1225. Keyboard shortcuts

Julie asks: I am not a very good typist and moving the mouse around to accomplish tasks seems to take too long.  Are there keyboard shortcuts to speed things up?

You can realize a real productivity boost using keyboard shortcuts. The trick is to "internalize" them, so you remember them from day to day. Our suggestion? Pick one per day, and practice it.

Here are some of the ones we use most often (on a Mac, replace the Ctrl key with the Command key):

• CTRL+C copies selected text; CRTL+X cuts the selected text; CTRL+V pastes the text you placed on the clipboard.
• CTRL+A selects all the text in the window or document. 
• If you are in an application and want to quit, instead of using the menus to quit, pressing Alt+F4 (Cmd+Q on a Mac) will close the window or active program. 
• If you are in a program like Word or Excel, Ctrl+F4 closes individual documents (Windows only).
• Alt+Tab (Cmd+Tab on a Mac) opens a window with a list of open programs that you to cycle through.  
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The important thing to get from this tech tip is to know that there are many keyboard shortcuts that will enhance your productivity. Try using one new shortcut each day and in no time you will find your productivity increasing significantly.

Useful Windows shortcuts

Useful Mac OS X shortcuts