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POWERtools for novices

Making Your Computer Work for You

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are short combinations of shortcuts that allow you to do something without using the mouse. This can be much faster, especially when you are already using the keyboard. I like to use pull down menus when I am looking for a command that I don't use very often, or when I'm not even sure whether a particular command exists. For commands that I use often, however, I am much speedier with keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts in the Wintel world usually involve holding down the control key while typing a letter. For Macintosh machines, hold down the command key while typing the letter. Some standard keyboard shortcuts that work in many applications are these:

Common Keyboard Shortcuts

Function	Wintel Shortcut	Apple Shortcut
copy	control-C	command-C
cut	control-X	command-X
paste	control-V	command-V
print	control-P	command-P
save	control-S	command-S

Exercise 5:

Practice moving paragraphs within your word processor document using keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste.

Use the keyboard shortcut for paste to make 5 copies of the same paragraph, one after another.

Exercise 6:

Save your word processor file to your desktop for use in future exercises. You can use the keyboard shortcut to do this.

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