By Sameer Hussein and Margaret Paton

With the average person’s typing speed at just 40 words per minute, maybe your own speed might be holding you back from higher productivity.

Save time with these Windows ‘Click + Hotkey’ combinations for PC users that will help slash seconds and, over time, minutes in your workweek!

However, few of us know what these combinations are, let alone that your computer mouse can play a role. So check out this ‘go-to list’ compiled by Little Computer People to help you harness your PC to its full potential.

1. The Shift-Click

Hold down the shift key while right-clicking to allow you to select multiple items in a series.

For example, say there are five icons in a row and you click the second icon while holding the shift key. If you keep holding down the shift key and then click on the fifth icon, all icons from the 2nd to the 5th ones will be highlighted.

Magic? Nah! Just the wonders of the shift-click!

It’s particularly handy to remove redundant items from your desktop screen – give that a whirl next time you’re in a tidying mood.

2. The Controlled Click

Much like the ‘shift click’, the ‘controlled click’ is useful for selecting items. However, instead of selecting a range of items, you have more control to only select whatever you click.

In the five-icon scenario above, holding down the Ctrl (instead of the Shift) key, then clicking on the second and fifth icons means that only those two icons will be selected.

There is no limit to how many items you can select, but don’t linger on this too long. Letting go of the Ctrl key and doing a single click away from the selected items will deselect everything that has been highlighted (this applies to the Shift-Click as well). You have to have your wits about you.

3. The Triple-Click

This may not be a mouse/hotkey combo, but it’s worth a look.

We all know what happens with single v double-clicks. But have you heard about the triple-click?

In a document, a single click on a word will move the blinking cursor to that spot.

A double-click will highlight that word.

But if you wish to highlight a whole paragraph or sentence, simply triple-click on any word that’s part of that paragraph. Boom! Paragraph selected. Try it out on this paragraph by triple-clicking on any word.

4. The Controlled Zoom

By now, we all know that the mouse’s wheel helps us scroll up and down through a page. But did you know that you can zoom in or out of a page using the wheel as well?

Just hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key while moving the scroll wheel, and voila! The page zooms in with an upward scroll and zooms out with a downward scroll. This is handy if you like you like to view an MS Word document at the full-page width, for instance.

5. Use The Right-Click

Take advantage of your mouse by using its right-click functionality.

To see the properties of an object or do something with a selected piece of text, right-click it. For example, you can send a file to other devices/recipients by simply right-clicking it and selecting ‘Send To’. The options will vary, but may include ‘Mail’, ‘Bluetooth’ and shared drives.

© Little Computer People