What computer life hacks are your most used? - eviltoast

Mine is using the arrow keys to navigate typed text while writing and editing. It helps speed things up, versus having to move your hand to the mouse to navigate.

Use the Up and Down Arrows to move/jump vertically.

Left and Right Arrows to move/jump horizontally.

Combine Left or Right Arrow with Shift to be able to select text. Use Up or Down Arrow with Shift to quickly select whole/nearly whole sections of text.

Combine Control with Left/Right Arrow to jump whole words to more quickly move to where you want to type.

  • pocker_machine@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I was surprised that many people didn’t know this magical ✨ shortcut

    Ctrl + Shift + t
    Cmd + Shift + t
    

    If you accidentally closed a tab in a browser, it will reopen it. Most browsers also lets you open closed tabs one after the other.

    It is easy to remember to since it is just a shift away from new tab shortcut

    Ctrl + t
    Cmd + t
    
  • Luffy@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    What you just described is the most gen-Y always used PCs but never knew dogshit about it thing ive heard.

    Regarding that, Wait until you learn you can use strg to move beetween words.

  • hansolo@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    To be pedantic, keyboard shortcuts aren’t hacks. That’s the intended use of the thing, and long lists of keybaord shortcuts exist so that people can find the ones that work for them and use them. Just because most people don’t do it doesn’t make it a hack.

    My favorite keyboard shortcut is Super/Windows key and spacebar switches keyboard languages. That’s not a hack, though.

    Closer to a “hack” is going into an android phone with ADB and disabling bloatware manually.

  • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I’m still on Windows, because I’m a lesser human, etc…

    That said, PowerToys adds a lot of nice features to Windows (more like…Sindows, amirite), like being able to break your screen into zones, etc…

    My biggest computer life hack of all time would probably be: piracy. Highly recommended. Saves you so much money, I’m surprised they don’t advertise it more.

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      Piracy is like an Eye of Sauron thing. You don’t get big and ubiquitous like Napster back in the day or you get pounced on like Aragorn clanging his pots and pans. You wanna stay small and quiet undermining the very power they desire like Sam and Frodo :>

  • blarghly@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Learn vim keybindings.

    Learn hotkeys for every program you have and learn to navigate between programs without the mouse.

    Stop using the computer and go outside sometimes

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    The Escape Key closes most popups, dialogs, modals. It’s also non-destructive, so it won’t close a program; any “save changes” dialog will be cancelled.

  • moe93@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    To navigate to the previous folder

    cd -

    To reissue the previous command with a prefix. For example:

    cat /root/.ssh/authorized_keys # Will fail without privilege

    sudo !!

    To use the argument of the previous command. For example:

    tac ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # oops, misspelled cat

    cat !$

    • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Oh dang, I never knew about the !! shortcut. I especially like it for the sudo example, because when it complains I don’t have permission, I can basically yell at it.

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I’ve seen posts suggesting adding the following to your .bashrc:

        alias fuck='sudo $(history -p \!\!)'
        
    • hornywarthogfart@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      The - works with git branching as well for those who didn’t know. git checkout - will switch to the previously checked out branch so it effectively toggles between your two most recent branches.

    • Luc@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Not sure if you’re aware that tac is not a typo but reverse cat, as in, it works like cat but prints the last line first. I use this semi-regularly

      sl, now, that’s a typo. Nobody wants a free choo choo

    • shplane@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      If anyone left their computer unlocked at my old job, the entire office was getting an email about how much you love Justin Bieber

    • macniel@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

      That’s not even a life hack. That’s literally policy, at least where I work at :)

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Not everyone knows the keyboard shortcut though. I bet you can find people hunting for it using the mouse every time.

        • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
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          1 day ago

          At my old job (tech support), I watched a new hire once highlight text, right click for the context menu, and click “copy”. And then right-click to hit “paste”. Every time. They didn’t know a single shortcut for anything. It was maddening to watch.

          I gave em a lot of help because they were clearly not particularly tech savvy, but it made me wonder how the hell they got through the interview process with such a limited skillset.

        • Rusty@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          How can people not use shortcuts? If that shortcut wouldn’t exist, I would create it using Autohotkey

      • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        None of these comments are life hacks. When did using a documented feature built into your software become a hack?

      • Szyler@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        With open shell to replace the start menu:

        Windows - > right right enter for shutdown.

        Wibdows - > right right up up enter for hybernate

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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    8 days ago

    Keyboard shortcuts in general.

    • Alt + left right (previous/next page in browsers)

    • Windows + 1 (2, 3, …) on Windows and KDE focuses the window at that position in the taskbar

    • Alt + Tab to switch windows (hold shift to go backwards)

    • Windows + Tab to switch windows within the same application (like, all browser windows if you’re in a browser)

    • Alt + 1 (2, 3, …) on Windows/Linux usually selects the corresponding tab

    • Ctrl + Tab to cycle through tabs like Alt-Tab does for windows (hold shift to go backwards)

    • In most browsers or things with a URL/go to bar, Ctrl+L will focus that. No need to click the address bar, Ctrl+L, example.com, Enter.

    • In Discord and Slack, you can press Ctrl+K to open a box to quickly type a channel/DM name to go to it quickly

    • If you have them, the Home/End/PageUp/PageDown keys are actually pretty useful. Press Home instead of scrolling all the way back up.

    • F1 is usually help

    • F2 is usually rename

    • F3 is usually search

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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      8 days ago

      F6 - goto and highlight the URL bar in a browser

      ctrl + F5 - clear cache and reload the tab

      F11 - super full screen browser

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      8 days ago

      I’ll add some mouse ones: if you have thumb buttons they are next/previous page.

      Mouse wheel down clicking on a link opens it in a new tab.

      Mouse wheel down clicking on a tab label closes the tab (no need to hunt for the little x).