Computer Keyboard Shortcut Keys

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Shortcut keys help provide an easier and usually quicker method of navigating and using computer software programs. Shortcut keys are commonly accessed by using the Alt(on IBM compatible computers), Command Key (on Apple computers), Ctrl, or Shift in conjunction with a single letter. The de facto standard for listing a shortcut is listing the Modifier Key, a plus symbol, and the single Charactor. In other words, "ALT+S" is telling you to press the Alt key and while continuing to hold the Alt key, press the S key to perform the shortcut.

In addition to the shortcuts listed on this page, users can find the shortcut keys to their most popular program by looking for underlined letters in their menus. For example, in the picture to the right you'll can notice that the "F" in File has been underlined. This means you can press the Alt key and F to access the File menu. Note: Some programs require the user press and hold ALT to see the underlined characters. Finally, as can also be seen some of the common features such as Open (Ctrl+O) and Save (Ctrl+S) have shortcut keys assigned to them.

As you begin to memorize shortcut keys, you'll notice that many applications share the same shortcut keys. We have the most commonly shared shortcut keys in the below basic PC shortcut keys section.

Tip: Users outside the United States or users using a foreign copy of a Microsoft Windows or Microsoft application may not be able to get all the below shortcut keys to perform the function listed below.

Basic PC shortcut keys

The below basic shortcut keys are a listing of shortcut keys that will work with almost all IBM compatible computers and software programs. It is highly recommended that all users keep a good reference of the below shortcut keys or try to memorize the below keys. Doing so will dramatically increase your productivity.

