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9 Times Out of 10

"Nine times out of ten, the keyboard is faster".

Why do professionals say this? Learn why.

Tip	Title
1	The Keyboard is Always There
2	Keyboard Shortcuts Work When the Mouse Doesn't
3	Pretend that Your Left Little Finger is Super-Glued to the Ctrl Key
4	Now You can Laugh At Office 2007's Ribbon

The Keyboard is Always There

I know what you're thinking: "So is the mouse".

True. But with the mouse you have to MOVE THE MOUSE and then click.

With the keyboard, Ctrl-C is Ctrl-C.

Always.

Unchanging.

Consistent.

And we seek consistency; perfect results every time, and Go HOME EARLY!

The danger with the mouse is two-fold.

In the first place, you actually have to do mental and physical work to position the mouse on the Edit menu item, then more mental and physical work to position the mouse on the Copy menu item.

In the second place, you have to be deadly accurate; A small aberration and you are cutting or pasting instead of copying

Be honest. How often do you click on the Edit menu on the wrong application?

With the keyboard, it's hard to miss the big keys, and Ctrl-C always, always, always applies to your currently active window.

No mistakes. No fussing. No going-back-and-doing-it-properly after undoing-what-I-just-did.

Keyboard Shortcuts Work When the Mouse Doesn't

Try this experiment now:-

Choose File, SaveAs (it doesn't matter what application you are in), and observe the highlighted text in the little text box.

Try copying that selected text to the clipboard with the mouse.

I thought so!

Now use Ctrl-C to copy that selected text to the clipboard.

See?

Pretend that Your Left Little Finger is Super-Glued to the Ctrl Key

What keys are immediately in reach of your left hand?

Key	Function
Z	Edit-Undo
X	Edit-Cut (scissors)
C	Edit Copy
V	Edit Paste (insert)
B	Bold
A	Select All
S	File save

Now be honest.

Don't those seven function encompass about 80% of what you do when you are preparing a document or spreadsheet?

Now You can Laugh At Office 2007's Ribbon

If you have been using the keyboard, your most common tasks will be rolling off your finger tips.

You create tables? Alt-A, I, Enter.

It's the same in Office 2007.

And you are still struggling to master that ribbon with the mouse, and Office 2010 is being shipped as we speak.

With the mouse you will spend the rest of your working life playing catch-up.

With the keyboard you get to GO HOME EARLY

Toronto and Mississauga, Thursday, March 18, 2010 7:23 AM