My Favorite Shortcut Keys

Even as the sun begins to set on Windows XP, I keep learning new shortcuts. Here are a couple of useful favorites.

Windows + m
Did you know that holding down the Windows key (the one with that little flag on it) and pressing m takes you straight to the desktop and minimizes all your open windows? I used to go through one by one, minimizing each open window, just to be able to get to a folder on the desktop. This shortcut saves a huge amount of time (and frustration), which is just what shortcuts are supposed to do, right?

Alt + Tab
More often than not, when someone is looking over my shoulder as I cycle rapidly through the open windows on my computer screen, they'll ask how I do that. For me, it's second nature to put my left thumb on the Alt key and use my middle finger to tap the Tab key as many times as it takes to get to the right window. The first tap brings up a little window with icons for each of the open windows. Successive taps cycle through the list, highlighting each icon in turn. (If you go past the one you wanted, just keep tapping and go around again.) When you release the Alt key, you go to the highlighted window. I've been using this shortcut as long as I can remember -- unlike the Windows + m shortcut that I only learned about in late 2011. One of these days I'm going to have to investigate whether these shortcuts have been preserved in Windows 7. I hope so, because they're very handy.

Ctrl + Shift + 8 (in Word)
There is a lot going on behind the scenes in Microsoft Word, and by allowing the "nonprinting characters" to be displayed you can often see why your text is behaving the way it is. For years I simply clicked on the little button with the paragraph mark to toggle the display on and off, but in April I discovered the shortcut key combination, which is Ctrl + Shift + 8. (You can read about how that happened in my April 15 post, "The Curiosity Hazard.") Whether you like seeing all the additional symbols or not, it's like having the answer key in the back of a textbook -- great to know it's there, even if you rarely refer to it.

F1
If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that when all else fails it might be worth looking in the help file. However, sometimes that's easier said than done. I like Chrome as a browser, for example, but it seems odd that they've hidden the Help link (You have to click on the little wrench icon to get the menu that lists Help.) Even so, the traditional F1 key still works, opening Google Chrome Help in a new tab. And that's comforting to know, as well as being useful.