Google documents are free to use, as long as you have a decent computer and internet access, you can use and store documents on the Google Docs platform. It was initially released on the 9th of March 2006 and has become hugely popular. If you are in need of creating a document, whether that be a resume or a brochure, Google Docs may be a good option for you. 

### Accessing Google Docs

To access Google Docs, first head over to the [Google home page](https://www.google.com), then click on the 9 dotted menu icon at the top right corner, scroll down in the popup menu and select the option for 'Docs'.

### Using Google Doc Templates

After selecting the Google Docs option in Google, you will need to sign in at this point, or if you don't have an account you can create one at this point as well. Once signed in with your Google account, a snippet of the template gallery will appear displaying the template options to choose from, if you would like a better selection of templates, click on 'Template gallery'.

The template gallery can be hidden from view if you prefer not to have it, by clicking on the three-dotted icon just right of the template gallery heading, followed by the 'Hide all templates option'. To display the template gallery again, click on the menu icon located at the top left corner, followed by the settings option, and when the settings window appears, tick the option 'Display recent templates on home screens' and click ok.

### Saving, Downloading & Deleting Google Docs

You don't need to do anything to save documents, Google documents are saved automatically into your Google Drive storage area which as standard has 15 gigabytes of free storage space. To download a document onto your computer, click 'File' at the top left corner, then 'Download', then select the file type of your choice, usually, this is Microsoft Word (.docx). 

To get back to the Google Docs home screen, click on the blue document icon at the top left corner. You will notice the document created now appears here, so you can access and use this in the future. 

To delete a file, click on the three-dotted icon on the right side of a document, followed by remove from the list of options that appear. 

To rename a file, click on the three-dotted icon to the right side of a document and then select rename.

![Google site on laptop man with coffee cup](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_17_google_features_translate_languages_and_more_6647edc78a.webp)

### Google Docs Offline

Documents can also be used offline without internet access, a good feature to have in the case of losing internet access unexpectedly. Once you are back online, any offline changes made will be updated to the document online. If your web browser's local storage has been cleared manually or by another software, this won't be possible, and you will need to access the Google Docs page once more with internet access before you can use the offline functionality again. 

If in offline mode your files are visible but not accessible and you have followed the steps detailed in [Google's help center](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en&ref_topic=2375188), click on the padlock icon in your web browser's search bar, then cookies, when the list of cookies appear, remove them from the list and click 'done'. Connect to the internet if you are not already connected, refresh the page, and sign in to Google if required. Once you are back on the Google Docs home page, click on the menu icon located at the top left corner, followed by settings. Within settings, switch off the offline option and wait till the process completes, then switch it back on. Once offline mode is set up again, click the ok button to head back to your list of documents, for each document you wish to use offline, click on the three-dotted icon and select 'available offline'. The next time offline mode is used, the documents should be available to use. 

Please note the above method may remove any unsaved offline changes made to your documents.

### More on Google Docs

At the top of your Google document, there should be some text underlined displaying the last edit time, clicking on this text will render the document's version history and display the document as it was the last time the document was closed. To the right you can find a list of previous versions of the document displayed in date order, should they be available. To restore a document to a previous version, select an edit and click on the 'Restore this version' button at the top.

The comment bubble or speech bubble icon at the top of an open document can be used to create comments in your document. If you leave an incomplete document and return to it another time, using comments can be a good way to remind yourself of where you left off.

Using Google Docs or another app like Google Sheets allows for easy collaboration, click on the share button at the top of an opened document to display the share window, here you can input another person's Gmail address and click send to allow for that person to either make edits to your document, add comments only, or just view it. If you have allowed others to edit the document, please remember that this will change your original file. To see what was changed, click on the last edit link at the top and the document will display what was removed and added. To the right where the version history is, you can also see who made a change. To remove a person from being able to edit, comment or view a document, click on the share button, then from the list of shared people find the person you wish to remove, and click on the drop-down option to the right of their name and select remove, followed by save.

