Touchpad v. Keyboard: The Ultimate Corporate Battle(Chapter 1: Laptop Générale)
The Pointing Device and the QWERTY keyboard have been arch enemies since the time of its invention, especially in the corporate world where the life of a business depends on computers.
There are two types of people in the Corporate World – the Keyboard Fanatics and the I-would-need-a-mouse-for-this guys; there’s no in-between. The motto of the Fanatics is to try and not use the mouse at all and guess what the most beginner friendly thing in PCs is – yeah you guessed it right – the mouse! Simply point at what you want, click on it and voila, you have your results. Plus, all these buttons on the Keyboard, the peer pressure to learn typing skills and the never-ending fumbling between ‘fn’, ‘ctrl’, ‘shift’ and ‘alt’ makes the Keyboard even more monstrous and confusing to begin with. But the Fanatics are fans of the keyboard due to the same reason; and I admit, it does feel real good when you press a random keyboard shortcut, and somebody goes – how the hell did you do that?!
This article though, is not about what is superior. My goal here is to highlight that both have their uses. I mean both are a part of a single machine to begin with; it’s not like you must choose one while buying a laptop, so why choose after? The thing is, if you use them both wisely, you’ll be far more efficient and faster while operating a computer.
Since most of the corporates now operate on laptops, this article is a laptop special edition. I’ve seen a lot of my friends use a conventional mouse with their laptops, but the touchpad (that square thingy on your laptops below the keyboard, which is often referred to as the mouse of a laptop) has always been enough for me. In my view, the touchpad is much more accessible and offers a wide range of functions to navigate through the computer. The battle lies between using the keyboard and the mouse, and since the touchpad plays the role of a mouse for laptops, this article highlights shortcuts, tips, and techniques using the touchpad and the keyboard to operate your laptop faster and flawlessly (I request you to try these on your laptop as you read):
- The Touchpad’s Reign:
Ever used a touchpad with more than one finger? Well, give it a go, and see the magic.
Scroll in style: Swipe up/ down using 2 fingers to scroll through a document/ word file/ worksheet.
Zoom-in and Zoom Out: Move 2 fingers away from each other to zoom in. Pinch (move 2 fingers closer to each other) to zoom out on documents, word files, worksheets, etc. Works exactly like a phone camera!
Drag: To drag, hold down the left click button with 1 finger and while dragging the touchpad with another.
Show Desktop: Click on the bottom-right corner of your screen to open the desktop
Move files to desktop: Double click on a file/ folder and drag it to the bottom right corner of the screen and hold. Desktop appears. Drag the file/ folder onto the desktop and let go of the touchpad.
Minimize and maximize using Three-finger Gestures: Swipe down using 3 fingers to minimize all windows and return to the desktop. Swipe up to open the minimized window again.
Making Navigation easier: Swipe left or right using 3 fingers and you’ll be able to see all the active windows. Navigate to the desired window by dragging your fingers right/ left. Let go of the mouse once you navigate to the desired tab. In case only two windows are open, just swipe once to navigate to the other window. Also, you can swipe up using 3 fingers and hold to open the Task View.
The Magic of Four-finger Gestures (I already know this one’s gonna be your favorite): If you aren’t in the habit of using multiple/ virtual desktops, like most of us, put the four-finger gestures to some better use. Go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Touchpad > Gestures and Interaction > Four-finger gestures > Swipes Menu. From the dropdown, change the function to ‘Change Audio and Volume’. Now, you can swipe up/down to raise/decrease the volume and swipe right/ left to change tracks.
A magical touch: Use ‘Taps’ menu at the bottom of the Four-finger Gestures section to define a four-finger tap as Play/Pause.
Custom Gestures: Go to Touchpad > Advanced, and you’ll find a hundred different functions you can assign to various taps and swipes. Have fun while making your laptops fun!
A couple of swiping motions in style and you feel like ironman, don’t ya?!
The Keyboard Kingdom:
(Just highlighting the absolute necessities here;)
Accessing a folder in a folder in a folder faster: Use ‘Enter’ and ‘Backspace’ to navigate through folders and sub-folders instead of using the mouse.
Navigation between windows (the OG): ‘ALT + Tab’ helps you navigate between windows much easier than looking for the icon in the taskbar and dragging the arrow on that icon and then clicking it. Also, after pressing ‘Alt + Tab’, do not take off your finger from ALT, and a screen showing all currently active windows will appear. Navigate among them using the arrow keys or ‘Tab’, and do not let go of ALT. Once you approach the window you want to open, let go of the ALT and the requisite window shall open on your laptop screens.
