This infographic by Conosco promises to “change your life” with keyboard shortcuts that will help you work faster. And let’s face it, anything that improves our productivity is a good thing, right?
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Keyboard shortcuts are a way of triggering commands using the keyboard - commands that are otherwise only enabled using a menu or pointing device. The shortcuts described in the infographic quicken common operations by decreasing the number of input sequences to just a few keystrokes. For the majority of keyboard shortcuts, the user typically has to press and hold down several keys at the same time or a sequence of keys.
Most of us know the shortcuts for copying, pasting and formatting text with effects such as bold or italics. But as this infographic shows, there’s an entire world of keyboard shortcuts that will help you do much more, in less time. The infographic is categorised by operating system, browser or program so you can simply select whichever is relevant to your needs. There are a number of useful shortcuts covered, and you’ll discover shortcuts such as how to:
- Lock your computer
- Delete an item completely
- Take a one-window screenshot. There are other tools you can use such as the Snipping Tool to help you capture a screenshot when you need a quick way to save a copy of a screen.
The infographic is a good start; here are some other useful keyboard shortcuts (for Microsoft Word) not included in the infographic:
CTRL+N - to create a new document of the same type as the current or most recent document
CTRL+O – to open a document
CTRL+W – to close a document
ALT+CTRL+S - to split a document window
ALT+SHIFT+C – to remove a document window split
CTRL+S - to save a document
CTRL+SHIFT+C - to copy formatting from the text
CTRL+SHIFT+V - to paste the copied formatting to the text
CTRL+SHIFT+F - to change the font
CTRL+SHIFT+P - to change the font size
CTRL+SHIFT+W- to underline words but not spaces
CTRL+SHIFT+D - to double-underline text
CTRL+I - to apply italic formatting
SHIFT+F3- to change the case of letters
CTRL+SHIFT+A - to format letters as all capitals
CTRL+SHIFT+K - to format letters as small capitals
CTRL+1 - for single-space lines
CTRL+2 - for double-space lines
CTRL+5 - to set a 1.5-line spacing
CTRL+0 - to add or remove a line space
If you’d like to become adept at using keyboard shortcuts, I recommend that you begin by learning a few shortcuts per week. As you become more familiar with shortcuts, you’ll find that you work faster and are more productive.
Do you know of any useful keyboard shortcuts that you think should be on this list? If so, share them using the comments box below.