What are your most used keyboard shortcuts?

[pcsailor]

Hi all,

I am new to Linux, and Mint and have been getting along fine with Google but there are few 'little' things I haven't found yet, or found out how to do. And yet I'm sure it's really easy and I'm missing it. (Like for example, how do you drag program icons onto the lower Taskbar, not the side Panel, but the lower one. Is this too Windows thinking?)

So I am curious, what are your most used keyboard shortcuts in Linux. Just one!

I ask because coming from Windows, there was always something I could learn, some shortcut I never used that I should have been.

Thought I'd ask here.

Thanks,
Phil

[tenfoot]

Hi pcsailor

You don't mention which Desktop, Environment you use - Cinnamon, Mate, or xfce. If you require help in setting up desktop shortcuts, it would help people to help you if you did so.

I use the built in ones for accessing the internet and my email and 10 Custom ones, as follows:

ConvertAll
Dropbox
Gramps
Inkscape
KMyMoney
LibreOffice
Scribus
Terminal
Text Editor
In each case the key combination is Mode4+ <the initial letter of the application>

[Moem]

Just one? I'll give you 82! https://shortcutworld.com/Linux-Mint/li ... _Shortcuts

[JosephM]

Easy. Ctrl+S, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V

[Cosmo.]

what are your most used keyboard shortcuts in Linux. Just one!

Why do you write "are" and "shortcuts", if you want not more than one?

Mine is: alt-left

[Pjotr]

To select all text on a page: Ctrl a

[Hoser Rob]

To select all text on a page: Ctrl a

Mine too, but more to select all files in a folder. I don;t actually use that many keyboard short cuts.

[BigEasy]

Ctrl-Shift - change keyboard layout and Alt-F4 - everybody knows what it is. Nothing else. Wait. I don't count Ctrl-C ,V, X.
More interesting question should be: "what keyboard shortcut you NEVER used in Linux?" Answer: Ctrl-Alt-Del.

[Fred Barclay]

Easy. Ctrl+S, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V

Add Ctrl+P and Ctrl+A, and that pretty much sums it up for me too.

[xenopeek]

Favorite shortcuts are the one I added myself.

I set Ctrl+Alt+X to run xkill. Gives you a crosshair mouse cursor. Left-click on a window to kill the process. Right-click to abort and not kill anything.

And I set Super+D to bash -c "gnome-dictionary --look-up=$(xsel | tr '\n' ' ' | sed -r 's/^[^[:alpha:]]*([-[:alpha:]]*).*$/\1/') &>/dev/null" which looks up the definition of the word you have highlighted in the Gnome Dictionary.

Check that you have the used commands installed of course if you want to do the same. First just needs xkill. Second needs gnome-dictionary and xsel.

[all41]

Ctrl+scroll wheel is handy for zooming in the browser

[AZgl1800]

Ctl-mouse wheel to zoom the browser
ctl-c
ctl-v
ctl-alt-f ( Firefox )
ctl-alt-t ( terminal )
shift-ctl-v ( to paste something from the browser into Terminal's command line
ctl-q to quit just about anything
ctl-w to quit some things, to drop a browser tab, etc... to exit a program, especially browsers...
alt-F4 to quit a lot of things, even some things that ctl-q won't make quit, the Terminal also.
alt-c to produce "°F" for when I am posting 46°F here at the moment
.........( that one requires the use of AutoKey to be installed

ctl-b to bold/unbold highlighted stuff
alt-f-u to get LibreOffice documents list ( recently used )
alt-v to bring up the View command list in almost any app
alt-b to bring up the Browser bookmarks, then a single key or the same key twice to get to a website
........... ie, alt-b L brings up UnRead Posts in Linux Mint forums
ctl-n to get a new page, document, etc.
ctl-shift-n to create a new folder in Nemo
alt-e to bring up Nemo ( ala Windows key for File Manager....

nearly 100% of the Windows shortcut keys are duplicated in Cinnamon, which I really really appreciate, as I am a 100 wpm typist and shortcuts beat the hell out of a mouse to select something.

ctl-x to copy a lighted line ( deletes it to paste it elsewhere )
ctl-Tab to skip thru a lot of tabs in my browser, something that I am constantly doing,

alt-s to pop up the History list in FF
ctl-a to highlight everything inside a tab/editor/ etc...
enter to delete a lot of stuff and then ctl-v to replace all of the ctl-a material

to me, an app that won't support shortcut keys is not worth having period, that is why I am so fond of Windows MS Office, I have a lot of macros written for MS Office..... I am trying to make those work in LibreOffice, but it is extremely difficult... so, MS Office will be with me for a long time

there are more that I use, but until the need for them arises, I can't think of them....

