I know a few friends who are absolute keyboard junkies. They won’t even touch the mouse unless absolutely necessary. I tend to be more pragmatic about my keyboard use. If I use an application a lot, I learn the keyboard shortcuts. Otherwise I just reach for the mouse. That said, here are some keyboard shortcuts that I use regularly. I’ll skip the usual suspects like copy, cut, paste, undo, redo, … 🙂
Windows*
| Close current application | ALT-F4 |
| Switch tasks | ALT-TAB (2D) Windows-TAB (3D) |
| Lock your computer | Windows-L |
| Display task manager | CTRL-SHIFT-Esc |
| Run | Windows-R |
| Launch a program in Vista | Windows and start typing |
| Show desktop | Windows-D (toggles) Windows-M (no toggle) |
| Go to System Tray (icons beside the clock) | Windows-B |
| Launch Explorer | Windows-E |
| Launch application on Quick Launch bar | Windows-1 to Windows-0 |
| Cycle through task bar | Windows-T – space selects |
* Most work on Windows XP/Server 2003 and above, though some were added in Vista. So your mileage may vary.
FireFox
| Open a new tab | CTRL-T |
| Close current tab | CTRL-F4 |
| Switch tabs | CTRL-TAB (forward) CTRL-SHIFT-TAB (backward) |
| Re-open last closed tab | CTRL-SHIFT-T |
| Go to search box | CTRL-K |
| Go to address bar | CTRL-L |
| Find | CTRL-F |
| Go back | ALT-left arrow |
| Go forward | ALT-right arrow |
Visual Studio/ReSharper
This deserves a separate post and/or screencast, which I’ll get to eventually. For now, download the ReSharper keymap from here (ReSharper 2.x/IDEA scheme). Personally I wouldn’t bother with the “Visual Studio scheme” for ReSharper. Every ReSharper Jedi I know uses the IDEA scheme.
