Friday, January 9, 2009

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 . Sounds kinda tedious, but if you're in a bind with your mouse, it can come in quite handy.
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.
I've tested this in MS Word and Wordpad, but it *should* work no matter what word processing program you use. HOME / END KEY FUN
Do you ever find yourself scrolling through a huge folder ? Well, if you need to get to the beginning or the end quickly, just press Ctrl+Home . If you want to get to the end, click Ctrl+End.

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