You can enter these special characters by pressing the Shift key and the number key with the special character listed. We have a list of the most commonly shared ones in the basic PC shortcut keys section.īesides the special character shortcuts listed here, some are also on the number keys (below the F1 - F12 keys). As you begin to memorize shortcut keys, you'll notice that many applications share them. In the image above, you can see that some of the standard features, such as Open ( Ctrl+O) and Save ( Ctrl+S), have shortcut keys assigned to them.
Some programs require the user to press and hold Alt to see the underlined characters. For example, the file menu image has an underline on the 'F' in File, which means you can press the Alt key and F key to access the file menu. You can also find the shortcut keys in popular programs by looking for underlined letters in their menus. In other words, 'Ctrl+S' tells you to press and hold the Ctrl and then press the S simultaneously. The de facto standard for listing a shortcut is listing the modifier key, a plus symbol, and another key. Shortcut keys are performed using the Alt key (on IBM compatible computers), Command (on Apple computers), Ctrl key, or Shift key in conjunction with another key. Shortcut keys help provide an easier and quicker method of navigating and executing commands in the computer software.
