Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Using keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are ways to perform actions by using your keyboard. They're called shortcuts because they help you work faster. In fact, almost any action or command you can perform with a mouse can be performed faster using one or more keys on your keyboard.

In this key tutorial, a plus sign (+) between two or more keys indicates that those keys should be pressed in combination. For example, Ctrl+A means to press and hold Ctrl and press A. Ctrl+Shift+A means to press and hold Ctrl and Shift and then press A.

Find program shortcuts

You can do things in most programs by using the keyboard. To see which commands have keyboard shortcuts, open a menu. The shortcuts (if available) are shown next to the menu items.

Choose menus, commands, and options

You can open menus and choose commands and other options using your keyboard. In a program that has menus with underlined letters, press Alt and an underlined letter to open the corresponding menu. Press the underlined letter in a menu item to choose that command. For programs that use the Ribbon, such as Paint and WordPad, pressing Alt overlays (rather than underlines) a letter that can be pressed.

This trick works in dialog boxes too. Whenever you see an underlined letter attached to an option in a dialog box, it means you can press Alt plus that letter to choose that option.

Some useful shortcuts

Press this	To do this
Windows logo key	Open the Start menu
Alt+Tab	Switch between open programs or windows
Alt+F4	Close the active item, or exit the active program
Ctrl+S	Save the current file or document (works in most programs)
Alt+C	Copy the selected item
Alt+X	Cut the selected item
Alt+V	Paste the selected item
Alt+Z	Undo an action
Alt+A	Select all items in a document or window
F1	Display Help for a program or Windows
Windows key +F1	Display Windows Help and Support
Esc	Cancel the current task
Application key (near to right Ctrl key)	Open a menu of commands related to a selection in a program. Equivalent to right-clicking the selection.