'Taking shortcuts doesn't mean shortcutting the end result,' TV chef Sandra Lee tells us. And she certainly knows a thing or two about success. After all, as American mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher Rudy Rucker reiterates, 'Traditional science is all about finding shortcuts.'
CTRL + Left Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the Previous word. CTRL + Down Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph. CTRL + Up Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph. SHIFT + Any Arrow key: Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document. On most PC keyboards the ALT key is to the right of the Windows key – and the Ctrl key is to the left of the Windows key. Control key shortcuts. All of the above is a lot to remember so perhaps you should bookmark it by pressing the Control key plus D. That is, ctrl + D. Which brings us to Control key shortcuts for use in web browsers. On a keyboard, it is often possible to generate a control code using the control (Ctrl, Ctl) key and a normal key. The column ' Keys ' shows the keys used to generate the control code. ASCII Binary HTML Calculator IBM PC Morse Punch Card Extended Unicode Tables Octal Phonetic Papertape Pronunciation ANSI Apple Keyboards Hexadecimal VT100 Escape.
Knowing the correct shortcuts will make work easier and, in many cases, more fun. In this case, we're talking computer keyboard ALT key and CTRL key shortcuts.
ALT key shortcuts on your PC keyboard
| Alt Codes | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Alt 0224 | à | a grave |
| Alt 0225 | á | a acute |
| Alt 0226 | â | a circumflex |
| Alt 0227 | ã | a tilde |
| Alt 0228 | ä | a umlaut |
| Alt 0231 | ç | c cedilla |
| Alt 0232 | è | e grave |
| Alt 0233 | é | e acute |
| Alt 0234 | ê | e circumflex |
| Alt 0235 | ë | e umlaut |
| Alt 0236 | ì | i grave |
| Alt 0237 | í | i acute |
| Alt 0238 | î | i circumflex |
| Alt 0239 | ï | i umlaut |
| Alt 164 | ñ | n tilde |
| Alt 0242 | ò | o grave |
| Alt 0243 | ó | o acute |
| Alt 0244 | ô | o circumflex |
| Alt 0245 | õ | o tilde |
| Alt 0246 | ö | o umlaut |
| Alt 0154 | š | s caron |
| Alt 0249 | ù | u grave |
| Alt 0250 | ú | u acute |
| Alt 0251 | û | u circumflex |
| Alt 0252 | ü | u umlaut |
| Alt 0253 | ý | y acute |
| Alt 0255 | ÿ | y umlaut |
| Alt 0158 | ž | z caron |
ALT key accents in UPPER CASE
| Alt Codes | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Alt 0192 | À | A grave |
| Alt 0193 | Á | A acute |
| Alt 0194 | Â | A circumflex |
| Alt 0195 | Ã | A tilde |
| Alt 0196 | Ä | A umlaut |
| Alt 0199 | Ç | C cedilla |
| Alt 0200 | È | E grave |
| Alt 0201 | É | E acute |
| Alt 0202 | Ê | E circumflex |
| Alt 0203 | Ë | E umlaut |
| Alt 0204 | Ì | I grave |
| Alt 0205 | Í | I acute |
| Alt 0206 | Î | I circumflex |
| Alt 0207 | Ï | I umlaut |
| Alt 165 | Ñ | N tilde |
| Alt 0210 | Ò | O grave |
| Alt 0211 | Ó | O acute |
| Alt 0212 | Ô | O circumflex |
| Alt 0213 | Õ | O tilde |
| Alt 0214 | Ö | O umlaut |
| Alt 0138 | Š | S caron |
| Alt 0218 | Ú | U acute |
| Alt 0219 | Û | U circumflex |
| Alt 0220 | Ü | U umlaut |
| Alt 0217 | Ù | U grave |
| Alt 0221 | Ý | Y acute |
| Alt 0159 | Ÿ | Y umlaut |
| Alt 0142 | Ž | Z caron |
How to make symbols with ALT keys on your keyboard
| Alt 1 | ☺ | smiley face |
| Alt 2 | ☻ | black smiley face |
| Alt 3 | ♥ | Heart |
| Alt 4 | ♦ | Diamond |
| Alt 5 | ♣ | Club |
| Alt 6 | ♠ | spade |
| Alt 11 | ♂ | male sign |
| Alt 12 | ♀ | female sign |
| Alt 13 | ♪ | eighth note |
| Alt 14 | ♫ | beamed eighth note |
| Alt 15 | ¤ | sun |
| Alt 18 | ↕ | up/down arrow |
| Alt 24 | ↑ | up arrow |
