Do you want to learn how to become a keyboard wizard? In this episode, Tyson shares an important tip lawyers can use in their practice, which involves using a keyboard.
Lawyers are very busy people and usually don't have a lot of time. There are keyboard shortcuts that attorneys can use that will make work more efficient, especially if you do repetitive tasks.
Some of these shortcuts include functions like:
Copy: Control + C or Command + C to copy
Paste: Control + V or Command + V to paste
Delete: On a Mac, you click Command + Delete OR on a PC, you click Command + Shift + Delete.
Entire screen screenshot: Click Shift + Command + 3 for a Mac OR on a PC, you select the print screen button on the keyboard
There are some advanced functions that Tyson shares. If you want to quickly lock your screen, you press Command + Q for a PC. If you want to open your emoji keyboard on your screen, it's Control + Command + Space for Mac. For a PC, it is “Windows.Windows;” Another interesting function is looking up a definition. For a Mac, click Command + Control + D, all while hovering above the word you want to look up. For PC, it is Alt + Click.
All of these shortcuts take practice to learn and master. Sooner or later, you will be able to use them to streamline your workflows.
Listen in to learn how to master using your keyboard!
Episode Highlights:
1:10 Why keyboard shortcuts are important for efficiency
4:49 Basic keyboard shortcuts for common actions
10:11 How to quickly lock the screen on a Mac or PC using keyboard shortcuts
11:03 How to quickly show the desktop on a Mac or PC
Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:00:24) - Hey, it's Tyson and today I'm back with another quick episode about tech tips that you can use in your legal practice. Today I'm going to talk about taking control of your keyboard. This is something I'm actually really excited to talk about. It's also something that can really boost your productivity for virtually anyone that uses a computer. I'm going to go over some lesser known keyboard shortcuts for both Mac and Windows users, but I'm going to go through the usual suspects as well, so don't worry about that if you don't. If you've never used them before, I'm going to go through the basics and then also through some more advanced ones. And obviously control C and control V, they're they're fantastic. They're great. I use them on a regular basis, but there's a lot of hidden gems that are out there that a lot of you don't know about.
Speaker 2 (00:01:10) - And so I'm going to give you some that are going to save you a ton of time. If there's any other tech tips that you want me to cover, though, just shoot me a text. (314) 501-9260. That's (314) 501-9260. And if it's something that I can easily cover, tech tips are a little bit more difficult because with the tech stuff, some of them, they're more visual. And I'll tell you, if it's something that you need to see on the screen, the one I'm going to cover today, you don't need to, but some of them you do. So you might be wondering why keyboard shortcuts and why are they important. And the simple answer is really efficiency. I remember I learned this whenever I was an insurance adjuster, and I saw this one guy using him, and he was so fast. He was one of the most efficient people on the team. He just closed claims left and right. And one of the things that he used were keyboard shortcuts. And so I quickly started to learn them.
Speaker 2 (00:02:04) - It is a skill that does take some time to learn a little bit. Like anything, it just takes practice. But once you know the different things, it comes naturally. It's just like clicking a mouse at a certain point. So I'll just be going, going, going, and I'm not even thinking about what buttons I'm using and you'll be the same way. And you know, whether it's from, you know, drafting emails, analyzing data, you know, doing legal research, these shortcuts, they can cut down a lot of the time that you spend on these repetitive tasks. And I am going to tell you, I'm a mac user. I love my Mac. I'll always be a mac user, but I'm going to go over the same shortcuts for PC users as well. By the way, there are many more that apply to Macs than PCs, but I'm going to go through most of them and I say many more. I'd say there's a few more that Macs have shortcuts for that PCs don't.
Speaker 2 (00:02:54) - I was exaggerating a little bit there, but it doesn't matter if you're a mac or PC user. I'm going to mention the commands for both of them as I go along. So here we go. But first, I do want to mention that some shortcuts that a lot of people are aware of, they're great. But if you kind of get stuck in the world, it's you're wasting so much time. Okay, I'm telling you, there's way more out there than just the basic ones, but I'm going to go over the ones that you're going to do. Use that are I'd say more on the, the, the basic level there above the control C, control V, but they are, you know, they're a little bit more advanced, but they're still pretty basic. And then I'm going to go into some of the more advanced ones that a lot of you probably don't know of. But I do promise you, if you put in the effort to remember these and practice, you're going to quickly find yourself working much more efficiently and you're going to love it.
