Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

This is probably the most-frequently-asked keyboard question for Windows 7: How to use the keyboard to shutdown or restart.

If you have a laptop, it may have a sleep shortcut with something like Fn+F1, but this is how you can go about it universally:

1. Press the Windows key. The Start menu appears.
2. Press the Right Arrow key. The focus is now on the Shutdown button.
3. The default action is to Shutdown. If you want to do that, you can just press Space and your system will begin shutting down immediately.
4. If you want to restart, just press the Right Arrow again. The Shutdown menu appears. To Restart, press R. To choose any other action, press the underlined letter.

All right, it’s been well over a year since this has been an “of the Day” blog. Facing reality, I have to admit I just don’t have the time to keep this a daily blog. I do hope to post periodically though, and at some point will have time again to do more regular updates. As of today this blog is now just known as “Windows Keyboard Shortcuts.”

In the meantime, if you have questions or need help with anything, let me know!

This morning I was working with a long document in Microsoft Word, and I wanted to compare something I’d written on page 43 with something that written back on page 2. I was frequently jumping back and forth.
The easiest way to handle such tasks is to split the screen so that you can display page 2 on the top half, and page 43 on the bottom half, and then work with whatever half you want.

It’s not 100% keyboard only, but try this:

1. Press Alt+Ctrl+S, and a split cursor appears.
2. Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow until the split is where you want it, then press Enter. The screen is split.
3. Now, scroll to wherever you want (and remember the Ctrl+G or F5 shortcut that lets you go to whatever page you want right away). You scroll in one half, while the other half of the split displays the other portion of the document.
4. I don’t know of a keyboard method to change which part of the split you work with, so you’ll need to use the mouse to click in the top portion or bottom portion as needed if you want to make edits.
5. When you’re all done with the split, press Alt+Shift+C, and the split is removed.

Note that a split is really just a different way of viewing the same document — you only have one copy. Any changes you make in the top portion are immediately reflected in the bottom portion, and vice versa.

While I spend a lot of my day without ever touching the mouse, when browsing it’s definitely easier to click on a link to follow it (rather than having to hit Tab a few dozen times until the right link is selected, then pressing Enter).

When doing so, there are a couple of quick shortcuts that work with any browser.

To start with, try press Shift then next time you click on a link. Instead of replacing the current web page with the contents of your link, a new page appears, with the contents of whatever web page that you clicked on.

(You can then close this new window with Ctrl+W.)

Four-month-olds are pretty challenging, and there’s little free time right now, so for a while longer we’re going to keep this as a “Windows Keyboard Shortcut of the Week” blog. Sorry for the inconvenience, and I do aim to return to daily comments when I can.

Well, I said “December” but here we are in January. Time flies when you’ve got a toddler and an infant and a full-time job!

While we won’t be daily for a while (thus making a lie of the “of the Day” portion of the title of this blog), we’ll start back in on some tips.

Good to be back!

I haven’t forgotten about this site, but with a two month old baby, things are still very hectic. I do plan to return to writing daily keyboard shortcuts starting in December, so please check back then.

We’ll be taking a break from daily tips for a while due to a paternity leave. In the meantime, please leave keyboard shortcut requests here.

What tasks do you handle all the time that are a pain with the mouse? What are your own best productivity tips involving the keyboard?

What applications do you use most frequently? What tips have you enjoyed, and what would you like to see more of?

We’ll be taking this week off and returning with new tips next week. (Busy week at work!)

Windows Vista user? Read this post in How To Geek to see how to enable Windows keyboard shortcuts being displayed in your Windows Vista menus.

Sorry for the unannounced break — lot of work. We’ll go back to the daily format starting today.