Saving Time With Keyboard Shortcuts

In the 1980s, as programmers began packing more features into PC software, they also developed ways for users to issue an ever-increasing number of commands. Software packages came with long lists of commands, all of which had to be entered at the keyboard. (This was before the mouse came into common use.) As a result, the computer keyboard rapidly became a valuable tool. Programmers began devising keyboard shortcuts that allow users to issue commands quickly by typing a short combination of keystrokes. Keyboard shortcuts involve using a modifier key (such as

ALT

or

CTRL

) along with one or more alphanumeric or function keys. To print a document in many applications, for example the user can press ctrl+p.
Another common type of keyboard shortcut involves pressing the

ALT

key to access a program's menu system. When running any Windows program, you can press alt to activate the menu bar, and then press a highlighted letter in a menu's name to open that menu. Still a keyboard can hold only so many keys, and the lists of keyboard shortcuts became unmanageable. A single program could use dozens of "hotkeys” as these shortcuts were called. If you used several programs, you had to learn different shortcuts for each program. Finally, the Common User Access (CUA) standard led to the standardization of many commonly used hotkeys across different programs and environments. With this standard for commonly used hotkeys, users have fewer hotkeys to remember. Despite such standards, pointing devices (such as the mouse) came along none too soon for hotkey-weary computer users. Microsoft Windows and the Macintosh operating system gained popularity because of their easy-to-use, mouse-oriented graphical interfaces. By operating the mouse, users could make selections visually from menus and dialog boxes. Emphasis rapidly began shifting away from the keyboard to the screen; today, many users do not know the purpose of their function keys!

Pointing

, however, can slow you down. As menus and dialog boxes become increasingly crowded, commands can be hard to find and their locations can be as difficult to remember as keyboard shortcuts. Many computer users overcome these problems by using a combination of keyboard shortcuts and a pointing device. You use one hand to issue many basic shortcuts (such as

cntl+f

and ctrl+s

) or to launch macros. A macro is a series of commands that a program memorizes for you. Macros enable you to issue an entire set ot commands in just a few keystrokes. Using these techniques minimizes keystrokes and leaves a hand free to use a pointing device. The following table lists some of the shortcut keys available in Microsoft Word.

Table. 1: Keyboard shortcuts

Press	To
CTRL+B	Toggle bold character formatting on or off for the selected or inserted text; make letters bold or unbold.
CTRL+I	Toggle italic character formatting on or off for the selected or inserted text; make letters italic.
CTRL+U	Toggle underline character formatting on or off for the selected or inserted text; underline letters
CTRL+C	Copy the selected text or object
CTRL+V	Paste text or an object
CTRL+Z	Undo the last action
CTRL+Y	Redo the last action
CTRL+X	Cut the selected text or object
CTRL+SPACEBAR	Remove character formatting for the selected text
CTRL+O	Remove paragraph formatting for the selected paragraph or paragraphs
CTRL+SHIFT+<	Decrease font size for the selected or inserted text
CTRL+SHIFT+>	Increase font size for the selected or inserted text