Shortcuts, Anyone?

I was helping a friend with his computer recently, and while I watched him navigate around his computer environment, it suddenly dawned on me that he was a Total Mouser. By that I mean, he used his mouse to accomplish virtually every task.

And it also dawned on me how frequently I rely on keyboard shortcuts - particularly when I'm working on a document, or doing repetitive tasks, where using the mouse would require me to take my hands off the keyboard, grab the mouse, get oriented, perform the task, and then return my hands to the keyboard. Described that way, it sounds like a lot more work, doesn't it?

Believe me, if you don't now take advantage of just a few common keyboard shortcuts, it's worth the few minutes it takes to learn them. And once you get the logic, you'll probably be able to figure out a few that you haven't memorized.

So here's a handy reference chart:

Alt + F	File menu options in current program.
Alt + E	Edit options in current program
F1	Universal Help in almost every Windows program.
Ctrl + A	Select all text.
Ctrl + X	Cut selected item.
Shift + Del	Cut selected item.
Ctrl + C	Copy selected item.
Ctrl + Ins	Copy selected item
Ctrl + V	Paste
Shift + Ins	Paste
Home	Goes to beginning of current line.
Ctrl + Home	Goes to beginning of document.
End	Goes to end of current line.
Ctrl + End	Goes to end of document.
Shift + Home	Highlights from current position to beginning of line.
Shift + End	Highlights from current position to end of line.
Ctrl + Left arrow	Moves one word to the left at a time.
Ctrl + Right arrow	Moves one word to the right at a time.

I think you get the general idea: the control key enables an action. The Alt key acts as a menu "shift" - so, Alt F will open your File menu, Alt E will open your edit menu, and so on.

Ctrl X, Ctrl C, and Ctrl V are critical to learn - and if you really want to edit text that you're working on without mousing, it will behoove you to learn Ctrl Home, and the Ctrl Arrow combinations, so that you can move rapidly within your document without resorting to the mouse.

Happy keyboarding!