There are a lot of Web pages on keyboard shortcuts already. Therefore, I have not tried to compile a complete list of shortcuts myself, but have just listed some of the existing sources of information, and supplemented them with some tips of my own.
if you haven't already, you should look for "shortcut" in the index of Windows help (on the start menu) and read all of the topics under shortcut keys.
Several Web pages with keyboard shortcuts are hosted by:
The most basic tip is of course to look for underlined letters in menus and the names of fields in dialog boxes. Pressing the Alt key plus the letter opens the menu, or moves you to the field. If you already have a menu open, then you should simply press the letter without the Alt key. Most dialog boxes also have a "tab order" so that fields without Alt shortcut keys can be reached by using the tab key to move forward, or shift plus tab to move backward.
There are number of common keyboard shortcuts for moving through lists of files and many lists in dialog boxes. There is some variation in these shortcuts, so you may have to experiment. The arrow keys were usually move you through items in the list, selecting one item at a time. (Selected items are usually indicated by changing their color to blue.) You can move to the first or last items in the list by pressing the Home and End keys (for lists of files) or Control plus Home and Control plus End (for most dialog box lists). Page up and page down will also move you through most lists.
In many lists, if you press a letter, the first item in the list which begins with a letter will be selected. If you press the letter again, the next item without letter will be selected. In some cases (Windows Explorer), you can press several keys in sequence without pausing, and the first item beginning with that sequence of keys will be selected. As a result, even though NaturallySpeaking doesn't explicitly voice-enable file names in Windows Explorer, speaking the name of a file (or the first word of the name) often works. In other cases, however, the selection will merely jump around as you continue to press keys.
If you are allowed to select several items from a list, then holding down the shift key while you move through the list with the arrow keys (or page down, or end, etc.) will select several items in a row. To select items which are not all in a row, select the first item, then hold down the Control key while you move to the next item. As you move using the Control key, items will be highlighted (usually by being surrounded by a thin dotted line) but not selected. Then press the space bar to select the item. You can also use the space bar (or sometimes Control plus space bar, e.g. in Windows Explorer) to toggle an item from selected to unselected and back. That means that you can select several items in a row, and then move back with the Control key to unselect an item in the middle.
With Windows 95, Microsoft introduced what it calls the context menu. This is the menu which pops up when you when you click with the right mouse button on a file in Windows Explorer, showing you various options depending on the type of file (i.e. the context). Microsoft, as well as other companies, use this context menu in many other applications. The key combination {Shift+F10} often, but not always, has the same effect on the file or item currently selected (usually highlighted in blue).
This document last modified on 1/4/2002
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