Windows 7: It’s the Little Things
Sure, Win7 has some high profile changes and additions: the new taskbar, jump lists, libraries, multi-touch support, remote media streaming and so forth. But sometimes it’s the little improvements that add up to make a big difference in your day-to-day computing experience.
A case in point: in previous versions of Windows, you could rename a file or group of files by highlighting it/them and pressing F2. You can still do that – but now there’s a minor twist that saves you a few keystrokes. Only the file name becomes editable, so you don’t have to retype the file extension (and possibly risk getting it wrong and rendering the file unusable). It’s a little thing, but it’s a nice touch.
Here’s another that may be important to some of us whose eyes are getting older. Remember how, in Vista, if you wanted to magnify a part of the screen, you had to go into Start | All Programs | Accessories | Ease of Use or open the Start menu and type Magnifier in the Search box? In Windows 7, magnifying the screen is a whole lot easier. At any time, in any window, just hold down the Windows Logo key and tap the plus (+) key to zoom in and magnify the screen by 200%. Windows Logo and the minus (-) key will return the display to normal.
Then there are the nice enhancements to long-time built-in Windows applications, such as the calculator. In Vista, I downloaded desktop gadgets for quick conversion of units of measurement, temperature scales, and so forth. With Windows 7, a unit converter is built right into the calculator.
Just click View and select Unit conversion and you’ll get options for converting angles, area, energy, length, power, pressure, temperature, time, velocity, volume and weight. There is also a date calculator that you can use to find out the difference between two dates, or add or subtract days to/from a specific date. Want to know how many shopping days ‘til Christmas? It’s an easy calculation.
There are even worksheets for figuring out your monthly mortgage payment (based on purchase price, down payment, term and interest rate), vehicle lease information, and fuel economy.
For those of us who do many slideshow presentations, the ease with which you can switch the display between monitors or to a projector is a welcome addition.
The Windows Logo key plus P brings up the DisplaySwitch application that makes it quick and simple.
There are “little” improvements such as these scattered throughout Windows 7, and although they may not get as much publicity as the big blockbuster features, they go a long way toward helping you get things done faster.
- Debra Littlejohn Shinder
deb@shinder.net www.debshinder.com
Walter on November 11, 2009 at 01:26 PM
Even cooler about the renaming. If you have a name highlighted, type the new name of the file and then hit Tab. It automatically takes you to the next file and selects the name, so you can just keep typing. Makes it easy to rename lots of files that don't fit a pattern.
googly on November 13, 2009 at 09:20 AM
The first thing was a feature in Vista's Explorer too, so it's not new.
sweden study on January 14, 2010 at 02:49 PM
yes i think its not new any more ___!
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