Keyboard Shortcuts
Regardless of a recurring urge to throw your machine through a window, a more serious problem for prolonged users of computers may be Mouse Wrist.
Constantly shifting your hands from keyboard to mouse and back,
or sustained use of the mouse itself, can both slow down your
work-flow, and cause the above complaint.
In its extreme forms, that complaint can turn into some nasty acronyms, including RSI ( Repetitive Strain Injury ), OOS ( Occupational Overuse Syndrome ) , and CTS, or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
These can cause numbness or tingling in your hands and fingers, pain in your wrist or lower arms, or at worst prevent you from working.
While bad posture increases your risk of these injuries, minimizing repetitive and clumsy hand movements can both lessen your risk, and allow you to work faster.
To go some way toward achieving both these aims, I’ll suggest some keyboard shortcuts in this column, concentrating on those for the most-used operating system, Windows, and for the most-used web browser, Internet Explorer.
A “+” symbol between keys means that the key to the left of the symbol should be held down while the key to the right is pressed.
A little-used method of switching between open applications in
Windows is the use of the ALT+TAB keys. Hold down ALT, and
each time you press TAB the next open application will be
selected. Make active, or work within, the desired application,
by letting go ALT when it is selected.
In most Windows applications, for example Internet Explorer or Word, you can copy text or otherwise by highlighting it ( yes, you’ll need the mouse ) and pressing CTRL+C. You can cut by using CTRL+X.
A shortcut for pasting that text is CTRL+V, while CTRL+P will usually print the contents of an open window, and CTRL+Z will undo your last action.
Other useful Windows shortcuts are CTRL+A, which will usually select all text in an active application, and CTRL+S, to save a file in the active application.
You can find Internet Explorer’s Help menu using the F1 key, and its search function using F3. The same goes for Windows if the desktop or Windows Explorer is active.
To avoid wading through the start menu ( shortcut key is the
Windows symbol ) and submenus to find a programme, you can
also create your own windows shortcuts. To do this, find the
programme in question, either from the desktop, or using the
Start Menu.
Right-click the programme icon, or its Start Menu option, and choose either Create Shortcut or Send To --> Desktop from the pop-up menu.
Now your desktop should show an icon with a small arrow in a
square as shown [ Kris - image here ]. Right-click that icon
and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Shortcut
Key input, type the desired letter combination, for example
CTRL+ALT+E for Internet Explorer, or CTRL+ALT+W for Word, without
the “+” signs.
Now you can start those applications no matter what else is active using those key combinations.
Some useful Internet Explorer shortcuts are ALT+HOME to reach your home page, ALT+(Back arrow) to return to the previously visited page, and ALT+(Forward arrow) to go to the next page in your history.
CTRL+N will open a new Internet Explorer Window, while CTRL+F allows you to search a webpage’s text, and CTRL+D will add the page to your Favorites menu.
You can navigate through a page’s links by repeating the TAB key, go backwards through those links using SHIFT+TAB, and press ENTER to follow the link which is focused on.
A list of these shortcuts is available by using F1 in either Internet Explorer or Windows, and searching for “shortcut”.
You may slow down for a while as you remember these shortcuts, but in the longer term, they should both allow you to work or play faster, and help reduce risk of injury.
site by Urban Legend Designs