PC FAQ’s, Keyboard shortcuts, and a few tips

As you transition from your Mac computer to a PC here are a few Keyboard shortcuts and tips that you will want to know about. If at any time you find something that you think should be added to this document, please let me know so I can get it added.

On a Mac the was in control it seemed, on windows is the or ctrl for short.

 Ctrl+c - Copy  Ctrl+v – Paste o Variant on paste, you can paste text with no formatting using ctrl+shift+v though it may not work everywhere it does seem to work in Google apps.  Ctrl+x - Cut  Ctrl+a - Select all  Ctrl+z - Undo  Ctrl+y – Redo  Ctrl+p – Print  Ctrl+s – Save  Ctrl+w – close the current window  Ctrl+b – Bold, use the key combination again to turn it off  Ctrl+I – Italicize, use the key combination again to turn it off  Ctrl+u – Underline, use the key combination again to turn it off  Ctrl+f – Find, find work nearly everywhere and is a huge time saver  Ctrl plus the + or – keys will zoom your active window. This may not work in all programs but will work in browsers. This can also be done by holding Ctrl and operating the scroll wheel of a mouse or the scroll function of the touch pad. You should also be able to pinch to zoom.  Ctrl+F4 – This will close the active window or program. This is the same as clicking the X in the upper right corner  Ctrl+Shift+Esc – This will open task manager  Alt+tab – this will cycle between all the programs/windows you have open currently.

A new key on the PC keyboard is the , it looks like this . When pressed normally it will work the same as clicking the windows button that is normally in the bottom left of your screen.

The Windows key will do more when used in conjunction with other keys on the keyboard, here are some examples.

 Windows key + e – will open windows explorer, like Finder for a PC and how you will find most of your files  Windows key + l – will lock your computer. Use this anytime you are leaving your computer for more than a minute or if you are leaving the room.  Windows key + d – minimizes all active windows and shows you the desktop, press it again and it will bring all the windows back to their previous state. This is good for when you need to see a folder or something on your desktop quickly.  Windows key + p – will allow you to quickly setup how you want your projection screen to work, be it mirror or extended for example.

Windows key + – Each arrow direction does something a bit different. The left and right arrows snap the active window or application to the right or left side of the screen. The up and down arrows will minimize or maximize the active application.

There are some touchpad gestures that should work on all computers running windows 10, though they might not work depending on several different things including manufacture specifications or updates since the writing of this guide.

 Select an item: Tap on the touchpad, no physical click needed  Scroll: Place two fingers on the touchpad and slide horizontally or vertically  Zoom in and out: Place two fingers on the touchpad and pinch in or stretch out.  Right-click: Tap the touchpad with two fingers, or press on the bottom right corner  Open Task View: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe up (away from you).  Show desktop: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe down (towards you). Reverse the movement to get all your windows to return.  Switch between open windows: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe right or left (this is the same as pressing Alt + Tab).  Drag an open window: Double-tap and then drag from the title bar

How to take screen shots? A PC has several ways to take screen shots. I will try to explain each of them here. For many of them the first thing we need to understand is the . Every computer has one, no matter if it is Mac, PC, or any other . When you copy something using the Ctrl + c or the copy command in any menu that information is stored on the clipboard. It might be a bunch of text, but in these examples that information is a picture of our screen shot. It is stored there until you Ctrl + v and paste it somewhere.

The first and maybe quickest way that you can take a is with the print screen button. Not all keyboards have it but if yours does then you can hit this button and instantly everything that is currently on your screen is saved to the clipboard. Nothing will be done with this information unless you manually paste it somewhere like a word document or an image editing program like Paint, Microsoft’s built in basic image editor. From there you can save it and do what you want.

There is a variant to this where you can hold down the alt button before holding print screen, so alt + print screen. This will capture only the active window, this means just the window you are currently working, and save it to the clipboard. Again, nothing will happen with it unless you paste it somewhere. This seems like a lot of work when I just want to grab a small snippet of something and put it into an email, or a word document. The way that I do nearly 99% of all my screen grabs is this way. It allows you to grab nearly the whole screen or just parts of it. All of the images in this document were placed using this feature. Press the Windows key+shift+s and the whole screen will go grey and your mouse cursor will turn into a cross. This will allow you to draw a box around the exact part of the screen that you wish to put into your screen shot. As soon as you draw the box and release the mouse then the contents of the box are copied into the clipboard. From here you can go into your email or document and simply paste the much smaller image and be on your way.

If you want to save all your screen shots and want the whole screen captured each time, then this is the tool for you. Press Windows+print screen and the whole screen will flash, like a shutter went off. A picture of your screen is saved in your pictures folder in a folder called screen shots. From here you can organize them how you will or attach them to an email.

The last, and most powerful tool for screen captures is a program called the snipping tool. To find it press the windows key and type “snipping tool” without quotes. Start the program and click new. From here you can draw your box around what you want to capture. It will show you a copy of what you captured and allow you to modify it with lines or erase parts of it and then save a copy as you see fit. This works well if you need to make sure that private information is not in a screen grab. How to shut down?

Clicking the Windows button, or pressing it on your keyboard, then clicking the power button right above it will give you the option to shut down your computer or restart it.

Right click menus

There are many things hidden beneath a right click in the Windows world. You can highlight text and right click to copy or look up a synonym if using Word. All right at your fingertip. This is much easier than digging through a menu to find it or memorizing a for somethings. There is no way for me to explain everything the right click can do here, so I urge you to explore for yourself and see what power it holds.

Speakers not working?

A quick way to change the audio output on a PC is to click on the speaker in the task bar then click the line above the volume slider. You will get a list of all the audio output devices connected to the computer to select from. Make sure the correct device is selected. Sometimes a new device will force this to change, such as connecting a projector.

Tired of notifications?

Windows 10 seems to notify on everything and it can get a bit annoying. The good news is that you can turn it off. Click on the star button, then click on the settings gear. From here click system and choose notifications & actions. You can turn off many of the notifications in this screen. There is no save or apply button, as soon as you make the change it is saved.

OH NO, I closed the wrong tab…

It happens to all of us. You were in a hurry and realized you closed the wrong tab. If you are using Google Chrome, then you can use Ctrl + shift + t and it will bring back the last tab you had open. Repeated presses will continue for approx. the last 20 tabs you closed. If you closed the entire window and lost 30 tabs (you tab animal) you can open a new window and use it to recover all those lost tabs. Just be wary of this last one, if you truly had 30 tabs open, your computer will chug while loading 30 web pages at once.

Find anything on the computer

If you press the Windows key and simply start typing you can find anything on the computer, including files and programs. This is a quick way to start up a program. Usually hitting Windows and typing Word is faster than a mouse move and double click for example.

Updated 5/14/19