Google documents used to create a resume or cv

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Google Docs - Make Resumes, Letters & Brochures Free

Remote desktop applications are simply, applications that are delivered to users through the internet. It is software created by Microsoft, and it is used by a multitude of different software companies to allow their customers, connection to applications hosted within their cloud environment. Individual users would need to follow a brief setup process to create a remote desktop icon, after which they can connect to an application and use it.

### Making A Remote Desktop Icon?

1. First click on the Windows start menu icon at the bottom left corner of your screen and type 'RemoteApp', from the options listed select 'Remote app and desktop connections.'

![Search results for remote desktop on windows computer](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_24_search_results_for_remote_desktop_on_windows_computer_4b23e0f9b7.webp)

2. When the remote app and desktop connections window appears, select the 'access remote app and desktops' option from the left-hand side. 

3. On the next screen, enter the company software URL that connects to the remote application, this should be provided by your IT or software provider. If you do not have the URL, you will need to contact them and ask for it. After entering it in, click next and then next again.

![Successful setup of remote desktop application](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_24_successful_setup_of_remote_desktop_application_e8617c5311.webp)

4. At this stage a Windows credentials box will appear, here enter the credentials given to you by your IT or software provider and then click ok, the setup may take from a few seconds to a few minutes. If you do not know the details you can contact your software provider to acquire them.  If the credentials were correct, the loading bar will disappear and you will be presented with a finish button, just click on this to complete the setup.

![Successful setup of remote desktop application](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_24_successful_setup_of_remote_desktop_application_e8617c5311.webp)

Note: The credentials window may sometimes show an alert stating the credentials were incorrect before you enter in the credentials, please ignore this and enter in the credentials required to gain access to the software. 

Note: Please tick 'Remember my credentials' before clicking on ok if you would like your machine to remember these details, ticking this box will allow for a faster login, as you will not need to enter in your credentials each time you load the application. This can of course be left unticked if you prefer to enter the password on each login attempt.

**Your remote desktop icon should be ready to use now**. To find the icon, access the remote app and desktop connections window and click on view resources, alternatively search the application name in the Windows start search bar and it should appear for you immediately.

![Remote desktop application ready to launch](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_24_remote_desktop_application_ready_to_launch_99114ebb72.webp)

### Benefits of Using Remote Desktop

**Disaster Recovery**- Let's say you are using a remote desktop to access a recruitment CRM, by doing so you would be saving candidate and contact data on the recruitment CRM application, which is kept in a secure cloud environment. This means if your computer is stolen from your workplace and the user session is locked, your data is still safe and secure. If in case your machine was left unlocked and it had been stolen, software companies can block the individual login accounts to the application or even block the entire database from being accessed, fairly easily.

**Accessing the Software** - Using this method allows you to access the software from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a good internet connection and a compatible computer, you should be able to connect on without issue. 

**Updates** - As the software is in a cloud environment, the software company is able to apply updates easily, which allows users like us to benefit from the latest software features and bug fixes. You don't need to worry about updating the cloud environment operating software, the security, the resources or the application in question, it is all taken care of. Some companies also monitor automated tasks that may come with their application, for failures and rectify them without you having to do anything.

**Add-ons** - Add-ons are more easily configured in cloud environments than they are in non-cloud environments. If a customer hosted an application on their own server instead of using the cloud, for some add-ons they may need to arrange a time when the software companies' engineers, connect to their server to make the required changes. With cloud, this extra step of connecting to the customer's server is not needed.

**Security** - Software companies keep their cloud environments safe by managing it well. They ensure certain website categories are not accessible, they have up-to-date security software, the cloud environment operating system is kept up to security standards, and specific protocols and other measures are put in place to maximize the safety of your data. Rather than managing all of this yourself, the software provider does this for you.

