Table of keyboard shortcuts facts for kids

Do you ever wonder how to make your computer do things faster? Keyboard shortcuts are secret commands you can give your computer by pressing certain keys together. They save you time and make using your computer much easier!

Instead of clicking through menus with your mouse, you can use these shortcuts to do common tasks like saving a file, copying text, or opening a new tab. Different computer systems and programs have their own special shortcuts, but many are quite similar. Let Let's explore some of the most useful ones!

Everyday Shortcuts for Your Computer

These shortcuts help you with basic tasks you do all the time, like managing files and text.

How to Manage Files and Text

• File Menu: To open the File menu, which lets you save, open, or print documents:

* Windows: Press Alt+F or F10 then F. * macOS: Press Ctrl+F2, then F. * KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+F. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+O.

• Edit Menu: To open the Edit menu, where you can find options like Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, and Paste:

* Windows: Press Alt+E. * macOS: Press Ctrl+F2, then E. * KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+E.

• Undo Last Action: Made a mistake? This shortcut lets you go back one step.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+Z. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Z. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Z. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+Z.

• Redo Last Action: If you undo something by accident, this brings it back.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+Y. * macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+Z. * KDE / GNOME: Press ⇧ Shift+Ctrl+Z. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Z.

• Cut (Move) Text: This removes selected text and puts it into a special temporary storage called the clipboard. You can then paste it somewhere else.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+X. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+X. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+X. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+X.

• Copy Text: This makes a copy of selected text and puts it into the clipboard, without removing it from its original spot.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+C. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+C. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+C. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+C.

• Paste Text: This inserts whatever is in your clipboard at your cursor's position.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+V. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+V. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+V. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+V.

• Select All: This highlights all the text or items in the current window or document.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+A. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+A. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+A. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+A.

• Print: Quickly open the print dialog to send your document to a printer.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+P. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+P. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+P.

Managing Your Computer System

These shortcuts help you control your computer's overall behavior, like opening new windows or shutting down.

• New Folder: Create a new folder quickly in your file explorer.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+N. * macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+N. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+N.

• Applications Menu: Open the main menu to find your programs.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win key or Ctrl+Esc. * Chrome OS: Press Search key.

• Lock Desktop: Lock your computer screen to keep it secure when you step away.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+L. * macOS: Press Ctrl+⌘ Cmd+Q (newer versions) or Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Eject. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Alt+L. * Chrome OS: Hold the Power button for 3 seconds.

• Show Desktop: Hide all open windows to see your desktop background.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+D. * macOS: Press F11. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Alt+D.

• Log Out User: Sign out of your user account.

* macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+Q. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Q twice.

• Task Manager / Force Quit: Open a tool to see what programs are running and close ones that are stuck.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+Delete. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+Esc. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Esc. * Chrome OS: Press Search+Esc.

• Rename Object: Change the name of a file or folder.

* Windows: Press F2. * macOS: Press ↵ Enter or F2. * KDE / GNOME: Press F2.

• Open File or Program: Launch a selected file or application.

* Windows: Press ↵ Enter. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+O or ⌘ Cmd+↓. * KDE / GNOME: Press ↵ Enter.

• Switch Window: Move between your open programs.

* Windows: Press Alt+Tab ↹ (next) / ⇧ Shift+Alt+Tab ↹ (previous). * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Tab ↹ (next) / ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+Tab ↹ (previous). * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Tab ↹ (next) / Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹ (previous). * Chrome OS: Hold Alt, then quickly press Tab ↹.

• Run Application: Open a small window to type in the name of a program you want to run.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+R. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Space. * KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+F2.

• Search: Open a search bar to find files, programs, or information on your computer.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win key, then start typing, or ⊞ Win+S or F3. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Space. * Chrome OS: Press Search key.

Powering Your Computer On and Off

These shortcuts help you put your computer to sleep, restart it, or shut it down.

• Put Computer to Sleep: Save power by putting your computer into a low-power state.

* Windows 10: Press ⊞ Win+x then u then s. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+Eject.

• Shut Down Computer: Turn off your computer completely.

* Windows 10: Press ⊞ Win+x then u then u. * macOS: Press Ctrl+⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+Eject (shuts down immediately). * KDE: Press Ctrl+Alt+⇧ Shift+PageDown (shuts down immediately). * Chrome OS: Hold the Power button for 10 seconds.

• Restart Computer: Turn your computer off and then back on again.

* Windows 10: Press ⊞ Win+x then u then r. * macOS: Press Ctrl+⌘ Cmd+Eject or Ctrl+⌘ Cmd+Power (restarts immediately). * KDE: Press Ctrl+Alt+⇧ Shift+PageUp (restarts immediately).

