ARCHIVED: For Windows, what are some useful keyboard commands?

Before mice were commonplace, people controlled their computers entirely with keyboard commands. Keyboard commands are still available for most functions, including saving your work, exiting, and restarting Windows.

Opening menus, navigating dialog boxes, and executing commands

• Each menu along the top of any application window has one letter underlined (usually the first letter). To open that menu, hold down the Alt key and press the indicated letter. You can also press and release Alt and then navigate the menus with the arrow keys.
• The Start button at the lower left of the screen is a special case. To open the Start menu, press Ctrl-Esc or the Windows key, which is located between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the bottom left corner of your keyboard. Then simply use the arrow keys to navigate through the menus.
• Within the menu, all of the possible commands also have underlined letters. Once the menu is open, you can execute a command by pressing the letter alone. Another option is to use the arrow keys.
• To cycle through fields or options in a dialog box or window, press the Tab key. To move backward, press Shift-Tab.
• To turn on options or make a checkbox selection, use the Spacebar.
• The Enter key can activate default command buttons in dialog boxes, such as OK and Cancel.
• The arrow keys move one increment in the direction the arrow is pointing.

Saving your work and exiting your application

In most Windows applications, the keyboard command for Save or Save As... is s, and the command for Exit is x. For example, to open the File menu and then save a document, press Alt-f, and then press s.

Once you select and execute a command from the menu, the menu will automatically close. So after you've saved your work, you'll have to re-open the menu to exit.

Restarting Windows

1. To open the Start menu, press Ctrl-Esc or the Windows key.
2. To shut down, press u.
3. If Shut down is not selected, select it by using the arrow keys. Then move to the OK button by pressing the Tab key.
4. To activate the OK button, press Enter.