A police officer's lot is not a happy one when there's a bundle of crime reports and other paperwork to file. Computers have streamlined the process somewhat, but there is still lots of repetition in a cop's daily routine.

Officer Eddie George knows this as well as anyone. George has seen police life in Aiken, S.C. from three different perspectives. First as a civilian responsible for traffic signaling, then as an officer on the beat, and now as a desk-bound cop who has become Aiken Public Safety Department's resident Windows guru. George is a 10-year veteran of the force. He developed the department's Web page, and keeps their PC network -- which serves 90 officers and 30 other staff-- running. 

Simply amazing
Naturally, there are lots of questions that come his way, but it most often amazes him when people aren't familiar with the basics. Things like simple commands for performing common tasks.

"Even those who have used their PCs for years are often flabbergasted when I show them the "control + enter" command for entering a Web address," he said.

He also suggested it was about time we did something about it, such as produce a list of the the most useful keyboard commands. Not wishing to disobey an officer of the law, we naturally agreed.

But first, we convinced Officer George to issue a citation for most useful keyboard commands that are commonly missed. He wrote up a list of what he calls the "Control-plus" series, shortcuts using the Control key and one other.

Getting ahead of the game
"The really great thing about these is their universal application," he explained. "It doesn't matter if you're using a text or document program, a graphics or Web editor, or just moving shortcuts around the start menu.  If you learn these five shortcuts, you'll be way ahead of the game."

Control + A
Selects the contents of an active window or an entire graphic.

Control + X
Cuts selection and places it on the Windows clipboard.

Control + C
Copies the selected area(s) to the clipboard.

Control + V
Pastes the contents of the clipboard to the active window.

Control + Z
Undoes the last action. "The most overlooked but often a lifesaver," said George.

"These commands work with almost any Windows program, and are especially handy when doing repetitive graphics tasks, like designing Web page buttons," George added.

His next most popular keyboard commands are three "Alt-plus" shortcuts.

Alt + F4
Closes the current window. "Handy if you screwed-up and somehow managed to get the top of the active window out of reach," commented George.

Alt + Tab
Selects the previous window you were using.

Alt + Hyphen
Brings up the Start menu. "This is especially useful if keep your taskbar hidden to give you more useable desktop area."

F1
Brings up the HELP menu on any Windows program.

Cntrl + Enter
Inserts http://www..com/ into the address line of the browser.

Ten more useful shortcuts
We've taken the liberty of adding our own favorite keyboard commands to the list provided by Officer George.

Note: the Windows key is located between the Alt and Ctrl keys on newer keyboards.

Windows + ESC
Opens the Start menu on the taskbar.

Windows + E
Opens Windows Explorer.

Windows + M
Minimizes all open windows.

ALT + Tab
Holding the ALT key and pressing Tab repeatedly allows you to move through all open applications, beginning with the last used.

ALT + ESC
Sends the current application behind any other open windows.

ALT + Right arrow
Displays the next page on a Web site.

Alt + Left arrow
Displays the previous page on a Web site.

SHIFT + CTRL + TAB
Moves forward between frames on a Web site.

SHIFT + CTRL + TAB
Moves back between frames.

CTRL + S
Saves the current page.

There are many more keyboard shortcuts to make you more productive. You can also try using the right-button on the mouse, which allows you to complete many tasks with fewer clicks. Remember, it's no crime to experiment. Just say Officer George told you to try it.

Gordon Black denies that Alt + Tab is his favorite shortcut.

 
"If you learn these additional shortcuts, you'll be way ahead of the game."
--Officer Eddie George

You'll find lots more keyboard shortcuts in Windows Help.

To open Windows Help:

1. Click Start
2. Click Help and then Index
3. Type "keyboard"
4. Select Keyboard Shortcuts