The 8 Keyboard Shortcuts That Everybody Should Know And Use

February 8th 2007

Below I have listed what are the simplest but most effective keyboard shortcuts that I personally use the most and which result in the biggest speed gains for the average person. I’ve primarily picked these shortcuts after watching people crawl along trying to do whatever it is they are doing on their computer. My pet peeve is that whole labored approach of moving the mouse about to select, copy and paste some text. I just want to yank them from their chair and do it for them because it just seems soooo slow. But maybe I’m impatient.

Save (ctrl + s)
Cut (ctrl + x)
Copy (ctrl + c)
Paste (ctrl + v)
Undo (ctrl + z)
Redo (ctrl + y)
Select (ctrl + a)
Task switch (alt + tab)

The above list is for Windows and may differ on other operating systems. However, unless you happen to use your machine for something completely different to the norm (does NASA use shortcut keys I wonder?) the point of the list (saving time) will apply to Linux and Mac OS also, the actual shortcut keys may just vary.

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