Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Escape - Esc is used to back out of situations. When you find yourself in a place where you don't want to be, try the Esc key. In PowerPoint this key will stop a running slide show. The keyboard combination Ctrl + Esc will open the Start menu.

F1 - While working in an application, depressing this key will bring up the applications help menu. If there is no open application F1 will open Windows Help.

F2 - Choose this key to rename a selected item. Alt + Ctrl + F2 to open a new document in MS Word Ctrl + F2 to open print preview in MS Word (this is a toggle, tap the keys again to return to the edit page)

F3 - Depressing this key will display the Find: All Files dialog box. 2 - Shift + F3 will change case in MS Word. Continue to press F3 (with the Shift key depressed) to toggle through all choices.

F4 - Holding down the Alt key while depressing F4 closes the current active window. If there is no active window this opens the Shut Down dialog box. 2 - Repeat an action with F4. For example, if your last action was to format a word as Bold, you can repeat the procedure by highlighting another word and depressing F4. This continues to work until your next action. (Thanks to George Held for this shortcut)

F5 - Select this key to refresh the contents of a dialog box, such as the Save As or Open dialog
boxes, or in a window such as a Windows Explorer window. 2 - Refresh a browser window; IE refreshes immediately, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all ask for confirmation before refreshing 3 - Open the Find and Replace dialog box in MS Word 4 - F5 + Ctrl + Shift to insert a bookmark in MS Word 5 - Use this key to start a slide show in MS PowerPoint

F6 - F6 + Ctrl to move to a previous window if you have multiple documents open in MS Word 2 - F6 + Alt to move to a previous window if you have multiple documents open in MS Word

F7 - Perform Spell and Grammar check in MS Word 2 - F7 + Shift when a word is selected to access the thesaurus in MS Word

F10 - Activates Menu Bar options. Use right and left arrows to select menus and down arrows to display pull down menus. This is especially useful on the newer versions of IE because the menu bar is not displayed by default. 2 - F10 + Shift - Depressing this key combination will display the selected item's shortcut window. This is the menu that is displayed by right-clicking.

F11 - In Internet Explorer this key will allow you to toggle back and forth between full screen view (all toolbars compressed into one thin line) and normal view 2 - In Excel this key will make a chart using data that you have highlighted 3 - F11 + Shift - in Excel this keyboard combination will add worksheets to the workbook. Each time you tap F11 a new worksheet is added.

F12 - Open a new document in MS Word 2 - F12 + Ctrl + Shift to print in MS Word 3 - F12 + Shift to Save in MS Word 4 - F12 to open the Save As dialog box in MS Word

Print Screen - Don't look at your printer after pressing this key. This sends a copy of whatever is on the screen to the clipboard. One common use of this action is to paste the clipboard into Paint to copy a portion of an image for use in another application. That was produced by copying a small portion of the desktop image and pasting into a web page developer. If you wish to copy only the active window, hold down the Alt key, then tap on the Print Screen key. It will copy only that window that is active, not the whole desktop. (Thanks to Bruce Ellis with Dallas ISD for pointing this out)

* (Asterisk) - Ctrl + Shift + * to select the current region around an active cell in MS Excel. This can be quite useful in creating charts.

Hyphen (dash) - Ctrl + - (Hyphen) to bring up the Delete dialog box in MS Excel [ - Ctrl + [ to decrease font size of highlighted text one point at a time (MS Word and MS PowerPoint) ] - Ctrl + ] to increase font size of highlighted text one point at a time (MS Word and MS PowerPoint)

P - Ctrl + P to print in many applications 2 - Ctrl + P to bring up the pen if you are showing a PowerPoint show

E - E to erase whatever you drew using the pen during a PowerPoint show

A - Ctrl + A to select all in many applications 2 - Ctrl + A to replace the pen with the arrow pointer if you are in a PowerPoint show

B - Ctrl + B to make selected text Bold 2 - B to make the screen Black if you are showing a
PowerPoint show [this does not work in edit mode, just in show]

W - Ctrl + W to close a window 2 - W to make the screen White if you are showing a PowerPoint show [this does not work in edit mode, just in show]

Z - Ctrl + Z to undo (to Zap an error)

X - Ctrl + X to cut selected text or images

Q - Ctrl + Q to quit (or Exit) the active application

C - Ctrl + C to copy selected text or images

V - Ctrl + V to paste text or images that have been cut or copied

S - Ctrl + S to save a document

D - Ctrl + D to make a favorite in Internet Explorer

Tab - This key can be used to move forward through options in a dialog box. 2 - Ctrl + Shift + Tab can be used to move backward through the options. 3 - Ctrl + Tab allows movement from one open window to the next in an application with more than one open window. 4 - Alt + Tab displays a list of open application windows. Keeping Alt depressed and selecting Tab cycles through the list. Releasing selects the highlighted application window.

Caps Lock - An obvious function, but some things that are not so obvious need to be said. This key should be used with caution, if at all. A document, even a headline of a document, produced in all caps is hard for the eye to scan. If you are producing documents, or slide shows, for the purpose of communicating with some audience, you should avoid anything that makes that communication less clear. All caps is difficult for voice recognition software to interpret. All caps in Email is widely understood to be shouting or yelling at someone. Furthermore, new users should not be taught to use the caps lock key in place of depressing the Shift key to produce capital letters.

Shift - The obvious use of this key is to allow selection of capital letters when depressing the alphabet characters, or selecting the characters above the keys on the row just below the F keys. 2 - Depressing the Shift key while inserting a CD-ROM will bypass auto play. 3 - Use the keyboard combination Shift + Delete to permanently delete a selected item, not simply moving it to the Recycle Bin. 4 - Shift + arrow key(s) to extend the area of selected data in MS Excel 5 - Adding the Shift key to most keyboard shortcuts will perform the reverse action. For example: Spacebar scrolls down in IE but Shift + Spacebar scrolls up, in MS Excel depressing the Enter key moves to the cell below and Shift + Enter moves to the cell above, likewise in MS Excel depressing the Tab key moves to the cell to the right and Shift + Tab moves to the cell to the left.