I’m a keyboard guy. Mice are great but every time you take your hands off your keyboard to reach for your mouse, you lose precious seconds (and those build up into billable hours over the course of a year). I’d much rather make use of keyboard shortcuts than roll that mouse to delete something. The less time I spend with my hand on the mouse, the more time I have to spend typing tech tips, if you know what I mean.
But, everyone, even me, walks away from their computer at least once a day. It may be to make that annual nursing restroom run, to go to the vending machine for a cold can of healthy green tea or just to make a phone call to one of your CLNC® colleagues. When you do, you leave your computer’s display open to any villain who happens to be nearby. This could be a colleague, spouse, child or some nosey medical librarian at the medical library where you’re doing research for your legal nurse consulting cases. So, before you go, remember to press and hold the Windows key (the one with the little flag on it) and then hit the “L” key to blank your screen and lock your computer. This way only someone with your unique and hardened password can open your computer and see how high your “Mafia Games” score is or what legal nurse consulting case report you’re working on.
Along the same lines, there will be the rare occasion when someone pops into your office or workstation unexpectedly. Rather than scrolling your mouse up to the top right corner and closing all your Windows windows or trying to find the “Show Desktop” button in your task bar, you can simply hold down that Windows key and hit the “D” key. This will show your desktop but won’t close any windows – it’ll simply minimize them. Repeating the process will bring up all your windows so you can get back to work once the miscreant leaves the vicinity.
There are a lot of Windows shortcuts like Control-c to copy material you’ve highlighted with Control-Shift-Arrow (in any direction) and Control-v (go figure) to paste (or Control-x to cut) what you’ve highlighted.
Take a moment and share your favorite Windows keyboard shortcut with your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting peers. We’ll be sure to thank you for it!
Keep on techin’,
Tom
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