I spend time in coffee shops writing on my NetBook and I see two kinds of computer users. One group is what I would call ‘effective computer users’ in that they seem to be accomplishing something on their computers (this is irrespective of whether it is work related or just fun, I’ve seen a lot of both…). The other group, I would call the ‘fiddlers’, they are rarely involved in work related things (not that this is a bad thing!), but they seem to be very slow and inefficient in the actual skills that are needed in using a computer. These two groups comprise almost all computer users, and, as such, are nearly everywhere.
There is a simple difference between these two groups…typing.
If you are using any sort of a laptop (especially without a conventional mouse) the amount of time you can waste dealing with moving the mouse around your screen can be a real ‘buzz-kill’. There are plenty of ‘tricks’ to help you. For most of these is to use keyboard shortcuts. As an example, imagine that you are surfing the web, and you run across a web site that you would like to visit again. This will entail a lot of mouse actions to just be able to bookmark the site…
With a keyboard shortcut, you merely have to use the keyboard and type ‘Ctrl + D’, this means pressing the ‘control’ key (usually labeled Ctrl) and the ‘D’ key. That’s it. As a sidebar to this, I should mention that this works on Window’s PC’s, on a Mac it would be a little different…using the Command key…
Of course this does beg a few questions, for instance, if this is so good, why do so few people use them? To be honest, I think it is a combination of ignorance and laziness (in all of us…I’ve fallen off of the wagon on this topic a few times myself!). This link may answer a few of these questions…
Learning to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts to reduce your trips to the mouse can lead to a much more fulfilling web browsing experience, especially at those times that your mouse just isn’t doing the trick.
Here are a couple lists of all of the keyboard shortcuts for Firefox (on Windows, Macs, and even Linux machines…)
Obviously you don’t have every one of these shortcuts, just start with a few easy to remember combinations that you use often, you’ll see a difference soon enough. And if you want to get deeper into these shortcuts there are plenty in many other programs and online applications. To start this I have two links that cover all of the keyboard shortcuts in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Here is a general list of keyboard shortcuts for many programs.
Of course, this is only the beginning, to really become one of the ‘effective computer users’ you should work to become a better typist (except for the elites out there…). Here are a few links to some sites which provide online tutorials on touch typing (for free!).
With a little practice you can likely make some real changes in how you use computers, and these may tips may be the start…
