No specific shortcut, but learning vim and learning to use it properly (as in, not just using it like notepad, but actually using the shortcuts to automate things) has been a huge boon
No specific shortcut, but learning vim and learning to use it properly (as in, not just using it like notepad, but actually using the shortcuts to automate things) has been a huge boon
Similar to me, but with vim i didn't get too far. When i ditched vim for kakoune, it made me feel like i am finally learning a complex text editor. It feels way more intuitive for me and the...
Similar to me, but with vim i didn't get too far.
When i ditched vim for kakoune, it made me feel like i am finally learning a complex text editor. It feels way more intuitive for me and the selection and multiple selection are wonderful.
When I tried Kakoune, it seemed to break and misunderstand the point of vim. The point of vim is that there are motions, and actions, and you can apply any motion to any action. From a...
When I tried Kakoune, it seemed to break and misunderstand the point of vim. The point of vim is that there are motions, and actions, and you can apply any motion to any action. From a user-interface standpoint, motions and actions have different keybindings, but they (generally) are intuitive. For example, typing 'd(elete)w(ord)' (without anything in the brackets) deletes a word. The motion 'd(elete)t(o)a' deletes everything on the line until the letter 'a'. I haven't? looked at Kakoune in a while, but from what I remember it completely broke these mappings, and the things it broke in favour of seemed to have been done slapdash. The reason why I prefer vim over EMACS, and Sublime Text, and any of the other text editors out there, is because being given vim feels like being given a toolbox. I can learn a new motion, and suddenly all of the actions I could do before, can be done on that motion. I can learn a new action, and all of the motions I can do are (usually) applicable to that action. From what I remember (and I admit it has been a long time) Kakoune did not have that feeling, or properties.
They're fairly well-known, but I use these three shortcuts constantly in the terminal (in Linux, I think they should work in MacOS too). They work in a lot of command-line tools/programs too:...
They're fairly well-known, but I use these three shortcuts constantly in the terminal (in Linux, I think they should work in MacOS too). They work in a lot of command-line tools/programs too:
Ctrl-U - erase from the cursor back to the start (usually just to wipe out a whole command I don't actually want to finish)
Ctrl-W - erase the previous word in the command
Ctrl-R - search back through previous commands (you can press Ctrl-R more times to cycle through other previous matches)
Same, plus a couple more: Alt-Backspace - like Ctrl-W except it will erase the previous path segment. So if the word to the left of your cursor is /foo/bar/baz, you'll be left with /foo/bar/...
Same, plus a couple more:
Alt-Backspace - like Ctrl-W except it will erase the previous path segment. So if the word to the left of your cursor is /foo/bar/baz, you'll be left with /foo/bar/
Ctrl-Y - Pastes the last thing you "erased" with Ctrl-U, Ctrl-W, or Alt-Backspace (technically those shortcuts cut text, they don't just erase it)
Ctrl-S - Pause output of a command. Handy when a command you're running is really chatty and you want to look at a message that just scrolled past with Shift+PgUp and Shift+PgDn
To expand a bit, this is because your editing mode for the shell is set to emacs. You can use set editing-mode vi to use some vi keystrokes for editing your command line. Worth a try to see if...
To expand a bit, this is because your editing mode for the shell is set to emacs. You can use set editing-mode vi to use some vi keystrokes for editing your command line. Worth a try to see if it's for you :)
idk how well known they are, but I always use ctrl-shift-T to re-open a tab after I've closed it, and alt-enter to open a search field straight to a new tab.
idk how well known they are, but I always use ctrl-shift-T to re-open a tab after I've closed it, and alt-enter to open a search field straight to a new tab.
This is not particularly changing life ones, because I did not find out one shorcut that really change the way I use a computer, but rather the whole set of shortcuts that I try to extend when I...
Exemplary
This is not particularly changing life ones, because I did not find out one shorcut that really change the way I use a computer, but rather the whole set of shortcuts that I try to extend when I find some repetitive actions that I do a lot with my mouse, but want to do with the keyboard.
