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Contents
Preliminaries
Most things you do with the mouse can also be done with key strokes. For the most part, it is faster and easier to use the mouse when you are working in a GUI (graphical user interface) environment like Windows. On the other hand, some things can be done just as efficiently or faster with key strokes, especially if you are an accomplished typist. In addition, what if your mouse stops working (this can happen for several reasons)...what do you do?
At the very end of Part 4 there is a short list of keyboard shortcuts (although they were not called that). This document explains how to perform various basic functions without using the mouse.
Conventions
Certain conventions are used in documents like this to explain exactly how keystrokes are to be performed. Here are some examples:
Alt, F = press and release the Alt key, then press and release the F key
Alt+F = press and hold the Alt key, then press and release the F key (just tap it), then release the Alt key
Alt+spacebar, C = press and hold the Alt key, tap the spacebar, then release the Alt key, and tap the C key
Ctrl+Alt+Del = press and hold the Ctrl and Alt keys, then tap the Del key, then release Ctrl and Alt
Back to TopTime to experiment...
Open Notepad: click Start, Programs, Accessories, NotePad. Press Alt, down arrow, X (that is, press and release, one at a time, Alt, then the down arrow, then the letter X). You just closed Notepad, so open it again. This is what you did:
- Alt accesses the Menu Bar. Press Alt once; notice that File is now highlighted.
- The down arrow pulls down the File menu. NOTE: pressing Alt+F does the same thing; pressing Alt+E opens the Edit menu, Alt+S opens the Search menu, etc. The letters F, E, S, and H are underlined in the Menu Bar; now you know why.
- X is the underlined letter in Exit, at the bottom of the File menu, which is the option that closes Notepad.
Open Notepad again, and try this:
- Press Alt+Spacebar. That is, press and hold Alt, then tap the Spacebar; they are conveniently located right beside each other, whether you are left-handed or right-handed.
- The Control Box is now open; it looks like this:
You can choose any of the available options by pressing the underlined letter key: Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, Close. You can also use the up and down arrow keys: when the option you want is highlighted, press Enter. If a menu has a sub-menu, use the left and right arrow keys to open and close it, and the up and down arrow keys to chose (highlight) an option, then press Enter.
If you get lost, dazed, and confused, just press Alt and all the menus disappear. If you want to back-track to some point, press Esc until you get to where you want to be.
On the Desktop - the "Windows" key
If you are looking at your desktop, you can access the Start button by pressing Ctrl+Esc. If your keyboard has a key with the Windows logo on it, just press that key, and the Start menu will open. In either case, you can then use the arrow keys to navigate.
If you want to open a file or program that has an icon on the desktop, press the space bar; one of the icons will be highlighted (which one depends on several factors). Use the arrow keys to move to the icon you wish, and press Enter.
The Windows key also has other uses. Pressing the Windows key + these keys does the following:
- + E opens Explorer
- + F opens the Find dialogue box
- + R opens the Run dialogue box
Pressing the Windows key and other letter keys will highlight certain desktop icons (sometimes - this doesn't work on every machine I've tried). For example, if you have an icon whose name starts with A, pressing the Windows key + A will cause that icon to be highlighted. If you have several icons whose names start with A, pressing the Windows key + A will cause the highlight to move from one to the next, in alphabetical order. Whether this behavior is by design or by accident, I don't know. I have never seen it documented.
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