Keyboard Usage Notes

"Performing" a shortcut

How to press your keys

This tutorial may seem a little strange for many people, but there are a few of us who may still want to learn to press their keys more effectively.  So here we go:

• For a shortcut to work, you do not have to press all your keys at once – a shortcut is not a chord.  In fact, it is actually impossible.
• You must always start with the "special" keys, such as Control [Ctrl], Shift, Alt, Windows key, etc.
• You should press all the special keys required for a shortcut before you press the last key (e.g. a letter, Tab key, etc.).
• It is usually easiest to press the special keys in a sequence, eventually followed by the last key.  The exact order is not important in most cases.
• You should not release any of the required special keys before the shortcut is over.
• You will learn quickly how to make a shortcut work for you every time and you will definitely get accustomed to using them.  And, most importantly, you will like using keyboard shortcuts.  This is for sure.

"Sticky keys"

Shift 5x

Keyboard differences

Special keys

WinKey – The Windows Key

WinKey refers to the special key with the Windows logo. This key is usually between the Control [Ctrl] and Alt keys in the bottom-left corner of your keyboard. On some keyboards, this key is also in the bottom-right corner, close to the right Shift key.

Right or Left?

If we do not mention which one of the right or left special keys to press, you can use either to invoke the shortcut.

Context-menu key

The context-menu key is present on most modern keyboards.  It will be placed on the right-hand side of your keyboard between the right Ctrl and Alt.  On some keyboards, the neighboring key to the context-menu key will be the right Windows key.

The context menu key usually has an icon painted on it (representing a context menu, surprisingly enough) instead of text – much like the Windows key.  The actual design of this label will vary among keyboards.  It is equivalent to pressing Shift+F10 (as you can learn here) or the right mouse-button (on right-handed mice).

AltGr

In case you are using a keyboard layout other than the default US keyboard, your right Alt key (sometimes dubbed AltGr) may have a special function when combined with some letters on your keyboard (such as producing accented characters, etc.).
You may still be able to use this key in some shortcuts, but we cannot guarantee that the results will be the same.

Tip: However, in case you do not have the AltGr key on your keyboard and wish to use its functionality, you may use the combination of Alt+Ctrl as a substitute for the single AltGr key, and then press the rest of the keys in the shortcut.

Effectively, AltGr is a shortcut (in itself) for Alt+Ctrl.

Keyboard layouts

Special keyboard layouts

Chances are, we use our computers at least as much as you do.  More importantly, we use our keyboards to type in plenty of different languages.

Sometimes, we find it difficult to get used to all the various keyboard layouts there are, especially when it comes to finding special characters, such as quotes, exclamation marks, braces and parentheses, etc.  There is so much confusion that one wishes to say

!$#€%<:*)@¿

- but one cannot do so easily.

Thus, we created a small set of keyboard layouts for ourselves that we are now going to share with you.  They all have the most important punctuation characters in the same places and allow for easy inter-cultural correspondence at the same time.  They are easy-to-use, intuitive, and work seamlessly with all versions of Windows.

Best of all, our layouts are there for you to download and start forgetting that questionmarks ever used to switch places with dashes.

To check out our SLOVAK keyboard layout, please go here:
Slovak/US Hybrid Keyboard from Chacaturian.com

Let us know what you think!

PS:  In case you are interested in developing your own keyboard layouts, you could use this creatively named tool by Microsoft - Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.  Let us know how you did!