Using Keyboard shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are ways to perform actions by using your keyboard. They're called shortcuts because they help you work faster. In fact, almost any action or command you can perform with a mouse can be performed faster using one or more keys on your keyboard.

In Help topics, a plus sign (+) between two or more keys indicates that those keys should be pressed in combination. For example, Ctrl+A means to press and hold Ctrl and then press A. Ctrl+Shift+A means to press and hold Ctrl and Shift and then press A...

Find program shortcuts

You can do things in most programs by using the keyboard. To see which commands have keyboard shortcuts, open a menu. The shortcuts (if available) are shown next to the menu items.

Keyboard shortcuts appear next to menu items.

Choose menus, commands, and options

You can open menus and choose commands and other options using your keyboard. In a program that has menus with underlined letters, press Alt and an underlined letter to open the corresponding menu. Press the underlined letter in a menu item to choose that command. For programs that use the Ribbon, such as Paint and WordPad, pressing Alt overlays (rather than underlines) a letter that can be pressed.

Press Alt+F to open the File menu, then press P to choose the Print command.

This trick works in dialog boxes too. Whenever you see an underlined letter attached to an option in a dialog box, it means you can press Alt plus that letter to choose that option.

Useful shortcuts

The following table lists some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts. For a more detailed list, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Press this                         To do this

Windows logo key        Open the Start menu

Alt+Tab                             Switch between open programs or windows

Alt+F4                               Close the active item, or exit the active program

Ctrl+S                               Save the current file or document (works in most programs)

Ctrl+C                               Copy the selected item

Ctrl+X                               Cut the selected item

Ctrl+V                               Paste the selected item

Ctrl+Z                               Undo an action

Ctrl+A                               Select all items in a document or window

F1                                     Display Help for a program or Windows

Windows logo key +F1 Display Windows Help and Support

Esc                                   Cancel the current task

Application key   Open a menu of commands related to a selection in a program. Equivalent to right-clicking the selection.