New Technology Reviews!.: handy

CommandLineFu: Amazing Collection Of Command Line Gems [Linux & Mac]

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
 
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line" class="aligncenter" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/b8d8f47276u-icon.png.png" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/b8d8f47276u-icon.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />Browse an assortment of amazingly useful commands. Whether you’re an veteran system admin or a command-line neophyte striving to discover more, CommandLineFu is a vote-driven collection of commands that serves up thousands of ideas you should have thought of but didn’t.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Some see the command line as Linux’s weak point, the ultimate symbol of a system lacking ease of use. Others know the command line as one of Linux’s best features, giving learned users quick access to features most computer users don’t even know exist. There’s a reason even Mac OS X comes with a full-featured terminal. CommandLineFu is an encyclopedia of exactly those features. A database featuring over 8,000 unique commands, this site can seem overwhelming at first – just like the command line itself. Dig in though, and you will wonder just how you used a computer without the command line.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Sorry, Windows users – the majority of these commands only work on Linux. Some work on Mac OS X as well.</div>
<h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Browsing</h2>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Head over to CommandLineFu to get started. You will immediately see the commands submitted most recently.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
You can “grep” (read: search) the archive, if you want, or simply click “All Time Greats” to see the most popular commands. Or if you prefer, simply browse the massive tag cloud that makes up this sites right sidebar.</div>
<h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
A Few Highlight Commands</h2>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Experienced command line users will immediately find things they are interested in, but what about everyone else? Here is a quick list of my discoveries from this site.</div>
<h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Quick, Temporary Web Server</h3>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Want to quickly share a file with someone? Set up your own web server in a few keystrokes with this handy command:</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<code>python -m SimpleHTTPServer</code></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Just like that, your current directory will be shared. Here’s what it looks like in a web browser:</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/745ccafae1mphost.png.png" height="176" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/745ccafae1mphost.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="408" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Naturally, you’re going to need to set up your router properly if you want to share with someone outside your current network. A dedicated IP or a service like DynDNS will also be needed. Still, for local file sharing, it’s hard to beat the above command: it’s quick and easy. It worked for me on Ubuntu and OS X.</div>
<h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Run Preview Command As Sudo</h3>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
This one’s probably only useful for users of Ubuntu, or other systems utilizing sudo. It allows you to re-run the last command you executed as sudo, perfect if you forgot to add that vital preface.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line tools" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/8d7c94faeau-sudo.png.png" height="178" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/8d7c94faeau-sudo.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="580" /></div>
<h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
See Your Unread Emails</h3>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Want a quick rundown of your unread emails? this simple command can do the trick, provided your email client of choice is Gmail.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line tools" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/d9f5af2884gmail.png.png" height="233" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/d9f5af2884gmail.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="580" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
It worked for me on Ubuntu and OS X; Linux users should make sure “curl” is installed.</div>
<h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
See Your Mounted Devices</h3>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
A mounted device is any storage drive plugged into your system and working. Need to see a full list of them? Simple.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line tools" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/09c9da951founted.png.png" height="188" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/09c9da951founted.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="580" /></div>
<h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Watch A Text Version of StarWars</h3>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Okay, this one’s not useful. It is, however, awesome. Watch a text-only version of Star Wars, complete with ASCII animated characters:</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="linux command line" data-mce-src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2069733e23arwars.png.png" height="358" src="http://www.new-technology-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2069733e23arwars.png.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="580" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
The code for this is simple:</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<code>telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl</code></div>
<h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
3 Different Feeds</h2>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Do you want to know every time a new awesome command is discovered? CommandLineFu offers three different Twitter and RSS feeds for just that purpose. Which one you use depends on how frequently you want updates; check them all out here.</div>
<h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Conclusion</h2>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
This site is awesome. Exploring it can teach you a great deal about not only the command line but also about computers in general.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Did you learn anything cool? Share links to your favorite commands in the comments below, or just list them yourself.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<img alt="" data-mce-src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Makeuseof/~4/nBsvD7tVQS0" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Makeuseof/~4/nBsvD7tVQS0" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" width="1" /></div>
</div>

CommandLineFu: Amazing Collection Of Command Line Gems [Linux & Mac]

Browse an assortment of amazingly useful commands. Whether you’re an veteran system admin or a command-line neophyte striving to discover...

