Keyboard and mouse shortcuts
General shortcuts
ALT- F4 - Quit a program / Shut down
ALT-TAB - Hold down the ALT key and hit tab to cycle through open windows.
CTL-ESCAPE - Display the Start menu
SHIFT - TAB - tab backwards through a form
CTRL - X - Cut
CTRL - C - Copy
CTRL - V - Paste
F1 - Help menu
CTRL - Z - Undo
SHIFT & Restart - To restart just windows and not your whole computer, hold down the shift key when you click the OK button on the shutdown screen. Saves lots of time. (not for XP)
CRTL-TAB - Navigate tabs on a tabbed screen
File & Desktop Shortcuts
Hold SHIFT while inserting a CD - Prevents the CD from "autorunning"
If an item is selected:
CTRL while dragging a file - Copies the file
CTRL - SHIFT while dragging a file - Creates a shortcut to the file
SHIFT - DELETE - Deletes an item without sending it to the recycle bin.
ALT-ENTER - Display a file's properties.
F2 - To rename the file
In Windows Explorer:
LEFT ARROW - Collapse the current selection if it is expanded
NUM LOCK-MINUS SIGN (-) - Collapse the selected folder
RIGHT ARROW - Expand the current selection if it is collapsed -Or- Select the first subfolder
NUM LOCK- * Expand all folders below the current selection
NUM LOCK- PLUS SIGN (+) - Expand the selected folder
F6 - Switch between left and right panes
In My Computer:
BACKSPACE - View the folder one level up
ALT- RIGHT ARROW - Move forward to a previous view
ALT- LEFT ARROW -Move backward to a previous view
Internet Browser Shortcuts
For Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape 7 (may work in older versions)
Open History Window Ctrl+H
Reload Ctrl+R
Back (Previous Page) Alt+Left Arrow or Alt+Backspace
Forward (Next Page) Alt+Right Arrow
Stop Esc
Home Alt+Home
Go to Bottom of Page End
Go to Top of Page Home
New Window Ctrl+N
Close WIndow Ctrl+W
Go Up one Line Up Arrow
Go Down One Line Down Arrow
Full Screen (toggle) F11
Find on Page Ctrl+F
Add Current Page to Favorites Ctrl+D
Print Current Page
or Active Frame Ctrl+P
Organize Favorites (IE)/
Manage Bookmarks (NS)
Ctrl+B
Maximize a Window Alt+Space+x
Minimize a window Alt+Space+N
Scroll page up Alt+Up Arrow
Scroll page down Alt+Down Arrow
Internet Explorer ONLY
Open Favorites Bar Ctrl+I
Select text in address bar Alt+D
Force Reload (not from cache) Ctrl+F5
A faster way to type in addresses with IE is to just type in the name of the site:
ozwebhub
and hit CTRL + Enter. The "http://www. " and ".com" will be added for you!
Netscape ONLY
Open / Close Sidebar Panel (toggle) F9
Select text in Location Bar Ctrl+L
Force Reload (not from Cache) Ctrl+Shift+R
Zoom Text Smaller Ctrl+- (minus)
Zoom text larger Ctrl+= (plus sign)
Windows key shortcuts
The Windows key can be used in conjunction with other keys to act as a keyboard shortcut for faster access to menu commands. Now, while the Alt key tends to open program menus (ex: Alt+F opens the File menu and Alt+E opens the Edit menu) and the Ctrl key performs actual operations (ex: Ctrl+C will copy and Ctrl+V will paste), the Windows key will open various Windows tools...
Win key + R will open the Start menu's Run box
Win key + F will open the Start menu's Find window
Win key + E will quickly launch Explorer
Win key + Pause/Break will open the System Properties window
Win key + M will Minimize all windows
Win key + Shift + M will undo Minimize all windows
Win key + D will switch between minimizing all open programs and showing
them all
Win key + Tab will cycle through items on the taskbar
Win key by itself will open the Start menu
You can also open programs or folders on your desktop by pressing the Windows key + the first letter of the program/folder/shortcut + Enter .
WINDOWS LOGO + F: Find files or folders. This saves you from opening the Windows Explorer and selecting find from the menu. Now you have a one-click computer search!
F1 -- In Windows applications, and in the OS, F1 is a
universal call to the app's help system.
F2 -- In Windows Explorer, use F2 to rename files or folders.
This is faster than right-clicking and easier that clicking inside the
file or folder name and waiting for the input field to become available.
SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin. Works in most Explorer sub-systems or program navigations.
F5 -- This is a universal "Refresh" command, which works in many Windows applications. Use it to refresh your Explorer file system, browser and html editors.
CTRL + Z: Undo your last action. This works in both Windows and Mac machines and, like CTRL + C for copy and CTRL + V for paste, is a universal keyboard command. Undo is handy for quickly erasing your last action in just about any program.
CTRL + A: Select all the items in the current window.
This is a great shortcut, which in combination with Copy and Paste, will
have you flying around your screen!
Arrow tricks
Here's a cool little arrow trick to try with word processing programs. Next time you're using your arrow keys to go from one area of a sentence to another (left and right arrows), hold down your CTRL key. Instead of moving one space at a time, you'll go one word at a time.
If you're using the up and down arrows to go from line to line, holding down the CTRL key will make your cursor jump from paragraph to paragraph (well, from carriage return to carriage return anyway).
One last thing, if you hold down the SHIFT key while you do this (i.e. hold down SHIFT + CTRL at the same time), you select text as you arrow along.
Mouse tricks
Shift and Spin
Ever wonder what happens when you hold down the Shift key on a Web page and spin the wheel on your mouse? Internet Explorer goes either backward or forward through the pages you've recently visited, depending on which direction you spin.
I'll wait while you give it a try. Open up IE and follow a few links. Then, hold down your Shift key and start spinnin' that wheel.
Ctrl and Spin
If you are in a Web browser (Explorer or Netscape) or reading an e-mail in Outlook Express, hold down your Ctrl key and spin your mouse wheel. It makes the text larger or smaller depending on which way you spin. For Opera users, it magnifies both the images and the text.
Not only does this spinning technique save lots of time, but it has the added bonus of impressing the heck out of any novice computer users in the area.
For more and in better categories
download this PDF file
© Jenny Campbell