Keyboard vs. Mouse - Today's Winner: The Keyboard (poor little mouse!)

Windows XP Home and Professional (Some work on other versions of Windows too!)

The Windows key brings up the Start menu, but it also does quite a lot more too!:

Winkey-D press it to view your desktop, press it again to go back to where you were :-)

Winkey-M minimizes all windows.

Winkey-E opens the Windows Explorer.

Winkey-L locks your system until you enter your password—or lets you switch active users (if you have Fast User Switching enabled).

Winkey-R brings up the Run dialog.

Winkey Pause/Break key- brings up the System Properties dialog.

Winkey-U opens the Windows Utility Manager, (accessibility program options).

Winkey-S, in Microsoft Word 2002 or later, invokes Windows' text-to-speech engine, which will read either highlighted text or everything from the cursor on. (It's very annoying too.)

Here's some other useful keyboard tips -

Highlight a file or folder and press Shift & Delete keys to delete permanently, bypassing the Recycle Bin.

Alt-Enter opens the highlighted file or folder's Properties dialog.

In Windows Explorer, highlight a folder and press Shift-NumPad Asterisk to open the folder and all subfolders.

Click in Windows Explorer's details pane, then press Ctrl-NumPad Plus to size each column exactly as wide as its largest item.


Mouse Shortcuts(Windows XP)

1. In addition to the usual up-and-down scrolling, you can hold shift while scrolling to scroll side-ways (very handy in big spreadsheets or Windows Explorer in the details/list view).

2. In most applications that have a zoom feature such as MS Office Suite, Acrobat Reader and IrfanView, holding down Ctrl while scrolling will zoom in and out. Sure it's just as easy as clicking the zoom-icon, but it becomes especially useful when throwing a spreadsheet/pdf in full-screen mode during a presentation. Suddenly your toolbar is gone, no worries, just ctrl-scroll away!

3. Clicking your wheel-button usually results in your mouse cursor changing shape; typically a round circle with arrows in it. Now you can scroll in any direction using mouse movement instead of rolling the wheel. Clicking the wheel again returns your mouse to its trusty cursor.

Cobus goes on to correctly point out these features are dependent on your mouse driver however they will work with most including the default settings for just about all Logitech drivers.

Of course, many drivers allow the customization of the function of mouse buttons but most users have never delved into the options available in their mouse software. Check out the Mouse applet in Windows Control Panel; you may be surprised what you find.

To me the most effective mouse shortcuts of all are mouse gestures, that is the use of specific movements of the mouse to perform a command. They take a little time to get used to but once you do you'll wonder how you worked without them, particularly for web navigation.

My favorite utility for implementing gestures is StrokeIt. It's easy to use, easy to train and comes with over 80 pre-programmed gestures that work with many popular applications. It's also free for personal use and works with all Windows versions from Windows 98 onwards. Be warned though; if you try it you may well find yourself addicted.