Central IL Paralegal Association

a NALA Affiliate

Handy Shortcuts

By: zeevveez

Search for ‘shortcuts’ in your favorite engine, and you’ll find thousands of pages and posts on the same. Yet, here’re my 2 cents, and my favorites I use on a daily basis.

Windows

  • Ctrl+A to select everything.
  • Ctrl+C to copy what is selected.
  • Ctrl+V to paste what is currently on the clipboard.
  • Alt+Tab to switch between programs

Outlook

  • Before we installed Credenza as a practice management solution, my favorite Outlook shortcut was Ctrl+Shift+M for creating a new e-mail no matter where I was in Outlook. Credenza short-circuits that into a new matter, and I can’t find a replacement.
  • Ctrl+Shift+K creates a new task from anywhere in Outlook.
  • Ctrl+G when pressed in the calendar brings up a dialogue for you to input a date. You can type “Christmas,” and it will take you to this year’s 12/25. Type “28 days” to calendar that discovery deadline from the Interrogatories you just opened. (The written days work in any Outlook date field, such as in Tasks.)
  • Ctrl+Enter sends your e-mail immediately.
  • Esc or Alt+F4 to cancel (if Esc doesn’t work, Alt+F4 should).

Excel

  • Ctrl+; to input today’s date
  • Ctrl+Shift+; for the current time
  • Ctrl+End and then Enter to go to the end of a row

Word

  • Ctrl+H for find and replace
  • Alt+F9 to reveal mergecodes (I’ll write a separate post on the power of mergefields)
  • I usually turn Auto-Correct off.

 

Category: Tech Tickler
  • Gale says:

    I absolutely agree with the use of ‘shortcuts’. It can really speed things up and used often enough will become a habit.

    I would be interested to learn a few simple formulas for Excel. I do not use it often enough to have common formulas memorized, i.e. adding, subtracting, totals, etc.

    January 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm
    • Web Chair says:

      Alt+= starts an Auto Sum.

      August 9, 2012 at 10:30 pm
  • Jeffrey Smith says:

    Many thanks for the tips, and your website honestly looks fantastic. Just what word press theme are you using?

    February 15, 2012 at 5:18 pm

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