Any text input:
Ctrl + Z: Undo
(Windows) Ctrl + Shift + Z: Redo
(Linux) Ctrl + Y: Redo
Ctrl + A: Selects all text
Ctrl + ←: Move cursor to beginning of current word
Ctrl + →: Move cursor to ending of current word
Shift + Ctrl + ←: Move cursor and selection to beginning of current word
Shift + Ctrl + ←: Move cursor and selection to ending of current word
Home: Move cursor to beginning of current line
Shift + Home: Move cursor and selection to beginning of current line
End: Move cursor to ending of current line
Shift + End: Move cursor and selection ending of current line
Ctrl + Home: Move cursor to beginning of file
Ctrl + Shift + Home: Move cursor and selection to beginning of file
Ctrl + End: Move cursor to ending of file
Ctrl + Shift + End: Move cursor and selection to ending of file
Any Browser:
Ctrl + T: Open a new tab
Ctrl + Shift + T: Open last closed tab
Ctrl + W: Close current tab
Ctrl + Shift + W: Close current window
Ctrl + Tab: Go to next (right) tab
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Go to previous (left) tab
Ctrl + H: Open history
Alt + Left: Go back in history of a tab (previous url)
Alt + Right: Go forward in history of a tab (next url)
Ctrl + N: Open a new window
Ctrl + Shift + N: Open a new incognito window
File Browser: You might want to test if yours supports some shorcuts like browser ones, mine as some useful ones, like the history and tabs navigation ones
Shift + Del: Definitively delete a file/folder directly (without going to bin before)
F2: Rename currently selected file/folder
Backspace: Go back in history (like the old browser shortcut)
Many video players (including youtube):
→: Go 5/10/30* seconds forward (*depending on player)
←: Go 5/10/30* seconds backwards (*depending on player)
;: Go to next frame
,: Go to last frame
When you have virtual desktops (mine is Ubuntu 16.04's Gnome one)
Ctrl + Alt + (←|→|↑|↑ ): Moves to virtual desktop in the direction of the arrow (this one might be a game changer, as it's just so much better for multitasking)
Shift + Ctrl + Alt + (←|→|↑|↑ ): Moves currently focused window to the virtual desktop in the direction of the arrow
Edit: thanks to the comment from @sandaltree I edited the french names of keys Shift and Orig
My bad, this is indeed the correct ones. I forgot to translate some keys from my french keyboard in english. For something I use every day, it is difficult to remember that the name of these are...
My bad, this is indeed the correct ones.
I forgot to translate some keys from my french keyboard in english. For something I use every day, it is difficult to remember that the name of these are not international ones.
Using ctrl while navigating text entry is a big help. Ctrl+left to jump a word left, Ctrl+right for the inverse. Combine it with shift to quickly select full words as well. Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End...
Using ctrl while navigating text entry is a big help. Ctrl+left to jump a word left, Ctrl+right for the inverse. Combine it with shift to quickly select full words as well.
Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End to move to the start and end of the text fields is also very helpful.
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but using Middle Mouse Button (MMB) on links to open a new tab. Also MMB on tabs to close them save sniping the little 'x'. Also also, highlighting text and...
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but using Middle Mouse Button (MMB) on links to open a new tab.
Also MMB on tabs to close them save sniping the little 'x'.
Also also, highlighting text and dragging it to the tab bar will create a new tab with a search for that text.
The MMB to close tabs has worked for me on all 3 OS in virtually every program I've tried it on. Great when people see you do it for the first time, always handy.
The MMB to close tabs has worked for me on all 3 OS in virtually every program I've tried it on. Great when people see you do it for the first time, always handy.
Win+Shit+S has been the most useful shortcut I've found yet. It lets you drag-select a portion of the screen, then it instantly copies an image of that portion to your clipboard. Absolutely...
Win+Shit+S has been the most useful shortcut I've found yet. It lets you drag-select a portion of the screen, then it instantly copies an image of that portion to your clipboard. Absolutely fantastic for getting cropped screenshots.
On most Linux DEs, you can hold either Alt or Super/Win/Cmd while clicking and dragging to drag a window around by any surface you can grab hold of, not just the title bar. Many also support...
On most Linux DEs, you can hold either Alt or Super/Win/Cmd while clicking and dragging to drag a window around by any surface you can grab hold of, not just the title bar. Many also support dragging with the right mouse button to resize as well, without having to zero in on a corner or edge. In GNOME that second one is hidden behind a checkbox in GNOME Tweaks.
