Keyboard Shortcuts | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: keyboard shortcuts

Share YOUR Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts

I’m always amazed at how surprised computer users become when they learn about a keyboard shortcut. A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys that you press on your keyboard to perform a particular function. If you learn them and practice them, they can shave hours off of the tedious maneuvering of the mouse.

These are my favorite and most used computer keyboard shortcuts:

Alt + TAB	Switch between Open Windows
Windows key + E	Open Internet Explorer
Windows key + M	Minimize all windows and show the desktop
Ctrl + C	Copy
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert	Paste
Arrow keys	To scroll pages and place my cursor
TAB	Move between form fields (boxes)
F2	Rename a file or folder
Ctrl + F	Usually on the web to search for a word on a page
Windows key + R	Open the Run Command

Here are a couple more tips that Continue reading →

Windows Tips — No Comments
14
May 09

Keyboard shortcut to launch applications in Windows 7

I ran across this tip yesterday at Lockergnome and someone suggested that a video should be made…so here it is! The new Windows 7 taskbar, dubbed superbar, allows you to add any application you want there and then the same icon also acts as the taskbar icon as well. To quickly launch any application on the taskbar using your keyboard, hold down the Windows key plus the number of the location of the icon.

In my video example, Google Chrome was in position one, so I just held down the Windows key and the Continue reading →

Application Tips — No Comments
13
May 09

Use keyboard shortcuts to save time editing text – Video Tip

Save some time when editing any type of text document (email, word processing document, blog, etc) by learning these keyboard shortcuts:

Press Home to get to the beginning of a line
Press End to move to the end of a line
Press Ctrl + Home to get to the top of a document
Press Ctrl + End to get to the end of a document
Press Ctrl + Up Arrow to get to the beginning of a paragraph
Press Ctrl + Down Arrow to get to the end of a paragraph

Watch the video below to see these shortcuts in action. You can also search my site for “keyboard shortcuts” to find other handy keyboard shortcut tips.

BONUS TIP: Microsoft Word only keyboard shortcut:

When you open an existing Microsoft Word document, Word places the insertion point at the beginning of the document by default. However, if you would like to move the cursor to the location it was in when you were last working on the document, simply press Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Windows Tips — No Comments
5
May 08

Small and Free Utility Software Gems

Those of you who have kept up with me over the years know that I’m not a utility junkie. The fewer utilities and installed programs the better for me.

That being said, I admire and cherish great utilities that serve purposes I need. Some of my favorites over the years include Tech Smith’s Snag It screen capture tool and Camtasia which I use to create our video tips. I also am never without a desktop tape calculator. My current favorite is the Moffsoft Tape Calculator.

Tonight, however, I discovered a bevy of small, free Windows utilities that perform some admirable tasks like locking the keyboard or mouse quickly (to prevent kids or animals from accidentally punching keys), creating keyboard shortcuts, locking desktop icons, CD ejector, and many other helpful little desktop tools. Collectively, these programs fall under the moniker of 1 Hour Software by Skrommel. Go ahead, click the link and let me know what tools you like.

Links / Ubuntu Tips — No Comments
29
Nov 07

Ubuntu Keyboard Shortcuts

A show listener asked about keyboard shortcuts for Ubuntu Linux…ask and you shall receive, click here.

Computer User Group — No Comments
11
Jul 07

All Q&A Session – July 2007

I don’t do it too often, but this month I decided to hold an all Q&A (2 hours) user group meeting. It truly is amazing how many questions 30 or 40 ravenous computer users can generate. Sometimes one question leads to another, and an entire “topic” can take up a half hour. You have to be at one of the meetings to truly experience the type of knowledge and information that gets shared and explored. Some of today’s topics included:

Creating a “Life Poster” from digital photos with Shutterfly’s software (hint to Adam for future topic)
Installing and using Ubuntu (the embers are smoking)
Why Picasa DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY PHOTOS and where to find a photo’s true location
Sorting your email address book
Creating, modifying, and deleting Microsoft Word templates
Printing problems
Keyboard shortcuts for closing windows or programs (Alt + F4)
Web 2.0 questions (carry over from last month’s topic)
Setting download speed preferences for watching videos in Real Player, QuickTime or Windows Media Player
What is Active X and why you might need it or use it.
Transferring and viewing photos on the road without a laptop
Showing the “address bar” in Windows Explorer windows
MSCONFIG – deciphering what to uncheck and what not to check
Defrag – Does it cure all computer woes? (Hint: NO) I revealed that with my last computer (which I used for more than four years), I can only remember defragmenting my computer twice…and that computer is still running strong for a neighbor who also never defrag’s on my advice.
Installing Windows XP on a new computer that came with Vista
FREE Internet phone calls – Skype, Skype phones at Radio Shack
Are Uninterubtable Power Systems (UPS) a good idea
Securing a wi-fi network
Using an older computer on a wi-fi network
Is AVG better than AdAware (hint: they fight different bad guys)
Drawing lines on a graph made on graph paper with horizontal, vertical and 45 degree grid lines
Backup questions
How to clear the address bar in the browser window
Downloading pictures to Picasa
Creating Picasa web albums
Emailing photos from Picasa
Breakdown of pricing of Ubuntu systems sold at Dell
Instant messaging programs – Trillian (communicates with all systems), AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk
Creating a CD in Picasa
Woot!

