Nothin' Up My Sleeves

Have you ever been amazed, or even frustrated, when you've been slaving away at your computer, and then some techno geek comes along, hits a couple of quick buttons and does more in two minutes than you've been able to accomplish in the last half-hour. How'd she do that? She didn't even touch the mouse! Don't you wish you could do that? You can! All you have to do is master shortcut keys. Somewhere, sometime during that techno geek's career, someone gave her a wonderful piece of advice…learn the shortcut keys!

Some of you may feel learning shortcut keys is too time consuming or boring. I once did too. So here's a few quick Internet Explorer shortcuts to show you how fast you can copy a URL to an e-mail and send it off. These steps would take the average mouser, clicking around the menus, about 40 to 60 seconds. It took me 10 seconds to do the same thing…with shortcut keys!

1  Try it! With Internet Explorer and Outlook Express already open, follow these steps: Alt+Tab to bring Internet Explorer to the front. Alt+D to select current URL info in the browser. Ctrl+C to copy the URL. Alt+Tab to switch to Outlook Express. Ctrl+N to open a new e-mail. Address it; tab twice to access the Subject line. Type a subject name. Tab once to the e-mail body and press Ctrl+V to paste the URL you copied to the clipboard. Press Ctrl+Enter to send the e-mail.
2  Learn new shortcuts Okay, so have I convinced you shortcuts are worth the effort? But how do you learn and remember them all? Luckily, you don't have to remember thousands; just start by learning ones from applications you use most often. And a good trick to remembering them is using them. When I discover a cool shortcut, I write it on a Post-it and stick it to my monitor. Yes, my monitor does resemble a daisy. But it keeps the information close at hand so I remember to use it often and thus memorize the keys faster. To find new shortcuts in any application, press the F1 key and do a search on shortcut keys.
3  Know the standards There are also many standard Windows shortcuts. Chances are you see them all the time, but haven't thought to use them. Look at your application menus, and you'll see a lot of them listed. Most Windows menus show common Windows shortcuts such as Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+V to Paste, Ctrl+Z to Undo, Ctrl+A to Select All, and Ctrl+P to Print.
4  Learn the obscure ones too Did you know that Alt+F4 quits your current program? Did you know you can quickly Alt+Tab between all open applications? Did you know that Ctrl+Esc displays your Start menu? What about bypassing autoplay when you insert a CD? Just hold down Shift when inserting! How about this trick—press Ctrl+Esc to bring up the Start menu. Hit R to open the Run input box, hit . (the period on your keyboard), and press Enter. Now all the application icons on your desktop have been put into an easily accessible open folder which you can quickly Alt+Tab to access!
5  Use the Windows key If you have an enhanced keyboard that has the Windows key (the Windows flying logo key), then there are some other great shortcuts you can use. Open a couple of applications and then hit Windows+M. All the applications minimize to give you quick access to your desktop (or to quickly hide everything from your boss). Shift+Windows +M undoes that maneuver. Power users will appreciate that the Windows+Break shortcut brings up your System Properties dialog box. And Windows+E, which instantly brings up Windows Explorer so you can view your files. Shortcut keys change, so keep a look out for cool, new shortcuts. Stick those Post-it hints to your monitor, and soon you'll be one of those gurus zipping along your keyboard in record time.

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