Some More Keyboard Shortcuts

Open Office Writer Keyboard Shortcuts
Recently I was surfing the web and found a website that I found very interesting. I like using the keyboard shortcuts to do a lot of things. After I become familiar with using them I feel like I am a better writer. The following was written by a person who is a lot better than I am using shortcuts so I thought it was worthwhile to share. I will admit that I am unable to figure out why it is ten shortcuts. When I do the counting I find there are nineteen shortcuts in five groups, however I will accept his count. Check the blog of July 2009 for additional keyboard shortcuts that I like.

Ten Fantastic Keyboard Shortcuts In OpenOffice.Org
Ryan Cartwright

A lot of software users I meet seem to feel they are not using their software as efficiently as they could. If that includes you, then listen up. Here is my list of the ten, lesser-known,Open Office. Org Writer keyboard shortcuts that will help you improve your productivity.

When I say “lesser known” I should really say poorly documented or not documented at all. That said, when I’ve taught on keyboard shortcuts in the past these are the ones that fewer users seem to know of. Something else to note is that although these are all for Writer, you may find some of them in other word processors as well.

Why I use keyboard shortcuts
I’m a keyboard type of person. When I first learned to use computers there was no mouse. For my first real application work the mouse was used solely to position coordinates: commands were entered with the keyboard. What can I say, I like using the keyboard. So when I come across an application for the first time I seek out the keyboard shortcuts. Not for me the constant moving of hand from keyboard to mouse.

Even if you are a dedicated mouse user, learning a few keyboard shortcuts can drastically improve the way you work. When you are in the middle of a long edit, hitting CTRL+S is a lot quicker than clicking the save button. Personally I’m not satisfied with just using CTRL+S, CTRL+P and ALT+Menu-Option, I demand more from my keyboard shortcuts! These shortcuts are in no particular order and I use some of them more often than others; however, all of them save me a lot of time.

If you do a lot of typing (as opposed to pseudo desktop publishing) in Writer, it’s definitely worth remembering some of these. They are also very useful if you find yourself writing documents longer than the average letter—for example I often prepare my column pieces in Writer. These also reflect those which end-users find more useful when I teach them.

Moving paragraphs
Ever wanted to move a entire paragraph up or down in your document? Cut and paste may work but it takes time. A more elegant solution is to just move the paragraph itself.
Place your cursor in a paragraph.
Now use CTRL+ALT+ up or down cursor arrows to move the whole paragraph up and down in the document one paragraph at a time
CTRL+up/down works on some set-ups as well.

Change paragraph alignment
This is one of the better known ones but I still find a lot of people are unaware of how much time it can save you.
CTRL+L will change the current paragraph to be aligned left
CTRL+R to be right aligned
CTRL+E to centre it
CTRL+J to justify it

Inserting a page break
Again one that some people know but not that many end-users. In fact I have found a lot of people don’t even know what a page break is and they will just press RETURN several times to move some text onto the next page. Which of course means they come unstuck when the text above is reduced somehow. A page break guarantees the text following it goes on a new page.
Use CTRL+ENTER to this is a new paragraph start a fresh page

Moving around the document
As you use these keyboard shortcuts more you may begin to almost resent having to use the mouse. Particularly to go to defined places like the beginning or end of a line or the document. Most users know about using the cursor keys to move around but there are some ways to jump rather than move.
HOME takes you to the start of the current line (not the current paragraph)
END will go to the end of the line
CTRL+HOME takes you to the start of the document
CTRL+END takes you to the end of the document
CTRL+ LEFT/RIGHT cursor keys moves you in that direction by one word

Selecting without the mouse
Once you get used to moving around using the keyboard you’ll find it useful to select text using it as well. Again some of this is quite well known.
Hold down SHIFT as you move the cursor to select the text you are moving over.
SHIFT+HOME selects from the current character to the start of the line
SHIFT+END selects from the current character to the end of line
Once a line is selected, SHIFT + UP or DOWN cursor keys respectively will add lines above or below to the selection
CTRL+SHIFT+HOME selects from the current position to the start of the document
CTRL+SHIFT+END does the opposite.