Keyboard shortcuts improve productivity tremendously. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a good shortcut key! Once I realise I am wasting time doing something repeatedly and I don’t have a shortcut for that, I Google it and usually find one. If it takes me 5 minutes to find it, I use it once a day and it saves me 5 or 10 seconds: I am happy! Then I add it to my list – in Evernote – so if I forget it I can refresh my memory. It’s a slight effort to remember a new shortcut: so you do need to make a commitment to learn them. So choose 3 or 4 to learn today – and boost your productivity! Here are all my favourites… unashamedly leaning towards the PC user, as usual! 67 Keyboard Shortcuts to improve your productivity! Tweet this. Favourite Keyboard Shortcut Keys (Note: “Ctrl Sh Escape” means press and hold Control and Shift, then tap the Escape key. “Windows” means hold the Windows key.) These Work for Most, or Many, Applications Alt F4 – close application Ctrl F4 – close window of application F3 – find next. After finding the first instance of a search most applications will let you “find next” by tapping the F3 key. Ctrl +roll mouse scrollwheel – zoom in/out Ctrl S – save Ctrl P – print Ctrl F – find Selecting text Sh Right arrow – highlight next letter(s) Sh Ctrl Right arrow – highlight next word(s) Sh End – highlight to end of row Sh Ctrl End – highlight to end of document These shortcuts also work if you interchange left/up/down arrows, and the Home key rather than End. Sh PgUp/PgDn – highlights a big chunk of a page (contradictorally, not a full page! In Word, it’s about 2/3 of a page) Other selection techniques: Mouse double click – selects that word Mouse treble click – selects whole paragraph Shift single mouse click anywhere – selects all text from cursor to where you clicked Shift double mouse click – selects all text from cursor to end of the word where you clicked

Windows 7 Open Task Manager - Ctrl Shift +Escape (or Ctrl Alt +Delete then choose to open Task Manager) Alt Tab – cycle between open programmes Windows e – opens Windows Explorer Windows d – hides/reveals all open programme windows (this is usually called “reveal desktop” which I find confusing!) Windows Pause – opens the “System” window. This gives you access to features such as: Windows Experience Index (tells you which part of your hardware is slowing down your computer the most). Device Manager Advanced System Settings – eg to change location of pagefil.sys, or access System Restore.

Microsoft Office 2010 Ctrl F6 – Move between multiple instances of the same Office programme. Eg, if you do this when you are in Excel and have 4 or 5 workbooks open simultaneously, it will cycle between those 4 or 5. Sh Ctrl +F6 reverses direction, which can really improve productivity if you’ve got 6 or 7 workbooks open and you are switching between just two of them for a while.

“Pin” documents you use a lot to the “Recent” screen – File/Recent, then under “Recent Workbooks” (Excel) or “Recent Documents” (Word) click the pin image to the right of document you’d like to be “pinned” to the top of that screen for easy access. A great time saver F12 – Save As dialogue Word Sh F3 – toggles highlighted text between no initial caps, all caps and no caps. NEXT...