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Posted By : cristina of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on January 17, 2005

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In your keyboard shorcut tip of the week you stated that using Ctrl C invokes the copy command and Ctrl P pastes the copied info. In all my home systems and the ones at my employment, Ctrl P is the print command and starts the printer. However, in all these systems, Ctrl V is the command for pasting the copied information. The sytems this works on are Win 95/ 98/ 98SE/ ME/ XP/ NT4 and Windows 2000. Some of these have been stand alone sytems and many have been networks. Ctrl P always has been print and not paste. Is this just a matter of misunderstood terminology on my part?

Thanks,

David M.

This question was answered on January 17, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Here are all the real keyboard shortcuts:

Windows System Key Combinations

" F1: Help

" CTRL ESC: Open Start menu

" ALT TAB: Switch between open programs

" ALT F4: Quit program

" SHIFT DELETE: Delete item permanently

Windows Program Key Combinations

" CTRL C: Copy

" CTRL X: Cut

" CTRL V: Paste

" CTRL Z: Undo

" CTRL B: Bold

" CTRL U: Underline

" CTRL I: Italic

Mouse Click/Keyboard Modifier Combinations for Shell Objects

" SHIFT right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands

" SHIFT double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu)

" ALT double click: Displays properties

" SHIFT DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin

General Keyboard-Only Commands

" F1: Starts Windows Help

" F10: Activates menu bar options

" SHIFT F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object

" CTRL ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)

" CTRL ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT F10 for a context menu)

" ALT DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box

" ALT TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)

" SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature

" ALT SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)

" ALT - (ALT hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)

" CTRL TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program

" ALT underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu

" ALT F4: Closes the current window

" CTRL F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window

" ALT F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)

Shell Objects and General Folder/Windows Explorer Shortcuts

For a selected object: " F2: Rename object

" F3: Find all files

" CTRL X: Cut

" CTRL C: Copy

" CTRL V: Paste

" SHIFT DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin

" ALT ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object

To Copy a File

Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder

To Create a Shortcut

Press and hold down CTRL SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder

General Folder/Shortcut Control

" F4: Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer)

" F5: Refreshes the current window

" F6: Moves among panes in Windows Explorer

" CTRL G: Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only)

" CTRL Z: Undo the last command

" CTRL A: Select all the items in the current window

" BACKSPACE: Switch to the parent folder

" SHIFT click Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

Windows Explorer Tree Control

" Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection

" Numeric Keypad : Expands the current selection

" Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection

" RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child

" LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent

Properties Control

" CTRL TAB/CTRL SHIFT TAB: Move through the property tabs

Accessibility Shortcuts

" Press SHIFT five times: Toggles StickyKeys on and off

" Press down and hold the right SHIFT key for eight seconds: Toggles FilterKeys on and off

" Press down and hold the NUM LOCK key for five seconds: Toggles ToggleKeys on and off

" Left ALT left SHIFT NUM LOCK: Toggles MouseKeys on and off

" Left ALT left SHIFT PRINT SCREEN: Toggles high contrast on and off

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Keys

" Windows Logo: Start menu

" Windows Logo R: Run dialog box

" Windows Logo M: Minimize all

" SHIFT Windows Logo M: Undo minimize all

" Windows Logo F1: Help

" Windows Logo E: Windows Explorer

" Windows Logo F: Find files or folders

" Windows Logo D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop

" CTRL Windows Logo F: Find computer

" CTRL Windows Logo TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray)

" Windows Logo TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons

" Windows Logo Break: System Properties dialog box

" Application key: Displays a shortcut menu for the selected item

Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed

" Windows Logo L: Log off Windows

" Windows Logo P: Starts Print Manager

" Windows Logo C: Opens Control Panel

" Windows Logo V: Starts Clipboard

" Windows Logo K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box

" Windows Logo I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box

" Windows Logo A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)

" Windows Logo SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys

" Windows Logo S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

Dialog Box Keyboard Commands

" TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box

" SHIFT TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box

" SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box If the current control is an option, this selects the option

" ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)

" ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button

" ALT underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item

About the author

Posted by cristina of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on January 17, 2005

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