For the record, I’ve been using a pc since 1984. The first machine was an IBM PC-XT. Self taught in Lotus 1-2-3, and then in Excel. Used to be completely functional in WordPerfect, until Word conquered the world. I’m no application wiz, but I can get basic stuff done. I’m a professionally trained typist, once capable of 60 WPM with a very high accuracy rate (today, the rate is much lower, but I’m still pretty good).
Last semester, I watched my computer science professor teach on a overhead connected to his laptop. He had the Python interpreter running, had the class website up, and the class wiki. Man, he was flying through the screens like Paul Revere through Boston. Highlighting, cutting, pasting, copying…….each class was a masterful performance of keyboard shortcuts. I, of course, had no clue how he was doing it.
One day, in our lab class, he came over to my partner and me to check our progress on a program. The method we used in the lab setting was that one of us was the ‘driver’, i.e., the keyboard operator, and the other was the ‘navigator’, i.e., the creator of the code. I happened to be driving that day, and thus had to repair some code to suit the professor’s taste. My ham-handed attempt at manipulation evoked a comment from the prof like this: “Why aren’t you using shortcuts?”…..”I don’t know how…..”….(to the other student) “How could you let him drive without knowing the shortcuts…..get on the keyboard!”
My humiliation was utter and complete. I imagined that I was the only buffoon in the entire class lacking such basic knowledge…..a leftover from the DOS universe, a remnant from a long dead culture. Such was my low estate that I never dared ask anyone else how to use the keyboard shortcuts.
Yesterday, while perusing the web-site for my new programming class, I stumbled upon a link to something call Productivity Hints. There they were! The techniques that I assumed were hidden to old Neanderthals such as myself…….
Ctrl + Tab………..Alt + Tab…..Shift arrows…….Ctrl + x…….Ctrl + C……Ctrl + v……
I have been practicing all day. I get them. I love it!
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