Does anyone use only keyboard and don't use a mouse?

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brannsiu

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Apr 20, 2013
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I feel so good to type with only keyboard, but not a mouse, especially when I have to move my right hand
between keyboard and mouse, it is so tiring and causing fragile. I'd like to do if anyone here use only
keyboard to work with Windows and do not use a mouse at all? Do you have any tips for me?
 

Math Geek

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can't say i don't ever use a mouse, but i still remember most of the keyboard shortcuts to move around windows. i often use the keyboard shortcuts to avoid the mouse for a bit here and there. basically whichever is quicker at the moment is what i use.

mostly it is within a single program rather than trying to navigate the entire windows experience without a mouse. for instance, office programs are easy to use only the keyboard, but web browsing is much faster and easier with the mouse.

the windows key is your friend to quickly open the search box and get that program your looking for running quick. but i'd not try to navigate task manager or other such utilities without a mouse. it can be done, but it is faster with the mouse.
 
I have a laundry list of things
  • Common actions:
    • Space is used in place of a mouse click if the input focus is on a clickable object
      • "Input focus" is whatever is highlighted. It's similar if you hovered over the object with the mouse cursor or did a single click on it
    • Arrows are obviously used to move the input focus, but it only works in a "section" of a window.
    • Tab is used to switch between sections of a window. However, using this in a web browser is not recommended because tab switches the input focus. Since anything clickable, including buttons, links, etc, is something the input focus can land on, it can be highly impractical to "click" on something using keyboard based navigation.
    • Page Up/Down and Home/End keys are going to be your friend for quickly navigating pages.
    • It might be helpful to learn top-menu navigation. Most actions in the top menu can be done in 2-3 keystrokes.
  • The Windows key shortcuts are a godsend.
    • By itself, it opens up the Start Menu. You can start typing, which goes into Start Menu search
    • Windows + [number] either launches an app pinned on the taskbar or switches to it. If you have multiple instances of the app, it switches between those instances. If you want to launch a new instance, hold Shift down.
    • Windows + E opens file explorer
    • Windows + D minimizes everything
    • Windows + L locks the computer
    • Windows + Up/Down maximizes and minimizes the window respectively
    • Windows + Left/Right pins the window to the left/right half of the screen respectively
    • There's others but those are the ones I use most
  • Start Menu searching is really helpful for launching apps, assuming there's a shortcut for it in the Start Menu somewhere. Search is also smart enough to learn (most of the time anyway) which app you typically want when you start typing so it gets to a point where you can type the first few letters of the app and hit enter without thinking.
    • This was the one thing that made Windows 8 tolerable to me.
  • In File Explorer, you can actually do a qausi-search by typing in the letters for a file you want in rapid succession. So if there's a file called "apples" in a folder, setting the focus to the folder contents and typing in the letters in rapid succession with cause the highlighting to go towards it.
  • Web browsers typically have the same shortcuts:
    • CTRL + R or F5 does a refresh. CTRL + Shift + R does a hard refresh (this completely reloads the website)
    • CTRL + F or F3 opens up search
    • Alt+D or F6 sets the focus to the address bar
    • CTRL + T opens a new tab. Typically CTRL + Shift + T reopens the last closed tab
    • Opening a private window is either Ctrl + Shift + N in Chromium based browsers or Ctrl + P in Firefox.
  • Typing cursor manipulation tips:
    • Holding shift with the arrows starts highlighting text
    • Holding CTRL with the arrows skips over words
    • Home goes to the start of the line, End goes to... the end :p
However, Windows' UI is still largely "pointing device" driven, so doing some things will be much easier with a mouse.
 
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