**Downtime** - Downtime is minimized as much as possible to keep people using their software for as long as possible, software companies plan their downtime and detail this to their customers on the purchase within their terms and conditions. The downtime is processed on days when users are unlikely to use the software, such as Saturday morning.

**Backups** - Software companies also ensure backups of your data is taken regularly, the software company I worked for, backed up all data every week, and then backed up any incremental data that had been added throughout the week. This was done every week for as long as the customer remained active with us. We did have a fair number of customers who requested a backup of their data when one of their staff members had accidentally deleted some information by accident, this can be especially helpful in these circumstances. As this is done by the software provider, you don't need to worry about this either.

### Any Negatives to This?

**Internet Connectivity** - This is not really a negative if you have a good internet connection, however, if you are accessing the software from a cloud environment and your internet connection is poor, you are likely to lose connection to the software, this can become very frustrating as you will be cut off while in the middle of important work. Definitely, invest in getting a good internet connection if you are going to be using remote desktop to access the application.

**Number of Sessions** - When using applications that are installed on your local machine, it is possible to launch more than one session of it. Using remote desktop application, however, unless you connect using a different account, you can only open one session of the application (This may however vary depending on the provider and software).

**Frozen Sessions** - An issue that can come up when using a remote desktop application is having a frozen session. Sometimes the application may not be used how it was intended to be used, by the software provider, and as a result, it may freeze, or there may be instances where a bug affected the user process and caused the session to freeze. When this happens it may not be possible to log the session off from your machine, as the session itself is actually hosted on the cloud environment in which you would be working in, due to this, the best option may be to call or create a web case with the software provider asking for your session to be logged off, after which you can connect back onto a fresh session of the application.

Remote desktop icons are applications delivered to users through the internet or network.

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Cloud App Connection Using Remote Desktop

Microsoft Office applications are invaluable and are used by thousands of people every day. The cost to gain access to these applications is fair in my opinion, however, Microsoft offers a way of accessing and using the same office applications, without having to pay anything. The paid versions do offer more and have a better feel when using the applications, I must admit I prefer it, but the free applications offer a lot. Currently, the applications available without cost are Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Sway, Skype, Flow, and Forms. That is quite a lot to offer for free and I am happy they do.

### How Do I Access the Applications?

To access the applications first access and open the Outlook website, you can click on this [link](https://outlook.live.com/owa/) to head straight there. This does not have to be on any particular machine, you can do this on a library computer or your own computer.

Once there, you will need to create a free Outlook email account or sign in if you already have an account with them. The process is self-explanatory and very easy, the account can be made within a couple of minutes, ready for you to use.

After creating or logging into your Outlook email account you will be routed into your mailbox, where you normally would send, receive and view emails. As standard, the applications to use should be immediately visible on the left-hand side which you can click on to use straight away. 

If you would like to see the full view of your free applications to use, you will need to find and click on the applications menu icon located in the top left-hand corner; the icon is 9 dots in the shape of a square.


Outlook will then display a list of applications for you to choose from, such as Microsoft Word, simply click on the application of your choice, wait for the page to load and you will be taken to a web version of it.

That is all there is to accessing the applications, it is a great gesture from Microsoft to allow for these applications to be used for free. I am sure this will help many people who need to use these fantastic applications.

### A Few Helpful Tips

1) Using these web version Office applications, there are some negatives, such as the web browser search bar or bookmarks bar taking up extra space at the top of the page. To avoid this frustration I advise you to switch to full-screen mode, usually, this can be done by pressing the f11 key on your keyboard, if that does not work then try pressing the fn and f11 keys together, or by accessing the web browser menu icon and then clicking on the full-screen icon (This may vary depending on your browser). To exit, press the same keys used to enter full-screen mode.

2) If you are using Word, you will find that it defaults to using the 'Normal' formatting style, you can see this at the top right corner of the application. This style of formatting by default uses double spacing, each time you press enter/return on your keyboard you will have a large space between the lines of text. To avoid this from happening, change the formatting style to 'No spacing' as shown below. 

