Windows shortcuts
Submitted by: Patrick Norton
Tip 2: Office shortcuts
1. Ctrl+Z is the magic undo combination. It simply undoes your last action, say, the paragraph you accidentally erased (it works in other applications, too -- try it on the Photoshop filter you really wish you hadn't applied, or after renaming a document or a folder in a Windows directory). Programs vary in the number of times you can undo something, but some will let you Ctrl+Z all the way back to the beginning. (And, yes, there is a redo command, just hit Ctrl+Y.)
2. Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, or Ctrl+U apply bold, italics, or underline to highlighted text, respectively.
3. Ctrl+P prints whatever is in an active window.
4. Ctrl+Backspace erases an entire word at a time, instead of a letter. Ctrl+up or down arrows let you scroll an entire paragraph at a time, instead of one line, and Ctrl+Shift+up or down arrow will select an entire paragraph.
5. Ctrl+Enter inserts a page break in Word.
6. Alt+Ctrl+C inserts the copyright symbol (Alt+Ctrl+R inserts the registered trademark symbol, and Alt+Ctrl+T makes the trademark symbol).
7. In Outlook, you can jump to the section you want: Ctrl+1 switches to the Mail window, Ctrl+2 switches to the Calender, Ctrl+3 to Contacts, Ctrl+4 to Tasks, and Ctrl+5 to Notes.
8. Ctrl+Shift+M starts a new message in Outlook. (Use Ctrl+Shift+C for a new contact.)
9. In Outlook e-mail, hit Ctrl+N to compose a new message, Ctrl+R to reply to a message.
10. The only Excel shortcut I've ever known, Ctrl+, enters the date. (If you live in Excel, you should have the Excel Keyboard Shortcuts page in your Favourites!)
Submitted by: Patrick Norton
Patrick Norton has written more than 500 product reviews for print and online. For fun, he loves to sit in hot corners of the desert waiting to fuel and repair off-road race trucks. He's best known for answering tough tech questions, helping folks avoid awful products, and smashing dead PCs with a sledgehammer during a four-year stretch cohosting TechTV's The Screen Savers.
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