Software and Applications

[FiSH]

I'm giving a presentation at work next month on shortcuts that will allow people to work more efficiently.  For example, using keyboard commands instead of, or in conjunction with, your mouse to save time.  I know a number of different shortcuts that I plan to use, but I'd like to hear from you about the ones you use.

One in particular that I need is the ability to recall stored text by typing in two or three characters and hitting enter.  A girl who sits near me does this with phone numbers for her various accounts.  She types a couple of letters followed by an asterisk, then hits enter and the phone number apppears.  Definitely need this one!  I'd ask her, but she been out all week for some reason.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

FiSH

[Synchronous Failure]

Open up pinned programs on your taskbar (or minimze/maximize) with Windows Key + 1/2/3/...0.

Shift + Delete will permenately delete whatever is in your Recycle Bin without manually clicking it.

[jwhx]

Win + D = show desktop
Win + M = minimize everything
Win + L = lock machine

Sadly, other than Shift + delete those are the ones I use the most.

[Callred]

F11 maximizes a browser to full screen, hit it again and it returns to where it was

Alt+F4 closes the window that's in focus

Windows 7 Alt-Tab revolves the open windows

Ctrl+Tab sends you through open tabs in a browser

Ctrl+Shift+Tab does the same but reversed

Ctrl+N opens a new mail message in Outlook

Ctrl+S sends it from there

but

Ctrl+S In a document editor will save the work

Some of my usual ones

[jacobvandy]

Win+Pause opens up the system info window, which also gives you easier access to the device manager and advanced settings.

[ICDP]

Some of these are very basic, but you'd be suprised how many people don't know them.

Win, then type "whatever" - Searches for "whatever" in programs, files, emails, etc. Or you can type in a path (e.g. C:\Windows\) to open that folder.

Win + R - Run command, if you know exactly what you want to launch (I use it for CMD sometimes)

Tab - Cycle through form fields/buttons.

Shift Tab - Same as above, but backwards.

Space Bar - Same as clicking a button, if you've highlighted it using Tab.

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V - Copy, Cut, Paste.

Ctrl+F4 - Close active tab in web browser

Backspace - Backup one page in web browser.

Alt+Left/Right Arrow - Back/Forward in web browser.

Middle Click Link in Browser (push down on scroll wheel) - Open link in new background tab.

Alt+Four Digit Number on Num Pad (not the numbers on the top row) - Insert special characters. Useful if you use something oddball often, and memorize its number. To find the number, open Charmap, set font to something normal like Arial, find your character and click on it, look at lower left corner for "Keystroke: Alt+0169"... which gives you ©

There's quite a few more that I use daily, but they're application specific and not much use unless you're a Crestron programmer

EDIT: One more sneaky one. If you have an error message pop up, or just about any dialog that would have OK or Cancel, etc for you to click to make it go away, press Ctrl+C (copy) (no need to highlight anything first), then open notepad, Word, email, whatever, Ctrl+V (paste), now you have the exact text of the message box to send to tech support.

[Synchronous Failure]

You'd be surprised how many people don't know that Ctrl + Z or Y works outside of Microsoft Office. Delete something in any text box and merely press Ctrl + Z to get it back or Ctrl + Y to undo it.

[dolynick]

Windows+P gives you the options to quickly set your presentation mode (multi-monitor settings). Useful on laptops and other portables mainly.

-dolynick

[Egglick]

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jacobvandy wrote:
Win+Pause opens up the system info window, which also gives you easier access to the device manager and advanced settings.

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That's actually a really sweet shortcut.  That, and the Win-M to minimize all will probably start to get some usage by me.  Admittedly I never really cared enough to look into a list of all the shortcuts. 

[Egglick]

I think Alt-Printscreen to capture a screenshot goes without saying.  I've been known to use it when certain bastard websites prevent all other methods of saving a picture.

[Callred]

CTRL+ALT+Print Screen will capture only the window in focus so you don't have to crop anything if that's all you wanted.

[ICDP]

Actually that's what ALT+Print Screen does (active window only), though if you hold CTRL also it still works. Print Screen by itself is the whole screen. At least that's how it works for me.

Also, for the OP since I'm sure you guys know this, either method just copies the image to clipboard. You then have to paste it into something (photoshop, pain, word, email, etc) to actually see and save it.

[Callred]

/\ Cool, learned something new :-)