Shortcut keys
Why?
To make life easier for youself: in many situations, using a keyboard shortcut is quicker than reaching for the mouse, finding the mouse pointer and moving it to exacly the right place on the screen before clicking.
Not everything is quicker with the keyboard but below are some shortcuts that have saved me many hours and a load of pain over many years.
Ctrl | + A | hold down the Ctrl key while pressing A |
Pick 1 new shortcut you think you’ll use and, once it’s second nature, come back and pick another.
editing Windows Office apps Remote Desktop Chromebooks links
Tab ⇤ | cycle through options (e.g. login/password boxes, boxes in a form, links in a web page, etc - hold Shift to cycle backwards) Might not seem like a “shortcut key” but Tabbing to the next box in a form is much quicker than having to find the mouse each time |
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Enter ↵ | submit a form (rather than clicking Submit or OK e.g. when signing in) Like the Tab key, this is quicker than having to find the mouse |
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Alt | + Tab ⇤ | switch between open apps (hold Alt until you’ve highlighted the correct app) |
Shift  | + | highlight text from the cursor (hold Shift and use  or ) |
| Tip: having highlighted a section of text, simply start typing to replace it - no need to press Backspace or Delete | ||
Ctrl | + S | “Save” (universal in almost every application. Just remember to use it!) |
Alt | underline (or highlight) “access keys” in menus (to select options using the keyboard) | |
Most of these shortcuts are pretty universal across all apps
Ctrl | + Z | Undo |
Ctrl | + Y | Redo (this will sometimes repeat the last action if there’s nothing to redo) |
Ctrl | + A | Select all (highlight all the text and objects in your document) |
Shift | + | highlight text from the cursor (hold Shift and use or ) |
| Tip: having highlighted a section of text, simply start typing to replace it - no need to press Backspace or Delete | ||
Ctrl | + | skip to beginning of next word (use with Shift to highlight a word at a time) |
Alt | + Tab ⇤ | switch between open apps (hold Alt until you’ve highlighted the correct app) | |
| + E | Windows Explorer | ||
| + L | Lock the screen (so you can walk away without anyone else tampering with your system) | ||
Ctrl | + Z | Undo (even works if you wrongly renamed or moved a file) | |
Ctrl | + Y | Redo (if you changed you mind about the undo) | |
| + I | Settings | ||
| + X |  U U | Shut down | |
Ctrl | + Z | Undo (even works if you wrongly renamed or moved a file) |
Ctrl | + Y | Redo (if you changed you mind about the undo) |
F12 | Save As (instantly opens the Save As browse window) | |
Shift | + F3 | change case (   ) (cycles through lower, capitalised & upper cases of the current word or highlighte text) |
Ctrl | + 1 | format cell ( ) (opens the “Format Cells” box for the highlightes cells) |
Shortcuts for the remote computer inside a Remote Desktop window:
Alt | + Page Up | Alt+Tab (Alt+Page Down cycles the other way) |
Alt | + Insert | cycles through apps (in the order they were loaded) |
Alt | + Home |  Start menu |
Alt | + Delete | Alt+space (system menu) |
“Launcher” - opens the app launcher and search bar (used to be  “Search” key) |
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Ctrl | + | + S | Key Shortcuts window | |
| + L | Lock the screen (so you can walk away without anyone else tampering with your system) | |||
| + Back- space ← | Delete (delete a file or delete the character to the right of the cursor) | |||
Shift | + Alt | + M | opens the  Files app |
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Ctrl | + | take a screenshot | ||
virtual desks |
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| display all virtual desks, open windows and active applications | ||||
| + ] | switch to the next virtual desk on the right (or  +[ to go left) |
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zooming |
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Ctrl | + + = | web page zoom in (works in most browsers) | ||
Ctrl | + _  - | web page zoom out (works in most browsers) | ||
Ctrl | + 0 | web page reset zoom to 100% (works in most browsers) | ||
Ctrl | + Shift | + + = | Chromebook screen zoom in | |
Ctrl | + Shift | + _ - | Chromebook screen zoom out | |
Ctrl | + Shift | + 0 | Chromebook screen reset zoom to 100% | |
accessibility |
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Ctrl | + Alt | + Z | turn spoken feedback (ChromeVox) on (or off - an Accessibility option) | |
Ctrl | + | + H | turn high contrast mode on (or off - an Accessibility option) | |
Ctrl | + | + M | turn magnify your whole screen on (or off - an Accessibility option) | |
system |
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Shift | + Alt | + L | highlight Launcher (press space or Enter to open the menu) |
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Shift | + | + | right-click menu | |
Shift | + Alt | + S | quick settings | |
Ctrl | + Shift | + Q | (twice)sign out | |
| + | restart (also + + for 10 seconds)- to “Powerwash” (reset to factory settings), sign out and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R |
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Links
Windows - Remote Desktop 
shortcut keys
Google - Chromebook 
keyboard shortcuts
Reset your Chromebook hardware
