalism seems to be literal in terms of features as well: QVGA TFT-LCD display, 0.3 megapixel cam (yes, that’s 0.3!), SMS, MMS, e-mail, Bluetooth. Period. Obviously the look is the wow factor in this less-is-more Bang & Olufsen designed phone. Boasting simplicity via single-click features, a unique thumb-operated navigation wheel, and a concealed loudspeaker behind it, the solitary aim in life for this eye candy is communications. To hell with the froth and frills.
www.serenemobile.com
www.bang-olufsen.com/web2/systems/product.asp?section=systems&sub=tp&prodid=562

Nokia SURV1
First the good news: It has a scratch-resistant display, shockproof case, GPS, MP3 player, and a flashlight. You can snap it on as a belt clip or adorn your neckline (a largish pendant, but never mind). It has no buttons and operates only via the touchscreen. It’s waterproof and can go scuba diving with you. It’s a Nokia. Now the bad news: It’s still a concept phone. After you’ve finished with kicking my behind mentally for this, surf around in the Nokia Concept Lounge to some more cool and crazy stuff.
http://conceptlounge.nokia.be/eng/index.asp?&audio=1

Retro Cell Phone Stun Gun
Armed and dangerous! Watch your moves buster, this retro renegade mobile phone also doubles up as an integrated stun gun. Flick the volume switch and the top of the phone and voila, it starts emitting an electromagnetic wave that is strong enough to knock the socks off anyone who tries to mess with you. Unfortunately, the bit about calling it a cell phone is all fraud-baazi. This Shock Stick thingie is not meant to function like a cell. Bit expensive piece of self-defence equipment at $867, nahin? And methinks, with an unwieldy, monster instrument like this, why bother with electromagnetic fundas; simply use it to clobber the opposition on the cranial pan…
http://www.phonedaily.com/news/?news_id=3839

Vodafone 904SH Face Recognition Phone
Maybe Vodafone should call it Wot-a-phone. With this W-CDMA flipper you can trash the PIN number that you use for locking your cell to secure it from sneaky, slimy scoundrels. Because the 904SH comes with an in-built OKI face recognition sensor that ogles your beauteous mug before authorising usage. Other trimmings: 2.4-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a motion sensor. Usage is not restrictive; you can teach it to recognise anyone, including your Tommy kutta…
www.vodafone.jp/english/products/model_3G/v904sh/index.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 13 - Outlook 1

Correct me if I’m off beam, but as far as office suites go there seems to be no work-alike alternative to Microsoft Outlook. The OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) cupboard is bare. Corel WordPerfect Office is always pretending to look the other way. And Google has just about started collating its goodies (Gmail, Writely, Calendar, and Spreadsheets). So until Mozilla Lightning (www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/releases/lightning0.1.html) graduates from infancy (version 0.1) and strikes a chord, we must live with and learn to love what we have: Microsoft Outlook.

For those who came late, Outlook is a personal information manager (PIM) that’s part of the Microsoft Office suite. Though popularly used just as an e-mail app, it also provides an integrated calendar function, task and contact management, note taking, and a journal. You can use it as a standalone or in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server for collaborative functions across multiple users--like shared mailboxes and calendars, public folders and meeting time allocation--in an organisation.

Now for some essential Outlook keyboard buckshot…

NAVIGATING
Ctrl + 1: Switches to Mail
Ctrl + 2: Switches to Calendar
Ctrl + 3: Switches to Contacts
Ctrl + 4: Switches to Tasks
Ctrl + 5: Switches to Notes
Ctrl + 6: Switches to Folder List in Navigation Pane
Ctrl + 7: Switches to Shortcuts
Ctrl + , (coma): Next item (with item open)
Ctrl + . (period): Previous item (with item open)
F6 or Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Switches between Folder List and main Outlook window
Tab: Moves among Outlook window, Navigation Pane, and Reading Pane
Arrow keys: Moves around within Navigation Pane
Ctrl + Y: Goes to different folder
+ (plus ) or - (minus ) from Numeric keypad: Expand/collapse group (with group selected) in Navigation Pane
Left and right arrow keys: Collapse/expand group in e-mail message list