• Force Shutdown: If your computer is completely frozen, this is a last resort to turn it off.

* Windows: Hold the Power button for several seconds. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+Eject. * Chrome OS: Press refresh+power.

Taking Screenshots

Screenshots are pictures of your computer screen. They are useful for sharing what you see or saving information.

• Save Screenshot of Entire Screen: Take a picture of everything on your screen and save it as a file.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+Print Screen. * macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+3. * KDE / GNOME: Press Print Screen (then save).

• Copy Screenshot of Entire Screen to Clipboard: Take a picture of your whole screen and copy it so you can paste it into a document or message.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+Print Screen or Print Screen. * macOS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+3. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Print Screen.

• Copy Screenshot of Active Window to Clipboard: Take a picture of only the window you are currently using and copy it.

* Windows: Press Alt+Print Screen. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Alt+Print Screen.

• Save Screenshot of Part of Screen: Choose a specific area of your screen to take a picture of and save it.

* macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+4, then click and drag your mouse over the area. * GNOME: Press ⇧ Shift+Print Screen (then save).

• Copy Screenshot of Part of Screen to Clipboard: Choose a specific area of your screen to take a picture of and copy it.

* Windows 10: Press ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+S. * macOS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+4, then click and drag your mouse over the area. * GNOME: Press ⇧ Shift+Print Screen (then copy to clipboard).

Text Editing and Navigation

These shortcuts help you move around in documents and make changes to text.

• Delete Character to the Right: Erase the letter or symbol right after your cursor.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press Del. * Chrome OS: Press Alt+← Backspace or Del.

• Delete Word to the Right: Erase the whole word after your cursor.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Del. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+Del.

• Delete Word to the Left: Erase the whole word before your cursor.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+← Backspace (or ⌥ Opt+← Backspace on macOS). * Chrome OS: Press ← Backspace.

• Go to Start of Line: Move your cursor to the very beginning of the line you are on.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Home. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+← or Ctrl+A.

• Go to End of Line: Move your cursor to the very end of the line you are on.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press End. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+→ or Ctrl+E.

• Go to Start of Document: Jump to the very beginning of your entire document.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+Home. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+↑. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+search+←.

• Go to End of Document: Jump to the very end of your entire document.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+End. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+↓. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+search+→.

• Go to Previous Word: Move your cursor back one word at a time.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+←. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+←.

• Go to Next Word: Move your cursor forward one word at a time.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+→. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+→.

• Go to Previous Line: Move your cursor up one line.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press ↑.

• Go to Next Line: Move your cursor down one line.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press ↓.

• Find: Open a search box to look for specific words or phrases in your document.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+F. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+F. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+F.

• Go to Next Search Result: After finding something, jump to the next place it appears.

* Windows: Press F3. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+G. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+G (GNOME) or F3 (KDE).

• Go to Previous Search Result: Jump back to the previous place your search term appeared.

* Windows: Press ⇧ Shift+F3. * macOS: Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+G. * KDE / GNOME: Press ⇧ Shift+Ctrl+G (GNOME) or ⇧ Shift+F3 (KDE).

• Search and Replace: Find a word or phrase and change it to something else throughout your document.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+H. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+F. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+H (GNOME) or Ctrl+R (KDE).

Formatting Text

These shortcuts help you make your text look different, like making it bold or italic.

• Bold: Make selected text thicker and darker.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+B (or ⌘ Cmd+B on macOS).

• Underline: Put a line under selected text.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+U (or ⌘ Cmd+U on macOS).

• Italic: Make selected text slanted.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+I (or ⌘ Cmd+I on macOS).

• Superscript: Make text smaller and slightly above the line (like for exponents, e.g., x²).

* Windows: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+=. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+P.

• Subscript: Make text smaller and slightly below the line (like for chemical formulas, e.g., H₂O).

* Windows: Press Ctrl+=. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+B.

• Selected Text Larger/Smaller: Change the size of the text you have highlighted.

* Windows: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+> (larger) / Ctrl+⇧ Shift+< (smaller). * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+> (larger) / ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+< (smaller).

• Insert Line Break: Start a new line without starting a new paragraph.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+↵ Enter. * macOS: Press ⌥ Opt+↵ Enter.

Web Browser Shortcuts

These shortcuts are super helpful when you're browsing the internet.

• Go to Address Bar: Quickly move your cursor to the bar where you type website addresses.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+L or Alt+D or F6. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+L.

• Go to Previous Page in History: Go back to the webpage you were just on.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+← or ← Backspace. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+[ or ⌘ Cmd+←. * Chrome OS: Press ←.

• Go to Next Page in History: Go forward to a page you were on before you went back.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+→. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+] or ⌘ Cmd+→. * Chrome OS: Press →.

