Tips & Tricks-April 2002

Ever lose your mouse cursor while you're running Windows? What to do, what to do? Hit the reset button and wait for Scandisk to run. Not necessary. There are a number of ways to keep going, at least long enough to shut down your system in an orderly manner. Some of these keyboard tricks can also be used when you just prefer to use the keyboard.

You can open the Start Menu in Windows several different ways. If you have a newer keyboard, you can hit the Windows key. If you have an older keyboard or a laptop without the Windows key, you can still access the Start Menu without a mouse. If you type Ctrl-Esc, the menu will pop up. This is especially useful if you are not at the Desktop. If you are at the Desktop, type Alt-S and the Start menu will pop up. (By the way, the alt key plus the first letter of a lot of menu selections also works in most applications. Try alt-F to get to the File Menu.)

All right, you've got the Start Menu, but what now. If you type the first letter of the item you want, Windows will step you through to each selection with the same first letter. Then, if there are more choices, use the right arrow key to see them, the up and down arrow keys to navigate through them and the Enter key to select the item. If you are in the lower half of the Start Menu, observe the underlined letters. Type one and the dialog box pops up, such as Find or Run.

Or suppose you lose your mouse when you're in a dialog box. How do you navigate through the selections? You can use the Tab key or Shift-Tab to go from one choice in the dialog box to another. If the dialog box contains tabs at the top, such as the dialog box that pops up when you open the System Properties, use the tab key to get to the first tab, then the arrow keys will move you between the tabs. Hit enter if you want to open the page. Use the spacebar to check or uncheck a check box. Use Alt-Up Arrow and Alt-Down Arrow to select items in a drop down list. If you are viewing a tree of folders as in Explorer where there is a plus designating additional files or folders, use the Tab key to get to the first entry, the down arrow to get to the item you want to view, then the right and left arrows will expand and contract the list.

Most of the time, the key is to watch the little box that moves from selection to selection as a highlight (?). It's hard to follow sometimes, but it helps you keep track of where you are.

Confused? Of course, but try these anyway. I found the Alt-S to open the Start Menu by just taking a guess when I couldn't use the mouse. You don't have to lose your mouse and most of the time if you use a key that doesn't work, the worst thing that happens is that you'll hear the little ding that Windows uses to let you know you can't do whatever you were trying to do.