Chances are that you have more favorites that you want quick access to, but they get pushed off the bookmarks bar because the titles are too long.

Good news everyone! There is a way to shorten the titles, or in some cases even remove the titles altogether to compact the favorite link, and thus making more room for favorites on the bookmarks bar.

In Google Chrome, simply right-click on the bookmark and click Edit in the pop-up menu. Here you can either rename the bookmark or eliminate the title entirely. Here is what the Gmail favorite looks like with a shortened title, and without a title.

And here is what my  bookmarks bar looks like with more titles removed. In some cases the icon may be generic, or may not be distinctive enough for you to recognize what it is without the title, in this case the American Express icon is a bit too generic and I might forget what it’s for if I completely remove the title. Or if the website doesn’t have a distinctive favorite icon you might just see the generic browser shortcut icon.

Chrome bookmarks bar

Other browsers have the ability to edit or shorten the bookmark favorites. In Firefox, right-click on the bookmark and select Properties. Here you can edit or delete the name.

Firefox - bookmark properties window

Internet Explorer is somewhat limited in its favorite bar customization. Here you can only select, Long titles, Short titles, or Icons only. Here in this screenshot you can see the long titles. In Internet Explorer, right-click on a bookmark, click Custom title widths, then choose your option.

Internet Explorer 9 favorites bar

And here is the Internet Explorer favorites bar with Short titles, and Icons only.

First turn off your computer. Chances are that if you are still using a ball mouse, it has a PS/2 connector (round plug with pins), which requires that the computer be shut off when plugging/unplugging the mouse.

Next assemble your cleaning tools. Here I have a bent paper clip, a pen, and a craft knife. You pretty much only need one, so you can use whatever pointy object you happen to have lying around.

To take out the ball, you need to twist the cover plate, then turn the mouse over, and the cover plate and ball should drop right out.

Inside you will see 2 long rollers and 1 small white roller. You probably see some gunk built up on the rollers, this is what needs to be cleaned off.

Very, very carefully run your pointy object along the roller to remove the gunk. Do not try to pry out the rollers, as this will surely break your mouse.

After you scrubbed the gunk off you can blow it out with compressed air, or just turn the mouse over and tap on the mouse to let the dirt fall out.

Reassemble your mouse by placing the ball in, put the cover on and twist to lock it. Plug your mouse back into the computer (while powered off) and turn the computer on.

Enjoy your clean mouse with nice smooth tracking action.

Before we go any further, please DO NOT stick your keyboard in the dishwasher, or submerge it in any other way, shape, form or fashion. A keyboard may seem resilient, but let me assure you that spilling enough water on a keyboard will break it.

First assemble some basic cleaning supplies: Paper towel (or microfiber cloth), compressed air, and a mild household cleaner (I like Simplegreen).

Next, remove the batteries from the keyboard if it’s wireless, or unplug it from the computer if it’s USB. If you have an old style PS/2 (round plug with pins) keyboard, you need to turn your computer off first before unplugging it.

Then turn the keyboard upside down (keys facing the ground) or tilt it on end (shown below) and use short bursts of compressed air to blow out any dirt, dust, crumbs, hair, and other nasties. You probably want to do this outside or over a trashcan. If you have never cleaned your keyboard, it might be pretty bad. Don’t use a vacuum to do this, there generally isn’t enough precise sucking power to get the grime out, and you might inadvertently suck up a key.

Finally, use a paper towel or microfiber cloth, spray some cleaner on the towel and gently, GENTLY, wipe down the keys. Be very careful not to rub too hard and snag the corner of a key, or you may pop off the key and end up having to purchase a new keyboard anyway. Also, do not spray the cleaner directly on the keyboard, always apply cleaner to the towel.

That’s pretty much it. Put the batteries back in, or plug the USB cable back into the computer and enjoy your freshly cleaned keyboard. This can also be applied to your mouse, which probably hasn’t ever been cleaned either.

For years people have been using WinZip, not purchasing it, and using the “trial” version which made you wait while prompting you to purchase a license before actually opening. Which for the most part is ridiculous, especially considering that Windows has built in zip capability.

For those of you who need to deal RARs, GZips, TARs, or who want greater control over their Zip files, 7-Zip is an open source (read as: free) file compression program. 7-Zip opens pretty much every file compression type out there, including their own proprietary .7z compression type which they claim to have greater compression efficiency than RAR.

