Shortcut keys - your keys to five additional days off

Shortcut keys, also called accelerator keys, are designed to improve productivity and – as the name implies – to accelerate your work. Every shortcut key is a set of one or more modifier keys and additional other keys. One of these modifier keys is usually the command key, a.k.a. Apple key (on Mac OS X) or the control key (on Windows). The key combinations for individual menu commands can be found right besides the menu command name in the individual menus. To sum up, shortcut keys provide a fast way to activate menu commands and help you to save time by allowing you to never take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse.

Usually, we only keep those shortcut keys in mind which we use on a regular basis. But did you know that an average Mac OS X application comes with 40 to 80 predefined shortcut keys? And honestly, how many of them do we really know by heart?

So many people are sitting in front of their computers several hours a day without making use of shortcut keys. Consider how cumbersome and time-wasting it is to navigate through the menus to execute the same simple menu commands again and again – particularly, if you have to take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. You can easily save 10 minutes every day by using menu shortcuts. Over a year, this can lead to five additional days off – unbelievable but true.

But how can we find out which shortcut keys are available, and how can we learn all these shortcut keys?

KeyCue helps you learn shortcut keys

KeyCue is an invaluable tool to help you reach this goal and improve your usage of shortcut keys. This little tool helps to use all Mac OS X applications more efficiently by displaying a concise table of all available keyboard shortcuts instantly when you hold down the command key.

Over time, you will automatically remember frequently used shortcut keys which automatically leads to improved productivity.

KeyCue has received a lot of great feedback:

KeyCue is extremely useful. I've also found it to be a great 'cheat sheet' that actually helps me learn the keyboard shortcuts.

MacWorld Magazine, 08-2006

This product is wonderful! It took me less than a half hour to decide that this is one of those little programs that will become one of my all time favorites. I followed the simple tutorial in the read me file and was instantly able to create a multitude of shortcut keys for all those items that are so tedious to type ten times a day.

Versiontracker

Using KeyCue couldn't be any easier - double-click it to launch it, then just press and hold Command. I thought it was a unique concept, and one that could definitely help you learn the shortcut keys in a hurry, so I thought it deserved a spot as a Pick of the Week.

MacOSXHints

Get more information about KeyCue here.