CREATING AN ITEM OR FILE
Ctrl + Shift + A: Appointment
Ctrl + Shift + C: Contact
Ctrl + Shift + L: Distribution list
Ctrl + Shift + X: Fax
Ctrl + Shift + E: Folder
Ctrl + Shift + J: Journal entry
Ctrl + Shift + Q: Meeting request
Ctrl + Shift + M: Message
Ctrl + Shift + N: Note
Ctrl + Shift + H: New Office document
Ctrl + Shift + S: Post in this folder
Ctrl + Shift + P: Search Folder
Ctrl + Shift + K: Task
Ctrl + Shift + U: Task request

ALL ITEMS
Shift + F1: Displays ScreenTip for active element
Ctrl + S or Shift + F12: Saves
Alt + S: Saves and Closes, Sends
F12: Saves As
Ctrl + Z or Alt + Backspace: Undoes
Ctrl + D: Deletes
Ctrl + P: Prints
Ctrl + Shift + Y: Copies item
Ctrl + Shift + V: Moves item
Ctrl + K (using the Outlook e-mail editor): Checks names
F7: Checks spelling
Ctrl + Shift + G: Flags for follow-up
Ctrl + F: Forwards
Alt + S: Sends/posts/invites all
F3 or Ctrl + E: Finds items
F4: Searches for text in items
Shift + F4: Finds next during text search
Ctrl + Shift + F: Uses Advanced Find
Ctrl + Shift + P: Creates new Search Folder
F2: Turns on editing in field (except icon view)

E-MAIL
Ctrl + Shift + I: Switches to Inbox
Ctrl + Shift + O: Switches to Outbox
Ctrl + Tab (with focus on To line) and then Tab to Accounts button: Chooses account from which to send message
Alt + S: Sends
Ctrl + R: Replies to message
Ctrl + Shift + R: Reply all to message
Ctrl + Alt + J: Marks message as not junk
Ctrl + Shift + I: Displays blocked external content (in a message)
Ctrl + Shift + S: Posts to folder
Ctrl + M or F9: Checks for new mail
Up arrow: Goes to next message
Down arrow: Goes to previous message
Alt + Up arrow: Goes to row above (message or group heading)
Alt + Down arrow: Goes to row below (message or group heading)
Ctrl + N: Composes new message
Ctrl + O: Opens received message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Displays Address Book
Ctrl + Shift + O: Converts HTML or RTF message to plain text
Insert: Adds Quick Flag to message
Ctrl + Shift + G: Displays Flag for Follow Up dialog box
Ctrl + Q: Marks as read
Ctrl + Shift + W: Shows menu to download pictures, changes automatic download settings, or adds sender to Safe Senders List.

SENDING/RECEIVING MAIL
F9: Starts send/receive for all defined Send/Receive groups with Include this group in Send/Receive (F9) selected
Shift + F9: Starts a send/receive for current folder retrieving full items (header, item, and any attachments)

CALENDAR & TASKS
Alt + C: Accepts
Alt + D: Declines

CONTACTS
Ctrl + Shift + D: Dials
F11: Enters name in Find a Contact box

FORMATTING TEXT
Alt + O: Displays Format menu
Shift + F3: Switches case (with text selected)
Ctrl + B: Bold
Ctrl + Shift + L: Adds bullets
Ctrl + I: Italics
Ctrl + T: Increases indent
Ctrl + Shift + T: Decreases indent
Ctrl + L: Left aligns
Ctrl + E: Centres
Ctrl + U: Underlines
Ctrl + ]: Increases font size
Ctrl + [: Decreases font size
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cuts
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copies
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Pastes
Ctrl + Shift + Z or Ctrl + Spacebar: Clears formatting

ADDING WEB INFO TO ITEMS
Ctrl + Left mouse button: Edits URL in body of item
Shift + Left mouse button: Specifies Web browser
Ctrl + K (When using Word as e-mail editor only): Inserts hyperlink

PRINT PREVIEWING
Ctrl + F2: Opens print preview
Alt + P: Prints
Alt + S or Alt + U: Prints preview page setup
Alt + Z: Zooms
Alt + C: Closes print preview

Sound Advice

Tune into an earful of no-cost audio apps.

