Working Smarter With

Windows 2000/XP Shortcuts

UPDATED: 07-28-04

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Work more efficiently using the keyboard more and the mouse less; Take frequent short breaks (productivity increases stress decreases). “TwentyTwentyTwenty Rule” - every 20 min take a 20 second break and look at an object 20 feet away.

LET’S GET STARTED!

The images on the LEFT werer created by pressing & holding down the ALT key & “PRN SCREEN” KEY (top left corner of keyboard) nothing will happen.

Start Microsoft Word & click “Edit, Paste” & the image appears! Ms Paint or IRFANVIEW “crop” the photos.

IRFANVIEW is also a great freeware picture editor used by millions.

www.Irfanview.com. Click and drag to select what you want then press Ctrl+Y to crop - this will just leave the part you selected with the mouse and eliminate everything else.

SEARCHING THIS DOCUMENT: CLICK on EDIT, FIND (Ctrl_F) to SEARCH this or any document for ‘KEY WORDS’ LIKE PRINT, SAVE, OPEN, CLOSE. Print this document and tape it near your monitor.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

Be aware of muscle tensing in your hands, shoulders, and neck. Often you are not aware of the strain this puts your body under. Stay loose, shake you wrists often as my ergonomic guides suggest. Develop a routine of simple short breaks.

Eye Strain:

Keep you monitor as DARK as you can while still being able to see it. Have one or more florescent bulbs above your desk removed. If your work area is near a window then block out the sun so it doesn’t shine in back of or directly on you monitor. Keep monitor at eye level - you can place books or reams of paper under it to raise it.

Text Size:

Increase the windows text size for all applications and windows itself by going to: control panel, Display, Settings, Click Advanced and either choose from the % drop down menu.

APPEARANCE CHANGES TO WINDOWS

Darken Background!! Go to the Control Panel, Display icon, click on Appearance tab, then click on the ‘pull-down-menu’ press w and down arrow til you get ‘window’ then click on Color and choose grey - why because it is very ‘soft’ on the eyes as opposed to white. Also a plain green background is also very easy on the eyes.

View: Always use the DETAIL VIEW in various folders, it places all files in alphabetical order, shows their size and the time and date they were created and you press the letter you want to go to like: F for “Friday Income Closing.doc”

CTRL & + and press the ‘+’ plus key on the numeric key pad on the right – When you are viewing a folder with My Computer (instead of Windows Explorer) and you are using the Details View all of the columns will be resized automatically

Understanding The Means:

Apps = Applications or Programs that you run in Windows

Ctrl = Control key lower left corner on most keyboards.

ESC - escape key or ‘back me out /cancel key’ Top left hand corner.

Right-Click Or Right Mouse Button: The special features button on the mouse which is located on the right. It is extremely useful in win95 and offers a pop up menu with commands that apply to the situation.

Right Clicks Deserving Special Notation: Right click on a blank area of the desktop, choose properties and it will take you into the ‘Display’ settings, background, wall paper, icon size, color choices, etc.

Closing - ‘Windows’ within an application: Ctrl+F4

Closing - Entire applications and even Windows itself - once all apps are closed: Alt+F4

The “Windows Key”:

Located - to the left of the space bar and adjacent to the Alt key.

A number of special handy features:

window key(press n hold) then hit:

E for windows Explorer

F for Find - search for files on your local hard drive.

R for Run - to directly run an application ex: type outlook and press enter key.

D minimize all active windows down to the task bar.

U Windows Narrator - can read text, and helps magnifiy text for those with limited eye site.

W Puts the focus on the windows desktop, now if you press 'm' it will take you to the first icon

that begins with 'm' for example My computer, etc. Navigate without using a mouse.

PAUSE/BREAK key will show properties of a slected object like “My Computer”, Recycle bin, or a file.

Toggle: if you press windows key + a command letter it performs the command. If you do it again it toggles and undoes the command. Try this: open some applications now press window key + d to min all windows now press window key + d again and all windows are restored.

History:

CTRL+H when you are in a folder to pull up the History of places you went on the web + files you worked with. Very useful if you can’t remember the name of a web site you visited in the last two weeks.

Toggling or Rotating OPEN Applications: press & hold Alt + then tap the TAB key

• Look at the bottom line in this ‘pop-up’ box it contains a description of each item as you ‘rotate’ through them.

• Press and HOLD Alt down; keep holding it down then ‘tap’ the TAB key but don’t hold down the TAB key just HOLD the Alt key. Some people press the alt key then hold the TAB key this just make the ‘OPEN’ Apps circulate so rapidly that you cannot see what is happening - it is like spinning a roulette wheel at a casino!

• Lets say you are running two Apps Word and Excel and Power point. If you are in word and you alt tab to power point. The next time you ‘Alt-TAB’ the computer is smart and will first try to alt-TAB you back to the application you were just in; which in this example is word… try it.

Ctrl + ESC / TAB Super useful = same as clicking on the Start button.

TAB 3X: after pressing CTRL + ESC that pops up the start button, now pressing TAB once puts the focus on the task bar at the bottom arrows let you select any app, TAB again puts the focus on the DESKTOP arrows let you move to any icon there or press the first letter to jump to the M’s as in “My Computer” etc. TAB again puts the focus back on the START Button.

