Browser Tabs and Short Cuts

[Alexander Bisset]

Alexander has explained Windows and Tabs. If there are 2 applications (in different windows) that I want to rapidly switch between, then I use ALT + Tab.
Being right handed, ALT + Tab is very easy to do with your left hand and leaves my right hand still on the mouse.

I also have many Tabs open on Chrome, and if I find myself switching between 2 tabs often, then I select and drop one Tab to create a new window so that I can ALT + Tab between them. There is no quick way to switch between tabs, CTRL + Tab just moves you to the next one, and not the switching between Tabs.

CTRL+TAB switches you to the next one. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB switches you back again. It isn't a toggle but its close.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

What other useful shortcuts are there? Or does that open up a whole minefield?

One I use a lot. Windows+D. Minimises all windows in one go and again opens them as they were, CTRL+P - Print opens the print window from whatever program you are working on.

However the ones I use most often have to be CTRL+F, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+X, CTRL+Z, CTRL+Y, ALT+PRINTSCR.

CTRL+F - to find. This works in any windows program particularly in a browser, word document or PDF. For example: You've searched and found a website or document with interesting info about your family. You know that the info is somewhere in the 100+ pages but where to look. Press CTRL+F enter the word you are looking for (eg: the surname you are searching for) and it jumps to the first example of that text. F3 then jumps to the next entry etc.

CTRL+C - copy - copies any highlighted text to the clipboard so it can be pasted elsewhere eg: onto forum or into a document or email.

CTRL+V - paste - pastes text from the clipboard into a document/forum/email etc

CTRL+X - cut - copies any highlighted text to the clipboard and deletes it from the original place

CTRL+Z - undo - when you type something wrong CTRL+Z undoes what you last typed - try it when writing a forum message

CTRL+Y - redo - when you undo what you didn't mean to undo you can redo it again!!! - try it by typing something delete a word then press CTRL+Z to get it back and CTRL+Y to redo the delete!!

ALT+PRINTSCR - screen grab the window you have open. Grabs just what is important instead of the whole screen you get with just PRINTSCR. NB. Sometimes the PRINTSCR key is labelled PRTSCR.

and of course HOME - go to beginning of a line and END go to end of line. Finally F5 to refresh/reload a page.

 

[Tim]

Great list Alexander and in addition to those I use CTRL + S to save.

Home and End work differently in Web Browsers, Home takes you to the top of the web page and End takes you to the bottom, useful in the forum when you need to get back to the top to see what your next alert is.

What is also interesting is that CTRL + PageUP and CTRL + PageDown does the same as CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Which bit's confusing? I'll see if I can re-word it for you.

No bother Tim, you may find it misleading! (Mind you I think that's my first to date although I recall a disagree from Peter way back so not doing too badly)

 

[Katie Bee]

No bother Tim, you may find it misleading!

Misleading x 1
Tim

I did not find your post "misleading", maybe a bit difficult to follow in the second paragraph.
Maybe Tim can say why it was misleading, then we won't be mislead anymore.

 

[Susan48]

For instance ALT combined with a number sequence allows you to add foreign accents to letters (I keep a list of the numbers on my wall)

Mac users just have to hold a letter key down to get options for adding diacritics e.g. è, å, ü, which is useful for those of us who work with other European languages - easier than keeping a list of numbers on the wall, Bob . By the way, many thanks to Alexander, Tim and others for demystifying windows and tabs. I have already tried ALT + TAB and it works nicely, thank you.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Mac users just have to hold a letter key down to get options for adding diacritics e.g. è, å, ü, which is useful for those of us who work with other European languages - easier than keeping a list of numbers on the wall, Bob

Agreed Susan if an everyday occurrence, but for the occasional (cannot recall the last time) use, the wall chart serves nicely and of course not a Mac in sight. But thanks for the lovely word 'diacritics' must test my wife out on that one as she fancies herself as a wordsmith (with good cause I might add).

 

[Tim]

Stay as you are Katie as anything you are used to doing with the mouse is quicker than memorising and recalling a keyboard short cut. By the time you think of it you could have achieved the same thing anyway. I have known and used a good many keyboard shortcuts from the past -(past being the operative word) - and reject all except for ctrl-c & ctrl-v. Even there I often find it quicker to copy by right clicking with the mouse and using ctrl-v to paste. I don't even think about it, if I did it would take up more time.

This is the passage that I think is misleading. Short cuts do actually mean that it's a shorter way of doing something!

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Bob's point is perfectly valid though Tim, if its not something you are doing regularly then it becomes something that you have to recall how to do and that length of time outweighs the benefit of it being a shortcut.

Where the shortcuts are more useful is where they introduce features you didn't appreciate were possible. By far and away the most useful of them in my opinion is CTRL+F to find things in a document or website. In my day job as an IT Manager it frustrates the hell out of me seeing people "searching" for text in a file or webpage by manually scrolling through the pages trying to find the text. When it would be dramatically quicker - seconds rather than minutes to press CTRL+F. As such telling people about CTRL+F is probably the top tip I pass on to staff at work.

