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Keyboard shortcuts for windows.

Do you have a temporarily mouse less computer? Or can't use the mouse? Or do you find it quicker sometimes to use the keyboard instead of the mouse? Would you like to be able to minimize all the windows on your desktop in one go for instance? That can be done using the Windows key + D. Read on for other shortcuts.

See also Windows Baby Tips.

Windows is brilliantly designed for its keyboard shortcuts - you can do just about anything from the p.c. keyboard. However, you need to know what they are before you can use them.

First, if viewing this in Explorer on a temporarily mouse-less computer, the shortcut to print this help out is: Ctrl + P to print. Then use the Enter or new line key (large one to the right of the typing area) - for OK

You use Escape key for Cancel, e.g. if you show the Print, Save As or Open window and change your mind and want to cancel it.

Use the Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys to navigate through a document such as this one, or arrow keys to move up / down one line (or so) at a time.

Navigation, Special formatting shortcuts, Windows key shortcuts, Selection and right click, Moving and resizing a window, Outlook Express, What to do if you have no keyboard shortcut available.

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Navigation

You get to a menu for a window using Alt. Then use the up down, left and right arrow keys to navigate the menus, then Enter to select one of the entries in the menu.

If one of the characters in a menu is underlined you can type that to select it. E.g. the F of File is usually underlined, which means you can use Alt + F to show the file menu. Then it is usually O to open.

Use F1 to bring up help.

Alt + F4 closes a window or program. Sometimes Ctrl + F4 closes just the current window you are working with in a larger program, though this isn't always implemented.

The tab key is the one with the arrows pointing at a line, above the caps lock key. It was originally used for laying out tables in documents, and can still be used that way, but in Windows has taken on another role as a key frequently used for shortcuts.

Alt + tab moves around between all your current programs. Here, hold down the Alt key, and with it held down, press tab once, - with it still held down, keep pressing tab until you get to the program you want to switch to.

Sometimes you need to use Ctrl + Tab to move between sections of a window or program, or Ctrl + Shift + tab to do it in reverse order.

Tab moves around within a window, or Shift + tab in reverse order.

The Space bar is used to press a button or select / unselect a check box.

F4 is used to show a drop list. Use F4 to pull down the drop list so that you can seee it and then use the arrow keys to change the selection (e.g. this is how you would select a font from the fonts drop list in Word).

In Internet Explorer, Tab or Shift + tab moves through all the links in the current web page, then takes you to the address bar.

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Special Formatting shortcuts

Then there are a few special formatting shortcuts that work in many text fields (but not all) such as documents in WordPad and Word. Effect may also vary depending on which program you use them in.

Highlight some text and use:

Ctrl + + to make it into a subscript, repeat to return to normal text
Ctrl + Shift + + (i.e. Ctrl + =) to make it into a superscript
Ctrl +Shift +A = toggles between all upper case and mixed case
Ctrl + Shift + L = bullets (through various styles)

Many more may be available too. See Microsoft's list of Rich Edit Shortcuts. What you can do will depend on which versions of the rich edit library you have installed, and which version the application uses.

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Windows key shortcuts

There are several useful shortcuts using the Windows key - the one on the keyboard with a Windows logo on it.

Windows key on its own shows the start menu. Then you can use up / down arrows to change the selection, and right / left arrows to show / hide the sub menus.

Windows key + D shows the desktop. That means - hold down the Windows key and with it still held down, press D. You also use this shortcut to simulate a click on the desktop - a common frustration with a mouse-less computer is - how to click on an icon on the desktop? This is how you do it.

Use the arrow keys to move around between icons on the desktop. Then use Enter to start the program or open the folder (same as clicking on it).

Windows key + E brings up explorer to look at the files on the computer. Use tab or shift tab to move between the panes in explorer. Up / down arrows change the highlight and left / right arrows to expand / collapse the folders in the folder view. You show the folder view or hide it from View | Explorer bar | Folders (Alt + V, E, O).

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Selection and right click

You can often select things in a list - e.g. in lists of files or folders or a drop list - by typing the first letter of the name.

Ctrl + C to copy text, or a picture, V to paste, X to cut.

Shift + F10 to bring up the right click context menu. So that usually simulates the right click.

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Moving and resizing a window

How about moving and resizing a window? You can no longer click on the title bar without the mouse.

Well, Alt + space brings up the system menu for any window, with Move, and Resize options.

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Outlook Express

In Outlook Express:

Ctrl + N = new message. Ctrl + S = send. Ctrl + P = print.

Use tab or shift + tab to move between sections of Outlook Express. Arrow key to move the highlight. Enter to open the message.

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What to do if you have no keyboard shortcut available

Sometimes you will still find that you want to do things that you can't do with a keyboard shortcut at all.

For those things, you will want to switch on the numeric pad mouse. Do that from the Accessibility window.

You get to that via:

Windows key to show the start menu, then navigate to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Accessibility. You can press the underlined letter S to select Settings, use the right arrow key to show the sub menu, then C to select Control Panel. Then use Enter to open the Accesibility window.

Then within the Accessibility window, go to Mouse (use Ctrl + tab to get to it).

Then select Use Mouse Keys - since the M is underlined you can use Alt + M to do that. (Otherwise, you'd tab to it and use the space bar to select / unselect).

Then you want to Apply it - use Alt + A.

Now you will find you can move the mouse cursor using theNumeric pad keys. Use Ctrl + the numeric pad keys to move it by large steps at a time across the screen.

Then press the centre of the numeric pad to simulate a mouse click.

With this you can now do anything you can do with the left mouse button. You can do most of the right click things too using the Shift + F10 context menu shortcut.

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