Keyboard Shortcuts

Volume 1, Number 18

The standard keyboard is eighteen inches wide, has twenty-six letters, ten numbers (including zero), twelve Fn keys, and is bordered by an array of symbols and function keys including shift, tab, enter, and that little ~ symbol. Some keyboards are curved to fit the angle of the forearm and hands. Some are split. Some even have a built-in touchpad.

We really don’t 'type' anymore. Instead, we 'key'. The more sophisticated the software programs become, the more we 'mouse'. In fact, no matter what your choice of input device—a mouse, a trackball, or a combination mouse-trackball—or the design—horizontal or vertical—they all have certain hazards associated with reaching, awkward postures, and constant gripping. It's called overuse. Overuse is hazardous to soft tissues unless you do something differently.

In the case of computer use, doing something differently to lessen the likelihood of causing a musculoskeletal disorder might be to use keyboard shortcuts or commands. This requires letting go of the mouse and using combinations of keys to perform various functions. There are over 200 keyboard commands just for Microsoft Word. In a Word document, the keyboard command to save your work is Ctrl+S. This is much easier and faster than grabbing the mouse, moving it to point the cursor to the floppy disk symbol in the toolbar (assuming that it is there), then clicking.

Some examples of common keyboard shortcuts for a Windows Word document are:

To find all the available keyboard shortcuts in any program, go to your Menu Bar, click onto a command, and a drop down menu appears. The shortcut identifier will be an underlined letter in each menu choice. Although your toolbar can be customized to include frequently used functions by dragging and dropping the desired icon from your toolbar window, it still requires using the mouse to point and click. The idea is to get away from so much "mousing", especially if the device is positioned in such a way as to cause overreaching or forces the arm, elbow, hand, and/or wrist into awkward positions. Customized keyboard shortcuts can easily be created for various additional tasks by using the Tools>Customize option in Word.

To find all the available keyboard shortcuts for Windows, go to support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q126449. MAC users can find shortcuts at docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459.

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