Speaker 2 (00:03:46) - But let's get started to this with this list. All right. Obviously for copy. So to copy an item it's just it's for a mac it's command C for a PC it's control C really simple. I'm going to go through these fairly quickly. So feel free to pause it. Write these down. And then here's what I'll do. You know what. This is something I'm calling a little bit of an audible. If you want a copy of this list just text control. So that's Ctrl. So Ctrl to (314) 501-9260. And I'll make sure that we get it out to you. So 33145019260. Just text control Ctrl. Here we go. And if you can't remember that just look down at your keyboard okay. Especially for for for for PC users. But all right here we go. So to paste an item. So we did command C is for copying paste command V for Mac and then control V for PC. And by the way the way the Macs work it's usually command is what it is for PCs is usually control.
Speaker 2 (00:04:49) - So here's what we'll do I'll give you the first command is going to be Mac. The second command will be PC. That way I'm not having to repeat Mac and PC, Mac and PC, but here we go. All right, so to cut an item it's command X and then it's control X for PC. All right undo command z I use this quite a bit. And then it's control C or I'm sorry control Z as in zebra for PC to redo. So redo is to undo the undo. All right I think a lot of people may not know that, but it's command shift Z for the Mac. And then control y. So control y the z versus the y. So command shift Z for Mac. Control y for the PC to quit an application. So if you're in a web browser that's the application. Or it could be a word doc, whatever it is, command Q to quit it for a mac and then alt f4 for PC to close a window. Okay, so let's say you have several windows open.
Speaker 2 (00:05:50) - You just want to close that one window. It's command W. And then for PC, alt F4 or control W either one of those to switch between different applications. And I bet that a lot of you know about this one. This saves a ton of time. Command tab. And then for a PC it's alt tab. So you'll see the differences there between command and Alt to open a search or a spotlight that you'll see on a mac. So spotlight is for Mac. And then search is on a PC, and that's where you're searching the actual computer command space for a mac and then window, the window button plus S for PC to select all command A, control A for a PC. That's that's a pretty handy one to move a cursor to the end of a of a text. Okay, so let's say you're typing something but you want to you had to edit something in the middle of a sentence, and now you want to go to the very end of it and to that sentence it's just command arrow to the right.
Speaker 2 (00:06:48) - Okay. If you want to go to the beginning, command arrow to the front, to the, to the left, I mean and a command up is would go to the top of the page command down bottom of the page. That's for all for Macs or PCs a little bit different home. And you've got the home button and the end button okay. That's what you that's what you have. That's a little bit different. In the end. Button's going to take you to the end of the sentence. That's what it'll take you to. All right. And I do believe by the way I don't know this one, but I do believe for a PC, if you want to go to the end of the page or the top of the page, you would hit control. End would take you to the end. I think control up may take you to the top, but again, that may be one you have to test on your own. I don't know for a fact. All right, so if you want to move the cursor just by one word at a time, so you're typing a sentence and you need to just move just a couple words down.
Speaker 2 (00:07:36) - It's just option. And then the arrow button. And then for a PC it's control. And then you do the left the arrow button left or right. So it's a little bit different between option and control there. All right. So if you want to open a new window it's command n. All right. So that's a good one. It's a really good one that you can use whether you're one open a new browser window or a new finder. Windows what we call them on a mac, which is like the where the folders are and everything command N or then control N on a PC to create a new folder. And this is one that, especially if you're a mac user or a PC user, you take your mouse, you go up and you click the new folder. You don't need to do that. Just command shift N, and then for a PC control shift. And if you want to move something to trash or the recycle bin, it's really simple. It's easier on a PC, but on a on a mac it's just command delete.
