Facebook shortcuts

Oh.my.goodness!  How did I not know this cool shortcut?

Last week I learned about using the J and K keys while reading on Facebook. 

While reading on Facebook, pressing the J key will automatically display the next item in your Newsfeed. It moves you down the webpage and will put a blue border around the entire item including the Comments. (This may also help you reply to the correct Post!)

And what do you think the K key does?  It allows you to scroll up one post at a time!  Try it!

I am not a big fan of using a mouse, so I've always tried to find keyboard shortcuts to allow my fingers to stay on the keyboard.  Using a trackpad has made it easier, but I still have quite a large group of regular keyboard shortcuts I use.  Now I've added two more!

Happy Facebook reading today and tomorrow and the next day!  :-) And, have a happy, safe Fourth of July!

Another keyboard shortcut - scroll through open tabs

A keyboard shortcut I use daily helps me navigate through the open tabs in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.:  

On a Mac or PC laptop or desktop computer  - Control (Ctrl)  +Tab (press Control then press Tabrepeatedly as you scroll through the open tabs)

Open your browser then open several different websites in different tabs and try it out right now!  The only way to embrace a new keyboard shortcut is to do it deliberately and repeatedly for awhile to see if it is beneficial for you.

In defense of my keeping many tabs open on a browser:
1) If I am gathering information for a class or group, I don't want to open each website repeatedly; I just leave the page open.
2) I alternate working between my devices: laptop, iPhone and iPad.  By leaving the tabs open in Safari, I can pick up where I left off on any of those devices.  Maybe more about that at a later date.
3) I recently added the Chrome extension OneTab; I haven't decided yet if I like using it as a replacement for displaying all open tabs, but I'm giving it a try.

Keyboard shortcut

As some of you have observed during my Computing for Seniors class, I work with a lot of applications open on my computer, particularly when I am working on items for my class or when I'm working on items for a couple of groups of which I am a member.

I use one keyboard shortcut quite frequently and some of you may find it useful, too, when working on your laptop or desktop computer.

On a Mac - Command +Tab (press Command then press Tab repeatedly as you scroll through the open applications)

On a PC-  Alt +Tab  (press Alt then press Tab repeatedly as you scroll through the open applications)

Open several different applications and try it out right now before you forget.

There are MANY keyboard shortcuts that can make it easier to work on your laptop or desktop, and I'm sure you are familiar with some of them.  If you'd like to refresh your memory or see if there are any others that might be beneficial for you, check out this page for both Mac and Windows shortcuts.

Zoom in / Zoom Out

Good morning!  If you find the text to be too small on a webpage to easily read, you may want to remember and use these keyboard shortcuts:

To zoom in (enlarge the text on a webpage) -
Windows computer: CTRL and +
Mac:  Command and +
To zoom out (decrease the size of the text on a webpage) -
Windows computer: CTRL and -
Mac:  Command and -
To return to the default size of the text on a webpage -
Windows computer: CTRL and 0
Mac:  Command and 0

YouTube shortcuts

Merry day-after-Christmas!  I hope you had a special day yesterday with family and friends.

So, if you happen to be using YouTube today to learn how to use one of your new gifts or fix something that got broken during the holiday, these YouTube shortcuts might come in handy:

Use the Space or K key to pause the video.

J and L will go backward/forward 10 seconds at a time

M will mute.

Super handy!

Oops! Undo

Have you ever accidentally closed a tab while you were browsing on the internet?  To reopen the most recently closed tab and get back to what you were doing: 
On a Windows computer, simply press Ctrl + Shift + T
On a Mac computer, press Cmd (Command) + Shift + T 
Another "undo" key combination to remember in case you accidentally erase words in your email or document as you are writing it:
Windows - CTRL + Z
Macs - Cmd (Command) + Z
These keyboard shortcuts have been timesavers for me the past couple of weeks when I've been shopping online!