Only one in 10 know what Ctrl-F does

[ErikJ]

I never knew this either. This will help a lot in my research.

Only one in 10 know what Ctrl-F does - here are shortcuts you should know

"I interviewed a bus driver who was searching for a transportation rule for a test," Mr Russell told the New Scientist magazine in an interview published yesterday.
"She was scrolling line-by-line through a 100-page web document, so I asked her why she didn't use 'control+F' to search by keyword. It turns out she didn't know about this absolutely basic browser function."
Advertisement
(NB: Where the CTRL-F "find" box appears on your computer screen depends on which browser you use - for instance, a box will appear top left of your computer screen if you use Internet Explorer, bottom left if you use Firefox, top right if you use Chrome.)
So how can 90 per cent of users not be aware of this simple but useful shortcut?
Mark Pesce, a futurist and honorary associate in digital cultures at the University of Sydney, said it was all about the lack of education.

"I really think there's been no effort at any level - whether it's in a company or school or even nationally - to teach people.
"I think we just all assume that we all know it, but no one actually does."
Mr Pesce said the responsibility to educate the public on such tools could fall on librarians, who use search tools as part of their job.
He told public librarians at their annual meeting this month they were "going to be principally responsible for training a nation that's about to get a National Broadband Network, [and] that has no idea how to use it".
"The problem exists because people are habitually trained by what they always do on computers and they don't go beyond that.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/only-one-in-10-know-what-ctrlf-does--here-are-shortcuts-you-should-know-20111130-1o69d.html#ixzz2EsFYVxNG
..........................

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/only-one-in-10-know-what-ctrlf-does--here-are-shortcuts-you-should-know-20111130-1o69d.html#ixzz2EsEuNxjr

[panAmerican]

1. FIND!!!

But then again all professional nerds know that

[JaneyVee]

112. I use control F probably 20x a day. Love it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. control WHAT?

not on macs, Erik.

[cbayer]

3. command-f on macs

[truedelphi]

7. My son sent me a Mac a long time go

And I have never ever found any book on Macs that detaisl the names of the various keys. So I can buy a book on Macs that says, use such and such a key to do this function, but I am not sure what key it refers to. Would love help with that.

The most basic books on Macs assume you already know the names that have been designated for the various keys.

[Science Geek]

11. Google is your friend...

http://guides.macrumors.com/Keyboard_shortcuts

[cbayer]

12. You may want to ramble around your keyboard preferences.

There is a section in there on keyboard shortcuts.

While they are not all listed, many are and you can turn them on or off or change them.

Here is an article from apple about shortcuts that does seem very comprehensive:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Good luck!

[Art_from_Ark]

115. When you're in some program or mode in Mac OS,

for example, Finder, you can click the items in the menu at the top of the screen, and the shortcut (if there is one) will be shown to the right of the command name. For example, if you click "File" in the menu, you will see that Command + N means "open new Finder window", Command + O means "open file" (whatever you have highlighted at the time), Command + W means "close window", and so on.

[truedelphi]

118. Thank you Art_from_Ark, except that much I knew

Here is what I don't know - the names for the actual keys on the keyboard.

For instance, over on the left hand side, to the left of the alphabet keys, there is a key that says, "Fn"
I( am assuming that key might be called "Function" key?

There's a cntrl key, I figure that's control

Also alt option key; it's gotta be alt

But what is the name for the key that has both the apple icon and also what looks like a very flowery "X" on it?

The names of those would be very helpful.
Especially the one I put in Bold.

Thanks in advance.

[Art_from_Ark]

121. The "flowery X" (with the Apple symbol) is the Command key

Probably the most useful shortcut key on my keyboard

[truedelphi]

122. Thanks. One other DU'er sent me same info

In a PM to me. It will make the Mac For Dummy's books and others I have on Macs something that are now totally readable.

You would think a basic book on a machine would somewhere tell you this, right?

[lunatica]

18. My Mac has no command key

I've tried control f, option f and apple f. Nothing.

[cbayer]

31. What browser are you using?

It's the apple-f key. In safari, it opens the find window in the top right corner of browser page. In Firefox, it opens it in the toolbar at the bottom of the page.