| Alt 25 | ↓ | down arrow |
| Alt 26 | → | right arrow |
| Alt 27 | ← | left arrow |
| Alt 29 | ↔ | left right arrow |
| Alt 251 | √ | check mark / square root |
| Alt 252 | ⁿ | power n |
| Alt 8236 | , | infinity |
| Alt 8721 | ◄ | Nary summation (auto sum) |
| Alt 0153 | ™ | trademark symbol |
| Alt 0161 | ¡ | upside down exclamation poin |
| Alt 0162 | ¢ | cent sign |
| Alt 0169 | © | copyright |
| Alt 0174 | ® | registered trademark symbol |
| Alt 0176 | ° | degree symbol |
| Alt 0177 | ± | plus-or-minus |
| Alt 0178 | ² | squared |
| Alt 0179 | ³ | cubed |
| Alt 0182 | ¶ | paragraph mark |
| Alt 0190 | ¾ | fraction, three-fourths |
| Alt 0191 | ¿ | upside down question mark |
| Alt 0215 | × | multiplication sign |
On most PC keyboards the ALT key is to the right of the Windows key – and the Ctrl key is to the left of the Windows key.
Control key shortcuts
All of the above is a lot to remember so perhaps you should bookmark it by pressing the Control key plus D. That is, ctrl + D.
Which brings us to Control key shortcuts for use in web browsers. (Some keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word have different results than that for browsers.)
Here are the most commonly used Ctrl key shortcuts (remember to holds down the ctrl key plus the corresponding letter key at the same time) –
Ctrl A – Select all
Ctrl B – Bold
Ctrl C – Copy the highlighted text or selected item
Ctrl D – Bookmark the web page / Font window in word processors
Ctrl F – Find / Search
Ctrl I – Italic
Ctrl J – Justify
Ctrl N – New window
Ctrl O – Open
Ctrl P – Print
Ctrl Q – Quit application
Control Functions On Keyboard
Ctrl R – Refresh page Ultimate doom maps.
Ctrl S – Save
Ctrl T – Open new tab
Ctrl U – Underline
Ctrl V – Paste the text or object that's in the clipboard
Ctrl X – Cut
Ctrl Y – Redo the undo
Ctrl Z – Undo
Other Control key shortcuts
Ctrl + Esc – Open Start menu
Ctrl + Insert – Copy highlighted text or selected item
Ctrl + Tab – Switch between tabs in a program
Ctrl + Backspace – to delete a full word at a time instead of a single character
Ctrl + Home – Move to the beginning of the document
Ctrl + End – Move to the end of the document
Other keyboard shortcuts
Shift + Insert – Paste the text or object that's in the clipboard.
Computer Ctrl Functions
Windows Key + Tab – Switch through open programs in a full screenshot of the Window
All the shortcuts
There are many more shortcuts for the different operating systems. Microsoft lists the keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Google lists the keyboard shortcuts for the Chrome OS, shortcutworld shows the Linux keyboard shortcuts, at Apple you'll find the keyboard shortcuts for Mac and PC World shares the shortcuts for Android.
Please note the different uses for ALT and ALT GR (Alt Graph) key for Microsoft Office: 'The ALT GR key is on the right side of the keyboard on some non-U.S. keyboard layouts. ALT GR is equivalent to the CTRL+ALT key combination, and you can use it with other keys to enter additional characters.' All explained on this AltGr page.
The shortcut quotes
Control Key Symbols
The full quote by Sandra Lee is, 'Give yourself permission to get the most out of your life. If you're spending all your time scrubbing corners with a toothbrush, you're kind of missing the point. Taking shortcuts doesn't mean shortcutting the end result.'
To which perhaps you can echo Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, author of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, 'I'm lazy! I hate work! Hate hard work in all its forms! Clever shortcuts, that's all I'm about!'
