The OneMinute Geek:

Quick Keys

The Problem

There are a handful of web sites I visit every day – sometimes several times a day. I consider these sites part of my daily routine, like brushing my teeth or putting on clothes. I easily access these favorite sites through shortcuts on my desktop. Two common shortcuts you may already be well aware of are the ‘Favorites’ menu in Internet Explorer and the ‘Bookmarks’ menu in Firefox, both of which work great for saving sites for quick reference.  But what about quick keys?

The Solution

‘Quick keys’ are exactly what they seem to be:  a short combination of keys on your keyboard that – when compressed at the same time – instruct the computer to perform a specific task.  For example, if you want to save something, just hit Ctrl+S. This means compress the Control key (Ctrl) and the ‘S’ key at the same time.  Another convenient one is Ctrl+X, which is used to ‘Cut’ something from a document.  

You can also use quick keys to get to your favorite web site…quickly! Just press the special key combination and voila, you are there. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Hop on the Internet and go to your favorite site.
2. See the tiny icon just in front of the URL you just typed in?  Drag it to your Desktop.
3. Find the new shortcut icon on your Desktop and right-click on it.  A little menu box will popup.
4. Choose ‘Properties’
5. Under the tab called ‘WebDocument’, find the field called ‘Shortcut key.’
6. Put your cursor in the box and then type any letter.  It will automatically add “Ctrl+Alt+”in front of it.  You can create any combo using Ctrl, Alt, Shift plus a keyboard character.  Just hold down all the keys you want at the same time and the computer will fill out the box.
7. When done, click Apply and then OK.

Now, you can impress your family and friends by using special quick key combo to rapidly launch your favorite sites.  

James Kerr is President/CEO of SuperGeeks, a Hawaii-based computer service and repair company (www.supergeeks.net). Send questions, comments and suggestions to help@supergeeks.net or call 942-0773.