ALT+F6 lets you do the same thing as clicking on the desktop to “hop-off “the start button or taskbar onto the desktop then you can press the letter m, for example, to get to my computer, then use the arrow keys to navigate around the desktop to different icons.

Ctrl + ESC, S, C - opens control panel. Although sometimes this will not work if someone has added another icon with the same name.

Ctrl + ESC, then press up/down arrow, then right or left arrow to navigate the “start menu”.

CTRL+ESC, R (RUN), type COMMAND then press Enter to open a “DOS shell”. Then type

EXIT in DOS to close the dos shell and return to windows

Ctrl + ESC, F, F (does not always work) SEARCHING FOR FILES/FOLDERS: Big Hint in W95- type part or all of the name of the folder or name and search for it then double click it to start it: for ex if it was a word doc, etc. This is MUCH FASTER then just click around til you find something: icon, shortcut, folder, etc.

Inside Of Applications:

MOST USEFUL AND ALMOST UNIVERSAL COMMANDS ON THE WINDOWS PC!!!!!!!! YOU CAN USE THESE EVEN WHEN YOU TYPE IN YOUR ID IN A LOGIN PROMPT BOX!!!!!!! YOU GET THE IDEA!

CTRL+C: COPY – remember this works just about anywhere you can type in windows!

CTRL+X: CUT (DELETE) AND PLACES A COPY OF WHAT WAS DELETED INTO

A TEMPORARY MEMORY AREA CALLED THE CLIPBOARD.

CTRL+V: PASTE – remember this works just about anywhere you can type in windows!

CTRL+Z: UNDO – remember this works just about anywhere you can type in windows!

Alt+M: Minimizes all windows - to test, click on the Start Button, the press ALT+M.

CTRL+F = FIND

CTRL+P = PRINT POP UP SCREEN

CTRL+S= SAVE

CTRL+

CTRL+O= OPEN A FILE

ESC TO CLOSE A WINDOW

CTRL+TAB TO TOGGLE THROUGH OPEN ‘SCREENS WITH IN AN APP’

CTRL+F4 TO close a screen or doc but NOT Close the Application

ALT+F4 more powerful than ctrl+F4 Close the Application, and every other application that might be open,

and finally Win95 itself (if nothing is open - you must experiment to get the feel of this)

ALT+SHIFT+F4 Will Close the active window PLUS all folders you have opened to get to that folder.

BACKSPACE key is kind of the inverse if you click on a shorcut which opens several folders down Backspace will backup one folder at a time until you get to the top.

CTRL and + key will resize the columns in a folder (in detail view) automatically.

Ctrl + ESC, ESC, Shift+F10 = a Special RIGHT-Mouse click on the start button, you will have to experiment.

ALT + SPACEBAR to get at the maximize minimize part of an open folder or application - try it right now in word.

Alt - just plain alt by itself, experiment and see what it does. Tip: ALT and ESC often go hand in hand

ESC- just plain alt by itself, experiment and see what it does.

TRY THIS: MS Word: highlight a word or sentence the press Shift (and hold) and tap the F3 key once, then again and a 3^rd time you will see the changes rotate: upper case just first letter upper case, all lower case. Wow.

Also in MS word try Alt +H then click SPECIAL button lower rt hand corner. This will let you get rid of paragraph marks or spaces or dots ex ... will search and replace every incident of 3 dots in a row.

READ! WHEN YOU SEE SOME THING LIKE OPEN NOTICE P IS UNDERLINED THEN YOU CAN EITHER PRESS P OR ALT +P! YOU WILL DISCOVER NEW SHORTCUTS OVER TIME. AND EXPIRENCE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO USE THESE SHORTCUTS PROPERLY AND WHEN A MOUSE IS BETTER TO USE.

Internet Explorer 5 & 6: F4 places the cursor in the URL address line.

Win2000: Task Bar Right click and choose bring up Task Manager instead of

Ctrl+alt+del, T.

NT / Windows 95 Alt + Enter when in a dos “shell” reduce a “Maximized” Dos Window from full screen down to “Normal” sized window – i.e. not minimized, not maximized, but in-between. This is a great time saver for those in tech support!

FOR TECH SUPPORT ONLY / SYSTEM MAINTENCE: Ctrl+Alt+R open Registry win95.

Is there a quick way to get to my desktop when it's full of other open windows?

Right-Click on the taskbar, and select Minimize All Windows. Restore all windows by right-clicking on taskbar and selecting Undo Minimize All.

Organize Your Programs Folder - Under the Start Button:

Right Click in an empty area..

Click Sort by Name, now all the programs folders will be sorted alphabetically. It’s much easier to find programs this way esp when you have a lot of folders / program.

DISCALIMER:

These are my opinions and suggestions for educational purposes only. Not advice to be followed.

Ergonomic suggestions -- such as avoidance of carpal tunnel syndrome -- are not intended to substitute a physician’s medical advice or ergonomic specialist.

Some techniques discussed in this article are intended for computer-users with advances knowledge, such as those that work in a technical support capacity and therefore should be avoided by the average computer-user. YOU assume full responsibility and exempt me from any claim of damages.

This document is copyrighted with all rights are reserved, it may be copied, edited and redistributed on a not-for profit basis only.