The keyboard as we know it, meaning the QWERRTY keyboard, was the invention of an American
publisher and politician called Christopher Latham Sholes.
Before we get into shortcuts, you might well ask why the heck are all the keys in that
particular place?
Good question.
It seems there is some contention over the answer, with many saying Sholes created this
weird formation back in 1873 to stop people typing fast, which would prevent jamming of
the metal arms if popular letters were typed too often.
Others say there is no proof for this.
Why do we still use this hard-to-remember random keyboard?
It seems we just do, and as British critic Stephen Fry said, we are stuck with “an
ancient system attached to our most modern devices.”
Welcome to this episode of the Infographics Show, Secret Keyboard Functions That You Wish
You Knew.
First of all, what operating system are you using?
Well, let’s start with the Windows OS.
Secrecy Let’s start with giving you a bit of privacy.
It’s so easy to lock your screen with a shortcut.
Simply press the Windows Key and the L key at the same time.
Hey presto, your lock screen is activated.
This also works well if suddenly someone is coming around the corner and you don’t want
them to see what you are doing on your computer.
All the windows will be there when you come out of lock screen.
Prank How’s about pranking someone who is not
so savvy when it comes to shortcuts.
When your friend is away why not flip their screen?
When they return, they won’t know what has happened.
All you need to do to flip the screen is press ALT plus CTRL plus one of the arrow keys.
Ok, so all they need to do is Google how that happened, but some people might get flustered
for a short while.
Not getting caught What’s the fastest way to close a web page.
You could argue it is with the mouse, but there’s a shortcut that will get rid of
the page in an instant.
All you have to do is hold the Alt button down and press F4.
Another way of quickly making your windows disappear without going to lock screen is
by pressing the Windows key and D. You can’t really get any faster than that.
This won’t close the windows, by the way, just get rid of them.
The Windows key plus the M key does exactly the same thing.
A shortcut If you don’t have a mouse handy, try pressing
the shift key as well as F10.
This will do the same as right clicking on your mouse.
Getting to My Computer A super-fast way to get to My Computer is
by pressing the Windows Key plus the letter E. This actually does save quite a bit of
time.
Run user, Run Ok, so you probably know this one.
But if you want to run a program all you have to do is press the Windows key plus the letter
R. This will open the dialogue box.
Type what you want into that box, say documents, and you will see your docs.
You can look for files, programs or Internet resources.
Oh no, I accidently closed the widow So, you accidently closed a window and you
forgot exactly what you were looking at.
You’re thinking, ok, just go to history and look there.
But there is a shortcut that makes life much easier.
Simply press CTRL plus Shift and the letter T, and voila, there is the last window, the
one you closed by accident.
Multi-tasking A cool way to play with the taskbar is click
on the Windows key plus the letter T. This will take you to the taskbar.
All you have to do then is use the arrow keys to select what you want.
Fast screenshot Want to take a screenshot, the thing you are
presently seeing in front of you?
All you have to do is press the ALT key with the print screen key, usually see as PRT SC.
Playing Games Want to find all the games you have on your
computer as fast as possible.
Simple press the Windows key plus the letter G.
Zooming Ok, you should know this one.
If you want to zoom in, perhaps you can’t see something right, just press the ALT key
as well as the + key.
When you want to zoom back out just do the same
except press the – key.
This helps when you don’t have your glasses with you.
Killing the process So, have you ever had something hang on you
and all you want to do is stop the process?
Usually you might go to Task manager to do that, but there is a much faster way to do
it.
Simply press CTRL plus SHIFT plus ESC and the process will be killed.
Minimize An easy way to minimize the screen is by pressing
the Windows key and then the down arrow.
You can reverse that by doing the same with the up arrow.
Undoing things Ok, so it’s not hard to hit the reverse
arrow with your mouse and undo things.
But there is a shortcut, and all you have to do to undo something is hit the CTRL key
with the Z key.