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but middle-mouse-button paste was really a game changer for me. On Linux, both in several desktop environments and the console itself, if you press the middle...
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but middle-mouse-button paste was really a game changer for me.
On Linux, both in several desktop environments and the console itself, if you press the middle mouse button it will simply paste whatever was previously highlighted by the mouse cursor.
Most browsers have ⌃[0-9] to select tab N where N is the nth tab from left to right (except 0 is the tenth tab). This was a convention that I think originated with Chrome. Read the ⌃ as the...
Most browsers have ⌃[0-9] to select tab N where N is the nth tab from left to right (except 0 is the tenth tab). This was a convention that I think originated with Chrome. Read the ⌃ as the control key. On macOS this shortcut is ⌘[0-9] instead, and is supported by Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
Also, under macOS, most apps that have a concept of history or 'forward' and 'backward' (such as browsers or the Finder) have:
shortcut
effect
⌘]
forward
⌘[
backward
Another nice one on macOS is ⌃⌘Space which opens the 'Character Viewer' with the full Unicode palette. macOS is quite nice in that the menu bar items that can be assigned shortcuts in preferences tell you the keyboard shortcut. You have to know all the symbols, though:
Symbol
Key
⌘
command
⎋
esc
⏎
return
⏏︎
eject
⇥
tab
⇪
caps lock
⇧
shift
⌥
option
⌃
control
⌦
delete (forward)
⌫
delete (backward)
⎇
alt (not used any more on current Mac keyboards)
Edit:
There’s a new shortcut in Safari 13:
⌃⌘r: Show what the current page would look like at various resolutions and pixel density multipliers (and even user agents).
cmd - shift - 5 (mac) / win - shift - S (pc): I really like being able to take screenshots without breaking workflow, so it was especially helpful on windows after print screen + paint or win -...
cmd - shift - 5 (mac) / win - shift - S (pc): I really like being able to take screenshots without breaking workflow, so it was especially helpful on windows after print screen + paint or win - print screen and navigating to pictures folder, and mac added a few helpful options over cmd - shift - 3/4 with the new option
Mac's spotlight (cmd - space) [replaced with alfred on my machines]: pretty hard to beat the speed of opening basically anything you'd want. I use windows search fairly frequently too, but generally only for launching apps or settings panes, as windows doesn't do as good a job of indexing files and therefore takes a while to find them.
win - x: Most stuff I need falls under this shortcut, from settings to cmd/powershell.
On Mac, I can't live without simple shortcuts like browser back, window (/tab) close, and (mission control? all screens on current desktop) mapped to my mouse. Again makes general use a lot quicker, especially for navigating a lot of threads quickly.
On windows, I also use mouse shortcuts, but mainly for audio control, as I'm usually playing Rocket League if I'm on my personal PC. Mute/play-pause/next track/vol up+down.
When I was using 1pass, cmd/ctrl + \ was my most used shortcut because of the ease of hitting it with one hand, but after the switch to bitwarden cmd/ctrl + shift + L (or Y if not logged in) is a lot harder for me to remember, so half the time I end up clicking on the extension icon in the browser. This is one case where I wish I could modify the shortcut (which I guess I could probably do in system preferences, but I CBA)
CTRL-WIN-<arrow> and WIN-TAB are game changers in Windows 10 if you don't yet use virtual desktops in your workflow. WIN-TAB is similar to alt-tab, but for virtual desktops. Once you create a...
CTRL-WIN-<arrow> and WIN-TAB are game changers in Windows 10 if you don't yet use virtual desktops in your workflow. WIN-TAB is similar to alt-tab, but for virtual desktops. Once you create a virtual desktop in this display, you can swap between them with CTRL-WIN-<arrow>. It's especially nice if you have a mouse with extra buttons you can bind to a CTRL-WIN-LEFT and CTRL-WIN-RIGHT!
Virtual desktops are amazing for organizing different workflows. For example, I can have one virtual desktop dedicated to 2D art, another with my game engine and a browser, and one more with my discord/spotify/youtube.
Never again will you lose windows in a sea of chaos and multitasking!
