2 Keyboard Skills

2.1 Theory

Keyboard skills provide the bulk of time saving. You interact with your computer thousands of times per hour. Keyboard commands are frequently far quicker than mouse gestures. Any task that requires the context menu with a mouse is quicker with a keyboard.

The difference between a fraction of a second on a keyboard and 2 seconds on a mouse will add up to days of your life every single year. The table provides some, but not all, useful keyboard commands. The bolded commands are those that almost all computer experts use daily.

Table of key combinations

These key combinations work in most applications on most computers. You can download all keyboard shortcuts in one document here, or access a version on the web here.

Shortcut type	Mac	PC	Action
Copy, paste, undo, redo	*Cmd+c*	*Ctrl+c*	*Copy*
	*Cmd+x*	*Ctrl+x*	*Cut and copy*
	*Cmd+v*	*Ctrl+v*	*Paste*
	Cmd+option+shift+v	Ctrl+shift+v	Paste and match style
	*Cmd+z*	*Ctrl+z*	*Undo*
	Cmd+shift+z	Ctrl+shift+z Ctrl+y (using Microsoft Office on a PC)	Undo the undo
Manipulate text	*Cmd+i*	*Ctrl+i*	*Italicize*
	*Cmd+b*	*Ctrl+b*	*Bold*
	*Cmd+u*	*Ctrl+u*	*Underline*
	Cmd+k	Ctrl+k	Insert hyperlink
Select text	*Cmd+a*	*Ctrl+a*	*Select all text*
	Cmd+shift+arrow	Ctrl+shift+down/up arrow	Select remainder of line to the left/right of cursor
	Shift+option+left/right arrow	Ctrl+shift+left/right arrow	Select one word
	*Shift+up/down arrow*	*Shift+up/down arrow*	*Select text from cursor to line above*
	*Shift+left/right arrow*	*Shift+left/right arrow*	*Select individual characters to the left/right of the cursor*
Move cursor	Option+arrow	Ctrl+arrow	Jump cursor to the beginning/end of words or to lines above/below
	Cmd+right arrow	End	Jump cursor to the end of a line
Other	Cmd+ctrl+shift+4	Win+shift+s	Screenshot selection to clipboard
	Cmd+shift+4		Screenshot selection to file on desktop
	*Cmd*+f	*Ctrl*+f	*Open the find text search bar*
		Ctrl+h	Open the find and replace menu
	*Cmd*+p	*Ctrl*+p	*Print the document (to a printer or to pdf)*
	Cmd+enter	Ctrl+enter	Page break

2.2 Practice

Copy and paste tasks 1-4 into a text editor of your choice. This will most likely be Google Docs or Microsoft Word, although a more sophisticated (not Apple’s Pages) text editor is also fine.

If you completed “Environment Setup,” you will have the entire tutorial downloaded to your computer. Instead of copy-pasting the text in this section to a word processor, you can work within that downloaded document.

Tasks:

Place your cursor so that it is blinking at the end of the next sentence. Remove your hand from your mouse/trackpad and use only your keyboard.
1. Highlight this sentence.
2. Highlight just the bolded letters in this line.
3. Highlight this sentence, cut it, and copy it back onto this line.
Practice the skills above until you can do them all in 15 seconds or less. Note that the same skills were part of the “mouse/trackpad skills” section, and required substantially more time than with a keyboard. The video below demonstrates these tasks in 9 seconds.

Place your cursor blinking at the end of the next sentence and remove your hand from your mouse/trackpad. Using only your keyboard:
1. Highlight this sentence and bold it.
2. Move your cursor to this line. Unbold the previous sentence with Cmd+z (Mac) or Ctrl+z (PC).
3. Move your cursor to the end of this task (Task 3c). Delete the gibberish. Ihaltieha ahineao.
4. Put the gibberish back with Cmd+z (Mac) or Ctrl+z (PC).
5. Remove the gibberish again with Cmd+shift+z (Mac) or Ctrl+shift+z (PC).
Practice the skills above until you complete them all in 20 seconds or less. The video below demonstrates these tasks in 16 seconds.