Keyboard short-cuts

Your operating system may have several keyboard short-cuts you don't know of which can make your day much easier. For example, holding Alt and pressing F4 will close your current window. This means you first have to press the Alt-key, and while holding that - press F4.

There are many different keyboard short-cuts, and some programs have their own dedicated short-cuts for performing frequently used operations. We'll try to cover the most common ones in this article, in addition to looking at how to make your own and see which short-cuts a program has.

Why use keyboard short-cuts?

When you get used to using keyboard short-cuts, your work will go much quicker as you will not have to move your hand between the keyboard and mouse that much. Thus, using keyboard short-cuts will lessen the chance of getting RSI (repetitive strain injury).

Abbreviations

We'll use abbreviations for the different keys because that's what you will see in your operating system. As an example, Ctrl+C will mean that you want to press the Control-key and the C-key at the same time. (And even though we write C as a capital letter, it does not mean that you will use Caps lock or add the Shift-key to capitalize the letter).

List of abbreviations

1. Ctrl = Control
2. Tab = Tabulator
3. Win = The Windows-key (the one with the Windows-flag on)

The picture beneath shows where the keys normally are, but some manufacturers have places them differently.

Universal keyboard short-cuts

Not all programs have the same short-cuts, but we'll try to give a list of the universal ones here:

1. Ctrl + C - Copy (pretty much anything, depending on which program you're using)
2. Ctrl + X - Cut
3. Ctrl + V - Paste
4. Ctrl + N - New document/window
5. Ctrl + O - Open a document
6. Ctrl + S - Save your current document
7. Ctrl + A - Highlight everything
8. Ctrl + P - Go to the Print menu
9. Alt + Tab - Switch between open programs (pressing the Tab-key will go through the list of programs)
10. Win + D - Minimizes all open programs and displays the desktop
11. Win + E - Opens My Computer (Explorer)
12. Tab - Tabbing in a program will move you to the next input-link/form. For example, while filling out a form you can tab to the next filed instead of having to use the mouse.

How do I find the keyboard short-cuts in a program?

Most of the above-mentioned short-cuts should work in most programs. If you want to find keyboard short-cuts especially designed for the program you're using, you should be able to find a list of them in the Help dropdown-menu.

An easier way to learn keyboard short-cuts you will want to use is by looking at the function you usually press in the meny:

You'll see that in the Notepad-program, the keyboard short-cuts you can use instead of going into the menu are to the right in grey.

In-depth keyboard short-cuts

Microsoft's own page on keyboard short-cuts gives a greater list of keyboard short-cuts you can use.