Articles in this section:

• Organise
• Useful advice

Useful advice

In this page:

• Take advantage of what we have
• Organise your files
• Organise your workspace
• Trying out new programs
• Shortcuts
• Optimisation

In the mid eighties, when computers began to be really popular, they were really very difficult to work with (with the exception of MacIntosh computers, which were intuitive and fairly easy to use right from the beginning). Certainly, it isn’t the same to be in from a black screen, struggling to type literal orders from memory, to get some results which were hardly better than the ones you could get with a typewriter or a calculator...

From the viewpoint of a person interested in audiovisual creativity, this is an age of awesome changes and innovations: an era in which the tools to create everything related with image and words are at our fingertips, with a comprehensive control. In these initial pages we start with some proposals to improve the organisation of the workspace with computers.

Taking advantage of what we have.

Computers are everywhere. And even if we try to resist, it is getting a bit difficult to lead an organised and complication-free life without using them. A few years ago, few people bothered to sign up for a ATM card. And who doesn’t use them now? una tarjeta de cajero automático. In just a few years, computers, always getting more powerful and sophisticated, have invaded our homes. Each time we’re using them for more different purposes. But no matter how powerful they get, there are some basic things that doesn’t change much. And the most important part, the user, must be aware of some simple things to take advantage of his computer as a creative tool.

Versionitis: Many users suffer a true obsession with having the last version of everything: the last and fastest processor, the most updated OS, better version 5.1.2 than 5.1.1... you get the idea. All of this, in the end, is the digital counterpart of exagerated consumerism. Everything depends on what we want to do with the system, but, really, even a vintage 486 is still a very good machine. Of course, computer prices are very affordable these days, so there is no reason to stick with some lame computer if you can afford something fancier! But what we have near at hand may be more than enough for many things.

Organising your files.

To work easily, it is very convenient to have works and programs correctly installed and saved, in a tidied workspace. Even some small organisation details are more important than it seems, because they save you bits of time continously, and in the long term they mean huge time savings.

You should never mix programs with documents. You should have special folders for different kinds of documents, and it is advisable to keep separate folders for each project. This way is very easy to track a specific file, because it is where it is supposed to be! Create as many subfolders as you need to keep everything tidy and easy to find and maintain.

Filenames should be as descriptive and meaningful as possible. Take advantage of the long names feature, but try to keep them as short as you can get away with. The name is just that, a tag, a name to locate the file, not a complete description. For detailed descriptions and organisation tasks, you may use a dedicated program with a database handling (more and more file formats are introducing fields to store information within the file: this is getting very important with graphic files, such as jpegs.) You can keep the names under 10-15 characters, having a good balance with easiness to type and read, and the descriptive naming.

When we’re working in a project where all the files are integrated (for example in a Website, an article or a book), it is advisable to create a special folder for the project. You can create a shortcut in the Windows “desktop” to access your current projects more quickly.

A well organised taskbar and start menu will let you access documents and programs faster.

Organise the desktop

You can save time —lots of it— with a good organisation of the desktop and start menu. Instead of letting each program create its own branch (something most applications default to do), just create folders that hold every shortcut to related programs.

Personally I have organized this in four groups: Text, Graphics and design, Web and Typography. Here I put up most programs I normally use. Then there is another Accessories group with some other small miscellaneous utilities and things used less frequently.

If you let each program create its own group and shorcut to its will, you will end up with: a) lots of clutter and b) an overpopulated desktop and start menu. Furthermore, locating the shortcut to a specific application can be tricky: a program may install itself in an almost hidden branch, such as: Programs > Corel > CorelDraw > Corel Draw. If you want to access these programs faster, obviously this is no deal. Just move them all to a structure that makes sense to you.

Whenever you want to make some change in the Start menu, you can just drag and drop one item from one folder to another. If this isn’t possible, check the Taskbar and Start menu options to allow drag and drop; alternatively, you can rearrange the menu items going to the advanced options in the pop-up menu of the Taskbar. Simply click it anywhere with the right button of your mouse.

