Maggie's Farm

 
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Official Broken Mouse Day

As an operating system, Windows may have fallen short in a few areas, but one thing it deserves high kudos for is the way you can do practically anything with the keyboard.  The mouse is cool, but generally inefficient.

One of the classes I taught was a 3-month course that covered Windows, Webmastering and Desktop Publishing.  About two weeks into the course the student would arrive and discover, much to his or her horror, that the mouse was broken.  "Darn!", I'd say.  "I guess we'll just have to spend all four hours using the keyboard," which we promptly did.  Except for a few mouse-specific functions, like drawing in a graphics program, you can do almost anything on the computer with just the keyboard.
 

Class Time

Since you're going to be using the keyboard probably until just about a half-hour before you kick off, I think it kind of behooves you to learn how to actually use it.  I mean, if everyone in Mr. Fredgren's Typing Class in my freshmen year of high school could pass the course, just how difficult can it be?

I don't, however, have any specific courses to refer you to.  Try this Google search and see what looks appealing.  If all else fails, try the intuitive method.
 

Dealer's Choice

Not all keyboards are laid out the same.  There are a few keys, such as the Backspace, Enter, Right Shift and Backslash, that manufacturers like to fiddle around with.

Here's my keyboard of choice, the Classic P1/P2 model.  Note the large Backspace and Enter keys:
 

 
It performs marvelously, is relatively cheap and fairly easy to take apart and clean should a key go bad.
 

Overview

I suppose most articles explaining the keys on the keyboard do it by rows, just because that's how they're laid out.  I've decided to do it by 'clusters', though, because certain clusters of special keys are geared toward certain operations, and it's best that you associate them that way.  You'll see what I mean.

Top Cluster

Esc Key — The 'escape' key means just that, 'escaping' from a process or program.  There are a number of programs where hitting the Esc key aborts the process, and in some cases it actually quits the program.  IrfanView, the excellent little pic viewer, goes from full-screen mode back to Windows mode by hitting the Esc key once, then quits when you hit it again.  So if you're going through a folder of pics and find the one you want, you go tap-tap on the Esc key and the program closes down.  Very slick.
 

Function Keys — By themselves, they don't do much.  F3 is often a 'Find again' function, and F7 often pops up the spell-checker.  Otherwise, they're pretty much dead weight.

However, with a cool little program called 'My Function Keys' you can make the F Keys do all kinds of tricks, not the least of which is punching in names and passwords, even skipping around the box with the Tab and Enter keys.  The program and setup tips are here.

Left Cluster

Tab Key — The 'Tabulation' key is a holdover from the old days when listed items were indented, but these days we'd use the program's 'Indent' feature to indent the whole list, rather than 'tabulating' every line.  In Windows, it's used as a 'switch between programs' key when used in conjunction with the Alt key and as a 'skip around the box' key when used alone.

Go ahead and open three or four programs and a window or two.  Assuming your left hand is in the standard typing position, slide it to the left and press on the left Alt key with the side of your thumb, hold it down, then tap on the Tab key with your ring finger.  You'll see a box pop open in the middle of the screen.  Move your way through the icons with the Tab key, then release the Alt key when the icon for the program or folder you want is highlighted.

Where the two keys really come into play is when you're dashing back and forth between two programs, like copying text from a browser into an editor.  Press the Alt key, tap the Tab key once and release them both.  It should be done in one fluid motion.  Practice it and get real familiar with this combo.  Compared to grabbing the mouse and heading for the Task Bar to select the other program, this is a huge time-saver.
   

The Tab key also skips from link to link on a web page.  Shift-Tab makes it go backward.  Use the Enter key to access the link.
 

Control Key — There are a handful of Control key combos that every keyboardist should know.

Note: The capital letters below are just for clarification.

Note: It's considered very bad form to use two hands unless you absolutely have to.  With rare exception, the Control key is the sole responsibility of the little finger.

Ctrl-X: the 'cut' command, to move a file or highlighted text

Ctrl-C: the 'copy' command, to copy a file or highlighted text

Ctrl-V: the 'paste' command, to paste the moved or copied file or text
 

Ctrl-B: Bold text

Ctrl-I: Italics

Ctrl-U: Underline
 

Ctrl-A: Highlight all
 

Ctrl-Z: Usually the 'undo' command

Ctrl-Y: If included, usually the 'undo the undo' command
 

Ctrl-P: Usually the 'print' command, sometimes 'pause'
 

Ctrl-L: Often the 'Left Justified' command

Ctrl-E: Center Justified

Ctrl-R: Right Justified

And individual programs will usually have their own little in-house commands.  For example, my web editor uses Ctrl-L as the standard Left Justified, then adds Ctrl-Shift-L to pop open the 'Link to' box.

 
Windows Key — Like the Control Key, the Windows key can do a few tricks when used in combo with other keys, like pop open Windows Exploder or the Run command.  I don't use any of them but here's a page with the lowdown.

 
Alt Key — Like Alt-Tab flips between programs, the Alt key alone shifts between the main viewing area of a program and the menus at the top.  You may not use it much normally — but you sure will on Official Broken Mouse Day!
 

