Shortcut Keys on the Computer
© Yvonne Shapiro 2019
Shortcut
keys in Windows
The Windows (“Vlaggie”) key is shown as “W-” in this table.
|
Key Combo
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
W-E
|
Open File Explorer
|
|
|
W-M
|
Minimise all windows
|
Takes you to the Desktop
|
|
Shift-W-M
|
Restore all windows that were closed via W-M
|
|
|
W-D
|
Hide / Display the Desktop
|
Toggles between the Desktop and the various
windows you have open (a bit confusing!)
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-Esc
|
Open Task Manager
|
You won’t usually need this
|
|
W-up arrow
|
Maximise the current window
|
The icon on the top right of the window does
the same
|
|
W-R
|
Open the Run menu
|
Avoid this one for now
|
|
W-F1
|
Open Windows Help and Support
|
This takes you to “How to get help in Windows
10” on the Internet
|
|
W-Tab
|
Open Task View
|
Similar to Alt-Tab (see page 9)
|
|
W-Shift-S
|
Create a Snippet
|
For pasting into a document
|
|
Press Shift five times
|
Switch Sticky Keys on and off
|
Not recommended, but worth knowing about if
you do this by mistake! (Pressing any
key many times quickly can turn on Sticky Keys.)
|
|
Alt-Tab
|
Toggle between windows
|
|
|
Alt-F4
|
Close the current window
|
Closes the active application if one window
was open
|
Function
keys in File Explorer
The following are worth using:
|
Key
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
F1
|
Help
|
|
|
F2
|
Edit the name of the selected file or folder
|
Most manuals refer to this as “rename” the
selected file or folder
|
|
F3
|
Search for a file or folder
|
The search option on the top right of the
active window can also be used
|
|
F5
|
Refresh the active window
|
|
|
F11
|
Full-screen view (press F11 again to return
to normal view)
|
|
Alt
keys in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, etc)
|
Key Combo
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
Alt-{Letter}
|
Select menu item by underlined letter
|
Not really necessary!
Just a throwback to previous versions.
|
|
Alt-Spacebar
|
Open menu for current file
|
Just a few options, such as Minimise and
Close
|
Function
keys in MS Word
The following are worth using:
|
Key
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
F1
|
Help
|
You can also use the “Help” menu item, or
the item “Tell me what you want to do”
|
|
F5
|
Go to
|
You can also use Ctrl-G
|
|
F6
|
Move to the next pane in a document
|
This only applies if the window is split
|
|
F7
|
Spelling and grammar check
|
You can also use “Check Document” under
“Review”
|
|
F12
|
Save as
|
Very useful.
There are also other methods for Save As (see above).
|
Control
keys in MS Word
|
Key
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
Ctrl-A
|
Select all
|
|
|
Ctrl-C
|
Copy
|
You can also use the “Clipboard” toolbar
under “Home” for these actions.
See “Format Painter” as well.
|
|
Ctrl-X
|
Cut
|
|
|
Ctrl-V
|
Paste
|
|
|
Ctrl-Z
|
Undo
|
You can also use the Quick Access Toolbar
for this
|
|
Ctrl-Y
|
Redo
|
|
|
Ctrl-D
|
Font
|
|
|
Ctrl-E
|
Align Centre
|
Press again to return to previous / left
alignment
|
|
Ctrl-L
|
Align Left
|
|
|
Ctrl-R
|
Align Right
|
|
|
Ctrl-J
|
Justify
|
|
|
Ctrl-M
|
Increase indent
|
|
|
Ctrl-F
|
Find
|
You can also use the “Editing” toolbar under
“Home”
|
|
Ctrl-H
|
Find and Replace
|
|
|
Ctrl-G
|
Go to
|
You can also use the F5 key
|
|
Ctrl-B
|
Bold
|
You can also use the “Font” toolbar under
“Home” for these actions. See font
type and size, as well as many other font formats.
|
|
Ctrl-I
|
Italics
|
|
|
Ctrl-U
|
Underline
|
|
|
Ctrl-K
|
Insert hyperlink
|
|
|
Ctrl-N
|
Create New file
|
The file you were working on will not
disappear!
|
|
Ctrl-O
|
Open a file
|
The file that is already open will not
disappear!
|
|
Ctrl-P
|
Print
|
You can also use the Quick Access Toolbar
for this
|
|
Ctrl-S
|
Save
|
Use this often. It is also on the Quick Access Toolbar.
|
|
Ctrl-W
|
Close file
|
Ctrl-F4 does the same. Avoid these for now.
