Keyboard shortcuts you'll actually use

First of all, let's state the obvious. Doing things with the keyboard takes less mental energy than using the mouse because you don't need to look for any icons and it's also much quicker.

There are lots of keyboards shortcuts but most of us don't have a chance of remembering them all.

So ... while you are sure to find MORE keyboard shortcuts elsewhere in the web e.g. here or here, the point of this post is to share the few REALLY ESSENTIAL ONES.

Here goes ...
- works with either right or left versions of the relevant keys

The "Windows" key (see below)






Windows + "D" minimizes all windows and shows the desktop
(useful e.g. if you want to see a widget on the desktop for a second or find a shortcut to a file or a program there - see here for how to avoid the need)
Windows + "D" also takes you from the desktop back to the program you were in just before
Windows + "L" locks your computer (if you have screen lock set up)


**The FOLLOWING keyboard shortcuts work in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
(Thanks to "Dan A." for pointing this out)

The "control" or "Ctrl" key (see below)





Control + "A" selects all the text in the window or program
(e.g. pressing Ctrl + "A" in Word will highlight everything in the document)
Control + "C" copies whatever you have just selected
Control + "V" pastes everything you copied.
*(I use Ctrl + A then + C then + V very often - it’s a winning combination)
Control + "F" brings up a search box in whatever program you're in ("F" and in "find")

STYLE functions:
- repeating the strokes reverses the action

Control + "B" makes any selected text .... BOLD
Control + "U" makes any selected text .... Underlined
Control + "I" makes any selected text .... Italic


The "Alt" key (see below)





Alt + "Tab" cycles through all open windows
My next post will discuss a good program which replaces the default Windows XP Alt Tab function.
For the nimble of finger:
Alt + Shift + Tab cycles through the windows BACKWARDS (useful if you've got lots of windows open and you just went past the one you want.)
Alt + Shift is the default combination for switching languages IF you have more than one language in use


In Microsoft "Word" ...

Shift + the "F3" key will change any highlighted text to;
all lower case, all upper case, title case (First letter of sentence upper case, rest lower case) in sequence if you keep pressing tat combination.
Control + Alt + "F" creates a new footnote

See here for more shortcuts.

Subscribe by EMAIL

Site Feed (get updates as they happen)

What is a "feed" or "RSS"??