People Share The Most Vital Computer Skills That Everyone Should Learn

In this day and age we all rely on our computers for a myriad of tasks.

Not only do we use it to respond to emails and order things online, we also use it for gaming and streaming media content.


With the indefinite global health crisis still limiting physical contact, many of us have also mastered utilizing Zoom to connect with friends and family, even though our clumsy search for that elusive logout button at the end of a call dictates otherwise.

The point is, we have all to an extent become technical wizards.

But when it comes down to basic computer skills, even the most proficient user can be oblivious.

Redditor sujhkonen wanted to know:

"What is a computer skill everyone should know/learn?"

Cleaning

"How to clean their computers, software and hardware. It's amazing how much some of the machines out there are struggling due to dust and unused software."

Odd_Nefariousness875

"I just dusted my pc for the first time in over a year. Now it doesn't sound like a jet when I play Skyrim."

PlatypusWeekend

Tab Button

"Some years ago, I was watching my mother input values into a web form."

"For each field, she went and moved her mouse over the new field she wanted to add info to and then click on it. After a few times of observing this behavior, I asked her if she knew that tabbing would move to the next field."

"She didn't."

"So tabbing."

demoran

Advance Searches

"How to advanced search and reverse image search on google."

amills1998

"Advanced search example: put quotes around your phrase. It gives you results of the exact phrase rather than 100,000 irrelevant 'related searches.'"

mp2900

Hitting CTRL F

"I was surprised to learn that there were people who didn't know ctrl f (or cmd f for mac users) was a thing. Extremely useful for finding a particular word/phrase in a large wall of text."

scythentic

"I once had a coworker who didn't know this and was surprised on how I could complete certain excel lists so quickly or find information in them. She always zoomed them up to 300% and then read each column one by one..."

natori_umi

The Time Waster

"I was once given an excel sheet someone had made where they didn't know that pressing alt+enter would create a line break within a cell. This dude had held down the f'king space bar until the cursor moved onto the next line in each cell for a document with a couple thousand entries. Any time you viewed the sheet on a monitor with a different resolution or zoomed in/out everything would go out of alignment. I almost had a heart attack thinking about the astronomical amount of time it took to do that the wrong way."

Xeibra

Failure To Excel

"After being trained in my current job (billing clerk) we had someone leave, and she'd been working there longer than I've been alive I think. One of our accounts that she billed to had us keeping excel sheets tracking PO numbers and how much money was left on them. The sheet had lines where you would put in the invoice number, the order number, and how much it was. Formula told you how much was then left on the PO. Super simple. I took over her responsibilities when she left. I discovered soon after that all the sheets on it were out of date by a few months so the POs were reflecting the wrong amounts. Thought she just stopped caring since she was leaving. Nope. I discovered in one of the drawers of files that she had been printing out physical copies of the sheets and writing the information in by hand. And would go and copy everything back onto the excel sheet whenever the account would ask how they were going.... Why would someone make twice the work for themself???"

ArdentC

Incognito Broswer

"How to use incognito browser. Not only for porn, but to log into an account on a computer that isn't yours so the information isn't saved."

pornpiracypirate

"Adding to that, if the computer is yours and you are inviting guests who need your computer often, you can set up a guest account for them. I personally use it for preserving my desktop."

Ghouldrago

"I personally use it to preserve my dignity."

kinkym0nk

Security

"Recognizing phishing attempts. Hell, recognizing any sort of incoming scam."

refreshing_username

"I was pretty proud, and surprised, a few months ago."

"I got an email from a pretty legit looking address, but something about it felt fishy, so I forwarded it to our phishing department. Everything looked good, but the person it was from had literally never asked me to click on a link before, so it got my spidey senses going. The filter always catches that stuff, so I was really surprised that something like that got through, so I fully expected them to tell me it was legit."

"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."

"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."

DifficultMinute

Getting Snippy

"Windows key + shift + s to create a new snip. Very handy to share just a bit of your screen and quicker than screenshots."

danihammer

Such a useful shortcut! Cmnd-shift-4 for Mac!"

JJNicolella

Research

"How to google the solutions to your basic computer problems. I'm the youngest person in my office by about 10 years, and everyone comes to me for IT advice. But all the expertise I have is knowing how to google the solution, because I don't know sh*t about computers."

MrLuxarina

Listening To (Or Reading) Your Computer

"To actually read what the computer is 'saying' to you instead of clicking on OK or Cancel right away without thinking."

"It's an advice that my step father gave me when I was young and it helped me a lot over the years."

Eaglooo

"The first bit of advice I can remember my father giving me is 'Don't keep clicking expecting that to make anything happen faster. Click once, and wait.'"

snowskelly

"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."

"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."

DifficultMinute

How To Type In A Website

"Typing in a website. I'm not kidding."

"I work IT for a healthcare org who contracts us as IT for hospitals throughout the US. There is an uncomfortably large amount of healthcare workers and doctors who can't comprehend what 'go to the internet and type in ________.com' means."

"Is that the E?"

"Where do I type it? The box at the top?"

"What do I do after I type it in? Hit enter?"

"Your new password is _______"

"I type that in the username section right?"

TheBlindBard16

Troubleshooting

"How to troubleshoot problems without bothering other people first. You have the largest collection of curated knowledge in your pocket or at your fingertips, maybe it can help you solve your problem."

PM_ME_THINKPAD_PICS

Don't Look At The Keyboard While Typing

"Typing without seeing the keyboard. You don't need to be fast, just type consistently without seeing screen and keyboard back and forth. Just focus on what are you typing on the screen."

