6. Who Doesn't Love Keyboard Shortcuts?Despite
the fact that Microsoft has excised those little underlined letter—the
ones that show you which letter you have to press while holding the Alt
key to jump to that control—the keyboard is alive and well in Vista. In
fact, there are tons of useful keyboard shortcuts that can be real
time-savers in Windows, some even used in conjunction with the mouse.
Following are some of the best ones. 6.1. Navigating files and folders
Properties
Hold the Alt key while double-clicking on a file or folder to view the Properties sheet for that object. Or, press Alt-Enter to open the Properties window for the selected item without using the mouse at all.
History
Press Backspace
in an open folder window to go back one step in the window's history to
the last folder you looked at, which is not necessarily the parent
folder. You can also press the left or right arrow keys while holding Alt
to go back and forth through the folder history; these work just like
the two round arrow buttons in the upper left of any Explorer window.
Refresh/Reload
Press F5 in almost any window (including web browsers and even Device Manager) to refresh the current view.
Folder tree
With the focus on Explorer's folder tree, press Enter to view the contents of the highlighted folder in the right pane. Also, use the left and right arrow keys (or + and −) to collapse and expand folders, respectively, or press the asterisk key (*) to expand all the folders and their subfolders in the current branch.
Jump to an item
With the focus on the
right pane, press a letter key to quickly jump to the first file or
folder starting with that letter. Continue typing to jump further. For
example, pressing the T key in your \Windows folder will jump to the Tasks folder. Press T again to jump to the next object that starts with T. Or, press T and then quickly press A to skip all the Ts and jump to taskman.exe. If there's enough of a delay between the T and the A keys, Explorer will forget about the T, and you'll jump to the first entry that starts with A. If you'd rather, you can have Windows Explorer begin a formal search as soon as you start typing. Open the Organize drop-down, select Folder and Search Options, and then choose the View tab. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced settings list, and under the When typing into list view branch, click Automatically type into the Search Box. |
|
New Explorer window
Press Ctrl-N to open another Explorer window at the same folder. Or, if you prefer, you can use Ctrl-N
to create a new folder on the spot—something you can't otherwise do
easily with the keyboard—by installing Creative Element Power Tools (http://www.creativelement.com/powertools/) and turning on the Quickly create new folders tool. You can also press Winkey+E to open a new Windows Explorer window, even when you're not currently in Explorer.
Search
In Windows Explorer or on the desktop, press Ctrl-F or F3 to open a separate search window so you can search without losing the current view. Or, press Winkey+F to open a search window no matter where you are.
Show hidden context menu items
Hold the Shift key while right-clicking a file to show three new items in the file's context menu: Pin to Start Menu (normally shown only for programs), Add to Quick Launch, and Copy as Path (used to copy the full path of the item to the clipboard).
Address bar
Press F4 to jump to the address bar so you can type or flip through recently visited folders. While you're there, press Esc twice to revert to the new-style path box so you can navigate parent folders without typing.
Cycle through all the controls
Press the Tab or F6 keys to jump among the file pane, the file pane column headers, the address bar, the Search box, the Favorites pane (if it's visible), the folder tree divider, and then finally the folder tree itself.
6.2. Selecting and managing files
Select all
Press Ctrl-A to quickly select all of the contents of a folder, both files and folders.
Select range
Select one icon, then hold the Shift key while clicking on another icon in the same folder to select it and all the items in between.
Select multiple items
Hold the Ctrl
key to select or deselect multiple files or folders, one by one. Note
that you can't select more than one folder in the folder tree pane of
Explorer, but you can in the right pane. You can select multiple files without using the keyboard by dragging a rubber band
around them. Start by holding down the left mouse button in a blank
portion of a folder window, then drag the mouse to the opposite corner
to select everything that appears in the rectangle you just drew. |
|
You can also use the Ctrl key to modify your selection. For example, if you've used the Shift key or a rubber band to select the first five objects in a folder, you can hold Ctrl while dragging a second rubber band to highlight additional files without losing your original selection.
Delete files
Select a file or folder and press Del to delete it. Or, press Shift-Del to delete it permanently without sending it to the Recycle Bin.
Rename
Press F2 to rename the currently selected item.
