Top 10 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
Both Ctrl + C and Ctrl + Insert
will copy
the highlighted text or
selected item. If you want to cut instead of copy press Ctrl + X.
Ctrl
+ V or Shift + Insert
Both the Ctrl + V and Shift
+ Insert will 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
Pressing Ctrl + F opens the Find
in any program. This includes your Internet browser to find text on the current
page.
Alt
+ Tab or Ctrl + Tab
Quickly switch between open programs
moving forward.
Tip: Press Ctrl + Tab to
switch between tabs in a program.
Tip: 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.
Tip: 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 and Ctrl + Left or Right arrow
Pressing Ctrl + Backspace will delete a full word at a
time instead of a single character.
Holding down the Ctrl key
while pressing the left or right arrow will 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
+ S
While working on a document or other
file in almost every program, pressing Ctrl + S saves that file. This
shortcut key should be used frequently anytime you're working on anything
important.
Ctrl
+ Home or Ctrl + End
Ctrl + Home will move the cursor to the beginning of the document and Ctrl
+ End will move the cursor to the end of a document. These shortcuts work
with most documents, as well as web pages.
Ctrl
+ P
Open a print preview of the current
page or document being viewed. For example, press Ctrl + P now to view a
print preview of this page.
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 also moves the page down one page
at a time.
Tip: If you are using the space bar
to go down one page at a time, press the Shift key and space
bar to go up one page at a time.
Other
Recommended Shortcuts
We also recommend the following
keyboard shortcuts, as they can be very useful:
Ctrl
+ O
Allows you to select and open a file
within the current software program. This works in most programs, including
Internet browsers.
F2
After highlighting or selecting a
file, pressing F2 changes the
file name to be editable, allowing you to rename the file.
