Keyboard Shortcuts: Improve how you work with documents

In a recent interview, Google anthropologist Dan Russell, who spends time with random people studying how they search for things, said 90 percent of people don’t know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page.

For those who are familiar with computer shortcuts, that statistic – that so many people might not know a very basic way to speed up searching within documents – is astounding. Genealogists and family historians spend so much time working with documents.

Russell is the expert, however, so we’ll take his word for it.

With that in mind, below are some very useful shortcuts that may help you in searching and using information within and between documents.

This will be even more useful with the new addition of billions of records now part of the MyHeritage family as a result of our recent FamilyLink and WorldVitalRecords acquisitions.

For all of the combinations below, CTRL refers to the CTRL key that is usually on the bottom row of a Windows computer keyboard.

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Apple users will replace CTRL with the Command key (sometimes known as the Apple key because it used to feature an Apple symbol)

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SHORTCUTS

CTRL-F Find a word or text on the page

CTRL-C: Copy selected text

CTRL-V: Paste copied text

CTRL-X: Cut selected text

CTRL-B: Bold selected text

CTRL-I: Italicize selected text

CTRL-U: Underline selected text

CTRL-A: Select all text in the document / on the webpage

CTRL-Z: Undo the last thing you did

CTRL-S: Save

CTRL-O: Open a new file

CTRL-P: Print the current file

CTRL- “+” or “-“: Increase or reduce font size of a webpage

For those interested in learning more:

CLICK HERE for a full list of Windows shortcuts

CLICK HERE for a full list of Apple Mac OSX shortcuts

What shortcuts do you find most useful? Share your experiences via comments below, via Twitter or Facebook.