For the last few days some colleges and I have been discussing the skill levels of computer users ( I will have to write a posting on this at another time). One of the topics that I brought up is that few people know what hotkey are.
For those of you that do not know what hotkeys are, they a series of keyboard shortcuts that perform tasks and run programs. Your Window key and Apple Key on your keyboard are short cut keys.
In the old days of Windows. Almost 20 years ago there was not a “Windows” key on the keyboard (Gasp!!!). So you had drag the mouse the Start button bring up your list of installed programs. But, if you knew the long running hotkey combination Ctrl-Esc you could activated the Start menu and use you arrow keys to navigate the menu and find your application.
“But, why would I care about this. I have a mouse.” True. But, using hot keys speeds up routine tasks.
For example. Think about how much time it takes you to save a document with the mouse.
If I am working on a paper for a class I have to scroll down to the end of the document with the mouse to make changes. I leave my mouse pointer / cursor in the bottom right of the screen. I start typing. I feel good about my changes and now have to my mouse to to the application tool to find and click the save button.
Now open a document. Hold down the Ctrl and press the End key to take you to the of the document. Append your document. When finished hold down the Ctrl and press the S key. You have just saved your document.
Just think about all the time you could save if your hand never had to leave the keyboard to reach for your mouse.
Every program and operating system has different hotkeys. I don’t know them all. But, I have a few URL addresses to help us find them.
Here are some generic keyboard short cuts. That work in 90% of all windows programs.
| Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: | Copy. |
| Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: | Cut. |
| Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: | Paste/Move. |
| Ctrl + N: | New File, Tab, Entry, etc. |
| Ctrl + S: | Save. |
| Ctrl + O: | Open… |
| Ctrl + P: | Print. |
| Ctrl + Z: | Undo. |
| Ctrl + A: | Select all. |
| Ctrl + F: | Find… |
| Ctrl + F4: | Close tab or child window. |
| F1: | Open help. |
| F11: | Toggle full screen mode. |
| Alt or F10: | Activate menu bar. |
| Alt + Space: | Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar. |
| Escape: | Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box. |
| Tab: | Forward one item. |
| Shift + Tab: | Backward one item. |
| Ctrl + Tab: | Cycle through tabs/child windows. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Tab: | Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows. |
| Enter: | If a button’s selected, click it, otherwise, click default button. |
| Space: | Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes. |
| Alt + (Letter): | Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item’s name. |
| Ctrl + Left: | Move cursor to the beginning of previous word. |
| Ctrl + Right: | Move cursor to the beginning of next word. |
| Ctrl + Up: | Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls. |
| Ctrl + Down: | Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph. |
| Shift + Left: | Highlight one character to the left. |
| Shift + Right: | Highlight one character to the right. |
| Shift + Up: | Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up. |
| Shift + Down: | Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Left: | Highlight to beginning of previous word. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Right: | Highlight to beginning of next word. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Up: | Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Down: | Highlight to beginning of next paragraph. |
| Home: | Move cursor to top of a scrollable control. |
| End: | Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control. |
| Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: | Cycle through tabs. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: | Cycle through tabs in reverse. |
| Ctrl + (1-9): | Switch to tab corresponding to number. |
| Ctrl + N: | New browser window. |
| Ctrl + T: | New tab. |
| Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: | Switch focus to location bar. |
| Ctrl + Enter: | Open location in new tab. |
| Shift + Enter: | Open location in new window. |
| Ctrl + O: | Open a local file. |
| Ctrl + W: | Close tab, or window if there’s only one tab open. |
| Ctrl + Shift + W: | Close window. |
| Ctrl + S: | Save page as a local file. |
| Ctrl + P: | Print page. |
| Ctrl + F or F3: | Open find toolbar. |
| Ctrl + G or F3: | Find next |
| Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: | Find previous |
| Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: | Open Bookmarks sidebar. |
| Ctrl + H: | Open History sidebar. |
| Escape: | Stop loading page. |
| Ctrl + R or F5: | Reload current page. |
| Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: | Reload current page; bypass cache. |
| Ctrl + U: | View page source. |
| Ctrl + D: | Bookmark current page. |
| Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): | Increase text size. |
| Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + | Minus: Decrease text size. |
| Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: | Set text size to default. |
| Alt + Left or Backspace: | Back. |
| Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: | Forward. |
| Alt + Home: | Open home page. |
| Ctrl + M: | Open new message in integrated mail client. |
| Ctrl + J: | Open Downloads dialog. |
Lighthouse Knowledge 