Last Updated: 9:05 AM 6/9/2024
NOTE: This is a work-in-progress. This page will be updated as I learn how to do this.
Many people are impressed by folks who can print a page[^1] or that they can copy/paste,[^2]: or just about anything without the use of a mouse. For people who use the computer for hours everyday using a mouse seems less efficient than just typing in a couple of key commands and being done with it. For some, like yours truly, just trying to find the cursor in all this visual real estate can be a chore sometimes. So I have decided to find out if using the keyboard for what I do on a computer is any easier for me. I doubt it will speed me up in any substantive manner as I don't know very many of the commands and will have to use reference materials repeatedly throughout this experiment.
Windows
Also of note, this experiment will be done using the Windows side of this computer and not the Linux. From the little bit that I know the commands are probably the same in Mac and Linux but I can not guarantee this to be true.
Emacs users, I am afraid you are on your own.
Stock apps
Also note that I want to use just the stock apps that came with Windows. So rather than apps that the cool kids would use, like VSCode and the Brave browser I will be using things like:
- Microsoft Edge, web browser
- Notepad, text editor
- Windows Media Player
- the on-board File Explorer
- the on-board utilities, like calculator
As I look at this list I realize that I am in for an education. I am not very familiar with the Media Player or Edge. I haven't been a Windows user since 2006 so this may be a fun project just in that regard.
Mouse Pointer
As a pro-tip take a look at How to control the mouse pointer in Windows 10 and follow it. Sometimes you may need a mouse pointer.
The page says Windows 10 but it works on my Windows 11 box as well.
Let's get started
Opening an app
In order for me to learn what to do I need to learn while doing it. I already have my computer booted up and Notepad is open. I am typing this out on Notepad already. Because this is one of my first times to do this sort of thing I need to open up a cheat sheet or three so that I can navigate around the computer in general and the app in particular. So I guess it might be a good idea to open Edge.
Simple enough- press the Windows key and when it opens up type in Edge, the press Enter. Et voila! Edge opens up.
Putting the window where you want it
You can move the window wherever you want it in your visual real estate by pressing the Windows key and using the arrow keys. This is easy enough. Easy enough on my setup with two monitors too. Just cycle through until you find the setup you like.
Ok Edge is up, now what?
If you already have something open on your computer, like I have Notepad up and running you can use Alt+Tab to select which window you want to work in. I used this and selected my newly opened Edge window.
Once there, I discovered that Edge doesn't open automagically with the search bar active so I typed Alt+d to activate the search bar. I typed in “windows keyboard commands” and hit enter. Edge took me to Bing (of course) and the very first item in the search results was “Help from Microsoft.” Let me scroll down using the tab key and see if I can select that one.
Ok, the tab button worked, but I couldn't see where I was on the screen and it was just doing stuff so I am going to try scrolling down with the arrow keys and select my link that way...
And we easily found and clicked our page. Keyboard shortcuts in Windows. I got that link by going back to Edge using Alt+Tab and when I got there I used Alt+d to get in the address bar and then hit Ctrl+c to copy the link. Upon returning to Notepad I simply pasted the link address into the link above.
Need a new tab in Edge
For this part of the experiment I want to have three tabs open in Edge all the time. One for Windows keyboard shortcuts, another for Edge shortcuts, and yet another for a page last night that lists keyboard shortcuts for several different Microsoft apps.
Now I am unfamiliar with Edge, but I do know that Edge is based on Google Chrome. In Chrome Ctrl+t will open a new tab. Let's see if that works. Ok, that worked and I managed to get Keyboard shortcuts for Edge and Keyboard Shortcuts in apps opened so that I have my reference material open while I do stuff here for fun.
Notepad
Odlly enough, in this world of fancified text editors, when I just need a text editor and not all the bull@#$% attached to a beast like VSCode I like to find the dumbest text editor that I can. I am talking about stuff like Nano, Gedit, Leafpad, and Notepad. One can get all twisted off and running down rabbit trails messing with all of that fluff. Sometimes, most of the time?, all that I need is a typewriter on a screen not a mini-os that can control satellites.
Keyboard shortcuts in Notepad
Ctrl+c, Ctrl+x, Ctrl+v, Ctrl+f, all work as expected in Notepad.
Ctrl+left-arrow and Ctrl+right-arrow move the cursor forward or backward by word.
Ctrl+home moves the cursor to the begining of the line. Ctrl+end moves it to the end of the line.
Once you move the cursor to the beginning of a word you can use the Ctrl+Shift+right-arrow or Ctrl+Shift+left-arrow to select the text you want to copy. Ctrl+c copies, Ctrl+x cuts, Ctrl+v pastes the selection where the cursor is.
Notepad has a feature that let's one add a time stamp to the text file. Just press F5 and you have a timestamp. I am nowhwere near done with this right now but the time is 9:00 AM 6/9/2024
[^1]: This would be CTRL + p. [^2]: CTRL + c to copy, CTRL + x to cut, CTRL + v to paste.