To reverse that just do the same except hit the Y key.
Open a new file Again, this isn’t much of a secret, but
not everyone will know it.
If you want to open a new file, simply hit the CTRL key with the O key.
Need another Window If you want to quickly open a new window you
can hit the CTRL key plus the N key.
Need Help Want some Windows support?
Simply press the Windows key plus F1.
Peekaboo Want to quickly have a look at your desktop
without closing any windows?
Perhaps even just get rid of what you have in front of you.
Just press the Windows key plus the comma and it will let you look at the desktop.
As soon as you release the keys you’ll be back to your windows.
Easy taskbar If you count what is in your taskbar, you
can hold down the Windows key and hit a number that corresponds to what is in the taskbar.
So, if Chrome is third in the taskbar, hit the Windows key and the number 3 and Chrome
will open.
Jump List You can do something similar when you press
the Windows Key plus the ALT key plus the number that corresponds to the app in the
taskbar.
Only now you’ll get a Jump List, which is the same as if you right clicked on the app.
Minimize all Windows You can see all your Windows as small screens
on your desktop if you press the Windows key plus the Tab key.
Need to change language fast Maybe you write in two languages or you find
yourself on a computer and someone has been typing in a different language.
To quickly change the language simply hit the Windows key and the spacebar.
Moving through tabs Hit CTRL plus Shift plus the tab key and you
will move through your open windows.
Copy the URL A fast way to select the URL without moving
your mouse along it is by pressing ALT plus D. You can also press Alt plus E and that
will open the space, so you can search for a new URL.
Changing size of things Maybe the easier way to change the size of
what you are looking at is to press the CTRL key and then move the mouse wheel.
It couldn’t be faster or easier.
Move back and forth between browsers
Want to quickly go back to the previously viewed browsers?
Just press ALT plus the left arrow.
You can reverse that by pressing ALT plus the right arrow key.
Emojis If you want to see a bunch of emojis just
press the Windows Key with the period key.
Utility Ok, this is simple, but useful.
To quickly open the utilities just press the Windows key plus the letter U.
What about if your using the Mac operating system?
Closing windows Command plus the letter W is a useful one
as you will close the window you are in.
If you hit Option plus Command plus W you will close all the active windows.
Preferences Not many people know this, but if you press
Command plus the comma key you will see the preferences for the app you are in.
Spotlight Want to see Spotlight, just press the Command
and space key.
Address Bar If you want to go to the address bar and start
searching just hit the Command and L key.
Moving around Want to go back to what you previously had
in the browser, just hit the Command key with the left arrow key.
To reverse that, do the same but hit the right arrow key.
Moving more If you want to move between windows in the
app you are in, simply use the Command and backtick shortcut.
Oops Remember in Windows we talked about accidentally
closing a page and then having to go into history to find it again – if we didn’t
know the shortcut.
Well, you can do that on an Apple OS, too, just by pressing Command plus Shift plus T.
This is one of our favorites as it happens so often.
Spelling!
What if you quickly want to go through all your spelling mistakes in a document?
You can quickly go through them all by pressing Command plus the Semicolon key.
Knowing Want to know what a word means?
Just select that word and then hit Control plus Command plus the letter D and the meaning
will be made known to you.
Faster way to get rid of things Usually when you delete words it does it one
letter at the time.
But if you press Option plus Delete you will see words disappearing, not letters.
Hiding things again If you quickly want to hide all active windows
just hit Command plus the H key.
Peekaboo again Just like in Windows, you can quickly take
a peek at your desktop by pressing the Command key plus the F3 key.
It will stay that way as long as you hold the keys down.
Screenshot To take a screenshot of the entire screen
simply hit Command plus Shift plus the number 3.
If you do the same but hit the number 4 this will take only part of your screen.
Ok, so that’s about all the shortcuts we will give you today.
How many of these did you already know, can you add something super cool to this list?
Tell us in
the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video How To Survive Inside Prison?
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.