Everybody loves a good shortcut. And with computers, there are many shortcuts and customizations that can make using them so much more enjoyable and efficient.
Today, I introduce the joy of keyboard shortcuts and give a demonstration using one of my favourite text-based keyboard shortcuts: select all text.
Video Transcript
00:00:00:34 – 00:00:35:40
I love keyboard shortcuts. A keyboard shortcut is where you press one or more keys in combination in order to do an action on your computer. So, keyboard shortcuts are common on both Mac and Windows computers, and a lot of the shortcuts are quite transferable between both. So, if you’re familiar with Control, Alt, those kinds of keys on a Windows computer, you’ll find that those are usually just replaced with Command and Option on a Mac keyboard, and vice versa.
00:00:35:43 – 00:01:02:31
It can be used to do something very specific to an application or it can be something that’s common across a number of different applications. Things like copy, cut paste – you might be familiar with those. Command-C, Command-V, Command-X. Or Control-C, Control-V, Control-X for copy, paste and cut. That’s fine to know that keyboard shortcuts exist and maybe you have one or two that you use.
00:01:02:31 – 00:01:30:37
Sometimes you use the arrow keys to move around instead of using a mouse. I’m a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts. Especially when I’m typing a lot. When I’m using the keyboard already. I find since I’m already there, certain things are just much more efficient. They’re quicker if I use the keyboard. So, that’s the real value. It’s the idea of efficiency. Whether it’s the efficiency of doing something quicker or the efficiency of doing something with less movement.
00:01:30:54 – 00:01:53:47
The idea that you don’t have to move your hand over to your mouse and then back again before you can start typing again, for instance. So, let’s take the example of wanting to select all of the text in a document. So, this is Google Docs. And in Google Docs there are three different ways that are pretty common that you can use to select all of the text in that document.
00:01:54:12 – 00:02:26:47
One would be to take your mouse or your trackpad, whatever your pointing device is, and just click and hold and drag and highlight all of the text in that document. And then from there you can do whatever you want. Maybe you want to copy it or format it or something like that. So, that’s one way. Another way that is common to word processing applications, and Google Docs is no exception, is going into the menu and finding the control that allows you to select all of the text.
00:02:27:07 – 00:02:52:24
So, from this point, a couple of clicks in and you have all of your text selected. But, the keyboard shortcut way is two presses on the keyboard. The keyboard that you’re already typing on. On a Mac, it’s Command-A and on a Windows keyboard, it’s Control-A. Since you’re already typing at the keyboard. If you want to select all of the text in your document, just do the command or the control key first.
00:02:52:24 – 00:03:13:33
And while you’re holding it down, press the A key and all of that text is selected. That’s it! You didn’t have to move your hands from the keyboard. You didn’t have to click away. You didn’t have to click away a couple of times. You didn’t have to drag or do anything like that. You just do a very swift Command-A or Control-A keyboard combination.
00:03:13:55 – 00:03:51:25
That keyboard shortcut is just one of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of keyboard shortcuts that are available out there for you to use across a wide variety of apps and programs and just your computer’s operating system. And you have no reason to learn them all or even to worry that they all exist. However, if you’re interested in making things a little bit more efficient, especially when there’s a task that you’re repeating over and over again, then I would start looking into keyboard shortcuts. I’m a big fan. Knowing keyboard shortcuts its
00:03:51:39 – 00:04:06:05
a little bit of a superpower when you are using a computer. And just makes life just that little bit easier. Thanks for watching. Let me know in the comments what your favourite keyboard shortcut is or what you wish there was a keyboard shortcut for.
