Articles

Must Know Shortcut Keys for Designers

by . March 14th, 2008

Written by Jacob Cass

A must know list of very handy shortcut keys for any blogger or designer that is serious about time…You must learn these shortcut keys!

Quicker Web Surfing Using FireFox Shortcut Keys

CTRL+CLICK: Opens a link in a new tab. SHIFT+CLICK opens it in a new window. A middle mouse button will also allow you to open in a new tab.

CTRL+PGUP and CTRL+PGDN: Scroll through all the tabs you have open.

CTRL+T: Open a new tab.

CTRL+W: Close the current tab.

CTRL+F: Search or find text in a webpage. Also press “/” for a quick search version.

PGUP, PGDN: Scroll the page up and down.

CTRL+HOME, CTRL+END: Get to the top of bottom of a page.

F11: Full-screen mode. Very useful to get rid of your toolbars and useful for displaying your work to clients.

CTRL+U: View the page source.

RIGHT CLICK: Check out the right click for heaps of other options.

For more Firefox shortcut keys.

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

Apple’s official shortcut key page.

Windows Shortcut Keys

ALT+TAB: This is the best shortcut there is as it lets you scroll through your open programs.

WINDOWS KEY+D: Minimize all windows and show your desktop. (My favorite)

WINDOWS KEY+E: Opens My Computer in Windows Explorer. Also very time saving.

SHIFT+DELETE: Skip the Recycling Bin and delete the file for good.

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Open the Task Manager. The same as good ol’ CTRL+ALT+DELETE

For more Microsoft Windows shortcuts.

Must Know Text Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+A: Select all the text on the page. Combined with CTRL+C (copy) and CTRL+V (paste), you can move large amounts of text very quickly.

ALT+MOUSE DRAG: Hold down ALT while you highlight text lets you highlight text in a block fashion. Great if you have text in columns as you can highlight just one of the columns for copying or cutting.

CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y: Every designer knows of CTRL+Z (undo) however how many of you know about CTRL+Y which allows you to skip forward in your changes that you made when you went backwards.

CTRL+UP or DOWN ARROW KEYS: Move up a paragraph at a time instead of just one like at a time. Usually you would just move one line up but this allows you to move one paragraph at a time.

CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT ARROW KEYS: Move through your sentence a word at a time rather than one character at a time.

CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEYS: Highlight paragraphs, words and letters in an easy manner using the arrow keys. Combine with copy and paste.

HIGHLIGHT+TAB: You can move what ever is highlighted several lines over. Highlight the text then click tab. This would be great for any web developers or bloggers.

More Shortcut Keys

Microsoft Office Shortcut Keys

Microsoft Word shortcut keys
Microsoft Excel shortcut keys
Microsoft FrontPage shortcut keys
Microsoft Outlook shortcut keys

Design Shortcut Keys

Photoshop Shortcut Keys
Illustrator Shortcut Keys
Dreamweaver Shortcut Keys
Indesign Shortcut Keys (PDF)

Other

F1 – F12 function keys
Linux / Unix shortcut keys
Microsoft Internet Explorer shortcut keys
Keyboard terms and meanings

I hope you enjoyed this great list of shortcut keys for designers and bloggers, if so, please leave a comment. Also, if I have missed any valuable shortcuts let me know.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

YouTheDesigner is a graphic design blog under the UCreative Network. We do features; give away brushes, icons, wallpapers, and other freebies; and bring you the latest news in the world of graphic design.