Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Remember when the command-line interface was standard? Back in the days of DOS, before Windows? Back when we typed in cryptic instructions, and grouped those instructions in primitive programs?

My first computer with a graphical user interface (a GUI) was an Atari ST 1040, with a nifty little monochrome monitor and two 3.5-inch disc drives and a cartridge slot and an external 10-meg hard drive.

A custom EEPROM in the cartridge slot convinced the Atari it was a Macintosh. As a Mac or as an Atari, the machine needed a pointing device. Atari did supply mice, but I preferred a trackball.

That trackball was a celluloid billiard ball resting in a trough that it fit precisely. It was more comfortable to use than any mouse I have had, and much more efficient than the small trackball devices I attach to notebook computers.

Pointing devices helped free us from the command line. From having trained people to use DOS, and from training people to use more modern operating systems, I am convinced DOS was much harder to learn and far more cumbersome to use. We love our graphical interfaces.

A German developed a clumsy tracking device shortly before Douglas Engelbart came up with the mouse. The Engelbart mouse was a wooden box with two metal wheels and a single button. Its cable, connecting it a serial port on a computer, looked like a tail. That was in 1964.

Engelbart never received royalties for the mouse, although it was patented. He was working for Stanford Research Institute at the time, and SRI claimed ownership of that “work product.”

Then there’s the touchpad (not very efficient, in my opinion), another way to help us interact with computers while using the keyboard mainly for entering text. But there are a couple approaches to interface that bypass the mouse or touchpad a good deal.  One is voice command (such as Nuance’s “Dragon”).Another is “quick keys.”

A client recently asked me to share one of them here, “Because it saves me so much time, and I notice a lot of people in the office don’t know about Control Magic.”

This busy office employee uses Microsoft Office much of the day. Mostly she uses Word, so the Control Magic she employs saves her time and motion during word processing tasks.

Control Magic involves holding down the Ctrl key while tapping another key, usually a letter. This is done, instead of using the mouse or touchpad to issue certain commands by choosing them from menus or “ribbon.”

Some are intuitive combinations; others you need to use a few times so you will remember them.

Ctrl + n opens creates a new document, using the default template. To use a different template, though, you will need to use the Office button menu and choose New, then double-click on the desired template.

Ctrl + o opens an existing file in Word. It does this by displaying the Documents list; chances are you’ll need to use the mouse to select the document you want.

After you have created a new document, you’ll want to name it. Ctrl + s will present a dialog for you to chose the file format such as .doc or .docx or .rtf, and give you a slot for the name. Thereafter Ctrl + s will do a quick-save of the document from time to time while you are working.  When you have finished the document, do another Ctrl + s before closing it. You can use Ctrl + F4 (in the row of Function keys at the top of the keyboard) to close it.

Need hardcopy? Use Ctrl + p to print. Depending on how your Word is configured, this will either print a single copy using the default printer at its default settings, or it will open a print dialog allowing you to choose the printer and settings.

While working on a document in Word, you may want to change the font point size.. Ctrl + Shift + p summons a dialog that lets you do that, or make other choices relating to the type. Nowadays Ctrl + Shift + f does the same thing. Those dialogs used to be separate in older versions of Word.

Ctrl + u underlines. Ctrl + b bolds. Ctrl + i italicizes. If you have not selected any text before using the command, the change will affect what you are about to type. But to apply the command to a part of the document already typed, mouse-select that part before using the Ctrl code.

That’s true of alignment shortcut keys too. To left-align (straight left margin, ragged right) use Ctrl + l. To right-align (straight right margin, ragged left), use Ctrl + r, just as you would have guessed. For both margins to be straight, or justified, use Ctrl + j.

What about centering what you are typing, for titles or invitations and such? Ctrl + e. Not Ctrl + c, because that would copy something to the Clipboard. That copy command is as handy as a pocket in a shirt, especially when paired with Ctrl + v, which inserts whatever is on the Clipboard wherever the cursor is planted. A mnemonic for the insert command is that the v looks like an inverted caret.

What if you just want to cut, or excise, some selected material? Ctrl + x. If you want to undo an action or editing command without mousing up to the bent-over-backwards arrow on the ribbon or toolbar, use Ctrl + z. I use that combo with two fingers of my left hand.

Another I like is selecting the whole document with Ctrl + a (for all).

To send this column to our favorite weekly newspaper, I’ll Ctrl + s to save it, then Ctrl + a to copy the text to the Clipboard, Alt + f to open the File menu, Alt + d to send, and Enter to choose e-mail, which is highlighted on that list. The email blank will come up with the document attached. But I’ll also plant the text in the message body by using Ctrl + v to insert it (copy it from the clipboard).

For me this is quicker than the pointing and clicking that would be necessary to accomplish the same tasks using my mouse.

If you like Control Magic, you’ll probably enjoy the Alternate Universe. We can explore that in another column.