9 useful computer hacks

Lifehack? We’ll take any we can get, and if it pertains to technology… even better. While we can’t promise that all of these computer hacks will pertain to you, there’s a good chance that several just might.

Emoji on desktops
For Mac: Press control+command+spacebar to get the emoji menu
For PC: The latest version of Chrome has an emoji menu. Right-click anywhere you can type and click “Emoji” in the menu to access all the available emojis.

Disable Facebook’s video autoplay
Go to facebook.com/settings. On the left side of the screen, click ‘Videos’ for the option to turn off autoplay.

Quick reverse image search
Curious as to where an online image came from? Hold S and right click an image to do reverse image search in Chrome.

Without Internet? Play this game without it
If you’re unable to connect to the internet for any reason, Chrome displays a dinosaur on the broken page. Click command and the up-arrow key simultaneously. A game will start running sans WiFi.

Keyboard shortcuts if you have a PC
Alt+tab: Switch between windows
Ctrl+D: Bookmark a webpage
Ctrl+tab: Switch between a browser and Excel tabs
Ctrl+P: Print a document
Ctrl+Z: Undo

Useful YouTube shortcuts
Spacebar or K: Pauses video. Holding down each of these also plays video in slo-mo.
0 (zero) key: Jumps to the beginning of video
J and L key: Forward/backward 10 seconds
M key: Mutes

Adjust brightness of your computer screen adjust automatically
If you download f.lux, your computer screen will always have the right level of brightness, which could improve your sleep. The free download adjusts your computer’s display to adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

A PowerPoint shortcut
If you save your Powerpoint presentation in .PPS instead of .PPT, your file goes into slideshow mode when you open it.

Save valuable space
Saving an Excel file as an .XLSB will shrink the size by half or 75%.