Number 213 - February 2001

E-Mail: Handy Keyboard Shortcuts
by Don Edrington, PC CHAT via The Computer Booter, October 2000
One of the questions I'm asked most is: "How can I get rid of all the extraneous gibberish that comes with e-mail and just save the part I want? When I try to remove it, the whole letter gets deleted."     The answer is: Copy and Paste. Use your mouse to select the part you want to keep and then go to Edit/Copy. Finally, use Edit/Paste to paste (place) the selected text where you want it. But where would that be?     Well, I prefer to create a new word processing page for this, but you can also put your selection into a new e-mail letter, or go to File, New to create a blank text editing document within your e-mail program. Edit/Paste will then place your selection into any of these.     Alternatively, you can do Edit/Select All and Edit/Copy to duplicate the entire letter I then Edit/Paste it into a new blank document and, finally, Delete the parts you don't want.     Either way, you can then do further editing (such as adding and removing words or changing font styles). For a better looking print-out, I also like to use my word processor to adjust margins and line spacing.     Beyond this, you can find other editing tricks on my Web site, such as how to get rid of those annoying >>> symbols, along with how to fix those "long and short lines of text" that often end up in e-mail.     Getting back to Copy and Paste, this has always been one of the most fundamental functions of any computer (being used for both text and graphics). However, sometimes you cant find any of the Edit/Copy/Paste menu choices normally used for this. That's where Keyboard Shortcuts come in handy. Hold down the Ctrl key and press C (to Copy). Then Paste the selected text or object by holding down the Ctrl key and hitting V.     There are lots of these Keyboard Shortcuts, and they are often faster and easier than going through their mouse-click equivalents. Most are executed by holding down the Ctrl key and tapping another key.	Here are the most popular ones (remember to hold down the Ctrl key first): Filing Commands:     S=Save; N=New Document;     O=Open Existing Document;     P=Print; W=Close. Editing Commands:     A= Select All; X=Cut;     C=Copy; V=Paste; F=Find;     H=Find & Replace;     Z=Undo (last editing command). Formatting Commands:     L=Left Aligned; R=Right Aligned;     E =Center Aligned;     J=Justified; 1 =Single Line Spacing;     2 =Double Line spacing; 5=1-1/2 Line Spacing. Text Styles (with text selected):     B=Bold; I=Italic;     U=Underlined. Page Scrolling:     Home=Top of Document;     End=Bottom of Document;     Page Up=Top of Page;     Page Down=Bottom of Page.     But there is yet another shortcut for doing most of the above editing commands. If you're a mouseaholic like I am, and you want to copy a certain word, double-click it and then right-click it. On the pop-up menu click Copy. Click where you want to put the word and do another right-click. Choose Paste. If you want to copy the whole document, right-click anywhere between words, and choose Select All from the pop-up menu. Then repeat the other above steps to Copy and Paste the document. If you make a mistake, do Ctrl-Z to undo it.     This article is courtesy of Don Edrington, who writes a column called "PC Chat" for the North County Times. For additional tips, check out his Website, www.pcdon.com.     See also: Aaron Potts article Windows Shortcut Keys
Number 213 - February 2001