Computer Shortcuts

Computer Care: Learn shortcuts or create your own

	By Arthur Glazerglazer.tech@gmail.com

UPDATED: January 25, 2013 11:59 p.m.

	Some routes are quicker than others. From our house, I use the Ledan Road shortcut to Ga. 53 and the Wild Smith shortcut to U.S. 129 North. On my laptop, I use keyboard shortcuts. There are usually at least two ways to get to anything on Windows. You can use the Start Menu, click a desktop icon or use combination shortcut with your keyboard. Common shortcuts like copy and paste (Control + C and Control + V) I use constantly. These are used with highlighted text when copying or moving them around in a document or from the Web to a document. Instead of copying a Web address manually, simply highlight it and copy/paste to your browser. Ctrl + Shift + Arrow will help you to highlight that text. There are a plethora of useful shortcuts, so let’s just hit the highlights. Beginning with the most common and very useful is Ctrl (Control) + Alt + Del (Delete). This will open a window to allow to you log off, switch users or open the Task Manager. Or you can use Ctrl + Shift + Esc to go directly to Task Manager. The top row of keys are the “F” or Function keys. They work in conjunction with the Function (Fn) key on the bottom left of the keyboard. For example, the combination on my laptop (they vary by manufacturer) of Fn + F6 makes the display brighter. Fn + F5 dims it.  Look for the diagrams on your F keys to determine what they will do. Often other keys may be assigned other tasks as well. Some “F” keys work alone. At Windows boot, if you press the F8 key, this will along with other options, allow you access to Safe Mode. The F2 key will put you into setup mode at boot (again, systems vary by brand). The F5 key will refresh your browser page while online and F2 will let you rename a highlighted file or folder in Windows. Ctrl + S saves a document; Ctrl + X is the “cut” command and Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y are undo and redo, respectively. A few holdouts that have been around since the days of command prompts are the Pause/Break and the Prt Sc/Sys Rq keys. The former used to allow a break in the modem connection, but is useless now except maybe for some games. SysRq was used to switch between operating systems way back when more than one were on a system. The Windows Logo Key with Pause/Break will open the System Properties window. The Prt Sc key should capture your screen to the Windows clipboard and Alt +Prt Sc or Fn + Prt Sc will copy the active window, but you will need to print it from within other applications like Paint or Word with Ctrl + P. The Windows Logo Key alone opens the start menu; with the “E” key it will open Windows Explorer. Win Logo + L will log off your account; with “X,” it will open Windows Mobility Center, allowing you to alter brightness, volume, Wi-Fi and other options. Win Logo + T cycles through all of the programs that are minimized to your taskbar; with the tab key it cycles through those same programs in an impressive 3-D mode. Win Logo + D minimizes everything to the taskbar so you can see your desktop. Hitting it a second time reverts them back to where they were. Using the Win Logo key with the “+” key zooms in so you can get a closer view of your display. You can navigate around with your mouse and revert back to normal using the Win Logo and “-” keys. For a comprehensive list of shortcuts, go to support.microsoft.com/kb/126449 and for Windows 7-specific shortcuts, see windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/keyboard-shortcuts. Between these two lists, you should have an arsenal of shortcuts from which to choose. To create custom shortcuts to your programs, right-click on a blank area of your desktop and then left-click on “New, “ then on “Shortcut.” Next browse to a program in Program Files (Computer to “C” to Program Files) and click “OK,” then “Next “and “Finish.” Alternatively, you can drag and drop program icons from the start menu to the desktop using a right-click and choose to “Create shortcut here” when at the desktop. To create a keyboard shortcut, right-click on the program in the start menu and choose Properties. Type a letter in the shortcut area and Ctrl + Alt will be automatically applied. Click “Apply” and “OK.” The use of shortcuts may be short-lived. With the recent announcement by Intel that they will soon be ceasing the manufacture of motherboards for desktops, who knows? The demise of the desktop will still leave laptops. With the omnipresent Smartphones, tablets in every flavor and the upcoming phablets (phone plus tablet), we may soon be using voice commands alone to control our computers. Beyond that we may be computing via retinal recognition. It’s already being used as a logon process. Next we may simply look at an icon to click on it. Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.