|
|
(while pressing
Ctrl, press ' twice)
|
’
|
Required for ’n
in Afrikaans, and also for year ’87 etc
|
Control-Shift
keys in MS Word
The following are worth using:
|
Key Combo
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-Spacebar
|
Nonbreaking space
|
Keep words or numbers on the same line, with
a space between them
|
|
Ctrl-Shift- -
|
Nonbreaking hyphen
|
Keep words or numbers on the same line, with
a hyphen between them
|
|
Ctrl-Shift- +
|
Create superscript
|
Convert the selected words / characters into
superscript
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-A
|
Capitalise
|
Capitalise the selected text
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-E
|
Track changes
|
Switch Track Changes on
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-G
|
Display word count
|
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-L
|
Bulleted list
|
Convert the selected text to a bulleted list
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-N
|
Remove bullets
|
This applies the Normal style
|
|
Ctrl-Shift-S
|
Apply Styles
|
|
Ctrl-Function
keys and Ctrl-Enter in MS Word
The following are worth using:
|
Key Combo
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
Ctrl-F2
|
Print Preview
|
|
|
Ctrl-F4
|
Close the active window
|
|
|
Ctrl-F6
|
Open the next window
|
If multiple windows are open
|
|
Ctrl-Enter
|
Insert page break
|
|
Accents,
umlauts and other special characters in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel,
etc)
The easiest method is
to use Insert Symbol.
However, if these
characters are needed often, Insert Symbol can become tedious and key
combinations can rather be used for some of them (e.g. Ctrl-'-a or '-a-{Space} for á). The following website is useful for some of
these (but others don’t work for Microsoft – please experiment):
http://www.jarte.com/help_new/accent_marks_diacriticals_and_special_characters.html
Non-printable
characters in MS Word
The
following are worth using (in case needed for find and replace) –
note that they are case-sensitive:
|
Symbol for “Find”
|
Non-Printable
Character
|
How the character is created
|
|
^p
|
|
Enter key
|
|
^l
|
|
Shift-Enter
|
|
^t
|
Tab
|
Tab key
|
|
^s
|
Nonbreaking space
|
Ctrl-Shift-Spacebar
|
|
^m
|
Manual page break
|
Ctrl-Enter (or use the menu items)
|
|
^b
|
Section break
|
Use the Layout menu items
|
|
^n
|
Column break
|
Use the Layout menu items
|
|
^+
|
Em dash
—
|
Insert the symbol
|
|
^=
|
En dash
–
|
Insert the symbol
|
|
^i
|
Ellipsis
…
|
Three fullstops
|
|
^g
|
Graphic
|
Create or paste an image
|
|
^?
|
Any printable character
|
Type a character
|
|
^#
|
Any digit
|
Type a number
|
|
^$
|
Any letter
|
Type a letter, including those with accents
etc
|
|
^w
|
Space (“White space”)
|
Spacebar
|
|
^^
|
Caret character
|
^ key
|
Shortcut
keys in Internet Explorer
(or Chrome or whatever you are using to
explore the Internet)
|
Key Combo
|
What it does
|
Comment
|
|
Alt-Left Arrow /
Alt-Backspace
|
Go back to the previous page
|
|
|
Alt-Right Arrow
|
Go to next page
|
|
|
F1
|
Help
|
Help on Internet Explorer etc
|
|
F5
|
Refresh page
|
|
|
F11
|
Full-screen view (press F11 again to return
to normal view)
|
|
|
Esc
|
Stop downloading a page
|
|
|
Ctrl-+
|
Zoom in (increase page size) by 10%
|
|
|
Ctrl- -
|
Zoom out of page (decrease size) by 10%
|
|
|
Ctrl-Enter
|
Add www. at the beginning and .com to the
end of any text entered in the Address bar
|
Not always helpful (e.g. if you need .co.za
at the end)
|
|
Ctrl-D
|
Add the current site to your favourites
|
|
|
Ctrl-I
|
View your favourites
|
|
|
Ctrl-N
|
Open a new window
|
|
|
Ctrl-P
|
Print the current page
|
|
|
Ctrl-T
|
Open a new tab
|
|
|
Ctrl-F4
|
Close tabs
|
Be careful of closing what you were using!
|
|
Ctrl-Tab
|
Switch between tabs
|
|
|
Spacebar
|
Click the notification bar
|
Not sure whether these always work
|
|
Shift-Spacebar
|
Move up one page
|
|
|
Alt-Down Arrow
|
Move a selected item down the favourites
list
|
|
