Tip of the Week: Our Favorite Lesser-known Keyboard Shortcuts

There is no denying that the keyboard shortcuts we use are handy. Of course, you have the old cut, copy, paste standbys, but there are others out there that are helpful as well. For this week’s tip, we wanted to pay attention to a few other shortcuts you may have a use for.

Open a New Browser/File Explorer Window

Ctrl + N

We’ve all been working on something online or in our files and suddenly wanted an entirely separate process going for our convenience. Think about how much easier it is to just click and drag a file than it is to navigate through your file system to move it. Opening a new window in either of these programs is as simple as pressing Ctrl + N.

Open a New Tab

Ctrl + T

Likewise, we’ve all been browsing and want to have a second page up for reference, but don’t always really need it to be displayed. Adding a new tab by pressing Ctrl + T with the browser open will help you accomplish this. Another way to do this is by clicking on a link with the middle mouse button.

Find Something in a Document or on a Web Page

Ctrl + F

Of course, when the time comes to refer to something in your other tab, it may not be the easiest thing to find. However, if you suddenly have difficulty locating a bit of text, pressing Ctrl + F will allow you to search within the page for matching verbiage.

Snipping Tool

Windows Key + Shift + S

Screenshots can be very useful things, but it isn’t always so obvious how to capture one… until now, that is. The Snipping tool is a handy way to take a screenshot, and all you have to do to activate it is hold Windows Key + Shift + S.

Force Quit

Ctrl + Shift + Esc

Sometimes, our applications crash, and we have little choice but to cut our losses. Force quit, activated by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, allows us to force a problematic program to close. Keep in mind, you’ll lose any unsaved work.

Case Shift

Shift + F3

This one is a little fun. Let’s say that we wanted to type out a phrase in different cases, like title case and the like. Doing so is simply a matter of typing it out, highlighting it, and pressing Shift + F3 until you get the result you’re looking for.

• PRESSING IT ONCE WILL SET IT TO ALL CAPS.
• pressing it twice will set it to all lowercase.
• Pressing It Three Times Will Set It To Title Case.

Hopefully, you find these shortcuts useful in one way or another. Are there any that we missed that you think deserve a mention? Leave your thoughts in the comments!