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Q.
Dear
Tech Wizard,
Help!
I was working away on my document and everything just disappeared as I was typing. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
Once, I lost an irreplaceable portion of a Word document that I spent hours
creating and came close to throwing my computer out the window afterward!
I
also vividly remember another time when I was joyfully typing my heart out on a
lengthy E Mail that took me forever to write. All I did was highlight some
text and hit the wrong button, and my entire, heartfelt letter simply vanished
from the screen.
I
would really like to avoid this nasty problem in the future. Please
advise.
Signed,
Tech
Savvy Wannabe
A.
Dear Wannabe,
The
next time you get that queasy “I can’t believe I just lost everything!”
feeling in your stomach, don’t reach for the antacids.
Instead, simply take a few deep breaths and discover the Miracle of Control
Z, also known as undo.
Not only will Control Z significantly reduce stress in situations such as
those you just described, but it will also work wonders in most programs, simply
by undoing the last changes that you made.
For
example, let’s say that you are typing away on a word document and hit a key
by mistake and somehow lose everything. In other words, your computer just
ate the entire document that you were working on. I have actually seen cases
where my clients have lost hundreds of pages of work in just a few keystrokes.
I’ll explain the specific reason why this unnerving event takes place soon.
In
the meantime, here’s a juicy little secret that surprisingly few people know
about. The next time something similar to this happens, simply press the
control button and then the letter Z (while still depressing the control button)
and what you feared was lost forever will magically, instantly reappear. The
computer that you love/hate will simply undo the last thing that you did.
Try
experimenting with the undo function on a test document of a few lines and
discover for yourself just how calming it can be. Simply type out some text,
highlight it, delete it, and then hit control Z.
To
go a little deeper into past mistakes, you can actually keep hitting the control
button and Z repeatedly and your computer will undo (or restore) multiple levels
in most programs. To avoid hitting the panic button in the future, keep
experimenting with this little trick now on some unimportant document in order
to get the hang of undoing consecutive levels.
To
go even one step further and hopefully avoid future heartache, it helps to
understand exactly why the specific phenomenon of deleting an entire document by
mistake occurs in the first place.
To
put it simply, you probably hit the control + A keys instead of the Shift + A
keys as you were typing. Most likely, you simply wanted to type a capital A when
your pinky slid down to the shift key instead and hit the control key by
mistake. Control + A is a shortcut that basically means highlight all (as
in your entire document).
Now
comes the disappearing process. After hitting the control key + A by
mistake (which highlights your entire document) the very next key you hit
deletes everything! This all happens very quickly and most of the time,
you are not even consciously aware that your document has been highlighted until
it is deleted.
Keep
in mind this general fact: Whenever text is highlighted for any reason,
and you hit any key on the keyboard, your computer will delete the highlighted
text. See for yourself just how this interesting process works by
practicing on a test document. In time, you will instinctively use the
miracle of Control Z to undo mistakes in various applications and restore lost
text, saving valuable time and energy and also eliminating a great deal of
frustration.
When
it comes to learning to live peacefully with technology and keeping up with the
rapid pace of technological advances in our hyperspeed world, we can all use a
little help. I hope this little tip will prevent future problems and help
keep you moving forward with enthusiasm and confidence.
Signed,
Tech
Wizard
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