[lunatica]

39. Thank you! I use Firefox and there it is in the bottom left corner!

[cbayer]

43. So you can just click "next" once you have entered the term and see each

instance of it.

It's a great tool, imo.

[lunatica]

45. I love using F9 and F11

I work in two different departments daily. In one I use a PC and in the other a Mac. Not a day goes by that I don't curse the PC for not having the F9 and F11 abilities to look at my desktop or showing me all the open pages I have. I know the PC has then at the bottom, but sometimes I just want to look on at the desktop to open something I know is there without having to reduce everything first.

[backscatter712]

99. I rig my Linux box to do an equivalent to OSX's Expose when I throw the mouse to the corner. n/t

[TeeYiYi]

71. Command G will take you to the next instance. Much faster than clicking on 'Next'. ...nt

TYY

[CTyankee]

68. I don't see it. When I click on the Mozilla Firefox icon on my desk top it opens to

the aol homepage where I have my email. What am I missing?

[lunatica]

73. click on apple and the F key at the same time (if you have a Mac)

Then look in the lower left corner. You should see a find option where you can type a word to find on the page you're on.

[CTyankee]

111. I don't have a Mac. I have Windows Vista. What should I look for?

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Mostly I just use Spotlight.

Or DevonSphere.

What will <cmd>F do for me that those won't?

[cbayer]

42. It searches the page you are currently on.

Then you can click through every instance of that word.

If I wanted to see if you had made any other posts in this thread, I just command-f, type in the first few letters of your name and it will tall me how many instances. Then I can click through easily, even if the thread had hundreds of replies.

It is probably the short cut I use the most, both on DU and pretty much any site I go to. I particularly like it when I am perusing a long news story and want to see where they might discuss x, y or z.

[Phillip McCleod]

38. otherwise known as 'open-apple F'

for those of us old enough to remember when there was such a thing as 'closed-apple'

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Really?

I still use all those old codes. Years of DOS.

[StatGirl]

51. Yep!

Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Alt-tab, Ctrl-V. Leaves the kids with their mouths agape. A mouse just slows you down.

(Love Ctrl-End in Excel, too.)

[laundry_queen]

56. I'll bite

what does CTRL-end do? Funny you should say kids - I'm an older person (late 30's) back in university and the younger kids run circles around me when it comes to using shortcuts, especially on excel. They're even faster than me on the internet, and I've been on the net since most of them were in diapers. I don't get it.

[StatGirl]

100. CTRL-End

It takes you to the bottom right corner of the spreadsheet. Since I deal in data, it exposes all the blank rows and columns that have to be deleted before the spreadsheet is fit to be imported for real statistical analysis.

(It's also just good for rapidly copying a whole table into another program, usually Word, for display.)

[hootinholler]

105. Applys to more than XL and word

ctrl-end takes you to the bitter end of whatever you are on.

[dragonlady]

69. Don't forget Ctrl-Z

I really love Ctrl-Z, the "Undo" function. Saves so much time.

[Yavin4]

70. I was hitting Ctrl-Z all through the Bush years

Didn't work.

[hootinholler]

106. Unless you're on a unix box...

Then it puts the foreground task to 'sleep' (get it? catch some z's) so you can do something else while it waits on you. If you sleep something and still want it to run hten the first thing you type after the ctrl-z is the command: bg for background, which tells the sleeper to get to work while you do something.

[Victor_c3]

119. don't forget Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y

those are "undo" and "redo". I use those all the time in microsoft office. Ctrl-Z works in most programs while Ctrl-Y doesn't always work.

[unhappycamper]

120. Add Ctrl-X and Ctrl-Home to your list. n/t

[Lizzie Poppet]

5. What does Ctrl+F do? Search me.

See what I did there...?

[Jackpine Radical]

35. Yes, and

you deserve punishment for it.

[SoCalDem]

48. are you dancing with Secretariat?

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. I'm kind of stunned by the number of people who are ignorant of basic keyboard shortcuts

I suppose that the graphical interface leads people to want to do everything with the mouse. But, really, how the fuck can you use a computer for any length of time and not know this? It's a basic function in not just browsers but in word processors, spreadsheet programs, and so on.

