20 Really Useful keyboard Shortcut Keys

alt+tab

Ahhh, where would we be without alt-tab? Quickly and easily jump from one screen to the other. Open up the internet, open up your email program, open up your word processing program. Then just use alt-tab to switch from one to the other.

alt+shift+tab
Slightly different, alt+shift+tab flicks through the tabs within one program. Handy with lots of internet tabs.

ctrl+c
Another gem. You don’t have to remember a line of text or numbers and re-type it in elsewhere. Select the text you want, press ctrl+c and its in your clipboard ready to go where you want.

ctrl+x
Want to remove what you have copied? ctrl+x will do just that but will keep it in your clipboard temporarily.

ctrl+v
Once you’ve copied, you need to paste. This nifty shortcut does just that, nothing more, nothing less.

ctrl+z
Ever deleted a line then wished you hadn’t? Don’t forget your ctrl+z, it’ll undo your last move

F1
So you’ve got confused and don’t know the next step to take? It happens to us all, don’t worry, just press the F1 key and help will appear (literally!)

ctrl+a
Don’t bother using your mouse and cursor to select all the text, crafty old ctrl+a does it for you.

ctrl+right arrow
Don’t bother jumping to your mouse, or using just your cursor to sloowwwwly get to the next word. ctrl+right arrow jumps your cursor immediately to the commencing letter of the subsequent word.

ctrl+left arrow
Brother to the above shortcut, ctrl+left arrow leaps nonstop to the start of the word before.

ctrl+up arrow
Cousin to the previous two shortcuts, ctrl+up arrow whips your cursor up up and away – to the opening of the paragraph before.

ctrl+down arrow
The last of the navigational shortcuts, ctrl+down arrow leaps straight down to the first word of the following paragraph.

esc
Got somewhere you shouldn’t? Not sure how to get out of it? Press esc, it cancels the last task you did and takes you back to familiar territory.

F3
Simple search function. Press F3 and you can search for a file or folder on your computer or your cloud.

F5
Webpage not loading properly? Just got stuck and hung up on one thing? What happened to that speed internet connection? Get the magic F5 button going. One press and the computer tries again.

F7
How’s your spelling nowadays? You could head out to the local library and check your spelling there. A quicker way would be to double check it using the F7 key.

ctrl+b
For emphasising what you want to say. Ctrl+b is one of the text formatting keyboard shortcuts, this one makes your text bold and strong.

ctrl+u
A different kind of emphasis, use it for headings, or in your text. Ctrl+u is here to stay and underlines your selected text.

ctrl+i
To see life at a slant, use this formatting shortcut and turn your text into italics.

alt+F4
Don’t hunt for that tiny X in the corner to close the window. The current window can be easily closed using the alt+F4 keyboard shortcut.

David is a teacher from Glasgow. He oringally wrote this guide to help his students with their coursework.