From Samba's snivelling in Sholay, to the screeching tires in Speed, to the squeals in Sapne Sajan Ke, to six shooters sniping in Stagecoach, to the seetees in Satte pe Satta, to the swish of Spiderman’s sartorials... it’s all synthetic. Manufactured sound. In fact, almost everything that we hear in the movies, other than the vocals is a synthetic, deliberated dissonance. Sound effects that are conceptions of the fascinating science of sound engineering. While sound engineering is too vast and labyrinthine a subject to speak about here, we can tune into some superb free audio apps to size-up the scene.

Audiograbber
Ripping is all about converting audio (usually CDs) from their native formats to MP3, AAC or other compressed audio formats. And Audiograbber is one heck of a powerful audio ripping tool. Apart from CDs, it does external sources likes those ancient LP turntables as well as radios and cassettes. The mammoth feature list includes music normalizing, encoding of external files, track-name downloading and uploading from and to FreeDB, and ID3 tags and CD Text support.

It let’s you conjure WAV, MP3, WMA, or OGG files. A line-in-sampling function can automatically split recordings from LPs into separate tracks and deploy noise reduction. Copy-protected CDs? It takes a crack at them. And rips karaoke (CDG) discs too. Nai murgies, the interface is a little daunting but poke around in help for solace. Audiograbber doesn’t install any DLLs, OCXs, device drivers, spyware, or adware. No entry in the registry or win.ini either. Interesting na…
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95
Size: 1.59MB
www.audiograbber.com-us.net

Audacity
Here’s a solid one for recording and editing sound. This multiplatform, open-source clone of Macromedia SoundEdit16, records and edits 32-bit files and imports/exports to WAV, AIFF, MP3, and OGG. You can record at 96 KHz from a live microphone, line input, or other sources--and up to 16 channels at once.

Editing of Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files is via cut-copy-paste, dubbing, mixing, or effect additions. A built-in amplitude-envelope editor, customizable spectrogram mode, and a frequency-analysis window for audio-analysis applications are included. Built-in effects comprise bass boost, wahwah, reverb, delay, echo, phaser, reverse, noise reduction, speed and pitch changes. And VST plug-in effects are supported. Now that’s enough ammo to keep the amateur audio aficionado addicted for hours.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98
Size: 2.31MB
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

iTunes (Windows)
Time-time ki baat hai. The media junkie world was once ruled by something called WinAmp (yeah, it’s still croaking). But the foremost digital jukebox proggie now is iTunes. This tool boasts of a very polished interface, smart playlists, the ability to rip files in multiple formats (except WMA), network and library sharing, MP3 and AAC-encoding from audio CDs, CD burning, label printing, free downloads, video playback and of course seamless iPod integration.

Jaeb garam ho to the cross-platform player will let you buy music online from over 10,00,000 songs! But if you’re a bhookha-nanga freebie monger like me, you can always settle for the 250 odd free Internet radio stations to listen to. Ah, almost forgot: Integrated podcasts and parental controls bhi hain. Go fetch now.
OS: Windows XP, 2000
Size: 33.8MB
www.apple.com

Streamripper
For those who waddle the Winamp walk, here’s an add-on that gives you the ability to record streaming MP3 files to your hard disk. You can even capture tracks off Internet radio stations for future playback with this Open Source (GPL) application. It saves Shoutcast/Icecast streaming-MP3 audio in its native format while retaining the original track tags. So it actually allows you to download an entire station of music off the Internet!

In case you are wondering why you’d want to rip an Internet radio station, mull this: Several MP3 radio stations are to particular genres. So with Streamripper you can easily download collections of your preferred flavour of music--jazz, trance, rock or whatever brand of harmonics you covet.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98, 95
Size: 916.26K
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net

Productivity Cheat Sheet 12 - Word 5

Now that we are at the tail end of the Word shortcuts, let me wag my tongue a bit and tell you an open secret: You can assign a shortcut key to virtually anything you want in Word—be it a command, a macro, a font, an AutoText entry, a style, or symbol.

