Most writers these days use computers and word processing programs instead of pens and paper because it’s a generally faster and more efficient way to edit and format their work. These editing tools are only as good as the skill of the person using them and I often see people who are not getting the most out of their setup.
Let’s look at some things that might help the average writer. I’ll use Microsoft Word for the example since its probably the most common word processing application in the world and there are both PC and Mac versions.
Suppose you have a document open in Word and you want to save your work. You can take your eye (and mind) off the page in front of you, roll the cursor up to the File menu, click it and select Save. Or you can press Ctrl+S.
Sure, you only save a couple of seconds by using the keystrokes and that may not seem like much, but over the course of a full day’s work the saved time will add up.
The cursor/menu option is meant for beginners. It’s what you use when you don’t know the keystrokes yet. Microsoft and Apple based their user interfaces, the way you interact with programs, on research done by Xerox at the dawn of the personal computer age (that’s why they look so much alike). The Xerox concept was ingenious and far ahead of its time. The basic idea is that a right-handed person can use a mouse to place the cursor and to select text and the left hand to send most commands to the computer with keystrokes. Once you get some practice, it’s a very efficient system.
So how do you know what keystrokes to use? Click the File menu and you’ll see that there several keystroke options listed, such as Ctrl+N for New (file), Ctrl+P for Print, and so forth. (OK, you can’t reach P with your left hand. The Xerox system’s not perfect.) You can activate most common menu functions without ever using the mouse.
You can also use the keyboard even for menu options that don’t list a keystroke. Look for the underlined letters in the menu titles. Example: File. Press Alt+F and the File menu opens, then press Alt+ one of the other underlined letters and that command will happen. Example: Alt+E opens the Edit menu and Alt+L selects everything in the document.
TIP: Always press the Ctrl or Alt key first, then the letter key. Otherwise your timing may be a little off and you’ll accidentally insert a letter onto your work page.
Is it difficult to learn the keystrokes for a particular program? No. You’ll wind up using the same ones over and over and you don’t need to bother learning all the others. Best of all, the vast majority of all Microsoft and Apple software will use the same keystrokes to produce the same command.
But be aware that there are a few software developers out there who choose, for some perverse reason, to ignore standard keystroke usage and who make one or two keystrokes in each program non-standard. Just something to watch for when you’re learning new software. If you search a program’s online help for key words like “shortcuts” or “keystrokes” you can often find a complete listing that you can print.
Other useful Word keystroke shortcuts
Home – Moves the cursor to the beginning of a line
of text.
End - Moves the cursor to the end of a line of text.
Delete – Removes the first letter or space to the
right of the cursor (or deletes all selected items).
Backspace – Removes the first letter or space to the
left of the cursor (or deletes all selected items).
F4 (in Word only) – Repeats the last single action
done. For example, if you italicized a word and have another word selected,
pressing F4 will italicize the second word also. But if you first underline and
then italicize a word before selecting another word and pressing F4, all it will
do is italicize. Remember, F4 repeats one action and only one action.
Ctrl+F6 – Toggles between open documents. Example:
If you have Word Chap1 and Chap2 two open, pressing Ctrl+F6 will switch your
view back and forth between the two documents.
Shift+arrow keys – Selects text. Example: if you
want to select the letter “x” in the word “Texas”, place the cursor between the
x and the a, hold the Shift key down and press the left arrow key. The single
letter is now highlighted.
Ctrl+Z – Undo. Possibly the most important keystroke
in the known universe. Word stores everything you do and you can work your way
backwards for several steps if you need to.
First published October 2002
Copyright 2002
Fred Askew