Advertisment

Windows without Mice

author-image
PCQ Bureau
New Update

A friend had a peculiar problem with his PC. He could not use his mouse because a furry rodent by the same name had nibbled away the mouse cord! It was then that I started exploring how to navigate through Windows without a mouse. Here is how.

Advertisment

Start Menu and Context Menu



Invoke the Start Menu by pressing Ctrl+Esc. On newer Windows keyboards (105 keys), there’s a Windows key. Navigate through the items using the arrow keys and start an application by pressing Enter on it. The Context Menu key on this keyboard (between the Windows key and the Ctrl key on the right side) invokes the Context Menu (right-click menu).

Window options



To maximize, minimize or restore a window, use Alt+Space to invoke the window menu with these options. Use Alt+F4 to quickly close an open (focused) window. To cycle through multiple windows, use the well-known Alt+Tab combination.

Cycle through Windows components



Use Tab to jump from one component of Windows to another, say from the Address Bar to the View pane. If you are lost within a window and don’t know where you were positioned, just hit Esc and your location will be highlighted. Interestingly, hitting Esc at any time defaults you to the last known location. The Tab key also cycles through hyperlinks on a Web page.

Advertisment

Cycle through buttons



The Tab key cycles you through all the option buttons in a pane or a window. To select an option, cycle to it and hit Enter. Sometimes the option may also have a shortcut key associated with it. This is marked by an underline under a character in the option text. Check boxes and radio buttons are selected or deselected using the Space Bar.

Tabbed options



To cycle through tabs in windows with tabbed options (like My Computer > Properties), use

Ctrl+Tab.

Menus



Standard Menu items (File, Edit, etc) in all applications have an underlined character that denotes its keyboard shortcut. So Alt+F takes you to the File menu and Alt+E to the Edit menu.

Believe me keyboard navigation is a lot faster and convenient in certain cases than the mouse. Using a combination of the two can really boost your productivity.

Advertisment