Keyboard Shortcuts

Mundane tasks can be a bear to anyone using a computer, but utilizing the empty hand on the keyboard while the mouse hand is busy, can help you save a little time doing mundane things like opening new tabs in a browser.  There are also some other things that make computer navigation, and I hope you find some value in this.

Mouse and Keyboard combinations:

Web Browsing

If you haven’t already figured out, tabbed web browsing simplifies the internet viewing experience.  Instead of opening a new window all together cluttering up your desktop, browsers have adopted tabbed browsing, opening new windows within a tab easily accessible at the top of the window.  But if you are like me you read lots of blogs and use a feed reader like Google Reader to view multiple RSS feeds and sometimes have hundreds of articles to scan through.  The ones that I want to know more in depth I open in a new tab and read it when I am done scanning the rest of the new feeds.  Now, there are a few ways to open this in a new tab, and all work effectively well, it will be up to you what works best for you.  I have tested this in Chrome, IE9, and Firefox 4.

1. Right click the link, and choose the option to ‘open the link in a new tab’.  All recent browsers have this capability.  This will open the link in a new window and make it active (except in IE9 which opens the tab in the background).
2. Put down that beverage of choice and use that empty left hand (or right hand if you’re a south paw), and hold ‘Ctrl’ and click the link.  This will open the link in a new tab, and with default tab settings will not make the tab active, it will be open in the background allowing you to keep reading your current web page. (this is what I do, it’s extremely convenient, and also works with clicking links in Facebook’s game feed to collect items and rewards for games like Farmville, Cityville and the like)
3. Hold ‘Ctrl and Shift’ and click the link.  This will do the same thing as option one (open the link in a new tab and make it active)
4. Finally, if you still like to use windows to open new things, you can hold ‘Shift’ and click the link.  This will open the link in a new window for reading. A right click option is available as well.

This may seem like a waste of time, but using these simple shortcuts will speed up your browsing time substantially, at least it has helped me.

Another one that a lot of people don’t know about, and one of my favorites, is the ‘Ctrl – Enter’ combination when typing in a web domain.  I use this in all browsers, and when you want to visit a website like www.examplesite.com, typing out the whole thing is a waste of time.  Instead, simply type   examplesite   and use the ‘Ctrl – Enter’ shortcut.  This will automatically add the www and .com to the word.  Small time savings, but worth the trouble to get used to in my opinion.  ‘Shift Enter’ will use .net and ‘Ctrl Shift Enter’ will use .org in Firefox, Chrome and IE9 do not support these shortcut combinations.

PC Usage

You know that little windows key on the keyboard, it’s usually between alt and ctrl on the left, and between Alt and the right click menu key on the right of the space bar. This is actually a handy little key, and when used with other shortcuts, becomes a nice time saver. This site lays it out nicely, master these and you will become a better PC user saving time in the process (http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/key/)

These are just a few that I use daily, post your own, I am always interested in shortcuts.