Can Keyboard Shortcuts Really Save You Time?

By Jeandre de Beer

Have you ever thought about using keyboard shortcuts before? If they are used correctly they can speed up the most common tasks that you perform on a daily basis.

Most computer users perform the majority of functions in and around Windows using their mouse or laptop touch pad.

Many IT professionals and computer geeks can get away without using a mouse at all in Windows, but there are so many shortcuts available it’s hard for the average user to know what they are and remembering a long list of shortcut keys can quickly become overwhelming.

Windows Key to Search

Have you ever searched for a program that you know is installed on your computer – but could not find it? You know that you have Microsoft Outlook installed, but your desktop shortcut disappeared – How can you quickly and easily find this program?

You can press the Windows key on your keyboard and start typing the first few characters of the program you are searching for – for example Outlook – as soon as you see the results at the top of the page – you can click on the shortcut to open the program.

Copy and Paste

Copy and Paste is used frequently by most users.  Many times we need to copy certain text from one program to another without re-typing it. Copying and then later pasting it makes this task easy and quick.

The text can either be selected by using your mouse and then right clicking on the selected text and selecting copy or paste.

A faster way of doing this is by using the following keyboard shortcuts : After you have selected the text press Ctrl+C to copy the text and then press Ctrl+V to paste it. These shortcuts can save you a huge amount of time over using the mouse.

Search the current page

Sometimes we need to search  a Word or Excel document, a PDF file or a Webpage for a certain phrase. You can take the longer route by using the top menu of the program to search or you can use the much faster shortcut key : Ctrl+F

The find feature will pop up and allow you to instantly start typing what you are searching for. You can generally press Enter to  go to the next appearance of the word or phrase in the document, quickly searching through it for what you’re interested in.

Switch between Applications

If you have a couple of applications open and you want to switch between them – you can click on the icons on your taskbar. There’s a quicker way to do this – make use of Alt+Tab to switch between applications much faster than using the taskbar.

Windows sorts the list of open windows by the order you accessed them, so if you’re only using two different applications, you can just press Alt+Tab to quickly switch between them.

If you are switching between more than two open applications , you’ll have to hold the Alt key and press Tab repeatedly to toggle through the list of open windows.

Quickly print a document

If you want to print a document – we usually click on the file menu and then select print. The faster way of doing this is to use the Ctrl+P shortcut.  The print menu will open and allow you to print much faster than using the menu options.

Closing a Program

When we want to close an open program we usually click on the red X on the top right of our screens. An easier way to do this is to use the Alt+F4 shortcut key.

Lock your Computer

When we walk away from our computers we may want to lock them to prevent unauthorized use. When a computer is locked a password is needed to unlock it again. The fastest way of doing this is to use the Windows Key + L

Contact us if you need help with your computer.