Moving your hand off the keyboard wastes time, a little bit each time you do it. Get into the habit of learning and using keyboard shortcuts for things you frequently do on your computer.
Here are a few sample shortcuts you might want to practice:
General OS shortcuts
| Windows Start Menu | Windows key |
| Spotlight (Mac) | Cmd-Space (then type your search) |
| Windows Search | Windows key (then type your search) |
| Switching programs | Cmd-Tab (Mac) and Alt-Tab (Windows) |
| Switching windows in a program | Cmd-tilde (~) (Mac) and Ctrl-Tab (Windows) |
| Save document | Cmd-S (Mac) and Ctrl-S (Windows) |
Microsoft Word-specific shortcuts
| Left-justify a line | Cmd-L (Mac) or Crtl-L (Windows) |
| Centre-justify a line | Cmd-E (Mac) or Ctrl-E (Windows) |
| Right-justify a line | Cmd-R (Mac) or Ctrl-R (Windows) |
| Track Changes mode | Cmd-Shift-E (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-E (Windows) |
| Spell check | F7 (Mac or Windows) |
Finding shortcuts
Next time you open a menu, check the shortcut key combinations listed. And if you want even more shortcuts, browse the software online help or these websites:
Similar pages exist for other software – just google “keyboard shortcuts (application name)” (e.g. “keyboard shortcuts Microsoft Word”)
Creating shortcuts
I use comments all the time in Microsoft Word 2008, but the menu command doesn’t come with a corresponding shortcut. Fortunately, the Mac lets you create your own shortcuts using the Keyboard System Preference. Similar tools exist for Windows and Linux.
In my work I use these two Excel frequently: to put in today’s date, CTRL-semi-colon, and to put in the time, CTRL-SHIFT-semi-colon.