Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shortcuts

I realize that there are no shortcuts in life, but...

kjackelen05 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:52:37 -0800

When I use Grooveshark, I can no longer use Firefox's standard keyboard shortcuts. How can I fix this? Greasemonkey, maybe? I'm a habitual ctrl-tabber to switch tabs, ctrl-t to get a new tab, ctrl-shift-t to open a recently closed tab, etc. But when the active tab is Grooveshark, these commands don't work. This is especially frustrating when I'm trying to ctrl-tab my through a bunch of tabs, and I get stuck in Grooveshark.

I feel like this is something that might be solvable with Greasemonkey, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Photoshop-Shortcut Filter: How to toggle between layers w/out touching the mouse

alrightokay — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:40:12 -0800

Photoshop-Shortcut Filter: How to toggle between layers w/out touching the mouse - basically, I'm looking for and alt-tab option for layers within Photoshop. How can I toggle between the current layer selected and the previous layer selected? - kinda like alt-tab for layers within Photoshop. Google turned up a lot of results about shortcuts when within the layers palette but I'm looking for an alt-tab-simple shortcut.

I need to keep my mouse cursor in the same location on the image as I switch between layers - having to move from the image, to the layer palette is messing me up a bit.

Any Ideas?

How to suggest keyboard shortcuts in a web app?

jacobjacobs — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:36:41 -0800

Have you seen any clever ways that keyboard shortcuts have been exposed or suggested? For example, if you press Alt in Word it'll float tooltips over available shortcuts, most desktop windows show shortcuts beside actions, and I remember Gmail used to list a selected few at the bottom of their app.

Have you seen any other clever ways to suggest shortcuts, without being obtrusive?

Shortut, plz?

bluloo — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:18:42 -0800

Is there an iTunes keyboard shortcut that allows you to set song ratings, or a way to set up such a shortcut on OSX? I have recently been trying to go through and rate the songs in my library, and I was hoping to find a way to set a keyboard shortcut for this to expedite the process. Bonus points if this could be done while in another window (I don't know if that is even possible... I'm not too tech savy).

The route to better transcription

low_horrible_immoral — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:19:27 -0800

Looking for your transcription hints and tips! I've just starting transcription (ie, typing from digital files) on a freelance basis. I'm doing fairly well but I'm sure there are load of ways I could work faster and more accurately - Word shortcuts, playback software (at the moment I use ExpressScribe), optimising the time it takes me to check things.

Are there any transcribers out there willing to share their hints and tips? Anything at all would be useful.

Thanks!

Continually break on through to the other side

greenland — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:18:32 -0800

Is there a list or map out there that shows all the city blocks one can cut through (as a pedestrian) in Manhattan? I used to work in midtown Manhattan and regularly utilized a string of shortcuts that allowed me to travel from 46th St. down to 43rd without ever touching an avenue. (This was insanely useful when running to the post office in the winter. Or if it was St. Patrick's Day.)

Open plazas, buildings with entrance hallways or lobbies that span a block, underground passages, or intermediate streets themselves seem to make up the most of these shortcuts. I'm certainly not the first person to cobble them together like this. Has anyone ever compiled a list, or map, of them?

Useful iTunes keyboard shortcuts?

OmieWise — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:28:55 -0800

Is there a way, within iTunes, to change playlists (or navigate back to the main library) and to place the cursor in the search box using just the keyboard? I cannot find these options on any list of iTunes keyboard shortcuts, but I'm trying to rescue many gigs worth of music, and all the clicking around is killing me.

Dynamically automate my appointment calendar in IE with today's date in the link?

unclezeb — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:57:59 -0800

Help me create a short cut that opens an Internet Explorer webpage with part of the link set to change dynamically to today's date (i.e., http://boingboing.net/2009/01/27/ if I clicked on it yesterday, http://boingboing.net/2009/01/28/ if I clicked on it today). Can this be done? My office lets me see a calendar of appointments with clients through a web-page which accesses information from our intranet. It only opens via Internet Explorer. Part of the link includes the date of those appointments:
=Date(2009,1,7)

Currently, I simply created a shortcut to a given date (above) and manually change it then go to the new date as entered (i.e., =Date(2009,1,28)).

I would like to be able to have a shortcut which dynamically updates the date to "today" ... so I can click on the shortcut and be directed to a page with today's appointments rather than manually altering the date in the link each time.

Any ideas short of Autohotkey?

Thanks a million!