Cookienami

For YouTube

"You can click anywhere on a youtube video to pause it."

bonerizer420

"Or 'K'. Then 'J' to skip back 10 seconds, 'L' to skip forwards 10 seconds. Left and right arrows are skip back/forwards 5 seconds and comma ',' and period '.' skip backwards/forwards a single frame."

pickletown88

People Break Down The Most Beautiful Places To Visit In The United States
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

America the beautiful.

So much to see. So much to experience.

Just because we don't have exotic oceans and ancient history doesn't mean there isn't majesty to take in.

There are many vacations to put together.

And now we don't have to use a paper map to plan.

Our apps and GPS have it all planned out.

Redditor driedkitten wanted to compare notes about the greatest ways to see the USA, so they asked:

"Where is the most beautiful place in the United States?"

So far the cliffs of California is my favorite part of the US.

The Falls

niagara falls GIFGiphy

"Subjective of course, but Crater Lake is certainly a sight to behold."

KaboodleMoon

"My home state of Oregon is full of beautiful places, South Umpqua falls, Illinois River, and Multnomah falls. Are some favorites."

jlp120145

Oh Hoh...

"A tie for Acadia, Hoh rainforest, and Rainier in the fall."

ParkLaineNext

"I was going to say Acadia. It's very underrated for some reason. My mom's friend by coincidence ended up being my English professor in college and we went on a trip to see family in ME. We stopped at Acadia for a day and she said it reminded her a lot of her visit to Greece."

NunChuckNorris007

"Hoh rainforest is absolutely devastatingly beautiful. Hiked the whole Hoh river trail when I was 17 and it's still near the top of the list for my favorite things I've ever done."

Hal9000_Red_Eye

In Awe

"Glacier national park. I was continuously in awe that the place was real life."

StrebLab

"The vistas of this road, on a motorcycle, were beyond breathtaking to experience. Would 100% do it again. Being on a bike allowed for stops at the waterfalls where there was no room for vehicles to pull over, and the views from the tunnels under the road were supernatural."

tastygrrrl

The Road Ahead

"There is a stretch of the Navajo reservation where there is no cell service, AM or FM radio reception. The road stretches before you for miles surrounded by red rocks touching blue sky. The buzzing undercurrent of modern connectivity fades away and your brain can be truly still."

tulleandtiaras42

"We did a little unscheduled off-roading in that area when we came to a road closed barrier. A Navajo couple pulled up alongside us while we pondered the dirt road heading roughly in the direction we wanted to go and assured us it was passable. Really lonely place... but wonderful."

KaleidoscopeWeird310

On a Clear Day

Mountain GIF by Sunshine VillageGiphy

"Mount Rainier."

WWDB

"If I stand right at the doorjamb of my front door on a clear day, I have a beautiful view. I owned this house for 15 years before I figured that out. You can't see it from any other position in the doorway, or if you're outside."

Wise_Ad_4816

Mountains are hot. That is all.

See the Country

Happy Dance GIF by PLAYMOBILGiphy

"Depends on what you’re looking for. The United States is a big place."

"For me - Hawaii is hard to beat."

Own-Willingness-3935

Beautiful scenery...

"Zion National Park is the most well-known place in Utah. But my entire state is an outdoorsman's paradise. LOTs of beautiful scenery in both the northern and southern parts of the state."

nekor18670

"Totally!!! And it’s very different. I personally prefer Southern Utah because the red rocks make me feel like I’m on Mars. But I grew up in the salt lake valley, so the mountains lost a lot of their majesty. But if I’m being honest, I miss them terribly."

Bye-sexual-band-n3rd

Smell the old growth

"I’m incredibly biased, but the most beautiful place is the California redwoods. Drive up 101, and then detour towards Petrolia. There is absolutely nothing like it. Roll down your windows and drive 35mph. Smell the old growth. Stop at the pull out. Take a small hike. It’s worth it."

Altril2010

"Yes, 100%. My brother lives in McKinleyville and I am going to see him the end of April. Can't wait. It's my happy place. They are like the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls... you have to see them to believe them. Those redwoods are something else!"

strongy78

Utopia

"Yosemite! You drive thru the tunnel and come out the other side. Looks like heaven/Utopia."

Socalrdb

"Did a hike in Yosemite on January 1 last year. A spectacular way to start the year. I had seen photos of it, seen it in movies, watched countless videos on Youtube about it but -nothing- prepares you for the sight of El Cap as you turn that corner. I was very nearly moved to tears."

ThrustersToFull

Amazing

Episode 1 Boat GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy

"The Shenandoah Valley. Its an amazing place if you're an outdoorsman. Hiking, fishing, hunting, bird watching, camping."

homoco4396

All the wonders of the world. I may have to check all of these out.

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.

Humans really know how to waste a buck... or millions.

We spend so much on superfluous items it's ridiculous.

Do we need ten of these?

Gym memberships can be hundreds of dollars a month yet there are DVDs and apps that show you cheaper ways to do it from home.

Life doesn't have to cost this much.

Keep reading...Show less
A bidet next to a toilet
Renee Verberne/Unsplash

They say ignorance is bliss, and there is truth to that statement.

Whether it involves trying a new fashion fad, type of food, or starting a new activity that spikes your endorphins, it's to go back to the way things were prior to experiencing them.

It's like opening Pandora's Box. The joy of discovery is exciting, but it also has the potential to consume you.

Keep reading...Show less
Man hugging his Golden Retriever
Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

Most of us love animals and take stock of other people's pets. Some people have a better chance of remembering another person's pet's name than the person themselves.

Part of that allure has to do with the fun and creative names that many people come up with for their pets.

Keep reading...Show less