![Word application displaying no spacing style option](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_11_word_application_displaying_no_spacing_style_option_7e3c7dfbdc.webp)

3) In terms of saving your files Microsoft provides users with 5 gigabytes of free OneDrive storage, this storage is used for storing your files. To save a file, click on file on the top left corner, then save as, and then again save as. Your email accounts OneDrive storage area will open and allow you to save files within there, just like on your computer, it will allow you to choose the folder to save your files in. OneDrive is simply storage but on the cloud environment, after saving your files into it, you can access them again by going into the 9 dot square icon on the top left corner and clicking on OneDrive, you will be able to see all of your files and folders immediately here and just like a normal folder, you can move, copy, rename and delete files. Files can also be saved from the cloud onto your desktop, this is done by clicking on the file on the top left corner, then save as, followed by download a copy.

4) If you are looking to use the applications here regularly, access the application and then bookmark them into your browser, so the next time you want to use an application, you can simply click open your browser and click on the icon at the top, like below. 

![Microsoft office apps bookmarked on internet browser for easy access](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_11_microsoft_office_apps_bookmarked_on_internet_browser_for_easy_access_98e9074a94.webp)

5) What is great about using applications online like this is, collaboration. As a support engineer I used, Microsoft Excel to log and track software issues, at the same time I needed my manager and fellow colleagues to be able to access my Excel file and make changes to it if needed. By using online Microsoft Office applications I was able to do this and have only those people view my files which made work much easier. Whenever I had information to update my document with, I would document the changes and whenever my colleagues had information to add so did they, this allowed all of us to stay up to date by just checking for each other's updates. To share a file with specific people, click on file on the top left corner, then share, followed by share with people. A small window will appear asking for more information, simply change the permission from 'anyone with the link' to 'specific people', then just type in the email address of each person you would like to have access to the document in question, and click send.

Note: The email address must be a Microsoft email account.

Microsoft offer a way of accessing and using their Office applications, without having to pay anything. 

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Use Word Online Free, Use Excel App Free and Other Office Apps

SQL which stands for structured query language is a computer language, the language is used to take care of relational databases. Using SQL, we can build relational databases and execute various operations on the data within. A relational database is a database made up of tables, these tables include information that is linked to other tables in the same database, the link between the tables makes the database relational.

### What Can SQL Be Used For?

SQL is the language used to structure and manage data located within relational database management systems. Using SQL data can be input, deleted, requested, updated, and reorganized. The access to data within relational databases can also be controlled using SQL. 

As an example let's say we had a database of customer information, and the database held 2 different tables, 1 for the customer's personal data such as the address details, etc, and 1 for orders placed. Using SQL we can write up 1 query to show us all of the customer's details and the customer's order details, and if we wanted to output this information inside of the software, we could do so. As stated above this information can then be updated, deleted, and reorganized. This is great for companies to store information.