Tutorial: 15 handy Excel tips, tricks and techniques

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.helpdesk.alt-200-200.jpg"> Getting the most from Excel is a vocation – there are books bigger than concrete blocks on the subject. If you're dedicated enough to read one or two, the passage to an Excel black belt is assured – as is the loss of weeks or maybe months of your life. Instead, try our Excel tips – they should ensure you're getting more from Excel in next to no time. 1. Master the clipboard pane The clipboard can be very useful when using Excel, as you often need to cut or copy and paste information from one part of a sheet to another, or between different sheets and workbooks. The chances are that you'll need to repeatedly copy and paste different items at different times, depending on the complexity of the task in hand. You can make this easier by opening the clipboard pane as it enables you to handle multiple clipboard items at the same time. On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the arrow button to the bottom right of the Clipboard group to toggle it open or closed. 2. Open ribbon dialogs You'll find similar buttons in the bottom right of numerous different ribbon groups on various different tabs. Clicking one will open a related dialog that includes each of the tools in that group, plus a few more for good measure. If you've used Office in a version prior to 2007, you may recognise many of these dialogs as they're identical to ones that used to be launched from Excel menus in Office 2003 and before. Where a ribbon group doesn't have a dialog button, it has no more hidden tools. 3. Update calculations manually By default, Excel performs calculations in real time, updating each value as you input numbers or as the data changes. This is a handy feature because you can be sure that all your values are up to date. However, as spreadsheets become more complicated and include thousands of values or more, automatic calculation can cause a significant lag after each keystroke. You can disable this feature by going to the Formulas tab of the ribbon and choosing 'Calculation Options | Manual' from the Calculation group. Now you need to press [F9] to update calculations after inputting any new data. 4. Lock copy formatting If you need to apply the same formatting to a number of different cells, you can do so quickly by locking the Copy Formatting tool. Apply the formatting options that you want to the first cell – for instance, bold red text with a yellow background. Select this cell and double-click the 'Format Painter' button in the Clipboard group of the Home tab. This is now locked on. Any cell that you click into will take on the formatting of the source cell. Click each cell you want to format in this way and then double-click the 'Format Painter' button to turn the lock off . 5. Customise the Quick Access Toolbar The Quick Access Toolbar appears in the top left-hand corner of the Excel window in Excel 2007 and 2010. By default, it contains buttons to save your work and undo or redo/repeat the last action. You can customise what appears here, and it's a very useful place to dock your most commonly used tools. Click the 'Office' button followed by 'Excel Options' and 'Customize' in Excel 2007. In Excel 2010, choose 'File | Options | Quick Access Toolbar'. Select a tool that you want to add in the left-hand column and click 'Add'. Change the available commands using the dropdown list labelled 'Choose commands from'. Click 'OK' to save your changes. 6. Move the Quick Access Toolbar When you're customising the Quick Access Toolbar, you can opt to have it displayed at the bottom of the ribbon instead of at the top of the window. This means you won't have to move the mouse pointer as far to access each tool in the Quick Access Toolbar. Tick the box marked 'Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon' in the 'Customise Quick Access Toolbar' dialog. You can opt to apply your customisations to the current file or to all Excel files. 7. Increase compatibility There are plenty of people still using Office 2003 and earlier. If they haven't kept up to date with updates and import filters, there's every chance that they won't be able to open '.XLSX' files without going to some trouble. Remove this potential hassle by setting your default save format as Excel 97-2003. Click the 'Office' button and choose 'Excel Options | Save'. Under 'Save Workbooks', choose 'Excel 97-2003 Workbook' and click 'OK'. In Excel 2010, simply choose 'File | Options | Save | Excel 97-2003 Workbook'. 