Useful keyboard shortcuts for everyday use

Why even bother about shortcuts

Yep. It’s a post about shortcuts.

Why would anyone care about learning some boring shortcuts?

Easy. Because shortcuts can save your life, make you rich, help you look much healthier and fulfill all your dreams in life.

Okay, maybe not all of the above, but they’re still pretty nice. Here’s why:

• The obvious benefit is the added efficiency to your everyday workflow. When you do some actions multiple times every hour with your mouse and every action needs two or more clicks, there is a lot of time to gain by just knowing the correct shortcut.
• More time working with your hands on the keyboard instead of switching to your mouse all the time is also good for ergonomics, as your hands will just conveniently rest in front of you on the keys. No need to move your arm that much.
• These shortcuts are very easy to learn and you will (hopefully) never forget them for the rest of your life.
• If you work mostly with the computer and sit in front of one most of your workday, why not try to properly master your tools? You spend so much time on computers, so getting to know how to work efficiently and like a professional should be a no-brainer.
• Most importantly, you look cool in front of your peers and they will think you are a keyboard-ninja.

So here are some shortcuts for you, they are really basic and should be anchored in your brain forever after just a few uses:

Browser

• Ctrl + T / Middle mouse button Open a new tab (for example when checking through a lot of search results)
• Ctrl + W Close current tab
• Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Shift + Tab Switch between tabs
• Ctrl + Shift + T Open most recent tab; or if you just opened the browser, open most recent browser session
• Ctrl + F Find/search text one the current page
• Ctrl + D Bookmark the current page
• Ctrl + H Open browser history
• Ctrl + Shift + Del Delete browser data (for example after working on a public computer)
• Ctrl + F5 Refresh the page
• Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up/Down Zoom in/out
• Alt + Left/Right or Mouse thumb buttons Navigate back/forth

Windows

• Ctrl + C Copy the selected text/file
• Ctrl + V Paste the copied text/file
• Ctrl + Z Undo last action
• Ctrl + Y or Ctrl + Shift + Z Redo last action
• Ctrl + S Save file
• Ctrl + A Select all text
• Ctrl + Backspace/Delete Delete by word (instead of by character)
• Win + L Lock the computer
• Win + Shift + S Screengrab/Printscreen
• Win + E Open the file explorer
  • In the explorer:
  • Ctrl + Shift + N Create new folder
  • F2 Rename folder/file
  • Tab (while renaming folder/file) Jump to next in list and rename
• Alt + Tab Switch between applications/windows
• Win + [Arrow] Resize and place current window
• Win + Shift + [Arrow] Move current window between screens
• Win + P Projecting or switching screen modes (with multiple screens)
• Ctrl + Shift + Esc Open task manager directly (instead of Ctrl + Alt + Del and then clicking)
• Win + . Open Emoji menu
• Win + Ctrl + Shift + B Reload graphic drivers (very situational but useful if your computer freezes)

How to learn shortcuts

So now that you have all these amazing shortcuts, you just need to use them!

If you want to learn shortcuts very fast, try to only use your keyboard for a few minutes and try to do everything via shortcuts. If you do not know a shortcut, look it up and write it into your notes.

Another way to lookup a shortcut: in most applications you can see the keyboard shortcut on the button of the action or you can configure them in the settings.