Ode To The Keyboard Or... What do you do if your mouse dies? - Getting Back To Your Roots! Compliments of your Tech-Support Professional In the Begining... Then A Tool Was Created... (from the typical PC User’s point of view...) There was DOS... A hidden artifact rumored to be the elusive WINDOWS CLIPBOARD A Keyboard/Text Operating system which was rather boring and clumsy is supposedly lurking somewhere in that computer... but it got the job done. Then came Windows 3.1 which was a Where is this darn clipboard thingy and how do I use it? Graphical User Interface (GUI) program that ran in a DOS environment. As they say, the best place to hide something is right underneath Although Windows was designed to be able to use a variety of input someone’s nose. It was right there in front of you the whole time! devices such as a “Mouse”, many of these were expensive at that time and many people could not afford $80 for what we today consider Think of the clipboard as an invisible virtual item basket to be a $5 garden variety, commodity mouse... So... Windows gave you with a copier, scissors and paste built in. You can use it to move a way of navigating through all of Windows without a mouse... things from one place to another by using the mouse or a keyboard. By using only a keyboard... Yup!... No kidding! Simply highlight the text or object(s), “COPY” your selection to the Built into Windows are KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS clipboard, then point to a destination and “PASTE” the selected object(s) which allow you to quickly navigate through Windows via keyboard. into place. It’s really that simple! Now let’s look at how Windows has And they kept it consistant throughout all versions of Windows. placed the keyboard shortcuts for the clipboard... On the left hand. And there was a method to the madness... By holding the CTRL key down with the pinky on the left hand, Let’s take a look at our typical keyboard and it’s layout. you have access to all the clipboard commands with the other three Pay special attention to what we’ll call the “Fringe” keys... fingers on that same hand. Look at the Key Map below. That is to say, those keys that surround the alphanumeric core keys and are most likely to be accessed by using the pinky, thumb, or ring fingers... Select All, Undo, Cut, Copy & Paste are assigned to the ESC, TAB, SHIFT, CTRL, Windowkey, ALT, Menukey, and ENTER. A, Z, X, C, & V keys respectively.
Now add a mouse on the right hand to the clipboard shortcuts on the left hand, and your productivity increases significantly. Select the object(s) with the mouse in the right hand, And perform clipboard functions on the keyboard with the left hand. Undo Ctrl+Z A Cut Ctrl+X By using these main fringe keys in conjunction with other navigational or special Copy Ctrl+C Select All keys, Complete navigation and control of Windows and applications can be Paste Ctrl+V accomplished without a mouse... using only a keyboard. Select All Ctrl+A Z X C V Undo Cut Copy Paste Hints: ALT + F4 will always mean CLOSE Current Window Ctrl Windowkey + E Will open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) Windowkey + Pause/Break will open SYSTEM PROPERTIES / Device Manager Menukey is the same as RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ALT + TAB will FAST SWITCH between open applications And, if you have a bad keyboard, you can use the “On Screen Keyboard”. CTRL + P means PRINT! START... Run... C:\Windows\System32\OSK.exe GENERIC WINDOWS KEYBOARD SHORT-CUT KEYS
TASKING COMMANDS -- (Holding SHIFT reverses direction) CLIPBOARD / EDITING KEYS