It's also used in isolated instances.  A few that spring to mind:

• As noted here, it's used to inject non-standard characters (accent marks, etc) into text
   


• Photoshop uses it (with the mouse) to manually subtract highlighted areas
   


• Can be used with the Print Screen key (details below)
   


• Alt-F4 will close the active window or program
   

Main Keys

Yes, you need to be able to hit any number or symbol without peeking if you even want to consider yourself a mere typist — much less a keyboardist.  If you're used to the numeric keypad (over to the right) and want to use that for numbers instead, that's fine — but you still have to know where the symbols are.
  

Right Cluster

Print Screen — This is actually a pretty cool key if you don't know what it does.  Go ahead and hit it once.

Now go to the Start Menu and dig up the 'Paint' program.  After it's up, open it to full-screen mode.

Now hit Ctrl-V.

The Print Screen key does exactly that — makes a 'print' in memory of the current screen.  If you want to cut something out of a web page or whatever, that's how you do it.

Tip:  Hold down the Alt key while hitting the Print Screen key and it'll snapshot whatever small box is active on the screen, rather than the entire screen.

 
Scroll Lock Key — This is a holdover from the old DOS days and is almost never used.

  
Pause/Break Key — Ditto.
  

Insert Key — Yet another DOS holdover, this puts the keyboard in 'writeover' mode, where it writes over what's already there.  I'm pointing it out because it's in a fairly open place and you might accidentally hit it occasionally.  Because it's not used much, you might see some program use it for a particular function.  My disc catalog program, Movie Collector, uses the Insert key to 'insert' a new movie entry and Shift-Insert for a new data disc entry.  You might occasionally see a program like a video editor use it to 'insert' a segment into a timeline, and other such uses.

Home & End Keys — If you want to 'dance' around a text editor, these two keys are essential.  They need to be as familiar to your fingers as the Backspace and Delete keys.  They'll both be part of a homework assignment I have for you, so it's learn 'em now or learn 'em later.

To skip to the very beginning or end of a document, use Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End.

 
Page Up & Page Down Keys — These shift a long page up or down one screen's worth but they're a little out of the way to be of much practical use, and it's probably easier to just use the mouse's scroll wheel and the program's slide gadget to navigate around long pages.  Because they're not used much, you might see a program use them for some specific function.  The excellent computer DVD player, PowerDVD, uses Page Up for its 8-second 'instant replay' feature and Page Down skips forward 8 seconds.
  

Arrow/Cursor Keys — While their standard role is to move the cursor around an editor, quite a few programs use them to move objects around the screen, often in conjunction with the Control or Shift key.  For example, Photoshop uses the standard arrow keys to move an object by pixels and Shift-arrow to move it 10 pixels at a time.  So if you're using some program to make something and there's an object you'd like to shift around a little bit but the arrow keys don't work, try Ctrl-arrow and Shift-arrow.

Numeric Keypad

If accounting's your game then I suppose you already know the numeric keypad inside and out.  I only use it for injecting special characters, like accent marks.

On the subject, if you have desk space limitations and don't use the numeric keypad, there are short keyboards out there that lop it off.
 

Multimedia Keyboards

These are 'fancy' keyboards that have extra keys that do a number of tasks, like opening the browser or email program.  They can also do a few tricks like raising and lowering the volume of a player, but most players have a default key combo you can use for the purpose, so it's kind of pointless.  But they might have their uses here and there.

 
Homework

I have two homework assignments that will help push you down the path to being a true keyboardist:

• Hold your own Official Broken Mouse Day.  Just unplug the sucker and then do whatever you normally do.  Use the Windows key to access Start Menu programs, use the Tab key to dance around said programs and web links, use the Alt key to access the program's menus, use the space bar and Enter key and arrow keys when required, Alt-Tab to switch between open programs and folders, and you should be able to do most anything.
   
  And, while this excludes mouse-specific functions like drawing in a graphics program, you can still resize, recolor, lighten, darken, etc, a picture as long as it's a menu function.
   


• I also had 'Save The Earth Day' with my students, where we protected Mother Earth by using as little energy as possible.  Translated, that means using as few keystrokes and mouse clicks as you can.  That's where the Home and End keys come into play when you're editing text.  It's not quite as easy as it looks, as some 'moves' are slightly counterintuitive.  For example, if the cursor is sitting on the end of the line and you want to bring it back to the left margin but not start a new line, the proper move is to use the right arrow key to go left — because it automatically wraps it around to the left margin.  If you really concentrate on it, there are a number of ways you can cut down on your keystrokes and mouse clicks.
   
  First and foremost of these would probably be the Tab key.  If you use the mouse to click from box to box when you order something online, use the Tab key.  If you get to a drop-down menu, like 'State', you might find using the down arrow key to be easier than fumbling with the mouse.  Then hit the Tab key and you're off to the next box. 

Summation

In the world of computers, as in many areas of life, the sum is greater than the whole of its parts.  It isn't just that you'll be able to type better and quicker if you learn the ropes.  There's an undefinable mental aspect to it all; of not being bothered by the mundane as you strive to put your thoughts into pixels.  The good ergonomics, the good typing skills; it all adds up and frees the mind from its pragmatic burden, allowing it to expend its energies where it should.

 
If you've been slogging your way through these lessons then you're already far ahead of the pack.  But there may be fewer lessons more important than this one.  If you're eventually going to feel a true mastery over the computer, then that means both mentally and physically.

'Master of the realm' means master of the entire realm.