I cannot live without keyboard short-cuts and it always surprises me when people don’t know them. So here we go, let’s share. These are some of my favorites.
- CTRL-N is New, in any Microsoft window
- In Microsoft Word, CTRL-N will create a New document,
- in Microsoft Excel CTRL-N will create a New Spreadsheet,
- in Microsoft Outlook CTRL-N will create a New E-mail if you are in the E-mail window, a New Appointment if you are in the Calendar, a New Contact if you are in Contacts & a New Task if you are in Task window,
- Ctrl-Z is Undo in a lot of programs (try it),
- Ctrl-A is Select All (rather than click and drag – stop doing that).
- Ctrl-A will select an entire document or spreadsheet
- Within an Email Ctrl-A will select all the names in the To box or CC box as well as any other entry box you are populating
- Rather than Click & Drag – CTRL-A is a great short-cut for any place you need to select data
Even the F keys still have merit. The F1 – F10 keys have been in use since DOS days. I still use a number of them regularly:
- ALT-F4 will close any window or program. Rather than using the Mouse & hitting the x (at the top right corner) you can use this Keyboard short-cut. This is rather handy when your Mouse Battery is dead & your mouse doesn’t work.
- F1 always has been & still is the HELP key in pretty much every program I have ever used.
- F5 is Goto – try it in Word or Excel.
- F7 is spellcheck.
ALT-Tab moves from Program to Program (that you have open).
Shift-ALT-D inserts todays date into any text area. I have used this in within Contacts in Microsoft Outlook (in the notes section of an open Contact).
Of course there are many more short-cuts please comment on your Favorites.