[truedelphi]

9. Hey, we live inside a society where

Last edited Thu Dec 13, 2012, 04:39 PM - Edit history (1)

4 out of three people don't understand ratios. (A car bumper sticker just offered up that bit of wisdom!)

And people under the age of thirty can't give a person the right amount of change unless the cash register tell sthemhow much to give.

What is missing is the basics. I tutored kids for a while, and fractions really were the "tripping point." Once a kid doesn't get to understand how fractions work, they can't do much math from that point on. And they think they are stupid - but it's just that fractions apparently are not properly taught in school.

[progressoid]

50. 4 out of three people don't understand ratios.

I received change yesterday the old fashioned way. The cashier counted it out from low to high...34, 35, 40, 50, 1 dollar etc. Made me smile.

[ErikJ]

14. Google used to highlight the word you were searching for under "cache" but they

now use a system that sucks and I can never find the word I'm looking for.

[Care Acutely]

96. I miss that too :-( . . nt

[DollarBillHines]

21. I have been using computers for 15 years and did not understand the 1st para in the OP

I do not know how to attach a document to an email or send a pic.

I have no idea what the OP was even trying to convey because I don't understand the terminology.

But I don't care, because I have people who do that stuff for me.

[SoCalDem]

49. A LOT of us oldtimers have "taught" ourselves

GIGO..

What you don't know, cannot be taught easily

We fumble around using the Rumsfeld Method “ There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”

—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

[L0oniX]

76. A dead mouse will invoke a curiosity about keyboard shortcuts quickly.

[Warren DeMontague]

79. My wife can't figure out how to use a plunger

So, go figure.

[sakabatou]

8. Reminds me of this (video)

[Skittles]

15. I had to make programmers change a message for the offshore folk

it was an informative WTOR (write to operator reply) - essentially said THIS PROCESS COMPLETE; PRESS ANY KEY - the offshore folk just did not get it

[ieoeja]

74. I told a woman in Italy to "run" a program. She moved it. I tried telling her to "execute" it.

Guess what she did.



And I can really only blame myself. She did exactly what I told her. It just wasn't what I meant.

That was in '91 and one of my earliest experiences working with someone overseas. I started being really careful with my speech after that.

[Skittles]

81. doesn't matter how well you train them

they are a dime a dozen and apparently do not train each other

[ieoeja]

95. We are not an American institute.

While our first office was in the US and founded by two Americans, our second office was in Caracas and founded by Venezulans. The Chicago and Caracas companies merged. That is the model that has been followed by my employer for over 60 years.

No one country has a majority, or even close, of our partners, employees or customers.

I may refer to "overseas" offices, but that is perspective to where I happen to be located. From my employers perspective there is no overseas because we have always been there too.

Okay, we aren't on Antartica. I suppose that would qualify as overseas.


That said, I have some experience with what you say. When I started at the Global office for my employer, we only had one such office. We have since created Global offices in a couple other locations staffed primarily with computer techs. In one instance it worked pretty well. In the other ... it is pretty much as you say. They do what they are told and no more.

When we were opening those, I suggested that we should setup Global accounting overseas. We have a hard time bringing overseas programmers up to speed. But accounting is pretty much the same the world over. And the basics haven't changed much in a thousand years.

You would have thought I had thrown a live hand grenade into the room. The bean counters who decided we should move IT jobs overseas had all sorts of reasons why their jobs could not possibly be done overseas.

[hootinholler]

26. Back in the day the standard reply to which is the any key was

The big red key on the side of the box, which was the power switch.

[RKP5637]

32. LOL

[ErikJ]

10. I still cant find shortcut for "go to next page"

Which is what I was searching for. One said "alt + right arrow" which didnt work.

[Science Geek]

16. There isn't one...

The next page is determined by a link on the present page, there is no standard way of creating a next page link on the web, so it will differ from site to site.

[jeff47]

20. Actually, there is.

But for it to work, there has to be a "next page". Meaning alt-right arrow only works after you've gone back one or more pages.

