Skills Sellings: April 2013

Thursday, 11 April 2013

The Top Essential Hotkeys for Windows 8

Making your computing life easier, one shortcut at a time.

Whether you're new to Windows 8 or a seasoned veteran, it's always good to have a few tricks up your sleeve. Let's face it: without a touch screen, Windows 8 can get a tad tedious to use. Here are the most essential Windows 8 shortcuts for accessing and working with the Charms menu, and system-wide. You can thank us later.

Useful keys to access Charms in a touchless world

Windows Key + C: Opens Charms Bar
Windows Key + I: Access the settings or control panel for active app
Windows Key + Q: Search your applications
Windows Key + Z: Open the apps bar to see all your installed programs

Useful keys for display setup

Windows Key + P: Switch displays
Windows Key + D: Switch to Desktop
Windows Key + Comma(,): Peek at Desktop

Useful keys for Search and multitasking

Windows Key + Tab: Like alt tab, but for Modern UI
Windows Key + Number (1,2,3...): Selects active apps on taskbar
Windows Key + Period(.) or Windows Key + T: Cycle through open apps on the taskbar

Useful keys for active window

Windows Key + Shift + Period(.): Snap current Modern app to the side
Windows Key + Left/Right Arrow: Snap current window to the left/right
Windows Key + Up Arrow: Maximize window
Windows Key + Down: Minimize window
Windows Key + Home: Minimize everything but the active window

Useful keys for power users

Windows Key + Pause/Break: View machine and system info
Win + X: Menu of advanced options for system management, command prompts, etc.
Windows Key + E: Open Explorer
Windows Key + R: Open Run command
Windows Key + L: Enable Lock screen

Useful Keys for Accessibility

Windows Key + Plus or Minus(+/-) Key: Enable magnifier to zoom in and zoom out
Windows Key + Enter: Enable Narrator to read out text in active apps.

Thursday, 4 April 2013

FastPaste

With FastPaste, insert frequently used text, rich text, and images into any application. Either with global hotkeys, global paste menu, or simply using the "Copy" buttons in the main FastPaste window. FastPaste can be deployed to USB thumb-drive and run in portable mode. And it can even be installed without administrator privileges. Create keyboard scripts to fill login forms. The scripts can emulate typing, and thus send any key sequences or key combinations (including shortcuts). This allows you to create scripts to completely fill various forms. You can access up to 300 clips entirely using keyboard. FastPaste also offers various clipboard formatting functions. You may convert text in clipboard to the lower, upper, proper, sentence case, or even reverse case. You can also use fun ZiG zAg case, reverse it, and remove diacritics. Another function is total clean-up of clipboard. You also can copy current time or date quickly from system tray.

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