 

[Katie Bee]

This is the passage that I think is misleading.

I did not think the passage was misleading at all. It was quite true for me! I use the short cuts that I know and can recall, but the others usually take much longer as I have to look them up or use the browser tabs at the top.
So short cuts should be shorter, but not always.
I have just collated all the shortcuts from the above posts and "printed them out". So I have them handy. There were a few that I did not know or had forgotten about.

Home and End work differently in Web Browsers, Home takes you to the top of the web page and End takes you to the bottom

These are my new favourite short cuts, Thanks Tim

 

[Tim]

I hear you Alexander (and Bob) but the point of out conversation was switching Tabs and Windows. If you are switching between these regularly then short cuts should be easy to learn and remember.

It is unfortunate that if you don't use them often then you will forget them. An example there is the excellent CTRL + F for finding. I use it all the time, at work and in genealogy. When you search for someone and it brings up a long list of names, I use CTRL + F and start typing in the birth place, or spouse name and it highlights all the results and you can quickly scroll to them or use the up and down arrows to take you to the next instance.

And so if you don't use CTRL + F, then you will forget it and you end up doing it the long way.

Sorry Bob, it was just the dismissive way in which you worded your post.

Stay as you are Katie as anything you are used to doing with the mouse is quicker than memorising and recalling a keyboard short cut. By the time you think of it you could have achieved the same thing anyway.

Am I wrong in reading this as "Don't bother trying it"? Anyhow, minor rant over.

But it would be nice for people to try the short cuts for Windows and Tabs, and all the other useful ones that Alexander listed. Let them make their own minds up.

 

[Tim]

I'm glad you tried them

 

[Bob Spiers]

Short cuts do actually mean that it's a shorter way of doing something

But if the 'short cut' involves using a back alley, along a track, and cutting through a copse and you do not know any of these things exist, you are better off sticking to the main road.

Bob's point is perfectly valid though Tim, if its not something you are doing regularly then it becomes something that you have to recall how to do and that length of time outweighs the benefit of it being a shortcut.

And Alexander completes the point I was making that a short cut is ONLY a short cut if it is second nature to you otherwise it is just an alternative means to achieve the same end.

I must admit however that Alexander's tip about CTL+F especially in Word which I use a lot, may well outweigh Word's own 'Find' method. True I know how to use 'Find' and am reasonably quick but with the wider dimensions outlined for CTL+F that sounds like something I need to get used to using until it becomes second nature. Then it will truly be a short cut.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Am I wrong in reading this as "Don't bother trying it"? Anyhow, minor rant over.

Yes you are slightly at least, and apologies if it came out like that. What I meant is one person's short cut is another's laborious work around and we may be better staying with the thing we know best. However I did not mean to knock keyboard short cuts, after all I have a favourite of my own WIN+D (WIN is the key with the Windows icon between CTRL & ALT for those who do not know). This is a true short cut (until someone says different) which takes you straight to the Desktop.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

This is a true short cut (until someone says different) which takes you straight to the Desktop.

It is a true KEYBOARD shortcut, however if you click on the, almost invisible until you hover over it, little vertical bar to the right of the clock in the bottom right hand corner it will do the same thing. An example of where there is a mouse click and a keyboard click for the same thing both of which are shortcuts to minimise all your windows in one go and depending on whether you are a keyboard or mouse person depends on which you think of as a shortcut.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

I must admit however that Alexander's tip about CTL+F especially in Word which I use a lot, may well outweigh Word's own 'Find' method.

CTRL+F simply activates Word's find method it isn't different. The point though is that CTRL+F activates the programs find method (if one exists) in most windows programs. So if you use CTRL+F to find it becomes second nature regardless of which program you are using. Especially so in browser windows and in PDF documents.

 

[Katie Bee]

little vertical bar to the right of the clock in the bottom right hand corner

In my browser it is a blue rectangle and I have never clicked on it before and hey presto it minimised my window!
Another thing to add to my growing list!
Thanks Alexander, Bob and Tim for all your help.

I always use CTRL + F, along with copy and paste they are the ones I use the most, up to now......

 

[emjay]

Wow! what a long thread about short cuts! However some very useful and informative content.

 

[Heather]

It is a true KEYBOARD shortcut, however if you click on the, almost invisible until you hover over it, little vertical bar to the right of the clock in the bottom right hand corner it will do the same thing. An example of where there is a mouse click and a keyboard click for the same thing both of which are shortcuts to minimise all your windows in one go and depending on whether you are a keyboard or mouse person depends on which you think of as a shortcut.

Alexander I haven't got a little verticle bar to the right of the clock in the bottom right hand corner, there is nothing there ? I love the CTRL + F so thanks for that.

 

[Gillian]

Alexander I haven't got a little verticle bar to the right of the clock in the bottom right hand corner, there is nothing there ? I love the CTRL + F so thanks for that.

Thanks to Katie Bee I know now that it's little blue rectangle in the bottom far right hand corner. Thank you all so much for the short cuts etc. Some were new and, again like Katie Bee, I've printed them out.