Speaker 2 (00:08:26) - All right. And then on a PC it's just the delete button to empty the trash, all you have to do is hit command Shift delete. For a PC, it's shift plus delete. All right. To take a screenshot the entire screen. This is one that is really handy. I don't use it. I don't do the entire screen. So the next one that I like a lot. But if you want to take just a screenshot of the entire screen, you're going to do shift command three for a PC, it's print screen. You have the you got an easy one to take a screenshot of just a very select area. What you'll do is you can do command shift four, and then you can select the area of the screen that you want to take a screenshot of really handy. You can do the same thing with with the windows plus the shift button, plus s a Windows Shift S for a PC. Let's say you have an application open and you just want to hide it. Command H.
Speaker 2 (00:09:22) - And then for a PC it's Windows Plus D pretty easy to minimize a window, so you just want to put it down at the bottom of the screen it's command M and then windows button M for a PC. If you want to force quit something or do the task manager. A lot of people don't realize that that actually does exist on a mac, because we don't. It's not used the same way because they run better than a PC, let's be honest. But it's command option escape is how that pops up in a mac on a PC. It's control shift escape. I think a lot of people know that control shift escape. If you want to open a new browser tab, so you're you're in a in the middle of doing something, you're doing some legal research in a browser tab, and you want to open a new tab, command T, and then control T for a PC. If you need to refresh the browser. There's some reason why you need to refresh it, like you're doing updates to the website or something.
Speaker 2 (00:10:11) - Just just hit command R, that's all you got to do. Control R for a PC to go to the address bar. This may be handy, right? You're at the bottom of a screen or whatever you don't feel like, you know, picking up the mouse to do some. Clicking around you go Commando. That's all I got to do. And then control L for the PC. So those are those are the basic ones. And again you can get a copy of that. Just text Ctrl to 314 501 9260 and I'll send it to you. And let's get to some of the more advanced ones. And you know, a few of these are going to be more exclusive to Max. And some of them are going to be more exclusive to PCs. But I'll let you know as I go which ones are which. If you quickly want to lock a screen, let's say someone's coming to your office. You need to lock the screen for whatever reason. Hit control command Q control command Q think of like quit and then windows the windows button L so windows L for the PC, it'll quickly lock the screen that you're on.
Speaker 2 (00:11:03) - It won't shut it down, it'll lock it if you want to show your desktop. So you've got all these apps open and you want to clear my the way really quick, and you just want to see your desktop, you'll hit the F11 button on a mac, or you can hit command F3 either one of those. If I don't know why you would do command F3 if you can just hit the F11 button, but teach their own for a PC. If you want to show your desktop it's windows D, all right, windows button D two. This is a fun one. All right. This is a good one. I bet a lot of you are going to get something out of this. It's the open the emoji keyboard. All right. It's control. Command space is what you do. It doesn't work in every single application just so you know. But control command space. And then for a windows it's Windows plus period or Windows plus semi-colon those are your options. So the windows button, the plus sign period or Windows plus semicolon to cycle through open windows of the same app.
Speaker 2 (00:11:56) - All right. So you've got several, you know, Chrome browsers up let's say that use that as an example. So to cycle through those in a mac you would hit command tilde. So is what you do is command tilde. You know I was reading my notes wrong on the last one. I'm so sorry. The the open emoji board is windows period or windows semicolon I was I have a plus sign between each of them just as a reminder to add both of them. But to open the emoji board on a PC, it's windows period. Windows semicolon. Sorry about that. All right. So let's go back. So cycle through the windows are the same of the same app. So command tilde. So it's the button that's on the top left. If you don't know what tilde is it's a little wavy looking button. And then on a PC it's alt escape. That's how you cycle through the same ones, the same windows of the same app to quickly look up a definition. It's command control D you're hovering over the word when you do it, or the for the PC it's alt click, and I've never done that in a PC, by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:12:56) - I've accidentally done it on a mac. I don't I don't use it quite a bit, but for a for a PC, I've never tested it out, just so you know. All right. So let's say you're in a folder on your computer and you want to rename an item, whether it's a video or let's say it's a word document. Whatever it is doesn't matter. All you have to do to quickly rename it, just hit the enter button on a mac. On a PC it's F2, so just click enter. Boom. You can start typing what you want the new file to be if you want to merge two folders on a mac, so two folders have the same name. Okay, all you do is you hit the option, you hold option down, and then you drag and drop one folder into the other and it merges the two into one. Okay. It's pretty handy. You can't do that on a PC, so that's not an option. So you want to merge two folders with the same name.
