Keyboard Shortcuts that may be Helpful

Keyboard - clip art

This came across my mail today so thought I’d share.  I didn’t know about all of these.  Most of these are for a Windows operating system.

Ctrl + Shift + T lets you bring back the last webpage you were looking at.  In Google Chrome, you can restore up to ten browser tabs using this method.

Ctrl + Shift + Escape lets you get to the browser manager to terminate any frozen apps.  For Mac use Command + Option + Escape.

Alt + Left/Right Arrow Keys to navigate through browser history forward or back a page.  For Mac use Command + Left/Right Arrow Keys.

Ctrl + L will put your cursor on the location bar without using your mouse.  You can type in an address leaving out the www and .com and hitting Ctrl + Enter will automatically add that part and launch the site.  For Mac its Command + Enter.  This works in Chrome, not sure on other browsers.

Windows + Left/Right will make a page extend to the end of the screen without having to maximize the window to full screen.  This works in Windows 7 and can be useful for pairing two web browser windows next to each other.

For Fast YouTube Viewing hitting any number key will jump the video forward the corresponding percentage.  For example, hitting the 4 will jump the video by 40% regardless of the length.  Hitting the arrow keys will jump forward or backward by 5 seconds.  Also hitting the space bar at any time will pause the video.  This is useful when watching long videos and presentations.

Spacebar / Shift + Spacebar lets you browse the web without using the mouse.  If you’re reading something lengthy, hitting the Spacebar is like the Page Down Key.  Shift + Spacebar will scroll back up one page.  The Shift key is usually a modifier to reverse the action for other shortcuts.

Double tap Command or the FN key to turn on dictation.  This works for Mac only with Mountain Lion installed.  It lets you convert speech to text.  The first time you use it you will be asked if you want to turn dictation on.  For keyboards without a CMD or FN key, you can change the shortcuts keys in the dictation and speech settings found in system preference.  This sounds really cool.

Gmail shortcuts can be turned on if you have Gmail for email and spend lots of time on there.  There are six automatically turned on when you have a Gmail account.  To enable other ones go into Gmail settings.  The Google support page lists all the shortcuts or you can go here for a cheat sheet.

To keep your desktop free of icons to your programs, you can launch an application to bring them up in system search.  Windows and Mac index all your programs.  To launch this, use Command + Spacebar in Mac or just the Windows and typing for windows systems.

Have fun playing with all this stuff.  I’m not sure if it works in all browsers.  You’ll have to experiment.