Use these options to customize your start menu to your preferences, getting rid of whatever folder you think is unnecessary, renaming some if you wish, moving shortcuts around, and you will speed up your daily work with the computer in a very easy and convenient way.

Trying out new programs.

Trying new applications mustn’t be intimidating. Most Windows and Mac programs have ended up working in a very similar way, due to competition and standarisation of interfaces. Some compare this tendency to evolutionary convergence: the body shape and the best working systems get selected in different groups of animals which lead a similar way of life, thus evolving towards what at first glance is a similar body model: a dolphin, a shark, an Ichtyosaurus... Computer programs tend to copy and adapt the interface, menus, palettes, icons and other features from other programs.

Since the interface of Windows programs is rather consistent (or at least not openly contradictory) it’s easy to jump from one application to another. This way we learn what’s best in each one and we select what’s best for our own purposes and ways of working.

It is very worth it learning well the basics or the computer regarding file management, text edition, using the graphic interface (moving through the menus and options...) because this will let us access every bit of our PC.

I use many different programs every day, and I find a bit boring doing always the same things with the same tools. Experimenting, trying out programs is something entertaining and eye-opening. Most programs are very intuitive to use right from the start, although it’s true that to use them with professional productivity is a question of time and dedication.)

The help system provided with computer programs is getting more complete and graphical all the time. I think it’s unnecessary to read it all before attempting to use the program, but it’s good to know it’s there to use it to solve specific doubts. Many applications offer a contextual help system that lets you know more about the specific task you’re trying to do at that same moment. This means getting to the point and really avoiding the trouble to search the help you need. The usual way to access this kind of help is clicking some “help” key, or in an interrogation sign in the specific palette you’re using; if you are somewhere else in the program, try clicking the secondary (right) button of the mouse. Other useful help options include searching terms for help in the Main help window, and following the tutorials included with the program, step-by-step instructions which lead you to solve a specific problem or teach you how to do something with the application.

Shortcuts.

Keyboard shorcuts are the perfect way to save time and effort. I know many experienced users who, however, ignore some little details that could mean lots of time saving for them: the time you waste moving your mouse around when you could simply type one or two keys.

The right button of the mouse isn’t a decorative piece, I mean it! Most programs use this sadly ignored button to access relevant options in a specific task. Try it out clicking wherever you want on your desktop or within a program. If you do it on your desktop, a menu with configuration options for the workspace will pop up. For each program this system works very similarly, and it lets us choose options for what we are doing right now, and we can do it much faster than throught the main menu.

Another very effective way to save time: use the keyboard shorcuts. All applications let you take advantage of them, and if we work frequently with some program, using its shortcuts will let us save lots of time.

Each program has its own specific key orders to do different tasks, but many of these shorcuts are common in most Windows applications. For example, with Control plus C [Ctrl + C], we copy what we have just selected, and Ctrl + V pastes it in the desired position. Memorizing some shorcuts may seem a nasty thing to do (or a drawback to the computers’ past, pre-mouse), but it is very likely that you learn the shorcuts without any effort. Each time you visit the menu to choose some option, you’ll realise there is a Shortcut indicated by its side. Learning the most commonly used ones will save you many trips to the Menu, your hands will rest more and you will save lots of time in the long run.

A fundamental shorcut: application chick change.

When you’re using several applications at the same time, how do you jump from one to another? Do you search the program in your Taskbar and click on it? There is a faster way: click with your left hand the Alt and Tab keys; keep the Alt key pressed and each click on the Tab key will jump from one of the open windows to the following one. Just try it out. This is an essential trick, especially if you have many open windows cluttering your desktop and your taskbar. It’s safer and much faster than using the mouse. And if you still don’t use a Browser with tabs (for example IE 6 or lower), you must definitely need it!

It is also very convenient to use the movement keys (the arrow keys on the right side of your keyboard, between the alphabetic and the numeric parts). Using these keys properly, aloen or in combination with the Control and Shift keys lets you move throughout the documents, sometimes faster and more precisely than using the mouse. Check it out in your user’s manual, so you can learn, for example, that to select all the text in a document starting at the cursor’s position, it’s better with Ctrl + Shift + End than with a long mouse crawling!

