Keyboard Shortcuts Are the Best Invention

I learned Cmd+` last week. It's the key above Tab, the one with the tilde on it. It switches between windows of the same app. So if I have four browser windows open, that one key moves me through them without kicking me out to a different program.

The annoying part is apps don't tell you their shortcuts. They tuck them into a menu you never open, or a help page you never look for. So you go hunting. Or you get lucky and hit the wrong keys while doing something else, and something useful happens. That's how I found half of mine.

I've been thinking about this since I read Robert Kingett's post, "How Keyboard Shortcuts Are My Superpower." His argument is simple. Using a mouse is slow work. You hunt for a menu, drag the pointer over, wait, scan the list, click. Three seconds to save a file. Ctrl+S does it in a tenth of that. He calls the mouse a leash and the keyboard freedom, and he's right.

I'm with him on all of it. Reaching for the mouse is a detour. Move hand off keys, find pointer, aim, click, move hand back. Five steps to do one thing. A shortcut is one step. Once you feel that difference you don't want to go back.

We're not doing it for the same reason, though. Kingett is blind, so the keyboard isn't a shortcut for him, it's the way in. I'm not blind. I just like being fast, and fast is most of the job when you're writing a post, editing photos, and poking at code all in the same afternoon.

Okay, I do have favorites. J and K move you down and up a list, and they work in more places than you'd expect. Gmail uses them. Facebook uses them. A lot of sites picked up the same pair. Once it's in your hands you stop scrolling with the mouse.

In Gmail I run J down the inbox and hit E to archive as I go. Whole inbox cleared and I never touch the trackpad.

Delete is D for me. That's not the default. Gmail ships with # and I changed it to D. You can remap any of them in Settings under Advanced and set them however suits you. That switch is buried about as well as the shortcuts themselves. Hidden keys, and a hidden switch for changing the keys.

So J and K travel. Archive and delete don't. Every mail app picks its own, so check yours before you assume.

For all that, my most used one isn't fancy. It's copy and paste. Everybody knows it, everybody uses it, and it's still the one doing the most work in my day.

If you want to go looking, both companies keep a full list. Apple's is Mac keyboard shortcuts. Microsoft's is Keyboard shortcuts in Windows. Browsers keep their own too. Here's Safari's and Chrome's, and the Chrome one covers Brave and Edge as well since they're built on the same engine. All of these are long, so don't try to learn them all. Grab two or three that match what you already do every day. Those are the ones that stick.

I'm always looking for an easier way to get around with the keyboard, and when I learn a new one I want to use it constantly. But the ones I really reach for are the plain universal ones everybody already has. Every new one I pick up, I try to keep. They're worth it. Any time there's a shortcut for the thing you're about to do with the mouse, use it. Two keys instead of five steps, a hundred times a day, adds up to real time.

Best invention. I'm not taking questions.