These are just the main questions that I could think of, but aren’t you kicking yourself now for not coming to the meeting?!

Internet Tips / OnAir Solutions — No Comments
11
Nov 06

Internet Explorer 7 Keyboard shortcuts

General shortcuts
table with 2 columns and 9 rows
Turn Full Screen Mode on or off
F11

Cycle through the Address Bar, Refresh button, Search Box, and
items on a web page

TAB

Find a word or phrase on a page

CTRL+F

Open the current webpage in a new window

CTRL+N

Print the page

CTRL+P

Select all items on the page

CTRL+A

Zoom in

CTRL+PLUS

Zoom out

CTRL+MINUS

Zoom to 100%

CTRL+0

Navigation shortcuts
Go to home page

ALT+HOME

Go backward

ALT+LEFT

Go forward

ALT+RIGHT

Refresh page

Refresh page and the cache

CTRL+F5

Stop downloading page

ESC

Favorites Center shortcuts

Open Favorites
CTRL+I

Open Favorites in pinned mode
CTRL+SHIFT+I

Organize Favorites
CTRL+B

Add current page to Favorites
CTRL+D

Open Feeds
CTRL+J

Open Feeds in pinned mode
CTRL+SHIFT+J

Open History
CTRL+H

Open History in pinned mode
CTRL+SHIFT+H

Tab shortcuts
Open link in new background tab
Middle mouse button or CTRL+left mouse button

Open link in new foreground tab
CTRL+SHIFT+left mouse button or CTRL+SHIFT+middle mouse button

Close tab (closes window if only one tab is open)
Middle mouse button on the tab or CTRL+W

Open Quick Tab view
CTRL+Q

Open new tab
CTRL+T

View list of open tabs
CTRL+SHIFT+Q

Switch to next tab
CTRL+TAB

Switch to previous tab
CTRL+SHIFT+TAB

Address Bar shortcuts

Select the Address Bar
ALT+D

Add "http://www." to the beginning and ".com" to the end of text
in Address Bar
CTRL+ENTER

Add ?http://www.? to the beginning and the website address
suffix you have specified to the end of text in the Address Bar*

CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Open the website address that is typed in the Address Bar in new
tab
ALT+ENTER

View list of previously typed addresses
F4

Instant Search Box
Select the Instant Search Box
CTRL+E

View list of search providers
CTRL+DOWN

Open search results in new tab
ALT+ENTER

Common tasks
To do this
Do this

Disable all add-ons
Windows logo key + R > iexplore.exe ?extoff

Turn on AutoComplete so that website addresses will be
automatically filled in for you if you begin to type them again

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Use inline AutoComplete

Change how tabs work in Internet Explorer
Tools > Internet Options > on the General tab, under Tabs, click
Settings

Display the Menu Bar at the top of the screen
To display temporarily: press the ALT key
To display permanently: Tools > Menu Bar

To do this
Do this
Delete cookies, passwords, form data, history, and temporary
Internet files
Tools > Delete Browsing History

Find and install add-ons
Tools > Manage Add-ons > Find More Add-ons

Print part of page
Select part of the page you want to print, press CTRL+P, click
Selection, and then click Print

Change website address suffix*
Tools > Internet Options > Languages

Internet Tips — No Comments
31
Dec 05

Get Home and Back Quickly!

No, the Internet has not found a way to "beam" us hither and yonder…yet!

I’m referring to navigating around your word processing, email or other text related documents quickly.

Don’t underestimate the power of the keyboard as you create your written masterpieces. Moving quickly from one part of your document to another saves loads of time and the keyboard can help. Try these keyboard shortcuts:

Home – pressing this key will move your cursor to the beginning of a line
Ctrl+Home – moves the cursor to the beginning of a document
End – moves the cursor to the end of a line
Ctrl+End – moves the cursor to the end of a document
Arrow keys – moves your cursor around quickly in smaller but precise increments