Ctrl+W (close tab in Firefox), Ctrl+U (erase line), Ctrl+A (jump to end of line), Ctrl+the Next and Prev page keys on my ThinkPad to skip through a song a few seconds at a time were game changers....
Ctrl+W (close tab in Firefox), Ctrl+U (erase line), Ctrl+A (jump to end of line), Ctrl+the Next and Prev page keys on my ThinkPad to skip through a song a few seconds at a time were game changers. Much faster than constantly adjusting things with the mouse.
ALT-Tab / CMD-Tab and CTRL-Tab The basic thing that I still see experienced tech people not use and I'm never sure if they don't know, or just prefer to use clumsy mouse menus for some reason.
ALT-Tab / CMD-Tab and CTRL-Tab
The basic thing that I still see experienced tech people not use and I'm never sure if they don't know, or just prefer to use clumsy mouse menus for some reason.
With macos and a magic trackpad 2, I use BetterTouchTool and mapped three fingers swiping left to cmd - W (close tab) and cmd + shift - T to three fingers, swipe right. Most other really handy...
With macos and a magic trackpad 2, I use BetterTouchTool and mapped three fingers swiping left to cmd - W (close tab) and cmd + shift - T to three fingers, swipe right.
Most other really handy shortcuts are all custom -- either set through skhd or yabai (a twm for macos.)
I mapped capslock to HYPER and use hyper - d to bring up Alfred (treated like dmenu for i3 folks.)
I don't use Windows very much these days, but these are a few handy ones
Windows - X - brings up a handy quick menu with common control panel items
CMD + OPT + Shift + 4 on OSX allows you to capture a specific area of the screen on your clipboard instead of saving it to a file. This is great as I can quickly slap the image on slack or...
CMD + OPT + Shift + 4 on OSX allows you to capture a specific area of the screen on your clipboard instead of saving it to a file. This is great as I can quickly slap the image on slack or wherever it needs to go.
On YouTube, the 'j', 'k', and 'l' buttons can be used to rewind 10 seconds, pause, or fast forward 10 seconds respectively. I had been using YouTube for years without knowing this, but once I...
On YouTube, the 'j', 'k', and 'l' buttons can be used to rewind 10 seconds, pause, or fast forward 10 seconds respectively. I had been using YouTube for years without knowing this, but once I learned about it, I now use it every single time I watch a video.
I'd say the biggest game changer wasn't any one shortcut but finally making the switch to a proper window manager. Sway and i3 have completely transformed my workflow, and I'm using my computer in...
I'd say the biggest game changer wasn't any one shortcut but finally making the switch to a proper window manager. Sway and i3 have completely transformed my workflow, and I'm using my computer in ways I never considered possible.
Ctrl + and Ctrl - for zooming in a web browser. I have an ultrawide monitor and a deep desk with the addition of liking to sit back in my chair. Even though I use half the screen for each open...
Ctrl + and Ctrl - for zooming in a web browser. I have an ultrawide monitor and a deep desk with the addition of liking to sit back in my chair. Even though I use half the screen for each open window a lot of sites still don't take advantage of the space available and keep text small and centered, zooming makes it nicely legible at relaxed distance.
Alt+F4 was a literal game changer for me as I discovered what it did in the classic multiplayer game manner, by someone saying it does something in a game, trying it, and the game immediately closing.
I wish this was default behavior. It is so rare that I want to keep original formatting when copy/pasting text. There's a bit of a bandaid for this using keyboard shortcuts, which let you define a...
I wish this was default behavior. It is so rare that I want to keep original formatting when copy/pasting text.
There's a bit of a bandaid for this using keyboard shortcuts, which let you define a keycombo for any menu entry:
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > App Shortcuts
Hit the + to add a new one. All applications, Menu Title "Paste and Match Style", keyboard shortcut Command + V
This should cover you in most situations. If you find a particular app misbehaving after this change, you can add an additional app-specific keyboard shortcut for Paste to override the other with original behavior.
This reminds me, in MS Word if I'm working on a document with a lot of structure, I'll look up the shortcuts for creating headers. Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, etc. will create section headers kind of...
when working on documents.