To do this simply go to the Tools menu, select Customize, and then Keyboard. In the Save changes in dropdown, click on the name of the current document (or template file) in which you want to save the shortcut key changes. Then, in the Categories box click on the category that contains the command or other item. In the Commands box, click on the name of the command or other item. All shortcut keys that are currently assigned will appear in the Current keys box. Now to assign a shortcut, begin shortcut key combinations with Ctrl, Alt, or a function key. Click on the Press new shortcut key box and press the shortcut key combination you want to assign.

Check Currently assigned to verify if the combo is already assigned or not. If yes, select another combo. Once done, click on Assign. To remove a shortcut, in the Current keys box, click the shortcut key you want to delete and click on Remove.

Remember, reassigning a key combo means that you can’t use it for its original purpose. So if Ctrl + I italisises text, and you reassign this combo to insert your name or whatever, you won’t be able to italisise text with Ctrl + I until you restore the original shortcut key assignment setting.

Now let’s get down to mail merge shorties in Word.

PERFORMING A MAIL MERGE
To start the Mail Merge task pane, go via Tools menu > Letters and Mailings command > Mail Merge subcommand.
Alt + Shift + F: Inserts a merge field
Alt + Shift + N: Merges a document
Alt + Shift + E: Edits a mail-merge data document.
Alt + Shift + K: Previews a mail merge
Alt + Shift + M: Prints merged document

WORKING WITH FIELDS
Alt + Shift +D: Inserts a DATE field
Alt + Ctrl + L: Inserts a LISTNUM field
Alt + Shift + P: Inserts a PAGE field
Alt + Shift + T: Insert a TIME field
Ctrl + F9: Inserts an empty field
Ctrl + Shift+F7: Updates linked information in a Word source document
F9: Updates selected fields
Ctrl + Shift+F9: Unlinks a field
Shift + F9: Switches between a selected field code and its result
Alt + F9: Switches between all field codes and their results
Alt + Shift + F9: Runs GOTOBUTTON or MACROBUTTON from the field that displays the field results
F11: Goes to the next field
Shift + F11: Goes to the previous field
Ctrl + F11: Locks a field
Ctrl + Shift + F11: Unlocks a field

SENDING E-MAIL MESSAGES
Use the following keys to e-mail a document or a message when the insertion point is in the e-mail header. Press Shift + Tab to move the insertion point into the e-mail header.
Alt + S: Sends active document (i.e. the document in which you're working) or message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Opens Address Book
Alt + K, Ctrl + K: When insertion point is in message header, checks names on To, Cc, and Bcc lines against Address Book
Alt + .: Opens Address Book in To field
Alt + C: When insertion point is in message header, opens Address Book in Cc field
Alt + B: If Bcc field is visible, opens Address Book in Bcc field. To display Bcc field, open Address Book for any field, and insert or type a name in Bcc box
Alt + J: Goes to Subject field
Alt + P: Opens Microsoft Outlook Message Options dialog box
Ctrl + Shift + G: Creates a message flag
Tab: When insertion point is in message header, moves to next box in e-mail header. When last box in e-mail header is active, TAB moves insertion point to body of document or message
Shift + Tab: Selects previous field or button in e-mail header
Ctrl + Tab: When insertion point is in message header, select Send button. You can then use the arrow keys to move to other buttons. To perform action for selected button or command, press Enter

Confidentially Yours

Cryptology and the art of keeping secrets.

“Hmm yeah I miss Rhea”! Sounds like I’m pining for someone of female persuasion, but I ain’t... It’s a code. Can you crack it? Okay, here’ another clue: “Hai seems my Mr hi ha”. Still stumped? Samjho na… Both those are just anagrams for the melody mouth of the moment, Mr. Aashiq Banaya Aapne “Himesh Reshammiya”.

Neat way of confounding people, isn’t it? But it’s nothing as confounding as the science of keeping data secure. A discipline of mathematics and computer science concerned with information security—specifically encryption, authentication and access control—cryptology naam hae tera!

