The purpose of shortcut keys: To speed up and make a work process easier by creating a shortcut way of doing functions.

For example, if you were in Microsoft Word, and you wanted to open an existing document, you would press Ctrl+O (while holding the control button, press the letter “O”, and release). This will bring up the Open window.

Now you can search your computer to open any Word document.
By using that shortcut key combination (Ctrl+O), you will be able to speed up even the simplest of work functions.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of shortcut keys throughout the programs on your computer. Obviously you won’t learn all of them, but with time, and a little memorization, you will come close.

Another commonly used shortcut key in Microsoft Word is Ctrl+S (the same as open, but while holding the Control button, press the letter “S” instead of “O”).

This option saves the document that is currently open (a bar will move across the bottom of the window indicating the saving progress).

Or if you haven’t saved the document yet, it will bring up the Save As window.
In this window, you can save your work wherever you want on your computer by clicking the Save button (located on the bottom right of the screen).

Another quick way to get to the “Save As” screen is to simply hit the “F12” key on the top right corner of your keyboard.
Once learned, you will find this shortcut very useful; it will speed up your work process.

Combination Shortcuts

There are also different kinds of combinations for shortcut keys.
For example, if you press Ctrl+Shift+. or Ctrl+Shift+, (press and hold the Control button, the Shift button, and the “.” (period) or “,” (comma) button) this will change the font size of any highlighted text in your document.

Ctrl+Shift+. will make the highlighted text bigger.
Ctrl+Shift+, will make the highlighted text smaller.

You will notice the font size number change in the font size box shown in the above picture.
If you’d like to know more about shortcut keys, they are available in the help section of most programs.

Help Menu

In Microsoft Word, to get to the help window, simply press F1 (located on the very top left of your keyboard) and the window will pop up.

Once the window is up, you might need to scroll down a bit to get to the “Using Shortcut Keys” option (seen in the picture above).

In the shortcut keys help section, it will not only tell you how to use them, but it will provide you with a huge list of all the shortcut keys in the program. Most programs have this option built into their help menu.

--Mike, WebCrew--

Click Here for a list of Shortcut Keys

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