[Science Geek]

22. That's "Forward"...

as in Back and Forward.

[ErikJ]

36. Ahh-yes. That works. Thanks.

Sometimes it hard to get back to the NEXT arrow and/or its hard to hit the tiny page numbers, so I wish there was a short-cut for that.

[Recursion]

90. That takes semantic links, but when pages have them (few do) it's control + right arrow (nt)

[Skittles]

13. I do CTL-F dozens of times a night at work

yes INDEED

[madinmaryland]

58. Click on "Edit" then click on "Find" Yes INDEEDY!!

That's what I do. No Ass kicking required!

[Skittles]

64. in the 50+ screens I monitor

not all have an EDIT function

[sofa king]

88. Just now...

... I said to myself, "hmm, I can't remember which one that is...

So I called up this page, and automatically hit Ctrl + F to find the answer....

[Control-Z]

17. And not just browser windows.

Ctrl-F works the same in other programs as well. If you're not sure where, just try it. It will open a search box if the program uses it. I use menu-F on my smart phone.

And then there is the very best control function of all. Ctrl-Z. It will undo or erase whatever you've just done and in many programs it will take you back 20 steps or more. By default, Photoshop takes you back just one (though you can go farther back with the history window). Here in a DU post, it is more, though I've never counted how many. Like Ctrl-F, if you don't know where it will work, just try it.

[Blue_In_AK]

27. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V are two I used a lot

when I was a legal sec.

[Recursion]

91. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V are supplied by the operating system, unlike Ctrl-F

Ctrl-F may or may not search for text (if the program has a text search feature, having a shortcut other than Ctrl-F is Broken and Wrong, but some do it anyways).

[jeff47]

19. It's not user education.

It's the stupidity of trying to get rid of menus.

Back in the day, the users could look through the menus and find functionality they were not aware of.

Now that the trend is to get rid of the menu, users have no way to naturally find the functionality in their program - they have to be told what's there because there is nowhere to look.

[Science Geek]

28. Bingo

Lots of programs now hide the menu bar if they have one at all. Sometimes pressing ALT will show the menu bar.
This practice is HORRIBLE UI design. Menus often have the shortcut key legends on them, so you can learn the keys by studying the menu.

This is what you get when you design a program by committee and someone from the art department says it needs a "clean" look.
Functionality and ease of use suffer for sake of aesthetic design.

[RC]

54. Windows 7 is bad for that.

Screw that "Clean" look. I want functionality! I didn't buy that computer to look pretty. I bought it to do stuff.

With some unnecessary work, you can get most of the menus back.

[eppur_se_muova]

63. One more reason to be grateful to Microsoft.

I can hardly use the latest versions of their apps; I sure as Hell won't pay money for them.

I've just got to finish my $8 Linux box this week.

[Cresent City Kid]

66. Did Microsoft peak at XP?

I've only heard horror stories about Vista, never seen it in action. I worked on one coworker's computer with Windows 7, and except for a slicker look I don't see any advantage. Then Windows 8 was released soon afterwards, making me wonder if there's something wrong with 7.

The speed of the new releases is shortening time spans and changing our definition of "old". I use Adobe Creative Suite 3 in my work as a printer, which works for me and nothing useful was added in versions 4,5, and 6 for printing anyway. Programs that came out a few years ago are still sophisticated and functional, but some people act like you just pulled up on a horse & buggy if you don't have the latest thing.

[Science Geek]

84. Yes.

[eppur_se_muova]

117. Apparently so. I've used Windows7 Enterprise ed. and it barely works with 1.5 GB.

At this point I think the "improvements", except for processor compatibility, are largely makework, and it's a PITA to have to readjust to them.

[hootinholler]

23. A lack of RTFM

Read(ing) The Friendly Manual.

[Jackpine Radical]

40. Friendly?

I always thought the F stood for something else.

[hootinholler]

60. Yeah, that's the management version

When they say, you didn't really tell the customer to RTFM, did you? We'd say of course I suggested they read the friendly manual.

[RC]

55. The problem is now a days, the manual is a little too friendly.

It doesn't really tell you much except the bare bones basic to get started.

