TOTW #8: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back; What Do These Letters Mean?

Computer Tip: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Tired of moving your mouse to the Back and Forward buttons on your browser's title bar to navigate between recently visited pages?  Well, there is an easier way.

Different browsers have different supported ways of doing this, but here are a few variations; try them all in your favorite browser and pick one that works.

To go back a page, try: Alt+Left Arrow, Backspace, or hold Shift while rotating the mouse wheel toward you.

To go forward a page, try: Alt+Right Arrow, or hold Shift while rotating the mouse wheel away from you.

Some mice and/or keyboards have dedicated Back and Forward buttons too.

And while I'm at it, instead of using your mouse wheel to scroll a web page, tap the space bar to navigate down one screen at a time, or use the Page Up and Page Down keys.  And don't forget the F6, F8, Control+O and Control+L shortcuts from earlier tips to make browsing with the keyboard easier.

Multimedia Tip: What Do These Letters Mean?

Cameras often have letter designations for the different settings, and their meanings might not always be obvious.  So here are a few common settings and what they are:

P	Program mode; the camera decides how to expose an image, but you can shift the program by rotating the dial under your finger.
Av or A	Aperture Priority.  You tell the camera the size of aperture you want, and it decides the appropriate shutter speed to expose properly.
Tv or S	Shutter Priority.  You tell the camera the shutter speed, and it figures out the appropriate aperture size.
M	Manual Mode.  You select both the aperture size and the shutter speed.
Adep	Aperture depth.  You select two objects at different distances that you would like to be in focus, press the shutter half way down for each, and the camera figures out the aperture size and shutter speed for the proper exposure.

If you're unsure what these terms mean, feel free to go back and watch the first episode of my Introduction to Photography classes, where I explain exposure in detail.