8. Copy as a picture <img alt="copy as picture" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.helpdesk.as_picture-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> If you need to copy a chart or a set of cells to a new location outside Excel, consider doing so as a picture. You won't be able to further process the data, but all your formatting options will be preserved. Select the chart or cell range and then click the downward arrow below 'Paste'. Choose 'As Picture | Copy As Picture'. You can now paste the image file wherever you like. 9. Name a range Quickly create a named range of cells that you can return to later by selecting the cells you want to name and then clicking in the cell name bar directly to the left of the formula bar. Enter the name you want to give to this range of cells and press [Enter]. You can now quickly return to this cell range by clicking the arrow to the right of the cell name bar and choosing the range that you previously saved. You can store several cell ranges. 10. Change the editing order When you're entering data in a set of cells and you press [Enter], by default you move down to the next cell in the column. If you're entering data across rows, you can change this behaviour. In Excel 2007, click the 'Office' button, followed by 'Excel Options', or in Excel 2010, choose 'File | Options'. Now select 'Advanced' and tick the box marked 'After pressing enter move selection'. Change the direction in the dropdown list. 11. Compress pictures If you have pictures or other graphical elements embedded in your Excel spreadsheet, they can greatly increase the document size. If you need to email the spreadsheet or post it online, you can make the size much smaller simply by compressing all the pictures in the sheet. Select one of the pictures and you should see the Format tab under 'Picture Tools'. In the 'Adjust' group, choose 'Compress Pictures'. Click 'Options' and ensure that the options to delete cropped parts of the picture and to apply basic compression when saving are both enabled. Below these, select the level of compression you want to use and click 'OK' twice. 12. Prevent error checking Formula error checking is very useful – for example, when it spots an inconsistent formula in a particular region. However, there are times when you might need to leave out a few cells in a particular region and Excel will flag the error. You can get rid of this annoyance by turning off the error check. Go to 'Excel Options | Formulas' and clear any of the error-checking rules that you need to turn off . 13. Create custom autofills Autofill helps you complete columns or rows of sequential data. Enter the first two values in the initial cells to establish a pattern, then select the cells and drag the fill handle to extend to the rest of the cells you want to fill with that pattern. You can add your own custom lists by choosing 'File | Options', or press the 'Office' button and select 'Excel Options | Popular | Edit Custom Lists'. Select 'New List' and click in the 'List Entries' column. Type each entry in the list, followed by [Enter]. Click 'Add' to finish. 14. Autocorrect hacks You can save time typing by entering shortcuts for commonly used terms in Autocorrect. In 'Excel Options', choose 'Proofing | Autocorrect Options'. On the Autocorrect tab, enter the shortcut you want to type, followed by the phrase you want to automatically replace it with. Make sure your shortcut isn't a number or letter combination that you're likely to use in your spreadsheets as it will be replaced automatically each time you type it. To apply your shortcut, click 'Add', followed by 'OK'. 15. Create keyboard shortcuts <img alt="keyboard shortcuts" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.helpdesk.clipboard_pane-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Press the [Alt] key and you'll be able to see all of the keyboard shortcuts that are available for each visible tab on the ribbon. Press the key that's related to that tab to go to it, and to see a map of the keyboard shortcuts for that tab. This is very handy as you can use it to remind you of the available keyboard shortcuts whenever you want to use them, saving you time and eff ort and maximising your efficiency as you work.