This reminds me, in MS Word if I'm working on a document with a lot of structure, I'll look up the shortcuts for creating headers. Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, etc. will create section headers kind of like <h1>, <h2>, etc. in HTML. It's a lot easier than using the mouse to apply bold or a font size to text and looks a lot cleaner and professional than what I would get by doing that, anyway.
Also, Ctrl+Backspace deletes the word to the left of the cursor.
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+Esc: Task Manager Hold Ctrl+Shift when launching a program from the Start menu to launch as admin. Example: Press Windows key, type "cmd", Ctrl+Shift+Enter = launch command...
Windows:
Ctrl+Shift+Esc: Task Manager
Hold Ctrl+Shift when launching a program from the Start menu to launch as admin. Example: Press Windows key, type "cmd", Ctrl+Shift+Enter = launch command prompt as administrator. Ctrl+Shift and clicking on the program also works.
Shift+right click in Windows Explorer adds more options to the context menu, such as "copy as path", "run as different user", "open PowerShell window here".
WinKey + 1 through 0: Launch/switch to the corresponding program on the taskbar.
F2: Rename. Then you can Tab to quickly rename the next file.
Microsoft Outlook and Word:
Shift+F3: change case, it cycles through capitalize, uppercase, lowercase.
Alt+F7: Go to the next word flagged by the spell checker and show suggestions.
Win+Pause brings up the system control panel on windows. I know Win+X on win10 brings up a menu that has more or less all the same options, but out of habit I still use Win+Pause to get to Device...
Win+Pause brings up the system control panel on windows. I know Win+X on win10 brings up a menu that has more or less all the same options, but out of habit I still use Win+Pause to get to Device Manager.
Ctrl+Alt+V - Paste without formatting Alt+Mouse Drag - Highlight a block of text in most code editors. Can also be used to type/paste to multiple lines simultaneously.
Ctrl+Alt+V - Paste without formatting
Alt+Mouse Drag - Highlight a block of text in most code editors. Can also be used to type/paste to multiple lines simultaneously.
Shift + end and shift + home to select all text right or left of the cursor in a field or line. Another is shift+ctrl+v to paste as plain text without text styles - this works in browsers and most...
Shift + end and shift + home to select all text right or left of the cursor in a field or line.
Another is shift+ctrl+v to paste as plain text without text styles - this works in browsers and most apps but some apps have their own method for handling text styles.
No specific shortcut, but learning vim and learning to use it properly (as in, not just using it like notepad, but actually using the shortcuts to automate things) has been a huge boon
Wait until you start writing scripts in VimScript. It's not a good language, but it's a lanuguage.
This is why I love Neovim; all my scripts are in Python!
Do you have repository with your scripts? I'd like to see ways how to be more effective in vim, and I didn't see anyone using custom scripts.
The first time I did it I was confused at all the tildes.
Similar to me, but with vim i didn't get too far.
When i ditched vim for kakoune, it made me feel like i am finally learning a complex text editor. It feels way more intuitive for me and the selection and multiple selection are wonderful.
When I tried Kakoune, it seemed to break and misunderstand the point of vim. The point of vim is that there are motions, and actions, and you can apply any motion to any action. From a user-interface standpoint, motions and actions have different keybindings, but they (generally) are intuitive. For example, typing 'd(elete)w(ord)' (without anything in the brackets) deletes a word. The motion 'd(elete)t(o)a' deletes everything on the line until the letter 'a'. I haven't? looked at Kakoune in a while, but from what I remember it completely broke these mappings, and the things it broke in favour of seemed to have been done slapdash. The reason why I prefer vim over EMACS, and Sublime Text, and any of the other text editors out there, is because being given vim feels like being given a toolbox. I can learn a new motion, and suddenly all of the actions I could do before, can be done on that motion. I can learn a new action, and all of the motions I can do are (usually) applicable to that action. From what I remember (and I admit it has been a long time) Kakoune did not have that feeling, or properties.
They're fairly well-known, but I use these three shortcuts constantly in the terminal (in Linux, I think they should work in MacOS too). They work in a lot of command-line tools/programs too:
Same, plus a couple more:
/foo/bar/baz, you'll be left with/foo/bar/To expand a bit, this is because your editing mode for the shell is set to emacs. You can use
set editing-mode vito use some vi keystrokes for editing your command line. Worth a try to see if it's for you :)Nice. I'm a beginner level terminal user and these will definitely up my game. Thanks.
