Mind Circus

Following on from Part 1, where I shared some useful keyboard shortcuts for general Windows usage, Part 2 covers useful shortcuts for working with Files and Text.

Working with Files and Text

F2
Rename the highlighted file in Explorer. Edits a Cell in Excel / OpenOffice Calc.

Alt + Enter
View properties of the selected item. Works in Explorer, but also works in other places, including Outlook.

Shift + Drag file
Moves files instead of copying them to separate volumes or disks.

Control + A
Selects all text, or all files in a directory. Very useful when you need to highlight everything and then Copy or Move (Cut) it somewhere.

Control + C
Copies the highlighted item (could be text, or a file/folder). Also, Control + X cuts the highlighted item.

Control + V
Pastes whatever you just copied.

Control + Z
Undoes your last action. This even applies when you’ve deleted a file and want to restore it. Always useful when writing up blog posts

Control + Y
Reapplies the action you just “undid”.

Text Specific

Control + B
Emboldens selected text, or starts to embolden text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off emboldening.

Control + I
Italicises selected text, or starts to italicise text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off italicise.

Control + U
Underlines selected text, or starts to underline text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off underline.

Control + Left or Right Arrow
Move forward to back a word.

Control + Shift + Left or Right Arrow
Highlight a word, backwards or forwards. Keep tapping to highlight more words

Control + Up or Down Arrow
Move to beginning or end of a line.

Shift + Up or Down Arrow
Highlight an entire line up or down.

Control + Backspace
Deletes one word to the left (behind).

Control + Delete
Deletes one word to the right (in front).

Have I missed any useful ones? What shortcuts do you use? Let me know in the comments!

Like most IT Professionals, I use a whole array of keyboard shortcuts to speed up my working throughout the day. In this two-part series, I’ll share some of the more useful ones with you.

In this post - Part 1 - I’ll cover shortcuts I use when generally working with, and troubleshooting, Windows. In Part 2, I’ll cover shortcuts for Working with Files and Text.

Part 1 - Working with Windows

Control + Shift + Escape
Instantly brings up Task Manager. Always handy for troubleshooting, and especially useful in a Domain environment, where the traditional Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up a Windows Security panel.

WinKey + D
Shows the Desktop, minimising all windows. Press it again, and all your windows are restored. This shortcut is superior to WinKey+M, as it retains all window positions.

WinKey + L
Locks your workstation. Incredibly useful if you work in IT, and frequently need to leave your PC at a moment’s notice.

Alt + Tab
Switches between open windows. To scroll “backwards” use Alt + Shift + Tab. Sometimes quicker than using the taskbar, sometimes not

WinKey + Break (sometimes labeled Pause)
Opens up Systems Properties quickly.

WinKey + R
Opens up the Run command, ready for your bidding

Alt + F4
Close the current window. Also, Ctrl + F4 closes the current tab in Firefox and IE7, and many other applications which feature Tabbed navigation.

Control + Tab
Switches tabs in Mozilla Firefox / Internet Explorer 7 (and a lot of other programmes that use Tabs). To go backwards, use Control + Shift + Tab.

Note: WinKey is short for Windows Key. It’s the key with the Windows symbol on it, usually between the Ctrl button and the Space Bar

Have I missed any useful ones? What shortcuts do you use? Let me know in the comments!

Flat

Moved into the flat last Friday, and am still moving bits in slowly

Internet

Should have internet installed tomorrow morning, provided Virgin Media do as they promise first time around (rare, in my experience).

Not that I care much, since I’ve been sharing a space with friends, the social interaction / Mario Karting more than supplements any online social activities I used to engage in whilst alone at home!

Twitter

Also just installed Twitter + Plugin as a lot of the stuff in my head isn’t worthy of a blog post.

Stay tuned, I have a fairly useful Tech post coming up tomorrow!

Here’s an FAQ explaining the design decisions surrounding Vista’s new shitty shiny Disk Defragmenter.

OK, so the new I/O and CPU usage stuff is awesome (my favourite feature in Diskeeper), but to completely remove any graphical representation and then remove any progress indication is incredibly short sighted.

Sure, it makes sense to simplify the standard interface and protect general users from the “scary” internals of their OS, but, as the comments say, at least give Power users, or those that might be curious to learn more, the option to see what the hell is happening inside their system!

The more I am exposed to Vista, the harder I grip onto my copy of XP Pro.