Use SHIFT for Reverse
I vaguely remember when I learned this incredible trick in college, and it has saved me from reaching for the mouse any more than is absolutely necessary. If you can’t already tell, I’m a keystroke kinda guy. The mouse is great and all, I just prefer leaving my hands in one place where I can achieve the same result much faster.
I think everyone knows that TAB moves you through fields on a form. Did you know that SHIFT-TAB moves you through those same fields, but in reverse? No longer do you have to use the mouse to go back two fields, or heaven forbid you cycle completely through to get back there; just add a little SHIFT to your diet.
I hope everyone is familiar with the ALT-TAB (CMD-TAB on Mac) application switcher. If not, go ahead, give it a whirl. When you finish that exciting experience all you have to do is throw the SHIFT in there, to make ALT-SHIFT-TAB (CMD-SHIFT-TAB on Mac), and you cycle through the applications in reverse. I hated having to cycle through 20 application windows to get back to the one I really wanted, and now I don’t have to.
Feb 20th 2007
Hey TechJive:
Thanks to Bren for the link love that brought me here. I am definitely enjoying blogs like this one and will add you to my Google Reader feeds. Since you say that Bren comes in and bugs you from time to time, are you at the GFU as well?
Feb 20th 2007
@tim:
You are correct in your deciphering where I work. Where Bren is the Director of Graduate/Professional Studies Admissions, I work with his group as well as the traditional Undergraduate Admissions group and our workstudy students. The user base runs the full spectrum, so it keeps me on my toes. That’s also where some of my post ideas get generated. Something will be so second nature to me, but it is mind blowing for someone else.
Thanks for clicking through!
Feb 20th 2007
Great tips. Love the site. I found you through Slacker Manager.
While you’re on keystrokes, my latest favorite is CTRL-TAB in Firefox. This allows you to jump from tab to tab in your active browser window. And just throw the SHIFT key in there to go through them in reverse. Add the Tab Effect extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4258/) for a little bit of animated fun.
Feb 20th 2007
@Jason Rehmus:
Another way to achieve the same result is similar to the way you move between worksheets in Excel: Ctrl-Page Up and Ctrl-Page Down. PU is left, PD is right. I believe (depending on the setup) that Mac laptops would actually be Ctrl-Fn-PU or PD.
Feb 20th 2007
@JASon:
Thanks for the new tip. That one works even better. Fantastic for newsreading.
Feb 21st 2007
Windows-Tab which cycles through the taskbar buttons. Once “highlighted,” you can press Enter to activate it. This is sometimes slightly different than what you get when cycling through open foreground applications with Alt-Tab. I confess I don’t use Windows-Tab very often.
Feb 24th 2007
More keyboard love:
will a Page Down in most browsers, while
will do a Page Up.
On Windows, will open the “system menu” as it you clicked on the icon in the upper left corner of the window. (This is the menu with “Minimize”, etc. So a quick way to maximize a window is to hit , . Hit , to minimize. I use these all the time.