Ctrl-k to erase from cursor forward.
idk how well known they are, but I always use ctrl-shift-T to re-open a tab after I've closed it, and alt-enter to open a search field straight to a new tab.
Wow, I close tabs all the time by accident. You changed my life.
In what browser? I just tried it in Chrome and neither one of those worked.
EDIT: CTRL-SHIFT-T works now, but ALT-ENTER still does not.
Works fine here. Alt+Enter in Chrome's omnibox opens the search in a new tab.
Ah, I see how I misread what he said. I understood it as Alt+Enter opened a new tab immediately changing focus to the search.
This is not particularly changing life ones, because I did not find out one shorcut that really change the way I use a computer, but rather the whole set of shortcuts that I try to extend when I find some repetitive actions that I do a lot with my mouse, but want to do with the keyboard.
Any text input:
Ctrl + Z: UndoCtrl + Shift + Z: RedoCtrl + Y: RedoCtrl + A: Selects all textCtrl + ←: Move cursor to beginning of current wordCtrl + →: Move cursor to ending of current wordShift + Ctrl + ←: Move cursor and selection to beginning of current wordShift + Ctrl + ←: Move cursor and selection to ending of current wordHome: Move cursor to beginning of current lineShift + Home: Move cursor and selection to beginning of current lineEnd: Move cursor to ending of current lineShift + End: Move cursor and selection ending of current lineCtrl + Home: Move cursor to beginning of fileCtrl + Shift + Home: Move cursor and selection to beginning of fileCtrl + End: Move cursor to ending of fileCtrl + Shift + End: Move cursor and selection to ending of fileAny Browser:
Ctrl + T: Open a new tabCtrl + Shift + T: Open last closed tabCtrl + W: Close current tabCtrl + Shift + W: Close current windowCtrl + Tab: Go to next (right) tabCtrl + Shift + Tab: Go to previous (left) tabCtrl + H: Open historyAlt + Left: Go back in history of a tab (previous url)Alt + Right: Go forward in history of a tab (next url)Ctrl + N: Open a new windowCtrl + Shift + N:Open a new incognito windowFile Browser: You might want to test if yours supports some shorcuts like browser ones, mine as some useful ones, like the history and tabs navigation ones
Shift + Del: Definitively delete a file/folder directly (without going to bin before)F2: Rename currently selected file/folderBackspace: Go back in history (like the old browser shortcut)Many video players (including youtube):
→: Go 5/10/30* seconds forward (*depending on player)←: Go 5/10/30* seconds backwards (*depending on player);: Go to next frame,: Go to last frameWhen you have virtual desktops (mine is Ubuntu 16.04's Gnome one)
Ctrl + Alt + (←|→|↑|↑ ): Moves to virtual desktop in the direction of the arrow (this one might be a game changer, as it's just so much better for multitasking)Shift + Ctrl + Alt + (←|→|↑|↑ ): Moves currently focused window to the virtual desktop in the direction of the arrowEdit: thanks to the comment from @sandaltree I edited the french names of keys
ShiftandOrigErr.. what are
MajandOrig?ShiftandHomerespectively?I think you are correct.
My bad, this is indeed the correct ones.
I forgot to translate some keys from my french keyboard in english. For something I use every day, it is difficult to remember that the name of these are not international ones.
Thank you to precise the correct ones directly !
Win+Shift+Left or Right Arrow key.
It moves windows to the next display. Pretty much a must if you have multiple monitors on Windows.
Can't wait to try this at work tomorrow.
I learned this today when I was at work, It's interesting to see this pop up here after only just finding out about it 5 hours ago.
If you’re on MacOS, look into Spectacle. It’s a free window manager that allows you to use similar shortcuts to move your windows around.
Typographical accuracy is important.
⌘-Shift--for an em-dash (Alt-0151for Windows).⌘-Shift-Option--for an en-dash. (Alt-0150for Windows).And for Linux users, enable a Compose key (if you haven't already) and tap
Compose, -, -, -for an em dash orCompose, -, -, .for an en dash.If you don't want to or can't press the key combo, HTML lets you do
—and–respectively, too!Using ctrl while navigating text entry is a big help. Ctrl+left to jump a word left, Ctrl+right for the inverse. Combine it with shift to quickly select full words as well.
Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End to move to the start and end of the text fields is also very helpful.
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but using Middle Mouse Button (MMB) on links to open a new tab.
Also MMB on tabs to close them save sniping the little 'x'.
Also also, highlighting text and dragging it to the tab bar will create a new tab with a search for that text.
The MMB to close tabs has worked for me on all 3 OS in virtually every program I've tried it on. Great when people see you do it for the first time, always handy.
Win+Shit+S has been the most useful shortcut I've found yet. It lets you drag-select a portion of the screen, then it instantly copies an image of that portion to your clipboard. Absolutely fantastic for getting cropped screenshots.
This is super useful. I take a lot of screenshots, so usually have the snipping tool linked in my taskbar. Thanks.
You should try greenshot.
ctrl(orcmd)Lwill move your cursor to the URL box on most web browsers. Great if you hate having to take your hands off the keyboard.On most Linux DEs, you can hold either Alt or Super/Win/Cmd while clicking and dragging to drag a window around by any surface you can grab hold of, not just the title bar. Many also support dragging with the right mouse button to resize as well, without having to zero in on a corner or edge. In GNOME that second one is hidden behind a checkbox in GNOME Tweaks.
Technically not a keyboard shortcut, but middle-mouse-button paste was really a game changer for me.
On Linux, both in several desktop environments and the console itself, if you press the middle mouse button it will simply paste whatever was previously highlighted by the mouse cursor.
Vim: being able to select in all directions with
<c-v>was mind-blowing.Most browsers have ⌃[0-9] to select tab N where N is the nth tab from left to right (except 0 is the tenth tab). This was a convention that I think originated with Chrome. Read the ⌃ as the control key. On macOS this shortcut is ⌘[0-9] instead, and is supported by Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
Also, under macOS, most apps that have a concept of history or 'forward' and 'backward' (such as browsers or the Finder) have:
Another nice one on macOS is ⌃⌘Space which opens the 'Character Viewer' with the full Unicode palette. macOS is quite nice in that the menu bar items that can be assigned shortcuts in preferences tell you the keyboard shortcut. You have to know all the symbols, though:
Edit:
There’s a new shortcut in Safari 13:
⌃⌘r: Show what the current page would look like at various resolutions and pixel density multipliers (and even user agents).
Here’s a screenshot.
cmd - shift - 5 (mac) / win - shift - S (pc): I really like being able to take screenshots without breaking workflow, so it was especially helpful on windows after print screen + paint or win - print screen and navigating to pictures folder, and mac added a few helpful options over cmd - shift - 3/4 with the new option
Mac's spotlight (cmd - space) [replaced with alfred on my machines]: pretty hard to beat the speed of opening basically anything you'd want. I use windows search fairly frequently too, but generally only for launching apps or settings panes, as windows doesn't do as good a job of indexing files and therefore takes a while to find them.
win - x: Most stuff I need falls under this shortcut, from settings to cmd/powershell.
On Mac, I can't live without simple shortcuts like browser back, window (/tab) close, and (mission control? all screens on current desktop) mapped to my mouse. Again makes general use a lot quicker, especially for navigating a lot of threads quickly.
On windows, I also use mouse shortcuts, but mainly for audio control, as I'm usually playing Rocket League if I'm on my personal PC. Mute/play-pause/next track/vol up+down.
When I was using 1pass, cmd/ctrl + \ was my most used shortcut because of the ease of hitting it with one hand, but after the switch to bitwarden cmd/ctrl + shift + L (or Y if not logged in) is a lot harder for me to remember, so half the time I end up clicking on the extension icon in the browser. This is one case where I wish I could modify the shortcut (which I guess I could probably do in system preferences, but I CBA)
CTRL-WIN-<arrow> and WIN-TAB are game changers in Windows 10 if you don't yet use virtual desktops in your workflow. WIN-TAB is similar to alt-tab, but for virtual desktops. Once you create a virtual desktop in this display, you can swap between them with CTRL-WIN-<arrow>. It's especially nice if you have a mouse with extra buttons you can bind to a CTRL-WIN-LEFT and CTRL-WIN-RIGHT!
