Hot keys I think everyone should know

27Jan08

Study has shown (or someone should should study and show) that good use of hot keys will reduce time waste, avoid frustration, and prolong user’s life span. Below are a few hot keys that I use most often which are not trivial (I think everyone knows how to cut and paste? Ctrl X, Ctrl V?)

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For Windows:

Windows + R = run a program, eg: ‘notepad’, ‘firefox’ , ‘mspaint’ for Paint

Windows + M = minimize all windows

Alt + Tab (+Shift) = cycle through opened windows (reverse)

Alt + F4 = close the opened window

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For text editing:

Ctrl + ‘=’ = subscript (in Word 2007)

Ctrl + left or right = move cursor by word

Ctrl + backspace (delete) = delete previous (next) word

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Navigation:

Tab = move to next input box (great for entering email -> password)

Shift + Tab = move to previous input box (great for entering email again cuz you typed it wrong the first time)

Ctrl + end = go to end of document/window (cuz you got tired of reading)

Ctrl + home = go to start of document/window

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Good programs usually have its own hot keys built in.

For example, let’s say you like to create new tabs in Firefox, but you don’t like using the mouse to click around looking dumb. So you opened “File” (if you did that by using Alt+F, good for you, geek), and see that next to the “New Tab” item, it says “Ctrl+T“. That’s not decoration ladies and gentlemen. That means you can use Ctrl + T to create a new tab the right way.

If you really want to know more, some real geek prepared a comprehensive list of windows hotkeys.

Enjoy the computer like you’ve never enjoyed it before!

Filed under: Geek talk   |  6 Comments
Tags: computer, geek, hot keys, lifehacks, productivity, Technology, time saving, windows