Did you ever notice that one letter in each of a program's menus is underlined? - The underlined letter is a keyboard shortcut to the menu. Hold down the Alt key while typing the underlined letter and the menu will pop up. Give it a try!
- You may also notice that in some menus, the choices are followed by a keyboard combinations, usually Ctrl + a letter. (It can involve other keys.) Ctrl+c is a keyboard shortcut for copy, Ctrl+x is a keyboard shortcut for cut.
Older programs (created before the mouse was a common input device) had to use the keyboard to access the menus. The popularity of the mouse has made pull down menus much more popular, but good typists frequently still prefer the keyboard.
| KEY | Command | | CTRL-z | Undo | | CTRL-x | Cut | | CTRL-c | Copy | | CTRL-v | Paste | | CTRL-a | Select All | | CTRL-n | New | | CTRL-o | Open | | CTRL-p | Print (with default settings) | | CTRL-s | Save |
In most programs, the menu options can still be accessed through the keyboard. If you are a good typist, shortcuts can be much faster than stopping to reach for the mouse.
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