Keyboard Shortcuts

Cutting and pasting a document in Windows using the mouse and menus takes a minimum of seven actions. Doing the same thing using keyboard shortcuts takes four - a 40% plus saving.

But long lists of smartypants shortcuts can be off-putting - so here are the basic minimum of those which you are likely to use most often.

Most of them involve use of the Control [Ctl] key plus a letter key that you press at the same time - shown as Ctrl+X. Most of these are in the left-bottom part of the keyboard, which means that they can easily be performed with one hand.

Try these keystrokes, and see how easily they work. Open a simple word-processing program such as Notepad or Wordpad if you are grabbing data.

Ctl+A selects all a document. It puts a block on the entire contents of the file which is active in your window.

Ctl+X cuts a portion you have selected. You can do this with the mouse. Alternatively, put the cursor at your starting point, press Shift, then use the direction arrows on your keyboard to highlight the portion you want to select.

Ctl+C copies whatever has been selected - even if you have only highlighted a small section of a document. Now you might need an empty document into which this selection can be pasted.

Ctl+N creates a new blank document. You are now ready to paste in the selection made previously. It is still waiting for you in the Clipboard, provided you have not saved or cut anything else in the meantime.

Ctl+V pastes the saved item into the new page. Think of the V as an upside-down insert sign. Now you are ready to save the new file.

Ctl+S is the SAVE shortcut. You will need to give your file a memorable name and place, but this should be easy.