Alternative: Tired of holding on to ALT already? Try ‘Windows Key + Tab’. Again, Task View shall open. Take your time and navigate to the requisite window using arrow keys. Press ‘Enter’ to open the requisite window.
Navigation between tabs: Use ‘Ctrl + Up/ Down’to navigate between tabs.
Refresh: Have the habit of refreshing your computer often, trust me, ‘F5’will be more fun and timesaving.
Open a new tab: Use ‘Ctrl + T’ to open a new tab. Works for Chrome and Edge, and even to open new worksheet in Excel.
Open a new window: Use ‘Ctrl + N’ to open a new window. Works for Chrome/ Edge window, to open a new Word file, to add a new slide on PowerPoint and even to open new worksheet in Excel.
Something Extra: If you press ‘Ctrl + N’ from within a folder or from a specific location on your laptop, you can open a duplicate window. A duplicate window becomes handy when you want to access multiple files from the same folder but separate subfolders.
Close a window: Instead of dragging the arrow to the ‘X’, use ‘Ctrl + F4’to close a window.Saves a great deal of time.
Create a new folder: ‘Ctrl +Shift +N’ will help you create a new folder.
Rename: Press ‘F2’ to rename a file/ folder on the spot.
Screenshot: To take a screenshot, press ‘Windows + Prt Sc’. You can paste that screenshot anywhere (Word file, e-mails, PPT, etc.) using ‘Ctrl + V’.
A Better Way: You can activate the snipping tool by using only ‘Prt Sc’. If this doesn’t work, try ‘Windows key + Shift + S’. Once the snipping tool is activated, you can crop the relevant part of the screen and paste the same anywhere using ‘Ctrl +V’. The Snipping tool also gives you options like free hand crop and screen recording!
Location: Ever been asked to share the path/ location of the saved file? When that folder is open, press ‘Ctrl + L’. The location (as mentioned in the Address Bar) of the folder gets selected. Then press ‘Ctrl + C’ to copy and ‘Ctrl + V’ to paste the location. ‘Alt + D‘ may be used in place of ‘Ctrl + L’.
If you are sent a folder path by someone, copy it first using ‘Ctrl + C’ and paste it in the address bar by pressing ‘Ctrl +L’ / ‘Alt + D‘ and then ‘Ctrl + V’. You’ll be able to access the folder directly.
Sort by date modified: Want to sort a folder chronologically? Just click on ‘Date Modified’ and voila, you’ll find the files arranged from latest to oldest or vice versa.
Open Context Menu: The drop-down which appears on a right click is called the Context Menu. If you’re a keyboard fanatic like me, ‘Shift + F10’ would access the Context Menu without touching the mouse.
The ‘Fn’ Discrepancy: For some laptops, the shortcuts involving any Function keys don’t work unless ‘fn’ is pressed. In this case, you can press ‘Esc + Fn’ once. This enables Function Lock. Now, you won’t need to press ‘fn’ for any shortcuts involving Function keys.
E.g.:Once Function Lock is enabled, you can increase the brightness by just pressing the assigned function key; no need to press ‘fn’ key.
Escape your way back: Opened any windows unintentionally? Want to cancel saving a file? Want to close the task view? Can’t find how to go back? To close all such windows and pop ups, the Escape key might be able to help you out.
Once you get the hang of the above, these will help you glide smoothly through your desktop and save a lot of your time, not to mention the attention one gets!
Ultimately, it’s a machine that should make your life easier. If, by using a computer, things are not getting done quicker, or if it’s taking excessive efforts to complete a task, I urge you to take a pause and give it a thought whether you’re going wrong somewhere. Remembering all the keyboard operations may seem a little hectic, but if you start implementing them one by one, you’ll not need to revise them, unlike CA Final subjects. It’ll become sort of a muscle memory. Try to use a computer like a computer and not as an alternative to manual labor. Make the computer put in the work. Trust me, you’re smarter than the computer and not vice versa.
Confused between all the buttons, tabs, menus and can’t figure out what to press and when? As one of my IT faculty told, your computer is not going to go up in flames if you press a wrong button. So if you don’t know what a button does, don’t be afraid to try it out. See what happens. Either it will work, or you’ll learn something new; it’s a win-win!
Happy exploring!
P.S. Some shortcuts may vary based on the model and versions of laptops. If you know any interesting shortcuts apart from the above, I’d love to know them. You can reach me on WhatsApp @7043233232 and on Instagram @vivafuriya.