[pcsailor]

Wow, a lot of good stuff here I will need to digest.
I am on Linux Mint Cinnamon BTW, dual-booted on a Dell XPS13 with Win10, SSD-1TB.
I'm quite happy with the setup for my laptop.
I'm using Hyper-V-LxMnt-Cin on my desktop (PowerSpec-Microcenter build)
In Windows, the Win-Key with Tab lets you open multiple Desktop environments. Is there such a thing in Linux-Mint-Cin?
I'll comment and answer some other questions below.
Cheers,
Phil

[pcsailor]

Just one? I'll give you 82! https://shortcutworld.com/Linux-Mint/li ... _Shortcuts

Thanks!!

[Moem]

In Windows, the Win-Key with Tab lets you open multiple Desktop environments.

I think you're talking about workspaces. Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-arrow key.

[pcsailor]

Favorite shortcuts are the one I added myself.

I set Ctrl+Alt+X to run xkill. Gives you a crosshair mouse cursor. Left-click on a window to kill the process. Right-click to abort and not kill anything.

And I set Super+D to bash -c "gnome-dictionary --look-up=$(xsel | tr '\n' ' ' | sed -r 's/^[^[:alpha:]]*([-[:alpha:]]*).*$/\1/') &>/dev/null" which looks up the definition of the word you have highlighted in the Gnome Dictionary.

Check that you have the used commands installed of course if you want to do the same. First just needs xkill. Second needs gnome-dictionary and xsel.

Awesome, thanks!

[pcsailor]

Ctl-....

Thanks, alot there!!

[pcsailor]

In Windows, the Win-Key with Tab lets you open multiple Desktop environments.

I think you're talking about workspaces. Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-arrow key.

THAT, IS AWESOME!!! Thanks so much!!

[Portreve]

Well, given how Mac OS / Mac OS X "Finder"-like the various Gnome variants are (and, to be fair, KDE as well) I tend to use the same shortcuts I always have.

‣ [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [N] to create a new folder.
‣ [ALT] + [UP ARROW] to open a folder (descend through the directory structure hierarchy)
‣ [ALT] + [DOWN ARROW] to leave a folder for its parent (ascend through the directory structure hierarchy)
‣ [F2] to rename a file or folder
‣ [RIGHT ARROW] in a list view mode to expand the highlighted folder and reveal contents
‣ [LEFT ARROW] in a list view mode to collapse the highlighted folder

Apart from basic file navigation chores, I generally prefer keyboard shortcuts over reaching for the mouse every darn time I want to do something...

‣ [CTRL] + [ O ] to open
‣ [CTRL] + [ N ] to create a new document
‣ [CTRL] + [ P ] to print
‣ [CTRL] + [ C ] to copy
‣ [CTRL] + [ X ] to cut
‣ [CTRL] + [ V ] to paste
‣ etc. and so forth


I also use the English (international AltGR dead keys) keyboard layout because it makes typing accented characters extremely intuitive. For example:

‣ [Right Alt] + [SHIFT] + [~] followed by [SHIFT] + [ A ], [ E ], [ I ], [ N ], [ O ], [ U ], [ V ], or [ Y ] gets you Ã, Ẽ, Ĩ, Ñ, Õ, Ũ, Ṽ, or Ỹ respectively.

‣ [Right Alt] + [SHIFT] + [~] [ A ], [ E ], [ I ], [ N ], [ O ], [ U ], [ V ], or [ Y ] gets you ã, ẽ, ĩ, ñ, õ, ũ, ṽ, or ỹ respectively.

‣ [Right Alt] + [ S ] gets you ß.

You should also know that generally, [Right Alt] + [some-random-letter] gets you that letter with its most commonly-associated accent. [Right Alt] + [A] gives you á, [Right Alt] + [n] gives you ñ, etc.

‣ [Right Alt] + [SHIFT] + ["] plus a variety of letters gets you the umlaut over them (ü, ö, ï, etc.)

[all41]

When using terminal you can find previously entered commands by typing the first letter or two--then press the up arrow
to scroll through your previous entries