### Using SQL

To use or practice SQL, installation of a database engine/software is required, some of the popular engines today are MS SQL, Sybase SQL, and Oracle. Of course, you would also need knowledge of how to write and execute the language. Once all of that is in place, usually you have a frontend terminal window to write and execute SQL scripts and interact with information stored in a database. A very simple SQL script looks like this:

```SELECT * FROM customers```

The above SQL script would be used to retrieve and display all of the information stored within a table called customers within a database.

### Where and How Do I Start Learning SQL?

If you are a student you can apply for a college or university course. People who are slightly advanced in age are also able to take courses at a college or university, there are teachers out there holding SQL courses all the time, search Google for SQL courses and you will find some.

If you are unable to enrol into a college or university, you can learn through courses online, there are great websites out there such as Codecademy and Lynda.com which can get you up and running in no time, their courses are of high quality and I highly recommend them. Codecademy does have a short free course that can give you a flavour of how and why SQL is used, in fact I started with that very [course](https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-sql) a few years back.

You could also check YouTube, tutors are teaching SQL on this platform for free. In previous years YouTube courses were not great but in the last decade they have significantly improved and I am a fan of it.

Another way you could learn is through a job, if the company you work for is involved in using SQL, then you could learn this on the job just as I did. After going through the Codecademy course and having tested my skills in a test environment I became more involved with customer queries that involved SQL. Typically you would start off with running basic select commands and then slowly learn the more complex commands as you progress and gain trust in your company.

Note: Multiple companies such as Sybase or Microsoft publish their own SQL engines which come with their own SQL language, from my experience these organisations have a lot of the same syntax to write up but do vary in some areas. Don't let this put you off as once SQL is learnt, it is fairly easy to switch to a different organization's syntax, you may need to learn a few new things but generally, it is.

![SQL displayed on a laptop](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_4_sql_displayed_on_a_laptop_a199e48db3.webp)

### What Kind of Jobs Can I Acquire With Knowledge of SQL?

You could become a developer, a QA tester or even a database administrator, all these jobs pay well but require a lot of knowledge of SQL. Search job boards for the word SQL, read some of the job specifications and find what interests you the most.

There are absolutely tonnes of companies which require databases, if you can create or look after a database, employers will likely take you on.

Knowledge of SQL can also help in acquiring your first job in IT, like a 1st line role or junior helpdesk engineer. I worked as a helpdesk engineer a few years back and knowing SQL helped massively when it came to problem-solving.

SQL which stands for structured query language is a computer language, the language is used to take care of relational databases.

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What is SQL?

From experience, I can tell you web design is fun, interesting and also a great hobby. The customization available is vast, a web page can be made to look however and also do whatever.

### Can Anyone Learn How to Design a Website?

If you are interested in this article you will most likely have some technical background and experience with computers, if you have that, you are more than capable of learning how to design a website. But even without prior technical experience, web design isn't difficult to learn or do. Web development may take a few years to get good at but web design will take a lot less time.

### Web Design Languages

Starting from scratch, there are 3 different languages you should master first in order to become a good web designer, these are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. While HTML and CSS are necessary in my opinion, JavaScript can be learnt later down the line but would be helpful to know and use for dynamic designs.

HTML is the foundation of a web page, it is used to structure websites, we use this language to input text, images, shapes, videos and other content. What you see on this page has some form of HTML, without HTML on a web browser we would not have much to see. Using HTML we define and tell our web browsers what our headings, paragraphs, tables etc are, each piece of content added to a web page is called an element. 

HTML is written in tags, If I were to open a notepad file and type in the h1 tags like below, type some content between the tags and save the file 
as a let's say test.html, then double click the saved file, it would open in my web browser and display a heading with the text 'This is a heading'. The h1 tags stand for heading 1, you can also use h2 or h3 to tell the browser what type and size of a heading we want it to display, try it out.

```<h1>This is a heading</h1>```

Next up is CSS, this language is used to design and animate web pages, the content we put into a web page using HTML can be modified using CSS code to look better. **For example this sentence, I used HTML to enter the text and then designed the text to bold. CSS is used to design elements on a web page.** We can move and position elements anywhere we would like on a web page, we can shrink or enlarge them, fade them in or out, create borders, paint them in different colours and do much much more.

Finally JavaScript, this is used to animate and change the behaviour of web content to make a website dynamic. For example, the menu function at the top of this screen, when the screen is in mobile view or the desktop window is made small, the menu headings are shrunk into a menu icon which then only opens to display the headings when someone clicks on the menu icon, this behaviour is controlled using JavaScript. Using JavaScript code I have told the web browser to open and close the menu when the menu icon is clicked. This is just one example, perhaps you have seen other websites using JavaScript to run cool functions, a lot of websites nowadays use JavaScript and the language has become extremely popular.

