[ad#acronisti] Dear Computer Lady,
I have been subscribing to your Newsletter for many years now, and I always learn new things from you.
I hope you can help me with my Windows 8 problem.
When I am typing a message in Gmail, my Windows 8 flips me back automatically to the home page/tile page, sometimes 3 or 4 times during the time I am trying to write a relatively short email. I have to go through all the clicks to get back to the draft. Any way of stopping this from happening?
Also, I cannot find anything in my new Windows 8 that allows me to type something, or even copy and paste a recipe from the Internet. There isn’t even a Notepad, that I can find. I have tried and tried online, and can’t seem to find solutions to my problems.
Any help or direction you can share, would be very much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your Newsletter, Judee
Dear Judee,
I don’t know if I can help you with the first part of your question, but I can help you with the second.
I have not experienced the problem with the start page coming up while I am typing, nor have I witnessed anyone else having that issue. If anyone has, I would love to hear from them, and perhaps we can figure it out together.
I do have good news about the second half of your question! There is a program for text on your Windows 8 computer, I use Notepad in my Windows 8 all the time.
The problem is, that it is hard to find Notepad in Windows 8. Here is a very easy way to find it.
First, from your Windows 8 desktop, tap the windows logo key on your keyboard to bring up the start screen.
Next, type the name of the program you are looking for, in this case, Notepad. You will see a list of programs appear as you type. When you see, “Notepad” at the top of the list, just press the “Enter” key on your keyboard, or click on “Notepad” to open the program.
If you plan on using Notepad a lot, you can pin it to your taskbar, just right click on the taskbar icon, and click “Pin this Program to Taskbar”.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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The first part of your problem is unusual. Taking a wild guess, are you working on a (new?) laptop that has a touchpad on it. It may be that your fingers (thumb) are bouncing on the touchpad causing your insert point to bounce around unexpectedly.
For the second part, as well as Notepad, Win 8 (still) has a better tool called “WordPad”. It allows you to save in RTF format and do simple formatting like bold underline and italics and pasted pictures copied from the internet.
Find it the same way Elizabeth described
You can also get the “Metro” version of the Office OneNote program FOR FREE. It provides even more formatting options and is probably your best option for keeping recipes.
I wonder if Judee’s problem is that she is inadvertently switching between tabs while she is typing? That just takes a Ctrl – Tab keystroke…
I too am having problems with a new laptop and windows 8.I am using Thunderbird. When I am typing suddenly my letters will appear on another part of the page,(it just happened again)Never ever had this happen with any other computer. It really is annoying.
Hi Elizabeth
I have been subscribed to your newsletter for yonks.
While I don’t learn something new “every” newsletter it is always informative.
In response to Judee’s questions firstly, the reason she might be bouncing out of Gmail could be simply that she is hitting one of the keys on the Trackpad if she has a laptop.
This happened to my wife just the other day, not in Gmail, but in Windows Live Mail. Which, personally I do not like.
On Judee’s second issue with Notepad, while you have certainly solved her finding Notepad I find a freeware program called NoteTab Light a much better option. As Judee wants to copy recipes from the internet, something which I do a lot, by using NoteTab Light you have the option of having multiple pages and they show as tabs, similar to modern browsers. The neat thing about this program though is that when the program is open and a tab selected if you press the key combination of Ctrl + Shift + P it will make the tab function as an auto copy. The tab will show as green so that you know it is active. So, if you copy something from a web page, or any other source, using Ctrl + C it will automatically copy into the active tab in NoteTab Light. When you have finished copying you just bring up NoteTab Light and use the key combination Ctrl + Shift + P again and it puts it back into inactive mode. You can then, if you wish use another tab for copying information from other sources. It does of course only copy text, not pictures, but that is what Judee wanted anyway.
Truly, I. Love. This. Program.
Paul
Maybe this is too simple but if you are using a laptop and haven’t turned off the touch pad strange things can happen! Happens to me all the time if I forget.