There’s a proper way to use a keyboard shortcut

I get it, keyboard shortcuts have been around since computer keyboards were available. You know how to press the buttons. Bear with me on this because I know it may sound really daft but I want to talk about how to press the keyboard shortcut keys together.

At the end of the day, you basically need to press all the relevant keys together at the same time. Right? However, you don’t have to try and smash all the keys down at exactly the same time.

Instead let me explain what you need to do so that you don’t get your fingers tangled up trying to press things all over the keyboard.

Characters and Modifiers

First I’m going to split the keyboard up into two groups.

The first group are the keys that we use all the time – the letters, numbers and symbols. These are the keys that when you press them, something appears on the screen. The universal term for anything that appears on screen, letter, number or symbol is a character.

Now the second group are all of the others. When you press them nothing happens – things like shift, Caps Lock, CTRL, Command (CMD) if you’re using a Mac. The official term for these keys is ‘modifier’, as it changes what the character keys do.

The most used modifiers on Windows are CTRL, SHIFT and ALT for keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcut Tip #1

We all know that pressing the first group will get a character.

If you press SHIFT and the key you’ll either get a capital letter, or the character that’s printed at the top of the key.

For example – 1 gets the number, but SHIFT + 1 is for the exclamation mark (!).

Have you ever pressed and held one of these keys down?

It’s fine, I’ll wait while you have a quick go.

Yep, you got a whole bunch of the same character.

Great if you want to fill a line or cell, but not so useful when you’re using the keyboard shortcut.

So here’s the first tip, make sure that the last key you press for a shortcut is the character,

Which means that the first you want to press and hold the key that makes the character into a keyboard shortcut.

Then press the character and finally let go of all the keys.

Hmm, I suppose that’s the reason that the shortcuts are written with the modifier(s) first and the character last!

Two-key Shortcuts

This is pretty easy when you’ve just got two keys to press – CTRL + N, or CMD + A.

Press and hold CTRL or CMD, then press A, and let both keys go. You’ve just selected everything on screen with the select all option.

How fast or slow you press the sequence is up to you.

Remember you don’t have to press them at the exact same time!

Now what to do if the keys are on the opposite side of the keyboard?

This all depends on the type of keyboard that you’re using.

If you’re using a full external keyboard, then you normally have keys like CTRL and CMD on the left and the right side of the Spacebar.

You can use whichever key is most comfortable for you.

If you’re a typist, and by that I mean you use the right fingers for the right keys (or fairly close); and don’t need to look at the keyboard all the time. Then you already know that you press the modifier key (not the characters) on the opposite side to the character.

For example: A is on the left, so for a capital, you’ll press Shift on the right.

Likewise, O is on the right-side of the keyboard, so you press the Shift on the left.

When it comes to some of the keyboard shortcuts, you can use the same guideline if you want.

Or just use the modifier on the same side as the letter, so that you only need to use one hand for the most popular shortcuts.

However, not all keyboards are full size.

When it comes to laptops or travel keyboards, then the restricted space means that often there is only one of each key.

Based on the letter or symbol that you need to type, you will find that some options are still easy – A, S, D, F, Z etc. because they’re on the same side as pressing control or command.

But pressing control or command with L is going to be a bit of a stretch.

And that’s when I say that there’s nothing wrong with using both hands to press all the keys.

Find the option that is comfortable and works for you.

What about when there’s three keys to press?

This is the time that I tend to use two hands.

Of course there are exceptions, where I can use just one hand – perhaps I’m just that good?

No? It’s just that they are close enough together. 😥

OK, with three keys, two of them are modifiers and one is a character.

So this time, you’re pressing and holding down the first modifier, then adding the second modifier (still pressing and holding the first one) and finally pressing the character.

Now that the complete shortcut has been used, let go of all the keys.

If you’re in Word, try CTRL/CMD + ALT + 2.

You’ve just applied Heading 2 style to your line or text.

Are there four key shortcuts?

Thankfully not as standard.

But, some programs will let you create your own shortcuts.

Although four keys is definitely finger tangling time, so I’d avoid that many keys.

Next Steps

Of course you need to remember which keys do what – but I’m saving that for the next blog.

In the meantime, with the shortcuts that you know, practise the different options for pressing them to find out the option that’s most comfortable for you.