5 Ways to be More Efficient on the Computer

I often get told how fast I am with a computer. Things that take most people quite a bit of time takes me only a few minutes. It’s not that I am an extraordinary typist, if anything I am quite mediocre; it’s that I rarely reach for my mouse. I know how to use my keyboard efficiently.

Here are my top five ways to save time by using your keyboard.

1. Filling out Forms

When you need to fill out a form, TAB through the fields. Don’t grab your mouse to position your cursor in the next field. Enter the text into the first field and when you are done, click TAB. You will immediately jump to the next field.

Similarly, if you made a boo-boo and need to move BACKWARDS through text fields, hold your SHIFT key down and then press TAB. This will move you backwards.

When you want to submit the form, don’t reach for your mouse and click on the submit button… Hit your enter key! Done!

2. Copy/Cut & Paste

Copy and Paste is one of God’s greatest gifts to us humans… right after fire. Did you know you can Copy text from one application and paste it into a totally different program? You can even copy images!

Enough of what you can copy– let’s talk about HOW you can copy and paste. Most people highlight the word with their mouse and then right mouse click. From their Right mouse button menu they choose Cut or Copy. Then they left click their mouse where they want the copied or cut word to go and they right mouse click and choose paste from the right mouse menu. That’s a lot of work.

Instead, let’s highlight the word and from your keyboard hold your CTRL key down and then click X to CUT or C to COPY. When you are ready to paste, hold down your CTRL key and click V. That’s it!
CTRL-X CUT, CTRL-C COPY, CTRL-V PASTE.

Let’s go one step further. Rather than even touching you mouse, use your arrow keys to get to the end of word you want to copy and then hold your shift key. With your shift key down, arrow left. Notice how the word highlights! When the word is highlighted, you can CTRL-C! How freaking awesome is that?

How about if you want to delete everything in the field? Rather than backspace backspace backspace… click CTRL-A… that selects ALL and everything is highlighted. Now hit delete. Easy-peasy!

3. Scrolling through a Website

When you are reading a Website, do you click the down arrow on the right scrollbar with your mouse to scroll down the page? You don’t have to do that! Instead, click your SPACE bar. Your SPACE bar will jump you one page down. Of course if you just want to move a little bit you can just use your down arrow key or your page down key.

4. Switching between open programs

Let’s say you are multi-tasking and you want to switch between open programs. Most people might grab their mouse and click the little minus sign in the upper right hand corner of the program. Some people will go to their Windows taskbar and click on the app there. Here’s a much faster way to switch between programs: ALT+TAB. Hold your ALT key down and pump the TAB key. A window will open and it will show you thumbnails of your open programs. As you hit TAB, you are cycled through the different open applications. Once your desired application is highlighted, just release the ALT key and that application will open. This might seem difficult but it’s really easy, you just have to practice it.

5. Web Browser Tabs

Did you know that you don’t always have to open a new instance of your browser if you want to have different Web pages open? You can just open a new tab. Tabs allow multiple windows to be contained within a single window. Most people click on the plus sign on the current tab to open a new one. But there is an easier way and it’s the same on all browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc): CTRL-T. Within your browser, just hold down your CTRL key and then click T. A new browser tab will open! Voila! How about if you want to close your current tab? CTRL-W.

If you have multiple tabs open and you want to get to a different tab than the one that is current? Ctrl+Tab will cycle through the open tabs. And if you want to cycle in REVERSE order, Ctrl+Shift+tab.

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I hope this helps you spend more time doing the important stuff and less time getting you there. If you have any shortcuts you’d like to add, please comment! I’d love to hear from you!