Mouse, Keyboard & Windows
✓ CompletedMost of your day as a VA will be spent pointing, clicking, typing and moving between programs.
This lesson covers the actions you'll use hundreds of times a day. Once they feel natural, everything else in this course gets easier.
Mouse and Trackpad Actions
A mouse and a laptop trackpad do the same jobs. Only the way you press them is different.
| Action | How to do it, and what it's for |
|---|---|
| Click | Press once. Selects something, presses a button, or opens a link. |
| Double-click | Press twice quickly. Opens a file, folder or program from your desktop or a folder window. |
| Right-click | Mouse: press the right button. Trackpad: tap or click with two fingers. On a Mac, you can also hold Control and click. Opens a short menu of actions for whatever you clicked. |
| Click and drag | Press, keep holding, move, then let go. Moves an item, or selects a block of text. |
| Scroll | Roll the mouse wheel, or slide two fingers up and down on the trackpad. Moves up and down a page. |
Why right-click matters
Right-clicking is how you find the actions for a specific thing. Right-click a file and you'll see options like Rename, Copy, Delete and Extract. Right-click selected text and you'll see Copy and Paste.
When you're not sure how to do something to a file, right-click it first and read the menu.
Working With Windows
Every program and folder opens in its own window. You'll often have several open at once, for example a browser, a folder and a document.
Each window has three buttons for controlling it:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Minimize | Hides the window without closing it. It waits on the taskbar or Dock until you click it again. |
| Maximize / Full screen | Makes the window fill the screen. Press it again to shrink it back. |
| Close | Closes the window. Save your work first. |
On Windows, these buttons are in the top-right corner of the window. On a Mac, they're the three colored circles in the top-left corner: red closes, yellow minimizes, green goes full screen.
Switching between windows
You don't need to close one window to use another. To move between open programs:
- Click the program on the taskbar (Windows) or Dock (Mac), or
- Hold Alt and press Tab (Windows), or hold ⌘ Cmd and press Tab (Mac). Keep holding the first key and press Tab again to move through the list.
Two windows side by side
Many VA tasks mean reading from one window while typing in another, like copying details from an email into a spreadsheet.
- Windows: click a window, then press ⊞ Win + ← to fill the left half of the screen. Windows then offers your other open windows for the right half.
- Mac: hold the pointer over the green button in the top-left corner and choose to tile the window to the left or right of the screen.
Keyboard Shortcuts You'll Use Every Day
A shortcut is a key combination that does something faster than clicking through menus. You press and hold the first key, tap the second, then let go of both.
On a Mac, most shortcuts use ⌘ Cmd where Windows uses Ctrl.
| Action | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Copy | Ctrl + C | ⌘ + C |
| Cut | Ctrl + X | ⌘ + X |
| Paste | Ctrl + V | ⌘ + V |
| Undo | Ctrl + Z | ⌘ + Z |
| Redo | Ctrl + Y | ⌘ + Shift + Z |
| Select all | Ctrl + A | ⌘ + A |
| Find a word | Ctrl + F | ⌘ + F |
| Save | Ctrl + S | ⌘ + S |
Cut removes the selected text so you can paste it somewhere else. Copy leaves the original where it is. This is the same idea as moving and copying files, which you'll practice in Lesson 3.
Ctrl + F ang pinaka-underrated na shortcut. Kapag mahaba ang document o webpage, huwag mo nang i-scroll lahat. I-search mo na lang ang salitang hinahanap mo.
Taking a Screenshot
A screenshot is a picture of what's on your screen. VAs use them all the time: to show that a task is done, to show an error message, or to point at something on a page.
On Windows:
- ⊞ Win + Shift + S, then drag a box around the area you want.
- ⊞ Win + PrtScn captures the whole screen.
- Screenshots are usually saved in Pictures › Screenshots, and also copied so you can paste them right away.
On a Mac:
- ⌘ + Shift + 4, then drag a box around the area you want.
- ⌘ + Shift + 3 captures the whole screen.
- Screenshots are saved on your Desktop.
On some Windows computers, an area screenshot is only copied, not saved. If you can't find it in Pictures › Screenshots, click the small notification that appears after you take it, then save it.
Before you send a screenshot to anyone, check that it doesn't show anything private, such as passwords, personal messages, or another client's information.
Which Action Helps?
Choose the action that solves each situation fastest.
You want to rename a file on your desktop, but you can't see a Rename button anywhere.
You're copying product details from a website into a spreadsheet, and keep losing your place when you switch between them.
You need to find the word "refund" in a 40-page document.
You accidentally deleted a paragraph you still needed.
A website shows an error message and you want to show it to someone who can help.
You took an area screenshot on a Mac with ⌘ + Shift + 4. Where do you look for it first?
- Right-click shows you the actions available for whatever you clicked. When in doubt, right-click.
- Minimize hides a window. Close closes it. Switch between windows with the taskbar or Dock, or Alt/⌘ + Tab.
- Copy, paste, undo, find and save are the shortcuts worth learning first.
- Know how to take a screenshot, and know where it was saved.