[csziggy]

103. You don't even get a "fine" manual anymore

Maybe a PDF on the CD if you're lucky. Most of the time you have to use the Help function - which is now hidden in most Windows programs. Or it's now an online thing which is no good if you're offline.

About half the answers to the tech support questions I get from friends and family can be found in the Help or in a manual but people don't know how to look stuff up. The rest can be found by a well phrased Google search - but people don't know how to ask the right questions.

[-..__...]

24. You can use F3 in Firefox or Thunderbird.

Most of the time... i just use the mouse and "Edit" > "find".

Tip... opening a drop down box (or from the menu), and hitting Ctrl + the letter that is underscored, will perform that function.

[Bucky]

25. Fucking anti-elitists. If EVERYONE knew these, they wouldn't be "shortcuts"; they'd be techniques.

[Bucky]

29. What's this "Shift+Cntl+Z" crap? In my day we used "Cntl+Y" to redo... and we liked it that way!

[pokerfan]

61. Ctrl+Shift+T is my favorite obscure browser shortcut

Magically resurrects the last closed tab in Firefox. I can't count the number of times I close a tab and then immediately wish I hadn't done that. It's like locking your keys in the car. Before I discovered Ctrl+Shift+T I would have to open the browser history. Ctrl+Shift+T is much faster.

[JackRiddler]

62. THANK YOU!

I've been looking for that a long time and decided Firefox must not have it. (In Opera, it's Ctrl-Z.)

[renate]

83. it works in Google too!

Awesome! Thanks!

Edited because D'oh! Not in Google, in Chrome.

[pokerfan]

97. all my tabby shortcuts

I use these without thinking anymore...

ctrl+t <===> open a new tab
ctrl+w <===> close the current tab
ctrl+shift+t <===> jundo close tab
ctrl+pgup <===> jump to the next tab
ctrl+pgdn <===> jump to the previous tab
ctrl+1...8 <===> jump to one of the first eight tabs
ctrl+9 <===> jump to the last tab

[Raidel]

30. Hmmm

Sad but it's true.....I've told people about it and it amazes me at how surprised they are to know it exists.

[slampoet]

33. These are the people who refused to learn computer in the 1980's and 1990's and then.....

...finally decided to use computers in the 2000's and still refused to learn about them because "after all they are just point and click these days."

As a tech support person these people have wasted months of my life while wasting hours of their lives every day.


I know an older guy who was 50 and a doctor when computers hit his office in 1978

He refused to learn computers for over 30 years and now constantly wastes the time of myself and at least 3 other care givers haranguing us to fix his self-inflicted computer problems. He prints out 2-3 reams of paper every month just because he refuses to learn to use a word processing program to edit. He prints out emails and then retypes them to forward to others. Insists on visiting "investment" sites that are giving him viruses, I've had to install a child-lock system.

[lunatica]

44. Think of him as keeping you employed.

[slampoet]

59. I'm a care giver. I don't get paid.

[MineralMan]

37. I use that shortcut constantly. It saves tons of time,

especially in long threads on DU.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

41. in vim it's 'page down' n/t

[Recursion]

92. or forward slash, in control mode (nt)

[1StrongBlackMan]

46. I wish I had know this earlier. n/t

[ErikJ]

47. Me too!

I used to use Google cache which would highlight the word you were looking for but they got rid of that for some reason about 2 years ago. But this will work with regular documents etc too, not only Google searches.

[StatGirl]

101. Google cache still exists

You have to mouse over the area at the right side of the entry, and a double arrow will appear with more information (including a link to the cache).

[ErikJ]

108. It doesnt work!

Yes I have long known about that feature but if you hit cache (which often doesnt appear) the words wanted still are not highlighted. And I can never find the phrase they outline --it sucks!

[StatGirl]

110. That's odd . . .

. . . it worked for me. Using IE 9 (not by choice).

[sendero]

52. To elaborate...

.. on the PC (I know nothing about Macs) the Ctrl-F key is implemented and handled by the APPLICATION PROGRAM. While most programs accept Ctrl-F as "search" and F3 as "find next", it is not by any means guaranteed, it's up to whoever coded the application.

