If you use Internet Mail extensively, you may be interested in some keyboard shortcuts. Here's the first installment.
To open a message, select it and press Enter or Ctrl-O.
To delete a selected message, press Delete or Ctrl-D.
To mark a message as read, press Ctrl-Enter.
To mark a message as unread, press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
To view the first message in a list, press Home.
To send or receive mail, press Ctrl-M.
To select all the text on the current page, press Ctrl+A
To open the Windows 95 Start menu, press Ctrl+Esc
To open the Find dialog box, press Ctrl+F
To open a new browser window, press Ctrl+N
To display the Open dialog box, press Ctrl+O
To print the current Web page, press Ctrl+P
Most of the shortcuts listed here also apply to Internet News.
Here are three keyboard shortcuts you shouldn't be without:
Alt-Shift-Tab You may already know that Alt-Tab cycles you through open programs and windows, but did you know that Alt-Shift-Tab cycles you backward through the same list? It's a useful option if you have lots of applications open at the same time.
Shift-Right-click If you'd like to open a file in a particular application other than the one it's associated with, don't waste time opening the application first, then using that program's Open command. Instead, hold down Shift as you right-mouse-click on the already selected file icon. Select Open With, choose the application in which you'd like to open the files, and click on OK.
Shift-Delete Typically, selecting an item and pressing the Delete key sends it to the Recycle Bin (after you click on Yes to confirm that you actually want to send the item there). To bypass the Recycle Bin altogether, hold down Shift as you press the Delete key.
Let's suppose you're working in Word and you need to get some info from the Internet. You can go to the desktop and run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, but if you've assigned Ctrl-Alt-E to Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can press those keys and IE 4 will open. Here's how to assign shortcut keys. Right-click on Start and choose Open. When the window opens, double-click on Programs, then double-click on Internet Explorer. Look for the IE 4 icon and right-click on it. Choose Properties and then click on the Shortcut tab. Now click in the Shortcut Key text box. Press E and Ctrl-Alt-E will appear in the text box. Click on OK to close the dialog box. Now close the Start Menu window. From now on, all you have to do to open Microsoft Internet Explorer is press Ctrl-Alt-E.
If you're in a dialog box with multiple tabs and want to move from one to the next, your only option is the mouse, right? Wrong. If you don't feel like making the effort to grab the mouse, try the keyboard. Press Ctrl-Tab to move one tab to the right. While holding down Ctrl, continue to press Tab until the tab you want is highlighted, then let go. Ctrl-Shift-Tab rotates you through tabs in the reverse direction.
You can get anywhere on a Web page without using the mouse. All you have to do is use the Tab key. Each time you press Tab, you'll move to the next URL. If the page you're viewing has more than one frame, pressing Tab will move through all the URLs in the current frame and then switch you to the next frame. To navigate to a selected URL, just press Enter. Of course, you can use the Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, and Arrow keys to navigate through a page that's longer than one screen.