### Where to Start?

I started learning web design on YouTube, my brother told me about a channel called **' The New Boston'**, it is a great channel dedicated to teaching all sorts of computer languages, they have a dedicated web design playlist, and the tutor 'Bucky' goes through the different sections in detail and adds a little humour which in my opinion helps with the learning process. Right now, however, the YouTube channel created by Brad Traversy called Traversy Media is doing really well, I would highly recommend either of the 2 channels.

I would also recommend websites like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, the course I took at LinkedIn Learning taught me a lot about web design, for example, the importance of structure was made very important. In fact, the tutors here taught me so much I recommend you check their courses out if you are new to web design. You may have noticed LinkedIn Learning offer a free trial for 30 days, use this trial and see if you like their teaching methods.

Another good website which teaches web design is Codecademy.com, their method of teaching is mostly through practice on their website, if you like this sort of teaching, check their website out.


### How Do I Become a Good Web Designer?

1. Practice, practice makes perfect, after learning the languages to create websites I would advise testing your skills by creating your own website(It does not have to be live on the internet), this will give you a rough idea of the level you are at. Continue practicing until you are happy with the websites you have created, this will allow you to know when you are ready to create your first purposeful website.

2. Compare your websites with other websites and learn from them, and see if you can replicate some of their designs and functions. If you run out of ideas, pluck ideas from different websites and see what suits your website.

3. Ask people for their opinions on your website, believe me, it helps a lot. Sometimes I design an element that is too small and people tell me to make it slightly larger, a few days later I can see the positive difference the change made.

TIP: When building a website there will be lots of chopping and changing, do not worry about getting it perfect the first time round, keep at it and try new ideas. Having said this, I should tell you that planning your website layout and design is important, get a few sheets of paper and draw a brief plan of how you want your website to look, write down what color each section will be, and how you want each element to behave. Nowadays people tend to use online design software to plan out their web pages and this is a great way to do so.

### Web Design Routes?

When you are confident with your web design skills you can look to becoming a front-end web designer, according to Glass Door the average salary in and around the London area is £25,000, a very good starting point.

![Web design salary on salary website](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_9_web_design_salary_on_salary_website_bb90aeaf8d.webp)

TIP: If you wish to become a web designer, you could create your own website and show it off in an interview, your new employers will be pleased to know you are capable of creating your own website and thus you will have a higher chance of being employed.

Blogging is another option, you could use your skills to create a blog about your passion and interests if your content is good your website will generate hits and through those hits, you could earn a steady income.

From experience I can tell you web design is fun, interesting and also a great hobby.

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Web Design - Where to Start? Learning to Code

### How a Hard Disk Drive Works

Hard disk drives are the parts within machines that are used to store data, they contain circular magnetic disks called platters, these disks are stacked on top of one another, and when the drive is powered on, they begin to rotate at extreme speeds.

Each disk also contains tracks and each track contains sectors, these sectors are where our data is stored.

When we save data onto a storage drive, our data is written onto and retrieved from each sector, and this saving of data is done by what is called an actuator. The actuator is an arm within the hard disk, the tips of the actuator heads sit just above each disk, and upon reading and writing data the actuator arms move on and off the disks. The image below shows the arm on the disk.

![Hard disk drive on a dark black table](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_1_hard_disk_drive_on_a_dark_black_table_576722d0b7.webp)

### How a Solid State Drive Works

Solid state drives are different in the way data is stored, they contain chips known as semiconductor chips, and these chips contain what is known as transistors and other components. On SSD drives, our data is stored within the semiconductor chips and is written onto and retrieved from the semiconductor chips through the solid state drive's embedded processor called the controller.

Unlike hard disk drives, there are no moving parts within a solid state drive which is a huge plus, this increases the speed at which data is stored and retrieved greatly. 

