Simple Keyboard Tricks That Will Blow Your Mind

Not enough time?

Do you ever feel like you just do not have enough time? What could you do with 3 extra hours? In the engineering/manufacturing world, time is often found by creating efficiency where there was waste - why not in teaching? Over the years of watching my students maneuver their documents and forms for online work, I’ve realized that they may be “tech savvy,” but only in the sense they know how to get to things and very often they don’t know how to be efficient users of the tools they have available. Plus, there’s a good chance that my love for efficiency (in certain things) has given me reason to learn these things that some of you may not yet know. I hope my admiration for these tiny efficiencies will give YOU more time to do the things you love, or at least it won’t be wasted in digital documents and forms.

If you can save 1 minute of time for every day of school, you’re looking at 180 minutes (3 hours) of saved time. In the blog post, Keyboard vs. mouse: how all that clicking slows you down (Knapp, 2022), it states that developer Bruno Michels found that for completing a “copy and paste” task, it can take up to 5 seconds extra with a mouse. You only need to do this more efficiently 12 times to make up your 1 minute per day! And the good news is, there are SO MANY MORE shortcuts that will earn you some efficiency. Just like anything, though, you will have to practice first before it becomes more efficient. Once you are used to it, you can speed through your digital documents and forms! Below are some of my favorite shortcuts. Check out the link earlier in this paragraph for some other great shortcuts!

Highlighting Text
Hold Shift and move your cursor using the arrows on your keyboard
Move to the beginning (home) or end of a line of text (Combine with Shift to highlight)
Mac Beginning of line = Cmd + left arrow End of line = Cmd + right arrow	PC Beginning of line = Home End of line = End These keys can be found above the arrow keys, at the very top of the keyboard on a laptop, or on the number pad.
Move through text word by word (Combine with Shift to highlight)
Mac: Option + arrow left or right	PC: Ctrl + arrow left or right
Select ALL text
Mac: Cmd + a	PC: Ctrl + a
Undo and Redo
Mac Undo = Cmd + z Redo* = Cmd + y *Sometimes “Redo” is Cmd + Shift + z	PC Undo = Ctrl + z Redo* = Ctrl + y *Sometimes “Redo” is Ctrl + Shift + z
Cut, Copy, and Paste
Mac Cut = Cmd + x Copy = Cmd + c Paste = Cmd + v	PC Cut = Ctrl + x Copy = Ctrl + c Paste = Ctrl + v
The Power of Tab
Indentation (paragraphs, bullets, etc.) Indent text = Tab Reverse indented text = Shift + Tab
Move through parts of a form Next line in a form = Tab Previous line in a form = Shift + Tab Hint: When moving to a field that already has text, if the text is highlighted, you can just start typing, you do not need to hit “delete” or “backspace”.
“Delete” and “Backspace”
Soap box: Apple has it wrong, but luckily created a workaround. On a Mac, “Backspace” is labeled “Delete” and means to remove text from right to left. PCs have a separate key called “Delete” and it removes the text to the right of the cursor (left to right). If you want to “Delete” on a Mac, hold Cmd while pressing the “Delete” button. Confusing? You can blame Apple, but watch the video to see the difference.
Zoom on a Browser Window (Safari, Chrome, etc.) (Some applications differ, so check the “View” menu)
Mac: Zoom in = Cmd + “+”     Zoom out = Cmd + “-”	PC: Zoom in = Ctrl + “+”     Zoom out = Ctrl + “-”
Bold, Italics, and Underline
Mac Bold = Cmd + b Italics = Cmd + i Underline = Cmd + u	PC Bold = Ctrl + b Italics = Ctrl + i Underline = Ctrl + u
Find more shortcuts by checking out your menus

Andy Wilkins
PLTW Coordinator and Engineering Teacher


References:

Knapp, Jackson. “Keyboard vs. Mouse: How All That Clicking Slows You Down.” Superhuman, 20 Jan. 2022, https://blog.superhuman.com/keyboard-vs-mouse/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2023.