Tutorial: 15 handy Excel tips, tricks and techniques

Getting the most from Excel is a vocation – there are books bigger than concrete blocks on the subject. If you're dedicated enough to re...

Tutorial: 7 handy Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.helpdesk.categories-200-200.jpg" /> 
These days, our lives are almost completely dominated by email, and it really shouldn't be that way. 
Email should be a tool that enables you to get more done, rather than a relentless wave that washes both time and productivity away. 
Thankfully, Outlook is your friend. With just a few expert Outlook tips, you'll be able to purge inefficiency and make the most of your time. 
1. Automate accounts 
Prior to Outlook 2007, you may have needed to know chapter and verse about your mail server, including port settings for SMTP and POP communication. Luckily, recent versions of the software have made this setup much easier. 
All of the settings required for commonly used mail accounts are already stored and Outlook uses your email address to try some of the more likely settings before bothering you with detailed setup. In most cases, all you'll need to enter are your email address and account password. You can use multiple email addresses with Outlook to access both work and home accounts at once. 
2. Quickly attach files in Outlook 
Attaching a file to an email message can be a fiddly process, but you can streamline it and make sure you don't forget the attachment by using Outlook's filing system. Browse to the file you want to attach to a message and open Outlook at your inbox. 
Click and drag the file from its folder onto the inbox shown in your mail folders in Outlook. This creates a new message and attaches the file in one action. Now simply address it and add a covering note. 
3. Tweet with Outlook 
Who needs a dedicated Twitter reader? With TwinBox, a small plug-in that's <a href="http://www.techhit.com/TwInbox/twitter_plugin_outlook.html">available from here</a>, Outlook does it for you. 
It adds a dedicated Twitter toolbar you can use to read and post Tweets, all without taking your eyes from your other important data. You can download your Twitter messages and store them in a folder, and it even includes URL shortening in tweets, courtesy of bit.ly. 
You can manage multiple Twitter accounts and automatically sort incoming messages into folders based on the sender, or on keywords and hash tags. 
4. Use Quick Parts 
Quick Parts are blocks of content you can include in messages. They're a lot like Auto Text, but can include links and pictures, as well as text messages. To create a new Quick Part, start an email message and enter the content you want to include. 
Select it and choose 'Insert | Quick Parts | Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery'. Now provide a name, category and description, and click 'OK'. Whenever you want to use this block of content, choose 'Insert | Quick Parts' and select it from the list. You'll see a small preview window for each Quick Part you have stored. 
5. How to disable new message alerts in Outlook 
Incoming email can be a huge distraction, especially when you need to get some serious work done. However, if you close Outlook, you won't benefit from task and appointment reminders. Make sure you stick to your allotted email schedule by disabling new message alerts and then setting a reminder to check your email at the correct time. 
To disable email alerts, choose 'Tools | Options | Email Options | Advanced Email Options'. Now clear each of the tickboxes below the section marked 'When New Items Arrive in my Inbox' and click 'OK' three times to confirm. Make sure you set an appointment to check your inbox, though, or you might miss an important message. 
6. Get organised with Outlook categories 
Use Outlook categories to help identify items that are important to you. By assigning colours to categories, you can quickly see what different messages, appointments and tasks relate to. To sort your categories, click the 'Categorize' button on the toolbar – it's next to the flag and shows four coloured squares. 
Choose 'All Categories' and rename the existing ones to labels you need. You can change colours, add new categories and set shortcut keys for each category here. To add an item to a category, select it and press the shortcut key. 
7. Rename old emails 
Quite often, the subject line of an email bears little resemblance to its contents, especially if it's part of a longer thread that may well have started with a message simply entitled 'How are you?' You can apply retrospective filing to important messages by renaming their subjects to make them easier to find. 
Open the email in a new window and click in the subject line. Delete the old subject and type the new one in. Click 'Yes' to confirm the change.

Tutorial: 7 handy Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks

These days, our lives are almost completely dominated by email, and it really shouldn't be that way. Email should be a tool that enabl...

