2 Keyboard Skills

A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys that can be pressed to perform a specific action in an application or operating system. They are frequently far quicker than mouse gestures.

For advanced users, the difference is between moving a hand and clicking an extra button versus simply using hands that are already on the keyboard. The extra hand movements can delay the translation of your thoughts into the computer, the repetitive movements can cause strain and injury over time, and the time it takes to move your hand generally adds up to days of your life! The table provides some, but not all, useful keyboard commands. The bolded commands are those that almost all computer experts use daily.

2.1 Skills

Practice these shortcuts while reading the tutorial, during everyday computing work, and in the practice tasks at the end of this section. You can find additional keyboard shortcut tables at:

“Keyboard commands to navigate the Finder/File Explorer application”, and
“Keyboard method to create headers” within Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

A handy trick for changing between UPPER CASE, Title Case, and lower case is described here instead of the table because it only works in Microsoft Word. To change the case pattern of text, use shift+f3 (PC) and Cmd+shift+a (Mac). Put your cursor in the middle of the word you want to change, then press the keyboard combination above.

Table of key combinations

These key combinations work in most applications on most computers.

Category	Mac	PC	Shortcut 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
Format 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 tasks 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.

2.3 Assessment

Visit the assessment for keyboard skills or download a local copy of the assessment.