How do I use keyboard shortcuts that actually save time?
The dozen worth knowing, how to learn them without a list on the wall, and the ones that work almost everywhere.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 25 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Learn about a dozen, not a hundred. Copy, paste, undo, redo, save, find, switch window, close tab, reopen closed tab, select all, and paste-without-formatting cover most of it. Learn one a week by forcing yourself to use it.
Shortcut lists are collected and never used. The ones that stick are the handful you meet many times a day, learned one at a time.
Step by step
- Start with the universal six.Copy, cut, paste, undo, save, find — Ctrl or Cmd with C, X, V, Z, S and F. They work in almost every application on both systems and they are the highest-return set there is.
- Add redo and select all.Ctrl or Cmd with Y or Shift-Z for redo, and A for select all. Undo without redo is half a tool.
- Learn paste without formatting.Ctrl or Cmd with Shift and V. It pastes plain text instead of dragging fonts, colours and sizes across from a web page. Probably the single most useful one most people do not know.
- Learn the window and tab ones.Alt-Tab or Cmd-Tab to switch application, Ctrl or Cmd with W to close a tab, and Ctrl or Cmd with Shift and T to reopen the one you just closed by accident.
- Learn to move by word and select by word.Ctrl or Option with the arrow keys jumps a word at a time; adding Shift selects as you go. It transforms editing text more than anything else here.
- Use the address bar shortcut.Ctrl or Cmd with L jumps straight to the browser address bar. Combined with typing a site name it is much faster than reaching for the mouse.
- Learn the screenshot shortcut for your system.Windows key with Shift and S, or Cmd with Shift and 4. Both give a crosshair to select a region, which is what people actually want.
- Learn one a week, deliberately.Pick one, and for that week refuse to do it with the mouse. It takes a few days to become automatic and then it is permanent. A printed list on the wall does not work.
- Notice them in the menus.Applications print the shortcut next to each menu item. When you find yourself using a menu item repeatedly, read the shortcut on the way past.
- Learn the ones for what you actually do.Someone in spreadsheets all day should learn the spreadsheet ones. A general list is less useful than five specific to your own work.
- Know the escape hatches.Escape cancels most things, Ctrl or Cmd with Z undoes, and Alt-F4 or Cmd-Q closes an application. Knowing how to get out makes trying things safer.
- Set up your own for repeated actions.Both systems let you assign shortcuts to menu items or text expansions. Worth doing for anything you type or click many times a day.
Tips
- Paste-without-formatting is the one to learn today. It removes most of the tidying up after pasting from a web page.
- One a week, enforced by refusing the mouse. That is the only method that reliably works.
- Ctrl or Cmd with Shift and T reopens the tab you just closed by mistake. Worth it for that alone.
Common mistakes
- Trying to learn a long list at once — None of them get repeated enough to become automatic, so all of them are forgotten. One at a time, used many times, is what sticks.
- Printing a reference sheet and stopping there — Reading a shortcut does not build the habit. Using it exclusively for a week does.
If it doesn't work
Shortcut does nothing
Cause: Application-specific, or a different key on your system — Fix: Check the application's own menus, which print the correct shortcut next to each item.
Pasted text brings unwanted formatting
Cause: Standard paste rather than paste-as-plain-text — Fix: Ctrl or Cmd with Shift and V.
Closed the wrong tab
Cause: Ctrl or Cmd with W on the wrong window — Fix: Ctrl or Cmd with Shift and T reopens it, repeatedly for older ones.
Keep forgetting the ones you looked up
Cause: Learned in a batch rather than in use — Fix: One a week, and forbid yourself the mouse alternative for that week.