Washington - If you are looking at a web page with a list of useful links, you can have Internet Explorer give you a printout of just those links. Simply open the File menu, and click Print. From the Print dialogue box, select the Options tab, and then click the check box labelled "Print table of links." You'll get a handy printout of all the links on the page. --------

Washington - To quickly close an open application in Windows, just press Alt-F4. This works with virtually every application. If, instead, you just want to close an open document, press Ctrl-F4. If you have multiple open documents, you can just hold down the Ctrl key and continue tapping F4 until all open documents are closed.

Washington - Before you send a photo by e-mail, be sure your e-mail program is set up to send mail using the HTML protocol rather than "plain text." If you send HTML e-mail, you should be able simply to paste a photo into the body of your e-mail message and have it show up as an image rather than as an attachment. You can generally choose which format to send e-mail in as you are composing a message. In Outlook, use the Format menu.

Washington - You can never have too many backups of important data. In addition to a full backup of everything on your computer, have at least one backup of critical documents, spreadsheets or other files that you have created. Make this backup a standard copy of the material - avoid compression routines or proprietary backup formats. You simply want an identical, easily accessible second copy of your files to eliminate any hassle in restoring files.

Washington - Want to quickly bring up the dialogue box that allows you to turn off Windows? Instead of pressing the Start button and moving to the Shut Down command, just minimize all open applications and press Alt-F4. Doing so brings up the Shutdown dialogue box, from which you can choose to shut down or restart your PC. (dpa)