The great thing about computers is that they can work much faster
than you can. But telling them what to do is often a slow process. Well,
there's a fix.
I'm talking about keyboard shortcuts. To perform a
keyboard shortcut, you press two, three or sometimes four keyboard keys
at once. A single, quick shortcut can accomplish the same thing as
moving your mouse across the screen and clicking through several menus
or hunting down buttons.
There are dozens of them, from pressing
Ctrl+A to select everything in a window to pressing Ctrl+B to make
selected text bold. Press Ctrl+F to find a word in a document or web
page. When you want to print something, press Ctrl+P. (Most of the
shortcuts are the same on a Mac, except you use the CMD key instead of
the CTRL key.)
The six shortcuts below are the most essential to
know, however. Get in the habit of using them, and your mouse will soon
start collecting dust!
CTRL+S (Save)
The first thing I
stress to anyone learning to use a computer is SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN!
You never know when the program you're using, or your entire computer,
is going to crash.
For the last decade, many programs have
included auto-save features that save your work every 5 to 10 minutes.
That's fine as a last resort, but I still prefer to make a habit of
manual saving. It comes in handy when you use programs that don't have
auto-save.
That's why the CTRL+S shortcut is so handy. It works in
nearly every program in existence and takes only a fraction of a second
to type. You don't have to take your hands off the keyboard and move
the mouse cursor up to the Save icon.
When writing, I generally press CTRL+S after every few paragraphs I type or whenever I pause for a new thought.
CTRL+Z (Undo)
One
of the best things about using a computer for content creation is the
Undo feature. With a typewriter, handwriting or traditional photo
manipulation, undoing a mistake is a major process.
With a
computer, the Undo button gives you the freedom to experiment and make
mistakes, and then change things back if you don't like it. I use it all
the time when editing photos.
Many computer users don't even realize the Undo feature exists.
Using
the CTRL+Z shortcut, you can undo a mistake very quickly. Hitting
CTRL+Z several times will often undo the last several changes. If you go
too far back, hit CTRL+Y to Redo.
CTRL+C (Copy), CTRL+V (Paste)
Another
joy of using a computer is copying and pasting. It makes moving text,
photos, files, folders and everything else a breeze.
Every program
has Copy and Paste icons, and if you right-click on files and folders
in Windows, you'll see Copy and Paste as options. For those who do a lot
of copying and pasting, however, the keyboard shortcuts are a big
time-saver.
Just use the mouse to select what you want to copy,
hit CTRL+C, click the mouse where you want to paste, and hit CTRL+V.
You're done!
Bonus tip: In cases where you want to move something instead of copy it, use CTRL+X (Cut) instead of CTRL+C.
CTRL++(Zoom in)
Thanks
to larger, high-resolution monitors for laptops and desktops, many
websites and programs are hard to read. The text just looks too small.
Instead
of moving closer to the screen and squinting, hit CTRL++ (that's a plus
sign) a few times. This will increase the zoom level in most browsers
and some programs. To zoom out again, just hit CTRL+- (that's a minus
sign). To reset the zoom level to 100 percent, hit CTRL+0 (that's a
zero).
Bonus tip: If you already have one hand on your mouse, you can also hold CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
CTRL+ALT+DEL (also known as "the 3-finger salute") or CMD+OPT+ESC (OS X)
Years
ago, this was the first keyboard shortcut most people learned. In the
olden days of computers, it rebooted your computer if it was acting up,
which happened quite a bit. You could solve a lot of problems with these
three keys.
Bonus history: CTRL+ALT+DEL was first added to
computers in the '80s by David Bradley, an engineer at IBM. He wanted a
quick way to reboot test systems that were locked. Ironically, he never
intended for the public to actually use it.
In modern computers,
CTRL+ALT+DEL either brings up Windows Task Manager, or a list of options
including Task Manager. Task Manager is useful for killing programs
that are acting up or unresponsive. Plus, you can see what is slowing
down your system.
If you are using a Mac, it's not uncommon for
programs to freeze and you get to see the spinning beach ball of death.
When this happens, press the CMD+OPT+ESC keys, select the offending
program and force quit. Restart the program and you're on your way
again.
