Computer and Web Articles

Deb Austill of Breckenridge recently sent an email my way, asking a few questions and sharing some of her thoughts. I though her notes on PC shortcuts would be great to share with everyone, as it’s always so nice to receive a quick shortcut refresher, isn’t it?

Deb wrote: “The Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Ctrl-X [keyboard shortcuts] have to be some of the most useful tools that I teach people on the computer. There are so many [people] that don’t know about those commands and the many, many places that they work. Then Bud Robinson [of Summit Nettrekker and SherpaLink.com] taught me the Ctrl-Enter on the web address line for it to automatically enter the www and the .com.”

Were you scratching your head when Deb was mentioning Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-X? Don’t be confused. Let’s walk through it all together; once you start using these shortcuts you won’t know how you ever lived without them. Here we go:

First, highlight some text (just about any text will do) with your cursor. Next, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and tap the C key. All done? Nothing happened? That’s fine; you’ve just told your computer to make a mental copy of that text. Now let’s open an blank email… or perhaps a fresh Word document – and do the same thing, but this time hit the V key instead of the C key. The text you previously copied should now be “pasted” right there in front of you. Quick, painless and… easy, right?

The Ctrl-X shortcut Deb mentioned does the exact same thing as the Ctrl-C (“copy”) shortcut, except it actually removes (or “cuts”) the text you’re copying.

Some of you are likely thinking “OF COURSE I know the copy, paste, and cut keyboard shortcuts!” So the next question is: have you ever used the Ctrl-Enter shortcut? No? Let’s test it out.

To use the Ctrl-Enter shortcut Deb is mentioning, try this:

1. Fire up your favorite web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, whatever you like).
2. Place your cursor anywhere in the address bar (that bar across the top of the screen that has the current website address displayed) and left-click your mouse.
3. The website address sitting in the address bar should be highlighted.  This is perfect; once we start typing we’ll be replacing that text.
4. Type the word amazon into the address bar. The word amazon should be the only text in that entire bar. Done? Great.
5. Hold down your Ctrl key, then tap your Enter key.
6. POW! A “www” immediately appeared in front of the word amazon and a “.com” immediately appeared after it. Plus, you’ve been whisked right over to www.amazon.com.

Ctrl-Enter instantly added the www and the .com to the text you typed into your address bar. Quite a great shortcut to know, eh?

Thanks for reminding everyone of these great shortcuts, Deb!