There are only a few precious hours in our days, and we like to make the most of them. We’ve all cut across town, taking that shortcut which gets us there faster; we shortcut our dinner making process by using the microwave instead of the stove; and some of us even use Velcro on our shoes as a shortcut for tying our laces. Shortcuts can be incredible time-savers allowing us to do just about everything faster, and especially helpful when it comes to using a computer.

For example, you can use your keyboard for the following shortcuts in Windows:

• Scroll up and down by simply using the Pg Up and Pg Dn keys on your keyboard. 
• Copy and paste by pressing down the Ctrl key at the same time as C to highlight something. Then just place your cursor where you want it to go and press on Ctrl at the same time as V to paste.
• Delete by pressing Ctrl and X simultaneously.
• Ctrl and backspace can delete a full word at a time instead of just a single character. 
• Undo a change by pressing Ctrl and Z and 
• Ctrl plus S will save a file.

Some handy Excel and Word shortcuts include:

• F7 for a fast way to reach spell check,
• F4 to repeat your last action,
• Ctrl + B to bold a highlighted section,
• Ctrl + I can make things italic,
• Ctrl + U to underline and 
• Ctrl + S will save your open document.

That small sampling of examples only scratches the surface of what you can accomplish when you apply shortcuts to your computer use; and the more you become accustomed to them, the faster those shortcuts will be!