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.

    • Jarix@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 days ago

      True. But also if you are going to use arrow keys to navigate you will want to also know where your scroll lock key is because it’s almost useless unless you use arrow key navigation

  • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    324·
    7 days ago

    Are you serious? arrow keys instead of clicking? let’s take it further:

    shift+arrow highlights letters
    ctrl+arrow skips entire words
    ctrl+shift+arrow highlights entire words
    home/end jumps to start/end of line
    ctrl+home/end jumps to start/end of text box
    ctrl+shift+home/end jumps to start/end of textbox and highlights it
    um, do you need me to explain what ctrl+xcv do? or ctrl+zy? or ctrl+asdwerfgop?

    isn’t this just basic typing? didnt yall learn this in the 90s??? how are you all on the internet right now

    wait til you hear about how i swipe texted all this

  • pocker_machine@lemmy.world
    8·
    6 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
    122·
    6 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.

  • JamonBear@sh.itjust.works
    17·
    7 days ago

    Using ublock origin picker to remove everything useless. Like, Youtube suggestions, everything but download button on ddl websites, useless footers/headers on news, etc…

    • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      7 days ago

      Just getting people to switch away from chrome to get ublock origin is a major hack all itself and completely changed the way you use the internet.

  • hansolo@sh.itjust.works
    112·
    6 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.

  • jaschen306@sh.itjust.works
    15·
    7 days ago

    Yay, nobody said my favorite hack.

    While browsing on the web and you want to “open link into a new tab”, click using the mouse wheel like it’s a regular left or right click.

    It’s great for researching.

  • AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world
    8·
    6 days ago

    Safe: Use text expansion for trivial yet long texts like your emails, addresses, etc. to almost eliminate errors in those texts. Espanso is something I use on Linux Mint, while macOS supports text expansion natively. I am yet to find something that fills the gap on NetBSD, but I almost exclusively use emacs on those machines, which has native support for snippets.

    Unsafe: Remove USB drive without ejecting it. :P

    Contrived yet neat: With special software (BetterTouchTool on macOS) or keyboard firmware (QMK and ZMK, which is what I use), one can use Spacebar as a layer key (SpaceFn, as it makes Spacebar behave as a Fn key) to unlock neat shortcuts like navigating using HJKL, add macros, remap hard to reach keys on to the home row, etc. There are other things that can be done such as one-shot modifiers which make typing less straining.

    P.S. The snark in the comments here is surprising. Everyone starts somewhere. Let us be welcoming.

  • mriswith@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    7 days ago

    Far from most used, but very handy: ctrl+win+shift+b

    It restarts the graphic subsystem, which can help recover from situations where game crashes or similar cause visual issues.

    • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
      1·
      6 days ago

      That’s handy, my computer is struggling to run crusader kings 3 when I start it up sometimes and I have to restart the whole thing. Next time I’ll try this.

      Trying to save to buy a new pc but with a baby on the way most of our money is going to baby stuff at the moment

  • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    6 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
      4·
      6 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 :>

    • kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      3·
      7 days ago

      I don’t know shit about Linux but I’ve been using Mint for the last year with no problem. It’s pretty idiot-proof and I haven’t had any issues with software since gaming is largely solved on Linux and Adobe can eat my ass.

    • thatradomguy@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 days ago

      less configuration needed

      Would say that GNU/Linux is actually *more * customizable than Windows which then requires more config. For a techie like me, not a downside as I can figure it out… but wouldn’t say this is true for all distros even with vanilla Gnome compared to Windows or something like ZorinOS. IMO, GNU/Linux still takes the cake on this one unfortunately.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        7 days ago

        Yeah, I understand the mindset behind “if I tell people Linux is easy, they might actually switch.” Getting people to switch means overcoming a lot of social inertia. But the issue is that this makes you an unreliable source when a newbie inevitably runs into issues. They’ll be more likely to go “eh I was told it was easy but this isn’t. I guess it’s just not for me.”

        Providing a realistic outlook may make Linux sound less appealing, but it will mean those who do try it are more likely to stick with it.

  • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    6 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

  • Drekaridill@feddit.is
    13·
    7 days ago

    Ctrl + shift + esc brings up the Windows task manager directly instead of the menu you get when you press ctrl + alt + del

    • mriswith@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      7 days ago

      Just remember that ctrl+alt+del is a system level interrupt that should always work as long as the kernel is running. Ctrl+shift+esc is not, and won’t work in some situations like being used inside a fullscreen frozen program.