But as far as I know all browsers implement this, as well as all Microsoft Office applications.

[wandy]

53. The wonderful world of Windoz has a large number of shortcut key combinations.....

Here is a list from Microsoft.....
Keyboard shortcuts for Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

Depending upon keyboard and third party software, you're milage may vary.

[annabanana]

57. If only someone would make a SONG to a familiar tune. . . . .

to teach us the shortcuts!

Kind of like this:

[Incitatus]

65. I can believe that only 1 in 10 people know that.

But I doubt that only 10% of people who use computers for more than 1 hour a day know it.

I help several friends and family members all the time with computer issues and I do not consider myself to be an expert, but many of the problems I help them with are very simple to me.

[Mr Dixon]

67. Nice

I will use this from now on

[dkf]

72. I can't tell you if it's control or alt f because its second nature.

Just like a select row is a pinky to the right and a space bar. Lol.

[L0oniX]

75. Hell ...lots of people don't know about Ctrl-V either. DUH!

[jberryhill]

77. That's entirely software dependent

I hardly ever use keyboard shortcuts.

You wanna know what all the function keys did in WordPerfect 5.0 twelve years ago? Because I still remember.

Knowing that stuff is not "education".

"Education" is figuring there are probably shortcuts and looking for them in the menus or help documentation for the program at hand.

Memorizing random arbitrary shit is just memorizing random arbitrary shit.

[ladjf]

78. That's cool. I need that function. Thanks. nt

[Xithras]

80. You'd be shocked at the number of COMPUTER SCIENCE students I used to see who didn't

We're not talking about the "Introduction to Computing" students, but full-on wannabe Windows app programmers who couldn't tell you the functional differences between CTRL-F, CTRL-X, and ALT-TAB.

I get that many people may never have need for many of the less common Windows commands (like SHIFT-DELETE to delete immediately and skip the recycle bin), but if you can't copy and paste using a keyboard, you really aren't self motivated enough to do this stuff for a living. Sorry.

[davsand]

82. At one time they called those "power user" tricks.

I remember being sent out on a temp assignment to a company that used a proprietary software for almost everything they did. The guy training me gave me a raft of (good natured) crap that I had been sandbagging when I told them I was gonna need a crash course on that software if they wanted me to do anything more than sit there and occupy space. He was much bemused to see me using Ctrl C and Ctrl V. (Not to mention, the (gasp!) shock of seeing me use the RIGHT mouse button!)

Up to then, I just assumed everybody knew that stuff...





Laura

[gkhouston]

86. At one time, there were called "coke bottle" sequences

because the people who knew/used them were computer users before the computer mouse.

[UTUSN]

85. Not surprising: Few know what GD SoP is good for, either. Sniff. n/t

[lastlib]

87. As a graduate of the Hard Knocks Institute of Technology...

...I had the joy of learning many of these shortcuts.

A lot of people don't know that Ctrl-; is an MS Office shortcut to enter the current date. Shift-Ctrl-; enters the current time. Great to know in Excel & Access.

[Recursion]

89. The slash key works on Firefox, too. If you remember why, you're a geezer like me... (nt)

[sdfernando]

93. People have become too dependent on the mouse

I've worked with computers since before DOS and WINDOWS and have always preferred keeping my fingers on the keyboard whenever possible. Keyboard shortcuts help you work faster saving you the trouble of grabbing and positioning the mouse and clicking, or double-clicking, or right-clicking, or whatever. I can do things much faster than co-workers who never learned the shortcuts.

[SheilaT]

94. Most people think that the keyboard

only exists if they're actually typing something.

I'm not a programmer, but I've been using computers since 1969, when I went to work as an airline ticket agent and my small airline was the second airline in this country to get a computerized reservation system. Everything was a command line, and I got very comfortable with it. I resisted Windows for several years after it was clear everything would be a graphic interface. I still prefer to use keyboard commands, and have just amazed younger people at how quickly I can do things, because I don't have to take my hand off the keyboard and use the mouse.