Speaker 2 (00:13:45) - Hold option down, drag and drop. So all you have to do. So if you want to move a file instead of copying and pasting, this is pretty handy. So let's say you need to take a a file and you need to essentially create a copy of it. But you don't want to drag, you don't want to hit copy and paste. You just want to basically create the new one, or you just want to create a new destination. Let's say it's a template. Let's say you're working from a template and you need to move it into a client folder. All you would do is you hit command and then you drag and drop it. And it would, it would create that same document or same item in the new place that you're putting it. You would do the same thing. You'd hit a right click and then you drag and drop then select move is what you would do. So right click drag and drop and then select move on a PC. So if you want to reverse the last action that you've done inside of either Finder or File Explorer, you can do this in a lot of different things, but you can.
Speaker 2 (00:14:39) - I don't think people realize you can also do it when you're actually in finder or in files and the files in on a PC, but it's command Z or control Z, so command Z for a mac, control Z for a PC to instantly create a new email with the selected text. So this is a fun one. You cannot do this on a PC. Let's say that you you were working on something, and you want to create an email out of the text that you have selected. All you have to do is hit command shift AI and then whatever your whatever email that you use or if it's if it's native to your desktop, it's on a mac. Let's say you're using mail, which I don't, but mine, whenever I do it, it opens in a web browser and it opens my Gmail up. That's what it is. But all you have to do to create an email out of that text that you've selected. Let's see the emails already written. Let's see if a template. Of emails that you have.
Speaker 2 (00:15:25) - All you do is highlight the text, hit command shift, I boom, it opens it up and starts it starts it for you. It's pretty cool to take a screenshot of the full view of the window you're on. All right. So this is this is different from the other screenshots we did. So this screenshot if I'm looking I'm looking at my word dock right now is what I'm looking at all right. It's actually a Google Sheet or a Google doc is what it is. It would take a picture of the entire thing that I'm looking at. Plus it would also get the tab. So if you think of the from everything from the bottom of the screen all the way up to like the tab, that kind of goes around, it'll take that entire screenshot without anything else in it, and that's pretty handy. So it's what you're looking at on that specific tab, and it'll do that for whatever app that you're in. And so that is make sure I give that to you. Again it's shift command five okay.
Speaker 2 (00:16:18) - And you can do that with windows and print screen in a PC. So if you want to open the task manager directly okay. The way you do it in the Mac, I gave you the shortcut. It's not direct to it. But for Mac you can't really go direct to the task manager. You have to do a couple extra clicks for a PC. It's control shift escape. All right. And then if you want to switch between different screen displays, you would hit control and then the arrow up and down button. And and that's on a mac. On a PC it's windows P and an arrow. All right. So what we're talking about there is you are basically like on a mac, you can, you know, expand all the apps so you can see which ones you want to click on or whatever. You can do the same thing. So different views of your different displays on a mac or the same thing with a PC. So test that one out. But it's control arrow up and down on a windows or a PC.
Speaker 2 (00:17:11) - It's windows P arrow. So that's all I have for you on these. These are extremely useful shortcuts. Hopefully you'll use them. You'll start to practice with them and allow you to streamline your workflows. I'll acknowledge that they are going to require a bit of practice to integrate, but once you have them, you have them print this out, put it on your desk, and then what will happen is, is that you'll eventually it'll just become second nature, I promise. It did not take me very long at all to start to pick up on these, and it'll be the same for you. But like I said, just practice. You've got to practice to get to incorporate them into your daily routine. But there you have it. It's a quick guide to some of the lesser known, but the incredibly useful keyboard shortcuts for both Mac and Windows. Until next week, remember that consistent action is the blueprint that turns your goals into reality. Take care.
Speaker 1 (00:18:03) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content.
Speaker 1 (00:18:11) - Go to Maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.
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