Cryptology is derived from the Greek word “kryptós” connoting “hidden”. From ancient Greek “scytale” devices to Julius Caesar's simple substitution ciphers (called the Caesar cipher); from Germany's Enigma machine to protect sensitive communications in WW II to the Kamasutra’s instructions for lovers to communicate without discovery… Secret coded messages, writing with invisible ink, pig Latin, and international espionage... the need for information security has always existed.

Cryptology comprises cryptography and cryptanalysis. Cryptography is about encoding secrets—that is, the conversion or encryption of plaintext to ciphertext by cryptographers. And cryptanalysis is the reverse—decoding secrets. This decryption of ciphertext back into plaintext is carried out by cryptanalysts.

As is quite evident, plaintext (or cleartext), means “usable data”--data before encryption, or after successful decryption. And ciphertext means “encrypted data”. Ciphertext looks like “j9z3D9i7slj7sHHdghT824fls7fdfg”--a load of junk. But it isn’t. A cipher is essentially an algorithm for encryption. (And sometimes decryption too because often ciphers use a separate algo for decoding.) In modern data security, this cipher is actually one of main cooperating elements in a full “cryptosystem”. The cryptosystem is a set of algos, procedures, and protocols required by the encryption and decryption process.

One form of encryption is symmetric key cryptography. Here both the sender and receiver share the same key—or a key that is related and easy to decode. This is also known as private key, secret key, one key or single key cryptography. Since both parties must share the secret passphrase (usually a combination of upper and lower case letters and other characters), the main problem with symmetric cryptography is secure transmission of the key. An example of a secret key cryptosystem is DES.

The other form of encryption is called public key or asymmetric key cryptography. Here two different keys--one for encryption and one for decryption--are used. While decryption key must remain confidential, the encryption key can be made public. This method is also deployed to implement digital signature systems. The best known public key cryptosystem is RSA—an algorithm devised by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman in 1977 at MIT. With the appropriate resources RSA is also crackable.

An even more secure public key method is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Based on RSA, PGP (www.pgp.com) was created by Phil Zimmermann and uses it uses 128-bit key RSA. Sounds like a lot of gobbledy gook? Check out the sites mentioned in the boxes here.

Speaking of codes, I'm so fascinated by this Da Vinci Code business that I'm contemplating making a movie on it too. It’s going to be in my father tongue, Punjabi. The movie title: Vinci Da Code.



DECRYPTING ENCRYPTION

NSA's CryptoKids
www.nsa.gov/kids

International Association for Cryptologic Research
www.iacr.org

sci.crypt mini-FAQ
www.mindspring.com/~schlafly/crypto/faq.htm

Information System Security Portal
www.infosyssec.net/infosyssec/security/cry1.htm



CRYPTO STANDARDS
IEEE-1363 and forthcoming amendments
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/

US Govt. standards (DES, SHA, DSA, AES etc.)
http://csrc.nist.gov/

Others (X.9F, ISO/IEC etc.)
www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/about/chap15.pdf
http://crypto.cs.mcgill.ca/~stiglic/cryptoresources.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 11: Word - 4

Urban legend has it that J. K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter was severely economically challenged while she was writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In fact, she was so badly off that she didn’t have money to have the book’s manuscript book photocopied. So to make another copy of it, she sat down with her typewriter and typed out the whole darn thing once again. Sigh… Now if only she’d used a PC and a word processor first time round… And used our productivity cheat sheets…

CREATING, VIEWING, AND SAVING DOCUMENTS
Ctrl + N: Creates new document of current or most recent type
Ctrl + O: Opens document
Ctrl + W: Closes document
Alt + Ctrl + S: Splits the document window
Alt + Shift + C: Removes the document window split
Ctrl + S: Saves document

FINDING, REPLACING, AND BROWSING TEXT
Ctrl + F: Finds text, formatting, and special items
Alt + Ctrl + Y: Repeats find (after closing Find and Replace window).
Ctrl + H: Replaces text, specific formatting, and special items
Ctrl + G: Goes to a page, bookmark, footnote, table, comment, graphic, or other location
Alt + Ctrl + Z: Switches between documents or sections of a document, and between a document and an open e-mail message if Word is your e-mail editor
Alt + Ctrl + Home: Opens a list of browse options (use arrow keys to select an option and then press Enter to browse through a document by using the selected option)

