April 1997 - Volume 13:8
By John Mulhern III
Want to get repetitive work done quickly? Start learning some keyboard commands. For every keyboard command you learn, you could save 2-3 (or more) movements of your mouse!
Both Mac OS and Win95 have basic editing and file manipulation commands that work across almost every application. Learn them first:
MacintoshUsers of the original Macintosh were expected to use the mouse for almost everything except direct keyboard input. Much has changed since 1984. In fact, System 7.5 (and above) have a "Shortcuts" Apple Guide devoted to keyboard commands (available under the "?" icon on the right side of the menu bar. Among the most valuable shortcuts are:
Windows 95In contrast to the Macintosh, Windows has always been designed with extensive keyboard commands. Windows 95 has many, and among the most valuable are:
Navigating NetscapeClicking and holding the mouse button (on the Macintosh) or right-clicking the mouse (in Windows 95) on almost any object in Netscape 2.x and up will bring up a context-sensitive menu. For example, clicking and holding/right clicking on a hyperlink will bring up these choices: Back, Forward, Open this Link, Add Bookmark for this Link, New Window with this Link, Save this Link as..., and Copy this Link Location. One very useful context-sensitive menu item comes up when you click and hold/right click on an image: selecting "Save this Image as... allows you to save any GIF or JPEG to your hard drive.
How many times have you opened a new link and scanned the text for items of interest and not used the Find/Find Again functions? The keyboard commands Apple-F/Control-F (for Find) and Apple-G/F3 (for Find Again) can speed up the process of locating information on the web, as well as in many of your other applications.
Full CircleKeyboard commands can be valuable; however, some tasks can often be done quicker via drag-and-drop than via keyboard commands. Dragging a file and dropping it on a desktop alias of the application that created it has become a common way to open a file. But did you know that you can drag-and-drop an HTML or image file on your desktop into an open Netscape Navigator window? Macintosh applications currently seem to support more extensive drag-and-drop features than Windows 95. For instance, you you can drag an image from a web page and drop it on the desktop or in any folder. You can also use drag-and-drop to put or get a file or folder on an ftp site using Fetch? Spend some time experimenting with drag-and-drop in your favorite applications; you may be surprised at how quickly you can do a variety of common tasks.
JOHN MULHERN III is a Consultant, ISC Client Services Group.