Windows 7 System Properties

The 7-Zip download page has 2 install versions depending on your version of Windows, either 32-bit or 64-bit. To find out what version of Windows you have, right-click on My Computer (or Computer in Windows Vista and 7), select Properties in the pop-up menu. Look under the System section, and you will see if it is 32-bit or 64-bit. In Windows XP if you don’t specifically see “64-bit” then it is 32-bit.

As screens get larger and have higher resolutions, we need to move our cursor farther to move from one side of the screen to the other. While I don’t always use this key sequence, I do find it useful from time to time. 

Use Command and Q on your keyboard to quit an app in OS X.

Command and W in OS X.

Use Command and T in OS X.

Cycling through open programs (windows)

In Windows press and hold Alt on your keyboard, then press and release Tab (while still holding Alt), this brings up the programs and windows that are currently open on your computer. While continuing to hold Alt, and then pressing and releasing Tab, you will see that you can cycle through the different tasks. If you let go of both Alt and Tab you will now be focused on the highlighted task.

On a Mac, pressing and holding Command and then pressing an releasing Tab will achieve the same effect.

If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can hit the alternative Windows key and Tab, which will bring up a fancier 3D type task switcher. Personally I never use this, but I guess it is sort of cool.

Cycling through open Internet browser tabs

Following up with last weeks post about browser tabs, you can easily cycle through your open tabs by pressing and holding Ctrl on your keyboard, and then pressing and releasing Tab. This doesn’t bring up a fancy task switcher like switching tasks in Windows, but you will immediately see the effect as the next tab comes to the front. Ctrl+Tab works in pretty much all browsers that support tabs, as far as I know.

If you start getting a hang of tabbing through your, uh, tabs, you might notice that it always goes from left to right. This can sometimes be a pain if you have a lot of tabs open. Enter the Ctrl+Shift+Tab, which allows you to tab through your browser tabs from right to left. Press and hold Ctrl, press and hold Shift, and press and release Tab to cycle through the tabs.

This might require you to get used to doing some keyboard Capoeira, but you’ll get used to it. I use my left thumb to hit Ctrl, and my left middle finger to tap on Tab. If I need to Ctrl+Shift+Tab, I use my left thumb for Ctrl, my left middle finger for Tab, and my left index finger for Shift.

Fortunately or unfortunately different shortcuts work for different people, and more confusing keyboard hotkey combinations might not work for you. For example, if he had his choice, Brandon would eliminate the keyboard altogether and just use a mouse. So give it a try, and see how you like it.

Edit:

There is also an Alt+Shift+Tab for cycling right-left through open programs and windows.

Tabs allow you to have multiple websites open simultaneously in the same browser window, which makes jumping from site to site easier to manage. This is particularly useful when researching a subject, keeping your webmail open in the background, or doing comparison shopping online.

Fortunately most modern web browsers follow the same design trend, which means that tabs function more or less the same in different browsers. For the purposes of this post we will just cover the general concept.

Here is a picture of Google Chrome with 3 tabs open. You can see that contained in the same browser window there are multiple tabs, each having its own website loaded.

Chrome with 3 tabs open

Clicking on a different tab brings that tab to the front.

Click on a tab to bring it to the front

Add a new tab by clicking the plus icon, or partial tab to the farthest right. Below you can see how several different browsers implement their tab feature.

Internet Explorer 8

Firefox 3.6

Google Chrome 9

Opera 10.63

Most browsers even allow you to sort/rearrange your tabs. Click on the tab you want to move, drag it to the position where you want to move it, and let go. Most browsers will give some sort of indication that you are placing the tab in the right place.

Move tab - original location

Move tab - click and drag

Move tab - drop the tab in its new destination

Closing a tab is just as simple. Click the tab that you want to close, and click the “x” icon, usually on the right of the tab. In some browsers if there is only 1 tab open, the “x” icon will not show up on the tab, but instead on the main browser window.

Close tab - in Chrome

Some browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) even allow you to move tabs between browser windows (Internet Explorer 8 does not). I already hear some of you asking, “why would you want to do this?” Organization and flexibility. This function allows you to group tabs with similar content together, and move them around as you please.

Moving tabs between windows

Click the tab you want to move, drag to destination window

Drop the tab in the new window

You can even “tear” a tab off a window and create a new window.

Click the tab you want to tear off

Drag the tab to an open area of the desktop

Drop the tab to create a new window

I use tabs extensively, and by extensively I mean sometimes I have several windows open with a dozen tabs each. This doesn’t happen all the time and may be an extreme case, but I find it immensely useful when researching a topic so I can easily jump back to an article I previously found.

Press the Windows key and the letter D simultaneously on your keyboard. This will minimize, then restore the open windows on your Windows computer.