What is a keyboard shortcut?(What is, Concept and Definition)

A keyboard shortcut is one or more keys that are used to perform a menu function or other common functions in a program or operating system.

Keyboard shortcuts are generally not as intuitive as mouse point-and-click actions, however novice users can use them in frequently used programs to get to places much faster than using the mouse.

Note

A keyboard shortcut can also be called acceleration key , access key , hot key , shortcut or shortcut key .

How to use a keyboard shortcut

A keyboard shortcut is activated with a key combination: pressing two or more keys at the same time on the keyboard.These keys include at least one modifier key in combination with one or more keys.

Like most computer documentation, Definition and Concept lists keyboard shortcuts with one more symbol between them indicating that both keys must be pressed at the same time, for example, the keyboard shortcut to select all text.is Ctrl + A .To use this shortcut, press and hold Ctrl , then press " A ", then release both keys.

Note

On Windows operating systems, keyboard shortcuts are not case sensitive.So even though the shortcut Ctrl + A is written with a capital "A", a lower case "a" also activates the shortcut.

Note

Although we follow the above method of displaying a keyboard shortcut, some documentation may include a shortcut key like ^ A instead of Ctrl + A.Cursor (^) in front of a letter, number, or series of letters and numbers also indicates the Ctrl key.

Function key keyboard shortcuts

Although most keyboard shortcuts are two or more keys, the function keys at the top of the keyboard can also use themselves as a shortcut key, for example the F7 key in Microsoft Word and other Microsoft programs is the hotkey for the spell checker.Function keys can also be used with other modifier keys to perform additional functions.For example, Shift + F7 (press and hold the Shift key while pressing the F7 key) opens a Thesaurus in Microsoft Word.

How to identify and learn keyboard shortcuts

For most programs with a file menu, keyboard shortcuts can be seen by examining which letters are underlined in the menu.Some programs may also display the shortcut key to the right of all drop-down options from the files menu.

For example, in the image, the "F" in File is underlined.This indicates that you can hold down the Alt key and press "F" to access the file menu.

Tip

All menu options in the main file (eg File, Edit, View, etc.) are accessed with the Alt key and the underlined letter.

Note

If your program has a file menu, but none of the letters are underlined, it may not display underlined characters until you hold down the Alt key.If your program does not have a file menu, keyboard shortcuts They cannot be learned using this method and they would have to learn from the product documentation or our shortcut list.

In the same image above, you can see that some of the common features, like Open (Ctrl + O) and Save (Ctrl + S), have shortcut keys assigned to them.When you start memorizing shortcut keys, you will notice that many applications share the same shortcut keys.

How to enable keyboard shortcut underlining of a program

With newer versions of Windows, most programs no longer display the underlined keyboard shortcut until you hold down the Alt key.To re-enable this feature, follow the instructions below.

1. Open Control Panel


2. In Control Panel, click Ease of Access


3. In Ease of Access, click Change how it works your keyboard


4. Finally, check the Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys and then click OK.