Virtual desktops are amazing for organizing different workflows. For example, I can have one virtual desktop dedicated to 2D art, another with my game engine and a browser, and one more with my discord/spotify/youtube.
Never again will you lose windows in a sea of chaos and multitasking!
Ctrl+W (close tab in Firefox), Ctrl+U (erase line), Ctrl+A (jump to end of line), Ctrl+the Next and Prev page keys on my ThinkPad to skip through a song a few seconds at a time were game changers. Much faster than constantly adjusting things with the mouse.
ALT-Tab / CMD-TabandCTRL-TabThe basic thing that I still see experienced tech people not use and I'm never sure if they don't know, or just prefer to use clumsy mouse menus for some reason.
ctrl+shift+Nin Firefox reopens a closed window—super handy when you accidentally close it!With macos and a magic trackpad 2, I use BetterTouchTool and mapped three fingers swiping left to
cmd - W(close tab) andcmd + shift - Tto three fingers, swipe right.Most other really handy shortcuts are all custom -- either set through skhd or yabai (a twm for macos.)
I mapped capslock to
HYPERand usehyper - dto bring up Alfred (treated like dmenu for i3 folks.)I don't use Windows very much these days, but these are a few handy ones
Windows - X- brings up a handy quick menu with common control panel itemsWindows - [arrow key]- simple window managementWindows - prntscrn- quick access to system infoWindows - R- runCMD + OPT + Shift + 4on OSX allows you to capture a specific area of the screen on your clipboard instead of saving it to a file. This is great as I can quickly slap the image on slack or wherever it needs to go.On YouTube, the 'j', 'k', and 'l' buttons can be used to rewind 10 seconds, pause, or fast forward 10 seconds respectively. I had been using YouTube for years without knowing this, but once I learned about it, I now use it every single time I watch a video.
I'd say the biggest game changer wasn't any one shortcut but finally making the switch to a proper window manager. Sway and i3 have completely transformed my workflow, and I'm using my computer in ways I never considered possible.
Ctrl + and Ctrl - for zooming in a web browser. I have an ultrawide monitor and a deep desk with the addition of liking to sit back in my chair. Even though I use half the screen for each open window a lot of sites still don't take advantage of the space available and keep text small and centered, zooming makes it nicely legible at relaxed distance.
Alt+F4 was a literal game changer for me as I discovered what it did in the classic multiplayer game manner, by someone saying it does something in a game, trying it, and the game immediately closing.
You can also hold ctrl and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out as well.
True, I just find it less accurate than single steps with +/-.
Option + Shift + Command + VPaste and Match style! It really helps out when working on documents.
I wish this was default behavior. It is so rare that I want to keep original formatting when copy/pasting text.
There's a bit of a bandaid for this using keyboard shortcuts, which let you define a keycombo for any menu entry:
System Preferences > Keyboard > App Shortcuts+to add a new one. All applications, Menu Title "Paste and Match Style", keyboard shortcutCommand + VThis should cover you in most situations. If you find a particular app misbehaving after this change, you can add an additional app-specific keyboard shortcut for
Pasteto override the other with original behavior.This reminds me, in MS Word if I'm working on a document with a lot of structure, I'll look up the shortcuts for creating headers. Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, etc. will create section headers kind of like <h1>, <h2>, etc. in HTML. It's a lot easier than using the mouse to apply bold or a font size to text and looks a lot cleaner and professional than what I would get by doing that, anyway.
Also, Ctrl+Backspace deletes the word to the left of the cursor.
Windows:
Microsoft Outlook and Word:
Win+Pause brings up the system control panel on windows. I know Win+X on win10 brings up a menu that has more or less all the same options, but out of habit I still use Win+Pause to get to Device Manager.
Ctrl+Alt+V - Paste without formatting
Alt+Mouse Drag - Highlight a block of text in most code editors. Can also be used to type/paste to multiple lines simultaneously.
Shift + end and shift + home to select all text right or left of the cursor in a field or line.
Another is shift+ctrl+v to paste as plain text without text styles - this works in browsers and most apps but some apps have their own method for handling text styles.