Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kimchi Cowboy]

Who uses them? Me, I use shortcuts all the time. I just find them way faster and more convenient than using the mouse or trackpad. It kind of makes me shake my head when I see people navigating their way through 1, 2, or 3 tiers of menu items to find the command they need, when the keyboard shortcut can get them there in about a tenth of a second.

When I bought my Mac, I had to re-learn all the shortcuts - some were pretty straightforward, just use the Command/Apple key instead of CTRL- but others were totally different (Apple-R to refresh Safari, Apple-W to close the window, Apple-T to make a new tab, Apple-Q to quit an application, Apple-Tab to switch bwetween applications... not to mention all the Function keys for various Expose uses...)

Word allows users to customize shortcut keys for commonly-used functions (shift-ctrl-B for bullets, shift-ctrl-I to insert pics...)

So, what are some of your favourite shortcuts? I use Apple-L in iTunes (takes you to the song that's playing currently) quite frequently. I use shift-ctrl < > to change font size. I use both the keys and mouse to highlight, depending, but I use the keys exclusively for cutting and pasting, bolding, italicizing, underlining, changing font sizes...

If you know any cool shortcuts (especially for Excel! My work PC has a Korean version and I can't figure it out at all!), please share!

[idonojacs]

I hate Macs, have done my best to forget the Mac shortcuts, and hope to God I never have to work on one again!

Yccchhhhh!

I used the very first Mac back in 1986. It used the revolutionary drop down menus, stolen from Xerox Parc, so you didn't have to memorize shortcuts. It was great. You didn't need to read an instruction book. It was genuinely intuitive.

Shortcuts are not revolutionary. They were used on CP/M 8 bit systems long before Mac or IBM. They were used in word processing in lieu of a mouse, among other things. Often they were three finger combinations. They were a nightmare to memorize. And there were a lot of them.

I had hoped they were ancient history.

Then I get a job with a Mac and was expected to instantly memorize all sorts of two, three and four fingered secret decoder ring Mac shortcuts. There is NOTHING intuitive about Mac's four-fingered shortcuts.

And this, the MacNut cases at work, kept insisting was a revolutionary new idea by the BRILLIANT GENIUS, Steve Jobs????

Yes, keyboard shortcuts can be quicker than using a mouse or pull down menus. If you use those commands a lot, like every few minutes. And if you are doing word processing, where your hands are already on the keyboard. But Macs shouldn't make you use obscure keyboard passwords for commands you only use once a week or once a month.

If your hands aren't on the keyboard, i.e., if you are using a mouse to surf the web, having to reposition your hands on the keyboard correctly just to enter one or two multi-fingered two-hand keyboard commands, then moving your hand back to the mouse, is a total waste of time, when you could have done that far more easily and quickly with a mouse. Yet that is what Apple is forcing Mac users to do, like the well trained seals they are.

I hate Macs.

And in case you haven't figured it out, I hate MacFanatics. They are as a general rule, out of touch with reality. Not the sort of person you want for a boss. Take my word for it. They are a sort of secret society. And if you don't buy into their alternate version of reality, you must be stupid. And they will say it to your face. Over and over and over again, day after day, like a mantra to convince themselves they must be right.

[the eye]

Funny how a simple little question can bring the nutters out of the woodwork.

[idonojacs]

the eye

[the eye]

I don't use them on any OS. I have really big, clumsy fingers. Typing alone causes problems.

And you? The question was not only about Mac shortcuts, ya know.

[idonojacs]

As I said, I have done my best to forget them. I do recall being bemused by the MacNuts who proudly showed me their shortcuts, observing that all Apple did most of the time was substitute one of their proprietary keys for a PC ctrl key. And that's because, as I said, shortcuts were originally used on CP/M, so IBM and Microsoft simply ported in the earlier system's commands. As in QDOS.

I used to use Word a lot, and used shortcuts then.

About the only one I use now that I can think of is the ctrl+F shortcut. This is used to search for a word on a web page or anywhere on the screen.

You know, if you do something on the computer often enough and long enough, you don't even think about doing it. So maybe I do other shortcuts and don't even realize it. That's when shortcuts work. They should not be a distraction from the flow of your work.

What puzzles me, and was the reason I originally opened this thread, was whatever happened to the F keys, as in F1, F2, F3, etc. When PCs were designed, they were supposed to perform the role of shortcuts. F1 is "help," of course. But press the other ones. They don't seem to do anything. Why?

Oh, the other reason Macs drove me "nutters" was that they expect you to use multi-fingered multi-handed shortcuts, much like playing a chord on a piano, but they had not seemed to have heard of right-button mouse menus! Macs were using 30-year old technology, shortcuts, pretending they were something new and wonderful, when there was something actually new and faster. But Steve Jobs wouldn't let right mouse buttons be used for about a decade on Macs.

Right mouse button menus have pretty much made shortcuts obsolete on PCs. I used to use ctrl+C, ctrl+X, ctrl+V and ctrl+P a lot, but why take your hands off the mouse when you have these commands on the right mouse menu? On the other hand, if you are doing word processing, they are handy.

Yes, I know Macs now theoretically have right click buttons. Invisible buttons. Hey PC users, ever try using an invisible mouse button? Better yet, on a circular mouse? On a Monday morning? With a hangover?

Now try holding down the invisible mouse button on your circular mouse while you drag an item across your desktop into a folder. Macs love to make you hold down your mouse and drag items. It's just SO COOL, they kept telling me. But you are pressing the mouse down against the mouse pad while dragging because the mouse is the mouse button. Let the mouse up and you lose what you were dragging. And then you have to start over. So you end up pressing down really hard on the mouse pad while dragging this mystery mouse.

These people can't think straight.

I rest my case.

(BTW, in case anyone is wondering, it's raining. And I'm tired of CNN.)

[idonojacs]

Here are some lists of keyboard shortcuts for the PC:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583

You can also find them by going to help and typing in keyboard shortcuts.

The sweetest computer to write on I have ever used was this:

http://oldcomputers.net/trs100.html

There was no mouse, no piano-keyboard commands to memorize, just some labeled command keys and F keys, which you quickly learned. You did not need to save your work periodically because nothing was lost if you turned off the power. You just wrote, highlighted text to cut or paste, pressed a button, and done. All the needed basic commands were there. And it had a modem, of a sort. The batteries could last for a week or more, and were just AAs. But most important, it was easy and fast to write on.

There have been some word processing programs that tried to emulate the TRS-100, but I never used them much. They didn't seem to quite get it right, as I recall. But you know, simple is good. Most of the stuff in these programs like Word is not essential to the basic task of writing; much of it is for editing, including professional multi-person tracked editing.

There are also word processor programs that work solely by keyboard command shortcuts. You may be able to find some in shareware sites like download.com. They can be very fast to use if you use them every day and get the commands down pat. If not, good luck; they don't have pull down menus, as I recall.

BTW, did you know that Bill Gates wrote much of the actual code for the TRS-100/102 portable? It was a masterpiece of efficiency.

[jay-shi]

On topic.

I worked as a code monkey for a number of years.

The most useful one's I've found were the paste/cut copy ones. They're pretty much universal too. I'm always amazed that most people don't know about them.

ctrl- c : copy
ctrl- x : cut
ctrl- v : paste

The home and and end keys are also there for a reason.

My 20 won's input