What is a Keyboard Shortcut?
A keyboard shortcut is a key or combination of keys in the keyboard that when pressed makes an application execute a command that would normally require clicking on a button or on a menu with the mouse. For example, Ctrl+O (holding the Ctrl key and pressing the key for the letter O while Ctrl remains held) is a common keyboard shortcut that generally performs the same action as clicking on the menu File -> Open in the menubar, i.e. it executes the command of opening a file.
Keyboard shortcuts are so-called because it's faster to execute the commands by pressing the keys on the keyboard than by clicking on things with the mouse. Memorizing the shortcuts for actions you commonly have to perform in an application is important to become more productive with that application.
Some keyboard shortcuts are commonly found in many different applications. By convention, Ctrl+O opens a file, Ctrl+N creates a new file, Ctrl+S saves the current file, Ctrl+C copies the selection to the clipboard, Ctrl+V pastes the data in the clipboard, Ctrl+Z undoes the last action, and Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y redoes the last undo.
Some applications allow keyboard shortcuts to be customized, so you can set your own shortcuts even for commands that don't have a shortcut by default.
Some keyboard shortcuts don't belong to an application but to the operating system. For example, Alt+F4 closes a window, while Alt+Tab switches to the next window.
Some keyboard shortcuts belong to widgets. For example, in most widgets that allow editing text, Ctrl+Backspace erases the last word typed.
Most keyboard shortcuts require holding the keys Ctrl, Alt, or Shift, or multiple of these. These are called modifier keys. Sometimes the Windows key (also called the winkey, or super key, or meta key) is used a modifier key as well. A shortcut that has a modifier key, and thus has several keys pressed at once, is also called a chord, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Delete is a chord that opens the task manager in Windows.
The reason why chords exist is that most keys in shortcuts are keys that when pressed would normally type a text character. Some keys don't type text, such as the function keys (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12). Consequently, it's common to find these function keys without a modifier being a shortcut, e.g. pressing F2 is a common keyboard shortcut for renaming a file or another rename-able item.
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