Windows Shortcut Keys
by Aaron Potts, TAPCUG
1/16/1999

Practice these keys and they'll save you many hours of "mousing around".

Windows In General

Key Combination

 Function
<Alt Tab> Jump to Previous Application
<Alt Tab, Tab, Tab....> Cycle through all of your active applications. Release ALT key to switch to selected app. In Windows 95, pressing <Esc> while holding ALT will cancel this process.
<Ctrl Esc> In Windows 95 opens the Start Menu, otherwise, brings up the Windows Task List.
<Alt + Underlined Letter>
(i.e. <Alt F> for the File Menu,
<Alt H> for the Help menu)		 Open the menu that has the underlined letter. To select an item from the open menu, just press the key that corresponds to the underlined letter (i.e. P for Print). Note: When selecting an item from a open menu (such as P for Print) do not press the ALT key or the menu will close.
<Alt Spacebar> Open the current application's control menu (for minimize, maximize, close, etc.)
<Alt Hyphen> Open the document control menu for the current document (multi-document applications).
<Alt F4> Terminate the current application.
<Ctrl F4> Close the current document (multi-document applications).
<Ctrl F6> Jump to next open document in a multi-document application.
<PrintScreen> Send a bit-mapped copy of the screen to the clipboard. <Alt PrintScreen> sends a bitmap copy of the active application to the clipboard.

Dialog Boxes

Key Combination

 Function
<Esc> Leave Dialog without doing anything (same as clicking Cancel button).
<Enter> Invoke the function of the outlined Command Button (i.e.OK, Yes, No, etc.).
<Tab> Jump to next control in a dialog box.
<Shift Tab> Jump to previous control in a dialog box.
<Arrow Keys> Select a different choice on a set of radio buttons.
<F4> or <Alt DownArrow> Opens a drop down box.
<Spacebar> Turn a check box on or off or Selects an item in a list box.

Text Applications

Key Combination

 Function
<Ctrl Home> Jump to the top of the document.
<Ctrl End> Jump to the bottom of the document.
<PageUp> Scroll up one screen.
<PageDown> Scroll down one screen.
<Home> Jump to left end of the line.
<End> Jump to right end of the line.
<Ctrl RightArrow> Scroll forward a word at a time.
<Ctrl LeftArrow> Scroll back a word at a time.
<Shift + Movement key>

(movement keys include all of the above).

 Highlight text for formatting, cut, copy, etc.

(NOTE THAT ANY TYPING YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVE TEXT HIGHLIGHTED WILL REPLACE THE HIGHLIGHTED TEXT).
<Ctrl C> or <Ctrl Ins> Copy the highlighted text to the Windows Clipboard.
<Ctrl V> or <Shift Ins> Paste the highlighted text from the Windows Clipboard.
<Ctrl X> or <Shift Del> Cut (Remove) the highlighted text and place it in the Clipboard.
<Ctrl Z> or <Alt Bksp> Undo the previous action