Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows)

Keyboard Shortcuts with Free Download

As with all things ‘computer’ there are multiple ways to achieve a goal such as ‘Cut’, ‘Copy’, ‘Paste’ or Navigate your cursor around a document. When you are typing (or there is a lack of ‘menu’ present) it is sometimes more expedient to use your keyboard rather than your mouse to do things.

Keyboard Shortcuts help you save time by allowing you to never take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts use a combination of keys to achieve a Function’. For example: Have you ever wondered what that Ctrl key was for? Well, if you press and hold that down and then hit another key magical things will happen. The Shift and Alt keys can be used as well.

I also find that by taking your hand away from the keyboard to find your mouse to either click a Menu about your document or right click to find the ‘Options’ menus, you can distract your focus on the task at hand.

Keyboard shortcuts are also immensely handy for those of you who use a lap top ‘track pad’ (naughty) instead of a mouse, so….

Remember that you need to master Selecting (or highlighting) techniques first.[see the Selecting Text shortcuts]

Step 1 is to locate certain keys on your keyboard (as a lot of keyboards differ from one another)…

Ctrl (Control) - 
usually the first and last keys on the bottom row

Shift - 
usually the first and last key of the second bottom row

Navigation Keys -
usually grouped together or in a row downwards on the right hand side

Arrow Keys -
Bottom right

F Keys -
Very Top Row

Alt Key-
usually either side of the Space Bar

Now you have located the Ctrl, Alt, Shift, F, Arrow and Navigation Keys you can Download a printable version of this guide and keep them by your keyboard until you learn them ‘by heart’.

Remember that keyboards can be different so these shortcuts are a guide only. After you have printed this open up a word document and type some text. Then go through the shortcuts and make sure they work for you.

It’s always good practice to 'say' the commands as you perform them...(all geniuses talk to themselves) For example;

Copy Command: Ctrl+C

Say …‘hold Control and press C’

Here are a few to get you started...

MOST USED

Cut selected text     Ctrl + X

Copy selected text   Ctrl + C

Undo last edit           Ctrl + Z

Paste selected text   Ctrl + V

Redo last action      Ctrl + Y

Task Manager (to stop a process when its stuck and taking forever to think about it or your computer is ‘frozen’)
                             Ctrl + Alt + Delete

SELECTING TEXT

            Select All the text in a doc               Ctrl + A

          Select a Word at a time               Shift + left/right arrow

            Select a Sentence at a time           Ctrl + one click of mouse

To Download your free Keyboard Shortcuts Guide Click here

Yours in Shortcutting
Kim-Denyse

www.mycomputertutor.net.au