• Add Bookmark for Current Page: Save the current webpage so you can easily find it again later.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+D (or ⌘ Cmd+D on macOS).

• Focus Web Search Bar: Move your cursor to the search bar on a webpage.

* Windows / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+E or Ctrl+K. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+E or ⌘ Cmd+K. * KDE / GNOME: Press Ctrl+k.

• Refresh a Webpage: Reload the current webpage to see the latest version.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press F5 or Ctrl+R. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+R. * Chrome OS: Press ⟲ or Ctrl+R.

• Open a New Window: Open a completely new browser window.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+N (or ⌘ Cmd+N on macOS).

• Zoom Options: Make the text and images on a webpage larger or smaller.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME: * Zoom In: Press Ctrl++ (or ⌘ Cmd++ on macOS). * Zoom Out: Press Ctrl+- (or ⌘ Cmd+- on macOS). * Zoom 100% (Reset): Press Ctrl+0 (or ⌘ Cmd+0 on macOS).

Managing Browser Tabs

Tabs let you have many webpages open in one browser window. These shortcuts help you manage them.

• New Tab: Open a brand new tab.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+T (or ⌘ Cmd+T on macOS).

• Close Tab: Close the tab you are currently looking at.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+W (or ⌘ Cmd+W on macOS).

• Go to Next Tab: Move to the tab to the right of your current one.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+Tab ↹.

• Go to Previous Tab: Move to the tab to the left of your current one.

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹.

• Go to Tab-n: Jump directly to a specific tab by its number (e.g., Ctrl+1 for the first tab).

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+n (or ⌘ Cmd+n on macOS).

• Open Previously Closed Tab: Accidentally closed a tab? This brings it back!

* Windows / macOS / KDE / GNOME / Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+T (or ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+T on macOS).

Window Management

These shortcuts help you arrange and control the windows on your screen.

• Close the Focused Window: Close the program window you are currently using.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+F4. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+W. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+W.

• Close All Windows of Current Application: Close every window of a specific program.

* macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+⌥ Opt+W. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+W.

• Minimize the Focused Window: Shrink the current window down to your taskbar or dock.

* Windows: Press Alt+Space then N or ⊞ Win+↓. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+M. * KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+F9 (GNOME) or Alt+F3 then N (KDE). * Chrome OS: Press Alt+-.

• Maximize the Focused Window: Make the current window fill your entire screen.

* Windows: Press Alt+Space then X or ⊞ Win+↑. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+L. * KDE / GNOME: Press Alt+F10 (GNOME) or Alt+F3 then X (KDE). * Chrome OS: Press Alt++.

• Minimize All Windows: Shrink all open windows down to your taskbar or dock.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+M or ⊞ Win+D. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Alt+M. * GNOME: Press Ctrl+Alt+D.

• Switch Fullscreen/Normal Size: Toggle between a window filling the screen and its regular size.

* Windows / KDE / GNOME: Press F11. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+F. * Chrome OS: Press Fullscreen.

• Show All Open Windows: See all your open windows at once, often in a tiled view.

* Windows: Press ⊞ Win+Tab ↹. * macOS: Press F3 or F9. * GNOME: Press ⊞ Win key.

• Quit Application of Current Window: Close the entire program that the current window belongs to.

* Windows: Press Alt+F4. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+Q. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+W.

• Close Dialog: Close a small pop-up window or message box.

* Windows / macOS: Press Esc. * Chrome OS: Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+W.

Accessibility Shortcuts

These shortcuts help make your computer easier to use for everyone.

• Use Keyboard to Control Cursor (Mouse Keys): Turn on a feature that lets you move your mouse pointer using the number pad on your keyboard.

* Windows: Press Left Alt+Left Shift+Numlock.

• Allow User to Press Shortcuts One Key at a Time (Sticky Keys): If you have trouble pressing multiple keys at once, this feature lets you press them one after another for shortcuts.

* Windows / GNOME: Press ⇧ Shift 5 times.

• Hear Beep When -lock Key Pressed (ToggleKeys): Hear a sound when you press Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock.

* Windows: Hold Numlock for 5 seconds.

• Stop/Slow Repeating Characters (Slow Keys): If you accidentally hold down a key and it types many times, this feature helps prevent that.

* Windows / GNOME: Hold Right Shift (Windows) or ⇧ Shift (GNOME) for 8 seconds.

• Inverse (Reverse Colors) Mode: Change the colors on your screen to be the opposite (e.g., white becomes black). This can help with eye strain.

* Windows: Press Left Alt+Left Shift+PrtScn. * macOS: Press ⌘ Cmd+⌥ Opt+Ctrl+8. * KDE: Press Meta+⇧ Shift+i (if enabled).