15+ Keyboard Hacks To Improve Your Workflow
When it comes to working, one of the best ways to speed up your workflow and allow yourself to do more than you initially thought is to introduce yourself to keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts can save you a heck of a lot of time when doing tasks that usually would take quite a few clicks. They now only take a few pressed of some buttons on your keyboard. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most useful and some of the shortcuts you may not have not known before. So here are our 15+ keyboard hacks to improve your workflow.
For The Internet…
When it comes to browsing the internet, you’ve got some great options that will rapidly improve your productivity and navigation around the web. Pressing ctrl+t (cmd+t) will open up a new tab on Chrome, Safari and Firefox saving you having to click in the area above your address bar.
However, if you prefer to open up a whole new window rather than just a singular tab then if you press ctrl+n (cmd+n) then it’ll bring up a new window on all these browsers too. Both of these shortcuts can be extremely helpful when it comes to navigating the web, especially if you’re someone who often finds themselves having many tabs open at the same time.
For Word Processing…
A lot of the time, we find ourselves writing something out in Word, whether it’s the latest report for school or a new project at work. Therefore, knowing some helpful little tips would definitely be helpful. The first ones are copy & paste: ctrl+c (cmd+c) and ctrl+v (cmd+v). If you want to select all the text on the page to alter its format or to potentially delete it, hit ctrl+a (cmd+a)
If you do wish to go ahead and format the text then here are some great shortcuts to quickly do the basic formatting techniques we use. Ctrl+b (cmd+b) will Bold your selected text, ctrl+i (cmd+i) will Italicise your selected text or ctrl+u (cmd+u) will Underline your selected text. In addition, if you wish to increase the size of the font of the text you have selected you can press ctrl++ (cmd++) to increase the size or ctrl+- (cmd+-) to decrease the size of your selected font.
Finally, once you’re finished with your document, you’ll obviously want to save it. The quickest way to do this is by pressing ctrl+s (cmd+s) which will instantly either save it or bring up a drop-down to allow you to name it respectively.
Universal Commands…
One of the best keyboard shortcuts you’ll ever know when it comes to computers is that, in most programmes, ctrl+f (cmd+f) will do a search in that programme for whatever word you type in the box. It works in browsers, all office programmes. In fact, you’d do well to find a place where it doesn’t work.
Another universal keyboard shortcut that will be helpful on both Macs and Windows computers is win+tab (cmd+tab) which will allow you to quickly switch between your open programmes quickly and easily, tapping the tab button to move along the queue. This is especially helpful if you’re only using two programmes as it allows you to rapidly switch between the two.
Another keyboard shortcut that more than not results in the same action. That shortcut is ctrl+p (cmd+p) which will result in some form of Print window popping up, allowing you to print the web page, document, excel sheet, powerpoint or whatever you’re in.
Mac Exclusive Shortcuts
On a mac, there’s multiple ways to take a screenshot. You can either press cmd+shift+4 to select the area that you want to be screenshot. However, if you want to take a screenshot of the whole screen cmd+shift+3 is the keyboard combination you’ll need. This is the equivalent to pressing win+print on Windows.
When it comes to Macs, there’s some great shortcuts for the trackpad too. For example, if you swipe three fingers up, it will show you all the apps you have open. If you swipe three fingers down, it will show you all the open windows in the current programme you’re in. If you Pinch three fingers together, it will show you an iPad-like grid view of all the applications on your Mac. If you do the same action but in the opposite direction it will push every window open to the sides so you can see your desktop. A great way to access an image or file you’ve just saved to the desktop without having to navigate past all your open windows.