The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I don't know about you, but life is suddenly feel- ing a bit chaotic. Between school, sports, work and life in general, there seems to be more that needs done than there is time to do it. Since I'm guessing few of us have time to waste (or would at least prefer to "waste" time in an enjoy- able manner) I thought I'd devote this media review to some timesaving Google search and keyboard tricks that I find myself using regularly. I tend to think every- one already knows these little gems, but am often met with, "I didn't know that!" when I explain a helpful little trick. For those who are true techies, you'll probably want to skip this column. For the rest of you, just try and remember one or two tips at a time until they be- come second nature. Then add in another one or two.

Let's start with the Google search bar, which is much more than simply a search bar. If you don't already use Google as your search default you may want to switch after reading what it's capable of. Here are just some of the non-search tasks you can perform right in the bar, without visiting outside sites. - Need a definition? Yes, you can go to dictionary.com like I used to do, and look it up or you can simply type define caprice in the search bar to get the definition of the word

"caprice" as the top search result. (If you don't know what it means, give it a try.) - Google can also convert units and currency for you. If you're excitedly sharing with your British friend the fact that the larg- est documented hailstone measured 8" and they fail to share your amazement, you can quickly convert that measurement to one sure to inspire awe on their end as well. Simply type

8 inches in centimeters in the search bar and you can relay that the stone was

20.32 centimeters. OK, it's more likely you'll use this trick to convert recipes or weights from metric to standard, but you now have one more piece of relatively useless trivia to add to your arsenal. - Google has recently added a new nutrition tool that shows the calorie and nu- trition content of a food entered in the search bar.

Just type tomato or potato in the bar and look in the right margin to see what I mean. I'm not totally sure how or when you'd use this, but it's a neat trick. - The search bar also functions as a calculator. Sim- ply type in your equation and hit enter. For those who don't know, the as- terisk functions as the multiply symbol and the slash functions as the divide symbol. Give it a try.

Type 48/6 and hit enter.

Neat, huh? - If you need a map, simply type Spokane map in the search bar. Clicking on the thumbnail will take you to a larger version. - You can also track pack- ages for UPS, USPS or FedEx without going to the service sites just by typing or pasting the track- ing number right into the search bar. In addition to making use of Google, there are some basic keyboard tricks I use to save time as well. - The command I use most often is probably control

+ f (press the control key and the f key at the same time). This immediately creates a search bar in the upper right of your screen and will search the page you're on for whatever you type in. If the word appears more than once, use the up and down arrows to scroll on down the page and it will stop the next time the term is found. This can be a huge timesaver when looking for a specific topic, item or product. You no longer need to scan the whole page to find what you're looking for (or to determine that it's not there). - Another favorite is control

+ z. This "undoes" the last thing you did. It doesn't work every time, but is effective more often than not. Did you accidentally delete the last paragraph of a report you were work- ing on? Hit ctrl + z and you'll have it back. It will even work if you want to

"undo" something you did several steps back. Just keep hitting ctrl + z until you get back to where you made the error. This can be a true lifesaver. Too bad"real life" doesn't have a ctrl +z key, isn't it?

So there you have it. I can't promise any of these tricks will make your day- to-day life any easier, but they can definitely stream- line your time online.