iCompass Customer Empowerment Series
Shortcut Keys Galore - Part one of the Customer Empowerment series is about shortcut keys for every program and for Windows XP/Vista/7 in general that can help you become quicker at everything you do on the computer.
Think of the meaning behind the terminology “shortcut key.” It’s a shortcut because using the mouse is a longer path to achieving whatever you want to do. We’ll take a look at why this is true in the rest of this article.
In the past I have seen a lot of users struggle to get things done on a computer quickly because they refuse to interact with the computer with anything other than the mouse. A computer is a tool, and like most tools it can be used with two hands to make life easier. Think about eating a steak with a knife and fork; using only a fork to eat the steak would be incredibly slow and painful. If you add in the extra (and slightly different) functionality of a knife, suddenly it becomes much easier. Similarly, the mouse and keyboard serve different functions and when used together, you’ll get the most efficient use out of your computer. Now let’s examine the effects of using two hands on a computer.
The most obvious shortcut keys that almost everybody knows (and for good reason) is CTRL + C (Copy) and CTRL + V (Paste). Let’s compare the steps and the amount of work it takes to use the keys and mouse versus just the mouse to copy and paste between two word documents.
To do this using keys and the mouse, I highlight the line with the mouse, and press CTRL + C as my finger lets go of the mouse button. Click the other word document in the taskbar, click where I want it to go and press CTRL + V as my finger is completing the click. Because I’m using two hands, I’m not waiting on the mouse to do the copy/paste part. Essentially, the copy command becomes part of the highlighting and the paste command becomes part of selecting where I want the material to go. It boils down to this: Highlight, change documents, and click where I want it to go. Without having to think about it (through a LOT of practice), I’ve copy and pasted tons without ever waiting on my mouse hand.
To do the same thing using only the mouse, you’d have to highlight the line, right-click, select copy, click the other document in the taskbar, right click where you want it to go, and select paste. Doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well, when you’re waiting on one hand to do all of these tedious actions, it can waste a lot of valuable time.
When you get fast at it, it will feel like three actions as opposed to six. It may seem like a small gain, but when you do that same thing hundreds of times in a day, you won’t believe how much time you’ll actually save. With that, I’m going to leave you with a great big reference list of shortcut keys. Do yourself a favor and force yourself to lay off the mouse a little and give your other hand something to do. As a challenge pick three shortcuts to learn and whenever you go for the mouse, stop yourself, find the keys, and use those instead.
Hopefully after reading this post, you’ll have the tools to help you cut down on the amount of time you spend on the computer, so you can spend time doing more things away from the computer. Happy shortcutting!
- Aaron Lefkowitz, Application Developer
Download a list of all shortcut keys!