Shortcut Keys	Description
Alt + F	File menu options in current program.
Alt + E	Edit options in current program
F1	Universal Help in almost every Windows program.
Ctrl + A	Select all text.
Ctrl + X	Cut selected item.
Shift + Del	Cut selected item.
Ctrl + C	Copy selected item.
Ctrl + Ins	Copy selected item
Ctrl + V	Paste
Shift + Ins	Paste
Ctrl + P	Print the current page or document.
Home	Goes to beginning of current line.
Ctrl + Home	Goes to beginning of document.
End	Goes to end of current line.
Ctrl + End	Goes to end of document.
Shift + Home	Highlights from current position to beginning of line.
Shift + End	Highlights from current position to end of line.
Ctrl + Left arrow	Moves one word to the left at a time.
	What are the F1 through F12 keys? Question What are the F1 through F12 keys? Answer Commonly known as "function keys", F1 through F12 may have a variety of different uses or no use at all. Depending on the installed operating system and the software program currently open will change how each of these keys operate. A program is capable of not only using each of the function keys, but also combining the function keys with the ALT or CTRL key, for example, Microsoft Windows users can press ALT + F4 to close the program currently active. Below is a short-listing of some of the common functions of the functions keys on computers running Microsoft Windows. As mentioned above not all programs support function keys and may perform different tasks then those mentioned below. If you are looking for more specific shortcut keys and function key examples we suggest seeing our shortcut key page. F1 Almost always used as the help key, almost every program will open the help screen when this key is pressed. Enter CMOS Setup. Windows Key + F1 would open the Microsoft Windows help and support center. Open the Task Pane. F2 In Windows commonly used to rename a highlighted icon or file. Alt + Ctrl + F2 opens document window in Microsoft Word. Ctrl + F2 displays the print preview window in Microsoft Word. Enter CMOS Setup. F3 Often opens a search feature for many programs including Microsoft Windows. In MS-DOS or Windows command line F3 will repeat the last command. Shift + F3 will change the text in Microsoft Word from upper to lower case or a capital letter at the beginning of every word. F4 Open find window. Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+) Alt + F4 will close the program currently active in Microsoft Windows. Ctrl + F4 will close the open window within the current active window in Microsoft Windows. F5 In all modern Internet browsers pressing F5 will refresh or reload the page or document window. Open the find, replace, and go to window in Microsoft Word. Starts a slideshow in PowerPoint. F6 Move the cursor to the Address bar in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Ctrl + Shift + F6 opens to another open Microsoft Word document. F7 Commonly used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, etc. Shift + F7 runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted. Turns on Caret browsing in Mozilla Firefox. F8 Function key used to enter the Windows startup menu, commonly used to access Windows Safe Mode. F9 Opens the Measurements toolbar in Quark 5.0. F10 In Microsoft Windows activates the menu bar of an open application. Shift + F10 is the same as right-clicking on a highlighted icon, file, or Internet link. Access the hidden recovery partition on HP and Sony computers. Enter CMOS Setup. F11 Full-screen mode in all modern Internet browsers. Ctrl + F11 as computer is starting to access the hidden recovery partition on many Dell computers. Access the hidden recovery partition on eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo computers. F12 Open the Save as window in Microsoft Word. Shift + F12 save the Microsoft Word document. Ctrl + Shift + F12 prints a document in Microsoft Word. Preview a page in Microsoft Expression Web Open Firebug. Tip: Earlier IBM computers also had F13 - F24 on the keyboards. However, because these keyboards are no longer used they are not listed on this page. Top 10 keyboard shortcuts everyone should know Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, highlighting text with the keyboard and pressing Ctrl + C is much faster than taking your hand from the keyboard, highlighting the text using the mouse, clicking copy from the file menu, and then putting your hand back in place on the keyboard. Below are our top 10 keyboard shortcuts we recommend everyone memorize and use. Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert Copy the highlighted text or selected item. Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert Paste the text or object that's in the clipboard. Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y Undo any change. For example, if you cut text, pressing this will undo it. This can also often be pressed multiple times to undo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl + Y would redo the undo. Ctrl + F Open the Find in any program. This includes your Internet browser to find text on the current page. Alt + Tab or Alt + Esc Quickly switch between open programs moving forward. Tip: Press Ctrl + Tab to switch between tabs in a program. Tip: Adding the Shift key to Alt + Tab or Ctrl + Tab will move backwards. For example, if you are pressing Alt + Tab and pass the program you want to switch to, press Alt + Shift + Tab to move backwards to that program. Tip: Windows Vista and 7 users can also press the Windows Key + Tab to switch through open programs in a full screenshot of the Window. Ctrl + Back space and Ctrl + Left or Right arrow Pressing Ctrl + Backspace will delete a full word at a time instead of a single character. Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow will move the cursor one word at a time instead of one character at a time. If you wanted to highlight one word at a time you can hold down Ctrl + Shift and then press the left or right arrow key to move one word at a time in that direction while highlighting each word. Ctrl + S While working on a document or other file in almost every program pressing Ctrl + S will save that file. This shortcut key should be used frequently anytime you're working on anything important. Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End Move the cursor to the beginning or end of a document. Ctrl + P Print the page being viewed. For example, the document in Microsoft Word or the web page in your Internet browser. Page Up, Space bar, and Page Down Pressing either the page up or page down key will move that page one page at a time in that direction. When browsing the Internet pressing the space bar will also move the page down one page at a time. If you press Shift and the Space bar the page will go up a page at a time Apple Macintosh shortcut keys Note that not all of the below shortcut keys will work in all versions of Mac OS. Open Apple + Down Opens the selected icon. Shift + Click Select the icon and add it to the set of those selected. Tab Highlight the next icon inside the folder, in alphabetical order. Shift + Tab Highlight the previous icon inside the folder, in alphabetical order. Left arrow Used when viewing by icon to select the icon to the left of the one highlighted. Right arrow Used when viewing by icon to select icon to the right of the one highlighted. Up arrow Used to select the icon above the one currently highlighted. Down arrow Used to select the icon below the one currently highlighted. Open Apple + ? Mac help Open Apple + E Eject Open Apple + Shift + Up Arrow Used to direct the input focus to the desktop level. Open Apple + M Minimize window Open Apple + N New finder window Open Apple + Shift + N New folder Open Apple + W Close the current window. Open Apple + C Copy the elected item to the clipboard. Open Apple + X Cut the selected item. Open Apple + V Paste item from the clipboard Open Apple + L Make alias Open Apple + R Show original item Open Apple + T Add to favorites Open Apple + O Open the selected icon. Open Apple + F Display the find dialog box. Open Apple + G Repeat the last find operation. Open Apple + Shift + G Takes a snapshot of the screen and saves it to a PICT file.