
for May 5, 2004 Shopper webmaster will be gone the week of May 12, so the week of May 19 we'll also publish May 12.
Hi, All;
This Week: The Refresh Key
Have you ever experienced the following: While using Windows Explorer and looking at a folder, make a change to one of the filenames, but have nothing change on the screen? The file you just renamed has the same old name. What happened?
What happened is Windows did not refresh the screen by itself as it is supposed to. But with a quick press of the "F5" key, your screen is refreshed with the changes you made. This works only in Windows Explorer, as the "F" keys, functions are program-specific. The "F" stands for "Function," and these keys, were used in the ancient mainframe and dumb terminal days to get the mainframes attention to run a "function" that was programmed to one of the 12 "F" keys. They do the same thing on your PC. There is one key that is designated as standard on all Windows-authorized programs, the "F1" key. "F1" is to be used to call up the "help" windows, and if you are lost in a Windows program, you can press "F1" and get a help screen to appear. Press it only once if you are running Windows XP, as the help screen that displays is the online help screen from Microsoft, so it takes a while to load. If you press it more than once, you get a help screen for each press of the button! To find out what the "F" keys do in your program, press "F1" and type "shortcut keys" or "function keys" and see what your program is telling them to do. '
Til next week, (ComputerFAQ#187)
Robert
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