How to Use Keyboard Controls Without a Mouse
Hundreds of possible keyboard shortcuts can substitute for the traditional combination of mouse and keyboard. Many of these use the "Control" key on a PC and the "Command" (or "Apple") key on a Mac. There are several useful combinations of keys that can make your productivity faster and the windows and programs on your computer easier to manage.
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Instructions
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Find the list of PC shortcuts by pressing "F1" to open the "Help" menu and type in "keyboard shortcuts." This will display a list of types of shortcuts. Simply choose the type you are looking for and refer to this list when you are attempting to learn new shortcuts.
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Switch between open windows and programs on your computer by holding down the "Shift" key and pressing the "Tab" key to move between them. "Shift + Tab" will also move backwards through the available text boxes when you are using an Internet program or another program where you can tab through the sections. Vista has a feature where you can hold down the "Windows" key and press "Tab" to view a 3-D window selector.
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Use "Control-C (copy)," "Control-V (paste)," "Control-X (cut)," and "Control-Z (undo)" to move sections of text in either a word processing program or an Internet window.
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Move through a body of text in a word processing program using "Control-Right Arrow" to move to the beginning of the next word. "Control-Left Arrow" moves to the beginning of the previous word. "Control-Up Arrow" and "Control-Down Arrow" move you from paragraph to paragraph on a page of text. In an Internet browser, these commands move you to the top and bottom of the page just like the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys.
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Open a file on the desktop by hitting "Tab" until you reach it and then press "Enter." In word processing, you can use "Control-O" to open a file, "Control-S" to save, "Control-A" to select everything in a window, and "Control-F4" to close the active window (only in programs where multiple windows can be opened at the same time).
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