Using shortcuts has not always been my strength, but over the last year I have developed a fondness for anything that will make my life and my tasks easier. For some of you this will be old hat, but for others you may remark “I never knew that”. That being said if you have a shortcut you would like to share please add it to our comments or email me.

The first shortcut I like is the CTRL-N this opens a new page, spreadsheet, or html page, etc. This can be used in most programs and works the same as going to the task bar and selecting File > New.
The second and third shortcuts are the ever faithful CTRL-C (copy) and CTRL-V (paste). These are great when used properly and what I mean when I say used properly, I see lots of customers who have copied and pasted from word into their web page. This serves its purpose, but if you have a site that is using specific CSS formatting to achieve your look you have just lost it with your cut and paste. If you want to cut and paste from word into your website or copy and paste your content from another site to your new site, the best method is to copy and paste from word or your site into Notepad then copy and paste from Notepad into your web page. This prevents any formatting word has applied to carry over to your website.
The Fourth favorite of my short cuts is CTRL-A (select all). When I am making read me files for my web templates, I go into the getting started page and hit CTRL-A to select all the text and CTRL-C and CTRL-V into my word document. This works for most web pages, but do pay attention to the text that is selected, because it may select more than you bargained for. Still this shortcut works great in Word or notepad, or when you are copying a whole sheet of text over to another.
CTRL-S; saves your document
CTRL-P; prints your document
CTRL-Home and CTRL-End; the first takes you to the top of the document and the second takes you to the bottom.
CTRL-Z; is used when you say “I didn’t mean to do that”, the undo function.
CTRL-F4 to close the program you are in, close down your browser or computer.
A really cool shortcut I learned from Corrie was the ALT-Tab combination, this lets you tab between programs you have open, vs. using your mouse to go to your task bar and click on the program.
Again there are many more shortcuts out there that save you time and mouse clicks. I have just listed the ones that I use the most. If there is a shortcut combo that you would like to share with our PixelMill readers, please leave your comment here.
Have a great day!
Heather