Being selective: navigating the Microsoft environment

The mouse

In the Windows GUI

Clicking & dragging things:

• A left-click generally selects the thing you left-click.
• Right-click generally gives a context-sensitive menu for the thing you right-click. It is easier to right-click on something that is already selected.
• Double left-click opens the thing you double-left-clicked.
• Left-click dragging moves the object(s) selected.
• Right-click dragging offers a context-sensitive menu on release:
  • Copy Here
  • Move Here
  • Create Shortcuts Here
  • Cancel
• Left-click dragging around and/or through a group of things (such as a list of files) selects those things. You will hear people talking about a “selection marquee“.

Clicking & dragging windows:

• You can position a window by left-click-dragging it by the Title Bar
• You can Maximise/Restore Down a window by double left-clicking the Title Bar
• Double-left-clicking the bottom border of a window maximises it height-wise to the full height of the screen

In Word

See the post: Navigating the Word environment

In Excel

See the post: Navigating the Excel environment

The keyboard

Many of the keyboard combinations are “toggle” shortcuts; in other words, they both activate and deactivate an action.

In the Windows GUI

• TAB moves focus in the GUI.
• SHIFT+TAB moves focus in reverse.
• +. opens the emoticon panel.
• +D displays the Windows Desktop (all open windows are minimised).
• +TAB displays thumbnails of all open windows and allows you cycle through them to the one you want to make active
• ALT+TAB cycles through all the open windows allowing you to change focus.
• +T sets focus on the first item in the Status Bar – use the cursor keys to move between icons.
• CTRL+ALT+DEL (the three-fingered salute) offers the options: Lock, Switch User, Sign Out, Change a Password, Task Manager.
• CTRL+A selects all the objects (files & folders) in a folder.
• Select a file or folder, hold down the SHIFT key and use the cursor keys to select multiple adjacent files or folders.
• Select a file or folder, hold down the CTRL key, use the cursor keys to move the focus of the selector and press the SPACEBAR to select multiple non-adjacent files or folders.
• Select one file or folder and hold CTRL down whilst left-clicking other files or folders to select non-adjacent files or folders. Select one file or folder, hold down CTRL and click on a non-adjacent file or folder to select those files and/or folders and all those files and folders between.

Of course, the ALT key gives you access to menus in the Windows GUI and Windows applications as well as most other applications. For example, in Word:

• ALT+F opens the File menu, followed by
• ALT+A will activate the Save As option
• ALT+f4:
  • closes the active window in the Windows GUI, or
  • if there is no active window:

The CTRL key also weighs in with several invaluable shortcuts — who could get by without CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y, the keyboard shortcuts for Undo and Redo respectively?

Word

See the post: Navigating the Word environment

Excel

See the post: Navigating the Excel environment

Chrome browser

• TAB changes focus on the active element in a webpage.
• SHIFT+TAB does the same in reverse.
• CTRL+TAB sequentially flicks through the tabs open in the browser.
• CTRL+SHIFT+T will reopen tabs that have recently been closed.

Notepad++

Read the post Coding HTML with Notepad++ for shortcuts when using your text editor.

And now for something completely different…

By the way, if your display suddenly rotates left or right — or even upside-down — you have probably accidentally used one of the following:

• CTRL+ALT+→ will rotate your screen 90° clockwise
• CTRL+ALT+← will rotate your screen 90° counterclockwise
• CTRL+ALT+↓ will flip your screen upside-down
• CTRL+ALT+↑ will flip your screen the right way up again.

Another relatively rare and esoteric keyboard-mouse combo is to SHIFT right-click in a Windows Explorer folder: it adds the option to open a Command Prompt in that directory.