First They Came For The Keyboard Shortcuts, And I Did Not Speak Up, Because I Was Not a Shortcut

foxy_hedgehog — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:54:35 -0800

For some reason, my MacBook pro suddenly won't let me use standard shortcuts- i.e. cntrl-x for cut, ctrl-v for paste, etc.- on any program, including MS Word and web browsers. I've never had a problem with this, and didn't have to set up these shortcuts when I got the computer. I've checked system preferences and made sure the "shortcuts" option is set to default, but to no avail. It's driving me crazy to have to use the drop-down menus to cut and paste. Any idea what might be wrong?

Possible troubleshooting:
The only new software I've installed is the new version of Firefox.
I just returned from Spain and was using different wireless connections there- however, I did not encounter or download any suspicious files.

Yes, I know these sound like unlikely candidates for causing the problem I just wanted to give you the complete lowdown.

Thanks!

Getting multiple monitors to work using only keyboard

fingo — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:30:23 -0800

How do I turn off "extend my desktop to multiple monitors" in XP only using the keyboard? I broke the lcd screen on my laptop and I hooked up an external monitor. I was playing with the settings to get the best resolution, and I turned on the "extend my desktop to multiple monitors" by accident.

Now, whenever I try to open the desktop properties window, it opens on my lcd monitor, and it is so broken that I can't do anything on it. Is there anything I can do using only the keyboard to restore that setting to default?

If it helps, I do have linux running on this computer that handles the multiple monitors fine. So it would be an option to edit the registry (if that is possible from linux).

Thanks!

If I May Be So Bold

sjuhawk31 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:12:38 -0800

MacFilter: The keyboard shortcut in Mail to make bold text doesn't work properly. When I use the Command + B shortcut in Mail.app, it gives me the Narrow Bold version of the font I'm using. Where can I change the keyboard shortcut to make it regular bold?

How to remap Windows XP keyboard shortcuts to standard Apple shortcuts

Frankieist — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:48:45 -0800

I'm used to the keyboard shortcuts on OS X, but I have to use a Windows PC at work. What are some ways that I can remap the keys on XP to get as close to Apple's as possible? I recently set up one of the new Apple Aluminum keyboards on my PC. The drivers are set up fine, so the default windows keyboard shortcuts work on it (Ctrl+alt+del, Command => the Windows key, etc.). I've tried searching google, but many of the options are only partial solutions, and I'm not sure how well they'll work together.

The specific keyboard mappings I'm most interested in changing are:

The ability to use Apple's accent and diacritic shortcuts (e.g. option+e for acute accent, option+c for cedilla). I find the US-International IME on Windows to be a pain.

Some of the OS X shortcuts borrowed from emacs, like Ctrl+A for beginning of line, Ctrl+E for end of line, Ctrl+K for delete to end of line.

Some other text navigation shortcuts, such as option+→ for move forward one word, option+← for move back one word.

I don't really much use the windows key, and I miss the ability to use alt as a meta key (Just using it for menus seems like a waste of a good key). Can any of this be done, or do I just have to deal with using different shortcuts at work and home?

HOWTO: keyboard shortcuts (not access keys) on websites?

jruckman — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:18:19 -0800

Any idea how keyboard shortcuts on websites are implemented, a la Google Reader and ffffound.com? I'm not talking about access keys, or maybe I am -- but I don't want to press Ctrl + a key to have it work, I just want to press the key. Specifically I want to implement this on my WordPress blog to allow for tapping through blog posts.

Alt-something me! Give me keyboard shortcuts please!

mulkey — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:29:20 -0800

Is it possible to create a keyboard shortcut for a program that doesn't seem to have one? I'm doing a bunch of work on coding qualitative interviews using a program called Atlas/ti. I can't seem to find any way to do coding (assigning codes to a quotation) without using the mouse. This is driving me crazy because I have tried to train myself to go without a mouse as much as possible. Having only done a small number of interviews, I can already see the shoulder/arm/wrist pain starting. I have miles of interviews to go.

I don't think this program does keyboard shortcuts (though I could be wrong! Maybe I'm wrong!). Is there any way to get around this? Any useful hacks that I don't know of? Ways to make a few button clicks into an Alt-something?

I know that I can write the developers a letter and encourage them to do this for future iterations but for the moment I need to keep on coding. What can I do?

Help!!!

Give me back my letters

celine — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:02:58 -0800

What do I do to make my keyboard switch to shortcuts instead of letters and how do I undo that? Sorry in advance if I'm not very clear.