UNDOING AND REDOING
Esc: Cancels an action
Ctrl+Z: Undoes an action
Ctrl + Y: Redoes or repeat an action

SWITCHING VIEWS
Alt + Ctrl + P: Switches to Print Layout View
Alt + Ctrl + O: Switches to Outline View
Alt + Ctrl + N: Switches to Normal View
Alt + R: Switches to Reading View
Ctrl + \: Expands or collapses subdocuments in master document

OUTLINE VIEWSAlt + Shift + Left Arrow: Promotes a paragraph
Alt + Shift + Right Arrow: Demotes a paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + N: Demotes to body text style
Alt + Shift + Up Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs up
Alt + Shift + Down Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs down
Alt + Shift + Plus Sign: Expands text under a heading
Alt + Shift + Minus Sign: Collapses text under a heading
Alt + Shift + A: Expands or collapses all text or headings
/ (slash key on numeric keypad): Hides or displays character formatting
Alt + Shift + L: Shows first line of body text or all body text
Alt + Shift + 1: Shows all headings with the Heading 1 style
Alt + Shift + n: Shows all headings up to Heading n
Ctrl + Tab: Inserts a tab character

PRINTING AND PREVIEWING DOCUMENTS
Ctrl + P: Prints document
Alt + Ctrl + I: Switches in or out of Print Preview
Arrow keys: For moving around preview page when zoomed in
PgUp or PgDn: Moves by one preview page when zoomed out
Ctrl + Home: Moves to first preview page when zoomed out
Ctrl + End: Moves to last preview page when zoomed out

REVIEWING DOCUMENTS
Alt + Ctrl + M: Inserts comment
Ctrl + Shift + E: Turns Track Changes on or off
Alt + Shift + C: Closes Reviewing Pane if it is open

READING LAYOUT VIEW
Home: Goes to beginning of document
End: Goes to end of document
Number, then Enter: Goes to page number
Ctrl + ]: Increases size of selected text by one point
Ctrl + [: Decreases size of selected text by one point
Esc: Exits reading Layout View

REFERENCES, FOOTNOTES, AND ENDNOTES
Alt + Shift + O: Marks a table of contents entry
Alt + Shift + I: Marks a table of authorities entry (citation)
Alt + Shift + X: Marks an index entry
Alt + Ctrl + F: Inserts a footnote
Alt + Ctrl + D: Inserts an endnote

WORKING WITH PAGES FOR THE WEB
To use these commands, the Web toolbar should be on. If the Web toolbar is not on, press Alt + V + T, select Web, and press Enter.
Ctrl + K: Inserts a hyperlink
Alt + Right Arrow: Goes forward one page
Alt + Left Arrow: Goes back one page
F9: Refreshes

Productivity Cheat Sheet 10: Word - 3

The first so called computer word processors the world ever knew were actually editing aids for writing software. They helped programmers edit lines of program code. In 1976 came Electric Pencil, the first real word processing program. But the first commercially successful word processing software program for microcomputers, WordStar was born three years later in 1979. WordStar taught the world that computers could be used by mere non-tech mortals like us too for creating, editing, storing, retrieving and printing documents. And the changed life on the Blue Planet forever.

In this episode we look at keyboard quickies that can help us edit and move text and graphics faster in Microsoft World.

