Shortcut
Don't delete when overwriting selected text. Just start to type. The selected text will be replaced by the first character you type.
The long story
In our first lesson, we will be about replacing a selection, something very easy and something which you can make use of quite often.
When you have a text and you want to replace a part of it, it is always better to select the part to be replaced, rather than wasting time and keystrokes deleting it letter by letter.
What most people do after they have selected the which they want to replace, is to delete it by pressing either Delete or Backspace. This is where our shortcut kicks in: It is not necessary to delete the marked part. The selection is automatically replaced with the first character typed.
This shortcut works almost everywhere, no matter what program, what computer you work with – even in sheet calculation programs like Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc: The black frame around a cell is basically a selection of the cell. So in order to replace its content it is not necessary to delete the old content before. You can just start to type in the new one.
In Microsoft word it is possible to change this default behaviour by unchecking Typing replaces selection (somewhere in Options, Editing). In that case, when you have selected text and start typing, the selection is cancelled and the new text goes next to its former location.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Welcome
No matter what yoru actual work on your computer is, there are some routine tasks you perform dozens of times a day. I often see people doing things with their computer in a way which takes them much longer than I would need. These people are not just those who bought themselves a computer and bravely learned to use it all by themselves (I salute them), but also some very experienced and well paid IT specialists who of course had other things to learn than many of the practically undocumented keyboard shortcuts which would significantly improve their interaction with the user interface.
I don't laugh at people when I see them doing basic things in a very time-consuming way, but I also don't immediately try to teach them to do it faster. First, this would distract them from what they are currently doing, and second, explaining the faster way would cost some extra time in a situation where they don't want to learn how to it it faster. For this time, they say, they just want to do it in such a way where they don't have to concentrate on how they are doing it, even if it takes a bit longer. And I agree. Changing habits is not easy and it is something very personal.
This blog is written for all the people who are willing to learn how to interact with the computer faster, for all the people who often do repetitive things and think for themselves: Does it have to be that complicated? Isn't there any faster way to do this? This blog's aim is to document all of the aforementioned “undocumented shortcuts” and present them in a very straight-forward way.
I am an expert on keyboard shortcuts and mouse-aided keyboard interaction with Microsoft's operating systems. I have profound experience with them from MS-DOS 5.0 all the way up to Windows 7. Windows 7 is my OS of choice where I will demonstrate you how to do things faster. Many of the most basic keyboard shortcuts go far back to the very beginnings of personal computers and will work also on a Macintosh or in Linux. Not every post will deal with keyboard shortcuts. Occasionally, I will show you the one or another trick in MS Office any maybe you will be interested in learning a much faster way of navigating through your files and folders and manipulating them (copying, moving, renaming, etc.).
I will deliberately present my shortcut knowledge piece by piece, bit by bit, because that's how you should learn them. It is impossible to change your working habits all at once. After all you have to work somehow and cannot think much about how you work. You can keep only one or two situations in mind where you should try to accustom yourself to a more efficient way to go. Once you've mastered that and are choosing the faster way automatically without being particularly alert of situations where it can be applied, you are ready to proceed and learn another speed perk.
I don't laugh at people when I see them doing basic things in a very time-consuming way, but I also don't immediately try to teach them to do it faster. First, this would distract them from what they are currently doing, and second, explaining the faster way would cost some extra time in a situation where they don't want to learn how to it it faster. For this time, they say, they just want to do it in such a way where they don't have to concentrate on how they are doing it, even if it takes a bit longer. And I agree. Changing habits is not easy and it is something very personal.
This blog is written for all the people who are willing to learn how to interact with the computer faster, for all the people who often do repetitive things and think for themselves: Does it have to be that complicated? Isn't there any faster way to do this? This blog's aim is to document all of the aforementioned “undocumented shortcuts” and present them in a very straight-forward way.
I am an expert on keyboard shortcuts and mouse-aided keyboard interaction with Microsoft's operating systems. I have profound experience with them from MS-DOS 5.0 all the way up to Windows 7. Windows 7 is my OS of choice where I will demonstrate you how to do things faster. Many of the most basic keyboard shortcuts go far back to the very beginnings of personal computers and will work also on a Macintosh or in Linux. Not every post will deal with keyboard shortcuts. Occasionally, I will show you the one or another trick in MS Office any maybe you will be interested in learning a much faster way of navigating through your files and folders and manipulating them (copying, moving, renaming, etc.).
I will deliberately present my shortcut knowledge piece by piece, bit by bit, because that's how you should learn them. It is impossible to change your working habits all at once. After all you have to work somehow and cannot think much about how you work. You can keep only one or two situations in mind where you should try to accustom yourself to a more efficient way to go. Once you've mastered that and are choosing the faster way automatically without being particularly alert of situations where it can be applied, you are ready to proceed and learn another speed perk.
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