But I did not know about CTRL-F. Thanks.

[backscatter712]

98. Learn your hotkeys - speeds things up a lot!

Here are some common ones.

Ctrl-F or F3 to find (duh).
F5 to refresh your web page.
F6 to instantly bring your text cursor to your browser's address bar, so you can type in a new adddress. Most browsers have a smart address bar, which enables you to get a common address out of your history by typing the first two or three letters. For me, I can get to DU in 2 seconds flat by hitting Ctrl-T to start a new tab, hitting F6, then typing "de" which instantly brings up "http://democraticunderground.com", then hitting enter.
Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V to cut, copy and paste, respectively.
Ctrl-T to start a new tab, Ctrl-W to close the current tab.
Ctrl-Z to undo - saves my ass frequently.

I often amaze people by how fast I can do tasks, when they labor to do the same thing with the mouse and take ten times as long.

Then again, I have a computer science degree, and I was playing with computers since I was a kid with an Atari 400, hacked DOS before Windows became widespread, did Windows since 3.0, got fed up with DOS and Windows and started hacking Linux back when it was Linus Torvalds' pet project during his college days.

[liberal N proud]

102. There are dozens of tools in Windows that most users have no clue about

And the terms for many change with Windows 8 just to confuse people that much more.

[JoePhilly]

104. The reason for this is historical and goes back to the pre-GUI days of computer usage.

I wonder how many folks here know what GUI stands for?

GUI = Graphical User Interface.

In the early days of "end user computing", there was no mouse, no windows, no menu bar, no drop down lists.

If you wanted to write a document, you started an application, which immediately took over your full screen. Frequently, that full screen was black, with green words.

If you wanted to print your document, there was no printer icon, no printer menu. You went to the manual, and you learned that if you wanted to Print, you needed to press CTRL+P.

But what if you wanted to move some selected text from one part of the document to another. You needed to learn that CRTL+X would delete (and copy) the text. And then you wanted to past it in, so you hit CTRL+P, to "paste" that content.

Oooops. Now your document is Printing.

If you wanted to past, you needed to click CTRL+V ... take makes sense!! Well, if you are a developer, it makes sense. The "P" is already used for Print ... so how do I "insert" the copied text. Ahhhh ... CRTL+I ... ooops, no, that's not it, now my text is in Italics.

But wait ... CRTL+V ... the "V" is like a pointer down!!! Yes, CRTL+V drops the copied text "down" at this spot. Perfect!!!

Early on, various products used CRTL+(letter) for all kinds of things. Soon, product conflicts appeared. And the OS had its own set. And so, some where in the early 90s, computer groups, including competitors, worked to standardize.

As GUIs came into use, and evolved, new issues arose. You could use the keyboard to select a particular menu, and then use the up and down arrows ... or, use one of the older accelerators.

Over time, people found that remembering odd key combinations interfered with having their brain work on the issues of the task at hand. In other words, if I am trying to help you decide which medical procedure is best for you, my brain needs to be focused on THAT, and not on trying to recall which key combination will Print the current document.

Server administrators, particularly those who have been around for a while, hate GUIs. They prefer command line. They have memorized all of the commands, they don't need a GUI to navigate to find the command they want.

Same thing happens here. Most people are focused on their work. They are applying their brain power to THAT task. The GUI gives them a simply way to find the commands they need without thinking much about it. SO many people never learn the "fast paths".

For some functions, like a few you mention, they can use these to speed up their efforts.

But they can often do just fine without them. Which is why they never learn them in the first place.

[hootinholler]

107. Buncha WIMPs

The GUI is aka the WIMP interface: Windows Icon Mouse Pointer.

[JoePhilly]

109. LOL ... I totally forgot the WIMP acronym!!!!

[Hatchling]

113. Son of a Gun!

That is soooo much easier tham going to edit, find page. TY!

[bluestate10]

114. Search normally. nt

[KoKo]

116. Fascinating Post with lots of Info from Tech People helpful to all of Us...who use

different systems and and learned to cope ..but, that there are so many differences of opinion as to how people Navigate Internets...is quite revealing in this thread.

It's WONDERFUl!