![Man using laptop with solid state drive connected](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_1_man_using_laptop_with_solid_state_drive_connected_f7b4129bcd.webp)

### Pros and Cons

**Capacity** - Solid State Drives have now taken the top spot in terms of capacity, up until recent times the largest consumer drive was a 12TB hard disk drive, however, the tables have now turned as Seagate has produced a gigantic 60TB solid state drive, this is something quite remarkable.

**Speed** - Although one of the fastest hard disk drives (Seagate's Barracuda Pro) spins at 7,200 rpm and has read/write speeds of 250 MBps, it is still slower than most solid-state drives at the moment. A solid-state drive can read up to  10 times faster than a hard disk drive, and in terms of writing data, it can write up to 20 times faster than an HDD, which in my opinion is immense. Solid-state drives are really quick compared to hard disk drives. 

Some read and write speeds can get to thousands of megabytes per second. Take for example the Samsung 960 Evo, it can reach up to 3200 MBps read and 1900 MBps write speeds, amazing!

**Cost** - Hard disk drives are cheaper than solid state drives, at this moment in time a 500GB hard disk drive can be bought for £35.00. On the other hand, the price of solid state drives is a little high, the cheapest 500GB SSD right now can be bought for £120.00, £85.00 more than a standard 500GB HDD. Someone seeking a cost-effective method should of course go for a hard disk drive while a person seeking better performance should opt for a solid-state drive. Personally, for the reasons mentioned already and the coming durability section, I always choose solid-state drives.

**Durability** - Due to hard disk drives consisting of magnetic disks and mechanical moving parts, their durability is not as good as solid state drives, a 1-meter drop onto a hard surface could result in loss of all data for a hard disk drive. On the other hand, solid-state drives would need a few hard drops before becoming dysfunctional. I have dropped external hard disk drives previously and wish solid-state drives were around then. 

**Life Span** - After researching this subject and from personal experience, it appears that hard disk drives have a life span of around 3-7 years, however, they can last longer depending on the usage and build, and of course fail earlier depending on usage and build. In terms of solid-state drives, the estimated life span currently is around 10 years.

**Noise Level** - Hard disk drives make noise, solid state drives make no noise at all, if you are after a quiet laptop or desktop you will want to buy one with an SSD storage drive rather than an HDD storage drive. The sound may not seem like too much of an issue, but when you add the hard disk drive noise to the pc fan noise while you are working on something important, it may cause a nuisance.

**Power Consumption** - Because of the mechanical moving parts within a hard disk drive, naturally power consumption is greater than that of a solid-state drive. When idle hard disk drives consume around 4-6 watts, this can rise beyond 15 watts when active. The amount of power consumed by an SSD is lower than that of an HDD, one example is the Samsung 960 Evo SSD, it requires 5.7 watts when active and only 1.2 watts when idle.

This means a laptop using a solid-state drive may have a longer battery life.

Solid State Drives have now taken the top spot in terms of capacity, up until recent times the largest consumer drive was a 12TB hard disk drive

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Solid State vs Hard Disk Drive

I have worked in the technology industry for a while now using computers nearly every day, after running through a tonne of processes and tasks I realized I needed to learn ways to make these tasks easier, one of the ways I did this is by learning computer shortcuts. In this article, I will detail some Mac keyboard shortcuts which may be of help to you.

### 1. Summon Spotlight

**Press the command button and space button together** to open the spotlight search bar. From my experience, Mac users often save tonnes of files onto the desktop and often it can become quite difficult to find files and folders, and so using spotlight to find them is a good idea. Using this shortcut, we are able to quickly and easily open the spotlight search function to begin your search for those difficult to find, files.

### 2. View and Switch Applications

**Press and keep hold of the command button and then press the tab button once**, a selection of open applications will appear allowing for them to be selected. To move along the selection press the tab key, and to jump to the specific application let go of the command button. People tend to have a lot of applications open at the same time, when this is the case, this shortcut is great to use as it enables us to take a preview of all open applications in a nice, compact view, then select the application of choice.

