And any officing pro will tell you that keyboard shortcuts are absolutely essential to zipping your way around a computer. Its a fact that the more k/b shortcuts you learn and incorporate into your workflow, the faster you’ll be- whether the application be Word, PhotoShop, Firefox, or just navigating your way around the OS.

Which brings us to todays k/b shortcut combo. Master this, and you’ll be on your way to joining the ranks of the “keyboard ninjas”, whose ranks include those geeky types that you always envied who could play the PC in front of them like a Stradivarius.

Now this is real easy…:

The next time you need to copy text, either a sentence or word, instead of right clicking>Copy, simply hold down Ctrl (or on Macs Cmd) and while holding, tap the “C” key. For cutting text, tap the “X” key. Then navigate to wherever it is you need to place the copied text, and do the same thing, but replace the “C/X” key with “V”. And thats it.

Try it now. Master it now.

You’ll thank me forever!

The next most important shortcut would be the Alt-Tab (or Cmd-Tab on Mac). This one allows you to quickly switch between open applications.

If you’ve already mastered this and are itching for more, shareordie has a more extensive list of Windows 7 shortcuts here, and here is the official Apple shortcut (thanks macsparky).

Mac Users Download: You can download a copy (in zipped PDF format) of Dean Pirera’s ebook on keyboard shortcuts for Office for Mac OSX here.

Update:
After I wrote this, I came across this interesting tidbit- according to PCPitStop, the most frequently used keyboard shortcut is the combo posted above!

(Photo by Herberger)