Transcription
At first glance, learning keyboard shortcuts might not be worth it since there are so many and it takes time to get used to them. But what if I told you that there are just a few important ones that everyone should know? Since the time and manual effort you will save over the rest of your life is just invaluable. So, in this video, you will get to know the 12 most important keyboard shortcuts that you should learn to become more productive and be able to trash your mouse.
The first shortcut comes in handy, in particular when you're just working on your laptop, though you only have one screen or would like to make better use of the space of a second screen. Often, you have to work on different documents simultaneously, but it's annoying to switch between the windows and go back and forth. To first review or read something in a Word document or the internet and then work on your actual target document, for example, to summarize the key points in an email or a PowerPoint presentation. So, instead of going back and forth between the documents, you can also just show them side by side by pressing Windows + Arrow left or Arrow right. For example, with the left Arrow, the window you are currently on is moved to the left part of your screen, and then you can choose which other window you would like to show on the right. You can choose your second window of choice with the arrow keys by pressing Enter.
Let's briefly stick with the example and say you have two windows side by side, but maybe there is a third window that you would like to access from time to time, for example, to Google something or look something up on the internet. The tedious way of switching windows is to grab your mouse and go to the other window, but the smart and time-saving way is to press Alt and Tab, and keep the Alt button pressed to have your open programs shown. While to keep Alt pressed, you will be able to choose the program you would like to show either by clicking Tab or by using your arrow keys. Once you release both Alt and Tab, the chosen window will be shown. If you click Alt and Tab and release both keys immediately, you will switch back to your most recent program, and that's quite useful if you just want to quickly switch between two windows, for example, to translate some words whilst working on another document.
The third shortcut is to make screenshots in just a second. This is quite useful if there is anything that you found helpful or would like to show your colleague, or if you would want to include a small screenshot in a Word or PowerPoint document to illustrate something else. Windows has a built-in screenshot tool called Snip & Sketch that you can quickly access by pressing Windows + Shift + S. Having pressed this combination, your screen will turn darker, and a quick access toolbar appears at the top. The toolbar lets you choose between a rectangular, freeform, windows, or full-screen snip. I usually use the rectangular one or the window snip, depending on what I want to capture. If you choose the rectangular or the freeform’s name, you can do a left click with your mouse and drag the area or draw the shape you want to snip. If you want to capture a window, it will directly be highlighted once you hover above it. The screenshot will be saved in your clipboard, or you can press the pop-up that appears in the bottom right of your screen to immediately be able to edit or save the snippet.
If you do not want to edit your screenshot right away, but rather take several in a row or copy some text in between, you can access everything that you have just copied or snipped via the clipboard history. If you do not have activated this, usually you can only have one thing in your clipboard, and once you copy a second thing, the first one is gone. To activate the full clipboard history, you just need to press Windows + V, turn it on, and now you can take several screenshots after another or copy as many text snippets or pictures as you would like to. Once you're done, press Windows + V again to show your full clipboard history. There you can see the list of items you have clipped and can either choose to insert them by clicking on the item or pin, delete, or clear all by clicking on the three dots.
If it's not sufficient to just take a screenshot, you can also take a whole screencast. That might be useful to show a colleague how you did something in a specific program or if you want to record a presentation that was given by Teams or another program. Just press Windows + G, and the Xbox Game Bar will open. But no worries, even if you're not a gamer, that's what you're looking for since you just want to use the screencast option. You can close all the other windows that appear to focus on the capture window you need. The tool usually captures the program that was last used; for example, in my case, a Word document. Now, if you click on the record button, everything that you are doing in that window will be captured. You can press Windows + G again to open the Game Bar and stop the recording, but it's even easier if you pin the capture window before starting to record; though it will be shown even whilst you're recording and have quicker access to it. Your screencast will be saved on your computer under Videos and Captures.
Another amazing shortcut lets you open the File Explorer in a second. I myself use the File Explorer super often because it just has everything I need. So whenever I'm looking for a certain document or file, I go there to access it. But instead of always grabbing my mouse and clicking to open the File Explorer, you can just use the shortcut Windows + E. This opens the File Explorer so you can directly use it. Now, if your File Explorer is, just like in my case, the first program in your taskbar, you can alternatively press Windows + 1. Similarly, you can open other programs that you have in your taskbar by pressing Windows + 2, 3, 4, or up to 0, which opens the 10th program you have pinned to your taskbar. Unfortunately, with this simple shortcut, it's not possible to go beyond the 10th program. If you want to make use of this shortcut, you should move your most frequently used programs to spots 1 to 10 on your taskbar.
Now imagine you are working on a project with many programs open, but just one laptop screen, maybe with a maximum of one monitor. From experience, I know that there is not too much space, and the screens get quite packed even if you're just using two or three programs simultaneously. But instead of switching between different tabs with Alt and Tab, as we have seen earlier, there is another alternative that will make your life even better if you're working with many programs or windows simultaneously. You can just create a second or third virtual desktop by pressing Windows + Control + D. By that, a new empty desktop appears on which you can arrange and open new windows or programs in addition to the ones you have already had opened in your first desktop. To switch between the two desktops, just use the shortcut Windows + Control + Arrow left or Arrow right.
If you don't need a second desktop, but you might still get a bit overwhelmed from all your open windows from time to time, or you might just want to go back to your desktop to open a file that is located there, you have two options to do that. The first is to press Windows + M, which minimizes all of your windows and shows your desktop. The second one is to press Windows + D, which just shows your desktop, but in that case, by pressing Windows + D again, all of your programs are shown again as you have just left them.
I know sometimes you might get lost with all the open windows and programs. I mean, we all do, because there are just so many things that information we want to look up or we need to take into consideration when working on a project. To not get lost and keep an overview of what you're currently working on or used to work on, you can use the shortcut Windows + Tab, which opens the Task View. This shows all of your desktops at the very top, underneath your currently open windows, and at the bottom a timeline with documents and programs that you used to have open earlier that day, week, or month.
Let's come to a shortcut that very few people know, but I find it to be super helpful from time to time, in particular when you're looking for a special character or maybe you want to insert an emoji in your documents. Just press Windows + . to open the Emoji and special character pop-up in Windows 11. This even includes GIFs. I usually use this to insert any special characters or signs that are not readily available on your keyboard, such as the plus-minus sign, the Delta sign, or special arrows. But you also have access to the most popular emojis that you can insert by just clicking on them.
Finally, one of the most important shortcuts that unfortunately still very few people use. This shortcut is so important because it helps you to protect your work, personal, and confidential information and lock your computer whilst you're gone. Do that by pressing Windows + L, and your computer will be locked. That it can only be accessed again if you type in your password. When I'm in the office or at a client site, I usually lock my computer as soon as I leave my desk, either to go for lunch, briefly discuss something with a colleague, or when I'm going to the bathroom. But very often I see other computers from colleagues not being locked, even though they are not inspired. So theoretically, one could go there, look for information, send emails, or schedule meetings on their behalf, or do whatever.
Now, if you found those shortcuts to be helpful, I recommend watching this video next, where I will show you eight must-have Windows tools that you also probably did not know yet, but will help to make you more productive and long office days easier to deal with.