this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Mine is using the arrow keys to navigate typed text while writing and editing. It helps speed things up, versus having to move your hand to the mouse to navigate.

Use the Up and Down Arrows to move/jump vertically.

Left and Right Arrows to move/jump horizontally.

Combine Left or Right Arrow with Shift to be able to select text. Use Up or Down Arrow with Shift to quickly select whole/nearly whole sections of text.

Combine Control with Left/Right Arrow to jump whole words to more quickly move to where you want to type.

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[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

(Linux)

Add the same symbol at the beginning of most aliases. I use é

So when I type é+tab I get all my aliases

é+first letters of alias+tab and I'm sure autocomplete will select the alias and not another command

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yeah I do a lot of keyboard shortcuts. My computer career started before I even had a mouse, it was all keyboard editing. Doesn't bother me a bit to leave the mouse just sitting there. In fact after typing a comment here I just tab to the Post button and hit Enter.

[–] Randomocity@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My favorite windows shortcut is 'Windows+shift+left/right' to move an application between monitors. Very helpful for moving games around or snapping without have to use a mouse.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

The Escape Key closes most popups, dialogs, modals. It’s also non-destructive, so it won’t close a program; any “save changes” dialog will be cancelled.

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Custom autocompletes/corrects. Just figure out a non-word (i.e. something that you wouldn't want to use without autocorrecting) that's easy to remember and set it up frequently used snippets of text. Some examples:

  • meetnow - my zoom meeting link
  • booktime - a link to my calendly
  • frequent sentences or blurbs I use in emails (e.g. thanks so much, let me know if i can help with anything else sorta stuff)
  • nicknames for different frequently used hex codes
  • galert/yalert/redalert populate a styled HTML snippet to make a green, yellow, or red div that I can then just pop my content into
  • lots of other little HTML snippets like that
  • group nicknames to populate a list of email addresses (like an Outlook contacts group but you can use it outside of Outlook)

Anyway there are a ton of things I use it for, those are just a few examples. Saves me a lot of time.

You can do this on Macs at a system level, on Windows you can do it on some programs but it seems to have to be set up on each one which is worthless.

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[–] Willdrick@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Recently had to help a relative who still uses windows, so here's a freebie from Linux:

You can use super + number to launch any pinned program on the taskbar. For example let's say you have your browser right of the start button and file explorer on the next spot right, pressing super+1 launches the browser and super+2 the explorer

Edit: super = windows logo key

[–] glibg@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

Win + E to open a file browser window

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Control Backspace deletes whole words. Misspelled control? Faster to delete and retype than move my cursor around when I'm on a roll.

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[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 days ago

when my computer pisses me off i like to smash it

[–] Toes@ani.social 8 points 6 days ago

I've discovered over the years that these 2 commands can fix a lot of problems for a windows computer. And there’s no practical downside unless you're running pirated software or exotic OS mods.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

sfc /scannow

As with any advice online, its critical to research and understand what you're doing. :D

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

My main one is to learn shortcuts on your most used programs. Using the mouse for everything is a waste of time, but that has been said multiple times.

My second is to create scripts to do a bunch of repetitive tasks. For example, I have a script I run on my work PC after I log on to the VPN that starts my "always on" programs (like notepad++), unlocks the hosts file, etc. I have some sendto scripts for converting files with pandoc, fetching multiple git repos in one go, etc. It just speeds up things and avoids errors versus me doing them manually.

On Windows I use PowerShell and on Linux I use bash, meaning they work without additional software installed.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Add Home/End buttons into your work flow to jump to the start or end of lines. Works with holding Shift as well.

For me, one of the biggest things was removing all the visual noise from my desktop. Disable notifications, disable or hide unused taskbar elements, and on Windows, get rid of the patently awful ticker thing that lives on the taskbar. Disable window animations.

I did the same thing on my phone, too, including disabling pop-up notifications, toasts, floating bubbles, and animations. My brain is much happier for it.

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[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
  • Double clicking with the mouse on a word usually selects the whole word with the space after, very nice for copy-pasting.

  • Double clicking on the selected word will sometimes select the whole line(In some applications it actually selects up to the newline marker, so it will grab multiple lines if resized smaller).

[–] phonics@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Shift + del: skips the trash and actually deletes things

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 6 days ago

Pretty much anything has a free alternative. Often times, with a better UI or more features with far less bloat than the top commercial product.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago (4 children)

The Multiple desktops feature is critical for me. It allows you to use one computer for multiple functional concepts simultaneously without visually interfering with each other or constantly needing to close and re-open things. It's available in both windows and linux (which had it first) for a long time now.

I keep my personal stuff on one desktop, I keep my work stuff on a second desktop, and I keep my gaming stuff on a third desktop. Then I just flip between them based on what I'm currently doing.

That way I'm not getting things confused with each other, or distracted by something personal while I'm working.

Ctrl+Windows+Left/Right for Windows is the shortcut to flip back and forth between them. Or you can also see it on the Windows+Tab menu as well (along the bottom below the apps)

The only downside to this is that you need more RAM than normal, because it's not uncommon for me to have dozens (sometimes north of 100) of browser tabs, and a half dozen applications from office to video games open simultaneously between the different desktops. I would suggest running 32gb at a minimum, and 64gb is a lot better.

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[–] N00b22@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)
  1. Shift + Tab (also works on Linux)

  2. If you have a mouse with side buttons, you can use the side buttons to go back or go to the next page on browsers

  3. Pressing Alt + F4 on the desktop opens up a dialog asking if you want to shut down, restart, log out, etc. (I think this works on Linux as well)

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