Advice: Useful Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know

A few years back, I injured my hand in a weird way…basically, it became painful to use a mouse, but the keyboard was still fine. So, I learned how to navigate most of Windows without taking my hands off the keyboard. It’s much faster and much easier once you get the hang of it. Today, you could swipe my mouse from my desk and there’s a better-than-even chance I won’t notice before lunch. So, here’s some of my favorites…

General

1. ALT+TAB: This shortcut switches between top-level windows. This is now the equivalent of knowing what the “enter” key does. You should certainly have a good handle on it if you are in front of a computer for more than 5 minutes on any given day.
2. ALT+ESC: Quickly move what you’re looking at to the bottom of your window stack. Great for when the boss sneaks up on you while you’re browsing internet or something. Bonus is that it doesn’t give the telltale “blip” on the screen of ALT+TAB that any boss worth his salt will recognize.
3. CTRL+X, C and V: Cut, Copy, Paste…respectively.
4. CTRL+F, or H: Find, Replace…respectively.
5. CTRL+Z, Y: Undo, Redo.
6. CTRL+A: Select All.
7. SHIFT+Arrow Keys: Select text.
8. CTRL+Arrow Keys: Move across words in text.
9. CTRL+SHIFT+Arrow Keys: Select words/lines/paragraphs of text.
10. CTRL+Backspace: Deletes previous word/character block.
11. CTRL+Delete: Deletes next word/character block.
12. CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Windows Task Manager. No more ALT+CTRL+DELETE!
13. WIN+L: Lock windows.
14. WIN+M or WIN+D: Minimize all the things.
15. WIN+SHIFT+M: Undoes WIN+M/D.
16. CTRL+B: Toggle Bold formatting (works in most word processors or other text-formatting editors).
17. CTRL+I: Toggle Italic formatting.
18. CTRL+U: Toggle Underline.
19. WIN+ R: Open “Run” Prompt.

Multi-Monitor

1. WIN+Arrow keys: Shift position within current monitor.
2. WIN+SHIFT+Arrow keys: Move window to different monitor.

Windows Explorer

Note: many of these work the same in most browsers where applicable

1. WIN+E: Open new instance of Windows Explorer at the My Computer location.
2. ALT+D: Move cursor to the location/url bar.
3. CTRL+W: Close tab or browser window.
4. CTRL+N: When already in Explorer, this opens a new instance of explorer at your current location
5. SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes a file, bypassing the recycle bin.
6. CTRL+SHIFT+N: New folder
7. F2: Rename file. Tab from this to continue down the row with renaming.

Browsing the Internet

1. CTRL+L: Move the cursor to the URL bar.
2. CTRL+K: Move the cursor the the search box.
3. CTRL+W: Close current window.
4. CTRL+SHIFT+W: This is what I like to call “The Productivity Shortcut.” Closes your browser.
5. CTRL+N: New browser window.
6. CTRL+SHIFT+N (Chrome): Incognito window. Use CTRL+SHIFT+P in Firefox.
7. CTRL+T: New Tab.
8. CTRL+SHIFT+T: Open the most recently closed tab.
9. CTRL+TAB: Move to the next tab.
10. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous tab.
11. CTRL+1-9: Go to the tab at the position indicated by the number you press. E.g., press CTRL+1 takes you to the first tab.
12. CTRL+R: Reload the tab. F5 does this too. SHIFT+F5 will do a full reload of any cached data as well, great for when you’re messing around with CSS.
13. CTRL+U: View Source.
14. CTRL+P: Print.
15. CTRL+H: View your history.
16. CTRL+B or CTRL+SHIFT+B: Bookmarks. In Chrome, the SHIFT version toggles the bookmarks bar.
17. CTRL+D: Bookmark the current page.
18. CTRL+0: Reset zoom.
19. CTRL+Plus/Minus sign: Adjust zoom.
20. SHIFT+delete: Remove suggestion from autocomplete.

MS Excel

1. CTRL+Arrow keys: Navigate around a region. For example, press CTRL+DOWN ARROW and it will take you to the first empty cell in the column you are in.
2. CTRL+SHIFT+ARROWS: Highlights the region.
3. SHIFT+ARROWS: Highlight individual cells.
4. CTRL+SHIFT+R: Fill right.
5. CTRL+SHIFT+D: Fill down.
6. CTRL+SHIFT+L: Activate column filtering.
7. CTRL+SHIFT+1-6: Apply various number formats. One=Decimal, 2=Time, 3=Date, 4=Currency, 5=Percent, 6=Scientific.
8. CTRL+SHIFT+~: Apply general numeric formatting, no decimals.
9. CTRL+SHIFT+7: Apply thin outer border around the selected region of cells.
10. CTRL+ALT+V: Paste Special Menu.

Outlook

1. CTRL+N: New item, depending upon the context. i.e., if you are in the mail window, it will open a new email to compose. If you are in the calendar, a new appointment.
2. CTRL+1-5: Switch context, 1=mail, 2=calendar, 3=contacts etc.
3. F9: Send/Receive all.
4. CTRL+U (Mail): Mark item unread. CTRL+Q marks it read.
5. SHIFT+DELETE: Permanently delete an item.
6. CTRL+F: Forward an item.
7. CTRL+R: Reply (mail).
8. CTRL+SHIFT+B: Address Book.

Facebook

1. c – Comment when on a story in News Feed.
2. j and k – Scroll between News Feed stories.
3. l – like or unlike a selected story.
4. q – search for a friend to chat with.
5. p – Focus on the text box when making a post.
6. / – Search.

Access Keys for Facebook: (Use CTRL+ALT+# in FF, ALT+# in Chrome and IE)

1. 0 – Help
2. 1 – Home
3. 2 – Timeline
4. 3 – Friends
5. 4 – Inbox
6. 5 – Notifications
7. 6 – Account Settings
8. 7 – Privacy
9. 8 – About
10. 9 – Terms
11. m – New Message