From The Tips Box: Fridge Magnets, Lost Windows

Readers offer their best tips for getting back off-screen windows, keeping important tools within reach, and getting lukewarm water from an old sink.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Use Magnetic Tape to Keep Important Tools Within Reach (On Your Fridge)

James lets us know another use for magnetic tape:

One day I was looking for my bottle opener which is a fridge magnet that I got from holiday one year, but it was nowhere to be seen, I then remembered that I had a Gerber Artefact in the drawer, found it, used it, got drunk.

While drinking, It came to me that since the Gerber is hidden in a drawer all the time, it wouldn’t get used that much, and thinking about the fridge magnet bottle opener getting used on a regular basis, I thought, “wouldn’t it be good if I could just stick the Artefact to the fridge?”

I went on eBay and bought some magnetic tape for like £1.50 which came a couple of days later, I cut a bit off, and stuck it to the back of the Gerber and hoped it was strong enough to stick to the fridge and to my delight, it was!

I then thought, I’ve got about a metre of this tape left, what else would be handy to stick to the fridge? Items which you can never find when you need them, after some deep thinking I put some tape on a lighter and a pen. I’m sure that there are a lot more things that could be stuck to the fridge, so if you want to make some suggestions, write in the comments.

Use Spaces to Get Back Lost Windows in OS X

Judacris shares a Mac tip for misplaced windows:

In Mac OS X, if a window can’t be dragged around because its somehow gone off-screen or a persistent toolbar is blocking it, like on Microsoft Word or Photoshop, call up Spaces and drag the window back into view.

It got me out of a glitch with a Word document without having to close anything. Twice.

This seems like it only works in pre-Lion versions of OS X.

Use a Bottle to Make Lukewarm Water from Double-Tap Sinks

Stuart shows us a Macgyver hack for very old sinks:

My friend had a very old sink in her house, and you could only get freezing cold water or scalding hot water since the two faucets were separate. She hacked together this contraption from an old bottle and I thought it was genius.

Use a Photo of Your Disassembled Laptop to Remember Where Screws Go

RiVenoX expands on one of our favourite tips:

When you want to pull apart a laptop without losing any screws, snap a photo of the bottom of the laptop, print it out, tape it to a piece of cardboard or styrofoam, and as you take each screw out, stab it through wherever it matches up on the image you printed. this way you won’t lose it, and you won’t forget which screw goes where.

We’ve talked about these kinds of tips numerous times, but the addition of an actual photo is a nice one — and sure to keep you from getting confused.