Writing evolution with laughter

 

[skeleton of hand*]

What goes around, comes around. For many years I quietly laughed at my father, an old journalist, as he did his “hunt and peck” routine around the typewriter. He was reasonably fast at it but it looked so inefficient. Maybe as a bit of ultimate justice, for many years my wife has quietly, most of the time, laughed at me as I went back and forth from the mouse and keyboard, “stubbornly” refusing to learn and use keyboard shortcuts. Grabbing the opportunity to right a wrong, I just participated in a paid two-hour webinar sponsored by the proz.com, a leading translators site,  entitled “Keyboard shortcuts and more to skyrocket your productivity”. In it, Joachim Lépine enthusiastically demonstrated a plethora of shortcuts for Windows, Word and Excel, to name a few platforms. The amount of material was overwhelming but fortunately he provided a nice file to follow along and help us refresh our memory afterwards. I have to say that it was money well spent.

What I learned is that I should, can and will apply these keyboard shortcuts and significantly increase my speed. Clearly, I will not be able to nor do I strive to compete with these keyboard racers just I don’t try to pass sports cars. I am sure that even many people native to word processing are unaware of many of these options, making it no shame to sit and learn them. I took my wife’s advice and identified ten of these shortcuts to learn and apply in the immediate future. I will even share them with you on the hope you also may them helpful.

However, first, I would like explain my background in word processing technology. Born in the 1960’s and possessing terrible handwriting (in three alphabets, no less), I have witnessed and used most of means of writing in the last 60 years. I learned on a manual typewriter, reaching 60 wpm, a respectable speed. I then used electronic typewriters as well as correcting electronic typewriters. I immediately fell in love with the first DOS-based word processers (…/2p for double space) as they eliminated the need to type all documents twice. I relished the speed of the Commodore 64 at least until an important document was erased by accident when a magnet got too close to the audio memory tape. I graduated to the first true text writing programs, including WordPerfect, before settling into Microsoft word. I have yet to use any speech-to-word programs on the formal basis that I share my office with my wife and talking out loud would disturb her but I do not reject that technique out of hand. So, while far from native, I am willing and able to try technology, at least up to a certain point.

Looking over the 10+ pages of shortcuts, it is clear that my benefit from this webinar will only be partial. I find it quite difficult at my age to remember so many similar combinations even if there is a certain logic to them. It is probably true that age is not the only factor as even my academics in their 20’s are neither aware nor interested in becoming keyboard focused. As in all skills, easy and difficult are highly subjective terms. That said, I strongly believe that with sufficient motivation and effort any person can become decent in any skill. Thus, I will strive to absorb as many of the tips.

As for the ten ones I have marked for special effort, I will share them with you:

Shortcut	Function
Win+Tab (release)	Previous task/document
Win+E	Show file explorer
Ctrl+Shift+N	Create and name new folder
Win+Spacebar	Change keyboard language
Win+.	Emojs and special characters
Ctrl++F6	Switch between documents that are open
Alt+W+H	Side to side documents
Click left side of a row in a table	Add rows
Click left side of a row in a table then press backspace	Instantly delete row
Ctrl+Click	Select one sentence

 

If you find these terribly obvious, you can freely (but quietly please) laugh at me. I deserve it as just punishment for my previous sins. If any are new to you, enjoy. If you did not know any, I suggest taking some kind of course or webinar to improve your knowledge. The process is exhausting but evolution, however belatedly and slowly, is part of living and makes us better in countless ways, always punctuated by a little laughter, of course.

* Picture captions allow the blind to fully access the Internet.

Picture credit