Office workers base the majority of their day to day operations off of a computer screen. It’s where you check your inbox, update your project management sheets, and fire off messages to your co-workers to see where they are with the latest update. All in all, it’s not really something you think that much about anymore.
But every office worker out there should have some essential tech tips on their side. These are the kinds of tech hacks that make working life ten times easier, and any annoying work ten times faster to get through. The more tech tips you know, the better your working day will end up, and the more satisfying you might even find it.
Let’s go through some of these tips below. You’ll probably know a few by now, but check out the list and make sure you’ve got every one of them under your belt. They can make your working hours feel much more productive, and just with a few clicks and taps of your keyboard buttons.
How to Search Through a File
Say you want to find a certain statistic in a recent report your co-worker sent over. You don’t have the time or patience to scroll through the 40 page long PDF keeping an eye out for it! And thankfully, you don’t have to. That’s where the power of a certain shortcut comes in: CTRL + F.
Use this liberally whenever you need to search for something. Press the buttons, get the search bar to pop up (usually in the right top corner), and then input the word or phrase you’re trying to find. Once it’s been matched just click through the results until you find the exact one you need.
And this function is available on most applications and browsers, so you’ll rarely have to go through any file by hand again. Just use the search bar to scan for the right details and you can get back on task in the space of a couple of minutes.
How to Set a Strong Password
The rules to setting a strong password seem to change all the time, but the general consensus is that a strong password is random, unique, and never been used before. That means your pet’s birthday combined with your favorite childhood TV show is out, even if you do replace any ‘o’ with ‘0’!
Most people recommend this kind of password is at least 8 characters long, but we believe upwards of 12 characters is best. You can then use a password manager to store each and every password you come up with, if you’re worried you won’t remember each combination for each account.
How to Spot a Phishing Link
It may be the understatement of the year, but phishing is dangerous in the workplace. It can expose an organization to all kinds of data leaks, loss, and third-party intrusion. As such, this is the number one thing an office worker should know how to do.
Phishing links are all over the internet, but you’re most likely to come across them in your own email inbox. Learn to spot one of these from a mile off. They’ll usually be formatted a bit strangely and they’re often sent from someone in your contact list.
Once you see the content, you’ll probably find that there’s little to nothing in the body text (or the sender sounds a bit off) and there’ll be a random attachment for you to download. Don’t do this. Trust your gut here; if alarm bells set off, don’t click on anything in the email.
It’s OK to open an email that contains a phishing link but try to avoid clicking anything within the email once you’ve looked over it.
How to Take Screenshots and Load Them into Documents or Emails
Sometimes you need to screen grab something specific on your end, maybe to send through to IT or share with your boss to discuss an issue. That’s where screenshotting comes in, and don’t worry, it’s an operation available on any and all PCs.
Yes, you really can learn to screen shot mac screens despite how difficult many people claim it is! On Windows you can also download and use the ‘snip tool’, available via pressing ‘shift’, ‘s’, and the ‘windows’ key all at the same time. Then just click and drag to get the shot you want – simple!
How to Reach Out to IT
If you’ve run into a problem with your tech and nothing you know to try has got it working again, it’s time to get in touch with IT. However, you need to be sure you know what to say, otherwise both you and the rep on the other end of the phone might just go round and round in circles!
Firstly, see if you can pinpoint the problem. What’s gone wrong? And if you know that, see if you can highlight what caused the issue to occur. This will be very pertinent information to hand over once you’ve got IT’s attention.
You should also note down all the things you’ve done to try and fix the issue on your own. This can be the most painstaking part of an IT fix as you go over everything you’ve already tried one more time, so if you can bring up exactly what you’ve done and whether it helped, you’ll really cut the time down here.
And remember, always try to be patient when you’re working through and trying to resolve an IT issue. It’s always best to exhaust your options when you’ve run into a tech wall and don’t know how to get over it, as turning things off and on again doesn’t always work.
If you’re an office worker and you want to make the time at your desk just a little bit smoother, these are the tech tips to hold onto. Stay safe, work efficiently, and always know what to say when you need to get in touch with IT.
