Use Your Windows XP More Efficiently – Speedy Keyboard Shortcuts and Tricks Made Easy

If time is money, then take some time right now to become quicker on your home and/or work computer. Keyboard shortcuts are an easy and effective way of making more time for life by eliminating wasted wrist movements with your mouse. Another reason you might find these tricks interesting is because they are fun and easy, and you’ll even be able to show off to your friends and coworkers. You’ll find that the more you practice these keyboard tricks, the more speedy and efficient you’ll become.

Here are the shortcuts I’ve found to be most useful:

Text editing commands (work in Word, Notepad, almost anywhere that there’s text on your computer):

• ctrl + c: copy
• ctrl + x: cut
• ctrl + v: paste
• ctrl + a: select all
• ctrl + z: undo
• ctrl + u: toggle underline on and off
• ctrl + i: toggle italics on and off

Mozilla Firefox commands (some of these work with Internet Explorer as well):

• ctrl + n: new tab
• ctrl + d: bookmark page
• ctrl + tab: scroll to next tab
• ctrl + l: highlight site address (for quickly typing in a new site address)
• tab: move cursor to next text box (for quickly filling out registrations for sites) or move through options

Windows commands (flag = Windows logo/flag button):

• flag + e: open “My Computer”
• flag + r: open “Run…”
• flag + d or flag + m: minimize programs (go to desktop)

Uncategorized (yet still very important):

• hold alt + tab: scroll through open programs (to go back to most recent program, quickly press once)
• ctrl+ alt + esc: open Task Manager
• ctrl + alt + delete: open Windows Security (to get to Task Manager and others)

You can also quickly customize your own commands for shortcuts on your desktop and with sites on Firefox.

Desktop shortcuts:

1. Go to your desktop.
2. Right click on a shortcut
3. Click “Properties.”
4. Type a letter of your choice into the “Shortcut Key:” text box. Try to make the letter easy to remember such as the first letter of that program. (Example: If the program you’re doing is Firefox, then make the shortcut key “F.”)
5. The next time you want to open up that program, just hit ctrl + alt + letter from anywhere on your computer. Keyboard shortcuts can be made for all of your desktop shortcuts.

Firefox shortcuts (to get Mozilla Firefox, click here):

1. Bookmark a web page that you visit regularly (ctrl + d).
2. Click bookmarks.
3. Right click your bookmark and hit properties.
4. Type a keyword (or a letter) into the “keyword” text box. Make sure that this letter/keyword is easy for you to remember. (Example: If you want to make a shortcut for Google, then make the keyword “G.”
5. The next time you find that you want to go to that web page, highlight the site address of which you’re currently on (ctrl + l) and then type in your keyword.

Just because I picked the above shortcuts as the most useful doesn’t mean that they’re going to be the most of use to you. Choose the commands you find yourself doing the most. Make notes of these by highlighting your favorite shortcuts and clicking edit, copy (ctrl + c). Open Notepad and click edit, paste (ctrl + v.) Go to the Notepad (alt + tab) at any time you need a quick reference to these keyboard shortcuts.

For the full list of keyboard shortcuts along with a better (longer) explanation on these shortcuts, go here.

These keyboard shortcuts take practice. If you want to get good at them, it’s not hard. It may take you a few nights of working on the computer with these shortcuts before you use them without thinking, but it’s all worth it in the end. Have fun shortcutting!

Comment any mistakes or shortcuts I missed that you think may be important.

More posts to come.