6.3. Starting and switching programs
Start menu
Press the Windows logo key
(Winkey) to open the Start menu, and then navigate with your arrow
keys. You can also open the Start menu by pressing Ctrl-Esc. See the upcoming "Hack the Windows Logo Key" sidebar if you don't have a Windows logo key. What
if your keyboard has no Winkey? Strictly speaking, you don't really
need it, but there are a bunch of nifty keyboard shortcuts you can only
do with the Winkey, such as Winkey+D to show the desktop, Winkey+R to run a program, and Winkey+Tab to use the Flip 3D task switcher. To
give your keyboard a Winkey, or any other key it doesn't have, you need
a keyboard remapping tool. Most tools use an obscure feature already
built in to Windows, such as Sharpkeys (free, http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/), KeyTweak (free, http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/), and Microsoft's own Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (http://www.annoyances.org/exec/software/mklc). First, pick a key on your keyboard you don't use—the righthand Alt
key is usually a good candidate for the Windows Logo Key—and remap it
to the key you want Windows to think you pressed. In SharpKeys, for
instance, click Add, select Special: Right Alt from the Map this key list, select Special: Left Windows from the To this key list, and click OK. Back in the main window, click Write to Registry, and then log out and back in again for the change to take effect. Of
course, the Winkey isn't for everyone. On most keyboards, it's right
next to the Space bar, which means it's easy to hit by accident. And
since it's one of the few keys that takes the focus away from the active window, it can be decidedly inconvenient if you press it while you're typing. To
disable Winkey, all you do is use one of the aforementioned keyboard
remapping tools to remap Winkey to something innocuous, like Ctrl or Pause/Break. Or, if you have the MyExpose task switcher installed , you can remap the Winkey to activate MyExpose instead. While you're at it, you can likewise disable some other nuisance keys like Insert (Ins), so you'll never again inadvertently delete text as you type. If you want to keep your Windows logo key, but you don't like the Winkey hotkey combinations (e.g., Winkey+R), you can turn those off with a quick Registry hack. Open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create a new DWord value by selecting Edit → New → DWord Value (32-bit), and then name the new value NoWinKeys. Double-click the new value, type 1 for its data, and click OK. You'll need to log out and then back in again for the change to take effect. |
Switch to a different window
Press Winkey+Tab to show the fancy Flip 3D Rolodex-style task switcher, or Alt-Tab to show the classic means of switching from one open window to another. Hold Shift (Shift-Alt-Tab or Shift-Winkey+Tab) to go backward. If you're using an application with more than one document, press Ctrl-Tab to switch among the open documents. Or, press Ctrl-Tab to cycle through tabs in a tabbed window.
Drop the current window to the bottom of the pile
Press Alt-Esc to move the active window to the bottom of the stack and activate the one underneath it. Hold Shift to go backward.
Run
Press Winkey+R to open the Start menu Run box.
Minimize all windows
Press Winkey+D to show or hide the desktop, Winkey+M to minimize all open windows, or Shift−Winkey+M to restore minimized windows.
Windows Explorer
Press Winkey+E to open a new Windows Explorer window.
Task Manager
Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open Task Manager .
Task bar
Press Winkey+T to send the keyboard focus to the taskbar, or press Winkey+B to send the focus to the notification area (tray).
Quick Launch toolbar
Press the Windows logo key and a number key to open the Quick Launch icon at that position. For instance, press Winkey+1 to open the first icon, Winkey+2 to open the second, and so on.
Close the window
Press Alt-F4 to close the current application, or Ctrl-F4 to close the current document (if it's the type of program that can hold multiple documents). Press Alt-F4 while the keyboard focus is on the desktop or taskbar to shut down windows.
View System Information
Press Winkey+Pause/Break to open the System page in Control Panel.
Get Windows Help
Press Winkey+F1 to open Windows Help and Support.
6.4. Everything else
Clipboard
Press Ctrl-C to copy the selected item to the clipboard, Ctrl-X to cut (copy and then delete), and Ctrl-V to paste the item anywhere else.
Undo
Press Ctrl-Z to undo the last text edit, file operation, deletion, etc.
Menus
Press Alt or F10 to jump to the menu bar (or show the menu if it's hidden).
Drop-down listboxes
Use the up and down arrow keys to flip through items in a drop-down box, or press Alt-down arrow to open the listbox.
Accessibility tools
Press Winkey+U to open the Ease of Access Center page in Control Panel. Press Shift five times to toggle StickyKeys on and off. Hold Shift for eight seconds to toggle FilterKeys on and off. Hold Num Lock for five seconds to toggle ToggleKeys on and off. Press Alt-LeftShift-Num Lock to toggle MouseKeys on and off. Press Alt+LeftShift+Print Screen to toggle high contrast mode on and off.
Log off
Press Winkey+L to log off Windows.
|
