Windows Keyboard Shortcut of the Day

In most applications, hitting Ctrl+H will let you do a “Find and Replace” search.

For example, in Microsoft Word: Press Ctrl+H, enter some text to search for, press Tab, enter some text to be replaced, then press Alt+A to use the “Replace All” button to replace all of the text in the document.

In most applications, Ctrl+F lets you find text in the current document.

You may know that when you’re selecitng cells in Excel with the mouse, pressing the Ctrl button as you click adds the selected cells to the selection.

But, there’s an easier way. First, let’s try “Extend Mode” with F8. If you press F8, you enter Extend Mode, and now the arrow keys will extend the selection. (Of course, we already covered here that pressing Shift when you use the arrow keys does the same thing without messing around with the F8 key.)

However, this next bit’s useful. If you press Shift+F8, then you lock in the current group of selected cells, and can use the arrow keys to move to another area, and then select new cells (either using the normal Shift select method or Extend Mode).

Once the cells are selected, you can do whatever you like to them, such as bold with Ctrl+B.

Normally you press Ctrl+A to select all, but that’s not always so useful in Excel since it selects the entire (gigantic) worksheet, most of which is blank.

How many times have you started to try to select your column of numbers by using the mouse and then Excel starts scrolling off the screen like mad? Before you know it, you’re down at row 30,000 and then are trying to scroll back up (all while holding down the left mouse button) only to end up scrolling too far the other way. No fun. So — don’t try to play games of dexterity with Excel. If you want to select everything in the block where your cursor is, try Ctrl+*.

Forget the clumsy task of clicking in the formula bar when editing a cell in Microsoft Excel. Instead, press F2 and you’ll be editing the cell right in the spreadsheet where the cell is.

Once you’re editing a cell, you can use the standard navigation keys (Home, End, Ctrl+Left Arrow, Ctrl+Right Arrow) to get to where you want, then press Enter to accept your changes (or press Esc to cancel).

For example, suppose you need to change the number “151,000″ into “15,100.” Don’t retype it! Just press F2, then press Backspace to get rid of the extra zero, then press Enter. Done!

Excel has a strange navigation key that’s fairly unique and takes a bit of getting used to, but once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever used Excel without it.

Load up an Excel spreadsheet for practice, and then position your cursor somewhere in the middle of some cell entries. (Remember you can use the F5 key to go to a location.)

Now press End then the Right Arrow key (one after the other). You’ll go to the rightmost entry in the column of cell entries. Hit End, Down Arrow. You’ll move down until you hit the next empty cell.

If you start in an empty cell, Excel will keep moving in the direction of the arrow key you press until it hits a non-blank cell.

This week we’ll cover Microsoft Excel tips.

One of the most useful Excel shortcuts is Ctrl+1 (that’s the number one), which brings up the format cell dialog box. Once there, recall you can press Ctrl+Tab to cycle between tabs on the dialog box (Number, Alignment, Font, etc.).

To use the keyboard with the dialog box, you may want to review keyboard navigation of dialog boxes.

In a lot of applications, Ctrl+W will close the current window (and in the case of an application like Microsoft Word, prompt you to save the current document if it hasn’t been saved already).

Let’s see an example and put together some of the Firefox tips from this week. Suppose you’re reading a Web page and suddenly need to check a different site (for example, you’re browsing a vacation site and want to check the weather). Press Ctrl+T to open a new tab, type in the site name such as “weatherunderground,” press Ctrl+Enter to complete the URL name and load the page, find the information you need, then press Ctrl+W to close the new tab.

If a program or dialog box has tabs (different divided sections or pages with a label at the top), chances are that Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down will change tabs.

Try this out with Firefox and Excel to start off.

In Firefox, remember from yesterday that you can create a new tab with Ctrl+T. Now use Ctrl+Page Up to rotate through the pages (or Ctrl+Page Down to rotate the other way).

In Excel, you’ll start out with three sheets (Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3) when you start a new document. Ctrl+Page Down will move from Sheet1 to Sheet2 and Sheet2 to Sheet3. Ctrl+Page Up will move from Sheet3 to Sheet2 or Sheet2 to Sheet1.

For dialog boxes, if Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down don’t change tabs for you, try Ctrl+Left Arrow and Ctrl+Right Arrow, or Ctrl+Up Arrow and Ctrl+Down Arrow. Unfortunately, applications aren’t always as consistent as we’d like.

In Firefox, each tab is a separate window for browsing. You can start a new tab by pressing Ctrl+T. A new tab appears, and your cursor is put into the Address bar to type in a URL. (Remember you can type the main part of the address, such as “TiVo,” and then press Ctrl+Enter to turn it into http://www.tivo.com/ )

In Firefox, press Ctrl+K and — ta da! — your cursor will jump up to the search box in the upper right. Type in a search term (such as “TiVo”) and press Enter. The search results will be displayed in the current browser window, using your default search engine.

If you want to change the search engine by choosing a different one from the pulldown list built in to Firefox, you can press Alt+Down Arrow when your cursor is in the search box, and you’ll see the pulldown menu. Use the Up or Down Arrow keys until the search engine you want is highlighted, then press Enter.

(Note that this feature is for finding web pages. If you just want to search for text on the current web page, you want to Find instead.)

Following last week’s general browser tips, here’s one that works for Firefox and Thunderbird.

• Ctrl+=: Increase font size
• Ctrl+Dash: Decrease font size

Press Ctrl+= (that is, the Ctrl key held down, and then the = key) and the font size on the current page or e-mail will increase.

(A lot of people write this tip as Ctrl+Plus, because the mnemonic of the + key increasing the font size is easy to remember, but you don’t need the Shift key in there.)

Ctrl+Dash (that is, the - key, or minus — the key right next to the = key) will reduce the font size.

Each time you press the key, the font gets bigger or smaller. When you want to go back to normal, press Ctrl+0. (Thanks to Steve in the comments for that last one.)
(This is a little hard to write, given the terminology I’m using. I should refer to “Control with the Plus key” as Ctrl++ and “Control with the Dash key” as Ctrl+- but that looks really weird. Sorry if today’s tip is confusing!)