ALT + ESC (+ SHIFT=rev) - Moves immediately to the next open Application. CTRL + A - Select all items in current window. ALT + TAB (+ SHIFT=rev) - Displays and scrolls through open Applications... CTRL + C - Copies selected item(s) to the Clipboard. Release ALT to comit. ESC before release cancels. CTRL + V - Paste contents of Clipboard to current cursor position. CTRL + ALT + DEL(ete) - (Windows 3.1) REBOOT SYSTEM. CTRL + X - Cut selected item(s) (Delete) (Windows 95 and later) Open Task Manager CTRL + Z - UNDO the last Editing Command (same as ALT+BACKSPACE) CTRL + ESC - (Windows 3.1) Open “Task Manager” Dialogue Box (Windows 95 and later) Pop-up “START Menu” CTRL + B - Toggle BOLD on/off ESC - Closes Dialogue Window. CTRL + I - Toggle ITALIC on/off CTRL + U - Toggle UNDERLINE on/off SYSTEM KEYS CTRL + P - Print! DELETE - Delete selected Item / Object / Character right of cursor. F1 - HELP on current Application. SHIFT + DELETE - Delete item immediately without using Recycle Bin. F2 - Rename object PRINT SCREEN - Copy entire SCREEN to Clipboard. F5 - Refresh ALT + PRINT SCREEN - Copies an image of the ACTIVE WINDOW to the Clipboard. SHIFT (hold) - Bypass Autorun when inserting CD BACKSPACE - Delete Character to the Left of the Cursor. SHIFT + F10 - Activate the Menu Bar. (same as RIGHT MOUSE CLICK) INSERT - Toggle Insert Character Mode On/Off ALT + HYPHEN - Open Control Menu. ALT + HYPHEN + N - MiNimize a second (or child) window. CURSOR POSITIONING ALT + HYPHEN + X - MaXimize a second (or child) window. ALT + SPACEBAR - Open Control Menu. LEFT ARROW - Move left one character / item ALT + SPACEBAR + M - Move a window. ALT + SPACEBAR + N - MiNimize a second (or child) window. RIGHT ARROW - Move right one character / item ALT + SPACEBAR + X - MaXimize a second (or child) window. UP ARROW - Move UP one line / item. (Window key) - Open “Start Menu” DOWN ARROW - Move DOWN one line. (Window key) + D - Display "Desktop" or last application that was viewed. END - Move to end of Line / Screen / List. (Window key) + E - Open “Windows Explorer” HOME - Move to begining of Line / Screen / List. (Window key) + F or F3 - Open “Find Files” Dialog Box (Search) PAGE DOWN - Move down one Page / Screen. (Window key) + L - Log-off Windows / Lock the computer PAGE UP - Move up one Page / Screen. (Window key) + M - Minimize all (holding SHIFT undoes Minimize all) CTRL + LEFT ARROW - Move left one word. (Window key) + R - Open “Run Program” Dialog Box CTRL + RIGHT ARROW - Move right one word. (Window key) + F1 - Open “Windows Help” CTRL + UP ARROW - Move entire Document UP one line. (Window key) + Pause / Break - System Properties / Device Manager CTRL + DOWN ARROW - Move entire Document DOWN one line. CTRL + HOME - Move to the begining of Document / Database / List. PROGRAM MANAGER & Desktop KEYS CTRL + END - Move to end of Document / Database / List. CTRL + PAGE DOWN - Move to bottom of page. ARROW KEYS - Moves between: Icons, Menu Commands, Items in a list, Characters in a text box. CTRL + PAGE UP - Move to top of page. CTRL + TAB - Moves between Group Windows and Icons. ENTER - Start the selected Application / Menu Command. TEXT SELECTION KEYS SHIFT + F4 or ALT+W+T - “Tile” open Group Windows (same as ALT+W+T) SHIFT + F5 or ALT+W+C - “Cascade” open Group Windows (same as ALT+W+C) SHIFT + LEFT ARROW - Select left one character. CTRL + F4 - Close current active Window. SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW - Select right one character. ALT + F4 - Close (Exit) Windows / Close Applications. SHIFT + UP ARROW - Select UP one line. ALT + F6 - Switch between multiple windows in same program. SHIFT + DOWN ARROW - Select DOWN one line. ALT + ENTER - (1) Display Properties of selected item. SHIFT + END - Select to end of Line / Screen / List. (2) Switches MS-DOS Application between SHIFT + HOME - Select to begining of Line / Screen / List. Full Screen and Sized Window. SHIFT + PAGE DOWN - Select down one Page / Screen. SHIFT + PAGE UP - Select up one Page / Screen. DIALOG BOX KEYS -- (see also: Cursor Positioning and Text Selection Keys) SHIFT + CTRL + LEFT - Select to begining of word. SHIFT + CTRL + RIGHT - Select to end of word. TAB - Move from Option to Option (left to right and top to bottom) SHIFT + TAB - Move from Option to Option in reverse order. SHIFT + CTRL + UP - Select entire Document UP one line. ARROW KEYS - Moves between: Icons, Menu Commands, Items in a list, SHIFT + CTRL + DOWN - Select entire Document DOWN one line. or Characters in a text box. SHIFT + CTRL + END - Select from current cursor position to END of Document. ALT + DOWN ARROW - Open or Close a Selected List. SHIFT + CTRL + HOME - Select from current cursor position to BEGINING of Document. ALT + F4 - Close (Exit): Windows / Applications / Dialog Boxes. SHIFT + CTRL + Pg DOWN - Select to bottom of page. ALT +