Computer Tips

Computer Tips & Tricks

 

Web Browsers
Shortcut Keys
Ctrl+N          Open a new window
Ctrl+T          Open a new tab (if your browser supports tabs)
Ctrl+W         Close the current window/tab
Ctrl+R          Refresh
Esc                Stop
Alt+←          Back
Alt+→          Forward
PageUp         Move up a page
PageDown    Move down a page
Alt+Home     Go to your homepage
Alt+D            Move focus to the address bar to type in a URL
Ctrl+Enter     Add "http://www." and ".com" around an address
MiddleClick Middle-clicking a tab will close it, even if it's not the active tab

 

Scenario: Open a website in a new window

1. Ctrl+N   to open a new window
2. Alt+D    to bring you to the address bar
3. Type the address without the "http://www." or the ".com" (for example, "microsoft" instead of "http://www.microsoft.com"
4. Press Ctrl+Enter to add in the "http://www." and the ".com"

Editing Text
Shortcut Keys
Ctrl+B                      Bold the selected text bold
Ctrl+I                        Italicize the selected text italic
Ctrl+U                      Underline the selected text
Ctrl+Backspace        Delete the previous word
Ctrl+Del                   Delete the next word
Ctrl+F                       Find some text in the current document
Ctrl+Z                      Undo your last action

Scenario: Bold some text you are about to type
1. Ctrl+B    to turn on the bold feature
2. Type the text you want to be bold
3. Ctrl+B    to turn off the bold feature

Moving the Cursor and Selecting Text          
Pay close attention to these! These shortcut keys can be used in almost all text editors, like Notepad, your instant messaging program, and any text input dialog boxes in Windows.

Moving the Cursor
PageUp           Move the cursor up a page
PageDown      Move the cursor down a page
Home              Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
End                 Move the cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+Home     Move the cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+End        Move the cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl+←          Move the cursor left one word
Ctrl+→          Move the cursor right one word

 
The shortcut keys for selecting text are directly related to those that move the cursor around.

 

Just add a Shift:
Selecting Text
Shift+PageUp              Select everything between the cursor and a page previous
Shift+PageDown         Select everything between the cursor and a page after
Shift+Home                 Select everything between the cursor and the beginning of the line
Shift+End                    Select everything between the cursor and the end of the line
Shift+Ctrl+Home        Select everything betweeen the cursor and the beginning of the document
Shift+Ctrl+End            Select everything between the cursor and the end of the document
Shift+Ctrl+←              Select the word to the left
Shift+Ctrl+→              Select the word to the right

Scenario: Selecting A Line Of Text
1. Home to move the cursor to the beginning of the line
2. Shift-End to move the cursor to the end of the line and select everything alonig the way

Using the Clipboard
Ctrl+C             Copy what's selected
Ctrl+X             Cut what's selected
Ctrl+V             Paste what you last copied or cut
Ctrl+A             Select all

Documents and Files
Ctrl+N             Create a new document
Ctrl+O             Open an existing document
Ctrl+W            Close the current document
Ctrl+S              Saves the current document
Ctrl+P              Print the current document

Windows
Alt+F4              Exit the active window
Alt+Tab            Switch to the previous active window
Alt+Esc            Cycle through all open windows
Win+D             Show desktop (hit it again to show windows)