Ctrl

 

Short for control, Ctrl is a key found on IBM compatible computer keyboards in the bottom left and right portion of the main keyboard. In the picture to the right, is an example of what the Ctrl key may look like on your keyboard. This term is commonly used to refer to a keyboard shortcut key such as the three finger salute or CTRL + ALT + DEL. This combination indicates pressing and holding on the keyboard CTRL and ALT and DEL to reboot the computer or open the task manager window.
Many times documentation or information from Computer Hope and other computer related documentation may list commands such as ^X, ^C, ^Z, etc. this means CTRL-X, CTRL-C, CTRL-Z, etc. In other words, a user would want to press and hold the CONTROL or CTRL key and then press the letter following the caret.

Apple Macintosh users can usually substitute the Control key keyboard shortcuts with the option key.

Alt

Short for Alternate, Alt is a modifier key located on both sides of the spacebar key on IBM compatible computer keyboards. In the picture to the right, is an example of what this keyboard key may look like. This term may also be used to describe a key combination such as the below example.

Ctrl + Alt + Del

The above combination means press and hold on the keyboard CTRL, ALT, and DEL all at the same time to reboot the computer or open the task manager window.

Users more familiar with the Apple Macintosh computers can relate this key to the Option key.

Function keys

Keys that act as shortcuts for performing certain functions such as saving files or printing data. Function keys usually are lined along the top of the keyboard labeled F1 through F12. Below is an picture of the Saitek Gamers' keyboard, which gives an example of where the function keys are often located on the keyboard. In the past, earlier Apple Macintosh computers did not have function keys and some early IBM computers and keyboards had two rows of function keys, with the second row containing F13 - F24.

The function keys should not be confused with the Fn (function) key found on laptop computer               keyboards.

Key

1. When referring to a computer keyboard, a key is a single button on the keyboard. Letters, numbers, functions, and symbols are all represented on keys.
2. A key is also a tool used to lock and unlock a computer, computer drive or other computer related device. If you have lost the key to your computer device, Computer Hope cannot assist you with obtaining a new one. Contact the manufacturer of the product that is locked.
3. When referring to the computer Microsoft Windows registry, a registry key, or key for short, is a term used to identify an item in the registry, such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. The term key or keyed may also be used to describe a cable with physical dimensions that causes a cable such as a ribbon cable to be connected only one direction. In some rare cases this may prevent a cable from being properly connected to a drive. For example, the manufacturer of a floppy disk drive may have keyed their connection differently than the cable manufacturer has. In this situation, the user may either be required to purchase a different brand of cable or floppy drive, or modify the key on the cable.
5. When referring to encryption a key is a set of instructions that is used to encrypt and decrypt data.

Keyboard

One of the main input devices used on a computer, a PC's keyboard looks very similar to the keyboards of electric typewriters, with some additional keys. Below is a graphic of the Saitek Gamers' keyboard with indicators pointing to each of the major portions of the keyboard.

Finally, today most users use the QWERTY style keyboards. Below is a graphic illustration of where each of the keys are on a U.S. QWERTY style keyboard.

Arrow keys

Alternatively referred to as cursor keys, arrow keys are keyboard keys located in-between the standard keyboard and the numeric pad on computer keyboards. These four keys are the left arrow (back arrow), up arrow, down arrow, and the right arrow (forward arrow). In the picture to the right, is a closer look at what the arrow keys may look like on your keyboard. Some keyboards such as the Microsoft natural keyboard may arrange these keys differently. Below are just a few of the different ways these keys can be used.

1. Move the text cursor on the screen.
2. Use in combination with other keys for shortcut keys. For example, pressing the Alt key and the left arrow key in Microsoft Internet Explorer will take you back one Internet page.
3. Move a character in a computer game.
4. Select text. For example, holding down shift and pressing the arrow key in the direction you want to highlight text.
5. Move the mouse pointer using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

• How to move the mouse cursor with the keyboard in Windows.

In the below picture, the Saitek Gamers' keyboard shows where the arrow keys can be found. In addition to the traditional arrow keys, as shown above, the numeric keypad can also function as arrow keys when Num Lock is turned off.

End key

 

A key found on keyboards usually below the home key that moves the cursor to the end of the line, paragraph, page, screen, cell, or document depending on the program and where your cursor is currently positioned.

An example of how the End key could be used is to move the cursor to the middle of a line of text and press the End key, which would move to the end of the line of text. Using a key combination such as pressing the Shift key and the End key together would highlight the text from the cursor to the end of the line.

