QuickTips on Productivity-Enhancing Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts Save Wrists and Time in 2008

Forget about all those resolutions to exercise more, eat healthier, or save money. Think really small. Think about little changes you can make in the way you work that will be easy to remember, easy to make into a habit, and will have a big cumulative impact on your productivity. For example, the next time you reach for your mouse to open a file or highlight a piece of text, try using a keyboard shortcut instead.

 

Listed below are a couple of Windows shortcuts that will increase your productivity, keep you from running through endless file menus, and spare you the annoyance of having to switch between your keyboard and mouse to access certain commands. This list contains a few old standards you're probably already familiar with, but we hope it offers a few new tricks as well:

 

EDITING 

Ctrl+S: Save

Ctrl+C: Copy

Ctrl+X: Cut

Ctrl+V: Paste

Ctrl+A: Select all

Ctrl+E: Center text

Shift+Right arrow: Highlights text one letter at a time

Ctrl+Shift+Right arrow: Highlights text one word at a time

Shift+Down arrow: Highlights text one line at a time

Ctrl+Down arrow: Skips to next paragraph

Ctrl+Up arrow: Skips to previous paragraph

F7: Spell check

 

NAVIGATING AND MANAGING FILES

Windows+E: Opens Windows Explorer (the Windows key is the one that looks like the Windows logo or a flag, and is next to the Alt key on most keyboards)

Alt+Tab: Switch between open windows

Windows+D: Show or restore desktop

F2: Rename a selected file or folder

F3: Launch Search if you're on the desktop or in a folder; launch Find if you're in a file