DELETING TEXT AND GRAPHICS
Backspace: Deletes one character to the left
Ctrl + Backspace: Deletes one word to the left
Delete: Deletes one character to the right
Ctrl + Delete: Delete one word to the right
Ctrl + X: Cut selected text to the Office clipboard
Ctrl + Z: Undo the last action

COPYING AND MOVING TEXT AND GRAPHICS
Ctrl + C: Copy text or graphics
Ctrl + C, Ctrl + C: Displays the Office clipboard
F2 (then move the insertion point and press ENTER): Moves text or graphics
Alt + F3: Creates AutoText
Ctrl + V: Pastes Office clipboard contents
Alt + Shift + R: Copies the header or footer used in the previous section of the document.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Ctrl + F9: A field
Enter (after typing the first few characters of the AutoText entry name and when the ScreenTip appears): Creates an AutoText entry
Shift + Enter: Creates a line break
Ctrl + Enter: Creates a page break
Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Creates a section break
Alt + Ctrl + -: An em dash
Ctrl + -: An en dash
Ctrl + Hyphen: An optional hyphen
Ctrl + Shift + Hyphen: A nonbreaking hyphen
Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar: A nonbreaking space
Alt + Ctrl + C: The copyright symbol
Alt + Ctrl + R: The registered trademark symbol
Alt + Ctrl + T: The trademark symbol
Alt + Ctrl + . (period): An ellipsis
Ctrl +`, `: A single opening quotation mark
Ctrl +', ': A single closing quotation mark
Ctrl +`, Shift + ': Double opening quotation marks
Ctrl + ', Shift + ': Double closing quotation marks

EXTENDING A SELECTION
F8: Turns extend mode on
F8, and then pressing Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Selects the nearest character
F8 (pressing once to selects a word, twice selects a sentence, and so on): Increases the size of a selection
Shift + F8: Reduces the size of a selection
Esc: Turns extend mode off
Shift + Right Arrow: One character to the right
Shift + Left Arrow: One character to the left
Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow: To the end of a word
Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow: To the beginning of a word
Shift + Home: To the beginning of a line
Shift + End: To the end of a line
Shift + Up Arrow: One line up
Shift + Down Arrow: One line down
Ctrl+ Shift + Up Arrow: To the beginning of a paragraph
Ctrl+ Shift + Down Arrow: To the end of a paragraph
Shift + Pg Up: One screen up
Shift + Pg Dn: One screen down
Ctrl + Shift + Home: To the beginning of a document
Ctrl + Shift + End: To the end of a document
Alt + Ctrl + Shift + Pg Dn: To the end of a window
Ctrl + A: To include the entire document
Ctrl + Shift + F8, and then arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: A vertical block of text
F8 + Arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: To a specific location in a document

SELECTING TEXT AND GRAPHICS IN A TABLE
Tab: Selects the next cell's contents
Shift + Tab: Selects the preceding cell's contents
Hold down Shift and press an Arrow Key repeatedly: Extends a selection to adjacent cells
Click in the column's top or bottom cell. Hold Shift down and press Up Arrow or Down Arrow key repeatedly: Selects a column
Ctrl + Shift + F8, and then use the arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: Extends a selection (or block)
Shift + F8: Removes the selection
Alt + 5 on the numeric keypad (with Num Lock off): Selects an entire table

MOVING AN INSERTION POINT
Ctrl + Left Arrow: One word to the left
Ctrl + Right Arrow: One word to the right
Ctrl + Up Arrow: One paragraph up
Ctrl + Down Arrow: One paragraph down
Tab: One cell to the right (in a table)
Shift + Tab: One cell to the left (in a table)
Home: To the beginning of a line
End: To the end of a line
Alt + Ctrl + Pg Up: To the top of the window
Alt + Ctrl + Pg Dn: To the end of the window
Ctrl + Pg Dn: To the top of the next page
Ctrl + Pg Up: To the top of the previous page
Ctrl + End: To the end of a document
Ctrl + Home: To the beginning of a document
Shift + F5: To a previous revision
Shift + F5: After opening a document, to the location it was in when the document was last closed

MOVING AROUND IN A TABLE
Tab: Next cell in a row
Shift+Tab: Previous cell in a row
Alt+Home: First cell in a row
Alt+End: Last cell in a row
Alt+Page Up: First cell in a column
Alt+Page Down: Last cell in a column
Up Arrow: Previous row
Down Arrow: Next row

INSERTING PARAS/TAB CHARACTERS IN A TABLE
Enter: New paragraphs in a cell
Ctrl + Tab: Tab characters in a cell