Quite often, when I type a text on Word, everything's fine until all of a sudden, instead of letters appearing on Word, new windows appear. For example, when I press on H, F and B, instead of seeing these letters on my Word document, the seach and replace window appears. When I press on A, Word selects my whole text and when I press on D, a new window opens with many options to change the font.

I guess that whenever it happens, it's because I changed something on my keyboard without realising it. What keys did I press? And most importantly, what keys should I press to undo that and come back to letters instead of shortcuts? I usually restart my computer but I'm sure there's an easy way to get back to the letters...

I don't know if it's relevant but I have a French keyboard (azerty instead of qwerty).

Automated image sharing?

Aanidaani — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:06:04 -0800

So I enjoy sharing my screenshots using AllYouCanUpload. Basically I save a screenshot to my desktop using apple+shift+3, browse to AllYouCanUpload, upload the image, paste its URL into my chat dialog, and finally delete the source file. I was wondering, is there anyway I could automate this process in OSX? I really like AllYouCanUpload, but I hate to have to go through these steps every time I want to share a picture with someone. Is there anyway I can automate the process so that, when I press a shortcut combo, OSX will take a screenshot, upload it, put a URL on the clipboard, and delete the original?

Escape from Autodesk's madness

DenOfSizer — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:04:50 -0800

AutocadFilter: I'd like to change two shortcuts that aren't possible via the "aliasedit" command. The first one, I suspect, will be straightforward: I'd like a shortcut for Select the Object/Right-Click/Display Order/Send to Back (or front.)

The second thing I'd like to change is the Esc key. It would great if it could be F12 or something on the number pad (in addition to Esc). I'm so tired of accidentally hitting F1 and getting the help screen.

Excel mindless list jumping

clarkie666 — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:53:54 -0800

Stop Excel from jumping to end of column when double clicking on cell border Man this is driving me crazy....is there any way of stopping Excel from jumping around when you accidently double click on a cell border, e.g. jumping to end of list when hitting the bottom border, to the top of a list when double-clicking on the top border.

This 'enhancement' is a pain in the ass when you are working on edits to a large list and one wrong double-click brings you to the end of the list whereby you have to find where you were working again.

In the absence of stopping - is there an event handler associated to it that can be macrozied, etc., or a go back to where I was shortcut...thanks!

Mouse-free Windows?

tabulem — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 13:04:21 -0800

How can I use Windows without touching a mouse? Will voice recognition software help? I have increasingly severe wrist/shoulder pain which makes it impossible to use a mouse with either hand. I have tried MouseKeys but it's pretty pathetic and causes just as much strain as an actual mouse. I've also tried all different kinds of mouses (or mice, if you prefer), and nothing helps.

I would like to be able to control every aspect of Windows XP--menus, windows, dialogs, internet, etc.--without using a mouse.

I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but these are limited--there are many things which can't be done from the keyboard, e.g. especially things that would normally be accomplished by dragging.

(1) Is there any good software which will significantly expand my ability to do things using the keyboard?

(2) Better still, how much control over user interface elements would I have with Dragon Naturally Speaking? If it's worthwhile, do I need to shell out for the preferred (extra $100) or professional (extra $600) edition?

Thanks for your help.

Making the Computer More Friendly for People with Lou Gehrig's Disease

orsonet — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:06:06 -0800

I volunteer with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) patients, specifically with communication issues. I am working with a specific man who is extremely bright and engaged and I am trying to find some solutions to problems we have. He has a head tracking device to move the mouse and has no problems clicking, right-clicking, etc. But he does have problems with one issue right now: iTunes. I’m also looking for general suggestions to make life easier for him. The issue with iTunes is that the colors are too muted for him to see them clearly from his bed (he has a monitor on a stand pushed up next to his bed). I can't find any way to make the options in iTunes larger or to change the colors to something more friendly. I've looked at skins, but again can't find one to make things bigger and bolder.

Another issue is that I'm trying to set him up to watch DVDs without assistance. Does anyone know of a relatively easy way we can burn his DVDs onto an external hard drive and he can play them?

Also, any general suggestions are welcomed. I've tried, for example, to find a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts, but haven't had much luck (He can control the keyboard much more easily than the mouse).

I showed him iTunes, podcasting and Writely today and he was totally jazzed. He's a really fast learner and eager to know more, so any help would be appreciated by both of us. My other patients would benefit as well. Thank you!

OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

bwilms — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 17:24:56 -0800

Two OS X keyboard shortcuts are alluding me. I need assistance. These are probably really easy, but I just haven't come across them or figured them out on my own...

1. When closing an application with unsaved data in OS X I am prompted with a dialog box containing "Don't Save", "Cancel", and "Save". Using only the keyboard, I've figured out "Cancel" is Apple + >. How does one select "Don't Save" using only the keyboard?

2. When selecting a file in Finder, I hit Return and it wants to rename the file. How do I open the file using only the keyboard?

Can I use drop-down menus in Word for Mac?

fearless_yakov — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 17:26:09 -0800

Menu bar / keyboard control of Word for Mac - is it possible? I recently purchased a Powerbook G4 (right before MacWorld - d'oh!). I have used PCs exclusively in the past, and have gotten very comfortable driving with the keyboard. My job requires me to do a LOT of writing and editing in Word, and I really miss all the key-stroke combinations and drop-down menu options, accessed via the keyboard, from the PC version of Word. For instance, I loved Alt-E-S for paste-special, Alt-I-N for insert footnote, Alt-O-E-U for change text format to uppercase. The great thing about the drop-down menus was that you didn't necessarily have to know all the keyboard shortcuts by heart - you could simply hit Alt-E and see all the Edit menu options, and then complete the keyboard shortcut from there.

So far, in using the Mac Word program, I haven't been able to find the same sort of keyboard functionality. More importantly - and I guess this is my real question - why can't I trigger drop-down menus from the keyboard the way you can in PC Word? For instance, Alt-O drops down the format menu in the PC version, and lets me arrow through all the options underneath that menu. Why can't I do this with the Mac?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I have loked at Rixstep, but didn't see what I was looking for there. I hope I'm not just missing something obvious... if I am, please be gentle.

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts For Navigating Between Tabs (OS X)

jack_mo — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:03:04 -0800

The keyboard shortcuts for moving between open tabs in Firefox 1.5 on OS 10.4.3 don't work - any ideas on how to fix this, possibly using the Keyconfig extension? On the relevant Firefox help page, the keyboard shortcuts for 'Next Tab' are listed as Command+Tab and Command+Page Down. The former won't work as that combination is reserved for the OS X Application Switcher, and disabling that would appear to involve replacing the Dock entirely with an app like Dragthing, or using a haxie, neither of which I want to do (though Liteswitch X overrides this somehow), the latter combination just doesn't do anything.

I've tried installing the Keyconfig extension, but 'Next Tab' doesn't appear in its list of keyboard shortcuts. There is, however, an option in Keyconfig to 'Add a new key', which is a bit mysterious, and seemingly undocumented: it provides a field asking for 'code', but I can't find anywhere which would tell me what sort of code it's after. The closest I've come is this page, but adding the 'Next Tab' snippet listed there to Keyconfig and assigning a keyboard shortcut has no effect.

Alternatively, does anyone knows how to disable the Application Switcher's use of Command+Tab so I can use that combination in Firefox as intended?

(Also, I'm aware of other extensions like Foxposé and Tab Sidebar which let me navigate around my open tabs in various groovy ways, and the possibility of using one of the mouse gestures extensions, but none of these options let me quickly zip back and forth via the keyboard.)

So, I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Dealing with Unexpected Phone Calls While Listening to Your Favorite Album

interrobang — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 19:22:43 -0800

Is there a way to assign an F key to just pause and un-pause iTunes? I don't like muting the computer when the phone rings, and clicking around to get to the program itself is kind of annoying. It'd be nice if I could just hit, say, F14 and make it pause or un-pause. Is this possible? Apologies if this is a stupid question.

(G5, OS 10.4.2, by the way.)

How do I make my own keyboard shortcuts in Windows?

kuperman — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:19:23 -0800

Windows-E. Windows-R, Windows-M, Windows-L, they're all great. But, how do I start creating my own shortcuts? I really would love to be able to create shortcuts that open certain IE (or whatever, if it provided this ability) favorites, so if I hit ... Shift-Windows-A, for example, would bring up AskMe... Shift-Windows-J would bring up Jalopnik, or ... you get the idea.

Is this possible? How much *-fu is required to make this a reality? The particular key combinations are not important (I'm not sold on shift-windows-x or whatever), but I just want to be able to open the things I bring up regularly more efficiently (ie without 15 keystrokes or having to take my hands off the keyboard).