Optimising tips

If you want to make sure your computer works efficiently, you should check out the manual and see the system requirements and recommendations. Sometimes, the program distributors are very modest with the theoretical requirements (minimum requirements) for one program. You try to run the program at such conditions, only to realise it crawls and hangs. The recommended configuration tends to be more realistic!

There is a short list of basic, effective rules:

• Get rid if you can of animations in the menus; they only slow down your work;
• if your system has limited resources, don’t use a wallpaper for your desktop. It’s beautiful, but it eats some memory unnecesarily.
• Configure your screen optimally. Graphic cards are getting more powerful all the time, and this is becoming a minor problem, but anyway it is good to check it out, especially if you still work with legacy computer equipment. It’s preferable to work always in true colour mode, 24 bits —as soon as the graphic card allows it. Any computer manufactured since 1995 at least will do it... The images, especially photographic images, will be rendered quickly, because the system doesn’t need to change their display to some more modest visualisation model, such as 256 colours.
• If you want to check out your screen configuration, and also your wallpaper, video mode, etc. just right-click on your desktop and a dialog box will pop up. There you can adjust the different options to your needs or to your liking. In the “configuration” (see imagen), you will see the resolution and number of colours used by your current display system. Choose the right ones (colour 24 to 32 bits — in a Mac, it used to be called “millions of colors”.)
• The screen resolution one should choose depends on the size of your monitor, and it can be measured in píxels (the points that make up images in your screen with projected light.) For older monitors with only 14 inches, it’s advisable to keep the resolution to 640 x 480 pixels. For 15 inches, we can choose up to 800 x 600. With 17 inches, which have become the standard from some time on, choose a minimun of 800 x 600 (you can increase it to 1024 x 768.) And so on; the bigger the monitor, the higher the resolution you can enjoy.
• Disc Defragmentation. Windows include a defragmentation utility in the Accessories folder. The process of defragmentation simply moves the stored information in your hard disk so it’s more compact and minimises empty spaces. It doesn’t delete nor change anything, but it makes it faster to recover data and the overall speed increases.
• If you can, create partitions in your disk. The OS should be on its own partition. Keep another partition for data and another for program installations. The best thing is creating your disk partitions when you first set up the system, but it’s always possible to create partitions later and manage them with utilities like Partition Magic.
• Optimise the system memory: with current standards such as 1 Gigabyte or more of memory per computer, this is getting a minor issue, but let’s not forget that as soon as the computer memory increases, the voracity of the programs with is also bigger. Most designers tend to run several programs together, and in this scenario, memory management becomes necessary. Modern windows systems manage it better than in the past, but there are some specific utilities which let you free memory, like Rambooster (freeware) de http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/
• And, naturally, we must prevent our computer to get infected with some virus. Viri (Viruses) are small programs —created by people with bad intention— that run themselves together with other executable files, or disguise themselves as such. In other words, when we run an infected file, the virus acts. Viruses can run havok in your system: they will suppress data, steal personal information and send it through your internet connection, or they will not let you run other programs. Many viruses propagate through Word (*.DOC) files and also through the Internet, via e-mail or in malicious websites. As a general rule, have an updated antivirus program and never open a file of unknown origin: quarantine it and scan it with the antivirus. Having an updated antivirus is vital, because new viruses are spreading every day. Some of the best known antivirus are Norton, McAfee and Panda. Most of them offer some kind of evaluation version and their approximate price is about 40 dollars/euros. There is some offer in the freeware category, downloadable in the net. Some of the best and more recommended by specialised magazines (with excellent marks in the comparative tests):
  • http://www.ikarus.at (Virus Utilities)
  • http://www.dials.ru (Doctor Web)
  • http://www.vintage-solutions.com (Antidote)
  • http://www.leprechaun.com.au (RHBVS).
  • http://www.grisoft.com (Grisoft Antivirus).
  • http://www.antivir.de (Antivir).