Tutorial: 25 handy Google search tips and tricks

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.feat1google.google1-200-200.jpg"/>The good thing about Google is that generally, you don't have to be too precise or bend over backwards to find things. When you want something specific, though, or just can't find it the old-fashioned way, these tips will bring it right to your fingertips. 1. Add contextSimply typing in a search term is usually enough, but you can help Google along by adding a little more context to your query. The easiest way is with Boolean operators. For instance, type fish+chips. The most common are + and – for adding and removing elements, but you can also use * as a wildcard, the tilde symbol (top left of your keyboard) for similar terms, and quotes to get only the "exact phrase you type". One that almost nobody uses is |, which means 'or'. 2. Search certain sitesGoogle doesn't have to look at the entire internet. By adding a 'site: clarification', you can point it to just one page (or, using an 'I' as well, multiple). For instance, if you can't remember whether you read an article on our page or on our sister site TechRadar, you could ask it for microsoft site:pcplus.co.uk | site:techradar.com to bring up lists from both. The order you get them in will depend on how much PageRank the individual articles have, but both of them will appear in the lists. 3. Check spellingsGoogle can also zero in to specific types of search, such as replacing your dictionary. Do the search define:portmanteau and it'll pull definitions of the word from a number of different sources, including Wordnetwb, Wiktionary and Wikipedia. You can also use a regular Google search to check your spelling by typing in how you think a word goes. If you have it wrong, the correct version will be listed at the top of the search results. Of course, it'll still do the search too. 4. Do sumsGoogle has a powerful calculation engine built in. Try a simple sum like 4*25 and it'll spit out 100 almost immediately. That's not the clever part. Try 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius, or MMX in decimal and Google pulls the numbers and works it out. It's not guaranteed, of course – often you'll just get search results. A few of the more advanced ones include the Faraday Constant, the mass of Earth and handling distances in Astronomical Units. However, for more powerful calculations of that sort, accessing many more databases, try <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">Wolfram Alpha</a>. 5. Ask direct questionsSimpler searches will pop up immediately, which can be very handy. Why mess around with time zones when you can just ask What is the time in San Francisco? You can also look up similar live details, including the status of flights in the air, although to be on the safe side, it's best to go to the airline company's own page for live lookups. 6. Search by locationLocation-aware search may still be limited, but you can get a head start by telling Google where to look. Say, for instance, that you want fish and chips. There's no point simply typing fish and chips, unless you're interested in the history or cooking details, but add your postcode on the end of the search – in the case of our office, fish and chips ba12bw, and it'll highlight the nearest places, give you phone numbers, show you a map and even display some reviews. 7. Filter your resultsGoogle is often smarter than it appears, given a nudge. In Google Images, try a word that could be misconstrued – a name such as Heather or Raven or Cliff . Down the left-hand side, you'll see a dedicated option to only show faces, stripping out any non-human entries. The same panel can also only show clip art, photos or line drawings, ignore colour or monochrome as you prefer, and even focus solely on results meeting a particular colour palette. By default, Cliff mostly shows, obviously, cliffs. Switch to faces, and it's Cliff Richard. Choose red, and it's a DVD called Red Cliff . 8. Browse by subjectThe Wonder Wheel gives another way of browsing these options. It's also in the left-hand sidebar, but this time it produces a chart. The original search provides the starting node, with paths jutting off in all directions. Click these and you move from node to node, getting further away from the original search, but hopefully in the right direction. This is great for when you're not sure what you want, or you just want to explore. 9. Log your searchesAs well as searches, Google can keep a log of the sites you've visited using a feature called Web History – try it out by visiting <a href="www.google.com/history">www.google.com/history</a>. This uses a toolbar to track your movements – not just on Google – bringing up a timeline of your actions and searching your archives online. You can also switch it to just monitor your searches. Needless to say, if you're worried about the privacy implications of this, or that you might accidentally stumble onto the 'wrong' site, make sure you leave this one alone. 10. Sort by timeThe explosion of blogs, Twitter and live news reporting means that Google now factors time into its searches. Many searches will now display Twitter posts, videos and relevant news stories, but to be even more specific, look in the left-hand column to zero in by time. This ranges from simply 'Latest' to 'Past 24 Hours', 'Past 2 Days' (good for factoring in time distances), or a 'Custom Range' for if you know when something happened. Simply typing a year into the search box rarely works. 