shortcut

The Real Deal 147: Shortcuts

Tom and Rafe discuss some of their favorite software and keyboard shortcuts and share some from the listeners, as well.

Listen now: Download today's podcast… Read more

What are your favorite shortcuts?

My love of keyboard shortcuts dates back to CTRL-right arrow in Word. My greatest love was Windows+D to show desktop. I have a library of others OI lean upon, sometimes forgetting their even shortcuts. CTRL-V? CTRL-C? How are there people who still don't use you? I'll never understand.

If you love shortcuts like we do, please share the love. Respond to our post with a few of your favorites. The most helpful ones will be for programs or operating systems that many people use, but hey, we'll take all comers.

Listen to next week's episode … Read more

Shortcut and fix for Outlook's autocomplete feature

A couple of weeks ago, I described how to disable the feature in Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 that automatically completes addresses as you enter them in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: fields.

As I stated then, I've come to depend on Outlook's address-autocomplete feature, though it's far from perfect. First, editing the list isn't easy. You can delete an entry you no longer need by pressing Delete after you scroll to the address in the drop-down list that appears as you type the name in one of the above fields. But there's no simple … Read more

Plain but effective

Keyboard Remapper is a tool that lets you change your keyboard's functions. Despite a trial limitation, we were able to come away with a clear picture of how it performs.

The user interface is plain and straightforward. There, you can enable and disable the program. The five buttons on the left side of the window let you add, edit, and delete key combinations, as well as hide the window and terminate the program. A large window displays the new key combinations. After clicking the Add button, we were given two options for creating a key combination: typing the keys … Read more

Add permanent keyboard shortcuts to Google.com

If you're a keyboard shortcut junkie in Google Reader, Gmail and Google Docs you might have noticed Google.com, the mother of all Google services, is a bit lacking in the keyboard shortcuts department. There is currently an official Google-sanctioned experimental keyboard shortcuts program you can opt into, although there's the slight chance that the company may one day kill it off. That and it won't remember to give you the shortcut keys the next time you search if you're not signed in to your Google account.

If both of these things are holding you back … Read more

Your own icons anywhere

The spare, even austere, Web Shortcuts app is a lesson in function over form. The free utility lets you place up to six customized shortcuts to oft-used Web sites on your BlackBerry's Home Screen. The bottom line is, it works, and its faster than launching your browser first and clicking a bookmark second.

While there's support for attaching personalized icons, you'll have to already know the procedure. Regardless, trappings aren't what this app is about, and we agree. If you'd rather press a Home Screen shortcut to kick-start a favorite Web page than mess with … Read more

10 Firefox keyboard shortcuts

The mouse is a lovely invention, but the keyboard is much faster. Your Internet connection is slow enough; you don't want to be slow using Firefox, too. So here are some Quick Tips for Firefox keyboard shortcuts.

The back button. The backspace key or Delete button on a Mac, sends you back one page.

Need to type in a URL? F6 highlights the address bar. No more fumbling around with the mouse.

Need to search for a word on a page? Control-F in Windows or Command-F in a Mac opens the Find function.

Maybe you want to copy all … Read more

Finish early: Create a Windows shutdown shortcut

What's the fastest way to shut down Windows?

With a mouse, it takes at least two clicks, plus the time required for the various menus to appear.

With a keyboard, you can shut down Windows XP by pressing the Windows key (or Ctrl-Esc) and typing U twice. In Vista, the shutdown keyboard sequence is Windows key, right arrow three times, Enter.

By default, Vista goes into sleep mode when you press the Windows key, then the right arrow, and then Enter to activate the Start menu's power button. You can change this behavior--letting you shut down with two … Read more

Five quick-and-simple Microsoft Word timesavers

You can use Microsoft Word for years and still find new ways to get more work done in less time. Here are a handful of fast-and-easy productivity boosters.

Create outlines out of lists Word 2007 adds a handy outline list to the standard bullet and numbered lists available on Word 2003's Formatting toolbar (the Paragraphs section under the Home tab of Word 2007's ribbon). You can create an outline from an existing list in either version by placing the cursor in the line you want to indent (or outdent, as the case may be) and clicking the Increase … Read more