Another accessibility feature that you may want to explore is MouseKeys, which lets you control the mouse pointer with the numeric keypad. This gives you much finer control over the mouse pointer. To turn this feature on, go to the Accessibility Options applet, choose the Mouse tab, and check the Use MouseKeys check box. Here again, you'll want to explore the available settings.
We often tout the advantages of knowing your keyboard shortcuts. The fact is, you can do things faster with a keyboard than with a mouse. Here are some particularly useful keystrokes.
Ctrl-Esc: Display the Start menu (if you have a keyboard with no Windows logo key).
Alt-Esc and Alt-Shift-Esc: Cycle forward and backward through all open program windows. Hold Alt or Alt-Shift down and keep hitting Esc.
Alt-Tab: Cycle through the icons of open program windows to select an application. Hold the Alt key down and hit Tab to move from one program to the next. Release both keys to go to the program.
Ctrl-F6 and Ctrl-Shift-F6: Cycle forward or backward though all the open document windows in a single program, like Microsoft Word.
Shift-Del: Delete files rather than just sending them to the Recycle Bin.
Shift plus any of the arrow keys: Select multiple contiguous items in a list or file folder.
Ctrl-A: Select all.
Windows Explorer in Windows XP lets you rename multiple files with one command, but alas, only in a limited way. First highlight the files you want to rename. For noncontiguous files, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on the filenames. Then press F2 and enter the new name. The files will all be given the same name, with consecutive numbers appended to differentiate them.
You can also undo the renaming, one file at a time, with Ctrl-Z. Note that you cannot rename the extensions on multiple files at once, only change each file's name to the left of the extension.
Ctrl-Esc: Display the Start menu (if you have a keyboard with no Windows logo key).
Alt-Esc and Alt-Shift-Esc: Cycle forward and backward through all open program windows. Hold Alt or Alt-Shift down and keep hitting Esc.
Alt-Tab: Cycle through the icons of open program windows to select an application. Hold the Alt key down and hit Tab to move from one program to the next. Release both keys to go to the program.
Ctrl-F6 and Ctrl-Shift-F6: Cycle forward or backward though all the open document windows in a single program, like Microsoft Word.
Shift-Del: Delete files rather than just sending them to the Recycle Bin.
Shift plus any of the arrow keys: Select multiple contiguous items in a list or file folder.
Ctrl-A: Select all.
Using this mostly overlooked feature of Windows, you can launch folders and applications with keyboard shortcuts. Create an icon shortcut to any application or folder you want. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Note the Shortcut keys text box. Click on it and hold down the Ctrl key, the Alt key, or both, and strike another key (for example, Ctrl-Alt-J). Click OK. To use the shortcut, just press the key combination.
There are a lot of useful applications hidden in Windows XP. Here is one of them. Run this tip by opening the Start | Run dialog and entering Eudcedit.
Create and edit a custom character to use as text: You can make a character out of your name, for example, or a company logo. The process is a bit confusing: When you open the Editor, it asks you to assign your character to a spot on a grid. Accept the default and begin editing on the 50-pixel-square workspace. To use a saved character, open the Character Map (Run | Charmap). For Font, select the top choice, All Fonts (Private Characters), then select, copy, and paste your character into a document.