11. Use the cacheIf a site's down, it's not the end of the world. Google caches most of the pages in its search collection, and you can access them by entering, say, cache:pcplus.co.uk – although hopefully our site is up and running perfectly smoothly while you read this! The cache tells you when the snapshot was taken, and gives you the option for a text-only view. Importantly, though, when you click on a link, it goes outside the cache. You'll need to append the 'cache: tag' to each page in turn if you want to keep browsing. 12. Search for specific filesTrying to find a particular type of file? Google doesn't only look for HTML. Type what you're looking for and then append the 'filetype:tag' on the end. For instance, 'filetype:doc' will only bring up those types of file. This search supports PDF, Office formats, Shockwave Flash and a few more. 13. Optimise your search resultsIf a search isn't producing the right results for you, there are ways in which you can optimise it. In the left-hand sidebar, look for the option that says 'Related Searches'. At the top of the search, you'll find a stack of other searches that have taken people to the pages you're looking at. Searching for 'Inception', for instance, offers alternatives ranging from 'inception meaning' and 'inception 2010' to 'inception plot' and even 'christopher nolan'. 14. Personalise your searchThe more you use Google, the more it learns about you. By logging in, it remembers what you've looked at and makes it easier to find things. Of course, you might not want that, in which case you can log out. You'll also want to do this if you're ego-surfing or doing SEO work to make sure you're getting the same Google rankings that anyone else would. 15. Search by TimelineThe Timeline lets you zoom in on any time range and see news pulled from assorted sources, including books in Google Books, newspaper reports and web pages. <img alt="search by timeline" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.feat1google.google2-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img>Searching for the Anglo-French Wars, for instance, brings up a timeline that runs from 1600-2010, stepping down into individual years, then months. This is a great way to track the progress of a story back through time. 16. Customise your searchThe Google sidebar offers a number of useful customisation options, including stripping out shopping sites if you just want information, or vice versa if you're in the mood to buy. You can also prioritise sites you've visited, sites you've yet to see and much more. 17. See more resultsIt's said that most people only look at the first few results, but if you want more, you can crank up the number. Simply visit <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/preferences?hl=en">the preferences page</a> and you can alter this so it displays up to 100 results, although this will obviously slow down the search. 18. Search safelyEveryone knows you can activate SafeSearch to cut out most of the nasty content online, but if you want to be a little safe, 'Search Preferences' also lets you lock SafeSearch on any PC. It only applies to the browser you're currently using, and you'll need a Google Account to do it. 19. Search by extensionIt's amazing what you can find if you know what file extensions to look for. Feeling nosey? Do a search for inurl:view/view.shtml and you'll get nothing but webcam views from around the world. Think of it as oneway chat roulette. 20. Monitor social mediaNot a Twitter or Facebook user, but want to see the latest stories being passed around? Google now acts as a targeted firehouse for update content. Do a search, then click on the 'Updates' option in the sidebar. Any new results are automatically displayed. 21. Follow trendsEven if you only run a simple blog or fan page, it's worth spending some time thinking about SEO. <a href="http://www.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> lets you see what people are looking for around the world, revealing the most sought-after stories. 22. Look for title contentGoogle isn't restricted to searching page text. If you really want to be precise, look for content in the title via 'intitle: tag'. This can be used in a few other ways, such as looking for directories on an FTP server by searching for site:myftp. gov intitle:index of. 23. Add Google to your site If you love Google, you can integrate searches into your own pages. Access the Custom Search Engine beta at <a href="http://www.google.com/cse/">www.google.com/cse</a>. You can add sites and pages to its archive, and add the boxes wherever you like. It's $100 for an ad-free version. 24. Get advancedIf you're having difficulty forming a search, try the Advanced Search option at <a href="http://www.google.com/advanced_search">www.google. com/advanced_search</a>. There are no tags or Boolean complications, but most of the same abilities in a very easy sheet. Click the option at the bottom for even more tips. 25. Get extra detailNot getting enough information from Google's site descriptions? In the sidebar, look for the option 'Page previews'. This gives you shots of the sites you might be about to visit, as well as extending the site descriptions of the first couple of entries.<img border="0" height="1" src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/f5fa962/mf.gif" width="1"/><div class='mf-related'>

Tutorial: 25 handy Google search tips and tricks

The good thing about Google is that generally, you don't have to be too precise or bend over backwards to find things. When you want so...

Tutorial: 25 handy Google search tips and tricks

Tutorial: 25 handy Google search tips and tricks

The good thing about Google is that generally, you don't have to be too precise or bend over backwards to find things. When you want so...