When using keyboard shortcuts can greatly
increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you
focused. For example, to copy text, you can highlight text and press the Ctrl +
C shortcut. The shortcut is faster than moving your hands from the keyboard,
highlighting with the mouse, choosing copy from the file menu, and then
returning to the keyboard.
Below are the top 10 keyboard
shortcuts we recommend everyone memorize and use.
Ctrl
+ C or Ctrl + Insert and Ctrl + X
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.
Use the above text input fields to
highlight the "Cut or copy this text" text and press either Ctrl + C
to copy or Ctrl + X to Cut the text. Once Cut Move to the next field and press
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert to paste the text.
Ctrl
+ Z and Ctrl + Y
Pressing Ctrl + Z will Undo any change. For example, if you cut
text, pressing this will undo it. These shortcuts can also be pressed multiple
times to undo or redo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl + Y would redo the undo.
Use the above text input field to
highlight some or all of the text and then press Ctrl + X to cut the text. Once
the text has disappeared press the Ctrl + Z to undo the cut.
Tip: If you did the first example as
well (cut and paste text) if you continue to press Ctrl + Z it is also going to
undo that change.
Ctrl
+ F
Pressing Ctrl + F opens the Find in any program. Ctrl + F includes
your Internet browser
to find text on the current page. Press Ctrl + F now to open the Find in your
browser and search for "shortcut" to find each time shortcut is
mentioned on this page.
Alt
+ Tab or Ctrl + Tab
Pressing Alt + Tab switches
between open programs moving forward. For example, if you have your browser
window open and other programs running in the background press and hold Alt and
then press tab to cycle through each open program.
Tip: Press Ctrl + Tab to
switch between tabs
in a program. For example, if you have multiple tabs open in your browser now
press Ctrl + Tab to switch between open tabs.
Tip: Adding the Shift key
to Alt + Tab or Ctrl + Tab moves backward. For example, if you are pressing Alt
+ Tab and pass the program you want to use, press Alt + Shift + Tab to
move back 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 want to highlight one word at
a time, 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. Use
this shortcut key frequently if you're working on anything important in case an
error happens, you lose power, or other problem that causes you to lose any
work since the last save.
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, Spacebar, 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 spacebar
also moves the page down one page at a time.
Tip: If you are using the spacebar
to go down one page at a time, press the Shift key
and spacebar to go up one page at a time.