### 3. Move Between Windows for the Current Application Only

**Press and hold the command button and then press the back-tick button** to switch from one window to another for the current application. This is very helpful when trying to efficiently navigate through the windows of the same app, without having to skip over other open apps like we would do using the previous command + tab shortcut.

### 4. Jump Directly to the Top or Bottom of a Web Page

**Press and keep hold of the Fn button and then press either the left arrow or the right arrow key** on your keyboard. To get to the top of the web page use the left arrow and to get to the bottom use the right arrow. Most people browse websites often and pages can sometimes contain a lot of content, this shortcut may come in handy to prevent users from unnecessary scrolling.

### 5. Access Any Application's System Preferences

While within an application, **press and keep hold of the command button and then press the comma button** to access the system preferences for the current application you are focused on. There are many Mac applications as well as third-party applications that come with many settings, this shortcut is helpful for anyone, but for someone who installs and uses a lot of applications such as a computer engineer, this key combination is really helpful.

### 6. Take a Screenshot

**Press the shift button, command button, and number 4 button together** to start the process of grabbing a screenshot. When these buttons are simultaneously pressed, the mouse pointer changes to a crosshair icon, let go of the key combinations at this point, then move the crosshair to where you would like to start the screenshot and click once (hold the click), then drag the crosshair pointer across the screen to select an area, release the mouse click when you are ready and the system will take the screenshot which will automatically save as a .png file on your desktop. If you would like to cancel your screenshot, press the escape key before releasing the click.

### 7. Minimize an Application to the Dock

**Press the command button and letter M together** to minimize the application window you are focused on, to the dock. Alternatively, you can press the command button, the option button, and the letter M together to minimize all windows linked to the application you are focused on. For example, if you have Microsoft Outlook open with 10 email windows and the first shortcut is used (Command + M), only the current, focused window will close and the other 9 Microsoft Outlook windows will remain open, using the second shortcut (Command + Option + M), all 10 of the Outlook windows will minimize to the dock.

![Apple mac doc](https://tekbits-images-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imgsfolder/id_22_apple_mac_doc_ca2417b446.webp)

### 8. Access the Applications Folder

**Press the command button, the shift button, and the letter A together** to get to the applications folder, this works when you are focused on the home screen of your Mac or when you are inside of a folder. If the application you are after is not already in your dock, you can find and access it from the applications folder, for me, this method is the easiest way to get to a list of all installed applications.

### 9. Speech to Text

**Press the control button twice and hold it on the second press** to start dictation, this needs to be used on an application or feature where text can be written in, like your search bar or notes. On the first attempt, your Mac will prompt you with a message to click through, but after this initial prompt any time this feature is used, a microphone icon will appear and a beep noise will be made to indicate the use of dictation. When dictation is being used, any speech you say will be typed into the focused application or feature should it be possible. To stop dictation just let go of the control key.

### 10. Screen Lock

**Press the command button, control button, and letter Q together** to lock your Mac's screen. A nice shortcut that can be done with one hand for a quick getaway.

### 11. Delete or Send an Item to the Bin

**Press the command and backspace buttons together** to throw the highlighted file or folder away into the bin. I used to drag my files to the bin before but this way I don't have to do that anymore, it just makes using my Mac much easier.

### 12. Empty the Bin

**Press the shift button, command button, and backspace buttons together** to empty the full contents of the bin, no need to right-click the bin icon anymore going forward. If this does not work for you then it may be because you are focused on an application, just click on an empty space on your home screen before trying this again and this should work perfectly.
 
### 13. Open the Downloads Folder

**Press the option button, command button, and the letter L** to open the downloads folder, this works from within a folder or when focused on the home screen but can also work from within your internet browser. From my experience, most users are download-aholics, downloading all the time, it would be nice to use this quick shortcut to get to our downloaded files without any unnecessary clicks.

### 14. Find Misspelt Words

**Press the command button and semicolon button together** to find misspelled words you may have in your text, this works when inside of an editable text editor.