Earlier I was reminded by why I took on the handle “KbCb” (aka: “Keyboard Cowboy”); My mom called me up and had a laugh with me because one of the people she talked to said she had never met anyone who knew more keyboard shortcuts than me.
I think many people forget to use the keyboard. Even in the windows world the keyboard is far more efficient than any mouse. Very often (well, often enough) I am mocked for using windows – and boy they REALLY get going when they hear I use vista – mainly for the fact that I “have to use a mouse to do anything”. Well, I’m here to say that’s a BUNCH of bull****.
All you gotta do is take a little time to familiar yourself with the short cuts. Here are the ones that are most common to me, and I will try to keep this up-to-date going forward. Note: I can’t imagine that the first shortcuts I list aren’t well-known to anyone who has used a computer for a job. So, bare with…Windows/General
- Alt+Tab: This is very useful to switch between windows quickly. If you are jumping back and forth between two windows, this is what you want to use.
- Win+Tab (Vista only): When you aren’t as sure whether or not Alt+Tab will get you there quickly then use this because it will show you a large preview of each screen.
- Alt+F4: Closes a window. Don’t hunt for the X, just hit Alt+F4.
- Ctrl+P: This brings up the print window. All you have to do (generally) is press “Ctrl+P” then “Enter” and it will print on the default printer. No need to hunt with the mouse for the OK button (most of the time).
- Message Windows: Plenty often windows LOVES to tell you what it is doing… “Are you sure you want to print?” “Are you sure you want to close?” “Are you sure you want to do what you already said you want to do?” These are message windows that typically have a combination of either “Yes”, “No”, “Cancel”, or “OK”. Most typically the following applies:
- “Y” key corresponds to “Yes”.
- “N” key corresponds to “No”.
- “Esc” key corresponds to “Cancel”.
- “Enter” key corresponds to “OK”.
Browsers
- Alt+D: This quickly brings you to the address bar. Very useful when typing in new addresses.
- When you DO type in a new address, such as “seanmcilvenna.com” keep in mind that you don’t have to type “http://www.” and after you are done typing “seanmcilvenna” just hit Ctrl+Enter and it will add on the “.com” for you. So, all you have to type is “seanmcilvenna” then press Ctrl+Enter and IE, Firefox and I think even chrome will bring you to “http://seanmcilvenna.com”
- Ctrl+E: In IE 7/8, Firefox and Chrome this brings you to the search box. Type in the text you want to search a search engine for and hit enter and it will automatically do the search for you. In IE7 and Firefox you can setup which search engine you want to use by default, but in chrome I think it forces you to use google.com (of course). So, by doing this you have saved yourself the effort of going to google.com, waiting for the page to load, typing in your search textafter it loaded, then waiting for the page to load again.
Windowed Programs (such as Microsoft Word)
By windowed I mean that the program allows multiple windows/documents to be opened within the one program. For example, you only have to have Microsoft Word open once, but you have multiple documents open within Microsoft Word.
- Ctrl+Tab: Much like Alt+Tab this will switch you between the documents in the windowed program.
- Ctrl+F4: Much like Alt+F4 this will close the document you are looking at.
- Ctrl+S: This saves the document you are working on. You don’t have to go to the File menu every time…