Here are a few handy tips I learned lately:

1. When using sp_configure, you don’t need to type the whole parameter string. You just need to type enough of it for Sql Server to be uniquely identify it. For example,

sp_configure ‘show ad’

will resolve to

sp_configure ‘show advanced’

2. In Query Analyzer or Management Studio, to get help on a keyword, system stored procedure, DDL/DML statements, etc, highlight them, then press Shift-F1;

3. When a process takes a long time to finish, sometimes you want to kill it. Killing a process will roll back all the changes. Keep in mind the roll back can take a long time also. To find out the roll back status, use

kill with statusonly