Anyone who has been confronted with a screenful of overlapping windows can appreciate the need to execute the tasks from the keyboard rather than from the mouse.

Keyboard Hotkey Shortcuts

Our vote for most-needed keyboard shortcut is the one which clears all your open windows to reveal a blank desktop, thus enabling you to access the "Start" menu and all of your desktop icons.

This great, but little-known shortcut is "Windows+D" (the Microsoft Windows button at the lower left corner of your keyboard, pressed at the same time as the letter "D"). It is a toggle, so after you get what you need from the desktop, press "Windows+D" again and all of your open windows will reappear.

Unfortunately the most well known shortcut is Control+Alt+Delete. Most of us know that one all too well because it is the only thing you can do to try to fix your computer when it gets stubborn and locks up. Pressing it once in Windows XP gives you the Task Manager, which allows you to shut down programs which are behaving badly.

The second most well-known keyboard shortcuts are "Control+C" (copy), "Control+X"(cut) and "Control+V" (paste), probably because of their frequent usage as well as their usefulness in almost all software applications. Sometimes these shortcuts work even when right-clicking fails to produce the drop-down menu containing the "copy" and "paste" choices, such as when working with html in certain environments.

Another great HotKey combination which works with some applications and is wonderfully useful: Control++ (Control plus the plus sign) and Control +- (Control plus the minus sign). These allow you to enlarge or shrink your screen display and make things easier to view.

For an exhaustive list of Windows(tm) keyboard shortcuts, check out this Microsoft Article on Keyboard Shortcuts

Individual software applications also are HotKey friendly. I am sure that many of you have noticed the underlined first letter in each word across the top of the screen of almost all Windows-based applications. You know:


Did you know that you can invoke those commands by pressing "Alt+ the underlined letter"? When the drop down menu appears, it too has underlined letters which allow you to continue HotKeying your way to functionality.

With HotKeys, you can pretty much keep on working even if a fun-loving but unscrupulous co-worker puts mucilage in your mouse.
Hotkeys Not Widely Used

Here at the Poingo Productivity Research Lab (motto: "Quick, run out and get me a motto!"), we estimate that less than 1 in 10 computer users actually use HotKeys in their daily work, even though Hotkeys can save them time.

Our skilled technicians, after a preponderance of pondering and a couple of cheap merlots go on to theorize that the reason is HotKeys are hard to remember. And why are they hard to remember? Um...we forgot.

Just kidding. HotKeys are hard to remember because they require rote memorization and practice. In our stimulus-blasted brains, it can be tough to remember even a small piece of information, let alone practice it enough to make it stick.

The best, and most long-lasting memorizations take place when

    * New information is meaningful and relevant
    * New knowledge builds upon previous knowledge
    * Information is somehow interacted with by the memorizer.

      Forgettable: "The New Deal began in 1933."

      Better: "The New Deal is widely credited with ending the Great Depression."

  

Very mo better: "My grandmother came to the United States in the depths of the Great Depression. New Deal programs gave her employment and benefits which helped her and her new-born daughter, my mother, rise up from poverty.(sniff)"

Which is one reason (memorization, not the Great Depression) Lightning Navigator was developed. Lightning Navigator, a member of the Poingo Productivity Suite, allows you to create your own HotKey combinations to execute your shortcuts.

Remembering Hotkey Shortcuts

Lightning Navigator HotKey combinations always start with "Control+Alt" so you only configure a single key to perform your task. Use your creativity to select a HotKey which is relevant and meaningful. Because you select the key, it will be much easier to remember.

Obviously the trick would be, for instance, to pick Control+Alt+W for work files. Truly creative users will select, for example, Control+Alt+A for files pertaining to Uncle Morty, because once you saw an armadillo in his yard.

Even the best memory-imagery specialists need a little help. That is why Lightning Navigator also prints your HotKey list so you can cheat and take a peek when you need.

Shortcut to Many Tasks with Lightning Navigator

For an inexpensive ($19.95 from www.poingo.com) little app, you can do an awful lot of shortcutting with keyboard hotkeys:

    * Launch applications
    * link to websites and ftp sites
    * Link to files and folders within browse dialogs of many popular programs
    * Automatically create emails, even pre-addressed and pre-written
    * Paste pre-programmed text and graphics into your documents
    * Selectively grab screen contents for pasting into your documents.

It works great, and carries the Poingology Seal of Approval.