Home key

 

Key on the keyboard usually above the end key on the IBM compatible keyboard. This key is often used to return the user to the beginning of the line or the beginning of a document.
An example of how the Home key could be used is to move the cursor to the middle of a line of text and press the Home key, which moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. Using a key combination such as pressing the Shift key and the Home key together would highlight the text from the cursor position to the beginning of the line.

Print screen key

Sometimes abbreviated as PRTSC or Prt Scrn, the print screen key is a keyboard key found on most computer keyboards. When pressed, the key either sends the current screen image to the computer clipboard or the computer printer depending on the operating system or software program the key is pressed in.

Insert key

Sometimes displayed as INS on the keyboard, the Insert key is a keyboard key located on the majority of all computers that allows text to be inserted. When insert is enabled, the text inserted in a document will not overwrite any other text. However, when disabled, text will be overwritten.

Backspace key

Sometimes referred to as the rubout key, the backspace key or back space key is a keyboard key used to delete any character before the current position of the cursor. For example, click the mouse button at the end of the below text and press backspace to delete the last character in the line. As seen in the picture to the right, the backspace key always has an arrow that points to the left, on Apple Macintosh computers, the backspace key is delete.

Press and hold down Ctrl and press Backspace to delete one full word at a time, instead of deleting one character at a time.

Macro

Series of keyboard, mouse actions, or other computer steps that have been recorded and can be repeated. Macros are commonly created for operations that are commonly performed on a computer. Using a macro allows a user to perform an operation with a press of a key or the execution of a command.

ESC

1. Short for escape, esc is a key located on the top-left of a computer keyboard that allows a user to cancel or abort operations.

2. Short for escalation, esc is used to describe or refer to an escalation number dealing with an important customer related issue.

3. Escape is also shorthand for an escape character, an escape is a single backward slash ( \ ) in Linux, programming, and regular expressions that perform a special function or to have a character treated as plain text and not a function. Below are some examples of how an escape could be used.

\*

The above example would treat the asterisk as a plain text asterisk and not as a wild card or metacharacter.

\.

This next example is similar to the first example because the period is also a wild card, which represents any single character. So if you need match a period and not every character you must escape it.

\" or \'

The above example would treat the quote character as a quote character and not a beginning or end container. For example, in programming languages such as Perl this is required if you're printing text to a file or the screen that contains a quote. In other words the command print "This is a \" quote."; would print This is a " quote without escaping the quote in the middle you would receive an error.

\

When a filename or directory needs a space in Linux you can use a backward slash followed by a space, to escape the space in a name. If this isn't done, Linux will treat anything after the space as an option or additional command.

\n

Finally, escape characters are also used in escape sequences, to create a function or command. For example, the above \n would create a newline character to the file or screen. See our escape sequence definition for additional examples.

Caps lock

Computer keyboard togglekey that enables or disables all the letters from being typed in uppercase. When the caps lock key is enabled, a user would type LIKE THIS and when it is disabled, a user would type like this. Users who keep their caps lock enabled and type in all uppercase are often considered to be YELLING when they are typing. In the picture to the right, is an example of the keyboard LED's that indicate if keyboard togglekeys are enabled or disabled. In this example picture the num lock key is currently the only enabled key, indicated by the blue LED.

Enter key

Alternatively referred to as a return key, the enter key is used to return a cursor to the next line or execute a command or operation. It is common for most standard keyboards to have two enter or return keys, one on the keyboard and another on the numeric keypad.

Shift key

1. A keyboard key that allows a user to type a single capital letter. For example, pressing and holding the shift key while pressing the letter a key would generate a capital A. In the picture to the right, is an example of what this key may look like. The shift key is commonly located on both the left and right-hand of the keyboard, below the caps lock key and Enter or return key, and is often the second largest key on US keyboards.

Unlike the other modifier keys the Shift key is also found on Apple computer keyboards and performs the same function as the PC computers. With Apple keyboard shortcuts the shift is represented as an up arrow, similar to what shown in our example picture.

In addition to changing the case of the text the shift key is also used as a shortcut key to perform various different shortcuts. For example, holding down the shift key and pressing your arrow keys will highlight text in the direction of the arrow key you press.


2. Microsoft command line command that changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program. Additional information about this command found on our shift command page.

Tab

 

1. An indentation at the beginning of a line to signify a new paragraph in a document. Usually about five spaces, tabs are primarily used to help create equal spacing between multiple lines and to start a new paragraph. When formatting marks are visible tabs are represented by an arrow pointing to the right, as shown in the example picture to the right.
2. In a software program window and on the Internet, a tab allows for the user to access different parts of a menu, display, or page. below is an example of what tabs may look like in a Microsoft Windows window.

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Tab to switch between open tabs in a document or web browser.

