Why shortcuts?

Typing on Keyboard is fast. Mouse slow. Need I say more?

These shortcuts are mostly universal and default, so they should apply to stuff you’re already doing.

The Essentials

The “Ctrl” alphabet

Work in just about all situations

• Ctrl + A: Select All
• Ctrl + B: Make highlighted text Bold, or make the cursor bold
• Ctrl + C: Copy text
• Ctrl + E: cEnter text
• Ctrl + F: Search for text (Find)
• Ctrl + G: Go to page…
• Ctrl + H: Find & Replace (not sure where the H came from…)
• Ctrl + I: Make text Italicized
• Ctrl + K: Insert linK (if text is highlighted, make selected text the word content of the link)
• Ctrl + L: Left align text
• Ctrl + N: Open a New, empty window
• Ctrl + O: Open an existing file/project folder
• Ctrl + P: Print document
• Ctrl + Q: Quit application
• Ctrl + R: Right align text
• Ctrl + S: Save file/project
• Ctrl + T: Open new text editor Tab
• Ctrl + U: Underline text
• Ctrl + V: Paste text (V is right next to C, it makes sense…)
• Ctrl + W: Close document tab (next to Q, which quits the window)
• Ctrl + X: Xut (Cut; like copy, but deletes highlighted text in one go)
• Ctrl + Y: RYedo last undone action
• Ctrl + Z: UZndo last action

Ctrl, Shift, Ctrl+Shift

Farily universal usage * browsers, text editing…

• Shift + Arrow (any direction): Highlight letters
• Ctrl + [Left|Right]: Bounce between words
• Ctrl + Shift + [Left|Right]: Highlight words
• Ctrl + Delete: Delete forwards by word (by itself, delete erases words in front of cursor)
• Ctrl + Backspace: Erase by word (as opposed to by a letter, see a pattern with Ctrl?)
• Ctrl + [+|-]: Zoom in/out
• Ctrl + 0: Reset zoom
• Ctrl + Shift + V: Paste without format

Modern Browsers

Pretty universal across Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.

• Ctrl + B: Toggle Bookmarks
• Ctrl + D: Add Bookmark
• Ctrl + H: Open History
• Ctrl + J: DJownloads
• Ctrl + K: Search bar with your default search engine
• Ctrl + L: Highlight & Focus on search bar
• Ctrl + M: Mute current tab
• Ctrl + N: New window
• Ctrl + O: Open file (browsers are great PDF readers, sometimes)
• Ctrl + P: Print webpage
• Ctrl + Q: Close (quit) tab or window (depends on browser)
• Ctrl + R: Reload page
• Ctrl + S: Save page as HTML
• Ctrl + T: Open new tab
• Ctrl + W: Clowse current tab [sic]
• Ctrl + Tab: Cycle to next tab
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle to previous tab
• Alt + Left/Right Arrow: Navigate back/forward a page
• Backspace: Sometimes, the alternative key to go back a page
• Tab: Navigate to next HTML element (such as next text box when filling out a form)
• Shift + Tab: Navigate to previous element in HTML

Operating Systems

There are definitely more to this

• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Super + L: Open LinkedIn (yes, really)
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Super + E: Open Excel
• Super + Arrow: Window snapping (and maximizing, minimizing with up/down)
• Super + V: Windows clipboard history
• Ctrl + Shift + Escape: Windows Task Manager
• Control + Alt + Delete: Misc/Admin menu
• Super + L: Lock user
• Super + X: I call this the super menu!
• Super + X; U; U: Shutdown computer on Windows
• Super + X; U; R: Restart computer
• Super + [0...9]: Opens an app associated with its position on your taskbar

VSCode

Here’s to a great text editor

• Ctrl + \: Split current window
• Ctrl + [Up/Down]: Scroll current window
• Ctrl + ` : Open terminal
• Ctrl + Shift + P: Open Command Pallete
• Ctrl + Shift + E: Open project Explorer
• Ctrl + Shift + F: Find within project
• Ctrl + Shift + F: Extensions tab
• Ctrl + Shift + V: (in markdown editing) open markdown file preview
• Ctrl + ,: Open settings, (in many apps, not exclusive to VSCode)
• Ctrl + B: Close sidebar
• Ctrl + P: Search project by file
• Ctrl + click: multiline editing (click on another spot to insert another cursor, edit multiple lines simultaneously)
• Ctrl + Shift + [Up|Down]: Multiline editing (to insert cursors directly above or below current line)

Extras

• /: jump to search bar in search engines
• Ctrl + Enter: Insert new line instead of sending a message (in contexts where you’re sending messages)

Conclusion

I use 60-70% of these shortcuts day-to-day. If you likewise use a computer daily, commit some of these to memory, write them down, or better yet, try using some of these, as that teaches most people best.

Yes, most of these are from memory, and no, I’m not really a keyboard shortcut enthusiast. There are people who can navigate their whole computers with a keyboard; while this gets you most of the way there, it’s certainly not all of the shortcuts that are out there.