Something we can all relate to:
mmm
That’s hilarious! It’s got me totally pegged, except I don’t find the “poker face” as easy to pull off.
Maybe you didn’t want this thread to get serious, but why is it that some people never think of shortcuts, resist attempts to show them shortcuts, and don’t get frustrated enough to ask about shortcuts when things don’t work fast or smoothly?
I have people in my office who have been shown the “reduce all open windows to the taskbar” single-click shortcut, yet they insist on minimizing each open window separately, and on my computer, that is typically dozens.
Brilliant! I’ve just sent that link to three colleagues who all share this pain with me.
What where how?
Depends on your version of Windows. Win7 has a button on the far right of the taskbar. WinXP sometimes has an icon (though not always). However, you can always right click on the taskbar and select “Show the desktop.”
Wow. That’s relate-able. But it’s not as bad as watching someone computer-illiterate type. One. Letter. At. A. Time.
(Disclaimer: There’s nothing wrong with people who don’t use the computer on a regular basis. It’s just… you really want to ask them if you can just type for them, after a point.)
Vista has a button on the far left of the task bar. And in general, Windowsbutton-D gets you to the desktop.
Some people just want to do it the way they know how. I’ve tried to teach everyone in my office simple things like Ctrl-C, -V, or right-clicking to bring up the edit window, but they still *insist *on moving the pointer to “Edit” and clicking “Copy” or “Paste” instead. They are aware there is a faster way, the keyboard shortcut command is right next to the pull-down menu command, but the long way is how they first learned it and they’re not interested in any other way as long as theirs works. Frustrating for those of us who like the faster, more efficient way, but it’s been made very clear that no amount of instruction and prodding is going to make them change.
What bothers me is when people try to click on the down arrow at the right of the screen to scroll down. It’s a tiny target, plus it moves slowly – line by line. Just click on the bar anywhere below the “slider.” That moves down an entire screen and it’s an easier target to hit.
I’ve seen IT pros who didn’t know to do this.
(When I was teaching computer classes, I started to realize how often I was saying, “There are two ways to do that.” And there are often more. Most people stick with one, though.)
This is fantastic.
However - one question. Why does he say, “Now you’re clicking on the link to Google!!!” What else would you do - tab down? I don’t tab like that - there are too many website where tabbing just throws you all over the screen and highlights things weirdly.
My boss still writes an account number down on paper, minimizes the window where he retrieved it, then retypes it into the new window.
I’ve only just shown him how to use the quick launch area. He won’t put a link to IE there because 'I know where it is right now and I don’t want to move anything around."
Wow, I cannot believe what an asshole that made me feel like.
I’m not even a hyper-mega nerd who knows and uses every shortcut in the universe, but come on! I work with a woman about twice my age, and gods bless her (I know, I know, 55 year olds on the SDMB are all tech wizzes, but in the real world…), but 1) I am her informal tech support, and 2) every time I’m by her desk helping her with something, every single action takes forever. Sometimes I just ask, “Mind if I drive?” This way things get done in 1/1,000th of the time.
I think it was an extension from the previous step that the person was googling Google and then they were clicking on the link to get to the Google homepage…where they started. That part bothered me a bit as it’s a bit of a stretch. I constantly watch people google the actual web address they want to go to, I’ve yet to see someone google google.
I’ve seen it.
I’ve once watched a colleague, trying to find my company’s website, rather than type the very simple URL into the address bar, type in the URL for google, Google the company name, then ignore the first organic result but instead click on the paid ad to the right of the screen. GGngngngngnggg!
I can do the poker face, but at some point I can’t resist growling.
You should tell him he owes the company a quarter for that. Okay, I’ve yet to see someone click on the ad, but I’ve seen plenty of people google “www.hotmail.com” and then click on the first link that goes to hotmail. I don’t even bother telling them there’s a faster way, more often then not, it’s not worth my time. What I was saying is that I’ve never seen someone type “www.google.com” into the Google search bar and then click on the link for Google.
Try directing someone over the phone. My current job is a combination of software development and IT support.
I get calls from users in other parts of the country with questions about accessing things like their company email.
I had a call the other day where I was trying to direct the gentleman to a web address. He’d type it in and then say “I got Google”. This happened several times until I could make him see the address bar at the top of the browser and type the URL there instead of into Google’s search box. :smack:
I can take over a remote computer and see and manipulate their desktop from my own machine, and I briefly considered doing that with this gentleman, but then I realized that he would have to go to a web address for me to do this.
Some of these guys are CEOs so I HAVE to keep my cool. At least it’s over the phone so they can’t see my face.
I usually end up saying, “Get up, just get up.” By adding, “Let me try something,” they do it because they think I’m about to do something amazing, while I’m just trying to streamline getting from A to B without ripping their head off.
I’m guilty of this but I often do it on purpose. If I type it in the address box then it’s permanently (well, unless I erase history) in my drop down list of addresses.
It may be some website I never want to go to again but now it’s stuck cluttering up my address list.