In part 1, we talked about the Tab key and the Shift-Tab combination to keep your hands on the keyboard and supposedly more productive. So maybe you’ve tried “Tab-ing” and “Shift-Tab-ing” up and down an online form or a Windows dialogue box and you feel like you’re ready to be productive in the online world, right? Then you run into those “yes/no” or “M/F” choices. Oh no, what do you do. You can’t type in a word or “F” or “Yes”, so how do you select the option you want? Mouse click, right? Well, you could, but we’re trying to stay on the keyboard to save a wee bit of time, right? The Spacebar saves the day! Use the Tab key to highlight the choice you want, “M” or “F”, or “Y” or “N”, or whatever…and hit the “Spacebar”. That selects it and you can tab right on by the rest of the choices, and this works for those long lists of the “Choose one…” variety. Tab to your choice and “Spacebar” it. You’re on your way!
Another useful “Tab” combo can help you whizz around your desktop like a real IT master or gamer…and we all want to be just like them, right? Maybe you’ve seen someone flipping back and forth between 4 or 5 windows, all hidden behind each other. How the heck do they do that? “Hey, slow down so I can see what you’re doing there!” On a PC, what they’re using is the “Alt-Tab” key combination. (Mac users, it is the “Cmd-Tab” keys.) Press and hold the “Alt”key (“Cmd” on a Mac) and then press and hold “Tab”. You’ll see a small window open on your desktop with a smaller version of all the active, or focused, windows shown in a row with one of them highlighted. While still holding the “Alt”(“Cmd”) key, release and press the “Tab” key and watch the “highlight” move to the next one in the row. If you release the “Alt” key now, that new highlighted choice will become the front window on your desktop and you can start using it.
An example of using this would be, say, when you are working on a text document in full-screen mode and you need to check something online. You know you’ve got your browser open also but you can’t see it because your document is full-screen. Press and hold “Alt”(“Cmd”), press “Tab” once and you’ll see the little window open. If the only applications running are the text editor and the browser, you’ll have 3 choices: those 2 apps and a smaller version of your desktop (Yes, you can even go from an open window directly to your desktop.) with the browser highlighted. Let go of the “Alt”(“Cmd”) key and, Ta-Da, you’re in your browser! Done looking up the info? “Alt-Tab”(“Cmd-Tab”) once…and you’re back to the document. When you get lots of windows open or apps active (even minimized) you can use this to zip back and forth with the greatest of ease.
Try these tips out…see it they are something you’ll use.
Cameron MacDonald
founder – Rock Tech Computer Services
www.rocktechcomputer.com
Follow me on facebook at Rock Tech Computer
or twitter at @rocktechcam