3. May refer to a tab of an open window in tabbed browsing.

4. A keyboard key that inserts a tab character or advances the cursor to other tab settings on a line. This key can also move between selectable items in a dialog box. In the picture to the right, is an example of what the tab key may look like on the keyboard.
5. Small plastic piece used to enable/disable write-protection on floppy diskette drives.

Edit mode

Alternatively referred to as edit, edit mode is a software ability that allows the modification of files. For example, MS-DOS edit command is a software program with the edit mode ability to edit and modify files on the computer. Some software programs will have different modes, usually "view" and "edit"; when in the "view mode" the user can only look at the file; however, in "edit mode" the user can view and edit the file. Often this is done for files that are shared between multiple users on a network.

Save

The process of writing data to a storage medium such as a floppy diskette or a hard disk drive. The save option is found in almost all programs commonly under the "File" drop-down-menu.
When clicking the Save option, the file will be saved as its previous name. However, if the file is a new file, the software program will commonly prompt the user for the name he or she wishes.
When saving a file, if that file already exists, the software program the user is using will commonly prompt the user asking if he or she wants to overwrite that file. If the user chooses to overwrites that file, the previous version will be replaced with the new version.
Also see: Autosave, Save As

Shortcut

1. When referring to Microsoft Windows, a shortcut is a link that points to a program on the computer. Shortcuts allow users to create links to their programs in any folder, Start bar, Taskbar, Desktop or other locations on their computer. A shortcut in Windows is commonly identified by a small arrow in the bottom corner of the icon and are files that end with a file extension of .lnk. In the picture to the right, is an example of a Windows shortcut that links to the game Company of Heroes. If you're more familiar with Linux you can think of a shortcut as a symbolic link.
2. A shortcut is also used to describe a keyboard shortcut.

Copy

1. To duplicate text, data, files, or disks, enabling you to have two or more copies of the same file or segments of data. Copying a file to an alternate location such as a floppy disk drive is a common procedure for backing up or sharing a file.

How to copy text

a. Highlight the text you wish to copy, this could be one word, one line, a paragraph or all of the text in the document.

b. Click Edit from the top menu in the program and click Copy

or

Right-click the selected text and select copy.

or

Highlight the text and use the shortcut key Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert.

c. Once the above steps have been done the text will be moved into a temporary area known as the clipboard. You can then paste the text any number of times into any other document until something else is moved into the clipboard.

Practice copying text

Using the below two text fields try copying the text in the first box and pasting it into the second box.

Cut

1. To remove an item from the current location to a temporary alternate location, generally called the clipboard, and then having the capability of pasting that item to another location. Only programs that allow text to be removed can be cut, other programs will only enable a user to copy. For example, you can cut text from any non-protected word processor file. However, you cannot cut text from a read-only word processor file.

How to cut text

a. Highlight the text you wish to cut, this could be one word, one line, a paragraph or all of the text in the document.

b. Click Edit from the top menu in the program and click Cut

or

Right-click the selected text and select cut.

or

Highlight the text you wish to cut press the Ctrl + X shortcut key to cut the selected text.

c. Once the above steps have been done the text will be moved into a temporary area known as the clipboard. You can then paste the text any number of times into any other document until something else is moved into the clipboard.

Practice cutting text

Using the below two text fields try cutting the text in the first box and pasting it into the second box.

Apple Macintosh shortcut keys

Note that not all of the below shortcut keys will work in all versions of Mac OS.

Open Apple + Down	Opens the selected icon.
Shift + Click	Select the icon and add it to the set of those selected.
Tab	Highlight the next icon inside the folder, in alphabetical order.
Shift + Tab	Highlight the previous icon inside the folder, in alphabetical order.
Left arrow	Used when viewing by icon to select the icon to the left of the one highlighted.
Right arrow	Used when viewing by icon to select icon to the right of the one highlighted.
Up arrow	Used to select the icon above the one currently highlighted.
Down arrow	Used to select the icon below the one currently highlighted.
Open Apple + ?	Mac help
Open Apple + E	Eject
Open Apple + Shift + Up Arrow	Used to direct the input focus to the desktop level.
Open Apple + M	Minimize window
Open Apple + N	New finder window
Open Apple + Shift + N	New folder
Open Apple + W	Close the current window.
Open Apple + C	Copy the elected item to the clipboard.
Open Apple + X	Cut the selected item.
Open Apple + V	Paste item from the clipboard
Open Apple + L	Make alias
Open Apple + R	Show original item
Open Apple + T	Add to favorites
Open Apple + O	Open the selected icon.
Open Apple + F	Display the find dialog box.
Open Apple + G	Repeat the last find operation.
Open Apple + Shift + G	Takes a snapshot of the screen and saves it to a PICT file.