Keyboard Shortcuts

March 2003

Many times while I'm working on someone's computer, they will stop me and ask "How'd you do that?", referring to a fast move of the fingers that made something special happen on screen.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that are very handy if you spend much time on the computer. Here are some of my favorites - and those I'm asked about the most:

Note: CTRL refers to the Control key, one of which is located at each lower corner of the letter pad.

Ctrl+C Copies whatever is selected (highlighted) to the hidden clipboard in Windows.

Ctrl+X Cuts (removes) whatever is selected.

Ctrl+V Pastes whatever was last cut or copied to the clipboard.

 Shift+Left Mouse Click allows you to select an entire list.

Example:

You have a list of 20 email messages, all of which you want to delete. Left click on the first email message in the list. Now hold the Shift key down, and while holding it down, left click on the last email message in the list. All of the messages between the first and last will also be highlighted. Now simply press Delete and they will all be deleted.

Ctrl+Left Mouse Click allows you to selectively highlight items from a list.

Example:

You have a list of 20 email messages, SOME of which you want to delete. Left click on the first email message that you want to delete. Press and hold the CTRL key down, and then click on each of the other messages that are to be deleted. As you do so, each one will be highlighted. When you are finished, release the CTRL key, and press Delete to delete the highlighted messages.

Ctrl+Escape will access the Start menu, handy if the mouse is not working.

Alt+Tab will rotate through the various program windows that are currently open.

Here are some handy keystrokes to use when highlighting text in a document:

While holding the shift key down, you can use the up or down arrows to highlight one entire line upward or downward. Use page-up or page-down to select an entire page of text upward or downward. Use the left and right arrow keys to select to the left or right of the cursor, one character at a time. Use the end key to select to the end of the line, or the home key to select to the beginning of the line.

Ctrl+End will take your cursor to the end of the current line.

Ctrl+Home will take the cursor to the beginning of the current line.

Ctrl+(left or right arrow) will move the cursor to the next space in the line (from the end of one word to the end of the next word, for example.)

Ctrl+Page Down will take you to the very end of the document, a great trick when looking at a long web page.

Ctrl+Page Up will take you to the very top of the document, also great for web pages.

That's it! Hope you are all having a terrific winter, and are avoiding the horrible flu bugs that are flying around this year.

 This site maintained by The Computer Counselor