We've lined up a new travel project this week – Malaysia and Borneo next September. Like all initial phases we started by getting the latest version of Lonely Planet. The layout of the book has been completely revamped, and I think LP hired a new person to select the photos in the book as they were much better than usual.

While on the topic of photographs, today I decided to part with my Portuguese team desktop wallpaper, and got some marvellous pictures from National Geographic. These images are too nice not to share.

This week I browsed through a couple of computer helpdesk and tips sections and was amazed at how many things you can do with the SHIFT key. Here are some of the shortcuts and uses I found for the shift key on windows:-

• Pressing [Shift] when inserting a CD-ROM disables auto-run.
• Pressing [Shift] and [Del] will delete a file without sending it to the recycle bin.
• Pressing [Shift] + clicking a program icon in explorer will start the program in the background, i.e. control is not shifted to the newly opened program.
• [Shift] + right click on file will add the "open with" item in the popup menu which enables you to change the file association or bypass it.
• [Shift] + click program folder opens the folder in windows explorer.
• [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Drag file to desktop creates a shortcut to the file
• Pressing [Shift] and clicking on [File] in Microsoft word brings two new options Close All and Save all which perform the said operations on all open files.

With all these novel uses of the shift key, I've decided to abuse this key and see what happens, maybe I'll manage to blast of something.

I managed to find some funny shift jokes too:-

Q. My shift keys have little arrows on them. Does that mean the *real* shift keys are located above them, and these keys are just little signs to point them out?

A. Nope, they're the Real McCoy. The little arrows mean "up", as in "look up at the screen". Your keyboard is telling you to learn to touch type and quit staring at your fingers.

Q. There are two shift keys, which should I use?

A. Avoid unnecessary wear on either shift key by alternating between the two. Keep track of your usage of each key so that you press them in equal amounts. Your keyboard may be equipped with a small notepad; you should use this to make little tally marks in two columns for each time you shift. Remember, it's better to go to a little trouble than wind up with a broken shift key.

Q. Why are there are no "shift" keys on my keyboard, but there are two keys labelled "hif"?

A. Again, you may want to consider cleaning your keyboard, and washing your hands more frequently for that matter.

Read more at Unleash the power of shift.