Tip #11 - Important Keyboard Shortcuts

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #11 - Important Keyboard Shortcuts

Many people resist using keyboard shortcuts because they feel they're hard to remember and they have better things to do with their mind. I certainly agree with this but I feel that there are a few shortcuts that are worth working on because they make you more efficient. And in some cases, they are more than shortcuts because there are times you cannot use menus to accomplish these actions.

Two are very easy to remember because the keyboard shortcut is the same as the first letter of what they do. These are Ctrl + s for Save and Ctrl + p for Print (or Command key in the Appleland).

Keyboard shortcut keys Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste.

In addition to these simple shortcuts I would also encourage you to learn and use four more, undo, cut, copy and paste. These are not going to seem as logical as Print and Save unless you know the thought process behind how they were assigned. If you look at your keyboard (or the picture below) you will see that on the bottom row, left side we have Z, X, C and V all in a row. When you use these keys in conjunction with the Ctrl key (remember it's the Command key in the Appleland) you will execute Undo, Cut, Copy or Paste.

The first time I saw these shortcuts in use was on the keyboard for my first Macintosh in 1984.  These keys actually had the words Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste written on them as well as the actual letters, and there are still keyboards that do this. Look carefully at your keyboard, you might be surprised!

To Recap:

Save     Ctrl + s

Print     Ctrl + p

Undo    Ctrl + z

Cut       Ctrl + x

Copy     Ctrl + c

Paste    Ctrl + v

Happy Computing! See you tomorrow. - Diane