Top Ten Keyboard Shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, highlighting text with the keyboard and pressing Ctrl + C is much faster than taking your hand from the keyboard, highlighting the text using the mouse, clicking copy from the file menu, and then putting your hand back in place on the keyboard. Below are our top 10 keyboard shortcuts we recommend everyone memorize and use.
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert
Copy the highlighted text or selected item.
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert
Paste the text or object that's in the clipboard.
Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y
Undo any change. For example, if you cut text, pressing this will undo it. This can also often be pressed multiple times to undo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl + Y would redo the undo.
Ctrl + F
Open the Find in any program. This includes your Internet browser to find text on the current page.
Alt + Tab or Alt + Esc
Quickly switch between open programs moving forward.
Press Ctrl + Tab to switch between tabs in a program.
Adding the Shift key to Alt + Tab or Ctrl + Tab will move backwards. For example, if you are pressing Alt + Tab and pass the program you want to switch to, press Alt + Shift + Tab to move backwards to that program.
Windows Vista and 7 users can also press the Windows Key + Tab to switch through open programs in a full screenshot of the Window.
Ctrl + Back space
Pressing Ctrl + Backspace will delete a full word at a time instead of a single character.
Ctrl + Left arrow / Right arrow
Move the cursor one word at a time instead of one character at a time. If you wanted to highlight one word at a time you can hold down Ctrl + Shift and then press the left or right arrow key to move one word at a time in that direction while highlighting each word.
Ctrl + Home / End
Move the cursor to the beginning or end of a document.
Ctrl + P
Print the page being viewed. For example, the document in Microsoft Word or the web page in your Internet browser.
Page Up / Space bar and Page Down
Pressing either the page up or page down key will move that page one page at a time in that direction. When browsing the Internet pressing the space bar will also move the page down one page at a time. If you press Shift and the Space bar the page will go up a page at a time.
Switch to Side by Side for your Desktop
Do you ever find yourself with too many windows minimized in your taskbar? Its frustrating searching through the muddled mess especially when I have to look at two items at once! Minimize, maximize, adjust the size, etc! It gets really monotonous!
Some people are fortunate enough to have two monitors to streamline this process, but what about a tidbit for all the single-screeners out there?
If you are using Windows 7:
1.Drag the title bar of a window to the left or right side of the screen until an outline of the expanded window appears.
2.Release the mouse to expand the window.
3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 with another window to arrange the windows side by side.
To return the window to its original size, drag the title bar away from the top of the desktop and then release.
Tip
To snap an active window to the side of the desktop using the keyboard, press either Windows logo key +Left Arrow or Windows logo key +Right Arrow.
For those using older versions of Windows, hold Ctrl and Left-click a couple of windows on your taskbar. This should select both of them. Now, Right-click and choose either Show Windows Stacked or Show Windows Side by Side.
The windows you have selected should pop up; size adjusted and ready for your viewing! Now its time to put it to the test and chose what works best for you, side by side or stacked.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts in Gmail
Gmail has its own set of keyboard shortcuts. With just a stroke of a button, you could open a new message. One key press archives an entire conversation. Two key presses will mark a message as read. You may never use your mouse again
First, you must tell Gmail you want to use shortcuts by clicking on your settings link on the top right of the screen. Once there, select keyboard shortcuts on. Make sure to save your settings (link is at the bottom of the screen) before exiting this window.
Now, heres a list of the most commonly used shortcuts:
c Compose
/ Search
k Move to newer conversation
j Move to older conversation
n Next message
p Previous message
o or <Enter> Open
u Return to conversation list
e Archive
x Select conversation
s Star a message or conversation
! Report spam
r Reply
a Reply all
f Forward
<Esc> Escape from input field
<Ctrl> + s Save draft
# Delete
l Label (summons the label menu)
v Move to different location (summons the label menu)
<Shift> + i Mark as read
<Shift> + u Mark as unread
[ - Archive and go to previous message
] Archive and go to next message
z Undo
These shortcuts should shave at least a few minutes off of your busy day. How you spend them is completely up to you!
Web Page Shortcut Keys
Wouldn't it be fun to have shortcut keys for your favorite web pages on your desktop? For instance, if you type Ctrl+Shift+G it would bring up Google while Ctrl+Shift+K would bring up Kotori Technologies. Well, by combining a few simple techniques in Windows XP you can.
First, go to the web page that you want a shortcut for and create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking a blank area of the page and selecting "Create Shortcut".
Now that you have the shortcut for the web page on your desktop, right-click the link and select "Properties".
Under the "Web Document" tab look for "Shortcut key". Put your cursor in the box then type a letter. It will automatically add "Ctrl+Alt+" in front of it. You can also create any combination using Ctrl, Alt, Shift plus a keyboard character by typing them at the same time.
After you're done you can bring up the page with your new key combination any time you need to. Use it for search engines or your favorite blog, or even your online email. Keep in mind that it will open up in your default web browser. Also keep in mind, if you delete the shortcut from the desktop, the key combination will no longer work.
Create Your Own Shortcut
Here at Kotori, we love to tell you about keyboard shortcuts, but today we're going to switch it up and just tell you how create your own key combinations to open programs. Sounds cool, right?
So do this:
Right-Click on a program that you want to create a shortcut key combination for and select Properties.
Make sure you're under the Shortcut tab and put your mouse cursor in the box next to Shortcut key.
Now choose any combination using the Ctrl, Alt, and/or Shift keys plus an alphanumeric keyboard character and click Apply.
So, For example; if I want to open Outlook, I would input something like Ctrl+Shift+O as my key combination. Now whenever I press it, Outlook will open for me!
Be careful, though, because some key combinations may already be spoken for. If that's the case, just try something different!
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